Long time coming

So life happened and blogging didn't for a long time...sorry, kind of

Here is some of what happened and hopefully maybe if I get a huge burst of energy I will go into more depth on some of these events in other posts.

~ My Dad came to visit the end of February/beginning of March. It was awesome to have him here. He helped a ton with Jackson and even watched him so the Man and I could go on a little date!

~ The Man joined a geek club at school....apparently our schedules weren't busy enough so he thought we should add another thing to the agenda.  In all reality I am really happy that he joined this club, he loves it and it gives him some time to himself that isn't work or school, its just fun.

~ The Man was scheduled to go on a 1 week det for Navy Reserves. He has to do 2 weeks every year. After finding out he was going about 3-4 weeks before he was suppose to leave and getting lucky enough that the Man's Mom could come out and watch Jack so I didn't have to take a weeks worth of vacation to sit at home with the little man. Two days before he was suppose to leave that changed and now he is going for 2 weeks in the beginning of June. And that's life in the military

~ Like I said above my Mother-In-Law was a saint and took off of work to come out in the middle of March and watch Jackson with very short notice. Even though the Man didn't end up leaving it was amazing having her out here. She helped did all of our laundry for us and also agreed to watch Jack so we could have another little date!

~ Easter happened! Jackson's technically 2nd Easter, last year he came home from the hospital Easter Sunday. The Man had to work, Jackson had a cold, and I ended up getting one of the worst flu's ever that night. Jackson loved his Easter basket and didn't mind that we didn't end up having a special meal or anything else.

~ We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! We didn't do anything to special but the Man did have off of work so we were able to have an at home date night together after Jackson went to bed and it was perfect!

~ Jackson had his 1st birthday!!!!! Yep that's right we have a toddler in our house now.  The Man had drill on his birthday so Jack and I spent the day together playing and just hanging out. When the Man got home we did cake & presents. It was simple but I don't think Jack minded.

~ Family Vacation!!! The Man and I both took a couple days off of work and headed to the ocean this past week. We rented a fully furnished condo for 2 nights...it was incredibly relaxing! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Jackson wouldn't have gotten sick.

Well that pretty much summarizes all the extra things that happened in my life besides the normal work, baby, husband, house duties.  I am hopeful that I will get at least some pictures up from some of these events but bare with me since my Mom arrives on Friday and I have a huge work thing happening next week.

2013 Goals

I know I haven't posted about Christmas yet but I wanted to get into New Years.  I haven't ever been very good at New Year's resolutions. I am more of the goal kind of person.  Last year's goals included things like: find a place to live in MD, manage to drive across the country and not have a baby, have a happy healthy baby and so on.  This year's goals are not so focused on moving & the baby and more focused on our entire family.

Goal #1
- Save $$$$ in our savings account, so that someday we can buy a house.  whether that is here or somewhere else in the U.S.

Goal #2
- Go to New York City for Jackson's 1st birthday. Living so far away from our friends and family means that Jackson doesn't really get a birthday party. We thought this would be a way to make his day/birthday week more special than every other day of the year.  We will also get to do something special for our anniversary since it is 3 days before Jack's birthday. This isn't going to be a long trip just a night or two but none the less it's still a trip.

Goal #3
- Make it back to Wisconsin as a family at least once.  The Man doesn't get much vacation and has school and reserves so this will actually be a little more difficult than people may think.  It is very important to us that Jackson knows his family and our friends.

Goal #4
- Go camping in Ohio (half way between our friends & us) with a bunch of our friends this June. We have been talking about doing a group trip or something for a couple years now.  This year I am really hoping that it actually happens.

Goal #5
- Save an additional $6,000 - $7,000 for a trip to Switzerland in January 2014.  The Man is half Swiss and a Swiss citizen.  He has always wanted to visit Switzerland. Since we don't live near family that would be able to watch Jackson for a week or longer and we do not know when/if we will be living closer to family in the next years to come.  So I proposed to the Man that we try and go in a year since Jackson will be under 2 and will fly for free. If we save up all this extra $$$$ the only way we will not be going is if I am pregnant or just had a baby...which neither is being planned since both of us really want to go to Switzerland!  If we don't go next January it could be another 5-10 years before we will be able to go again, so we look at it as we have to seize this opportunity to take Jackson and make a memory we will tell him about.

So there are our BIG goals for 2013. We also have other goals that probably don't seem so big but are just as important like: raise a super happy healthy little boy, love each other every day more than the day before, be better people and so on.

Out with 2012 and in with 2013

Since it is already 2013 and I have been pretty awful at blogging this past year I thought I would do a little recap of 2012 to send it on its way and bring in 2013

January:

~ the Man came home from being deployed overseas for 5 1/2 months

~ Rented an apartment online without ever looking at it or the neighborhood it was in scary stuff that ended up turning out really well for us!

February:

~ booked a moving truck & packed up all of our stuff to move across the country

~ drove from California to Maryland in 4 days at 34 weeks pregnant

~ the Man became apart of the Navy Reserves instead of reenlisting as active duty Navy

March:

~ Started my job in its new location I kept my same job but transferred from CA to MD, so different people to work with

~ the Man got enrolled in college for the summer

~ We bought a new car

~ the Man found a job

~ the moving truck delivered all of our stuff

April:

~ Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary well kind of, we had planned on going out to eat and to the movies a couple days later but I decided that our new apartment was a disaster and not ready for a baby to come home to yet so we stayed home that night and then I ended up going into labor

~ Welcomed the most amazing little boy into our lives

~ My mom came out and visited and met Jackson for the first time

May:

~ the Man's parents came out and visited and met Jackson

~ My dad & sister drove out to visit us and deliver a few things from WI

~ the Man started his college classes

June:

~ Celebrated my 27th birthday with a visit from two amazing friends! Still can't believe you pulled off that surprise

~ My maternity leave ended

~ Nicki came out to babysit for a couple weeks until the Man and I were on opposite shifts

July:

~ the Man switched from days to 2nd shift

~ the Man finished up his summer college classes

~ Jackson started to laugh and smile when he thought things were funny not just when he was sleeping

August:

~ Took a vacation to Wisconsin

~ Jackson's first plane ride

~ Jackson was baptized

~ Celebrated the Man's 26th birthday with friends in WI

September:

~ the Man started the fall semester of college

~ the Man switched to working 3rd shift

~ We took Jackson to his first baseball game, the Brewers played the Nationals

October:

~ Jackson and I flew to WI by ourselves

~ Celebrated my Mom & Bill's wedding

~ Jackson turned 6 months

~ Jackson's bottom 2 teeth popped threw

~ Jackson started to eat real food

~ Jackson started to crawl and with that get into EVERYTHING

~ Took Jackson trick-or-treating for the first time

November:

~ Celebrated Thanksgiving with new friends in MD

~ Jackson started pulling up on furniture and moving around it

~ Welcomed our niece Dahlia to the family we cannot wait to meet her!

December:

~ the Man finished the fall semester of college

~ we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of 3

~ the Man's parents came out and visited for Christmas

~ ended up signing a lease at our current apartment for another year
~ Jackson's 3rd tooth popped threw

I know that I probably missed a ton of milestone's and things that have happened this past year.  Overall 2012 was a pretty amazing year filled with tons of ups and a few downs.  I know both Josiah & I are looking forward to see what 2013 has in store for us and our family.

Happy New Year to all of you and your family's. Here's to family, faith, love and new adventures & opportunities in 2013!

On the Hunt

Last week I think sometime we received a letter from our apartment complex about resigning our lease. At first I thought it was crazy to get something already since our lease isn't up until March 1st but after reading the letter it states you must give them 60 day written notice if you are not resigning which would be December 31st...holy crap that's just around the corner!!

Back to the point of this letter, it also informed us that our rent would be increasing a minimum of almost 8.5% we would have to sign a 12 month lease for that increase, any other lease agreement would result in a higher increase.  When I first read this I was floored....almost 8.5% increase, thats f'in insane!!  I know that the area we live in is extremely expensive compared to other areas we have lived but that is a huge increase.  As it is we probably already pay more in rent than most of you pay for your mortgage...typing that made me a little sick.

Bottom line, the hunt is on for a new apartment.  We are hoping to get something in a safe neighborhood with a yard or at least a park for Jackson to play at and if we are lucky a place that has storage!  Storage may seem a little odd to want but currently we have totes filling every closet and also sitting randomly throughout our house it's annoying!

Hopefully I will be able to post soon about a new place but if not I guess we will just suck it up and pay the 8.5% increase.

Back To Work

I know its a little late but 3 weeks ago I went back to work.  It was bittersweet, as I really do love my job but I wasn't ready to leave the baby. Luckily for me my job is pretty flexible and I can for the most part make my own hours...as long as I get all my hours in for the week...and part of my job allows me to work at home.  Which working from home with a super cute baby is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I really should be doing some work right now since the little man is sleeping but instead I am doing EVERYTHING but work :)

The whole going back to work situation was pretty stressful when we first moved to MD and for probably the first month after we had the baby.  We called what seemed to be 100's 10 different daycare places trying to get Jackson in. Everywhere we called either had a waiting list that was from 6 months to 2 years long, they didn't take infants or they costed more a week than what I make!  It was pretty insane.  The Man and I then figured out that there was only 3 weeks that he would still be on day shift before going to his actual job, which is 2nd shift, after I started back to work.  A light bulb came on and we called Nicki to see if she was up for the task of being our live-in nanny for 3 weeks until we were working opposite shifts.  She was totally up for it, granted we did sweeten the deal a little and even agreed to pay her & feed her :)

I think having Nicki here to watch the little man probably made it a little easier going back to work but boy oh boy am I ever excited when I get home and he gets a big smile on his face when he sees me....probably one of my favorite things right now!

Nicki left us on Saturday so today was the first day that the Man and I where on our own with taking care of  Jackson and both working.  So far I think this new routine for us will work out pretty good....hopefully in the fall Josiah's school schedule won't add too much more stress on to us and this new routine!

Happy Birthday To Who??? To Me!!

So I know I am way behind on A LOT of posts, so bare with me as I try and back track and catch up.

Last Friday it was my birthday.  In previous years this is one of the biggest events of the entire year for everyone I know, well at least that's what I like to believe.  I usually celebrate for at least a week if not the whole month of June.  For some reason this year it didn't seem as important to me as it has in the past.  I'm not sure if that's because I'm getting older or if it has to do with Jackson.  Either way my birthday still ended up being amazing without me making a big deal about it.

Two of our friends, Megan & Nadine, came out to visit us that week.  So on my actual birthday we did a little site-seeing in downtown D.C. The baby did an amazing job with all the site-seeing, he was super happy all day and even was awake when we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial.  It was the first time I rode the Metro without Josiah, which I thought was pretty awesome since I got us where we wanted to go without any troubles at all.  I did almost have a minor freak out when we got to the Metro station and the elevator was broken so we had to take the escalator.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it would have been a normal sized escalator but this thing was super steep and extremely long.  Little did I know that Megan has experience with strollers and escalators, she pretty much man-handled that thing!  Thanks Friend!!!

Photo courtesy of Megan....The HUGE escalator we took the stroller down and this isn't even from the top!

So all in all it was a pretty awesome day spent with the family and two great friends!!  Let's hope 27 is as good to me as 26 was!

Visitors, visitors & more visitors

Since the little man was born we have been fortunate enough to have our parents & my sister visit.  Thankfully they weren't all at the same time...that would have been a little much.  And next week our friend Megan is visiting! Since I have had some pretty word heavy posts thought I would share some pictures from when my Mom, Josiah's parents and my Dad & Nicki were all here....it might be photo overload!

 my Mom & Jackson

 my Mom bought Jackson a pig that you tickle and it sings and his ears wiggle....its pretty funny!

Josiah's parents & Jackson 

my Dad & Jackson

reenacting The Lion King

Josiah & my Mom on our first ever Metro ride

At the Smithsonian National Space & Air Museum

Notice the baby not in the stroller...he preferred to be carried whenever he wasn't sleeping :(

At the capital

Josiah's Dad & Jackson

Just meeting for the first time!

First time using my new ring sling, shielding baby from the sun with the "tail" part

my Dad touching the top of the Washington Monument

Nicki at the World War II Memorial

Getting some last minute snuggles before leaving

Not sure what exactly happened but not all the pictures are in the right order but you get the picture.  Lots of fun stuff happening here!! 

2 weeks & counting

We have been living in our new apartment, in our new town, in our new state now for 2 weeks!  And by living I mean without any of our stuff....its been a little rough and I am pretty sure everyone should probably feel bad for the Man as I probably, most-likely haven't been the most fun to be around.  But the good news is the moving truck is coming TODAY!!!  This is amazing news to hear because I don't think I could sleep on our air mattress for much longer, I guess 3 1/2 weeks is my limit.

Since the moving truck isn't here yet and I really can't report on how smoothly the whole unpacking and actually getting settled process has gone I will save that for another day and skip to the exciting stuff going on.

Within the first week of living here the Man managed to have a couple of interviews and land an AMAZING job at Amtrak!!  He starts in a week...thankfully!!  This way he still has time to help unpack ALL of our crap and get it some what organized before starting a new job and before the baby gets here.  Also in this first week he found out he was accepted to college and will be starting that the end of May!  I am super excited for all the things he has coming up in the next few weeks & months, I know he will do great :)

Because my blogging has been pretty nonexistent lately, I am blaming the baby making me extremely tired and not wanting to do anything other than sleep, I am just going to continue this post with our other big stuff.  I originally intended on doing a separate post but oh well!

Yesterday the Man and I bought a new SUV!!!  We are so so so excited about it.  With him starting his job in a week it put a little pressure on us but we found the perfect vehicle for us.  It is a 2012 Chevy Equinox.  We have only drove home from the dealer but we already are very happy with our purchase.

The Man took this photo of the car right before we drove away!  And in case you can't tell the color it is icy silver

3 days and some odd hours

So I have been a really horrible blogger lately...there are a few reasons for it, not sure if they are 'actual' justifiable reasons but none the less they are reasons. First off, the Man is home and after him being gone for almost 6 months it is awesome having him back.  Secondly, I have been more tired than I have EVER been during this entire pregnancy!  And lastly to say we have been busy planning/getting ready to move across the country would be an understatement!!

So on to what is actually going on....

Last week the movers came and picked up all our stuff.  If you have ever dealt with a moving company before you will completely understand how frustrating it can be.

This is what happened: they called on Friday and said they would be there Monday.  So we rushed to pack EVERYTHING we owned over the weekend.  

just the stuff in the kitchen...the living room, and spare bedroom looked just like this!!

Monday came and we packed up the last few things and waited and waited some more and then waited some more.  Once 4 p.m. rolled around we were a little concerned and not really that impressed.  So we called the company and they kindly informed us they weren't coming till Tuesday morning which happened to be right when I needed to be on the phone for a work conference call, how convenient! So I call my boss and explain that there is a chance I won't be on the call.  10 min. later the moving company calls back and informs they won't be there now until sometime Wednesday afternoon, really people you changed your pick-up time in 20 min!  So finally Wednesday afternoon the movers got here and loaded all 100 and something items we had as we just sat there and watched.

So now the Man and I have been living in our apartment with basically nothing, not even joking.  We currently have 2 suitcases with clothes, an air-mattress, 2 lawn chairs, some old knives, 2 small cookie sheets and then our computers and my work printer.  As you can imagine at 33 weeks pregnant I am extremely uncomfortable and I am pretty sure every day is a battle for me to be in a good/positive mood about the surroundings.  I am really hoping that the moving truck arrives at our new place the day after we do so I don't have to sit in another lawn chair for a really really long time!!! I am totally not counting on that happening and I am figuring that we will be with the same things for at least a week in our new apartment...makes me want to cry just thinking about it!

the latest in living room furniture!

But the good side of things we are leaving on our road trip in about 3 days...it all depends on when I get done with work on Wednesday.  To say the Man and I are excited does not even come close to how we feel about getting out of this 'black hole' of a town.  We are over the moon excited to basically start a whole new life in a completely different location. 

I would like to apologize for the extremely lengthy & wordy post...I will work on taking more pictures and posting more often once we are all settled in!

Our Soon-To-Be New Home

Last week we finally found out exactly where I would be working.  Knowing that critical piece of information has allowed us to figure out where we wanted to live and actually start implementing this move across the country.

In case you weren't aware the Man and I are pretty fast decision makers and choosing a place to live without ever stepping foot into the state didn't slow us down at all.

This is how last week went:
Tuesday afternoon - we find out where I will be working
Tuesday afternoon - we research the crap out of apartments in the area
Tuesday afternoon - call for more info on 1 apartment that we think we might like
Tuesday evening - do more research on area apartments
Tuesday evening - decide we really like the one we called on but decide we will not make a decision till next week
Wednesday morning - email back and forth with the lady at the apartment we liked 
Wednesday morning - decide we really like this apartment and its the one we are going to rent
Wednesday afternoon - fill out paperwork and mail in security deposit and credit check info
Thursday morning - everything came back perfect and the apartment is ours!!


We are very excited about our new apartment and cannot wait to get there!  We are renting a 2 bedroom, 2 bath and it is newly renovated.  So the cabinets, counter-tops, appliances and carpet are all new! Plus the balcony is being redone.  The actual apartment that we are renting is vacant right now so the lady we were working with was able to go and take a few pictures of our actual place and not just an apartment with the same floor plan or similar features.

Our floor plan - The Howard

Picture of OUR actual kitchen

Our Living Room

One of our bathrooms

a BIG change

Since sometime this summer the Man and I have been seriously talking about moving and what the next year was really going to have in-store for us.  Again because I am a little scattered brained I am not sure if I have mentioned that the Man is getting out of the Navy...well kind of...instead of being active duty he is going to be a reservist.  Both of us were glad for everything the Navy has done for us but we are both ready for a change.  

Back to where I was originally going with this post...

With the decision made to no longer be active duty we needed to decide what we wanted to do and where we wanted to live.  Both of us are not big fans of living in California and really wanted to try and somehow get back to or closer to our families.  Because I really really like my job we thought it would be pretty awesome to transfer my job...this way we weren't both unemployed and starting in a new city.  

So the search was on for my job to be open in a different state....first we thought we might go to Texas or Virginia, well both of those positions ended up being a down grade from my current job...so the hunt was still on.  While inquiring about the position in Virginia, we learned of a potential opening in the spring of 2012....this would be perfect for us, since the Man would be active duty till this time.

Well long story short ok maybe its not that short after talking to what would/will be my new boss the position is open and I will be doing my current job in Maryland!  We will be in the Washington D.C. area, just on the northern Maryland side of it.  So without knowing anyone or ever being in the area I am not counting the field trip after 8th grade since I don't really remember anything useful from that trip, sorry Mom & Dad!! we are going to just pick up and move there.  It is a little very scary thought but I think hope together we will love it.

I am sure I will have more posts about this subject that will probably clarify parts of this post that might not make sense due to the baby stealing my brains and making me a scatter-brained forgetful person