2010 here we come......

2009 was a pretty good year for us! Not only did we make it through our first year of marriage (ha) we also had our lil guy. Gonna be hard to beat that in 2010...but sure look forward to trying.

2010 has many changes:
*Lisa being an at home mom
*Doug testing for MSgt
*Trip to California in April
*Doug deploying in June
*Huston's first birthday
*Doug coming home
*Doug and Lisa making baby #2

As always, my resolutions are going to be broad - trying to make each day a little happier, a little healthier and a lot more meaningful.

xoxo

True Religion

....and no, I'm not talking about jeans.

Doug and I decided that we need to start going to church again so that Huston can grow up learning the Bible. I'm embarrassed at how little I know and I don't think I could actually answer questions if he has any. When I was younger, I went to whatever church the person I stayed the night with on Saturday went to. While this gave me exposure to a lot of churches and denominations, it did little for my knowledge. We want him to be able to make an educated decision on what he beleives in.

I've always enjoyed going to church and love the way I feel after I hear a powerful sermon and I think it will be a great family tradition for the three of us to have. Neither of us are tied to a specific denomination, so I've been looking around town and have found a quaint little Methodist church (pic) we are going to try out. I always liked Methodist churches because they welcome everyone, you don't feel uncomfortable, you aren't forced to "join" or to participate in groups, and they usually are traditional and not rock and roll joints like a lot have turned in to.

I like going to a church where most of the congregation is old and grey, where you still have to dress up and where they have real pews and stained glass windows.

holidays are here

The holidays are officially here. This year has been a mixture of feelings. On one hand it is exciting to start our own tradition with Huston, yet on the other it is hard to let go of our traditions we've had with our families in the past.....and get used to each others. I didn't make gravy for the turkey because I never do. Doug has never gone a Thanksgiving without it. I like to listen to classic country while decorating. Doug thought I was nuts. Doug wanted to get pictures with Huston on Santa's lap. I thought won't the mall be crowded? Doug likes to lay out cookies for Santa. I thought, really? We had so much going on last year, that none of this came out and with the addition of Huston, we've been trying to decide what we want to be sure and hold on to.

I'm excited to see what our traditions will look like a few years from now as we blend what we've done before and add some new ones. One thing we know we are starting this year - Breakfast for our Christmas dinner!

thanksgiving beards

it's the time of fall that i look forward to every year. about a week or so before thanksgiving, you notice men that are normally clean shaven start growing out their whiskers. being a country girl myself, i know it originated from hunting season starting and it's good for camoflage and warmth. now i think it's also a bit of men not only taking advantage of it being acceptable to be lazy and not shave for a few weeks, but also a bit of a contest to see who has the thickest beard in the shortest time. i find it to be quite humorous - if you've never noticed before, take a look around....

Happy birthday to me....

it should have been an awful birthday. i got laid off yesterday, i'm in a city where i know no one and doug had to work until 10pm. what a way to celebrate 34.

somewhat to my surprise, it ended up being a great day....lots of friends and family called, huston and i hung out, then took a three hour nap in the afternoon, when he woke up he was full of smiles and laughter for the rest of the day. since daddy was working, he also took me to taco bell for my birthday :)

there are so many wonderful things about being a wife, and then you add motherhood to it, and it becomes so much more. i wake up everyday to two handsome men that love me and need me. as much as i have always enjoyed working and moving up the ladder - it doesn't even compare to the feeling that i get when huston rolls over or finds his hands.

although it never feels good to be told that you are not "needed" anymore, being laid off has made me reevaluate what my priorities are. if we can find a way to have me be a stay at home mom, i would gladly take on the challenge. i can't even imagine sending huston off to daycare - i've been lucky that he has been able to stay home with me this long.

doug and i are still talking about what our options are with this new development...in the meantime please keep us in your prayers. alanda told me about a quote a lady told her and it really hit home with me. "God protects those that take care of a child". no matter how things go down the road, i know i have doug and huston there with me and that is what really matters. and because of that, 34 doesn't looks so bad.

broken hearts and broken tailbones

it all started about 13 years ago. i was going on a triple date with my first "adult" boyfriend, jeff. we'd been going out for awhile and things were going pretty well. when the boys went to get us girls a round of drinks, i scooted over to a different bar stool (if you have ever been to the bricktown brewery, you know how tall this is). when i saw them coming back out of the corner of my eye, i hopped back over to my stool....only to find that someone had moved it. i fell straight on my butt. when i realized what had happened i looked up and they were all standing over me, and my pride hurt way more than my butt did. jeff and i eventually broke up and i had my first adult broken heart. i got over the broken heart, but apparently not the broken tailbone.

i went to the doctor today and i must have fractured it back then and then the pregnancy aggravated it. 13 years ago, i never imagined i'd be writing about that night sitting on a donut.....

recipe of the week.....roast beef and cheddar wrap

now that doug is working nights three days a week, we aren't really cooking dinner as much. we have brought back an old recipe we found in real simple - it is quick and easy!

INGREDIENTS:
tortillas (we use wheat)
thin cut roast beef
cream cheese
tartar sauce
romain lettuce
cheddar cheese

ASSEMBLE:
put a thick coat of cream cheese and tartar sauce on the tortilla, add the lettuce, thick slices of cheddar and your roast beef, roll up and ENJOY!

no monkey business

We had a great first Halloween! Huston loved his monkey costume that grandma Vicky got him and helped us pass out candy. In between trick or treaters, we played Beatles RockBand and taught him some new tunes.....

Fall is here

Fall has always been my favorite time of year! Windows open, pumpkin candles, fleece and flip weather, beautiful colors, and the holidays (including my birthday) just around the corner.

This has been one of the best falls ever! The colors in Ohio are amazing. Having a little monster to share Halloween with is awesome. I can't wait until we dress him up tonight and pass out candy!

2 months going on 24.....

Huston is already two months old! He has changed so much since we first brought him home...he is so alert and is learning new things every day. It is so cool to watch him figure things out. He has found his hands and my nose! He can hold his head up, roll over and scan the room now. We expect him to be walking any day :)

He's getting better about sleeping through the night, most nights he only wakes up once or twice. When awake, he pees about every 30-45 minutes and won't let you forget it! The boy cries like you've never heard if he has a wet diaper. However, he will sit in poopie diapers no problem.

Our 2 month appointment isn't until next week, we had to get all of our paperwork changed to Ohio, but we weighed him in at 13 pounds the other day. So, yes, the breastfeeding is still going well!

We are having a blast with our beautiful boy and feel so blessed!

back to work

yup...heading back to work. as this cute little boy is snuggled on my chest, i can't believe i have to start working again. 8 weeks home have been great and have made me a firm believer in being a stay at home mom. instead i will be a work from home mom who travels a lot.

he gets to go on my first trip with me. we leave for oakland california tomorrow. doug's family is from northern california, so we are going to visit them and friday i have a training in oakland.

doug's schedule is going to be pretty flexible, so he won't have to start full time daycare yet. most days doug will be home til noon and he'll only need part time care. boooooooo. i don't want some other woman seeing all the cute stuff he does and i miss it!!

Road trip to Ohio

We had a great road trip. Starting last Wednesday, we had Doug's going away at work followed by and A's vs Rangers game in Dallas. A great way to leave Texas. Thursday Huston and I headed to Oklahoma and had lunch with Alanna, play date with Rhianne Dawley (David & Bri's baby born 2 days before Huston), Panera with Alanda and then stayed the night with Papa Lowery and Grandma Vicky. Friday morning we spent the day with Deda and then went to Nana Loretta's and Doug met us in Shawnee.

Saturday morning, we hit the road. Stopped in Chandler to see Jay and then drove to Eurkea Springs, AR. Huston did so good and slept the entire way. We had to wake him up to change him and make him eat. The place we stayed had a beautiful view and we went to Joey and Lyndsey's wedding. Sunday morning we went through Missouri to Scott AFB in Illinois and stayed with a good friend of Dougs. Had some great steak and got to catch up with Brian and his family. Monday we were able to spend some time in St. Louis before we headed out, got to see the arch, Busch stadium, Hooters (Huston's first trip) and some of the city. Huston slept the entire way to Indianapolis. We LOVED Indianapolis. We found a mall, the stadium where the Colts play, and ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Got a hotel for the night and headed to Ohio Tuesday morning.

We are in temp housing until Friday morning and then the movers will bring our stuff! Excited to get it all unpacked, decorated and have a "home" again. We love Doug's truck, but are tired of living out of it!!

Doug went into work today to talk to his new boss. He is going to be the NCOIS (Non-commisioned officer in charge) for the Labor and Delivery unit. He will work mostly 4 8's and a 12, Monday-Friday (I LOVE this). There will be some exceptions and he'll work some nights and weekends as he gets to know his staff. I'm really excited for him....I think he is like me and is just ready to start!!

my baby

 My life has changed forever.

Monday, August 17th the action started. I was admitted to the hospital around noon for high blood pressure, that eventually turned into pre-eclampsia. This meant a LONG two days for us. I had to be on a drip of magnesium sulphate for 12 hours (this is supposed to prevent seizures). At 4:00am on Tuesday they put some stuff on me (it looked like a tapeworm) to soften my cervix. After hours and hours of waiting, I finally dilated enough to start pushing. I pushed and pushed and pushed only to find out that my pelvis wouldn't allow him to pass. So, we decided to go for a C-section. It literally only took minutes. At 7:49pm on August 18th my son was born. I heard that little cry and my heart melted. I only got a quick peek at him before they had to take him away (he had some fluid on his lungs) but Doug went with him so he wouldn't be alone. I was in recovery for almost 3 hours before I finally got to see him and hold him....it seemed liked days! But Doug was my rock and wouldn't let anyone else hold him until I did.

I had spent so many hours talking to him and playing with him through my tummy, but I never imagined the bond we would feel when we first saw each other. He is such a little character too, I've never seen another baby with this much personality at a week old!

The patience that I have with him is unreal. I am not a patient person. But for some reason with him I am calm as can be and none of the poopy diapers, crying at night or sore nipples can change that. I almost enjoy it because I get to look at him while taking care of those things.

This is what I have been waiting on for my whole life.

My baby is here!

My life has changed forever.

Monday, August 17th the action started. I was admitted to the hospital around noon for high blood pressure, that eventually turned into pre-eclampsia. This meant a LONG two days for us. I had to be on a drip of magnesium sulphate for 12 hours (this is supposed to prevent seizures). At 4:00am on Tuesday they put some stuff on me (it looked like a tapeworm) to soften my cervix. After hours and hours of waiting, I finally dilated enough to start pushing. I pushed and pushed and pushed only to find out that my pelvis wouldn't allow him to pass. So, we decided to go for a C-section. It literally only took minutes. At 7:49pm on August 18th my son was born. I heard that little cry and my heart melted. I only got a quick peek at him before they had to take him away (he had some fluid on his lungs) but Doug went with him so he wouldn't be alone. I was in recovery for almost 3 hours before I finally got to see him and hold him....it seemed liked days! But Doug was my rock and wouldn't let anyone else hold him until I did.

I had spent so many hours talking to him and playing with him through my tummy, but I never imagined the bond we would feel when we first saw each other. He is such a little character too, I've never seen another baby with this much personality at a week old! He has so much of Doug in him it is amazing. Now I have two perfect men in my life!

The patience that I have with him is unreal. I am not a patient person. But for some reason with him I am calm as can be and none of the poopy diapers, crying at night or sore nipples can change that. I almost enjoy it because I get to look at him while taking care of those things.

This is what I have been waiting on for my whole life and I am so lucky to have found someone like Doug to share it with. My love grows for him everytime I see him holding our son.

the waiting is the hardest part......

we cannot wait any longer for huston to get here! it's been such an easy pregnancy and he's been a good boy so far - but now he's making his mama wait. 19 days or less....hopefully less. i am so excited to see............what he looks like, what kind of combination of doug and i (and our families) he will be..........what his personality is like..........what he'll be interested in.........what will make him giggle (daddy, i'm sure).......and everything else.

baby showers can be fun.....

i had my family baby shower a couple weeks ago and they know my issues with being center of attention and being anti-games at showers. it was fun and tasteful with presents, cake and good times. i loved it.

when doug's friends/co-workers asked to throw us one, i got a little nervous. he made me quit because i started right away with "i don't like this and that" and he made me feel bad. my worries were for nothing, they threw us a great baby shower. maybe i'm getting more girly than i thought! i've always been a little skeptical about the whole baby shower/games/ooohing and aaaahing, but it was a lot of fun.

we had good food, played some fun shower games (nothing too extreme) and got some great presents for little huston. i think doug and i did a guest of honor no-no though. we won ALL the door prizes. oops.

we are really going to miss these girls when we move.

i think little H now has everything he needs for the day he comes home....so now he just needs to come home!!!

1 Year Anniversary

Doug and I have been married one year today....it sure flew by! Our whole relationship has been a whirlwind, but I think since we met each other later in life when we were wise and mature (ya right) made all the difference. They say the first year is supposed to be the hardest, and if so then we are doing good - the first year has been great. We really didn't have any growing pains at all. I guess it helps that he is clean, metro, frugal, funny, hot, and all those other things that people wish their hubby was!!

I know that 50 years down the road he will still make me laugh, still give me bear hugs, still clean my car, still kill spiders for me, still calm my nerves and still do my laundry and vacuum (gotta love that). I promise I will still make him laugh, still give him snuggles, still give him manis, still kill snakes for him, still make him see reason and still make his lists and keep him organized. And much much more.

Doug and I have a shelf in our house where we have pictures of our 4 sets of grandparents when they were young and in love. We keep them out to remind us of true love and what started it all....I'm proud to say that both sets of my grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary just as in love as they were their 1st and I pray that Doug and I will do the same. We've definately got a good start!

ohio here we come

moving to ohio is starting to become a reality. it's been easy to get caught up in the pregnancy and not think about it too much.....but now it's here. we finally sold the house and found a dinky little apartment to stay in for 2 months until we head north.

for the first time in years, i didn't do 4th of July in Chandler so that we could pack and get stuff moved to storage (we are taking the bare minimum to the apt). missing the 4th has made me realize, that all my friends and traditions that i've held onto so tightly for so long are probably going to slowly disappear. it makes me sad. i'm so excited to have huston and for us to start our family and our new life in ohio - but at the same time it's hard to let that part of me go. i guess i was able to hang on much longer than most, being a single gal and all, but it's been a tough weekend.

we also had to give up our sweet molly. we couldn't keep her where we are living in between our house and ohio and rather than uproot her twice, we decided to find her a home where she would have more room. she grew so BIG that she outgrew our yard and house. not your typical beagle for sure. it was a sad day, but she's so loving, she will take to a new family easily.

i feel like at 33 i'm finally making the transition to an adult. bout time i guess :)

huston is already loved

we are constantly amazed at all of the goodies that little huston is already getting! we haven't even had a shower yet and he already has more clothes than we know what to do with :) he is going to be one well-dressed and loved little boy!

handmade stuff from mommy's friend dallas:

i was so amazed when i got this!!! the hooded towel with the monkey is my favorite! thanks auntie dallas!

MLB team gear:

the poor kid doesn't have a choice to like baseball....

nesting

well the nesting has started...in a new form. since we are moving and can't do a nursey, it seems i have substituted nesting for the newborn with for my dog. she constantly ruins all of the cute little petsmart dogs that we buy her - but we keep buying them because she loves them so much. so the other day i found myself buying tougher material and making her an "indestructible" one. then i made a pillow for her kennel. she loves it.

eHarmony

doug and i were asked to be on an eHarmony commercial! no kidding. they think we are a great success story (and so do we). we had a call with the casting director and since i will be super duper pregnant in their july series they are going to hold off until fall....but we are going through the process now so that we don't have to with a newborn, move, etc.

so our project this weekend is to video ourselves and mail it in so they can feel our "chemistry".

who knows, we could be famous soon :)

baby planning

ok, so now we know we are having a baby boy. up until now we haven't really had to plan, plan because we didn't know if we were getting boy stuff or girl stuff. now that it is BOY stuff we are on the go. we have enough outfits for quite a few wardrobe changes and enough OU and Oakland A's stuff to do both mommy and daddy proud!

we decided to do the nursery in vintage baseball (doug has enough of this that we are good) BUT we couldn't resist MONKEYS so we got a monkey pack 'n play and some other fun monkey stuff :)

we are going to have so much fun!

wonderful week

i've had a wonderful week and have felt especially happy. we had doug's birthday cookout this past weekend and all of his friends and coworkers, along with his mom, two brothers, sister in law, niece and lots of my family came over. it was a great time and it made me realize that we are surrounded by some wonderful people.

little huston is also moving around a lot more and so i feel like we are becoming more connected. i just know he is going to be a gorgeous little baby and be as funny and sweet as his daddy.

things are also going great at work...i'm getting some good projects that are fun to work on and high visibility - which equal job security!!!

i love weeks like this!

Craigs List works!

One of my friends moving to the area asked me if I knew where they could get a kitchen table. I have never liked the one that Doug already had, but it was a good table so we'd kept it....until THIS opportunity! I tried to get him to buy mine and it didn't work for him. Crap. But, I told him I'd help him look for one on Craig's List. I found this beautiful dark expresso tall square table that I thought was a great bargain. He didn't like it either. So, I thought about it and emailed the girl who had it for sale and sent her a picture of ours. She replied - how about an even trade? Yay!! So we took her our old one and got a new, pretty one!!! Craigs List works! Well, for me anyway. After that I kind of gave up helping Tony find one :)

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Where the Wild Things Are

is going to be a movie! I saw the trailer on Ellen and it looks so authentic! The costumes aren't hokey at all and I am so excited!!!!

ohio

well, we are moving to ohio. at first i burst into tears. c'mon ohio? i was holding out for hawaii, california or overseas. ohio? really? put the ohio apart to the side for now. we report no later than september 30th. should i mention i'm due august 22nd? yep. have a baby and move 1000 miles away two weeks later.

now that i've had time to think about it, i'm better. everyone that has lived in the area has said they loved it. i've been talking to the leasing agent for privatized base housing and she sent some pics and they are beautiful. and it's the second largest hospital in the air force, so doug is super excited to be back in a clinic and be done with teaching.

it's a 4 year adventure for us and i'm sure we will love it.

i dare you to come visit!

Baby bump

OK, so I've officially "popped". My little baby bump (my lovely lady lump) is definately prominent now! I find myself setting my hand on my belly all of the time now (I always wondered why pregnant women did that). It's calming. I rub and pat the baby without even realizing it. I cannot wait to feel the baby move! I've read that it can happen anytime now (hope I don't just confuse it with gas).

Facials and other girly stuff

Doug got me a facial a few weeks ago and now that I'm "with child" they couldn't do all the deep digging required. But she was a great little sales lady and talked me into some organic skin care that would help. I got home and was a little mad at myself for being quite so guilable. Again. Why do they always get me? But I had it, so I've been using it and I have to say that I LOVE IT! It is called "ilike" and it is the best stuff I have ever used. With teeney, little bottles of moisturizer, face cleanser and exfoliating cream (that she promised will last 6 months plus)and just a matter of a few weeks - I can see real improvement! Go get some!

an amazing day

Yesterday I experienced the most amazing thing up to this point in my life. As I laid on a table with something stuck in me (apparently I have a "tilted uterus" and the belly ultrasound wouldn't work), anyway back to my story, I lay there as this wonderful woman showed Doug and I our little "gummy bear" on the screen and let us listen to his/her heartbeat. I heard Doug whisper "Yes" and I thought, "My thoughts exactly!". Yes. This is what we've been living for and this wonderful moment is what got me to this point in my life without giving up :). I do have to say I'm a little scared. If we can feel so much for a fuzzy little blob on a screen, what in the world will happen when we actually hold our baby? Will our hearts just explode?