Rings around the collar

Well, I always knew this day would come. I just didn't think it would be this soon...

My husband officially took my wedding rings from me the other night. He deemed them a bit too tight. I immediately went scrouging through my jewelry in search of a replacement ring. No luck though. I felt so off balance, that I nearly threw on clothes and ran out to buy something, but Vincent started kicking me in protest (hey kid, you better get those jabs in while you can. That kicking and punching won't fly after your birthday.)

The following day, my wonderful, amazing, loving husband surprised me with a necklace and hanging from it were my wedding rings. What can I say...I married a romantic.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Life pulled me away from the computer this weekend, but in a good way (mostly). The past few week has been a roller-coaster of emotions. Nick and I were absolutely THRILLED to see a healthy, foot-grabbing baby boy on the ultrasound screen. We spent the past weekend starting registries and you'd have thought Target have given Nick an air-rifle to play with. He was a pro at "shooting" the tags and racking up a long registry list.

He finally relinquished the gun when nature called, so I had 2 minutes of browsing before he was back in the aisles, eyes lighting up as he found bedding and diapers. I love my husband.

Unfortunately, all of this Baby bliss was dampened by the fact that my Grandfather passed away Monday morning. I don't have too much to say about him, except that he was my grandfather and I have no complaints about that. There is a lot of family drama, strained relationships, and questionable intentions associated with him, so his passing is a mixed blessing.

Thankfully, Grandpa was able to be at our wedding in November and I will forever remember the way he wore those fabulous Leopard cat ears at the rehearsal dinner (Halloween night).

"Flapper" Shirley and "Purr-fectly Divine"Grandpa Coy

My husband tells me on a weekly basis that without the internet, I would probably be rolled up in the fetal position, rocking, and mumbling to myself. I wouldn't go THAT far, but......I will admit to my strong addiction to certain blogs and my uncanny ability to find ANYTHING on the web.

Aside from my usual browser tabs of the weather, main email accounts, and Facebook, I typically have 1 of these three blogs up:



love, Love, LOVE reading her posts! Ree Drummond (aka PW) has shown me all kinds of wonderful things to do with my camera and in Photoshop. I will say that I spend most of my time lingering over her cooking and recipes photo blogs. Gotta check her out!

Here is my latest blog crush:


I'm near the point of wanting to create an occasion to make these little beauties! And the best part: She's local!

And this was my very first blog love: DOOCE



I have followed her for about 5 years now and, in all honesty, get a kick out of her writing. Plus, I adore her dogs.

There are sooooooo many resources out there, but I don't mind sharing these. Enjoy!

Scared Poopless

This is Nora. Isn't she just an angel? Careful. She is also the world's greatest actress.

Nora is our 8 month old rescue from Tenn-eh-see. She came into our life 1 week before our wedding. I guess we didn't think all that wedding stress was enough, so we piled more on.

I have tons of horrifying stories starring Nora, but I'll save those for another time. Today is the tale of my husband being a manly man as he saved Nora from what she thought was certain death.

After an afternoon of being slobbered and chewed on at the dog park, Nick gave both our dogs a bath (a feat in and of itself). Nick let Nora out into the backyard as she had that pained expression on her face and high-pitched squeal that signals "Let me out NOW or I will desecrate this new carpet you just had installed!". From the backdoor, he watched her scramble to her usual spot.

The next thing I hear is Nick laughing to the point that it brought him to his knees. Nora had explosive diarrhea and was terrified of what was happening to her lower extremities. After her episode passed, she quickly came to the door begging to be let in, but I spotted more black spots then usual on her tail.

I handed Nick some paper towels and Greenworks cleaner and sent him out into the backyard. Poor Nora kept trying to lick Nick as he wiped her butt, tail, and legs. She walked back into the house looking completely violated..... as did my husband.

Parenting is going to be interesting.

Outnumbered

I grew up in a house filled with girls: my sister, my Mom, and even the dogs. So, my Dad was the consumate male presence in the house, not that he ever let that get to him. He had plenty of macho to spare.

My husband also grew up in a house filled with females. Not that his Dad wasn't around, but his parents separated when he was young and he spent most of his time with his Mom and his twin sisters. He did all the manly things: played football, worked on cars, chased girls, made his sister's lives a living hell.

Our upbringing should make our son's life interesting. Let me rephrase that: it will make OUR lives a test kitchen of sorts. Mixing things together to see what works, throwing out the duds, and taking notes as we go. Does anyone have any recipe cards I can borrow?

Childcare vs. Stay-at-home parent

I sit here at 7am (been up since 5:30am), 20 weeks pregnant with our first child, wondering what our next move should be.

With the economy in dire straights, my logical/financial side being the loudest voice in my head, it screams to have my husband re-enlist for another 4 years for simply the security of a paycheck and health insurance. I could halt my career and move cross country. I could go from career-oriented, independent metropolitan woman to stay-at-home Mom.

But that would mean leaving both our families here on the East coast and heading out West. It would also mean more deployments (less Dad time), our kids growing up in the military, and missing many family functions. But I can't ignore that we would have financial security for our family, health insurance, military benefits and I could be a stay-at-home Mom.

It wasn't until I got pregnant that I REALLY thought about childcare vs. stay-at-home parent. If I went back to work, we could afford it. But I'm not sure I could stand missing all the great "firsts" of my child's life. I think my head would actually explode if the daycare center got the first word or step, while I was busy dealing with the language barrier of the HP customer service rep in India over why my Lotus Notes isn't working correctly.

If the hubs does get out, he hasn't shown an interest in being a stay-at-home daddy, so our baby would have to be in childcare beginning at 12 weeks old. (I actually feel sick to my stomach thinking about handing over my baby for strangers to raise and only being the weekend parents.) BUT we get to stay close to family and continue our lives as we have for the past 3 years.

Option 1: Be weekend parents, close to families, miss our baby growing up, no deployments, but not sure if our jobs will be there when Monday comes around.

Option 2: Be the military family, leave the families, oversea deployments, children are raised at home, job security.

One of the things I adore about my husband is that he is family-oriented, but that is also the reason why making this choice is so hard: He doesn't want to leave our families, but I can't imagine beginning our own family and not being at home.