He's Home!

Yesterday started out like any other day...wake up, get ready, get Bailey ready, go to Daycare/School, go to work, go pick up Bailey, go home, make dinner, play with Bailey, put Bailey to bed, clean the house, watch TV, sleep. But this time we had dinner with Blake instead of just the two of us. Bailey got to show him her play house and I got to show off all the home improvements I did over the past 3 months. I'm so glad that chapter in our life is over and we are moving forward :) Thank you God for always being with me.

Ruth

So my friend at church let me borrow a book about Ruth from the Bible. It was written on Biblical facts and what the Bible says with fictional stuff added to juice it up. We were in a Bible study together reading "Bad Girls of the Bible" and my favorite bad girl was Rahab the harlot. So Jessica let me borrow the book about her and I read it within a day or two (note: I don't read for fun...school ruined the joy of ever reading for pleasure). When I returned it to her she told me that Ruth was good too and so I borrowed it....it has been sitting on my shelf for close to a year now. So since I was going to the beach I grabbed it just in case I was bored and needed something to do. I started reading it while laying out and couldn't put it down. It was such a good love story! At the end it had the passage from the Bible and I read that too, but the author added so much more like what they were thinking and feeling along with describing the surroundings of that time. So now I can finally give Jessica her book back :) So maybe I should make a summer reading list, but if I do I know for fact it will not have the Harry Potter or Twilight series on it...I refuse to not join in on that.

Beach Trip

Bailey and I just got back yesterday from Panama City with Blake's family. We stayed at a really nice condo/resort on the beach and only a block from Pier Park which had places to eat and shop. It was a good choice because the weather in Destin and Montgomery were horrible during Memorial Day weekend and in PC it was great besides the 1 or 2 showers. Okay so here we are getting everything situated when MIL calls about the codes to use. You need a code for your room, to get to the beach, and for parking. To get to your room there is a 6 digit code. I was thinking that would be hard to remember because I hate putting anything in my head that is not needed - why add to the file right?! So I'm jotting it on a sheet of paper when she tells us the key for the beach and parking....###*######. You've got to be kidding me?! How was I going to remember something that long when I'm only here for 3 days. So every time you come in from the beach to the condo area you had to punch in the code to get back in. Each time there were people stopped at the gate trying to remember. Every time I had to get out my scratch sheet of paper and key it in - anytime there was someone walking by to open it for you was a sign of relief that I didn't have to dig it out or try and remember. Although that end of PC was nice I still prefer Destin over PC. I love me some outlets, Backporch on the beach with the windows up, Buster's grouper sandwich and raw oysters, and Baytown. So I headed out early yesterday to get back in time to pick up groceries and then Meiko from being boarded and to have time to relax before starting back at work. I cleaned up the house and baked an angel food cake because Blake will be here tonight! I'm so excited! He started on orders May 13th, 2008 and came back in August for a couple of weeks, then November a couple of weeks, then December for Christmas break. It has been almost 7 weeks since we have seen each other so I'm ready to be a family again. Meiko will have to get used to the floor again because there isn't going to be room on his side of the bed anymore. Bailey is excited to show her daddy her new playhouse - every time she rings the doorbell on it she pretends it is her daddy.

Birthday

I'm not a birthday person. I don't tell people a week in advance that my birthday is coming up or casually drop the birthday date or write it on people's calendars at work...I just don't think it is that big of a deal (my opinion - I love people that love their birthdays and think that day is ALL about them and that we should do everything for them...love those people). I had parties growing up but I haven't had a party since I was 16 I guess. Anyway this year will be the second birthday in a row that Blake has not been here and for some reason I am seriously emotional about it. We have been together since I was 18 and he was 19 and every year we have spent our birthdays together with friends or by ourselves (we both have May birthdays). I try not to look ahead and plan, but we were 99% sure he would be home by now. A girl in my Sunday School Class said, "Just plan something and the Air Force will mess it up!" I thought - no I am a planner and I make better judgement on things like this...nope not this time. So I planned a birthday dinner with friends for my birthday this year and I dropped an email and text 3 days before the big day...so I guess this makes me a birthday person but you won't catch me wearing a pin on my shirt with dollars hanging from it (Now those people do get on my nerves).

Making Mother's Day Special

Blake's family is big on celebrating holidays and birthdays at a meal. For mother's day we met at Mimi's Cafe for brunch and it was so good. We had a reservation so there was no wait at all - there was a 2 hour wait for those without a reservation. Bailey spent the night with her Gigi the night before so I could go to a graduation party so when I arrived she was so excited to show me a card she made in Sunday school. It was a red piece of construction paper folded and on the inside she colored me the most beautiful piece of artwork I have ever seen. It really was the best Mother's Day card in the world. My M-I-L also gave me a present from B&B Works...candle and wallflowers. Then Blake's grandmother gave me a card with $$. I didn't expect it at all, but they both said it was from Bailey because Blake could not be here. It was sad not having him here and it was his 25th Birthday--two occasions on the same day and we are 400 miles apart. The good news is that I got some great sympathy presents and a fabulous card from my daughter...plus we are counting days now instead of weeks and months. Roughly 10 days left and he will be home :) After lunch we headed to my parent's house along with Meiko.

Passing the time...

So this weekend was so nice. My mother, Bailey, and I went to Jim and Nicks to eat dinner to celebrate Mother's Day and then we went to see Amanda in her wedding dress (FYI: Most beautiful wedding dress EVER!). Later we went to Bass Pro Shop for a graduation gift and to look around at all the animals and fish. Saturday morning was pretty typical: cartoons and blueberry Eggo's. Later Bailey went to see her great grandma while I attended another fun filled AUM graduation. I seriously have been to 7 of them for sure and I can't remember if I went to any as a freshman in college...but I probably did. Anyway, to pass the time I suggest going to the closest store (Walgreen's) and buying crayons and poster board. There is no need to do the signs before graduation because you have 45 minutes of sitting there listening to boring speeches that will in no way make you a better person. Crayons work best because there is no smell, you can't ruin your clothes, they don't make any noise or run out of ink.

OMGosh!

So today I decided to treat myself to Starbucks. My favorite at the moment and has been going very strong: Grande Chi Latte with skim milk and sugar free vanilla added. I consider myself to be very good at determining calories in food and drinks because when I was a junior in high school I was determined to loose weight and started looking at everything before I ate it. So I guesstimated 200 calories...and I was right on target - 200 calories exactly according to their website. So then I started looking around for the amount of calories in my new favorite snack: sugar free banana coffee cake. In my head I thought 200-250. Well after some research I finally found a calorie website with it on there...480 calories!!!! Are you kidding me?!? 28 grams of fat!!! I could have gone to McDonalds and had a sausage biscuit for that amount. From now on I'm never going to buy another bakery item from Starbucks...especially if it says "sugar free".

Weekend went by quick

Saturday was super busy. Bailey went to stay at her GiGi's for the day and night while I ran errands. My best friend and ZTA Big Sister is getting married in October so there is lots to do. We went to the Prattville City Fest for about an hour - I needed new hair bows for Bailey and they always have plenty of choices. Then we went to 3 wedding places to look at bridesmaid dresses - I must have tried on over 40 dresses and finally a decision was made on "the one" only to find out it didn't come in the right color. So she may change the color to a different shade of orange or we may scratch it and start all over, but the place in Wetumpka was the nicest out of the 3...so thanks to "The Touch of Class". Then we rushed back to Prattville for a wedding at 5 PM. It lasted longer than I thought it would and by the time I got back home I was too tired to do anything else so I went to bed at like 10 PM on a night without Bailey...signs of getting old.
I was so excited about tanning Sunday after church but then at 3:00 PM a storm out of no where came up and ruined the rest of the day. On a positive note when I was at my parents house getting changed I stepped on the scale and I'm only 10 pounds from my Goal Weight!! I lost another 3 pounds which puts me at the same weight I was when I got married, but I still want to be in the low 130's before summer starts (What I weighed as a freshman in college).