Early to bed

8pm and the little one is in bed... even the dog went to bed. So, I have some peace and quiet down time for 45 wonderful minutes! What better time to blog!

Semi productive day today... started & completed 3 projects for the pink room (Pics tomorrow of the projects!) as I have affectionally named it. I dont want to call it the nursery because we dont plan on putting Baby Adams in there until she is 2 and we are waiting anxiously to see if D is going to be in our lives forever or not. The plan is for them to share a room I have painted pink. Yes, pink. Its a pale pink and I have adding punches of hot pink, a pale green, some baby blue hidden in there, just fun all around. I am going for a little bit of a funky, modern vintage feel. No actual theme because the girls would grow up just wanting to change it so I have even kept the bedding in solid colors. I am anxiously awaiting the Hubbies muscles... not that I cant do it myself and I am dying to trust me but I wont take any chances while prego. There are a few things to be hung and a headboard that needs to be cut down before I will take pictures to share with you all. I will take pictures I promise your just going to have to wait a little bit longer.

The past two days I have been buried in our GIANT master closet trying to organize it like a game of tetris. You would think with it being the size of a small bedroom this would be easy... wrong. See we have 2 dressers in our room that I am going to have the Hubby move up stairs into our Foster care room and we are going to have NO dressers in our room. For the look of simplicity really. Besides I now have a crib AND a cradle in my room so its getting a little crowded and less romantic feeling in the Master Suit. I would however love to get an electric fireplace in there. We have one in the front room as seen in previous pictures and we love it! The dressers have to go other wise we would be wall to wall furniture, literally. I am on a mission then, to get every piece of clothing, shoes, purses, accessories, etc into our closet. Its not impossible, it might just be me cause I might be boarder line OCD and have a serious organizing streak in me. I am getting close to being done so possibly next blog post will be a glimpse into our closet!

All I have for you now is a few before pictures of the kitchen, tomorrow will be the after ones .... Enjoy.

BEFORE:

4 weeks

So today marks only 4 more weeks to go until the wonderful moment I get to run into my hubbies arms. I am so anxious and excited more than any other deployment, its been a really long year full of so many challenges. As I soldier I know some of the briefings you get upon returning home and many times they talk about your spouse has been running the show and has become self sufficient so dont be surprised if its hard to integrate...  NOT this spouse. I will be nice and give him a few days off but I am ready and waiting to hand over the reins! I think this giant house will finally feel more like home with him in it and us living out our daily schedules together. We are very anxious to start living the family life. Dont get me wrong we have had a great time the past 8 years just the two of us, we have really gotten to know each other more than most couples before having kids. Not to mention the Foster Parenting... I dont think a couple could be more ready for a baby than we are right now. Its still sinking in that we are having a baby, a baby girl at that a dream come true for both of us!! I just have to get thru this home stretch... I know that the days will continue to tick on by but I would love to just snap my fingers and be standing all dressed up waiting to jump into his arms. Well, ok I dont know if this go round I will be jumping the belly might get in the way, but I sure will throwing my arms around him! I am excited to spend a few days in Vegas too as a mini vacation before jumping back into life together again. A lot of couples struggle with the separation of deployment and I am not down playing it, it sucks but Shawn and I use it as a chance to appreciate each other all over again the separation actually makes us love each other all over again. When you get home for us its been almost like a honey moon all over again. We joke after a year or more of being home that its time for one of us to deploy again cause by then we start to irritate each other, with love of course. So far Shawn has never been the spouse left at home deff not the the single parent left at home, I have been hoping this could happen soon so he can experience this end of a deployment. Being a soldier and being a deployed soldier I very much respect and understand that part of the experience, just need the shoe on the other foot for him! Im sure he will handle it fine hes very good at balancing and planning but he would just understand my thoughts and emotions from being on this end more. I have great respect for military families who have endured these multiple deployments and am happy to hear that they will soon die down and hopefully the families can get back to some semblance of normal. I light a candle every Sunday for all soldier's who are deployed the the loved ones the have left at home. 4 more weeks seems like forever away but right around the corner too, I cant wait!

Blogging slacker

Wow I have really been slacking haven't I?! Well here goes trying to update...
In June the hubby came home on leave and it was the most amazing 2 weeks EVER! Nice and slow paced, fun and even relaxing. We saw Tyler graduate High School, we sadly said good bye to J (but still get to see her), I celebrated the big 30, & we announced we were preggers! We had done IVF and were blessed that it work... to date today we are officially 20 weeks. ITS A GIRL!! Never did I imagine my husband being so excited about having a daughter. I did not have a preference as to what we had as long as it was a healthy baby, after a long journey of ups and downs I just wanted a baby. Now I couldn't be happier. I have been trying live a zen life I guess you could say during the pregnancy. Eating healthy (have only gained 8 lbs), staying steady active but getting an equal amount of rest (naps) and so far it has paid off. I haven't been sick, I have plenty of energy and baby according to ultra sound tech said everything looks "perfect"!! I will be glad when the hubs is back home though so I can relax a little bit more. I am anxious of course to hold our little bundle of joy but am in no hurry she can stay in there nice and safe until our due date, Jan 20,2012. I am soooo ready for her on the other hand, all this Foster Parenting I have raised two babies in the past year & 1/2 that I feel like I will be able to raise ours with my eyes closed. Im not panicked about being ready because really we already have everything we need, and when we moved into the house I decorated 3 bedrooms... 1 girly, 1 that was more boy but could easily be girly, & a 3rd gender neutral. I have a ton of baby girl clothes since the 2 foster babies we have had were girls, but I did recently go out and buy some new things.... washed them, folded them and organized them all ready to go! The holidays are going to be upon us in no time so I figured now was a good a time as any. We are ready! The only things left to do is go sign in with our hospital to let them know we will be coming in January and go take a lamaze class. I have elected to do no drugs and will be sticking to it, I figure if women of that past could do it then so can I, I am a soldier for goodness sakes... I will let you all know how it goes. So until the hubby comes home some time in October I am spending these last few weeks working on the finishing touches of the house. I have been done over all for months but just tweaking a few things. I wanted to finally share some pictures with you all, so here there are.... (finally!)

                                   Previous owners paint colors all in flat paint, not kid friendly.

Our paint color choices and decor. The tan is the same we just had it re done in semi gloss. But replaced the copper with a nice green.

This is basically the view you see as soon as you walk thru the front door. Awesome giant windows looking onto the back patio and yard with a swimming pool. This picture was taken the day we looked at the house for the 1st time and a couple hours later Shawn got on a plane for a year.

After...

Before...

After... 

Our entry way before was plain tan and had white shutters on the window.

After...

Took me almost a week, but I measured and painted these stripes, it was worth every minute cause I love them!

Thats it for now, more to come soon and do mean soon!