Wow, I guess I'm gonna have to blog more often!

It's been soooo long....Where does one find the time?! Between working 40 hours a week, taking care of an almost 2 year old (and of course planning his upcoming birthday party! :) And now, creating jewelry...which is so much fun, it's hard to call it work...I am one busy girl! I can only imagine I'm going to get busier, with Garrett getting older and being more involved in things, us thinking of having another and hopefully my jewelry will continue to sell, and pick up speed! I'm having a really good time right now and can only thank God for his blessings. We may not have much but we have what we need :)

So...I hate to be short, I'll be blogging a lot more often I PROMISE! I think I made this promise before, but I'm going to devote time hopefully once a week from here on out...Garrett's birthday party is next weekend and I think we may take him to the circus in Fayetteville this weekend, so I'll definitely have pics to post...no excuses!

Giggle boy

Click here to view this video

Hard to believe this was a year ago...and I can't even get him to wear his costume this year...

No good at keeping up, Lots in my head

Okay, I'm going to TRY to do this...since it's been a while since I've blogged it may be all over the place! This was a good weekend, mom and dad were in town. They got here around 8:30 on Thursday night, we kept little man up so they could see him before he went to bed and since I took Friday off and he wouldn't have to get up early I didn't mind him staying up to see Nana and Grandpa! Since we had already eaten dinner mom and dad ate after Garrett went to bed and we just watched a little t.v. and went to bed ourselves. Friday morning I had a doctors appointment to get my stitches removed (I had a few moles removed 2 weeks ago...and they were all fine :) So, after my appointment I ran a couple errands and then came home and we all took afternoon naps while Garrett napped. It was a good lazy day! We waited for Gabe to get home from work and went to eat at Outback, yummy :) Saturday morning Gabe got up and washed all of our vehicles (including the lawnmower haha) Mom, Garrett and I went downtown to MumFest and walked around for a while, it was nice....but then it got HOT..so dad and Gabe came to meet us and brought me a t-shirt and flip flops to change in to (which I proceeded to do in a port a john, LOL) We had lunch at a new place called Ribeyes, which was really good. (yep, no fair food for us...although it ALL smelled sooo good) We did however splurge on a funnel cake after lunch and Garrett had a tootsie pop :)

Saturday night we went to the mall to go to Bath & Body Works and buy candles and went to Sonic for dinner...as you can see this is not a typical Andrea eating weekend...I will be in the gym extra this week! Garrett got a kiddie prize, (I asked for the toy for younger ages and they were out)...good thing though because I think he thinks these glasses are the coolest thing he owns...

Sunday morning we didn't make it to church, it just got too late for all of us to try to finish getting ready (Mom and I sat in line at Hardees for about 30 minutes getting Dad and Gabe breakfast when we went to pick up a newspaper...) It threw the whole morning off. It was good for Garrett though because he got to take a nap in his bed as opposed to his stroller like he did on Saturday (and at the normal time, church usually pushes his nap behind about 2 hours) We went to get dad and Garrett hair cuts after naptime...this is the 4th haircut Garrett has had since February and the 1st that he protested. Poor baby was soooo unhappy, nonetheless we got it done and it's out of his little eyes now. I came to work a little late yesterday which made for a short day, both literally and mentally! Mom cooked some ground turkey that needed to be cooked before they left town and made Manwhich so I didn't have to do anything but throw it in the microwave when I got home last night, which was wonderful.

...and another thing I'm thankful for this week....Mom and Dad took me grocery shopping on Sunday so I have a house full of groceries which will save us at LEAST $100 this week :)

We've got a wedding on Saturday and then I'm hoping Sunday we don't have to do ANYTHING (except church since we missed this week)

Maybe our neighbors will all join in the driveways or around a bonfire and have a few drinks and a few laughs before we have to say goodbye for a few months to a couple of our Marines deploying on Sunday...I love my neighborhood, and better yet...my neighbors...

AUGHHH!! My blog!!

Okay, okay I'm here! I absolutely do not know what I'm about to type, so this may ultimately be the most boring thing you have EVER read! I have been a bit absent on both facebook and here, I'm guessing out of pure laziness and well, I've been busy hanging out with people I enjoy hanging out with :) Last Thursday night I went downtown with a group of girls to paint pottery, and plan on doing that a little more often...it's somewhat therapeutic ;) Then Friday night I got home to find my neighbors and husband in my yard and we slowly became a larger group and got out the lawn chairs, had drinks, shot off fireworks and shared stories and pictures that I could have probably gone the rest of my life without seeing and I would have been perfectly fine with that! LOL Regardless it was impromptu and a lot of fun....So, Saturday we had a homeowners meeting and cookout and a big nap! After which I had all intentions of driving to the Outerbanks but got talked into staying in town for a bonfire and more fun with the neighbors....I said this on fb and I'll say it again, I love my neighbors if it weren't for them life would be a little more boring..

Sunday morning I got up and got the car packed and Garrett and I headed to the OBX to see some old friends, Kristin and Victoria. The last time we all saw each other we were younger, singler and funner. haha Really, it's been about 5 years since I last saw Kristin and 4 since I last saw Victoria. We're all married with children now and we still thought we needed to stay up all hours of the night and drink our first night together...I drank more this weekend than I have in the last 3 years put together. I got a new Pandora bead to signify my girls weekend and had a few hours on Monday of alone time with my little man and a bowl of rainbow sherbet. All in all it was a nice escape for a few days.

Now it's all back to reality, but I'm trying to take a new view on things and make reality a little more exciting, in other words I'm trying to let go of some of my OCD about things needing to be done and bath times and bed times needing to be exact (at least on the weekends) Not worrying so much about eating "junk" a couple nights a week if I'm just TOO exhausted to cook a good healthy meal, maybe letting the laundy pile up until Gabe absolutely has not one more pair of shorts to wear to work (he only has 4 pair of "work" shorts so it won't pile too high! lol) Point being, all of this OCD has made me not such a fun girl, and I want fun Andrea back....

SO...here we are at Friday again, 3 day work week for me..it was nice but quite busy! New Bern is celebrating 300 years and there are some festivites and fireworks going on downtown all weekend so I'm hoping we can get out and partake in some of the social activites! Everyone enjoy your weekends and I'll try to be faithful and write more often so I'm not catching up and I'm sure leaving things out ;)

Hurricane Earl...

Don't worry, I'm not making a big deal about a hurricane..that's just the title because it's relevant to today...
I have a hair appointment at 2:00 today, I have all intentions of taking it darker...darker than I've ever been, just for something different, and just for the fall and winter (unless of course I LOVE it and want to keep it....um...we'll see

So...anyway, the point is, I'm leaving work at 1:00 and this is awful but I hope because of this hurricane (sorry to make it sound so trivial) that my appointment does not get cancelled and if it doesn't get cancelled, that I'm not sitting there with all kinds of mud on my hair and get a call from daycare that they are closing... because the other side of this is that if builders are trying to secure job sites, guess who is going to be extra busy at work today and not be able to drop everything they're doing to pick up the boy...yep, that would be Gabe. While everyone else is rushing to get home and secure things, he'll be working harder to help insure that things are secure...(and I'll be getting my hair done) LOL, should I be freaking out and going to the grocery store too? No, let's hope not...after living in Wilmington for 10 years and having Jim Cantore on the beach about 10 miles from my house, I still didn't leave...of course this is the biggest one that has headed for our coast in all of my years in these parts of the state, and I'm well aware that it could turn and head for us and not in the direction predicted...

And while I'm hoping that things aren't cancelled this afternoon...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe my 3 day weekend will turn in to a 4 day weekend (praying of course for everyones' safety and that we're not dealing with a huge mess!)

Oh, and I will actually be making a trip to the grocery store anyway...sigh...
I just remembered that Garrett needs milk.
So..pray for my safety and that I'm not dealing with a huge mess in the grocery store because I know that there are people freaking out around here...

Finding a Happy Medium

So...one thing that I was looking forward to about my job prospect was the fact that the hours were 8-4 WITH an hour lunch break...that's 35 hours a week, salary.... (When I say this outloud I want to kick myself for turning down the offer...I digress...) The great thing about this would have been that I could have spent my lunch hour with friends, family, or even running errands if necessary and still have extra time in the afternoon after work to go to the gym and be able to pick Garrett up from daycare all before 5:30...ahhh...grrr...
ANYWAY..the point of this blog is, (I turned that job down right?, I need to leave it alone) the point of this blog IS....I am currently spending my lunch hour at the gym and eating snacks and small "meals" throughout the day while working...which works, no big deal...but I'm starting to think about the winter and yummy comfort foods and spending lunches with friends and doing some me things, but in this scenario I don't have that extra hour of free time in the afternoon to get my gym time in. So...where do I find the happy medium? I love the gym, I want to work out, because I'm happiest when I feel good about myself, but I also want the happiness of being able to relax and not put so much emphasis on working out and enjoy some other ME time to shop, grab a latte, have lunch with friends and NOT feel guilty about skipping the gym.

There's a first time for everything

Well, today for the first time ever...I turned down a job offer. The offer came in this morning and actually at a higher salary than expected, but not quite as I high as needed :( Unfortunately all of our high hopes about Gabes opportunity in Asheville turned into just vanishing dreams. This is the only reason I actually turned down the offer, as a matter of fact I would have settled for the salary they offered, but I decided I would rather be in New Bern with my little family than in Asheville making a couple hundred extra dollars a month (just to spend that couple hundred on a more expensive daycare..not really getting ahead) waiting for Gabe to have another opportunity. This does not mean that we will not be looking into a prospect of moving again in the future..but now this gives us the opportunity to clean up, clean out and get prepared so that the idea of a move in the future won't be as stressful. The great thing about it (and even though they never contacted my boss for a reference) I was told that I needed to let my boss know, because they would be contacting her. Being the kind, caring boss that she is she was actually rooting for me because she is a grandmother and knows how nice it would be if family could all be so close.
So...these weights are all off of my shoulders 1) My boss knows where my heart is and it will be an easy conversation in the future, when the time comes to move on. 2) I have visited a daycare in Asheville, highly recommended by several people and I was very pleased. 3) We don't have to try to rent our house out right now and pack and move...who enjoys all of that anyway!? ;)
18 months isn't that long right? That's how long we have until we can sell our house without having to pay back the government $8000... And no matter how long it takes to sell, rent, whatever we decide to do...we always have a place to stay in Asheville..that's what's great about home :)

So, thank you everyone for the prayers, I know they worked because they should have all been prayers for what was meant to be and clearly this is where God wants us right now...maybe someday we'll figure out the reasons...