Its been awhile...

Wow, time flies when you're having fun.

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for us. Anistyn and I have been doing a few playdates with our friends and have loved every minute of it. Last weekend we spent a rainy Sunday at Kelly's house with her kids since both of our husbands had to get some studying done. We did a craft with the girls and let them play while we got to have girl time. Kelly is one of those girls that I just instantly clicked with, and we have a lot in common. Her parents actually live in Alabama...small world.

I had wanted Kelly to try out the mommy's group that I had gone to with Anistyn by myself, for two reasons. For one, she's going to be here for two years and I thought she might like some of the girls. The other reason I had wanted her to go was to see if she got the same feel that I did. I really don't have a problem with meeting people...I'm really outgoing and can find something in common with almost anyone..but for some reason I didn't feel like I clicked with any of the girls, except for one. So, Kelly and I agreed to go one of their playdates. We met at the local humane society so that we could all take a tour...good thing Josh warned me not to bring any animals home, or we might have a houseful right now!

After it was all said and done...Kelly got the same feeling that I did. I'm not saying they're mean, or rude or anything like that at all. I'm sure they're all really nice. I would just think...ESPECIALLY being military wives whose lives a lot of times mean moving, making new friends, moving again, meeting more friends....that they would be a little more inviting since they understand a lot of what you're going through. As a first timer to a group event, it can be somewhat overwhelming...and its really awkward to stand there with a group of girls and not one of them say anything to you. Alas...Kelly and I had a lot of laughs about it afterwards and will not be attending any more of their meetups...haha.

Oh, but the little ones did have a great time looking at all of the animals.

This is me with Kelly's little boy, Gavin.

This boy is seriously....hilarious. One of the funniest kids I've ever met! Everytime I am around him he makes me almost cry from laughing so hard! Makes me ONE day want a little man of my own. I said ONE day...haha.

Last Saturday night Josh, Anistyn, and I went over to Kelly's for dinner with her whole family. It was great to let the husbands meet. We ate and then all played on the wii together. I beat Josh at bowling...which was great since we took Anistyn bowling for the first time the previous weekend and we had the bumpers up, and I kept hitting them! Therefore, Josh said that I needed the bumpers more than her!

Lastly, in all of our news, we finally have Josh's graduation date...April 29th! I am so very excited for him and will be sure to take MANY pictures of the graduation! Which bring me to what comes AFTER his graduation. Once he is done with the graduation ceremony, he will be free to leave California.

They're supposed to give a married soldier 10 days of packing time, and 5 days of traveling time. That would give him two weeks off to be able to spend some time with family and friends in the south before he leaves. That would be too easy though, right? Of course it would! Therefore, because of Josh's report date, he only gets 7 days leave. 3 of which will be spent driving back to the south. Therefore, he only gets 4 days to see people when we get back. Which means....I have less than 10 weeks left with him. Yuck.

Its not a deployment, so I don't have to WORRY about him...I know he'll be safe and sound. He just won't be safe and sound with me. Ah well...military life. But where did these past few months go...I guess we were just having too much fun together.

At first we had talked about Anistyn and I just staying in California until he was done, but the more we talked about it, the more we agreed that it would be best to be in the south. For one, I think the time spent apart from him would go by a lot faster if I were surrounded by my friends and family that I miss now. Also, Anistyn is going to start school in the fall, and I would hate to put her in school over here, then have to pull her out a month into the school year. Also, this summer I can spend time going to whichever base we'll be at and finding us a house then getting Anistyn and I situated. Hopefully being busy this summer will make it go by fast and then before I know it...we'll be back together again!

As the kids would say....I am too cool for school...

Before you read the the first paragraph and think I am stuck up...be sure to keep reading to clarify!


I am the coolest, most amazing person in this world. Everything that I do is amazing. There is nothing that I am not good at, and nothing that is short of greatness. I am drop dead gorgeous, and just down right cool.

This is certainly not how I see myself...or how others see me. But through the eyes of my little 4 year old daughter...this is what I am.

Others might say that I should think more before I speak.

I might think that I tend to overanalyze...and worry too much.

But Anistyn...well, she just sees all the good in me. And she thinks I am just amazing. The other day she was trying to jump rope and was having a hard time. So, she asked me to show her, and I did. What came after my successful jump roping was a wide eyed little girl filled with amazement at what her mother had just done. I was such a great jump roper!

I get these remarks, as I'm sure plenty of parents do. "You're the best mommy ever." After I've tucked her in to bed. "You're the best cook ever"...after I've just made hot dogs.

It won't last long. One day she'll grow up, and realize that along with her mother, I'm a person who has made mistakes and done things I'm not proud of. One day we might argue, and sometimes as a teenager she might not like me very much. I hope she never thinks that way...but teenage girls are a breed of their own.

So for right now, I'm going to hang on to her thinking I am the amazing person that she thinks I am. I am going to keep on doing things to make her look at me with bewilderment at what I've just accomplished. It might be a little selfish...but hey, I like her thinking I am too cool for school.

I love days like these...

I have had a half written blog in my edit box for a couple of days now...I just haven't been able to finish it, so I will just start fresh. These last few days have been a lot of fun for Anistyn and me. We've been having a great time with our new friends. We went out Tuesday and met up with Kelly and her daughter again, as well as another girl named Adrina, who has a daughter named Abby. We went to the library where the kids got to listen to a musician...and then we went to McDonalds so they could play and we could talk...although the McDonalds didn't have a play area...is that even allowed??

I don't know if it was something in the air on Tuesday, or what...but it seemed like everywhere I went  (bus riding wise...) I was meeting another interesting person. I am my mother's child...which means that I could basically hold a conversation with a tree. I love meeting new people of course, and I loved hearing they're stories. There's nothing like being nice to a complete stranger for no reason at all...and when they leave they look back at you and say "I hope you have the most blessed life possible." I just love that.

Anistyn is having a great time with her new friends...I love seeing her come out of her shell with them. When she meets new people she is sooo shy. After a while though, when she's comfortable...you won't be able to get her to stop talking! Here's a picture of her with her new friend Chaela at the library!

They're too cute!

Josh has a four day weekend now which he deserves. Yesterday he was able to sleep in and have the house to himself for the first time in...well, ever. Anistyn and I went to go hang out with Adrina and her little girl. We went for a group playdate at a park, but it had rained a little bit so they had canceled it. Sooo...we headed over to Chuck E. Cheese and let the girls run wild while we chatted it up. Its so great to meet girls that I have so much in common with! Then we took the girls for lunch and called it a day.

Now we're just getting ready for our first Valentine's Day together around here....we don't have a baby sitter of course, but we'll figure something out!

And another one...

We set out today for another playdate. The other group that I met up with last week was great, but I really wanted to meet some moms with kids Anistyn's age. The great thing about that playgroup is that they are packed with great activities for the kids and moms. I'm really glad I'm a member of it, and if I could find some kids Anistyn's age that could join the group then we could all go to all the activities they have and all of our kids could play together.

So I had met Kelly through the website. Her husband is in the Navy and she has a daughter who is Anistyn's age and a 2 year old little boy. I really liked meeting a mom one on one, versus the whole big group shin dig. It just gave us a chance to REALLY talk...and I thought she was great! I didn't take a lot of pictures for once...and ya know why? Because I was way too busy talking!

While we were busy with our girl chats, our daughters were getting along great. They were both shy at first, but they quicky came out of their shells and took to each other really well. I have to add in the playground we went to...by far the coolest playground I have ever been to. Here's the only picture I managed to catch of Anistyn:

Yes, thats her on top of the sun...with a slide underneath it. It was so much...there's a hang glider, maze...all sorts of great things to do!

We ended our play session and Ani and I took the long bus trek home. We've already agreed to meet Wednesday at the library for a kids story time. And another mom is coming with her daughter who is 4 too...I'm really looking forward to it.

It felt great to get out this morning...and not get back home until it was almost time for Josh to get home! Such a great and full day!

And on another note...my husband is not only incredibly handsome...but oh so smart too! His tests that he had today went great! I am so so extremely proud of him! He isn't much for bragging...so I'll do it for him!

Playdate Update

Well we were up bright and early yesterday morning to catch the bus for our playdate. It didn't start until 10:30, but we had to catch the first bus at 8am! Although it was bound to be a confusing and long bus ride (we had to catch 3 different buses), I was very excited about our day. To me, bus riding seemed like an adventure. In the towns I grew up in there weren't any buses to ride...you either had a car or someone with a car...or you were stuck at home. So I was actually excited to see how a bus system worked. Of course, with my wandering brain and plenty of time to think while riding the bus it made me think of my grandparents who had met at a bus stop so many years ago and fell in love. How romantic that must of been! Of course, if some guy had attempted to get my attention at a bus stop in this day and age, I probably would have wished for some pepper spray!

I could tell right away that the bus drivers and other passengers weren't nearly as thrilled as I was, but nonetheless Anistyn and I were still excited about our day.

We quickly amused ourselves with little games and looking at the sights....and me with people watching which is something I am quite fond of. Oh the people that ride the bus...never dull!

When we finally got to the Del Monte Center where the restaurant was, we still had about an hour before the playdate began. The Del Monte Center is a great little shopping center though, so we just perused some of the shops and stopped and got Anistyn some hot chocolate since it was a little chilly that morning.

This is how happy hot chocolate makes little girls;)

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous before going in to the restaurant. I am very outgoing, but am so ready to meet someone that I just 'hit it off' with. So what if the girls were snobby...or what if this wasn't the type of group that I meshed well with?

When I first walked in I introduced myself to one of the moms, who was a really nice army wife with a little boy and another one on the way. Then we took our seat and they were beginning the tours of the kitchen. They were doing tours in groups, so everyone had already went and they only had enough room for all of the moms around me...just not me. So, I was left at the table alone....and believe me, I almost started to cry. I don't know why...I guess its just because for that moment I wasn't "fitting in". I told myself then, that I was sure I had made a mistake and shouldn't have come...but then, a girl named Michelle walked in with her 2 kids. A baby, and a 3 year old. She sat by me and we just clicked. She's older than me, and has 4 kids. Two in school and then the younger two. Her husband is in the Navy, she's been through 2 deployments, moved, and was just so interesting to talk to. We talked about being a wife and mommy and everything that goes along with it. It was so great to be able to talk to someone who is in a sense a "pro" at it. She's been married for 9 years, runs a household and lives by a schedule, which is vey admirable. It made me think of what a newbie I am to this life. Here I was, a single mom with not a minute to spare in my day due to work, school, and taking care of Anistyn. Now within a matter of months I'm married, far away from that life that I knew, and I get to stay at home and have all the time in the world with Anistyn. Thats not me complaining...I've been so blessed and I love this life that I lead. I am so grateful and thrilled to be able to spend my days with Anistyn and have an amazing husband that comes home to us in the evening. It is so new to me though, and I just want to do the best job that I can.

We went on our tour of the kitchen, which looked like any other kitchen this ex server has seen, but Anistyn loved it and the staff really got into making it look cool for the kids. Then,  they got to sit down and make their own pizzas which was so great.

Anistyn's finished product before being cooked...

And after...she had already dug in!

It was such a great idea for the kids to be able to do and Anistyn just loved that she was able to eat something SHE had made. She kept asking me if I wanted to try some...which I did. I told her she should be the cook at our house now since she did such a great job!

We all ate and talked some more and I was able to meet more of the moms, which are mostly military wives. They were all nice, which made me feel dumb for jumping so quickly into a negative nancy at first...but I guess it was just me feeling like a fish out of water! The only downside was that there weren't really any kids Anistyn's age. They were all younger, but I'm hoping that maybe some of the other moms just weren't there. Michelle even offered to drive us home, but we were happy to take the bus back. She wants me to go to another meetup they're having this Friday so I think we'll go.

The great thing about the mom's meetup site that I found is that there are ways to get in touch with moms that have kids the same age as your child. I've already had a couple of e-mails about meeting up at the park from other moms with kids Anistyn's age. So I'm just going to try it all out. I'll still go to these little meetups just to get out of the house and have something to do, along with some nice girls to talk to, and we'll still be able to make playdates with the moms who have kids Anistyn's age.

We only have a few more months here, so its hard to get too attached when we know we're leaving soon!

In other news...Josh has his airborne physical at the end of Februrary. Yes...MY husband will be jumping...out of airplanes. Something so odd to this girl who sweats when even thinking about being on an airplane. I am perfectly fine with my two feet on the ground. I am quite jealous of people who aren't afraid of flying...I wish I wasn't! My thrill seeker husband has to do SOMETHING exciting...so this is what we agreed to. Believe me, the other options were far worse!

I think I have a case of the Mondays....

Well, the weekend flew by, like it normally does. Although it was short, we had a great time. Now we get to look forward to a four day weekend next week...yay!

On Saturday we woke up to a beautful sunny day in Cali...yes, it was about 65 degrees. I don't know if I could live here forever, but I could definitely spend my winters here. I am not a fan of the cold. Especially in Alabama and Georgia, where it doesn't snow. My thinking is...if its going to be 25 degrees outside, it might as well snow!

I am always one to want to get the family outside and doing something fun on these sunny days. I just don't like the thought of spending a beautiful day inside, when there are so many free things to do around here! Josh is always up for almost anything, so we usually find fun things to do. So, Saturday morning started with my usual question..."What do you want to do today?" And do you know what my awesome husband said?? "Do you want to go get your hair done?"

So, while Josh and Ani spent the day together, I got to get out of the house and get my hair cut and highlighted! I've been wanting it done forever....

Its super super short which I'm still getting used to, but I like it so far. I took a picture in of what I wanted it to look like, and she didn't exactly do it the way I wanted, so I just told her to cut the parts that didn't look right. So, before I knew it I had the shortest hair I have ever had!

When I got home, all the dishes were done, and the kitchen clean....hmm...something got into that man this weekend;)

On Sunday, Anistyn and I went to the park together while Josh went grocery shopping. I have the girliest daughter which is so funny since I was such a tomboy. I feel like I am raising my older sister. Instead of wanting to run, climb on monkey bars, and slide...Anistyn opted to pick the pretty flowers. I was able to get her on the slide a couple times though!

After that, we all just spent time together at home, and even got to watch a magic show!

In other news....please pray for my sweet grandfather who has been in the hospital since Sunday morning. He has pneumonia and is on a ventilator. I wish I could be with him, and I hope he gets better soon!