rain rain go away

I'm glad spring is here, I'm loving the mild temperatures...but really, could it stop raining at some point?!? Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather sleep during a cloudy gloomy day than a beautiful sunny one but I don't work everynight so the rain gods can stop at any time.

Also Lulu is having some intestinal issues since she will not go out in the rain...and my rugs are paying for it.

On another note, I posted last week about my bff Cookie's engagement. Well she's decided to start a wedding planning blog and you all should head over and leave her some love and encouragement. Most of us know how stressfull wedding planning was, and she will need all the support possible. http://acookiekindofday.blogspot.com/

Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day... (or not)

busy busy busy

Sorry for the absence again...its been quite chaotic around here. Easter with the family was lovely, well except the psycho child who liked to antagonize my poor puppies to the point that they wanted to eat him (both dogs, Jax and Lulu).

sweet babies, they wouldn't hurt a fly...

With working every night this week and March of Dimes planning I've had little time to eat/sleep/shower let alone blog. But believe me friends, I'd much rather be blogging.

I did get a chance to visit with little Bryson this week. He's in the hospital getting another round of chemo and as you can see his spirits are up. He's an amazing boy.

I'm off to bed now but I promise to post something more exciting tomorrow...

I'm Back

I know I've been gone awhile and really I have no other reason except that I've been in a funk lately. I'm tired and grumpy all the time. I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything...which includes blogging. I'm blaming it on the weather. I am truly feeling the winter blues, especially since Friday was the first day of spring and its still only in the high 30's here.

Yesterday we planned to have a cookout with some friends to celebrate the first weekend of spring and to cheer ourselves up...I almost canceled it because it was flurrying in the morning.

I didn't though and even though it was cold we still had a good time. My bestest Cookie and I took Jax and Boo for a walk during the afternoon. It was pretty entertaining to figure out who was walking who. I figured since I made a promise to make him a better behaved pooch I should stick to my word. We're working on it...

Bryson came over with his parents and he amazes me everyday. He's now learned to blow raspberrys and stick his tongue out whenever he sees the camera. Genious. Love him.

Today Mr. Football started his Spring football league. He left pretty early, and of course woke me up in the process so I watched Twilight (obsessed, I know). We napped this afternoon, like I said, we've gotten pretty lazy...Had an early dinner and I walked Lulu after. He's been feeling under the weather also so he stayed home.

I did buy a fabulous dress today for a wedding this May. Our bestman from our wedding will be getting married in Chalreston this summer and Mr. Football is a groomsman. I can't wait!

So I'm officially getting over my funk...at least I'm making an effort. I plan to be a better blogger, wife and person altogether. I'm not going to lie on the couch under a blanket and keep my nose in a book any longer. I'm going to get outside with the dogs and work on my "summer body" cause obviously my actions have lead to a pretty horrific "winter body".

NO MORE WINTER BLUES!

Not Me Monday

So between the working, Christmas and being sick, this is my first post in awhile...and I have lots to confess NOT confess. Here we go again!

I did NOT go out with my friends Monday night instead of cleaning/wrapping/packing/shopping which did NOT led to a frantic 11pm Kohls/Old Navy trip between bars...thank goodness for holiday shopping hours!

I did NOT buy Mr. Football a Christmas present after we had agreed on "no gifts" this year...I would NEVER buy him this awesome jacket for our upcoming ski trip.

And since we're so awesome at following our own rules, Mr. Football did NOT get me Lost Season 3 and 4...I can't wait until January 21st!

I did NOT get a WII Fit and a Pink Yoga mat from my siblings! They are NOT completely wonderful and I do NOT love them to pieces...I'm the baby so I do NOT get the best gifts..

I did NOT fall asleep Christmas day after opening presents and completely miss my family playing Guitar Hero World Tour...that would just make me so sad that I missed the hilariousness...(I worked all night Christmas Eve, a girls gotta sleep at some point)

I did NOT convince my 9 year old cousin to see Marley and Me with me because all of the boys wanted to see something else. I did NOT cry throughout the entire movie, and she did NOT look at me like I was crazy the entire time...

The Mr. and I did NOT drive from our house to my parents (100 miles) on Christmas morning, then leave the day after Christmas to return home (Friday) then drive to my sisters house Saturday morning (200 miles) and come back Sunday afternoon. So if we do the math or NOT do the math, that would equal 600 miles+ in one long weekend...and to make it even better, my brother, Mr. Blackhawk, took our car while at my sisters and drove another 110 miles (220 roundtrip) to finally purchase the Christmas present he wanted for himself, so we're NOT at 820 miles + total...

And we were definitely NOT at my sisters because Mr. Blackhawk wanted to go to a Gun Show (I did NOT make muscles when he first suggested this, who would do that?) in the area...And after driving all that way he didn't even find what he was looking for and had to go to another store hours away...

During all of this family fun, I was NOT cuddled up on my sisters couch too "sick" to go to the Gun Show, but NOT too sick to read Eclipse...or maybe I NOT not was too sick...I'm confusing myself now...

I do NOT feel like my head is still underwater and that my ears might explode at any minute...and I'm definitely not wishing that they would explode so that the pressure in my head might get some relief...

I did NOT try to finish my Secret Santa gift and realize when it was half done that I had run out of ink in my printer, I would always make sure I had everything I needed when working on a project...I did NOT push it aside and consider it a lost cause...

I also did NOT figure out who everyones Secret Santa is...I hate that. I always want to be surprised, but everyone ruins it for me. Its impossible to keep things secret when your shopping with your friends and they're picking out their own presents for their Santas to buy them. SERIOUSLY?!!!!

And finally, our Christmas pictures did NOT turn out fabulously! I loved the sweaters, everyone else pretty much cooperated...and the doggies even got their own Christmas outfits! My parents have 2 dogs also, so my Mom likes to buy them ALL matching outfits. Gotta love doggy grandmas!

My brother in law, my sister, Mr. Blackhawk, myself, Mr. Loves-football-more-than-life

my mom, Lilo, my dad
??Why is Lilo the only dog in the picture??

my mom and dad, Lilo, Lucky (his jacket is blue, but he's too fluffy to see it)

Jax and Lulu

So I guess that will do for this week, although I'm sure I could keep going...I'm off to take some more cold/flu medicine and hope that my head stops pounding/nose stops running/quit coughing/ears stop popping...maybe theres a magic medicine that will do that...Please send your prayers MckMama's way, her sweet baby Stellan is battling a pretty severe case of RSV and is in the hospital right now...

Merry Christmas!

One word...ICE

Not snow, not rain....

ICE.

I hate it I hate it I hate it.

Now that I've got that out of my system I can continue. Things here are going pretty well. I'm working tonight then its off to see the family for Christmas! Yay! No matter how old I get I still want to spend Christmas at my parents. Now I'm sure that once we have our own kids we'll start our own traditions, but for now I'm sticking to my mom and dad's.

Our shopping is finally done (well my shopping, Mr. Football isn't the "shopping" type, he's more "ok we got the 1 thing we came for...lets go!" type.) We pretty much got what everyone asked for, so there really aren't any surprises this year...except the matching sweater thing. I even managed to pick up a few festive shirts for the dogs (I know...too much, but they were 50% off at Old Navy) I can't pass up a deal. My brother will meet us over here in the morning, then we'll pack up the gifts, 2 crates, 2 dogs and ourselves for the hour and a half trip. It's really not a bad drive to my parents, I did it pretty much every weekend for 4 years but now we've got 2 dogs who are not polite passengers. We'll spend the weekend at my parents then head back to face the real world on Monday. I'm hoping to catch up with some of my high school friends while I'm home. Its always nice to see what everyone is up too. Even after living away from my parents for 7 years, I still call their house "home". I'm not sure why that is though. I dont feel at "home" there, I feel at home at my own house, but its still what I say when I go there. Old habits die hard I guess.

So I hope that everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!

seriously, who blogs about their dogs?

...I guess that would be me! The adorable Milo over at the Jet Plane's tagged Lulu and Jax for their very first post! I'm going to let Lulu handle this since she's the opinionated one...

So here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

From Lulu's bark, to your eyes...

1. I'm the guard dog of the house...really. I might be smaller, and a girl but I see and hear everything. I'm often found perched on the armrest of the sofa looking out the window just to make sure those people up on the balcony next door don't try anything funny...

Here I am protecting my family...I have to stand on the table to see out the window

2. I don't like the water, at all...I hate baths, puddles, rain, anything that might make me wet. BUT if my brother is out swimming in the lake and playing with my mom, I might just jump out of my lifeboat and swim to them...


3. I will not lay down on anything hard or cold. I MUST have a blanket, a pillow or anything soft if you expect me to go to sleep. And if I have to sit on the ground I will sit on my legs. My booty can not and will not touch the floor.

Lazy days...

4. I am very lady like. I always cross my legs when I lay down and I have a "prance" to my step, but I snore like a bull (at least thats what my mother says). I may have a longer snout, but there's still a pug in me.


5. I really like to play, but only by myself. As soon as that big lug Jax goes outside, I find the nearest ball/bone/toy and run around like crazy. I will bring it to mom or dad or anyone else in the room to play fetch/tug/keepaway with...but the second I hear Jax at the door, I drop the toy and lay back down on the headrest of the couch.

I had an allergic reation to my vaccinations. I was miserable.

6. I used to have a best friend named "hump-doggy". When I was little I was in love with a brown and white stuffed dog. I carried it around with me everywhere I went. I used to clean it and shake it around, then I would hump it...even though I'm a girl. It was my bestest friend for 2 years, then He came, and ripped her apart. Now I have no one...no wonder I'm so onry...

My bestest...

Well now that you know all of my embarrasing quirks, its your turn! I'm tagging:

1. Boo at Losing Weight With Cookies

2. Taylor and Jackson at Polka Dots and Paisley

3. Chief and King Arthur at First comes love

4. Marley Aspen and Thumper at With Love from New Orleans

5. Poodle Puppy at Momstheword

6. Cheeto at Navigating the Quarterlife

Have Fun! Love Lulu!

One Week

I've officially been blogging for one week now and I think I've done pretty well. I know I've met some really great people...and I can't wait to meet more!


So my silly dogs today were going crazy outside. I just figured there were people walking around or a cat in the driveway...nothing unusual. Every time I would let them outside they would bark and bark. It wasn't until this evening that I realized what they were barking at...


...a shovel. Mr. Loves-football-more-than-life had shoveled the driveway over the weekend, and left the shovel propped up against the house. That apparently was enough to get my dogs stirred up. Silly babies.


On another note, I finally put the Christmas tree up and started to decorate the house. I realized this year that almost all of my ornaments mean something, and I love that. Eventually I would like to have all our ornaments mean somthing, but these will due for now...

We only have 3 stockings right now, Jax still needs one...but I think we're off to a good start. And if you noticed, there aren't any gifts under the tree because I haven't started shopping yet. (I'm such a procrastinator) I finally our christmas cards last night, so hopefully they'll be out by the end of the week. It feel like we just got back from our honeymoon...I need a few more months until Christmas. Anyone else feel like this year flew by?

an explosion!

I absolutely love my friends, especially on random days like today.

This afternoon the Mr. and I had an impromtu gathering. Mr. T and Ms. Cookie stopped by first, then we invited the P family over. We were watching football and ordered dinner...pretty ordinary. The Cookie family brought over their child, a black lab/weimaraner mix named Boo to play with our children and the P family brought their sweet 3 month old baby B over. Normally these nights are a little more planned, but this works too.

Since getting engaged last year Mr. Football and I decided we needed to save money for the wedding, but we still loved hanging out with our friends. So we started having Game nights, and they became a hit. Each time we had one, we would plan on playing a different game...but we'd always end up playing Cranium Pop 5...girls against guys. Some of my best memories this past year are of us girls beating their pants off!

So after we were done eating our delicious chinese food we ordered (Mr. Football had chili-dogs because ironically enough he's not a fan of chinese food...maybe he should re-evalulate who he married) the baby started getting fussy. At first we could see what was wrong, but then on further examination...

An Explosion!

This sweet baby boy made such a mess he had to go the rest of the night dressed like this...

But he was all smiles! So being the amature photog I try to be, I had to snap some pics...

The rest of the gang played video games and blogged themselves...

Daddy P, Mr. Loves-football-more-than-life

Mr. T and Ms. Cookie

Lulu, Boo, Jax

me, Ms. Cookie, Mama P

Look how cute...Mr. Football looks pretty good with a baby...don't you think?

P.S. Jags and Browns let us down again...is football season over yet??

faithful companions

So its 5 in the morning and I'm awake watching SATC, the movie and blogging. After 3+ years I'm officially a night-shift girl. I'm sleeping while Mr. Football is awake, and I'm awake while he's sleeping even when I'm not at work. I ended up getting called into work last night to go pick up a baby from another hospital that was sick. Part of my job in the NICU is being part of the transport team...which is exactly what it sounds like, we "transport" babies. We go to outlying hospitals and bring babies to our Level 3 NICU or we take babies to other hospitals when necessary. I got the call at about 11pm last night while the hubby and I were watching Hancock. The charge nurse told me that I'd be going to pick up a baby from a hospital 45 minutes away that was pretty sick. We would be going "lights and sirens" which means its pretty serious. No matter how long I do this job I always get butterflies when I go out on transport. I never know what I'm walking into or how bad it is going to be...

I ended up not getting home until 7:30 this morning so I slept ALL day. I consider the first day after I work my "lost day" because that's what it is. Sometimes I can urge myself to get up around noon but today was not one of those days. Mr. Loves-football-more-than-life is pretty good about letting me sleep, especially on football days. So I did not get to go to a Christmas party today and I did not decorate the house like I wanted...

Instead we watched football, had chili for dinner, I slept some more and now I'm still up watching movies and blogging. I've got my two faithful companions to keep me company...

...ok maybe not.

On another note, today was the first snow fall. I mean the first REAL snowfall, that stuck and everything. Theres about an inch or so, and its beautiful. I love the first snow fall of the year, especially when I dont have to be out in it. Im looking forward to snowboarding and sledding, making snowmen, and Mr. Football's birthday!

What are you looking forward to this winter?

my very first...

Looks like I've been tagged by Ashley at Polka Dots and Paisley!

The rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you

2. Post the rules on your blog

3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself

4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs

5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

And here they are! My 6 random things/quirks:

1. I absolutely hate going through the mail...well sort of. I thoroughly enjoy getting mail, in fact I race Mr. Football to get it everyday. But once I sort through it and pull out all of the fun stuff, I dread going through the rest. So my system is I leave "piles" of mail through out the house, organized "piles". I know exactly what is in each pile, I just choose not to deal with them until 1 day a month when I do all of it. Its tedious and time consuming but I just can't bring myself to do it any other way...

2. I have an obsession with cookie dough. I can eat cookie dough everyday, all day. Its bad for you and full of terrible calories but I LOVE it. I'm sure this isn't a random quirk because lots of people love cookie dough...but my best friend is also named Cookie. (well her nickname)

3. I have a chronic raspy voice. More often than not I get asked if I have a cold, which is terrible when you work with premature babies...but I don't. I had vocal cord nodules when I was 15 and had laser surgery to remove them...which has left me with a raspy voice. I used to hate hate hate it and I didn't really like to hear my own voice, but I think it's just me now.

4. I planned my entire wedding myself...I'm sure I'm one of millions who have done this. But I mean EVERYTHING. I made all of my save the dates, invitations, programs. I made the centerpieces, all of the decorations, and picked all of the music. I picked bridesmaid dresses (2 to be exact), the photographer, and designed my cake. I spent hours and hours on tedious details, and on the weekend of my wedding, when everything didn't go as planned (of course), I said "oh well".

5. My dog Lulu came from my mother in law. The first time Mr. Football and I went to meet his parents, his mother gave me a dog. She has a pug and his dad has a hunting beagle. They randomly "hooked up" one day and along came 6 puppies. They obviously had no desire to keep 8 dogs so they started giving them away. After some research she realized her pug/beagle mix, a "Puggle" to be exact, was worth a lot of money. So when Mr. Football and I went out for the holidays she gave me one as a present. I had recieved a $500 puppy as my first gift from my future mother in law.

my first child:

6. I'm a blog stalker. I love reading other people's blogs. I don't know who they are or anything about them but I get sucked up in their lives. It started when I randomly found Mckmama's blog one night and read about sweet baby Stellan and I was obsessed. I wanted to know how he would do and if he'd survive (if you don't know his story, you should check out her blog)...so much so that even on my honeymoon I paid $2.50 for 15 minutes of internet to read about his birth. Are there any other blog stalkers out there?

And here are my 6 chosen ladies..have fun!

Losing weight with Cookies

Learning to be a Wife

Leaving and Loving on a Jet Plane

Never Apart In Heart

Lovely Yellow Ribbons

The Crazy Life of a Navy Wife

Thanks Ashley for my first Tag! It was fun!