From the beginning

Well, there's a whole lot goin on in this head of mine, where do I begin? Let's start off in May 06 when my life really started.
I met the man who currently calls me Beautiful in person in May 06, graduated high school and decided to join the army a month later.

May 06


I am not a good-early-morning kind of person and I had a love/hate relationship with running at the time, so why I thought joining the army was a good idea... who knows. I guess it was because I wanted to do it and I knew that if I didn't I would regret it 10 years later.

July 06



So, September 21st 2006 I left the sunshine state for Ft Jackson, SC and saw snow for the first time that winter.

Winter


Travis and I got married December 29, 2006-what a great day :)

That day

Also that day


he's everything I ever hoped I would have in a lifetime partner. What I never imagined when I was a little girl dreaming of the rest of my life were all the hard times and arguments everybody has. We were in AIT in Ft Eustis, VA at the time so although we saw each other everyday, the drill sergeants made sure we didn't sit, march, talk or pretty much look in each others direction. The only down/husband and wife time we had was at night when we would either go outside to the official smoking area and hide in the dark and talk, talk on the phone in our rooms, or on the weekends when we racked up hotel favor points :)

At some hotel Valentine's Day weekend, waiting for a cab



He graduated in March, then moved on to Airborne School until the end of April and the day I graduated in May he came to pick me up in his new Dodge 1500. I can't describe how it felt to kiss him in front of the barracks in which we got yelled at on a daily basis just for being married and in the same company. We rode into the night to Ft Bragg, NC.

There begins our journey in Fayetteville Norf Carolayna. Little did we know when we arrived just how much we would grow to HATE and DESPISE fayetteville. army wives and criminals everywhere you look. Not only was in like 3 hours away from the beach but at least 6 hours from anybody we knew and 2 hours away from any form of 'nice' city to see. We stayed in a hotel room for about a week, waiting to move into a house we decided on renting. They kept putting off calling us, so we decided to do what we didn't want to do...get an apartment. The neighborhood was very nice with security cameras and alarms set up. It was the perfect place for our 1st home together.

July 07



Travis left for Afghanistan mid-July 07 and I found out I was pregnant a week later and had to tell him via Instant Messenger. Not the best of ways but it worked! I was just happy I got to tell him less than 30 minutes after I found out, he was still in the process of getting to where he was going so I had no idea when the next time I would talk to him would be. We were trying to get pregnant, or should I say we weren't trying to prevent it. It was something we both wanted, a family. And we couldn't wait. We knew we wouldn't be able to. We loved our children & family before they were even born. We're just lovers I guess :) and I believe that's what brought us together in the first place.

Right before he loaded up on the bus to leave :(


Travis got to come home for 2 weeks in the beginning of November so we got a 4D ultrasound done to find out the gender of our beautiful baby BOY!



My suggestion is, if you can wait to get the 4D ultrasound... Do. That was the only time Travis would be home for us to find out and my normal doctor wouldn't give me an ultrasound until 20 weeks, and I was 18 at the time.
I spent that Thanksgiving with my mom, Step dad and siblings in Alabama where I couldn't ride the 4 wheeler due to my pregnant-ness.



I spent Christmas alone and for my birthday, the day after Christmas, I chopped all my hair off. about 13 inches to donate to locks of love. It took a lot of courage for me to actually cut it, but I had debated about it for so long, I decided to get it over with. When I brought my hair home to mail to locks of love, I left it on the couch in a baggy then proceeded to the mirror to check out my new look, looked over and saw my dog Kino with my hair all over the carpet. Anybody who has donated hair knows that the hair cannot be 'swept' up off the floor and must be in a clean ponytail. If the phone didn't ring right after that I would've bawled my eyes out but instead I talked with a huge lump in my throat staring at my precious hair I had grown, and took very prideful care of for years. I am still upset about this. I brought the new year in with 4 little ones, I babysat for a co-worker. I knew she probably needed a break with 4 kids and I had no plans to get wasted for new years.

Travis got home in the beginning of February, thank GOD his deployment was only 7 months (I say only but when he had to go back in November I cried like I had just fallen down and busted my face open... but harder and with more hormones)

What a great day!


I got out of the army February 22ND. Travis got to see our baby boy born, whom we named Brycen. He is the light in our lives.



Ever since he's been born it's like nothing else matters. Daddy (formerly known as Travis) got orders to Hunter Army Airfield, GA. I know everybody always dreams of going somewhere like Hawaii but we simply wanted to be in Savannah, Georgia. It really was our dream. When we would pass it on the interstate heading back to crappy old Fayette-nam we would look and sigh and say 'if only if only'. When he got those orders it really was our dream come true. We would be closer to both of our families and in a much much better location, not to mention the beach is only half an hour away!!


I applied to Armstrong Atlantic State University to major in Pre-med to be on my way to becoming a Pediatrician. But in deciding my future and doing some serious soul searching I recently decided maybe being a physician isn't for me. Not only do I need a 'back up' plan so in case I don't get into medical school, but when are we going to have time to grow our family? When am I going to have TIME for my family? I absolutely do not want to wait 12 years to have another baby simply for convenience for my career. But at the same time, I don't want to have a baby while in medical school only for my time to be consumed somewhere OTHER than my babies. So, although I got accepted (which I hoped and prayed for), I won't be able to attend for another year. I still would love to help people and be in the medical field, so I've decided to go into nursing. The nursing department stopped taking applications 3 days before I got accepted and another slot won't be up for grabs until next fall's semester. Which is okay. My plan right now is to go to Savannah Tech and get my CNA,which takes about 2 months. Then get into a nurse's assistant position and work my way up to and all through nursing school. Sounds marvelous to me :)
I just recently got a seasonal job working in the children's section of a well-known department store, we will see if I will be able to work into the new year. If I don't, needless to say I won't be too disappointed.
And even more exciting I got into a mom's group here in Savannah and have met some awesome moms. Particularly Charlotte, Kristen and Lauren. I was getting pretty lonely, so thank goodness I met them. Not to mention Kristen's been great watching Brycen for me every time I have something I need to get to. Every Monday we have FunFit which is an exercise meet-up that Kristen leads and we get a pretty good workout. Its not like cross-fit or anything but it is definitely enough to get you sore but not kick your butt. Plus, we all get to chat, do mom-talk and all that good stuff.
Lately, since we've moved here, I've been getting into running which is something I dreamed of doing while I was pregnant. Meeting Kristen has been great, she is an awesome runner from what info I've acquired and she informed me of a marathon in Nashville. They have training starting next month for it and all I would have to do is raise either 1500 or 2500 for leukemia. I think its a great idea, the marathon is in April and I would more than likely be doing the half-marathon which is about 13-14 miles (that's a lot I know). I am so stoked about doing it, I honestly think I could complete that mission. Getting the money together and completing the run. I am trying to convince Travis to do it with me, he is very into fitness and recently has gained interest in biking and triathlons. I'm happy we have a fit family and I can't wait to start doing all kinds of things with our kids.
So, that is the latest news up to today. I am happy I finally got this all down. I basically want to do this to keep track of all my hopes and dreams and to follow me down this path I'm headed. I have many, many things ahead of me and am so excited and anxious to see what comes my way :)


oh and I'm also trying to learn Swedish.