Hey Momo :D

So we totally had a landmark in baby steps the other deay, on Tuesday, Ariella laughed. Thats right I said LAUGHED. I was so excited when I heard her I almost died. So this is how it happened. I was giving her a bath, and she kept farting in the water, which of course made little bubbles, well I was containing myself til she let a nice big one out,. it was like a little explosion! I burst out laughing, and than I heard her go 'hahaaaaa' :D:D:D:D My baby girl laughed. Chris says she has been laughing a lot lately. Of course she does it on the weekend when I work the most.

Augh the weekends. My jobs are just destroying the little social life I do have. But than it seems like no one wants to compromise with me either, which is very frustrating. For example we have been trying to get together with one of our friends, Chris knew the guy from te Army and I met his wife cuz we were pregnant around the same time. He works obviously in the military, and shes a stay at home mom (sniff lucky) Anyways so we have been trying to get together for awhile, we were going to go over their house yesterday, but I cancelled because they live almost an hour away so we would have to leave super early because my graveyard shifts started yesterday, so I told her on thursday that weekends are just not going to work for us, I mean not to be dramatic, I get about 5 hours sleep, thats friday night, saturday night, and sunday night combined. So in 72 hours I get about one work shift of sleep. Soemtimes I am lucky and get 2 or 3 more hours but not usually. So anyways, I told her the next day her husband has off during the week let us know, if we can swing it we will come by and see them.

Well her response was 'We dont do stuff on weekdays.' Um...ok? Im trying really hard to work something out, Im a working mother, I work about 60 hours a week, and we are still struggling. Im sorry if I cant just magically go on NO sleep during the weekends so I can hang for 2 or less hours. grr. I wish I had more friends. Ive come to realize, I dont have any friends here. I mean Sara is a good friend, I have known her for 5-6 years, I trust her enough to leave my daughter with, but she too, is a working mother. We do get togther and have mommy days, but not alot. Which is fine. It just irritates me that someone who gets to stay home all day with their daugheter, and make craft bows to sell online (which are relaly cute though :P) doesnt have any consideration for my schedule.

Oh well I guess huh. So far today I have made $800 today at work. We are having our designers come down to sign their pieces, so we are selling 'special pieces' for the event, that fund has gone up to $7660. My boss is really excited, and ow I am too, because she told me if we make this months goal, we will gt a bonus in our paycheck!! Oh YEAH! Thats what I LIVE for..that will be our christmass shopping money haha. So im excited.

I work at walgreens tonight. boo. But I decided last night, I went to work with the mindset of, I dont care what time it is, or what time it feels like, doesnt matter if it feels like I have been here for years, just deal and dont worry about it til the next person comes on shift. By doing so, last nights shift went by so fast. Before I know it, it was 8 am and I was off!! So go me Im excited. 2 mor shifts left mwhaha.

Oh I wont be at church in the morning, I get off at walgreens at 8:30 am and than I work at swarovski at 1030 am. Just enough time to change and go to my other job haha. But I wioll be at church in the evening because I get off at work at 4.30pm.

And now for the much waited for pics of the princess :D

Love you xoxox

My baby girl in her jogging outfit :P

Tummy time! (well it was but she got fussy,so it became back time)

She was practising her standing up with her daddy

Ok so I had some videos too, but Im on the work computer and the only way to get then in here is to download them from my email, and I cant do that here. so those are 'to come' haha. ttyl

End to a long, Rough week

My darling sister,

Sorry its been awhile since I posted. Its been crazy this past week, emotionally, physically , financially the whole nine yards.

Augh I cant wait until things settle down with our finances. You know that life doesn't revolve around money, but it can set a tone in our lives. It can really strain our marriage alot. We always work through it, thankfully with God on our side, but we always hit bumps. Always. I almost feel like a fool for complaining, because God has done nothing but bless us since Chris got out of the army. Without God, we would be without a house, among other things, but it never fails, the beginning of every month somehow God has moved and helped us paid our rent. The other bills have always been up to me, but we have managed, barely...I guess sometimes that's all that matters.

Even though Gods taken care of us, I still cant wait until this part of our life is over though. It really is hard to live like this. Maybe its because we were so comfortable when he was in the army, living right within our means but then when he got our means went down the drain. Its hard to get a job for $18/$19 dollars (roughly what we made when he was in) an hour when you have no degree. And than of course he had to get used to working in a whole nother environment, which had its own challenges. But he did his best, and that's all we could ask for. We managed to get through that section, him working at Clowns, and me working with you at the Bean. :) And now we are just waiting for the money from the schooling to come in. Once it kicks in, I'm hoping and praying that we will finally be ok in that area. But I'm almost afraid to hope, because it just seems like everytime I hope things get better, or when I know they re suppose to they just dont. For example I knew we would be perfectly fine with paying for Chris's schooling and for his tools because he was suppose to get a check for the grants the government was giving us. Well when the day finally came we barely got half of what we were suppose to get because the VA hadn't kicked in. Long story short, we will get reimbursed, just not until Jan. 9 2012. And maybe God has a plan, maybe the tithes? I don't know.

I'm sitting here 8am in the morning haha. The only time I have been up this early is when I get off my graveyard shifts. Oh how i hate those haha. But its ok, hopefully when April comes around I will be able to stop graveyard shift. I fed Ariella this morning, she has been nothings but giggles and goos all morning, and that makes my world s much more brighter, didnt realize how much I missed her this week, all i have been doing literally is sleeping and working.

I was sitting here clipping coupons, with new episodes of Army Wives on. Finally they put the new seasons of it on netflix. I started watching the show when Chris was deployed to Iraq. He never understood why I watched it. He always asked 'Why i would put myself through it'. It is a very emotional show. When I found out there were new episodes last week I started watching it. One day Chis came home from school to find Ari and I cuddled on the couch watching one and he just shook his head and asked the same old question. Why?

And here I was this morning, just sitting here, with  Ari in her fancy swing, and me clipping coupons watching the show. I realize that I still watch the show, even though it makes me cry alot (cuz its pretty realistic), I still watch the show to remind myself how good I have it right now. Mu husband is home with my daughter and me. He is not away in Iraq or Afghanistan fighting a war anymore. I don't spend my nights holding his pillow, devastated because after 8months his scent has finally left everything in the house, like he never existed. I dont jump at every phone call, hoping and praying its him on one hand, but on the other almost dreading it is, because that means once again I would have had to say good bye. That year was one of the worst years of my life. One of the hardest. I'm glad its over. And even though life is really sucking sometimes right now, and Ive had to battle with hating life alot this week, I'm thankful and grateful, and i know that I really do have it good. I have all my family here with me.

You, mom and dad really helped me through that year. Without you guys I am nost sure I would have made it through as sane as I did. And now your leaving. An that's just a whole nother rollecoster ride Im not even going to go into right now since this post is so long already. But I keep reminding myself, at least its driving distance :P its still going to suck, and I'm going to miss you so much, but at least your not going away to far. :) And theres always skype, so you can see the baby, and so I can see you. :)

Alright well Im going to put some cute pics of the princess up, and than call it good. I will try and keep up with the posts so they dont have to be sooo long. haha. I love you Monique. Oh and the dresses are beautiful. Im sorry if I seemed a little off when you showed me and when I tried them on.. I just found out some things about my bank account so I was upset. And than with every piece you buy, every invitation you make, it just become more of a reality that your all grown up now, and ready to get married and have a family of your own. And Im so proud of you.

I love you alot.

A Crystal World

Dear Momo,

Well here I am at work (the crystal shop) we dont close for another 30 min and I have finished all my chores, we made sales goal and I made my personal goal, so its a good day at Swarovski. Only real bummer is I have to go to Walgreens tonight to pull grave. I pull grave all this week. Pulling it off isnt so hard really, I just hate working. You know me. All i wanna do is be a stay at home mommy and maybe work occassionally. But such is life I guess.

But I can moan and groan about work all day long but I am grateful for the jobs. Not too much has been happening I mostly slept today cuz I worked all last night. I dont work during the day tomorrow at Swarovski so Im pretty excited about having a few extra hours to my self and the baby in the morning. We got tge picures from the picture shop of the baby they are so cute, mommy has your wallet picture.

Ariella is so cute, when Chris comes home from school shes usually in her swing (cuz Im usually crashed out) and he goes over to her to say hi, she gets a huge grin. Bigger than the picture. She has started to make squeling noises too when she is super excited haha. its pretty cute.

Thats her smile when Chris was talking to her at the store yesterday.

Looking right at you Auntie!!

She hasnt started to crawl yet but shes getting stronger. She doesnt like laying down much anymore she wants to be upright so she can see the world. I took her outside this morning when I got off work to go pay rent and she was so drawn to all the colors of the trees. She kept whipping her head back and forth to try and take everything in. Before you leave, we need to do one of those recordable books for her. Its basically a book that you record yourself reading, and it reads to her in your voice :) Im going to have grandma do one too, shes pretty excited about it.

Well I still want to check out your blog so Im gonna head out. I love you, cant wait to see you tomorrow at church :D

The First Entry woooohoo

Dear Monique,

Well it looks like blogs are all the rage right now! It was funny because I was trying to figure out something to do for you, and the day after I decided hey why not blo my life away online, ta-daa, you texted me with your blog information! Great minds darling, great minds!

I decided to make this blog for you, so that when you get married at the end of the year, you will be able to keep up with whats going on over here with the family, the baby and church among whatever else I can come up with :P I decided to go ahead and start it now, because with me working all the time, and you working and getting wedding plans sorted we barely see each other as it is.

As the first post there wont be much on here, but I will add some more soon and of course pictures of the princess. (The baby, not you ;)

I wanted to also tell you congratulations. It has been (and still is) really rough for me to think of you moving away in just a couple short months. You have always been there for me and my family, and you are one of my closest friends. I just dont know what I am going to do without you.  I love you so much, and although sometimes I might get emotional about you leaving I need you to know that I am BEYOND excited and happy for you. You are going to love marriage Monique, its got its ups and downs as everything in life does, but I have to say it was the best decision I made in my life besides becoming a Christian.

We love you.