the latest happenings...

Holidays are coming and going so quickly if you blink you'll miss them! Troah is growing so quickly and I'm loving every minute of it! I have recently started school again online with the University of Phoenix so during the day when I'm working on school or cleaning the house I'll leave his bedroom door open upstairs and he will go up there and sit in his room to play and read books by himself, it's so cute!! Sometimes I'll even hear him reading to himself ("da da gooobbog dada").

Troah's best friend is Rodie, our mini schnauzer, who will chase Troah (giggling like crazy) and try and get his toys from him, they are so cute!! Rodie and Troah's favorite toy to play with together is a green webkinz caterpillar that Carolynn left here for them to play with.

That's enough for now, I'll post more later!

Straw!!

We're sitting here at the table and Troah has figured out the straw!! Daddy loves Hi-C and is excited to share it with his little buddy!!

In Alaska...

Alright, I've been as bad about posting as I was about writing in Troah's journal :S But we are now in alaska with daddy! Troah and Daddy are two peas in a pod, Troah acts like they have always been together and most of the time he is reaching for Ernest instead of me, oh well! He is walking all over the place (from the front door to the kitchen sink and back...and forth and back and forth and back and forth) So far is vocab consists of "Dad" "Uh Oh" "Mmm Mmm Mmm" (when we eat food). He likes to yell and whisper (especially at Daddy) and he started blowing on his food when he saw me doing it one day. He is so adorable and has everyone wrapped around his finger, now time for me to go to sleep!!

Oh, he also has a favorite ball which also happens to be Rodie's favorite ball, blue bouncy ball with different colors all over it, and Troah started picking it up and walking then throwing it for Rodie (he started this today!) Then I have to chase Rodie down to get it back for Troah, but they love it!!

Banners!

I'm in Alaska now with Carolynn, Abby, the dogs and Troah! We made banners for the guys last night and hung them on the balcony and tonight they leave FOB Normandy to begin the journey back! Can't wait for them to be home and I miss you family!

National Exam (for my massage license)

So I forgot to mention that in order to take the national exam to get my license it takes a good 2-3 weeks to process the paperwork. Since I was trying to take it ASAP (Act Swiftly Awesome Pacaderm of course) I got a hold of the right people and was able to pull some strings and I should get an e-mail in the next 2 days with directions on making the appointment! I should be able to take the exam next week. The testing center is in Helena so I'm also looking for a driving buddy. I have been studying a good amount today and took a practice exam online yesterday. I'm feeling pretty confident and will continue to study my butt off and pack all weekend! Yay! Next step: MOVE TO ALASKA!

To wax, or not to wax?

So today I got my legs (just the lower half) waxed with my friend and classmate, Jaime. I'll sum it up in one word. PAINFUL. Obviously we were expecting that though. I've learned that I have big hair follicles and I'm starting to believe that big follicle girls like me are going to have a hard time with hair removal that ends up looking good. My legs are still red and "spotty" after 9 hours. Jaime on the other hand has beautiful hair follicles and her legs weren't red by the time mine were done. Oh well, now I know! On to find something else that might work...

Drip....drip....drip...

This morning when I got Troah up and got his bottle we were sitting in bed and he just wanted to mess around instead of eat, so I held the bottle upside down about 6 inches above him and he stared at it with big eyes and a growing smile as he held his mouth open wide and caught every drip till he couldn't help giggling, it was hilarious! So cute!

Surprise!

Alright, so the plan was for Ernest to leave Iraq Sept 8, get back sometime in the following week, have me go up and have some "alone time" in Anchorage, come back and get Troah and go up whenever Ernest has the house ready. Well, I've thought about it and talked to Carolynn (our friend who will be staying with us who knows Ernest fairly well) and I decided I'm going to go to Alaska early and surprise Ernest! I'll be leaving Sept 4 and hopefully have everything shipped up there that needs to be. I already have my plane ticket and I'm waiting on getting the crates for the dogs. I'm so excited to be back in Fairbanks (even though it's about 60F right now) and to surprise my husband! It will be so nice to be a family again!

Wanna be a cow girl baby!

So as of last night I am an official cowgirl! My friend, Lori, picked me up so we could go ride her horses and when we got to the ranch her dad asked if we'd go along to help wrangle some cattle! So we all drove over to where the cattle were staying and herded them into a corner then picked out 6, 3 cows, 2 calves and a steer. It was awesome! After that Lori and I rode up a little trail nearby then had peach pie and ice cream! It was a great night and now I can say I'm a cowgirl!

Scrapbooking

Alright, so I've mentioned before (in "about me") that a new addiction of mine is scrapbooking (pretty safe I'd say) and I made a couple new pages tonight while we watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" Gave us some pretty good laughs! Anywho, I wanted to share some of the pages I've made so far, hope you like them!

My Boys! "Having a baby is like falling in love again, Both with your husband and your child"

-Tina Brown

left page: Troah's birth inforight page: "Breathtaking" "Captivating" "Live Laugh Love"

I'm falling asleep right at my compture, I'll post tbe rest tomorrow!

Crazy Boy!

This is a video of Troah sitting in his high chair being HILARIOUS! I have kind of a strange shrill laugh in the background so just ignore that ;) Enjoy!

Myofascial Release!

Today at school we learned Myofascial release (release of the fascia that is basically a sheet over all your muscles) and it was awesome! I was a demo for half of it, the more in depth half, and Karen (the TA who was demonstrating) definitely got a lot of amazing release on the left side of my upper body which has been SUPER tight because I always hold Troah on the right side. It was great! Thanks Karen!

Troah

This is an update on my sweet baby boy, Troah Miguel! I'm going to start out with his newest accomplishments because if I try to get up to date I'll probably never get there and always be behind :S So here we go... Troah is 9 months old as of July 24, so today he is exactly 9 months, 1 week and 6 days :) I can't believe how fast he is growing!! His first tooth just cut through today! It has been on the verge for a few days but it's finally here! I keep trying to get a good look at it but he sticks his tongue out whenever I try to pull his lip out of the way. I can sure feel it though, especially when he gives me "kisses" and sucks on my chin, now I'm getting more of a bite! My little baby vampire...:p just kidding.

Here is a list of the things he has been doing that is cute:

• When he wakes up in the morning he'll scratch the mesh on the side of his crib until I sit up then I'll see him sitting there staring at me waiting, and when he see's me he gets a huge grin and reaches for me then cuddles in bed with me.
• His favorite toy is a little tunnel that Ernest got him and he'll crawl underneath it and sit there and play for a while! He has taken to grabbing the sides of it and rocking it back and forth till it tips over.
• He says "mamamama" when he's upset "dadadada" when he's happy and "nananana" (like banana's) when he's hungry.
• When he's sitting on my lap he'll grab my hands and slide off dragging me with him so I help him walk (and run) around the house.
• He likes to talk, he'll go "uh....uh.....uhhhhhh" all day long, and usually he gets louder and louder!

That's all I'm writing for now, but I'll keep up with all the cute stuff he's doing!

My 21st Birthday!

Hi everyone! Today is my 21 birthday! It didn't start out so well, as my mother can atest to (sorry mom), but it turned out GREAT!! The girls in my massage class baked me a wonderful double layered chocolate cake (thanks jaime!) and bought my chocolate treats and dr pepper jelly bellys and a chocolate masque I'm wearing right now (thanks char!) and got me a balloon and party table decorator (thanks all!). It was so sweet of them all and completely unexpected by me! I was told to meet with Lea at the front desk about my scheduling for clinic and chatted with her and Joe for a few minutes just to go back and find my spot all decked out and everyone singing happy birthday! What a wonderful beginning! I will say that Ernest was the first to wish me a happy birthday the day before, but so many people were saying it the night before in hopes of being the firsts! Thank you everyone! After a wonderful day at school I got a massage from one of my good friends (and Swedish Massage teacher) Erin, it was a wonderful 90 minute blissful time for me! Thank you so much Erin! After my amazing massage I came home (singing "I'm so pretty! Oh so pretty! So pretty and witty and gay!" the whole way home) and was greeted by my beautiful son in his high chair, leaning to the side so he could see me walk in the door then get a huge grin on his face when he saw me. Thank you Troah for always greeting me with a smile and giving me loves! Then my wonderful family all wished me a happy birthday and my gorgeous mother was making me a delicious dinner of Lemon Chicken Tacos. While Mom was cooking my wonderful, kind, sweet and loving husband drank 2 energy drinks so he could stay up late enough (his time) to call me when I would be home and wish me a happy birthday and talk about little things and just be able to hear each others voices, thank you my love, you are the best husband I could ask for and I can't wait for you to come home next month! After talking to Ernest we ate our yummy dinner to be followed by another chocolate cake (cowGIRL cake according to Kinsey) and ice cream. Oma and Grandpa Dick and Grandma Nancy were all there to join the fun as well and we played a game call RLC (a dice game) afterwards. Oma gave me some yummy bath soap and pretty pink/gold/silver earrings and I got a beautiful card from Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you all for everything! After the cake and game the grandparents all headed out and mom, kinsey, jacob and I played catchphrase, it was exciting, exhausting and hilarious! (Yes, Jacob, it's munch loney, not lunch money!) Thank you all who were involved in my birthday, it was wonderful! Also, thank you to Lelsy for the "love" bracelet and pina colada glass (we'll have to have pina colada's and a girls night!) and thank you to Vicki, Dewey, Presley and Jeremiah for the shirt and scarf thingy, they are beautiful colors and I love the styles!

I love you all and I'm so grateful to have you be a part of this wonderful day! Who says you need to drink and party to have the best 21st birthday? Thank you again!