So, I Think I'm Back....

I left this little blog pretty abruptly more than 6 months ago and want to apologize to those of you who missed my random postings (hi, Mom!).  In all honesty though, I did have several people, both family members and other bloggers ask me if I was ever going to start blogging again.  My answer, even until a few days ago was always, no, and I couldn't really explain why.

I just think I wasn't ready to get back into the heavy-duty commitment that I felt blogging had become to me.  Yes, I felt like it was something additional amongst my list of 9,000,000 things I had to do everyday.  That isn't how it started for me, and I knew that until I didn't feel that way anymore I couldn't come back here and start blogging again.

Part of my absence is due to the fact that, for me, blogging was mostly about the community, as opposed to the actual writing.  A few months before I stopped writing I got to a point that I felt like I couldn't spend as much time in real life actually doing things as I wanted to because I needed to blog about everything.  Funny how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess that lots of things have happened since I left you all 7 months ago.  Lots of things are the same as well.  We still live here.  Hubby started a new job which I will never, ever talk about on here.  Many of my friends have moved away, but many new friends have moved here as well.  We're still cloth diapering AJ, with every intention of potty training, like, yesterday.

And AJ, oh, AJ.  If I could even describe to you all the pain, joy, sadness, euphoria, frustration, love, anger and every other mix of emotions that she goes through every single day.  Oh, to be 2.5 again.

She is talking, and knows what she wants.  She has started recently picking up on phrases that we use, like "Mom, I'm having trouble with this," or "yuck, that's disgusting!"  Haha.

AbbyDog is still hanging out.  I think she really likes it when we leave her and go away for the weekend, though.  We have our neighbors come by and let her out and feed her and stuff, but for the most part she just gets to sleep, uninterrupted, for the entire weekend.  Come to think of it, that sounds fantastic, where do I sign up?  She always seems much happier to see us on Sunday after we take the little terrorist out of the house for a while.  ;)

We've gone on a few quick trips, one up to Baltimore, MD to see some of my family and another down to Myrtle Beach, SC for an Army-sponsored marriage retreat on the beach.  Um, more beach, less marriage retreat, please.  But hey, the hotel was beautiful, the food was free (and yummy), and the whole thing was free, and that is all that counts, right?

So there you have it folks.  I glossed over a bunch of stuff I'm not really ready to share on here yet, but I wanted to update you on where we stand.

As far as blogging daily again, well, I can't necessarily promise that, but I am going to try and get on here with some regularity and keep you all up to date on my life.

Bloggy BFF Meet-Up!

I didn't really mention it before, but AJ and I are on a little road-trip of sorts. Its the same one we make about every six months or so, we drive from our house to my Aunt and Uncle's house, stay a few days, see all my grandparents and relatives and then drive the rest of the way on to my parent's house. We're going to be in Hometown, USA for about a week before we head back to our house to welcome the man home from the field.

Well, last time I was here I took AJ out for Skyline Chili and ice cream at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams as a Mama-baby date. This time we had an extra person on our date with us. My bloggy BFF, Moe, is back in town and she met up with us for a late lunch and ice cream yesterday! We had tons of fun, we chatted, we laughed, we wrangled AJ, we shared food!

We were both laughing because we told our significant others that we were going to meet a relative stranger and neither of them really seemed all that concerned for our safety. ;) We both said we were glad that we aren't axe murderers or something!

The three of us at Jeni's.

It was so much fun to finally meet Moe in real life, and I hope that I get another chance to come through town again so we can expand past Skyline Chili!

After eating ice cream (in the dead of winter, mind you) I realized that we were close to the neighborhood and house I lived in as a little girl (from ages 3-5) so I drove past it and took a picture of it for my parents to see. I was lucky that there was a For Sale sign in the front yard, otherwise I would have felt like a huge creep!

My old house. I promise there is a "For Sale" sign just to the left of the picture. ;)

I also have AbbyDog with me on this trip, and she has been making herself feel right at home at my Aunt and Uncle's house. So much so, that my Uncle had her doing tricks last night for a little snack before dinner.

AbbyDog doing tricks.

Abby, right at home. Jumped up and sat at the kitchen table before dinner.

We have another day here before we hit the road again. Tomorrow we are going to see my mom's parents and a cousin of mine who still lives in this area. It should be interesting.

Don't You Just Hate That?

Right after I promise that I'm going to get back to my regularly scheduled blogging I go ahead and think I scheduled a post for today, when in reality, I did not. For that, friends, I apologize. With that being said, let's get back to it, shall we?

We have had an exciting few days around here. I'll start with Thursday.

We've been in our house for a year now and since it was new when we bought it, we had a 1-year manufacturers' warranty that was getting ready to expire. We had walked through the house and compiled a master list that we emailed to the warranty people back in December. Thursday the first group of sub-contractors came to start fixing the things that needed to be fixed.

We had some drywall issues since our house was built in the winter. The spackle they used to mud the drywall in some areas of the house apparently wasn't able to dry completely, so we had lots of nail pops and the tape and edging on the corners were peeling a little bit. It was nothing that few extra nails and some hammer strokes couldn't fix, so they plastered it all up again and left it to dry.

On Friday Hubby came home from work (early, yay!) and mentioned that the Natural Sciences Museum in Raleigh has an exhibit on Genghis Khan (only through Jan 22) and he wanted to see it. We decided to head North the next day to check the museum out and see the exhibit. See, hubby took Mandarin for six months and is currently enrolled in an Asian culture class, so this exhibit was of particular interest to him.

D and AJ in front of a giant praying mantis at the museum.

After the museum we went across the quad to a little grill and got some lunch. We rarely go out to eat, especially somewhere that you sit down, so this was a little treat for all of us. It was a casual place that had a 50's vibe.

AJ at lunch.

The rest of the weekend we just hung around the house mostly and were lazy.

The first decent picture I've gotten of AJ in a long while.

She found some sunglasses from when she was a baby that she has been wearing around the house for the past few days. She always wants one of us to wear our sunglasses with her when she's wearing them. As soon as we get them on she holds her hand up and says, "Walk!" So we walk around the house wearing sunglasses together.

Wearing sunglasses with Daddy!

Once the weekend was over I was thrust into the life of the stranded home-bound SAHM because we had the painters come to finish painting all the drywall work the guys did last week. We also had them replace the door frame on AJ's bedroom door because there was a huge crack that they just tried to plaster and paint over. I'm sure you can guess how that worked out. Ha!

We were supposed to get our back door replaced on Monday as well because it wasn't installed properly the first time and we had a bunch of water damage to the door frame and the kitchen cabinets next to the door. Well, the door couldn't be put in yesterday because it was raining, so we had to wait until today, but its all finished now except the frame needs to be painted once the putty dries. We're having the damaged parts of the cabinets replaced later this week now that the door is fixed.

Its been kind of a pain to have to be home all the time waiting for them to come and fix stuff, but at least I know that there won't be any issues with things if we have to put the house on the market in the next few months. I guess there are perks to buying new construction aside from having a brand new house!

So that's it. That is what I've been up to the past few days. I'm currently sitting around, watching Teen Mom 2 from last week on the DVR while AJ naps and I wait for someone to come back and paint the door frame. After that we just have to get someone here to caulk the shower heads and some of the trim.

Also, D has a 4-day week this week and again next week, so I'm definitely looking forward to the 4-day weekend this weekend. I feel like there are certain months that he gets a lot of time off and then other months when we go weeks without any time off.

Unintentional

I have had a lot going on the past week or so. If you follow me on here or Twitter, you've probably noticed that I've been suspiciously MIA. There are a few reasons for this and its not something I want to share on my blog.

I just wanted to update everyone and let you know that I'm okay, but I probably will be taking another unintentional break from blogging for a while. I don't know how long it will last. I'm not sure if I'll ever share on here what is going on, but I didn't want to just drop off the face of the blogosphere and worry you all!

I hope everyone has a happy and relaxing Thanksgiving and that you enjoy your time off this week.

10 Things I Love

I'm feeling particularly lovey this morning. Mostly because I'm up, showered, drinking coffee, the dogs are fed, the sun is shining and AJ is still sleeping! There is nothing more glorious than a 70* sunny morning and some quiet (unless you count the sound of three dogs pacing the room) alone time. I figured now was as good a time as any to come up with my 10 things, so here we go!

10 Things I love

The rules are as follows:

1.- State who tagged you.
Lydia over at WithLoveLydia

2.- State 10 things you love
1. D
2. AJ
3. Lavender body wash
4. Dr. Pepper Coffee.
5. All my new friends here!
6. My parent's place in FL.
7. My siblings (and my parents too, I guess! ;)
8. Laundry that folds itself and then promptly puts itself away. That doesn't exist? Boo.
9. A GREAT song randomly coming on the radio!
10. My friends from college (they rock!).

3.- Tag ten friends at the end of the post and notify them through a comment.

I'm not going to tag people because I linked more than 10 people yesterday through my New Blogs! post, so if you want to share 10 things you love, feel free to come back here and let me know that you participated!

New Blogs!

Lately I've stumbled across some new blogs that have sucked me in! Some I found on my own, some were linked on other blogs that I love to read. How I came across these new bloggy friends is irrelevant. What's important is that you go check them out!

My Heart's Desire

Athena in the Middle

Poodleism

Across the Branch

Living in the Moment

The Glamorous Life of a Housewife

Footy Pajamas

A Day in the Life of 5

Canines and Cadences

I Love You More Than Carrots

Ni Hao Y'all

Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss

No Model Lady

We Took the Road Less Traveled

Wookie & Co.

{ An Expeditionary Family }

Do you have any new blogs that you discovered recently? Maybe you're a follower of mine and I don't follow you back. If this is the case, let me know by posting a link to your blog (or another awesome blog that I should know about) in the comments or emailing me at beth {dot} thisamericanwife {at} gmail {dot} com, I'll come check you out!