PHEW! Been a LONG week!

Operation: CountDown to Daddy


Catch-up Post (again):

We are almost at the three week mark! It has been tough and I know to the rest of this year, this time would have been a cake walk. Daddy will be home in 12 days!!! YAY! SO excited!

Goings-On:

Matthew and I had a busy week. Will try to break it down by day....


Tuesday:







We bought Matthew a sandbox last weekend. We have been playing with it EVERY day since. He loves putting water in it...makes me think he would have been more happy with a water play table.

This was also our first day with a new babysitter. We have a neighbor girl who is in high school and I figured it would not hurt to ask her if she wanted to babysit. I had a ladies coffee to go to for my husband's work, so it was a perfect time to see. She is AWESOME with Matthew. I am SO OVERJOYED that she worked out well (we have had NIGHTMARES with part-time babysitters...don't get me started). I like to have on-call sitters to come watch him instead of asking our daycare provider. She sees him ALL week long and I wouldn't want to overload her after hours. Having the sitter come again Saturday evening so I can go get my hair highlight and recharge the Mommy batteries.


Wednesday:

SLOW day. I have been needing to work on my second round layout over at The Scrapbook Site and Wednesday was a perfect day...or so I thought. Had the whole thing sketched out and could NOT, for the life of me, make it work in my favor. HATED it when I went to bed on Wednesday. Walked away when it was about 75% done and just called it a night. Even told dh on the phone that I may just stop the contest because it was stressing me out. He told me to "sleep on it" (as Janneke would say to me too) and look at it again in the morning. Sure enough, sleep helped. Finished the embellies Thursday morning and uploaded before I could tear it apart.

Make sure to register for their forums! The link is in my post below. Round One voting ends today! Here is my second round layout's link:


Never Met a Stranger...


Cannot post the layout on here yet due to contest rules so make sure you register and check it out!

Thursday:

Did BK for dinner (SO WW-friendly ). Then walked again at the track near our house. I feel like I have been working out and watching what I eat and yet the lb's just don't want to budge! VERY irritating but it is also making me work harder. Wonder if its year 28 rounding the corner that is making it so hard...

Friday:

Came home from work to find some scrap goodies waiting for me on our doorstep! YAY! Energized me so much! Loaded up Matthew into the Nitro and off we went to find the on-post pool. Felt SOOOO good to swim again. I LOVE the water. And my little guy does too! TOTAL fish AND a total flirt. Gonna have to watch him as he gets older...


Saturday!!!:

The day I have been looking forward to ALL week! Planned on taking Matthew to see his VERY FIRST movie in a theater! He did AMAZING! I am so completely proud of our little man! We went to see...

WALL-E

When we first arrived in the theater, there was no one in there. So guess what Mommy did...you got it! She took pictures!

PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!

So that wraps up the week for now. Sitter will be over around 6 pm to watch Matthew and my hair appt is at 6:30. SO looking forward to being pampered. Will post before and after photos when I get home tonight. Maybe I will go daring...


Love you all and miss you so much babe!

-Brianne (&Matthew)

Another Catch Up!

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Days 12, 13, 14 & 15

Ugh, I feel like a bad blogger and a bad wife for not posting every day, but this child does not give me enough hours in the day!

Mental note, do not have another "free" weekend until Rich gets home!!! He drove me absolutely BONKERS! I was pulling my hair out Sunday night....work today was a blessing! I know its just the age and daddy being gone, but holy cow. If I had known it was this much work before, I may have rethought the wild nights ;)

Scrapbook Contest at TheScrapbookSite.com

Round One Layout:

I really do love the way this turned out. I could not get any patterned paper to work for me, so I ended up using all cardstock! Crazy huh? Make sure to check it out! http://www.thescrapbooksite.com/

Round two is now open and this round is a little harder for me. The layout MUST be a layout about only you and contain the following:

-Three patterned papers from KI Memories

-Pictures of you (ONLY you, no others)

-Journaling about you, written by you (no quotes or poems)

I have the pic, the topic, and now I am just trying to decide on the paper line :)

New Layouts/work:

OK off to bed early tonight. Need some quality sleep. Will post more pictures tomorrow!!

-Brianne (&Matthew)

Catching Up!

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Days 8, 9, 10, & 11

Days without Daddy seem SO long. This week has gone by a lot faster than last week. Each minute was dragging on last week. Matthew and I have pretty much had the same schedule every day.

6:30 am – Wake Up
7:30 am – Out the door to daycare/work
5:30 pm – Get home (dinner)
7:30 pm – Bath time, teeth brushing, book, and bed (for Matthew)
8:00 pm – Mommy quiet time (scrapping, reading, cleaning, etc…)
11:00 pm – Bedtime

It keeps things really easy and the time flies this way. The only thing that really stinks is the weekends. Too much free time.

Matthew got to go to the big daycare for two days this week due to our provider’s daughter having surgery. He was SOOOO excited to be going to the “big boy school”. It was so cute to see him practically dragging me down the hallway to his classroom. It really makes me realize that he is almost ready for school. Its sad in a way but at the same time, I am so excited for him.

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Contest at TheScrapbookSite.com

On Tuesday, Diana talked me into entering another 6 week long contest. I wasn’t really looking for any more obligations at this point, but I figured it would give me a reason to scrap every night and meet new scrapper friends. TheScrapbookSite.com is actually a GREAT site! I am SO happy that I found another possible site to draw in some new talent for the magazine!

The voting starts this weekend (Sunday) and will run for a week at a time. (Watch your emails for a little note from me!) The rules state that we cannot post our layouts until the week after, but we can link back to their gallery. You can check out my week one layout here:

http://www.thescrapbooksite.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=19766&limit=recent

Rich told me that you cannot view this until you register, so go ahead and register at the link below which will also save you some time in getting ready to vote on Sunday! (hint, hint)

Register here:

http://www.thescrapbooksite.com/forums/index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00

Check it out soon!!!

Matthew and his trucks

This boy LOVES his trucks. We played outside for a little over an hour with his trucks in my unused flower bed. I practically had to drag him inside. They made for the CUTEST layout (hint hint again!).

Scrap Room Fix-up Project

I am in the process of cleaning up our office/scrap room. We have moved boxes THREE times now to THREE different states and its about time we went through everything and PURGED. SO this is my major project while Rich is gone.

OK that is it for me today. Hope everyone is doing well!!! OH OH OH and family, I am really trying to return phone calls. I am not avoiding you, there are just not enough hours in the day. I will call everyone back by this weekend. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Happy Father's Day! (Day Seven)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! (Day Seven)

We miss our daddy so much here at the Nevill household. It has now been a full week away and I am feeling the distance.

In other news, I finished my articles for the July issue of Scrapstreet and I really like them. I was lucky enough to have the priviledge to interview another great challenge site and those girls are just awe-inspiring. Make sure you check it out July 1st at http://www.scrapstreet.com/!!

I am also in the process of totally organizing our office/scrap room. Should be an interesting project. We have so much stuff that we have brough from every duty station we have been at that is has become suffocating in here. No more. I am letting go of the packrat mentality and pushing foward. Need some room to create and live.

No pictures today, Daddy. Matthew did not feel like posing so we are taking a day off and will get you some tomorrow.

Here are a few recent layouts that I love (all three published in the June issue of SS):

Ok, tired here in OK and Army Wives will be starting in a few.

Love you, miss you!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Day(s) Four, Five, and Six! (Daddy's Birthday!!!!)

Day(s) Four, Five and Six!!

Absolutely nothing exciting to report, other than terrible two's in full swing. A little boy, who will remain nameless, has been experiencing fits of giggles at running away from me in public places. This has become somewhat troublesome to me and my patience with said child. One day at a time, right?


Also, Daddy's 35th Birthday (Day Five)! Stinks being away from him but we love you just the same baby! We hope you are having a GRRRRRREAT day at school and we miss you so much.

Day Six brought us EXTREMELY hot weather and due to the shine on my face their will be no picture documenting this day LOL! We went to a BBQ at my bosses house. Nice to get out and be around other people socially. Was just a quiet afternoon at home for Matthew and I after that. Sun wore us out.

We love you and are thinking of you Daddy! Stay safe and be strong!

Love you!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Day Three

Day Three


Someone once told me that God fuzzies women's brains after they have their first child so that they will not remember any bad of the experience and they will want to have more children after. Do you think thats true? Matthew is 2.5 and I still remember EVERY bad moment of my pregnancy and delivery with him and it makes me dread being pregnant again. I SO want another baby, but I just don't want to go through pregnancy again

So Day Three has come and gone. Leaving me with a few things of concern on my mind.

1. Matthew misses daddy. A lot. So much so that he is starting to act out at daycare and at home. I know a lot of kids do this when daddy goes away for a while but I was SO hoping that Matthew would not go through this.

2. Had to hire someone to mow our lawn because I could not figure out how to start the lawnmower and weedeater. Also, two lightbulbs have gone dead and the dishwasher is making funny noises. Why does all this happen when the hubby goes away?! I think they feel the lack of testosterone in the house.

Ok need to go finish a diaper cake and card for a shower on Friday.

Here you go baby!

Day Three:

We love you daddy! Missing you and thinking of you all the time!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Day Two

So we made it through another day. Good right? So why did a Tuesday have the Monday's written all over it. People were OUT to give me a hard time today at work.

Got some scrapping done over the weekend, cannot wait to show them here. I LOVE one of the layouts I came up with. Going to push myself again this weekend to scrap a few more.

Grocery shopping is coming up this Saturday with Matthew. I have not had to do that by myself with him for MONTHS. Normally he stays home with Rich while I shop and then we all put the groceries away when I get home. This should be interesting.

We have a bbq to go to on Saturday at my boss's house so that will tie up a few hours on our first weekend alone.

Day two. PHEW. Let's review.

Here you go baby! I will keep them coming!

Day Two:

We love you so much! And miss you like crazy!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Missing Daddy

Well it is officially the end of day one without Daddy here. It's been rough. Being at work most of the day helped, but it still just isn't the same coming home and not being able to get a big hug and kiss.

Here you go, Daddy, we miss you!!

Day One:

They are fuzzy because Mojo kept jumping on the camera strap LOL!

We love you babe! Keep your smile and stay focused!

-Brianne (& Matthew)

Bumming

Well its 6 days and counting until Rich leaves for 30 days. I honestly don't know what I will do without him. Don't get me wrong, we have our tough moments, but he is my rock. Whenever I have an issue and get too worked up over it, he is the one that brings me down and makes me see reality. I know that he will be able to do that over the phone, but its just not the same. Gonna be a tearfest this weekend.

Ok, really need to try to focus on layouts before my dh leaves with my mojo.

-B