About me

I received a message asking me to tell a little more about myself on this blog, so I decided to steal a little survey from a blog that I enjoy reading, Air Force Wife Life. 

 

Getting to Know Me from A-Z

Age: 26
Bedtime: Ususally sometime between 9 and 11. Depending on baby girl and if I'm  too engrossed in a book to sleep.
College: Arizona State - Bachelor's, Grand Canyon University - Master's.
Dogs: Duke the Bloodhound. He's a rescue and a crazy boy, but a total sweetheart.
But my childhood dog, Bailey the Chow, holds a special place in my heart. Just ask Duke. I'm constantly comparing him to Bailey. Poor thing.
Everyday Necessity: Books! And showers. Unless I'm camping...
From: The great state of Arizona
Gold or Silver?: White Gold
Holiday: 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Ice Cream: Something I used to love but never eat these days.
Job Title: Property Claims Adjuster. Mom. Wife.
Karaoke Go-To Song: I don't sing (in public), but my favorite is to hear Curtis sing "Simple Man".  
Live: Florida Panhandle
Movie: Too many to list. I pretty much like everything from chick flicks to Action.
Night or Morning Person?: Both. Or maybe neither?
Outdoors Lover?: You betcha. I spent my childhood 4-wheeling all over AZ and CO. Now that I'm in Florida (and just down the road from the beach), I hope to spend more time outdoors and less time chained to my desk.
Pet Peeves: Poor grammar! Especially the phrase "I seen..." Ugh.
Quirks: OCD. That pretty much covers it.  
Restaurant: My Momma's kitchen! 
Sports: Football, Hockey, Boxing
Teams: I'll always support the AZ Cardinals, but that isn't always easy.
Urban or Rural?: Rural. I love the convenience of the city, but prefer to spend my time and raise my children (well, child) outside the main city.
Vacation: I love to travel. But now that I find myself 2000 miles from home, I'm sure my vacations will be spent in the Grand Canyon State.
Weather: I love the sunshine and heat. Yes, heat. I'm whatcha call a desert rat people. My favorite thing is when it rains in the desert. It rains much more often here in Florida, but it isn't the same. It doesn't smell the same or even feel the same (too cold!). Nothing like the smell of wet dirt in the desert.
Xtra Special Fact About You: Yeesh...I have no idea! I guess I'm not that xtra special!
Yogurt (Fro-yo) Toppings:  Not really my thing.
Zoo Animal: White tigers!

Mommy Woes

I'm starting to feel a little anxious about this next week. I'm looking forward to the extra day off with the fam, but I'm less than thrilled with having to take this happy girl to daycare starting Tuesday morning:

The only reason I've been able to avoid daycare thus far is because cousin Sarah has so graciously been my nanny the past couple of months. Sadly, it's time for her to return to her real life back in Arizona, which means baby girl will be spending her days with a babysitter. I threatened at knifepoint (I was cooking!) offered for Sarah to become a Floridian and stay with us on a semi-permanent basis. I promised the same payment I would make to a babysitter, plus room and board and ample vacation time.

Ah well, I'm sure Tennessee will be just fine with her babysitter. we even did a test run Monday night and left Tennessee with Dana for about an hour and a half, just so they could get to know each other a little. Right about now I'm feeling a little sad that I'm not in a position to be a stay at home mom. Darn student loans... Oh, speaking of student loans, I just paid one off. Hallelujah! Too bad that payment is being replaced by childcare, oh and the newly acquired truck payment that we have to start paying October 1. Sigh.

At least I work from home nowadays. I can't keep Tennessee with me, but at least I don't have to be away from her while I commute almost an hour each way to work and back. If only my other child was of any use as a babysitter:

Yeah, right.

Truthfully, I really like the woman who will be watching Tennessee. She has other little kids around (not too many) for T to become friends with, which will hopefully make it easier for her to share when she becomes a big sister some day. I'm sure that after a few weeks or so T and I will both get used to the idea of being apart for the whole day. Oh, one other upside is that David is working 4 10s, so he'll have Fridays off and be able to keep T home with him.

New Goal: No crying when I drop Tennessee off Tuesday morning...

Also, with renewed sense of craftiness I have decided to learn how to crochet, or knit, or something. Also, buy a sewing maching and USE it. Eventually. I am so out of practice with sewing, that it might be a bit of a painful start. Hopefully not as painful as my return to the glue gun was (see previous post).

But first, I want to finish Tennessee's room, and then set to work on my home office. I would post a pic for you now, but it's so ugly you would cringe. So I think I'll wait until I can do a before and after pic and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the room I spend 40+ hours a week in is no longer ugly! In fact, it's so ugly I think I'll use my 3 day weekend to at least get it painted. That way it has a 3rd day to air out so I don't start talking nonsense to my customers at work.

Crafty

Now that I'm starting to feel settled in our Navarre, Florida home, my crafting instincts have kicked into overdrive. I feel more like nesting now than I ever did while I was pregnant (probable because I knew I would be moving right after I gave birth). Thanks to my newly rediscovered craftiness, I've decided to chronicle all of my crafts here. And since I haven't been posting as much as I initially intended to, I'll start off with a couple different projects. Hope I don't bore you to death!

TENNESSEE'S NURSERY

First up: Painting

I wish I would have taken a picture of the original color on the walls. It was awful! A yucky yellow color that had been painted over a darker color (maybe green?) without any primer. And the paint job was so messy that it was the edges of the ceiling, as well. After spending about 2 minutes in the ugly room, hubby and I set off to Lowes to pick out an appropriate color. We bought primer and got the walls primed:

 

We picked this lovely Valspar Soft Coral in the paint plus primer.

And yes, it took regular primer, and this combo to cover the ugly, ugly color!

 

 

 

CRAFTS

 

 

Project One: Yarn wrapped letters

 

After many hours spent on Pinterest (God bless this site!), I had several ideas for projects to personalize Tennessee's soon to be room. First up, yarn wrapped letters. I ordered cardboard letters from paper-source.com to make the TENNESSEE version of this idea, then I hit my local craft store (emphasis on LOCAL - the nearest Michael's is almost an hour away!) to buy yarn in pretty colors. I also searched my local craft stores for fabric that I liked and found absolutely nothing I felt inspired about. So I got on Amazon.com and ordered a yard of several different gorgeous fabrics - all at much cheaper prices than I could have found locally.  

Because I'm cheap and chose the free shipping, I waited anxiously for my cardboard letters to arrive almost a week after I ordered them. When they finally arrived, I spread out my supplies on my kitchen table (I stand when I eat, anyway) and set to work.

If you attemp this project, here's what you'll need:

Glue gun
Cardboard (or wood) letters
Yarn in colors of your choice
Fabric of your choice cut into strips
Patience
Thick skin

 

Literally

 

Getting Started

 
It takes a little getting used to, since you have to find the right way to wrap your letters so the yarn covers all the weird angles, but you'll get the hang of it. Just make sure you start, stop, and add glue on the back of the letters so the front stays nice and purdy. I ended up cutting short strips of yarn to cover the odd angles then wrapping around to make it all look good. And be sure to add a few dots of glue along the way to keep the yarn nice and tight. I was also careful to wrap the yarn the same way around the letters so all of the "e", "n" and "s" letters matched each other.

 

Letters all wrapped

 

 

Next I set to work on making my flowers. I cut strips of fabric a few inches wide, and just went with the length the fabric was already cut to. I did have to cut some shorter because the fabric was thick and the flowers started getting too big. Here's what I did: I tied a knot in the end of the fabric strip, then twisted and rolled around the knot. I kept twisting and turning, and adding dots of glue often. Once I finished, I made sure to glue the end of the fabric to the back of the flower. Here's the finished product after I glued them on the letters:

 

 

This picture shows a sneak peak of another nursery project,

and check out the pretty peachy pink on the walls!

 

 

Project Two: Shelves

 

I SO wanted to do the front facing bookshelves using Ikea spice racks, alas, there isn't an ikea within hundreds of miles from me. I didn't realize how spoiled I was living in Phoenix with the Ikea 30 minutes away! And guess what, every other spice rack I found was crazy expensive. No thanks. This is a nursery on a BUDGET. So, David and I set off to our trusty Lowes in his brand new (to us) truck and bought a few boards that we had the lumber guy cut to our desired length. We then painted them white, but didn't bother to fill or cover the imperfections. We both like the distressed look, and that's exactly what we got. Originally we intended the shelves to be floating, but that wasn't too practical when we realized the studs in our walls are less than straight. SO we bought the rails to attach them to the wall. Much more sturdy this way.

 

Once we got the shelves up I attached the letters with a little dot of hot glue to keep them from falling off.

 

Project Three: Canvas quotes

 

I drove an hour to go to Michael's because they had a good sale and I hadn't been in the one here yet. When I got there, they were pretty much out of everything I wanted, so I just picked up a pack of stretched canvas and went on my way. I decided to put a couple quotes on the canvas to put on the shelves we built for little miss Tennessee. Here's what I used:

 

Stretched canvas

Sticker letters

Spray primer

Spray paint

Spray sealer

 

First I primed the canvas with white spray primer. I let it dry completely, then wrote out my quote with the stickers. Then I spray painted the whole thing in my desired colors. That easy!! Here's the finished product:

 

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream

 



 

The light reflects off of the yellow really well, so in case you can't read it, it says:

 

Girl (n.)

Sweetness with Attitude

 

 

I placed on the not yet finished shelving unit and added a few stuffed animals for good measure.

Still need to break out all of my children's books to add to the shelves.

 

 

That's all for now, folks.

Oh, MOMMA - will you show these to Dad for me? <3

 

 





First Visitors

David and I have lived in Florida about a month now, and we had our first visitors this past weekend. David's parents, Dave and Betsy, flew in from D.C., while his grandmother (from San Fran) and uncle flew in from New Hampshire. We were all very excited for the Moseleys to officially meet Tennessee, and Tennessee loved every minute of the attention!

Tennessee with Great-Grandma Moseley

and Grandma Moseley

Even Duke got some extra lovin'!

David and I both enjoyed showing everyone around, spending time at the beach and eating some of the local fare. Oddly enough, I prefer my seafood raw to cooked, which is something I suppose I'll have to get over living as close to the ocean as we do now. So far a favorite is Stinky's Fish Camp, whose tag line is "With a name like this, it better be good!". I'm not big on photographing food, but here's mine and David's meals from last night:

 David's fish stew (his grandma ordered the same)

 My catfish meuniere

(I can't wait for my Daddy to come visit so he can eat his fill of seafood, ocean, and of course Tennessee!)

Saying goodbye is always the hardest. Poor Betsy had tears in her eyes saying goodbye to Tennessee yesterday. We all promised to visit more often than we did while living in AZ, and make good use of Skype.

In other news, David is currently looking for a new truck. New to us, anyway. We'll see what happens there.

I should be starting work Wednesday if all goes as planned.

Sarah has decided to stay with us until the end of August, so I'm in the process of securing child care starting the Tuesday following Labor Day. I found someone I'm going to go meet in person this Friday. Her rates are awesome and she seems like a great option. I hope she's a keeper since she's a military spouse herself, and quite close to where we live now.

   



The Big Move

After two years in our home in Surprise, AZ, the time had come to say goodbye. In theory, hubby and I were relatively at ease with our impending move across the country with our baby girl and Bloodhound. Then we got a bit of bad news. As with all things military, our move was not going to go as planned. To make a long story short, the military will generally send in movers to pack and ship all of your belongings when making a military move. The catch is that you have to have your orders before the movers can be scheduled, and hubby was not issued his orders until less than weeks before our move. Which led to the movers not having any openings available to move us before our move date. Enter huge expenses and amazing friends/family!
I had not planned on having to pack my whole house in a matter of days, and could not have done so without Sarah, who spent a great deal of time taking care of little Miss Tennessee while I packed and David worked. Our good friend TSgt. Kelly ran David around (did I mention David's truck died a couple of weekw before we found out we had to move ourselves?!) to buy packing supplies. At this point we developed a new plan: Rent a ginormous moving truck (thanks to Penske for the military discount and great service!) and drive cross country. Sarah and Tennessee would ride with me while Kelly, Duke and David drove the Penske truck.
We managed to do a little sightseeing on the trip, well, at least Sarah, Tennessee and I did. We stopped at the Alamo and made a detour through New Orleans.

We also decided to rent a house, site unseen, so we had a place to drive the truck with everything we owned in it. I was not at all comfortable leaving the truck in hotel parking lots any longer than necessary - not to mention I didn't want to have to pay for hotels any longer than necessary. Yes we will be reimbursed, but it's a lot of cash up front when you're renting 2 hotel rooms a night and paying for fuel for 2 vehicles across the country!

The house has turned out to be pretty perfect. It has a few weird quirks, like the travertine flooring being uneven enough to make chairs and our side table wobble, and we get to hear the guns from the C130s all evening, every evening. It has the 4 bedrooms we really wanted since I will need an office when I start working from home in a couple of weeks. Speaking of work, David got all checked in last week and they gave him a week off to get settled. So his first official day of work is this Wednesday. I'm hoping he likes it since we'll be here at least 3 years. After that, who knows.

We can see the bay from our house, provided you look through our neighbors lot since the uncleared lots have trees too thick to see through. The sound is about 3 miles to the south, and then it's about another mile and a half to open water. The area is very touristy, but right where we live is fairly sleepy.

Duke is getting used to all the new sounds that come with a new neighborhood, and has been very needy since he's still a little unsure of where he is. One thing that has remained the same is how protective he is of Tennessee. He likes to sit in front of her and guard her from whatever harm could possible come. Tennessee is growing (and eating) like crazy! Not to gush too much, but I swear she gets more beautiful every day.

One Month Old!

Taken at 7 days new!

I cannot believe my little girl is already one month old! Well, technically she was a month old yesterday. The last few weeks have been the busiest, most tiring, and most amazing of my life! With her auburn hair and bright blue eyes, I'm absolutely in love with her (and so is everyone else that meets Tennessee).

In the minutes and days after Tennessee was born we studied her little features trying to decide who she got what from. She definitely has my hands and ears - including the odd little holes my Momma and I were both born with. I was so excited to see that Tennessee had them, too! She has big feet and long toes like I do, but I think the shape of her toes are more like her Daddy's. I also think her nose, which I absolutely adore, comes from her Daddy. I've heard people say her overall look looks like me, and others have said she looks like her Dad. I honestly think she has her own look, but it is fun to pick out features that came from each of us.

Tennessee has some of the funniest little habits. She gets unbelievably excited when it comes time to eat, and gets what I call shark eyes when she latches on. David's right, some of her looks are a little scary! She also makes piggy noises, and what I call pterodactyl noises. She also splays her extremely long fingers out and the worst possible times. Like when I'm putting her in her car seat or trying to get her dressed.

She's a very happy baby and only cries when she's wet or hungry. And she's hungry all the time! In fact, I recently had to start supplementing her breast milk diet with formula. I received a bunch of formula samples while I was pregnant, and figured I may as well give them a try. Besides, Tennessee was eating so much I just couldn't keep up! It also makes feeding her in public a lot easier since I have yet to purchase a breast pump. I will eventually, but I keep putting it off since they're so expensive!

Tennessee loves her Grandpa, and always smiles at the sound of his voice. She also loves when he walks around carrying her. As much as she loves her Grandpa, she absolutely adores her Daddy - and already has him wrapped around her little newborn fingers! She never looks so tiny as she does when he holds her. It was pretty amazing to see him celebrate his first Father's Day with his little girl!

Tennessee is probably the strongest baby I have ever known. Since birth she was able to lift her head - and did often. Especially when I lay her on my chest and talk to her. She likes to lift her head to look me in the face when I talk to her. I also learned that if you lay her on her stomach on the bed she will use her legs to push herself across it on her face. As mobile she is, I think she'll be crawling and walking long before I'm ready for her to!

Right now we're trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends here in Arizona since we're set to move to Florida in about two weeks. Time is going by much faster than I would like, but I know it will all be ok once we get there. I wish I were better about taking pictures of Tennessee with everyone here, but I have managed to take a few. This is one of my favorites:

with her Great-Grandpa Allen

None that were as beautiful as the newborn photos my friend Melissa Bailey took of Tennessee when she was just a week old.

And Baby Makes Three

Tennessee Harper Moseley

Born 10:05am on May 17, 2012

7.03 pounds, 19 inches





My sweet little girl came into this world on a Thursday morning. Here's her birth story (minus the icky parts!):

That Tuesday I had a Dr.'s appt and was already dialated to 4cm, even though I had yet to feel any contractions. My OB decided that it would be in my best interest to go ahead and schedule an induction, though they probably wouldn't have to do much since I was already dialating on my own. The plan was for her front office assistant to set up the induction and then give me a call with the instructions. The appointment was made for 3am Thursday morning, so David took Wednesday off of work and spent the day helping me get ready for baby.

Thursday:

I started having contractions Wednesday night, so I didn't get much sleep before we made our way to the hospital. Neither did David, poor guy. We arrived at the hospital a little before 3am, and by 4am we were all checked in and in our birthing suite. The first of many unpleasant things was when the nurse inserted the IV into my arm. She inserted the needle, took several vials of blood, and then started the fluid/Pitocin drip. That combination left me feeling very dizzy and I nearly passed out. Being anemic, I don't take well to losing that much blood! Thankfully, I recovered quickly and was ready to get the show on the road.

I was only given the minimum dose of Pitocin since I was already in natural labor, which I am thankful for. Even so, I was having very strong contractions that got me from 4cm when I first checked in, to 8cm about 2 hours later. While I'm on the subject of contractions, I was surprised to find they felt exactly like my menstrual cramps (which are miserable and always accompanied with nausea), only about twice as strong. I was also very nauseated with each contraction, and once they started coming really close together I had no time to recover from one before feeling the nausea of the next. I told my nurse Amanda and she added Zofran, the anti-nausea medication I had become very familiar with during my pregnancy, in the IV.

A little while later, I decided to get an epidural as I was concerned I would not be able to push with the extreme sciatic nerve pain I was feeling in both hips and legs. David, who had been with me the whole time, decided to go get some breakfast while the nurse anesthetist did the epidural. I was surprised at how well you can feel the needle go straight up. For some reason I figured I'd feel it go in, but not necessarily feel it go up my spine. He had a hard time getting the catheter to lay flat in my back, and asked David to wait outside the room when he came back until it was all ready to go. The nurse anesthetist then explained that he was giving me the smallest dose but that I could up it by pushing the pump he attached to the line. I never did up the dosage, and I'm thankful I didn't since I was still able to feel my lower extremities and move them during the whole labor/delivery, though without pain. The nurses were surprised at how well I could move and feel what was happening. As was I.

About 9am Tanya, my new nurse (Amanda's shift ended at 7am) checked to see how far I had progressed. She determinted that I was fully dialated and ready to go (and also that my baby had a lot of hair!), but she had me hold off a little while longer. During this time she gave me a peanut shaped birthing ball to put between my knees. I laid on my sides with it between my knees for 30 minutes each side, and could feel Tennessee slide further down the birth canal during this time. After the hour had passed, I was ready to push!

Tanya asked if I would mind having an EMT in to witness the birth. I agreed, though I am sorry I cannot remember his name. He stood on my left side, Tanya was on my right with my Dr. at the end of the table. David stood at my head. I pushed through a total of 3 contractions, which only took about 15-20 minutes, before I was holding my little girl. The EMT was great, he was very helpful and encouraged David to watch Tennessee be born, which I don't think he had really planned on doing. He also cut the cord, which he wasn't sure he would do, either. 

Once she was out, Tennessee was placed on my chest and I held her skin to skin for the first hour of her life. I was even able to give her her first feeding, which went surprisingly well. During this time I sent David out to the waiting room to let my parents know everything had gone beautifully, and we were the proud parents of a little girl. I know they were relieved and exhausted, considering they had driven from Tucson that morning to be there for their first grandchild's birth.

I was lucky enough not to have torn or have an episiotomy, but I did have some significant internal bruising. Nothing that wouldn't heal within a few days. It wouldn't have even mattered, since all I cared about was the angel laying on my chest. After about an hour, the nurses took Tennessee to weigh her and get her cleaned up. Once she and I were both presentable, my parents came in and spent a few hours with our family of three.



Later than evening we were moved upstairs to a recovery room. Tennessee stayed with us the whole time, with the exception of nurses taking her from me twice - once to weigh her and the other to do her PKU. I can't even describe how strange (and amazing!) it was to have our family all together that first night. I was lucky enough to only have to spend one night in the hospital, and after a lengthy discharge process we were finally able to take our little girl home Friday afternoon.

I can't thank my Dr. and nurses enough. All the staff at Del E. Webb Hospital were amazing.  Especially Tanya. She will forever hold a special place in my heart as the woman who helped me give birth to my first child. I only wish I had a photo of her with Tennessee to remember her by.

What I learned:

1. The mesh underwear they give you in the hospital is amazing. Ugly, but amazing.

2. As messy as birth is, it truly is a beautiful process.

3. Through all of the pain and discomfort, remember it won't last long and the reward is SO worth it.

4. You will never be more comfortable with your body than after giving birth. Yes, you're way overweight, but it was for a reason.

5. Be nice to your nurses - they deal with a lot in the process of helping you give birth, and even more in the few hours that follow.