Nursery Ideas

In three weeks I will be done working for awhile! My awesome husband has encouraged and supported my decision to be a stay at home mom while our children are young. Since it will be awhile until the baby arrives, I have started to find some diy projects to work on before the baby comes and to keep me busy/sane all summer long. Here are some of the projects that I have found so far that I would love to create with all my spare time:

#1 Animal Silhoutte Paintings

I really want to make three animal silhoutte paintings just like these, but paint them girl colors. I only wish I had my sister’s artistic ability to draw the animals. Hopefully I will be able to find a way to trace them since drawing isn’t exactly my forte…

#2 Elephant Punch Collage

This craft looks a little more like something I could handle, considering no artistic skills are required. I just need to go buy a shadowbox, an animal punch, paper, foam squares and glue!

#3 Button Letters

Again I like this craft because it is something simple and definitely something I could handle We aren’t telling people the baby’s name but I will give you a hint that ours would be the letter “A”!

 

 

Still here

Life quickly has gotten busy since my last post. Here are some of the things you may have missed:

Over the summer I got a part time job working for the Jackie Robinson YMCA tutoring before and after school. It has been a eye opening experience and really great to interact with a different type of student than Maine has to offer. I have really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the kids and will miss them next year. However, I am very glad that there are only three weeks left until it is over

In December my dad, mom and brother came to visit for two weeks from Maine! It was a blast having them around for Christmas and at a time when Ben was so busy at the hospital. The two weeks included a trip to the zoo, Museum of Man, La Jolla Cove, Coronado Beach, multiple trips to Fred’s for $2 tacos, Seaworld and much more! Can’t wait until they come visit again

For our second week of leave, Ben and I went to Costa Rica for a little less than a week. The weather was amazing and for the first time ever I went swimming in the Pacific Ocean! While there we saw lots of interesting creatures such as howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, iguanas and lots of cool birds. We stayed at our third all inclusive hotel, but wish we had been a little more adventurous and tried traveling and staying at a bunch of places within the country. There is always next time!

In February we found out that we are going to be parents and just this week found out we will be having a little girl this October! I am super excited, anxious and nervous all at the same time. Hopefully child birth will be a lot less painful then I am expecting (ya right!). Right now she is 12 ounces big and there is a strong possibility she and I will share the same birthday

For a week and a half, I was able to go back to Maine (Ben unfortunately was stuck working nights the entire time I was gone). It was great to be able to see my sister and her family whom have not yet been able to come out to visit. I have a feeling that their new niece/cousin will lure them out here next year.

Lastly, at the end of April I decided we needed to find a new place to live. I love our current apartment, but with the addition of a baby I figured we needed to find a cheaper place that had a washer and dryer. After a couple days of searching I was able to find us a 2 bedroom townhouse that is almost just as big as our current place (bonus we won’t have any downstairs neighbors to yell at us when we work out), it has a w/d and it is way cheaper! The only part that sucks is all of the packing and heavy lifting we (really just Ben) will have to do. We will officially be moved in June 2nd.

 

 

 

Our new “neighbor”

You may be wondering what you are looking at and why I would post this. Let me explain. For a week now I’ve been hearing something moving in the bushes outside of our screened in porch area. I didn’t think too much of it and just assumed it was an animal. Then one morning I heard one of my neighbors yelling at someone to find a new place to sleep and that next time she saw him she would call the cops. So this morning I decided to take pictures of evidence of our new “neighbor”.

Good morning sleepyhead!

Leaving for the day. See you tonight homeless man!

Training at the zoo

Before coming out to San Diego, I got some valuable advice from my friend Val who had moved out to Colorado awhile ago. She told me to get a volunteer position lined up before I moved because it might be awhile until I find a job (so true!). I decided to volunteer at the San Diego zoo and just started and finished my mentoring sessions.

My first mentoring session was on Sunday and consisted of walking around the zoo 9:30am to 2pm! My mentor, Charlene, showed me around the zoo and pointed out locations of some of the important spots (bathrooms, skyfari, bus stops, etc). She also took me around and impressed me with her knowledge of a lot of the animal’s names and little tidbits about them! By the end of the session my feet were killing me, but I still had enough energy to meet Ben in the zoo and go see some of our favorite animals. Personally I think the Polar Bears are the coolest!

My second mentoring session was on Monday and again was from 9:30am to 2pm. This time instead of just walking around, my mentor Ruth and I actually helped people get where they wanted to in Panda Canyon. I didn’t think it would be so hard to describe where different animals were, but there were quite a few times I was at a loss for words. After breaking for lunch we went back at it, but this time went to an area called Lost Forest, which is aptly named. I have now walked through that area five times and still continue to get lost. Lets just say it will be awhile before I will volunteer in that area! At the end of this mentor session I was given my id card and am now able to volunteer on my own whenever I want! Finally I will have something to do with all of my time off.

Fourth of July

Ben had to work Sunday night 5pm to 7am Monday morning. Being the nice wife that I am , I picked Ben up early in the morning and we went out to breakfast before letting Ben sleep for the rest of the morning. A little before noon time, I woke him up and we made our way over to Breakers Beach. I take back what I said before about it not being packed, it was full of people with tents or umbrellas enjoying the holiday swimming and bbqing on the beach. We looked unprepared compared to these people, with our just bought cold lunch, blanket and two towels. We ate, took some quick “dips” in the cold water and then I took a nap. Around three I woke up and we went back in the water before I decided I had to get out of the sun.

Not wanting to fight through the traffic on Coronado to go home, we went to the bowling alley on base and paid $9.00 for two games and shoe rentals! Perk number two of the Navy life. This is about what time I first noticed a pink tint to my skin and was glad that we had left before I had turned red. Ben kicked my butt the first game and beat me only by a point the second game. This can be attributed to the fact that Ben was taking it easy on me because my competitive anger was starting to show.

Even after bowling a couple games, it was not nearly close enough to the 9 pm fireworks. On our way to leave the Base, Ben noticed the movie theater there was showing the new Pirates film so we killed the rest of the evening by watching the movie on base for free! I think this may have been one of my favorite movies of the series.

Finally it was time for the fireworks. We parked our car, opened the trunk and sat in the back to watch the fireworks just before Ben passed out from exhaustion. Not a bad fourth of July!

It would have been a great fourth of July, but once I got home and started to get ready for bed, I noticed that instead of just having a pink tint, I had turned into a lobster! Ouch! I have been in pain the past couple of days.. the sun here is much stronger and I have learned my lesson, we will be purchasing an umbrella for our next trip to the beach!

Breakers Beach

Little by little I am starting to enjoy the Navy life. One perk is that there is a beach on the base on Coronado called Breakers Beach. Only 10 minutes away, it is our favorite place to go to whether just to read, collect shells or sit in the sun.

Our First Padres Game

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This weekend was our first real jaunt into the city, so we decided to check out the Padres baseball team. We are really lucky in the fact that our apartment is only a couple miles from downtown and are able to walk there quite easily (which means comfortable shoes are a must!) and not have to pay for a cab.

Before the game, Ben and I went to the Yard House which boasts the world’s largest selection of draft beers. They had so many beers on tap it was difficult to pick which one to get and not be overwhelmed by our large quantity of choices! Our first choice was to try a local brew, which was pretty good however, beer here is so different than Maine and I miss the option of summer ales. After trying one local, Ben got the Shipyard XXXX and I had to get a taste of Maine too by getting the SeaDog blueberry (totally worth the over priced cost of 4.25 a pint!). It is so funny that even though there were so many new beers to try, we just couldn’t stay away from getting something from home.

The game had been going for a half hour by the time we got to the stadium and once there we had to make our way to our seats in the nose bleed section. It was fun to be out in the sun and enjoying a baseball game, even though we didn’t care who won.

We ended the evening by trying out yet another Mexican restaurant and getting my beverage of choice, a margarita!