Confession Friday!

It's been a good week! Although, tomorrow is the first day of hunting season, so things could change...haha! I'm praying that bambi runs right across my husband's path at the buttcrack of dawn so he can get back home at a decent time...we will see. This brings me to my first confession...

I confess that I cannot wait for hunting season to be O.V.E.R., and it hasn't even started. I'm really tired of spending money on all these little gadgets and tags and licenses and whatever else. I just hope it's everything Zach expects and remembers it to be...he hasn't been in years! This boy better get a deer!

I confess that I'm and eyebrow picker. If I feel a short spikey hair coming in, I just pluck it right out with my fingers. I've been known to get a little carried away...especially when my husband says "what did you do to your eyebrow??"...haha!

I confess that I stopped drinking soda about 2 weeks ago, and I feel so much better. I never drank a whole lot of it until I started working at the store, and it was so accessible. It got out of hand too fast!

I confess that I almost never make my bed. It literally takes a minute, and I still don't do it. No one comes in our room, so why bother?

I confess that my mom has found the magic toilet cleaner. All of our toilets get rings so fast because of the hard water, and I hate how dirty it looks. I'm telling you, this stuff just melts it right off...hardly any work needed! It's really potent, so try not to even let it touch you! It's called Santeen, and you can buy it at Ace. It's 6 bucks a bottle but so worth it!

I confess that I did my cousin's hair for her first Homecoming and we took some pictures of her after she was all ready, and it made me wanna jump back to being 16 again. I wasn't a huge fan of high school, but oh how I loved the dances!

I confess that I have no idea what Jay is going to be for Halloween. I have a costume put away that I'm pretty sure is going to be too small. I'm thinkin we may go with a good ole cowboy...the boy loves hats!

I confess that I'm super excited to have a date night tonight with my husband and some of our friends! We are going to the movies...something we haven't done in a long time! But, I am sad that I'll hardly get to see my little man all day. :(

That's all I got today! It's time for me to go wake up Jay and get him ready for Grandma's house! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Fall Flower Fun!

I'm so proud of myself...I finished my Fall flower project for outside, and I wanted to share it with you! So here it is, my friends.

I got these lovely planters on sale at Buchheit for $9.99 a piece. I love Buchheit. I discovered that when we were remodeling our house. They don't have a huge selection of certain things, but their prices are unbeatable on most items. So, I started with my planters and filled them with sand since I was using fake flowers.

I searched for flowers at two Wal-Marts and some other places, and they just weren't gonna cut it. I like the deep Fall colors, and they all had the really bright yellows and oranges...not my style. So, I knew that meant

a special trip to Garden Ridge...oh darn. I also love Garden Ridge. I'm proud of myself because I only came out with what I needed. I think it helped that I had Jay with me...it made me hurry along a bit! So, here is what I picked out for my arrangements...

I just started shoving these puppies into my sand filled planters and did some careful arranging, and this is what I came up with...

I'm in love. I love doing crafty things, and I haven't had the chance to in a really long time. I know they are gonna get faded and trashed being outside, but for now they look lovely! Oh, and I am finally the proud owner of a garden flag that I just stuck right down in one of my pots. I've wanted one so bad, but we have zero front yard, so I knew I had to make it work somehow, and I did!! Woo hoo! Here is my finished project...next to the clean as a whistle siding that my darling husband just washed for me!

Now, I just need to freshen up that door frame with a little white paint, and I'll be golden...for now anyway! :) I also can't wait to get some pumpkins to make things even better! Hope you all have a great weekend!

I'm Alive!

Hi Friends! I'm alive! Glory hallelujah! Last week I had all these great intentions of being very productive over my days off, but that didn't quite work out as planned. Monday night I was hit with some kind of bug and ended up in bed with fever and some other issues until Thursday night. I hadn't been to the doctor (besides being pregnant) since I was a kid, and I chose to go because I couldn't get rid of my fever. So, then I realized that I didn't really have a regular doctor because it had been so long. I just wanted to stay in town since I felt like complete poo, so I went to Dr. Mahtani. He is fantastic, so if any of you out there are looking for a family doctor, I highly recommend him and his staff! I hate hate hate being sick, so I am extra appreciative for my health these days.

Anyways, I thought I would crack up laughing when I read all my intentions for last week, but I actually didn't do too bad! We did have pigs in a blanket one night. We did do something nice and unexpected for some friends. I didn't set a weight loss goal, but being sick gave me a little head start...haha!! I did wash my bed sheets because I was doing everything I could to keep everyone else in the house healthy. So far so good! And, I'm pretty sure I've been a loving wife lately because I found myself out at that dumb deer stand again on Sunday afternoon, and this time it was pouring rain. It was muddy, yucky, and cold, but Zach needed help putting up his markers...whatever that means, lol! I didn't touch my closet, which is sad, but hopefully I can make my way there this week. I didn't get any decorating done outside...hopefully soon! I also didn't make it to the rummage sale, which makes me very sad, but there'll always be another one!

I'm excited for the week ahead! I hope to get a bit more accomplished this week than I did last week! I'm looking forward to a movie night with my bff tomorrow night, a trip to Garden Ridge hopefully Wednesday, and work the rest of the week, and a date night with my hubby on Friday. We are excited to see the new movie "Courageous"! I hope you all have a good week...stay healthy!!

It's a great week to...

So, I love reading the "Woman's World" magazine over my lunch at work. I just love that there's jokes, stories, pictures, recipes, diet tips, and so much more in that small, cheap little magazine. And, it comes out weekly! Can't get much better than that! It has a section that's called "It's a great week to..." So here it is, I'm gonna let you in on a few things I'm doing this week.

It's a great week to...

Have pigs and a blanket for supper...yum!

Decorate outside for Fall...can't wait!

Do something extra nice for someone...something they won't expect!

Set a weight loss goal AFTER eating pigs and blanket for supper! :)

Go rummage saling...yay for the Catholic rummage sale this weekend!

Wash your bedsheets...I'm just getting over a little cold bug, yuck!

Organize a closet...mine needs some TLC!

Encourage a friend...sometimes they need it more than you know.

Love your husband until it hurts...even if he is being a big turdball.

Count your blessings...I'm so humbled by the things God is doing around here!

Hope everyone has a really great week! I'm gonna try really hard at making it a great week around this house! :) Hopefully some chores get accomplished, some projects get finished, and some blessings are bestowed! Happy Monday!

P.S. Jay and I are ready for another play date before it gets too cold! Do we have any takers?

Oh, and I'm leaving you with these never before seen picture from Jay's birthday party...hilarious. I crack up every time I look at them.

Confession Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I have to work tomorrow, so it's not really my weekend quite yet! It's been a quiet week as far as my blogging goes...I've had a couple started and never finished them, whoops! So, I guess I owe you some confessions. :)

I confess that I have a little bit of OCD. Like for real, I check our stove every.single.night. before we go to bed to make sure that it's off, even if I haven't even used it that day. I'm nuts I tell you!

I confess that yesterday was Doug's birthday, and I forgot completely! Even though he's just a dog, I feel terrible! So, we are pretending it's today. He's gonna get a tasty treat! Happy 6th Birthday, Dougie!

I confess that after I stopped working in the salon, I tried using cheap hairspray. It was even the expensive cheap stuff. Never again! It's terrible!

I confess that this week Zach and I started something new. We started planning our weekday meals out 2 weeks at a time in order to save money and for convenience. And, when you have an exact shopping list, you spend way less money at the grocery store! Every night after dinner, I look at what we're having the next day and set out the meat to thaw. It's working like a charm because there's no question on what to do for dinner!

I confess that even though I just typed that, we grabbed dinner last night...hahaha! But, it was only because my husband got some good news at work yesterday, and we were celebrating. Don't worry, that money is coming out of our "out to eat weekend fund".

I confess that Jay woke up earlier than normal today. The boy usually sleeps til about 9:30, but he had a really long nap last night so I guess that's why he got up early. And, my early is 8:45. Ha, I'm spoiled!

I confess that Jay is sitting in the bathtub playing, and I'm sitting on the toilet typing this. Lid closed of course! :)

I confess that I just might decorate the outside of our house this year for Fall. Until we can do landscaping, I'm going to have to do something! I'm so tired of it looking so blah, and we have some super cute Fall stuff at the store that I have my eye on!

I confess that I need to go! Jay is standing in the tub looking at me and crying, lol!

Have a great weekend!!!

Weekend Overview

Our weekend was nothing special, but that is just fine with me.  Zach doesn't ever find out if he's working on Saturday until Friday afternoon, so we just have to work around that. This Saturday he ended up having to work, which worked out okay because I was off. Finding a babysitter last minute is never fun!! So, that meant our Friday night was going to be spent at home taking it easy. We ordered pizza and watched t.v....good enough for me!

On Saturday morning, my friend Tanya and I and our littles went for a walk. It was a lovely morning! :) I then braved the crazy Saturday morning grocery shoppers at Aldi and Walmart.  I'd much rather go during the week, but I needed something to help pass my day. Jay always does really well on our shopping trips. He was an angel in Aldi. He loves playing with that dumb dangly thing on the cart where you put the quarter in, and he just smiles and waves at everybody. Then, we got to Walmart, and he had decided that he was done. He was crying and whining and trying to get out, and I was ready to make a mad dash for what I needed and get out of there! Until, the heaven sent deli worker gave the boy a potato wedge. He was perfect for the rest of the trip, which gave me time to run through the clearance aisle! Oh how I love the Walmart clearance aisle! I got a few things for next summer for Jay. The water wings were only 50 cents! And so was the side walk chalk, so I snatched some up! They also had these cute little golf caddy's with clubs and balls on sale for 3 bucks. I don't usually plan too far ahead as far as that stuff goes, but I couldn't pass up the deals!

Saturday night we spent the evening with the Voss family. Jay and Ty are slowly becoming playmates, and it's just too cute. Let me tell you, we had one heck of a dinner. We splurged and went to good ole Mickey D's. It's so funny how your lives change after kids. The boys made us laugh more than once. The little boys and the big boys. :) We came back to our house, and the big boys drove around and looked at real estate...fun fun, while Lara and I stayed back with the kids. We don't hang out enough, but we always have a lot of fun when we do!

Sunday morning we went to church, grabbed some lunch, and came back home for a little bit before heading to Zach's sister's house in Campbell Hill. Zach decided that he wanted to hunt this year, so he is hunting their ground. So, we had to go there to get his deer stand ready. This stand said it was supposed to take 15 minutes to put together, ha! It took at least 2 hours to get it somewhat assembled before he actually put it in the tree. We rode the 4-wheeler out to the tree that he picked out, and he thought he could just put it up. Oh, and picture me walking through thorns and sticks and all things nature in shorts and flip flops while he had on pants and boots. Nice of him to give me the heads up, haha! Let's just say after 2 more hours of "hold this, throw me that, don't do that, give me that, and what the heck are you doings" we got it up. Well, it was mostly Zach, but I was a good rope holder. We stayed for a great dinner, and then came home later that evening. It was a good day. Zach's sister also has a 1 year old, so she and Jay entertain each other! Oh, and note to grandparents thinking of Christmas ideas, Jay was obsessed with her Cozy Coupe! :)

We had a pretty laid back weekend, but it was filled with friends and family, and that's just the way I like it!

I may as well join...Confession Friday!

I confess that I'm kinda excited to join in on the "Confession Friday" fun!

I confess that our house has been ready for baseboards for over a year, and we still don't have them.  My husband wants to wait until our upstairs is done, but it drives me batty!

I confess that I love my family dearly, but I sooo enjoy the 2 hours I get to spend alone after all my boys go to bed.

I confess that I miss going to the gym...like really bad.  I walk or jog almost everyday, but it's just not the same.  I just wish the Y had daycare for babies!

I confess that I'm a tight wad.  I don't buy anything that's not on sale, and I love thrift stores and yard sales!

I confess that I have been terrible about brushing Jay's teeth lately.  I used to do it everynight with one of those little finger toothbrushes, but now that he has a full set of chompers, he bites!  The boy needs a real toothbrush.

I confess that the last thing on my shopping list is "a real toothbrush for Jay".  You know, in case I accidentally grabbed a fake one.

I confess that tomorrow (or today if you're reading this on Friday) is my 1 year anniversary at Deterding Drugs, and I couldn't be happier.  The balance I have between work and home is perfect for me!

I confess that, if I'm going somewhere, there's always some teasing involved with my hair.  Whether my hair is in a ponytail, scrunchy, or straight, I gotta have that volume!

I confess that Zach has slept with a box fan right by our heads every.single.night. since we've been married, and I still hate it.  I still ask him at least once a week to turn it off for just one night. Nope!

I confess that I love reading everyone's comments, so leave me a confession!!

Have a great weekend!  I think we're gonna head to the Musketeer's first home game! :)

And then there were 3...Jay's Birth Story.

So, I have to kind of back track a little.  I went to work on Thursday, July 8th, and little did I know that it would be my last day working before Jay came.  I just came home that night completely exhausted and knew that I was over doing it.  I always had Fridays off, so I thought I would just rest up that whole next day and be good to go back to work on Saturday.  Boy was I wrong!  I was starting to really feel sore when I was walking and had no idea why.  And then I found the culprit...really, hemorrhoids??  By Friday evening, I could barely walk.  This is another thing that gives me a new respect for anyone that has had these because they are really really painful and even more annoying!  Apparently, it's really common to get them during pregnancy.  Ugh!!  I was so over it all!  

My due date was August 4th.  I really didn't want to quit working over 3 weeks in advance, but I just had to.  I cancelled my Saturday appointments and began  my maternity leave.  I was hoping that after I healed up a bit that I could get a lot done in the next weeks.  That Monday, we were set to get carpet in Jay's room.  Absolutely nothing had been done yet as far as a nursery goes except for hanging some of Jay's clothes in his closet.  The carpet got installed in the morning, and that afternoon we were finally able to set up the crib and the changing table and get them ready to go.  I also packed my hospital bag that day.  It's a never ending joke between us because I packed my things in one of those huge Aldi canvas bags...haha!  I was at the point where I just didn't care anymore!  That day I had been feeling a little abnormal.  Nothing was ever painful, just a little weird.  I remember sitting in Jay's room while Zach was finishing putting the crib together and joking with him "I wouldn't go very far tonight". 

That night I slept on a blanket.  I was so freaked out of my water breaking in bed.  As we laid there, I told Zach some of the things that I was feeling that day, and he made me call the hospital and talk to them about it.  Sue, from Memorial Hospital, if you're out there, I hope you are reading this because you could've saved me from a lot of pain!  I told her what had been going on and she said "Oh, you are fine honey.  Things like that can happen weeks in advance."  Ok, no biggy then.  I went to sleep! 

At 4 AM, I woke up to this very strange pop inside my stomach.  Still, I had absolutely no pain or any contractions at that time.  I got up because I could no longer sleep and went to our living room.  I just knew something was up, so I sat on a folding chair we had in the kitchen because I was still leary of my water breaking.  I got out the computer, and what do I do?  Get on facebook of course.  At about 4:30, I kind of shifted the way I was sitting, and I felt something going on.  I got up to use the bathroom, and the second my feet hit the floor, I could feel this enormous gush of water coming out.  Luckily there was a bathroom close by!  I sat on the toilet and waited for this water to stop coming out.  It just kept coming and coming.  Holy cow, it was time!!!  I shuffled my way back to our bedroom, and I'm pretty sure I punched my husband in the arm.  He woke up all groggy as I'm saying "my water just broke!!"  He jumped out of bed and didn't know what to do.  I told him to finish packing what was on my list because I just kept feeling like I had to go to the bathroom.  Up until this point, I still had zero pain, but the instant I sat on the toilet again I started having hard contractions.  In the mean time, Zach is asking me if he can take a quick shower.  What a turd!  At that point, I knew that we had to leave right that second.

Everyone always says that labor is nothing like what you see on tv and in the movies.  Well, mine was...to a T.  The whole screaming car ride and running red lights, yep, that was us!  My contractions were not even 2 minutes apart in the car ride there.  Zach asked me several times if I wanted him to call an ambulance.  I just told him to drive as fast as he could.  We got to Memorial Hospital in about 25 minutes.  It was about 5:30 AM at the time.  We went in through the ER, and I'm telling them that I have to go somewhere NOW, and they still had me go in a room to sign papers.  What the crap?!  I would love to see my signature on those papers someday. Haha!  So, they wheeled me very quickly up to the maternity ward.  I got in a room and got on my gown, only with the nurses help.  I think they could tell that I was not exaggerating my pain.  She checked me right away and yes, I was 8 cm dialated upon arriving at the hospital.  I was begging for pain medicine, and they were pretty much ignoring me.  I knew it was too late just from reading the books and watching the shows.  Of course, like any other woman will tell you, it was the worst pain I have ever been in.  I knew that there was nothing I could do about it though.  The screaming mad woman in labor that you see on tv, yep, that was me too....lol.  They called my doctor right away.  They must have told him to be quick because he showed up in sweat pants and crocs, haha!  I was ready to push as soon as he got there.  Zach was pretty quiet throughout all of this.  I think he was a little scared, as was I!  I have absolutely no idea how long I pushed.  Everything is pretty blurry about the whole thing.  All I know is at 7:32 AM, I heard the most precious little cry, and I had complete relief from everything.  Jay Alexander Ingles was welcomed into the world weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 18.5 inches long.  Zach was able to cut the cord, and within seconds, I had this little miracle laying on my chest staring right at me.  He knew that I was his mommy. 

This is one of the only pictures I have of us in the hospital.  We have absolutely no pictures of him as soon as he was born because everything happened so fast that we didn't even bring in a camera!

So cute!

Delivering the placenta was a piece of cake next to delivering a baby!  I also had to get several shots in order for them to give me stitches.  I didn't care because I was holding my baby.  But then they took Jay to the nursery right away because they knew that he was over 3 weeks early, and they said his breathing sounded a little funny.  His levels stayed pretty good unless someone handled him.  He had to have an IV because he wasn't eating properly.  He just couldn't get the whole sucking thing down!  Then he graduated to a feeding tube.  We would try as hard as we could everytime to get him to eat from a bottle.  Some times he did really good, and others he hardly ate anything.  They didn't even let us bring him in our room until Thursday, the day I was to be discharged.  Noone besides Zach or me even got to hold him until then.  We were going to stay at the hospital with him, but that evening they told us that they needed our room.  It was our 4th wedding anniversary, and we had to leave our newborn baby behind in the hospital.  Let me tell you, Zach and I bawled like babies the entire way home.  We called several times in the night and right away the next morning to check on him.  They said he was doing better but still not as good as they'd like.  We stayed with him all day at the hospital on Friday and got up early Saturday morning to go back.  I'm pretty sure it was on Saturday that they removed the feeding tube because he was really starting to improve on the bottle.  We anxiously waited around all day for his pediatritian to let us know if we could bring him home.  That evening, we got the great news that Jay could come home as soon as he was circumsized!!  We had to bring him back the very next morning to get checked out again, but the fact that he was coming home with us was all that we wanted!!

Jay started taking off on the bottle and never looked back!  You would have no idea that my chubby little man ever had such a problem with eating!  It was a wild ride, and I'm not in a rush to do it again, but every second of pain was so worth it.  Being a mommy is the best gift that God could ever give a woman.

My Pregnancy Story

Oh my.  I don't even know where to begin.  I mentioned in my first post that there was a time in my life when I wasn't even sure that I wanted to have kids.  Now that I look back, I'm pretty sure every reason I had behind that was selfish.  I'm so thankful that God had other plans for me.  I got to watch one of my best friends, Lara, go through her pregnancy and see the precious miracle that she was blessed with, and I started becoming a little more open minded about things.

About 3 1/2 years into our marriage, Zach and I started talking about what it would be like to have a baby.  I was still a little reluctant to the whole idea, but Zach was ready!  I started Googling things...haha!  My name's Andrea, and I'm a Googleaholic.  I read that it takes the average woman about 3-6 months to get pregnant the first time.  So, I thought it would be okay to start trying because it would still be about a year or more before we actually had a baby.  In November of 2009, we just decided to leave it up to God and see if He was ready for us to become parents.  Well, he answered us with a big fat YES!  On the morning of Thanksgiving, we found out we were pregnant!  Holy moly!!  I did NOT expect this at all.  I was in complete shock.  Sure, I knew it was a possibility for it to happen that quick, but I didn't ever think it would.  And trust me, I know now that I am super blessed, but at the time, I was scared out of my mind!

So, we had to go through Thanksgiving day with this huge secret hanging over our heads.  The following Monday, I called and made my first doctor's appointment.  I had absolutely no idea who to go to, so I just started making phone calls and ended at the office of Dr. Colon.  My first appointment was the day before I turned 6 weeks.  I bet I took 6-8 pregnancy tests before going to the doctor because I was still in such disbelief.  I met with the nurse at the first appoinment, and I remember her asking "are you having any sickness?".  My reply was, "no, not at all".  So much for that!!!  The very next day, I woke up feeling like death.  I have a huge respect for any woman that has had morning sickness.  It is absolutely terrible.  All I wanted to do was lay in bed, but I had to go to work.  Poor Lara had to listen to me do an awful lot of complaining!  My sickness started off with just feeling terrible all through the day until about dinner time and then fading off and starting all over again the next day.  Then, I went through a throwing up phase.  I would have to excuse myself while doing someone's hair to go vomit in the bathroom.  Talk about embarrassing!!   

I had my first ultrasound at 7 weeks.  The lady tried an external first, and she didn't see a thing.  She had me go to the bathroom, and Zach said while I was gone she told him she didn't think I was pregnant!  After that, she did an internal, and Jay showed up right away!  I couldn't enjoy anything because I was simply focusing on not throwing up all over the lady!  My sickness lasted about 4-5 months before I started feeling human again.  Yuck!!

Welcome the much awaited 20 week ultrasound!!  It was Zach's birthday, and we were so excited!  We told the lady that we definitely wanted to know the sex.  Within the first 10 minutes, she told us we were having a girl!  We didn't care either way, we were just really excited to know.  We had her double check before it was over and she told us that she was 98% sure that our baby was a girl and that she had never been wrong.  We made phone calls and phone calls to let everyone know our news.  We were already fairly sure of our girl name at the time, so by the end of that week we were announcing that we were naming our baby Brynlee Rhei.  Pink presents started to trickle in...

By the Spring, I was already starting to swell and swell and swell.  My feet and legs got absolutely gigantic.  I would bring it up to the doctor at all my appointments, and he never seemed concerned since my job required me to stand all day.  They were only concerned with the fact that my blood levels showed that I was anemic.  My family has a trait that can make you show up as a false anemic, so I wasn't worried about it. 

Check out these feet! It looks like I'm wearing a fat suit...haha!!

At 26 weeks, I decided to have a 4D ultrasound done since my doctor's office didn't have that equipment.  We went to a great place called The Ultrasound Zone in Glen Carbon.  It's a fabulous place, and I would recommend it to anyone!  Anyways, they allow you to bring family and friends with you, so my parents and Zach's parents came along.  The lady asked if we already knew the sex and we assured her that we knew we were having a girl.  We joked with her and told her she could double check if she wanted.  I'm not kidding, within the first 5 minutes her face went blank, and she looked right at us and said "ummm....this is a boy."  I wish I could rewind that moment and look at my husband's face again.  We were like "what??? are you joking??".  She pointed out the picture to us, and there was absolutely no mistaking that our little baby was a BOY!  Everyone in the room was shocked!  It was such a weird feeling to know that this baby that we had been calling Brynlee for 6 weeks was not a girl!!  Poor Jay...lol.  So, we had to make all those same phone calls again!  I'm pretty sure we decided on the name Jay on the car ride home.  What a crazy day!!

So after all of this, things were kind of normal for a while.  I just continued to get more uncomfortable!  I had another 4D ultrasound at the end of May, and my last regular ultrasound through the doctor toward the end of June.  I remember at my last ultrasound that the tech was having trouble because Jay's head was already so low.  Hmm...that was kind of scary!  My baby shower was on June 26th, and we were blessed with just about everything that we needed!  At the beginning of July, I had to do the testing for preeclampsia because my swelling was out of control.  Still, everything came back fine!  I could no longer sleep at night, and I was just ready to be done!  I had already started dialating at 34 weeks, and at my 35 week appointment my doctor said he would bet that I would have my baby within 1-2 weeks.  Holy cow!!!  Ready or not!  Keep in mind that at the time we were in the midst of a complete remodel of our house.  There was not even carpet in Jay's room yet.  The pressure was on!

Then, in the early morning of July 13, 2010, a little boy was about to change our world forever.  Stay tuned!!

Just the Two of Us

I've always heard people make the statement "I don't remember our life before kids".  For some reason, that phrase has always been kind of scary to me.  I don't want the 4 years of marriage we had before Jay to be scrambled in with everything else and for us to forget the sweet memories we made along the way.  Don't get me wrong, our lives have only improved since we were blessed with Jay, but I always want to remember the fun times we had as a young, carefree couple.

Zach and I got married on July 15, 2006.  I had just finished beauty school that April and began my cosmetology career at The Healthy Hair Co. here in Red Bud.  Zach got hired as a butcher at IGA shortly after we got married.  We began our life in a cute little trailer in Knotty Pines.  It had awful blue carpet and ugly wall paper, but I can honestly say that I loved our first home.  It was more than enough room for the two of us and Doug.  My favorite part about it was this wonderful screened in porch it had on the front of it.  Sometimes I miss it!  I will never forget 1428 Peggy Lane, our little corner of Fuzzyland. :)

If you know me at all, you know that I live for vacations!  Some of the fondest memories I have of our first years of marriage are the trips we took.  In July of 2006, the Monday after our wedding, we headed out on our honeymoon to Cancun, Mexico.  It was our first trip as husband and wife.  We were 19 when we got married, so I was kind of scared!  This was Zach's first plane ride and his first time out of the country, so it was neat to experience it with him.  We had caught an awesome deal and stayed at a really nice place...The Crown Paradise Club.  It was the first time either of us had went on an All-Inclusive vacation.  It was simply amazing.  We spent the majority of our time on the beach and eating!  Let me tell you, Zach took full advantage of the free room service.  I can remember being woke up to Mexicans knocking on our door in the middle of the night with cheeseburgers and trays of soda.  He wanted his moneys worth I guess!  I will never forget the night we were out walking along the beach, and we came across a gigantic sea turtle preparing to lay her eggs.  What a neat experience!!  We also had fun snorkeling even though it was a little sketchy.  They basically took you on a boat ride and dropped you off in the open ocean and said have at it!  Supposedly there was a shark swimming around beneath us, but I'm still not sure if I believe that one.  All in all, it was a fabulous first trip as a married couple!

The rest of that year is kind of a blur to me.  The first year of marriage is always a little tough as you're learning new things about each other and taking on all new kinds of responsibilites!   The end of that year

we began our search for a house.

In May of 2007, we headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica.  We were so obsessed with our All-Inclusive vacation the year before that we had to go again and bring family this time!  It was a very last minute trip.  If I remember correctly, it was planned in about a month's time.  My parents and my sister came along.  We did about the same thing...layed on the beach and ate!  We did go horseback riding which was a great experience.  We even got to ride the horses through the water!  I loved it!  It was a fun vacation.  Being with family always makes things more fun and definitely more interesting!

Then, a couple months later, we bought a house!  We became home owners in July of 2007.  I will dedicate an entire post to our house.  It wasn't your average project! ;)

This is going to have to be a two part post.  I don't want to bore you to death!! haha.  I will walk through the next few years of events and some other fun memories pre-baby on another day.  Have any of you gone somewhere you absolutely love?  We are always looking for somewhere new to go.  Now, we are just looking for kid friendly places!! :)