Wow, what a busy weekend!  It seems like it just started and then all of the sudden it is over already.  We celebrated Nathan's birthday, and I was looking at pictures even from just back at Christmas and realizing how much he has grown.  I can't believe how quickly time goes, and I have to keep reminding myself to try to enjoy every last bit of it, even the tantrums and bad days that I know some time in the not too distant future I will end up missing.  When you are a kid, it feels like you have all the time in the world.  A year seems like forever, until suddenly you are an adult and time is just flying past and a year goes by like a day.  Anyway, here are some pictures from our little boy's birthday.  I remember hating when mom used to say I would always be her baby, but now I know what it feels like.  

  He had a fun time I think.  We built him a sandbox and got him some toys to play with in it and he loves that.  Unfortunately, I think we are all coming down with a cold which really irritates me because we want to go camping this weekend.  The first long weekend that Mike has had since January that has not been interrupted by the Army in some way.  Maybe it will pass quickly and we will still be able to enjoy the weekend.  Somehow, I doubt that is how it will happen :(

Well, I have to do book keeping stuff today, and sew a patch on Mike's uniform.  Kind of boring after all the excitement this weekend. 

Today has been one of those days...you know, the kind that you feel like you will explode at any minute because Murphy's Law is in full effect and everybody seems to want to make your life miserable all at once.  Ok, maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but when you're pregnant and your hormones are all messed up, even something little can annoy the heck out of you.  Nathan got up this morning with a smile on his face.  I thought that meant it was going to be a good day.  Well, I was wrong.  First, he refused to eat his breakfast and screamed to high heaven for the majority of the morning.  Then, I went outside to spread some more soil on the garden as I am trying to fill it in and make it as much of a raised bed as I can.  While outside, Nikita barked continuously at me and attempted to get into the garden numerous times because what I was spreading was somewhat stinky with organic matter etc.  I am not entirely sure why we have a dog.  I can't help but realize over and over and over again what disgusting creatures they are.  They are literally drawn to the stinkiest, nastiest most repulsive things in this world so that they can either eat it or roll in it.  Maybe that's just my dog?  Anyway, it didn't help that my nerves were already frazzled due to Nathan's morning fit, and Nikita just made it worse with her barking.  As soon as I put the empty dirt bags in the trash bag we keep outside, she proceeded to drag them out and begin chewing on them.  In short, it seemed to me like she was doing everything in her power to piss me off...at least that is how it seemed, but of course she is not that smart.  So, later on at lunch time, I once again had the wonderful experience of dealing with a Nathan screaming fit.  This time it was over coleslaw.  Who doesn't like coleslaw?  That lasted longer than any normal person's patience would ordinarily hold out.  Fortunately, we parents know we are no longer ordinary in the patience department.  You can't survive that way.  Thank God we love our children more than life or this would not be possible.  Well, I don't want to write an entire blog of complaints, but I felt like venting a bit anyway.

Over the weekend, we went down to Anchorage to take care of some errands.  It was nice to get out of the house and out of Wasilla.  I haven't been going much of anywhere lately with gas prices the way they are.  We went to the case sale at the commissary, then we went to get Mike measured for the tux he is going to wear at James and Steph's wedding.  We stopped at Babies R' Us because I wanted to get these bibs I had seen a long time ago that have a little pocket for catching food.  They are pretty cool.  They are rubber, so all you have to do is wash them off after a meal, and the little pocket catches a bunch of food that usually either ends up in Nathan's lap or on the floor.  Then we went to the BMW shop to drool over motorcycles that we can't afford hahah.  Then we did our Costco shopping for the month, and poor little Nathan was very tired at this point.  He is down to one nap a day, but he usually takes it around 1 and we had been out since about 830.  He also woke up early that morning, so that combined with all of the running around and no nap made for a very tired little boy.  But, of course he fell asleep on a ten minute drive between stores in Anchorage, but when we actually started the 45 minute drive home where he could have had a nice chunk of a nap, he stayed awake until we were 10 minutes from home.  So, we managed to get quite a few things accomplished over the weekend, which always feels nice. 

I hope to upload all of the pictures from the camera tomorrow, so I should be posting some that I promised I would.  I've been putting it off because we have like 3 memory cards full and I have to sort and organize them and all of that jazz.  Nathan's birthday is this weekend, and I need a memory card empty so I can take pictures! :)  Well, it's dinner time and I'm famished!

I have all of these ideas for projects that I want to do around the yard, but most of them involve lifting heavy rocks, or digging out large chunks of weeds with a shovel.  I've tried some of them, but then I start breathing heavily and get all tired and I think maybe I should take it a little easier.  It's very aggravating being pregnant.  It makes you feel like you can't do anything for yourself.  I find I usually need to stop and tell myself I should wait for Mike to get home so he can help out with the heavy stuff or something.  Those of you who are reading this blog know me well enough to know that is totally against my character.  I am a very independent person by nature, and nothing aggravates me quite so much as having to step aside and let someone else take care of something that I am usually fully capable of doing myself.  Well, I've reined myself in to a certain extent, especially when I can feel my heart rate going up too high since I know that can be harmful to the baby.  Oh how I long to be back to my normal self again.  I'll have to wait another year and a half or so for that since it doesn't seem to happen while I'm nursing a baby.  It's almost funny because I can remember when I was pregnant with Nathan I had no idea what to expect postpartum, so I had this ridiculous idea in my head that as soon as the baby was out everything with my body would be pretty much normal again.  Hahah.  I know better now.  I'm not sure why nobody told me otherwise...  Perhaps I didn't ask, I don't really remember, but it seems that my mom at least would have tipped me off to the fact having had six children herself and being no stranger to the long road of postpartum "recovery."  I guess everyone is different, too.  It seems to take me longer than some.  I think a good way to look at it is, it took your body 9 months to get to the way it is when you deliver so it will take your body at least 9 months, maybe more, to get itself back to "normal"...or at least the new definition of normal after pregnancy and childbirth.  Someone told me that, maybe mom, and it makes sense to me.  Unfortunately, I am not a very patient person when it comes to things like that. 

So, I started this new project in the yard.  I am going to take some rocks that used to be around the fire pit and line some of our "landscaping" features with them.  It's going to look very nice when I am done.  I don't think the people that owned this property before us had it landscaped too badly, but it had too much time unattended during a very rainy summer.  Everything became weedy and grown up.  They also used smaller rocks than I would have to line the landscaping that I am going to fix with big rocks.  Anyway, We have done a lot of work in the yard since we moved in, and it is really coming along nicely.  Some things are going to take a little longer to fix than others.  There are areas that need to be seeded with new grass, and the flowers I planted in the front flower bed will probably take a year or so to establish themselves before they actually bloom.  The one thing they did a horrible job on is the fire pit.  It was hideous, but we are fixing that slowly.  Unfortunately, Nikita picked that area as her favorite spot to make messes all winter, and they are too wet and squishy to pick up so I guess they will just have to serve as good fertilizer for the new grass seed we will plant.  

We had frost again last night.  I really wanted to get the garden in this weekend, but I am afraid we will have to wait at least another week.  I can't trust the weather report because they consistently say it will only get down to 38 or something overnight, and then it gets down to 30 instead.  Our zucchini and bean plants are getting so big, they are more than ready to be transplanted.  The tomatoes need some more time, and so do the lettuce and herbs.  I am very excited, I think we will have a good zucchini harvest, and the beans should do well too assuming they don't get eaten by pests.  I already have plans for making zucchini bread with fresh zucchini!  My herbs are going to be in planters along our deck railing so I can grab fresh herbs whenever I need them while I'm grilling!  It's going to be great!  We are going to spread manure this weekend in the garden so at least it will be ready when we finally can plant.  I have to put up a fence to keep Nikita and a certain little boy from playing in it, but that shouldn't be too hard.  We have a bunch of leftover scrap wood from disassembling a set of steps that were randomly in our back yard when we bought the place.  They used to be the steps for the back door, but the people who lived here put a deck in instead, and they just set the steps down in the back yard near the fence.  I don't know why they didn't just disassemble them and use the wood.  Anyway, the skinny pieces that used to be part of the railing system are great for my little fence stakes, and also for tomato stakes when we plant our tomatoes.  There is also some wire mesh stuff that I am going to use for the fence.  Wait, steaks or stakes?  Something told me it isn't supposed to be steaks...  that sounds too much like a nice slab of beef :)  

Nathan's birthday is coming up!  I can't believe he is going to be two years old!  We are going to use some of our scrap wood to build him a sandbox.  It may be a sand and dirt box, actually.  Then we will get him some toys to play with in it.  I think he will love that!  I have this idea of sandboxes being dirty, nasty places where kids pee and puke and stuff, but I think that is more in a public sandbox.  We will build a lid to keep Nikita out when it isn't being used, so she won't be able to mess it up.  I never had a sandbox growing up, but we had an area underneath the pine trees that had pine needles and dirt that served almost the same purpose.  We used to play with tonka toys and little toy pickups and shovels in there.  I remember building roads and making construction zones.  It was great fun!  Hahah that just reminded me of raking little roads in the newly fallen leaves and riding our bikes around pretending to be in cars.  Having kids is the best, you get to go back and remember all of these fun things to do and it's almost like being a kid again yourself.  Nathan managed to get his shoes wet and muddy yesterday, so we went out in our bare feet and it was great.  Until now it has been too cold for it, but I think it's ok now.  We did stay in the front yard, though, even though we have Nikita's messes cleaned up, I prefer not to be surprised!  That reminds me, there is a big pile of moose poop in the front that I have to clean up.  Anyway, the neighbor came over and we were talking, and then I was laughing to myself wondering what she must be thinking of these crazy people in their bare feet.  Wow, this blog is super long...I think it's time to stop!  I'm so happy the weekend is almost here!         

We worked on our garden area over the weekend and got it mostly ready for planting.  We are going to get some dirt and fertilizer to fill it in because it is a raised bed sort of thing.  Our zucchini and beans are ready for planting, but I am not convinced we've had our last frost.  I also picked up all of the trash in the yard and it looks SO much better!  The yard is really coming a long way from it's sad, wintery state.  It is starting to dry up some and I did some raking which got rid of a lot of debris.  There are some sticks and stuff that need to be cleared up before it's back to normal, and the fire ring area has a long way to go.  I need to get some grass seed and seed some areas down.  Nikita has a ridiculous habit of taking individual bits of her food and pawing at random sections of our lawn to "bury" said food.  It greatly irritates me.  I often wonder why we ever got a dog, they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.  Anyway, we have several little "scars" in our lawn due to this fact, and they need to be repaired.  Ok, I'm not really that concerned about having the perfect, manicured golf course lawn like some people do.  I do like to have a somewhat decent looking piece of grass though.  

We went to a yard sale over the weekend and found some baby girl clothes!  I am starting to get excited.  It's funny how being pregnant is supposed to be all exciting and stuff, but you don't really start to think about the reality of the fact that you're going to have a new little person until you are getting close to your due date.  That is how it is for me, at least.  It doesn't become totally real until that baby comes out, and then it's like WOW!  hahah, but buying a couple of little pink baby clothes made me start thinking about it and how happy it makes me, even with all the discomfort of pregnancy.  So, I plan to do some more yard sale picking before she comes because people are having them all over the place and everyone is selling baby clothes!  I can get a gently used Carter's sleep sack for $1 or less where it costs like $8 at Carter's!  It's awesome!  

Yesterday, I took Nathan to a free performanc of Sesame Street Live on post courtesy of the USO.  Well, Mike and I thought he would really like it because he is all about singing and dancing and stuff.  I don't know if he got up on the wrong side of his bed or what, but he was not a happy camper at all.  He screamed and kicked and had absolutely no interest in looking at the stage at all.  I finally had to leave early with him because he just wasn't behaving.  I guess he is my son after all, I never went in for things like Sesame Street when I was a kid either.  Of course, I grew up without tv...which is what he is doing too.  The only thing he liked about the whole thing was a little light up toy they were handing out as you went in.  It spins and has lights and he is all over that.  

Tonight I am going back down to post for a spouses' hail and fairwell hosted by the colonel's wife.  I only know one other person who is going to be there :-/  Hahah we will see, hopefully I can manage to not be too socially awkward.  I need to get out and meet some people anyway.  Also, it gives me a chance to get out of the house for a little me time.  I am going to put some ham and split pea soup in the crock pot for dinner, so Mike won't have to worry about that when he comes home.  I only wish I could have some of it, too, but there will be leftovers since I am making a double batch :)  We had a ham over the weekend as our late Easter dinner, and now we have the delicious leftovers to eat.