Long overdue, but the results are in..

We are pregnant!!

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update after our last procedure. So much has happened and it's felt overwhelming to even think about updating my blog, but I think it's about time.

In my last post about our IUI, Shaun had just left for deployment and we still had five more days to go before test day.

On Saturday, March 12, I finally worked up the courage to get out of bed in the morning and pee on a stick. To my surprise, it was POSITIVE! I almost didn't believe it and honestly thought I was reading the test wrong to the point where I had to get the packaging out and read the instructions again (after that amount of tests I had taken up to this point, you would think I'd know for sure, but I couldn't believe my eyes!)

My mom and dad were in town at the time visiting so it was nice to be able to share that news with them right away. Luckily, after Shaun left Hawaii, they had headed straight to Japan so he was in port when I got the news. I was able to call him and tell him, but they were 19 hours ahead of us, which actually put him five hours earlier in the morning than Hawaii time (confusing, I know.) I called him every hour, hoping he would hear his phone and wake up, but I didn't get a call back from him until about 1:00PM Hawaii time. Talk about a long five hours!

He was so happy and the tears started flowing. You don't always realize how much trying to conceive can weigh on your husband, but in that moment, I think I felt the weight lifted off of both of our shoulders. Finally an answer to our prayers!

On Monday, March 14, I went in for a blood draw to test my HCG levels. I finally got a call back the next day and the nurse said that I was definitely pregnant (HCG was 31000!) They scheduled me to come in that Thursday, March 17, for my first ultrasound. 

Our little peanut at 5w3d, measuring ahead from the very beginning at 6w1d.

 

First "bump" photo at 6 weeks.

Tune in tomorrow for our pregnancy announcement! 

Small Business.

Happy Aloha Monday everyone!

I finally feel like I am in a good position to share with you all, a little project that I've been working on.

Upon moving to Hawaii with my husband, I had to leave my full-time job at the College of Charleston, and with that, I left behind a lot of my financial independence that came along with that.

I knew that if I left my job, that I would want to try and do something from home that would give me the flexibility of making my own schedule and working for myself. From this, came the idea for Southerly Monogram Shop.

I've got myself an embroidery machine and have been whipping up some super cute toddler t-shirts and baby onesies for the kiddos! Many of the orders that I have been getting are for military homecomings, but I also have some adorable monogrammed goodies in my Etsy shop, as well.

I would love for you all to check it out! And also, please feel free to share :)

Here is just a sample of some of the designs that I offer.

Please "Like" me on Facebook for updates on new items coming every week!

Thanks, y'all!!

Dinner for One.

If you have a husband that is in the military or works a lot, you probably know what it's like to have to cook for one. 

Most nights, I have to dig deep to even find the motivation to cook at all because it's never fun eating alone and even less fun trying to find healthy options to cook for one person.

I've decided to start blogging about my meal plan for the week, once again, to try and hold myself accountable for my choices.

Weekly food shopping for just myself has also posed a problem lately with actually getting a chance to use the fresh foods that I purchase before they go bad. Here in Hawaii, anything perishable has to be refrigerated; otherwise, you can expect it to go bad within a couple days. Because of this, I have resorted to going to the commissary or grocery store every few days or on an as-needed basis. 

I have also found, that with an active lifestyle, where I am not always home for lunch and/or dinner, it's better to plan for just a few meals at home in the event that I do not make it home in time to cook. This has also been helping to save money and avoid buying food that goes bad before I have a chance to eat it.

Here is my [dinner] meal plan for the week.

Grilled Mahi Soft Tacos w/ Spiced Mayo & Avocado Salsa

(The original recipe actually calls for grilled chicken, but I'm doing it with Mahi.)

Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

Shrimp Burgers

Do any of y'all have advice for cooking for one?

Weekend Update!

I am back in blogging action after our long weekend to Kentucky. I wasn't ignoring anyone, promise! I just got caught up this morning replying to comments, etc. I have however, been pretty good about keeping up on my reading. Looks like some of my blog peeps got to participate in some really fun Halloween/ Fall festivities :)

Where do I start?!

**Warning - This post is going to be photo overload of puppy cuteness.**

Wednesday after work, S and I hit the road to Lexington, KY to stay with his family for our long weekend.

NC Blue Ridge Mountains

We got in pretty late so we slept in a little the next morning until we had to get up and drive to Louisville to pick up our new little fur baby!

Now the purpose of our trip to Kentucky was not originally planned to pick up our little guy, but to go to the fall Keeneland meet to watch some horse racing. It just happened to work out perfectly that we were able to locate a family who just had a litter of German Short-haired Pointers in the area around the same time. I had been a little apprehensive about getting a puppy, but after some discussion, GSP was the breed that S and I decided on.

I'd like to introduce you to Gunner!

To be honest, he was a lot bigger than I expected him to be! He is 11 lbs right now and growing every day.

After spending the rest of Thursday at home, we decided to take Gunner on his first hike at The Pinnacles in Berea, KY. It was a relatively short hike and he did a great job! S and I had to take turns carrying him, but we knew that was to be expected.

 I couldn't believe how far you can see from the lookout!

 

 Tired little boy!

Beautiful fall day!

 After our hike and dinner on Friday, we got a bonfire going in the new fire pit. It was a beautiful night.

Saturday was Keeneland day and my first time attending a horse race. It.was.awesome. Out of 10 races, I picked at least 3 winners, but we still didn't really win a whole lot. We were betting very small amounts just to make the races a little more interesting. I had an awesome time.

It was windy and COLD. I was so happy that I opted to wear jeans and boots instead of a dress. The girls that wore short dresses and bare legs looked ridiculous on an overcast, freezing cold day. I was soo happy

to wear my cozy new scarf that I purchased from Etsy!

 The horses coming out to the track..

 And they're off!

It wasn't that crowded (probably because of the weather) and we got there early so we claimed our spot right up against the fence in front of the track. We couldn't have been any closer!

When we got home from Keeneland, S's mom whipped up some awesome chili, I made this cocktail, we got a fire going in the living room fireplace all while snuggled up with our new little pup and watched Avengers (again). It was the PERFECT fall evening. Oh, and it ended by taking a dip in the indoor hot tub, can't forget the best part!

We got back on the road around noon on Sunday to get back to Charleston. All in all, it was a great autumn weekend! I will leave you with a few more pictures overflowing with cuteness.

He lovesss playing with his lamb.

 Good morning horses! (S's family has six horses!)

 They were actually quite interested in him...

Gunner and Katie

 Sunset over the farm.<3

The end.



Some overdue 4th of July fun and photos.

I get so caught up in reading everyone else's blogs that I tend to forget to post in my own! The past weeks have been pretty uneventful though so I guess yall aren't really missing out on anything.

So to recap, S and I took the first week of July off because his family came to town to visit. We had a lot of fun being tourists in our own town, which is very easy to do. Charleston is a very beautiful, historical city and there are TONS of great restaurants. It's minutes from several beaches and you just cannot escape that southern charm. Since S's fam is from Kentucky, we made sure to spend lots of time on the beach and eat plenty of seafood. We also took a trip up to the lake for a day with the boat and had tons of fun tubing and swimming and lounging in the water.

The fam left fairly early on a Saturday so S and I took that as an opportunity to head back up to the lake and have some more fun, but with friends this time around. We took the boat for a quick spin, but then tied up with a couple other boats and literally just floated the rest of the day. Another couple that S knows from work came with us and even though I had only met the hubby once, the wifey was super friendly, we got along great, and had lots to talk about. Here are some pics of our super fun, probably funnest day I've had in Charleston yet, lake day.

Flotilla!

Brilliant!

Nothing like some redneck fun!

Since it was the week of Fourth of July, they had fireworks that evening and we kept the boat out on the lake until about 10pm when it ended. It was so much fun!

New post!

I always feel like I should have pictures when I'm about to write a new post, oh wait...I do have pics yay! I almost forgot that I do indeed have pictures from out CT trip. I have additional pictures from the wedding we went to a couple weekends ago, but I keep forgetting to charge my camera so I can upload to my computer.

Some time has passed since I last posted. We had a great trip to NYC and Connecticut. S loved my family and they loved him right back. I can't help but wonder if he had a little chat with my pops, but I guess I'll leave that as a surprise. Speaking of my parents, they just bought a condo in Port St. Lucie, Fl, which I am very excited about because I will have free reign (and a key) to visit any time I want! I am planning on spending a week there with them in September, can't wait! It's also nice because since it's only 8 hours away, we can drive instead of having to buy two plane tickets. You would never think it would be SO expensive to fly from Charleston to pretty much anywhere in Florida. Crazy.

Hmm, what else is new...

I posted a little while back about how S and I started attending Seacoast Church here in Charleston, I really love it, however, S is a little on the fence because it's such a big church. He said that no one ever talks to us. My response is that we never stick around long enough to meet/talk to anyone! A couple weeks ago, I saw on the church's email newsletter that a couple about our age was starting a 20/30-something life group and I thought, that is just what we need! It was the most perfect thing and great timing. It is just a casual almost social group that gets together every week at the couple's house. We went last night for the first time and I really enjoyed it. We got to meet about four or five other couples and a couple singles as well :) Everyone was very friendly and I'm looking forward to getting to know each person there. The group isn't very structured; there is no required reading or workbooks or anything like that. Just a group of peeps who are around the same stages in their lives who can get together and hang out and maybe chat once in a while if there is anything heavy on their hearts. I'm looking forward to many more gatherings and now S will finally have some people he knows to stop and talk to at church.

The next big exciting thing, not sure if I already mentioned it, but S and I are taking that next BIG step and moving in together. I am currently living with a roommate and his brother just moved out of his apartment, leaving plenty of space for all my things! It doesn't make any sense financially for us to both pay rent. We are both 30 years old and we know that we will be married in the very near future so I don't see anything wrong with is (and I don't think anyone else should.) I have been soliciting everyone at work for all their boxes so I can get packing this weekend. I can't wait!

I just realized that I never really posted any pics from our Kentucky trip from earlier in May so here we go!

While in Kentucky, we hiked at Red River Gorge up the Natural Bridge, it was pretty awesome. As you'll notice, we had quite a bit of rainy/overcast spring weather on both of our trips..

S's new truck that we picked up in Kentucky!

It was Military Appreciation Night at S's little brother's baseball game :)

A couple weeks after we visited KY, S's grandma and grandpa came down to Charleston to visit us. We showed them around and played tourists in our own town. Here are some pics from a carraige ride that we took them on.

The next day, we took them on the ferry out to Fort Sumter.

The weekend after the grandparents left, we hopped a plane to NYC and visited CT, too! S was dying to go to the Carnagie Deli and here is his giant sandwich, he killed that thing by the way.

Rainy day in Times Square.

My favorite bakery EVER, Crumbs. It is seriously cuppie cake heaven.



The Statue of Liberty from Battery Park.

Once in CT, we took a little trip down to the shore. We stopped at Sub Base New London and toured the submarine museum and USS Nautilus. I have no idea how S does it, but I could never spend days and days beneath the sea on one of those things!

 I promised S a trip to the casino (where he won $1200 playing blackjack!)

 And he got his lobster dinner that he couldn't stop talking about :p

On our last day in town, we visited my friends, Shay and Mike, and my goddaughter Maddie. Here she is with the little Carolina Girl t-shirt I bought her :)

I miss her, can't wait to visit again!

On my parents' doorstep, just about to leave for the airport to head back to Charleston.

Trips home always go by too fast and there is never enough time to do everything I want to do. Can't wait to get back home and visit again, but until then, I am always having fun in the sun in SC<3