We're almost done!

10 more weeks and Brantley will be in the world. Maybe I should say roughly 10 weeks. Tomorrow we get another ultrasound done it 3d/4d! We'll actually get to see what our little man looks like!!! We've been trying to guess and argue about what features he'll have so I am SUPER excited to see his little face!!! If he show it's that is.

Since Chance got off for Memorial day we loaded up the puppy and headed down to the outer banks. We stopped in Nags Head since we knew it was a pet friendly area. Roscoe wasn't fond of the beach with the crazy waves. It was soooooo cold. We decided to head over to the bay and since the waves were so small we elected to put roscoe in the water. He swam and surfed on a buggy board. He still wasn't happy with us though. Unfortunately our day was cut short by Beryl... We headed home and Chance surprised me with flowers :) he's been so good lately!!!

Beryl has finally made it to Norfolk. I'm not enjoying the rain at all. I love getting to open my windows and letting the sun shine in. Saves electricity!!! It's so dark and gloomy outside :(

In other news I've been trying to keep up with my instagram and pinterest accounts. You are more then welcome to follow me! My username for both is Samijocopeland, I'm sure I'll follow you back! I enjoy seeing other peoples creativity and ideas!

Things to be thankful for;

Once again I've been thinking to much. I haven't been doing much of anything and I really need to get motivated again.

This week I feel soooo thankful for my husband. You can't really be fully thankful for something until you have it taken away. It makes you feel a million times more thankful. He's spoiled me this weekend. So glad we had the weekend together. I got to see what to expect when expecting and the dictator. We had lunch at friendly's one day and then a wonderful dinner at olive garden. It's so nice to be together! I also got a fee presents :) including lovely flowers and a new Vera wallet :)

I'm also missing the fact that I use to be able to move and roll over in bed with ease. I'm sure I'll be amazingly thankful when I can be mobile again. It's so hard to turn over and leaves me huffing and puffing. Chance laughs at me but he's sweet about it.

I also just finished reading Shades of grey. It definitely wasn't all it's cracked up to be. Everyone keeps saying its all about sex but honestly the sex wasn't that graphic and it truly does have a deep story line. I loved the story line. I don't believe I'll finish the trilogy though.

Insurance trouble;

It has been a very stressful week.

First thing this morning I had to call Wells Fargo after sitting at the bank yesterday just to prove to them I have insurance on my car. I don't see the big deal with all of it. Maybe it's because I think the dealer should have took that responsibility since they changed our finance company without asking but I guess not.

After checking the mail I was distraught to find a bill from a lab for testing during my pregnancy. Tricare standard will cover everything during maternity care that has to deal with maternity. I called the company and they informed me Tricare did not pay this bill. I hung up and decided to call Tricare and see exactly what needed to be done. I was informed by them that I would have to tell the company to change the billing code to maternity care or call Tricare. So once again I called the company only to be told that the doctor placed the billing code and that they had "no reason at all to call Tricare". Um excuse me but yes you do. It's either call them or take me to court because I'm sure as hell not paying your bill because you refuse to make a phone call and fix it all.

I am stressed beyond believe... It makes me want to stop going to the doctor all together.

Pregnancy weight gain;

I see everyone stressing hardcore about gaining a few pounds these days... Try 21 pounds.

I feel like at this point in my pregnancy I shouldn't have gained nearly that much. I've held a constant weight for quite sometime now. It's stressful to have zero control over this weight gain and the worst part is not being able to diet or get rid of it.

It's gotten to me a lot lately and I'm really working on coping. If anyone has any advice on how to get over this I would love to hear it.

Monday movie review and Brantley;

Yesterday I was able to get Chance off his ship. Thankfully his captain gave in and let them have the day off because back to back underways are no fun. We had a mother's day breakfast at our local pancake house and headed home so baby puppy could see his daddy. He was so ecstatic!

Our neighbors had also invited us over. This was something new for us. We've lived here almost 6 months and have met no one. It was actually by chance we met these people. Chance and the guy happened to be on the ship together for a little while and that started up a conversation between his wife and me. We ended up heading over and having tacos for lunch. We stayed over there way longer then I thought we would but I'm definitely not complaining. Coincidentally she is pregnant with a little boy due 10 days after me. Makes life easier when your friends have kids or are pregnant (if you are in the same situation that is).

We ended the night with going to see The Avengers. I keep hearing everyone say it is the BEST movie they have ever seen. I believe that is an overstatement. Don't get me wrong it was a reallllly good movie. I loved iron man and all the action but there are better movies. If you like action packed movies or happened to watch any of the cartoons when you were smaller/read the comics then I definitely suggest you see it. It's worth the two and a half hours.

This morning when I woke Chance up Brantley finally got the hiccups. I could barely feel the rhythmic beats but it was definitely him. My neighbor can feel her baby very good and see him move constantly. I hardly ever see Brantley move, Chance can only sometimes feel him, and he barely moves so I'm beginning to think I have an anterior placenta (it's in the front instead of the back). I'm going to mention it to my doctor and see what she thinks.

Today starts another week long underway for us :( so not excited and to top it all off I woke up early to make it to a WIC appointment only to get denied because we make literally $40 over the limit. So stupid.

Yard sales;

I have become obsessed with yard sales and trips to the local thrift stores. I never seem to find any items around here for me but I've got Brantley nearly clothes for 18 months of his life. Still trying to get 3-9 months clothes but in stocked on everything else.

Really proud of myself because I know toddler clothes are so expensive and they literally wear things once.

Chance has been underway since Monday and it's making for a very long week. Life's a bit bored without him here. The weather has also been so nice, this means we're missing a lot of outing withs the puppy.

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with my neighbor and her husband. A bit nervous about this since the first group of girls I met weren't the best bunch to be hanging out with. Hope this one works out because she's literally across are back patio!


Wish me luck!!

Procrastination and the nursery;

Let's start with my horrible procrastination.

My husband arrived home from deployment last June. He had crossed the equator while on deployment and made the transition from "Wog" to "shellback". ( read more here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony ). When this is done its like an initiation and almost like a hazing in college but maybe even a tinsy bit worse. The get awarded a nice certificate and the hubs finally got his in January. We had discussed framing it numerous times and with the awkward dimensions of 15.5x21 it was nearly impossible to find a frame. Today while at Michaels they had a sale so I decided to go ahead and buy a bigger frame and just place the certificate on the included backing. Thank goodness I finally did this!!!

I also redid Brantley's nursery letters. We decided to switch from a Dino theme to a hunting and fishing theme so of course I had to reprint the letters I had already styled. It didn't take any time and was a ton of fun!!!

I've decided to finally quit caffeine for the baby but now that I have I've been getting horrid headaches... Think it's about time to start again.

Even though Chance is underway they finally anchored close enough to shore to get service and I got a phone call!! So excited to hear from him and get to run my mouth to him :) makes me super happy!

Brantley's nursery peak & other projects;

Today I finally finished up the canvas art for Brantley's nursery. It isn't much but I for one am extremely proud of it.

We're going with a fishing and hunting theme so I want to stay in the brown, green, and black color schemes with a bit of hot orange (for lack of a better color name). We've been looking for things to put in his room and i'm really hoping to find a wicker fishing basket and maybe a few old rods to hand pictures from. We're also going to out some deer horns in the room and maybe do a shadow box of lures from Uncle Dustin.

My other project is a reused boot band (blouser or blousing strap). I see a lot of projects with brand new ones but I felt that using one that Chance has used for years was more special to me. I took the old straps and placed a few charms on as well as a fastener. I'm proud to wear it and show it off even if it is a bit tattered.

Crafty mommy;

When Chance is gone there isn't much else to do but craft.

Yesterday I went and downloaded some Michael's coupons and got some great deals on canvas and picked up a few more bottles of paint. I'll reveal my canvas work when it's all done! Super excited to put it in Brant's nursery!

I also found a really cheap stripped onsie that reminded me of baseball. What would I do with this...? Make a Braves onsie of course :) our little man is definitely going to be an all American sports loving boy. I'm a big football fan as well as baseball and Chance is trying to get into my football spirit! He's more of the car guy (this does NOT mean the redneck NASCAR sport... I can't deal with cars going around in ovals on a pavement track, no fun wrecks or anything!).

After my post about little Roscoe puppy's shark teeth he has managed to get one out! Now his mouth looks even more funny. He's been trying to chew on our hands so much! Poor thing is teething!

Did I mention I'm 27 weeks today!!! Just three months until our due date!!! I found such a sweet inspiring poem about stretch marks and baby today. So cute!

Review of the week;

This past week has been so nice! Wednesday I hit the big 26 weeks! I'm looking like a big beach ball ;) I actually got around to making Brantley some shirts this week, very proud of myself!

Chance took a few days off and we spent some time with friends. Finally got the oil changed in his Civic SI (the light has been going crazy!!!). Saturday we celebrated Cinco De Mayo... Even though we have zero Spanish heritage. We spent part of our day at the beach trying to get Roscoe to swim. He didn't care to much for the waves and there are soooo many people at these beaches his brains were totally somewhere else (mentioning Roscoe, he has two rows of teeth... Little shark puppy). Later that night we had a coin out and huge barn fire at a friends house. It's always nice to see the guys and listen to their goofy stories! Saturday we took a chance and left Roscoe out while we left, to our surprise everything was in tack and no accidents!!!! Heck yeah baby puppy :)

Yesterday we decided to have date night. We hit some goofy golf joint... I epically lost at it :( its really not my thing. We ended the night with some grub at Murphy's. Honestly it was just ok... There wasn't anything special at all about it.

Although the time off was amazing, I had to wake up at 4:30 this morning to see my husband off for two weeks at sea. I'm not looking forward to only emails and no company at home. I've definitely got to get out more!


On the bright side, I drew and colored a picture today and now everyone wants to buy one...