the first blog

First of all, I have to say that I stole this blogging method from my friend Jessica. It's a place where I can just say whatever I want without feeling guarded. I have "friends" on myspace that are family. So sometimes I edit my blogs because I know they're reading them. Here, I can say anything I'm feeling and not feel guilty for it. Not that I don't want my family to know my true feelings, but I do care what people think of me. Especially my family.

I can be free here. And I know at least one other person who feels that way. I hope she finds a place where she can blog freely. I suggested this site after reading Jessica's blogs.

Now, on to the actual blogging...

I'm thinking that pretty much everyone that is going to be reading this already knows me, so I'm not going to go into too much history here. But in case someone randomly finds this, I'll start by saying...

Hello there...thank you for your interest in reading my thoughts.

I'm 26, a mother to Theona...who will soon become a big sister in August (or maybe July), married to Loren and currently living in the crappiest military housing you can find at Ft. Campbell.

Most of my blogs will probably concern any of those details. I don't really have much to say at this point. This week is going to be pretty boring. I do have a doctor's appointment on Friday. Nothing fun. Just a routine pregnancy check up. But 10 days later, I'll be finding out the gender of my baby!!

My mom will be visiting then too. Her spring break is that week. She's a professor at UGA, educational psychology. I haven't seen her since a little before Christmas. I LOVE that she is a professor, teaching only two days a week. She gets all the school holidays off and long weekends because her teaching days are Tuesday and Thursdays. It makes living 5 hours away from her a little easier.

One benefit of Loren deploying is that I'll be able to visit her and my grandparents more. I haven't been down to Gramma and Poppy's house since Christmas, 2006. They live in Jesup, Georgia. The smallest little town ever! But hey, they do have a Walmart! They live about an hour from Savannah and an hour and a half from Fernandina Beach, Florida. So there's always something to do when we go down there. My Uncle Billy and Aunt Evette live there as well with my cousins, Lewis and Kali. My cousin, Chris is stationed at Fort Shaw in South Carolina. He joined the Air Force a little over a year ago.

*At this opportunity in the blog, I'd like to pay my respects to our old playhouse, built by my Poppy with loving hands for his 3 oldest grandchildren (me, Amy and Chris)*

Seeing Theona with her great-grandparents makes me so happy. I only got to know one of my great-grandparents really well. Great Grandma Look lived next door to my grandparents. She passed away in 1997. They own her house, which now belongs to my cousin, Chris. So it's nice to be able to go over there when we're visiting. Just to remember her. When Loren and I got married, Gramma gave me some of G.G.s old pots and pans. And I have a ceramic bowl of hers. It has painted flowers on the inside. She never owned a lot of stuff, but all of her great grandchildren have something that belonged to her. And she was able to meet all of her great grandchildren, so that's extremely special.

I don't really think about losing my grandparents. We've been blessed to have so much time with them. They are both in pretty good health and are both still very active. They have 2 great grandchilren so far. And another little one soon. I hope they have as much time with them as I did with my G.G., more time even.

My dad's mom has just been moved into a nursing home. Something she has dreaded forever. Her health hasn't been the best even since her children were teenagers. My grandfather died in 1992, 5 months after my brother was born...on my grandfather's birthday. He had smoked for 40 or so years and had also ended up with asbestos from laying carpet for so many years. It's pretty amazing that my grandmother is still with us. We're hoping to go out and visit her soon. Maybe in June. Any later and I may be too pregnant to go.

Well, this blog seemed to shape up quite nicely. I was afraid I wasn't going to have anything to say since I blog pretty regularly on Myspace. Well, I guess stay tuned for more...