The Holidays....

       Every year I tell myself that I'm going to do better about starting my Christmas presents early. And Of course I NEVER do. So these past two months have been filled with sewing machines, knitting needles, crochet hooks, slow cookers and of course my favorite baby in the entire world!! Which adding all of those together adds up to a very slow going at completing Christmas. But thanks to my AMAZING husband I was able to get everything done tonight!!! So I'm officially done and ready for Christmas and now I just get to sit back and relax!! (However, we still haven't sent out our Christmas Card this year... so for those of you getting it late I blame the baby ;) jk) I'm not going to spill any of what my needles and hooks have been doing since most of it will all go to family members, however for my lovely co-workers I made them all some amazing Apple Butter. I was planning on making them all some kind of snow flake to go with it, but I decided that my sanity and lack of stress was worth not doing them this year.

       But just to update on the Matthew Long family. We are all doing great and loving having that Dad is done with finals and can now help Mom get everything ready for our trip to Vegas. I'm loving that I can leave Eric home when I go to work this week, especially with how crazy it's been with last min gifts. I have to admit, with all the crazy kids/parents I see at work, I'm so grateful that Matt and I came from semi-normal families.

       Other then that life has been the same old thing, with bursts of joy watching Eric learn and grow. He's currently trying to figure out crawling and has moved a few times, but then Bray'Tac walks by or comes into his view and he just starts laughing and forgets about crawling. If I had to guess though,  I'd say Bray'Tac is soon going to be chased around the house by our little guy (at which point I will either spend the day filming the chase or playing hide and seek with Bray'Tac).

       But that's all the news for now!!


Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

And then one morning it was OCTOBER!!!!

      Do you ever feel like time just flies?? This is so how I feel right now. I swear I was just in the hospital giving birth and now I have a 3 month old!! I keep trying to tell him that he's not allowed to grow anymore... we're still working on the whole listening thing... But Eric had a big mile stone today!! He had his first ever solid food! Peaches and rice cereal for 2nd Lunch and Peas and rice cereal for 2nd dinner!! He was so funny eating them! I seriously wish I would've had a camera with me. He would make a face like he was trying to figure out what I was feeding him and then laugh and gobble it all up. It was so cute! Currently we are just making his baby food from either frozen veggies that I already have or from fruits that I canned. I totally prefer making his baby food this way because then I know EXACTLY what is in it and I know it's ALL good for him.

       Currently my little angel is snuggling with his daddy and loving his thumb (or middle two fingers, which ever he can get into his mouth first). It used to worry me when he started doing that, because I thought it meant he was hungry. and then he started doing it right after having eaten and spit up. So now it know it's just a comfort thing, and just makes me smile.

       Anyways to play catch up, Matt and I have been doing great. Just keeping busy being new parents, going to school, working, sewing clothes for Eric and teaching sewing classes. All of which has been wonderful!! (except the homework part of school...) Eric has started to sit up on his own a little, so we've been letting him sit up more and just put his boppy/nursing pillow around him so that if he does fall he doesn't get hurt. He has loved being able to sit up and see the world. And I've loved that I can do more now that I can just let him sit up and look around at the world. Other then that, we've just been watching our little baby grow into a little boy.

      Oh as a side note, We are going to be a Jedi family for Halloween. I told Matt that it couldn't really work because Jedi aren't allowed to get married... but he just laughed and said "Well, fine we can be bad Jedi then."    Silly Hubby...

Trying to find joy...

      Tuesday I took the NCLEX-RN again. I felt really good going in and coming out of the test. But since then, not knowing how I did is started to eat away at me. When I first got out of the test I walked out to where Matt was waiting for me. We talked a little bit and I asked him if he had internet reception. He said yes, so I snagged his computer and tried the Pearson Vue trick (basically you try to register to take the NCLEX again, if it doesn't let you pay then supposedly you pass, if it does let you pay then it's likely that you failed). It wouldn't let me pay, so I had really high hopes that I'd passed. I felt so good about what I'd done, and to make things even better, Matt took me out to dinner at a Thai restaurant up in Sandy to celebrate having taken the NCLEX and being done (for the time being). Well after we got home after picking up Eric, I couldn't believe that I'd passed. And I started to have this horrible feeling that I'd failed again.

       I kept thinking about how I'd probably failed again. About how I'm going to deal with needing to take that stupid test all over again.  I thought about all the things  I'd rather do with my life, just so I don't have to face that computer screen and all 265 questions just to fail again. When it all boils down to it, all I want to do is be a nurse. I've wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember, and yet actually being a nurse always seems just out of my reach. I was surprised at how much it hurt when I didn't pass the first time, and how long it took me to get over feeling like a failure. What surprised me even more was how over powering and how quickly they came back. It got to the point that I just couldn't handle not knowing anymore, so I paid the extra money to find out if I'd passed or failed. The answer. I failed. Since then it's just been one attempt at holding it all together after another.. Soon I'll go curl up in a ball and just let the tears cascade, but only for a short time. Then I'll slowly start picking up the pieces and start studying again. Who knows maybe 3rd times the charm with this too....

Best homemade Thai Peanut sauce/curry I've made!

So I got this recipe off on one of my friends blogs and pretty much fell in love! For once my peanut sauce didn't turn into goop! Woot!!

1 cup of Rice

1/2 bag of frozen stir fry veggies (fresh veggies work even better if you have them!)

1 cup chicken chunks (1 raw chicken breast)

1 8 oz can pineapple chunks, drained

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

1. Cook rice in a rice cooker, or according to package directions if using minute rice style

2. Cut up chicken breast into tiny chunks and cook in a pan until cooked through. 

3. For sauce, in a small saucepan stir chicken broth into peanut butter. Heat and stir with a wisk until peanut butter melts. Stir in soy sauce, lime juice, red pepper, and garlic; heat through. 

4. Add sauce to cooked chicken. Add pineapple and frozen (or fresh) stir fry veggies. Cover and simmer until veggies are no longer frozen (about 3 minutes. 

5. Pour sauce/chicken mixture over cooked rice and enjoy!

Makes: 4 Servings

It says it served 4, but not in my house!!

Two years seems like a week...

         Two years ago I married my best friend in the whole world. Looking back on the time we've spent together it seems like we just started dating, yet at the same time if feel likes we've always been together. These two years have been the best of my life (excluding when Matt had to leave for trainings, but even those times helped bring us closer together...).

I could probably go on for hours about how amazing these past two years have been, but I think I will go snuggle with my hubby instead ♥

Who knew the tears would come so quickly...

       I've always been protective of children. Especially since my parents added Daniel and Matthew to our family. They taught me what it meant to be an older sister, and what it meant to have someone younger then to care for. They are the ones that taught me how precious life really is. Matt is the one that made me want to adopt a child, and provide a better home and stable environment to grow in.

       Then Eric came into my life, and I learned about a new kind of love. The love a mother has for her children. I knew that loving a my own children would be different then how I feel about my nieces and nephews. But I didn't realize that having a child of my own would affect every other part of my life. I didn't know that once I had a child that I would grow to be more protective of children. I didn't even know that I could be more protective of children then I already was!! Then books that my dad used to read through his tears to me as a child made me start crying as I read them to Eric. Songs on the radio about children started touching me in different ways. Stories on the news about children being abused made me angrier and want to save the children from their abusers. Posts on blogs about children with incurable diseases brought me to tears, just from the pictures, and crying uncontrollably from their stories.

       I used to think that crying over anything was a sign of weakness. But now I know that crying for the right reasons is not weakness. If anything it's a sign of a loving heart. I hope that is something that I can teach my children as they grow. I'm sure when they are young they will be as baffled as I was when my dad cried reading us stories at night. I hope to teach them to embrace the caring natures they are born with, and use it to better the world around them in anyway they can.

Pushy husband...

       So after talking to Matt and finally having something sell I've decided (with more then a little nudging from Matt) to set up a blog/etsy to sell some of the things that I've made. It's not much right now, Matt's going to help me take some better/more pictures. But this is what it looks like so far! http://www.mmcustomcreations.blogspot.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MJHLong?ref=pr_shop

I'm waiting to put anything up on the Etsy site until Matt can take some better pictures. But that should hopefully be soon! :)

Just cause I can't help but take pictures :)

Sleeping with Ayden and Cambree

With Skyler and Ayden

This is my "grumpy gills" face, depending on the cry it either means feed me/hold me/get that camera out of my face ;)

Loving life with Matt

Sleepy face

Sleeping with Daddy after a hard night in the hospital

Sleeping with Grandma Hennen

Sleeping with Grandpa Hennen

First nap at home in his crib :)

Sleeping on Mommy

Enough with the pictures already!!

Hide-a-baby sleeping with Daddy

Meditating on Mommy's lap

"Hi Dad"

"I don't want to hear it"

Now I just need to remember to bring my camera and get some more pictures with the Long side!! :)

Life with a newborn

       Eric is one week old as of today! It's crazy to me how fast this past week has gone by! At his check up appointment Eric was about as perfect as a baby could be! He'd only lost 2 oz in the hospital and was up to 7 lbs at his initial / jaundice check up. I really feel blessed to have such a healthy baby! Even with the initial scare he gave us, I couldn't ask for a better baby. Matt has been loving every second of being a dad and has been so much fun for me to watch when he takes care of Eric. I've loved having Matt home during the day to take care of Eric so I can take random naps. Even though Eric sleeps most of the day, having Matt here to be able to take care of him so that I can take random naps has been wonderful!! And I love watching them bond, they are both just so cute together I can hardly stand it!! I mean look at these two!!

 

    I'm pretty sure life doesn't get any better then this! I love these two boys more then I ever thought possible!  And I'm so excited to spend the rest of my life/eternity with them!! 

Announcing Eric David Long!! :D

Eric David Long
Born July 10, 2011 at 4:14 AM
6 lbs 10 oz & 19.5 in

My Little Burrito Baby

 

       I was so grateful that Matt had gotten his phone back on Saturday night! I really don't know what I would've done if he hadn't had his phone. I'd tried sending a Red Cross message to get him home for the delivery, unfortunately since I wasn't having any complications with the labor the Red Cross couldn't (or wouldn't...) do anything about getting Matt home.  Thankfully I was able to let Matt know early enough that he was able to get everything worked out on his end to get sent home since he was done with training anyway. The only downside was that his plane didn't leave from Tacoma, WA until 6:05 on Sunday morning :(

       Our precious Eric David Long was born on Sunday at 4:14 AM. He was so anxious to get here that he didn't even wait for the Dr to get here before making his grand entrance! His dad was on the phone with me during the whole labor and was my counting distraction during the contractions/pushing. I was grateful that he came when he did though, it made it so that I could send Matt some pictures before he boarded his plane to come home. Unfortunately the joy of Eric's arrival didn't last long before he was making me worry about him. When Eric was born part of his lungs didn't open completely. Which meant I got to glance at my precious baby before they took him away to the NICU to find out what was wrong. And all they told me before they took him away, was that they were concerned about his coloring and were going to monitor him in the "transitional nursery" (NICU observation). I asked my mom to go with the nurse and my baby so I could find out what was going on, as they weren't telling me anything at the time. My mom kept running back and forth between Eric and me letting me know his progress. Eventually they told us what was wrong and what they were doing about it. Which took a huge load off of me, but I still was just aching to hold my son. It took little Eric 5 hours to open his lungs and pass all the tests the doctors were giving him. When they finally brought him down to the Nursery where I could finally hold him I was over joyed. My nurse took me to see him and Eric's nurse was awesome at explaining everything she was looking at during his assessment. He definitely didn't like getting his shot, or having his diaper changed, but hearing him cry was the most amazing sound I'd heard all day. After she finished assessing everything with him, she helped me and Eric back to our room to finally have some time together. It felt like seconds had passed before Matt walked in the door (even though in reality it'd been about 2 hours). Eric was absolutely perfect and seeing Matt's face when he first saw his son was amazing. I think at that moment the world could've ended and I wouldn't have noticed.

       I was very glad that the rest of the hospital stay was boring and over quickly. Matt and I are loving being parents to such an amazing baby boy (even if he did keep us awake at all hours our first night at home ;) ). I've loved watching Matt as he takes care of little Eric. It's funny to me how alike they already are, Eric is very much his fathers son and a Daddy's boy. Every time Matt says anything if Eric is awake he looks around to find his dad. :) I can't wait to see how they grow and change in the next few days, especially as Eric starts to notice more of his surroundings. :)

       But my little boy is pretty sure it's dinner time, so I'll post again later.

~Melanie
    

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

       So tonight Matt got to call!! Granted it only lasted about 5 min and consisted of him telling me that he got a really bad sinus infection right after getting out of the field (thank heavens it wasn't while he was in the field!!), him asking if I was still prego, to which I responded maybe just to make him sweat a little ;) and then letting him know that yes the baby was still in the oven and me telling him that I needed his address to call him home (which he ended up having to call me back with because he had to go get an OPODR, but hey now I have it!!).

     It's funny how we get used to living without things, and then when they are back how crushing we realize it was to be without them... Don't get me wrong, I knew I missed Matt's voice and being able to talk to him, but I never really let myself know just how much I missed it until I got to hear it tonight. Even if he did sound very off because of his sinus infection... I'm so looking forward to him getting home and being able to take care of him again. I really can't wait! Between being able to talk to him again and being able to see him again I don't know how I'll be able to handle all the excitement and keep this baby in long enough for him to get to the hospital :P. I don't know why, but I keep getting this feeling that I'll have this baby within a few days (as in by the 16th) of him getting home. However until he boards that plane to come home Matt has placed me on bed rest (which I quickly negotiated down to doing as little as possible because I would go crazy being trapped in my house for a week!!) Granted Monday afternoon I'm planning on working out in the yard all day in hopes of getting this baby to start working his way out... And with it being my first I'm probably safe to bet that I won't have a very quick labor so unless I start having major contractions Monday morning I plan on doing everything I can to get this baby out of me ASAP!

       But this child is letting me know it's bed time so I will write again soon I just had to tell someone about how exciting it was to get a few min to talk to the most amazing husband in the world!! :D

Night all!!

Two weeks and counting...

       It's officially been two weeks since I last saw the love of my life, and 12 days since I last got to talk to him. I think that last part has been the most frustrating part of LDAC training for me. it just doesn't make any sense to me that when he was at basic with a bunch of teenage/newly enlisted soldiers he was able to call on Sundays and write during the week, and yet when he's at training to be an officer he's not allowed to do either (he can write when he gets breaks but he can't send/receive mail). I mean come on! These are men/women they are training to be the next set of officers for the army but they can't even be trusted with phones?!? And yet the newly enlisted soldiers that pulled all kinds of crap at basic were allowed to have phone privileges?!?! How does that even make sense!!??

       K I'm done venting now. It's just been really bugging me ever since Matt left. But oh well, I'll just count down the days/nights until July 9th when Matt will get his phone back and I'll finally be able to talk to the love of my life again.

       In other news, since Matt left I've been keeping myself extra busy between picking up extra hours at work and making baby things for my little prince and for my friends that are also expecting (I think I counted 12 of them?? 5 that know what they are having and 3 that will find out next month...) It's been kinda nice because I've been able to use up a lot of my stash of fabric/yarn which has emptied some plastic bins and given me more storage space :). although I think Matt would just laugh at my growing stack of UFO's (un-finished objects), it's been nice to have lots of different things to work on. Especially since my attention span has dropped to a max of an hour a day on any given thing.. I'm claiming is a pregnancy thing, but it's probably just because it makes me feel like the day goes by faster if I keep switching what I work on throughout the day... Especially without having Matt here to tell me to go to bed at a decent hour... *sigh* I never realized how much I planned my day around Matt until he wasn't here to plan around. He was always my alarm clock, my dinner time "appointment," bed time setter and a bunch of other things that I can't think of names for right now... I think the thing that gets me the most is looking back at how different my life was before Matt and I got married. I was always "Miss Independent," I always did what I needed/wanted when I needed/wanted without needing to be told, and yet since he came into my life it's like I can't make the unimportant choices anymore... and now I'm just starting to ramble because I should be going to bed, and yet all I want to do is sit on my couch and day dream about Matt and Eric... and now that I've admitted that I'm tired I'm starting to fall asleep typing so I'm going to head to bed now... Night!!

Just for Eric :)

       So I just realized that I haven't been showing you guys the finished products of everything I've made for our little angel since finding out we're having a boy!! So to play catch up here are some pictures of everything that's finished :)

  

 

 

 

This is for turning napkins into bibs when all the ones I have are either nasty, or I just forgot to pack one :)

 

       This is a close up of his blessing outfit, the symbol on it is a celtic knot for "eternal family and love." Which I thought was very fitting for a blessing outfit :)

 

These onesies were my first attempt at sewing on stretch knit fabric. I'm hoping that the rest of the clothes I'm making him out of knit fabric turn out better...  I'm still just learning how to sew on knits, but I'm really happy with how they turned out!!

       Besides all of this, I have 3 more outfits that I'm currently knitting, a bunting, some sleepers, and several more onesies that I'm going to be sewing for my little prince! I'll post pictures of those once they are finished as well :) Granted those pictures will also probably have a cute little baby to go with them!! :D