Time to start blogging again...

Here lately I have really felt the need to start blogging again. I'm not sure if it will stick around or not but here goes...

Catching up... We have been up to tons of things lately. Boxen had surgery, Joel graduated from the police academy, I hit 35 weeks pregnant. Lots to catch up on.

First let's begin with baby Beau...

Today I am 35 weeks 1 day pregnant. He should be 5-6 lbs. We find out next Friday just how big he is supposed to be. I think that is when I get my GBS test and my first internal. JOY. lol.

This pregnancy has been really easy for the most part. Yes it is getting a little more difficult to get around and get through each day without some pain but I really can't complain. I had no morning sickness, I have not gained a ton of weight, I am measuring small so my belly is not huge. It has really been a blessing.

I love feeling Beau in there moving around, he gets the hiccupps multiple times a day and is really active around ten in the morning and four in the afternoon, then again at seven at night. I'm hoping any day now we will get to see a little loot stick out but for now we have no idea what the mystery lumps moving around in my belly are. We do know he is head down which is a blessing.

We had the 3D ultrasound done a few weeks ago and I think this one is going to come out looking just like his Daddy. Except for his nose, that is all me.

A few months ago my mom and I dropped off the baby furniture to be refinished. I had no idea what to expect but it turned out more beautiful that I could have hoped for! This is the dresser. It's a little dusty but we cleaned it off when we got it home. I'm glad we got it early because the upstairs smelled like wood stain for weeks. It is gone now but I'm glad we didn't wait. I would never had been able to put Beau in his crib with that smell.

 This is the wardrobe. I love having all this storage. For now the cabinet part of this holds extra hangers and some of the items we will not need for a while. Like the bouncy thing and the humidifier. Again it is beautiful!

Boxen and bella wanted to be sure that I didn't leave them out of this update. They are both doing well. Boxen had to have another surgery last month to remove another Mast Cell Tumor. This one was on his scrotum so it was much easier to remove than the last one and was a much easier recovery. We have since found a small spot on Bella but honestly we are still recovering from the cost of Boxen's surgery and having to pay the Doctor early for the cost of delivering Beau. I am keeping an eye on the spot and will take her in if it shows any sign of getting any bigger. Other than that they are both thrilled at our new work schedules. Joel is home until 2:00 and I get home at 5:30 so they are only alone for a few hours. Starting next week I will be working at home so they will really love that. Then when Beau gets here I am taking eight weeks off so that will be loved by all. They are going to be so spoiled having us home all day every day!

On to Joel's graduation. It took him two long years of hurry up and get this turned in and then wait for months to hear anything before we finally got the final yeas you are in the Dallas Police Academy. It was a wonderful day to be sure. He started right after our Cruise in March and just now graduated in November. Dallas has one of the longest Academys in the country. But they are also the best trained officers. I don't worry about him at all. I know he is careful and knows what he is doing.

The academy was a little rough at times. The first few weeks were the hardest. The physical and mental testing makes it feel like these guys are going through law school and boot camp all at once. If you fail any of the tests you get one redo and then you are out. That is incredibly stressful. Thankfully he passed all of his tests but one of them was really close with a 70. We were VERY thankful for the day when he passed his last test and then the final. The rest was physical and we knew he could handle that!

Eventually it was time to graduate. I can't even explain how excited we both were. His mom got to pin his badge on him for the first time and the next day they all got officially sworn in. It was a weekend full of celebrating and having a great time! Isn't he handsome! This is him with one of his favorite training officers.

 So that is what we have been up to lately. I already have some great posts to set up and get posted so stay tuned! There is a post about the cruise, crafts, the nursery, the new kitty, and lots of others. Then soon it will be time to post about this baby being born and all about him!

I can't wait to get it all out there again and be able to get back to blogging!



We are getting a skin baby!

Mom and dad have been acting strange lately. Mom sleeps and eats a lot and dad does everything around the house. (some of it at least).

But I think I finally figured out what is happening! Mom is going to have a baby!

We love babies, well we love the older ones, we haven't been close to many tiny ones. Boxen is really sweet and gentle with babies and I love to play with them. Even if they hurt me, on accident of course, I am still really gentle with them.

Mom keeps saying January 18 so the is when the baby will be delivered I think.I hope the FedEX guy delivers it I really like that guy.

Anyhoo I just thought I would let you all know! We are super excited!

Bella Kisses

Dog beds...custom style

Well I finally did something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I made a new cover for a dog bed. We all know that the covers that come with the beds are crap. They fall apart, they get torn, they are ugly. LOL

Well here is the new bed for the princess... (don't ask me why the picture is upside down. Blogger is making me mad with this latest update.) Also I need a better picture, and picture taking area. Ugh.

 

Anyhoo her name is sewn onto it with felt. Easy peasy. Just cut out the letters with my cricut and traced them onto felt. I sewed them on with my machine. See how straight the sewing is. Not...

The back of this the envelope style instead of having a zipper. In my experience dogs like to rip out zippers. the panels simply overlap as a pillowcase might do and that covers the insert. I also reinforced the seams with double sewing. Any place that I thought might rip easily got extra stitching.

The princess had to have material with a crown on it!

I am really proud of this. I am going to make one for Boxen next. Then hopefully I can talk someone into making a platform for them for the bedroom to raise them up a bit. We will see. I am determined to get the twin bed out of there. That is their bed now only because the sheets are easy to wash lol. 

I think she likes it! What do you think?

A little crafty

Last night when I got home I headed right up to my craft room. I was going to watch some Sarah's House, iron some clothes, craft a little, and let Joel study. What I forgot to do was turn the thermostat down.

Let me explain. In our two story house we have one A/C. It cools the whole house. In the summer this is unbearable. While we can keep the downstairs at a nice 75 degrees the upstairs is at least fifteen degrees hotter. The solution, another A/C unit. The temporary solution, a window unit. It is cheeper and I can turn it on when I need it instead of keeping it on all the time.

So here I was upstairs trying to iron with sweat pouring down me. Not pretty, I was not happy. So I decided that I do not iron, at all, and I was going back downstairs to take my now bad mood out on cleaning the house.

After some cleaning, some studying with my wonderful husband and a trip to the library and sonic for a diet coke things were much better. Unfortunately having a diet coke at nine at night is lot a good idea. By ten I was back in the craft room while DH was blissfully snoring downstairs.

Let me introduce you to my craft room...

It is not exactly like this anymore but it is close. The table is under the short curtained wall and the loveseat is on the opposite wall. That allows the floor to be open. My sewing machine is now to the left of the window with the long curtain too. I guess I need to take a new picture but that would involve cleaning the place up and we all know how bad craft rooms can get.

Anyway when I came out of the room two and a half hours later I had this...

This picture is upside down and taken with my iPhone but this is the start of my new purse. the flower pattern is the top and it has an outside pocket.

This is the inside. There are six smaller pockets inside.

Since I didn't use a pattern on this there are some things that I wish I would have done differently. I sewed the inside and outside fabric together first. I have since learned that this is one of the last steps. I'll show you why later. This meant that to sew the pockets on without haveing seams showing through I had t manuver fabric to only sew through one side at a time. In the inside I only wanted to sew thos pockets to the floral pattern. On the outside I only wanted to sew them to the geometric pattern.

Anyway I have some finishing to do but I'm pretty happy with it. I can't wait to show yall the finished item!

Kiki

Crossfit...

Seven months ago DH started Crossfit and loved it! It really helped him get ready for the police academy. Now I am in my third week of the class and loving it too. I thought I would do some posts about it and what I'm hoping to get out of it.

First of all this is me now in my way too tight favorite dress...

NOT PRETTY!

I have about fifty to seventy pounds to lose to be at the weight I want. This dress is a size 14.

I wanted an 18 but it did not go up that high. This is my goal: to get into this dress and look really hot in it within three months. I would need to lose twenty or thirty pounds.

This is a very doable goel with weight watchers and crossfit.

So onto CrossFit. It is a boot camp style fitness gym that uses your body and weights to work you out. The workouts are usually one hour long and kick your but. We are in the Fundamentals class right now for four weeks. the fundamentals class lets you come in a little slower than you would if you attended regular classes.

They provide programs for all age groups that are both universally ADAPTABLE and SCALABLE to individual fitness goals. The objective is to enhance overall wellness and maximize physical performance over the long term

I love it. They let me row instead of run. I can't run because of past injuries to my shins. It is physically very painful for me to run, do jumping jacks, or put any kind of shok to my shins. Sucks.

I will definately update you guys on how this turns out. I have been bad about weight watchers but starting Monday it is all steam ahead in the diet department. Before we went on the cruise I lost a few pounds without the workouts so I can only imagine if I put them together.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Go CrossFit!

Neglect...

Sorry everyone for the delay of posting, I promist to be better at it.

So what have we been up to. Well, adjusting to tell you the truth. It took us a while to get our head around this Police academy thing. Joel went from a position that gives you uniforms, a semi lenient schedule, and leaves you to your own devices to get your work done to a position that makes you wear a shirt and tie, and PT clothes, and you have to be there at specific times. Not to mention the studying, working out, studying, trying to balance life with all of this, studying, get the picture?

The good news is that he passed his first two tests! Woohoo! He is doing well and far ahead in the physical training part of it, thanks to Cross Fit. We are getting better at using our time wisely and studying. He has been really great at packing his lunch and snacks everyday. So now that things are evening out life should slow back down a little.

So what have I been up to you ask? Well I painted the den...

I have been playing a little in here...

I started classes at the CrossFit Gym in Grapevine close to my work... (no this is not me but I hope it will be in the future.)

And I am doing a lot of cooking, cleaning, and flash card writing. Fun! I love helping the hubby with his classes. I love seeing him this happy! He is a completely different person than he was those last few years where he was so unhappy at work.

So that is what we have been up to. Exciting huh? Lol

Everything happens for a reason...

For the last year DH and I have been without any form of baby prevention. To tell you the truth we had started to get a little frustrated. According to the Dr everything is perfect with us so there is nothing to worry about. Well I was still a little worried.

Then DH started the police academy. Now I know why. There is no way that we could do this with a baby. The academy is 34 weeks long. Then there is a period of field training. I know everything happens for a reason. I feel like the reason is that God knew we wouldn't have been happy dealing with both a baby and the academy. It would have really tested or finances and our relationship.

I finally feel like we are ready, really ready. The timing is good, our finances are in a great place, and our relationship is fantastic. Also I feel a little less obsessed about it now. There are so many people that say give up and relax and it will happen. It's time to test that theory.

We are back!

We are back from vacation! We had a great time! This month is crazy for us with DH starting the Police academy and it being year end at my work so there might not be many posts. Here are some pics to tide you over though.

Joel and his King fish!


These were all over the place at Grand Cayman.

It was really cool to see this ship in person after watching it being built on TV. The freedom of the seas.

Our beach spot in Jamaica!

Sunset one night on the ship.
There will be lots more to come but that is a few for now. Enjoy!

So much for relaxing on vacation...

A week ago we took Boxen to the vet because his eye looked irritated. The vet said he had scratched his cornea and gave us some drops to put in his eye every three hours.

All week Boxen has been getting Benadryl with his food to sedate him a little. He will scratch and rub on the eye otherwise.

Today he went back and it is worse. They are sending us to an opthamologist ASAP. They will probably have to do surgery, while we are on vacation.

I hate that this is happening to him. I hate that Joel will not be able to relax because he will be worried about Boxen. I hate that we are going to have to ask people to take care of this while we are gone.

I am confident that we will be able to mend Boxen's eye and if we can not we can have it removed and he will be just fine. He is eight years old so we have to think about the danger of putting him under for moltiple surgeries or just one to remove it. I hope that we can get into the Opthamologist soon. I really don't want my mother to have to deal with making those decisions about what to do.

Poor boxxy. For now he is wearing the cone of shame...

p.s. this was a week ago. Can you see the green area? That is his ulcer. That is what is causing all this.

The cruise itenerary

Hi everyone it's Bella again!

Mom wanted me to come and tell you all about her cruise! They have been telling us grandma is coming to stay with us for a week. We are SOOOO Excited!

Mom and Dad are leaving Saturday morning and driving down to see mom's friend and her new baby.

Sunday they leave out of Galveston. They didn't want to fly anywhere because their honeymoon got nearly ruined by those airplanes. I don't remember cause I wasn't born yet!lol

So this is what it will look like Sunday morning...

Then they will spend day two and three at sea...

They will be doing lots of playing on the boat those days. Mom says she just wants to lay out by the pool. Dad wants to try out the casinos.

On day four they will wake up to this view!

They don't have any plans for those days they are just going to see what they want to do that day. Dad wants to take mom to do some shopping and mom wants to lay on the beach. They are going to buy some rum to take home though.

Day five they will wake up to this! Grand Cayman! So pretty!

Then once they get off the boat they are going on an adventure to see some of these! Scary!

On that adventure they are going to be able to pet stingrays, snorkel, and relax in the water. Once that is done they want to go sight seeing a little.

Day six they will wake up in Cozumel. More beaches and sun! Woohoo!

This day they will take a short taxi ride to get on another smaller boat. They are going deep sea fishing. Dad has always wanted to do that and mom fouund a really great price! The boat will take four so mom and dad are hoping to find two friends on the boat to go with them.

On that boat they will fish and snorkle. They will have food and drinks for mom and dad and whoever else they take! Then once they are done they will be dropped off where someone will cook their fish! I wish they could bring some home for us to try but the boat won't let them.

On day seven mom and dad will be at sea again. They are going to celebrate their 5 year anniversary that day. Fun! Congratulations mom and dad!

On day eight they will be getting off the boat and coming home to us! Woohoo!

Mom says I can't tell you when they are leaving cause that would not be safe but I can say you might see some pictures in the next three weeks sometime! I hope you will all have some great adventures like this soon!

Boxer wiggles
Bella

Trixy's story...

Say hello to Trixy...

The story...

So after waiting weeks and walking outside every thirty seconts we came to the conclusion that Beau had found another home that fed him more food. ( BTW that is the story that I have to believe so please don't comment on the other options. K thanks.) I was still checking the loval shelter website in the hopes that he would show up there.

Well as you know there are always lots of kitties and doggies on the shelter websites. They all need homes. They are all usually really cute. So one day I decided to go up there and sign up to volunteer and possibly foster. I also wanted to see a kitty named Jasmine that was having some problems adjusting to see if I could help her. She was really an unhappy kitty and had to be released to the bridge then next day. After she bit a few people the shelter didn't really have any other option.

As I was leaving I was walking past the cages and saw this...

I have a soft spot for tabby kitties. My andy looked just like this... see...

This baby girl was named princess, the same thing Andy was named when I got her. She was 6 lbs and full grown, same as Andy. She had the same colors and furrs. So I asked to see her. Before I realized what I was doing I flipped her over onto her back and was holding her like a baby like I used to do with Andy. It took me months to get Beau to let me do this. Princess curled up and started purring and making biscuts, no freakout just instant comfort.

I know this sounds weird but it was almost like my Andy had come back to me. I had to have her. Later that day Joel came to the shelter with me to do the allergy test and fell in love with her too. We decided she was a Trixy and not a princess though. This girl loves to play!

So she came home with us that next Tuesday. She needed t be spayed and get all her vaccinations. She has a very pretty tummy... see...

She loves to play while I'm in the craft room

And she loves the cat perch

I'm sure you will hear lots more from miss Trixy. Be sure and check back for updates on this beautiful little girl!

p.s. miss Trixy is sporting Pink soft claws now thanks to her scratching habbit. Also she will never go utside. We will never have an outside kitty ever again.

What happened to Beau...

Our brodder Beau joined us last year sometimes. It took him some time to get used to us but after a little while he tured into a kind of cool kittie. He and I would vhase each other around and he LOVED mom, Lots. He and dad never really got around to likin each other but dad said he was lots of fun to wrestle with.

One day Beau decided that he was really unhappy. He started attackin Me and Boxen and being mean to mom and dad. Beau was a Ferrral kittie when he was a baby and was tamed, whatever that means. So he always wanted outside. Mom would let him out on the leash but had heard too many stories of kitties getting hurt outside. Well one day Beau bit mom and she kicked him outside!With her foots! ( not hard, it was more of a nudge but it still suprised us).

Well Beau loved it outside and after mom got a little more comfortable leaving him outs it was working out great. He would come home sometimes with a scratch or a cut but there are a lots of cats in our neighborhood so mom just figured they were figuring things out. she would keep him inside on nights like halloweens and christmas so that he would be safe. When it would rain she would worry about him and rush home to let him in. She would dry him off and they would snuggle.

Then on New years day mom was tryin to keep Beau inside to keep him safe from drunks drivers that night. When she let us out he snuck out too. That was the last time we was him. He never came home. We put up signs and asked all of the neighborses but no one had seen him. In fact they all were happy he was gone since he had been picking on all of their cats and stealing their foods. Mom was really embarrassed. She told the neighborses that we would keep him in if we found him and to please let us know if they knew anything.

Mom wanted for a whole month for him to some home. She would go outside with us everyday and walk along the fence hoping to see him. I think she still might wish that she would see him one day jumping over the fence running to see her. He always used to come runnin when she called him, no matter how far away he was.

I know she misses her snuggly kitty, and her fat boy. I definately miss chasing him around the yard. (The new kitty does not like to be chased by the way.)

RIP Beau, We hope you are just living it up somewhere else with another family.

Beau loved to play with mom. He loved this feather thingie.

After he startied staying outside he would comes inside to sleeps. He loved to cuddle with mom while he slept.

Sometimes if he was tired enough he would even sleep with dad!

We have a lots of sleeping pictures. I wish we had more other pictures too.

Mom loved his tipped ear. She thought it gave him character!

In the end we loved to sleeps and snuggles. I think he finally figured out how warms we were!

RIP brodder. I miss you.

wiggles and snorts,

Bella

Boxen, Bella, and Beau

Hello again everyone! We are back!

Mom took some time off for another blog but it is not nearly as much fun as this one so we are back! WooHoo.

It's time to catch up on what has been happening. We have been swimmin, and travelin, and got a new kitty sister, and cuddlin, and eatin, and lots more. Mom and Dad went to California and are now going somewhere called Jamaica!

Here are some new pictures of us for those of you that might have missed us! Just in case you forgots what we looks like. We sure missed all of you!

This is one of the last pictures taken of our brodder Beau. Mom says we will prolly not ever see him again.


Mom just happened to get this one of us snugglin. We love snugglin.



I also love love love to lay out in the backyard and get some sunnen. I'm a happy girl here after a walk with mom.



Sometimes if I'm really good I get to go for a ride with mom in the car. Boxen doesn't like the car so I get to spend this time alone with mom, YEA!



This last one is of us guarding mom in her craft room. Craft rooms can be very dangerous you know.



Anyhoos we will be back and posting more often. We sure missed our bloggy friends.