:: Brinna's ::

:: Thursday, December 21, 2006 ::
:: ready for Christmas!! ::

I finally completed my Christmas shopping yesterday. I went to the mall at 9am, so it wasn't bad really...and it's almost always nice to get out of the house.

I'm glad I've been doing Christmas baking lately, apparently we won't have time to in Virginia. Last Christmas I was there we made a ton off cookies etc but not this year. I would have been really disappointed if I'd waited and we didn't make any.

Today I painted the nursery's base coat. We used paint we got at Lowe's, on the 'oops' shelf. Above the moulding we painted a medium-dark grayish blue, and under a medium-dark greenish blue. It's definitely darker than I thought it would be but looks nice. Tomorrow morning I'll sponge light blue on top, to make sky and clouds, and below the moulding I'll rag/marble the upper paint on the greenish paint, in the hopes that it will be kinda multi-colored like an ocean. Later I'll paint some things like fish and seagulls.

I have 3 Christmas cards now! Yay! I sent 8 and have received 3 so far. I better get some more, people, start mailing... hehe.

Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving for Virginia, probably taking someone with us and dropping them off at Richmond. We'll get there awfully late, but better than never. Unfortunately Moby has to come with us, but better that than paying someone to take care of him.

Alice is starting to talk a whole lot...she knows about 15 words that make sense, but she says a whole lot that doesn't make sense. I'm so glad, I wasn't really worried but still. I think I'll get her a potty when we return from Virginia. Never too early for it to sit there..

I'm sure there's something else I could talk about but I don't know what off the top of my head, so Merry Christmas!! and a happy new year!!

:: Brinna 1:40 PM [+] ::
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I've gotten most of my shopping done already. Just a couple more people left, on Andrew's side. I mailed everyone else's yesterday, as well as a bunch of cards. Talk about a line at the post office! There was even quite a line for the self-service machine, but I sent some of it media mail, which was incredibly cheaper, and you can't do that with the machine.

I made bread for the first time yesterday, and it came out really well. It wasn't whole wheat unfortunately, I was just using the stuff I already have. I haven't gone grocery shopping in quite a while, but next paycheck I'll be filling the fridge again. I'm surprised at how much I have on the shelves. This paycheck was very slim...well, the leftovers were. We've been paying extra on the house to get a month ahead to get on the accelerated payment plan, plus Andrew started sending an allotment to our USAA account that the car payment gets taken out of. Next month should be normal again, and our next major money eating project is the master bathroom. I don't know what all we're doing to it, but I'm sure we're tiling the floor and shower. We'll see when we have a couple grand saved. If we can be as miserly as we have been this month it won't be long. :)

Andrew finished the pantry shelves! They look really nice. We got some good wood and he put a decorative edge on it with his router, then stained them a medium brown. They're a dark oak color I guess, close to mahogany. It's wonderful to have so much space to put things. My kitchen is so small! Hopefully when we paint the cabinets white it will help.

He also finished removing the wallpaper from the walls in Alice's room. That was a long hard job. Most of the wallpaper in the bedrooms was self-stick, so not hard to remove, but Alice's room was the 'good kind', and Andrew had to put in a lot of elbow grease to get it off. I would have done it, but the fumes weren't good for my condition. Next is painting the room. It's white on top and a bright mint green (!) on bottom, separated by brown chair rail moulding. I'm thinking of putting a thin layer of dark bluish-green paint I already have over the mint green, hoping it will come out looking like ocean water, and painting fish around the room. I'd have to paint above the moulding something else, probably sky blue. Maybe seagulls. Alice's furniture won't completely match but it won't be too bad.

I've been making various baked treats the past couple weeks. I finally found some cream of coconut for macaroons. I can usually only find coconut milk. I've made peanut brittle, brown sugar shortbread, and something else I can't recall offhand. The brittle was interesting. I made it double-thick by accident...I'd doubled the recipe and forgot to use double the pans! Tastes ok though... And I made jerky, which isn't baked but still good. I've finally gotten used to cooking dinner every day, and am actually getting to where my food tastes good instead of just decent. It's rarely tasted bad, to my knowledge... I've even forgotten to cook the frozen Stouffer's I have in the freezer, I've been more creative lately.

Not much going on at work lately, my boss is focused on Christmas. I've done with all the scarves, praise the Lord!! I was getting so tired of knitting. Now I can actually knit for ME again. Incredible. I enjoy sewing at home for the shop, still, but I will not go in to do alterations again. I forgot how stressful it was. Last week she had nothing ready for me, so she said I could stay and help out a bit if I liked. I didn't really want to, but I was there already. Oh what a nightmare...I altered some men's sleeves' lengths, which isn't terribly complicated but I'd forgotten a couple minor steps, which were easy to do. But it changed her entire attitude towards my work. Instead of being mostly right, she became incredibly nitpicky. The work was good, just a couple minor things, something noone else would have realized were wrong. I'm not saying I shouldn't have fixed what I did wrong, I'm glad to be corrected. It's just the manner in which it's done. I am grateful I have the chance to learn the difference between good work and perfect work. It's just that my boss can make you cry over the smallest thing, and it's not just because I'm pregnant, it's everyone who works there that I know well. I'm so glad I can work at home!

Well, I better get going, Alice is up from her nap, and I have laundry to fold. Merry Christmas!

:: Brinna 8:48 AM [+] ::
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I found out today that 1. my maternal grandmother had a heart attack, and 2. Early is spelled Earley. It's after my maternal grandad, it's his middle name. I actually think I like it better spelled this way.

Well my grandma seems to be okay, my mom says she seems pretty normal. They're looking to get a caregiver in the home, I think that will be better than Kristi living there because Grandad assumes everyone living there is a slug without a job. He has Alzheimer's, the poor man, and it pains us all to be around him so we just don't think about it. What can you do but just enjoy the time that is left? Of course not all of us can let it be so easily, some of us try to fix things, but we can't. I just thank the Lord he'll be going to heaven and kinda want him to hurry up and get there. It's funny, all the times you miss a call from someone and worry if it's important, and the time it is important it never crosses your mind.

Not a whole lot going on around here...I'm still sewing and knitting. Today I cleaned the house and had my first appointment with the birth center.

Thanksgiving went pretty well in my opinion, it was better than the first I spent with the Samsons before I was a Samson. Maybe I just feel a part of it more. I did half the cooking after all. :)

Alice is getting what I think are molars...She has 4 upper and 2 lower front teeth, and is getting one tooth on upper and lower on each side. So she was a little fussy for awhile but not abnormally. She still can't talk much but she's been drawing on things. She probably only knows 10 words. I think my family has always been slow to talk, I think...nobody would say Alice isn't smart though, you can see it in her eyes. She loves books and to dance. She also has recently discovered the joys of climbing on the bench I have behind the (kind of) island that the kitchen sink is in and spraying water everywhere.

I haven't really done any Christmas shopping yet, but I think I'll get most of the stocking stuffers at Cracker Barrel. They have great peanut brittle, chocolate Neccos, and giant Smarties rolls!

:: Brinna 5:44 PM [+] ::
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Not much time to write right now--Andrew's family is here. I just had my ultrasound today, though...look what we found out!

:: Brinna 4:33 PM [+] ::
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Errr...I had a nice entry all written out and Alice pushed the reset button on the computer. Well, as I was saying...it's high time for an update. Lots of things have been happening.

First, I got the call that let me know yes, I can give birth at the birthing center! Yay! Unfortunately, I have to wait until next week for them to finish processing it to get an appointment. I have to call Tricare (military insurance) to get an authorization # and an number to call to make an appointment. I probably won't be able to have my next appointment a month after this past month's, but I'm not too worried. I've already got my ultrasound appointment. Hopefully I'll get a pic up today, this past Tuesday someone finally figured out I was pregnant, at my Bible study. It's about time. :) They say I hide it well, which is odd because I've never intentionally hid it. I guess I just dress well? Then again, I didn't really want to completely show it off before I was really showing...I don't want to look fat. ;)

Today and yesterday I've been watching a 22 mo old boy, who is the son of one of the soldiers under Andrew. He was sick so the daycare told them he couldn't come, although he doesn't seem sick to me. He is sleeping a fair amount today though. Alice was thrilled to have him around, I'll be glad when our next is old enough to play with her.

I finished playing the computer game I'd been playing since John and Debbie were here. Well, not technically...there was one more major guy to kill but I couldn't, there was a bug in the game so I couldn't harm him. But I did everything else, so I'm considering it done, because Andrew and I are going to start playing another game together. We get on the computer after Alice goes to sleep. It's together time... :) We also watch Scrubs reruns together every weekday, and usually Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy right after. We also watch Lost every week, of course. Can you believe who kicked the bucket? And what's up with the 2 new ppl? I thought they'd be cool because the guy is a superstar in Brazil, and he was good in Love Actually, but their parts so far are totally lame. Except when he came out of the bathroom...some ppl thought it was stupid but it's just nutty like Lost. Come on, haven't you been wondering all this time where they go to the bathroom? And I said it right before him: 'Well, the toilet still works...' Also, give up, you crazy ppl who want Jack and Kate together! No way it's happening. Did you see the preview for next week?

Things at work are going really well. For some reason my boss really likes me. I'm totally not a brown-noser...in fact she kinda gets on my nerves. And I can't really perform when I go in to work and sew on her machines. I think she sees some of herself in me or something though, she's always telling me little tricks of the trade and trying to get me to raise my sights on things like jewelry-making. And I'm just about the only one I know of who hasn't gotten talked about behind their back. She's really rude to this one girl who works there, she keeps saying how fat she's gotten, that she needs to exercise. But the girl looks great. She claims that their waists are the same measurement (she actually grabbed the tape measure and measured the girl), but the girl is a few inches taller, and the proportions are completely different. My boss looks like she's pregnant the way older women can get, but the girl's stomach is pretty flat. Not everyone is obsessed about being a tiny size...not to mention some people actually have muscle and large bones... But aside from that, the work part is going well. For awhile it was just boring knitting but now, I've got too much to do almost. We're making tweed pencil skirts, pants, and holiday baby dresses, and I'm also making a jacket from the vintage patterns I got at the thrift store out of muslin or some other cheap fabric so she can see how they fit. She says older patterns usually fit better, and she wants to make jackets. We're also doing other types of skirts. I'm not doing a whole lot time-wise but I keep getting checks for $150-$200 a week, and it's nice. She claims that we're going to make her bankrupt, but I say that's her own fault for renting a massive house on Wilmington Island for $2000+/mo (think the size of the Samson house for a single lady) when she could get a decent apartment for well under $1000. Not to mention she's hardly ever at her house. And she's already claimed bankruptcy a couple years ago when she had a back injury and had to close her business. Oh well, enough judging for now, right?

What else is happening...oh, the $150 maternity jeans I bought at Burlington Coat Factory for $15 each and sold on ebay. I bought 7 pairs I think. Anyway they all sold and I probably made at least $100. That was pretty cool.

Andrew's making pantry shelves soon...we got the supplies already. After that hopefully he'll work on the cabinets, we're planning on doing decorative edging on them and cutting out the middle of the upper ones and adding muntins and glass. And painting them white. No more fake bleached wood!!

:: Brinna 2:06 PM [+] ::
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Here you go, by popular demand:




I'm obviously bigger sooner than my last pregnancy. But no one knows that for sure, because GEOCITIES ERASED MY WEB PAGE! All my wonderful naked belly shots that shocked grandparents everywhere. (Naked as in exposed torso, I still had all my clothes on.) Life will go on..

:: Brinna 4:02 PM [+] ::
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Wow, it's been awhile since I've written. And of course it will be awhile before I write again. : )

Andrew went to the field but he came home right away, because his grandma died. She'd had cancer for awhile so it's more of a relief than anything, to all of us. We all loved her and knew she was going to heaven. We flew to Oregon to visit his grandfather in Washington, that was a pleasant visit. Quite cool but beautiful. Andrew would really like to move out there when he gets out of the military. We stayed there a week, rented a car, and were encouraged to go sight-seeing, so we did. During the week we drove to Mt. Hood, climbed the path to the top of Multnomah Falls (no picnic when you're pregnant let me tell you...pregnancy does more to your body than just make you gain weight), walked around downtown (and in Powell's City of Books, a truly massive bookstore with used and new), walked along the length of a park on the waterfront of one of the rivers going through Portland, and drove to the coast. Of course we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory! But this time we drove north instead of south of Tillamook. Also, we drove part of "the Three Capes Loop, a 35-mile byway off US 101 between Neskowin and Tillamook, considered by many to be the preeminent scenic area on the north coast". Yes, copied off another site. : ) It was quite pretty, and we took a sandy trail that was a lot longer than we thought it would be, to the beach. I got lots of exercise on our vacation....

I went shopping at the Burlington Coat Factory the other day, and found quite a few pairs of a maternity version of a famous jeans designer, Earl Jean. They normally sell for $150 each and were priced at $15. I was like, holy cow...so I bought one of each of 5 sizes and I'm trying to resell them on ebay. So far they're all going to sell, and I sold one for $50 with Buy It Now, so at least I got my investment dollar back, even if I don't make much over that. Oh well. : )

Yesterday Andrew had the day off, and he built some shelves for our laundry room. I think he had fun...it certainly looks better in there. Next is shelves for our pantry. Then it won't seem like such a terrible thing to have the small kitchen...it will seem more.. erm..cozy than cramped. The wood cabinets are still painted like bleached wood (kinda 'out'), I plan to paint them white, but Andrew's going to take the doors and cut out the centers so I'll have glass doors, so we're waiting until after that. And I'll paint the insides red to match the red wall behind the stove.

I'm still knitting some, work's been really slow lately. Partly because Andrew's been unable to watch Alice so I can't go in, but also because she hasn't given me any sewing work to do. And plain knitting in a rectangle is getting a wee boring. :) But it's money and it's a great opportunity really, so I'm just going to wait and hope it improves. I haven't felt idle, so I'm great. It gives me more time to do other things. I do things slower now that I'm pregnant--less energy, so even if I don't do a whole lot, in reality I've been pretty busy all day. Story of most stay-at-home mom's lives, eh? Well I'm happy, and as long as I don't spend lots of moola, and the house is clean, Andrew's fine too.

Alice caught her first cold in Oregon..I think it was the day we went to the beach. I had her in a little sweater, but the wind was cold and strong, and it goes right through you. She never complained, though...her lips turned blue and she started shaking, but she wanted to run on the beach. She wouldn't let us hold her to keep her warmer. : ) So she's got some snot now, and she had a bit of a cough at first, but she seems to be feeling fine. I'm just so glad that she hadn't gotten sick until then, and that it was so mild when she did.

My mom and sister are coming to visit for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. We haven't seen each other since May, which is quite awhile when you consider I was living with them the past year and a half. : ) Kristi, I forgot to tell you, but you don't need to bring the Lost premiere tape with you, we watched the ep online at abc.com. Thank goodness for high speed internet. How about them fish biscuits? I was cracking up...Sawyer's a wily man.. And the opening scene? Now we know a bit more about what Walt meant when he said they're not what they seem. So Ethan's a plumber, eh? Ppl keep complaining that Juliet put the CD in upside down...but it was one of those double-sided ones. Take a 'chill pill' ppl.. : ) Goodness, I hate that saying...

With Netflix I have been getting all kinds of obscure things in the mail. I've watched half the first BBC miniseries, the Duchess of Duke Street. I also got the old Posiedon Adventure and it's sequel, with Michael Caine and Sally Field. There was a great classic mystery named Laura..that was pretty good. I love classic movies. I also rented Princess Raccoon, one of Zhang Ziyi's first films. Boy was that weird...we got it right before we were going to Oregon, so we didn't watch it all the way through. It was in a bizarre style, like a stage musical. The subtitles were poorly translated, and the story went nowhere. I think I would have enjoyed it if I'd had the time to watch it, but I had to knit a rush order for someone, so my attention was only half there. I still love foreign movies though!

:: Brinna 12:44 PM [+] ::
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Well, what's happened in the past two weeks...lots of course!

Andrew came home finally, last Wednesday. He got to stay home all of Wednesday after he graduated at about 11am, which was very nice. He was supposed to get 2 days off extra on the weekend, but he only got Monday, because they decided to send him to the field on Tuesday! For 3 weeks! Rrrr. Fortunately he surprised me by coming home that evening. They pushed it back to the end of the week, today. Fortunately, he's only going to be gone until the 9th, two and a half weeks. Just long enough to miss the Columbus Day 4-day weekend. Total bummer considering he missed the Labor Day 4-day while he was at NCO training. Go Army right?

Well this past Tuesday I went to a local sewing machine store and bought a new sewing machine. How exciting, right? Well not really that exciting because instead of a fancy Bernina I got an industrial sewing machine. Pretty simple, not even a zigzag...but very fast and much better quality. Raising the pressure foot with your knee is so convenient! I will still use my portable sewing machine but this will be much better for what I've been doing, and be helpful if I decide to start selling my own designs/creations. The money came from a bank account my dad's side of the family had been adding to on birthdays and Christmas for years, to go towards college. I still plan to go to college at some point but I think since it's going towards a job it's a wise use of the money. It was about a thousand dollars, and the sewing machine cost about $850. Then I bought a clothing iron like my boss has, for $125, which she has had for awhile and is still working great, and does a waayyy better job than my humble $10 iron I got from Big Lots. :) I don't know how much of a difference there is between regular irons and supposedly professional irons like Rowenta which cost $100-200, which you can get from places like Jo-ann's. When I worked with the lady in Lynchburg doing sewing she used one of those and it didn't seem that great. Also, I hear they don't last very long. The iron I bought actually has a separate container for the water, you don't pour it into the iron. It has tubing between the water bottle/tank and iron.

Andrew and I watched the whole 2nd season of Lost this past week. I'd seen every episode when it aired, but he hadn't, being in Korea. I don't do that for any other TV show. It's funny, I wasn't even obsessive about seeing each episode as it aired...if I was at home, I'd watch it. I still went traveling all about last year. But it happened that I traveled when it was a rerun that week. (Not too difficult I guess since there was a lot of rerun weeks last season.) I went to Virginia and watched the show with Debbie...the days I was on a plane were Wednesdays, but reruns. I flew to Korea for 5 weeks and it was all reruns while I was gone. Crazy. Unfortunately this year I'm actually going to have to go through the pains of programming the VCR, even if I catch every ep Andrew won't, and Kristi's not here to tape everything...sigh. :)

This past week I received a wonderful package from my mom, completely unexpected. Two containers of Frito-Lay's Hot Bean Dip! Thank you so much, Mom! I haven't had any yet, I'm saving it for when I finally remember to make my own corn tortilla chips like we did in 4-H. But they're on the counter just waiting for me. Yum! My bean dip was okay but I prefer wrapping it up like a burrito to dipping in it. I didn't use a recipe..I just dumped some beans in a blender (I got pintos instead of refried) with some jalapenos. Unfortunately Andrew's $15 blender he got in Korea wasn't quite up to the job, so that was it's final task. It started sparking and smelling just awful...it went in the trash can. At least I still have my own blender I use for smoothies. Maybe next time I'll mash them instead of blending? Or actually (gasp) bring out my Oster food center? Haha...

:: Brinna 10:18 AM [+] ::
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Hello all,
I suppose I need to recap the past week. To start, I had an uneventful drive to and from Virginia, aside from some heavy rain in Charlotte. I probably almost got in a wreck at least once but I don't remember the specifics. I usually almost get in a wreck at least once on road trips, and I think of all the trips I've taken it's been my fault once.

The hardest part of the visit was finding somewhere for Alice to sleep. We did not sleep well with her in my bed, she kept waking up and wanting to nurse. We tried her sleeping in Sarah's room for a couple nights, that worked for me and Alice but Sarah wasn't sleeping well. I tried getting her to sleep in Johnny's room, where my bed was set up, and me sleeping on the couch, but he wouldn't stop playing on the computer long enough for her to get to sleep. Oh well...I visited the Lees while I was there, they were very happy to see us. It's too bad Andrew couldn't come. Overall I didn't do much while I was there, just spent some time with the family. We watched a season of Scrubs, I'd never seen it before. It was alright, better than most shows on tv, but I really prefer Arrested Development.

I finished only two knit things for work, I'm not sure why I didn't do more. I'm trying to get another one done before I 'report' to my boss. It's slow going, I'm not sure why.

Today was Alice's wellness visit, she's pretty well still. :) Nothing wrong with her, still never been sick. (It's the breastmilk and lack of daycare.) It was also my first OB/ pregnancy visit, that went well too. I didn't have to pee in a cup, I'm not sure why...the only thing that really happened, was that I got my due date confirmed. And the method used also confirmed there's only one baby in there, cause I got an ultrasound! Yay! They have it on hand for physical therapy but my midwife swiped it and measured my baby from crown to rump. I have no idea what that measurement was but it said I'm right on for my estimated due date, April Fool's Day. I always get interesting due dates! But of course I expect to be exactly one week overdue. I didn't get to hear the baby's heartbeat but I got to SEE it beat and the baby wriggle around. Hallelujah.

Nothing much going on else, just trying to knit and eat enough so I'm not so starving I feel like puking every 3 hours. I went grocery shopping and got only a couple frozen meals, I mostly got fresh fruits and veggies and some canned goods. I've been eating frozen Stouffer's for awhile. Yummy but tiring and probably kinda fatty. I'm regaining some energy and with it, motivation to cook more than frozen taquitos and chimichangas. Which are definitely fatty. Also got some jalapenos and pintos to make my own hot bean dip, I wouldn't say I'm craving it but you can't find Fritos Hot Bean Dip ANYWHERE down here. I'm lucky I can find corn tortillas, cause the flour ones are crap. Who's got a good flour tortilla recipe?

:: Brinna 3:35 PM [+] ::
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Tomorrow I'm driving up to Virginia to see my inlaws for Labor Day. I'm headed up the day before the big travel day, as well as a day that's supposed to be pretty rainy, so hopefuly there will be little traffic, and my all wheel drive Subaru will do just as well as it did in Kansas. Or was it Missouri? Anyway, it was pouring rain and I had no problems.

Today I'm finishing up 2 pairs of pants my boss has given me to work on, and taking along a couple of knitting projects, so I won't have any lost time while I'm there. My main concern was how much gas money it would take, since I'm trying to save for an industrial sewing machine, but it's actually not that far away to drive. At least, not compared to Colorado. :)

Speaking of which, I better break the news now: as much as it pains me, because I dearly love the Christmas get-togethers, Andrew has decided that we are staying put this year in Savannah and that if you want to see us, you will have to come here. I expect that also goes for Thanksgiving.

I was remembering Thrify's Ice Cream the other day.. the cylindrical scoops... :) I looked it up online, and supposedly they still sell the ice cream in most Rite-Aids in CA and AZ. I knew there was a good reason I prefer the west coast...

Aunt Bonnie, I'm not sure if you still read this regularly...I tried to email you to see if you want Moby still. Andrew has never been fond of him, and while Alice loves Moby, Moby does NOT like Alice, and the inevitable happened, as in Moby bit Alice's finger. So, Andrew is very eager to get rid of him and we're trying you first. Andrew says he's willing to ship him to you. Please get back to us soon. :)

I sold some things on ebay this past week. I made about $70 gross, but unfortunately, only about half that is what we can keep. The rest is ebay fees, shipping costs, blah blah blah.

Andrew and I got a home warranty with our house, and today we're using it for a new garbage disposal. Our old one not only sprung a leak, it sprung a big hole in the top. There was a fountain coming out the side. There was an inch of water under the sink before I noticed. Fortunately it was only there a couple minutes, I had been rinsing dishes for the dishwasher. Owning a house is great, huh? :)

:: Brinna 9:42 AM [+] ::
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Well, it's been a week nearly since I last posted, and a fair amount has happened. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that Andrew is an E5 now, a Sergeant. He has to leave for training, next week I think, for a couple weeks.

Alice is coming along very well, although still not walking on her own. She loves books though, and is saying some real-sounding words and maybe even phrases.

It's working out great for me to stay at home and sew. I probably won't be doing as much work, but I don't need the practice any more, I'm at a high enough 'accuracy level', she says, that she can teach me things now. So my first job is a couple of pairs of pants. I'm pleased so far with how they're turning out, maybe my boss can see things wrong with them but I can't. And with less time at the shop, I have time to develop my own projects more. I might even finish the double wedding ring quilt I've been sewing since I was a preteen. And maybe I can sell things on etsy eventually...my skills are good enough, I just need more exposure. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm really optimistic with the way things are right now, and I'm even pretty content to stay at home most of the time. Which is something, I've always loved going about town. Maybe I'll go about more when I get to my 2nd trimester and I get my energy back..

:: Brinna 10:00 AM [+] ::
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Check out my new site at Etsy.com, everyone! Andrew discovered this site, and it seems to be like ebay for crafsters. Only, no bidding... anyway, I put some of my jewelry up that hasn't sold at my shop, and I'll also be putting up things later (crochet, knitting, sewing, whatever) that my boss doesn't really think will sell, but I'm making anyway. Either I'm just stubborn or I know something about my age group she doesn't.

Without further ado, my link: brinnarose.etsy.com

:: Brinna 2:53 PM [+] ::
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Yay, Alice took her first step! She stood up next to the chair I was sitting in, and I asked her to come here, and she took a step! And didn't even fall over, hehe! She did it like she's known how to forever.

All the Samsons are here minus the father, it's better to have them all here for a weekend. We went to the beach, of course, and today we're going to church. I think we passively chose a church, the sermons are pretty good and the people are alright, and it's very close to our house. We haven't gone to Sunday School yet, but they do have Awana!

:: Brinna 6:29 AM [+] ::
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The master bedroom looks drastically different than it did when we bought the place. Bye bye pinkish brown paint with odd wallpaper border, and the worst carpet in the house; the first major purchase made with my check was fancy patterned carpet. Also, we painted the walls dark purple. Spur of the moment color choice. I wanted to do something different, and Debbie's here, so she suggested purple. I do like purple, so we'll see. I hope for a pic of the room soon. Until then, here's a link to the carpet: Hollytex "Glamouresque" My next project is painting the kitchen cabinets white.

Andrew has the day off today. They call it a training holiday. We went in to my work and he hung things like mirrors and large pictures for a few hours, while I sewed.

Alice stood up last night, in the middle of the floor! We were so happy. After we cheered she did it a few more times, with lots of tries in between. She was laughing at herself.

This weekend Debbie and John go home. It was nice to have them here, but also nice to have them gone, which any family can understand.

:: Brinna 3:58 PM [+] ::
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Apologies to all per the big news, and apparently not announcing it...I was trying to do it sneakily and just add that new ticker up on the top of the page but I apparently didn't save the changes when I did it..doh...but it's there now. So tell me your guarded congratulations, I know you're all saying, 'what, again?!? what a chip off the old block...' but I'm happy, and so is my hubby.

:: Brinna 5:41 AM [+] ::
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After much frustration I now have a new kitchen faucet and reverse osmosis filter. We got one of those faucets that has a retractable hose come out. Then, this morning, we discovered by the fact that there's a squishy-sounding floor, one of the connections was leaking. All night. There was about a 3 foot radius of wet floor. Wood floor. Eek! Fortunately it has mostly come out with little apparent damage.

The movers broke the glass doors on our hutch/china cabinet, fortunately they weren't engraved or anything, they'll be easy to replace. But I did get a cut.

Not much reaction to my big news yet...except from Sarah, she was ecstatic. I've been kinda moody, but I have been working myself pretty tired with my job and the new house, so I think I'll get better.

And, I found a ton of apple juice just sitting on the shelves in the fridge. As in, not in the bottle anymore. So I know from experience that the LG french door fridge is very easy to dis- and re-assemble for cleaning.

I'm not sure I ever mentioned, the tub in the master bathroom, the first time we took a shower, the fiberglass split. Andrew stepped in on the end opposite the faucets and head, and it just cracked under him. We bought a home warranty, but of course tubs and showers aren't covered...

Overall, everything's great!

:: Brinna 10:44 AM [+] ::
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Not a whole lot new, but we did get our furniture! I haven't seen this stuff in nearly 2 years. It's been hiding in Salinas (Calif). I've been very tired lately,
if I'm not working at my job I'm working at home.

My sister-in-law's bday is today! Happy Birthday, Debbie!

:: Brinna 4:32 PM [+] ::
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Finally! We're in our new house. There's somewhat of a shortage on furniture, but it's better than the condo so far, which was like roach hotel. Not just regular roaches, but southern roaches. Large, bold, and lazy. They'll come out in the daytime and stroll across your floor. The middle of your floor!

We got a new fridge today. It's a stainless steel LG french door with bottom drawer. It was originally $1800 but it was a clearanced floor model so we got it for just over $1000. It kinda overwhelms the currently small kitchen, but when we make the kitchen bigger it will be nice. : ) Next week we're going to order carpet for the master bedroom.

Hopefully we can get some pics up soon, I know you're all just waiting to see them...my hubby's parents are visiting this weekend. They might be leaving Debbie until school starts, if she stays she'll come to work with me, because that's the kind of work she wants to do.

Not much going on, really, other than a whole lot! Mostly moving related stuff though. Work's going great...oh, Andrew's getting promoted to E5 next month. I'll get to see him even less...sigh.

:: Brinna 7:52 PM [+] ::
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Yay, I'm writing again within a week! How unusual...

Alice's birthday was yesterday! She's a year old. She's supposed to be a toddler now. Help! We didn't have a birthday party for her because Andrew is busy with work and our house is supposed to close Friday, so we thought we'd do something then.

Tuesday, my other day off, I went shopping a bit, I didn't spend lots of money, but I got some more stuff to make for work. Yarn, beads, etc. I bought the latest issue of Vogue Knitting, it has tons of things in it I'd like to make. I'm not sure how much people will be willing to spend, with labor I might have to put a pretty pricey tag on it, but my boss said they'd pay it. Besides, I can keep it and wear it if they don't buy it. The yarn didn't cost me that much it was on sale, so I can afford to take more time on the pattern. There's a bead store that is pretty pricey but some things you have to get there, like pendants. I got a gorgeous starfish pendant made out of crystal, it catches the light really well. I think I'm going to have to keep it.

I just found out my mom and big sister are visiting me in October!! I'm pretty excited, they're my best friends. I'm sure they miss me and Alice. ;) By then we should have gotten our shipment of our stuff that was in California. I really don't remember half of what we own. But I remember my couches!! :)

I got my hair cut Tuesday as well. I wasn't sure what I wanted to get before I went in, I got an appointment with one of the two beauty colleges in the area. As soon as I walked in and glanced at the magazine table when I was waiting, the cover photo was great. For the first time in awhile I was really happy with the results, too. It's a bit shorter than I wanted but all the dead ends are gone and it's still pretty long, a couple inches past my shoulders. It goes well with the texture in my hair. I dyed my hair red again a couple weeks ago and everyone, including the ppl at the beauty college, thinks it's natural. Hehe. Loreal Couleur Experte is my friend...especially working with the people I do, the SCAD students. SCAD is Savannah College of Art and Design, and it's EXPENSIVE. Mostly rich kids go. Everybody but me (and my boss of course) that I work with goes to SCAD. They always look so stylish, but they're nice. So I'm glad my hair fits in now. :)

:: Brinna 7:12 AM [+] ::
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Today is one of the rare times where Alice is asleep, everyone's gone, and I actually remembered to write, all at the same time. Amazing.

I don't think I've written that we found a house we're buying. It's a ranch style house, so it doesn't have a lot of 'charm', and it doesn't have a large kitchen, but it has a small room right next to the kitchen we're going to annex in the future, and a large added- on room. It has hardwood floors everywhere but the beds and baths, and guest bath has ceramic tile. Eventually Andrew wants to expand the small master bath by moving out a wall, I think, and building himself a cinder block workshop with electricity. We don't really need anything done in the house immediately but we're going to replace the master bedroom carpet first.

My job continues to be a good deal--I'm also knitting at home, I made a poncho first. It took me about 7 hours I think, and she paid me $60. Woohoo! The yarn was ugly though, it was some of that fuzzy stuff, and it was a terrible color--red with different colors mixed in, like yellow, slate blue, bright pink. It looked like someone puked up V8. Ah, well... I've also started to make my own bead and wire jewelry to sell. Some of the girls I work with make jewelry as well as sew, and it sells well, because people look at the displays while they wait, and they like that they're supporting the local young people, I think. So I decided to try it. My boss said she has already almost sold one of the 2 sets I made, the day after I brought it in. She takes 20% of the things I bring in to sell, but that's not too bad, because jewelry supplies aren't that expensive, and if it looks good you can put a department store price on it. My boss priced the set at $125.

Right now Andrew is teaching one of his military friends and Johnny how to drive a stickshift. I wonder how it's going.

Alice is doing great, crawling like a pro, and fast too. I went to a bookstore the other day and I set her down so I could gather my things better, and she was a few yards away in a matter of seconds. She's starting to use both feet instead of her knees, I don't know if that means something as far as walking, but she is cruising the furniture a lot. Not talking with words really yet, but making sounds that sound more like vocals than grunts. :)

Andrew says his job is just as boring here as it was in Korea. That is, they don't really do anything but sit around. They're on an airfield, for crying out loud, and they don't do air traffic control. It's contracted out to civilians. Military does it in places like Iraq, but they're in the process of turning that over to the civilians, too. Although I don't think that means he won't go next year, it probably just means he'll be bored there too.

Hmmm....what else is going on...well, my legs are asleep from sitting on them, Alice is starting to wake up, and I'm hungry. Maybe next time I'll be in my own house sitting on the floor!

:: Brinna 10:05 AM [+] ::
...

Today was my second day on my new job. It's just about the best job I could ask for. I went looking at alterations places, including bridal stores, and one sent me to the place where they send their alterations. It's a little store ran by a middle-aged lady, she used to run her own clothing factory but she had a back injury and had to shut down. Now, she still makes her own clothes, but she does mostly alterations for the upscale clientele. She's trying to start another clothing company here in Savannah. She said I came at the perfect time, one of her employees was returning to college. I had my interview and was hired, and she didn't even ask my job history, she just checked my sewing ability. She's very flexible about how many hours I work...incredibly flexible. I could probably come in on any day, and she'd be fine. There is really no schedule. I actually was working on a Hugo Boss suit, that probably cost at least $1000. As far as Alice, I've left her in Johnny's care for the past couple days, and she seems to be doing great. I don't plan to leave her for more than 3 or 4 days a week, just part time, and not even full days...and I think I'm still going to look into the family child care, since this job is so flexible.

:: Brinna 3:24 PM [+] ::
...

Well, my surroundings have definitely improved. Before, the room was miniscule. I mentioned it to my realtor and asked if she knew any better rentals, and she found a condo for us to stay in until our house closes. It's huge! It's about 2200 sqft, 3 bd 3 bath, washer and dryer, and it's in a gated community. Andrew is so much happier here, he was getting stressed out in the room. Unfortunately, it was built in '77 and the only thing new is the washer, dryer, and tv. The fridge is about dead, it won't freeze anything anymore. It's about as cold as the fridge should be.

I'm looking into becoming a family child care provider with the military, I'd be watching 2 other children under 3. They reimburse all expenses and pay for training. It would sure help out.

Not a whole lot going on...Andrew left for Ft Stewart to inprocess, he'll be back Thur or Fri. I'm going to go into town today and look around, hopefully I'll find some good thrift stores. I'd go grocery shopping but I think the food would go bad in the fridge..

:: Brinna 6:55 AM [+] ::
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Hello all...
I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Right now I'm sitting in an extended stay place's room, it has internet. I don't have a lot of opportunity to get on, though.

Let's see, what's happened since I've written...well, Andrew's back!! That's great. We had a tough time at first..even though we were staying at his grandparents' house, who are really nice, I was sick the first couple days he was back, and the next day he got sick with something else. Then we were on the road, with all the stress that comes with it. But, we're fine now. We stopped to visit the Goodriches, Andrew's best friend from when we lived in Monterey. He's now a car salesman, so Andrew went down to the lot and came back with a new car. It's used, but still really nice. It's a Subaru Outback station wagon. The insurance isn't much more than our current car, and it's got full coverage. It is nice to have two cars.

After we visited them, we stayed at my mom's house about a week. We spent some time with Britt, my best friend in Colorado, and went to church, where the pastor had the best message I'd ever heard out of him.

My sister has a job now, at a gas station. She was getting framed and ripped off by the assistant manager, and he recently got fired, and she's getting her money returned to her. I think lots of people must have been praying for her, I know I did, because rarely do those situations work out so well.

We headed to Andrew's folks next, in Virginia. We saw Debbie graduate from high school, and visited the Lees, who are Andrew's old employers and really nice, and saw Chris. He's doing pretty well. We saw Zach and James in Richmond, who aren't doing that well, really.

Then we headed to Savannah, our new home. We saw the house we'd been talking about, and under Andrew's more experienced eye, it failed. It wasn't that much worse than I thought, but the fact that just about everything that had been done was left unfinished, and that we'd gotten a new car, we don't have the time or the money to do it anymore. That and Andrew felt uneasy in the house, and when we looked at the foundation it looked like a bunch of ashes, so for all we know someone died when the previous house burned down.

We were looking at a house Andrew liked, with an ok house and a good yard with storage houses, but that turned out to be under contract, so we're looking at a house I liked, that's still in a pretty good neighborhood and has a better house with more room for improvement, and a decent yard. It also has a pretty nice above-ground pool, which we're not sure we'll like, but we'll try it for a bit if we get the house. We put an offer in last night and they have to respond by tonight.

Probably other things have happened, but I'm not sure what they are...other than things you don't want to hear, like, I finally got my period back, after 11 months. I haven't had one in almost 2 years. :)

:: Brinna 7:17 AM [+] ::
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All last week I was in Georgia. It was nice to get away, like I thought it would be. I was looking for a house to buy. I drove down with Dad in my car, and he stayed in Charleston, SC for his shooting match, while I drove down to Savannah. I saw a lot of boring houses, a couple okay ones, and one that interests me, but it's a fixer upper and apparently I'm crazy for considering it. It's being sold for $150k and is estimated to be worth $267k after $25k of work. It needs new floors on the bottom story, new cupboards and appliances in the kitchen, wall repairs, basically the entire bathroom needs to be redone. But, it's got 'charm', it's interesting, it's in a great neighborhood. It's what I was looking for, and everything seems to be working pretty smoothly overall. If God doesn't want us to get it, we won't. And if He does, then it won't be too expensive. Besides, they have renovation loans that add in the repair costs with the purchase price, and Andrew's grandparents have offered to lend us some money. No, no pics at the moment, they'll only prove the point that there's too much work for us to handle. Plus I'm too tired right now and Alice is too fussy for me to take the time to upload and post them. Later on when you see the after, I'll show the before.

Anyway, I had a good time down there. The humidity wasn't bad at all, and I only got bitten by mosquitos twice. My realtor was a very nice person, and the day after I left, her mom had a stroke. So please pray for her and her mom. I have (do).

Trying to organize my belongings for the movers...they're coming next Monday. I of course have more things than I thought I did, so it's a good thing the Army is paying for it. But it's not as much stuff as it looks like when I enter my room, because I'm not taking the bed, and the crib takes up a lot of room when it's assembled.

Alice is scooting around on her butt very well, it's half crawl half scoot. She's actually moving around a room. She just had her first tooth break through the gum, I thought it would never happen. I thought it was going to be really hard to get her to keep lying down for naps and bedtime now that she's figured out she can roll over and sit up easily, but it's gone ok so far.

Nothing else that I can think of at the moment...besides that my 22nd birthday is fast approaching. I won't get to see Andrew for my birthday, as I have for my last two, but I'll get to see him a couple days later. I suppose if I'm going to be with my husband for hopefully the next couple years I can give my family my birthday. They better get me some good cake and ice cream...how about...chocolate cake with coffee frosting and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yummers.

:: Brinna 9:35 PM [+] ::
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(also copied from that girl's site (obviously, she knows a little about the military); not edited for spelling and grammar, I don't have time at the moment :))

'It takes a strong woman to love a soldier' (I'd like to think so)

If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't know adventure. You don't know smelly gray PT uniforms that require a daily washing. You can't understand green and brown camouflaged bags flooding your bedroom floor.


If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't understand the meaning of the phrase "going to the field" and the weeks you spend away from each other.


If you're not in love with a soldier, you can never imagine the hole in your heart when that phone call comes? "Honey, I am leaving tomorrow to go overseas. I don't know how long I will be gone or exactly where I am going, but I want you to know that I love you - always!"


If you're not in love with a soldier, you don't know what it's like to say that final good-bye. You don't know what it really means to be glued to the television. You don't understand fear and you can't possibly understand the sleepless nights of endless crying wondering if you will ever see the love of your life alive again.


If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't know the immense joy, the uncontrollable smile, or the butterflies in your stomach when you see your soldier march into the family waiting area upon redeployment. You can't understand the self-control it takes to stand on the other side of the room is some higher-up gives a seemingly endless welcome home speech while all the soldiers stand in formation. You don't know what it's like to have that second first kiss or what it's like to experience puppy love all over.


If you're not in love with a soldier, you can't truly understand how to make every moment count because you never know when that phone call may come again.


If you're not in love with a soldier, you can never really understand how very delicate life really is!

:: Brinna 3:31 PM [+] ::
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I copied this off of someone else's site. I thought it was pretty well done. A pain to edit the html, though (just to fix spelling errors).

Girls
are like apples
on trees. The best ones
are at the top of the tree.
The boys don't want to reach
for the good ones because they
are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples
from the ground that aren't as good, but
are easy. So the apples at the top think
something is wrong with them, when in
reality, they're amazing. They just
have to wait for the right boy to
come along, the one who's
brave enough to
climb all
the way
to the top
of the tree.

:: Brinna 3:31 PM [+] ::
...