making new friends: 101

trying to make new friends as a couple is remarkably similar to dating...

it's awkward. you get butterflies in your stomach. and quickly become very self-conscience.

being married to the military, i know this is something i am going to have to not only get used to but eventually perfect...  i'm sure moving every three years will aid in that.

but really, the similarities between hanging out with a new potential friend couple and being on a first date are uncanny...

1.  the freak out hour about what to wear before going on the date, including but not limited to trying on every outfit in your closet before realizing you have nothing suitable to impress the potential new friends.
2. the awkward silences while you wait for your dinner to arrive.  you've already covered family, where the potential friend couple grew up, how they met, how long they've been married...where do you go from here?  ask about their hopes and dreams??
3. while on the date, it is inevitable that you will say something stupid and/or divulge too much information too early...things only your closest friends know about you and somehow still love you anyway.  
4. on the ride home, you and your spouse will second guess everything you said while on the "date"
after spending time with a new couple, i've actually thought...
did they like me?
did i talk too much?
were our jokes funny?
5.  finally of course wondering if they will want to hang out again...is there going to be a second date?  will they call us?  how long should we wait before we call them again?

a wise, wise woman warned me before fly boy and i got married how difficult it is to make a friend couple.  not only do you have to like the wife, but your husband also has to like the husband.  easier said than done.  she advised, "when you find that couple, hang on and never ever let go."

that being said, fly boy and i recently had one of the best "first dates" on record.

we laughed. hard.  i'm surprised milk didn't pour out of my nose.
we ate frozen yogart and laughed some more.

we played bingo.  yes, bingo.  imagine a smoke filled room with about 20 other people where we brought the average age down by around 40 or 50 years.  everyone else is using computers to play, we insisted on blotting our own boards.  we had no idea what we were doing.  we all lost.  and it was amazing.

we called 911 for a random car accident we saw on the way home from bingo and stuck around to help out the people in the crash (not exactly "fun," but the event still contributed to our amazing night.)
we capped the night off hanging out in the other couple's living room talking/laughing for another few hours.

if only all first dates included a few hours of bingo and an entire night of laughter...

the world would be a better place.

our biggest news yet

a friend of mine recently had a beautiful baby boy.
rewind her story a few months...
she and her husband were high school sweet hearts, so both sets of grandparents are in the same city.  when it came time to find out if they were having a boy or girl, they decided to do a gender reveal party.

i.love.this.idea.

unfortunately fly boy's family is in ohio, my family is in syracuse and we live in florida.  somehow getting both sides together wasn't a very realistic option.

i still wanted to be a little creative in how we shared the news of the baby's gender with our families.  (especially since the whole pregnancy was a bit of a surprise for fly boy and me...and we may have called our parents only a few hours after getting the positive result in the home pregnancy test...)

my parents were on a business trip to hawaii on the day we had the 22 week ultrasound.  i secretly had my aunt, who was also on the business trip, take a blue and pink set of candles with her.  after we got the news, i called my aunt and had her give the appropriate candle to the waiter to put on my parents' dessert.

when my mom saw the dessert with a candle coming to her table, she started asking around whose birthday it was.  no one answered.  when the waiter placed the dessert in front of her, she looked at my dad and said, "it's not our anniversary,  they gave us the wrong dessert..."

thankfully my aunt was there to save the day and remind my mom that the dessert was from us...

  

we're having a GIRL!!

fly boy and i couldn't be more thrilled.  both sets of grandparents are excited as well.  baby girl will be #7 grandchild on fly boy's side, and #1 grandchild on my side. 

bring on the pink!

no longer my own

i know every mom out there will be quick to tell you, your life is no longer your own once you become a mother. 

i got my first dose of this reality check only a few weeks into the pregnancy when the "morning" sickness began. (ps: morning sickness is NOT limited to the hours of 12AM-11AM or whenever you want to consider the "morning"...)

case-in-point

 

this is the result of being 22 weeks pregnant, still feeling the effects of morning sickness, you have started to paint your toes, then had to spend the remainder of the morning in the bathroom.

i may or may not have had to choose what shoes (toms, because they are close-toed) i wore to bible study this morning because of how my toes looked. 

my life is no longer my own.

it's been awhile

...where have you been my long lost friend, it's good to see you again...

i know it's been awhile.
several months awhile.

long enough for not only us to find out i'm pregnant, but also to move, quit my job, get a new house, get settled in the new house, and already have had two visitors stay with us in florida!

it's also *almost* long enough for us to find out if we are having a boy or girl...more to come on that next week.

...and long enough for me to have a baby bump...

i think it's safe to say we have started off to an exciting fall.

PCSing

in about 6 short weeks we will pack everything we own in brown boxes, entrust all our possessions to some big brawny men in jumpsuits who drive a massive truck and make the long trek from delaware to florida.
6 weeks.
that's 42 days.
less than two months.
i haven't even begun to think about packing everything, i feel like we just were able to unpack everything from the wedding!

that being said, my bestest friend and her husband are coming to visit next weekend.  it's their first trip to delaware and i'm pretty excited to say the least.  not that she will care, but i've been looking around the house noticing all the small things i want to fix up before they see our house.  all these details are just personal touches, not changes that actually NEED to be made to the house before we move.  nonetheless, i want it to be, well, perfect.

case in point.  for christmas, my parents gave us the matching nightstands for our bedroom set.  they didn't arrive until late april when fly boy was out on a mission.  i rearranged the room to fit the new furniture, but had to move fly boy's dresser.  i wasn't sure if he would like the new arrangement, so i didn't want to move all the picture frames, spackle and paint just to have to move it back if fly boy wanted to keep it the way we originally had the room set up.

this was late april...it's now mid july...
the furniture was kept the way i moved it.
and i still haven't moved the picture frames.

every morning, i look at it, and think, i really need to move those before karina gets here.
have i done anything?
nope.
she gets here in five days.

i am considering making sweetly asking fly boy to move them this week.
6 weeks before we move.
which means we will have to spackle and paint this week, then again in 6 weeks when we move.

 

ridiculous, right? (the pictures, not me...)

and totally worth the extra spackling/painting.

wedding season

it's here.
i love this time of year.
the flower are in bloom, the trees take on the deepest green, and though it's cliched, love is in the air.

one of my dearest friends got married this past weekend.
it was the perfect wedding.

i'll let these few pictures do the talking....

congrats s&a!

my new shtick

doors.
taking pictures of doors.

taking pictures of doors in places that have some kind of meaning to me.

here is my first go.

cazenovia, new york.