He Comes Home Today!!!

So this morning I got a nice surprise, a phone call from my husband! Ryan has been out at sea all week and all communication had been dropped in order to do what ever they were out there to do. He told me that they had pulled back into port early this morning but were not letting anyone off the ship yet.

Hopefully around noon I will get my husband back and that will be one of the last times he steps foot on the USS John C. Stennis! No more duty days, no more watch bills he has to stand, no more year long DEPLOYMENTS, no more months long underways! I am so excited for him and I to transfer... New York is going to be a good place for us at this stage in our lives.

I guess when I fell in love with a military man I signed up for the military myself. I am one of the Silent Ranks... Although I do not carry a weapon or wear combat boots I myself serve our country by standing behind and supporting my husband. I would have never thought in a million years that I would serve my country. Although I have a lot of pride for our country... I still wouldn't have seen this coming. But I wouldn't have it any other way... I am proud to say that I stand among the silent ranks.

Thanks for listening.

D

Too Much To Do Today!

My To Do List:

1. Call mother in law
2. work out
3. laundry
4. get ready for move, deep clean bathroom
5. deep clean bedroom
6. deep clean laundry room
7. go to Jo-Ann fabrics for fabric and pattern
8. post office
9. email Ryan on the ship, who is out at sea
10. sleep!
    

Bleh... Wish me luck! I hope I can get this all done... did I mention I have to wash the walls...? Ugh... I hate moving because of all of the work you have to do just to leave.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well,

Having a husband in the Navy can be hard. This is the second birthday in a row he has missed... BUT this year... I got an amazing gift from him, a house! Haha. Not your typical gift but I am not a typical girl either. I am grateful we will have a house of our own to live in when we move... I dont need a pretty necklace or a fancy date for my birthday... the house, that we will both use, is good enough for me. Besides it will keep me busy with all of the fun things I get to do to improve it.

This is probably the most appropriate gift for me, if you really think about it. Me being hands on and handy around the house, a gift that I can customize to fit my own wants and needs is perfect! Besides how many girls my age can finish concrete, frame a house and shingle a roof?

Guess I married the right guy!

Although I dont get to cuddle with my husband and the end of this day or was able to hear him sing me happy birthday... today was a pretty good birthday. I could always be better... and it could always be worse.

Thank you to all of my friends! I appreciate your friendship and all that you do for me whether you know you do it or not. In some way you have helped make me into who I am now and I am so blessed for that. Thanks for everything you do and have done to make this last year a good one!

The birthday girl,
Dani

Back From The Empire State!!!

So this last week was a busy one. Ryan, my dad and I all flew to New York to go shopping for our very own first house. Very exciting. Initially we wanted to buy a house that was in less than perfect condition and fix it up so when we go to sell it here in a few years we could make a profit, BUT, we fell in love with this house that was pretty much perfect. We put in an offer for 155k and got it. It is a cute house in a really nice community. My dad inspected the house for any issues that we needed to either avoid or fix ourselves and it turned out that the house is in excellent condition! I have a gourmet kitchen and a huge master suit, doesn't hurt my feelings any.

We went out there knowing we would only have three days to find a house and with it being a sellers market out there... the homes seem to go pretty quickly. Despite all of the obstacles we managed to find a home that is move in ready, at an excellent price and close to his work. What a blessing. We are now just closing escrow and can move in the first week of May.

NEW YORK HERE WE COME!!!

The Worst Night of My Life

Yesterday was a hard day for me... Ryan and I went in for our second first trimester ultrasound so we could hear a heart beat. With no growth of our baby and still no heart beat it was off to the labs for some blood tests. Our Dr had confirmed what we had feared but had already emotionally prepared ourselves for. Our baby had stopped all development at 8 weeks.

She instructed me in a few different methods of progression for our situation and as I always do I pick the most painful one to endure. Surgery didn't sound to appealing to me and since we are moving in three weeks across country, letting nature take its course wasn't really an option so we went home with our prescribed medicine so I could to what needed to be done.

My labor inducing pills made mine and Ryan's night a long one. What a blessing that I didn't have to endure that night on my own seeing; as how Ryan's entire department was not supposed to leave the ship this entire week and his opportunity to take care of me was out the kindness of someone else's heart.

I had never felt such extreme pain in my life and the heavy pain killers didn't even seem to make a dent in the shoot pains of the contractions.

Ryan was so patient with me, sitting by my side all day and all night... hold my hand and kissing my lips when ever the pain got to intense to bare, which was a sweet and slightly success way for forgetting about the pain. Every couple of minutes I would tap is leg letting him know I need assistance to the bathroom because I didn't have the strength to make it on my own. He would wrap my arms over his shoulders and take my full body weight on him so I could put one foot in front of the other, slowly making it to my destination. He never left my side, not even for a second.

After a little sleep last night and many late night trips to the bathroom I finally had the strength to call my Dr so she could confirm that I had passed through my body all that needed to be. Our gruesome conversation confirmed that my night of agony was exactly what was supposed to happen and that everything was in the clear.

Before taking my fateful medicine I asked Ryan for a blessing. He stepped up to the challenge. It was a sweet yet brutally honest blessing. He comforted me, gave me strength and told me that the road ahead that night was going to be a painful one... I guess I now know how much pain my body can now endure.

Life is funny like that... one moment you are picking out baby names the next moment you are wishing you didn't have to write blogs like this in order to explain to everyone that you really don't want to hear, but need to, every ones concerns and condolences. I was so nervous that people would blame me for the baby not being carried to full term... and possible gossip ran through my mind but my earnest prayers put me at ease... "Danielle, you are strong and I have never given you anything that you couldn't bare and I love you, everything is going to be ok."

Chili Cook Off!!!

I love to eat! Anyone who knows me... knows this about me. I can out eat a lot of my guy friends, which for a skinny minny like me is a rather large accomplishment! Anyhow... so there I was... minding my own business in Relief Society and on of the announcements for that Sunday was that there was going to be a Chili Cook Off. Without thinking twice I added my name to the already hearty list of cookers.

So this morning I sauteed the onions and bell peppers, browned the hamburger and mixed in the vast array of ingredients to the crock-pot. I am so excited for this cook off just so I can taste my own chili. My tiny one bedroom apartment reaks of chili goodness!

My chili is sooo stinkin easy to make and painless, since you just throw it in the crock-pot.

Dani's Chili

1.5 lb. ground beef

2 (12.5 oz) cans of roast beef from Costco

2 (15 oz) cans of tomato sauce

1 (15 oz) can of each drk red kidney beans

pinto beans and lght kidney beans

2 pckg McCormick Chili Seasonings

1 large onion, chopped and sauteed

1 bell pepper, red, yellow or orange (chopped)

1 tsp liquid smoke hickory flavor

2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the meat and add some seasonings to my taste, chili powder and mrs dash 'table blend' or BBQ seasonings.

Add everything to crock-pot once browned, do not drain hamburger. Add in drained canned roast beef. Mix well in crock-pot.

Mean while saute onions and bell peppers, I add a little hot sauce to heat up the flavor, do not saute in oil... just keep a close eye on it. Just before the onions get to be a little transparent and flimsy place in crock-pot.

In a measuring cup add liquid smoke and 1 package of seasonings, add enough water to dissolve seasonings but do not make a paste, abt 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water. Add to crock-pot.

Sprinkle second package in crock-pot and mix really well.

Add both cans of tomato sauce and stir in well.

Cook on high for one hour and low for as long as you would like, the longer the better. I set mine on low for about 6 hours.

Other ideas to mix in or replace.

• You can add in small pieces of bacon in with your meat, make sure it is fully cooked before you put in the crock-pot or it will come out chewy and not tasty at all.
• To make it a little less fattening you can replace the hamburger and roast beef with ground turkey and canned chicken, packed in water (from Costco).
• Add one tsp cinnamon to make it a little southern.
• Add one tsp cocoa powder to make it taste like the famous Cincinnati style chili.

Anyone have a favorite chili recipe??

I Am Back From The Great Depths of ... Morning Sickness

Wow... what an event. Morning sickness was not nice to me this past month and some change. I think I may have lost weight from the minimal nibbling that took place.

We had our first ultra-sound on Tuesday and we had the chance to see out little jelly bean of a baby! Which was really exciting for both of us. Ryan held my hand through the whole extremely uncomfortable ordeal. We have a follow up appointment this coming Tuesday so... wish us luck!

We also have been getting listings for homes on the market in the area that we are moving to and it is so fun to shop for houses. I love shopping and it is even more fun to shop for things that are big that you can decorate!

We will be heading out to NY for about a week to do some house hunting and will be bringing my handy dandy father who is the "Master Yoda" of all construction. We have thought about dabbling in flipping a house while we are living in it and having my dad be the one to do most of the work, since we know that he is good at what he does and has our best interest at heart. It is pretty exciting to take that step in life... buying a home and visualizing all of the wonderful thing you can do to make it look irresistible when selling it... that and you make money in the back end of things. Which I am always a fan of!

Any suggestions for remodeling and decorating ideas and are pretty inexpensive but profitable?