A lot of time on my hands....

When Jason and I went to Anchorage, I stocked up on craft supplies since I knew I would be bored out of my mind while Jason is in Seattle/Vancouver. I have now branched out from the bows and tutu's and have started working on little things to hang in Paislee's nursery. After we bought her nursery bedding set, I was looking around on the internet for things that would match. The colors aren't your 'normal' baby girl nursery colors--I'm not a huge pink fan, and didn't really care for a nursery with butterflies and flowers, etc. Instead, I wanted a Paisley pattern-what a coincidence :o)
Anyways, I figured it would be hard to find things in this color for a nursery since they aren't colors you usually find in a baby's room. I just googled the name of the bedding set-"Green Paisley Splash" and couldn't believe it when I found a website that hand-paints wooden letters especially for nurserys. To make it better, they had a pattern called "Green Paisley Splash" that was painted especially for this set! Unfortunately, the letters were EIGHT dollars a piece--which would have been $56 just for her name.

I decided that there are so many other things I could spend $56 on, and although I'm not artistic at all, decided I could buy the letters for a dollar a piece and at least TRY to paint them myself. So that has been my project for the last 2 nights...
Not perfect, but much better than spending $56! After I finished them I was still itching to paint so last night I started another--it's still a work in progress and I am running out of ideas so it's just sitting here in front of me waiting for an idea to hit me!Ideas anyone??

Jason arrived in Seattle today and will be there for a while before they start patrolling for the Olympics! Only 2 more weeks until he is back home with us and I can't wait!

XOXO from bored and lonely Alaska,

Paislee's Closet

Paislee's Aunt Sigma's are already spoiling her rotten!

Just last week we got a surprise in the mail from Aunt Jodi--Paislee's very first monogrammed blanket with her initials on it! We love it-a little girl can never have too many monogrammed items :o)If only I had a machine and could do it myself...

Then YESTERDAY, we received a package from Aunt Kati who lives in Korea with her husband Billy, who is in the Army. Who knew you could find such CUTE clothes in Korea! Paislee got 3 really cute outfits in her package--a Christmas outfit for next Christmas, a fall dress, and the best one--an OWL outfit. The funny thing about this is that owl's are the 'in thing' right now because I have seen them EVERYWHERE, but I have a secret fear of owls that not many people know about--guess I will be getting over my fear because this outfit is TOO cute!Above is the owl outfit and the Christmas outfit--the owl came with a onesie, a bib,a coat and some pants--and we know, the Christmas outfit is SCREAMING pink and green, but isn't it PRECIOUS?? I can't wait to get her all dolled up for her first Christmas! And surprise, surprise--she even has bows to match-see them? And here is her fall dress--or it may be a spring dress, depending on what season it is when Paislee can wear it! Thank you Aunt Kati--we love them!!!

Speaking of Christmas outfits,here is an outfit that is very similar to one that her Aunt Heather got for her--same colors and designs but the top is green and the bottom is red I think--we don't have it yet, but have seen it on the webcam and it is SUPER cute!
And just a few more of my favorites...some are just simple little sleepers or onesies but I just LOVE them! The navy & white dress is one her daddy picked out for her, he wanted her to be all decked out when she meets most of her family this summer! The outfit on the right is one of the million her Grandma Jan bought her while I was home in December and I think the top is too cute :o)
Aunt Valerie bought her the moose outfit-PERFECT for Alaska! It may look like something a little boy would wear, but it's nothing a bow can't fix! The one in the middle is one of my favorites, sadly you can't really see it in this picture,we will have to wait for her to get here and model it herself! Aunt Phyllis bought the sailboat outfit and she will rock it even though it's supposed to be for a boy--again, nothing a bow can't fix and it's too cute to wait for a boy!
These are some of the outfits my mama bought while I was home-the one on the left says "I'm a little Princess", and I LOVE the little "shoes" on it! The middle outfit is the very first outfit I bought her after I found out she was a 'she'. I had seen it while Jason & I were in Fairbanks, and as soon as we left the ultrasound place we went to Old Navy and got it for her.
My absolute FAVORITE outfit so far, and socks that match almost perfectly. The funny thing is, I bought this outfit while I was home and a few days later met Jodi & Lindsay for dinner. They had both brought gifts for Paislee, and Jodi had bought these socks that have the same exact flower on them! Makes me feel good because Jodi is a fashion queen, so now I know I have good taste ;o) I'm not sure if they match because they have black on them but I can always put a pair of black pants with it and VOILA--perfect! And last are these 2 sweet onesies--the purple one says "I'm Queen (when mom's not around)" and the black one is another gift from Jodi and says "This is my little black dress"--she's going to be a little diva! When I saw the "Queen" onesie, I had to buy it because right after we found out it was a girl I was still getting used to the fact that Jason was going to have another girl in his life, when my mom points out this frame that said "Daddy's Princess"--I refused to buy it claiming that she would NOT be daddy's princess, that's ME! Hmph! :o)

As most people already know, I really really really wanted a boy and was convinced that we were having one! But there is no way little boys could ever be this much fun! Jason and I were sitting here the other day and I said "What would we have done with a BOY?? Little girls are SO much more fun!"....he just gave me 'the look'....He has already promised me that she WOULD know how to throw a ball and shoot a gun....all while wearing wearing her hairbows and tutu's ;o)

**If ya'll have noticed, my blogs have been *extra* long this week--can you tell I don't talk to many people throughout the day now that Jason is gone? You will all need reading glasses by the time he gets back, ha!

XOXO from an excited mommy to be!

Porky Paislee

Today I went in for a quick checkup because I have been having a lot of weird pains lately. I convinced the Doctor to give me an ultrasound while I was there to 'diagnose the problem'--I really just wanted to see my sweet girl :o)

It wasn't a long ultrasound, he pretty much just did a run through and checked to make sure nothing was wrong with me or her. I was fine and she was GREAT. She seems to be happy as a clam in there--hope we don't have a hard time getting her to come out! She is very low in my pelvis, which is why I am having so much pain. He said that the way she is laying, everytime she moves her head she is hitting a nerve and KILLING me! He also said she is laying "sunny side up", meaning she is laying on her back facing up--so we are belly to belly. He said that's fine for now, but she needs to roll over before it's time for her to come or that wouldn't be too good.

Last time we saw her she was busy chasing her umbilical cord the whole time--today the very first thing he said when he saw her was "that cord is HUGE!" When I asked him what that meant he responded "it means she is getting fed well and is very well nourished!" ha! He also said that she had some chubby cheeks and would be 'at least' 8 pounds when she is born. Other than her cheeks we couldn't see much--she was too busy sucking on her whole hand that she wouldn't move her arm out of her face for us to see :o(

Not much longer and I can pinch those chubby little cheeks!

XOXO,

Belly pic for Mama..

See Mama, we're getting HUGE!!!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"Nursery"

Before Jason left, we did a little 'spring cleaning' to make some room for a BABY in this cramped apartment. Before I moved up here, Jason already had the place packed full since he owns almost everything you can think of, but now that I am here we are offically crammed into this place. We moved some stuff out of here last weekend--furniture, clothes, boxes, etc. and brought in lots and lots of baby stuff to take its place :o) Since we were supposed to be leaving here around mid-May or June, we hadn't planned on buying her nursery furniture until we get to Maine, we figured it would be pointless to set it up just to take it down in 2 or 3 months. NOW, plans have changed and we may not be getting out of here until late July or early August. I personally do not think it will be good for her to sleep in a pack-n-play for that long--it just doesn't provide much support and I think it should just be used for naps or traveling. A friend is letting us use her bassinet for the first few months, but Paislee will grow out of that before too long. What do ya'll think?? Is a pack-n-play good enough for daily use, or will she need a crib before she is 4-5 months old? We had already bought a pack-n-play with an infant sleeper and changing table in it that you can take off when she gets bigger, and still plan on using that for the first few months since it has the infant sleeper in it. We will also be using that for our trip across the country, since it's easy to load and unload and setup, and Paislee will have to have somewhere to sleep!

So anyways, we set up a little "nursery" in a corner (it's actually our dining room)and it's starting to look like a baby lives here! How exciting!!! :o) You can see we have her pack-n-play set up, and you can see hanging over the side is the blanket my mom made for her to match her nursery bedding, and also her first monogrammed blanket with her initials on it from her Aunt Jodi :o)

On the floor in front of the pack-n-play is a sweet little 'tummy time' mat that my friend Lauralee gave us--she just had a little girl in August and she has outgrown it, so Paislee gets to use it now! Thanks Lauralee!!To the left of her pack-n-play is a little table set up with her monitor on it, a nightlight, a lamp, and her first photo in a sweet little picture frame. Then we have a little cart with burp cloths, bath stuff, towels, washcloths, blankets and bibs.

Beside that we hung her bow holders :o) Can't forget those! I bought the one on the left when I was back at home because I thought it was SO cute. When Jason and I were in Anchorage I found the same round wooden piece at Michaels, so I bought 2 more and painted them aqua and brown--her nursery colors. I still have to cover the tops of them with fabric and have them monogrammed,and I plan on getting one more and painting it lime so we will have all of her nursery colors--the pink and green one will have to go in the closet ;o)

I've been trying to be a little creative since we have found that little girls can be pretty expensive! I've been making her bows instead of buying them for $5-8 a piece, making little tutus to take her pictures in, making bow holders, and painting stuff to hang in her nursery. We also bought a bulletin board and covered it in fabric that had her nursery colors in it, and we can hang random pictures and other knick knacks on it. Here is a little canvas that I painted--maybe we can put it on her bedroom door when she gets a real bedroom :o)


So there is a peek at Miss Paislee's temporary "Nursery"---I think it looks good for what we have to work with! Now all we need is HER!

XOXO,

Testing...

Just figured out that I can blog from my phone--pretty
sweet huh? This is just a test drive :0)





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TMI Tuesday: Things No One Told Me About Pregnancy...

First of all, I can't believe I am about to do this-to myself, Jason and anyone else who is lucky enough to read this post. BUT, it is MY blog and I want to be able to remember this even if it does suck right now. Now is your chance to turn around if you don't want to read about my personal issues, ha!

People always tell you how miserable pregnancy is, and all of the ugly stuff that happens during those LONG TEN (not nine) months--YES, ten months--most pregnancies last 40 weeks, which in my book equals ten months. I don't know if everyone is like this or if it was just me, but when I heard about all of the ugly nasty stuff that happened to everyone else I thought to myself "not gonna be me". That dark 'line' that goes from your belly button down (if you're lucky, MINE goes up WAY past my belly button, and to top it off--it's crooked), I didn't think I would get it--I said "my skin is too dark to get that" or "you could kick me in the face and I wouldn't bruise, I'm not going to get that thing"--I DID. Hormones don't care how dark or 'unsensitive' your skin is. I actually read that dark skinned women are more likely to get that line--lucky me.

No one ever told me that my feet would grow and STAY half to a whole shoe size bigger. I am now down to one pair of shoes I can wear here in Valdez without my feet freezing off, and those I have to wear without socks. Nasty, I know. Lucky me, poor Jason--that means new shoes, and lots of them, when we get to Maine, YAY :o)

People DID tell me you get heartburn and a lot of it. "Heartburn? Psshhh...I can deal with that". What they didn't tell me was that it isn't 'normal' heartburn that you get when you aren't pregnant. It's EXTREME heartburn. If it was normal heartburn and I just got it more often, I could deal. But it is heartburn that hurts 10 times worse than what it did before I got pregnant. It's heartburn that feels like FIRE crawling up your throat...and then crawling back down. Over and over. All. Day. Long. No matter what I eat. I have heard other women swearing TUMS were their best friends during their pregnancies, but not me. TUMS don't touch my heartburn. In fact, they RUN from my heartburn. I guess I could blame Paislee's hairy daddy for this one, and PRAY that her hair is limited to her head and doesn't cover her whole body like her daddy :o) Even if it does, she will still be a cutie :o)

Another major pregnancy symptom I have heard about is constantly having to pee. What I wasn't told is that your full bladder ISN'T the reason you always 'gotta go'. The REAL reason is because your bladder is being compressed as flat as a pancake by your uterus. So when you 'have to pee right now and can't hold it anymore,' all that comes out is a teaspoon. And when you have to get up 20 times in the middle of the night because your scared your going to pee in the bed...all that comes out is...you guessed it--a teaspoon. And if you DON'T go when you feel the need, well that's another thing no one ever told me about....

If your bladder isn't 100% empty, and you laugh, cough, sneeze or make one wrong move...that teaspoon of pee is going to end up in your pants. It is now a common occurance in our household to hear "ACCCCHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!" and then "D****T!!!" Jason thinks it's funny. I don't.

Something I was looking forward to about pregnancy was being beautiful. I mean, everyone talks about that 'glow' that pregnant women get, and how beautiful it makes them. What they don't tell you is that they are just telling you that to make you feel better because they know you need it. Sorry, but I have only seen a handful of 'beautiful' pregnant women in my life--half of that handful are celebrities, the other half are freaks of nature. That 'glow' that you hear about isn't beauty, it's oil, and an excessive amount--which makes you 'GLOW'. I guess since your hormones are all out of whack, you produce more oil while you are pregnant, making you all 'glowy' or better yet--GREASY. There is one perk to being pregnant in Alaska--it is so dry that my already oily skin has been saved from that part of pregnancy. God help me if I have my second pregnancy on the East Coast.

The last thing that no one told me about pregnancy is 'pregnant face'. No one told me that by the time I deliver this child my nose would be as wide as the state of Texas. Yes I have seen women in their last couple of months who have had the 'fat face syndrome' but I didn't know it was EVERYONE. I thought weight gain was to blame--now that I'm pregnant I'm going to blame water retention. Towards the end of your pregnancy you retain a TON of water--and a couple of liters of that retained water sits in your face and leaves you looking like Big Mama--unless you are one of those that I mentioned above--a freak of nature.

There are a few more things that I could talk about that no one told me about, but even I am not THAT brave to put them up here for the world to see. Plus, I have to leave you girls that haven't been pregnant yet something to write about on your 'what no one told me about pregnancy' post :o) You can say these things won't happen to you over and over, all day, every day until you get pregnant--but I can almost promise that unless you are one of those freaks of nature--they will happen, so don't say I didn't warn ya :o)

I didn't post this to gripe and complain about how horrible pregnancy is because luckily, I have had a VERY easy pregnancy and I feel blessed that I was able to get pregnant at all. I posted it because I actually think that it's quite hilarious, and will be fun to look back at. It will also probably slip my mind and I will forget about all of it the first time I look at my little girl's sweet face--and I have to be able to remember it all so I can warn her when it's her turn--and so I can warn all of you girls that will be going through it in the next couple of years ;o)

XOXO from my pregnant face, pee pee pants and too small shoes,

Tri Sigma: Faithful Unto Death

So I follow this great blog that Jodi introduced me to a while back called 'Kelly's Korner Blog'--it's a great blog, she blogs every single day and inspires me to do the same--hey I'm trying! Anyways, today she blogged about the sorority that she was in when she was in college--and I thought that was a great idea since I am so proud of the sorority that I joined in college!

During the spring semester of my freshman year at good ol' Barton College in Wilson, N.C., I was introduced to a FABULOUS group of girls who belonged to one of the three sororities on campus. I only went to a few of their recruitment parties throughout the year, but luckily they remembered me and gave me a bid :o) (Maybe I was a charity case since my mouth was still wired shut from the jaw surgery I had earlier that year, ha!). Anyways, joining this sorority was one of the best decisions that I ever made. After graduating highschool I thought I would never find friends like the ones that I had grown up with since daycare, but I made some of the BEST friends I could have ever asked for after joining Tri Sigma. These girls have stood by me through crappy boyfriends, bad grades, changing my major (3 times), transferring to another school, meeting the man of my dreams, moving 4,000 miles away to Alaska, marrying the man of my dreams, and now having a sweet little girl :o)
I just love these girls so much--they are truly the best friends I could have ever asked for! They are always calling, or catching up on facebook, or through text messages--and have always been there when I needed to cry or scream or laugh. And they surely won't miss an opportunity to get together to catch up--I could only invite a select few to our wedding since it was so small, but if I could have I would have invited the whole chapter--I WAS able to invite more of the girls to mine and Jason's 'going away cookout' and girls drove from Pennsylvania, Maryland and all over Eastern NC to come and see us before we left for Alaska :o) Luckily, I have been able to keep up with most of them even though we live in the middle of nowhere, and across the world--but I can't wait to get back on the east coast so we can all visit more often, and so I can take Jason and Paislee to some of the events that are held throughout the year, and introduce them to the fabulous world of Tri Sigma--after all, Miss Paislee is a legacy and hopefully a future Tri Sigma sister as well :o)

XOXO from lonely Alaska,

Paula Deen is my homegirl...

Since I made it a goal of mine to post more this year, and have found myself running out of interesting things to post about (I know, already), I decided to share one of our favorite recipes. Before I found this recipe I had never planned on even attempting to make fried chicken.Ever. But when your husband wants it, duty calls. So one day a few weeks ago, duty called from work wanting fried chicken for dinner, so I get my google fingers on and start looking for recipes, because I don't attempt fried foods, so I didn't have a recipe. I tried to cook fried pork chops once and it didn't work, so I've been scared of fried foods ever since. (I think it's because you have to use flour....I have found that ANY recipe that calls for flour usually gets tossed because me and flour don't get along. I don't know why). Anyways, when I came across Paula Deen's recipe for Southern Fried Chicken, I knew this was 'the one' since her recipes never fail to amaze me (or haven't so far), and she also says 'Ya'll' , so I know she knows how to make it like we like it :o) It's really basic, really easy and REALLY YUMMY--especially when you have a sweet husband that enjoys using the Fry Daddy to fry it up!

Ingredients:

-3 Eggs

-1/3 c. water

-1 c. Texas Pete (or your preferred hot sauce, if your from the South it will be Texas Pete)

Mix Eggs and water with a mixer, add Texas Pete and stir until blended. Your mixture should be orange.

Mix 2 c. of self-rising flour with a tsp. of pepper.

Season chicken with Paula Deen's house seasoning:

-1 c. salt

-1 c. black pepper

-1 c. garlic powder

DO NOT use all of this to season your chicken. Mix all of this together and put it in a container to use in the future, just sprinkle this pre-mixed seasoning on your chicken to your liking. If you cook pretty much anything 'Paula Deen' you WILL use this house seasoning again so it won't be a waste. If not, calculate on your own time how much you need just for this recipe--I'm no math whiz :o)

Dip the chicken in the egg wash, then coat with flour.

Fry in oil heated to 350 degrees.

Dark meat should take 13-14 minutes to cook, white meat should only take 8-10.

One word is all I need to describe this meal.....

YUM-O!

We had fried squash and collards with this, and Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding for dessert..I'll save that for another day :o)

XOXO from cold but smelling more like the south (at least in the Mozingo kitchen!),

We're READY for you, Paislee!!

We finally got to Anchorage this past weekend to get baby stuff, and I feel so much better and READY for Paislee now that we are STOCKED UP! Jason will be leaving for about a month here in a couple of weeks, and since the doctor will be cutting my traveling OFF, we had to make the trip to Anchorage so we would have everything we needed when we bring baby girl home--car seat, stroller, pack-n-play, diaper bag, diapers, wipes, baby bathtub, etc.--some of these things we could have gotten here, some we could not, but Anchorage is SO much cheaper AND we needed a fast food fix :o) We left Saturday morning and got back Monday night, and immediately put everything together, now we just need SPACE for it all! I will work on getting the baby her own little spot while Jason is gone. I also got lots and lots of craft stuff so I can make cute little bows, tutus, and stuff for her nursery. Hopefully she will like it all!

As the days go by, Paislee is getting bigger and stronger, which means I am getting a little more uncomfortable! I can honestly say though, I think I will miss all of these kicks and nudges when she is out :o) It is also already pretty obvious that she will be a daddy's girl-he talks to my belly at night and she just kicks and kicks every time, I love it!

Here I am, 30 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Is it just me, or have I gotten MUCH bigger since last week?

If you've noticed I don't like showing my face in my pictures because A. 98% of the time I haven't gotten

ready for the day and B. I HATE taking pictures, especially when they are 'posed' and by myself-so this is what you get :o)

Paislee should be about 18 inches long, and should weigh about 3.5 pounds.

Here is a sneak peek of Paislee's nursery bedding--the pattern is "Green Paisley Splash" and I LOVE it! The blanket above her nursery bedding was made by my mom to match her nursery and we just got it in the mail yesterday--I LOVE IT too!! Way to go Mama! I have been working on a blanket myself, needless to say--mine doesn't look that good :o)

Here is a tutu I am working on, with a matching NC State bow--which further proves that I love Jason very much because I am not an NC State fan, I'm more of a Carolina girl, but since Jason is more into sports than I am, we will deck her out in NC State stuff....for now :o)

Having a little girl is going to be so much fun, I can already tell!

XOXO from cold & windy Alaska,

It's about time!

I know, I know. It's been a while. I have to admit, I have been putting this off for quite a while now because I know that I have SO MUCH to update on and really don't know where to start--most people that read this know everything that I'm going to say anyways! Since it IS a new year, I would like to get better at this "blogging" thing, and post more often since we do have a little GIRL on the way :o)

I know last time I posted we still didn't know what we were having. I went home for 2 weeks in December, which by the way I hope to never have to fly again while pregnant, especially across the country--my ankles were HUGE! It was a GREAT two weeks, I got to spend LOTS of time with my mama, which is great when you are about to become a mama yourself :o) We also got to have another ultrasound, and this time we actually got somewhere! As soon as the technician put the thing on my stomach we saw that SHE was BOTTOMS UP! I was even able to distinguish what her parts were--and she is 100% a GIRL. She is precious and beautiful and I could watch her all day long. She is a big fan of her umbilical cord, it seems like it was her security blanket because she chased it the whole time and even had it draped over her arm at one point like a pocketbook--"you go girl!" haha! The technician said that her developmental skills also looked really good because she was trying to get the cord and her thumb in her mouth a lot and suck! Looks like she might be a thumb sucker like her daddy ;o) She was looking right on track with her size, and she looked healthy and is very active--hyper like her mama, LORD HELP US!

Isn't she pretty?? :o)

We spent the rest of my trip shopping, shopping, shopping! And I'll admit, we probably got WAY TOO MUCH--but it was fun and I got to make up for not being able to shop for baby stuff for the first six months :o) I also got to get together with Jodi, Lindsay and Alex and had a 'mini' baby shower--I got these sweet little socks with big purple flowers on them-which happened to match an outfit I had already bought PERFECTLY, a little onesie that says "This is my little black dress" and a princess hooded towel for when we give our princess a bath--THANK YOU JODI!!! We ALSO got some Dr. Browns bottles, a diaper/bath caddy and diaper rash cream from nurse Lindsay, the more practical one that remembers things that slip our minds--THANK YOU LJ!!!! I love ya'll both and can't wait to see you in June, and for ya'll to come see us in MAINE!!

Now I am back in good ol' Valdez, I got back about a week before Christmas so I could spend it with my husband :o) His boat will be leaving soon and he will be gone for about a month, but we are HOPING he will be able to come back around the time I hit full term--which is right around the corner!! I am getting so excited to meet our sweet girl, but so anxious about giving birth! I'm scared to death but I know it will all be worth it when I see that sweet little face :o)

By the way, Miss PAISLEE MARIE is now the size of a squash, at 29 weeks and 2 days old, she is 15-17 inches long, and weighs between 2.5-3.8 pounds--she is getting BIG and so is MAMA! We had already decided on Paislee, but were going to spell it Paisley, and we were back and forth between Marie and Reese for her middle name. We decided on Paislee Marie because "Lee" is after Jason's grandpa, dad and Jason, and Marie is after my mama and me--so she is named after her great grandpa, her grandpa, her daddy, her grandma AND her mama--what a lucky girl :o)

Here is a 'lovely' picture of my huge belly--thanks to Monica, who requests pictures weekly, sometimes BI-WEEKLY, I have a recent picture, taken yesterday, to put up--thanks Monica for keeping me up-to-date with my belly pictures, I will be glad you did ten years from now--even if I don't enjoy seeing my fat butt on a regular basis now :o)




Until next time, which is hopefully sooner than later... :o)

XOXO from Cold (but apparently not as cold as N.C) Alaska,