A lot can happen

Tick. Tock. Tick Tock.

Time has slipped by since I've last written on this blog. A part of me missed writing on here, imaging someone out there misses my blog entries and enjoys reading what I have to write about, what craft project I did or food I attempted to make. The clock is always ticking. Just as I'm writing these few sentences, 2 minutes has passed by.  Type, type, type...delete delete delete...delete again. I'm pretty positive my brain is telling me to shut the computer off, slouch down into the covers of the bed and fall asleep before the little one wakes. 

Like I mentioned above, time has elapsed since I've blogged. You're probably referring "the little one" to our dog, Rusty, whom I blogged about shortly before I took a hiatus. But the truth is, you're wrong. I am indeed talking about our little boy. Our son. I was pregnant when I typed out my last post 2 years ago.  The traditional anniversary shot? Yeah, I was pregnant but it's okay because it was only water. We still went along with it and posted online to Facebook - people had no clue, thinking it was Absolut or some sort of clear liquor. 

I found out I was pregnant near the first week of January 2014. I waited to tell Matt until our anniversary....two long weeks. But it was so worth it to see how surprised he was when I gave him his anniversary gift. I placed a baby rattle in a box. When he opened it, he seemed confused and then.....it hit him! I made him promise not to tell anyone until the following weekend. That's when we planned out how we would surprise our family members. It was great; they were all thrilled.

Months went by, pregnancy was fantastic but trying to get Medicaid was a bitch. After that was set up, it was smooth sailing. I loved being pregnant; everything about it. Well, not everything. I could have done without the leg cramping in the middle of the night or the sciatica back pain near the end. Other than that, yep.. everything! It makes me excited to become pregnant again. It's just a matter of when.

Our son, Warren, was born on September 22, 2014. It was such an easy birth. I felt lucky. Hell, I didn't even know I was in labor. I was cramping really bad the night prior and in the morning I still felt very crampy. Not thinking of it as labor pains but more so brackton hicks. I took a shower, and in that moment.. I realized I'm in labor. I felt a very strong pressure sensation that didn't feel normal and I was breathing heavier. I called Matt and told him he better come home soon. He got home, we put the bags in the car and headed to the hospital. On the way there, I told him "I bet I'm only 2.5 cm." We get there, I'm getting checked out, the Nurse is giving me some breathing advice and tips. She checks.... "You're 7.5 cm and being admitted immediately. You'll have this baby in the next 2 hours." Matt and I looked at each other speechless.

Called our family and updated them. They all show up in the waiting room. I progress fast. They break my water. and I pushed 3-4 times, and out comes Warren. My life changed.

Motherhood with a son has been interesting. challenging. fun. rewarding. the best. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm pretty sure my sleep will never be solid until my kids are older, but that's okay.. it's only for a limited time. I love being a mom no matter how difficult at times it can be. It's sometimes hard to even imagine how I went about my daily life without Warren. It would feel very strange going back in time, I think. 

In other news - Matt is almost finished with his Associates degree. We've brought Rusty to dog training classes; which, has helped out with issues he was having.
We've crossed off quite a bit from our baby bucket list (by the way, we were at 53% when I got pregnant.. so that's not too bad! Here's the latest post about that), I left my job at the nursing home once Warren was born.. it was too hard for me to leave him for so long 5x a week so now I'm a stay at home mom and work the weekends as a server just to bring in a few extra dollars. Matt got a great job being a tutor at the college.
We recently found out that my brother-in-law and his wife is expecting their first baby so Matt and I will be an Aunt and Uncle again! I'm sure there are other things I've missed but I hope to update a bit more regularly. 

A Few New & BIG Happenings

Well, I took a little hiatus because the Lacey household got a little busy the past month or two. I know I still wrote a couple posts regarding food recipes but I never shared any of the exciting news! So here we go from March! (Told you I am behind.. I'll try to make it quick)

In March we went to Florida for a visit with family, a birthday party…. and to house hunt. Yes, you read that correctly. Matt decided he wants to retire from the military so we can start our lives together, build a family, and focus on what he wants to do in life outside of the military. While the military has provided us a great beginning to our future, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time (and still does even at times it is a little nerve-wracking).  Well, we quickly got ahold of an AWESOME  broker through the VA to help us along on our first-time home buyer experience. He set us up with a relator in the area of Florida where we were looking to buy. We looked at a total of 7 homes.  The 6th home we looked at, felt so right. It was close to both of our parents and other family members, in a good school district (thinking about that future, ha ha), good size house - not to mention MOVE-IN READY!! Scary, we took the plunge and told our relator we want to put an offer in. It was a foreclosure so we were hoping to get lower than asking price. Offer came back, they hardly budge. So, again - another offer. Hardly budge again.. we weighed our options and discussed what we could afford, and decided to say okay to their second offer. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!  From there on, there were a lot of papers to be signed, documents to be read, papers to be faxed, money to be sent.. but about 30 days later, we were signing the official documents out in California (we flew back) on April 24, 2013. We were then new homeowners. It felt so great to have a house of our own that we could call a home. A home that will have our future pet and kids. A home where family can come over and celebrations can happen. A home where we will always be together! It seriously is still one of the best decisions I think we have made as a couple thus far.

Our last month, May, in the house on base felt like it dragged by. During that month: We ordered a fridge for the new house, I quit my job, I sorted out items for a yard sale, We both enrolled in school in Florida, and we started to prepare for our move by canceling services.
Yard sale day came the weekend prior to us moving.. it wasn't that huge of a success as I thought it would be, so I ended up packing it away for a yard sale in Florida.

and relaxed a bit

Moved out of base housing and began our move on Fri, May 31. Along the way we stopped and stayed with my sister, nieces/nephews 1 night. We arrived at our home on Mon, June 3. We made really good timing, and again - it was a nice road trip but we were so happy it was over too, haha.

Matt has not retired yet from the Marines, so he was on leave for a couple weeks to help with the moving process. During his time, he helped unpack boxes once the movers arrived, fixed the hose connection to the fridge, fixed the dryer connection to the wall, installed a garage door opener, fixed the  dishwasher and sink.  We went to get office furniture and set that up, as well as a few items for our home and set up all of our services. He really did help out a lot. I wanted him to stay because we just moved in but he had to go back to California for 3 more weeks (he will be back in 4 days now).

So, since my husband has been gone from June 10 until now June 28 I have been busy doing something every day. It has been exhausting but since he's left: Our fridge arrived, I bought and installed blinds, decorated the house, organized the bedrooms, bought a china hutch, changed the layout of the living room, sprayed the yard to start killing all the weeds for removal, and ordered curtains to hopefully have up before he comes home. I do have the picture frames laid out for him to hang when he returns! Haha, what a fun project (rolls eyes)

Not only the house stuff was accomplished. I managed to apply at 5 nursing facilities for a CNA position. I went on one interview, got hired on the spot but after further thought and research, I declined and decided I would rather take my chances to keep looking elsewhere.  Then just the other day, I got called in for an interview. I got hired on the spot, again. I accepted and so far I am happy with the decision I made. I will go in for orientation sometime soon and then start work.

2012 Recap + New Years Celebration

Wow, I apologize for the lack of writing the past month. With Matt and I being gone for a week in Florida, to us getting sick, and then NewYears right around the corner from all of that, it became a whirlwind. So, now that I have some down time in between working and doing every day stuff, I thought I would update you all on our trip to Florida, New Years,  our overall year of 2012 and our outlook for 2013.

On the 20th we flew to Florida to spend Christmas with all of our family. Our week went by fast! The 21st we went up to visit Matt's cousin, Michael, and his wife Jessica and their cute two boys! Matt and I met their littlest, Lucas (who is almost 2!) for our first time… and fell in love.

One of those days we went out shopping for Christmas gifts,

another day I went up to visit my grandparents while Matt went golfing with his dad and grandpa.

Then Christmas Eve, I got sick. Yay! It was horrible.. but I managed to just suck it up and take as much medicine I could throughout the rest of our stay(and even back home!) Matt and I attended church and went straight over to his grandparents house for Antipasto and opened gifts. It was such a GREAT time! All the gifts this year seemed to be very creative (Thanks to Pinterest Lol)

On Christmas Day, Matt and I spent the entire day with my family, opening gifts, playing cornhole, xbox, and monopoly (curse that game!). That too was another GREAT day.

 Dad, this picture of you cracks me up! LOL

 His first time ever baking and decorating a cake.. it was so delicious and awesome!

 Matt dancing to my nieces new xbox

 My lovely Molly

 Monopoly late into the morning

My grown up niece!!

The last full day, we hung out with his family during the day and then at night we went over to my parents house to spend time with them. My dad took us to the airport on his way to work bright and early! The flight was horrible due to me feeling like completely and utter crap. I couldn't wait to just be home in bed and fall asleep.

Once we got home, it was still early, so we took it easy and opened up our gifts and went grocery shopping. Then two days later, it was back to the grind and I went to work.

Few days passed, New Years came along. We hung out with our good friends and a lot of other people and had a big celebration! It is sad to think that all of us that were in that same room, are all moving to different states and some are getting out of the military.

So that is a very quick story and pictures of the past events.

2012 was a good year for us:

• Celebrated our 3rd year anniversary
• I got a wonderful job
• Matt came back from his deployment and turned 25
• We went on our belated honeymoon to St. Lucia
• We bought a kayak and took up snorkeling/spearfishing more
• I turned 24
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with close friends
• Went to see a Ravens football game
• Went home to Florida to be with family during Christmas
• Had a big New Years party
• Crossed many items off our baby bucket list: 14 things in total

Our predicted 2013 year for us:

• Celebrate our 4th year anniversary
• House hunting and buying a home in Florida
• Matt turning 26
• Matt getting out of the military and us moving to Florida
• I'm turning 25
• Matt starting college and getting a new job
• I'm returning back to college and hopefully getting an awesome job at the hospital
• Cross more items off our baby bucket list
• Planning the right time to have a baby

I think 2013 will be great!!

Meet Yak

He is the newest member of our recreational sport equipment. Yak the kayak was purchased in August off of Craigslist for a good price that couldn't be turned away. Matt uses it every weekend with some friends so they can be out further in the ocean while spearfishing.

Four Bars

Yea, that's my husband. Yea, he's handsome.  I love him in his uniform - these are the "Charlie's".

He has enough ribbons now to make four bars, which is a pretty big deal for his years in service and rank. He had a uniform inspection today so I was able to take some current photos in uniform. Hopefully, professional photos one day!

Love that half smile...

Look at all those stars… (whistles)

To The Moon And Back

The other day on my way home from work, I stopped by the store to pick up hot sauce for Matt since we ran out (he loves hot sauce!) and since I felt creative, loving, and spontaneous, I bought him a 6-pack of beer too. Then, I made a theme out of it :)  Reminded me of when I made deployment care packages.

This was on the kitchen counter.

 And this was in the fridge.

Husband Caught A Shark

Yea, that's right. My husband and his friends had a guys day and went out spearfishing. Him and his friends helped catch this leopard shark last weekend spear fishing. Don't worry, leopard sharks are harmless to humans due to their mouths being so small that they wouldn't be able to bite. Their teeth are still sharp, but it's to catch their predators such as clams, spoon worms, fish eggs, shrimp, crabs, and bony fish.  If you're on the East Coast, you probably haven't seen one of these swimming around and that is due to them remaining in a certain area since they don't like to swim long movements anywhere else. They also stay together as a pack rather than swim alone.

Anyways, here is a picture of Matt and his two friends, Kyle and Brandon. 

You can see the little teeth if you look close enough. 

The guys also caught 6 fish which he grilled up along with the shark.

Cutting open the some of the fish. This is a better view of the shark too. 

Who knows, maybe I'll have even more pictures since we are going out tomorrow to spearfish and snorkel! 

Twix Ice Cream Cake

Who doesn't love cake and ice cream? Who doesn't love the both combined?? Well, I know I enjoy ice cream cakes and the hubby really does. So to switch it up this year, I decided to make an ice cream cake for his birthday.

He had a very special birthday due to him coming back home on the same day as his birthday! It was definitely a great day.
Anyways, I'll write more on that another time but here is a quick step by step instruction if you want to do it yourself for a special occasion or maybe just because!

What you will need:
1 bag of candy (any of your choice, but I used twix)
1 tub of cool whip (12 oz or 16 oz)
1 jar of carmel  (12 oz I think)
12 ice cream sandwiches or if you want a larger cake, then use 24
1  8x11 pan (if using the 12 sandwiches, otherwise you'll need 9x13)
Foil (optional)


Well, you don't have to line your pan with foil but I did because I didn't want the sandwiches to stick to the bottom, but then again I have come to realize it's worse when it sticks to the foil, although it is easy to remove. So if you want to just skip the step of laying foil down, then that's fine too.

Then cut up your candy into smaller pieces so they are prepared to go. I think I only used maybe 7-8 of the bite size candies, so you won't need the full bag but that's a personal choice. This was a hard part to not eat any!

 Ice Cream sandwiches, unwrap them from the wrappers. I only took 6 out of the freezer at a time because I didn't want them to melt

Lay them across in the pan

Layer the cool whip on top the sandwiches

  Then take your carmel, get it a little warm and put that on top of the cool whip, I mixed it in a bit throughout to give it a swirl effect.

Lay twix (or candy of choice) on top of it all

Then repeat the process one more time and make the top a bit more "appealing" and decorative. Then put foil on top of it and stick it in the freezer to enjoy later!


And here are a few from his birthday

Crazy to think he's 25… Even crazier to think I've known him since he was 16!