OBX 2013

We had the wonderful fortune of a last-minute Outerbanks trip with Justin's family. 

We tried to arrange going before, but with J's work and school schedule, it didn't seem like it would work out! The day before they were leaving, we decided we really wanted to try to go and thankfully, J's SGT gave him the green light. 

I am so thankful the Department is so good with employee/family requests. We left after Will's bedtime when J got home from work and drove overnight- we arrived around 0330 and slept for a few hours before starting our day! Parents, overnight travel is where it's at- baby was sleeping (when he'd normally be screaming!) and we had a nice six hours to chat.

We spent our days chatting with family, flying kites, playing in the sand and exploring the area.

We spent a few hours at the Roanoke Island Aquarium! Will loved it.

Visiting the Wright Brother's Memorial in Kill Devil Hills

Flying kites and playing in the sand in front of the beach house. 

J took Will for an early morning walk on the beach while I got to sleep a little more! 

It was a very relaxing trip and we made so many memories as a family.

My little baby is now 15 months old!

My sweet boy is 15 months old! Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that he was still in my belly! 

Yesterday, he had his 15 month checkup! We got to see his best buddy, Dr.Lye, who is apparently no longer his best buddy. He is now at the age where anything he doesn't initiate is a fight- so the stethoscope, ear and mouth checks, etc. were all tantrum inducers! 

Luckily, I have a bit of experience in restraining unruly children at the doc and have no problem doing the same to my little guy.

We escaped an hour and a half later with two shots, and a sticker (Thanks, Julia!).

His official stats were:

Height: 31" (50%)

Weight: 21+15.5 (15%)

Head: 49cm (95%)

My tiny baby! He is SO skinny (but doesn't look it with his big belly always hanging out!), and is following how I grew- BIG baby, tiny toddler. He just recently doubled his birth weight, which usually happens around 6 months. The good news is that I haven't had to buy him bigger clothes in quite a while! He still fits into the outfits he wore last summer. 

His favorite "new" words at 15 months are truck, babies and flowers. This kid never stops moving, talking or eating. He keeps me on my toes all day long and I am so, so lucky to stay at home with him. I have worked with babies/kids for a long time, but never realized how much they pick up just by observing. It is pretty amazing! 

Will's "book bag"

Will was given a membership to the Christ Our Shepherd library in Matthews from his "Mimi" for his birthday. We recently got to visit- it was a very cool place! We also frequent story time at our local library. It's great to check out lots of board books to bring home with us- it helps me to figure out which ones continue to fascinate him, and the ones I definitely shouldn't buy on our own.

I decided to get Will his own bag to carry books- because what toddler doesn't love carrying around all of their stuff in a bag?! I was planning on buying him an L.L. Bean tote bag for his birthday, but with a price tag of $30, I just couldn't pull the trigger. 

Hobby lobby has these awesome canvas tote bags- I got his for about $2.00, a couple containers of fabric paint and a robot stencil. $5.00 total and about ten minutes of "crafting" later...

Will loves his new "book bag!"

I'm baaaaaack!

After a crazy week without a computer (can you believe it?!), I am back. A couple of Benjamins on a new logic board (on a 5 year old computer!) later, I am relieved... because J threatened to make the Windows switch if it were any more expensive, and that is not something I'm ready for! I am known to kill Windows machines within a year. No bueno.

Anyway, there is a ton to catch up on and I don't even know where to start! We've had a couple of very fun and productive weeks. Right as my computer crashed, J and I had just gotten back from a mini-vacation to Banner Elk, NC. It was much needed and such a great trip. The first day was dreary and rainy, but we had already planned to go to the movies while we were there (something that we have done maybe twice since Will was born!) so it worked out.

We also went to an AMAZING restaurant while we were there- it is the 1861 Farmhouse and Winery.  As serious foodies, it is often hard to find great places to eat in small towns. Whenever we plan a vacation, it is around FOOD. We were seriously impressed- except, I wasn't too thrilled about the drive that it took to get there. It is in Valle Crucis and we were driving from Banner Elk- if you've ever been, you know it is about 10 miles of ridiculously curvy roads, and it was DARK and foggy. I never felt so close to dying- I would go again, but only in the daylight! It is in a great location if you are ever in the area, right across from the (original) Mast General Store.

The Winery/Bed and Breakfast that we stayed was Banner Elk Winery- last time we went was with J's mom and dad on his 21st birthday. It was lovely as usual! The place is amazing, the rooms are beautiful, the food is top notch. 

A picture of the Inn from the Winery- stolen from my MILs pics from our last trip! 

On our way out of town on the last day of our trip, we planned a small hiking trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway- it is around mile marker 272. It was to see Cascade Falls, and some super old cabins in the area. It was a really cool hike, and beautiful waterfall. 

Whoops

So, I was planning on updating this thing a few days ago. Justin and I went out of town for a few days to Banner Elk, NC and had a great time. I have lots of cool waterfall pictures and things we've been doing, but our Mac Mini is DEAD. So, we went to my parent's house today to try their power supply for their mini and now theirs is dead too. No earthly idea what happened to either, but now we have two computers to fix (which may not be possible :( or re-buy.

Anyway, thankfully Justin bought an external harddrive last year for all of my photos so we still have those on backup.  Hopefully I will be back soon. Facebook has been wooing me back after it realized I hadn't been on lately. It's telling me about popular posts hat friends have made and new pictures, life events, etc. but I don't even have my own password anymore so the temptation doesn't matter.

Having absolutely no real computer to work on is a real bummer!

Day #7: Time to streamline

It is day 7, which means I am about 25% through my goal of staying off of Facebook for a month! It hasn't been nearly as difficult as I thought, but I am still looking forward to logging back on in February and seeing what everyone has been up to. 

Yesterday, I slept a total of about 16 hours- the tail end of this cold has really kicked my rear (and poor Will's, too). Justin can now officially attest to the efficacy of Zicam. I always laughed at him taking it before, but as everyone in the Troester fam (my mom, dad and brother) and our family (Will and me) have each been ill for 1-2 weeks, and Justin got a very mild 3 day illness. I won't make fun of his hypochondria anymore.

Yesterday, my big accomplishment was getting out of bed. We also went to breakfast with my family to celebrate J's birthday. My mom gave him the traditional birthday gift... Beers of the World! It is definitely his favorite thing to come home to after work... after me, of course. I think he will cry if she doesn't give him another one next year...

Today has been a major cleaning, laundry and dishes day. Such is the life as a stay at home mom! 

I also decided to purge my closet of pretty much everything and throw most of it in the garbage. 

J just got rid of his gun cabinet, so now I have a couple extra feet for clothes!

 before

during- Will is excited about all of the extra space! 

After!

 I love the clean, streamlined feel. Notice my little toolbox up there! I love it. Every woman should own one. It has the tools that I use most often... a few different kind of screwdrivers, a molding pry bar, my favorite paint brushes, spackle, a tape measure, etc. It helps to know where everything is while working on a project, and it is nice not to have to dig through all of J's things. 

Day #5: My bulletin board

Nothing too exciting today, but I pulled out all of J's tools once he left for work. The drill, bits and hammer and set out to "install" a bulletin board that I've had for a couple months. I drilled pilot holes that ended up being too small, so had to re-do them and it worked. It has anchors and everything! 

It actually only took about 10 minutes from beginning to end, and I'm embarrassed that I waited this long. I am trying to figure out how to do more of the simple house maintenance things like this, and so far it has gone pretty well! 

To liven things up a bit, I will (try to) include a video of Will from tonight (if I can figure it out...).