Maternity Shower
I have the greatest friends and family! I just got back from a long visit in Texas while there my wonderful friend Krystina threw together a Maternity Brunch for me. I had such a good time. It was the perfect size group of family and really close friends. The food was delicious, the video was hilarious, and the presents were too gracious. Thank you everyone for your gifts. I'm so excited about sporting all my new pregnant clothes. I'm growing so quickly that I've already had to rip the tags off several items. The shower couldn't have come at a better time. I don't have any pictures yet but hopefully I'll have some soon. Thanks again to everyone involved!
Steven at Closing Bell ceremony on Wallstreet
Steven went to New York last week to represent the Navy for POW/MIA recognition day. While there he was given the honor of being part of the closing ceremony on Wall street. He's the one in the left corner. . .isn't he so handsome?
He also got to go to a Mets game and be part of the opening ceremony. I don't have pics of that yet, but I'll get some and add on here. He had a great time. I'm so proud of my husband. He is an awesome sailor and even better partner.
He also got to go to a Mets game and be part of the opening ceremony. I don't have pics of that yet, but I'll get some and add on here. He had a great time. I'm so proud of my husband. He is an awesome sailor and even better partner.Fun Video
Steven and I made this video at the Incredible Pizza Company. I thought it was funny. I couldn't get the whole video to post, but you'll get the idea. Hope you enjoy.
4th of July
Steven's family came to visit 4th of July weekend. This was right after we discovered that I was pregnant, so we decided to tell them while they were here. They were of course very excited and shocked. We had a really great time while they were here. I wish we could see them all more often. I love spending time with my adorable neices, Maddie and Celianna, and my cute, cute, cute nephew, Branigan. We spent the weekend going to the Incredible Pizza Company, seeing the famous ducks at the Peabody Hotel, eating Memphis ribs, riding a riverboat down the Mississippi river, watching fire works, and playing in the water sprinkler. It was a very full weekend but very fun. Here are some pics from from the firework show at Navy lake.
Celebrating the News
Shortly after finding out we were pregnant (and of c
ourse before the barfing set in), Steven and I went to the Melting Pot here in Memphis to celebrate our new adventure. This is one of our favorite places to eat. It's always nice and quiet. A perfect place to just sit back, relax, eat slowly and have wonderful conversation. If you've never been, you should go. But only go with someone you like to talk to or you may experience some really long uncomfortable silences. This is never the case with Steven and I, we always have something crazy to discuss. But on this day, we talked all about becoming parents. Steven is very excited, more excited than me I think. It doesn't quite feel real to me. Being a mom scares me to death. You would think being the oldest child in a large family would have me feeling more prepared, but I don't feel prepared. I'm not sure if I even know how to change a diaper. And honestly I don't think Steven has ever even held a new born baby. This will definitly be a new adventure for us.
Steven is excited about having a designated driver for the next year. I think he assumes that now he can drink for three!
ourse before the barfing set in), Steven and I went to the Melting Pot here in Memphis to celebrate our new adventure. This is one of our favorite places to eat. It's always nice and quiet. A perfect place to just sit back, relax, eat slowly and have wonderful conversation. If you've never been, you should go. But only go with someone you like to talk to or you may experience some really long uncomfortable silences. This is never the case with Steven and I, we always have something crazy to discuss. But on this day, we talked all about becoming parents. Steven is very excited, more excited than me I think. It doesn't quite feel real to me. Being a mom scares me to death. You would think being the oldest child in a large family would have me feeling more prepared, but I don't feel prepared. I'm not sure if I even know how to change a diaper. And honestly I don't think Steven has ever even held a new born baby. This will definitly be a new adventure for us.
Steven is excited about having a designated driver for the next year. I think he assumes that now he can drink for three!
I'm Back
I took a little vacation from blogging. I suppose I shouldn't say "little" since it has been almost 2 months since my last entry. And really I shouldn't say "vacation" because I havent spent the last 7 weeks sipping pina coladas on the beach. . .nope, I've spent the last 7 weeks vomiting my guts out. Every day. All day. Yes, I have been experiencing morning sickness with all of its morning-noon-and night glory. But I think that I'm finally coming out of it. I'm starting to feel like a human being again. Thank the Lord! I was starting to think that the little rasberry sized miracle inside of me was really a rasberry sized demon. But after weeks of eating nothing but chicken noodle soup, crackers, and cheerios I think I'm on the road to a more pleasant pregnancy. By the way, I hate everyone who didn't vomit continuously while pregnant. Not fair!
Anyway, that is the extent of my excuse for not blogging. Now I'm going to try to play catch up with my entries.
Oh yeah, check out my baby countdown at the bottom of the screen. .. I know, it's cheesey.
Anyway, that is the extent of my excuse for not blogging. Now I'm going to try to play catch up with my entries.
Oh yeah, check out my baby countdown at the bottom of the screen. .. I know, it's cheesey.
On the job injury
Me getting beat up at work seemed to interest many of you. So I thought I'd post this picture. .. I think it's really funny. I can't give a lot of details about what happened, but basically I got punched in the face and had a metal door slammed on me by a rather large 15 year old girl. Yes, yes I got beat up by a child. All should be proud though, because I did not strike back. Anyway, when I got home that night Steven doctored me all up. I think he went a bit overboard with the icepacks :) But it makes for a funny picture. . . and story.
Journey
After many years of coming up with excuses about why we shouldn't have a dog. . .we finally gave in and decided to take the kanine plunge. Steven has been begging for a Boston Terrier since we got married. However, I hate Boston Terriers. . .I think they are the ugliest, craziest, and most hyper dogs ever created. Steven loves their bulgy eyes and huge mouths with dangling tongues. He laughs every time he sees one. I love to see my husband laugh, so we compramised. He wanted a Boston and I wanted a Pug, so we bought a Bugg. A perfect mixture of boston and pug. She was 6 weeks old when we got her. She was born in Humble, Texas and her Uncle Cole brought her all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. After the first week, I was exhausted. Getting up at 3 am and 6 am every day to take her out was making me realize how unprepared I was for this responsibility. But we've stuck with it and she's doing really well. She is now 10 weeks old and growing every day. She sleeps through the night and has minimal accidents throughout the day. I'm hoping in another month she will be completely house broken. So, we'll see.
We're having lots of fun with her. I think she's sooooo cute, but I promise I will try my hardest not to force you all agree with me. My family already thinks we're going to those annoying people who brings their dog every where and thinks every thing they do is wonderful. All I can say is that we will TRY not to become that.
This is her regal boston terrier pose.
Sorry Cole. . .I couldn't resist. You'll be happy to know that she hates being dressed up.
FE/s320/New+Journey+032.JPG">She's sooo tiny!
Tornados
Tornadoes came through Memphis again last week. This time without warning. Steven and I had plans to meet some friends downtown, so we were in the bedroom getting ready to leave. . .suddenly we hear the tornado sirens go off. Being from East Texas, this whole tornado siren thing has been something new for me to get used to. It still takes me a minute to figure out what that loud whirring sound is every time they go off. Every Wednesday at noon they test the sirens, so you'd think I'd be well aware of what they are by now. But I'm not. Last year we were in a movie theater downtown when the sirens went off. . . we could hear the sirens over the film. The theater ended up turning off the movie and kicking us all out into the storm, saying it was a liability to have us in their building. They wouldn't even let us wait in the lobby. I guess the free movie passes they gave us were supposed to compensate for being tossed around through the sky like Dorothy and Toto. We obviously made it through the storm unscathed, but I'm still bitter about it all. Anyway back to last week, it was so weird that the sirens were going off on this day because we had just been outside with the puppy and the weather was extremely hot and sunny. . .not a black cloud insight. When we heard the siren I ran to the window and watched the blackness roll in. This brought back childhood memories for me. Growing up on the lake, every time a storm would blow in I would stand by the window or even sometimes on the back porch and watch the clouds turn dark and thick. Mom would sometimes say "Those look like tornader clouds" and then she would have us kids put couch cushions in the downstairs bathroom transforming it into our little shelter. Thank goodness we never actually had to take cover there, as we would have been a bit cramped. Here in Tennessee, Steven's closet in our hallway is our Tornado Shelter, so that night I grabbed Journey and watched the rain and wind through the window waiting to see if we needed to take cover. If your wondering about Willow (our satanic cat), I did think about her, but decided it would be suicidal for us to be locked in a teeny tiny closet with her and the dog (they don't get along, but more on that later). So Willow was left to fend for herself. Luckily, we didn't have to resort to our "shelter". After about an hour the storm passed and we still had electricity. We took a short drive around Millington, I say short because Millington is maybe as big as Livingston, looking for food and soon realized that our block was the only street in town to have power. Tree limbs and power lines were all over the place and all the traffic lights were dead. Seeing all of this made us very thankful that our place had not been touched. So we went back to our cozy house with AC and TV, and settled in for a quiet night at home. Another Tornado survived.
And then there was Memphis
I know I'm really summarizing our lives in these first few posts. I'm just trying to get everyone caught up so I can start blogging about our current life. My wonderful friend and "blog muse", Krystina, told me I should just jump right into the daily blogging, but I'm having a hard time doing this without giving brief background info. So I give my apologies to all who find my summarized life boring. I only have one year left to cover. : )
After a brief stay in Chicago, we were off to Memphis. We stayed in a Motel 6 until we found our new home. I remember it was Halloween, and we were searching for an apartment. We finally found the perfect one. . .a small two bedroom in a beautiful complex with a lake surrounded by Willow trees. I loved it. The apartment managers were shocked when we said we wanted to move in that same day, but since we had cash in hand they made it happen. All of our stuff was still in Texas, so we went to walmart and bought a blow up mattress, a blanket, and some towels. For dinner we walked across the street to the Flying Saucer, which we were just sure would become a frequent hang out for us, and had pear cider and pizza. It was a perfect Halloween and a perfect first night in our new home.
Once we were all settled in Memphis. I finally got my dream job as a flight attendant. I know it was a silly dream, but still it was something that I always wanted to do. . .so I did it. I flew lots of places, stayed in lots of hotels, and spent many hours in airports, but I wasn't seeing very much of my husband and I wasn't making any money. So after a very tiring year I quit my job with Pinnacle Airlines and went to work for Youth Villages Girl Center. My job title is Teacher Counselor, but should really be Prison Guard/Babysitter/Shrink. I am working with high risk teenage girls, who love to fight, self harm, destroy property, run away, tear their clothes off, do drugs, and have sex. But they also like to dance, listen to music, watch movies, play games, laugh, write poetry, talk and be normal teenage girls. Steven says there is something wrong with me. . .because of how I'm drawn into these high stress jobs. Sometimes I think he's right. But I am really enjoying this job and I feel like I am actually helping these girls. I won't lie though, it is a rough job. I come home frequently with bruises and bite marks. And one night I even got punched in the face (for the first time in my life). But these girls need somebody, so I figure for now it might as well be me. . .the high stress junkie.
We've settled into our new life quite well. Several months ago we moved out of our apartment in Memphis to a house in Millington which is closer to the Navy base. I've now got myself spoiled to the larger space and the yard. I feel I will never be able to live in an apartment again. We also just added a new member to our family, her name is Journey and she is an adorable Bugg puppy. We figured it was the natural progression of life and responsibility to first own a fish, and then a cat, and then a dog, and then finally when you're sure you can handle it--a child. So for all of you who keep nagging us about having children you should be happy to know that we have arrived at the puppy phase in life, which is only one phase away from child bearing. Some people progress faster than others. . .sorry but we're on the slow end of the spectrum : ).
Well, this briefly sums up the last several years. I feel like there are a whole lot of things that we've done and gone through these last few years that I want to write about, but I will try to tie in more of those details and stories into my future posts.
After a brief stay in Chicago, we were off to Memphis. We stayed in a Motel 6 until we found our new home. I remember it was Halloween, and we were searching for an apartment. We finally found the perfect one. . .a small two bedroom in a beautiful complex with a lake surrounded by Willow trees. I loved it. The apartment managers were shocked when we said we wanted to move in that same day, but since we had cash in hand they made it happen. All of our stuff was still in Texas, so we went to walmart and bought a blow up mattress, a blanket, and some towels. For dinner we walked across the street to the Flying Saucer, which we were just sure would become a frequent hang out for us, and had pear cider and pizza. It was a perfect Halloween and a perfect first night in our new home.
Once we were all settled in Memphis. I finally got my dream job as a flight attendant. I know it was a silly dream, but still it was something that I always wanted to do. . .so I did it. I flew lots of places, stayed in lots of hotels, and spent many hours in airports, but I wasn't seeing very much of my husband and I wasn't making any money. So after a very tiring year I quit my job with Pinnacle Airlines and went to work for Youth Villages Girl Center. My job title is Teacher Counselor, but should really be Prison Guard/Babysitter/Shrink. I am working with high risk teenage girls, who love to fight, self harm, destroy property, run away, tear their clothes off, do drugs, and have sex. But they also like to dance, listen to music, watch movies, play games, laugh, write poetry, talk and be normal teenage girls. Steven says there is something wrong with me. . .because of how I'm drawn into these high stress jobs. Sometimes I think he's right. But I am really enjoying this job and I feel like I am actually helping these girls. I won't lie though, it is a rough job. I come home frequently with bruises and bite marks. And one night I even got punched in the face (for the first time in my life). But these girls need somebody, so I figure for now it might as well be me. . .the high stress junkie.
We've settled into our new life quite well. Several months ago we moved out of our apartment in Memphis to a house in Millington which is closer to the Navy base. I've now got myself spoiled to the larger space and the yard. I feel I will never be able to live in an apartment again. We also just added a new member to our family, her name is Journey and she is an adorable Bugg puppy. We figured it was the natural progression of life and responsibility to first own a fish, and then a cat, and then a dog, and then finally when you're sure you can handle it--a child. So for all of you who keep nagging us about having children you should be happy to know that we have arrived at the puppy phase in life, which is only one phase away from child bearing. Some people progress faster than others. . .sorry but we're on the slow end of the spectrum : ).
Well, this briefly sums up the last several years. I feel like there are a whole lot of things that we've done and gone through these last few years that I want to write about, but I will try to tie in more of those details and stories into my future posts.
In the beginning. . .
The year was 2002. I had just moved back to Livingston from Jackson Hole. And Steven, making a move from Chicago to Norfolk, stopped by Livingston to visit his family. And so, for the first time in over 6 years we were both in the same town at the same time. This really would never have been significant if it weren't for our dear, mutual, matchmaking friend, Beth. Beth, using a small fib, declared to Steven over the phone that I had been asking about him. Truthfully, I had not given Steven Marsh a second thought since our highschool days. And even then we weren't really good friends, we just shared good friends. But Beth's comment made Steven remember the cute, quiet Carter girl and out of shear desperation to get out of the house for awhile, he called me. Being the way I am, I of course ignored his call. He then called my Mom,and after sweet talking her for a few minutes, left a message with her for me to call him back. I, of course, did not. Why would this guy, who I hadn't talked to in a million years be calling me. . .I labeled it as strange and random and went on about my life. The next day he caught me on the phone. Five minutes later I had a date planned with Steven Marsh. 8 hours later, I was in love.
We spent everyday together that week and then it came time for him to leave for Virginia. We decided that the timing couldn't have been worse for a relationship, but we were both afraid that if we didn't try we might never find eachother again. And so began our forever long, long distance love life. The first month he was gone, I accrued an eight hundred dollar phone bill. We talked for hours every day. Then he was deployed for six months. We communicated only through email and monthly phone calls from the ship. When he returned from over seas we took turns making the long 22 hour drive between Texas and Virginia. By May of 2004, Steven decided to move to Texas for awhile, join the reserves, and go back to school. By July we were engaged, and in September we were married. Foolish and naive we thought this was our happy ending. Three months later, Steven was deployed with the reserves to the Middle East. He would not return for almost a year.
I like to pretend that year didn't happen. It was difficult and long, but we survived it.
When he returned, he finished school and reenlisted in the Navy. Finally, after three years of bumpy, all over the place marriage we were off to Memphis, Tennessee to start our wonderful life together.
We spent everyday together that week and then it came time for him to leave for Virginia. We decided that the timing couldn't have been worse for a relationship, but we were both afraid that if we didn't try we might never find eachother again. And so began our forever long, long distance love life. The first month he was gone, I accrued an eight hundred dollar phone bill. We talked for hours every day. Then he was deployed for six months. We communicated only through email and monthly phone calls from the ship. When he returned from over seas we took turns making the long 22 hour drive between Texas and Virginia. By May of 2004, Steven decided to move to Texas for awhile, join the reserves, and go back to school. By July we were engaged, and in September we were married. Foolish and naive we thought this was our happy ending. Three months later, Steven was deployed with the reserves to the Middle East. He would not return for almost a year.
I like to pretend that year didn't happen. It was difficult and long, but we survived it.
When he returned, he finished school and reenlisted in the Navy. Finally, after three years of bumpy, all over the place marriage we were off to Memphis, Tennessee to start our wonderful life together.
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