Promotions, photography and baby!! Oh my!!

So I know that it has been quite awhile since my last blog. I have no excuse other than I have just been lazy and not getting on the computer and keeping everyone updated. Plus... there really hasn't been too much exciting stuff going on in our lives. Although now it seems like I am excited about every little thing that goes on. Where to begin...

Let's start with the most recent news. The news that I woke up at 4:00 a.m for but couldn't get till 7:00. I want to congratulate Dexter on his recent promotion with the Air Force. He moved up from an E4 to an E5 (for those of you that know what that means!) and is now a Staff Sergeant. I couldn't be more proud of him and I know that he is proud of himself too. It was a very intense morning here. This is Dexter's third time testing, and I just could not bear to see him disappointed in himself if he had not made it. The first year he tested only 3 months after sewing on for Senior Airman, so he even said he wasn't ready for the promotion. Last year while he was in Korea he missed the promotion by 3 points and it just tore him apart. So this year he made and will now complete an ALS course, so he can sew on by Christmas!! I'm sorry that I can't tell you what ALS is. I know it is some leadership thing with some intense training. My friend went through it and used it as a weight loss plan and loss 30 pounds during the training. Of course with the promotion comes a pay scale increase, which will be helpful with having the baby due any day now. So his promotion is really a great help in so many areas. It will be two years before he can test again for Tech Sergeant. Which will be great because he also just re-enlisted for another 5 years. Being a military wife is not always the easiest job in the world. But I am glad that I have so much to be proud of in my life, and that my daughter will have an incredible human being as a father. So again congrats to him!!

Now it is my time to brag! Although I will have a lot of that coming up when Claire gets here, I do have an accomplishment of my own that I am proud of. You may remember from previous posts that photography school is something that I am interested in, and a fun hobby that I can see being a career passion of mine. Due to some unfortunate events job wise awhile back, we agreed that putting the school on hold was something that we needed to do. The program is cheap for the course that it is, so we want to save and pay for it in full, instead of monthly, adding an extra $300 onto the cost of it. So in the meantime, I have just been practicing with my camera and taking pictures of things that catch my eye. Well... here is where my husband gets proud of me! I had some pictures that I was playing around with and editing and he fell in love with one of them. Without my knowledge, he submitted the photo to a contest online. A few short days later we received an email from the company, requesting my permission to submit the photo into a 300 page hard bound book titled, The Best of 2009 Photo Anthology. I was shocked because it is just a random photo that I took at the zoo. Of course I gave them my permission and we are waiting to hear more of when it will be published and all that. They will also include a photo of me and a biography. Through this publication, I am also made to be in contact by other photo companies and such. I do not get paid for this, but I can sell the rights to the photo, or even sell prints of this and other photos through the website.

For being an amateur photographer and just using what I learned from the portrait studio and my own natural creative eye I guess... it makes me feel great when it goes noticed. The colors in our kitchen are red, black, and white. We recently printed some black and white photos and framed them to look wonderful in our kitchen! When I went to go pick up the prints, the girl at the photo counter asked me who took the photos. I thought... Oh great! They are going to want to see some copyright because they are national buildings and they think that I printed them off line! I told her I took them hoping she would believe me and she said, "Wow, I have been staring at these photos ever since your order came through. I am fascinated by them and I really hope you are framing them!" Again- it made me feel great! So that is my little boost of excellence for myself!

I don't really have much to update on baby. We are just weeks away from her arrival and mom and dad couldn't be more anxious. We did finally finish the nursery so our weekends have been full of Dexter relaxing and playing College football or Tiger Woods golf on the Xbox, while I have begun my nesting phase. I woke up the other morning and while he went downstairs, I stayed in the bedroom for 2 hours, DEEP CLEANING! If you have ever seen the episode on SNL with the anal retentive chef I was just like him. I would start to clean something, and then see a spot on something else, and I would quickly take care of that hoping to get back to what I was originally working on, before spotting something else. It wasn't easy! I have also been tackling the "craft room" now computer room. We moved the computer upstairs so all the wires and cables and what nots that come out of it aren't in the living room for the baby to grab hold of and bite into. So by putting it in the upstairs spare room, it has become our everything room. I accomplished quite a bit on organizing my crafts, but I am at the point where I am overwhelmed! I look at it and I can just feel my blood pressure rising. Haha!! It will get there. I have to clear the room out so that we can put the air mattress in here for guests when the baby arrives.

I will be sure and update this when Claire actually does get here, and I will try to do it before hand but like always, no promises!

We love you all!

D&A