Hello, it's me...

                  Why hello! It's been quite some time since I have written a blog. The last time I was on here I was getting ready to say good bye to my family once again back in 2013.  Things have definitely changed for sure!  For starters we have a daughter now, Ava Jane Murray:

She is now 8 months old. Ronnie absolutely loves his little sister. I was definitely a little worried how he would react to her but he is such a great big brother to her. We are now a family of four. Way different than three.  Speaking of three...whoever said that the twos were terrible, they were very, very wrong. I didn't think I could ever have anxiety and stress this much. Every day I feel like my head is going to blow a gasket with how much I'm constantly yelling at my son. He just non stop gets into trouble. There are days, like today, where I feel like the worst mother ever. I try so hard to do right by him but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. My mom mentioned a schedule, so that's what I'm going to try next. I think the biggest thing is keeping him busy. All he wants to do is go, go, go and mommy just wants to relax, relax, relax. The joys of parenthood.  Anyways, not a very long post tonight. Just trying to get back into my blogging. Will hopefully post on a regular basis from now on. Need to keep myself distracted while my husband is over seas. Have a great night everyone!!!  

Preparing myself for the heartache again...

You know it really has been forever since I have posted on here. What do I write about that I haven't wrote about before? I could talk about my 5 1/2 month old son who really is in a 12 month old's body. Or I could write about how my husband will be back soon and how much I miss him. I don't know honestly...

I guess I could go into how once again I am going to say goodbye to my loved ones and who knows when I will see them again. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see my husbands side of the family again. But I really hate good byes. It really hurts me so much when I have to look into my moms eyes and say "See you when I see you mamasita". It was so hard the first time and it will be even worse this time. Not only am I leaving but I am also taking her grandbaby away. I know Ronnie is a baby and probably won't fully understand but I'm sure this will effect him in some way when he doesnt see his "Mimi" "Papa" or Auntie "Bee" everyday like he is used to. I know I have to go and I know that I signed up for this when I married the man of my dreams but is there an easier way to do this? I wish I could just pack up all my loved ones into my suitcase so they can all come with me and I won't have to say goodbye. Sounds like a grand idea to me! 

Well anyways, I still have a few more months before I have to do any of that so in the meantime I am going to live like there is no tomorrow and live life to the fullest. Perfect! I'm getting back into my photography that I enjoy so much and making them into Digital scrapbooks. However, me being the dummy that I am, accidentally deleted my scrapbooking program when I was trying to clean up my computer. I will have to wait till payday to get the program again because I let my Nana borrow it and she lives in Kuwait. Too much of a process to have her try to send me it back. Oh well she can keep it and I will just get a new one. Fantastic solution I think! Must start using my camera that my wonderful husband bought me. Put Washington into a memory scrapbook. I was thinking about looking into online photography classes so I can learn more about digital photography but not really sure where to look and how much it would cost. Any ideas would be awesome! 

Farewell for now! I promise to try to keep my blog up to date more often. Just been off my game but definitely trying to get back into it. Adios Amigos! 

Everyday is a day closer...

I really wish I could just jump into the future. I am so ready to be back in Virginia so I can be with my husband and for us to be a family already. I miss him everyday and it's so hard not having him here. I wake up every morning and he's not there. I go to bed alone every night. The only thing that keeps me going is my son. I look at him and I see his daddy and my husband. He puts the biggest smile on my face and helps me forget that my love is over seas. 

I know I'm not the only one that goes through this. I went through it when I was younger with my dad. But it's not the same when it's your husband, you have more of a connection. I thought this wouldn't be so bad but I can't help but miss him. I love him so much and just wish this was over already. I want the family I have always dreamed about. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me and he should be here helping me with our son. But unfortunately this is what I married into. I knew it when I said "I do". I am very proud of what he doing for us though. This was a big sacrifice for him but this decision was all based on taking care of his family.

Luckily everyday is a day closer to him coming home to us. I can't wait for him to hold his son again and for me to being have him in my arms. Hurry home baby!

I did a few more scrapbook pages. Showing more of my creativity: 

 

Scrapbooking fun times :)

Today has been a pretty easy day. This morning started out rough but after calming down today was a good day. I spent all day downstairs hanging out with my son and digital scrap-booking. I created eight pages today. To me this is my way of relieving stress and giving me something fun to do besides being a mommy. It's a way of expressing myself and showing my creative side. I'm not a very creative person in most things so this is important to me. Love doing it and it's not messy like regular scrap-booking is when I do it. 

This first page I did for my baby girl Daquiri. I used the Doggie Template I found online. I used the picture I took of her when I first got my camera. It was a close up of her face and it turned out really well. I've had her since she was a baby. I feel bad because I haven't had as much time for her like I used to since I had my son. I am trying to make more time for her though. She is so wonderful around little Ronnie which makes me very happy. She doesn't even really pay much mind to him but she does check on him when he is crying. Well here is the scrap-book page: 

The next two I did for my niece. She absolutely loves Minnie Mouse and loves to play in the snow. It started to snow today and unfortunately she is fighting a cold so we didn't let her out to play and boy was she very upset about that. They weren't joking when they called it the "terrible two's". She somehow takes after me big time. Love that little girl so much even when she gives me the biggest attitude. She puts a smile on my face everyday. Here are the pages:

This next one I did was for my favorite season, Autumn. I absolutely love the colors. Something about the season just makes me all happy and excited inside. I got the benefit of being able to travel across the country during the season so I took a lot of pictures:

It's crazy to think how much things have changed over the years. Sometimes I wish I was still a kid and didn't have all of these responsibilities. But then I think about how happy I am with how my life has turned out. I look at all my friends too and see how much everyone has changed and grown up. We all have our own families and some of us kids of our own. This next one I created for one my dear friends who I have known since kindergarten. She is the longest friend I have had. She had a daughter a little bit before I had little Ronnie. Rhiannon Renee the star of my next page:

These next two pages I created for a couple of my good friends who also had babies in the past year. I used to work Rochelle and Moria and we all became very good friends. Definitely will always have them as my friends. Love them both very much and their daughters are absolutely adorable:

Last but not least I created this one for a dear family friend of ours. Carman's cute baby girl. She is so little it's so cute. Definitely a big screamer when she wants something. She is a big traveler via rolling around everywhere. Almost able to crawl her way around:

That was the last of my pages for today. I will definitely have some more. Will also try to take more pictures to help with my pages. Hope you enjoyed these for today. Have a good night!  

Officially a momma :D

Sorry that it has been awhile since I have been on here. I try to update as much as I can but it's been a little hard considering I am now officially a mommy! No more saying I am a mommy to be. Woohoo! But I do plan on trying to update this at least once a week. And since this is a Tuesday night I guess I will update Tuesday nights.

I am so happy that my little one is finally here. I am so happy to finally have in my arms. But it is definitely not the easiest job. There have been quite a few nights where I want to scream. It's really hard without my husband here but I do thank God everyday that I was able to come home to my family. I don't know what I would do without them. Probably go insane! I love being a mom but I have my moments a lot where I don't know what I'm doing. That's what my mom is for. I know all new moms go through this but you never know until you get to experience it yourself. I will tell you that I am happy to be here with my family, however, I am so ready for my little family. I want my husband back from over sea's, us in our home being parents to our beautiful baby boy. The trouble I went through to bring him into this world was so worth the pain!

I finally got back into my digital scrapbooking program. I did a few tonight that I will share with all my listeners. My son (I love saying that) has finally gone down for the night so it is time for this momma to get some laundry done. Have a great night everyone!

Been WAY too long

I am slacking way to much lately...maybe because I've bee dealing with  A LOT in the past month. First the move and then the pregnancy and getting everything ready for our son to arrive. Which hopefully will be any day now. I've been to the hospital 3 times with false labor in the past three weeks. Good news, however, is I am 3cm dilated and crossing fingers that I am ready to pop.

I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over. Not because I hate it but it has definitely been hard. I know I am not the only that goes through this but boy did I not know this was going to be tough. I am so excited to be a mommy but at the same time my pain tolerance sucks. Little Ronnie is one tough little cookie and a stubborn one too. I understand he will come when he is ready but what most people don't understand about me is I AM impatient. So when I've got everyone telling me everyday "be patient, Ashley, he will come when he is ready", I just want to scream really loud! I am very sorry if this offends everyone but I really had to get that off my chest. I love to talk and get things off my chest and I love the advice I get but telling me what I should and shouldn't do is definitely not the way to go especially when you got a crazy pregnant chick you're dealing with.

Anyways, on another note I am officially living in Washington with my wonderful parents who have taken me in while my husband is gone. Definitely a hard thing to get used to. Going from living on your own with your love back to living under your parents roof. Not something everyone wants to do but in my situation...I was in Virginia where I barely knew anyone and about 30 to 45 minutes away from the naval hospital where I was to give birth. So instead of leaving me alone all by myself my wonderful husband once again drove me across the country so I could be with loved ones and have my baby here. It was definitely a very hard decision for us to make but we both agreed I needed this. I am happy to be home again but I wish I could be with my husband more than anything. It is so hard to be without him.  I miss him more and more everyday, but each day is another day closer to being in his arms again.

We are so close to Christmas, who is ready for the holidays? Ooh pick me, pick me! But first lets get this little boy out of my belly! Crossing fingers he arrives by this weekend especially with my Uncle Patrick arriving this evening. Must give birth soon!

"Military Spouse, toughest job in the Military"

It's been really hectic for the past couple months. Which is why I haven't been on here in awhile. Going through this pregnancy has been tough but nothing will ever compare to knowing that your husband isn't going to be there when you need him the most. You will never know what it's like to be a military wife till you are one.

The day my husband got the call asking him to go out of the country for a job, I don't think it really hit me then that my love was leaving for so long. The closer it gets for me to be back in Washington the more it hits me. Doesn't help that I'm pregnant and very emotional. How do you cope with the fact that your husband is going to be there when you give birth? Or for the first 7 months of his life. You just do. You go on day by day, and remember that each day that goes by is a day closer that he comes home.

I am very nervous about everything. Scared you might even say. But I am very happy to finally be able to go home and be with my family and friends so I'm not "alone". All I can do is tell myself "I am going to get through this". I cannot wait for my little one to be here in my arms. That will be the biggest distraction for me. And then I am definitely looking forward to picking up my husband from the airport and him holding his boy for the first time. See you all in Washington!

Crunch Time...

Sorry all! It's been awhile since I've written anything here. Dad just got on to me about it, so I figured maybe I should update it. I've been pretty busy with everything. Work, work and more work. And on my days off I've been pretty lazy. I have finally made it into my third trimester and so its been pretty hard on my physical being. This boy is HUGE! At least that is what he feels like. Everyone has been telling me how big I look for only 6 months along. Little Ronnie is a chunker! I mean have you seen his dad? He was a 9 lb baby when he was born. Lucky me! My mom told me I should have had an interview with him about his family and the big babies that run in them before we decided to have a kid. Made me crack up! But seriously all jokes aside, I would not change this for the world. I am excited and already counting down the days till December. If you don't know me then I will inform you, I am VERY impatient. I'm getting so anxious, I just want to have him here already. Hold my little boy in my arms and see the look on my husbands face when he finally gets to hold his son too.

Yesterday, my husband woke up in a very weird mood. He rolled over and said to me "Lets go get the car seat for our son today". Now granted, my husband is very excited for our boys arrival just as much as me. But he is not the one to go shopping and he has told me repeatedly that all the bigger stuff can wait till the beginning of November after we get some bills paid off. Apparently he changed his mind. The car seat came with a stroller, which worked out for us because as our son gets older its turns into a toddler stroller. Saves us a lot of money down the road. Then my lovely husband went crazy shopping for other items. Not only did we walk out with the stroller, we walked out with a travel play pen, a swing, the diaper bag and the baby monitors. Needless to say, yesterday we got about 90% of our baby shopping done. Now it's just the little necessities we need to get. Diapers, wipes, clothes, toys, etc. I know a lot of my family and friends are wondering "Well what about your baby shower". Here's the thing, I honestly did not expect you all to get super expensive stuff. We just wanted to be prepared just in case he decides to come early. At the rate we are going I wouldn't be surprised if he did come early. But if you still want to help us out with the little things I won't say no. There are still a lot of things on my registries that I would like to have for our boy. So take a look.

Anyways, the time is getting closer, I'm getting bigger and everyday is getting harder to hold this little acrobat in my tummy. Counting down the days till the arrival of our little man. Can I make it to Thanksgiving? My mom and best friend think no. We shall see! :)

Finally, Munchkin is a boy!

After impatiently waiting, we finally found today that we are having a boy. I'm not going to lie, I started to think it was a girl. Mainly because EVERYONE kept saying boy. You know how it goes, everyone says one thing and then it's the complete opposite. Well obviously that wasn't the case in this situation. 

It was so amazing to see everything on the screen. He was very active during the whole process. He is looking very healthy. We got to see his bones, his heart and his brain. All developing the way it should. According to the computer he is weighing about 1 lb. When the nurse informed us of the gender I don't think I have ever seen anyone jump as high with joy as my husband did today. His "legacy" (as he calls it) will be passed on. I was laughing so hard, smiling ear to ear. Happy to be having a boy first. 

Now, for the next step...getting Ronald Lee Murray IV's room ready for his arrival. Let the decorating and planning begin!!!

 

Gettin' anxious...

So as most of you know we still have yet to know the sex of little baby. All thanks to the navy hospital and them giving us the run around. However, we did get to hear the heart beat. It was so amazing! Hearing this "thump, thump, thump" going super fast. We also kept hearing scratching noises which,according to the doctor, was the baby moving around. I definitely got a little emotional. I'm surprised Ronnie didn't. I think he just really wants the ultrasound more than anything. To be able to see how he/she has developed since we it last will be even better. And being able to know what we are having would be awesome too. I'm getting anxious looking at baby's room wanting to decorate so bad! Well we will hopefully get to know on the 24th of this month. I am not making any promises but I know for sure it is an ultra sound. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

Well hopefully the time will go by fast for me, considering I go back to work tomorrow. I'm not going to lie, definitely nervous. Especially since I've been out of grooming for two months now and I'm going to be in a new environment. But this will finally get me out of the house and I won't be so bored anymore, and maybe I will make some friends too. I will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow. Wish me luck! :D

Happy Birthday America!

Sorry all that it has been a few days since my last post. I have been busy trying to get things done, furniture shopping and looking for a car. Which I am happy to announce that I now have transportation! About flipping time, right? And we also bought a whole new bedroom outfit. It will be amazing to finally be able to sleep in a real bed rather than a plain old mattress. We will receive it this Sunday. Woot woot!

Anywho, how was everyone's Fourth of July? Mine was okay. Not as great as I wanted it to be but I am very happy that I got to spend it with great people like my husband, his uncle and his uncle's girlfriend Shari. We went swimming and had a wonderful BBQ. Even Daquiri got to come have fun with us. No fireworks for me this year unfortunately due to Ronnie having to be up early tomorrow and too much traffic that I really don't want to drive in. Didn't get too many pictures but I did bake some 4th of July cupcakes and took pictures of that. 

Well Happy Fourth everyone! Hope everyone was safe and enjoyed blowing things up! Have a great night!

 

Send me my "Angel" from Washington please?

Good morning wonderful blog readers! And what a glorious day it is...hopefully. It's only 8 am so let us see what the rest of the day brings us. 

I finally got to video chat with my best friend Angel last night. Makes me want to go home for a visit so bad. I miss her and my family so much. But I'm crossing my fingers that I either get to go home next year or she gets to come visit me next year. We shall see. Thank goodness for phones, computers and video messaging because otherwise I would probably go insane if I don't get to talk to my Angely Poo! :) I would say more but I think my scrapbook page will say it for me. So here ya go, I'll post more scrapbook pages later. Have a great day!

 

Sleepless in...Virginia Beach

Just a quick one before I head to bed and hopefully actually get some sleep this time. Like I told my mom earlier on the phone when this child does something bad it's Ronnie's kid not mine. :) At least that's what I learned when I was growing up. Whenever I was in trouble my mom's favorite line was "Paul! Deal with YOUR child before I scream". Always worked too. Poor dad! 

Well "Ronnie's child" decided to let me know that him/her was in my tummy for sure by rolling, kicking and jabbing my in all sorts of places all nice. Keeping me up till 3 am. Then when I finally got some sleep I get woken up by Ronnie getting ready for work. And once again I can't sleep till it's almost 9am. And then up for the day at 1pm. My sleeping schedule is out of whack it's not even funny! I go back to work in a little over a week and really need to get some decent sleep before then. 

Good news is I am not at all disappointed about my baby moving all night. Actually I sat up and started crying because I was so happy to feel the crazy weird feeling I had going on in there. Made me smile and excited even more about the fact that I am having a baby. Our first wonderful bundle of joy! Ronnie even laid on my stomach and was talking to the munchkin today about how ecstatic he is to finally meet him/her.

Next step, finding out the gender. I'm getting pretty antsy about it too. Didn't help that I got the reminder call about my appointment on Tuesday at 1pm. Woo hoo! Four more days! 

Alright time for this one to try and attempt to sleep. Crossing fingers that I can manage it this time and hopefully munchkin will sleep too. One can only hope :) Have a fantastic night all!

  

What a wonderful day :)

I woke up in a fantastic mood today. Must've woke up on the right side of the bed or something like that. Or maybe its because things are finally looking up. :)

One of the biggest problems now a days in this society is money issues. Not being able to do anything because you had to pay so much in bills or in my case get a new place to live. Living from paycheck to paycheck sucks and not being able to do anything sucks even more. Stuck watching t.v all day or sitting at a computer all day because there is nothing good on the t.v is even worse. Granted I will probably still be doing these things but with a little more ease of the mind. I have been stressed out just due to the fact that I really can't wait to get back to work so I can help with the money situation. But today things have finally started looking up, I've always told myself things will be okay and things will start looking up soon. But unfortunately didn't know how soon. Well things are great today! I woke up smiling (still slept in though) and am not angry about one thing at all. 

I scrap-booked a few pages this morning. Really, really need to get out and take some more pictures. Using older ones gets kind of boring. Luckily 4th of July is coming up next week and my camera will be all set in my hand the entire time. Woo hoo! What is everyone's plans for the holiday? Mine? Well the way things are looking up, my husband and I plan on driving down to Goldsboro, North Carolina to spend it with his dad and family. I'm excited, haven't had a good 4th of July in awhile. Lets blow things up!!!! 

 Hope you like, worked pretty hard on them. And put a lot of thought and feeling into them. Especially the first and last one. Despite our different opinions Bee I will always love you and I will always be here for you. I may not agree with half the stuff you do, just like you don't always agree with mine, but you are my baby sister and my best friend.

Rough day...

I haven't really been in the blogging mood. A lot has been on my mind which is what I have been trying to avoid. Stress, stress and more stress. But when I do blog and scrapbook it all goes away. I really need to go back to work so that way I have more to do than just sitting at a computer or laying around the apartment. I still haven't fully adapted to this area yet probably just due to the fact that I don't have a car to get anywhere at the moment. But also because I have no one here to do anything with. It's even harder when Ronnie barely has any time off. He has had one day off in the past 2 weeks. So when he is home he's too tired to do anything. It's tough but I knew what life I was getting into. I dealt with my dad being gone all the time and so I'm used to it. It just makes it harder when you don't have any friends here. And that's why I really need to get into crafts and what not to keep myself busy. When your poor though it's kind of hard to do stuff like that. So I just stick to my computer and scrapbook till I go back to work and make extra money for us so I can do fun stuff like that. Well here is my last page for the night. I will be making more tomorrow. Have a great night all! 

 

Munchkin's crib is all set

So after it being in a box for about a week, Ronnie and I finally put baby's crib together today. I'm loving the color and really can't wait till I can start putting some decor in baby's room. Here is the finished project: 

 And one week today and I will be able to finally tell everyone what I will be having. Majority say boy, few say girl. But the only true way to tell is by the handy dandy ultra sound. Patience sucks but either way as long as my baby is healthy I don't care what I'm having. We shall see everyone!

My life in the world of pregnancy

I've been pregnant for a little over 16 weeks now. It's been an up and down roller coaster for me and some may think I complain too much or put it out there that I hate it (Mom, hehe just kidding). But here is where I clear it all up for you.

If I remember correctly I found out on March 26th. It was the weirdest thing too. It was around 5pm that I woke up from having a dream about having a baby. I thought it was strange and decided that it wouldn't hurt to check with the last test I had. I just had this weird feeling...10 minutes later I went back to check. First the shaking came, then the crying, then the dialing of the phone trying to get of anyone that would pick up. I was shocked because I didn't really think that those two pink lines would really show up. Was I disappointed? Definitely not at all. I am 23 years old and have always wanted to be a mom and have that special someone be the dad. To have a family has been lifelong dream. 

Now I was definitely one of the lucky women to not get morning sickness. Not once did I have to run quickly to the bathroom in time. I did however get very nauseous a lot and felt like I was going to let everything come and honestly after how many times I felt sick I really wish it did. I would lay up late at night crying because I was so emotional and felt sick to my stomach. But that finally has passed, thank goodness. 

Now one thing that has drove my husband nuts out of the whole pregnancy is my hormones. You think I had mood swings before, try again. I feel bad for him a lot because he tries so hard to make me happy but there are just times when I just want to be left alone, or should I say a lot of times. Don't get me wrong I love my husband dearly, but I get to that angry point very quickly now a days. Like yesterday I was in such a terrible mood but today I am in a fantastic mood. He always wants to cuddle with me and I don't. I'm seriously not doing it on purpose. I just want to be left alone and a lot of times I take it out on him. In his owns words "I can't wait till you are done being pregnant". 

And honestly I can't wait too. I'm exhausted all the time, my body aches and I'm tired of lashing out at people all the time. I guess its also been hard because I'm in a new area and trying to adapt while being pregnant and crabby. But I will inform all of you I wouldn't change this for anything. I am happy to be creating this being inside of me. I am excited to become a mom finally and I'm very happy having my husband by my side through it all. December can't come fast enough! Have a great night everyone. :)

Dear Daddy Dearest...❦

I know I don't talk to you as much as I do with mom. But I wanted to let you know that I love you very much and miss you just the same. It was hard to leave you too and it's still hard to think about not living in the same state as you and mom. You're my daddy and you will always be my daddy! You have helped me in so many situations that meant a lot to me even if you didn't want to. But I now know today that no matter what you will always be there for me. I may not have thought you were but after finally waking up I look back and realize that I wouldn't have made it to where I am today without you and mom. I love you so much and really wish I could see you guys soon. I made a page for you and I hope you like it. Have a great day and take care of mom like you always do! ❦

 Love forever and always, 

❦ Your Peanut ❦

Happy now Garrett! :)

So as promised to one my old dear friends Garrett I would mention him in my next blog. I didn't really know what to say about him other than congratulations to him and his fiance Meredith and that I hope they both have a wonderful and happy life together. And I decided to make a scrapbook page for them as a gift. Hope you like it Garrett and hope your happy now that I mentioned you! :)

Tell your family I said Hi and hopefully when I get chance and since I'm on the east coast again I will get to see you all again. :)

There will always be hope in the end ❤

Another day that I slept in, soon I will be going back to work. So this whole sleeping in ordeal is no bueno. I guess I'm still on west coast time. I woke up at 11am today which is 8am on the west coast. So hey I didn't really sleep in, did I? I win! :)

Well it looks like the In-laws aren't gonna be able to make it this weekend. So I'm gonna be cooking my Mexican Chicken tonight. Super excited. I have literally been waiting all week to cook it. So tonight is the night I finally get to do so. :)

Sleeplessness looks likes it gonna be sticking around for quite sometime. Munchkin is squirming around like crazy and keeps me awake for awhile. I think he/she is having fun swimming around, where as dad thinks it's trying to find that perfect position and can't seem to make it work. Whatever the deal is, I'm just happy I can feel it move. 

I did another scrapbook page this morning with the help of my mom. The program I have doesn't have the different options for transparency that my moms does. So I had to have her blend the photo into the background for me with out making the whole photo blend too. The rest was me. Thanks mom for the help! 

I've been thinking a lot about you lately little miss Molly. Wondering how you are doing. If you miss your Auntie, Mimi and Papa. Thinking about if we are going to get to see you anytime soon. It's so hard for me knowing that you are so close yet so far away. I just want to see one more smile from you, just want to know that you are okay. I miss you so much Smally Molly. Auntie Nut loves you and hopes one day you will be able to meet your new cousin. ❤