What an incredible day!!

Today was a really interesting day, so if you can hang in there through the whole post, you will be a real trooper! :)

Woke up this morning knowing it would be a crazy day! Why, you ask? Today is the day that my husband, Tim, goes on terminal/transitional leave! He is using up the paid leave that he has saved up before officially getting out of the Army a month from now after almost ten years of service. Crazy, right? (Paid leave being a relative term, considering what is going on with the governmental agencies acting like a bunch of kids with dirty diapers!)

We've been looking forward to this for the last 3 years that we've been planning this transition to civilian life and it was just so cool to see the day finally come! We got out of debt (car loans and such), saved up a chunk of change, had a baby, got me preggers with another, and got both he and I back in school.

What a way to sum up three years of marriage!

It felt like we waited all day for Tim to get home, so I tried to keep my hands busy!

I picked up sticks out of the yard (thanks, storm!), cleaned the chicken coop, lamented over the huge tree down in our yard and how being 19 weeks pregnant, I'm not in any shape to bust out our chain saw...

Oh, did a ton of diaper laundry, got Jackson down for a nap in his twin bed (Yay for my big boy!), and got in the kitchen!

This was our lunch, along with some homemade corn muffins that my son absolutely adores! Zucchini, squash, red potatoes, and carrots. All thickly sliced, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with sea salt. The flavor was incredible, totally filling, and the chickens were thrilled to get the ends of the veggies as a treat! (Maybe now they will feel inclined to give us some eggs?)

Here are some banana chips dehydrating! I had to lay the smack down on my dad and son today. They were both in the kitchen getting into the dehydrator all afternoon. These guys just slay me- I can't make chips that actually get to be chips, because they get eaten too quickly. Banana fiends need to back off of my snacks ;) But yes, these were salvaged- 3 of my 4 trays made it into crispy, crunchy, delicious chips! I'll take the 75% odds!

Gotta love his "no poo" hair and cloth diaper!!

Jackson on his $5 consignment sale bike! He's a little guy, so it cracks me up that a bike that teeny has training wheels that are removable. I would love to see a person that small riding a Fisher Price two-wheeler without training wheels!

On top of my cooking, cleaning, and thumb twiddling- I sliced up a TON of fruit and froze it combinations that would be yummy for smoothies, which have become our go-to breakfasts around here.

I finally got tired of being productive and sat myself in a lawn chair to read the end of a book and start another while Jackson napped.

The book I just finished is:

“Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream . “ by William Powers

A great book written by a guy local to me. It highlights his experiences living in a 12 foot by 12 foot cabin in rural North Carolina. Very cool read!

I'm actually planning to give away a copy of this particular book (gotta support our local authors!) next week!

This is the book I just started reading:

"Better Off : Flipping the Switch on Technology," by Eric Brende

So far, it seems to be a book about an Ivy League educated couple that decide to see what life would be like without the distraction of electricity and their quest to return to simplicity. I have a feeling that this one is going to be good!

Sunday, Chilly Sunday.

Saturday was spent playing and having our ultrasound done. Today, we had my 16 week appointment with our midwife (who is so amazing! and graciously comes to our house on Sundays so that Tim can be here for my appointments!) and everything looks good.

Our little one was kicking the daylights out of the fetoscope and doppler. I loved hearing that! I'm getting a bit more energy these days, now that I'm over the stomach bug and in my second trimester. Maybe I will start gaining back some of the weight I've lost.

I'm craving fresh fruits and veggies, seafood, and steak (of all things, considering I'm not a big red meat eater). So tonight, I went to Harper's (a local restaurant where my friend Kristin works) to get my second Steak House Salad in a week, since we went there last Sunday. It is a delicious salad. Like I mentioned last Sunday, lots of greens, bleu cheese, maters, portobello mushrooms, a little bit of steak on top- and tonight, I added avocado. Totally hit the spot!

Before we went out to eat, though, I went to a fabric store that I've never been to before. They had a lot of good stuff! I got 4 different kinds of fabric to make various items for the baby, a bunch of clearanced elastic (for making fitted sheets, tablecloths, pants, etc.) for $0.23/ package, and fell in love with the staff. I only spent $30, too!

Greensboro, NC people- the Hancock Fabrics on the corner of High Point Road and Groometown Road has incredible customer service, a really good selection, and wonderful prices. I haven't been to a craft store in Greensboro yet that has employees that are this cheerful, enjoyable, and on point. I highly recommend stopping by and visiting them! :)

On that note, I'm going to go take another few bites of my garlic noodles, watch the series finale of Big Love, and go to sleep. Barring chilly weather, I will be outside all day tomorrow working in the yard- because today was chilly and I wasn't about go to digging in the cold. It seemed like a much better idea to stay inside and read.