Hello, have we met?

Well hello! It's been a little bit since I've stopped by. There's been SO much going on, I'm not sure where to start. 

My parents & brother just left after being here a week for Thanksgiving. We had an absolute blast! We made gingerbread houses and went to Occoquan and the National Zoo (we saw a cheetah fight between 3 brothers....very cool...and scary for about 3 seconds) - those are just the highlights. Sometimes I hate having people visit, not because it's an inconvenience or anything, but then it makes me miss them so much more when they leave. It's easy to stop missing them so much when it's been 6 months, but the fresh missing isn't fun. And who knows when we'll get to go home again...

It's almost Christmas! I have half the presents bought and the other half are planned and budgeted - just waiting for the money to appear on the tree outside to purchase them. Ha!  Hubby's getting a gun - I told him I was willing to splurge on the one condition that he keeps my freezer full of meat. I figure if we spend a few hundred on a gun, he (theoretically) could save us MANY hundreds on meat. Maybe I'll start using venison as our main meat instead of chicken. Mmmm. 

And of course, the main focus of my life has been baby-makin. 

FAIL. 

I absolutely can't seem to get pregnant. I think we're going to stop trying for the next few months - probably until after February - and just let things take their course. No more charting or stressing or planning. I need a break! After my birthday in February, I'll start charting again and if nothing by April/May (which makes the big, ugly, scary ONE YEAR mark), then to the doctor I shall go. In the mean time, I'm going to try to lose as much weight as possible. I don't have a real goal in mind (ok well kinda...) but just as MUCH as possible. Cause I definitely need my starting point to be as small as possible so I don't look like a tank/whale/ship/ whatever if/when I actually get pregnant. I want to have a basketball pregnancy....

My most recent reads, 

Something Borrowed & Something Blue by Emily Giffin  

are some fabulous books that Lindsey (find her blog here)  recommended I read. In the second one, the main character is pregnant (what a surprise....) and she's super vain and is determined to have a "basketball pregnancy". This is where you remain a perfect stick and just look like you put a basketball under your shirt. I could only hope......

So...that's pretty much my current life in a nutshell. Boring, eh?

Two.Point.Five Kids, A Dog and a White Picket Fence - Almost

MY DREAM:

Two.Point.Five Kids, A Dog and a White Picket Fence

Three to Five Kids, Several Dogs, a Cat or Two and a Log Cabin

I finally convinced my husband that we can afford to live in North Georgia. HALLELUJAH! Up until now, he was dead set on either Unadilla, GA or Macon, GA...both of which suck. 

 

 

What Unadilla is known for

North Georgia is beautiful. There are places like Helen (an Alpine Village), Blue Ridge (yes, like the mountains), Dahlonega (can we say gold??), and Elijay (only for MawMaw and PawPaw and Janet). These are places I would kill to live in - specifically Helen. Unfortunately we can't afford Helen, so any surrounding towns will surely do. This is the view I'm looking for:

Can you really ask for a more beautiful view? Mountains, water, sky - basically, everything that is NOT in Quantico. Now, on to the house. 

Hubby and I have day dreamed about our future house many, many times. We both have very different views of our perfect house, so the compromise we have come up with is basically that Jonathon gets to pick the outside and I get to pick the inside. Now, if we were building fresh, this would be oh so easy. Log cabin, pond, acres and acres of land on the outside and a pristine, comfortable, beautiful inside complete with a huge kitchen, a big ol' tv and an enormous master bedroom and bathroom. Unfortunately, being relatively young and poor, I'm not so sure it will actually go this way. So, this is our plan. 

1. Buy a log cabin

can't you just imagine a kid in the yard and a dog on the porch?

definitely more me than Jonathon....but he'd totally go for it

I would love to come home to this every day

 2. Renovate, renovate, renovate!

so. perfect.

oh so rustic and fabulous

betcha never though I'd want a deer head in my living room, eh?

3. Decorate like Martha Stewart

I've become obsessed with antler chandeliers as of late

100% Martha Stewart meets Davey Crocket

cowhide!

 

4. Plan for Christmas

maybe I'll have Thomas Kinkade design my hou

se

5. Plan for baby

For little Aaron - just with some more camo and maybe, just an idea, a changing table?? might be helpful...

I love everything about this. including the tiny baby with the ruffle but on the chest. This will be baby Emma's room, sorry hubby!

6. Don't forget the dogs

chow time

Yes, my dogs are/will be spoiled

Littledog could totally rock this

Don't judge. I know no one I have even know will believe that this is actually the life and home I want. But people change. I'm sure anyone would have pegged me for a pink, sparkly, modern and over-the-top kind of dream house, Basically, the Barbie Dream House on over-kill. The problem with that is my husband would totally leave me, or at least resort to camping in the woods behind the house since he would refuse to enter the house. And really, who wants pink and sparkles and glamor ALL the time (take note: I will have my own office/craft room/girl room/whatever at some point and it WILL be a Barbie dream room....promise). So since I kinda like my hubby and would like for him to be proud of our house, this is a perfect compromise that I can see myself living in and loving completely.

So who's gonna come visit first?!