Swine Flu

                                              He looks good in a gown, doesn't he? hehe

I'm not one to really keep up with the news, so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on with this swine flu craze. On Monday night, Nick got home from work around 930 that evening complaining of being sick. He didn't look well when he came in, and it didn't help that I was slightly irritated that he was super late. He complained of fever, body aches, headache, diarrhea, and vomiting. Nick, being the macho super stud Marine Corps Drill Instructor that he is, made it through the entire day of work without telling anyone that he had a fever (and was around recruits all day screaming). He even vomited in private in some bushes after their PT session (physical training). I woke up on Tuesday morning at like 5 to use the bathroom (for some reason, that's when I ALWAYS get up to pee), and Nick's fever hadn't gone down at all, and he looked worse than he did the night before. I told him to get dressed so that we could go to the emergency room on base at Camp Pendleton. I immediately began wondering if he had caught the swine flu. I mean...it made sense. He had all the symptoms, and he worked down in San Diego....right next to the border of Mexico. It was reasonable to me. Of course as soon as he was seen in the ER, the doctor there was making jokes about the swine flu and laughed at the mention of the disease. So I just kept my mouth shut. After some chest x-rays, they ruled out pneumonia, and decided that he had a viral infection. They gave him bed rest and sent him on his way with some OTC drugs (mucinex, robitussin, tylenol...). I can't lie, it was nice to have him around the house for 2 days, but it sucked cause he was sick. I got off work early both days to come home and take care of him. I liked doing that. He was pretty much better yesterday, with the exception of feeling really weak, so I made him stay home an extra day so that he wouldn't spread germs to any of the other drill instructors or recruits. Needless to say, I'm glad that he didn't have the swine flu. My mom told him that he couldn't be sick cause he could get the baby sick. Luckily that didn't happen (yet). I feel just fine, so I am guessing he wasn't contagious. He's back to work today! So I guess we beat the swine flu...haha

2 Weeks All To Ourselves

Baby Shower gifts

Cutting my cake

Baby Shower

Mom, me, & Nick at her church in TX

The George Bush Library

Nick's very first Freebird's burrito

Sea World San Diego (April 2009)

Waiting to Watch Shamu

I know it's been a while since I've written in this thing. I'm not gonna lie, I got pretty lazy with it. I'm gonna keep my update short and to the point though...even though I have about a novel's worth of things to write about. Nick had about two weeks off after his last cycle so we made the most of it. The first weekend he had off, we decided to take a trip down to San Diego to go to Sea World. They had this "Salute to Heroes" thing goin on so we got in for free. SO MUCH FUN! We got a caricature done, and it is hilarious. Nick's ears are HUGE. I was laughing the whole time the artist was drawing us, cause I knew he was gonna make his ears the highlight of the picture. Nick wanted to buy Dannika a shamu stuffed animal. I thought that was really cute that he was thinking of things like that. It's sitting in her crib in her room right now. Her room is all set up, but I haven't really gotten around to decorating yet since I don't know when we're gonna move. We are STILL househunting. It is incredibly frustrating and stressful. We want to stay in Orange County, and as you can imagine...IT IS EXPENSIVE OUT HERE! The average 3 bedroom condo is going for $400,000. Our budget is no more than $350,000, so it's definitely a challenge. I've been praying about it though, so I know that God will find us a beautiful home to raise our family in and do his work in.
We went back home to Texas to visit my family last weekend. It was Nick's first time at my parents house and his first time meeting the entire Kim family. I took him to Freebird's and Wings 'N' More, and he fell in love with their food. I showed him around CS...the only tourist attractions we have...the George Bush Library, and the Aggie bonfire memorial. It went really well though. My mom took him shopping and bought him some designer shoes and a matching belt. My mom and sister threw me a baby shower at my Uncle James' house. It was way fun. Nick loosened up a little bit. He sang karaoke with my sister's boyfriend Aaron. That was probably one of the more memorable moments of our trip. We came back with about $1700 in cash to buy baby stuff, and it is already completely spent. We finally got a car seat, stroller, bassinet/playpen, and an infant bath tub. I bought a ton of clothes for her too. I can't help it. I know it's a waste of money to buy designer anything for an infant, but there's just so much out there.
Other than that, not much has been going on. I am officially in my third trimester of pregnancy. Everyone tells me that I have been carrying my pregnancy well, and that I don't look 7 months pregnant. It makes me feel better....even though I feel like a whale. I can't wait till July when she finally gets here. I love looking at all the baby stuff we've bought. It makes me smile...

Who knew, I'd be a mother....

Ultrasound

We have officially one more week until Nick graduates his LAST PLATOON!!!!! I am beyond ecstatic to have him all to myself for a little bit. Other great news, Nick won his meritorious Gunny board. He has one more board to go on, and if he wins that, he'll get meritoriously promoted in July. It would be perfect since that is the month our daughter is supposed to be born and that extra pay would be nice. That, and he deserves it. I can honestly say that he spends about 80% of his time at work. It's been really hard on me at times cause I love having him around and stuff, but I know it will be worth it. On Saturday, we went to go have a 3D/4D Ultrasound done to see Dannika. It was so amazing to see her in there. She smiled at us a few times and moved her arms up around her face. I plan on having another one done at 30 weeks to see how much she changes. Afterwards, we went to my coworker (SSgt Praxedes'), son's first birthday party at the park. It was way fun, and it made me even more impatience for Dannika to get here already. Nick was a big help with all the kids games at the party, and it couldn't help me think about what a great father he's going to be. It was really nice to have him for an entire day. I can't remember the last time he was home for a whole day. Other than that, things with the nursery are starting to come together. Instead of it looking like our storage room, it looks like a baby's room! There's still a lot of work to be done, but it is starting to look great and I can't wait to welcome her to it! Bless Nick's heart for spending the hours putting all the furniture together...thanks baby! 

The big 2-5 Birthday Bash

So my 25th birthday is on the 25th of this month. Unfortunately, Nick's platoon is doing their last day of their crucible on my birthday which means that I won't get to see him. He's been working really hard lately which means less time with me. I was really upset on Saturday morning when I called him and found out he was still at work when I was expecting him home. We got off the phone with me being in a bad mood. I had made plans to have breakfast (which turned out to be lunch) with Eddie that morning so I headed dow to Dana Point to the Jolly Roger right next to the harbor to have some brunch. It was good to see him since I hadn't seen him really since he got back from his deployment back in November. We sat and chatted for a couple hours, and I was getting fidgety from sitting there for so long so I cut the conversation we parted ways. I went to Michael's to buy more stuff for the Dannika's nursery and talked to Nick really briefly on the phone. I was happy he had finally left work and was on his way back from San Diego. I bought a few things and headed home expecting to see Nick there. I came in the house, and to my complete surprise, Eddie, Sarah (Eddie's girlfriend), and Nick jumped out and yelled surprise for me. The entire apartment was decorated. I guess Eddie was the plan to get me out of the house while Sarah came in and decorated the entire house. It was a total surprise and I was shocked at all the planning that Nick did behind my back. I got a few things from Nick...including a Coach diaper bag and a camcorder that I had been thinking about getting so that I could record our baby's first...everything! SSgt DeLaRosa stopped by along with SSgt Praxedes (two recruiters that I work with), and we ended up bbq'ing and just hanging out. It was just so much fun to be able to hang out with my friends and Nick. I hadn't seen Sarah in so long so it was good to see her cheery happy self. No one has ever thrown me a surprise party before, and it totally made my day. I love my husband so much!

I'll post pics as soon as Sarah gets them to me!

Week 23

This week wasn't so bad at work. I had a ton of time off...maybe more than I would really like. My boss pretty much told us to do what we had to do this week cause next week, we would be "balls to the walls" recruiting. I have a couple contracts lined up for next months so I am not sweating it entirely. Of course, I've learned from the past that 4 contracts can easily turn into 2...or even worse...no contracts at all...leaving the poor recruiter on a "donut". Then of course the heat gets turned on by the bossman on that recruiter sitting on a "donut", and life pretty much sucks for that recruiter until he writes a contract. So it's the vicious rollercoaster that we like to call recruiting. The conflict I had at work with a coworker kinda resolved itself. I mean no one really apologized cause Marines are entirely too stubborn to do something like that, but I think we both came to the realization that we can either hate each other or learn to like each other. The second choice was way more appealing since we are both going to be stuck together for the next 3 years. Nonetheless, the first 4 days of work, I hardly said a word to anyone cause I was still pretty angry, and the last day, we kinda forced ourselves to converse at a team breakfast. Nick got a 99 on final drill and his platoon got like an 89 or something. His platoon got 3rd place overall. I was so proud of him. I knew it meant a lot to him, and I was lucky to be able to get off work that day to go down to San Diego to watch him. He got to come home every single night this week. That was a definitely a first for me this cycle. It was nice to have someone to watch American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and Grey's Anatomy with...oh and we have a new favorite show called "Lie to Me". It is sooo good! I recommend everyone to check it out. Nick also got work yesterday from his 1stSgt that he would be going on a meritorious GySgt board on Monday. I'm really glad that his hard work is starting to pay off and someone else has noticed it. I really hope he gets the promotion. It will be nice with the baby on the way and everything. Speaking of promotions, my CO spoke to me yesterday and told me that I should be up for the next SSgt meritorious board in December. I guess he thought I had pretty good stats as a recruiter. It definitely made my day a little. I have my next baby appointment on Monday and my 3D/4D Ultrasound next Saturday. I'm really excited for next week! Nick also has 13 more days till he graduates his LAST PLATOON...WOO HOO!!! Aaaaaannnnddd...my 25th birthday is in 4 days. Hopefully Nick got me that Coach diaper bag I asked him for along with the new big fat Chi straightening iron!!! I can't wait for next week!