Surprise Wedding Part 1 (Through my eyes)

Life is full of surprises but Dec. 5th was one for the books! Matt, Nina's fiance', called me on Monday, Oct. 26th to say he wanted to surprise Nina with a wedding. My initial reaction to seeing Matt's number come up on my phone was frightening at first, as we never talk on the phone. So imagine how happy I was to hear fun and exciting news verses something bad about Nina. Matt was feeling pretty good about himself because he'd just pulled off a surprise birthday party for Nina. A wedding on the other hand is much larger level surprise but I felt confident it could be done.

A Little History
Nina and Matt have been together for years and engaged for seven or eight months at this point. Initially the plan was to get married next February. She asked me to be her matron of honor. I was extremely sad when I had to call her and say I couldn't make it to her wedding because I was pregnant and would be due in February. Nothing was decided because Nina and Matt both deployed right after getting engaged. Over the time Nina was deployed, a lot of ideas were discussed but nothing ever set in stone.

Matt is also a twin, and so they didn't want a wedding without their twins being there. Carrie, Matt's twin, and myself made there wedding plans difficult.

Matt's first question to me was, can you fly here in December. I told him I had a doctors appt. that Wednesday and I would let him know right away. This was a long week for me because Matt was in training for a week and was unreachable to chat with. My doc said it was fine to fly. The final decision to go ahead with the wedding planning wasn't made until the week following. He had to talk to everyone to make sure all the immediate family could make the trip. As soon as I got the okay to take off work, I bought my plane ticket and started looking for a dress.

Merry Christmas!

Hello and good morning (afternoon to all of you back home). Last night we had an evening with friends at our place. Two of my close friends here were going to be by themselves, so I figured we should have them over. Then I thought, why not have a little get together with our friends who are all, like us, far away from our families. It was hard being the host and hostess because we were busy and didn't take any pics. We ate, drank, and played board games. I think it was successful. This morning Andy and I are exhausted from it all. We have tickets to go watch basketball, but are having a hard time getting motivated.

Below here is a picture of us right before the party started. It was a pajama party. Everyone but one person came in jammies!

Here is Andy with his new grill. It was his Christmas present. It was a two in one present kind of thing. He really wanted a grill for when his family comes out. That way cooking would be easier and less mess.

My present was a total surprise. I received a mini netbook. A miniature laptop. I love it! When I went to Virginia, I didn't take my laptop because it is so heavy. We enjoy traveling and I thought it would be nice to have one of them for that reason. Andy likes the idea of my laptop not being in the middle of the living room floor.

31 weeks!

Or maybe 32 weeks. The docs office has me one week ahead. The day of
giving birth is fast approaching.

Its been 20 days! OH MY!

My sister told me I've been neglecting our blog...she's right. But I might remind her that her blog hasn't been updated in months where our has only been days =). In the last twenty days, lots has happened! The most important event to happen is my twin sister's surprise wedding. Yes, I said surprise. Over the next few blogs, I will tell you how this all came about and how things ended.

However, today I will give all of you an update on us.

Me!

Life is getting harder by the day. My eight month mark is quickly approaching and I think I feel it everyday. I'm often tired, getting swollen feet, and have difficulty breathing. On a good note, I do sleep well at night. Our life has yet to really slow down. I keep thinking I should start resting more, but I don't know how to yet. My intentions are to work until I go into labor and I hope my plans work out. I think if I were teaching, it wouldn't be so bad. Being with infants ranging from current ages of 7 months to 14 months is hard. I'm up and down on the floor all day long. So keep your fingers crossed for me that luck continues to be on my side with a healthy pregnancy.

Andy

Andy has been quite busy. His softball team placed 1st for the league on our base and 2nd for the league they play on at Pearl Harbor. He has had so many accomplishments this past six months and I'm proud of all he has accomplished.

Annabella

Annabella is doing very well. Most of you that read this are also on my facebook and have seen the pictures of her. She is very active now and getting stronger by the day. Sometimes she shifts my whole belly (or at least that's how it feels). She is head down and ready to come out in the world. As much as we can't wait to meet her, I hope she doesn't come early.

E5!

We have been waiting for the last couple of weeks to find out if Andy made E5. Today we got our answer...he did! I'm so proud of him. He told me that news after he told me that he was leaving me for a few days on a mini deployment and could possibly miss Christmas. Hopefully that doesn't happen.