My First Time...oh la la.

Ok, let's start this thing off! First of all, I wanted to start a blog because in all honestly, I am tired of the social networking sites (i.e. Facebook), and I wanted to be able to share my story and family milestones with my family and friends without all the...you know..."drama" that facebook embodies. Plus, I've decided that if I want to know what you had for lunch or how your workout went or how bad you hate "Monday", I'll just call you.

So let me take it back a couple of years so everyone knows the backstory a little bit. My husband, Kevin, is from Nebraska, and I am from Florida. We met down in Key West, Florida, where I was there celebrating my quarter century birthday, and he was there on a det (detachment) for the Navy.

We met at Fat Tuesday's and have basically been together since. We dated long distance (he lived in Virginia Beach, VA and I in Jacksonville, FL) for 8 months, which is not for the faint of heart I have to add! It's tough, trying, and at times completely hard, but if it's meant to be, it will be. We did break up at one point, but realized that we wanted to be together, and we had to work EXTRA hard to make it work. We then decided to take the relationship to the "next" level and I moved up to be with him. (We did have a pretty kick ass going away party, but none of the photos are really appropriate to put up here, so I'll refrain!)

We were engaged a few months later, which is a really sweet and romantic story in itself, so I'll do a different post about that eventually...and then we got married in October down in Key West. It was a small ceremony with a few of my family members and a few friends. We had a HUGE party/reception back in Jacksonville a few weeks after.

(*a side note: This is the second marriage for BOTH of us, so neither of us wanted to do the whole big wedding thing again, so we opted for a small, intimate beach ceremony. But this is the ONLY time I will EVER mention that we were both previously married because we like to refer to those days as "we didn't know any better", or "we weren't thinking", or "the dark days", or "those times and who shall not be named or talked about.") Moving on...

Shortly (and I mean, very shortly) after we were married, we found out we were expecting!! We found out in December (and when I say shortly, that means 2 months!) and we were ecstatic! We couldn't believe it. Not to mention that we had a ZOO in our house at that time. Four dogs (a very new puppy was added at Christmas right before we found out we were pregnant) and three bearded dragons. I was slightly overwhelmed, but still so elated about being pregnant!

We welcomed a 9lb 1oz baby boy into the world on September 1, 2010 (which was NO EASY TASK due to a very long labor, and ended up being a c-section...another story for later I guess) but Decklan Furey was finally here. 

This child has changed everything for me and us, and I wouldn't have it any other way. He is the love of our lives, and makes us smile and shows us so much love and is honestly one of the best things in our lives. (I could literally go on and on about him...so I'll stop right there!)

Right after we had him (a month after I had him), we were packed up and ready to move across the country to Oak Harbor, Washington. (Yes, as in Washington STATE!) And we did. That journey had it's ups and downs. I learned a lot, experienced a lot, saw so much of the United States, and would NOT want to repeat it if my life depended on it. Although, after saying that, I have now driven across the US a total of 4 times in my life. Three of which has happened since 2010, and one more is set to happen in November of this year.

We finally got to WA....it is beautiful. The views, the mountains, the oceans, the wildlife, everything this state has to offer is absolutely stunning. Except the people. They (and by they, I don't mean ALL, but for the sake of argument, a good handful) are not what I expected. I guess growing up on the east coast, you experience a different kind of people, a kind of people that the west coast does not embody. And with that being said, the majority of this handful are navy related. That is all I will say pertaining to that issue. It is not my focus, and I will be the LAST person to create drama on my blog. SO...it is gorgeous here. I love it, but only the landscape and scenery.

Now, we are in the FINAL stretch of our time here. Like I said before, we are slated to leave here in November of this year...but not before we have ANOTHER baby! Somehow we have managed to time it again where we will travel across the country with another new born. We were lucky the first time, because Decklan slept a lot! So hopefully this new little one will do the same! And on that note, we found out May 30th that....

hence the name of this blog :) We're still tossing around names, but I'm pretty sure the hubs and I have agreed on a first name...it's the middle name that we can't find common ground with! But we will. Soon. Hopefully. 
Well, that's been life, in a nut shell. Of course "other" things have happened; Kevin's deployment, my temporary move to Florida while he was gone, my first cruise to the Bahamas, 24 hours in LA to see The Glee Concert, going back to school, etc. So life is definitely full of lots of surprises, experiences, and learning opportunities. Until next time....

~Ash