Stevie Nicks concert!

This is post is sooooo old. Brian and I went to the Stevie Nicks concert back in March. It was actually March 23rd. It was such a great concert. I was kind of disappointed because The Pretenders were suppose to be the opening group. Well.......Chrissie Hynde was sick and unable to make the show. Stevie started the show on time and she put on a fantastic show. Brian and I were able to see a show within the show. There was a couple that was standing at the top of the stairs and I tell you, that couple was LIT! There was a point during the concert that the guy picked the woman up in a wrestling move and spun her around like a helicopter.

Sunday sick day

It's only 12:30 and it has already been a busy morning. I was suppose to be traveling with my mom, sister and the girls down to my grandmother's church for "Family and Friends Day." Early this morning Ayla woke up throwing up. I dressed Rian and sent her on her way with my mom. They were going to stop in Daytona Beach to pick Adra and then they would be on their way to Bartow. Around 9:30 Adra started a FaceTime conversation and she put Rian on the phone and Ayla got really upset, because she wanted to go with everyone.

So...our day is consisting of watching Disney movies. So far we have watched.

• The Little Mermaid
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Lion King
• Snow White
• and now we are watching 101 Dalmatians

Ayla looks to be feeling better than she was at 5:00 this morning. She is now balancing an eraser on her nose and catching it.

I'm trying to study and keep her entertained with movies and conversation. Oh.....the conversations this 4 year old can have with you. She is like an energizer bunny with how she goes on and on with her talking.

Thankful

I have to say that I am very thankful to have my mom in the area. Since starting back to school she has been a big help to Brian and I. She comes over on early Saturday morning and takes the girls to breakfast at Golden Corral. Some Sunday's she will come over and get them ready for church and they will drive down to Daytona to visit with Adra.

Today Brian and I were able to get some studying done. I worked on my UWorld program for NCLEX-RN and Brian was working on stuff that is due tomorrow. But, one of the things that Brian and I did do, we drove around the city looking at the distance of the different hospitals from where we live. There are over 10 hospitals that are here in the greater Jacksonville area. I want to be able to get into a Graduate Nurse program, but I don't want the commitment of being at a hospital position for 2 years. There was a position available through the VA, but I didn't want to make the drive all the way to Gainesville everyday. I know that something is out there for me. I just need to focus on passing this NCLEX and then we can move on from there.

Until then....... I better get back to my studies!!

2012 to 2016-2017

There has been so much that has happened for the Walker family.

2012 - The birth of Ayla
2015 - Rian started KINDERGARTEN!!!
2016 - Was a wonderful year for education for the Walker 4. Brian graduated from Florida State College at Jacksonville. Rian started 1st grade at W.E. Cherry, Ayla started VPK at a local preschool and I graduated from Nursing School with my Associates Degree in Nursing.

I am currently studying for my NCLEX-RN exam that I am taking near the end of the month. I am excited and can not wait, but then again I am nervous and scared!

It's been WAY.....too long!

Sooo...much has happened since my last blog! I can't believe that I haven't posted on here since 2011. Over 6 years! 4 years ago Brian and I had another daughter. Her name is Ayla D! This kid is a trip. She is our extrovert, I see so much of myself in her. She loves to talk, sing and talk some more. She and Rian are the best of friends. I love seeing how they play and talk with each other. Sometimes Ayla seems like she is the boss of Rian.  Life with the girls couldn't be any more grand! It's awesome to have 2 girls, but it also kind of sucks. They grow so fast.

Just one of those days

So...I knew that my kitchen was needing a deep cleaning. I was on the phone with my grandmother and Rian fell asleep in my bed. I decide this is the PERFECT time to pick her up and put her into her crib and start cleaning. She sure did fool me, I pick her up and she is WIDE awake. This cleaning REALLY needs to be done, so I put her into her crib and let her cry it out.

I gather all of my cleaning supplies and head for the kitchen, I turn on my iPod and get going. I have a random collection of music on there. I start out with a song by The Carpenters. I listen and keep cleaning. Then I get to Carried Away by George Strait. Cleaning stops and I start to think about Brian not being here and then my friend Heather's husband is leaving and I just start with my own water works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obv7j1XRLRI

I love this song and I can't wait until all of our loved ones are back in our arms again.

Love Love Love this song.

This song is so fitting for when your husband is deployed and you are getting calls at all times of the day and night. Not saying that I don't LOVE his calls, but it is sweet and sad at the same time.

Well, I know it's kinda late.

I hope I didn't wake you.

But what I gotta say can't wait,

I know you'd understand.

Every time I tried to tell you,

The words just came out wrong,

So I'll have to say I love you in a song.

Yeah, I know it's kinda strange.

Every time I'm near you,

I just run out of things to say.

I know you'd understand.

Cuz' every time I try to tell you,

The words just came out wrong,

So I'll have to say I love you in a song.

Cuz' every time the time is right,

All the words just came out wrong,

So I'll have to say I love you in a song

Yeah I know it's kinda late.

Hope I didn't wake you,

But there's something I just gotta say.

Know you'd understand.

Every time I try to tell you,

The words just came out wrong

So I'll have to say I love you in a song.

Almost Time

Boy oh Boy!!! It is something else. Rian will be a YEAR old in 16 days, it's so hard to believe that our little baby is about to turn 1. She has hit that stage to where she wants to walk but she isn't sure of herself. She will stand alone and then go to a squat.

uhh ohhhh Here comes trouble!!

Man oh Man!

It has been such a long time since my last blog. A lot of stuff is going on. It went from prepping for Brian's deployment, to trying to get Rian to start walking before he leaves and then.............Brian leaving.

It has been a week and this week has gone by pretty fast, but I know that is because he is still here in the USA. Once he gets in country....now that will be a whole nother story.

Rian is growing like a weed and it is so hard to believe that she is 11 months old. I am planning a cute little party for her. Nothing big or over the top. Just a simple little ladybug party.

With me saying that the week has gone by pretty fast. Just last night I was on my way home from church and I was listening to The Message on Sirius Radio, and one of my favorite songs by Mark Schultz (Walking her Home) was on and I just finally had a good long cry on the drive home. It was just the song that made me cry. I felt totally fine after the cry.

Been here a whole month!

WOW!! We have been in the house for over a month and it Feels so good!! No worrying about the neighbors waking Rian up because of all of their crap. It feels good to be in a bright home. It just seemed like a dark dungeon in the apartment. We made our first mortgage payment and we also had to pay the last part of the rent of the apartment. BOY am I glad to be done with them. They were going to be raising the rent on all of the apartments and our discount with the military discount was still going to be about 900 a month. That's only a 200 dollar difference between the apartment and the house and the house is TWICE the size of the apartment.

We Love our new home and can't wait have our little Rian grow up in the home.

Painting is DONE!

The painting has been completed in the house. It looks beautiful!! and now we can start moving stuff in!!! I am so happy with the colors that we went with and at the last minute we did a quick change, instead of having Misty Surf in our family room we decided to go with that in our bedroom and we used Winter Flannel in the family room. The formal living and dining room have an awesome color called London Coach. It's like a brown/mauve color. Our projected time to be in the house is May 15th, but we will still have our apartment until June 21st. So...we will take our sweet time with getting all of the not so important stuff out of the house.

Totally excited!

Tomorrow we officially close on our new home!!! It has been such a tiring search. We found a lot of houses that we just fell in love with and just wanted "THAT" house. So many that we were outbid on and some that were just not our type.

For the same amount of money of these short sales and Foreclosures, we have found an awesome home. That is brand NEW!!!

We get our keys tomorrow and we are going to start moving things in tomorrow!!

Can't wait....I hope that I will be able to sleep.

It's almost time!!

We gave the apartment complex our notice that we are not renewing our lease and that we will be leaving soon!! They gave us 3 options.... 1. To pay 2 months of rent 2. To pay rent on the apartment until it is rented and 3 is to just pay the prorated amount from June 1st until June 21st. Which will run us about 500.00. So, needless to say we are going to go with the prorated amount. We are just so ready to get out of this apartment and be in our own home!! Can't wait for Tuesday to get here.

Walk through today!!

Today was our walk through of the house....One more step and we are going to be HOME OWNERS!!! We are so excited and can not wait for TUESDAY aka CLOSING TIME!!! to get here. Well....There were only a few minor things that we are wanting to be repaired and Brian says that they are mainly in the bedroom closets.

We have decided that we are going to take our sweet time moving from the apartment into the house, not because there is anything is wrong with the house, but because we are going to have to pay May's rent. So.....why not take our time?

Moving here we come!!!

What else could happen?

On Saturday we had the whole day planned. My mom was going to come over and keep Rian while Brian and I were going to catch a movie and have a nice sushi dinner. We decided that we would go over and take a look inside the house and to show Mom and Adra the house too. So...we all load up into our Vue and head over. We get there and look around and fall in love with the house. We get into the car to take the keys back to the office and the car is running but so hard to turn. We make it to the intersection of Noroad and Old Middleburg and the car really not wanting to go. I told Brian to pull over and that we needed to call Geico to get a tow. Only 2 people are able to be in the tow truck, so we had to call a cab. The cab gets there and they only send a car. The cabbie has his wife or girlfriend in the car with him, so that meant that we could not put Rian's carseat in the car. We finally make it to the house and I decided that we need to get a rental car. We go to pick the car up at the airport, we get our rental and the seat will not go back, so that means we have to head back into the airport. We get our next one and head on.

I have to say that it was just a tiring day and we were thinking. What else could happen?

This is it!!!

Over the past 7 months we have been searching for a home. We were really wanting to be in a home, before Rian was born. Well..that did not work out. We have placed offers on houses and to be either outbid by someone else, or there is something really wrong with the house.

Back in Jan, I told Brian that I was tired of searching for Foreclosures and Short sales, because you never know what's going to happen. I started searching around the local home builders and I found a home over on the Northside, but never really looked into it. About 4 weeks ago Uncle Bernard sent us a listing of houses and I found this house that I thought was awesome. I put it off, because Rian was almost here. Last Sunday we drove over just to look at the neighborhood and we saw the house and fell in love with just the outside. We messaged uncle Bernard and told him that we liked the house and he and Brian went and did a tour of the house on Saturday(3/13/10) he did all of the paperwork. We should close before the end of the month, but the paperwork has an estimated closing date is April 20th, 2010.

We are super excited. 2010 is only into March and we have had a great year so far.

Should have done this a while ago.

This blog should have been done on Feb 20th. The day that I was released from the hospital.

But here it goes for the Birth Blog.

I went into the hospital to be induced on Wednesday, Feb 17th. The nurse takes me and my group of folks into one of the delivery rooms. They give me my gowns and tell me to get undressed and onto the bed. Once that was done a nurse came in and asked how far was I dilated at my last appointment. I let her know that my Dr. told me that I was at 2 cm. They then tell me that they are going to have to move me to one of the smaller rooms, because there could be people that are further along than me that may come in. So, we pack up and move to the smaller room. So...Brian, my mom and sister are in there with me in this tiny room. Maybe 20 minutes later my Dr. comes in and says that he is going to let me go home, because they really don't see a reason to induce me and I am not dilating. He brought another Dr in with him to let me know this information. But this OB says that she is going to check my cervix before letting me go home. When she checks she says "OH WOW" you are at 4 cm. Then she has my Dr recheck me and he says "Oh yeah, you are at about 4 or 4.5 cm" So with that great news...they set me up to go back to the big room. But, they tell me that I needed to walk around the ward for about an hour. We did that and while on our walk we run into Leslie. So, we go back to the room and hang out. At this point I am at 5cm. After that it was just slow slow slow.

Around 2 pm, I was so ready for an epidural, I was so worried because the Dr told me that if I was in active labor at 5cm, I would not be able to have one and I was at 6 at the point where I wanted the epidural, but since it wasn't active labor. I was ok with getting the epidural and oh how much I LOVED IT! I didn't reach 10 until about 10. It was showtime then. I was pushing and pushing for almost 2 hours and Rian just was not coming. On top of that she was face up so they said that was going to make labor a little harder. After not being able to push her out and I was just tired and aggravated. The Dr's left the room and I told Brian, Mom and Leslie that I just wanted them to give me a C=Section. The Dr's came back and said that they were going to do a C-Section. I told them that at that point that's what I wanted too. My only concern was the recovery, I really didn't want to have a c-section, but I didn't want anything to happen to my little one. So, I would rather have our little girl safe and ok.

They take me into the OR and get started, I wasn't in there that long. I layed there waiting and waiting and then I started to worry when I didn't hear anything. All of a sudden I hear the Dr's call Brian over to where they were and then I heard the sounds of our sweet little baby. She was screaming her lungs off. So...Instead of her being born on Wednesday Feb 17th, she was born on Thursday, Feb 18th @ 1:59am

I am so Thankful to Dr. Duda! She was an AMAZING OB!

I have to say that I am so in Love with this little girl and these past 16 days have been the most awesome days ever. I am tired and I feel so worn out, but it is so worth it to look at our little girl and she how beautiful she is.

It's the final countdown!!

The final countdown is about to begin, with the Walker's going into the next phase of being Grown - Ups. lol!!! We have been waiting to hear the news of us having the house for sure. Well we have the green light. We will have more information tomorrow and on Monday or Tuesday. They want for Brian to come in and fill out paperwork on Monday morning, but that is a No GO, because PRT comes before house paperwork.

I am so excited and can't wait!!! I searched online for the floor plans and I was able to find them.

The Walker's may be on the move again!!

We have been searching and placing offers on so many houses. It is now to the point where, I know we put an offer on something, and I know that it is going to be turned down, because there are people that are out bidding us on these things. Last Thursday, we went to see 2 Houses.

The first house was nice, it was 4 bedrooms 3 baths on a corner lot with a really nice backyard. It was nice, but I feel the outside of the house looked a lot better than the inside. The house was about 2200 sqft and they were asking $160,000.00 for it.

The second house is located on the Northside of Jacksonville, but it is in a new subdivision that is really nice. This house didn't have anyone living in it, like the previous house. This house is also 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, and it is about 2900 sqft. It has a really nice kitchen that has double ovens. That is what I wanted for our home to have.

We knew when we saw the huge bedroom downstairs with a really nice bath, that this was the house that we really wanted. We put an offer in on the house that night.

Well all of the paperwork was done on Friday and sent off to the company. I totally forgot about us placing the offer on the house. Brian calls home this afternoon to tell me that it looks like we are going to get the house.

YAY!!!!

We hope that it will continue going in the direction of good.

Tired of the hunt!!

We have been house hunting for the past 3 months and I have to say. I am so sick and tired of the hunt for a home. We have put offers on many houses and each time, someone else has put an offer on the same house. The last 2 houses that we placed offers on the 1st one we offered the amount that they were asking and the 2nd one we over bid by 5 thousand, just to be on the safe side and it didn't work.

So, we are back to the start. We have been searching and searching. We found a great house today and loved the inside. We placed an offer on it and we just hope that this one goes through.

Everyone keeps telling us that we need to hurry and find a house and close before this whole tax thing ends. That is not what we are trying to do. We are just wanting to be in a home before Rian get here and before the possible deployment.