Girl Power at it's finest...true friendship!

Ok, so I just finished reading another blog about being a "lonely mommy," and it really made me reflect on my current stage as a stay-at-home mom and 1st year (soon to be 2nd year...woohoo!!!) wife of a med student.  This may just be me rambling on about things, so please excuse me while I brag/vent a little...

In the post I just finished reading, I found myself agreeing with certain parts about how lonely it can be while staying home and being a mother to your kids, in the sense that you don't get very much time to have adult conversation or you feel like you can't really nurture the friendships you had before you became a mom.  While this may be the case for some of my friendships where my friends are at different stages in their lives, I hope to try and do better.  I'm sorry if I'm not always a reliable friend, or I don't always pick up the phone to chat when you call or forget to text back right away.  Things get a little crazy when you have kids and those that are already parents completely understand where I am coming from in that sense!  But again, let me apologize to my friends that may feel a little neglected at times because of my slackness at continuing to nurture our friendship like it needs to be.  I love you all, and I promise to try and do better!  

But to my other mommy/VCOM friends...this is for you...

I don't know what I would do without you ladies!!!!!!  I could stop here and it would be enough!  You know what I mean by saying that, and I love that it needs no explanation!  But I am feeling the need to "count my blessings and name them one by one".... so here is just a little taste of my appreciation for these ladies...

I love that I can call/text any of you at anytime with just a simple "hey" or "what r u up to?" and instantly carry on a conversation but it can last throughout the day!  It's ok that there are large gaps of time between questions and answers because we all understand that sometimes life is full of constant chaos when you have kids and you forget to text back or lets be real... something crazy just happened and you are probably cleaning it up or trying to play peace keeper between your children!  

I love that I can always find a friend willing to go to the park, zoo, library, etc. at the last minute just to get out of the house so we can have adult conversation!  Or even come over for a spontaneous play date because we want to let our kids be crazy together!  One of my favorite things to do is sit on my back porch, fill up the kiddie pool, turn on Pandora, pull up my capri workout pants (or maybe even throw a swim suit on) and try to get some sun while eating popsicles and putting my feet in the water of the FREEZING pool!  How redneck does this sound, but I'll tell you one thing... we MOMMIES LOVE IT!!!!!!!  

I love that I can drop my kids of with one of these ladies in order to run a quick errand or go to the doctor without having to torture my kids by sitting through ridiculous waits just for a checkup.  Or when I need to take just one child to the doctor, I can rest assure the other child is in good hands and much happier playing with a friend!

I love that I can text one of you ladies in the middle of a show and it feels like we are watching it together!  It sounds silly, but it's so nice to feel like you aren't really alone watching tv!  Let's face it, most of our husbands are either at school studying or completely zoned out studying at home.  

I love that we can plan a girls night and all we do is go out to eat but sit at the restaurant for like 4 hours just chatting and it feels like the most refreshing thing we have ever done!

I love that you all understand my love of all things related to FOOD... especially sweets!  And to counter balance my love for food... I love that I can usually find at least one of you willing to take a Zumba class or go running with me!  Y'all inspire me!!!  

I love that I can randomly text y'all and we decide to go to Target, the mall, or Costco and make an adventure out of it....or better yet... IKEA!!!  For those privileged few that have experienced going to IKEA with me... BLESS YOU!  Every time I have gone with my kids, it somehow turns into a nightmare, but y'all have stuck by my side and endured the craziness that is my life and still say you enjoyed our time together!  I love you all for being able to deal with my disaster!  You should earn a medal for your patience!  

I love planning baby showers and parties with you girls!  

I love that y'all don't mind that I'm usually 5-10...sometimes 15 minutes late!  And most likely, you are running late too!  It's not the end of the world, and we are totally fine with our lack of punctuality!  

I love knowing that our husbands are GOOD guys and would never do anything to harm our marriages or families!  We struck gold when we found these guys!  

I love that I can be myself around y'all and I never feel judged!  I am by no means a perfect mother, but I try really hard to do my best.  Some days are better than others!  It's so comforting knowing that I don't have to try to fake it to make it!  

I love that you love my kids like your own!  It makes my heart happy to know that my kids feel safe and comfortable around you and ask when they will see each of you again!

I love the support we have for each other and the understanding that we are not alone in this journey, whether it be VCOM or motherhood in general!  I love knowing that I have you all to lean on and that you know I am there for you too!  Most of all, I love knowing that I am not LONELY!  While there are times I feel lonely in the wife sense, I know it's just temporary and it will be worth it in the end.  And when there are days when I just want to vent about how much I wish my husband would just spend time with me instead of staying at school all day, y'all are there to fill my day full of activities or just simply say... "YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  I feel the same way!  ME TOO, GIRL!"  I know I will have you girls to keep me company... even if it's just through texts and phone calls!  I am so thankful for the friendships I have made here!  I love feeling so loved! :)  I may not have a ton of friends, but the friends I have made are AWESOME!  I am thankful for each and every one of these fine ladies and the many more that I will continue to get to know and develop friendships with in the future! 

I love you girls and the power and strength I gain from each of you!

Sorry for the rambling but I felt it needed to be shared!  I am truly blessed!!! 

And so it begins...

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I was starting to feel guilty about not keeping a journal. I have so many blessings in my life, and my greatest blessings--an amazing husband and two precious kiddos! I want to capture their special moments and milestones, so I was inspired to start blogging!  Here goes nothing!...

My husband and I were married on May 24, 2008 in the Columbia, SC LDS Temple.  We have been married for 6 years now, and I can honestly say I love him more now than I ever have before!  He is my best friend and always knows how to make me laugh!  I am thankful that my Heavenly Father placed such an amazing man in my life, and I am thrilled to be able to spend eternity with him by my side!

Our first 5 years of marriage were spent in Hartsville, SC.  Heber J grew up in Hartsville, so we were able to be near his family for the time we were there.  It was truly a blessing to be close to family for so long.  The first three years of our marriage, I worked as a first grade teacher at Petersburg Primary School in Pageland, SC.  I loved teaching, but I love being a stay-at-home mom even more!  My third year of teaching, I was pregnant with our son, Heber J Watson IV.  He was born on February 10, 2011, and it was love at first sight!  I finished the school year out at PPS, but decided to stay home and raise Watson instead of going back to work.

Heber J finished up his undergrad at Coker College in Hartsville that same year, and was able to get a job as a medical technologist at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC.  He worked at McLeod for 2 years before he got into medical school here in Spartanburg!

Eliza Faye Watson was born on March 25, 2013 at McLeod!  We found out Heber J was accepted to VCOM right before Eliza was born, and it was a huge blessing!  We had been waiting for 2 years for him to get into medical school, so it was an answer to our prayers, for sure!

We moved to Spartanburg, SC in the end of July 2013.  It was a fresh start for us, and we were super excited for the adventure!!  Throughout this past year, we have made some truly amazing friends!  We lived in a 3 bedroom apartment for 10 months and have recently moved into a 4 bedroom house on the other side of Spartanburg.  Things are a little calmer on this side of town, but we love having a yard for the kids to play in and we don't have to worry about loud neighbors waking up the kids in the middle of the night or our kids making too much noise during the day!

Because we moved to the other side of Spartanburg, we had to switch wards in our church.  We are excited to get to know more people, but a little sad to have to leave a ward where we were beginning to make so many close friendships with and come to love!  I just recently had the opportunity to teach Relief Society in our new ward, and man....was it so enlightening!  I haven't had the opportunity to attend RS very much since I graduated from Clemson University in May 2008 because I have either had a calling in Primary or Young Women!  This was such a fun experience for me!  I must admit, it was SUPER scary at first, but I love learning from the other sisters in the ward!  I am excited to be able to learn and grow closer to the gospel through attending my RS meetings!

So back to my family...

Heber J will finish up his first year of medical school at VCOM by the end of June!  It's hard to believe that we have already made it through our first year of medical school!  And yes... I mean "WE."  For those that are in the same boat, it needs no explanation but for those that aren't familiar with the process, medical school affects EVERYONE in the family.  Since moving to Spartanburg, I have truly come to appreciate the single moms in the world!  I find myself in tears many days wondering how in the world so many single woman raise more than one child and stay sane in the process!  I never realized how much I counted on Heber J to help with the kids until we moved here!  He is gone from about 7:00am-5:00pm about every day!  (And sometimes I don't even see him until midnight!)  When he has a week packed full of exams, I may not even see him but for the 5-10 minutes I spend to drop him off lunch/dinner, a left power cord, or thumb drive.  One time, a few friends and I even texted each other at like 3am to see if any of us had heard ANYTHING from our husbands!!  It wasn't a very good feeling, but the guys have since learned a quick text of phone call to say they won't be home because they are pulling an all-nighter to cram for an exam the next day goes a LONG way!  That was NOT my favorite night to say the least!  I was worried out of my mind.... WELCOME TO BEING MARRIED TO A MED STUDENT!!  While the adjustment to being married with two kids and a husband that is attending medical school has been a little rocky at times, I am extremely thankful for the time that Heber J takes to spend time with us!  He has done a pretty impressive job of making sure that we don't feel left out or forgotten!  Hopefully he feels our support and knows that even though we hate to see him leave each day, we support him no matter what!  We are excited for the opportunity we have been given to stay in SC and still be close to family for support during such a new chapter in his journey to becoming a physician!  Needless-to-say, we are SUPER excited to go on vacation soon while he has an entire month off from school!  It is MUCH needed and we can't wait!

Watson has grown so much since we have moved here!  He will talk your ear off in a heartbeat and I think his conversational skills are pretty impressive for a 3 year old!  He LOVES to do all things BOY!  He loves being outside and discovering new things!  Since moving here, we have joined the local YMCA and it has been such a fun place for Watson to learn and grow!  He has participated in several activities such as swimming lessons, zumbini, and youth outdoor soccer!  He just earned his first trophy in soccer, and he absolutely loves it!  He wants to sleep with it every night!  He has even shined it a few times and he hasn't even had it for a week yet!  He wasn't the best soccer player, but he definitely improved throughout the season!  Heber J set up half of a soccer field (complete with lines and a net) to practice in the backyard!  Watson LOVES to go outside and play soccer with anyone that is willing!  I love watching him play...he has so much joy in his eyes!  Swimming lessons were kind of a joke, but he enjoyed them!  That's all that matters!  haha.  Zumbini has been something that he looks forward to every week!  He loves his teacher, Amparo, whom he calls "ZUMBINI!!!"  She is such an amazing lady and so much fun!  He loves to sing and dance and move around to fun music!  He loves to play with the scarves and play with the musical instruments!  We are sad that zumbini is over for now, but we are looking forward to starting up again this summer!  Watson also enjoys going to story time each week at the library downtown!  He has learned so many rhymes and songs and really developed a love for reading by going to pick out new books each week!  He has made some really great friends since moving here and I am so glad to continue to see him make new friends and explore the world around him!  He teaches me more about life than any other person in the world!  He is such a happy and loving kid!  I absolutely LOVE being his mommy!!

Eliza has grown up soooo much since moving to Spartanburg last year!  She was only about 3.5 months old when we first moved here, so she has really conquered some milestones while living her.  She is a dainty little princess, and she rules the roost!  She has a very STRONG personality and we can truly say...she gets it honest!  She is a diva, and that's okay!  I love having a little girl to dress up, and man...she is a sassy little thing!  I love her so much, though.  She has recently started walking and there is no stopping her now.  She doesn't have very many girl friends here, but that's ok... she can hold her own with the boys!  Just before her first birthday, we had her tested for possible food allergies.  We found out that she is allergic to eggs, peanuts, and wheat.  Finding food that she LIKES to eat that doesn't contain those allergens is very difficult.  I told myself when I was pregnant with Eliza that I would try to do better about introducing her to more of a variety of foods so that she wouldn't be such a picky eater like Watson is, but that was all thrown out the window when we found out about the food allergies!  Meal time is not my favorite time of the day basically because it's hit or miss with E but we are learning as we go, and I'm trying to be more patient!  Eliza was also able to take zumbini with Watson this last session and ABSOLUTELY loved it!  She loves the instructor as well, and she can't wait to start the next session!  Eliza also loves going to story time, but her favorite part is when they bring out the musical instruments and sing songs!  She also tries to steal the teddy bear every week and give it cuddles!  I don't really try to stop her because I think it's sweet!  She just started sleeping with her bunny and loves to give it cuddles!  Eliza loves to be with her mommy, but if she isn't with me... she is with Heber J or ANY other male figure!  She LOVES to hang around and be held by any available man!  She is such a flirt and loves the attention!  I love my sassy little princess and I know she loves me!  I wouldn't want it any other way!

I know this post is getting SUPER long, but I just want to take a moment and share how I have been doing in this new life here!  I love meeting new people and being in a new place!  While I know we miss our families at times, this move has been the best thing for our relationship!  Heber J and I are able to rely more on one another and I have loved growing closer to him!  We are stronger as a couple and we have grown stronger as family of four than I ever thought possible!  I love being a stay-at-home mom to my two beautiful kids!  I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be home with them each day and learn and grow from each new experience with them!  I can't imagine my life any other way!  I am thankful for a husband that works so hard to make sure we will have a comfortable life in the future!  I know we have a long road ahead of us, but I love the journey we are on to get there!  I love every moment we share together and I know we are truly blessed!

I am so excited to have made so many good friends since being here!  I love learning from each of them and am excited to grow closer as we continue this journey together!  I don't think I could make it through this experience without these lovely ladies!!  Y'all know who you are!  Thanks for being there for me and keeping me sane!  Love y'all!

I doubt I will ever post anything this long again, but I'm worried I may have just started a new addiction!  :)  I love knowing I can capture these moments forever on here!  Until next time...