Storm and Frozen Pipes

"I came here to be your taxi driver, NOT your maintence man!!" my 19 year old brother has mentioned this to me a few times in the last 48 hours :-/

alright what a crazy weekend... Mike called me Friday afternoon saying I'm leaving you. uh okay? hope she's cute? oh leaving me for Utah gotcha! Mike has been on trouble calls (work that last a few hours at night but is home to kiss me good morning) but this was our first storm! I got his bag packed and had dinner waiting for the ten mintues I got to spend with him before he left. He had the "look." the look only other linewives know and the look my brother and I grew up with. My dad used to get this look when he got called for a CRT call out (crisis repsonse team) My charming husband walked through that door with the biggest shit eating grin I've ever seen. He tried to hide it because after all he was leaving me! He had a blast, working 19 hour days and boozing it up with the boys. He sent me a couple neat pictures I'll upload evenutally :) He thought he was going to be gone all week but once again the good timing bug hit us and he got home tonight. So why am I on here while my brother and husband are home... oh because they needed to go get some things for the trailer (more on that in a few) and I was informed it was brother bonding and I was invited.

so backing up now. I picked Christopher up Saturday morning from the airport. Apparently because I'm carrying Mike's child that means I'm incapable of driving myself home so he bought a one way ticket for my brother to come down and drive home with me. Not complaining about the company even though I know he'll sleep most the way ;-) Sunday was a total shit show....

woke up and wham no water! uh... okay well it could be worse. I could be alone but i have my brother! yay! haha... well panic first, call dad second. He spend the morning on the phone with dad and the other unders the trailer. To set to scene real fast... its a slight blizzard out, the temp is going between 12 degrees and -1, and the wind is blowing like a mutha. Alrighty so he got a heater hooked up to start thawing pipes and breaker blows. No big deal I blow breakers daily. whoops! strange thing is all of a sudden its not working at all. so we mess with that for a bit before we notice this fun water spot leaking in the middle of the living room. One problem at a time. We decided after trying everything Mike was telling us to do and it still wasn't working we needed to save it for my sexy lineman ;) (side note: normally on storm the guys can't call, luckily Mike's forman is a doll and wanted to make sure I was surviving so he had mike call me, a lot)

after a long day of not really accomplishing anything we decided to call it a day. a really stupid day! after blowing breakers we didn't have heat in the back room so I made Christopher sleep with me :) so while laying there watching Dukes of Hazard we had a mass flood of water! YAY!!! pipes unfroze!!

Now we're here we are Monday night... we picked mike up and instead of wanting to sleep Mike wanted to work on the electric stuff... as i'm typing this the boys got back and wham bam my lineman fixed it!! Honestly don't know what was wrong but its working! Now they're working on the mystery water spot in the living room. I'll keep ya posted with this one :)

In conclusion, we survived our first storm. I'll tell ya what, if Christopher wasn't here I would have bags packed, driving home, with my finger out the window to the state of Wyoming and its Negative degree weather! :) but we're alive. Mike had a blast on storm "making some coin" and boozing it up! Christopher made it clear its been an interesting wyoming trip and its too damn cold to live here. Now tomorrow we'll finally have a fun, relaxing day. Mike got the day off so we're dropping Remmi off at doggy daycare, going to breakfast, and going to check on Wes at 11:30! I get two of my favorite boys there! This is our first official ultrasound too, it'll be fun to see how big he's grown in 3 weeks. Christopher and I than leave Tuesday night around 2 am to head home... with us getting transfered soon Mike's trip home will be cut short to just Christmas weekend. He's bummed he won't be able to spend time with friends but its his attitude about it that makes me even more proud to be his wife.

Hopefully we'll know more soon about where we'll be starting the new year! but for now my lineman made it home safely after his first storm :) xoxo!

Thanksgiving 2011

what a great weekend! i have to say i enjoy having mike around for longer than just a sunday! now to recap our weekend...

Thanksgiving Day:
so yes this was my first thanksgiving cooking all by myself, well with many phone calls to mom (as she so wonderfully blasted all over facebook!)i think all in all it went pretty smoothly though, minus the mishap with the microwave :-/ but heres a few pictures of our trailer park thanksgiving!

okay worst part... stuffing our chicken. ick, gross, sick.


thank goodness we didn't try a small turkey, this baby chick was pushing our luck in the tiny oven!!


and taaa daaa! looks pretty good if i say so myself!! :)


thank goodness Josh showed up cause we weren't sure how to cut it up lol it was a very educational day for the McBrides!!



Happy Thanksgiving!! =)


Friday:
we did go out on black friday only just for fun... we took our sweet time getting up and going so the crowds were pretty much all gone. we got all our shopping done though! yay! after shopping Mike wanted to show me an old light plant (i LOVE creepy old buildings!) besides Remmi needed to get out and run without worrying bout cars. its actually pretty cool and the pictures don't really do it justice but here ya go! :)


The Light Plant...





And than we let Remmi run and run =) as you can see he could literally run for miles and we could pretty much still see him haha.


monster dog <3 br="br">

we carved our name in the sand stone... we apparently can't make a perfect heart!


Saturday:
Although i was pretty upset we missed my favorite day of the whole year back home. i was pretty excited Casper had a light show to offer, including FREE hot chocolate and cookies! yes! it was kinda odd going to a parade and getting front row seats and being able to walk up and down the streets. we didn't even show up early! but wow was it freezing! About half way we both couldn't feel our fingers and Rem was starting to shiver so we headed home for hot cocoa and Christmas movies. We figure next year we'll bundle up better and stick out the whole thing for Wes :)we did have a lot of fun though!

Here's downtown Casper...


Mike and Rem :)


i have so many things to be thankful for in life. i have a wonderful husband, a healthy growing baby boy, a puppy that makes me laugh more than cry ;), an amazing family back home, and excellent friends who thankfully have managed to not forget about me way down in here! :)

hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend!!

baby wes

as most of you say already baby McBride is a baby boy... I know we and most everyone were pretty shocked that its not a little girl. I don't know why but we all thought baby was a girl! Mike and I have spend countless hours before we knew we were pregnant and even more after just talking about talking about baby boys and girls, so when we found out it was a boy we instantly were thrilled about the stuff we'll be able to do and teach him.

I know it was also a shock that we even had an appointment... I had my regular doctors appointment on Monday, everything is great except I dropped another 5 pounds and I was worried cause my belly hasn't "popped" out yet. Doc told me the weight wasn't a big issue for now because I was so sick for the first 4 months that its normal to be still going up and down. The belly thing will just come with time, with how long of a torso I have Wes has lots of room to stretch out, also with me still jogging, doing yoga, my pregnancy workout and also with my healthy eating style (seriously this kid only craves fruit!!) that what I'm gaining is all baby and not fat. Yay for that news! Although I'm super anxious for a real round preggo belly!

And than we had Wednesdays appointment. After seeing every one's ultrasound pictures on facebook and with uhm everyone being pregnant and seeing their baby Mike and I were defiantly feeling jealous, so I did a little research and found Gentle Touch Studio. Basically this lady has her own 3D, 4D ultrasound machine and does it just for fun. Which is pretty popular here since Wyoming is wonderful and doesn't allow ultrasounds until 20 weeks. We knew there was a chance we would be able to find out but didn't want to announce it and than have to listen to "did you find out?" So went in yesterday morning. The room was pretty awesome, its set up so you're whole family can join and watch your baby on the big screen. Mike enjoyed the huge leather lounge chair ;-) I thought for sure I'd cry and Mike would at least tear up but nope the minute we saw baby on the screen we couldn't stop laughing and smiling, I think Mike looked at me once but his face was glued to that screen the whole time, precious! :)

3D pictures are defiantly kinda spooky but watching the life feed is the coolest thing. Little mister was moving A LOT so most of our still shots don't have his whole body in it. I kept asking so he's actually moving around like that? why can't I feel this?! She told me she's surprised I'm not yet and will be even more surprised if I don't feel him by the end of the week. Can't wait! At first mister wouldn't stay still enough for us to see what gender he was but than once we spotted the little pee pee it was defiantly in every shot!

Needless to say the rest of the day we both had permanent smiles on and our phones were blowing up! :) thank you to everyone!

Picking out the name was pretty simple since we've had them picked out for like oh 3 years now! lol we're lame like that. For a boy it was either Colton James or Wesson Michael. We knew instantly our baby boy was Wesson. Yes we have based all of our names on guns... We already have Remington the dog and now we have Wesson. Next babe will hopefully be a girl and she'll be Kimber. So no stealing names ;-)

Also I love that my mom found this for me yesterday...

Cyndi Hunter Schenck posted:
The meaning of the name Wesson is West enclosure west settlement.... ha ha too funny... considering he was conceived in Wyoming... the wild wild west... PERFECT

guess Wyoming is good for somethin!!

Now what to look forward to...
my weekend in Helena with my best friends!! Miss Brandy and Robyn are coming over for some MUCH needed girl time while Mike learns lots in class!


SO in love with this little boy already... we're excited to meet you and don't be surprised if Daddy has a dirt bike by your crib waiting! xoxo.

Christmas Time in the Trailer Park

I don't want to hear its not even Thanksgiving yet blah blah I have a valid excuse :) I won't be here basically the month of December and we're not spending Christmas here SO I want to enjoy my tree and snow flakes for longer than a week!

besides we've already gotten snow (before the wind blew it away!) and I know you folks back home are starting to get in the Christmas mood with the first snow this morning so happy holidays!

Above the fireplace...scent in candle: Festival of Trees to make up for the tiny fake tree of course!



Fireplace- we'll be adding stockings as soon as we can put a K or W on a stocking instead of a boring B ;-)



Above the cupboards, yes channel 24 is the Hallmark channel. I've now cried during Christmas Card and currently cried twice during November Christmas- SO sweet!!


TaaaDaaa our ity, bity Christmas tree!



Lazy bones Mike who played Words with Friends while I decorated the tree... so if I'm sucking and you all are kicking my butt- its actually my retarded lineman who hijacked my phone...



I wanted to take close up of our tree... we themed it Wyoming Christmas hehe its all cowboy ornaments.




My "fancy towels" like Mom said Grandma, Mom and myself are probably the only ones who have trained our husbands not to use them, they are our decorative ones ;-)



My favorite part of winter- Flannel sheets! love them :) and course my lazy dog... must be tired of chewing my Toms and trying to take down the tree!



Lastly since decorating for Christmas is suppose to be a family deal so of course I wanted pictures with my boys... as you can see Mike was impatient and irritated cause I took him away from MY phone... Mom said "welcome to marriage!"



And Remmi well he just wanted to eat my braid! this shows his true character...



Well I hope you're all enjoyin the snow back home... we're wishing we could trade this wonderful now 60 mph winds in for some snow :)

its a wonderful life.

it is wonderful but also very, very cold. welcome to winter in Casper, Wyoming. its snowed on us multiple times now while it doesn't last long before the snow blows it away. the average temp is right around 20 degrees, while yesterday the temp was a warm 8 degrees up on Casper Mtn (ten minutes from our park)luckily we've managed to stay warm, well inside the trailer. my morning walks are another story, i've actually picked up jogging again just to stay warm, tired Rem out faster, and get back to my morning cup of hot chocolate next to the fire.



surprisingly we've been pretty busy! Mike is now working 6 9s, weird i know. we never thought we'd say this but we actually don't want to move until after the holidays... this will be our first thanksgiving totally alone. which of course is bittersweet, it'll be interesting to see if i can pull off a thanksgiving dinner in the trailer! Mike is also getting a ton of hot time, if we stay here he should have all of his hot time completed. Christmas present in itself right there! i've been staying busy with my new yoga classes, a few extra classes-i took the shake your bon bon candy class, so fun and next saturday i'm taking a bread making class! i've also been busy with crafting and slowly putting the nursery together... we got a big area rug for back there and we ordered the crib, it should be here in 2 weeks. of course it'll be bare until we come home from Christmas- we sent the bedding set to my parents just in case of a move. I posted the button tree on facebook, i'm so happy with how it turned out! i can't wait to add our baby's name too it :) i finally decided what to do with the other canvas... i'm no artist but i'm pretty impressed with my painting...

this is hanging over the guest bed... i love it because of course we know our baby is God's special blessing to us but i walked down the aisle to this song :)


we also had this big, awkward metal thing in the nursery... it must have been used to hold gas cans, tools, or whatever none baby stuff you keep in a garage.


SO after much chit chatting with fellow crafters we decided to do this...mike was able to pull it off the wall, we spray painted it, bought some foam and covered it in baby print :)


its so nice to finally get into a routine again and finally start feeling like Casper is our home for the time being... although fingers still crossed in Jan we get moved a little closer to home, we'd really like our baby to not be born in Wyoming...


love our little family :)happy monday everyone! oh also today starts week 16 for our little huckleberry... we have another appointment next monday!

Ups and Downs... No, just Ups!

i know i've been a little pathetic lately, okay kinda alot... i'd say for good reason but no really. its just been rough lately being so far away, missing out on things i was the one planning last year. plus it doesn't help my emotions are on total overdrive! ick! i've been really, really sick lately. a few dumb medical/pregnancy things that aren't a big deal but really left me feeling down. i'm finally past all that stuff and slowly starting to feel like a real person again. i've come to accept throwing up is just going to happen every day and i'll probably be that pregnant gal that is sick all the way through. yah i've thrown up on more side roads pregnant than drunk. awesome.

so let all this drag me deeper into hating life here or buck up and look around and know i am very lucky? i think we know where this is going... i thank God that i have a few very special people who haven't forgotten about me just because i moved. my mom obviously has been a HUGE help is pushing me through. i really don't know what i would do without her kinda knocking me in the head telling me hello daughter you're being a brat. stop. =) thanks ma. and of course i have some pretty awesome best friends, who i miss terribly. each who have very, very busy lives of their own. full time students, jobs, long distances relationships of their own and yet they make time for me. whether its that simple 10 mins catch up on their way home from work, those few texts on their lunch breaks, or even flowers! (miss susan, you big sweetheart!) not to mention i was able to actually have face time with miss nicole! she brought a little sunshine to wyoming with her :)

i have so much to make me smile and be thankful for...

--i have an amazing husband who works way too many hours a day but will still come home and help me spray paint another silly project i wanted to do. Or have to spend the evening skirting the trailer and wrapping heat tape to make sure i'm warm. Or randomly decided we need a date night, i can pick the movie.

--linelife is hard.... but because of this suffering now we have insurance! such a huge deal! our bills are quickly disappearing. we were able to go pick out our perfect new house uhm trailer. we know mike will always have a job, yes he gets laid off but a job always opens up. we're able to see places we would probably never have gone to, true you'll never catch me in wyoming again but still ;-)

--i'm pregnant! with all this being sick and upset i've really forgotten why i'm sick! we're having a baby... in 6 short months we'll be holding our little boy or girl. that's pretty amazing in itself. we took Rem to the park yesterday (we're lame dog parents) we were sitting on the swings talking about what kinda of parents we want to be and Mike just stopped and said how cool is it to finally have this conversation and know you're actually pregnant?! pretty cool i'd say :)

-- family! oh gosh i could sit and brag about my family to anyone.... there are ALOT of you to brag about!! i love all the relationships we have. i love when mike gets a chance to visit with his brother or when Christopher calls and we put him on speaker phone and waste an hour talking about nothing really. we really are proud of you buddy... all of my cousins! how fun is it to know our babies will be the ones playing and running around at the family reunions in a few years?!

i am happy. life is hard but hell who's life isn't?! i guess that's why we try to be there for each other. everyone needs that shoulder and helping hand some days... so thank you, dear friends for my helping hand.

pushing through.

alright after not going to yoga for a few reasons, overwhelming sickness, missing yoga mat, and just the fact i'm a little too blue to see people today.... i finally went. although it was the wrong class it felt SO incredibly good to see familiar faces. to have one lady come up and give me a hug and ask how have you been?! thank you i needed that...

truth is i'm not all that great right now. after feeling pumped up and finally social i decided okay casper what else do you have to offer me? i headed into a few craft stores to sign up for random classes. meh so i really don't care how to make cake flowers, oh well it'll give me a schedule and maybe meet some people! Oh you have to have 5 other people to sign up? awesome well thanks lady i know NO one in this damn town. sure i'll sign up and hope others decide to take it. right.

i'm tired of feeling so alone. if i get one more rude, resentful comment from a single mom i'm going to flip out! yes i am married, yes my pregnancy was planned. do you really want me to apoligize for it?! just because i have a husband who's excited for this doesn't mean its not hard. yes i won't have to swap holidays or go to parent teacher conferences alone. but what that means i'm not aloud to be apart of groups or be friends who other moms cause they're "single?" gee thanks. honestly mike has been great but yesterday as i was gaging over the sink because hamburger struck a nerve and he thought it was funny to say Cayla, really? you're still sick? thanks yes i am! pregnancy is pregnancy. i'm going to be raising babies just like you, our kids will most likely play on the same teams, some will even share classes... so i guess when my baby comes home from school crying because some other child was picking on him. i'll give that credit back to you. learn how to have some compassion ladies. all situations are different. i plan on teaching my baby that and being a role model to it.

this lifestyle isn't easy. it is actually really hard. i am thankful that i don't have to work and get to see mike everyday but i miss home. i miss my monday night gossip girl eating whatever food we can find in my apartment. i miss random coffee dates where we'd loose track of time. i miss movie nights where we'd have more people than chairs. i miss jam runs. i miss my family. i miss my friends. some days i really miss that life but this is my life now. i love it most days and those few rough days are when i need family and friends the most. i can't wait for the day i get to announce we're coming home! until than i'll be here supporting my husband in his journey and right now that's my most important job and i'm proud of it.