Welcome! It's My SITS Day!

Hello SITStahs! Welcome to my little family blog! I have been anxiously awaiting my day in the sun! For those of you who do not know what SITS is, it's an awesome community of thousands of women bloggers who support one another through comments and lots of wonderful advice. If you have a blog or any desire to start a blog, I highly suggest you go and check them out! I love their site and have been reading it and participating off and on for a few years now! This isn't a big, fancy blog but it is my blog and I work hard on it so be gentle!

This is Of Pandas and Pirates! It was formally known as Loving my Panda Bear back when my daughter was my only living child. I lovingly refer to her as my Miranda Panda and the nickname has stuck. She calls pandas her 'theme'. On Christmas Day 2010 we discovered that we were having a boy and at the time, had planned to name him Westley from The Princess Bride. We were going to go with a pirate theme to go along with that name however, shortly afterwards, I decided I really didn't like the name Westley anymore so we had to come up with a new name. The pirate theme stuck though, including a pirate themed baby shower! The Panda even dressed as a Pirate once! So, the new name Of Pandas and Pirates was born.
 


You can expect about one blog post a week here, sometimes more ... sometimes less. I enjoy talking about my kids and family, for the most part. Pets too, I blog about them. We are a family of animal lovers and we take in all sorts of creatures, including reptiles. As of right now we have a dog, a snake, a bearded dragon, a rat (not a pet ...), and two guinea pigs.

Anywhoo, let's talk about me! That's why you're all here, isn't it? My name is Anjie. I'm 26 years old and I was born, raised and currently live in Connecticut. My husband, joined the Marine Corps immediately after graduating high school and found himself stationed in South Carolina. Once he had settled himself down there, he came back to Connecticut to marry me and bring me back down there with him. A short 6 months after we got married I found myself pregnant with our first child. Unfortunately, 20 weeks into the pregnancy my water broke and even though we tried everything we could to save our daughter, including having to live in the hospital for 9 straight weeks on strict bed rest, she just couldn't survive outside of my body. We said goodbye to Quinne Morgan on June 4, 2006.

Ten months to the day after we hit an ultimate low, we welcomed our daughter, Miranda Quinne, into the world! She was not exactly planned but she was exactly what we needed. She has always been my shining star! My rainbow after the storm. Without her, I don't know where I would be. My husband deployed to Iraq when she was only 5 months old and I picked up and moved back to Connecticut with lots of help from my family. Adam came back home 8 months later and was also done with his time in the Marine Corps. I feel like real life began that day and we've been a close knit family ever since.We went through so many ups and downs for a few years. Gaining and losing jobs, almost facing eviction from our home and seeing pets come and go.

 

In April of 2011, our son, Elliott Sawyer, came flying into this world like a little whirlwind. At ten months old (today) he is a very active little boy. He has definitely changed who I am as a mother and I'm sure he will continue to test me and change me throughout the years. Every month I do a little summary of what's new and I take his picture with a giant fish pillow.

I am not a Super Mom but I am a good mom. I hope you enjoy your stay here! I look forward to meeting lots of great, interesting, new people!