Week 16!

Today marks 16 weeks along! I guess my bump is definitely noticeable now because I've gotten several more comments from strangers this week. To me, it's more obvious when I wear certain shirts and less obvious in others. I think it's just been such a gradual change that I'm not noticing it!

It's there!!

I'm still doing the daily Lovenox injections, and it gets easier every day. It's really no big deal anymore. I haven't skipped a day yet, so I guess it's just part of my normal routine now. Baby Grant is supposedly about 4 1/2 inches long now and weighs 3 1/2 ounces. It's tiny heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood per day!!! How cool is that!? I'm pretty sure I've felt some kicks already, so that's been really neat. At one point during the Bama game Saturday night I was yelling at the TV, and I'm pretty sure I felt a good kick right after that! I think Baby Grant was saying, "Let me outta here! I can't see the TV...." Already a Bama fan from the start :)

We're still just waiting (im)patiently to find out whether it's a boy or girl. I'll clarify that...I'm the impatient one. I think Travis would be fine just waiting until the baby is born! I'm still debating whether or not to have the party. Our appointment is 2 weeks from tomorrow, so I've got some time to make up my mind :)

Tonight is our first night at home with nothing planned since Tuesday a week ago...whew. No wonder I've been so tired lately! We had a great weekend! We had a great gospel meeting at church with Dan Chaney, spent time with lots of friends and family, and watched Alabama win their first game of the season! Roll Tide! Our steaks from Earthfare were awesome!! Definitely not something we'll buy every time, but well worth it for a special occasion!! Unfortunately, I didn't get an "after" picture, but here are our "man steaks" before they went on the grill...

Yum!

One of the highlights of the weekend was eating lunch with Alan and Katie on Sunday. It had been forever since we'd seen them! It was great to catch up with them.

This weekend will be much more low key, and I'm looking forward to some relaxing. Tomorrow we're going to go to a consignment sale in Huntsville with lots of baby and kid stuff. Who knows what we'll find...should be interesting! I've started a registry at Target, but I haven't put too much on it yet. I never knew babies needed so much stuff!!! Expensive stuff!!!! Hoping to find some good deals at this consignment sale :)

So, I guess that's about all that's happening around here. Can't believe it's already September! I need to get out my fall decorations soon....yipee!!

Hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

Boy or girl? We could know soon!

Tomorrow I'll be 11 weeks along!

Yesterday, we had our second appointment with my OBGYN. I scheduled it to be right after work, so all I had to do was walk over the breezeway to her office. Very convenient! Travis met me there, and we didn't have to wait long at all. My blood pressure was good, and I weighed the same as I did at my last appointment, so yay for that! You're really not supposed to gain much weight at all during the 1st trimester, so I guess I'm saving that for the coming weeks :) I feel like I'm hungry all the time, but I'm trying not to be a complete pig. I'm hoping for smaller than a 9 lb baby like I was! :)

The first thing we did when we got in the room was an ultrasound. The nurse told us not to be worried if we couldn't hear the heartbeat because that's not all that unusual for 10-11 weeks since the baby is still so low. But, when she put the goopy stuff and the wand on my belly, we heard the heartbeat right away!! It was so cool! Travis didn't know that a baby's heart rate is so much faster than ours, so he wasn't expecting it to sound like that.

We're going to a different doctor on the 14th for my first trimester screening. That's the test that they do to check for Down syndrome. At that appointment, they'll do another ultrasound and some blood work. My doctor told us yesterday that this other doctor will probably be able to tell us the gender of the baby when they do the ultrasound. I was so excited to hear that! Apparently, he is really good at determining boy or girl this early because he's only missed it one time that my doctor knows of. That means we could know in less than 2 weeks! We go back to my OBGYN on the 27th, and she said they could do an ultrasound then and would probably be able to tell the gender, so I guess if we can't find out on the 14th, hopefully we will on the 27th!!! I was expecting to have to wait until at least sometime in September or early October to know, so if we know sometime this month, I'll be thrilled!!!

Now, we just have to decide about whether or not to have a gender reveal party. Basically, you get the doctor to write down if it's a boy or girl on a piece of paper, and then you put it into an envelope without looking. Then, you give the envelope to a friend or a bakery, and they make a cake with either pink or blue on the inside. For the party, you invite your friends and family, and then you cut into the cake with everyone there, and everyone finds out at the same time. I just think that would be so much fun!!! But, it's going to be really tempting to find out at the doctor's office too. Decisions, decisions! If we do the party, I think we would probably wait until after the 27th just to make sure both doctors think the same thing: boy or girl. So, if we have the party, it'll be near the end of August or early September I guess.

I've felt pretty good this week other than just the usual tiredness. I worked yesterday and Monday, and I'm supposed to work tomorrow and Friday too. I'm enjoying today off! I jogged this morning and watered our plants. I've also been watching some of the Olympics. I may even take a nap this afternoon and not feel guilty about it. I'm good at taking naps these days!

This weekend, we're having a few friends over to watch the Olympics. Travis is going to break out the grill for the 2nd time and grill some hamburgers. We're looking forward to that!

Mom had her annual mammogram a few weeks ago. She noticed recently that she has a lump on her scar from the lumpectomy she had last summer. She thought it was just scar tissue, but her doctor biopsied it just to be sure. She got the results yesterday...it was benign! Thanking God for good news like that! :)  I think Mom is about as anxious as I am to find out whether we are having a boy or girl. I think she's going to go crazy buying cute little outfits for him or her...haha :)

Speaking of moms, Cheryl sold her house last week!!! We are so excited for her! It had been on the market for a while, and finally the right family came along (with 7 kids!!). The closing was on Friday, so it's a done deal. She and Melissa (and Emily, for a week or two) have moved into a rental house not too far away from their old house, and I just love it. It's got a lot of curb appeal!

That's about it for the news around here. Lots of prayers have been answered lately!! :)

1st Time Camp Counselors!

Travis and I went to camp for the first time in years last week. This time, though, we were going as counselors instead of campers!! We were counselors at Guntersville Camp, and we really enjoyed it! We got to meet a lot of awesome kids, spend some time outside, unplug from technology for a few days, and most importantly, hear several great lessons about the hope we have as Christians. It was a very encouraging week!

The girls in our car...Bekah, Baylee, and Taylor!

Love these sweet girls!

Pretty sunset the first night

Egg toss disaster!

So cool! I never knew putting mentos in Diet Coke makes it shoot everywhere!

Swim time!

Scavenger hunt finds

Sarah B. and me

Cabin 2

:)

Silly boys...

Brother and sister!

Ben being a frisbee acrobat!

We survived camp!

So, those are just a few of the pictures I took. One of my jobs (besides being Camp Nurse) was to take lots of pictures, so I think I took at least 120 or so. Whew! 

Hebrews 6:19-20: "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. "

Romans 5:3-5: "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

1 Peter 1:3-4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"

I hope that we can be counselors again next year! I'm already looking forward to it :)

A few things...

1. We had a great weekend in Trussville! We ended up leaving the kitties here because we drove straight to the Vestavia singing. They survived for 48 hours on their own, although they were all out of food when we got back Sunday afternoon! They probably ate it all by Friday night...ha! The singing was wonderful, as usual. There were almost 700 people there, and we got to see lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while.

2. On Saturday, we ran 6.5 miles!! Didn't know if I'd be able to do it, but it actually wasn't too bad. Travis finished several minutes ahead of me, but I'm ok with it. I blame it on his longer legs... :)

3. Speaking of running, last night Travis officially signed up for the half marathon! Now, we just have to book a hotel for the night before. The race starts at 7 AM, so we definitely don't want to drive up there the morning of!

4. I wish I could tell you about all the interesting people I meet at work. I've got some pretty crazy stories! You can blame HIPAA for the lack of details. But, in the past few weeks, I've had a patient who managed to take his "valuables" back to surgery with him and another patient with a really "interesting" invention. At least my job keeps me on my toes! :)

5. This Friday we are getting new bathroom fans installed in both of our bathrooms. Now if that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. Oh wait...Travis is the only one who is pumped about it. Hah :) It's going to change his life...

6. Last week, I got suckered into paying $24.50 for a year's subscription to Tennis magazine. The guy was raising money to go to Paris. He was nice. And I'm too nice to say no. Please don't ring my doorbell and try to sell me something. You know I'll buy it.

7. Have I mentioned that Travis is tutoring a high schooler from church? The subject is physics. Better him than me! I'm glad I never had to take physics in high school or college. I don't think I missed out on anything but a lot of confusing concepts and equations. Travis liked it enough to make it one of his majors though! He's a smartie :)

8. My best friend from high school, Kayla, is getting married on the 25th of this month! Can't wait to see her and meet Zach!!

9. This Friday night, we are going to the Hesters' house for a Valentine's dinner with some other couples from church. Should be a lot of fun! The Hesters are probably the most hospitable people we know....we're trying to do better at that this year. It's hard to top them though!

10. Our house smells like homemade chocolate chip cookies right now. I just made some a little while ago. I've already eaten two, but I'd like to eat more. They're just hard to stop eating once you start! That's one bonus about running 3x/week. I don't have to worry quite as much about how much I eat. You gotta have some kind of reward for running that much, right? :)

How's that for a lot of random information? Here's one more tidbit...two verses from a recent daily Bible reading. It's good stuff to remember and put in practice!!

Ephesians 4: 31-32
³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Erin

The Fat Cat

Well, Felix might not be happy with me for telling you this, but he was labeled "obese" at the vet last week. I have to say that shocked me a little bit. We knew he was getting to be a pretty big cat, and he does have a saggy belly that hangs down (mostly skin though), but apparently it's bad enough that they called him "obese"! I wonder if they use the BMI scale for animals...haha. Anyway, Travis took him to the vet on Friday to get his nails trimmed (because we sure can't clip them ourselves like we can with Gabby!), and that's when they told him that Felix was getting too big for a cat his age. They asked Travis how much we feed the cats, and he told them 4 CUPS A DAY. No wonder they thought he was getting fat!! What Travis meant to say was 4 scoops a day...each scoop is 1/3 cup. Haha. We know that Felix definitely eats more than his fair share of the food, but it's hard to keep him from doing that, especially when we aren't home all the time. So, poor Felix and Gabby are on a diet now. We've cut them back to about 2-3 scoops a day to see if that helps any. I can tell they are hungry though because they always eat everything in their bowl and they meow for more food. We'll see how long this lasts...

Speaking of the kitties, they've been in a somewhat destructive stage lately. Is that equivalent to the terrible twos? Their favorite activity as of late is chewing/shredding toilet paper. Sometimes they'll just unroll it onto the floor, but other times we find it shredded into tiny pieces. So far this has only happened in our bathroom, so I guess they haven't figured out that the other bathroom has TP! If this keeps up, I'm going to have to start really finding some good TP deals at the store. It's not very economical to throw half of the roll away because the cats ripped it up! We also found shredded Kleenex on the floor the other day...they had knocked the box off the table in the living room and had some fun with the tissues inside! Anything we leave on the floor is fair game, so we've found trashcans knocked over (small ones), pictures frames knocked over, socks carried off to a different part of the room, etc. The other day I went to grab a Styrofoam plate out of the pantry, and I found that the bag had a huge hole in it, and several of the plates on top looked like this:

Guess we need to start leaving the pantry door shut all of the time! I had no idea that kittens could be so destructive...I thought that was a puppy thing! Guess they showed me. We're trying to teach them not to do these things, but they're very sneaky, and they either do it at night or when we're not home. The squirt bottle doesn't really work when it's not used right after they do something wrong. Anyone have any suggestions about how to deter them from bad behavior? :)

Friday night turned out to be a very nice evening! We had a few families from church over for supper, and everything turned out pretty good! We had chicken spaghetti (thank you Mrs. Johnson for the recipe!), cheddar bay biscuits, salad, derby pie (from Mom's cookbook) and fruit pizza (from the Pioneer Woman). The biscuits were really good...I just used milk instead of water and added some Old Bay seasoning to the batter and the butter mixture. They stuck to the parchment paper for some reason, so next time I might just spray the pan and not use the parchment paper. If you try the fruit pizza, just know that it makes a lot! Bake the sugar cookie part for 12 or 13 minutes. I did 15 minutes, and it was little dry. It's pretty good though!! I took most of the leftovers to work, and everyone really liked it.

Mom had her first radiation treatment Monday, and it went well. I haven't talked to her since Monday night, but I'm assuming she went back yesterday for #2. She's supposed to go every day (except on the weekends) until she does 36 total treatments. She said it was pretty uncomfortable lying there perfectly still for an hour on Monday, but the rest of the treatments should only take 15-20 minutes. She's almost finished!!!! Yay Mom!!

Running is going pretty well I guess. We're just running 30 minutes on Mondays and Wednesdays and then a set number of miles on Saturdays. This Saturday we're supposed to run 6.5 miles! Eek! We'll see how that goes. Less than 3 months til the half marathon!!!

On Saturday, we planted the dogwood tree that Baugay gave us. Thank you, Baugay!!!! I can't wait for it to grow and bloom (hopefully pink) flowers. She wasn't sure if it was pink or white since she's got both kinds in her yard. Right now, the tree is probably only 4 feet tall, but one day it will be so pretty! We planted it in our backyard near the playset. Travis did the hard part (digging the hole), so I just got to be the assistant. That's usually the way it goes for our projects, but I like it that way! :)

Tonight is my last night of teaching the K-1 Bible class at church. I made a big crossword puzzle, word search, and fill in the blank worksheet, so hopefully that will be fun and a good review of what we learned. It was fun teaching by myself for the first time, but I'll also be glad to have a break for a while too!

We're planning to go to the annual Vestavia singing with RJ Stevens on Friday night. Last year was the first year we didn't go since we started dating in 2006, so we're really looking forward to going back this year! They always have a huge crowd! We're planning to stay for the weekend with my parents and (hopefully) take the cats with us. Last time, that didn't work out so well (i.e. Travis and Felix in a cat fight), but maybe we'll have better luck this time. To get him to the vet Friday, Travis just threw a towel over him and scooped him up into the carrier and he didn't even put up a fight. Maybe that will work two weeks in a row!

Well, I think that's about it as far as "news" goes around here. Happy birthday (one day late) Gran!! Hope you had a great day yesterday!! Now, I've got to go check on the cats...they're getting into something again.....

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

Sweet Victory!

In case you haven't heard (ha!), Alabama won another National Championship last night. That makes #14, and the 2nd time we've won it in only 3 years! I was definitely pretty nervous before the game started since we'd already lost to LSU once earlier in the season. But, looking back, we had plenty of chances to win that first game, and last night proved for sure that we were the better team! Roll Tide!!

We watched the game at Collier and Jessica's house with them, little Baker (who went to bed during the 1st quarter!), and Matt and Maggie. We had a great time! Jessica made some awesome finger foods, so we ate before the game got started. I knew once it started I would probably be too nervous to eat anything. The guys kept us pretty entertained by dancing and going crazy when something good happened. It was funny to watch because they were trying to be fairly quiet so they wouldn't wake up Baker, but we could tell they would've been yelling at the top of their lungs if they could!

Our favorite interview of the night was after the game with Courtney Upshaw..."Hold dat thang, fo!" Definitely priceless. And Coach Saban even looked like he enjoyed his Gatorade bath...at least more than he did 2 years ago when they almost knocked him out with the cooler! It would have been so awesome to actually have been there in person last night, but you can't ask for anything better than watching it with your friends either. And, we're probably at least $3000 better off for not going too. That doesn't hurt :)

The girls...Jessica, me, and Maggie

The guys showed their excitement a little more than we did...

Confetti! :)

#1 again!!

Of course, we left the kitties at home when we went to go watch the game. I tried to take a "festive" picture with them and an Alabama shaker earlier yesterday afternoon, but it didn't work out too well. Gabby tried to eat the shaker, and Felix was scared of it and ran away. Ha! I asked Travis before we left if he was going to leave the TV for them so they could watch the game too (they really do like to watch football), but he said no. What a mean daddy! :)

See, she's eating it!

Gabby loves to give kisses :)

Cuddle time...they're almost too big for that chair now!

Speaking of sweet victory, Mom is finished with chemo! WOOHOOOOO!!! That's definitely something to celebrate. She'll start radiation in a few weeks, but hopefully she'll be done with that by sometime in March. Go Mom!!! Her birthday is also tomorrow, so happy early birthday Mom! I love you so much!! :)

Travis has been running with me lately, and we've been running 3 days a week to prepare for the half marathon I signed to run in late April. He's still trying to decide if he's going to run it too. I'm looking forward to it, but definitely feeling nervous about it.

Travis has a 4 day weekend coming up with Friday as his normal off day and Monday being MLK day. I work Friday but not Monday, so we're hoping to get some blinds and curtains hung around the house. If we don't get them hung pretty soon, I'm just going to have to hire someone and sneak them in while Travis is at work. I'm sure he'd appreciate the help, don't you think? :)

Hope you're having a great day and staying warm and dry! This weather makes me glad to just stay inside at home :)

Pausing to think...

Next week is our anniversary on the 22nd and then Christmas 3 days later! We've been married (not quite) 4 years. Seems like a lot has changed since 12/22/07! We've graduated from college, started working full-time (er...sort of), moved a bunch of times, more than quadrupled our living space (now, that's crazy!) from our tiny apartment in Presidential, bought a car, and adopted two crazy kittens! I was texting one of our friends from Tuscaloosa the other night who we haven't seen in forever, and it really made me miss all of our friends from college. It's sad that we've all moved away, gotten busy, and don't see each other much anymore...except at weddings it seems like! I really do like living up here for the most part, but I just wish we could transplant all of our friends into our neighborhood! I'm determined to plan a reunion for sometime next spring or summer either here at our house or at the lake house, and I'm going to plan it far enough in advance that I better see everyone there!! :)

Back to our anniversary...I think the plan is that we're going to go out to eat at Ruth's Chris either for lunch or dinner (not sure yet) before heading to Trussville for a few days for Christmas! Neither of us have eaten at Ruth's Chris before, but we've got a gift card expiring on 12/30 so it seemed like the perfect time to go. Hope it's good!

I think we're pretty much finished with our Christmas shopping and just about everything is wrapped and under the tree. Hooray! We even mailed out our Christmas cards yesterday! I don't know how we got so far ahead this year, but I'm going to attribute it to our online shopping. We bought almost everything in one sitting on a Monday evening...very nice!

I've worked 4 out of the last 6 days, which is a lot for me, so I'm enjoying a day off today. Doing laundry, dishes, putting clean sheets on the bed....pretty typical for a Wednesday. I'm going to go run this afternoon in the neighborhood...it's supposed to get up to 70 degrees today! Have I mentioned before that I'm teaching the K-1 class at church? It's been going pretty well so far. I just have 3 kids in the class, so I can handle that (most of the time!). I'm almost through with my first teaching session, and I'm starting another one next Wednesday.

Felix and Gabby are as adventurous as ever. Here are some kitty pictures from the last week...

I think Gabby was taking a break from giving Felix a bath! Doesn't he look so excited? :)

Gabby loves the bathtub window!

She also loves to sit on that ledge!

Felix usually follows behind, of course...

Mom had her 7th chemo treatment on Monday. Only 1 more to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After her last treatment, she'll have a 3 week break (most likely) before starting radiation. Hopefully she'll be done with everything by early March! I'm heading down there tomorrow morning and staying probably until Friday night. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts for her so far! Keep 'em coming! We'll have to plan a big celebration in March when she's all through.

This holiday season I'm trying to do a better job of not getting so caught up in all of the craziness and instead, being thankful for great family and friends and a whole lot of other things. Hope you're having a wonderful week and counting your blessings too!

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you'?" ~ William Ward


Erin

More Pre-Wedding Festivities

I've really been slacking on my blogging this month. I'm not really sure where July has gone, but it's about to be August!

Another event sneaking up on me is Alisha and Tyler's wedding. It's less than 1 week away...I can't believe it! Since my last post, Alisha has had another tea in Cullman, and we also went on a girls' getaway to the beach. Lots of pictures and fun times! 

Emily pinning Alisha's corsage at the Cullman tea

Alisha with one of Tyler's grandmothers

Opening lots of gifts!

Baugay and Alisha

Alisha with her mom and soon-to-be mother-in-law

Alisha with some of the bridesmaids

We stopped at the Peach Park on our way to the beach...yum!

Out and about shopping

Me with wavy hair!

Me and Emily G.

Getting ready to PARASAIL!

Picnic on the sand :)

Fun restaurant that we ate lunch at one day

One side of the table

Other side

The girls that tried raw oysters at Hammerhead Fred's

I can't believe the actual wedding is so close. Tuesday is the bridesmaids' luncheon and rehearsal dinner. Then, Thursday is the BIG DAY! I'm so excited for Alisha and Tyler, and I'm looking forward to having my first brother (in-law!) :)

I'll try to take a lot of pictures on Tuesday and Thursday!