Quick Notes

• Today I'm 22 weeks along! We're one week closer to February!! :)
• I've been feeling lots of movement this week. I've noticed that she is especially active in the evenings sometimes. Wonder if she's going to be a night owl?? 
• Travis has already decided that she is "stubborn and unruly!" He has been trying all week to feel her move when she starts kicking around.....and every time he puts his hand on my belly, she quits moving and won't for a while! Poor Daddy...
• Tomorrow is our next doctor's appointment, and then we are heading to Tennessee for Travis's cousin Megan's wedding. 
• Saturday is the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run...and unless my doctor says otherwise tomorrow, I'm planning to jog part or hopefully most of it. This week I've "run" 1.85 miles without stopping on two different days. Surely I can do 3 miles with maybe one or two walk breaks, right? It's a far cry from a half marathon, but when you feel like your bladder is being bounced on with every step, I think it's a pretty big accomplishment...haha :)
• Saturday is also my 26th birthday! I've been joking this week that I'm on the downhill slide to 30, but no one is feeling sorry for me. Actually, I'm really enjoying my mid-twenties. This is a really exciting time, and I'm trying to soak it in!
• We changed our minds about buying the carseat/stroller system on Craigslist, so we're back to going with a brand new system. Mom and Dad (and possibly others in the family) are going to give it to us as a baby shower gift (thank you, thank you!!), so we're excited. We actually found a pretty good deal online, so it didn't cost as much as I originally thought it would. Yay for deals!
• So far, 2012 has been a really awesome year with a lot of exciting times. 2011 was a tough year between the April tornado and Mom being diagnosed with breast cancer, but it was an opportunity to grow. I'm starting to see how life just goes like that....good times and hard times. I hope I'm making the most of these good times while still remembering the lessons I learned last year about faith and hope...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." ~Proverbs 3:3-4

Busy October!

Yesterday marked 21 weeks along, so I guess we're officially PAST halfway there. Pretty exciting! I guess I'll blink, and it'll be February. That's about how fast it seems like this has gone so far.

Other than sleeping and shopping a lot this week, so far I've felt pretty normal. Note: I am normally NOT a big shopper, but apparently having a baby changes that quickly. Since Monday, we've bought a glider off Craigslist, made plans to buy a travel system (car seat, 2 bases, and a stroller) off Craigslist next week, and I've gone BACK to Kids Market for the 50% off sale. This is a terrible time to be shopping so much because I have NOT been working much lately. I know Travis just shakes his head at me :) I'm lucky to be married to a pretty understanding guy! I really am trying to be frugal about all of this stuff...there's just so much to buy! I knew I did not want to pay full price for a glider, and this one was pretty much in brand new condition. I don't think it's ever been sat in..seriously. Hopefully it'll hold up good once we're using it every day! This week, it's been hanging out in our room, but I'm hoping to make room for it in the nursery once we do some furniture rearranging...

The travel system I found on Craigslist is the Chicco Cortina KeyFit 30. According to Consumer Reports, it's one of the safest and most user-friendly car seats out there. Brand new, the system costs around $300-$350, and buying an extra base for Travis's car would be an additional $85. Yikes! So, Craigslist to the rescue again. I know you have to be careful buying things off CL, but hopefully this will be a good decision. It's $100 for the whole system plus an extra base. Now, we won't be able to use the car seat as long because it will expire sooner than a brand new seat would, but I think we'll still be getting a great deal. Here's to hoping at least! We're going to look at it next Friday, so wish us luck :)

And, much to Travis's dismay, I went back to Kids Market today for their 50% off sale. But get this...smart husband of mine decided I should meet him at 11 AM to drop my car off at Firestone for an oil change/tire rotation, etc. Then, he would take me back home on his way to Meridianville for work for the afternoon. He's so sneaky...he knew I would spend all morning and afternoon shopping if I hadn't had somewhere I HAD to be! So....I really didn't have as long as I would have liked to spend looking at everything, but that's probably a good thing. I got MORE baby clothes (oops) and a maternity dress, khaki pants, and lounge pants for me. Baby's closet is filling up quickly, especially since Travis's stuff is still in there! :) We'll fix that eventually...

Speaking of Baby Grant, no (Mom and everyone else who keeps asking) we still haven't decided on a name...haha. Y'all should all know by now how slowly we get things done around here! :) She'll have a name before February though, so as soon as we know, you can all know. She apparently weighs around 0.75 lbs and is about 10.5 inches long. No wonder I've been feeling some pretty good kicks this week! I'm sure she's going to have big feet thanks to her mom and dad, so there must not be much room for them in there anymore :) Our next doctor's appointment is a week from today, so I'm looking forward to that. After that, I think we'll start going every 2 weeks instead of every 4.

Between this weekend and next weekend, Travis and I have been invited to one wedding, and I've been invited to three bridal showers. Whew! I thought wedding season was in the spring/summer, but apparently not this year. We also just went to Andrew and Stephanie's wedding in Pigeon Forge this past weekend. Yep, we drove there and back in a day. It was fun but tiring!

Next weekend is also the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run, my birthday, and the Tennessee game. I guess our weekends won't ever slow down before February, and definitely not after that! :) I've been "running" (if you can call it that) a few times a week lately, so I'm going to attempt to "run" part of the 5K at least. Running = a slow jog for me these days, but that's ok. Maybe it's at least offsetting some of this Halloween candy I've been sneaking...

Speaking of running, Travis has officially signed up to run a FULL marathon in April! That's 26.2 miles!!! He's going to run the one in Nashville...the same race we ran this year when we did the half marathon. I'm excited for him....I know he can do it!

We've also officially decided on going to Orlando for our 5 year anniversary trip/one last "just the two of us" trip. We knew we wanted to go somewhere relatively warm, so that eliminated a lot of places right away. We were looking at San Diego at first, but it got scratched once we realized how much the plane tickets would cost. Phoenix was also on the list, but according to our *spreadsheet*, driving to Orlando would still be cheaper than flying to Phoenix (even though the price wasn't bad at all to fly there). We'll just have to save Phoenix for another time. We're actually going to go on our anniversary trip a few weeks before 12/22 just to be practical about the holidays and family time. We're going the week after Thanksgiving because it turned out to be the cheapest time to get a hotel room. We may do Disney for one day while we're there, but we're also planning to do a lot of non-Disney stuff that we've never done before. We're looking forward to it! :)

I didn't realize I had that much to say! Maybe some of you made it to the end :)

Hope your week is going wonderfully!

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 :)

Travel Time: Atlanta + Savannah

Sorry I've been MIA over the past couple of weeks! The week of Memorial Day flew by with our time at the lake, working, and packing for vacation. We left on June 1st for our yearly Fripp trip with my family, but first we made a couple of stops in Atlanta and Savannah.

I had scheduled a follow-up visit at Emory (where I had my back surgery done) for June 1st at 2 PM, so I figured while we were stopping in Atlanta, we might as well check out the Bodies Exhibit. Travis wasn't all that excited at going to see a bunch of dead bodies, but he appeased me and even woke up at 5 AM so we could leave the house by 6:15! What a great husband I have! We drove to Atlanta and headed straight for Atlantic Station where the Bodies Exhibit was. It was so cool! Of course, Travis wanted to read everything, so we spent close to 2 hours going through the exhibit. It's really amazing how our bodies work!! Especially to see human cadavers and real organs and blood vessels. One of the neatest parts of the exhibit was seeing a "healthy" lung and a smoker's lung in side-by-side displays. Of course, the smoker's lung was black and nasty looking. In the middle of those displays was a glass box for people to throw away their cigarettes, and tons of people had thrown theirs away! I think the exhibit was worth waking up early for, and Travis agreed!

We grabbed sandwiches at Which Wich (it was our first time eating there, and we just found out that one is opening in Madison...yay!!), and then we headed to my appointment. That didn't take too long (and they said everything looked good), so we were on the road headed for Savannah by mid-afternoon. Savannah is about 4 hours from Atlanta, so we got there just in time to eat a late supper before crashing at our hotel for the night.

We left our hotel Saturday morning and headed for Savannah's Historic District. We spent all morning just walking around and checking out the area. It was such a nice day! There were lots of people out walking around and sitting in the parks. We loved looking at all of the old houses and buildings.

It was so nice walking in the shade of those trees!

Old Cotton Exchange building

One of the squares

Owens-Thomas House

Garden in the back of the house

The part of the day I was most looking forward to was lunch, of course! We had an 11 AM reservation at The Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant. When we walked up to the restaurant, there were a ton of people standing on the sidewalk across the street. Apparently, they all had reservations too! We stood around until our names were called, and then we were given a ticket to go inside.

There were multiple floors of dining inside, and we were told to go to the first floor. We both decided to get the buffet, and it was definitely the right choice! Oh. My. Talk about yummy, fattening comfort food. It was everything you think of when you think of Paula. Fried chicken, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, lima beans, candied yams, biscuits, hoecakes, etc. Plus, a salad bar and dessert. We were SO FULL when we left, and I didn't even feel like we'd eaten that much. I guess it was all the butter!! It definitely lived up to my expectations, and I'd love to go back again sometime :)

YUMMMMMMMMM

After lunch, we waddled out of the restaurant and tried to burn off some calories by walking to the other parts of the historic district we hadn't seen yet. We found the square where Forrest Gump's bench used to be. We also walked over to Forsyth Park, which seemed like a bigger version of the Quad. People were everywhere just enjoying the nice day.

After hanging out in the park for a while, we started walking back to our car. We found a really pretty building on our way back. It's actually one of Savannah College of Art and Design's buildings. My pictures don't do it justice!

Finally, we got back to our car and left Savannah behind. I wish we'd had more time to look around, but that just means we'll have to go back a second time!

To South Carolina!!

Next up in the blog....our week at Fripp, complete with a surprise party, lots of good eatin', and fun family time. Stay tuned for that update! :)

Graduation Weekend!

This weekend was a special one! Two of our sisters, Jenn and Alisha, graduated from college!!

Alisha's graduation was on Friday night in Tuscaloosa, so we headed there first after leaving home. It was exciting to see how happy she was because I was feeling that same way about 2 1/2 years ago...no more nursing school!! :) Go Alisha!! She is still looking for a job, but I'm sure one will come up soon.

Alisha's graduation!

Walking across the stage

I wish this was closer up...I love her excited face :)

Siblings!

Tyler's fam

Love you!

After graduation (and a few pictures), we all headed to Midtown Village for supper/frozen yogurt. It was great to be back in Tuscaloosa again, especially for such an exciting occasion!

After leaving t-town, Travis and I headed to Trussville for Saturday/Sunday until it was time to go to Jenn's graduation in Auburn on Monday. We had to leave the house at 6:30 AM to get down there in time! Jenn graduated with her degree in chemical engineering and is planning to work at UAB for a year before going to med school. She definitely got the brains of the two of us! :)

Jenn's graduation!

Summa cum laude

Mom and Dad with Jenn

Sisters!

The whole fam :)

After eating lunch back at Jenn's dorm, she took us on a tour around campus before we went to a reception for all of the graduating Chem Es. We made sure to get some lemonade at Toomer's, of course! After the reception, we walked over to the stadium to see their new Heisman winner statues before heading back home. It was a great day!

Congratulations Jenn and Alisha!! :)