Time is flying by!

23 weeks

We're officially 23 weeks in at this point! Hooray! We had our last appointment on Friday of last week, and everything went well. My blood pressure was good, and I'd gained 4 pounds, which they said was right on track. I dread getting up on that scale every time, but I guess it just has to be done! Baby's heart rate was in the 140s, so that was good. My doctor said I could keep "running" right up until the baby comes if I want to, so I took her up on it Saturday...haha. More on that in a minute...

After the appointment, we hit the road for Cookeville, TN. Travis's cousin Megan got married there Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful wedding and a really nice reception. Glad we got to go!

It was great to see Katie and Jon there! 

The happy couple! :)

Settlers of Catan cake...so cool! :)

Saturday was the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run, so Travis and I woke up early for it. He ran first and did great! His time was 22:16...he was really moving! I ran with Alisha and Melissa, and we were just a tad bit slower than that :) I did manage to jog the whole way without stopping, which I think was a pretty big accomplishment considering the extra load I'm toting! We had a lot of fun, and it was for a great cause...beating breast cancer!

Before we ran!

Sisters!

Travis getting close to the finish!

Tyler...almost there :)

Love my mom!

All the sibs...minus Emily...

Alisha and Tyler

Me and Mayra...my friend from work! 

This week has been pretty busy so far. I've worked every day but yesterday, and yesterday I spent a few hours in the morning babysitting Brady Hester...the cutest 3 year old ever. We had fun playing Candyland and playing outside. He is SOOO cute!!! Travis and I both work tomorrow, and then we are heading to Trussville for a belated birthday celebration with my family and then Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the game. Roll Tide!

I guess I'll blink and Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here, and then not too long after that, Baby Grant will arrive!! Eek!! Time to get busy picking out her name and starting on her nursery!! :)

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!

My Only Post on Leap Day

Last weekend, we had a great time in Trussville with my parents and sister. We celebrated Jenn's birthday (a little bit late), went to my friend Kayla from high school's wedding, and watched The Help (which is an awesome movie that you should see if you haven't yet!) and the Lion King (my favorite Disney movie ever). Overall, we had a lot of fun, and it was a nice, short getaway from house projects and other stuff for a few days. Poor Jenn spent a lot of the weekend studying. She's taking the MCAT  (the test to get into med school) in less than a month. I know she'll do great on it!!

Before the wedding on Saturday

Me with the bride! :)

We left Felix and Gabby at home by themselves again like we did a few weeks ago. Other than an overturned trash can and some bite marks in a Kleenex box, we think they behaved pretty well. Of course, all of their food was gone, so they were happy to see us again (so they could get more food!). Gabby got in trouble Sunday night for jumping on the loveseat (they're not supposed to get on the living room furniture), and so Travis got after her with the spray bottle. She went running, and he went running after her, and when he sprayed her, she HISSED at him....3 times! That was the first time we've heard her hiss since the first couple of days we got her. She then ran away into the dining room chair, but she immediately let him pick her up and started purring and cuddling. She's a mess! At least she doesn't hold a grudge for very long :)

Yesterday marked 2 months to go until the half-marathon we're running! I bought some new running shoes last week and some synthetic socks (1 pair for each of us) at First Place Athletics. My shoes were getting kind of worn out, so I'm going to alternate the new and old pair for a couple of weeks before just using the new pair all the time. The synthetic socks are supposed to prevent blisters, which we've been getting...especially on the longer runs. All I have to say is for $10-15 per pair...they better work good! This weekend, we're supposed to run 9.5 miles, so that will give the socks a good test I guess...

Mom is over halfway through her radiation treatments! Only a couple more weeks to go. Her biggest issue right now is just BAD itching. The area definitely looks like it would itch...it looks like a really, really bad sunburn. Hopefully, that will go away and get better really fast after she's finished with all 36 treatments. We need to be planning a big party to celebrate her finishing chemo and radiation!! Yay Mom!!

This weekend, if the weather cooperates, we are planning to start working on our flower beds. We are going to line the flower beds with some kind of landscaping stone/rock and mix some soil conditioner into the dirt. That might take most of the day on Saturday. It's hard to know since we've never done anything like this before. We're going to use the same stones around the trees in our yard and the mailbox, just to make everything uniform. Hopefully it will look nice! Once we get all of that done, we can start figuring out what kind of shrubs and flowers to plant. Our goal is to get everything planted by the end of March before it starts getting too hot outside.

Our big purchase for the week (seems like there's one at least every week!) was a network attached storage system. Yes, this was Travis's idea. It's something that has 2 hard drives that can store all of the files from both of our computers on it. It's like a backup system in case one of our computers crashes, and it also allows you to access your files away from home (I think). You'll have to ask Travis about the details...he's the tech guru in the family. We're not sure how much longer his laptop will live, so we wanted to get this thing up and running before it dies. It would really be a headache to lose all of our stuff in Quicken, budgets, retirement spreadsheets, etc., so we're trying to plan ahead and keep that from happening!

We've also ordered a weather radio online, although that was significantly cheaper than the network attached storage! With tornado season coming up really soon, we want to be better prepared than we were last year.

I did pretty good at CVS on Monday. I bought 2 tubes of toothpaste, a 4-pack of razor blades, and a pack of gum for $2.14. I started out with and ended up with $12 in ECBs. Not bad! :) 

Well, I think that's about everything new that's going on with us. We'll keep you posted on our house and yard projects coming up! :)

Happy Wednesday/Leap Day!

Erin

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

Whew!

Today is the first day in a long time that Travis and I have both been at home without anything that HAS to be done at a certain time. It feels great. 

Mom is doing really well after her surgery last week. After a good night's rest at home, she was feeling pretty good, and Jenn and I even took her out to CVS on Saturday to get some "deals" that she just couldn't pass up! Of course, we carried her coupon binder for her since she's not supposed to be doing any heavy lifting, and that binder weighs a ton :)

Travis and I stayed in Trussville until Sunday afternoon, so Jenn got to be Mom's solo nurse for a few days after we left. She took Mom to her follow-up appointment on Tuesday, where they got a GREAT report! All of the lymph nodes that were removed were cancer free!!! We are so thankful for that! Next up is Mom's appointment with the oncologist in about a week and a half. We'll learn from there more details about when chemo starts. Mom may have a port put in before chemo starts, but she hasn't decided for sure just yet. She is going to get her hair cut pretty short tomorrow to make the transition from a full head of hair to no hair a little bit easier. She's been looking for wigs, hats, scarves, turbans, swim caps, etc., but hasn't bought anything yet. If you know of any good stores in the Birmingham area or websites that sell those items, please let me know! 


Mom still has a positive attitude about all of this, which has been really inspirational for me to see. I'm proud to call her my mom! Please keep praying for her because this is still the beginning of a long journey, and she'll need lots of support and love along the way. Thanks to so many of you who have asked about her, prayed for her, or sent cards or food. It has really meant so much!


The other big news of the week is that Alisha and Tyler got married last night!!! It was a beautiful wedding and a great way to cap off a summer full of festivities. Tuesday was the bridesmaids' luncheon and rehearsal dinner. In between, most of the bridesmaids plus Alisha went to a nail salon to get pedicures/manicures. It was a busy but fun day!

Fondue lunch on Tuesday

The food was yummy, and we had a great time!

All of the bridesmaids (plus Aaron) at the rehearsal

Waiting to rehearse

Some of the groomsmen

Time to practice!

 Thursday morning, most of the girls got our hair done at a salon in Athens before we headed to Stone Bridge. Bethany did a great job! 

Melissa has the prettiest hair!!

Her up-do was so pretty!

:)

Emily's hair - looked great too!

This girl is leaving us for t-town soon :(

Rachel!

Me - a little blurry...

CHEESE :)

Kerri!

Amanda :)

The beautiful bride!

All finished!

Her hair looked great!

After leaving the salon, we headed to Cullman to get our dresses and makeup on! The guys were already there...fishing! They all caught several fish, but Travis came away with the catch of the day...a pretty big catfish! :)

Happy fisherman with his prize

Other than being a flower girl when I was little, this was my first time to be in a wedding (other than my own). I really didn't have many opportunities to take pictures because we were so busy being photographed by the professionals! I'm just hoping they got some good ones...I'm sure they did. Katie D. was nice enough to take a few for me during the ceremony, but other than that I didn't get many pics on my camera :(

Makeup time!

The dress!

Emily wore makeup...it's on camera!! :)

Not my fave because I was already shiny...oh well :)

Alisha's cake

Tyler's cake

Time to get started!

Tyler waiting for his bride

Emily walking down the aisle

Travis with Emily and Rachel

Here comes the bride!

They were so happy! :)

I found my long lost friend Mollie for a few minutes afterwards :)

 It was a late night last night...we finally got in bed around 1 AM (which everyone knows is REALLY late for me!) I slept until 8:30 AM this morning (again...late for me!) and took a little nap this afternoon. The rest of this weekend we are going to spend cleaning the house and organizing the garage. I'm really looking forward to a weekend at our house....I've missed this!!! :)
 

Thought for the day: "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  ~Thornton Wilder

I've got a lot to be thankful for right now, and I bet you do too! :)