Good Times

This past weekend we took one of our whirlwind trips to VA. We managed to pack in chinese in Alexandria with some friends in their new house, a baby shower (hosted by 4 wonderful friends), a big huge party, dinner out at a really cool restuarant, church and also some relax time, it was great. Here are a few pictures from our weekend. :)

Here is Angela, my college roommate, one of the lovely hostesses, who actually "hosted" us. :) Sorry for the foggyness, the camera was cold from bring in the car. :)

And Sarah, (our husband's were roommates) another hostess... queen of the games... we actually got her to play one of them. I think Jennifer spun her 15 times. She missed the baby's mouth by a long shot. :)

And Jennifer, my-across-the-hall-college-friend, hostess #3. A baby bib actually fit around her neck!! Granted it was a little tight. :) My favorite Jennifer line from this weekend was, "You guys know I can cook! I'm ordering Chinese!!" Said after we arrived a little early Friday night, and her husband had to be picked up from the metro stop. :)


And Kerri, a college suite-mate, our 4th and final hostess, who can diaper a baby in under 10 seconds with her eyes closed. :) I guess that is what happens when you have a 3 year old and an 18 month old. You can see her son Blake just over her shoulder impressed with her ability. :)

The shower was wonderful, we were giving a bunch of diapers, towels, blankets and other baby necessities and my favorite part was that everyone brought a baby/children's book to start Baby Z's library. It was great to see all the books that everyone brought, most are books that they grew up loving. I can't wait to read them to him!

And what shower would be complete without amazing food. Check out these cupcakes!! I ate a turtle AND a bumble bee. :)
And here is Claire, my pregnancy twin. :) We graduated from college together, got married 2 months apart, and 5 years later, we are both having boys due a week apart! It has been so much fun to go through this with her! Too bad she lives in VA!!

And here is a group of us at Clyde's in No. VA. It is an HUGE old barn/stable converted into a restuarant. There were about 7 different dining rooms, some with carriages having from the ceiling. The food was amazing, however we did get a bad server. But thanks to a few assertive women in the group, our dinners were discounted and we get $100 off next time we go. :)

Bumpersticker of the Day

i like poetry

long walks on the beach

and poking dead things with a stick

The Push-Over Parent

Having a dog had shed a lot of light on what kind of parents we will be. And most of it has been a revelation. I always thought I would be the push-over parent and Drew would be the hard-liner... but NOT SO!

This morning, Drew made us french toast for breakfast (Thursdays are the only day he doesn't have class/meetings). He makes the BEST french toast, I think he has finally mastered it, because it tastes just like what you get at Cracker Barrel. Anyway... back to my story... he made two pieced for each of us... and then TWO FOR THE DOG! Granted they were the little, leftovers, but he still took the time to soak and cook them and put them on a plate. All I can say, is that she is one spoiled dog. She is the queen, and she knows it. And it is all his fault. :)

Bumpersticker of the Day

WORK HARDER

Millions of Welfare Depend On It

Bumpersticker of the Day

DR. KEVORKIAN

for

WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN

Feeling Real, Part II

Ok, I forgot a couple things from my last post that have made this "having a baby thing" seem even more real:

• Sleeping in weird positions (Thanks Jenna for the reminder). I can no longer sleep in my regular side/stomach position, I am now propped up with pillows and flip a lot. And it is only going to get worse.
• Once a month our church walks forward for communion, and often an entire family will got forward and the pastor will pray for the young children who do not yet take communion. Well, a few weeks ago, when we went up our pastor pulled us aside and prayed for Baby Z. It was amazing, and weird and made me cry. :) He is already a child, with a soul, and God already had a plan for his life. Incredible.

1st Kiss

My grandfather just sent this to me.

-----



So, it's your first kiss and several questions might come to mind ..

Is it the right time?



Is anyone watching?


Does your partner even want to?



Is your breath fresh?


And . . .


Should you use your tongue?


Then you lean in and just go for it!!!

. . .

More Baby Names

As I mentioned earlier, we are not telling people the name we have picked out for Baby Boy Z. The official party line is "we love you but we don't want your opinion." This has made most people laugh, and a few people a little annoyed (when we don't cave in and tell them). :) However, it has been fun to hear the names Baby Boy is being called since no one knows his real name.

At Church he is Nimrod - the youth girls have latched on to this one.

Our Friends Josh & Missy - Zachieus (the wee little man) or Gumby

My brother Ryan - Bean (although this is quickly becoming obsolete since he is now 1 1/2 lbs!)

My brother Micah - John Wayne

Brothers Nate & Buzz - Thor (also considered: Charleston Chew)

So there you have it, any and all names are welcome, we figure the little dude will make a name for himself once he comes out. :) Hopefully it will be the name we give him, but he could end up with nicknames like my brothers: Ryan = Buster, Micah = Bones, Nathan = Bones Jr or Pate and Buzz = Buzz (OK, his name is Aaron, but I am pretty sure no body knows that. :)

I Am The Person I Despise

I pick the chocolate chips out of the trail mix.

Charleston, Family & The Beach

Are there three things that go better together? One may argue bread, peanut butter and jelly, but I think I would opt for the beach. :)

We have returned and are settling back into life as normal people once again. That has to be the worst part about vacation... coming back home. Less than 24 hours after we were home, A had to leave for a business trip in Atlanta. Oh well, we had a great time while we were there... here are a few of the highlights:

I LOVE Games. I managed to beat the boys almost every time at Monopoly, Yahtzee and Blink. I got the games out of my system for a while, since my dear husband won't play them with me, unless it is Chess. And who wants to play Chess???? I don't think it should even be considered a game because IT ISN'T ANY FUN. Isn't that a requirement for a game? Above was an intense game of monopoly, between Daniel ( In gray, Andrew's little brother), Sawyer (Daniel's friend) and Micah (Andrew's cousin, father to our goddaughter). The reason Micah looks stressed is because he is wondering if anyone caught him cheating. :)

Family - The Z clan is quite large. Here is a picture of Andrew's precious grandmother, and her daughter-in-law Mary - L and Mary's daughter Deborah (Micah's wife, mother to our goddaughter :). Andrew's dad is one of 8 siblings, and there are more grand kids and great grand kids than I can count. At this family reunion I think we ended up with Grandma, 5 siblings, 15 grand kids and 10 great-grand kids.

And here is our goddaughter/godchild (I am not sure how you say it) Natalie. Isn't she beautiful??

We also managed to do a few touristy things. Here is Andrew's youngest brother, Peter attempting to push a cannon at Fort Moultrie. Last time we were in Charleston we visited Fort Sumpter, so this time we visited the lesser known Fort Moultrie. I am so glad my husband is as geeky/maybe even more geeky than me in his desire to see old historical things. We also went on a ghost tour of Charleston... which was cheesy but fun. Because we had such a big group our family got its own tour guide. And to top the weekend off, Andrew and I walked every night on the beach with our shoes off. We even manged to strand ourselves on a sand bar and had to get really wet to get home. Oh well, we were together, and it was 75 and perfect.

Excuse Me Sir, Do You Smell Like Cucumber Melon?

To this question, my husband would have to answer YES.

That right folks, my husband smells like Cucumber Melon.

A few weeks ago we ran out of body wash, and I spent 10 minutes at the store smelling all the different types, getting high really, and finally decided on one of the Old Spice kinds. And then I casually picked up the Cucumber Melon bottle for myself.

Well a few weeks later I realized that my bottle was going down really quickly and his seemed to still be full. So I confronted him about it.

L: Andrew, are you using my body wash?

A: Well, yes.

L: Why?? I bought you your own!

A: Well, yours suds up better, and smells better too!

I am not sure what to do about him. :) At least his shampoo is cucumber melon too so his smell is consistant. Maybe I should start using his soap, so at least when we are together we smell normal. :)

L

Bumpersticker of the Day

ARROGANTLY SHABBY

Feeling Real

Perhaps for some people, becoming pregnant was all they needed to make the whole process feel real, and like it was really happening. Maybe because it is our first baby, maybe because I am one of those "slow, cautious, first-born types" or for some other reason under the sun, who knows, but it has not been that way for me. It has been a process of baby steps (no pun intended). Here are a few of the steps:

• The Pregnancy Test - the first step. A big one obviously. :)
• Seeing the first ultrasound, where baby looked like a kidney bean.
• Seeing the baby's heart beat in the ultrasound, and hearing it.
• Our First Baby Gift - a bib from our friends Josh & Missy.
• Buying/wearing maternity clothes.
• Finding Out the baby is a BOY! (This was a huge one).
• Calling him by name.
• Another ultrasound - seeing his hands, feet, heart, brain, face, profile, and seeing him wiggle.
• Feeling him move.
• Looking at Baby stuff. I went and registered for baby things on Monday night. Picking out tiny wash clothes, baby blankets and looking at tiny little clothes covered in cars and frogs made it hit home a little more.

I am sure there will be a few more steps before he arrives, but I think I can finally say it feels real, this baby IS coming, and I can't wait until we can meet him in person.

Bumpersticker of the Day

BE KIND TO YOUR CHILDREN

THEY PICK YOUR NURSING HOME

Bumpersticker of the Day

VISUALIZE

Using Your

TURN SIGNALS

Why Me?

Well, in an attempt to be a good and responsible adult, I THOUGHT AHEAD and scheduled my car for an oil change and a general check up before we head to Charleston on Sunday and then 2 weeks later to VA. Well, I thought, what better day than my day off to do such a thing?? WRONG. I dropped the car off and Drew picked me up and dropped me off at home for my day of laundry folding, pilates and menu planning. He had not even left the driveway when the fateful call came.

"Good Morning Ma'am. A Realtor would like to show your house between 12:30 at 1:30, will that work for you?"

Thinking AAAHHHHHH, I calmly said "Yes, that will be fine" as I always do. Thanks to my friend Dawn's encouragement, I now have two pairs of pants, so although one was in the wash, I had another one to wear. :) AND, I had two hours to clean the house. We were also having 3 house guests the next night, but I managed to vacuum, clean the kitchen, and make up all three beds for our guests. (Brilliant me washed the sheets last week!). Drew picked me up and we pulled out just as they called to say they were running an hour behind so I couldn't go home until 2:30. So much for my healthy lunch, Chic-Fil-A will have to do!

Despite the craziness, I got to spend an afternoon with my husband doing work errands, my car (after being to two mechanics) has new tires, an alignment, an oil change and they fixed a leak! AND, we had wonderful guests, one one of them grew up in Hamilton VA, 2 minutes from where we went to school and knew a person that we worked with! Small world.

Bumpersticker of the Day

I DO WHATEVER MY

RICE KRISPIES

TELL ME TO

How I Feel

A friend who is recently pregnant put it in a way I have been trying to express but couldn't put my finger on. Although I feel better, this is my constant state:

"I have been feeling alright actually, just a little stupid, and tired. It is as though I don't really want to think about anything that is too complex; my attention span seems shorter for some reason and things seem to be moving in slow motion. I guess it is because there is a bunch going on in my subconscious what with knitting together this little baby bean and his little home for the next several months."

So, there you go. The reason none of my posts have been particularly insightful since... well a long time ago. :)