Tales of a Newlywed

2009-04-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

Prayers for Gavin

My 2 1/2 year old nephew Gavin will be having open-heart surgery today (Wednesday) in San Diego, CA. Gavin was born with HLHS...hypoplastic left heart syndrome...and has already indured 2 previous open-heart surgeries, as well as numerous heart caths, procedures, and tests. He is such a tough and brave little boy! Please keep Gavin, the surgeon (Dr. Peter), the entire medical team, my brother and sister-in-law (Adam & Faith), as well as our families in your prayers. We are praying for the surgeon and medical team to have the knowledge and skills to accurately perform the surgery; we are praying for Gavin's little body and heart to respond well to the surgery and medicines; we are praying for the entire medical team who will be caring for Gavin in the coming days after the surgery; and we are praying for Adam and Faith to have much comfort and peace during this stressful time.

Adam and Faith's blog will be updated throughout the surgery today, as well as in the coming days as Gavin recovers. Please check for updates: www.gavinparker.blogspot.com.

2009-03-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

Paxton's 1st Birthday!!!

I can't believe it, but my baby boy turned 1 on March 5! What a quick, quick year! Paxton is such a sweet little boy, and Jon and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him grow and develop throughout his first year.

For the most part, Paxton has a pretty calm disposition. But don't let his sometimes calm and quiet self fool you; he definitely has a personality and can be quite the little ham. He keeps us on our toes, and he also keeps us smiling and laughing! It's been awesome to watch his motor skills, communication, sense of humor, and personality develop. I just can't say enough about how much Jon and I love this little boy!!

On to the birthday celebration...

Here are pictures from Paxton's party. The theme was brown & blue with a side of polka-dots.

The "throne."
I love the "flair" around his highchair. :)

The tables.
We alternated brown & blue tablecloths, polka dots, and balloons.

We had YUMMY cupcakes, ice cream, and M&M's.

(And yes, the food was color-coordinated for the party.
That's what Paxton gets for having an OCD mom.)

Notice the super cute polka-dot chinese boxes that held the silverware.
Paxton just HAD to have those. :)

Family photo op.
Too bad the birthday boy wasn't looking at the right camera.

Paxton wore his cute shirt with the polka-dot tie,
and Jon and I coordinated in our brown & blue attire.

"Happy Birthday To You...."

Digging into his cupcake...

Cousin Garrett posing with the birthday boy.

The "after" picture.
Blue icing is the new baby lotion...

...Or maybe it's the new hair gel.

After getting scrubbed down in the bathroom sink,
Paxton decided he needed to check out one of his new toys.

"My 1st birthday was great! Let's go home and
play with some of these toys!!"

A couple of pre-party pictures...

Hanging out with daddy the morning of the party.

Trying on the birthday hat.
Perfect fit!!

Paxton received several cards in the mail on his birthday. Thank you to everyone who sent him a card. He had A LOT of fun opening and playing with his birthday cards. They are all on display in our living room. :)

Checking out his card from MiMi & PaPa (Erin's parents)

"I hope this is bend-able."

"Let me shake it first."

"Thanks MiMi & PaPa. I LOVE my card!!"

Paxton had his 1-year check-up with the pediatrician last week. His stats were:

Weight: 20 lbs, 9 oz. (25th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm (70th percentile)

Some facts about Paxton at 1 year of age:

* He has been sleeping in his crib wonderfully for the last month!
* We switched from formula to whole milk last week, and he has transitioned well. He still likes his milk warm though.
* He doesn't have much interest in using a sippy cup. We continue to offer it to him, but it appears that he'll be using his bottle for a while longer. He also doesn't have much interest in drinking juice or water.
* His primary source of food is still baby food, but he's also eating yogurt, cheese, cooked carrots, bananas, small bites of chicken, crackers, toast, and Gerber snacks (Puffs, wagon wheels, yogurt melts). He tried avocado recently. It wasn't his absolute favorite, but I think he'll like it after a few more tries. I'm planning to introduce scrambled eggs and other varieties of foods in the coming days/weeks.
* He walks GREAT!!! He started taking 3-4 steps at around 10 1/2 months and was pretty much walking well by 11 months. He can now follow us around the entire house! He's gaining speed and confidence with each passing day.
* He had his second haircut a couple of days ago. He looks like such a big boy with shorter hair. :(
* He babbles and jabbers all the time! His only "real" words that having meaning behind them are "mama", "bye bye", and "papa". He imitates and repeats a lot of what we say to him, so it shouldn't be too long before he has many more "true words". Poor kid is always being over- analyzed by his speech pathologist mother. :)

Here's to the start of Paxton's 2nd year!

2009-02-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day & A Virus

I realize it's been over a week since Valentine's Day, but I wanted to post pics of the special day before too much more time got away from me.

Our Valentine's Day started off with me cooking a "breakfast for two". We had french toast, turkey sausage, fresh fruit, and orange juice. It was pretty yummy, if I say so myself.

I thought it would be sweet to add a little flare to the french toast...
heart-shaped powered sugar.
Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart. :)

The best part was that Paxton was taking his morning nap during our breakfast,
so Jon and I were able to enjoy a nice, quiet meal together.

I think I had been wearing this shirt for over 24 hours.
And I think it had snot and spit-up on it.
Lovely.
Such is the life with a sick child (more about that in a minute)

Jon's parents came over that night to watch Paxton while we had a Valentine's date. Jon surprised me by taking me to my favorite sushi restaurant. Ahhh, it was so good! I don't think we had eaten there since right after Paxton was born. It was definitely time!

After our wonderful dinner we headed to Nashville to meet up with our friends Brandon & Molly at the Nashville Predators hockey game. We had a fun time hanging out with our friends and cheering on the Preds (who won the game in an exciting shoot-out).

Oh, guess who has seats right below Brandon & Molly's suite???

Any guesses?

That's her in the blue jacket with the blonde hair.

Clue: She is a country music LEGEND

Clue: She was in a serious vehicle accident in 1984

The one and only... Barbara Mandrell!!! Her husband is always at the games...we've seen him several times. I guess since it was Valentine's Day Barbara decided to tag along. She is a pretty serious hockey fan though; she can cheer and yell with the best of them. What's really cool is that for the last 5-10 minutes of the game she stood RIGHT NEXT to our suite. I could've reached out and touched her. Seriously. My friend Molly said that Barbara is usually willing to sign autographs and take pictures with her fans, but since it was Valentine's Day I decided not to bug her for anything.

I'm kicking myself for that now.

Valentine's Day 2009

Jon and I thoroughly enjoyed our date night! However, our thoughts were with our little buddy who was home sick. :(

Paxton came down with a cough on Monday, February 9. I didn't think too much about it since we had just spent the previous two days outside enjoying the 70 degree weather. I thought maybe it was allergies. By Wednesday his cough was really congested, and he also had a runny nose, watery eyes, and 102 degree fever. I was just going to let his illness run its course, but I decided to go ahead and take him to the doctor Thursday morning. I am SO GLAD I did. He had an ear infection and RSV. Poor, poor baby. He spent the next several days sleeping, sneezing, coughing, crying, and being very clingy. I think I stayed in my same clothes/pajamas for about 48 hours. Mmmm, I'm sure I was attractive. Thankfully, Paxton got a little better with each passing day, and by the middle of last week he was acting more like himself.

The sad thing, though, was that my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew from Oklahoma were supposed to come visit us Valentine's weekend. But due to Paxton getting RSV they had to cancel their trip. :( Jon and I had some fun things lined up for us all to do throughout the weekend, and we were also going to take advantage of me being off work on Presidents' Day and spend lots of time with our guests. We were so very sad that we didn't get too see them; however, we couldn't take the risk of Paxton passing RSV to our nephew. Hopefully, we'll get to see them another time very soon!!

Pics of our sick boy...

This is one of the few times Paxton played while he was sick.
I don't think the fun lasted very long. :(

Wild hair after one of his many naps

Wild hair AND whiny face :(

"Momma, I really don't feel well."

Worn out from the coughing and sneezing

In other news...Paxton has slept the past 6, yes 6, nights in his OWN bed. ALL night long. For those of you who aren't in the loop...Paxton has not either (1) slept a full night and/or (2) slept in his own bed since October. He would have good nights here and there, but nothing consistent. Last week -- after we knew he was feeling better -- we decided to get a little more tough on him. The first night he cried and cried, and I had to make several trips into his room to make him lay down. After about 30 minutes he went to sleep. The second night I had to go in and calm him down a couple of times, but nothing major. Ever since the 3rd night...ahhhh...he has gone straight to sleep. And has stayed asleep all night. Wow. I never knew parenthood could be so nice. I had forgotten what it was like to sleep through the night...in my own bed. Tonight is night 7, and so far, so good. I'm hoping we've got this whole sleeping thing down now. It sure is about time!

2009-01-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

New Friends, Hockey, and a Date -- All in One!!

Last Saturday Jon and I had a fun night out with our new friends from church, Brandon and Molly. We have really enjoyed getting to know this sweet couple over the past few weeks and are looking forward to hanging out with them often.

Brandon and Molly have season tickets to the Nashville Predators hockey games. Better yet, their season tickets are in a suite/box!! They were so kind to invite us to a game, and we had a great time!

Brandon & Jon checking their phones.
This was a common scene throughout the evening.

Molly & I getting geared up for the game.

The Predators' mascot "Nash"
making his grand entrance.

Zamboni cleaning the ice pre-game

The Predators were victorious!!

Thank you Brandon & Molly for a super fun night!!

2009-01-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Paxton's 1st Haircut!

Paxton's hair has been a little on the wild side lately. It has grown so much since Thanksgiving! I was hoping he'd make it to his first birthday before needing a haircut, but that didn't quite happen. Here are pictures of his first trip to the salon.

First Haircut -- 01/09/09

"Before" shots...looking very shaggy!

"Who me?"
"I don't need no stinkin' haircut!"

Off to the salon...

""I waited patiently for my turn"

"The nice lady squirted water on my head"

"I was a big boy and sat all by myself.
Mommy did hold my hands, though."

The very first snip

"Hi Daddy. This is fun!"

Just checking things out

"Look everyone, I am so brave!"

Watching another client get highlights.
"Maybe I'll do that one day..."

"Ahhhh, it's tiring getting pampered"

"Um, my bangs are really short!"

"I even got a blow-dry. It was neat!"

"Then the lady got out her trimmers.
Mommy and Daddy thought I'd be scared,
but I thought it tickled."

Trimming up my sideburns

"Cool shot, Daddy!!"

"Am I done yet?!"

"The nice lady put gel in my hair...
It's off to Hollywood, baby!"

"After" shots

"Bye everyone. I hope you like my new haircut!"

"My mommy says that one of these days she'll find the time to post all the pictures from my first Christmas. I just don't give her a lot of free time these days. Please be patient."

~Paxton :)

2008-11-01T08:50:00.001-07:00

Pay It Forward WINNERS!!

Congratulations to Faith, Allison, and Devin for being the first 3 commenters of the Pay It Forward contest. Thank you for playing! Your gifts will be in the mail very soon!!

2008-10-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Pay It Forward & Win A Prize!!!

A few weeks ago I participated in a Pay It Forward contest on Dallas' blog. For the record, I have never met Dallas. I found a link to her blog on my friend Kim's blog several months ago, and ever since then I have enjoyed reading Dallas' hilariously witty posts. I had never commented on her blog since I didn't know her, but when she posted the Pay It Forward contest I decided to "de-lurk" myself and leave a comment. Lucky for me, I was one of the winners of her contest. It was so much fun receiving a gift in the mail from someone I have never met. I LOVE the gift Dallas sent me -- an animal-print notepad with an "E" on each page. LOVE IT!!!

Now it is my turn to "pay it forward." What am I talking about, you ask?

I am paying it forward with a premeditated act of kindness. Would you like to receive a fun gift and then give a gift in return?

THE RULES: The focus of this is to do an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and "pay it forward."

I will send a small, fun gift to the first 3 bloggers who post a comment on this entry. In turn, those three will post this information and pick 3 people they want to send something to and then the game will continue!! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found, anything you want!! Just a gift that will make the person's day!!

If you are interested in participating, be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment!!

You have to promise that you will then post about this on your blog, link back to me, and then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. Doesn't this sound like fun!!??

All of you lurkers out there who never comment, now is your chance to prove to me that you read my blog. :)

Let the games begin! Good luck trying to be one of the first 3 commenters!

2008-10-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Paxton's Life in Pictures

I've been a blog slacker lately, so I thought I'd get everyone caught up on the happenings in Paxton's life by posting some of our favorite pictures from the last month.

Eating -- Paxton has been eating baby food for a full month now. He has eaten sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and peas. He loves his veggies! My original plan was to make all of Paxton's baby food myself. I spent a lot of time reading and researching the techniques and specifics about homemade baby food, and I was gung-ho to get started. Unfortunately, real life got in the way, and the next thing I knew I was contributing to the Gerber CEO's Christmas bonus. Ha! Actually, I did make homemade green beans a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I made enough peas to last a few days. I'm hoping to add more homemade foods to the repertoire soon!

"Do you like my pea mustache?"

"More peas, please."

"I LOVE sweet potatoes!"

Daddy -- Paxton loves his Daddy! It is so cute to see Paxton's eyes light up when he sees Jon. It's also adorable to see Paxton smile and giggle at Jon's funny antics.

"Just chillin' with my daddy"

Jon typically is our babysitter on Fridays.
One Friday he resorted to using the Baby Bjorn
just to get some work accomplished!

Paxton showing off his camo overalls

My two boys in their hats

Mommy -- As much as Paxton loves his daddy, he is also quite the momma's boy. He's currently going through a bit of a clingy stage, so he and I pretty much spend our waking (and sometimes sleeping!) hours attached at the hip. I've become quite the pro at cooking dinner and washing dishes while holding him.

"Mommy, here I come with a sloppy kiss!"

"Cheese"

Cute onesies -- I've been trying to take pictures of some of Paxton's onesies that have cute sayings on them before he grows out of them. Here are a few:

"Mellow in Yellow"

"Mommy's Wakeup Call"

Front: "I Love Mommy"

Back: "And Mommy Loves Me"
(sorry, too much glare to see the words)

Sleeping -- Paxton is a pretty good sleeper. Some nights, he sleeps the whole night without Jon or I hearing him. Other nights, I have to stumble across the dark house a couple of times in order to fetch his paci. Here are some cute pics of all the interesting places Paxton can sleep:

"I can sleep on the couch..."

"I can sleep in my crib..."

"I can sleep in my car seat..."

"I can even sleep in my jumper..."

"And, I can sleep in my swing."

Sitting Up!! -- One of Paxton's latest milestones is that he can sit up ALONE!!! He mastered this skill about 3 weeks ago. Such a big boy!

"Look everyone, no hands!"

"Do I have good posture?"

Pre-crawling -- Our precious boy is also trying very hard to crawl.

"Is this the right stance?"

"Now, how do I move from this position?"

Deer in the headlights :)

"Now, how did I get stuck under the coffee table?"

"Mommy, put the camera down and get me OUT!"

Look at the gummy smile. So cute!

Twistin' and turnin' -- Well folks, I think we've gotten our use out of the bouncy seat. It doesn't quite serve it's purpose anymore, and we definitely can't leave Paxton unattended in it!

"Let do the twist..."

"Help! I'm sideways!!"

Doggy -- Paxton has finally noticed we have a dog. He and Cato are becoming fast friends.

"Um, does anyone see this dog licking me?"

"I'll get you back, Cato!"

Electronics -- I guess Paxton is your typical male. He LOVES all things electronic. He also loves to EAT all things electronic.

"Hmmm, is that a remote???"

"Got it!"

"Daddy, you didn't need this remote, did you?"

"Mommy, is that me on your desktop?"

"Please don't bother me right now.
I'm checking my email. Thanks."

"Yummy. A cell phone."

I hope you enjoyed the plethora of pictures from Paxton's 6th month of life!! He turned 7 months old this past Sunday, which means it's time for a 7 month photo shoot. Man, where do the months go?!?!

2008-10-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Jon's 37th Birthday!!

Jon's 37th birthday was last Sunday. Yes, I know, I am a slacker of a wife for just now posting his birthday shout-out. But hey, better late than never, right?!

Jon began his birthday by excitedly searching through the newspaper. Why, you ask? For those of you who don't know, Jon owns a company that specializes in producing city/county maps. He recently had the idea to produce a map of our city which would also include coupons. The final product turned out great -- a map of our city with perforated coupons around the edge -- and it debuted on Jon's birthday in the coupon section of the Sunday newspaper.

Searching for his coupon map...

Found it!!

Proud of his creation!

That evening we had Jon's family over for his birthday celebration. I made all of his favorites - poppy seed chicken casserole, sweet potato casserole, 7-layer salad, green beans, corn, Sister Schubert's rolls, and sweet tea. For dessert I made cheesecake with strawberry sauce and brownies. I must say, it was a yummy dinner! Jon kept saying, "Babe, I think this is my favorite meal that you've ever cooked." What a coincidence...since we were having all of his favorite foods. Ha! :)

Jon and his nephew Hunter

"I LOVE long-sleeve shirts. Thanks, Paige!"

Best Buy gift card. "Thanks, Mom and Dad."

A new Titans shirt and sweatpants from Paxton.

Wii Fit (I think it's more for me than it is for Jon!) :)

Family picture

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Jon, I hope you had a GREAT birthday! Enjoy your year being 37. Paxton and I love you so much!!

2008-09-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Paxton is 6 months old!!!

Our sweet baby boy turned 6 months old last Friday. I cannot believe he is 1/2 a year old!! People continually tell me how fast babies and kids grow up. They are SO right! In some ways it seems like Paxton has been a part of our little family for a long time, but in other ways it seems like he should still be only 2 or 3 months old.

In honor of Paxton being half a year old we had a little half birthday party for him, complete with half of a cake.

The 1/2 cake

Confetti cake with confetti sprinkles. Yum!

"Let's get this party started!"

Singing "Happy Birthday" and waiting to blow out the candle.
(Don't call DHS just yet. We kept Paxton away from the fire,
and our nephews did the honors of blowing out the candle.)

Family portrait...with Paxton not participating. :)

"Oh Mommy, this icing is delicious! Much better than formula!"

Jon and I love this picture!
Paxton looks so sweet with icing on his lips and fingers.

About a month ago (right at the 5 months mark) we started feeding Paxton rice cereal before his dinnertime bottle. He tolerated it well, and we steadily increased the amount of cereal he ate each night.

"This cereal is pretty good!"

Last night Paxton had his first meal of baby food! He ate half a container of sweet potatoes, and I think he loved every bite! I bet he's glad to be moving on to more tasty food. I tasted the rice cereal a few weeks ago...very bland!...and last night I tasted the sweet potatoes...very yummy! Jon tasted the sweet potatoes tonight and was also impressed. He even joked about sneaking into the kitchen and eating a container or two after Paxton and I go to bed. :)

"Bring it on! I want those sweet potatoes!"

"I'm patiently waiting for my next bite mommy."

"That was a delicious dinner!"

Paxton had his 6 month check-up yesterday afternoon. His doctor said he looks great and is developing well. He got 1 oral vaccine and 3 shots, and he was quite a trooper. He cried during the actual shots, but by the time the nurse put on the bandaids he was already a happy camper again. He's been a bit sleepy and fussy since the shots, but overall he seems to be tolerating them well.

Paxton's 6 month measurements:

Weight - 17 pounds, 4 ounces (45th percentile)
Length - 26 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
Head circumference - 44 cm (55th percentile)

He's definitely growing!!

I have many more pictures that I want/need to post. I'll try to get those on here in the next few days. I apologize for my 2 month blogging hiatus. I started back to work the first week of August, and it has definitely been an adjustment for our household. I am so exhausted in the evenings, and sometimes the thought of blogging just overwhelms me. I'm hoping to get back on track!

Speaking of being exhausted...it's time for bed. Adios.

2008-07-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Wild Hair, Rolling Over & Other Random Pictures

First of all...don't miss the 4 month update I posted below this post. It's only 10 days late. :)

Here are some pictures to show you what Paxton's been up to the past few weeks:

Wild post-nap hair:

Tummy time on the boppy:

Trying to roll over, but that silly right arm keeps getting in the way:

Ok Mommy, I'm going to do it this time.
Mentally-preparing for his big roll...

1/2 way over...

Figured out how to get right arm un-stuck...

Look! I did it!!!!

Laughing and being silly:

Relaxing with Daddy and sucking on fingers:

I like playing with my toes:

I also like playing my piano:

I need to take a little break and relax on the couch:

3 Month Birthday = One Quarter of a Year Old!
(I don't think he was too impressed though)

Not too thrilled with tummy time:

Trying on a new hat and jumping in his jumparoo thingy:

This is how gym time usually ends up...
with Paxton not anywhere under his toys

Hi, Mom. You caught me trying to roll away.

Just a few minutes later this is what I found...
What a cute widdle sleepy boy.

There are even more pictures to post, but I'll leave you with these for now. :)

2008-07-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

Paxton is 4 months old!!!

Paxton turned 4 months old on July 5th. Jon and I can't believe he is already 4 months old. Every week just flies by!!

Here are pictures from our homemade 4 month photo shoot:

A little sleepy after church...not quite warmed up to a smile yet

Getting a little more animated...

Daddy knows how to make Paxy-Waxy smile and laugh...

Shoes off and full-on cackling. Too cute!

Paxton had his 4 month check-up at the pediatrician last week. He weighed 14 pounds 4 ounces (40th percentile) and was 24 3/4 inches long (50th percentile). You may remember that at his 2 month check-up his length was only in the 20th percentile, and the pediatrician's computer predicted Paxton wouldn't be too tall. I was a little surprised to see that he has caught up and is smack-dab average now. Whoohoo! He had 4 vaccinations at his appointment; 3 shots and 1 orally. He ran a low-grade fever and was fussy for a couple of days, but overall I think he tolerated the shots better than a couple of months ago.

More fun facts:

* A couple of weeks ago we upped Paxton's bottles to 7 ounces. Before long he'll probably start needing 8 ounces, but there's no reason to stuff the kid to the gills just yet.
* Since he only drinks 4 bottles per day and is sleeping great at night, the pediatrician recommended we hold off on feeding Paxton rice cereal yet. We'll start introducing it when it seems like formula isn't tiding him over for as long (at 5-6 months).
* He is still sleeping great at night! We usually hear him stirring anytime between 6:00-7:00 a.m. If it's in the 6:00 hour I usually put him in bed with us for a bit, which can lead to us sleeping in until 8:00 or later. It's wonderful!
* He is rolling over!! He has been "practicing" rolling from his back to his tummy for quite a while now, but he would always get stuck on one of his arms and not fully roll over. A couple of weeks ago he figured out how to move his arm out of the way and can now completely roll!! He has also rolled from his tummy to his back a few times.
* He continues to smile a lot, and we've also gotten some laughs and cackles out of him. It's so cute and just melts our hearts!!
* He likes to coo and "talk." Sometimes it sounds like he is carrying on full conversations with us. Just wish we knew what was going through that little head of his. :)
* He is wearing 0-3 months and 3 months clothes. There is such a size difference between brands! Some of his 0-3 stuff hangs on him, and other 0-3 things are getting too small. Same with the 3 month sizes.
* A couple of weeks ago he upgraded to size 2 diapers. Poor kid was probably losing circulation in the lower half of his body for a few weeks, but at least we used up all of our freebie size 1 diapers. :)
* Everything goes in his mouth!! Every toy, bib, blanket, burp cloth, etc. goes straight in his mouth, as well as my fingers, my nose, shirt sleeves, etc.
* We think he has been in the early stages of teething for about 6-8 weeks now. He has a lot of the symptoms, and there's a spot on his lower gums that is looking very white. Of course, it could still be a couple of months before an actual tooth pops through.
* He likes to play with several different toys, and he "boxes" at things that are hanging above him (i.e. toys that dangle on his play gym and bouncy seat). He may be the next Mike Tyson. Ha!
* He likes to "read" books, which makes me very happy! We usually look at books during church, and we also have a few books that are part of his bedtime routine.

I have so many pictures that I need to post, but I thought I'd start with the 4 month update before another month got away from me (especially considering the 3 month update never got written). Look for more pictures in future posts!

2008-06-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

To tide you over...

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've written a new post!! The first part of June flew by, and we spent all last week on vacation in Florida. I will post a vacation recap soon, but until then, I hope this picture of Paxton chilling on the beach in his shades will hold you over...

2008-05-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

Tricks and Tantrums and Twelve Weeks...Oh My!!

First of all, did you like my use of alliteration in the title?? I get so excited over the simple things in life...like grammar, definitions and literary elements (alliteration and onomatopoeia are my faves).

I digress. Back to the purpose of this post.

Tricks

Earlier today, Paxton and I played a quick game of Hide & Seek.

"Where's Paxton?"

"Here I am, Mommy. Did you like my trick?"

Doesn't that smile just melt your heart!!

Tantrums

Apparently, my child didn't get the memo that tantrums aren't supposed to be a part of his repetoire for another year or two.

Don't get me wrong, Paxton is a really GREAT baby, and for the most part he is calm and quiet. Lately, however, he is really showing us his inner attitude. And this attitude comes complete with lots of tears, a red face, arching back, and a cry/scream that jumps on my last nerve.

I cannot always decipher what he needs or wants during these tantrums.
Hungry? Nope.
Wet or dirty? Nope. Just changed his diaper.
Wants to be held? Usually doesn't help.
Tired? Hmmm, that tends to be the answer some of the time.

Case in point: As I have been typing this Paxton has been thrashing around and crying in his bouncy seat. I changed his diaper a few minutes ago, but that didn't calm him down. I held him and rocked him, but that didn't help either. Lo and behold, I just glanced over at him and his eyes are shut. I guess he is just a tired little boy who would rather fight the urge to sleep rather than drift off into dreamland.

These pictures are from Tuesday of this week.

Full blown meltdown in progress:

Notice how he is pushing his heels into the bed and lifting his booty up! Is he supposed to be able to do that already?!?!

12 Weeks

Today Paxton is 12 weeks old! I know I always say this, but seriously, where is the time going?! He is at such a cute age (forget the previous section about his tantrums!), and we are loving it!! I'm sure I'll say "Oh, I love this age" many more times during his life. I guess that's a good thing though -- I want to really enjoy each stage!

We tried to do a homemade photo shoot today. I didn't get too many good pictures because Paxton was a bit squirmy.

He's looking bigger and bigger next to his bear:

His onesie says, "I'm 100% Organic." Hilarious!!

"Uh mom, I'm trying to play with my safari jungle gym. No photos please."

"Ok, ok, I'll give you one quick look." (Love this picture...his eyes make me melt!!!)

Factoids about Paxton at 12 weeks:

* About a week ago we increased his formula from 5 oz. to 6 oz. Some days he only has 4 bottles, and other days he has 5 bottles. Either way, the extra ounce seems to be tiding him over a little longer.

* The increase in formula meant it was time to use bigger bottles. He looks like such a big boy when he's eating now!

* He's still sleeping for several hours at a time at night. He usually starts getting restless anytime between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Sometimes all he needs is his paci, other times he needs his diaper changed and/or fed. All I know is that the continous hours of peaceful sleep make mommy and daddy very happy!

* He coos and "talks" more and more each day. Sometimes it seems like he is carrying on a full conversation with us! We can't get enough of hearing him "talk." It's precious!

* He sucks on his fingers and hands like crazy!! A couple of weeks ago the finger sucking usually correlated with his feeding times, so I assumed he was doing it out of hunger. Lately, he does it at random times...when he's hungry, an hour after he's eaten, while he's playing, while he's sleeping, etc. Does this sound like a pre-teething behavior??? What's funny is that this sucking noise is usually what wakes Jon and I up in the middle of the night. We usually find it cute and humorous, even in the middle of the night.

Proof of the finger and hand sucking:

We bought Paxton a new ball cap last weekend. Finally. We have been searching and searching for caps. We could always find plenty of Gilligan-style hats and ball caps for babies 12 months and older, but nothing in Paxton's size. A trip to Babies R Us put an end to our search.

Random picture of Mommy & Paxton (before modeling his hat)

Wearing his hat like his daddy

Wearing his hat the "right way." It's still a little big...kinda looks like a golf hat in this picture.

"What do you guys think?"

Memorial Day

We had a simple, but eventful, Memorial Day weekend. On Friday night we went out for an early dinner, and then Jon's parents came over to play Rummykub. It's a fun game, and I actually won a round! On Saturday we ran errands...Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, grocery store, etc. That night Jon grilled hamburgers for us. Yummy! Sunday we went to church, and afterwards we drove around for a bit. There is a very upscale neighborhood being built close to us, so we drove through it and looked at the HUGE houses being built. These HUGE houses are actually the "small" houses of the neighborhood. I can't wait to see what the really big houses end up looking like! I love looking at big, new houses, but it always makes me come home and appreciate my own house. Who really needs all that space?!?! That evening we went out for ice cream and drove around a couple of other neighborhoods. Again, we came home appreciating our "small" house that doesn't require maids, cooks, pool boys, lawn people, butlers, etc. On Monday we did some things around the house and that evening we had dinner with all of Jon's family. Jon was in charge of grilling the steaks, and per usual, they were delicious!! Overall, it was a good weekend.

That's our life in a nutshell. Nothing too exciting going on, which is good, I guess. I have an ongoing project in Paxton's room...packing away the clothes he's grown out of and getting out the clothes he can wear for the next couple of months. His room looks like a disaster...little piles of clothes all over the place. I need to stop procrastinating and get everything organized and put away. That's my goal for tomorrow...or the next day. Ha!

2008-05-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Paxton is 10 weeks old!!

Paxton reached the 10 week mark on Wednesday. He started off the day in a fabulous and cute mood, but the afternoon was a different story. Here are the pictures to prove it:

"I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE PICTURES TODAY!!!"

"I know you are trying to trick me by surrounding me with my jungle friends,

but I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE PICTURES!!!"

Close up of his cute little giraffe shoes.

At least the giraffes weren't screaming and crying.

"Hmm, I think Mommy is still trying to trick me..."

"Oh man, she got a shot of me not crying.

I can't cry when I see the pretty butterflies."

"Oh wait, I looked kinda happy in that last picture.

I need to put my sad face back on."

"Do the tears make anyone feel sorry for me?"

Other random pictures taken this past week:

Not a care in the world!

I love when he purses his lips! So cute!!

"Mommy, is it time to watch The Today Show yet?"

He's having a meltdown in my lap, so typing is a bit difficult right now. Until next time...

2008-05-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day & My Birthday!!

On Sunday I was honored to celebrate my first Mother's Day. I've been so used to always finding ways to honor my mother that it was kind of weird for me to be the one who was being honored. I guess that means I'm growing up. :)

I woke up Sunday morning to my sweet hubby telling me "Happy Mother's Day," and Paxton was just as sweet and cute as ever! We went to church and then spent the afternoon napping, reading the newspaper, etc. Jon was on "Paxton duty," which allowed me to chat on the phone with my mom for about an hour, as well as do some much-needed relaxing. We also made a little time for a photo shoot, and Paxton gave me some nice gifts (see pics below). That evening we stopped by Jon's parents' house for a bit so Jon and Paxton could give his mom her Mother's Day and Nana's Day gifts. After that Jon, Paxton and I ate dinner at Snappy Tomato Pizza. It is a new pizza buffet franchise that opened in town, and it is very yummy! Much, much better than Cici's! They were having a buy 1 buffet get 1 buffet 1/2 price special in honor of Mom's Day, and we had a nice little family dinner.

Mommy & Paxton on our 1st Mother's Day

Paxton wore his "Mommy Adores Me" outfit.

(Thanks again to my mom, sister and sis-in-law

for the cute outfit!!)

Paxton had enough of the picture taking!

Mommy trying to calm him down...not too successful.

My sweet presents...
A peachy/orange rose and 2 books.
The one on the left is actually a children's book for me to read to Paxton,
and the other one is a sweet memento-type book.
Paxton also gave me a sweet card, complete with his own signature!

Yesterday was my 29th birthday! Yikes, my last birthday in my 20's!!! Jon asked me if I felt 29, and my reply was, "No, I actually feel 39." I think that was just my mommy brain talking. Ha!

Jon was out-of-town Monday night, but he gave me a sweet wake-up call that made my birthday start out great! I took advantage of Paxton's morning nap time to shower and wash my hair. That's a big deal some days...and I wasn't letting my birthday pass by without taking a little time for myself. I'm all about hygiene you know (at least on my birthday...ha!). I didn't do anything too exciting during the day other than pack up my maternity clothes and clean my house. It was kind of nice being a home-body for the day though.

Last night my hubby surprised me with a special birthday dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, complete with all of his family and several of our close friends from church. It was a fun evening of yummy food, good conversation and great friends! After dinner we went to Jon's nephew's choir concert. I must admit that the choirs at his elementary school are really good! They sang a nice variety of songs, and it was a good concert. Paxton enjoyed the music as well, and he was also the "crowd favorite." I could hear people around us ooo-ing and ahh-ing over him, and a few people came up to us after the concert to tell us how cute he was. We're such proud parents!

My birthday night ended with coming home and watching "American Idol" on DVR. We are "Idol" addicts! I wasn't super impressed with the singing, but overall it was a good show. Tonight's results show should be a good one.

Pictures from my little party...

Paxton & I

VERY SWEET card Jon gave me -- it even gave me a little tear. Awww.

Starbucks gift card. Yummo!!

Books-A-Million gift card.
I've had my eyes on some "chick books" to read this summer.

Target gift card (I actually got 2 of them!!)
I saw some cute pj's in the Target ad a couple of
weeks ago, as well as some cute shoes, purses and jewelry.
Can't wait to shop!!!

I had a great birthday, and I thank my sweet hubby for planning such a fun evening!!

Paxton's 10 week update and pics coming soon...

2008-05-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

2 Month Check-up

Yesterday, Paxton had his 2 month check-up with his pediatrician. His stats were...

Weight: 11 lbs, 0 oz. (40th percentile)
Length: 22 inches (20th percentile)
Head circumference: 40 1/2 cm (60th percentile)

He is exactly 5 pounds heavier than his birth weight of 6 pounds, and he is 3 inches longer than his birth length of 19 inches. Our little boy is definitely growing!! When discussing Paxton's length, the pediatrician said, "He's not going to be too tall." Not a big shocker considering Jon and I are a bit vertically challenged. Hopefully Paxton isn't planning to make his living by playing in the NBA. Ha!

He also got 4 vaccinations; 1 oral and 3 shots. He cried and turned bright red during the process, but he quickly calmed down once they were over. He has shown the typical symptoms of receiving vaccinations -- sleeping a lot, being fussy, slight fever -- throughout the day yesterday and today. We've given him a couple of doses of baby Tylenol, which really seems to help!

Barring any illness or injury, Paxton's next appointment isn't until he is 4 months old.

What Paxton is doing these days:

* He eats 4-5 ounces of formula every 4ish hours. However, some days he goes longer stretches between feedings, and some days he's starving every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
* He usually only wakes up once during the night to eat. This means mommy and daddy aren't too sleep-deprived anymore!
* He still only cries when he is hungry.
* He is much more alert and aware of his surroundings. He's always studying the pictures and decorations on the walls, as well as, ceiling fans and lights.
* He tracks us with his eyes for longer periods of time. He "follows" me (with his eyes) around the kitchen and bedroom, and he "looks for us" when either Jon or I leave the room.
* His arms and legs are busy, especially his arms! We've been "punched" several times by his flailing arms. It's neat to see him figuring out his different body parts and how they work.
* He gave us his first real smile about 3 weeks ago. It melted our hearts!! Now we are always doing silly and crazy things trying to get him to smile and laugh.
* He has started cooing, and it is absolutely precious! Of course the speech pathologist in me is analyzing every sound that comes out of his mouth. Poor kid.
* He is still pretty much wearing newborn clothes, but his 0-3 months clothes are starting to fit a lot better. We are able to branch out a bit more when it comes to his wardrobe.
* A couple of weeks ago he "graduated" from newborn diapers to size 1 diapers. Kinda made me sad.
* He doesn't like tummy time too much, which his doctor says is very normal. I don't force too much tummy time on him, but I try to lay him on his stomach a few minutes each day.
* He still really likes to ride in the car and in the stroller. It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep once we start moving.
* He still melts our hearts, and we are so incredibly blessed to have Paxton in our lives!!! Each day just gets better and better!!!

2008-05-06T12:08:00.001-07:00

May 5 -- Paxton turns 2 months old AND Cinco de Mayo

Yesterday Paxton turned 2 months old. I cannot believe it!! The last month has completely flown by! Here are a few things he did to celebrate:

Mommy & Daddy gave him a nice, relaxing bath.

His bottom lip always quivers after his baths. Sooo cute!

I'll try to get it on camera sometime.

Saying his prayers before nap time :)

Taking a cat nap on the Boppy pillow

Cinco de Mayo is one of my (Erin's) favorite holidays. Why, you ask? Well, because it involves eating Mexican food!! If you know me very well you know that Mexican food is one of my absolute weaknesses. I could eat it just about every day! In order to pay our respects to Mexico's Independence Day we decided it would only be appropriate to eat some yummy Mexican food last night.

Paxton needed help reading the menu.

He really wanted to try some chips & salsa,

but we used our better judgment and told him he'd have to wait a while longer.

Made a cute picture though!

A little while ago I was drying my hair and getting ready for the day. To entertain Paxton I put him on his safari mat for some play time. He loves to stare at the hanging toys! He even "hit" the zebra a few times to make it play music. He looked like he was enjoying himself so I continued to get ready and do some things around the house. A little while later I didn't hear anything...and this is what I found...

Paxton snoozing!

Of course now that I type that I hear him crying. I guess his jungle-induced sleep didn't last too long.

Tomorrow is his 2 month check-up with his pediatrician. I'll be sure to update with all of his latest stats. Also, I need to do a major update about the past few weeks, including our 10 day trip to Oklahoma to visit all of my family and friends. (Hence the lack of blogging -- we've been traveling and recovering from traveling!)

2008-04-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

Happy 40th Birthday, Lori!!!

Today is Jon's sister Lori's 40th birthday! Lori is a wonderful big sister to Jon, a fabulous sister-in-law to me and a doting and loving aunt to Paxton.

Lori & Paxton on Good Friday (March 21)

Paxton wanted to visit his Aunt Lori at work.

Earlier this evening we threw Lori a surpise party!!

The cake and present table.

The BBQ feast

"Surprise, Lori!!"
She promises us that she didn't suspect a thing. :)

The super yummy cake!

She blew them out in 1 breath. Way to go!!

Lori, you are very special to us! We hope your 40th year is extra special and your best yet!!!

We love you!

Jon, Erin & Paxton

2008-04-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Happy 25th Birthday, Adam!!

Today is my brother's 25th birthday! I can't believe he has hit the quarter-of-a-century mark!

Paxton wants to give his Uncle Adam a special birthday shoutout via a few pictures:

"Uncle Adam, this is when you held me when I was just 10 days old."

"I think I was 9 days old in this picture, but who's counting (except my mommy)!"

"Uncle Adam, you are so silly!"

"My mommy says you love OU, so I thought I'd wear this hat in your honor.

My mommy told me not to get used to wearing OU paraphernalia.

She would prefer I wear OSU orange. She let it slide this one time though."

"This is my 'what up dawg' pose."

"This is my 'chillin' pose. I like to take it easy these days."

Adam, we hope you have a great birthday and a wonderful year being 25!!

Miss you & love you bunches,

Jon, Erin & Paxton

2008-04-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

4 Weeks Old!!!

I cannot believe Paxton is already 4 weeks old! The days and weeks are definitely flying by -- just like everyone said they would. We are loving every minute with our sweet little boy!! Here is a photo recap of what we've been up to the past week or so.

(By the way...shout out to my fabulous friend Kim who gave me the idea of putting a sign with Paxton's age in the pictures. Kim did this for her little girl, and it was so cute. I hope I'm not plagiarizing too bad!!)

Paxton at 4 weeks (yesterday)

The first few pictures didn't show his baseball shoes too well, so here's a close up

He's always moving his hands!!

We caught him in the act of "holding" his bottle.

Ahh, wishful thinking. It was just a fluke. :)

He makes the most funny faces and noises when he's going #2.

Here he is "in the act."

(Sorry Pax, don't kill me for this when you're older!)

Hanging out in his bouncy seat.

He usually tolerates it anywhere between 2 minutes and 30 minutes. :)

I think he's watching his mommy wash bottles.

Deep in thought in the bouncy seat

"Why am I in my bouncy seat again?

Talk to the cheek, just talk to the cheek."

"Ok, ok, I'll look at you, but I'm not too happy about it."

Paxton and Mommy before church last Sunday.

We were coordinatin' in our horizontal stripes.
Paxton wrinkles his forehead quite often. It's so cute!

Last Tuesday was our 2nd anniversary!

We celebrated with a yummy hibachi dinner.

Paxton slept quietly in his carrier while Mommy & Daddy

watched the nice man cook their dinner,

but then he decided he was hungry as well.

"Feed me, please!"

"That's better. Sorry to interrupt your romantic dinner."

The anniversary "spread."

A gift for Jon, our wedding DVD

(which we were planning to watch the night of our anniversary),

and a plate of yummy dessert.
At our wedding we had white and strawberry cupcakes instead of traditional wedding cake,

so I went to a local bakery and bought 2 white cupcakes and a small strawberry cake.

They were delicious!!

I took pictures on the days Paxton turned 1 week old and 2 weeks old, but those never made it on the blog. A lot of my good blogging intentions have been interrupted by a hungry baby or a I-need-my-mom-to-hold-me baby. I'm hoping to start updating more regularly.

A few things about Paxton:

* He is soooo sweet!!

* He is a great baby!

* He really only cries when he's hungry. And when he does, he really shows out. Real tears, trembling lips and everything! It breaks his mommy's heart.

* He is growing out of his preemie clothes and is starting to wear newborn-sized clothes, although some of the newborn clothes still swallow him up.

* He typically sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time during the night, which is great for mommy and daddy.

* He makes the most hilarious facial expressions. Our favorites are when he purses his lips, when he rolls his eyes (isn't he a little young to have an attitude?!) and when he looks from side to side several times. I'll try to catch these on camera sometime.

* He loves to snuggle on our chest or stomach. It is so precious!

* He is easily coaxed back to sleep when he wakes up. Usually all it takes is a little pat or touch to let him know we are still there.

* He loves to ride in the car, but it makes him very sleepy.

* He is getting more and more alert. He stares at people's faces, and he loves to look at lights.

* His legs are very strong, as is his grip. He can squeeze our fingers hard!

* His neck is getting stronger and stronger; he likes to hold his head up for several seconds. Soon we'll need to introduce "tummy time" into his routine.

* He LOVES to eat!! As Jon says, "He's eating us out of the house." Kidding, of course. We are glad our baby boy is growing. However, it is quite comical when I can sum up my day by saying I basically fed and burped Paxton over and over. It's true!

We have no idea how much he weighs now, but he goes to the pediatrician on Monday for his 1 month check-up, so I'll post all of his stats after that appointment.

Whenever I get a chance I'm going to try and go back and post his 1 and 2 week pictures so you can see how much he has changed. He seems to change every couple of days.

We're off to make a family trip to Wal-Mart to buy some baby necessities...

2008-03-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!

Yesterday was Paxton's 1st Easter, as well as, our first Easter as a family of 3. We had a great day -- church in the morning, naps in the afternoon (all 3 of us needed naps badly!!) and an Easter egg hunt with Jon's family later in the day. It was pretty chilly here yesterday; temperature in the 40's and cloudy. This is the 3rd year in a row that it's been cold on Easter. Hopefully next year it'll be a bit warmer.

Here are some snapshots of Paxton's 1st Easter:

We had to do the obligatory picture with the Easter Bunny at the mall.

Paxton slept through the whole thing! Next year may be a different story though.

Our first "dressed up" picture as a family of 3

Paxton's Easter outfit was huge on him!

He is still in preemie clothes, and it was a newborn size.

His onesie said "Baby's First Easter"

The pants had cute little bunny feet

And the back had a soft little bunny tail -- so cute!!

Paxton and Daddy's Easter baskets.

Paxton was super excited that the Easter Bunny brought him diapers!

Jon was equally pumped over his Propel water and candy.

The last 2 Easters I really put a lot of thought and time into making Jon the perfect Easter basket filled with all of his favorite snacks, candy, drinks, etc. This year, however, was a different story. While Jon and I were grocery shopping Saturday night I said, "Hey, close your eyes, the Easter Bunny needs to do a little shopping." Basically, he ended up picking out his own treats. I had all of these good ideas in my head, but my schedule just didn't seem to work out where I could make all of my ideas happen. There's always next year!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our 2nd Anniversary!! In case I don't get the chance to write a special anniversary post -- Happy Anniversary, Jon!! You are such a great husband! You are so thoughtful, caring, encouraging, generous and funny, and I am so blessed to have you as my hubby! I pray God gives us many, many years to spend together!!! Love you babe!

2008-03-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

There is only 1 hour left in Saint Patrick's Day 2008, so I thought I'd better hurry and post these pictures. Paxton had a great (and busy!) 1st Saint Patrick's Day! We spent a good portion of the day riding around with Daddy while he worked and ran a few errands. Paxton loved riding in the car and slept through most of the outing. This evening we had several visitors -- our dear friend Emily brought us a super delicious dinner; Jon's mom stopped by for a short visit; and then Jon's best friend and his girlfriend spent the latter part of the evening hanging out with us. Paxton enjoyed all of the love and attention!

We had a brief Mommy & Son photo shoot earlier today. I dug out my St. Paddy's shirt from 2 years ago, and Paxton sported his adorable alligator onesie. A big shout out to one of my best friends, Kim, who sent Paxton the onesie all the way from New Orleans. It is sooo cute on him, and he received lots of compliments today!!

Mommy & Paxton (who was mid-blink)

Check out his cute little chicken legs!!! :)

Paxton gazing into his mommy's eyes

...or...

He's thinking "Are we done with the pictures already?!"

In other news...today I went to the doctor to have my blood pressure checked, and I'm happy to report that it was perfectly normal!! After chatting with my doctor about how I've been feeling we decided it was time for me to stop taking the blood pressure medication. Woohooo!!! I didn't take it at all today, and I never once felt like my blood pressure was going up. I think my body has regulated itself!! I am going back to the doctor on Friday morning to have my blood pressure checked once again. If everything looks good at that appointment then I think I'm in the clear.

That's all for tonight. This mommy has been up and moving non-stop since 6:30 this morning. Here's hoping Paxton lets me sleep at least 3 hours at a time tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed...

2008-03-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Paxton's First Outing

This is Erin. I'm finally getting the chance to update my own blog. First of all, I want to give a huge "Thank you!" to my sister-in-law Faith for keeping the blog updated while Paxton and I were in the hospital. I truly appreciate her keeping all of our family and friends updated on the events of the last few days. Secondly, thank you to everyone who left sweet comments, emails, phone calls, etc. It was so nice to come home to an inbox full of encouraging messages.

Sometime in the near future I will post the play-by-play of everything that transpired last week; the labor and delivery, Paxton's jaundice, my crazy blood pressure issues, etc. It may be a few days before I get enough time to sit and type out everything; until then I will post little snip-its of life with baby Paxton.

Today we took our first family outing, and it went very well!! Many of you know that the hardest thing for me to give up while being pregnant was my beloved sushi. Last night Jon told me that he wanted to take me to lunch at my favorite sushi place today. I was like, "Uh, so soon?" I guess I thought it would be a few more days before we ventured out of the house, but I was so glad we got out today. It felt soooo good to breathe fresh air and drive through town. And the sushi...ahhh, it was divine!!!! We ordered all of our favorite rolls, and they were so very yummy! I don't think I've eaten sushi since last April, and I was definitely past due! Paxton did great during our outing. He fell asleep in the car, slept in his carrier all through lunch and slept almost all the way home. He started getting fussy as we pulled into our neighborhood, but that was only because he had a major blowout in his diaper. Lovely. Below are a couple of pics of our first big adventure out of the house.

Our cute little family outside of Sushin.

Paxton better get used to this place!!

Paxton dressed up for his first outing.

Thanks to cousin Gavin for the cute preemie outfit.

It was perfect for a chilly day!!

I have so many cute pictures of Paxton's first few days of life, and I promise to post them on here as soon as I can. He's been taking good naps, so I'll do my best to blog during his nap time (if I'm not napping myself). Time to feed a hungry baby and then hopefully sleep for a few hours...

2008-03-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

Erin and Paxton have been DISCHARGED!

Erin and Paxton were discharged yesterday afternoon. Erin's blood pressure stabilized, however she will have to take blood pressure medicine. She had a head ache last night, but is feeling well today. Paxton is doing great! I was told he slept til about 245 this morning and was up for a little bit. When I spoke with Mimi earlier today Mommy and Baby were napping. Please continue to keep them both in your prayers, for both health and getting into a routine. Will post picture soon!

2008-03-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

Update on Erin and Baby Paxton

Erin has been experiencing some high blood pressure issues since Thursday night. She has been diagnosed with post-eclampsia and is back in Labor and Delivery. They have started her on a magnesium drip which should get her back to normal. Paxton is still in the hospital because he has jaundice, so he is currently sun bathing under the lamp. Please keep Erin in your prayers, that she will feel better and that they will be able to come home this weekend. I will post more pictures as I receive them by email. -Aunt Faith

2008-03-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

Paxton Cole

March 5, 2008

2:04 pm

6 lbs 19"

2008-03-05T12:40:00.001-08:00

PAXTON HAS ARRIVED!!!

2:04pm
6 lbs, 19"
Lots of dark hair
Baby and Mom are doing great!
Pictures Soon!

2008-03-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

UPDATE ON ERIN: (For some reason blogger won't let me post a title)

Auntie Faith here.... Adam just received a phone call from "Mimi" and Erin is progressing well. She is 80% effaced and dilated between a 7 and 8. Doctor said Baby Paxton should be here sometime this afternoon. Erin received her epidural and she is feeling good!! Keep the prayers coming and we will update as soon as we hear more!

2008-03-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

I think I drew the short straw...

Last week my doctor told me someone from the hospital would be calling tonight to tell me what time to be there tomorrow morning. My doctor said it could be anywhere between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m. Well, I must have drawn the short straw because when I got the call tonight the nice nurse on the other end of the phone said, "Can you be here at 5:00 tomorrow morning?" Ugghhh! It's 10:35 p.m. right now, so in just 6 hours Jon and I will be getting in the car and driving to the hospital. I'm soooo tired, but I still need to take a shower and pack my last minute things. Doesn't look like I'll be getting much sleep tonight. Maybe I can rest between contractions tomorrow. Ha!

Jon and I cannot wait to meet our baby boy. We are SO EXCITED!!! Please keep the labor, delivery and health of Paxton in your prayers. :)

2008-03-04T13:20:00.001-08:00

No Baby Yet

Just wanted to post a quick update...

I am still pregnant. No baby yet. I think Paxton is having way too much fun in my tummy. At this point I do not think he's going to come on his own. I am scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning...don't have an exact time yet...but I'll be going in sometime early in the morning. Lord willing, Paxton should be here by tomorrow afternoon/evening. Someone will post the news of Paxton's arrival as soon as possible. Until then...happy waiting. :)

2008-02-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

39 Weeks...and still no baby Paxton

Paxton continues to be content in my belly. He must be enjoying his free room and board, not to mention the 24 hour swimming pool. :)

Went to the doctor today...here's the scoop:

* My blood pressure is still good.
* I gained about a pound, putting my total weight gain to 27-ish pounds. (I'm blaming it on the Taco Bell I ate for lunch. I had a HUGE craving for a bean burrito!)
* Paxton's heart beat is still loud and strong, and he is measuring just like he should be.
* I am dilated to 3 1/2 cm and am still about 70% effaced. My doctor said she could almost say I was 4 cm, but 3 1/2 was more accurate.
* I asked about an estimated weight for Paxton, and my doctor doesn't think he'll be over 7 pounds. She said she thinks in the upper 6 pound range. Of course, this was just an estimate. I've read that doctor's estimates can be +/- a pound, so there is a lot of room for error. Either way, we don't Paxton will be an 8+ pound baby.

The big news of the day is that we decided to induce my labor next Wednesday, March 5...if Paxton doesn't make his grand entrance before then. There are a few reasons why my doctor and I felt that inducing was a good choice, but the top reasons are that (a) I will be exactly 40 weeks next Wednesday and (b) my cervix is dilating and progressing nicely (which is a prerequisite for inducing). The induction would mainly be for the purpose of jump-starting my contractions. Some of the not-as-important reasons for inducing are that (a) my doctor is on call that day and will get to deliver Paxton, (b) my family can make the trek from Oklahoma and be here on Paxton's birthday (instead of anxiously waiting by the phone day and night as they've been doing for a few weeks now), and (c) I can have a definite end date for work.

Deep down, I do hope Paxton comes before Wednesday so that I can experience going into labor on my own. But if he doesn't, then at least I know that in 6 days I'll get to meet my precious baby boy!!

Oh yeah, I was awake a lot last night with contractions. They were never worthy of "let's get the suitcase and head to the hospital," but my body is definitely experiencing a lot of pre-labor symptoms. We'll see what tonight and tomorrow bring...maybe Paxton wants to be a leap year baby. :)

2008-02-23T18:46:00.001-08:00

38 Week Update...and...Assembling Baby Gear

Another week down. Between the lunar eclipse on Wednesday night, and the full moon on Thursday night, I really thought Paxton would have made his arrival by now. I guess he's still having fun squirming around in my cramped belly and doesn't feel the need to make his grand entrance yet.

I was 38 weeks on Thursday. I had a doctor's appointment that day, and here is the scoop:

* Blood pressure still good.
* Gained almost a pound (I think it was the same pound I lost last week). That brings my total weight gain to 26-ish pounds.
* I was 3 cm dilated and still about 70% effaced. I am continuing to make good progress!
* Paxton's heartbeat was good and strong. Love that sound!!

I have been having some contractions the past several days. I think they are Braxton Hicks contractions, though, because they aren't painful or consistent. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm having one unless I just happen to be touching my stomach and notice that it is tight and hard. I do feel "crampy" several times each day, so I guess that's a sign that something is going on and things are changing.

I am pleased to announce that I have made it this far in my pregnancy without two things happening:
(1) My belly button has not popped out!! (Although it is very, very shallow)
(2) No stretch marks!! Woohoo!!

I realize these two things could still happen, but I'm hoping that since they haven't happened by now that I may not have to experience them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Here are some pictures of my belly at 38 weeks + 2 days (taken today):

Using the good ol' Kitchen Aid mixer to whip up a dessert for church tomorrow

Rolling a lemon "to get the juices flowing"

(just like Rachael Ray taught me)

Assembling Paxton's gear...

Last weekend we had Jon's family over to celebrate his dad's birthday. After dinner and dessert the men folk assembled Paxton's crib.

L to R: Jon's bro-in-law (Tim), Jon, Jon's dad

Jon making sure the springs are secure.

The men with their finished product!

We're crossing our fingers that the crib is safe!!

Last weekend, Jon also assembled Paxton's travel system and pack & play. It was his fun Saturday night project. What a dedicated daddy he already is!!

Make sure that wheel is on nice and tight!

Um, are you still working on the wheels?

Finished product!! Stroller with carrier/car seat

Way to go, honey!!

The soon-to-be mommy with all the baby gear.

Instead of buying a cradle or bassinet to put in our bedroom, we decided to make the pack & play Paxton's bed for the first few weeks/months. The pack & play we bought has a bassinet insert, which should work out great. It is already in our bedroom (next to my side of the bed, of course...even though Jon really wanted it by his side of the bed...he truly thinks he'll be able to wake up when Paxton needs something, but I knew better than to fall for that!), and all we need now is baby Paxton!

Halfway through the assembly process

Jon with his masterpiece!

I can't wait to see our widdle sweet baby boy sleeping in this!

Jon and I both slept in this morning, and it felt great!! This may well have been our last Saturday morning to sleep in for a while, so we took advantage of it! I spent the afternoon writing thank you notes for baby gifts. I still have about 10-15 more to write, but I may save them for tomorrow. After my baking session this evening I'm feeling a little worn out. I think it's time to retire to the couch for a bit and then it's off to sleep!

Shout out to the OSU men's basketball team for beating Kansas (ranked #5) today!!!!! I was able to watch the second half of the game, and it was a GREAT one!! Go Cowboys!!

2008-02-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Quick Update

Several people have asked me if Jon is going to update the blog as soon as Paxton is born. Well, I recently realized that I have never shown Jon how to blog. I know, I know, shame on me. I'm going to try to show him the ropes, but I'm not counting on it at this point. So...I'm making a plan B. Luckily, my sister-in-law Faith is a great blogger, and my sister Tara was the one who updated Faith's blog when Faith had Gavin, so between the two of them my blog should get updated pretty quickly after Paxton's arrival. They can at least post Paxton's stats and the details of his birth. As for pictures...it make take a bit longer to get those on here. I'll probably have to send Jon home to email pictures to Tara and Faith, and then one of them can do the honors of posting the pictures. Hopefully we won't have to keep everyone waiting too long!

I'm secretly hoping the hospital has wireless internet access, but I'm not counting on it. IF for some reason we can get internet access at the hospital then I'll try to post something myself as soon as I feel up to it.

Basically...we'll play it all by ear!!! Thanks to everyone for their excitement!!

Gotta go "nest" some more...laundry and vacuuming are calling my name. :)

2008-02-17T12:17:00.001-08:00

37 Weeks and Valentine's Day

* Spellcheck is having issues. Pardon my typos!

I was 37 weeks on Thursday, which was also Valentine's Day. 37 weeks is a major milestone in a pregnancy; I am now officially "full term." Pretty exciting!! Below are a couple of pictures of me and my belly at exactly 37 weeks.

The front view is so much better than the side view. :)

Baby Paxton has been growing and growing!

I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday afternoon. Here's the scoop:

* My blood pressure was still good.

* I had lost 1 pound, which puts my total weight gain back to 25 pounds. (I have no idea how I lost a pound, especially considering everything I had eaten between baby showers, my family coming to visit, Valentine's Day, etc.)

* I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Good progress!!!

I didn't see my own doctor at that appointment; I saw one of the partners in the group. She told me she was on call this weekend and wouldn't be surprised if she ended up seeing me again and delivering Paxton. Whoa -- that was kind of surprising to hear! Well, it's now Sunday afternoon and he hasn't made his arrival, so I don't think I'll be seeing that doctor this weekend (although, there are still quite a few hours left in the day). The doctor definitely doesn't think I'll make it to my due date; her guess was that Paxton would be here within the next 1-2 weeks. My prediction is that he'll be here sometime next weekend. However, there is a full moon this Thursday the 21st. It is a known fact that more women tend to go into labor around the time of a full moon due to the gravitational pull on the earth. So...you never know....

I think Paxton has "dropped" in the past week or so because several have told me he looks lower in my belly. I tend to agree because it has been a little easier to bend over, and I haven't been as out of breath as I have been in the past several weeks. Just another sign that he is getting ready for his big debut!

Valentine's Day

My sweet husband made Valentine's Day very special and memorable! I really wanted to stay home and cook us dinner becuase last year we had a nightmare experience on V-Day (didn't get seated until 45 minutes after our reservation time, had a rude waitress, had dirty drinking glasses - complete with lipstick marks, the restaurant ran out of the food we wanted, etc.). This year I wanted to cook a simple meal, break out the china and just be low-key at home. On Thursday Jon called me at work and told me not to go to the grocery store after work because he had made us dinner reservations. He had made the reservations for 4:30ish (which was right after our doctor's appointment) so that we wouldn't have to re-live last year's horrible experience. We ate at a restaurant here in town called The Parthenon, which I've always heard was good. I had a delicious steak, and Jon had chicken oscar. Our service was great, and I even got a long-stem rose to bring home! It was a great meal and a great evening (er, afternoon - since it was an early dinner)!!!

When we got home from dinner we exchanged gifts. I gave Jon two pairs of Valentine's Day boxers (it's kind of a tradition for me to give him boxers on holidays) and a digital photo keychain. Actually, Paxton gave his daddy the keychain. :) Jon is so excited about Paxton's arrival, and I wanted to give him something that would allow him to carry around pictures of his son. Jon didn't know that these keychains were the rage at Christmas this year, and he was very excited about it!!!!

I guess Jon and I were on the same wavelength about incorporating Paxton into our gifts for each other. Jon gave me a very sweet card from himself, and then I opened another very sweet card that was from Paxton. It definitely brought tears to my eyes!! My gift was a beautiful necklace with the March birthstone. This, of course, also brought tears to my eyes. Jon wanted me to have a special gift that would always remind me of Paxton. There is a disclaimer though, since we don't know if Paxton will be here in February or March there is a chance we'll be returning the necklace for one with the February birthstone. Either way, I was completely taken back by such a memorable and special gift!!

Well, that about sums up last Thursday. This weekend we (I mean, Jon) have been putting together the car seat, stroller, bassinette/pack & play, etc. I'll post pictures of Jon's assembly skills later today or tomorrow. Right now, a Sunday nap is calling my name...

2008-02-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

36 Weeks

Last Thursday I hit the 36 week mark!!! I will be considered "term" at 37 weeks, which is just a few more days away. Wow -- everything seems to be happening so fast now that I'm at the end of my pregnancy!!

Here is the scoop from my doctor's appointment last Wednesday:
- I gained between 1/2 lb. and 1 lb. I think it was from the Super Bowl food and baby shower cake! :)
- My blood pressure was great.
- I was still about 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced, so no changes since my last appointment. Getting "checked" was a little more uncomfortable at this appointment. It wasn't so much painful, just A LOT of pressure!! My doctor informed me that she didn't think Paxton had dropped yet. I pretty much agreed with her based upon how much poking and prodding went on in order for her to feel his head.
- My group B strep test came back positive. Arrghh! If you read about group B strep online it can be really scary. Basically, I will be given antibiotics (something in the penicillin family) while I'm in labor in order to protect Paxton from contracting the infection in the birth canal. The statistics are very much in favor of things turning out well, but I am still a tad anxious about this latest development.

I go back to the doctor this Thursday, which is both Valentine's Day and the 37 week mark. I'm anxious to know if anything has changed!

I've started swelling somewhat. You can always tell what kind of socks I've worn by the lovely imprints on my ankles, and my bottom lip feels like it is puffy most of the time. This just started the middle of last week. I mentioned it to my doctor, and she said that it is very common at this point in a pregnancy, and there's no need to worry since my blood pressure has been so good.
Overall, I'm still feeling really good!!

I had 2 baby showers this past week -- one at work last Tuesday and one at church yesterday. I'll post a blog about the showers (with lots of pictures!) in the next day or two.

2008-02-05T16:45:00.001-08:00

35 Week Update

The days and weeks just keep on zooming by!!! I had to hurry and get this update written because in just another day or so I will already be 36 weeks. Crazy!! Here are a few pictures of my rapidly-expanding belly...

34 weeks exactly (this was about 2 weeks ago)

35 1/2 weeks (pic taken this past Sunday)
(Standing in Paxton's room)

35 1/2 weeks

(I was getting tired of all the profile shots -- they're not too pretty these days)

I had a doctor's appointment last Friday, and it was the first time I had to "get checked." Let me tell you, I was absolutely dreading the whole getting checked thing. A lot of people told me it wouldn't be too bad, but I have also heard a few horror stories lately, so of course I was preparing myself for the worst. I was pleasantly surprised when the whole process lasted only a few seconds and it didn't hurt a bit. Woohoo!

Here are the stats from my appointment:

- Blood pressure is still average/low average

- Gained 2 pounds, bringing my total weight gain to 25 pounds

- I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced

- Baby Paxton is in the head-down position

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also received the lovely Group Strep B test at my appointment. I knew that the test involved the doctor using a large Q-tip to get the sample (similar to what happens at a yearly exam), but I wasn't prepared for another large Q-tip to be inserted into my rect*m. Could someone have at least warned me about that?!?!? Thankfully, it didn't hurt, but I didn't know I was going to be completely violated. Needless to say, on my way home from the appointment I treated myself to a vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic to reward myself for being so brave. :)

I am down to my weekly doctor appointments. In fact, I already go back to the doctor tomorrow. I'm not sure if much will have changed since last Friday, but I may be surprised.

Last Thursday night Jon and I "graduated" from our childbirth class. We got a cute little certificate and everything. I don't know if I'm really that much more prepared for the whole labor and delivery thing though. I think the class gave me too much knowledge and now I'm scared to death!

Tomorrow evening we are taking a tour of the labor/delivery/postpartum areas of the hospital, and after that we have a 2-hour breastfeeding class. I told Jon he didn't have to go if he really didn't want to, but he's being a good husband and going with me. Hopefully we'll learn some things to help us get through those first few days/weeks after Paxton is born.

It is getting more difficult to turn over in bed during the night and to get out of bed in the morning. Paxton has really taken a growth spurt lately, and my belly seems to be more of a burden than it was just a couple of weeks ago. I've been experiencing some crampiness/pain in my upper left side. The doctor said it's probably just a sore and tender area from where Paxton has lodged some part of his body. When that area hurts, it really hurts, but when it's not hurting everything feels great. Other than those few discomforts I am feeling really good!

I had a baby shower at work today. It was lots of fun! I must go watch American Idol right now, but I promise to post pics of the shower very soon. Stay tuned...

2008-01-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

32 1/2 weeks...and my belly is getting BIG!

I turned 32 weeks last Thursday, and I'll be 33 weeks this Thursday. At first the weeks and months were crawling by so slowly, but man, ever since the holidays it seems like the weeks are flying by!! I can't believe Jon and I are so close to closing the chapter in our marriage where it was just the two of us. Our lives are definitely about to change!!

Below are a couple of pictures taken yesterday. Don't mind my shiny face, triple chin and the oh-so-excited look on my face. Something about taking pictures of my growing belly just didn't sound too appealing yesterday.

My last doctor's appointment was January 2 - about 12 days ago. This was the scoop at that time:

- My blood pressure was good.
- I had gained 6 pounds since my appointment at the end of November. That puts my total weight gain at either 21 or 23 pounds. Why the uncertainty? Well, I had been keeping track of my weight in my head and my calculations had me at 21 pounds, but the doctor made some comment about 23 pounds. I guess I'll get it figured out at my next appointment.
- The baby's head was at the top of my uterus. That must be what is jammed between my rib cage most of the time!

I go to the doctor again this Thursday, so I'll get the latest news in a few days.

We started our childbirth classes a couple of weeks ago. We go for 2 hours 1 night a week for 5 weeks. Last week we watched a complete labor and delivery (that was so cleverly edited into a 15-minute DVD). Now, I realize that watching a woman give birth isn't the most comfortable thing to do, especially in a room full of strangers. I told Jon to act mature and not make any comments or laugh too loud, and I am very proud to report that he watched the video like a mature adult. On the other hand, the guy sitting behind us was not mature. When the baby was crowning they showed it as a full frontal shot. A little nasty, yes, but come on, it's part of life. The guy behind me says, rather loudly, "Now that's what I call Disneyland!!" I just sat there with my jaw on the floor, thinking to myself, "Did that guy really just yell that across the room?" Wow - my opinion of him just sky-rocketed, let me tell ya. Let's hope from now on he keeps his immature comments to himself. After watching the lovely video we got to learn breathing and relaxation techniques. They were very soothing; however, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed that I'll remember to use any of them when I'm the one in labor!

As far as how I've been feeling -- I've been feeling really, really good!!! However, there are a few symptoms that I've been feeling/having: (1) My belly has gotten bigger and harder the past few weeks. It seems to take a growth spurt every few days! I guess that means our little baby is growing and developing like he should be! (2) This child is VERY active!! Again, I know it means he is alive and well, but come on, could he at least spare me a few jabs?!?! Lately it seems like his head and/or arms are up in my ribs (makes that whole breathing thing a little more difficult), while at the same time his feet are doing an Irish jig on my bladder. Oh, and the little turkey apparently has his days and nights confused because he is very nocturnal. He thinks my bed time is his play time. A couple of weeks ago it took me almost two hours to fall into a deep sleep because he was constantly moving. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to feel him move and see my stomach moving, but it would be much more enjoyable if he could calm it down a notch between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. (3) I haven't really had any heartburn or indigestion up to this point, but I've had several bouts of it over the last two weeks. It's not bad enough to take medicine or complain about, but it's noticeable enough to be a little uncomfortable. Sometimes it hits after I eat a big meal, and sometimes it hits after I simply drink a glass of water. Weird, I know. All in all, I'm very thankful I haven't had to experience the horrible heartburn that people warned me about. (4) I'm officially wearing maternity pants full time. I was able to wear one of my regular pairs of jeans until mid-December, but I finally had to give those up. I decided that my circulation and oxygen level was a little more important than a pair of great jeans. (5) Getting out of bed is getting more and more difficult. It's quite comical to watch me find a comfortable position in which to hoist myself out of bed in the mornings. I guess it's only going to get more difficult from here on out! Speaking of hoisting myself, I had to have Jon help me out of the bathtub the other night. Between my belly and my not-so-good-balance I just didn't trust myself to do it safely on my own.

Jon and I spent this past weekend moving our guest room in with our office since the guest room is now becoming the baby's room. My mom is planning to drive to Tennessee this weekend to help us paint and set up the nursery. The bedding arrived about a month ago, and I can't wait to see everything all put together!! I'll take pictures as we paint and decorate and post them when everything is finished. If you want a sneak peek at the bedding, go to www.jcpenney.com, click on Kids+Baby (upper right corner), click on Baby's Room (left column), click on Bedding, click on See all 82 Items, then scroll down about 3 rows. It's called "Luke." I love the blue and brown combination, as well as, the polka dots and stripes together. We're planning to paint the walls a light blue, which we're thinking will look great with dark brown furniture.

Oh, I don't think I ever told the blog world what name we decided on for the baby. His first name is going to be Paxton, and the jury is still out on his middle name. We're narrowing down our list, so I'll keep you posted on a final decision.

Now that I've bored you long enough....

(Kim, I promise you won't have to wait so long between posts next time!!!)

2007-12-06T18:44:00.001-08:00

Today is special because...

...It is exactly 3 months until my due date.

...I am officially 27 weeks pregnant.

...I am entering the 3rd trimester (can't believe it!!).

Jon and I are getting more and more excited to meet our baby boy! He'll be here before we know it!!!

2007-12-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

Baby Update

I am currently 26 1/2 weeks along; I'll be 27 weeks on Thursday. I can't believe I'm already at the end of the 2nd trimester. I think the 3rd trimester begins around week 27. Time is starting to fly by so quickly!!

I had a doctor's appointment last Tuesday. Here's the latest scoop:

- I gained 6 pounds, which brings my grand total to 15 pounds.
- My glucose test came back normal -- woohoo! Thank goodness I don't have to do that horrid 3-hour test!!
- My blood work showed I was anemic (low iron), so my doctor prescribed me iron tablets.
- Baby's heartbeat was good and strong!
- I talked with my doctor about pediatricians. She gave me the names of some good ones, but I have no idea who to choose. I've also asked people at work and at church, and everyone takes their kids to someone different, and everyone I ask says they "love" their pediatrician. Any suggestions for weeding down a list of potential doctors??
- We also talked about childbirth classes. We're hoping to take our class in January...I need to call and reserve us a spot.
- My next appointment is the first week of January, and I'll be seeing one of the other doctors in the practice. I will see my doctor just two weeks after that...I can't believe I'm so close to going every 2 weeks!!

Big news -- We have chosen a name for our Baby Boy, and I'll post it soon! (I need to make sure all of my family knows before I post it for the world to see.) Any guesses on what we may have chosen???

2007-12-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

A Very Belated Thanksgiving Post

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since Thanksgiving! I hope each of you had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Jon and I stayed in Tennessee and celebrated with his parents, oldest sister, her husband and their two boys. Jon's dad made a fried turkey, which was delicious!! It didn't even taste fried; it was moist and tender and juicy. Yummy! His mom, sister and I made all of the side dishes and desserts. Below are pictures of what I contributed to our yummy meal.

Back row: Turtle Pumpkin Pie & Turkey Sugar Cookies

Front row: Pecan Stuffed Squash & Gourmet Green Beans

Close-up of the turkey cookies. I had a lot of fun making these!

Pecan Stuffed Squash
Thanks to my sister, Tara, for sharing the recipe. They were a big hit!!!

Gourmet Green Beans -- fresh green beans sauteed with mushrooms
These were delicious!!! I think they are my new fave!

Whew! I'm so glad to be finished cooking!

Jon carving the turkey. Let's eat!!

This was our last Thanksgiving as a family of 2!

(Shout out to Faith for letting me borrow

the super cute maternity tops!!)

Well, that was our Thanksgiving in a nutshell. It's time to start "dreaming of a white Christmas"

2007-11-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

Glucose Tolerance Test

I am currently under the influence of a super-concentrated, sugary glucose drink. Such fun! Today is my day for the infamous glucose tolerance test, which checks for gestational diabetes. My insurance company makes me do all lab-type procedures at an independent laboratory; I can't do lab work at my doctor's office. When I called the lab to schedule the test they said I could come by and pick up the glucose drink, drink it at home and then wait an hour and come to the lab for the blood draw. This was much to my liking since I wasn't really wanting to spend my entire morning at the lab. Well, about 30 minutes ago I drank the lovely drink. I had been dreading it because I've heard so many horror stories about how nasty it is. I'm pleased to report that my glucose drink was lemon-lime flavored, and I felt like I was drinking a sprite. Not too bad!! I will be heading up to the lab shortly to have them draw my blood for the test, and after that I'm looking forward to a nice, big glass of water and some FOOD! I'm starving!! Sorry this isn't an exciting post, but I am trying to kill time and keep my mind off how hungry and thirsty I am.

Oh, some other news...I cracked the front bumper on my car a couple of days ago and put some nice scrapes in the paint. Just lovely. After work on Monday I went to the lab to pick up my glucose drink. As I was turning into my parking space I hit the metal hand-rail that was part of the wheelchair ramp. The noise it made was SO LOUD! I was totally embarrassed because there were people around, and of course I started crying my eyes out. I cried all the way home and then cried more when I told Jon what had happened. He handled it very well and reminded me that it was only a bumper, and that the important thing was that me and baby were alright. I guess I was just having a major pregnancy moment and/or pregnancy-induced blindness when I got into my little fender-bender. Ahhh, the joys of pregnancy.

Ok, off to the lab...

2007-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

Does this shirt make my belly look big?!?
Or did the camera add 10 pounds! ;)

These pictures were taken a little over a week ago...on the day I turned 22 weeks.

When I look in the mirror I don't feel like I look this chubby, but I guess it's time to face the facts and realize that my belly is getting bigger and bigger. A sweet older lady at our church recently told me I was looking "thick" around the middle. Hmmm, I guess that's the best way to describe how I look right now.

Ultrasound update: We had an ultrasound with a maternal-fetal specialist a couple of days ago. Our baby boy didn't cooperate too well in the showing-of-his-hands department, despite my pep talks with him in the days leading up to the appointment. He decided to keep one hand between his legs (typical male, huh?!) and the other one under his belly or some place where we couldn't see it. But finally, towards the end of the ultrasound he decided to cooperate just a tad and opened up his hands. The doctor said everything looked normal -- yay!!!

Baby has been moving around A LOT!! I first felt him move on October 7, which was a little over a month ago. It is so amazing to feel a little person moving around inside of me. A couple of weeks ago Jon felt the baby move for the first time, and he thought it was really neat. Our little sweet pea is the most active in the morning and at night. I hope being nocturnal isn't one of his best characteristics once he is born. :)

I have been soooo clumsy lately! I can't even remember all of the situations because there have been too many, but they include: slinging mascara all over my bathroom countertop, mirror and myself while getting ready one morning; dropping various foods on the floor while cooking; knocking things off the refrigerator shelves while trying to get something else; running into walls, doors and doorways; knocking a piece of nice stemware off the shelf- and breaking it - while shopping at Kirkland's, etc., etc., etc. Ahhh, deep breath.

Oh wait, I can't take a deep breath because I feel like I can hardly breathe sometimes!! I know that being short of breath is a very common pregnancy symptom, but come on, can I least bend over and tie my shoes without having oxygen deprivation?!?! What's going to happen when I get really big those last couple of months of my pregnancy? I may need an oxygen mask just to walk around the house!

Enough of my bantering for now. OSU and KU are on t.v. right now, and I MUST watch some of the game since it is actually being aired here in Tennessee.

Until next time...

2007-11-03T16:04:00.001-07:00

Update -- Week 22

I was officially 22 weeks pregnant this past Thursday. I had a doctor's appointment and ultrasound this past Monday. Here's the scoop:

- Blood pressure normal
- Gained 6 pounds since my last visit. I didn't gain anything at my previous visit, so I was expecting a big gain this time. This brings my total weight gain to 9 pounds.
- No placenta previa!! My ultrasound at 17 weeks showed placenta previa, but my doctor said that can be normal early in pregnancy. I was very happy to hear that the placenta had moved up to where it needs to be.
- The baby is still a Boy!!
- He weighed 15 1/2 ounces
- We got a great look at his feet -- they seem so big!
- We also got a close-up shot of one of his ears. So cute!
- His brain, heart, kidneys and other major organs appear to be developing normally.
- The only concern was that his pinky finger and ringer finger (on his left hand, I think) appear to be overlapping. My doctor said more than likely it is nothing serious (his hand may have been scrunched at that moment or something like that), but she's having me come in for another ultrasound this Thursday just to get another look at his hand. Jon and I aren't too concerned about it, but we'd appreciate your prayers for this situation.

In about 2 to 3 weeks I get to experience the lovely glucose test, which screens for gestational diabetes. My doctor is having me go to the lab for the test about a week before my regular appointment so that the results will be ready by the time I see her for my appointment. I've heard conflicting reports about the infamous "orange drink." Some of my friends say it was nasty and icky, and some have said it wasn't too bad. I'm hoping for the latter.

We're still having the Great Name Debate. My favorite names are Ethan, Owen and Evan. Jon's favorite names are Paxton, Trenton and Braden. I think we've narrowed it down to Ethan or Paxton, but that could always change.

As far as bedding/room decor -- I've looked online a few times and made a list of my favorite crib sets. I still need to go to each of the stores and see what everything looks like in person. I may try to do that next weekend, but honestly, I'm not in a big rush for some reason.

I'm having trouble with our scanner at the moment, but as soon as I figure out the problem I'll post a couple of the ultrasound photos.

2007-11-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!

Look what my awesome secret pal at work gave me for Halloween. She made me a very neat card, which was impressive in itself; but check out the pumpkin!! She made me a little baby pumpkin, complete with a blue pacifier and a ribbon around the stem that says "It's a Boy!" My secret pal is super crafty and has been very generous. I may need to take some Martha Stewart lessons from her. Ha!

2007-10-30T17:58:00.001-07:00

Update to previous post

So, yesterday I blogged about my mis-adventures regarding the orange food coloring search and my terrible baking fiasco. Do you remember that I mentioned my cookie dough looked more pink than orange? Well, um, I now know why. You see, this evening I was being Betty Crocker once again and baking cookies for my secret pal at work. Before I started making the orange icing I read the back of the food coloring box just to double-check the "recipe" for making orange food coloring. That's when I did a double, no triple, take!! To make orange you use 50 drops of YELLOW and 8 drops of RED. I must have been dyslexic on Sunday because I used 50 drops of RED and 8 drops of YELLOW. I had completely switched the amounts. Duh! Duh! Duh! I had to take a little moment to collect myself and decide whether I was going to laugh or cry. Once I composed myself I was able to make a batch of icing...this time with the correct amounts of each color. And guess what -- I ended up with a lovely and beautiful shade of orange icing for my sugar cookies.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS read the directions not once, not twice, but at least three times!! (Especially if you are preggo!)

** I had a doctor's appointment and ultrasound yesterday, and everything went well. I'll try to write that update tomorrow. My brain is too tired tonight.

2007-10-29T17:55:00.001-07:00

Pregnancy Brain Moment #1

I told myself I wouldn't be one of those women who loses brain cells while pregnant and/or after having kids. Well, I'm starting to eat those words. I feel like my brain is slowly disintegrating as the days and weeks of my pregnancy go by.

Case in point...this past Saturday night I made a trek to Wal-Mart to stock up on groceries and get supplies to do some Halloween baking. A recipe I was going to make called for orange food coloring, so off I trotted to the Land of Edible Chemicals (a.k.a. the baking aisle). I saw the little boxes of edible chemicals...oops, I mean food coloring...all lined up so neat and orderly on the shelf. I saw the red coloring, the yellow coloring, the neon coloring combo pack and the regular ol' combo pack (red, yellow, blue, green). I kept searching and searching for the orange food coloring. I looked at every. single. box. on. that. shelf...and still no orange food coloring was to be found. After what seemed like an hour of reading the label of every single box of food coloring I finally realized that the wonderful world of Wal-Mart does not carry orange food coloring. You know why? Because RED and YELLOW make ORANGE!!! Duh! Duh! Duh! I almost laughed out loud right there in the middle of the aisle. I picked up the box that had red, yellow, blue and green food coloring and turned it over. Lo and behold, there was the very simple "recipe" for orange food coloring on the box. 50 drops of red coloring and 8 drops of yellow coloring. So, it's that simple, huh? Next time, I may just go straight to the specialty cooking store and stock up on "unique" colors in order to not waste precious time and brain cells.

Oh, and to top it all off...I had bad, bad, bad luck while baking yesterday. My orange looked more pink; my cute little candy-corn shaped cookies didn't work out too well; I dropped
cookies on the kitchen floor as I was icing them; and a few pans of my cookies were all hard and nasty (even though I baked them for a shorter time than the recipe called for). What a day, what a day.

I'm sure there will be many more moments like these to share in the coming months. :)

2007-10-02T15:58:00.003-07:00

Super cute socks!

For some reason this picture wouldn't upload onto my last post. Ugghh!

Anyway, these fabulous Halloween socks were in the $1 bin at Target today. I definitely had to get some for our little boy to wear next year for his 1st Halloween. Too cute!!

2007-10-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's a BOY !!!

We had our ultrasound last Friday and found out we are having a BOY!! We are so very excited! Honestly, I was a little surprised when the ultrasound tech said it was a boy. I didn't have any feelings about whether it was a girl or a boy, but many of our friends and family thought we were having a girl, so that's what had been stuck in my head. It was amazing to see his brain, face, spine, ribs, heart, kidneys, arms, hands, legs, feet and little booty. We weren't sure if he was going to cooperate and let us know his gender because he kept his little feet and legs closed through most of the ultrasound. The tech had to shake my belly several times to get him to cooperate.

We thought I was 19 1/2 weeks at my ultrasound, but everything measured in the 17 week range. My doctor decided to move my due date back two weeks, so it is now March 6. Now we'll have to wait 2 extra weeks until we meet our little guy. What's exciting is that we'll get to have another ultrasound at my next appointment in 4 weeks! The doctor wasn't able to get really clear and accurate pictures of the baby's heart since I am not as far along as we thought, but the baby should be more developed by my next appointment.

One other bit of good news...my weight was exactly the same as it was at my last appointment. Woohoo! However, I'm sure the scale will make up for it and I'll probably gain 10 pounds at my next appt. :)

The baby is in the breech position.

His head is on the left looking downward,

and his spine runs along the top of the picture.

I hadn't really felt the need to start shopping for the baby...until today. I was at Target getting some necessities and birthday gifts, and of course I had to peruse through the baby department. I seriously could've spent about $100 buying cute little onesies and baby accessories, but I tried to have a little self control. Here are a couple of things I did end up purchasing (thanks to the cheap price tags)...

These little pants were on the super cheapo clearance rack at Target.

Left: khaki cargo shorts -- 18 months

Right: blue cotton lounge pants -- 3 months

I'm on fall break all this week from work, and the break was very needed! I spent yesterday being lazy, today running errands and doing laundry, and tomorrow we're heading to Oklahoma to visit my family and friends. It should be a fun time!

2007-10-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Jon's 36th Birthday!!

Cheesin' with a card

Jon and Ben with their Tennessee Titans cake

Jon with his personalized birthday balloon

Last Friday, September 28 was Jon's 36th birthday! I feel like it was just a few months ago that we were celebrating his 35th birthday. What a quick year it has been!!!

The pictures above are from Jon's joint birthday party with his nephew, Ben, whose 10th birthday was September 24. We had a joint party a couple of weekends ago because Jon's grandmother and two of his aunts were in town visiting. It was a very fun evening!

On Jon's actual birthday we celebrated all day long. I stayed home from work that day (due to my ultrasound appt), so we started the day off with a yummy breakfast of some of Jon's favorite foods...biscuits & gravy, bananas, Krispy Kreme donuts and orange juice. After our doctor's appointment I told Jon he could pick what we ate for lunch, and he chose a greasy Checkers hamburger, loaded cheese fries and a Coke. Mmmm, tasty but LOTS of calories! :) That evening we drove to Nashville and ate dinner on historic 2nd Avenue at the Old Spaghetti Factory (similar to Spaghetti Warehouse). Our food was great, and our waiter even had the entire restaurant sing "Happy Birthday" to Jon. We then strolled several blocks through downtown and made our way to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) to see Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy. It was a Cirque de Soleil type of show but on a smaller scale. It was pretty entertaining!! All in all, I think Jon had a fun and eventful birthday!!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

2007-09-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the BIG day!!

Tomorrow we go for the ultrasound, and we are so very excited!! We definitely want to find out the gender and are hoping Baby Holder cooperates. I don't have a feeling one way or another about whether it's a boy or girl. Jon has a hunch it's a girl.

Below is a little quiz made up of old wives' tales that is "supposedly" a predictor of the baby's gender. I stole these questions from my friend Kim's blog; she did it about a year and a half ago when she was pregnant with her daughter.

My answers are highlighted...

1. Stare into mirror for at least one minute but not more than three…do your eyes dilate?
Yes = Boy No = Girl

2. Is your hair is getting thinner and stringier each day of pregnancy?
Yes = Girl No (very shiny and full bodied) = Boy

3. Look at the hair on your legs is it growing faster?
Yes = Boy No, about the same as before pregnancy = Girl

4. Look close at your hands, are they rough or smooth? Rough = Boy Smooth = Girl

5. Have your fingernails grown stronger and faster during pregnancy?Yes = Boy No = Girl

6. Are you bugged by your feet being colder than they were before pregnancy?
No, same = Girl Yes = Boy

7. Heart rate below 140 = Boy Heart rate above 140 = Girl
Doctor never tells us the heart rate; she just says it is “good and strong.”

8. Sleepy = Girl Not so sleepy = Boy

9. Sleep on your right side = Girl Sleep on left, your usual choice = Boy

10. Do you dream of having a boy or a girl?
I’ve had dreams of both. I’ve even had dreams of having twins and triplets!!

11. Lots of morning sickness = Girl Not so much = Boy

12. Comfy pregnancy, no problems = Boy More troublesome pregnancy = Girl

13. Does your mom (the child's maternal grandmother) have gray hair or is it colored? (Doesn't matter whether the gray is color or dyed.)
If grandma has gray hair showing = Boy If grandma's hair is another color = Girl

14. Taste for sweets = Girl Taste for pickles = Boy

15. Must have a glass of O.J. in the morning = Girl O.J. isn't on your mind everyday = Boy

16. Carrying the baby high = Girl Carrying the baby low = Boy (I think -- I'm a little "poochy" in my lower tummy area)

17. Chinese conception chart: Girl

18. What is dad's intuition? Girl

19. Drano test Don’t have any Drano…horrible, I know.

20. Needle & thread test Can’t find a needle…again, I’m horrible.

Girl: 8 Boy: 8

As you can see, we are split 50/50. Stay tuned for the true results!!!

Also, tomorrow is my sweet hubby's birthday!!! I need to write a special post just for him. That will coming soon as well...

2007-09-13T18:16:00.001-07:00

17 Weeks

My belly profile at 16.5 weeks

Front view at 16.5 weeks

I can't believe I am already 17 weeks pregnant!! I was planning to blog at least weekly in order to keep everyone updated and also to have a journal of my pregnancy. Obviously, that plan went out the window. But, I'm vowing to make a fresh start and am hoping from this point on that I won't be such a blog slacker.

My pregnancy thus far has been good. Yes, I did have the weeks of nausea that I could've lived without, and I did have the chronic fatigue that all expectant mothers experience, but other than that things have been relatively bearable. I still get small bouts of nausea every once in a while, but they aren't anything to complain about. Oh, and I realized several days ago that I am capable of making it through the day without a nap. Now mind you, I do prefer to play the "pregnancy card" and take naps every afternoon after work, but it is nice to know that my fatigue is tapering off and I can still be a somewhat normal person even if I miss my afternoon shut-eye.

Here is a list of things that aren't so positive about being pregnant:

* No sushi -- Not eating sushi has been, by far, the most difficult change to make. I LOVE sushi, I ADORE sushi, and I could eat it almost every single day. Of course, to make matters worse, I've been craving sushi like crazy. Why is it that I crave the things I can't have?!?! I've already told Jon that as soon as I deliver the baby his first responsibility is to get me sushi, and fast! It may be my first post-partum meal.

* No Dr. Pepper -- Now come on, do you really think a Route 44 Vanilla Dr. Pepper will really do any harm to my unborn child??? I'm sure in moderation it wouldn't be a big deal, but I have been pretty strict about my caffeine intake. I do take sips of Jon's coke whenever he has one, but I have yet to drink a full soda-type beverage since finding out I was pregnant. Along with my post-partum sushi order I'm going to request a yummy Vanilla D.P. Can't wait!!

*No coffee -- I've never been a big coffee drinker, but I do enjoy making a small pot of joe on Saturday mornings or treating myself to an occasional Starbucks concoction. I have been craving coffee, especially after I eat a rich meal or rich dessert. I swear that every time I open my fridge the bottle of French Vanilla Coffeemate is looking at me saying, "You know you want some of me" then it gives me a little evil laugh. I do realize that most pregnancy literature says I can safely drink up to 3 cups of coffee per day, but it's just not worth the risk right now. However, now that it's turning cool in the evenings and fall is upon us, I may have to break down every once in a while and indulge myself. Again, a yummy coffee beverage will definitely be on my wish list once this baby is born (especially since it will be February...brrr.)

* Acne -- I feel like I'm a teenager again with the lovely breakouts I've been having. I realize this is just a result of all of the lovely hormones surging through my body, but come on now, is it ever going to end??? I read that by about week 9ish the placenta takes over and nourishes the baby and the woman's hormone levels begin to taper off. I thought the reduction in hormones might calm my complexion down, but so far that hasn't been the case. Oh well, it's a small price to pay for a healthy baby.

* Frequent potty breaks -- Actually, this has tapered off quite a bit, but for MANY weeks I had to get up during the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I realize this is very common in pregnancy, but it cracked me up how I always woke up at 3:30 on the dot every single night. After a few weeks it moved to 4:30, and then 5:30. Now, I can practically make it through the night without having to get up, so I guess the urgency is starting to fade. What's funny is that early in my pregnancy I would also be STARVING when I woke up for my nightly trip to the bathroom, so I would usually come back to bed with a granola bar or a banana. I'm sure my hubby really enjoyed hearing me munch on snacks in the middle of the night!

* Food aversions -- I haven't really had any food cravings, but I have had a lot of aversions to foods I usually like. Prime example, I LOVE mexican food (it's tied with sushi) and assumed I would crave it like crazy when I was pregnant. Nope! Wrong! I think I've eaten at my favorite mexican restaurant only a couple of times since becoming pregnant, and both of those times were because someone else suggested it, not me. I don't think I would have a problem with it now, but I'm definitely not begging to eat mexican food, nor am I craving it. Chinese food, another one of my faves, also hasn't sounded too good. Jon and I did eat at a buffet a couple of weeks ago, and it was good, but I had to be very picky about what I ate. No fun!

* Sleeping on my left side -- I have always slept on my left side, but now that I'm pregnant I cannot stand being on my left side. I've read conflicting things about the whole "sleeping on your left side" theory. Some books say it's okay to sleep on either side, just not your back or stomach; other books say to only sleep on your left side; and others say it really doesn't matter as long as you're comfortable. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?? I'm going with the "either side is fine" theory. I find that I can't stay on one particular side for too long without my hips hurting and without feeling like I'm getting a bed sore.

I hope my list didn't sound too negative, because there are MANY wonderful and great things about being pregnant!! I will have to save those for another post since this one is already a short novella.

Oh, my ultrasound is scheduled for the 28th, which means in 2 weeks we'll know if we are having a boy or a girl! That's also Jon's birthday, so we're hoping it's a fun and special day for many reasons!!!

2007-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Just the THREE of us!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, family and friends, it's time for some special news...

We're having a BABY!!!!

Yep, you read it correctly. We are very excited to announce that we are going to be parents!!! I am currently 14 weeks pregnant, and Baby Holder is due around February 21. We were able to hear our baby's nice, strong heartbeat about three weeks ago. What an awesome sound that was!!! Everything seems to be going much better this time around, and for that we are very thankful.

I am feeling pretty well these days. The first several weeks were filled with nausea, extreme fatigue and just an overall "blah" feeling. I realized one day last week that I haven't been as nauseous, and my favorite foods are finally starting to sound good again, so I'm hoping the worst is behind me. I started back to work a couple of weeks ago, so the tiredness hasn't really gone away. I'm not complaining though...I definitely don't mind taking long naps every afternoon when I get home. I haven't really had any weird food cravings, although when I'm hungry I have to eat immediately! One thing I'm really excited about is still being able wear my regular clothes (well, at least most of them). I'm starting to get a little belly pooch, so my normal clothes will probably be meeting the doom of a storage container pretty soon.

I know posts without pics are not too exciting, so I'll work on that. I need to have Jon take a picture of me so we can start documenting my "expansion." As soon as we do that I'll post some pics.

That's all for now. This preggo girl is super tired, which means bed time is calling my name!! (It doesn't help that I have to be at work at 6:45 every day this week for bus duty. Yuck!!) Anyhoodle, until next time...

2007-06-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Bad Luck Strikes Again!!

I have had the worst luck since moving to Tennessee a little over a year ago. Here's a brief rundown...

1) May 30, 2006 -- While driving our new vehicle (2004 Toyota Sequoia) I was involved in a multi-car accident. I was sitting in traffic at a red light, patiently waiting for the light to turn green. It had been lightly raining that evening, but at the time no rain was falling. I heard a police car siren in the distance and could tell it was getting closer and closer. I saw the police car coming from the opposite direction; I saw the police car slow down to make sure the intersection was clear; I saw the police car approaching the section of the road where I was; I saw the police car fish-tail on the wet pavement; I watched the police car spin several times and head in my direction; and finally, I watched in fear as the police car collided into my vehicle and the one in front of me. It was a VERY scary situation because I saw the whole thing happen and knew the entire time that I was going to be hit. Luckily, no one was badly injured. I did have headaches and shoulder/neck pain for a few months, which was worked out with physical therapy. And actually, I am still getting regular massages (on the police department's dime!) because my neck/shoulder still hurts from time to time. I considered that wreck my "initiation to Tennessee" since I had only been living here about 2 months when it happened.

2) April 5, 2007 -- 11 weeks pregnant. Went to Ob-Gyn appointment for check-up and to hear the baby's heartbeat. The doctor couldn't find a heartbeat with the Doppler, so she did a full ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a little fetus, but no heartbeat. I had miscarried. Jon and I spent the rest of that day (and the weeks that followed) going through all of the emotions that are associated with such a loss. We had already planned to drive to Memphis the day after my appointment and then continue on to Oklahoma to visit my family for Easter. My Ob-Gyn strongly suggested for me to not go to Oklahoma, but Jon and I decided to go ahead and go to Memphis to help keep our minds off of everything....which leads to #3...

3) April 6, 2007 -- Jon and I met my brother and sister-in-law in Memphis to watch a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game. We parked our vehicle in one of the large lots outside of the arena (the lots where you pay $10 to some guy wearing an orange vest) and went on with our evening. After the basketball game we headed back to the parking lot, and as soon as we approached our car one of the parking lot attendants came over to tell us our car had been hit. He said a couple of teenagers had pulled into the parking lot but then decided to turn around, and in the process they backed their car into the side of our vehicle. The parking lot attendant said the teenagers got out of their car, looked at the damage on our car, then hopped back in their car and drove off. It was a hit and run at its finest. Thankfully, the parking lot guy was able to get the license plate number from the car that hit us. We called the police, filed a report, went on with our weekend in Memphis, then had our car repaired when we got back home.

Now for the latest fiasco...

4) June 1, 2007 -- This past Friday night Jon and I went out for dinner and afterwards debated about going bowling, renting a movie, etc. We decided to first take a walk along our city's Greenway (paved sidewalks/ trails for walking, jogging, biking, etc. that wind throughout the city). There are several places in town where you can park and enter the Greenway, so we parked in one of the parking lots and headed off for our walk. It was about 7:30, and we walked for about 30 minutes and returned to our car around 8:00. Note: It was daylight all during this time. Right as we were getting ready to get into our car Jon noticed that one of the backseat windows was broken, and at that same time I realized I was walking through a pile of glass. My adrenaline immediately started pumping and fear came over me, and I said, "Oh no, my purse!!" I opened the back door and saw that my purse WAS GONE!!! Before our walk I had tucked my purse 1/2 way under the backseat and also put our to-go boxes from the restaurant around my purse to disguise it. Apparently my disguise wasn't good enough because the vandal/thief only broke the window that was closest to my purse, and the only thing he/she took was my purse. This person was really gutsy to break into our car in daylight and right by a busy street. Jon called 911 and an officer showed up pretty quickly. There wasn't much we could other than file a police report, so we did that and drove home feeling completely violated! Of course my first thought after seeing my purse was stolen was that I needed to cancel my debit/credit cards ASAP. I called the bank where the majority of our money is and told them to immediately cancel my debit card and credit card. The operator told me that my debit card had already been tried at an ATM at Walgreens 3 times, but that the transactions were denied since the thief didn't know my pin number. The bank operator was very helpful in freezing my accounts, and that's about all we could do at that point. I then called our other bank where Jon has his business accounts and told the operator to immediately freeze my debit and credit cards. The operator said the thief had already made several transactions at an ATM machine and taken out over $500!! How in the world did someone get money out without knowing my pin number?!?! Crazy!! After the third or fourth withdrawal the person had maxed out the amount of money they could get at an ATM and had over drafted our account. The person then tried to purchase $238.00 worth of gift cards at a grocery store, but that transaction was denied by the bank. Thankfully the bank was alerted to the weird transactions and had frozen our debit cards before we even had a chance to call them. Who knows how much this thief would've gotten away with if the bank hadn't seen all the red flags!! Anyway, this is a very long story, but basically my purse was stolen, which contained my checkbook, wallet, cell phone, and other small items (lipstick, gum, etc.). I was also a victim of identity theft because my driver's license and social security card were in my wallet. I know, I know, you are never supposed to leave your social security card in your wallet, but I was stupid and had mine in there temporarily. Jon and I spent several hours on Saturday talking to our auto insurance and going to our 2 banks straightening everything out, opening new accounts, ordering new checks and debit cards, etc. I am supposed to work tomorrow, so Jon is taking the day off to continue sorting out this mess. We need to get the window fixed asap; we need to meet with our insurance agent; we need to pick up the police report to give to the banks for proof that we didn't overdraw our account, etc., etc., etc. I also need to make time to get a new driver's license (and I HATE waiting in line at the DMV), social security card, cell phone, etc. Whew!! This has definitely been a crazy and frustrating weekend; however, Jon and I are very aware of the fact that in the big picture all of these things are not important. We still have a roof over our heads; we still have our jobs; we will be getting all of our money back that was stolen; we still have each other; and most importantly, we have God. We are not going to let this bad person ruin any more days for us!

Sorry for the novella, but I had to vent. I am hoping and praying that my bad luck streak is coming to an end! Here's to a better tomorrow!!

2007-04-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Adam!!!

Today is my younger brother's birthday. He is 24!! Above is a picture of Adam and his sweet wife, Faith. I have loved watching Adam become a husband and father. He is great at both!!
Happy birthday, brother! I hope you have an extra special day!!!

2007-03-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Spring Break!!

Spring break week is finally here! One of the great benefits of working for a school system is having a week off from work every March. It seems like spring break always comes at the perfect time, and it rejuvenates me for the last big push to the end of the school year in May.

My hubby has been doing a work project in Valdosta, Georgia for the past few weeks, and I'm spending my week off with him. I drove down Friday after work, finally arriving close to midnight. Saturday (St. Patrick's Day) we drove to Tallahassee, Florida (less than 1.5 hours from Valdosta) to spend the day. We enjoyed the scenic drive...lots of trees, plantations, ponds, palm trees, etc. We spent some time at a mall eating lunch and window-shopping. After the mall we headed to Lake Ella, which was lovely! Lake Ella is large pond/small lake area that has unique, cute shops, a park, and a walking trail. It was a beautiful day, and many people were walking their dogs and enjoying the weather. We had our 2 dogs with us, and they enjoyed playing in the grass and acting like sissies around the other dogs. We drove back to Valdosta and spent the evening watching NCAA basketball.

Sunday we went to Wild Adventures, which is an amusement park right outside of Valdosta. One of Jon's clients gave him comp tickets, so we enjoyed a FREE day of fun! Wild Adventures has several large roller coasters, kiddie rides, a water park, a train, lots of animals and several shows. The weather was gorgeous, almost a little chilly at times, which was great since we walked around the park for several hours. The park was not too busy...short lines! Whoohoo! That night we went out for a yummy dinner at a steakhouse in Valdosta, and then we vegged and relaxed after our tiring day.

Jon had to start working again yesterday, which meant I got to be lazy at the hotel. I had planned to go to the mall, but instead I got caught up on daytime TV, took my doggies for a walk, and played on the computer. I continued with my laziness last night by flipping between Deal or No Deal and Dancing with the Stars. This morning I'm being lazy again, but after Jon and I have lunch in a bit I'm planning to stroll around the mall and drive around the city. I'm sure the evening will include a nice walk with the dogs, and of course watching American Idol.

We're hoping to head back to Tennessee tomorrow. I'm not sure what we'll do with the rest of the week, but I'm sure it will include some bowling, maybe a movie, hanging out with friends/family, etc. Our 1st anniversary is on Sunday, so we're also trying to plan something fun to celebrate our special day. I'll keep you posted.

I can't get my pictures to cooperate, but hopefully I can eventually put some pics from our weekend on here.

2007-03-01T12:38:00.000-08:00

Another one for the "odd files"

About a month ago I posted about my snow day off from work and how little snow it takes for schools to be closed in Tennessee. I was baffled that a few snow flurries could actually close down an entire school district that has more than 30,000 students, but hey, I didn't complain about my free day at home.

Here's another odd one for you...my school district closed 2 hours early today due to the "potential" for severe weather between 3:00-6:00 this afternoon. Right before I went to lunch I checked the news/weather online, and I noticed a few school districts in neighboring counties were closing early today. My office-mate and I were cracking up and making fun of all the school districts who were closing, but lo and behold, not even 30 minutes later as we were eating our lunch the principal came on the intercom to say, "Teachers and students, school will be ending 2 hours early today." We about had a cow! From that point on the school was chaotic, the phones were ringing off the hook, parents were coming in by the multitudes to check out their kids early, etc. But hey, I was home by 1:15, and again, I'm not complaining. The best part is that we were supposed to stay at work until 6:00 tonight for parent-teacher conferences (and I was dreading it!!), but not anymore!! Whoohoo!

There is a potential for very strong thunderstorms, hail, damaging winds, and even tornadoes during the next few hours, but so far it's just raining. I'm praying we don't get any scary weather, but I'm definitely enjoying being home early. I think I'll retire to the couch now to watch some TV, take a little snooze, and be a Weather Channel junkie.

2007-02-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

Water Leak...Gone!!

It has been about 10 days since the wall above and around our fireplace was fixed due to the water leaks. So far, so good. Jon and I were so excited to finally hang our new purchase...a big clock above the fireplace. It is supposed to rain the next couple of days, so we'll see if the leak has truly been repaired. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

2007-02-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

SNOW DAY!!

Yep, that's right. I am enjoying a snow day from work today!! Many of us here in middle Tennessee have been teased the past few weeks with weather reports predicting snow, ice, sleet, etc, but nothing would ever happen. Alas, the weather forecasters were a little more accurate last night. We were predicted to get about an inch of snow overnight, but we only ended up getting a dusting. However, here is Tennessee even "a dusting" constitutes closing schools. Whoohoo!! The bulk of the snow ended up south of us near the Alabama border, but hey, at this point I'll take what we got. Above are some pictures of the lovely "dusting" of snow on my front sidewalk and driveway.

Hmmm, what should I do with my free day?? I could do some little projects around the house; I could finish up our tax paperwork; I could run errands; I could clean the house... but none of that sounds very fun. My hubby is home this week, so we may just end up spending the day hanging out together. Oh, our infamous water leak is almost completely repaired. At noon today the painters are coming to repaint the wall around our fireplace, and a cleaning lady is also coming to clean up the mess from the repair project. I can't wait to have a normal looking living room again!!

Just got an idea...I think I'll begin my snow day by seeing what good girly shows I have saved on the DVR. How fun!

2007-01-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

Making Progress

It has been a week since my post regarding our water leak. Finally, a week later, we are seeing progress. The workmen tell us they found the root of the problem and have repaired it, but I'm not completely keeping my fingers crossed until it rains again and I see NO water leakage. Today the workers patched the big hole in our wall, and now there is a humidifier/fan sitting in front of the infamous wall in order to absorb any excess moisture. Hopefully they'll be back tomorrow to finish touching up the drywall and then give the entire wall a fresh coat of paint.

It is supposed to rain/snow/sleet starting late Wednesday night into Thursday (possible snow day for me?!?!), so I guess that will be the test as to whether or not the water leak has truly been repaired.

Until next time...

2007-01-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Prayer Request

Please keep my nephew Gavin in your prayers today. He will be undergoing a heart cath procedure this morning. It will be an out-patient procedure, however it is still significant since Gavin will be put under anesthesia. When Gavin had his first major heart operation back in October it took quite a while for him to stop bleeding, so please pray that he will not have too much bleeding during and after the procedure. Please also pray for his parents, Adam and Faith, as they have to turn their son over to the doctors and nurses and also as they have to wait anxiously for Gavin to recover today.

I'll try to update this again as soon as I hear anything.

2007-01-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

The proof is in the pictures...

1) This is the stain left behind from all of the water leaking down the wall. The white patch is where the paint actually peeled off of the wall.

2) More of the paint peeled off

3) This is what I came home to this afternoon. The repairmen cut a hole in the wall and ceiling. Awesome!

I haven't heard an official dianosis or prognosis for my poor wall. I'll update this saga as soon as I know something new.

2007-01-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

Water Leak #3

Yes, you read correctly. Jon and I are experiencing water leak numero tres in our new house. Did I mention that we are experiencing our third water leak and we've only lived in our new house since December 1. What a joy, what a joy. Let me explain the saga...

Back in November, right after the dry-wall had been hung, Jon stopped by the new house to check on the latest progress. It had been raining for a couple of days and he noticed the wall above our fireplace was damp, cold, and darker than the rest of the wall. It wasn't too difficult for him to deduct that water was leaking into the chimney/fireplace and starting to seep through the wall. Hmmm, not a good thing. He called the building superintendent and they sent someone out to inspect the problem. They ended up patching some areas of the roof right around the chimney, and they also sprayed mold killer into the chimney area to prevent future problems. The superintendent assured us and reassured us that the problem had been corrected, so the construction of our house continued...

We moved in, everything around the chimney/fireplace seemed fine, and we really didn't think anything else about it...

Until two weeks ago. We woke up on a Sunday morning to pouring rain and soon noticed that the wall above/around the fireplace was starting to get damp and cold. By the afternoon there were very visible water streaks running down the walls. We put in a call to the building superintendent and he said he'd send someone out the next day. That next day two men came and looked at the walls. They tore shingles off of our roof around the chimney, they dropped a plastic liner thingy (I never saw it, but that's how they described it) into the chimney area, they sprayed again to prevent mold, and then they patched up the roof with new shingles. A couple of days later a guy brought over a big commercial-strength humidifier and fan and sat it right in front of the fireplace to help dry up any moisture in the wall. He said to leave it running for 24 hours. We endured the loud, humming sound of the huge humidifier and fan for the next 24 hours and were told the problem was corrected. The only thing left to do was to schedule a painter to come by and repaint the walls around the fireplace to cover up the water leak marks.
We haven't scheduled the painter yet, and it is probably a good thing...

Because today we awoke to water leak #3. Shortly after Jon got up to let the dogs outside I heard him say, "Baby, the wall is leaking again." I shouted back, "Great, just great." I went to take a look for myself and noticed that water leak #3 was MUCH worse than water leaks #1 and #2. This time, water was actually DRIPPING from around the light switch plate and running down the wall. Dripping to the point we had to put a towel on the floor so the water wouldn't run all over the wood floors and/or carpet. We went ahead and went to church, and on the way we put in a couple of phone calls to the "higher-ups" of the building company. When we came back home from church more of the wall was damp, and some of the paint was bubbling up and peeling away from the wall. It almost made me want to sing, "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a wonderful day..." Seriously, how can someone say they have "fixed" the problem, and now the problemo is WORSE than before?!?! We finally got in touch with someone from the building company, and they said they would have someone out here asap tomorrow. They also said this time the problem would be corrected. Hmmm, I'm not so sure I'm trusting that answer right about now. Jon and I have told the company that they may just need to knock out the wall and start over, because apparently fixing it 3 times hasn't corrected the original problem. I'm thinking we need an expense-paid stay at the local DoubleTree hotel for a couple of weeks while someone builds us a new wall, fireplace, and chimney. But, that's just my opinion.

I guess we'll see what they say tomorrow. Until then, I'll continue to watch the water streaks get darker and the paint peel in more spots. Oh what fun!

2007-01-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FAITH!!!

Today is my wonderful sister-in-law's birthday!! Faith is 22 years old!

This picture is of Faith and my brother, Adam. It was taken last Memorial Day weekend (unfortunately, all of my more recent pictures of Faith aren't saved on this computer...darn!).

I have told Faith so many times that I absolutely knew she was "the one" for my brother shortly after they started dating. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. Faith fit in with our family immediately, and I just knew there was something special about her. She and my brother were married in November of 2004, and I have loved seeing their marriage grow. This past October she gave birth to my precious nephew Gavin, and let me tell you, she is such a natural mother. She is so good with Gavin, and he is so lucky to have her as his mommy. Through all of Gavin's health problems Faith has been very strong, brave, and courageous. Her faith and trust in God is unwavering, which is an encouragement to many people.

Faith, I pray you have many more years ahead, and I hope the next year is your best yet!

2006-11-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

Still Homeless...what a day!

Well, here it is almost 8:00 on November 30...the day we were supposed to move into our new house. "Supposed to" were the key words there. It has definitely been a crazy & nutty day for Jon and I. Our closing was scheduled for 4:00 this afternoon, but then it got moved to 5:00 because things were still being finalized. About 4:15 Jon and I started driving to the new house to get one last good inspection in before the closing when we got a phone call saying the computer system had crashed at the mortgage/title company and they couldn't finish processing our paperwork. The lady said they were hoping to get it fixed and would keep us posted. Finally around 5:00 we were told there would be no closing today and that they would call us first thing tomorrow morning. Ugghh! This set-back has been both a blessing and a frustration all at the same time...

First, it is kind of a blessing because I am sick and puny and wouldn't have had any energy to enjoy our new house tonight. I've had a terrible headache for the last 4 days with hardly any relief from the drugs I've been taking. Last night I almost went to the emergency room because my head hurt so bad and nothing would take the pain away. I eventually fell asleep and woke up this morning feeling better, so I decided to go ahead and go to work. I was doing fine until about 10:00 this morning and then I felt like I had been hit by a truck! My head was pounding and I was starting to feel all achy and lousy. I called my doctor and his Physician Assistant could see me in the afternoon, so I went ahead and left work. Going to the doctor meant I had to miss our final walk through of the house with the building superintendent, but Jon took care of it and said everything looks great. By the time I got to the doctor I was feeling absolutely miserable. I figured the doctor wouldn't do much for me since my only symptom has been this terrible headache, but lo and behold, the nurse checked my temperature and I had a fever of 100 degrees! No wonder I felt so bad!! The P.A. didn't know exactly what was wrong since I had no other symptoms, but she went ahead and gave me an antibiotic just in case I am coming down with strep or a respiratory infection (both are going around right now). She also told me to stay drugged up on tylenol and ibuprofen for my aches and pains. So, as much as Jon and I wanted to be in our new house tonight, I must say that I'm not too upset because now I get to rest and relax. I've already called in sick for work tomorrow since it won't have been 24 hours since I've had a fever. I'll have to drag myself out of bed to go do our closing, but I'm hoping to feel well enough to at least do a little unpacking and organizing at the new house.

The bad things about not closing today...Jon already had several friends lined up for tonight to help move our stuff out of storage and into the new house. We have to be out of the storage unit by tomorrow, so tonight was going to be a moving party. Also, the big storm system that is moving across the midwest brining super cold temperatures and storms should be in middle Tennessee tomorrow, so we were hoping to beat the storm and have most of our things moved into the house tonight.
We were able to kind of compromise though...right now Jon and three other guys are loading everything from our storage unit into a U-haul truck, then they are going to drive it to the new house and park it in the driveway for the night. One of the guys is off work tomorrow, so as soon as we close and get the keys he's going to come back and help unload the stuff from the truck into the house. At least there won't be very far to go with the stuff! However, it will be a blustery, cold, and windy day. Blah!! I may have to dig out enough kitchen utensils to make us all some hot chocolate. :)

Anyway, it has been a pretty frustrating day as far as the house goes, and me being sick hasn't made it much better, but I'm hoping and praying tomorrow goes more smoothly. I'm not sure when we'll have internet access at the new house, but I'll do my best to post some pictures soon, even if I have to do it from someone else's computer.

Signed,
Hoping to be homeless no more in Tennessee

2006-11-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

A long overdue update...

1) Gavin -- Thank you to all who have been praying for my sweet little nephew, Gavin. He was born October 13 and had his first heart surgery on Tuesday, October 17. The days following the surgery were like a roller coaster ride...he'd take one step forward, then two steps back, then another step forward, etc. He steadily improved and was released from the hospital about 2 weeks ago. I know my brother and sister-in-law are ecstatic to finally have their baby boy home. Even though they have been limiting visitors, Gavin somehow caught a pretty nasty stomach virus this past weekend. He was hospitalized Monday evening, and hopefully he'll be going home tonight. The doctors didn't want to take the chance of him getting too dehydrated, so he has been getting a lot of IV fluids. We're praying that the worst has passed and that Gavin can beat this virus and get better very soon. Jon and I took a trip to Oklahoma the last weekend in October to see Gavin (when he was about 2 weeks old). We fell in love with the little guy, and we can't wait to see him when we go back for Christmas.

2) Homeless nomads -- Yes, Jon and I are homeless nomads. We spent the last couple of weeks of October packing and moving out of our house, and we closed on Halloween. The first few days of being homeless we stayed at Jon's parents' house, then we went to a hotel for a week, and now we're back at his parents' house again. We are very thankful that his parents' have let us practically move in with them, but two adults and two dogs sharing a small bedroom is starting to lose its appeal. Our new house is almost ready! More than likely we'll do a walk through early next week, and barring anything being majorly wrong we should close and be able to move in at the end of next week. We already have new living room furniture and a new washer & dyer scheduled for delivery on Friday, Decemeber 1, so hopefully we'll be in the house that day. We went by the house yesterday and the flooring guys had just finished and were packing up. We have wood flooring in the entry way, dining room, and kitchen; carpet in the bedrooms, living room, and bonus room; and vinyl/linoleum in the bathrooms and laundry room. It looks like all that's left is installing toilets, kitchen appliances, and blinds, and also putting another coat of paint on all the walls. I detest moving, unpacking, and figuring out where everything needs to go, but Jon and I are definitely excited to move into our new house. Here are a couple of pictures from earlier this week.

3) Thanksgiving is here! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the food and the good times spent with family and friends. Plus, it's not too shabby having 3 days off from work. Jon and I are staying in Tennessee and celebrating with his family. We're having a traditional meal tomorrow for lunch, and I can't wait. His mom is making almost everything from scratch, so it should be great. I'm contributing by making my fave...GBC (green bean casserole). Thanksgiving isn't the same without some good ol' GBC. I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend will entail, but I'm hoping to go bowling, catch a movie, check out some Christmas light displays, and just relax a bit before we have to spend the next few weeks unpacking and organizing our new house. I am thankful for so many things this year: my new husband who is so great and wonderful; my family back in Oklahoma who I love and miss so dearly; my new in-law family that I've been getting to know since living in Tennessee; Gavin and his successful surgery; my dear friends; my job; my health; my house; and much more. I hope each of you have a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving!!

2006-10-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

Gavin is here!!!

Gavin Parker Kuykendall arrived today!! He was born right around 2:00 p.m.; weighed somewhere in the range of 6 pounds, 3 ounces and 6 pounds, 8 ounces (depends on which family member you talk to...I'll get it straight eventually!); and was just over 19 inches long. He also has tons of dark hair! The doctors had warned Adam and Faith that Gavin would be blue-ish due to his heart condition, but my mom said that Gavin was a healthy, pink baby boy. The doctors reported that Gavin had a good strong cry, which was great! Gavin received some medication through his umbilical cord that will help keep his heart ventricles/chambers open during the next few days. The doctor reported that Gavin's condition is exactly what they expected it to be and no worse. Praise God!! As of now Gavin's surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, so please keep the prayers pouring in for Adam, Faith, Gavin, and the medical specialists.

By the way, even after having ptossin and getting her water broken, Faith never progressed much past 4 cm, so they ended up doing a c-section. She made it through very well, however she will now be recovering from a major operation as well as worrying about her precious baby. Please pray for her to have quick healing!!

I don't have any pictures yet, but as soon as I do I'll post them on here!!

2006-10-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Gavin Parker

Many of you already know that my brother, Adam, and his wife, Faith, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. It will be a boy, and his name is Gavin Parker. I am excited to announce that tomorrow, October 12, Faith will be induced, and within 24-48 hours sweet Gavin should make his entrance into the world. Please keep Faith in your prayers that she will have a safe delivery without complications; keep Adam in your prayers that he can support Faith as she needs him to during the delivery; and keep all of the friends and family who will be awaiting Gavin's arrival in your prayers as well.

At a routine ultrasound back in June, Adam and Faith were told that baby Gavin has a congenital heart condition called HLHS...hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Basically, this means the whole left side of his heart (which carries oxygen-rich blood throughout the body) is smaller than it should be. There are two options to help correct the problems; either a heart transplant or a series of 3 surgeries. As of now the plan is to do the series of 3 surgeries. Gavin will undergo his first surgery within the first few days of his life; the second will be around 5-6 months of age; and the third around 18 months of age. The upcoming days, weeks, and months will be filled with much anxiety, decision-making, emotions, and hurdles for Adam and Faith, as well as baby Gavin. I am asking anyone who reads this to PLEASE lift up Adam, Faith, and Gavin in your prayers. Please also pray for the doctors, nurses, and specialists who will be tending to this situation that they may use their knowledge and skills to help Gavin the best they can.

Adam and Faith live in the Tulsa, OK area, however due to these complications Gavin will be born in Oklahoma City (about 2 hours away), and his surgeries will also take place there. Adam and Faith will be away from their home, jobs, church, etc. during the upcoming weeks as they stay in Oklahoma City with Gavin. Please pray for their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being as they encounter all of these changes. Please also pray for all of the family members and friends who will be making the 2-hour drive to regularly be with Adam, Faith, and Gavin.

Faith and Adam have created a blog site dedicated to Gavin. It is http://www.gavinparker.blogspot.com. Currently, Gavin's blog has a link to a website that details the heart condition he has, and hopefully in the next couple of days his blog will contain pictures of him! Family and friends will help update the blog site, so please check it regularly for pictures, as well as updates on Gavin's surgery and condition. There will be a place to leave comments; please feel free to comment or leave a note if you wish.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to be in Oklahoma when Gavin arrives due to a speech therapy convention my job is having me attend. I will be at the convention the next couple of days, and I may not be able to update my blog with information about Gavin as quickly as I'd like. Please check Gavin's blog site for the most up-to-date information during the next few days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tara's 31st Birthday!!

Tomorrow is my sister's 31st birthday! She may get to share her special day with Gavin, but that depends on how quickly he wants to arrive. I want to wish Tara a very happy birthday, and I hope her next year is filled with many blessings!!!! I miss you and love you, sis!

2006-10-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

New Homestead

We're making progress....

Hallway Bathroom

Can lighting in the dining room

First time we saw it and it looked like a "house"

Standing in the kitchen; looking towards a bedroom & the stairs

Lookin' good!

It's amazing that just 3 weeks ago we had a pile of rocks and dirt, and now we have a house! It has a roof and fireplace...I think we should go ahead and move in. What else do we need?! :)

2006-10-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

FALL BREAK...and other updates

One of the great perks of working for a school system is fall break, and I was fortunate to have fall break all last week (October 2-6). I began my week of freedom by taking a CPR course on Saturday, September 30. My CPR certification expired a few years ago, so it was DEFINITELY time to renew. Plus, with the upcoming birth of my nephew who will have congenital heart problems I wanted to brush up on my infant/child CPR. Jon has also been wanting to refresh his life-saving skills, so we took it together. Having him there made the 8-hour course much more tolerable. Besides, who better to practice rescue breathing on than my own hubby!! :)

The day after CPR (Sunday, October 1) I left my house at 0630 in the morning to begin my trek to Oklahoma to visit my family. The best thing was that I had told only my mom that I was coming home...no one else knew! The reason I left so early and the reason I wanted to surprise everyone was because the church I grew up in was hosting a very special event in honor of my brother, Adam, sister-in-law, Faith, and their soon-to-be-born son, Gavin. It was an event to shower Adam and Faith with love, prayers, support, and encouragement, and I definitely wanted to be there (especially since I wasn't able to make it back to Oklahoma for their baby shower). Thanks to cruise control and the lack of highway patrol cars that day, I made it from my driveway in Tennessee to the church parking lot in Broken Arrow in exactly 9 hours! That's pretty good considering the drive should really take close to 10 hours. Shhh...don't tell anyone about my lead foot! :) It was so great to be a part of the special occasion for Adam and Faith!!! It was also great to surprise my family. I had my dad, mom, sister, Faith, as well as myself, in tears. I miss them all so much!!!

I spent the next couple of days visiting with my grandparents, parents, siblings, siblings-in-law, niece, nephew, and friends. I had a great time visiting and catching up with everyone. I was also glad to finally see baby Gavin's nursery and all of the sweet things Faith received at her baby shower. All of the clothes were so tiny and cute!

I drove back to Tennessee on Wednesday, and was able to spend the rest of the week/weekend with my hubby. We selected everything for our new house (flooring, cabinets, countertops, brick, paint, etc.) and also met with the superintendent/contractor to specify where we wanted certain lights, outlets, etc. It was a relief to get all of that taken care of (now we'll just cross our fingers that they don't mess it up too badly!). We also spent some time looking at furniture and washers/dryers, but we still have a few weeks before needing to nail down those decisions. Our original completion date was November 30, but the builder really thinks the house will be ready 1-2 weeks before that.

Our current house is practically sold. We accepted a contract last Friday, and the couple who want to buy the house have already been pre-approved for their loan and they have also put down their earnest money. I was hoping to have a "sale pending" sign in the yard, but our realtor doesn't like to do that until the house has been appraised and inspected. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks those things will be taken care of and the "sale pending" or "Sold" sign will be in the yard. We are scheduled to close on Halloween...I hope it doesn't cut into my trick-or-treating plans. Ha Ha! Jon and I are debating between moving into an apartment for 1 month (if they don't charge us an exorbitant amount to do such a short lease), staying at an extended stay hotel, or staying with his parents. If our new house isn't ready until the end of November then it will be worth it to get an apartment or stay at a hotel, but if the house is ready by mid-November, then we may just stay with his parents for a couple of weeks. So many decisions and so many factors to consider. Please keep us in your prayers these next few weeks as we juggle packing, moving, Jon working out-of-town, me going to two different workshops/conventions for work (one is for 2 days and the other is for 3 days), as well as a trip to Oklahoma squeezed in there to see our new nephew. Whew!

My week off was very productive, and today I was back to the grind. It will be a short week though... Thursday-Saturday I'll be at a speech pathology convention. I'll do another post with pictures of the new house.

2006-10-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY, JON!!!

Last Thursday, September 28th was Jon's 35th birthday!! My plan was to post a birthday tribute to him on his actual birthday, but somehow that didn't happen, so it's better late than never.

We celebrated Jon's birthday with his parents, two sisters, brother-in-law, and three nephews. Everyone came to our house for pizza, dessert, and a party. I made two of Jon's favorite desserts...cheesecake and brownies. Jon loves 80's music, so I had 80's songs playing and we all had a lot of fun reminiscing about each song. It was a fun celebration!! After Jon's family left, he and I went out for some late-night bowling. It was a lot of fun, especially since it was cyber-bowling (bowling in the dark)!! A few of his closest friends were busy last weekend, so hopefully this coming weekend we can get together with all of them and have a another party to celebrate Jon's big 35th birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jon!! You are an awesome man and an awesome husband!! I hope the next year is filled with a lot of happiness and special times for you. I can't wait to spend many more birthdays with the love of my life. I love you!!!

2006-09-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

6 Months!!!

I can't believe Jon and I have already been married 6 months! That is half a year! Time really is flying by.

My sweet husband gave me 6 beautiful roses and a very sweet card to mark this milestone in our marriage. He left this morning to go out-of-town for a few days, so he gave me the flowers and card last night. I honestly didn't think he would remember that today was our 6 month anniversary, so I was a very happy girl when I found my surprises. By "found" I mean this...last night Jon complained his stomach hurt and asked if I'd get him some Pepto from the medicine drawer in our bathroom. Being the fabulous wife that I am (wink, wink) I jumped right off the couch and got him the tasty pink medicine. About 15-20 minutes later he asked if we had any other medicine to help his stomach issues. He said he thought there was some Immodium or something in the cabinet under our bathroom sink. Honestly, I didn't think we had anything else. But, being the sweet wife that I am, I once again pried myself off the couch and went searching for Immodium. Lo and behold, when I opened the cabinet I found a sweet card and beautiful roses! He hid them there so I would find them this morning (they were right next to my flat iron that I use every morning), but then he decided to go ahead and give them to me last night so the flowers wouldn't wilt during the night. What a sweetie!! (By the way, the stomach issues were a hoax!)

I am so thankful for my husband. He is extremely thoughtful and caring; he loves me unconditionally; he puts up with me when I'm grouchy and tired; and he puts my needs/wants before his own. God has definitely blessed the first 6 months of our marriage, and I can't wait to see what the future months bring.

I love my hubby!!!

2006-09-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Staff with Staph

I was still mourning the death of my beloved spinach today (see yesterday's post) when I was informed a staff member at my school has contracted staph infection. And not just any ol' staph infection. It's the MRSA strain, which means it is HIGHLY resistant to most antibiotics used to treat staph infection. Yippeee...now I have another life-threatening microbe to worry about.

The school district I work for is large...more than 30,000 students throughout the district/county. We have made the Nashville TV news and newspapers the past couple of weeks due to an outbreak of staph infection. About 30 students have had it...most of them have been high school students, and most of them are athletes (staph is typically found in "dirty" areas...sports equipment, towels, etc.). I thought my school was in the clear since it serves grades K-8, plus we don't have football and other sports like the larger high schools. All of the principals in the district had an emergency meeting with the superintendent last week to discuss the staph outbreak, and all faculty and staff had to view a power point presentation about the causes, symptoms, and treatments (or lack there of!) of staph infection. Well, lo and behold, one of our middle school teachers has contracted staph. Today the school nurse made rounds to all classrooms reinforcing the importance of frequent hand-washing and not to share personal items. The students are supposed to wash their hands every 2 hours, and teachers are also encouraged to give the kiddos hand sanitizer throughout the day. Wow...and we thought school was for learning. Apparently now it is just a 7-hour a day hand-washing clinic.

The speech therapist who shares an office with me is a germ-phobe like myself. Upon hearing the news of staph now being in our school we immediately doused ourselves with hand sanitizer and started figuring out how we were going to clean our gobs of toys and therapy materials. We busted out the Clorox wipes to get started on this fun project, BUT I decided to read the back of the container just to see what germs it would/wouldn't kill. In big red letters it said "Kills 99.9%* of germs and bacteria." Did you notice the * next to 99.9%? I read the teeny tiny fine print and found out that Clorox wipes do NOT kill staph infection. I guess staph is in the infamous .1% group. The container also said that the wipes cleaned "all household germs*" There was another *, so I read the teeny tiny print again. It said the wipes kills all household germs EXCEPT E.Coli.

So there you have it. No matter how much I clean and scrub I'm more than likely going to be doomed with either E.Coli or the MRSA strain of staph. Sweet!!

I will now resume checking my body for "oozing pimples, boils, and/or wounds" to see if I have staph infection. Just what I wanted to do after work on a Monday.

2006-09-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Spinach

Can you believe the nation-wide recall of spinach?! The recall had been for bagged spinach, but today I heard the recall now includes fresh, unbagged spinach. Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE spinach!! (Let me clarify...I love fresh, leafy spinach, not cooked, mushy spinach.) I buy a bag of spinach every week or two, and I love to make salads with it and eat it on sandwiches. Regular ol' lettuce has pretty much zero nutritional value or flavor, so I have become a big fan of spinach over the years. It was so sad to go grocery shopping today and not be able to buy my favorite leafy green vegetable. The produce section looked bare without it! The scary thing...I had some gastro-intestinal issues Friday evening and shortly after I started feeling bad I saw a news interview with a doctor from Vanderbilt who was discussing the signs and symptoms of E.Coli. Uh, I had the first two or three symptoms on the list!! Luckily, I didn't have a fever or "bloody stools" (I can't believe I just typed that!). I went to bed that night partly thinking that I was over-reacting and partly thinking there was a very good chance I could get sick since I eat so much bagged spinach. I woke up Saturday feeling much better, and I've felt fine ever since, so it doesn't look like the potentially fatal E.Coli virus is attacking my body. Yea!

I wonder how long the recall will last? I don't know how long I can go without a yummy spinach salad.

Spinach, happy trails to you, until we meet again.

2006-09-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Labor Day and the New Homestead

Happy Labor Day!! I cannot believe it is already September! August flew by so quickly!! Jon and I have had a rather uneventful Labor Day. He got up at 6:30 this morning to go fishing, but I decided to take advantage of the holiday and sleep in. While he was fishing I was able to catch up on email, tidy up around the house, and make a grocery store run. When Jon got home from fishing he grilled us some yummy hamburgers, and I made baked beans and guacamole. I also made a peach crisp for dessert, but we haven't broken into yet. Since lunchtime Jon has been working on project for work, and I've been cooking a couple of things to eat this week and just bumming around the house. However, we did get a little excitement at 3:30 when our realtor called and asked if someone could come look at our house at 4:00. Luckily, the house was clean, so all we had to do was stop what we were doing, gather up the dogs, and head on out. The people were only at our house for about 20-30 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. Now we're back to same ole'...Jon working on his presentation and me doing laundry and blogging. Not bad for a day off! We were pretty busy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so it has been nice to not have any big plans today. Friday night we had a Date Night. When I got home from work Jon said, "I made plans for dinner. We have to be there by 6:00." That's all he would tell me. My sweet husband had made reservations at Carrabba's. Yummy!!! I've eaten at Carrabba's back in Oklahoma, but one just opened up in our town, so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad he called ahead because the wait would've been close to an hour. We feasted on delicious bread, salad, Italian food, and more bread. We even had left-overs, which I love! After dinner we went bowling. It was our 3rd Friday night in a row to go bowling. We both really enjoy bowling, but just recently we started going more regularly. Saturday we went out to the new homestead to check on the status of our house. There is an official "SOLD" sign on our lot, and they've already done some work on it. Yea!! We can see the outline of our house, and there are even some pipes and wires sticking out of the ground. I call that progress! I'll keep posting pictures on my blog so you all can see the progress.

2006-08-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

You know you are in Tennessee when...

1) You know you are in Tennessee when you are driving to work and the white Lexus in front of you has a Nascar sticker on their back window. (Hmmm...Lexus and Nascar don't really go together in my book.)

2) You know you are in Tennessee when driving along a county highway you see a man riding a 4-wheeler out to his mailbox. Um, lazy?

3) You know you are in Tennessee when you receive an email at work containing the following two sentences: "I seen the boys together" and "I believe I seen them from 12:30-1:00." That hurts my eyes and ears...ouch!

4) You know you are in Tennessee when you read an article in the local newspaper about "varmint hunters" and see an advertisement that squirrel hunting season opens this weekend. I'm not even going to touch this one.

5) You know you are in Tennessee when you work at a school where all of the faculty, staff, and students are somehow related. Note to self: watch what you say and whom you say it to.

I'm sure I'll be adding to this list in the future. I need to get back to my task of correcting this place of their grammar errors.

2006-08-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Back in the Saddle

Sorry about my hiatus from blogging recently. The past few weeks have flown by and have been nothing short of busy and crazy. It is definitely time to get caught up.

* I LOVED going back to Oklahoma to visit my family a few weeks ago!! I had a great time visiting with my family, catching up with friends, and eating at my favorite establishments. The first evening I was in town I was able to feast on Taco Bueno with my parents, sister, and fabulous friend Diane. I really need to start a petition to entice Taco Bueno to expand to Tennessee. There is nothing else like it! On the second day of my trip I pretty much hung around my parents' house and vegged. After the 10-hour drive the day before I was pooped. That evening I met my wonderful sis-in-law Faith at Mazzio's Pizza for their yummy Tuesday night buffet. Mazzio's has very good pizza, and their ranch dressing and diet Dr. Pepper are pretty good, too. After dinner we met up with my brother and saw "You, Me, & Dupree." It was hilarious!! I'm a huge fan of Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson. (Side note: did you hear that Kate Hudson and her hubby split up? I've heard that Kate and Owen may have a little thing going on. Hmmm.) The following day, Wednesday, I met three of my former co-workers for lunch at a great Mexican place called Compadre's. They have the yummiest and cheapest lunch specials in town! That afternoon my mom and I watched my niece and nephew, which was a lot of fun! My niece and I gave each other make-overs. I must say that for a 5 year-old she's pretty good at giving make-overs. That afternoon my niece and I went to Braum's to get some yummy ice cream, and we also went over to my grandparents' house to visit them. That night was church (it was VBS week...very fun!), and afterwards my mom and I went over to my sister's house for dinner and to play games. The next few days were filled with more yummy meals (Ted's Mexican restaurant, Panara, and some home cookin' at my grandparents' house), and many late nights chatting and playing games with my family. I hated to leave, but I'm hoping I can get back home again soon!

* A few days after I returned from my trip to Oklahoma Jon and I officially decided to sell our house and sign a contract to have a new one built. We spent a few days de-cluttering the closets and moving all of our non-essential things to a storage building. We also revamped our flower beds and did some deep cleaning in the house. We now have a "for sale by owner" sign in the yard, and we also are running an ad in the newspaper. We have had a few phone call inquiries, but only two people have actually come to the house to look around. Our plan is to try the for sale by owner route for a couple of weeks, but if we don't get any good prospects then we'll turn it over to a realtor. Sunday afternoon someone called and wanted to look at the house. They were really close by, so I had only about 5 minutes notice to wake up from my nap, make the bed, tidy up the bathroom and kitchen, and light candles. Then this afternoon as I was driving home from work Jon called me saying someone wanted to look at the house within the next 15-20 minutes. Normally that would've been okay, but today I already had planned to stop by the bank and do a couple of things on my way home. When I finally made it home I did a quick 5-minute spruce-up and waited for the people to stop by. Well, they never came by and they never called back. Annoying! I rushed for nothing!! Selling a house is definitely a scary and stressful process, but we're trusting God will lead us in the right direction.

* Jon and I are very excited about our new house. We were told it may even be started this week! Our potential closing date is November 30, but of course that will be dependent on weather and other things out of our control. The new house will be in a brand new neighborhood, and we already love the houses that are being built. The neat thing is that most of the houses that are currently being built are for employees of the building company or for realtors. Those people have the best insight into what areas of town are the best and what areas are most affordable, etc., so it makes us feel good that they are all choosing this neighborhood. The house is considered 1 1/2 stories; all of the rooms are downstairs and there will be a bonus room and bathroom upstairs. In all, the house has 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, living room, kitchen, breakfast/eating area, formal dining room, bonus room, and large laundry room (that was a must for me AND the dogs!). We are also getting a fire pit built on the back patio...we saw one on another house and Jon really wanted one. I guess we'll be having lots of weenie roasts in the future. :) I know there is always drama involved with building a house, but we are praying that everything will go as smoothly as possible.

* My mom and niece came to visit a couple of weeks ago! However, they ran into some drama on their way here. My mom's car had major issues when they were around Jackson, TN (about 3 hours away from me). Her car wasn't drive-able, so I was going to make the 3-hour trek to Jackson to pick her and my niece up and then drive them back to our house. Well, it just so happened that Jon was on a business trip around Jackson, so he ended up picking them up and driving them to our house. My mom's original plan was to stay 3 or 4 days, but her car couldn't be fixed for several days, so she and my niece ended up getting to stay an entire week. The bad part was this was during the same week I had to start back to work, but we were able to hang out a lot in the evenings. My sweet mom did SO MUCH to get our house ready to sell!! She re-painted our front door, painted the laundry room, worked in the flower beds, cleaned the carpets, touched up scratches in the woodwork (thanks to the dogs), and much more! We definitely couldn't have done it without her!! Jon was also off work for several days during my mom's visit, and he spent a lot of time making the yard look immaculate, touching up paint on the exterior of the house, organizing things, cleaning, etc. Each day when I came home from work I was amazed at what he and my mom had accomplished. The funny thing is that our house was pretty nice to start with, but the detail work they did made a huge difference.
When we weren't busy cleaning and painting, we took my niece and Jon's nephew bowling and to the park, ate at some yummy local restaurants, and just hung out. It was so great to spend an entire week with my mom and niece!!

* I started back to work on August 7...a week of in-services, meetings, and work days. The kiddos started to school on August 14, so I'm already into my third week of the school year. So far I really like the school I'm assigned to. The best part is that there is another speech pathologist at the school with me (the school has grades K-8 so it requires two therapists), and she also happens to live in my neighborhood! She and I get along great, and she has been a HUGE help to me the past couple of weeks. I normally am very overwhelmed at this point because of all the back-to-school junk and paperwork we have to do, but she is super organized and on top of things, which has made things flow smoothly. Since I am new to the school and to the state, it is very nice to have her there to show me the ropes. Tomorrow is the first day I'll see my speech therapy kiddos. About half of my caseload will be kids with disabilities (i.e. Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, severe autism, and other genetic disorders), and the other half will be "regular" kids who need help with articulation and language. Seeing all of those kids is just 1/2 of my job; the other 1/2 is to test preschool kiddos throughout the entire county! I've already tested one little boy and have many more lined up. I really, really enjoy doing speech and language evaluations. It is fun and challenging to evaluate a child and use my knowledge (or lack there of!) to appropriately diagnose them and develop their therapy plan. The preschool testing will keep me very busy, but it will be a nice change from doing therapy all day long.

This has turned into a very long post. I didn't realize I had so much to catch up on! I'll keep everyone posted on our house situation, and I'll also not wait so long to blog again. :)

2006-07-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

There's No Place Like Home

I am so excited right now! Tomorrow morning I am driving back to ol' Oklahoma to spend the week visiting my family and friends. I cannot wait! I even have that subtle nervous feeling you get before Christmas or before doing something really exciting. I guess that means I'm really in need of a trip back home. I can't wait to stay with my parents and catch up with them; I can't wait to see my sister and also check out my brother-in-law's cast (last week he broke his ankle while bike riding...ouch!); I can't wait to play with my sweet niece and nephew and hug them to pieces; I can't wait to see my little brother and his wife (it seems like forever since I've seen them!!); I can't wait to have some good girl time with a few friends; I can't wait to see all of my peeps from church; and I can't wait to make the rounds at my favorite establishments (QT, Braum's, Taco Bueno, etc.). Actually, I've been dying to eat at Ted's...a new mexican restaurant in town. I may just eat myself through the entire week and then starve myself for a few weeks afterwards. I'm definitely going to miss my hubby since I'll more than likely be gone the entire week, but it will be great to spend time with my fam.

2006-07-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Record Heat

Murfreesboro had record heat this past Wednesday. It was 103 degrees!! The weathermen kept mentioning "record heat" on the news. Apparently it hasn't been that hot in over 6 years. The news people also said this has been a record-breaking week for electricity use (fans, air conditioners, etc.). Welcome to M'Boro Erin! Luckily, it is only going to be a mere 95 degrees today, and we're supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow, with tomorrow's high only around 85 degrees. I'll take some rain and cooler temperatures ANY day!

Shout out to my peeps back in Oklahoma who have had temperatures over 100 degrees for several days now. That kind of heat calls for frequent trips to Braums, Sonic, and QT! (Excuse me as I wipe my tears in memory of Braums and QT...sniff, sniff.)

Stay cool!

2006-07-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

Tater Peeler Road and Gretchen Wilson

Odd title for a blog entry, huh? Let me es'plain. BTW, do you like my ebonics? I got that from watching too much People's Court, Divorce Court, Court TV, etc. Anyway, on with my story. A little background: back in April I was hired to work part-time for a home healthcare company. The Nashville branch of the company was new at the time and didn't have many patients yet, but I went through the company's training and did all of the HR junk so that I would be ready to work as soon as they received patients who needed speech therapy. (Side note: The managers at the office have been apologizing that I haven't been able to work yet. Um, do they not realize that my summer breaks are for complete loafing and NOT working?! Trust me, I haven't lost any sleep over the fact that there hasn't been work for me yet!). Well lo and behold, just as I am about to get busy with the start of another school year the home healthcare company now has a few patients for me to treat. Since I did my training back in April, and since I may have had a minor brain lapse as a result of a car accident I was in (a story for another blog), I wanted to do a little more training before I ventured out and started working with medically-fragile patients on my own. This past Tuesday I spent the day with Randy, who is a speech therapist from one of the company's other branches. Randy briefed me and gave me all the scoop about the first patient we'd be seeing, and he said we'd be driving out in the country to get to the lady's house. He also told me that we'd be passing Gretchen Wilson's house, land, barns, etc. (Another side note: I'm a dork and have been wanting to see someone famous ever since I moved to the Nashville area. Hello? There are only like a million stars who live around here, but I keep missing them. One day I WILL run into Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban! People magazine always gets photos of them at a Starbucks in Nashville. I guess I need to get out more!). I tried to be cool and act like driving by Gretchen Wilson's house would be the same as driving by Wal-Mart, but I will admit that I was pretty excited. Randy and I started out in Lebanon, TN (it's on I-40 about 30-40 miles east of Nashville) and made our way out to the country. This is where I about fell out of the car...we turned onto a street called "Tater Peeler Road". Um, does anyone else think that is an odd name for a street/road? Did the peeps who settled the land have nothing more original than "Tater Peeler Road"? Maybe tater peelers are popular in that part of Tennessee, but man, where is the originality? Anyway, we drove down scenic Tater Peeler Road, which is lined with trees and every once in a while we'd see a house, a pond, horses, etc. It was really beautiful and quiet and serene! Next thing I know Randy stopped in the middle of the road and told me to look to my left. Ordinarily the sight of a red barn and some pickup trucks wouldn't be much to fuss about, BUT next to the red barn was a giant TOUR BUS!! And we all know that Gretchen surely must have a decked-out bus. We drove a few more feet and through the trees there was a beautiful green pasture with horses, and up on a hill was a HUGE log cabin. It looked like something in a magazine! We drove a little further and came right up to the gates that lead to Gretchen's driveway. I was tempted to push the button on the speaker box outside of the gate and ask if Randy and I could take a look at Gretchen's place and check out her bus, but then I thought I may end up in jail, so I restrained myself. Maybe we could've acted like we were from MTV's "Cribs" and were there to get footage of her house, her fridge, her garage, her play room, etc. Hmmm, maybe next time I'll use that line to get us in the gates. After I wiped the drool off my chin Randy and I returned to being the professional speech pathologists that we are and continued down the road to our patient's house. Our patient had a lovely 2-story home that looked out onto tons of trees, pasture land, and a pond. The lady's friends have told her "You are Gretchen Wilson's neighbor," but the sweet lady tells them, "No, Gretchen Wilson is my neighbor because I was here first." Way to go sweet little lady, stand your ground!

So...that is my story of driving down Tater Peeler Road and getting to see where Gretchen Wilson lives. I know it wasn't as cool as actually seeing a celebrity, but it was close enough for now. Now I must do my research and find the Starbucks where Nicole and Keith frequent.