super speedy

We have had a busy but productive season 'round these parts! Brief update... readysetgo:

1. We are about 75% done registering. I need to make one more pass at Target, but otherwise... nearly done!
2. We are down to only a handful of gifts to buy for Christmas! I have about half of the ones I have purchased already wrapped and under the tree, which leads us to...
3. All of our Christmas stuff is up! Except the wreath I decided to make, which is still IP. AND I just ordered our Christmas cards, which is SO much better than when I ordered them on December 19th last year!
   
4. We are secretly testing out a baby name this week. We aren't sharing it yet, but we're both stewing on it this week. This is MAJOR progress for us!
5. We went Black Friday shopping and got some awesome deals... including... (drum roll please...) a DYSON! I have wanted one FOR.EV.ER. People were extra nice to me thanks to my belly. I was in the checkout line and on the phone with Lance and told him how much I needed to potty but that I would/could hold it unless Baby kicked me... and the nice guys behind me held my spot in line so that I could go to the bathroom! That HAS to be because of Baby--no one is that nice on Black Friday.
6. I have my glucose test this week. I am a little nervie about it because my dad is diabetic, and I have heard that increases the odds of gestational diabetes... but when it comes right down to it, the condition is either already there or it isn't, and I would rather take care of myself and Baby like I need to if that is an issue. Although I am praying it won't be.
7. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love how homey our house looks right now. And I love buying gifts for people. And I love opening gifts from people. I just love Christmas.
8. I will admit though... one thing I am not super fond of is that we are constantly getting things asking for donations... which I understand... but my hormones are making it hard to deal with. I cry at some of the donation solicitation things. It's ridic. I'm ridic. No denying.
9. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Lance's fam because mine was on a cruise that we were supposed to go on before Baby popped up in all of her joyousness. Instead, we basically lived in pajamas and spent a ton of time together and a ton of time sleeping. It was awesome.
   
10. I'm trying not to be stressed over all that's coming up: my company Christmas party is Friday night, our birthing class is Saturday, my parents' church is having a lunch/shower for us on Sunday, then NEXT weekend is a high school retreat... and then it's nearly Christmas! And our nursery still isn't painted, and Baby remains unnamed. Eesh! I'm trying to just enjoy the moments because I know they're going to pass SO fast. I feel unbelievably blessed to be preparing a nursery and coming up with a name for our healthy baby girl. I don't want to complain or whine or grouch my way through these times. I could not ask for more. So I will be busy among my blessings with a smile.

Summary: I am blessed. I am thankful. I am so happy. And I love Christmas. The end.

more belly!

I'm so thankful that everything is going great and looking just like it should. I'm so amazed and humbled by this whole experience. I'm finally starting to feel the baby moving quite a bit, which is awesome (and brings me peace that things are still okay in there!). Lance has been able to feel several times now, and I love that too. I must admit... I cry a lot... just because it seems impossible to put all of the emotions into words, so sometimes I express them through tears. I know, I kind of pity Lance. :)

I'm also realizing that I wore the same denim skirt 3 out of the last 4 Sundays. It might be time to branch out....

Here is 21 weeks:

22 weeks:

23 weeks:

Here we are at 24 weeks:
Also, one of my dearest friends (and my college roommate) is pregnant as well--about 5 weeks behind me. She went to the doctor this week to find out her baby's gender, and they found some major developmental issues with the baby... as in possibly not survivable developmental issues. I am praying daily for a miracle for them. I ask you to take a moment to lift up my sweet friend Erin and their baby. They are seeing a specialist on Tuesday, and my prayer is that all of the issues will miraculously be gone and that they will have a happy, healthy baby in another 20 weeks. Our God is still the God who has power over life and death and the ability to bring healing in seemingly hopeless situations... and I am praying that He shows us His power and brings glory to His name. Erin and her husband are so faithful to the Lord and are already praying that He will bring glory to His name regardless of how things turn out. I am blessed to be her friend. And I am looking forward to witnessing a miracle!

girls weekend!

My goodness, things have been busy around here! Last weekend, my mom and I drove up to Hot Springs, Arkansas to visit my sister. Somehow, I didn’t manage to take a single picture while I was there, so this will be an imageless post.

We drove up there on Thursday after I got off work… but I’m not 100% certain that was a great idea. It took me over an hour and a half to make the (usually) one-hour trip to my parents’ house thanks to rush hour, and then we ate a super fast dinner and hit the road. We left around 7:30 (which I think was nearly an hour later than we’d hoped). It was already dark at 7:30, and we had a great talk on the way… then just 15 minutes short of the Arkansas state line, my mom got pulled over for a bogus reason (driving in the left lane instead of just passing, despite the fact that there was a police car on the right shoulder, and the law says to move over, but whatever…) but only got a warning… but then couldn’t find her license. We even stopped to look through the car for it and couldn’t find it… so that added another 30ish minutes to the trip by the time we got stopped and then searched the car. I started getting really tired around 11:00, so I yawned for the entire last leg of our trip. We finally got to what we thought was our hotel, only to find out it wasn’t our hotel… and our hotel was one block away. Gracious. On the upside, my mom found her license, but we were so tired and cranky AND it was 1:00 in the morning before we got to bed. Rough start.

Friday, however, was great! Mom and I got up and ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove to my sister’s apartment, where we hung out until lunchtime. Sister and her husband treated us to lunch at their favorite Mexican restaurant, and then we walked around their little mall. It reminded me of Abilene’s mall but with Razorback paraphernalia everywhere. Then we dropped Sister’s husband off at the apartment, went to get ice cream and then Sonic, and then went on a driving tour of Hot Springs (including showing us their church). All the trees up there looked so beautiful! The colors were just gorgeous. After that, we went shopping at an antique mall and found some really fun stuff! I bought a bunch of old books to decorate the house with (I will probably never read any of them… except maybe Moby Dick… but honestly, I bought them only for their looks.). Mom and Sister found some fun stuff too… and just about everything was priced really well. I bought six hardback books (plus a book for Baby) for $21, which is much better than the hardback books I almost bought at Anthropologie for $16 apiece! After our antique mall excursion, we ate dinner together and then went back to Sister’s apartment for awhile longer.

We started off Saturday the same as Friday—eating at the hotel and heading to Sister’s apartment. Then we went to lunch with Sister and her husband and hit the road to come back home. It was a super speedy weekend, but we had such a blast! I feel so blessed to enjoy time with my family so much! --and I love that we are dramaless!

This is the longest I have ever been out of town when Lance was home, and upon my return, he told me that he has a new respect for me and how long I stay alone during the stretches of summer when he’s gone on trips and such. Ha.

I've been working on a million different things--I'm now half done shopping for Christmas!--so hopefully I'll have time to update more soon. I think it's about time for another belly update... just as soon as I have a free minute!