FUN LOVIN

Well Hello friends!!
Honest moment here.
I thought I was going to go into a black hole this past week! I was not feeling well there for about three days. Not good at all. And I wondered if those were the last two weeks of pregnancy. Nauseous. Cold chills. Grossness. Tired. Couldn't get out of bed. Early Labor? Hormones? A small virus? I can't explain it. But it is pretty much gone. And for that, I don't care WHAT it was...I'm just happy it went away :)
And then I came out of the fog. And I can walk and breathe and eat again.
And I just want to skip around!

I saw a commercial for cymbalta during that day on the couch...
and it said, "are you tired? no appetite? don't want to get up off the couch? {insert more symptoms here..}...maybe you have depression"  and I seriously called my midwife and told her maybe that was my problem.  She just laughed in my face and told me that we would worry about that if it really becomes a problem, but right now I am 38+ weeks pregnant and just sick or possibly in the beginning of labor.. which is just a normal process.  Oh goodness.  The things that go through this pregnant brain...

Not that depression is bad. In fact, I am going to be on the lookout.  Having a baby within days of the one year anniversary of losing my first son sets me up for an emotional party (not necessarily a happy party) that might be a lot of crazy mixed emotions.  So...I'm not ignorant to that possibility after birth...


This picture made me smile this morning. It came from my shower. With my sweet friend Jess, who is moving (DANG IT!) at the end of the year.  My poor moustache can't decide what side of my face it belongs on...

This was a free download from Sprik Space.

YOU need to go check out Sprik Space. She has some super cool freebies...all the time. Definitely worth looking in her archives too. I found some super cute things to print.
Kinkos and their crappy copiers were not my friends, so I had to send them off to be printed WELL. How is that for $1-$3 wall art? Well done, I think :)


Plus, this print belongs in my house. Sometimes I forget to speak love. I speak truth in the truest form, if you know what I mean.  Sometimes our job is to simply SPEAK LOVE...whether we feel it or not.  God calls us to LOVE. Being married allows us TO LOVE.  If we constantly just speak frustration...what kind of home are you creating?  Well...it's a good reminder for me, at least...


I am praying for continued energy and good health as I prepare to deliver this sweet boy. Brandon and I are so excited to meet him. We are scared of his crazy crying {how do I stop this crying?!} ...but knowing that God will allow us to handle every little bit of it :) We are so excited to welcome a new addition. And getting more and more excited to receive our referral...although I will be honest and say we are getting a little anxious...looks like it will be NOVEMBER...because of when our packet arrived in Ethiopia...they count the six months from that point, rather than when you turn it in (tricky...) But, the good news is...the boys will probably be CLOSER in age now. Because if you figure we get a six month old referral in SEPTEMBER...they would be six months apart, but if we get one in November...they will be FOUR months apart...so I feel like God knows every part of this journey. I trust that.


Today, I think I am going to attempt to go POST tailgate an Auburn football game. {meaning go after the game is over and hang out for a while outside the stadium...}  it is getting much cooler here...and I figure if I only go for a couple hours...I should be okay... :) Plus, my mom had me after sitting out at a hot football game all day...so here goes my best try.. ;)


Love to you this SATURDAY!!! :)

Lots of Momma Questions...

Well, you're always told to ask people who are more experienced.And most people who read this blog are moms.I get so confused about all this baby stuff.And I know everyone has a different experience with all of it.But, the questions I have are endless.I want to begin registering, because we are having a shower at my school in a couple weeks.But I feel so CLUELESS!
If you feel like it...answer one of these in the comment section.
1.  Does the brand/type/etc. of breast pump really matter? There is one that is $279 and claims to be super quiet, one for $329...then various others for cheaper.  Anyone breast feed and have tips on this? Here are some I found at Target. 
2.  Has anyone had an upholstered glider?  Did you like it? Is it worth it? I really want one that looks like an armchair so that we can keep it when kids are getting older... any tips or ideas about this?
3.  Does anyone have a BOB Duallie jogging stroller? They cost $650.  I know that is a ridiculous amount of money for a stroller.  I have heard that they have an incredible 'push' and they are just awesome.   I found a DUALLIE on Craigslist for $450.  I am tempted to buy it (almost new condition), but I have heard from several people that the Schwinn Grand Turismo is pretty nice. and very comparable to the bob for much less.  It is $289.  Any thoughts on this? I will be jogging and moving with my kids a lot...but I don't know that I need a $650 stroller...Better yet, does anyone want to sell me a used one? :)

Schwinn

On Craigslist

4.  Has anyone tried cloth diapers? I am so tempted...but also very much not... :)  We do not have a wash sink, so I am afraid of it being disgusting and time consuming. But in the interest of saving the environment and money (more the latter), I am interested. I was looking at g reusable diapers...just curious if anyone had tried it and had feedback?

5.  What about diaper bags? I am sort of an 'overpacker'....but I don't want a bag that is too huge...
I like this one (and it seems like it might be big enough), but I like this one better.  I think that from reading the reviews, I need a bag that will CLOSE, and the second one doesn't. Thoughts? Reviews? :)
If you care enough to give me feedback, then I really like you.  Because I'm so clueless. I don't know about baby stuff.  

As I write, I feel this little man, sweet Finn, kicking me LIKE CRAZY.  It feels so good (at 21 weeks) because I haven't been feeling him too much up until now.  So, Praise God tonight.  Brandon is in the field. He is gone. And I am feeling this baby to fill the void. :)

Blog Update

I am sure you haven't even noticed that the blog updates are much less often now.  I will tell you the truth...they just can't be... :)  When I get home from work, I just want to pass out. So I often lay around for hours on end. Then I get up to eat, take the dogs for a walk...and it's back to the couch I go. Maybe it's good sweet old Army Guy is not here. Actually, he always tries to make me slow down, so I'm sure he would LOVE this life right now. I had a wonderful, encouraging talk with him tonight. I do almost every night...but it was just nice.  He is amazing.  He sent me really pretty flowers to school this week. I was going to take a picture, but I didn't want to be too ridiculous.  Bragging about the romantic hubby I have. I am thankful that he chooses to love so intentionally. Especially when he is away.

Okay, are you wondering about this picture of a lonely looking dog? I'm not putting him up for sale. I simply wanted to share with you, the people who click all the way from facebook to this blog...how we told our parents we were pregnant. PS. Facebook does not have the privilege of knowing this news. It's just scary to reveal to all 1000 "Friends" who are not really friends. So...enjoy the secrecy of the blog. I figure if you click over, you are at least nice enough to care! haha!

I always wanted to wait. Keep it our secret for a couple weeks, then spill.  Well, it just so happened that AG was about to leave for many months when we found out. So I either had to tell them by myself, or we had to tell them super early. We chose the first option.  It had barely sunk in to us...but we decided to do something a little silly.  Background: Buoy (the beagle), who you see below is a little neurotic. We love him for it. He is a dog who doesn't like his own shadow, jumps at the sight of a stick and sometimes (often, even) hides under the bed for no reason at all.  He loves to spoon when we sleep. He might even be better than AG.  He begs to go into the backyard but then howls and tries to tear the fence down as soon as I let him out.  He freaks out when Brandon leaves (probably because he's been through 4 deployments too).  He is also very territorial and sometimes nips other dogs. Never people, but often dogs. It's embarrassing. it's like having a toddler that hits his teacher. You never think it will happen to you. :)  I digress. Back to the background.  My parents love beagles and they especially love Buoy. In their partially retired home (my dad retired in December), they have room for another ill tempered beagle.  Could I ever give Buoy up? I really don't know!! But do I want him biting a baby? That goes without saying. 
So, regardless. We had the understanding that when I got pregnant someday we would talk about it. So we decided to put this picture up on craigslist (in Kentucky) with a posting: Free Beagle to good home. 
We decided to do this at 9pm at night.  My dad was settled into his tv watching chair. So when I called and asked him to go to the computer, he was not happy. In fact, he downright turned me down.
I told him it was really important and he had to get mom.
You could hear him getting more agitated by the moment.
I kept reminding myself that it would be worth it.
(My dad is un-emotional, so I was hoping he would have a reaction, but thinking i might actually be in trouble for getting him off the couch)
As we directed him and my mom to craigslist, they were curious and annoyed, especially when we told them to go to the "Free" section. 
We told them what the post said. Then we waited for them to see the picture. All we had in description was, "Located in ***********, GA" so they would make the connection.
My dad immediately knew it was Buoy. It took my mom a minute.
We heard, "That looks like Buoy", "What is this?", "Cute dog", "Is BUOY HAVING A BABY??", "Wait, are you pregnant?" "Am I going to be a GRANDMA????"
We all started crying. It was pretty wonderful. We wanted to do it in person, but it turned out pretty special anyway.
We did the same thing with Brandon's parents. We had elaborate plans to wait and mail them something, but both Brandon and I were too impatient, so we played the same trick on them. :)  It turned out to be a wonderful, amazing night. 
We are still early (almost 10 wks), so keep us in your prayers. It's hard to trust God's sovereignty. I have NO CONTROL over this thing inside me. None. It is an amazing time to know and feel the power of Christ in me. I have never felt to unable to help, to guide, to control something in my entire life. This has nothing of me, only my prayers to make it healthy and whole and alive. 

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in you presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" Psalm 16:11

Sunday Rambling...

Well, I wish I had lots of exciting crafts and projects to report on. But right now, I am simply enjoying taking walks with my hubby and the dogs...
We are doing nothing except laundry, cleaning, naps...
Oh, and I watched him do an ADVENTURE RACE on Saturday...which was fun!  I mean...it was wet, muddy, rainy....but fun.

Do you see the orange blobs in the trees...? That is them :)

Friday we just had to go to two different Army functions. Both were good and fun...with friends...but still tiring. So we left the rest of our weekend low key. 
5:00pm Church Sunday really throws me off. I love it. But I sleep in way too late!!
Today we had a guest speaker and he talked about battles in our lives that we MUST win.  What are they for you?  We were going to talk about them tonight, but ended up at dinner with some fun friends for a while...so we didn't get a chance. I think it's a good thing to talk about.  The speaker said his battles he must win are for his 1. Integrity  2. Family  3. leadership (leading others to Christ)
He talked about how we can have a battle, but unless we INSIST on winning, we won't win. He used a lot of examples, but one we can all relate to is food. He said that unless we choose to trust God and Insist that he control our lives, we will not win the battle.
Then he said after we choose to INSIST to win, we have to PERSIST when things get tough.  When we don't want to keep going.
Finally, he talked about how we have to RESIST temptation if we want to win our battles. Again...I have given up sweets before
..and I can often insist and persist, but it is super hard to resist over time.
Probably not communicating very well...but it was a neat talk. :)

I know I won't be able to resist anything at this baby shower I am throwing for my sweet friend Rebecca. I tried to make the invitation before we left for Savannah last weekend. It was cute, but when I tried to make a copy of the original (which was more 3d), it just didn't come out well. I don't know how to digitally create (thus why I have no buttons or anything on my blog. I have been googling it, but can't figure it out, so if you know, please tell me!!) 
Anyway, so I turned to my nice friend etsy and I searched for silhouette baby shower. I found the bottom invites and loved them. It worked out...and it wasn't much more than designing them myself.  Again, another reason why etsy is awesome.