The results are in! And while your poll was fun and all, it was a little less than overwhelming this time - when I checked yesterday the vote was a dead even 50/50 split. So thanks for the help, but I think I'll go with the ultrasound :)
Oh, you wanted to know what the ultrasound revealed?? Oooohhhhh. Okay. Now I get it. Sorry 'bout that.
Que the drumroll.......
Come August, Caroline will welcome a baby SISTER!!! That's right - we're having another girl! Dan & I are simply thrilled. To be honest, I was having a hard time even picturing myself with a son. Not that I wouldn't love to have one someday, but for now I am revelling in the thought of holding another precious bundle of pink. I love picturing two curly-headed girls running around my house (assuming my children will someday have hair), sharing secrets and clothes and occasionally driving each other crazy. For some reason that's pretty easy for me to imagine :-) There's nothing better than sisters, whether you're 2 or 22 or 62. I hope Caroline and Baby J #2 agree!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
2 Things
1) I'm leaving home today and going home. I don't know how else to say that. I'm heading back to Nashville this evening. Sad to leave my family here, but ready to be back together with Dan.
2) Leaving is made a little easier this time as I go home to something quite exciting...we have our 20-week ultrasound tomorrow and hope to find out what this little one is! He or she has been squirming away lately, and this Mama is enjoying that immensly. I can't WAIT to know if Caroline will have a sister or brother joining her ever-expanding world, but either way I'm pretty sure she will be up to the challenge of being the big sister -- at least by August.
Anyway, I just put up a quick poll and would love to see what you all are thinking out there. Boy or girl?? Cast your vote right up there in the right-hand corner of the screen. And do it quickly -- I'll be revealing the mystery soon enough!
2) Leaving is made a little easier this time as I go home to something quite exciting...we have our 20-week ultrasound tomorrow and hope to find out what this little one is! He or she has been squirming away lately, and this Mama is enjoying that immensly. I can't WAIT to know if Caroline will have a sister or brother joining her ever-expanding world, but either way I'm pretty sure she will be up to the challenge of being the big sister -- at least by August.
Anyway, I just put up a quick poll and would love to see what you all are thinking out there. Boy or girl?? Cast your vote right up there in the right-hand corner of the screen. And do it quickly -- I'll be revealing the mystery soon enough!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Home
This word has taken on different meanings over the years. Dorm rooms, apartments, small town, city, friends, family, Dan & Caroline. But there is one sense of the word that has remained constant for as long as I can remember - and that's where I am now. HOME. Mom & Dad. Home cooked meals. Peace & quiet, filled with bird chirps and frog songs and little else. Curling up on the couch under a warm blanket, listening to my Dad tell a story and laughing with my sister (at Dad's story). Rubbing my Mom's feet -- and then switching.
Sure, parts of "home" have changed over the years -- but mostly just good parts. A husband to share my family with. A brother-in-law to round us out. A Caroline to capture the hearts and attentions of everyone. But no matter how old I get, nothing can transport me back to my childhood faster than waking up to the morning sounds of Mom & Dad downstairs. It's almost enough to make me forget that my own daughter is sleeping in a crib across the room...almost.
Of course, home is also now in Nashville with my Dan & CJ. A home we're creating for our own children, one which I can only pray will someday bring the same sense of peace to them that this place still holds for me.
Just thought you all should know where I was while away from blog land for a few days :)
Sure, parts of "home" have changed over the years -- but mostly just good parts. A husband to share my family with. A brother-in-law to round us out. A Caroline to capture the hearts and attentions of everyone. But no matter how old I get, nothing can transport me back to my childhood faster than waking up to the morning sounds of Mom & Dad downstairs. It's almost enough to make me forget that my own daughter is sleeping in a crib across the room...almost.
Of course, home is also now in Nashville with my Dan & CJ. A home we're creating for our own children, one which I can only pray will someday bring the same sense of peace to them that this place still holds for me.
Just thought you all should know where I was while away from blog land for a few days :)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
5 Years
Dan & I celebrated 5 incredible years together yesterday. I still can't wrap my head around that - 5 years seems like a long time. But I guess a lot has transpired in the course of 5 years, considering where we were when we got started. I still had about a month & a half left of college, Dan was working construction, and we were given the opportunity to live in a cute little "cottage" on our college campus for the time being, given that I still had RA duties to fulfill. Since then, we have moved hundreds of miles away to an unseen 450 sq. ft apartment in TN, Dan started & completed PA school plus rotations, we found a church we loved and got plugged in, I found and worked a job I loved in the Christian music business for nearly 3 years, Dan found a great job in dermatology, we moved to a lovely town home (MUCH larger than our first place), we got pregnant, Dan found another job and I lost mine, we had a baby, settled into our role as parents, continued leading our small group with church, got pregnant again, and decided to buy a home. WOW. When you look at it that way, I guess you can pack a lot into 5 short years!!!
As I've mentioned before on this little blog of mine, I've got a pretty incredible man. There's no one else in this big wide world I would want to be with on this big adventure called life. I'm so thankful for the blessings - and challenges - God has seen us through in these first 5 years of our lives together, and I pray that He will see us through many more together for many more years to come.
Happy Anniversary Dan! I love you with all that I am.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Updates
Wow, it's been busy around these parts lately. But today I woke up with some sort of stomach bug, so I've had very good reason to sit on the couch and do nothing (well, once Dan got home from work at noon anyway...praise God it was his half day!). At the moment, I am laying on the couch enjoying a very quiet house as Dan took Caroline out for awhile to give me the chance to rest -- he really is the best.
Anyhoo, I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to catch my little blog up to speed on our busy life as of late. Forgive the lack of pictures...I'm really comfy and don't feel like dragging myself across the room to fetch the camera. Here goes:
1. Pregnancy Update: I'm truckin right along! I'm a little past 17 weeks now and am FINALLY past the gross-nauseaus-can't-eat-anything-tired-all-the-time first trimester. HALLELUJAH! This time around is proving to go about exactly like the last time, with the morning sickness stuff lasting through about 16 weeks. The similarities make me think we might be having another girl...but who really knows. My ultrasound is set for March 29th, and if all goes well, we'll know if this is little brother or sister then! Any predictions from the peanut gallery? Daddy's bet is on boy (of course)...guess we'll find out soon enough. Perhaps I'll put up one of those polls if I can remember how to do that again.
2. House update: Oh yeah, I've never really posted anything about this. Well let me catch you up to speed...we decided to start looking at houses in late February. It took us a whole whopping week to find one we loved and put an offer on it...and a few days later, we were in business! Now, if you know me very well you know that I am NOT a fast mover when it comes to decisions like this. Heck, I'm not a fast mover when it comes to choosing a pair of jeans (true story: the day we got the official contract, my mom called to congratulate us and then proceeded to offer her apologies to Dan assuming that I was just about a complete wreck at that point. She was pretty much exactly correct. She then told Dan a lovely story about taking me shopping for a homecoming dress once, an experience which took endless hours of patience, and after finally choosing one, I sent Dad back to the city to get the other finalist because I changed my mind. I know, I know...poor Dan.)
Anyway, we are now "in contract" on a home in the small town of Nolensville, TN, which is just down the road about 6 miles from where we live now. We absolutely LOVE the town and are quite excited to be moving out of the city. As much as we have enjoyed Nashville (and will continue to...from a little further out), we're just not city people. And with baby #2 on the way, we have pretty much outgrown our current residence. I can't even believe that we've been blessed to a) find a house that we loved so quickly b) find it in our price range and c) have all the pieces fall together so quickly and easily. This has been a very big decision for us on a lot of levels (I may write more on that process later), and we feel very much at peace with God's leading in all of it. I'm still nervous and rather overwhelmed at times, but on the whole, I'm very excited to have a house of our own with plenty of space to have all the family & friends over we can stand! So please...come visit! I'll feed you in my beautiful new kitchen and even give you a real bed to sleep on :)
**I needed to remove the link to pictures for now - sorry! I'll post new ones as soon as we take possession at the end of April.
3. Visitors: We've had some lovely visitors lately, which has also kept us busy. Last weekend, my friend Rebecca (from college), plus her husband, plus her brother, plus his girlfriend all crashed at our place for a quick over-night on their way through to Florida. It was brief, but so much fun to catch up with an old friend and get the 411 on what's going on at NWC these days. (Rebecca is now the RD of the dorm we once shared back in the day - crazy.)
Anyhoo, I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to catch my little blog up to speed on our busy life as of late. Forgive the lack of pictures...I'm really comfy and don't feel like dragging myself across the room to fetch the camera. Here goes:
1. Pregnancy Update: I'm truckin right along! I'm a little past 17 weeks now and am FINALLY past the gross-nauseaus-can't-eat-anything-tired-all-the-time first trimester. HALLELUJAH! This time around is proving to go about exactly like the last time, with the morning sickness stuff lasting through about 16 weeks. The similarities make me think we might be having another girl...but who really knows. My ultrasound is set for March 29th, and if all goes well, we'll know if this is little brother or sister then! Any predictions from the peanut gallery? Daddy's bet is on boy (of course)...guess we'll find out soon enough. Perhaps I'll put up one of those polls if I can remember how to do that again.
2. House update: Oh yeah, I've never really posted anything about this. Well let me catch you up to speed...we decided to start looking at houses in late February. It took us a whole whopping week to find one we loved and put an offer on it...and a few days later, we were in business! Now, if you know me very well you know that I am NOT a fast mover when it comes to decisions like this. Heck, I'm not a fast mover when it comes to choosing a pair of jeans (true story: the day we got the official contract, my mom called to congratulate us and then proceeded to offer her apologies to Dan assuming that I was just about a complete wreck at that point. She was pretty much exactly correct. She then told Dan a lovely story about taking me shopping for a homecoming dress once, an experience which took endless hours of patience, and after finally choosing one, I sent Dad back to the city to get the other finalist because I changed my mind. I know, I know...poor Dan.)
Anyway, we are now "in contract" on a home in the small town of Nolensville, TN, which is just down the road about 6 miles from where we live now. We absolutely LOVE the town and are quite excited to be moving out of the city. As much as we have enjoyed Nashville (and will continue to...from a little further out), we're just not city people. And with baby #2 on the way, we have pretty much outgrown our current residence. I can't even believe that we've been blessed to a) find a house that we loved so quickly b) find it in our price range and c) have all the pieces fall together so quickly and easily. This has been a very big decision for us on a lot of levels (I may write more on that process later), and we feel very much at peace with God's leading in all of it. I'm still nervous and rather overwhelmed at times, but on the whole, I'm very excited to have a house of our own with plenty of space to have all the family & friends over we can stand! So please...come visit! I'll feed you in my beautiful new kitchen and even give you a real bed to sleep on :)
**I needed to remove the link to pictures for now - sorry! I'll post new ones as soon as we take possession at the end of April.
3. Visitors: We've had some lovely visitors lately, which has also kept us busy. Last weekend, my friend Rebecca (from college), plus her husband, plus her brother, plus his girlfriend all crashed at our place for a quick over-night on their way through to Florida. It was brief, but so much fun to catch up with an old friend and get the 411 on what's going on at NWC these days. (Rebecca is now the RD of the dorm we once shared back in the day - crazy.)
Then Tuesday my Dad came!! He was just here through Thursday, but we made the most of the time and had a great visit. Caroline and Papa reconnected very quickly (her squeals in the airport when she spotted him gave evidence to that), and they made some great memories. We went to the zoo on Wednesday, which we all 3 thoroughly enjoyed (Caroline even got pooped on in the Lorikeet exhibit...but it really only phased Mama), Papa taught her all about garbage trucks via YouTube after she was frightened by one outside our house, and he taught her a new game we're still trying to help her forget...one that involves running outside every time she hears an airplane. This might work well at Papa's house, but at our house we hear a plane roughly every 5.23 minutes. Thanks Papa :) I have to add that he even kept her while I went to work at my childcare job at church for several hours on Thursday morning. Everyone survived and was dressed & fed when I got home at noon (well, Dad hadn't really eaten much...). Thanks for making the trip, Dad! It was so much fun!
Finally, my dear friend Megan from my college days came to stay with us over the weekend. I don't think we had seen each other since graduation back in May of 2006 (almost 5 years!), so it was long overdue. We had the best time catching up. No one can make me laugh like that girl, and it was quite refreshing to just laugh for about 3 days. Plus it was very fun to finally introduce her to our sweet Caroline. She told me her goal was to meet her before she got hair. Perhaps that's what Caroline has been waiting for :) Coming again soon, Megan! Thanks for going out of your way to make this work.
Phew! I think I'm going to have to stop there. My computer battery is almost dead and I don't really feel like getting up to plug it in. I'm recharging my own batter, okay? And I'm pretty sure this post is quite long enough. I'll check in again soon. Promise.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Happy Happy Birthdays!!!
When I told Caroline that we had TWO major birthdays to celebrate, she was very excited to send some birthday wishes out to Grandma Karee (who's birthday was yesterday) and Aunt Jewel (who's birthday is tomorrow). So I asked Caroline what exactly she wanted to do for them, and this is what she expressed:
First, she said she wanted to make sure to give them both a great big bear hug (complete with growl).
Then she'd give them each a big ol' smooch (or blow kisses if necessary).
When I told her we'll actually get to see both of them, she was so happy...
she just couldn't help but laugh & slap her knee. This will be pretty wonderful!
"Here Mama, take a picture of me in my pretty chair. I'll say CHEESE!"
"Wasn't that hilarious?"
"Are you catching all of this, Grandma?" (she's doing the sign for Grandma - hard to capture)
"Come on Mom, keep up here."
"Oh! I should make them some tea!"
"I think I'll sit and try some out first."
"Hmmm...this could be tricky to keep warm until they get here. Any ideas?"
"Okay, now I'll just stand here and look cute & you take a picture."
Happy (belated) birthday, Grandma! We love you and are so thankful to have you close!
And happy (early) birthday Aunt Jewel! We've missed you and can't wait to see you soon!
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