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.)

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.