Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Priceless Friends

I got to spend last Saturday in Auburn with three of my sweetest friends (my college roommates). I'm so blessed to have such sweet and loving friends. These girls know me, they support me and they love me. Not to mention they are all amazing mom's....so I was soaking up as much advice as I could the entire time. The day could not have been any better, we were not rushed on time and we were able to catch up with each other, enjoy a fabulous turkey wrap at Amsterdam's AND get some shopping done. These times are so sweet since we don't all live in the same town and don't get to see eachother very often. I am thankful to have these ladies in my life. I'm already looking forward to when we can do it again!

Here are the three prego's!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Spring is here! I love this time of year as beautiful colors return. My tulips are blooming which makes me so happy! We used the grill for the first time last night, which makes me happy and most importantly Justin put together the changing table yesterday which made me very happy! Let me tell you what else Justin did last night, he put new strings on his guitar and this also made me super happy. For some strange reason I think that it is sexy when he plays the guitar...TMI? He hasn't played in a very long time, so I was so excited when he bought new strings and tuned it up last night. I'm looking forward to him getting in lots of practice! I just love it.

It is raining here and I would love to curl up on the sofa and take an afternoon nap (I left work a little early today) but instead I have loads of laundry to fold. I know that you are jealous that you're not here to help me! :)

On the bambino front - I'm doing well and Collier is growing. According to the doctor everything is measuring exactly right. It is hard to believe that we are down to 2 months before he arrives - 8 weeks! Wow. I can't believe how fast time really passes. I have had several dreams of him being here and that is what I am most excited about - having him home and being in a routine as we begin our parenting life. But I have to be honest that as the reality of his arrival nears the actual delivery is also heavy on my mind. It is so much of an unknown that anticipating it is sort of scary. I know that God's plan and timing is perfect and I'm thankful that I have that to rest on....but that doesn't mean its not on my mind. Ok, off to fold laundry.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Weekend Update

A quick recap of our weekend and then I'm off to bed. This weekend was my mom's birthday! She deserves to be recognized because she is so wonderful. She is a wonderful mom and now that I've gotten older she has also become a priceless friend to me. She does so much for us - usually without having to be asked and she does it all with a smile and willing attitude. I am so thankful to have her! Happy Birthday Mom, I love you!

For her birthday Chris, Amanda and Ashlyn came to Birmingham to surprise her! She was surprised and she LOVED having them here(I did too). It was really great to have them here for the weekend. I wish that the weather was better and we could have gotten out and gone to a park of something with Ash, we sang rain, rain go away all weekend. Ahslyn loves to be outside to it wasn't much fun for her to be stuck inside so much. She is so stink'n cute and such a joy to be with - not to mention she is so smart. Thank yall for coming!

Today, Justin and I stayed in the bed until noon! Yep you read that correctly...NOON! I did get up and fix eggs around 9:00 but crawled back in the bed and took a nap until about 11:30 and then it still took me 30 minutes to get out of the bed. The bad part is that we went straight to the sofa. Oh well, worthless and happy! People keep telling us to rest and sleep while we still can. Well here is proof that we are taking that to heart...especially today!

Night Night. HOpe you have an amazing Monday!
These are my favorite pix from the weekend....

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Our Baby Doc

This is a special post dedicated to our little man Doc...a.k.a. Buddy-sita. For those of you who do not know, Doc passed away a week ago Tuesday. We were so sad to loose him, but I don't want to focus on how sad life is without him, I want to share with you how amazing this man was!

Our dogs are our children and they are such a vital part of our family. Doc was the one that I kept saying was going to be a perfect big brother for Collier, he would be so gentle and patient no matter what you were doing with him. Doc was happy...ALL THE TIME. He was the type whose tail never stopped wagging - and it was a whole body wag, not just the tail. He was the perfect welcome home every time you walked in the door - even if you just went out to take the trash and came right back in - he acted as if you had been gone all day and was just as happy and excited to see you. It simply would bring a smile to my face. Often times not only was I greeted with a happy wagging tail but he would jump up and put his paws on my hips as if giving me a hug. Oh, who doesn't just love a welcome home hug from such a soft and loving man? Doc was a talker. He loved to bark and would bark to get your attention and especially if you were petting and loving on him and you stopped he would tell you all about it. Doc was very content. No matter what situation he was in, he was fine as long as he was around people. Although one time he had to go and stay with mom and dad because Brinkley was in heat....he cried for 4 days solid wanting to get back home...well we really know why he wanted to get back home and it WASN'T to be with Momma and Daddy - he was hoping to hit the jack pot. Ha! Needless to say he didn't! Poor man.
Doc loved to swim and ride in the boat. He always sat at the bow of the boat with his paws propped on the front - he was our hood ornament and the most beautiful one we could have asked for. Doc LOVED ice. You would open the kitchen cabinet to get a glass out and he would come running just hoping that you would share a piece of ice with him. He would stare at you wagging his tail until you gave him a piece. It was awesome and luckily he did share this with Brink and as a result she now loves ice too. Another really funny thing about Doc was that he carried his (plastic) bowl around. As long as his bowl was empty he would carry it around and just lay down with it - so funny.
Doc was very loyal and his unconditional love was priceless. No matter if you would yell or scream at him, he would still walk right up to you with his tail wagging (maybe a little slower than normal if you had just yelled at him) but would lay his sweet head in your lap. He was such a sweet snuggler. He didn't get on the furniture, but when Justin was out of town from time to time I would tell him to get in the bed. He always came and laid right in Justin's spot and usually with his head on Justin's pillow. He would be there all night as if he was filling Justin's place. Needless to say this week has been tough with Justin being gone all week and no Doc to fill his spot. Very lonely.

Doc declined fast. He had spinal arthritis and would have days that he couldn't get up. Those days came more frequent in the past few weeks - usually once a week. But last Tuesday, we saw him have what we think was a seizure...well he had 2 in about 4 hour time. The Doctor said that he may have been having them and not showing any obvious signs for us to see. I think that Doc didn't want us to know that there was something wrong. He was so strong and strong willed. By the time we got to the vet he had another one (Justin has to carry him to the car and I'm sure that stressed him out because he really WANTED to get out by himself but he just couldn't) I'll spare all of the details, but Doc died on the table moments after Justin and I had a few minutes alone with him. He went all on his own - we didn't have to make the decision. That was a true blessing because I certainly couldn't have said it and Justin said that he was trying to get the words out and he didn't have to. It was Doc's time to go.
He would have turned 12 in April. He was a perfect dog. His unconditional love and loyalty was the perfect example of 'Mans Best Friend'. He was our first baby and we have so much to look forward to with Collier, but I know that he would have been sweet and loving with him. Every day coming home I have to remind myself that he isn't going to be waiting at the door to welcome me home. Justin and I have both said that we are so glad to have Brinkley. She has also had some adjusting to do. Twice she has laid at the bottom of the bed (yes she sleeps with us) and whines in the middle of the night - I assume she is looking for him. She has also spend more time in her kennel - her choice - than normal. Not locked in but just sleeping in there while we're here...she has never done this in the past. I also think that sometimes in the backyard she isn't sure about things. She often fed off of his calmness and now she is having to figure things out for herself. We're all adjusting to life with out Doc. I miss him terribly and I loved him deeply. I believe that God created animals and that they are part of His kingdom and that we'll see him again one day.

Sorry this was so long...

Sunday, March 1, 2009

SnowMan

If any of you know my husband, you will know that I am married to a snowman. When I say snowman I mean that this man loves the snow. Ever since we've been in Birmingham he has talked about it snowing and how he wants it to snow enough to be able to jump off of a porch into the snow. Needless to say that has never happened, but today we came close...well there was no jumping off of porches but we did finally get a good accumulation. I think that the most that we measured was 4". It was beautiful and so much fun, I hope that you got to see snow today (as for any of you that are up North I know this is a joke to you but it was so much fun today). We built a snowman and Brinkley had so much fun catching snow balls. The sun came out and it is now almost all gone. We're sad to see it go away and we certainly wish that it would have stuck around a little longer - but we are still very thankful that we got what we did!


Speaking of my snowman...We celebrated our 3rd anniversary this week. Hard to believe that we've been married for 3 years. I'm blessed to have such a fun and loving husband. He is a quiet type when it comes to showing affection, but when it is just the two of us he can be quite snuggly. It has been a fabulous three years and I look forward to so many more. Justin is going to be such a sweet daddy for Collier and I can't wait to see them together. It's been a good and hard week (more to come on that later) But I will say that today's snow was just a perfect ending to the week.

Yesterday Justin did some major work to get the bed out of the nursery and into his office(this meant major cleaning out and rearranging). Plus our washing machine had been acting funny, so Justin and my dad worked about 3 hours on it...they took the entire thing apart and found the problem and then put it all back together again AND it worked! I was impressed. At one point this was the conversation (as they were removing the back of the washer):
Justin: I'm about ready to say forget this and write a check for a new one
Dad: yeah but its a challenge now
Justin: Yeah we have to get this thing apart

Pretty funny to see the two of them working so hard. Not only did it get fixed but they did some major cleaning as the put it all back together - cha ching! Our washer is very old (it was Justin's parents at some point and is ancient) but I was thrilled to have a washer again and very appreciative of their time and efforts. We actually had to go to mom and dad's last week to do laundry because both of us were running low on clothes...yikes!

Have a great week and I'll have a very special post this week dedicated to a very special pup!