John Vakakes For President

Sunday Morning Stroll

On Sunday morning, John woke up to take Bentley out around 8am. I heard him come back in and then run back out. I laid in bed for a minute, waiting on him to come back inside and when he didn't for a bit I got up to check and see what was going on. This was what I saw when I went outside.

John had run inside to grab the camera so that I could see in the event that I did not wake up. We decided to let Bentley back out to see what he would do since John said he didn't really even notice them the first time he let him out. It was absolutely hysterical watching him once he noticed them.

He stuck his neck out as far as it would go and was howling at them. They could have cared less and just stared back at him. This is why we call him Leroy sometimes (Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown...)

They Came, They Saw, They Ate

John and I starting planning a cook out about a month ago to get all of our Birmingham folk together. We have never thrown this big of a shin-dig (probably because we have never had the space) so I was very anxious. We had no idea how many people to expect. We hoped we had enough food and drinks and crazily cleaned all day on Friday (I even got my mom to come over Friday and help with the cleaning since it is still overwhelming to me to have to clean the entire house at once-again, we have never had this much space). It was SO much fun. We debated whether to do two separate parties-one for family and then another for friends, but I wanted to just do it once so we invited everyone. We ended up having 50 people in our house last night! I loved every minute of it. I have always loved to entertain, but never to this extent. I love having a home that we can invite the masses and everyone fits. The kitchen got a little crowded, but that is just because everyone seems to congregate there. The kitchen, dining room, and den are very open so that made it tons easier!! It was so great to see everyone-old friends that we hadn't seen since graduation of high school or college, and family that we don't get to see often enough, even though they are right here. We are so blessed to have so many people that love us! Here are a few pictures from the evening :)For those of you that have been requesting baby bump pictures, the bump is definitely evident!

Bentley was none too pleased with the party. At the beginning, 6 of my little cousins were here and they played/tormented him until he had enough. For the rest of the night he followed me everywhere I went and stood on my leg to be held. By about 8pm, he resorted to snapping at people and he had to be put in time out. Poor thing... This picture was taken about 9:30-as John and I were cleaning, he finally was calm and ate himself. He then settled into the couch and was out for the night!

Pretty

My mom finished sewing my curtains this week and came over on Friday to hang them up and put the newly covered chair seats onto the chairs. They turned out beautiful. I could not be happier with them, especially the curtains. We kind of just randomly selected a pattern at the fabric store for my mom to try and it turned out to be just what I wanted and just what the dining room needed to look "finished."

My Very Own Mr. Fix It

John's brakes starting squealing , signaling it was time for new brake pads. A while ago, John had googled how to change his own brakes so that he would know how when the time came. He called me when I was working at Shoefly and informed me that instead of taking his car to the Honda place he was just going to stop by there and buy the brake pads and change them himself. He said that he spoke with the people at Honda and he could buy the brake pads for $60 or get them to change the brakes for $240. We are all about saving some money these days, so John opted to go the do-it-yourself route. You can imagine how skeptical I was about this. Ever since we bought this house, he is all about trying to do things himself (he is still convinced that he is going to finish the bonus room himself...I told him he has until the end of August-if it doesn't get done before football season then I can forget about it getting done for a while, seeing as Caddy is due in January). At any rate, this morning he got out all of his tools and prepared to get dirty.

Dirty he got, but successful he was! I am so proud!! It only took him about an hour and the 2nd tire he did went much faster than the first. He did a test spin (solo...I was proud, but I wasn't dumb) and they worked great. He saved us about $180!! I think I may have a little more faith in him finishing the bonus room himself after all...well, maybe.

Dreams

John had his first "baby" dream last night...he said he was holding our baby and it was a blonde haired, blue eyed, BOY! I guess only time will tell (should find out around the first of September).

Caddy Update

Today I am 14 weeks and officially out of the first trimester! Hallelujah! I have felt great for the past 2 weeks (the boat feeling has subsided), I just get really, really tired around 6pm. No more crazy cravings (I have been greatly teased about the corn dogs!!) I am still not much into sweets which is so weird. I turned DOWN ice cream tonight after dinner. I have taken a like to Easy Mac these days and I am not sure if it is the taste that I like or just the fact that it is easy. I eat it for lunch a lot. As far as Caddy goes, he/she is now 3 1/2 inches long and the size of a lemon. Caddy can now squint, grimace, frown, pee, and possibly suck their thumb. He/She's arms have grown into proportion with the rest of its body. The legs still have some lengthening to do. Caddy's hands/feet are about 1/2 inch long and my email update says that he/she is punching with all limbs most of the time, even though I can't feel it yet. These weekly updates are very cool! Please continue to pray for Caddy!

Stir Crazy

I am officially ready to go back to school. I know this is weird and I am reminded daily by all of my friends with "real" jobs about how I should not complain about having nothing to do. However, I am SO bored! Of course I have things around the house to do (like laundry and dishes and ironing...BORING) but I can only do that for so long. Today I found myself still not showered at 1:30 P.M. This is why I need to be on a schedule and in a routine!! I got showered and ran to Target just to wander around. At one time I had all this random stuff in my cart and then I came to my senses and realized all I needed was the pack of bottled water. However on the way out the soft, fresh baked pretzel was calling my name. Yep, I sat by myself in the Target "food court" with a HUGE pretzel and lots of mustard and enjoyed every minute of it (for those of you that know me well, know that I will not sit in a restaurant and eat alone-I will always get it to go). This is when I realized I need for the summer to be over and get back to work! I am going up to the school on Monday to fix up my classroom now that I have my room placement. I am so excited to get all settled in and be ready to start school. I am especially anxious this year since I will be at a new school with new co-workers and a totally new grade level. However, from what I can tell so far, I have been extremely blessed with an amazing administration and grade level. I went to lunch yesterday with the other 5th grade teachers and they are super nice! Very fun and willing to help with anything. It is going to be so weird to have my first day back at school from summer not be at Drake. But they say change is good and so I am ready for the challenge of 5th grade. I will be teaching everything but science...which means I am teaching Math. Please go ahead and pray for me now. I am kind of worried that they might find out from my transcripts that I withdrew from finite mathematics three times before actually taking the class. Math is definitely not my subject, but it seems easy enough and less preparation than Science. The other 2 teachers that will teach math said they stick pretty much to the book and all we really cover is adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers, decimals, and fractions with a little bit of geometry and algebra thrown in. I can't wait...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was the big 2-5! I had a wonderful day and weekend. Wednesday was Clayton's birthday, so a while back we planned to celebrate together. We went to The McKinnon's lake house at Smith Lake on Friday and came back this afternoon. We had such a great time hanging out with Shealy and Clayton (we had GREAT food too!!-the cake was a treat to myself from Edgar's Bakery-if you have never been it is worth the drive...from anywhere, and strawberry is the best). Tonight we went to my parents house for dinner. John's parents came too! This birthday has been the best birthday since I was like 12! First, Shealy and Holly M. got me these cups from Victory Engraving that I have wanted since Shealy got them as a gift when she got married. They are acrylic and have a V engraved in them. I love them. When we got home, I had a present to open from John. He outdid himself this year. He ordered me a mahagony jewely box that has a glass top with my initials engraved in the top. I was totally shocked. I had told him that I liked this particular jewelry box the first year we were married and I guess he just saved the thought. It is so pretty and now I don't have to keep my jewelry in a ziploc bag in the bathroom drawer. John's parents gave me a precious maternity outfit that I am sure you will see in future pictures as I will be wearing it a lot in this hot weather. My parents gave me the Willow Tree Nativity Scene that I have loved ever since I saw it in one of my friends houses. I have never owned anything before by Willow Tree, but their stuff is so pretty and the nativity scene is my favorite. One of my mom's friends keeps hers out year round so I am really thinking about doing that... Here is a picture.
I am really excited about this upcoming year. It will be like none other, I am sure of that! I was reminded of that simple fact this weekend at the lake when wearing a bathing suit was much more of a hassle than a fashion statement. I broke down and bought a maternity swim suit solely for this weekend and will probably not wear it again...ever. It was so uncomfortable! And definitely a different feeling when you are used to wearing 2 pieces. Here are some pictures from our lake trip.

Another Productive Day

It is amazing what you can get done when your mom comes over and motivates by way of 1) getting you out of the house and 2) providing the $$ for purchases! My mom has been asking since we moved the dining room furniture into our house when we could go and find fabric to recover the chairs. If you have read my previous posts, you know that I have just now felt like doing much of anything. So she mentioned it again today and I took her up on it. We weren't sure where we should go...we decided to hit up a local Hancock's first. It was a huge success. When we walked in I spotted a rod iron baker's rack which was exactly what I had been looking for to put in my kitchen to house my cookbooks (the cabinets are all full). Before we even hit the fabric, I told the sales lady that the rack was going home with me (and for 30% off no less). We then found the most beautiful two coordinating fabrics that were just the colors I had envisioned on the first row of fabric we looked through. We humored the other fabrics by perusing all the other rows, but we went straight back to our perfect little combo fabrics. I have attempted to find them online at http://www.hancockfabrics.com/ and I think that I have.

This is the stripe fabric that we are using to recover the dining room chairs.

This is the floral print that my mom is going to use to make a valence to hang above each window.

So my mom took all the chair covers off and I am left with just the frame. She is going to recover them at her house and then bring them back over to pop on. The curtains may take her a little longer. We decided to go with a valence instead of a long, straight drape to give the dining room a more formal look. I liked the pattern we picked so hopefully it won't be too hard for mom, Lord knows I don't know the first thing about sewing (I intend to change this at some point in my life). So all in all, it was a great day! I paid for the baker's rack and mom bought the fabric (THANK YOU, MOM-if I was buying, we definitely wouldn't have gotten that nice of fabric) :) I love it!
Here is a picture of my baker's rack-I am obviously still working on finding random things to adorn its shelves, but at least my cookbooks are now stored on it instead of in the box that they were moved it. We are now officially out of boxes!!

The Big Switch

Ever since John and I got married, we did our weekly grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. It was like the Sunday curse. Every Sunday we would come home from church, take a nap, and then wake up and gripe about having to go to Wal-Mart. It just seemed logical for us to go to Wal-Mart-the prices were the cheapest around and it was like one stop shopping-you could get food, toiletries, household products, etc. I dreaded going to Wal-Mart every week, but we just couldn't justify going and spending more at the beautiful new Kroger or Bruno's. This has all changed, my friends! The closest Wal-Mart to our new house is not close at all-it is all the way down 280 past all the shopping and food. And the traffic both ways on 280 is miserable! Definitely would make an already dreaded trip to Wal-Mart even more miserable! Last week I decided to take it upon myself to make the executive decision to start doing our weekly grocery shopping at Publix (Yes, the Publix that does indeed carry corn dogs and only about 10 minutes from our house). I got home last week and John looked strangely at the bags. He was not happy with my decision yet knew he had no room for comments since I ventured to do the grocery shopping solo. We did not grocery shop this weekend-just enjoyed the long weekend. I had a doctors appointment today at 3:00 so I kind of tricked him into going with me after the appointment. Again, I pulled up to Publix. John was skeptical until about 5 minutes into our visit when he realized that Publix is heaven and Wal-Mart is hell. The atmosphere alone makes it worth the fact that Cheez-Its cost $1. 49 more at Publix! He never once complained. We were in and out in no time with all that we needed and we even had leftover grocery money from the week that we added to our entertainment fund. We have concluded that Wal-Mart is just too overwhelming...I really do think the lower ceilings help the entire aura of a grocery shopper's experience.

Productive

I thought I would share one of my projects that I finally finished a week ago or so. John told me today that this might be the only kid we are having due to my inactive self and the fact that I have turned into a bit of a slob. Little messes around the house have never really bothered me, but then again I have never really had a real house to clean and keep clean. The apartment was so much easier to keep straight because if things weren't in there place, you couldn't move. Dirty dishes stopped bothering me about 2 weeks ago. In fact, it took John and I about 45 minutes to clean the kitchen on Saturday night due to the fact that we had people over Thursday night for dinner and hadn't touched the kitchen since then (but kept on eating and dirtying dishes). I also have seemed to let laundry get WAY behind. I usually pride myself on keeping the laundry basket empty and John's pants ironed. Poor John...the first time I ironed since we moved in (May 26) was last Sunday. I have 4 stacks right now of laundry waiting to go in because the washer and dryer are both full. Not fun...totally true about having no energy during the first trimester. I used to think that was all just a mental thing...this was before I was pregnant!! Today John discovered something that I think was his breaking point. We had eaten chinese for lunch after church and I put our fortune cookies in my purse to save for later. After a long and wonderful nap, John went to retrieve our cookies. In my purse, he also found a used spoon and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (in a ziploc of course), among my wallet, chapstick, and phone. He was in disbelief. He could not beleive I just toted around a PB&J in my purse. I quickly reminded him that it is imperative that I have food on me at all times. He then quickly reminded me that granola bars would be sufficient. This is when he declared that I had become a slob :) Back to my project-I started this "V" wall in Auburn after I purchased the "V." I must give a shout out to Ashley Gentry who inspired this creation by her own "G" wall in Auburn. This is one of my favorite things about our house. It is on the left wall just as you enter our house in the foyer. It contains various pictures in black and white and in sepia tones of our wedding, favorite family pics, most of our grandparents (I am still working on a few), and Bentley. There is space left for Baby V when he/she arrives as well. Everyone loves taking a look when they enter and I always like having it up because it reminds me of how much I love my little family! If you can find a letter, it is such a great addition to a big, empty wall!

Fit + Pregnant = Oxymoron

Perhaps for some people it isn't so difficult. Since finding out that I was pregnant, my first instinct was just to eat. I would give in to things that normally I wouldn't. Then I felt so sick for about 3 weeks straight that nothing really sounded good or satisfied. Now, I am hopefully over that hurdle and anticipating a doctor appt. on Monday. I am anxious to see if I have gained any weight. Don't get me wrong, I am not freaking out over the fact that my body is going to greatly change over the next few months-it doesn't bother me nor scare me because I know that something super cool is going on. However, I don't want to look/feel like a blimp. I want to be cute pregnant-the kind that people say "from the back, you can't even tell your pregnant!" John has decided it is time for him to get into shape (superb timing...I know!...just when I am starting to plump up and have no energy, he is ready to go running). I am trying not to be lazy so we have found 2 really good 2 mile routes in Liberty Park that we have been walking/running every night. John runs for a while and then walks with me and Bentley-I just walk. Since this is about as much exercise as I have had in the past 3 months, I am hoping it is working! I guess we'll find out on Monday...I should probably restrain myself from anymore corn dog cravings until after the weigh in!