30 Weeks and Oh So Festive

This was my outfit I wore to school today. I was feeling quite festive. The cordoroys are orange if you can't tell from the picture. At any rate, my 5th graders came in this morning and one of them said to me, "If you were wearing black pants and an orange shirt, you'd look like a pumpkin." WOW. Thanks little Johnny! :) I guess there is some truth to that though. I have become very round in my tummy. I only have 10 weeks to go which is kind of crazy!!!

More Goodies for Will!

As mentioned in my previous post, John's Uncle John and Aunt Doreen (and his Godparents) live in Chicago. We don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. Last week, John's mom called to tell me that Aunt Doreen had sent a huge basket full of goodies for Will. She had just been buying things since we found out we were having a boy and she sent them when the basket got full. And full it was. I could not get over all of the stuff in there. Keep in mind, this is only the 3rd non-Auburn related gift that Will has received. I was thrilled to just have some baby blue and Cubs attire! I have included pictures of my 3 favorite things!! Too cute. We are so thankful to them for the presents and we can't wait until next summer when we can hopefully go and visit them!!

This was definitely John's favorite! So fun!

Love this one!!

This is my favorite. Look at how small that bathrobe is. Hysterical! She also sent a cute little "My first bath" picture frame.

Happy Birthday, Bent!!

That's right...it is sweet, precious Bentley's birthday. We have made a big deal about this the first 2 years of his life. This year, we are horrible parents. We haven't even bought him his presents yet. John and I are going to go to the pet store tonight. We love to get him a few and put them all in a Wal-Mart bag and shake them up. He gets so excited, without even knowing what is in the bag. Then we dump the toys out and he gets so overwhelmed because he doesn't know which one to play with first, so he just starts to run around. With a baby on the way, this might be the last big year for Bentley. Who am I kidding-he runs this house!

I had to include these pictures. John's Aunt and Uncle from Chicago mailed John and I a big baby basket with tons of present for Will since she won't be able to come down for the shower. This will be a whole other post because some of the stuff in there was so stinkin' cute! They are big Chicago Cubs fans and this is where John gets his love for the Cubs. So she included this cow in the basket. Bentley immediately got it out of the basket and started to run around with it because he thinks all things stuffed are his. It is hysterical. He has no idea how much his little world is about to change!

Shout Out to Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Things were hectic yesterday so nothing got posted! Dad was out of town so Mom and EE came over to our house for dinner and chocolate chip pound cake, which was very good if I do say so myself! She is awesome and God knew exactly what He was doing when He gave her to me as a mother. She is the most selfless person I know. I have so enjoyed living in Birmingham so we can spend more time together!! So, Happy Birthday Mom!

Girls Night (and Day) Out

Thursday afternoon at 3:00 could not have come sooner. Since John and the guys started planning their trip to West Virginia to go see Auburn play, the wives have been planning a day at the spa! I have never been more ready to spend some quality time with my Auburn friends that I miss so much and be pampered! Thursday night Tiffany, Krystle, and Shealy got into town and we headed to Surin in Crestline for dinner. Tiff's friend, Lauren met us for dinner. It was so fun to catch up and eat yummy food. I tried the Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup and it was delicious!! Me, Shealy, Lauren, Tiffany, and Krystle
We stayed up until almost 1am!! I don't think I have been up that late since college. On Friday, we all played hooky from work! We woke up and I took them to Edgar's for breakfast, which is such a treat. We all loved it. Then we came back and got all ready to go to the spa at Ross Bridge for a much needed massage. When we got there, they showed us all the rooms...there was a lounge with food and water, there was a steam room, and a whirl pool. It was heaven! We put on our robes and headed to the lounge to read magazines and relax before our massages. Shealy and I got Baby Love massages since we are pregnant. It was just as good as a regular massage, I just didn't lie on my stomach. I was on one side and then flipped to the other. It was the best 50 minutes of my week!! Once we were all done with massages, we got into the whirlpool. It was so relaxing. I could not have asked for a better way to spend the time that John was gone-with my favorite friends, good food, and rest. I actually woke up this morning and was sitting on the couch when I noticed my feet weren't swollen at all. Not a bit. They actually looked normal for the first time in like a month and a half. I am beyond excited. Who knows how long it will last. If they get swollen again, I might just have to justify another massage :)

All pretty and pampered after our massage

The bumps...mine is just slightly bigger :)

Prepared Part II

John and I started a 4 week long "Preparing for Childbirth" class last night. After we left, I think we both had decided that we might have been better off to just be clueless about the whole thing and just let doctors and nurses tell us what to do. I mean people have babies every day...it can't be that hard, right? Last night for 2 hours we discussed everything from what your water should look like if it breaks to where to park when we come to deliver and of course ended last night's session with a lovely birthing video. OMG. I think John was scarred for life and he didn't even watch most of it. It was SO graphic. I guess it is a good thing that the mom just pushes and doesn't really see any action from that end. John doesn't even want to see that when I am in labor, much less some random stranger on the video. He said they either need to show it with cartoons or hire good looking actresses because it was way too much for him. So needless to say, now he has these images he can't get out of his head and I am thinking/worrying about things I didn't even know about until last night! I know that everything is going to be fine and that these classes I guess aim to prepare you for anything and everything that can happen. The next 3 classes should be interesting. There are 12 other couples in our class. 6 are having boys (including us), 6 are having girls, and one decided to let it be a surprise!

On another note, we bought Will a dresser. Several friends had told me about a baby furniture store in Homewood that is either going out of business or liquidating all of their inventory. When John and I walked in, I thought we for sure wouldn't be buying anything. There was hardly anything in there. I had heard that the man was really nice and would work with us, so I told him exactly what we were looking for and he told me that he might have something similar upstairs. We went up the stairs and through 3 empty rooms and finally to a room that had a dresser, desk, and bookshelf in it. The dresser was basically exactly what we needed. It has a mahogany stain, 3 drawers and a door. We are going to use it as a changing table until he is out of diapers and just put a changing pad on top. It was regularly $870 and we got it for $279. John and I both agreed that that was a big, big bargain by Dave Ramsey standards if we'd ever seen one. We are picking it up on Saturday and then going to pick out paint colors!

Home Again

This is the only picture we took while we were there, and we only got this one because I set up our timer. We LOVED our little trip to the beach and I highly recommend going in October if you have never been. It got warm enough in the day to wear a bathing suit for those so inclined (we were not among those), but it was still breezy and felt great. There were no waits at the restaurants, and we didn't feel pressured to stay on the beach all day. We could do whatever we wanted (watch mindless TV, nap a lot, and read). We ended up here on all three nights we were there. The highlight of our trip came on Sunday afternoon when we went to play putt-putt. I love putt-putt and cannot believe there are no more putt-putt courses here in Birmingham. Playing at Riverchase Golf and Games (Fun Country) and Magic Mountain are very fond memories from my childhood. Anyways, John and I got our clubs and balls (he chose orange of course for Auburn) and said that whoever won our putt-putt game would be a prediction for which team would win come November. On the 2nd hole, I was one stroke behind John. I caught up by hole 8 and we stayed tied until hole 18. This was the final hole-the one in which our balls would be eaten by the black hole. So the tie had to be broken here. John was not clutch and made the hole in 3 while I finished the hole with only 2 putts. I won...prediction for November...enough said :)

We had another doctor appt. today. I passed my glucose test, meaning I do not have gestational diabetes which is great! I have to start going to the doctor now every 2 weeks which seems crazy-I can't believe January is almost here. We started our prepared childbirth classes tonight. I do not have enough energy to post about it right now but I will definitely do the post justice by waiting until tomorrow.

John leaves in the morning for Auburn to meet up with some guys to head to West Virginia. I have a feeling I could get a pretty awesome video of John at tiger walk on Thursday if I were going-he will probably be totally insane. He said he is going to stand in the middle of the aisle if he has to to pump every player up. I think he is just trying to make sure he gets his money worth. He says that his one-liner for this tiger walk is going to be "The season starts NOW."