The Latest

I guess it's time for an update!

My AmeriCorps term has come to an end, so today is my first official day without a job. I'm really glad I decided to serve with AmeriCorps. No, I didn't make a lot of money ($12,300 living stipend over 11 months + $5,000 education award), but I met tons of cool people and learned a lot about water quality and other environmental issues.

Now that I have tons of free time on my hands, I started watching The Vampire Diaries. It's so cheesy, but it's fun. There are 7 seasons with about 22 or so episodes each, so this will fill my free time quite nicely. :) If you have any other show recommendations for me, let me know!

I am 35 weeks now and will hit 36 on Thursday. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday. Not sure if the doc will check to see how far I'm dilated and effaced or not. I do know they'll do the strep b test. Vaginal and butt. :oP Wonderful. If I'm positive, I have to go on antibiotics so I don't pass it to the baby when I deliver. After Thursday I'll be going to the doctor weekly. I'm due September 3rd - we're ridiculously close. Sometimes I'm excited and anxious for the big day(s) and other times I freak out a little and just want time to suspend. I'm hoping those are normal feelings to have!

I'm feeling pretty good. I can't sleep on my right side anymore because my hip will hurt for several days afterward, so I'm strictly left side sleeping now. TMI FOREWARNING: I started having diarrhea yesterday. It's like anything I eat is immediately...let go. I think if it continues into tomorrow, I'll call my OB.

Here's my latest picture:

35 weeks

 It's pretty crazy to look back and see how skinny I was in the beginning:

5 weeks

We had our family baby shower at my grandmother's house the other day:

Isn't this frog so fun?!

We had red velvet, coconut, and peanut butter/chocolate cakes.

I think 'boy' won.

We also took some maternity photos after the shower. This is my favorite:

I need to crop Chris' Fitbit out. :)

Another thing I wanted to share because I think it's so cute (and I love that Chris thought of it) is what we decided to do above the crib. By the way, we got the crib at our shower and Chris was so excited he put it together that night. Love him. My mom made the crocheted mobile (sun, moon, stars, cloud), those are leftover "clouds" from our wedding, and from the clouds we hung the dragonfly finger puppets that my aunt gave us. In case you're curious, my grandmother made the quilt hanging over the back of the crib and my mom made the crib bedding.

And that's what's going on in my life right now. Many thanks to my mom, aunt, and grandmother for their tireless work on the shower. It was very fun and emotional for me since it's been a long road to this point.

Love,

A Fitting Poem for the Title of my Blog

I'll admit it. I'm not a huge fan of poetry. If someone wants to discuss poetry (actually happened to me recently, believe it or not), I cannot contribute to the conversation at all. Does Dr. Seuss count as poetry? I can talk about Dr. Seuss...

At any rate, my sister sent me this poem the other day and it really spoke to me I think it's really awesome.

It was published in 1917. Enjoy.


Deep in the Quiet Wood
James Weldon Johnson 1871-1928

Are you bowed down in heart?
Do you but hear the clashing discords and the din of life?
Then come away, come to the peaceful wood,
Here bathe your soul in silence. Listen! Now,
From out the palpitating solitude
Do you not catch, yet faint, elusive strains?
They are above, around, within you, everywhere.
Silently listen! Clear, and still more clear, they come.
They bubble up in rippling notes, and swell in singing tones.
Not let your soul run the whole gamut of the wondrous scale
Until, responsive to the tonic chord,
It touches the diapason of God's grand cathedral organ,
Filling earth for you with heavenly peace
And holy harmonies.



Much Love,

Love

I love my husband. For many different reasons, but the first one that comes to mind right now is...

...because every once in a while, out of the blue, he'll say, "You need to update your blog."

Me: *sigh* I know...

I'm always surprised he actually cares enough to check it. True love, folks. True love.

I do have a lot of write about though. I'll put it on my list to do this weekend.

July 4th Vacation: Day 1

Happy Independence Day!  Better late than never, right?

So when I was finishing up my thesis I made my husband promise to take me on a trip to celebrate.  Because we're cheap and can never make up our minds about anything, we decided to keep it close to home and head out to Atlanta, Georgia.  On our first day there we went to Gladys Knight & Ron Winans' Chicken and Waffles, then headed over to the World of Coca-Cola, and visited The Vortex Bar & Grill for dinner.

The chicken & waffles place wasn't what I expected but it was still good.  The World of Coke was like a giant advertisement for coke products (ya think?) but was still fun.  And The Vortex was...not on par with my expectations.  I think my biggest disappointment was that they allowed smoking.

Lots of walking, but definitely a great day!  The hubs did a great job picking out a hotel...he even upgraded us to the Executive Level.  Here are some pictures for your enjoyment - sorry about the quality, I didn't take many this day:

This was my favorite part of the whole place.  I stayed here for a while.

Look closely...

16 oz. serves THREE!!

Everyone got a complimentary coke - you can see the bottles being transported at ceiling height.

Here's a better picture of the bottles - the big blue thing was the station where you could sample Coca-Cola products from North America.  There were four other stations but I can't remember now what they were.

Coming soon: Day 2 Georgia Aquarium & Atlanta Braves game!

Easter Weekend

Whoa nelly!  I don't know about you, but I had a jam-packed weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.

One of the things I got to do was get into a bee suit & put a bee hive together.  Fun!  My aunt has a hive in South Carolina and she decided to put one up here in North Carolina.

In all my beekeeper glory

Me on the left, my aunt on the right

Taking the food out of the bee container

 I also got to meet my new 1st cousin once removed (my cousin's son).  Look at how cute!!

 Happy Easter everyone!