The Good and the Bad

Oh the adventures we have! :) I love that life is rarely boring. The Farmer family (my grandparents, dad, Dreama, aunts, uncles, and cousins) rented a house at the Outer Banks this past week. Drew and I couldn't take the whole week off, so we packed up on Tuesday afternoon and headed out with Katie, Audrey, and Owen. We were packed tight but I loved it! Audrey sang to us, and refused to use the potty even when she asked. Pictured below is a the first bathroom we stopped at, and although we wouldn't have made her use it she would have non of it anyway. Katie went to get her out of the car and said "Need to go potty" and she looked out the window and said loudly "NO TANK TU NO TANK TU, BEACH." You probably had to have been there but it was hysterical. She did end up going in some grass. Strange and yet entertaining child. I think the last hour or so she kept saying 'water' over and over while Drew would reply 'beach.' She was a tad excited to be headed to the beach. An eleven o'clock swim definitely ensued when we arrived at the beach house. Not before some yummy sonic ice cream!

 

We spent Wednesday at the beach both in the late morning, and then again that evening. Bocce ball, sandcastles, kite flying, skim boarding, all took place, with some napping, yummy food and 'Bee Movie' (a new favorite of Audrey's) in between.

Thursday most of us stayed by the pool, alternating the relaxing and baby chasing. Some of us went to a super greasy and yet yummy pizza place for dinner while the others hit up a seafood buffet. (I personally am not a fan of anything fishy!) Then we headed up to the beach for family pictures. I was quite pleased with the pictures, since Drew and I rarely do 'photo shoots' and I wanted some of just us before baby came. Drew and I went on a date after that, and then came back for a nighttime game of volleyball in the pool. 

Those were all good things. Then the bad happened, at least for me around 3 AM Friday morning. The Summer Stomach Bug of 2011. (We seem to have a lot of those come up don't we?? Thanksgiving was NOT that long ago!! Anyway, I thought it was pregnancy related until I realized early that morning that my dad, Johnny (uncle) and Macy (cousin) also had it. Everyone packed up in a hurry and as soon as their family was able to travel we booked it back home. With 20 people in the house, it was sure to spread, and sure enough it did. Thankfully they made it home first. I was SO sad that I couldn't say bye to Audrey and Owen, we had been together for a whole week! It's hard being far away from them! It was also disappointing that we only had 2 days at the beach, but I am grateful that Drew stayed healthy and that we did have two great days of sun and fun! :)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I love holidays. It means family, no work and all play. That's what this family did last weekend. I've never had to travel much for Christmas because my family has always been close. Unfortunately the past couple years has changed because my sister and family live 2 hours away. While it could be so much further, it still stinks that I can't go to their house anytime I want. She is probably grateful for that fact. All that to say I'm very happy when I get a couple days with them!

 Audrey FINALLY let me paint her fingernails. I tried when Owen was born and she was not amused. This time she waited patiently, and then wanted to paint mine as well. She took the job super seriously, and then was disturbed later in the week when it started to come off.

 He is the most kissable little boy ever... I just love snugglin' this boy!

 It's a plane!

 I'm helpin' Nay Nay with the pie!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Friday was Kylee's second birthday and we partied like it was 2009?? :) Thursday Kylee, Mason, and I went to the party store to pick out some awesome 'Punzel decorations. She's a big fan of Tangled.

Friday we headed to On the Rise Bakery (the bakery Teal owns) to have pizza and cake with some friends. What a blast with a bunch of cuties!

Delicious. Exhausting. Hot. Funny. Success.

[45]

Drew and I usually have bible study on Monday nights. We headed out for dinner beforehand with some wonderful friends. First time at Abuelos = HUGE success. We are now big fans, even though our food budget is not. Gift cards anyone?? 

We love hanging out with them. They love God even more than the amazing love they have for each other, and are so encouraging as a result!! ;) So when we got a text saying the only other couple that could make bible study couldn't make it, we definitely had to continue the evening. 

Christine is a girl after my own heart. Even though we have only hung out a few times, she always suggests ice cream. LOVE IT! So we headed over to Brusters and then tried our hand at Putt Putt. Overall it was a fabulous evening. Drew and I are both very grateful for friends like the Kleiners. 

I have a funny video of Lewis and Drew dancing, but I haven't quite figured out the whole YouTube/videos from you phone, ordeal. Oh the moments even grownups can have with a few arcade tokens. Wait, are we grownups? When does that happen??

Feeling good = date with my man [44]

I got off of work on Thursday and actually felt pretty good. I quickly called Drew and said, "I don't know what you were thinking for tonight, but we should go out because I'm not exhausted!" So we headed off to the mall/Target for some Christmas shopping. 

Yes, you heard me right. My immediate family started the tradition of celebrating Christmas in July last summer. It is mainly a reason to have all of us together for a weekend, free of distractions. Mom decorates the living room, complete with a Christmas Tree. We cook Christmas food, listen to the music and watch the movies. :) Christmas Eve is the Friday closest to July 25th, and then we enjoy Christmas Day complete with watching the kids swim in the pool. Slightly odd but I LOVE it! Obviously we don't go extravagant with the presents, but we do draw names for a little something. :)

Anyway, while Katie pointed out that shopping on Christmas Eve wouldn't be that difficult to do in the summer, I try to avoid that for my stress level. :) Drew and I enjoyed the time out, and even went to dinner at Olive Garden before it was time for me to lay down. I was pretty proud of myself for lasting as long as I did. Although I think we were in bed by 9:30. Details. 

Oh yeah, my car ended up being a cable that broke in the gear shift. Super quick fix that was a lot cheaper than we were thinking. YAY!

Cars Cars Cars

Drew has spent the last couple months looking at cars on different websites. Mainly Craigs list. We found my Escape on there and it's wonderful! He sold his Volvo and bought a Lancer. The Lancer was not all it was cracked up to be and super baseline so Drew wasn't happy with it. I wasn't either frankly, but I wasn't the one driving it. So he asked if he could sell it if he made sure to break even or make a profit. (We had to by new plates, get an inspection, and have the AC looked at so I didn't want that money to be lost.) He ended up selling it for $1000 more than we paid for it. I think over $600 more than we paid/put into it in the short month we had it. I'd say that was a successful sale. :) That was over a week ago.

He was already looking at new cars, but of course didn't want to follow any leads until he knew he could sell the Lancer. So we borrowed his mom's van who is in the Dominican Republic for a few weeks (thanks Phyllis, although I'm not sure you know we borrowed it. ;)) and started searching for a new one. Yesterday Drew drove to PA to get his new (to him) Mazda 6. It's nice. :) and smells good. :) and ended up being $2000 under blue book. I'm a fan of my man's deal finding. He got home around 11:30 last night, but was confident it was definitely worth the trip.

This morning, while he was backing my car out of the driveway, it broke. We think. He shifted it into reverse and  it went into park, but was moving in neutral. Weird. So we sent it off on a tow truck to be looked at on Monday.

I'm saying all of this because...

You know what? God's pretty cool.

We would have been stuck with one car if it had happened anytime in the past week and a half. It didn't, it happened the morning after God blessed us with a great deal on a second car. This just means we are borrowing the van a few more days. :) 

Thanks God, for taking care of the little things. and for giving me a considerate husband who is going to let me drive his new car on Monday while he drives the van with no A.C.  Now we are just praying for a quick, cheap fix.

Ode to the First Trimester

The past several weeks I have pretty much worked and then parked on the couch for the remainder of the evenings. Nothing exciting in this household so far this summer! I have made it to church the majority of the time, and have attended some of our bible studies. I consider that an accomplishment.

Right now "resting" is my favorite and most used word. The nausea comes and goes, but the dizziness seems to be here for the long haul. Oh, the whole whole heat issue, yuck. I am a huge fan of air conditioner these days. Drew used to freeze me out of our house, now I can't get him to make it cold enough!

There is definitely the beginning of a 'baby bump' in my belly, although I'm back and forth about how that makes me feel. While I LOVE the thought of the 'baby bump' I feel like right now it is more from the constant eating my nurse recommended. No complaints here though, because the eating every two hours idea has drastically helped my sickness. Im serious, when I am a stickler with that plan I feel so much better. This week has been a lot better than the past several weeks. YAY! :)

That being sad, I'm glad my baby is making me sick, because that assures me he or she is growing and my body is doing what it needs to do. I do have little chats with my baby when I am sick. Mostly things like "I love you and am (insert getting sick here) glad you are healthy" etc... That may sound strange but I'm tellin' ya, it helps to know being sick is helping the little one!


Drew has been absolutely wonderful! He cooks, cleans, and is very aware of what I need. He has even made a few trips to Hardee's for biscuits or Pizza Hut for dinner. :) I can tell he is getting more and more excited every day.

Our name list at the moment, is still pretty long, although we're pretty set on a boy name.

While Drew and I are together a lot, I am putting the actually 'dates' on hold. We did venture out to dinner and Sam's one night when I was feeling optimistic. That has been the extent of our summer dates.

I'm taking the hardest classes I have left this fall before our baby comes. That way, I will pretty much just have electives to finish. Although I had originally thought I would graduate this coming Spring, it looks like that's not very likely. I would have had to overload myself every semester before the baby, and now I'm pretty sure I wont be taking classes at least the first 8 weeks of spring semester. I'm okay with that though, because we're having a baby. :)