A Much Needed Update

I know it's been forever. And you're probably dying to know what I look like these days. A line from the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast sums it up best...

"I'm roughly the size of a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge!"






That's the belly these days - growing ever bigger. Baby girl is still right on track and doing great. I'm the most boring OB patient ever. Everything is always right where it should be measurements-wise and I never have any complaints or concerns. Which is exactly how we want it.

So clearly Baby Girl is growing a whole lot. There's been some other big changes here as well. We've taken EVERY BLESSSED THING out of the nursery and created a home office space in our sunroom (which I'm not allowed to show you, because my adorable husband is really excited to have my mom see the house looking so different next time she comes down; he doesn't want me to ruin the surprise by posting pictures). We've primed the nursery and are going tonight to get some of those nifty little sample size paints to try out a couple of colors on the wall. The installer comes tomorrow to get official measurements for our new carpet which should be going in soon after. Jamie is apparently nesting, because in the last few weeks he's begun a major overhaul of our frontyard, a project that in my opinion could most definitely wait until after the baby's here. But I'm not going to stop him! If you come to visit this fall and see a very torn up lawn, you'll know it's because the little one arrived before his projects could be completed. We've also acquired a new pet. I call him Louie:



Neither of us is too freaked out by snakes and this kind is rather harmless, so we let him live. Plus, we're hoping he'll keep mice away and maybe also deter mama birds and bunnies from building their homes in our lawn. I much prefer seeing a snake in my yard from time to time than constantly having to rescue baby animals from Kona.

One last big news item: Baby Girl finally has a real name! I thought we might never decide, but we finally did! And now you just have to wait 10 more weeks to find out what it is :)

Typical

Why living with my husband is so much fun:

On Saturday, I had a home study visit with a family in Buckhead, a neighborhood in north Atlanta. I dropped Jamie off at a nearby Starbucks so he could read while I met with my family and afterwards, the two of us headed down to Ikea to look for bookshelves. We needed bookshelves for two reasons: one, we have a ton of books and have kept them in boxes in what will soon be the nursery since moving here in '08; two, we (rather, I) would like to create a playroom in the main living area of our house to keep baby toys in. Now, in my recollections, Jamie and I had discussed the need for two different sets of bookshelves and our trip to Ikea for that purpose. Apparently, we had not.

We get to Ikea and decide to eat lunch first. We spent $8 on two meatball plates and drank water - typical for a Hotalen "date". We shopped for a couple hours, debated over shelves, selected (or so I thought) the best shelves for our purposes, wrote down the important identifying info and headed to the merchandise pick-up area to get our shelves, pay and head home.

But in typical fashion, once we got to the merchandiser pick-up area, Jamie, bless his frugal little heart, couldn't commit to any shelves. We hadn't shopped around enough. What if there were cheaper shelves at Wal-Mart or Target? Finally realizing his hormonal wife was going to lose her mind if we went home emptyhanded, he agreed to purchase the shelves for our home office area only, not for the toy room. Now both thoroughly cranky, we pay and head out to the car. Only to discover that our purchases do not fit in a Camry - no way, no how. So Jamie decides the only logical thing to do is return them and forget about it. And we head home emptyhanded. And, on my part anyway, pretty irritated.

And that was Saturday.

Sunday, Jamie decides we'll go ahead and do some comparison shopping and if we can't find any cheaper shelves, we'll return to Ikea. Guess where we wound up? Now Ikea runs a special from time to time where you can eat for free if you spend more than $100 on furniture. When you checkout, you present your cafe receipt and the price of your food is deducted from the price of your furniture. Jamie, never one to miss a deal, decides to take full advantage of this offer. Remember our $8 meatball and water meals from the day before? This time, we spent almost $30. On food. For just the two of us. Jamie was hilarious. He got a softdrink and an orange juice; a meal, a salad, a dessert. He insisted I load up as well. Anything I'd ever wanted to try at Ikea, go for it! After all, it's free! You have to have witnessed Jamie's tightfistedness firsthand to really understand how funny it was to watch him but trust me, the amount of food was obcene.

We got the shelves for the office area, but not the playroom knowing we could never fit them all in the car. We'd brought the Saturn this time, hoping the station wagon would give us more room. It worked, but it wasn't easy! The boxes stretched all the way from the back windshield to between the front seats. My job all the way home was to keep them from falling on Jamie and making us crash when he turned left. We drove home laughing about how ridiculous this was. And once home had a fun time putting them together and getting them up in our new office.

Two full days spent shopping at Ikea...oh, Jamie, you keep life interesting!

100 Days!

We are officially 100 days away from our due date today! Not that I expect this little girl to come on her due date. In fact, I have a very strong feeling that she'll be significantly later than August 10th. But we'll see! I've been wrong before. And though I'm sure I'll get impatient - and probably uncomfortable - waiting for her, I'm also sure she'll be more than worth the wait!

We're still mulling over the whole name thing. I'm hoping we'll settle on one in the next month or so and then I can start giving you all some clues and letting you guess what her name might be. Yes, we are going to be one of those couples who keep everyone in suspense until the baby's born. You'll just have to be patient!

This weekend, my parents made an impromptu trip to Georgia to see us. And my mom and I made an unscheduled trip to the OB to see the baby. After a few weeks of feeling her doing all sorts of acrobatics I noticed a significant drop in her movements. I felt her kick only once on Thursday afternoon and evening and not at all on Friday. I started to get a little worried! But I was pretty proud of myself for not losing it. I ate a sugary, caffeinated breakfast Friday morning, and when that didn't get her going I called my OB. They had me come in and did an ultrasound. Everything was fine of course. I guess she was just not feeling like working too hard! I was a little worried, and so relieved to hear everything was fine. And it was nice to have an unscheduled peek at my little one! She's doing great and weighs 1lb. 11oz. now. Only 100 days (give or take :) ) until we meet her!

Celebrating Easter

I've been thinking a lot lately about our traditions as a couple. We don't have too many, but we've tried to establish some, because I think they're important. Not just for us, but for our kids. Traditions make people feel like part of group and build a sense of connection and shared memories in a family. So I want our children to have traditions that are just ours. We've got some pretty good Christmas and Thanksgiving traditions and my little book that I wrote about here is chock full of other ideas once we have slightly older kids.

But I have nothing for Easter.

Easter at our house usually goes like this: It's the middle of tax season. Jamie is exhausted and working long days 6 days a week. For a week or so before Easter I try to come up with something meaningful to do. Usually a day or two before Jamie's grandparents ask if we have plans and if we'd like to do lunch with them. And then on Easter day we go to church, have a late lunch with the grandparents and call it a day.

It's not a bad way to spend a Sunday, it just doesn't have anything meaningful really. I want our Easter celebrations to enforce to our kids that this day is important. I hope that we will do a good job of teaching them year-round about Christ and His sacrifice for us; how He defeated death and opened the doors to Heaven. But if we're going to teach them 364 days a year that Jesus' death and resurrection are the basis of everything we do then shouldn't that 365th day, the day all of Christianity sets aside to celebrate his resurrection, be something special?

So for the next several months, until Easter comes around again I'll be making it a point to take notes of any great Easter/Holy Week ideas I hear. Any suggestions?

Happy Easter from the Hotalens!

The Big Ones...




The Little One...



And the Dumb One...

Who decided to take himself for a walk to Kroger this morning. In case you were wondering, chasing the dog around the neighborhood is NOT a good start to Easter morning. If you were looking to add a new tradition to your Easter Sunday celebrations, I don't recommend it.

Quoted

"That baby's gonna be honkin'. Every time I look at you, you're huger."
- My co-worker Dani who comes from Minnesota, where, apparently
they use words like honkin' and huger.

She's right, though.

A couple weeks ago, just before my trip to Virginia, Baby Girl decided to make sure Nana, Big Daddy and Aunt Shannon could see her. My tummy started to pop just a little.

And then, suddenly, there was no stopping it. Practically overnight I went from "Is that a baby bump or too much dessert?" to "Most definitely pregnant". And now, I look like this:


And now like Dani said, every time I turn around I'm huger! I love it though :) I'm feeling good and enjoying the whole pregnancy physique. Although clothes are becoming an issue...
(Look, even Kona's getting excited about the baby!)

Right Now

Eating: Cheese fries with bacon bits and ranch dressing. Healthy, right?

Drinking: V8 Fusion Peach Mango juice. Does that counteract the cheese fries:

Listening: to the washing machine and seriously looking forward to clean sheets tonight!

Feeling: Energetic! It could be some second trimester energy flow. Or the 3 cups of coffee I had today.

Missing: these shoeless girls -


Wishing: I didn't have to wait until August to meet this baby face-to-face.

Wanting: A pedicure. It's getting pretty ugly.

Loving: the warm spring weather we had today.

Hoping: Baby DeVol's referral comes soon!

Wondering: If we'll ever be able to pick a name for Baby H.

Anticipating: My mom's trip to GA this weekend. I can't wait to see her!!

Thankful: For a new opportunity at work that might keep me employed AND home with the baby come this August.

I'm grateful for life today :) Hope you are too!