Memorial Day weekend in Memphis!

We headed to Memphis on Thursday, both of us needing a break with work. The ride there wasn't as bad as I thought since I sat on a pillow the whole time.

When we got there, Isaiah was having a rough day. Mom, dad, Jason, and I kept him while Chris & Lesley were at a dinner for her medical school graduation. He got a bit fuzzy at times when he was tired, so he took two little naps. Uncle Mike came over too after he got off work, which was nice! We ate some pizza.

Here the first video of mom feeding him sweet potatoes that evening. He doesn't like green beans very much, but loves sweet potatoes!

Friday was Lesley's graduation ceremonies. The first one was just the medical school at a church. The most interesting thing I learned was that a German intern in 1929 performed the first human heart catherization on himself! He did it to prove that it could be done safely on humans and much of the modern heart knowledge stems from this guy. The point that the speaker made was that even as interns/residents, one person can make a difference.

After that, we went to this cute restaurant downtown to eat lunch. We got to spend time with Lesley's side of the which was great! The ceremony in the afternoon had the medical, pharmacy, dentistry, physical therapy, nursing, and allied health all together, so it was a long ceremony, but good! Isaiah sat with mom in the afternoon and he didn't make any crying or noisy sounds during the ceremony!

We got to walk up Beale street after that on our way back to the car, so Jason got to see all the excitement of that! That evening, everyone headed to Chris and Lesley's for bbq and then we had a men vs. women trivial pursuit. The men ended up winning, but we had a nice time with everyone!

Here is a video of Isaiah playing in him jumper; Jason made him smile!

Saturday, we went mid morning to Chris and Lesley's, then mom, dad, Jason, and I went to eat lunch at the Neelys restaurant. We all cleaned our plates, as it was one of the best restaurants I think we've been to in Memphis! We'll definitely have to go back!

That afternoon, we just chilled at their house. Mom got him this UNC t-shirt that we put him in for awhile. For dinner, everyone came over to eat some Chinese takeout! Then, we headed to our hotel near Nashville, so the ride home was not as long! Here he is with Jason!

We have the crib!

24 weeks (I think now). Been feeling more movements, I think. It seems each ultrasound that the kid is pretty much content staying still so maybe it's started to see the benefits to moving.

Our crib came in and we've got it set up in the room now! We put the bed on the other side of the room. The blanket from our jungle thing is drapped on the bed.

Work's been a blur for us both this past week. Thursday, we had a cookout at some of our friend's house with some other young couples. The only bad thing about it is that I think I sat too much and my left sciatic nerve really hurt the next two days. It started about 2 weeks ago and co mes on and off. I guess I'll just have to deal with it!

Friday, Jason went to a men's retreat and I went to our friend's Abigail & Greg's house for their son's one year old birthday party. They dropped a bomb on everyone announcing that they are having twins! I guess God really dropped the bomb on them! But it was fun and quite surreal to see how their parents reacted and also how shocked they are still! It was weird too because when I sat beside Abigail when we got there, I thought: "I wonder if she's pregnant." I don't normally think that about people, so I blew it off as a crazy thought!

Saturday, I worked on the online newsletter for the women's ministry all morning and helped Liz bake some cookies in the afternoon. I got a cute picture of the cats sitting on a chair in the sunroom. I've never seen them sit in the same chair before; they're usually in the same room together, but have their space.

That night, when Jason got back, we went with Liz to the Crawdads game. It was a nice evening, but we were very tired.

Sunday, I went with mom, Abigail and Kelly to see "South Pacific". It worked out that mom's neighbor gave her their season tickets so we all got in for free! Then, we headed to Wes & Tiffany's for another cookout!

Busy Two Weeks!

Here's my 22/23 week baby bump picture!

We've had a very busy last 2 weeks! Last week (3rd to 7th) we both had hard days at work: Jason with air conditioning problems and Melissa with just an overwhelming work load. Thankfully we weren't monsters to one another, even though I felt like one!

Last Tuesday evening (4th), we got to see my college friends Jen and Charles, who had their third son early that morning! We were glad to see them!

Last Thursday, we went to our friend Emily's pinning ceremony for nursing. Thursday had been the worst day for me and they had a good speaker who talked about the harms of complaining and critizing.

Last Friday, our chapter in the marriage book was realizing that your spouse cannot make you happy and even facing the disappointments in your marriage. We realized how important it is for us to communicate our feelings, especially when we've had those hard days at work! Otherwise, we might take something personally when it has nothing to do with us!

Last Saturday, we had dinner with the Holcomb side for Mother's Day. Rebecca commented that I ate a lot (which I did)

Last Sunday, we had lunch with Linda, Gary, Lee, and Aida. We ordered Village Inn pizza and enjoyed the entertainment from Aida. She pretended to fish off of Lee's boat (in the driveway). We had a nice TNT discussion with Wes & Tiffany, finishing up the lesson on forgiveness.

Monday, we had dinner with my mom at Donatos. Then, we headed to Babies R Us to order our crib and began our registry! It's not got too much stuff on it yet, but we're working on it! Our nursery theme is a Jungle theme, so we're rearranged the first bedroom to prepare for the new furniture!

Tuesday, we had nothing to do thankfully (except watch "Lost" which was an annoying episode...)

Thursday, we visited Grandma in the hospital because she had gotten sick and they figured out it was her galbladder. She had it taken out on Friday and is now recovering.

Friday, we had life group on finding a mission for your marriage and also making sure it has an adventure quality to it, by finding things in common to do, etc. It really has made us think a lot about what we want to accomplish together as a couple, a part from raising kids. The chapter did make a great point that raising kids is an adventure and mission of it's own, but it shouldn't be the sole purpose of the marriage, since kids will eventually go. I heard someone say once, "Kids will leave, spouses will stay."

Saturday, we had a date day! We went shopping in the afternoon: to Kohls, Lowes to pick out paint samples for the nursery, and Goodwill for me to get more clothes! They're starting to get tigher! Then, we made breakfast for dinner (eggs and bacon), eating on the sunroom, and made chocolate chip cookies for the church picnic the next day! It was fun for us to work together and really hard for me NOT to eat the raw cookie dough!

Sunday, we had a church picnic for lunch that the Women's Ministry did (which I'm a part of since I do the electronic newsletter). We profiled two non profits and had the kids decorate these paper sacks with goodies for children that are sick. I got some good pictures to put in the June newsletter!

Then, we headed to Statesville and while Jason hung out with his dad and grandparents at the hospital, I went to a bridal shower for Karen's future daughter in law! It was at Karen's house with a Hawaii theme! I had a great time talking to Melissa (not myself, the future bride's name is Melissa too) since we never have gotten a chance to talk before! We're looking forward to their wedding in June!

After that, we went to Lonestar since Karen's birthday was the 15th. I was completely stuffed from munching on all the good bridal shower food (fruit, cake, and these awesome sausage balls!)

We were so tired last night we went to bed early!

Gender mystery!

Well, we had the big ultrasound today to check anatomy and find out the gender....but apparently we have a stubborn and/or shy baby! It would not turn the right way for the tech to see the "special area" and when it got close to being in the right place, the cord or a hand was in the way! I almost felt like it was teasing us! This tech believed it was a girl (as did the doctor back in February), but she didn't felt confident enough to be sure.



We felt a bit disappointed, but once that wore off, I started to think it was funny! I came back to work to tell and we had alittle social, making a toast to "Baby Shim".



I took pictures of the pictures, so quality isn't that good.

This one is of the feet (at the top):







It has the mouth open in this one! (at the top, near the middle). Either it's yawning or saying: "I ain't telling!"

20 weeks

There's not too much change, but a lot more people are saying I've got more of a baby bump! I think I'm feeling more flutters and still getting hungier, so those should be good signs! This Friday is the big appointment, where they do the anatomy scan and we can find out if it's a boy or girl. I'm a bit nervous and excited!

It's been an interesting week, starting with on Monday evening, Jason finding a broken sewer pipe in our backyard. He was in the woods, looking for places to put his new trees and found it. (Yuck!) So, we ended up talking to our neighbor Miles, who said he had a similar problem a few years ago and it's most likely a tree root damaging the pipe. Since he works for the city, he called and it ended up we found out that when the city put in the new sewer pipe in the creek in our backyard, they forgot to hook our line in. Saturday morning, two workers and Jason replaced the pipe and it was FREE since it was the city's fault for not hooking us in! Such a great God thing!

Friday night, I got to hang out with some girlfriends and Jason went with our friend Richard to see his son's high school friends play at a local Christian coffee house. Saturday, we had family birthdays for myself and Lee in Statesville.

Jason was worn out today from working so hard yesterday, so we've just rested!

We're working on finding a daycare, which is a lot more stressful than I thought! I get a bit freaked out when there's a bunch of choices to make and worry a bit that there won't be anything available when we need it. But, I know God will work it out somehow, I'm just not sure yet. Pray for us as we search to find the right place!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Today, I'm 31! We've had a good day! We went to Kobe's for lunch with Linda and Gary. Dad had a seminar in Greensboro, so we saw them alittle later this afternoon.

Here's another baby bump picture! 19 weeks now!

Yesterday, we went to my second cousin Elana's wedding in Charlotte. It was nice to see that side of the family and a very pretty day! I enjoyed the food, which was pasta with chicken, peppers, and mushrooms!

Friday we started our marriage book in life group! We read the book and the workbook during the week and then watch a video and discuss at group time. This week, it was about expectations in marriage and it being harder then we think. It was interesting to hear the stories of how things were different from dating to marriage with all of us.

This past week, Jason had lots of air conditioning problems so he was very worn out. It didn't help that our toliets starting not flushing during the week and Friday evening, we had to call Roto Rooter and spend $400 to get it fixed! But, God is good and since I got paid this week, we had the money in the account!

My co worker/roommate Rosemary has been on vacation this week, and it was pretty quiet with work. We had a birthday cake for me on Friday which was nice!

The prior weekend, I had to go buy a few more pants since the ones I have aren't fitting well! I am a Goodwill freak, so I found some there! So far, I think most of my skirts and shirts for work will be okay since they are long and stretchy. But, we'll see!

I still sometimes get a little sick feeling in the evenings, but it's not at the level as the last few months. I also have a snack in the morning and afternoons because I get SO HUNGRY! I'm being good though and eating fruit, even though a week ago, I did find some Vanilla Wafers and eat those for a few days! Guess one week doesn't hurt!

Happy Easter!

We've enjoyed the nice weather these last few days! Jason had to work all last week, including Good Friday, but I was spoiled and had half day Thursday off and Friday off! Friday, I went to an organ recital at Corinth, then got tired and took a nap in the afternoon!

We had a passover dinner with life group on Friday night and did communion, which was neat! The food was different, but it settled well!

Saturday, Jason went fishing with Lee and Dean, so I stayed at home. I got a bellyache in the afternoon, but thankfully felt better in the evening when we went down to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. The hamburgers were really good! We had to leave a bit early so that Jason could make his poundcake for Sunday lunch. We watched a bit of the end of "The Ten Commandments" while it baked.

Sunday, we had a bunch of kids in nursery but it was nice so we stayed outside. Sunday lunch at Deda's was nice, and after a quick nap, we headed to Statesville again to have dinner with Linda, Gary, Lee, Mandy, Will, and Aida. It was a great evening!

Both of us are feeling the tree pollen this week, so we're taking it a bit easy!

I'm not much bigger this week so I didn't do a pic, but my spring pants aren't fitting well.

I also took a great video of Lilac. In my quest to prove that she is indeed crazy, every night she rubs on the dogs collar when we put in on the bar area. She doesn't like the dogs at all, but for some reason, loves the collar!