Fabulous Fall Frenzy

Fabulous Fall Frenzy: 12 Reasons why Fall is absolutely fabulous...
1. Caramel Apple Spiced Drinks from Starbucks. Good heavens.
2. Pumpkin Spiced Muffins from Einsteins. Oh my.
3. Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Antibacterial Soap from Bath and Body Works. Incentive to "foam up" even more. Go away Swine Flu.
4. Highs in the low 70's, lows in the 50's. Ahh.
5. Long sleeve t-shirts from the Gap.
6. Boots and cute scarves (my new fav accessory to hide the baby bump).
7. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (stolen from the Halloween candy bowl, of course).
8. Leaves (best views during trip to Hayesville, NC to chow down at Country Cottage Deli).
9. Crisp air. Nothing quite like a long runs (or walks) in the cool, crisp air. My fav!
10. Candy corn.
11. Fall sweeps. Nothing like hours of mindless trashy reality tv shows. Love it.
12. Whippin' out paper turkey crafts with my little pumpkins at work. You know the one...where you trace your hand and create feathers out of each finger tracing? My favorite part is adding the plastic googly eye for added effect.

In other news, we're 9 weeks today-yay! My new found extreme nausea has left me clinging to the couch with cold can of ginger ale and a cup of chicken broth. I will have to add my ridiculous 9 week belly pic upon actually putting on clothes and brushing my hair (and teeth). Gross, I know.

Update: 9 week photo. It's a good day. I showered. I ate. I brushed my teeth. I put on clothes. I even went to the mall. Wooo!


This weeks happenins:
Food Cravings: Sadly food has become a 4-letter word in our house. Here's hopin' my relationship with all things edible is repaired soon! Today I went to Chick-fil-a and ordered a bun with some ketchup. Does this mean my love affair with CFLA is on the mend??

Emotional Basketcase Moment: Um. I cried during "The Biggest Loser" last night. I couldn't decide if it was because I was so proud of Amanda when she gritted her teeth and hauled booty on level 8.5 on the treadmill or if I experienced hurt feelings vicariously as Jillian yelled at Tracey after she caved and ate 4 mini-cupcakes. Seriously?

Hormonal Rage Currently Directed At: Luke the massive black lab mix I am currently dog sitting for. He is enormous and likes to boss me around. I try to love him and talk sweet to him and take him on long walks in the crisp fall air, but he insists on causing me to face plant it on the sidewalk by spontaneously hunkering down and refusing to move. He also will NOT poop outside. Despite how many times I take him out and coax him to "do his doody" he won't do it. Doggy personality disorder? I think so. Regardless, I love him. Doggy-crabbiness and all.

Currently Grateful For: Parents being able to sneak away for their anniversary trip to Vegas, sweet little green olive growing like crazy in my tummy, hubby's successful interviews x5 in LA (and more sure to come in NC tomorrow), tons of baby contraptions delivered by my fab SIL and 3 year old nephew, and a new episode of Toddlers and Tiaras.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

8 weeks-skidleedoo!

We went for our 8-week ultrasound this morning and it was ABSOLUTELY amazing.

We sat in complete awe at the work God is doing in us. Hearing our sweet little baby's heartbeat was life changing. Seriously, we were speechless. There is nothing quite as precious as the sound of new life. Something so small, yet so big. "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139

Here is a picture of Baby D. Let me interpret...Baby's head is down at the bottom and "tail" (does anyone else giggle as much as I do when you hear that particular medical term??) is on top. Those little sprout looking things are Baby's arm buds (also known as "paddle hands").

This little peanut, or "sea monkey" as Chris likes to say, has totally rocked our little world.

We are STILL just beside ourselves with excitement, awe, and thankfulness.

This gift has taught me so much about God's grace. I often think about what it means to have "the grace of God". I have always struggled with understanding how something so mighty can be freely given. In a world where it feels like you must work hard for things, it's hard to imagine something simply being given to you. When we learned that we were expecting I was overcome with an intense feeling of grace. It was as if God's unconditional love was raining over us.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

I recognize that I have been given a great deal of fabulous "gifts" over the years (my baby pink Snuggie, my magical no-mess can opener, good health, an incredible family, a roof over my head...) but a gift as great as this is almost unfathomable.

We. Are. Blessed.

This Week's News:

Food Cravings: Captain Crunch Berries (dry-no milk, ick) and ginger ale. That about completes the list of edibles this week. I, being a girl who LOVES to eat, hope that this phase passes quickly. The worst part is (get ready): my current biggest food aversion is Chick-fil-a. Yes. My greatest fear has come true. I went from eating Chick-fil-a 6-7 times per week (no exaggeration) to zilch, zing, zero times per week. I even dry heave when passing by Chick. It makes me so sad.

Emotional Basketcase Moment: This week's episode of Extreme Home Makeover. Not a good idea on a good day, much less while preggo. I cried while they were installing the floors. I cried when they moved the bus. I cried when the family saw their backyard. Ridiculous amounts of crying. I figure the tears are justified, as there are truly few shows that highlight families who are genuinely deserving and beside themselves with gratefulness.

Currently Grateful For: The sound of Baby Davis' beating heart, Chris' upcoming trip to L.A. (Praises for final step in the job interview process--here's hopin!), an incredible small group of young men and women who we fell instantly in love with, a day off to run amok and shop, and pedicures (yes a few shallow praises, I know).

Ants in My Pants

Seven Weeks, wooo!

Let's see...what kind of mischief have we been up to this week? Get this crazy mess: on Monday I decided that I wanted to call Dr. Sermons' office and ask him about my blood work. Curiosity (ok, and worry) got the best of me and I thought "what's the harm?!" So I called the office and a sweet nurse put me on hold for 10 minutes while she went to grab my chart. She came back and told me that she had finally located my chart but that it was on Dr. Sermons' desk and that he said he was wanted to call me to talk about some things.

Eek.

This was about 4:00-ish. By 6:00 I had paced the halls of work and made it through 2 more patients only to get a follow up phone call from another nurse who said that Dr. Sermons was still busy but not to worry about anything. She said he would call if there was a problem, even if it was midnight and he woke us out of a dead sleep, he would call. Okie dokie.

I came home and Chris and I stared at the phone. It never rang.

At 10pm low and behold: "incoming call". It was the Sermonator himself. At work. At 10pm. My first question was "What on earth are you still doing at work!?" My second question was "What on earth is wrong with my lab work!?"

He laughed and told me that he just wanted to be the one to call to tell us that everything looks great. (Sigh of relief!) He said "you gonna be very happy Miss. Alison".

Alrighty! So my hCG levels and progesterone levels are both a-ok! Whew!

This picture looks strangely different from last week. My food aversions have grown and my tummy has shrunk. Hilarious. Until I am heaving up Banana Bread Oatmeal that I had just 10 minutes earlier flown up to Publix to buy out of extreme craving craziness. Fabulous.

This Week's News:
Food Cravings: All things orange. My friend Abby says that pregnant ladies like orange things for some reason. I find this to be true. Most recent favorites: Fanta Orange Drink, Cheetos Asteroids (whoa, yumminess), and orange sour skittles. My other (daily) obsession is Chipolte's lime tortilla chips with guacamole. One night this week I ate a roast beef sandwich with a side of guac. Mmm, tasty. :)

Emotional Basketcase Moment: Hormonal rage in Kohls when the girl in front of me in line wouldn't shut up about Alabama Football. Completely irrational rage. She was just so loud. Even her mom (who was begrudgingly shopping with her) looked at her and rolled her eyes. I was also taken aback by her plaid button up shirt with sweat-shorts. You know the ones. Made out of sweat pant material but cut as short as booty shorts. Atrocious.

Currently Grateful For: My sweet sweet husband who loves me unconditionally and eats roast beef sandwiches with guacamole despite secretly wanting pancakes for dinner, tons of FABULOUS friends and family members who can't help but share in our joy and happiness, and a precious blueberry baby growin' inside my tummy.

Old School

Perfect fall weekend!

We kicked things off old school Friday night by loading up and heading over to North Gwinnett for the Homecoming Game to see Avery and Maddy Paddy strut their stuff during half time.

What beautiful girls! What amazes me is how it seems like just yesterday they looked like this:And now they look like:
and...

Such gorgeous, gorgeous girls--both inside and out! So proud of them both...and wishin' they would stop making me feel so darn old!

What's Up Doc?

"He who began a good work in you - will be faithful to complete it" (Phil 1:6)

We're 6-ish weeks this week! Wooo!

I could hardly wait for our appointment with Dr. Sermons this afternoon. I made it through the morning at work and then Hubs swung by and picked me up. By 1:15 we were chowing down on some Roly Poly and burning rubber on 2 wheels makin' our way down to Dunwoody.

Let me just say. I have never been more impressed with a doctor and his staff!

Dr. Sermons is honestly the BEST doctor I have ever met. His personality and expertise shone (whoa, lots of irregular past tense strange verbs in this post) through from the moment we met him. And that moment went something like this:

Anxious expectant parents eagerly waiting in docs office. Wife swinging legs in rapid-fire motion, Husband inspecting random medical equipment better left alone. Enter Dr. Sermons. 5 foot nothing with his sweet lazy eye.

Doc glances from me to Chris and back again. We didn't get the standard "Hello folks, I'm Dr. Sermons, it's nice to meet you". Instead we got: "Whoa. Now what we gonna do if this baby takes after his Daddy? Ain't no way he's gonna make it out of there if he's that big".

If you have ever seen Chris and I sitting side by side you will understand how funny this comment is. About 10 minutes into our consultation, he randomly revisited that same thought. Again, he said "I sure hope that baby takes after his mama. Shoo."

We love this man already! He asked if we had any questions and mostly we just had 2. (Well ok, initially we had 27, but we narrowed the list down to 2 on our way over.) Here is my favorite Dr. Sermon's quote of the day:

Question: Can I please have a coke? Just one coke. A small coke. Even just 2 sips of a coke. Please, please??
Answer: Whatch you mean by that? Coke or crack? Cause crack is whack.

After the urine test (yay more pregnancy tests!) we were led into the ultrasound room. Yes, the room that houses the dreaded ultrasound dildo of death. More on that later.

After what felt like 2 hours (ok, more like 1.3 minutes) Dr. Sermons came in and performed the ultrasound.

Holy goodness. Within 30 seconds we were staring at this sweet little, well pea-sized circle, on the screen. It was truly amazing.

Dr. Sermons started doing his thing. Explaining what all the blob-like things were...bladder, check; uterus, check; sac, check.

Then he searched for the tiny heartbeat and came up with nothing. He reassured us that there is nothing to be concerned about, that it's still super early, and that we need to come back in two weeks.

"It'll be a whole different ball game then", he said.

It was a strangely wonderful and amazing yet disappointing experience. There. That's the honest truth. I have been absolutely BESIDE myself for the past 2 weeks. So excited I could nearly burst! Peeing on sticks like it was my full-time career.

I have decided after today that peeing on a stick and looking at that little positive sign is so simple. Getting down to the nitty gritty details of the scientific parts of this pregnancy thing is a different story.

Obviously I didn't expect Baby D to be waving with perfectly formed 5-fingered hands "hi mommy and daddy", but the whole "lack of a heartbeat" moment instilled that instant sense of worry that I am learning must come along with mommyhood.

I didn't cry. Chris kept asking if I was ok. And because I was (and am) I just didn't feel like I needed to become an emotional basket case. Instead we resorted to asking 400 times if everything was ok. We tried phrasing and rephrasing the question in every whichaway we could think of. The end response: Everything is a-ok. Just as it should be at this point in the game.

Dr. Sermons ended the ultrasound session by deciding he wanted to run some blood work to check my hCG levels. Off to the lab we went, jumbo bag of sample vanilla flavored prenatal vitamins in hand.

So that about wraps it up. Absolutely NOTHING wrong. Nothing to worry about. We came face to face with our sweet little baby (0.25 inches long and all) for the first time and were overcome with God's mercy and grace.

For the next two weeks (and 8 months for that matter) my mission is to "place all of these silly little worries in a box, tie a balloon to the box and send it up to heaven". Best advice ever. Hands down (Thank you friend.)

And as one of my precious little cancer patient's mom once told me "You can choose to worry and not pray, or you can choose to pray and not worry. What you cannot do, is both".

So there you have it.

Many, many blessings to be thankful for tonight.

Included in this list of blessings is:
1) The 2 hour nap I was able to take following our appointment. Ah, sweet nap time!
2) 4th and final marketing job interview scheduled for Chris on Thursday! Many many prayers that this may result in the revelation of God's next step for us. (I'm so stinkin' proud of him!)
3) SO many fabulous friends and family members who keep me sane. Seriously. Much love to you all.
4) Tuesday night hibachi. Yes, I am allowed to count this as a blessing. I had 4 sides of Yum Yum sauce. 2 for me, 2 for Baby D.
5) 3.5 day work weeks. Shoowee!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

G-Braves game this afternoon with little man--total blast! Mmm. Hot dogs. There's just something about being at a baseball game with a hot dog in one hand and a ice cold Coca-Cola in the other that makes life just a little bit sweeter!
Two peas in a pod! Thank goodness for piggy back rides!

Austin loves his Umple Chis!

But not quite as much as he loves his sweet Mama!

Hard to escape from 2 tickle bugs! Ahh!

All in all, a fabulous day! We laughed, we played, we ate, we drank, and we sweat our butts off walking 1.2 miles there and back.

I finished the day off by catching up with an old friend and cleaning the bathroom. I know, I know, how much fun can one day hold?

More fun tomorrow because yaaaaaaaaahoooooooooo it's a 3 day weekend. (I'm not one bit excited.)

Johnny Appleseed

These pictures make me laugh.

Partly because I love the Bump.com for their creativity with the "How Big is Baby" column with hilarious food comparisons.

Partly because my tummy only pokes out a teeny tiny bit at this point (and that can probably be attributed to too many heapings of poppyseed chicken, rather than a growing baby!).

Partly because I have to make myself actually get dressed to take these pictures. Bleh...three cheers for prego yuckiness!

But, mostly because it is waaay too early to be doing this. (I just can't help myself!)

We are still in the clouds. Counting our blessings and savoring every moment!

Not My Cup of Tea

Dear Chick-fil-a,

I apologize for the recent drop in your revenue. I realize that my daily sweet tea drive-thru runs were partly responsible for keeping your Sugarloaf location in business. If you will consider kindly brewing some decaffeinated sweet tea, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Here's Hoping,