today is the day.

we are on our way out the door, so this will be quick! we are heading to the hospital in hopes of being induced at 9:00. apparently there are lots of babies being born this week and the hospital has been super busy, so there's a chance that we could get pushed back to later. we are super excited, and i think after two weeks of thinking that she was coming each day resulted in us wasted all of our anxiety/worries, so we are both feeling pretty great. i used each day as an excuse to add some forgotten item to my bag, which means we are prepared with mad libs, 4 different lip gloss shades, multiple coming home outfits for janie, real simple's january edition, and lots of extra contacts (perhaps the only practical thing in there). if you want something to pray about, you could pray that andy doesn't pass out 17 times, that we are able to get in and get things started, and that she arrives before my doctor's shift is over. and of course that she would be healthy and things would go smoothly. we can't wait for everyone to meet her and will keep you all posted. perhaps andy will even write his inaugural blog.

still waiting for a baby

on the 18th, my doctor sent us to winnie palmer for an ultrasound to be sure that janie wasn't getting too big (since i've been measuring two weeks ahead consistently). everything looked great and the doctor there estimated that she was weighing in at about 6 pounds 4 ounces, which they consider normal for where i was at that point. my doctor also thought it was average, but insinuated that she hoped or thought things were going to move along pretty quickly from that point. this is what she's looking like these days. we think she must be pretty bored and ready to eat some real food if she's resorted to nibbling on her toes.

over a week ago i started having kind of regular, but painless contractions, and as the week went on some other things started happening, which in all of the books we've read signal labor is right around the corner. we packed our bags and scrubbed the house top to bottom so that we were ready to go whenever the moment came. ten days later, it still hasn't happened. apparently, i am experiencing nearly every false labor symptom, and a few true labor ones, but no pain or discomfort. each time i start to have contractions, i tell myself that if i can sleep through them, it can't be labor. lucky for me, i am still able to sleep soundly through the entire night, no matter what the muscles in my stomach are doing. yesterday at the doctor there was no further progress really, but she did decide that if janie doesn't make her appearance by next week, they will induce me on the 6th (assuming there is availability at the hospital). we will see what happens between now and then, and promise to let you know as soon as she's here!

christmas fun

the holidays were so good to us. starting a few weeks ago, we managed to fill almost every day of our calendar with holiday parties, dinner with friends, and time with family.

we met luke for the first time when joel and lizzy were in town. it was quite a memorable experience. he came over decked out in the camo onesie that andy picked out a while back, and he took the title of first baby janie ever shared her toys with (which is good practice since they will be sharing many more things once the prearranged marriage is final). he even brought a photo from his first bath to be sure that as soon as she is seeing more than 12 inches away from her face, she will be able to look at her dresser and fall in love with luke. he is an awesome little guy, and joel and lizzy are really great parents. sometimes new parents enjoy sharing all of the negative stuff about the first few weeks, but joel and lizzy make parenting look easy and were able to put a positive spin on all the usual horror stories about labor, sleepless nights, and screaming babies. we are so glad to have friends like them.

our summit connect group just recently grew from eight people with two kids to twelve adults and five and two half kids, if you include the ones in bellies. we had our holiday dinner and white elephant gift exchange the week before christmas and i learned that our friends are wonderful cooks and even better gift givers. among the most coveted of gifts were a dog snuggie and an authentic russian fur hat.

i also attended my first cookie exchange at bri's house. while it was great to spend the evening surrounded by sweets and good friends, the preparations for the event were not so enjoyable, probably due to my missing ingredients in multiple recipes. in short, i made enough dough for 180 cookies and ended up with approximately 50 edible ones. bri has already decided that next year she's stepping things up and we will be required to bring 8 dozen cookies, so i'm starting to practice now.

i hosted my second annual gift wrapping party the next day, so a bunch of ladies came over and we wrapped christmas gifts and ate lots of dessert together. i was quite impressed by the wrapping skills of the majority of my friends, and was proud to have improved my bow making from last year. It became very clear to me that people with kids have much more challenging shaped items to wrap, santa should never use the same wrapping paper as mom and dad if you have observant children, ikea has surprisingly fine quality wrapping paper, i have no self control when it comes to chocolate mint brownies and the delicious pretzel/rolo/pecan treats that shannon left behind at my house, and i am so blessed with a great group of girl friends.

we wrapped up the week at the summit staff christmas party. i'm pretty sure that summit has claimed the greatest 40-something people to make up their staff. i truly don't think there is one staff member or significant other who isn't completely awesome. i am so grateful to have the opportunity to serve alongside of all of them, and to watch what god is doing in our community through summit year after year.

on christmas eve both of our families came into town and we went to christmas eve service. it was my family's first time at summit on christmas eve, and it surely was not a disappointment. a few years ago, we had just moved to connecticut and didn't really know of any churches in the area, so we randomly chose this cute little methodist church in the center of town to attend for christmas eve. well, there were about 20 people in attendance (they were all one family), the pews were about six inches deep (i thank god every sunday for the nice, cushioned seats at summit), the service lasted for 3 hours (and there was no sneaking out), and didn't really touch on the christmas story much at all. i was so glad that this year was the best music and christmas sermon i have ever heard, and was even happier that my entire family agreed.

christmas day was shared with both sides of our families, great friends, and an extreme abundance of food. i'm not sure who we thought we would be dining with, but we cooked enough to feed an entire football team. it was a good day.

progress

after months of hard work on everyone's part, a lot of (or a lack of) patience with furniture companies, and three amazing showers, janie's nursery is complete! we have been so blessed with great family and friends who have helped us to make all of this stuff come together. we spent most of last night moving tiny little outfits from one drawer to another and sitting in the super comfortable glider while admiring our work. i think that room is my favorite one in our house, which i hear is a good thing, as i'll probably be spending the majority of my time in there over the next few months.

i'm already finding that parents will do really crazy things for their kids. we would have had very little motivation to get that room done had it been for any other purpose than our sweet little girl. andy spent countless hours pulling rodent and termite poop infested insulation out of the walls, repairing wood floors that had holes big enough to reveal the dirt underneath our house, sawing/sanding/routing wood to frame doors and windows, and lots more. i, with the help of andy's mom, even learned how to sew (sort of) to make roman shades for the windows, something i thought i had no desire to ever learn. we both were excited to consider the new yellow minky dot glider our christmas present to each other, and can now easily pass up a dinner at our favorite restaurant if it means janie gets another cute little outfit, hairbow or toy. we already know, we are going to be in big trouble once she arrives.

here are a few pictures of the room!

here's a reminder of what it looked like before.

and after...

i'll leave you with a few great pieces of unsolicited advice from strangers, all of which start with a phrase similar to, "if i could give you one piece of advice, it would be...":

1. "buy a baby bjorn carrier so you can nurse the baby where ever you go" this was followed by an in depth description of exactly how you go about completing such a task while grocery shopping, doing dishes, or going for a walk.

2. "eat a lot of slippery foods if you want her to come early." this is not a joke, someone really said this and believed it to be true.

3. "don't let your kids out number you..they're vicious."

4. "get some blue things too, in case it's a boy."

5. and this, from husband and father of the year: "don't be expecting your kid to be the cutest thing you've ever seen...my baby was really funny looking until he was about 6 months old. i think that's why my wife had that after birth depression thing."

seeing horses in a new light

those of you who know my sister lindsay and i, know that perhaps our biggest difference is her love of horses and my desire to keep my distance from the animals. lindsay has been riding for for 15 years and has owned willie for about 4, and the closest i come to touching him is about like this...

i think he is scared of me too. growing up, every time lindsay got to choose what to do for a birthday or special occasion, we could all bank on going to see horses in some form...arabian nights, birthday party at a stable, donkey rides, and other things and places that really stink. i cringed on the inside, and maybe sometimes on the outside, plugged my nose, and went along for the ride.

well, this month cavalia came to atlanta. it's directed by the same guy who helped get cirque du soleil going, and incorporates horses with all of the other crazy acrobatics that make the show famous. since i did dream of being an acrobat at one point in my life, and since lindsay wouldn't miss any local event that involves her equine friends, mom and dad took us all to see the show at the big top last night.

it started out a little slow and i (and i'm pretty sure andy and dad) were feeling a little skeptical, but before long, acrobats were flipping on the backs of cantering mustangs, flying down from the ceiling and landing in the saddle, and amazingly bouncing around the ring while artfully missing the piles of poop that were being produced by the stars of the show. i didn't think it was possible, but for the first time in my life i have decided that horses are really quite pretty and brilliant. it's impossible to explain how talented some of these trainers, acrobats and horses were but here are a few photos so you can get an idea...

this was my favorite part, but since we couldn't take photos, this is the best i could find.

this girl, sylvia zerbini, somehow got 8 horses to all walk in formations together like the rockettes, using her pointer finger and horse language. she was amazing.

after seeing the show, i feel confident that we can have a family act traveling the world...lindsay can do the horse training and i'll work on my acrobatics. andy can sing, dad can set up our tent and mom can sell water during intermission and make trips to publix to get apples for the horses. i think it will be a great success.

welcome to the 21st century

a few months ago we made enough money at our garage sale to purchase a new television. the one we have in our house is about the size of a refrigerator, and somehow the screen is only 19 inches. we were really excited about our new piece of technology, watched our entire dvd library (which consists of the chronicles of narnia, zoolander, juno, fever pitch and how to lose a guy in ten days) in it's entirety at least two times, and got completely caught up on all five seasons of the office. after much debate and many nights at the harmon's watching lost, we gave in a got cable this weekend.

i think the final decision was made on wednesday night when we were watching the magic game via espn.com's gamecast. this is not actual video footage of the game, it's x's and o's on a court that shoot little bubbles out every now and then to tell you about a rebound, foul, or timeout. it was working really well for us, until we realized that it was about as reliable as listening for the cheers and boos coming from the bar down the street to get a real time idea of what was going on. so on wednesday night andy made friends with the man on the other side of the phone at direct tv, and scored not only an awesome deal on cable, but also 2 free $100 visa gift cards!

so far, we have thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of cable. yesterday i learned how to make an entirely deep fried thanksgiving dinner, thanks to paula deen, and we also refreshed our knowledge of wwii events with a documentary on the history channel. i thought we were missing out on much greater things. maybe there will be better stuff on during the week. until next time, if you have any questions regarding the american's sneak attack on the japanese military at guadalcanal on august 7, 1942, you can feel free to give me a call.

happy tuesday

today is a good day for a few reasons.

• starbucks released their christmas drinks and red cups. when i finish writing this, i am walking to starbucks to have a white peppermint mocha with caroline on the phone. despite the fact that she lives in north carolina, we will always drink our first seasonal beverage at the same time.
• we had an ultrasound and got to see janie at a much fatter stage than the last time we saw her. in fact, seeing her size (3 pounds 12 ounces, which is far ahead of where she should be at this point) gave me hope that she may have a chance at surpassing a height of five feet.
• the weather is cool, which means for the first time in quite a while, i am not sweating.
• a lady told me i looked nice, which really beats the rest of the comments i've received over the past few weeks. some of them include "you're enormous!", "that's gonna be one HUGE baby!", "has your doctor mentioned anything about you gaining too much weight?" and many, many more.

this weekend we traveled up to atlanta where the summit christmas album was mastered. it is a masterpiece indeed, and i can't wait for everyone to hear it. all of the folks that contributed to it (including the hand clappers) are so super talented! luckily, we returned home in time for halloween with some good friends. here are some photos to document the evening.

juno and paulie bleeker...we went into publix dressed like this, and the helpful store clerk told me i should be sure not to drink any alcohol wherever i was going, then laughed and said, "i'm just kidding...i know it's just a costume". apparently my stomach looks fake. we fooled him, alright.

this is simon simon, explaining all of his eagle scout milestones. he earned badges for saving lives, tying knots, catching fish with his bare hands, and wearing worlds greatest knee highs, all before his eighteenth birthday.

you're probably thinking, 'this costume wins the contest hands down. she even brought her own horse to the party!' turns out, it isn't a costume at all. my little sister lindsay rides on SCAD's equestrian team and had a few shows this weekend. of course she came in first in all of the events she rode in, which has led me to ponder if it's too late for me to excel in some form of an athletic event. lindsay informed me that the "ribbons" i won during my days on the swim team were merely honorable mentions given to make the losers feel like winners. with that heartbreaking news, i have decided that once janie arrives i am going to challenge myself to rightfully earn a real award by training for (and completing) a half marathon. anyone with me?