Picture Post!!!

We have had an exciting weekend! We spent all day yesterday (12 hours to be exact) painting the living room, kitchen, dining room, entry & hallway! I say we spent 12 hours but the only one of us who actually made it the whole 12 hours was our friend Michele! She was our project manager and there is no way that we could have done it without her! I had a baby shower for our friend Kristen and Aaron went to pick Michele's husband Mike up from work. Then Aaron and I each made trips out for a Sonic run for all of us and then to get dinner. So Michele was the only one who spent the whole day painting! She is incredibly talented! I am so thankful she is my friend! Here are some pictures!

Aaron wrote our names on the wall :)

And he wrote Mike and Michele's too! You can see Michele is hard at work!

Here we go! Here are some after photos! This is the entry way!

The kitchen!

More kitchen ...

The dining room!

And the living room!

Finally, I have to post a couple pictures from last weekend too! We went to Michele's Mom's house to celebrate her birthday (which by the way was also my precious sister's 25th birthday!) Ethan and Jacob were so cute playing in the yard. I had to take a picture of Ethan. He is adorable!

On Sunday we went to the pool and I snapped a picture of Michele and Jacob playing in the pool with Jacob's new floaty!

I am exhausted but so happy that the painting is done. This weekend we may paint the baby's room!!! Then the painting will be done! I can't wait. I will post some pictures of that too!

There Goes My Squeeky Clean Image ...

One of my most favorite people at work happens to be one of the top executives. His name is David. He likes Disney as much as me and always has fun stories to tell about the places he has been and the things he has seen. Today he stopped by my office to talk about a report he asked me for (which by the way is next to impossible to complete and if I didn't adore him so much I would probably complain about having to do it.) Anyway, my work-best-friend (this is what we call each other) Katie was sitting on the couch in my office (we will pretend we were discussing work). David was being so nice and asked me if I am always so positive - even at home (I am putting up a real good front, right? This is what I thought too) But my WBF, Katie totally blew my cover. She told him that I was not in fact always so chipper and then proceeded to tell him about the time I told her I wanted to light someone (who will remain nameless) on fire!!!! Granted, I was really early in my pregnancy when this happened so I will use this as my excuse. But I can't recover my image from that one :) Thanks Kates! I guess God is really pulling me into that transparency thing, huh :)

Transparency

I have been trying for days to get a few minutes to post about Father's Day weekend at the Chambers house. I have been so busy at work and then at night I am just too tired of being on a computer all day to even think about taking the time out to sit down and write from my heart.

But this morning this little blog of mine might serve as therapy for me. Aaron and I are so incredibly blessed by the friends that we have in our life. These types of relationships mean so much to me. I love that I can share what is on my heart with any of them and walk away feeling loved but more importantly challenged if my heart is not in the right place. Our Sunday School teachers (and I feel honored to call them our friends) Jack and Mandy often challenge me this way; and yesterday after reading Jack's blog I feel led to try and be as transparent as I can when sharing my heart on this blog. I warned you that I would be writing a lot about the little one growing in my tummy that we can't wait to meet in September so I feel that is ok for me to talk about him a lot. Just wait until I have pictures to share too :) You might stop dropping in then :) And while this is one the most exciting times in our lives and we couldn't be happier about this life that God has blessed us with, there are also struggles. This morning I hit one of those walls head on!

On the way to work Aaron and I were talking about daycare and what to do in November when I have to come back to work. We haven't decided. We haven't really even tried to visit anywhere yet. I think both of us were thinking if we just ignored the issue an answer would fall from the sky. Then I walked into work shut my door and just fell apart. I really haven't even stopped crying yet. I just want to do what is right. And how do you know the answer to that question? Staying home with him is almost next to impossible - the insurance alone would be over $600 a month! But if I work, who will take care of him? I want him to be close to where I work so I can just drop in anytime and check on him, feed him, be with him if he is sick, love him when he needs to be loved ... all of those things are endless. However, it would be about $240.00 a WEEK! That is almost a extra thousand dollars a month! I know God cares about these details in my life because He loves me. I keep telling myself this. Already I feel like the things I do here at EMI don't matter even one bit compared to the things that I do for him. And who will love him and take care of him like we would? NO ONE. That is the truth. But if I have to work, this is the place for me. I absolutely LOVE my job, the people, everything. I have always believed that this position was a gift from the Lord to me. It combines my love for writing with my love for music. Anyway, it may seem very simple to you - reading out there as someone out of the circumstance, but for me, right here in the thick of it today I am really praying, asking God to speak to me, crack open a door, show me an answer, or even just be close to me while I deal with this my first ever heartbreak as a Mother! And as I read back over that line, maybe just the being close to me today would be enough. (and this is where I hear Mandy in my head say, HE IS ENOUGH, that is all you need to know).

Since I have taken time that I don't have at work to cry out all my tears while I am spilling out all of this to you I am going to go ahead and share that Father's Day post I have been trying so hard to get around to writing. So yes, this is going to get even longer. Sorry if I am totally boring you.

If you know me, you know I adore both of my parents. I was so blessed being born into the Weaver family! Nick and Agnes had two girls (who have grown to be the bestest of friends). And from the beginning both of us had a special relationship with each of my parents and as far as dad went we were always daddy's little girls - no matter how old or obnoxious we were. My dad coached my basketball teams, put together my toys, fixed everything I broke, moved me from dorm to dorm, and even drove the uhaul that moved us to Nashville 4 years ago. All of this was going through my head this weekend as I watched him help my husband put together the crib that Aaron's parent's bought us for the baby. It felt appropriate to me as I watched them (for 2 long hours) figuring out how to put it all together. They probably wouldn't know it, but there was a moment when I was standing in the doorway where I felt it all coming full circle.

I just know I will keep having those moments. watching my dad hold his grandson, playing with him in the yard, and teaching him to do things that drive me crazy :) I will have those with all the special people in my life - whether I am watching Aaron hold him, discipline him, bathe him. Seeing my parents, sister, aunt, and Aaron's parents , sister, and grandmother with him. Those will all be things I hold on to and cherish. This was one of the firsts. For father's day we gave dad a Disney mug that said Grandad. He is officially going to go by Pop Pop but he was still excited to receive his first ever Grandad merchandise.

It was also Aaron's first Father's Day! That meant something really special to me. I have been walking around with this little man kicking me and using my kidneys as a trampoline for the last few months so I am fully aware that there is a living being that is a part of our lives living safe inside of me. Sure, Aaron has seen me changing, growing, and put up with all of my issues recently but I wanted to focus Sunday totally on him, how this little boy is changing his life and how he will make a difference in his life as well. So we celebrated all day. Whatever Aaron wanted to do we did. He likes practical things - I am sure you know that :) So I had his watch fixed (it hasn't worked since November) and we grilled out and ate steaks (he is the master griller!) and then we watched a boy movie - I am not much for those but we did it anyway. Lots of shooting and killing :) Then we watched Seinfeld's (my sister and Kyle bought him the entire collection for Christmas - something he will forever cherish :) And we went on a walk around the neighborhood too. It was lots of fun. He is already an amazing Father! I am constantly talking to this little guy letting him know how lucky we both are that he is our husband and dad! Aaron has such a tenderheart and a gift for loving people. I am so grateful to be his wife.

Now to move away from all of my hormones and drama (sorry you had to read about it all here) Here are a few other pictures from this weekend. We pressure washed the house and I now have a new hobby :) It was so much fun. Guess what I am asking for at Christmas :) Finally, I will close with a preggo pic from Monday.

If you made it to the end of this post, thanks for reading through my hormones and drama and for letting me use this space as therapy. I think my eyes are dried enough to go and start my day now :) I am going to keep reminding myself that HE IS ENOUGH (see Mandy, even when you aren't around to tell me I will remember).

Appointments, Tests, and Bad TV

Well we had another dr. appt. today! Everything went well. This was the diabetes test one. We haven't gotten the results back yet but I learned when I married into the Chambers family that failing a test is not really acceptable so I hope this little one and I pass with flying colors :)

On our way there our boy was kicking like crazy! It was so funny. Aaron and I were laughing because the last time we were at the dr. she couldn't get him to hold still long enough to check his heartbeat and I just knew he was going to show off again for her. Aaron could actually see him kicking me without even feeling it. The dr. said his heartbeat was 158 today!

I love this time in our lives! I may feel & look portly these days but I am on cloud nine dreaming about this amazing little gift that God has given us.

My dad is coming this weekend to share Father's Day with us! I think we will celebrate by putting him to work :) Since they sold their house in WV he misses yard work and around the house stuff and I love doing those things with him so I am working on coming up with some chores for us to do. Don't think I am a terrible daughter - he loves it too :) Maybe I can take some pictures to post of our weekend together!

Also, did anyone else besides us watched the Nashville Star show lost night? It was terrible. I was really disappointed in how bad it was actually. I don't think I need to tape it anymore. Now that Lost and all of my tv shows are off for the summer I am going to go through some tv withdrawal I just know it.

Some Preggo Pics

At first I avoided it but I finally caved and took some preggo pics to share.

Home Again ...

Hey all! Sorry I was a slacker and didn't blog while we were on vacation or even very soon after we returned. We had fun! It was nice and relaxing. We didn't plan too much (that's right folks ... my husband just let us fly by the seat of our pants most days which is very unlike him and just goes to show how sacrificial he can be :) We saw Prince Caspian and Dad and I saw the new Indiana Jones movie. We went to the pool one day (because Dad and Aaron had a little too much fun in the sun) and we did a lot of shopping! On the 12 hour ride home Aaron and I decided that since I needed to stop and walk some we would stop at outlets on the way. That was so much fun and a highlight of the vacation for me! We also went to The Varsity on our way through Atlanta. It is a great place for chili dogs, burgers, and shakes!

Real life has since set back in and I am back at work setting goals and meeting deadlines. God has answered a big prayer of mine this week! My amazing intern (by intern I mean grad-student intern who is really gifted and way more mature than me :) may possibly be able to stay through her internship time and fill in for me while I am on maternity leave. This was something that I had been really concerned about just because I love my job and I feel the responsibility of not being able to do it while I am away and knowing that someone will be able to train essentially for 3 months before going it alone for a couple months while I am out is a huge answer to prayer. Now I am just praying that I don't scare her off with all of the stuff she has to learn :)

We are going to register tomorrow and I am really excited about that. Then we are going to spend the rest of the weekend working on the baby's room and taping up the walls so we can paint next weekend! I am pretty excited to get started on that too!

This baby boy has started kicking a lot more often and even stronger than before. I love it! It is the coolest thing in the world. We have been really working hard to find him a name! Most likely we will decide at the last minute but it is something we have been thinking and praying about a lot.

Here are a few pictures from Florida. Since we just hung out there wasn't much to share.

Mom, Dad, Aaron & I at Sebastian's Inlet

Making Aunt Pat's birthday cake!