Pregnancy Makes Me Crafty!

So the nesting bug has chomped down on my pretty hard! And it's made me want to make all sorts of things! I can't paint Kamden's letters for his room until the bedding comes in, so while I'm waiting I wanted to start something else. I've wanted to get Ella one of those cute hairbow holders for a while now, but didn't feel like paying $20-$30. So I decided I should try it myself! I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday (and they were having a sale on all their wooden decor AND ribbons by the roll!) and bought paint, a big white "E," ribbon, round paint brushes, and fabric glue. Last night and tonight I cranked this out:

In my defense, it only took 2 nights because I started at 10 last night and only had time to put a couple coats of pink paint on the E! I am so proud of this!!!

I am also quite proud of our bargain tonight. I looked everywhere for what I wanted to do with Kam's name and Kaleb and I really fell for this:

I wanted to make sure the colors matched his bedding, so I decided to get them unfinished from this website. For the unfinished letters, the unfinished 6x6 frames, and the unfinished backs it was going to be $13.50/letters, which was $80 without shipping or paint. I thought this was a pretty good price (we wanted a font other than Times New Roman or Curlz) and was prepared to pay it. However, today I realized if I just bought the letters from the company, the total for the letters would be $17, and I was hoping I could find some unfinished wooden frames somewhere to fit them. So I got Kaleb to meet me at Michael's after work. Oh man! Not only did they have unfinished wooden frames for A DOLLAR, they also had the perfect sized letters in what looks like the Whimsical font for $1.24!!! We also got really thin wood for the backing for $1/each, and brackets to hang them with. And wood glue. All this, plus a little toy for Ella, for $36!!! Are you KIDDING me??? I know we didn't buy paint yet, but that won't be more than $5. So we are doing this project for less than half the price when you factor in shipping, and we still would've had to buy paint with those other letters!!! I am SO excited!!!!! Now we just have to wait for the bedding to come in and I can get started on his little letters. Awww! Here are the unfinished letters in their unfinished frames:

The frames and letters will be chocolate brown and the backboards (not pictured) will be the light blue of his bedding. Ah!!! I can hardly wait!!!

My Man

Well, why not do this. Here's a chance to see how well you really know your significant other. Cut, paste and fill in the answers, then forward . . . shoot, you know what to do. The real challenge is to send it to your significant other to see how right you really are.

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Call of Duty, Golf, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Top Gear, or Man vs. Wild

2.You're out to eat, what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch or Caesar, depending on his mood and his meal.

3.What's one food he doesn't like? Red Beans & Rice

4. You go out to eat. What does he order? Usually a steak or if they have red fish, then definitely red fish, especially if it's grilled with some sort of sauce on top of it.

5.Where did he go to high school? Starks.

6.What size shoe does he wear? 14

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Golf clubs!

8.What is his favorite type of sandwich? He really likes BLT's from Subway, but at home he's been on a Deep Fried Turkey Sandwich kick.

9.What would this person eat every day if he could? A steak

10.What is his favorite cereal? Crunch Berries and/or Trix

11.What would he never wear? The color pink

12.What is his favorite sports team? Well they really upset him, but I guess the Astros.

13.Who is his best friend? Me! Haha. Jason.

14.What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Leave my clothes lying in the floor.

15.What is his favorite color? Blue.

16. You bake him a cake for his birthday...he would pray it wasn't from scratch. I really mess those up! He would eat anything I cooked, though, to spare hurting my feelings.

17.Did he play sports in high school? Yes, basketball.

18.What could he spend hours doing? Playing Call of Duty, or anything else on PS3, and golfing.

19.What is one unique talent he has? Wouldn't you like to know!! ;-)

20. If he could do one thing all day instead of what he does - what would it be? Play golf!

21.What is your favorite physical feature of your spouse? He's got the most unbelievable blue eyes I've ever seen. (Yes, I just quoted a 90's song. I dreamt about being able to say that about the man I married, and now I totally can!!! They are AMAZING.) I also love his dark hair and that he's tall.

22.What is your favorite memory of your spouse? Oh, man. I cannot name just one. Getting ready in my apartment the night we got engaged (while listening to Rent), going on the most amazing Easter egg hunt of my life, seeing him waiting on a bench for me and reading all the eggs' contents with him. Seeing him on his knee with a tear in his eye asking me to marry him. Seeing him at the end of the aisle on our wedding day. Our honeymoon, or the most amazing trip of my LIFE. Lying next to him while Mexican party people were blaring "Sweet Caroline." Oh, man, I can't stop!

23.What do you love most about your spouse? I love his obedience to God and his yearning for more of Him. I love that he has been so amazingly sensitive to my emotions during my pregnancy. I love the way he loves sweet Ella. I love the way he loves me. I love how excited he is to have a son on the way!!

24.What is your wish for your spouse? That our love will keep growing more love.

25. If you won the lottery what would be the first item that you would buy your husband? Definitely a nice, new set of golf clubs! Then a house.

I love you, Kaleb!!!

(Not) Born to Ride

Oh, man. We knew this weekend was going to be a challenge. The pains that had started last week had pretty much subsided by Friday, though, and the ride to Many wasn't hard at all! We got there around 11:30 and I felt fine. Saturday, we drove 30 minutes to pick up Ella, then an hour to the wedding. Still okay, though. It was the last 3 hours of that trip that did me in. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so very happy for Jamie and Joshua!!! She was gorgeous and he was handsome and it was all so wonderful. The absolute best part was the groomsmen's choreographed dance to "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by the Backstreet Boys. OH.MY.GOODNESS. That was the funniest thing I have seen in such a long time. I got half of it on film, so I'll try to upload that to Facebook soon. I got to see so many of my friends, some that I hadn't seen since before Kaleb & I got married. It was so nice to catch up with everyone! Another highlight was Ella, the dancing queen. The girl goes to weddings for 2 things: cake and dancing. Luckily for her, Aunt Blaire was at this one and she followed her around the dance floor the whole time we were there. Anything Blaire did, Ella did. It was hilarious. My favorite part was seeing my sweet girl shaking it to Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Girl had one hand on her hip, one hand waving in the air, and was shaking it like it was nobody's business!!! I have that on film, too. She danced her little heart out.

So all that was fun, then we had the 3 hour drive to Beaumont. THAT was when my body decided it had just had enough. My tailbone and pelvic bones (the ones that are separating) could not get comfortable. Sunday morning it felt like someone had taken me while I was spread-eagle and just hit me with a hammer really hard. It literally felt like I had bruises, I am not kidding!!! So church was kind of painful. Then the most painful was the hour-long car ride to Starks after church. Man. I am just glad that we're done riding for a while!!! Hopefully, we won't have another weekend where we drive for 9+ hours in a 72 hour period until AFTER Kam gets here!!

I should go teach or something now. Check my facebook in the next few days for those videos!

Growing Pains

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time. I have had a re-he-heeeeeeeeeallllly easy pregnancy thus far. Earlier this week, my hips decided they don't want to be quite so buddy-buddy anymore and are going their separate ways. That's resulted in some pains in the nether regions that I wasn't expecting so soon. Technically, I am in my 3rd trimester, though, so I guess it was time! I am 28 wks 5 days today (WOW), and we decided it was time to take some new belly pics last night. Kaleb decided to get all artsy fartsy with it. I put the ones I approved up on facebook, but I'll give a couple here just to show the enormity that is my belly:

And it still has 12 weeks to grow?? Holy cow.

This weekend is going to be fun and tiring! Tonight, we start a Faith Promise weekend at church and have a service at 6:30, then we're driving to Many for the night. Tomorrow, we'll pick up Ella at 2 in Natchitoches, then drive to Pineville for Jamie and Joshua's wedding!!! I am really looking forward to being a part of their special day and seeing all my college friends!! And I am SO excited that I get to show off Kaleb and Ella=) Then, after the wedding, we're heading back to Beaumont so that we can be at church Sunday morning for the last Faith Promise service, dinner on the grounds, and then we'll head over to Starks for the afternoon/evening. I better get my lesson plans done today! I will have zero free time to do them this weekend. Not only am I counting down the weeks til Kam gets here...that also marks the end of my teaching year=) 12 more weeks! I can do this!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

So I mentioned that this past weekend we'd traded out Ella's queen bed for her very own big girl twin bed. We had the sheets and had ordered a reallllllly cute comforter from Target online (because the stores here didn't have it in a Twin). We ordered it on Feb. 9, and today it STILL hadn't even shipped, so we decided to cancel that order and see if we could find something else in a store.

I went to Anna's Linen's today and scored big time!! I got a pillow-top mattress pad for $20, a brown bed skirt for $8, and a set of pink t-shirt sheets (so we'll have an extra set) for $8!!! Then after church we ran to Target thinking we'd just pick up the Full quilt and see if it'd work even though it'd be a little long. Well, they had a Twin!!!!!! Yay!!!! And it was $60! So we completed Ella's entire bed for under $100!!! Here are the pictures of Ella's new room!

A Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was one of the best I've had in such a long time! For a former V-Day hater, I sure have come to love the holiday=) Friday, my wonderful husband came and had lunch with me at school. I'd told him all I wanted was a nice, romantic dinner someplace I'd never been before. He made reservations for Pat's of Henderson in Lake Charles and WOW! It really was some of the best seafood I've had in my life. Definitely the best crab cake of my life, and I don't say that lightly. I am a huge fried seafood fan. So we got to have our nice little romantic evening on our last Valentine's Day alone! Saturday, we did some errands in town and then came home and worked on Ella & Kamden's room. We switched out her queen bed for a twin and put his crib together! It is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Thanks, Nan & Bip!! I can't wait to get the bedding so we can put it on and get the full effect. Now to finalize our choice of a changer and order the letters to go above the crib...there is still so much to do!! I'm glad we still have a little time. Less than 3 months now...I like to think of it in months and not weeks...the thought of 12 weeks terrifies me!!!

Anyway, so that was Saturday, and then yesterday we went to church and spent lots of quality time together. I love my husband so very much, and I am so thankful that he is MINE!!!

Our Big Headed Baby!

Isn't he so handsome?? I think it's amazing that we can already see that he's got Kaleb's nose and my huge mouth! AND he's smiling!!! I had a talk with him on the way to school yesterday morning. I told him we'd be able to see him around 2:00 and it'd be really great if he'd smile for us. What a sweet, smart boy! He must've been smiling for a long time...we didn't go back until around 2:20:) Anyway, he is measuring right on track except for his head, which is about 2 weeks ahead of schedule! Nothing abnormal...especially if you've seen his Daddy;) (Love you, baby!!!) My belly is way ahead of schedule, but I still think his measuring is way crazy since the baby and fluid are both fine. I suppose I could just have a huge belly...but let's stick with the doctor making a mistake:)

Boxes

Kaleb and I have been really searching lately. We know that our lives are about to drastically change in May. We also know that Ella will be starting school in August, and that if we want to continue to have her on a regular basis like we do now, that we'll most likely have to move 4 hours away to Shreveport, where her mom will be living. I've just always assumed that when she started school we'd move up there. So Kaleb's been applying for jobs and we've really been praying that God would open the doors we need for us to get up there before she starts school. With a new baby coming along, we know that we're going to have to work extra hard for Ella to always feel like we are a family even though she's not with us all the time. We've prayed and prayed for God to work his miracles to put us up there, assuming that up there is where He wants us. After all, how could He possibly want us to be away from Ella?? All this time, I thought that I was stepping out on faith by trusting that God would move us up there. I realized recently, though, that although I thought I was having faith, in actuality I was just stuffing God into my own box--the "we have to live in Shreveport for this to work" box. It's the only thing that made sense to me, so I assumed it was the only way God could possibly choose to work things.

His ways are not our own.

These past few weeks have come as a complete spiritual renewal for Kaleb and me. The sermon series we're doing at church, "You Were Made for More," has really put a cry in both our hearts to be all that God wants for us. We both feel that God is moving in a very big way, not only in us, but in our church. We feel that big things are happening and are about to happen. And, as much as I struggled to admit it, we need to be here to experience them.

God calls us to do things that don't make sense to everyone else. Or us. We learned about Joshua, and how God just told them to march around a city and it would be delivered to them. Say what?? March around and it'll all fall into place?? Sounds crazy. But it worked because it was God's will. It was His plan, not Joshua's. The story that's sticking out the most to me right now is that of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. I know it's a little dramatic, but stick with me here. God told Abraham to take his only son and to kill him. As an offering to God. Not just to move away from him. Kill him. I'm sure Abraham thought God was nuts. How could it possibly be good for Isaac to die? How could that be what God wanted? But Abraham trusted God with everything He had. We don't know if he thought that maybe God had a way out, but he had faith that if God said it, He had a perfect reason to. He's God. And you know what God did? He provided a sacrifice for Abraham. He stopped him from killing Isaac and provided a ram in the thicket. He worked it out perfectly, just like He always does.

So I've come to realize that my faith wasn't really faith in God as much as it was faith that God would work things out my way. It's becoming more and more clear now that God is going to work things out His way. How amazing will it be when God provides a way for us to still see Ella?? The school she'll be going to is a Christian pre-school. Maybe they'll be flexible with the weeks she's there. She's already learned a lot in the school we used to have her in here. Who knows? God does, and that's what matters.

It's been an amazing thing to see God reveal Himself and His will to my wonderful husband and myself. Kaleb was much more open to the idea, so he let God reveal it to him long before I opened up to the idea. In all of this, I'm also becoming more and more thankful for the amazing husband that God set aside for me. He truly has become the spiritual leader for our family, and my favorite part in all of this is being able to see him allow God to work through him and share things with me that God's sharing with him.

Our God is amazing! I love Him so much! He will make a way for us here. He is our Provider!

Get Down with the Sickness.

This week started with a sore throat. It's Thursday, and my sore throat has progressed to a stuffy nose that doesn't let me breathe with my mouth closed or taste the yummy (I guess) broccoli and cheese soup I'd been wanting for days from Jason's. And a cough. How did I catch it from my students and not my husband when he had it weeks ago?? It makes no sense to me. Hopefully this is as far as it goes, though. I can't take anything and I can't afford to miss any school at all, so I need to stay healthy!

Kamden is making himself known in a big way...he's running out of room in my belly (which seems impossible if you've seen me and know how big it is!) and his crazy kickboxing antics make it look like I've got an alien in my stomach trying to come out! It's a lot of fun, and I am pumped that I can finally refer to him as my Little Nudger! (See: Breaking Dawn.)

My mom informed me that the crib they ordered for us came in today!! This is soooooo exciting. The really fun part will be to see my dad and husband put it together in a few weeks. That should be something.

Kamden is literally slamdancing right now. I keep trying to catch it on video, but he only does it when I'm preoccupied. I guess they start that early!

No More Tears!

This week has been so much better than normal, and it's only Tuesday!! Last week, after Ella's daycare ticked me off one time too many, Kaleb and I started looking for an in-home daycare for her to go to. We found a lady in Beaumont who keeps her son and one other little girl, so we visited her house and were really impressed by it. Ella started there on Monday and she LOVES it!!! She didn't cry at all on the way or when I dropped her off. I went by on my conference to bring her some cough medicine and she didn't even get out of her seat to come say hey to me. She just kept coloring and made small talk with me. She did ask if she still had to stay there and I told her that I was just on break and I had to go back and teach my kids some more. She said, "Okay, because I'm having a great time!" Wow!!! She couldn't stop talking about it last night. It's much less structured than her school and her biggest pro was that "there aren't a bunch of kids making all that noise so we don't have to put our heads down!" She was in a 4 yr old class at her school, and any time they got loud, their teacher would just make them sit with their heads down. I understand that to a degree, but you have to know what to expect out of 20+ 4 yr olds. Anyway, she is like a completely different child. I think maybe she wasn't getting her full nap in at daycare because of other kids. She'd come home really cranky, but yesterday she was in a great mood and actually wanted to go to bed a little early! She also slept through the whole night in her bed and didn't come into our room until 6:30. And getting her dressed isn't a chore anymore. It's just amazing! We are praising God that we found somewhere that she likes and kicking ourselves that it didn't click with us sooner!