It's hard to believe the movers will be here in just two days, packing us up for the next chapter of our lives! It doesn't quite seem real yet. Only one more week of work, one more girl's night, one more service at the church we love. We are really looking forward to living close to our family, but there will definitely be some things we miss here. Thankfully, Jon and my mom found us a place to live last weekend while he was home for a wedding. I was getting really stressed about moving across the country and not even having a home! The pickings were pretty slim as far as apartments went and Jon was getting really frustrated. Luckily, at the last minute, he found a really nice, big, brand new townhome for us to rent out. We had to sign a year's lease, but now think that will probably be best. It will give us a chance to really find out what area we want to live in and how much we can spend, etc. I am just excited to have a place to start nesting once we move!

I have the cutest bedding picked out from Pottery Barn Kids for Tanner's nursery, but I feel very guilty buying it because it's so expensive! I found two of the pieces on eBay this week, but ended up losing both auctions in the last few seconds. I'm not a very good eBayer! Oh well, it won't be so bad if I just buy a piece at a time. The practical side of me knows that things like bedding don't really matter and will only be used for a short time. I also know that what I should really do is get something unisex. But how fun is that? Even if I'm lucky enough to have the 3 or 4 babies I think I'd like, I'll only get to do this a few times! And isn't it just so cute?!!

My little brother, Eric, is here this weekend to spend time with Jon while he has some time off of work. I don't know how they talked my mom into letting Eric miss school, but they did! They have been golfing 36 holes a day since Thursday. Jon loves having a playmate here -- all they talked about the entire ride from the airport was all the competitions they were going to have in the next few days -- golf, x-box, hiking the incline. They leave at like 7:00 in the morning and come home just wiped out at about 8:00 in the evening. Too funny! It is fun to see how much my little brother has grown up in the past few years. He is almost 9 years younger than me and hasn't given me or my sisters the time of day since he was like 11. He's slowly starting to come around again. I love it -- he actually gives me hugs now! (God, I sound like a desperate sister, don't I!) Not much else is going on. I just got a call saying that the realtors set up a showing for our house in just a few hours, so I better get cleaning! They always set these things up at the most inconvenient times! I love having my brother here, but his room looks like a tornado hit it!

Tanner's First Baby Shower

We had our first baby shower on Saturday night. How blessed we are and how spoiled our little boy is already! Our friends, Brad and Katie, threw a couples shower for us. It was SO much fun! The best part was just being able to spend such quality time with such great friends! Here are some pictures from the evening ...

Our friend Sally actually made and decorated this cake. I'm still in awe!!

Jon, me, and our sweet friend Annie

Opening some SNUGGLY clothes for our little man.

My Dear Girls

The boys

Pregnancy Thought For The Day

29 Weeks

I've discovered why pregnant women waddle. I used to think it was just because they had a lot more weight to carry around and their balance was a little off. Now I know it's because after a certain point there is just no preventing your thighs from constantly rubbing together with every step you take -- Oh Lordy!

The Baby Book

Jon's mom just sent us a baby book for Tanner this week. It is SO cute and I can't wait to get started on it. She also sent us Jon's baby book to look at, which I thought was such a great idea! WHAT A CUTE LITTLE BOY!! He had these huge brown eyes -- if Tanner looks like him I just won't know what to do with myself I'll be so excited!

In the baby book was a little article that they cut out of their paper on the day he was born.

"Restless Type Who's Miserable Standing Still"
Saturday, October 27

Born on this date, you are one of those eternally restless individuals who is perfectly miserable unless you're "on the go."

Energetic almost beyond belief, you find it hard to understand those who do not possess the stamina you do. You are inclined to believe them lazy, failing to consider that they may be unable by nature to follow in your footsteps.

Women born on this date are determined to make a career outside the home; men born on this date encourage them to do so. (this is not so true with Jon)

Your personal magnetism is such that you are often surrounded by people when what you really want is to be alone to think your own thoughts.

Your powers of organization, which ultimately will guarantee your success -- are marshaled during periods of isolation.


I can't believe how true this description is of my husband. I'm sure those of you who know him right now are nodding your heads. Wild! I'm not usually one for horoscopes or things like that, but I thought this would be fun to share.

Lazy Blogger

My goodness, I have become SUCH a lazy blogger lately. I'm going to try and be better about this!

What's been happening since my last post?

Two weeks ago was my little sister's wedding in Atlanta. It was SO GREAT and I had such a good time. I just love the guy she married and know they will be so happy together! She looked gorgeous ... check out the pics ...

Two days after we got home from Atlanta, we were off on another trip to find a house. We had been really looking forward to this and had several homes picked out to look at. Unfortunately, we were not aware that most of these homes were in a not-so-nice neighborhood. After looking at 20 houses the first day and finding several that we liked, we asked our realtor to drive us to the train station. Once we were out of the subdivisions and seeing the town we were in, we were not happy! So the next day, we looked at about 20 more homes in another town (which we liked SO much better). However, we didn't find any houses that we were in love with, so we've decided to just get an apartment for the first few months in our new location. I know this is what's best, but I am just itching to start nesting in my next home (specifically painting and decorating a nursery for our little T). I guess I will have to put this off for a while. Jon has been such a good leader for our little family -- making important decisions and really researching things thoroughly -- I know that he's right in this.

We got back on Saturday night and Jon started complaining about chest pains as soon as we got in the car to drive home from the airport. Of course, I wrote this off as either heartburn or stress and he agreed it was probably one or the other. On Sunday morning, he woke up still complaining of severe chest pains and also saying it was hard to breath. We went to the emergency room and spent about 4 hours there getting tests done and all of that. I feel so bad now that I think about it. I gave him SUCH a hard time about being dramatic and I couldn't stop giggling about all of his antics. (I know -- not very indicative of being a good mother!) But anyone who is married knows what their husband acts like when he's not sick or feeling good -- basically like he's dying. And my husband has to be the best at having this skill mastered.

As he was laying in the bed in the ER, he was hooked up to all of these machines tracking his heartrate and blood pressure. At one point he was like -- "Oh my God, Rachel, there is really something wrong! My arm is starting to really hurt!" (his blood pressure was being taken and he hadn't yet realized it.) "All I want to do is live to meet my son!" (he then hears the monitor beep -- it does this every few minutes) "Oh my God, I'm flat-lining! Rachel -- I'm flat-lining -- call the doctor!" I mean, it was just too much -- I was almost rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard! Isn't that terrible!

Anyways, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, so they sent him home with a painkiller. I brought him home and got him situated in bed and he just started getting worse and worse. He started getting really pale and could hardly move. I started getting really scared and worried. We talked about going back to the ER and he told me I should call 911 because he didn't think he could make it to the car. Of course, I thought he was just being overly dramatic again with the whole 911 thing. I went to get the car ready and as I came back to get him, he started vomiting and shaking and just collapsed in his vomit. It was so scary and I actually did call 911 this time. They took us to another hospital in town (not the Army hospital we originally went to). Thank goodness! They took SO MUCH better care of us! They were so thorough and did just about every test there is to figure out what was wrong with him! Finally, they told us that he has something called Periocarditis -- it's basically inflammation of the sac around the heart and can be VERY painful. My poor guy! He has been taking it easy since then and will be going to the cardiologist this week for a follow-up. What a day that was! I'm just so thankful he wasn't having a heart-attack or something like that!

As for me, I've been feeling really good. I'm officially in my third trimester -- YAY!! Only about 11 weeks to go. I can't believe I'm going to be a MOM in just a few months! What an overwhelming feeling! I am so excited and scared all at the same time. I can't wait until they hand me my tiny, sweet-smelling little boy with his arms and legs still all curled up from being cuddled in my tummy all this time! I can't wait to cover him with kisses and just love on him. I'm so excited to see what he looks like and to watch his little personality develop. I really can't wait to see Jon with him. I truly think that he is going to be THE BEST dad! I'm so lucky to have married someone so wonderful and so excited about having kids! I'm terrified that I won't know what to do once I bring that baby home. I'm scared of what it will be like to be sleep deprived. I'm scared that I will make some bad decision in parenting and that my sweet little boy will turn out like some of the rough kids I teach. I'm scared that I'll never lose this pregnancy weight. I'm scared that I won't make any friends in my new town and that I'll be starved for adult interaction. I could go on and on.