Weddings

Ben was in Orlando this past weekend to be in a friend's wedding. Unfortunately I could not join him, but I was so glad he was able to be a part of Pat and Amy's wedding weekend. I know it makes him happy to spend time with all of his close friends from Florida, and that it's not easy to be away from them all the time. Even though I was so glad he got to be there I am relieved he is back in town...I just knew Parker was going to try to make an early appearance while Ben was a plane ride away. He was not able to take a camera so I have no pictures to share but I just wanted to say: Congratulations Pat and Amy!

Ben being away at the wedding reminded me, I never blogged about a special wedding from earlier this summer! Our friend Will and his beautiful bride Samantha got married July 10th (a good day to get married-just ask my parents!) and we were honored to be there for it. Ben met Will when he first moved to Orlando and they have been close friends since. Ben and Will lived together all 4 years they attended Auburn. I met Will my sophomore year at Auburn, a little under a year before I ever met Ben. I actually hung out with Will and their other roommate Kurt at their duplex when they lived with Ben and I never met him! I just knew Ben was the son of the pastor of the new church in Huntsville and that he had a Braves trashcan in his room. PCA and a Braves fan = marriage material. Anyways, back to Will and Samantha. So much of my time in Auburn was spent with Will and he is more like a brother than just a friend. Will introduced us to Samantha pretty soon after they started dating and it took no time at all to find a wonderful friend in her as well. She is so sweet, encouraging, and just fun to be around.

The wedding was in Birmingham. The rehearsal dinner was at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and we had Dreamland BBQ. That's our kind of rehearsal dinner! It was fun to eat and then be able to walk around and look at the displays.

Here are the boys standing where they are told during the rehearsal.

Loved the bibs that came with the ribs, they looked hilarious with all the nice clothes! Here the bride and groom are displaying the proper way to keep your clothes clean.

Groomsmen from Florida

Me and Shug. No explanation necessary.

Childhood idol...Mia Hamm.

Will, Samantha, Me, Ben

Repeat picture at the wedding reception. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was lots of fun, with lots of good food.

Will, Ben and Joe: roommates for 2 years.

One of my best friends Meredith lives in Birmingham and was able to make it to the wedding. It was great to spend time with her. I miss her terribly!

This is just one of my favorite pictures from the wedding. Ben took this outside of the church right before they were about to take off for the honeymoon. It was good timing too, because as they drove away it started POURING!

Watching our friends get married is a very special time for us...especially when they have a mashed potato bar ;) Looking forward to the next one!

Family Beach Trip

Ben is lucky to have married into a family who loves the beach as much as he does. I have mentioned before that I love seeing Ben at the beach, he just can't wipe the grin off of his face. We arrived to see a beautiful beach, just beckoning us to spend lots of fun and lazy time in the sand. It was beautiful.

Wait! What is that? A red flag?? Oh yeah...the oil spill. Psh. Won't stop us. Honestly it was not too bad. There was oil on the beaches in a few places and I got a lovely stain from it on my (new) beach towel but it was nothing more than a slight annoyance. We didn't go out in the water, but a lot of people did. I was okay with this. It kept my jellyfish phobia from being as obvious as usual.
Like I said, no oil spill can stop us! We made our usual first stop in Gulf Shores at Sea-n-Suds. Here Dad is preparing cocktail sauce for everyone at the table for our feast of crab claws, fish, shrimp and for Dad and Joe...raw oysters. Half the fun of eating here is watching my parents' faces light up knowing that we have arrived and it's vacation time!
Of course we had to get a "sisters on the balcony" pic. We just all happened to be wearing blue. I like to think that is partially my good influence on them. Aren't my sisters beautiful? Inside and out I assure you.
We were so glad to have Joe join us this year. I know that Dad is thankful to have more male support. Our family has been overwhelmed by girls for so long, it's almost scary to think that the guys are catching up. At least when you are around fun people like this an hour and a half wait at LuLu's doesn't seem so bad.
Jen and Joe - looking cute.
Jamie joked that she was surrounded by couples. I wonder how she really felt about the situation...?
For the 4th of July we made dinner at the condo. The guys grilled steaks and we had a few good sides to go with them. The steaks were SO GOOD. Here is the grilling team. Obviously Joe is pointing out something very important, ha.
Jamie was responsible for the camera while the grilling was taking place. Apparently everyone heard a loud noise and then Ben started yelling "Jamie Jamie take a picture TAKE A PICTURE". Ben gets a little excited when the Blue Angels are involved. It was definitely a treat for him to get the surprised fly by. I think Jammers did a great job of taking a picture, especially for being under so much pressure :)
Our 4th celebration ended with watching fireworks from the balcony. Lucky for us Ben brought complimentary BBVA Compass 3D glasses made to enhance our fireworks experience. They really just gave me a headache, but it was fun to see everyone wearing them.
This view from our balcony no longer existed after the 4th. Unfortunately it rained for the rest of our trip. That's alright though. A rainy day at the beach is still more fun than a normal day at home. We were able to visit the outlets, play fun domino games and just be together as a family.
Can't wait for next year!

Ouch.

I am studying for a midterm I have tomorrow morning so I don't have much time to blog. Plenty of things to update you guys on including a fun beach trip over the 4th weekend with my family and a close friend's wedding weekend, but for now I just want to go on record and say....

...I think Parker is breaking my ribs. Honestly I have no idea how some of his kicks have not torn my stomach in half. When did feeling movement go from "aww how cute" to "wow that is ridiculously painful"?!? Does this mean he is training to be an all star athlete? I chose to believe yes. He also likes one side of my stomach over the other. He really does just set up camp on my left side (in between boxing sessions with my internal organs).

In other, and completely unrelated, news one of my favorite scenes from The Office just came on tv...Andy punching a hole in the wall. Never gets old. Obviously my studying is going very well. Oops. Back to the books!

Summer Reading

I love to read, but nursing school can really get in the way. By the time I am finished with the required reading and studying from textbooks my eyes and my brain can not handle any more. Although I am in classes this summer, they are a little different than normal. There is less reading/memorizing involved. Unfortunately this means more group projects and presentations which are some of my least favorite things to do, BUT the good side of this means I have more time (and brain power) to read books that I actually want and choose to read.

I have had this book (When People are Big, and God is Small) for a long time, but I have been unable to read it. I started a few nights ago and I have been reading a little at a time before I go to bed. I think this will be an EXCELLENT book for me to read. Even reading the first chapter made me want to raise my hand and say "oooohhhhh yeah that's me" when reading some of Welch's descriptions. Has anyone else read this book? Did you like it?? I have read another Ed Welch book called Running Scared: Fear, Worry and the God of Rest and it was AMAZING. I read that book with my friend Dianna and we would get together to talk about it every week. I would recommend that to anyone and everyone, especially if anxiety is something you struggle with. That book came at a great time in my life: Ben newly diagnosed with MS, uncertainty about school, uncertainty about living situation, etc. I love being able to look back at marvel at God's timing.

I had to read the secular version of this book, Melodie Beattie's Codependent No More, for my psychiatric nursing class last semester. I understood what she was saying but I was frustrated by her answers to solve the problem. She thought that in order to change yourself you should worry about and focus on just YOU. In my paper about that book I spent some time explaining my opinion on why that is not a sufficient way to "solve your problems." Apparently my teacher is a fan of that book because I got a B (totally deserved an A).

We leave for the beach (bring on the oil, we are going anyways!) in a little over a week with my family. I anticipate plenty of book reading time in between intense night crabbing, sea food feasting, and lounging in the pool of course. Do you have any recommendations for new books? I like to take a variety of books so I can chose whatever I feel like that day. Cause hey-it's vacation. I am in need of some new ideas. I have read every Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers and Liz Curtis Higgs book ever written. At least twice. Some of the River's books have been read so many times that I could probably quote them for you. So please, new authors or book recommendations are very welcome!

Speaking of reading, I have a final on Thursday morning. I work all day tomorrow and we have our parenting class tomorrow night so I have no business being online right now. Back to studying!

Pregnancy Update

This pregnancy update is late. I fully intended to post something the day I turned 28 weeks to make a "Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!" post but school and work got in the way! I have been getting a lot of hours at the daycare, which is a welcome blessing. This time around is much different than working last year. I guess the 20 extra lbs on my belly really does make a difference...especially being on my feet all day long while chasing around 2 year olds. Plus working ruins my after school/lunch nap time :) I don't want to complain though, this is an answer to prayer. Poor Ben just has to hear me complain at the end of the day, ha.

I promised some friends a pregnant picture. Please know how much I love you to be posting this. I made Ben stand with me to make it less awkward. As an added bonus his shirt serves as a green screen to magnify my belly. Lovely.

I wanted to talk about a few random thoughts I have on being pregnant. This is a good way to document how I am feeling and to update everyone at the same time. Having this constant reminder (huge stomach, Parker kicking more than Landon Donovan, etc) keeps pregnancy and babies on the brain.

- I have had to get over people touching my stomach. At first there was a short list of people allowed to touch my belly but I have just thrown that out the window. Being in a nursing program means everyone is extra interested in your pregnancy and they are NOT afraid to ask you about it. And I don't mean questions like "how are you feeling?" or "how far along are you now?". For "learning purposes" they will ask anything and everything. While I am trying to come up with an answer that doesn't make my face turn bright red they immediately go for the stomach. Again, for "learning purposes". I should get extra credit for this. For someone who spends time trying to stay away from attention I sure do get a lot of it at school. I seriously should have bought this maternity shirt. I guess MC Hammer really does say it best...

- I have found myself saying the stereotypical pregnancy complaints recently. "My back hurts", "It's ridiculously hot in here", and "Ben, look at my feet! Are they swollen?!?" are said at different points during the day. Sometimes all three in a row if I just got home from work. I'm sure I am a joy to be around. Today at church I seriously contemplated pouring a water bottle over my head during the middle of the sermon. My father-in-law is wonderful and understanding but that might have been a bit distracting for him at the pulpit...so I refrained. But the desire was there!

-Today we had dinner at the Calvert's to celebrate Father's Day. Just for fun we got Ben's baby pictures out and looked through them. I think about what Parker is going to look like all the time. I can't wait to meet him and I can't wait to see who he looks like. Part of me thinks I will just have a mini-Ben with dark hair, skin and eyes. Who knows what a combination of us will look like. Ben: dark brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, tall. Jess: light brown hair, blue eyes, pale skin, short(ish). I really am so excited to find out!

- We have been working a little bit at a time on the nursery. We have a few things already such as a crib, carrier, stroller, and my parent's gift to us...the glider. Why do people wait to get a glider until they are having a baby?? I could sit in that thing all day long! Hoping to have more finished soon so I can put pictures up (and yes, I really mean it this time).

-All of my doctor appointments are going well. I just reached the point where I start going every 2 weeks. I enjoy these appointments because I am fascinated by this process. I also love hearing his heart beating. It has not gotten old yet. Just got the lab results back that I do not have gestational diabetes so that's wonderful. I have been slightly anemic so I am on extra iron supplements, but other than that I have had an uneventful 2nd and 3rd trimester so far.

- So Parker is due September 2nd. My guess is that he will arrive early. Ben and I were both early. Ben is adamant that he will be born August 25th. I say the 28th, but really it's only because I don't want Ben to win. I weighed 5 lbs 15 ounces and Ben weighed 8 lbs even. We haven't guessed the birth weight but I am sure we will find a way to turn it into a competition. We always do.

- We have been to 2 out of 4 of our parenting classes. It has been nice and we have learned a few things. We decided to take the parenting class instead of the childbirth class. Many people think this is a mistake but we are standing our ground. I have studied this stuff. I have done many clinicals on the L&D floor and I have been there for several births. I am pretty sure that nothing will shock me and I feel well informed. Ben on the other hand doesn't know too much about it, but is that really a bad thing?? I have shared with him a little at a time what is going to happen. I don't think he needs to watch several awkward videos of other women giving birth to be there to support me. I am not AT ALL putting down people who decide to take this class. I am sure you will be more prepared than I am. I am just trying to save my sensitive husband from a few various mental images. This is his plan during the delivery: stand/sit by my head, hold my hand, rub my back, tell me I'm beautiful, and NOT LOOK. I don't need him passing out. Well now that I think about it it might be a well timed comedic relief. If I feel like it will help I will trick him into seeing blood so he can hit the floor and I can laugh. That just might be more effective than an epidural. Which I will definitely be getting by the way.

-final thought (for now)...Happy Father's Day to Ben. I don't care what you think about this, I know that Ben became a father 7 and a half months ago. I can't wait to see him in action!

Highlights

Sorry I have been slacking on blogging (to my 3 loyal readers, ha) but I have been busy. I was not expecting to be busy since I had a 2 and a half week break from school but after a day of laying around and recovering from finals I was on the move again. Just figured I would hit the highlights of this month's events.

1. Joe graduated from Auburn. Can I get a WAR EAGLE from anyone?? Very proud of him.

What a beautiful couple! Have I ever mentioned that I love that my little sister is dating my brother-in-law? Cause I do. I love it, and I love them.

Joe and his proud parents

Aunt Dana and Ali were able to come to graduation on their way to Texas. I'm sure it meant a lot to Joe for them to be there. And honestly, any excuse to visit Auburn is a good one!

Smart boy!

Of course we stopped at SnoBiz. That's a no-brainer.

2. Jen's 21st birthday at the Melting Pot with my family. Good food and good family time. I could eat the dessert plate allll by myself.
3. I (Jess) went to the beach for a long weekend with some girls from school to celebrate the most difficult semester of school being over. It was so fun to be at the beach. Thankfully it was not unbearably hot. The bad thing about going to the beach at the beginning of summer is having no base tan so I had to stay under the umbrella most of the time. I read 2 books in 3 days. I LOVE to read but I had not been able to read for pleasure since the semester started. It was wonderful.

Being at the beach while pregnant is a different experience. I am not one that likes attention but boy can people stare! Honestly, it was like they had never seen a pregnant woman in a tankini. Another difference was noticing all of the babies and toddlers at the beach. I guess it is like when you get engaged you start noticing people's rings. I spent half the time daydreaming about what it will be like taking Parker to the beach. Those scenarios did not include reading 2 books in 3 days so I should probably try to enjoy that as much as possible now! Ben loves the beach so much...he's like a little kid the moment we arrive, so it's not hard to picture Parker excited about it :)

4. My summer classes started today. Yuck. Thankfully I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since I have the other week days off I am able to go back to the daycare and work! I have missed that place and the people in it!

5. We cleaned out Parker's room. Pictures coming soon!

Turner Field > Prom

This weekend was Huntsville High School's prom. Jamie, my youngest sister, is a junior. She decided to skip the prom and take the family to Atlanta for a Braves game instead! It's one of the many reasons I love her. Someone asked her who she was going to prom with and she replied Yunel Escobar. That's my girl. He didn't even know who she was talking about so obviously he wasn't worthy to take her in the first place.

We left for Atlanta early Saturday morning, despite a dreary weather forecast. We were very hopeful that the rain would stay away. We made it to Atlanta, picked up my Aunt Judy and Uncle Nelson and made it to downtown Atlanta in time to meet Jen and Joe for lunch before the game. Our seats were pretty awesome, we were 2 rows from the field right by the bat boy. I love checking out all the different sections in Turner Field, and I am not sure I have a favorite one just yet.

The weather....oh the weather. We were very thankful that the rain held off! There were a few sprinkles in the very beginning but after that the sun was out for most of the game. Again let me say, very thankful for that, BUT totally not prepared for the extreme humidity and direct sunlight. It made me feel huge. And it's not even summer! Oh well, nothing a few waters and frozen lemonade couldn't fix!

We had a great weekend, and Jamie - I hope you enjoyed your prom. I sure did!

p.s. I am almost positive I felt Parker doing the chop with us.