missing my girls!

For those of you with sisters, you will appreciate the elatedness (is that a word?) that accompanies a spring break visit from your mom, both sisters, and your darling niece all at one time (we were definitely missing our soon-to-be sister-in-law, trish… it just doesn’t feel exactly right without all the girls!). The excited chatter and ongoing countdown beforehand (“now only 3 days and 7 hours till they get here”) is it’s own world; as is the inevitable week of tears and missing-family-even-more-than-usual after they head home (“but, I miss Jord/Keje/the teensy/my mama so MUCH”). Adam has learned the ins-and-outs of this sister/mom-visit world well, though I would say he’s still sort of baffled by the sheer amount of emotion expended in the before, during and after of a week of girl time.

Writing from the kind-of-miserable “after” vantage point, I can only say that I could not be more thankful that I have these girls in my life. Jordan, Kedron and my mom spent the week pampering me, offering advice about next year, debating whether the Itsy is a boy or a girl (Kiji and mom vote boy, Jord thinks girl), touching the 8-month-pregnant belly to feel the Bitsy dancing around, encouraging me and pointing me toward Jesus. It is humbling to be so well taken care of. I am already praying that the Lord blesses the Itsy with a family like this to walk alongside during this adventure called life.

coolest baby in the world

I have a confession to make: sometimes I worry that the Itsy Bitsy won’t be as cool as my niece Keadryn. Yep, it’s true. Adam reassures me that the Itsy will be just as darling and precious and dang hilarious, but that’s hard for me to imagine at this point.

Inferiority complex aside, spending time with Little K this springs break has secured her place in my heart as the love of my life. She is silly, animated, and full of spunk and personality… with a dash of drama queen thrown in for kicks. I would hang out with her all the time if I could!

showered

Y’all wouldn’t believe the “shades and textures of white” shower that my mom, sisters and adam’s mom put together! The menu, décor, favors, and even stack of presents were all painted in shades of cream, snow, ivory and champagne. It was gorgeous! And as an added bonus, they used all sorts of fabric, ribbon, and paper that I can now recycle into decorations for my shades of white nursery. Woohoo! Jordan said she found some of the ideas on http://www.marthastewart.com/ (the rest were crafted-by-Jord… she is brilliant at this stuff). If I got to catch up with you this weekend, thank you so much for coming by! I am truly so blessed to have so many precious, Godly women in my life.

sunshine, love, teensy weensy

The Teensiest Weensiest, Queen of the Teensy Weensies

The Mini (and "Nana")

The Itsy Bitsy

Amidst a discussion last weekend about words that make us crazy (“moist” and “sneakers” top my list), I discovered that several of our friends hate the word “kiddo.” With that knowledge lingering in the back of my mind, I’ve been conducting an informal assessment of my own use of terms of endearment throughout my week.

Just so you know, between the words “darlin,” “sweetheart,” “dolly,” “sunshine,” and “love," I use terms of endearment probably close to one hundred times a day. I also sometimes call my students “kiddos” or “monkeys” or “wild ones,” though usually in a whole group context (e.g. “Join me over here, wild ones.”). Judging from the nicknames I call the small friends in my life, ranging from “Mini” to “The Teensiests of the Weensiests” to “Itsy Bitsy,” I think maybe using terms of endearment is one of my love languages. So for those of you out there who hate these affectionate nicknames- sorry! I just don’t think there’s much hope for change at this point.

confusion and 8 year olds

Miguel: Mrs. G, I think the baby is a girl.
Me: Really? Why?
Miguel: Because I want a little sister.

Maybe I should tell him that I'm not his mom?

honesty and 8 year olds

Nalaya: "That baby sure is getting big."
Translation: You look especially huge today.

At least they keep me firmly grounded in reality. :)

remodeling, cereal and a lightbox

Our weekend at a glance: working on our basement remodel, finding free/cheap cereal deals and putting together a lightbox. Oh yeah, and Friday night we had a night out with friends from Bible study… but I don’t have pictures of that. :)

The basement remodel: One of my favorite things about Adam is his work ethic. He is one of those people that will keep redoing a project just to make sure it is done correctly. More recently, he’s the type of guy that will work all day, come home and change into grungy clothes, and head into the basement to work on remodeling for the rest of the evening (or for 12 hours on Saturdays!) just so that we can have some extra room when the beebs gets here. I am so lucky! His goal is to finish the basement by the beginning of May. He’s adding a couple bedrooms, a bathroom, a living area and a laundry room (the basement is a full footprint of our house). I thought I’d post some of his progress on here… mostly he’s been working on plumbing and framing. I help with the projects that don’t require heavy lifting (mostly cleaning), and am looking forward to the time when I can help with the texturing, painting, and bathroom tiling. A HUGE thank you to Russ and Adam’s dad (and the guys who’ve volunteered to help on the 29th), who’ve been so faithful to help him out when he’s needed extra hands.

Cereal: Our pantry currently includes 9 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats, 2 boxes of Cheerios, 1 box of Honeynut Cheerios, 3 boxes of Cinnamon Life, 2 boxes of regular Life and a couple boxes of Shredded Wheat. And, actually, I’ve been giving boxes of cereal away! I paid about $7.00 total for this conglamoration of oats, wheat and sugar (sorry mom!). Our recently reduced budget is jumping for joy! For those of you who love Cheerios (ahem, mom, jordi and mark!) or just want to restock their pantry, these are the deals that are still running at King Soopers (Kroger) through Tuesday:
Honey Bunches of Oats with Chocolate Clusters: Print out coupons here (in the lower right-hand corner), here, and here. They are on sale for $1.99, the coupon is for $2.00 off 1, so theoretically you make a penny if you buy them right now.
Cheerios and Honeynut Cheerios: If you buy 4 boxes at Kroger this week, they are on sale 4 for $6.00 (it says 4 for $10.00 on the pricetag, but you get an extra $4.00 off when you buy 4). Use coupons here and here to make them even cheaper (about $0.50 per box). Kix and Total are also part of this deal (the coupons are here and here).

Lightbox: I now have no need to assemble and tear down a makeshift mini photo studio to take pictures of my latest craftiness… Check out my new lightbox here!