Update: 32/33 week check-up, church baby shower

Check-up update

We went to the doctor today for our 32/33 week check-up and got a clean bill of health. I've gained three pounds since our last visit 2 weeks ago- doctor says this is fine. My blood pressure is still great at 120/70- I was a bit worried about it since my hands and feet have been a little swollen. Par for the course, I guess. The doctors were pleased with my blood sugar, and told me to keep doing whatever I'm doing. Of course, I didn't tell them I'm not doing anything differently :) Little Miss is now head down and turned so that the doctor has to search a bit to find her heartbeat...or it could be that she is stubborn :)

Although my fundal height is measuring where it should be for almost 33 weeks, the doctors do want to schedule one more ultrasound at 36 weeks, to keep an eye on Emorie's size. I didn't realize we'd have anymore ultrasounds, but I certainly don't mind one more peek at her before we meet.

We have one more appointment at the end of the month, and then we will start going weekly to the doctor.

A Cook-out!
Saturday night, we got to go to a cook-out at the home of some good friends. We had a great time- the food was good, the conversation and fellowship wonderful, and the children were sweet. Then, our very crafty and talented friend unveiled this cake for baby Emorie:

It was delicious as it was cute- the little feet looked so real, they even had little wrinkles in them!

Church Baby Shower

The ladies at our church gave us a really nice shower last Sunday. There was ice cream and the shower was just beautiful. We received so many nice things, and now we have everything we need for Emorie's arrival. We even got some pretty baskets and some handmade blankets. We were honored so that I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening writing thank you notes for all the people who want to help us begin our new life as parents. We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends in our church family.

Our pastor's wife Elizabeth and two sweet little girls helping me open gifts!!

Very dear friends from church and school :)

We are so blessed to have so many friends and family who want to help us welcome our daughter. You have deeply touched us and we are so glad to know you. Thank you for your generosity and your friendship! You've made an exciting and joyful time in our lives that much more joyful.

A long overdue update

Hi all. I have taken a brief Blogger hiatus, as student teaching and my last classes before graduating have kept me extremely busy.

I am student teaching now at Brier Creek Elementary in Raleigh. I am working with second graders, which is great because I have spent the last two years working with second and third graders. The children are wonderful, and the staff is wonderful as well. There is a lot of talent under that roof and I'm blessed to get to learn from some wonderful teachers there. I start teaching math today- at this point, I've only been observing. It's so hard to believe in only 7 weeks my master's degree will be completed, and I'll have no more classes to attend, no more homework, and I'll actually have some free time for a change.
That being said, I know I want to get my doctorate at some point, but I need a break first. I'm going to work a while before going back to get it.

I am learning there are many plusses to not being in class all the time. I love to cook, and I now get to do it almost every night. This, after a year and a half of sandwiches and convenience foods because I had to hurry to class. We've also started going on a monthly "date night."

Friday night, we headed up to Greensboro for a date night. We ate at Phoenix Asian Cuisine on New Garden Road, which is one of our favorite places to eat. We then followed that up with dessert at Krispy Kreme. We had a great time together, and I'm really thinking we're going to enjoy this new tradition of ours.

Saturday morning, we went to a little cafe here in town owned by Michael's friend, where we ate a wonderful breakfast. We then went to the Farmer's Market here in our town. This is something else we have started doing. We love fresh vegetables but have no place to plant a garden and veggies are so expensive at the store. We've started going to the farmer's market and picking up a few items to help support our local farms and to save some money. For just $20 this week, I bought cucumbers, four ears of corn, two squash, a pound of green beans, strawberry jam and a cantaloupe.

Saturday evening, my family came into town and we had a great time visiting with them. On Sunday, we started our week off right with two great sermons at our church.

Weekends like these- with plenty of quality time with my husband and family, make a long, tough week completely worth it.

Have WE been busy around here....

Summer continues to be extremely busy for me, and I haven't even started student teaching yet!

My friend Beth, whom I've known since we were 12, got married Saturday. She had a beautiful wedding and was a gorgeous bride! Many of the women my mama used to work with, that I also grew up knowing were there as well. I had a great time and got to see so many old friends, even if Michael had to miss out because he was on call.

Here are some pictures of the good time we had!

Mama and the ladies she used to work with.

The bride and I. Such a sweet friend.

The "brother" Robert and I.

Dallas and I. Yet another sweet friend.

Donna, Beth and I doing "The Cupid Shuffle."

Dallas and Robert.

My mama and I.

Memorial Day

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend, and that you're all getting some rest and quality time with the people you love. However, in the midst of all the cookouts, fun and good times, let's not forget that this holiday was intended to celebrate those who fought to keep our country free.

Michael and I took advantage of the weekend to spend a weekend at The Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, WV. I've been riding through the resort since a child but had never stayed there. The resort includes homes, golf courses, stables, a spa, an inn (where we stayed) and a lot more. I don't think you can run out of things to do. I have a lot of family in the area as well, and my aunt actually works there. In fact, when we got to our room, we had a handwritten note and some goodies from her- she made our weekend a great one.

Prior to checking in Saturday, we spent Saturday night in Bluefield at my mom's sister's house. We enjoyed getting to visit her and my uncle and spend time with them, as we don't get to see them very much. We ate breakfast with her Saturday morning, and after spending a little time with her, we headed for the resort.

The Inn, where we stayed: Not a great picture of it, though. We had a little living room area, a bedroom and two bathrooms. A little balcony, too but we didn't use it.

Our bedroom in the room:

The Parlor room: a little living room off the bedroom.

Later that night, we met up with my aunt, uncle, and my three cousins to go out to dinner and go bowling in the Glade Springs Leisure Center. My uncle beat the pants off of us, as Michael and I kept rolling gutterballs.

Cutie pie Lauren tuckered out and napping.

Logan showing off his muscles.

Landon, a.k.a "Little Feller" loving his swing.

Well, that was our weekend! Hope you enjoyed yours.

Busy, busy weekend!

Hi all! I've taken a brief Blogger hiatus so I could complete the mountain of end-of-semester homework. I'm almost there- I have about 23 weeks left of graduate school, counting student teaching....not that I'm counting or anything.

This weekend, Michael and I have been superbly busy. Friday night found us headed out for a dinner date, and some shopping to replace my old Compaq Presario laptop I'd had since college. The poor computer was on its last leg and it finally died. One trip to Best Buy later, and we'd picked up this:

It's a Toshiba Satellite A505, with a 4 GB processor and 500 GB memory. We are loving it! After having such an old computer, it's amazing what I was missing out on. I'm particularly into the card reader and the neat photo software, since I take so many pictures.

Saturday, we went to one of our favorite places to eat, S&T's Soda Shoppe in Pittsboro for Michael's little brother's birthday. My oldest brother-in-law and his girlfriend were there, as well as Michael's two little brothers, his grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousin and her husband. We had a great time, as we don't get to see everyone that often.

Sunday we went to a bridal shower for some church friends that are marrying next month. We have so many friends and family members experiencing exciting things in their lives and we're so excited for each of them!

We've got a busy week ahead- stay tuned for more updates.

Easter Weekend

Hello all. I've taken a brief Blogger hiatus because I've had tons of things to do lately! In fact, today is the second day of my spring break, and I'm taking a "homework break" to give you all some quick updates. Hope everyone had a great Easter. We had a busy weekend, but a good one.

FRIDAY

Since Michael and I both had Friday off, we decided to complete some things around the house that needed finishing. Michael worked in the yard, while I weeded the flower beds and painted our front door. I'm no painter, but the door looks much better than before, and that was my goal. Friday evening found us heading to the Good Friday service at our church. This is the first year since I've been attending Moon's Chapel Baptist that they've had a Good Friday service. The music and message were wonderful- I'm glad we were able to attend.

SATURDAY

My grandmother came into town from Iredell County on Saturday. We went to Greensboro to visit my great uncle Raymond, who lives in the Gate City by himself. He's such a neat person- he's very intelligent and always has some great stories to tell. My parents, grandmother, Michael and I joined Raymond for lunch and we had a great time visiting our family.

SUNDAY

Easter Sunday at our church is always great- there is a sunrise service, followed by breakfast, Sunday School and worship service. The music and messages were, once again, great. We then went to my parents' house for Easter dinner, which was delicious. My mother is a wonderful cook, and we always enjoy eating with them. Sunday evening found us at Michael's grandparents' house.

My handsome husband and I, dressed in our Easter clothes:

Michael's 30th Birthday, Part 1

My husband turns 30 on Thursday. This Tuesday, we ate a wonderful homecooked meal at my parents' house. Mama got him some great cupcakes from Cupcakes 2 Go in Randleman, which is definitely worth checking in to, if you haven't. There were ganache, red velvet, chocolate mint and vanilla buttercream cupcakes.

On Friday, we celebrated at a Japanese steakhouse with my husband, his brother (they're twins), his 2 cousins, grandmother, aunt and parents. We had a blast, and we took some great pictures.

The birthday boys! Chad (back), Mitchell (left), and Michael (right).

Emily and Mitchell, left, and Michael and Me, right.

Saturday, he and I spent the morning working in the yard and doing housework. After finishing all those things, we then went to Greensboro for some shopping and a wonderful dinner at Phoenix Asian Cuisine on New Garden. If you haven't eaten there, go NOW! We've been three times and we've always had a pleasant experience.

Today was spent working on the house, going to church and visiting family. We went to Michael's grandparents' house, and then my grandparents came here for a short visit. We are so glad we're getting to spend so much time with our folks!

More birthday festivities are in the works this week.

Busy,yet at the same time uneventful, weekend!

Michael is on call every other weekend, which means that we are unable to leave the county. This was one of those weekends. On Friday night, we met at Compadre's (a local Mexican restaurant we pretty much keep in business these days) with some good friends of ours, Kelli and Josh, and their sweet little girl, Alleigh. Since my semester this spring has been so busy, we don't get to hang out with them as often as we once did. Catching up was great, and Alleigh entertained us by being her cute and funny self. We had a great time- we've really missed getting to spend time with friends.

Saturday morning, we woke up early. A friend of Michael's who is an electrician came by to do some work for us. For months we've wanted to add spotlighting to the lower end of our house. When I go out to feed the dog in the mornings, it's usually pitch black around that corner and I can't see a thing. Now, we've got spotlights on all four corners of the house, and a master switch that turns all of them on at the same time. You can probably see our house from Outer Space now. The electrician also installed two more lights in our basement as well.

Today is Sunday, and I'm getting ready to go off to church and Sunday School. Michael is sleeping after a minor accident yesterday. He's not seriously hurt, just bruised and banged up a bit, so he's on Aleve and the heating pad until the pain subsides.

This week will be highly enjoyable. NC State is on spring break, and I do not have to make that drive three times this week like usual. I look forward to catching up on some things around the house and getting to see some friends I've not seen much of this semester!

It's all relative

Even though Michael and I spent Friday night working on homework and housework, we did have a very busy, eventful weekend.

On Saturday, we got up early and went to my parent's house in Asheboro, because my uncle, aunt, their three children and my grandmother were coming into town. After visiting with them a little at my parent's house, we piled in our vehicles and headed toward Charlotte. Destination in mind? Concord Mills and IKEA.

Michael had never been to IKEA, and since we were in a hurry, he sort of got the quick tour. We are planning to go back and look a little harder when we have more time to stay.

You see, we'd promised a certain 10-year-old cousin that we'd take him to the LEGO store. And we did. And let me tell you, I'm not a LEGO fan, but that place is great. There were kids everywhere, building, picking out presents and having a blast. He thoroughly enjoyed getting to customize his own LEGO men, and he even picked out a Toy Story LEGO set. I just wish he'd let us take his picture. I tried, but he wasn't too enthusiastic about being photographed, so I let it slide.

Next stop was the food court. My little curly-headed cutie-pie cuz Lauren (she turns 3 next month) headed for the carousel. Michael waited for us by the fence while we rode, and Lauren, who absolutely LOVES Michael, was too busy waving at him to really care much about the ride.

The youngest of the brood, Landon, is turning one about 8 days after my first anniversary. He is getting so big, and it appears he will be a curly-top too! That makes four of my grandfather's seven grandchildren who inherited this trait from him.

Behold, the cuteness!

Someone else doesn't like her picture taken, either!

"I wanna ride the motor!"

Me and baby Landon- he is chewing on a battery operated tealight.

Today is Sunday. Although we're accomplishing some household tasks, we're definitely going to take some time to enjoy this beautiful weather. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Needs to catch up!!

I haven't posted in awhile, due to my midterms. Have we ever been busy here at casa de Boone!

Last weekend, Michael and I got up early Saturday morning and went on a little vacation to the NC mountains. We've been trying to go to the mountains the entire two years we've been together and something always gets in the way. We finally made it this time! We went to Boone, Blowing Rock, Valle Crucis, Foscoe, Newland,Banner Elk, and back to Valle Crucis again! There was still snow on the ground but the roads were perfectly fine. Since Mast General Store was having its big winter sale, I got a cute pair of snow boots (can't find them ANYWHERE here) and a cute white winter vest. Michael looked at lots of things but bought nothing...so picky.

We ate ourselves silly on this trip, too- we had lunch at the Dan'l Boone Inn and dinner at Makoto's in Boone...I don't know where we managed to put all that food, but it was worth the misery.

Ever since I graduated and left the mountains, I've wanted to move back. Someday, we might just do that. We wouldn't dare do it now- why move away from family when you're going to have children?

Here are some pretty sights we saw while in the mountains:

A one-room school house in Valle Crucis, a beautiful bridge on the Parkway, and look whose bus parked right beside us in Boone? The Siler City Pentacostal Church's bus, that's who!






Hope everyone had a good weekend! We're off to church now.