Are You Ready for a Novel?

Hello, hello!

I do exist. I promise. And this post will be interesting to no one but family members. Sorry.

I missed blogging just a bit so on a whim I am hopping on here at…oh, 2:06am to give an update to anyone who cares to read this anymore.

A few things:

I blame my lack of sleep on the CRAZY restless leg syndrome I've been having during this pregnancy. Truly weird, and although I try not to complain too much about being pregnant…this particular symptom is a bit miserable.

I blame my lack of posting on the fact that we have been insanely busy this summer (and really, always). I don't know why I ever think, "Things will slow down once we get past such-and-such…", since there is always another "such-and-such" going on and I really need to accept that for my sanity's sake. I kind of passed the point of being sane years ago though, so I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. ;)

I am currently 32 weeks pregnant and am just about as big as that sounds. Summer pregnancies are very….swollen, but we are anxious to meet this new baby boy and I am doing my best to enjoy him still being an inside baby while I can.

I fell off the weekly bump picture train that I swore I would stick to 10 weeks ago, and have little hope of jumping back on. Let's face it, no one should be surprised by this.

Things that we have been doing this summer:

I guess things started out with Easter? That is the last time I remember having "nothing" to do. The week after Easter we had Parker's 2nd birthday, and then the week after that we drove to Denver with my mom. I have never been more grateful to have my mom on a road trip because we battled a dust storm AND a snow storm AND enjoyed the experience of Parker throwing up Braum's everywhere. In one 8 hour trip. Good. Times.

(We did not know that we would see that milkshake again…)

Once in Denver, we flew to Nashville for my baby sister's graduation from Lipscomb and stayed in the cutest little house that we were all convinced was haunted. Parker proved his two-year-old chops by stripping down at graduation, attempting to jump in a campus fountain, and using his two favorite phrases, "No Waaaaaay!", and "Whyyyyyyyy?" all in one afternoon. We ate some great food, went shopping, drove around the beautiful city, and even made it to the famous Blue Bird Cafe for an awesome night of music. Then we headed back to Denver to lounge around, shop, and eat some more before me and Parker made our way back to Texas. Oh, and we got a snowstorm on Mother's Day! Forgot about that one. That was the first time in my life that I have been excited to see snow in mid-May. (In high school, I loathed the snow, especially anytime after March.)

Supah-white me!! But this is the whole fam.

Sass. Also note his audience. 

I also realized while going through my pictures that we went to the aquarium in Denver. I think we did a lot of other fun things too but my brain is a jumble soooooo I'll just say that we had fun, kay?

(Our Mother's Day snow and the view from my parents house.)

Let's see…we got back and waited for Bryan to get out of school, which really just whisked him into full-time roofing for the summer (sales, not actually laying the roofs), and I continued to attempt to keep up with the craziness that is my shop (SO busy!! A GREAT thing!), while beginning to work on Parker's room. We spent a ton of time outside swimming at Bee and Grammie's pool, and have discovered that we have quite the little fish on our hands. Parker is truly fearless in the water, which is both a good thing and bad thing, since he can't technically swim without floaties. Parker also discovered a love for watermelon which has resulted in me eating my weight in watermelons this summer to show my support :). We had cousin Hensley, GG (great-grandma), and Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn visit on different occasions as well. I also got to reunite with some sweet college friends that I do not get to see often enough for dinner and Encounter worship (LCU's church camp). Love those girls! And also, almost all of my friends from college are pregnant! It is weird and exciting.

I think that June closed with Bryan's sister Abby's return from a year teaching and doing mission work in China. We are so happy to have her back and to also get the bonus addition of her boyfriend Luke--whom we have all deemed a real cool guy. She just started grad school at Tech and he just started at LCU so we get to keep them for a couple of years :).

….So that moved us right into July which started off with a quick visit from Aunt Alisha and Uncle Jon. (also Hensley again and baby Beau, whom we had never met before!) Me and Parker then drove to Galveston for our annual trip sans Bryan because of a huge hailstorm around here that kept him plenty busy selling roofs. That road trip was the longest I've ever done with Parker by myself (about 10 hours), and it went really well, which I am thankful for. I owe this success mostly to portable DVD players, the movies Cars, Planes, Jonah, and Veggie Tales: League of Incredible Vegetables. Also, to a truly awesome kid that likes to sleep and the Chuy's in Waco.

Anyway, Galveston was magical as usual, with all of its fried food, homegrown tomatoes, and inside jokes, and we made sure to hit up all of our traditional places with Mr. P in tow. He especially loved Schlitterbahn, finding some new toys on the Strand at Gracie's, and going to the aquatics center in Lake Jackson. He also pet the dead "nemos" that my grandpa was gutting for dinner so I wasn't too happy about that (thanks, Nonnie). The seaweed was awful this year, so we didn't do too much beach, but we did take a ride on my uncle's boat (which Parker also LOVED), and rode the golf cart around the neighborhood as much as the mosquitoes would permit. Oh, and the 4th of July! That was a big one. We of course did our annual fish fry and drove down to the beach to shoot fireworks which Parker was absolutely enthralled with for the most part. He still talks about the "big pops".  We are so thankful to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Neil who make this trip possible every year with their legendary beach house!! I don't know what I would do without these 20 years of memories.

My sister Laura (the Lipscomb graduate), drove back up to Lubbock with us, we again had a smooth trip, and she stayed the week with my in-laws. Why, you ask? Well, fun fact: her best friend is Bryan's little sister, Abby! I know. I think it's cute too. Anyways, Luke, Laura, and Abby all acted as my sanity angels and helped Bryan and I get pretty much the entire house organized and Parker's new room cleaned out and painted. We also got in a lot of hang-out time too before she headed back to Denver. :)

Bryan and I finished the book wall in Parker's room and I sewed some awesome curtains (still need a photo but they are fancy), we did a lot more swimming, I kept getting larger, and then we had a fun quick visit with Parker's second cousin Sadie, Bryan's cousin Laura, and her husband Justin.  THEN it was the end of July and we drove back to Denver to visit my padres and to celebrate our 5th anniversary!

We got in some great memories in Denver, literally from the moment we got there, when we unloaded the car and then drove over to a free concert in the park where we had a quick pizza picnic and got to enjoy some beautiful Colorado scenery before the weather got in the way and we had to head home.

For our anniversary, my parents kept P and got us a hotel room for the night which made us feel super fancy-pants and provided a much needed mini-vacay. We hadn't been to our ceremony location since our actual wedding so we spent the afternoon there reminiscing and enjoying the rainy weather before we headed out to dinner and coffee. The next morning we had an awesome brunch at Snooze (please go if you are ever in Littleton!) before heading back to the Ranch. Nonnie and Pops took Parker to "Touch a Truck" that same morning which was apparently the highlight of his life because every type of emergency vehicle and monster truck ever made was there for him to inspect. In case you didn't know, my kid LOVES anything with an engine….like to the point of ridiculousness.

We got married right there.

Getting our child drunk on coke at the Rockies game. Yes. It happened.

Parker clinging to Pops for dear life at Touch a Truck.

We also trekked to downtown Denver to take Parker to his first Rockies game which was super fun but a lot more exhausting than I remember as a teen. I would love to say that Parker was mesmerized by the game, but that would be a lie. :) We went to church on Sunday and got to catch up with some of our old youth group friends, ate a lot more (including my first ever trip to Mellow Mushroom), and got my family hooked on the show Fixer Upper, which we may have sat and watched for something like 10 hours straight. Oh, and I was Craigslist crazy while we were in Denver, so I drug Bryan around town with me and ended up scoring two dressers and matching nightstands in one day, which we barely fit into the back of the truck before our trip back home :).

P.S. If you are ever driving through Dalhart, TX (a teensy little thing of a town that we have been through 583 times), please stop at Hodie's BBQ. Delicious!

So, we were at home for about a week and a half….basically recovering from all of our travel (I think I got the suitcases put away about 8 days post CO trip), and then we packed up again headed to Georgia for Nana's 80th birthday! Nana is Bryan's grandma, and let me tell you, there are a lot of people on that side of the family. In fact, it was the first time that we ALL got together since Bryan and his cousins were little. Needless to say, it was a fun and very noise weekend! Nana is just the cutest thing on the planet so we were happy to celebrate her. We (as usual) ate some great food, including 532 pounds of boiled peanuts. A first for me! They were actually really good and I'm looking forward to more boiled-peanut-filled Georgia trips.

So…that has pretty much gotten us caught up on trips. For the last two weeks, we have been slaving away in Parker's new room…building barn doors, painting barn doors, buying mattresses, making bedskirts, spray painting way too many things, etc. etc. Oh! I guess we also had a garage sale but I can't remember if that was before or after Georgia? I don't know, but the sales from said garage sale funded our mattress purchases, which was nice. Also, Luke and Abby are saints for setting up and hanging out with us the entire time! I love having family in town. Except for that they get to see my crazy a little too often now, but I guess I'm okay with that. ;)

Currently, I am gearing Parker up for his first day of PRE-SCHOOL next week. Yep. I wasn't going to do it but then I did. He will be going two days a week (9-2) at one of our local CoC's. I am terrified/feeling guilty about leaving him, but I know it will be good for us once the baby comes and also so I can actually get Etsy work done during the day and not in the wee hours of the night. Also, Parker is super shy around other kids….so maybe it will be a good social experience? Also... buying school supplies was WAY too exciting for me. I just needed to admit that.

My mom is coming this weekend and my dad and a sister are coming next weekend, so we are pumped about that! Parker has no concept of days and has been driving me crazy asking when they will be here. I should have never told him they were coming…lesson learned. We are also hoping to get him moved to his big boy room sometime in the next week. His (ugly safe) bed rails came in the mail today so there's no holding back now. Lots of traumatic changes up ahead for my little boy and I would truly appreciate prayers! Now if I could just ween him off that stinking paci…

Oh! And here is a 32 week bump picture for all you bump lovers.

We watched Kung Fu Panda this morning and the word that comes to mind when I see this is "Ska-DOOSH". That's all!