Good times

I was blessed to have my friend Carol (and her cutie pie son Liam) visiting from TN this past week. Not only was it nice to see a familiar face and spend time with a good friend, but we had another added blessing. For months past, Gabe and I have worried about what would we do should the baby decide to arrive prior to my mom's arrival. Carol's visit solved this dilemma!

It was a fun time watching the two kids interact and play together. Mia just loved chasing Liam around the house and playing peek-a-boo with him. She's definitely going to miss her little friend. We got to do some fun stuff while they were here...We went to the Chicago Children's Museum (SO fun-- I highly recommend this museum for kids of all ages), Navy Pier, a pumpkin farm, the Lincoln Park Zoo (totally free admission and still an awesome zoo!)...and, of course, we got in a healthy dose of shopping.

So a big thanks and shout out needs to go to our friend Carol. Thanks for a fun-filled week. It was nice staying active and having the distraction from being so very preggers. ;) I miss her already! I absolutely love Carol's humility, honesty and tenderness of heart. I'm thankful for a friend like her...

P.S....preggers update: I am about 38 and a half weeks now. Nothing interesting happening in the labor department besides a bad case of heartburn. My mom arrived yesterday--- yippie!

37 weeks...and counting

Well, today I am 37 weeks along in my pregnancy. Baby is now considered full-term, so I guess that means we can expect her arrival any day now. Thank God. Seriously. I am so ready to have this baby out of my body and in my arms!

My feelings about this pregnancy have kind of been a roller coaster. After the initial shock and disbelief that I was actually pregnant again so soon I felt a mixture of feelings. Part of me felt happy (I mean how can you not be happy to have another baby?!), but part of me just didn't feel ready. I felt like I was just pregnant, I was still nursing Mia and my body was finally almost back to normal. Well, I guess I got over that before too long and just embraced being excited. Then, lo and behold, the anxiety of having 2 kids set in. And not just 2 kids--- 2 babies really. I mean, 19 months apart really isn't very much. In many ways Mia is still like a baby. I worried about not just my ability to even handle it but my ability to keep my sanity! Around the time I was having these feelings Mia was acting particularly clingy and cranky...which wasn't helping the matter. Thankfully, I had a good conversation with my sister who helped calm me down about the whole thing. Also, she reminded me that our kids pick up on our negative feelings-- perhaps this was why Mia was acting the way she was. After that phone call, a few tears, a big plea for help from God and a major attitude adjustment...I felt much better. And go figure, Mia started acting a lot better after that!

In making the actual preparations for this baby's arrival I've come to feel a sweet joy (if that makes any sense). Pulling out those little newborn clothes from storage, getting the infant carseat ready, buying all the nursing essentials-- all those things have helped bring me to the place where I'm really ready for this baby. And I'm really happily anticipating her too. I absolutely adore the little person that Mia is, and I know I'll feel the same way about this child too. I am reminded of God's Word that tells us He knows us before we are knitted in our mother's womb and we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Indeed, this child is God's creation...and I'm happy that I have the opportunity to be part of bringing her into the world.

But that doesn't change the fact that I'm ready to have my body back! ;)

My city

This is the biggest move I've ever done as an adult-- it's so weird to just pack up all your stuff and move over 1,000 miles and call that home. Somehow, with God's grace I suppose, I've slipped into it seamlessly. Even Gabe has (he's usually the one who handles change with less ease). We're still really grateful that we've gotten this opportunity to move here, and I can honestly say that we're really happy here. We're pretty settled into our house now...still a few things that need to get done but we've gotten everything situated relatively quickly (for us anyways-- we usually take forever!)

Chicago is such a cool city! I can't resist saying a few words about our first excursion into the city and posting a few photos. We took the train-- it took about an hour. Pretty nifty little set-up they have with the trains. Most of the day was spent just walking around and checking everything out. It's strange that a collage of enormous skyscrapers can be so beautiful! Mainly, we spent our time in Grant Park. They have all these cool art structures and fountains-- the coolest being the reflective "bean" (see pic). We had such a nice day-- the weather was in the 70's, sunny, nice breeze-- perfect! We just kept pinching ourselves that we were finally in Chicago-- and we can say it's our town! Sweet!

It's cooled down nicely here and lately we've been having beautiful, crisp autumn days interspersed with mellow, rainy days. Ahhh, the seasons...I've missed you!

Preface

Well, I'm back to blogging. My last stint was short-lived. But now that I've moved so far away from most of my friends and family, I feel like I need to make an extra effort to stay in touch and keep everyone abreast of everything going on with me. Having a blog seems to be the best and easiest way to do that. I can't promise anything at this point-- I really don't know how good of a job I'll do at keeping this blog up to date (especially with another little one on the way), but I'm going to give it a go.

Honestly blogging "weirds" me out a little bit. Knowing that my words, thoughts and pictures are out there on the internet for practically anyone to see/read and more importantly-- not knowing who those people are!-- well, that's kinda creepy. So in light of this, I am asking you to help me feel better in this area and keep this blog secure. You can do this in a several ways:

1) Don't link this blog to you or anyone else's blog.
2) Don't give the web address to anyone else unless you KNOW I wouldn't mind
3) Add comments to my posts whenever you have the chance or inspiration so I know who's reading about me!

Sorry if I seem anal....just want to keep myself and my family safe from any weirdos out there. ;) That being said, hope you enjoy the read...