Thanks, Dad!

Tonight I cheered my Gamecocks on to victory as they won the College World Series. It was so exciting to see my team win, even if the game felt like it went on forever. Way to go Cocks!
What really got me thinking, though, was how the announcers kept talking about the fact that this could likely be (and in reality was) the final CWS game played in Rosenblatt Stadium. As I listened to them talk about this stadium that has become such an icon in the college sports world, I couldn't help but feel grateful that I was one of the lucky 7.5 million or so people who got to share in the Rosenblatt experience over the years.
So, thanks Dad, for giving Nick and me the opportunity to experience one of the most revered pilgrimages in college sports. I know that when I insisted on tagging along, that probably wasn't exactly what you had in mind. After all, it was less than a month after our wedding. I'm well aware that we likely butted in on what should have been a father-son bonding trip. The 12 hour car ride was more crowded, with more pit stops along the way thanks to me. You and Mark had to share hotel rooms (with 2 double beds) with two extra people, and you had to make special arrangements for game tickets since you only had access to a few of the team tickets. But hey, we got to do some pretty cool stuff since you did let us tag along. I'll never forget the insane ticket lottery process or the wicked sunburn I got waiting in line to get into the ballpark, and of course I'm glad to still be alive after that one restaurant excursion (you know which one I mean). And the most priceless memory of all, cheering on my Baylor Bears in-person at the College World Series in Omaha. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that is now extinct. So, for all that I just wanted to say thanks!

Hidden Treasure and 16 Weeks

I'm fortunate enough to have inherited a few family heirloom pieces of furniture. One such piece is a piano that my grandmother used when she was a little girl. It actually came from my great-grandmother's house to my house when I was a little girl, and it's the one on which I learned to play. Well, okay, if I'm honest it's the one I sort of tried to learn to play when I was very young. Once Nick and I were married it came to live with us, and it's moved around with us for the past five years.

The piano bench is a storage bench, and as far as I knew it only held my little practice books, etc. when I was younger. I'd never really done much digging in it since, as I've mentioned, I'm not too proficient at piano. However, the top of the bench is broken so our movers took out all the contents of the bench in order to move it to New Mexico. That meant that I had to unpack the little box of music, etc. once we began to unpack. Sadly, we are STILL unpacking, and this week I got around to the piano bench. In it, I found some really cool stuff!

I found this program from Baylor's conferral of an honorary degree on Harry Truman in 1947.This is a picture of my grandmother in the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra program from the 1957-58 season. She sang with the symphony that season. Cute that is says "Mrs. Herbert Colvin" - so old school!This is the program from my grandmother's junior voice recital at Baylor in 1947. You can see that my grandfather accompanied her. How cute!And this is the oldest dated piece of music that I found in the bench. According to the text in the upper right hand corner, it was sung by my great-grandmother in the spring of 1921. This piece of music is almost 90 years old!

And here's my 16-week picture. Please forgive my appearance - Finlay and I had just come in from a walk around the neighborhood! There's not much change in the tummy this week from last - big surprise! Well, at least there hasn't been much change from the outside. On the inside, nausea has returned - boo!!! I am sick for about 2 hours in the morning and then 2 hours around lunchtime. I've tried to head off my hunger, etc., all the things I did in my first trimester. I think I may just be stuck with this symptom for the duration. Ick! Otherwise, not much has changed. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday so maybe I'll have more to report then. Happy weekend everyone!

15 Weeks

There's not much new to report from 15 weeks. As you can see, my tummy is growing a little bit, still waiting to really pop out! I'm still feeling pretty good, the only thing that seems to be lingering from the first trimester is lack of energy. It's not as bad as it was a few months ago, but I'm definitely not my old self either.
In other news, Nick is moving to days next week! Woo hoo! This schedule of him leaving the house at 10pm and getting home anywhere from 3-8am has been really tough on both of us, and I'm pretty sure that it's been contributing to my fatigue issues. He'll be on days for a few weeks and then move to the swing shift in July, which will be from about 4-11pm.
Also, the "Go Green" initiative that Nick helped start up in Afghanistan got some more press recently. You can check it out here:
http://www.cjtf82.com/regional-command-east-news-mainmenu-401/2888-green-program-rewards-cooperation.html. I continue to be incredibly proud of him and the work he did over there.
Finally, I attended my first social night with the 3rd SOS Spouses' Club last night. There were about 13 or 14 women there, and they all seemed really nice. One that I met actually graduated from Baylor in '02 and was a cheerleader her senior year there. Since I'm going to be staying at home with Baby H it's important for me to make some good girlfriends here, especially those with kids, and I think there are definitely some women in this group who could fill the bill. We'll see how that goes, it's always tough getting a new start in a new place, but I'm hopeful that I'll begin to make some good friends here soon.
Happy weekend everyone!

Hail and BBQ

Last night Finlay thought there was a herd of elephants trampling on our house! He hid in the guest bathroom all night... Turns out, it was just a massive hailstorm! When we finally opened the door to see outside, it looked like the middle of winter - very icy. This was the view from our garage. See how it all piled up against the door?

And this was the view out our front door.

Fortunately, Nick's new toy was spared from the hail thanks to its cover and our covered back porch! As a housewarming gift, my mom and dad gave us (read Nick) a Weber Genesis E320 grill. It's an awesome grill, and Nick proved his grilling prowess tonight when he made some BBQ beer can chicken. We looooove beer can chicken and are so excited to be able to make it on our new grill!
Nice work, honey, it was really tasty! Here's Nick with the finished product.

And here's Nick, hard at work getting the grill ready.

14 Weeks

The 14 week mark has brought some welcome changes! I don't think I really realized how exhausted I was until I finally took some time to slow down and relax, which I have done this past week. Here are some changes I've noticed as I enter my second trimester:

* My nausea is almost completely gone. I still have to eat lots of little meals because I can't eat much at a time, and I still have some major aversions (no cravings yet). Examples are: garlic, meat, and tomatoes. Don't come near me with any of these (but not to worry, I have, of course been eating lots of protein for Baby H)!

* My tummy is still not popping out very much at all. Sometimes I am happy about this and sometimes I am irritated by it. I'm in that in-between stage with my clothes, too big for regular pants and too small for maternity stuff, but I still just look a little bloated. Thank goodness for Bella Bands! But seriously, I'm ready for my cute pregnant tummy.

* I am MUCH less nervous and am able to enjoy and get excited about this pregnancy. I haven't bought any baby items yet, but I'm sure that day is coming very soon.

* As I mentioned before, I do have more energy. Whether this is because my life is finally settling down or whether it's because I truly have an energy boost I have no idea, but I'll take it either way!

In other news this week, Finlay got to meet his Clovis vet on Tuesday. He did need his annual shots, but we actually ended up going in because he got a giant carpenter ant stuck up his nose! Nick and I tried really hard to get it out ourselves, but that wasn't going to happen so we went ahead and took him in. Hey, at least he got the shots while we were there, and as a bonus we made an appointment to have him groomed next week (looooong overdue).

We're also on a really weird schedule right now because Nick has been working nights. He's been going to work at 6 or so at night and coming home around 2 or 3 in the morning. He'll be on shift like this for at least the next year, but the shifts will rotate between daytime, evening, and night so we'll only be on this kind of schedule once every few months or so, thank goodness!

Baby Hall!

Announcing Baby H!

(This picture was taken today at 13ish weeks - just a little tiny bit of a bump) Okay, okay, I've been keeping a big secret lately. It's actually one of the reasons that I haven't been posting much lately since it seems like every aspect of my life has been consumed by being pregnant! Yes that's right. In case you thought that I hadn't been busy enough since March with Nick coming home from Afghanistan, quitting my job, buying a house, moving cross-country, being in two weddings, starting Nick's new job, and taking a two week trip to Texas and Mexico, don't worry! I've also been pregnant the whole time!

Kind of like with a honeymoon baby, I feel compelled to tell you that I know with absolute certainty that we got lucky the very night that Nick came home. So when you start counting backward, you can be reassured by that. It was not an immaculate conception.

Baby Hall is due on December 6, which makes me about 13 weeks. We waited until after our doctor's appointment and second ultrasound today to tell you because, after our miscarriage a few years ago, we wanted to be absolutely sure before going public. After the ultrasound, there was no doubt that all is well with Baby H! He (or she) wouldn't stop moving long enough to take pictures. It's kind of crazy that the baby can be moving around so much right now, but I'm totally oblivious to it.

From this point forward, you can expect many more pregnancy updates. I'm so happy to finally be able to share the news! We had hoped to start our family as soon as possible after Nick came home, but we never imagined that the timing would work out quite like this!

So far, Baby H hasn't been too unkind to me. I've had the all-day sickness feeling, but haven't been actually getting sick, and of course I've been exhausted! I think the hardest time was during our recent trip to Mexico, where I had to be paranoid about EVERYTHING. I was pretty much on a bread, (bottled) water, and bananas diet the whole time we were there. Baby H is well worth it, though, and I feel so blessed by the awesome privilege of becoming a mommy that none of the negatives could possibly overshadow my excitement. Here's hoping, though, that this week I get the much-lauded second trimester boost of energy and my yucky tummy feeling goes away for good!

Celebrating Mandy and Phillip

A few weeks ago Nick and I headed back to the Lone Star State to celebrate the wedding of his baby sister. The celebrating began in New Braunfels and ended in Mexico and spanned 11 days. We had so much fun getting to spend time with this side of our family!

The trip started off with a bang, or rather a pop, when we got a flat tire between Hamilton and Gatesville on Hwy. 36. Doesn't sound familiar? That's because it's in the middle of nowhere. I, in a blond moment, forgot that my car has a spare tire and majorly panicked, knowing that it would take AAA 5 or 6 hours to get out there and fix it. My sweet, calm husband, however, dragged out the spare and had it changed in no time. He's so handy! Here we are on Grandma and John's back porch at Mandy and Phillip's wedding party. You've seen pictures of this before, but I never get over how gorgeous their view is.
Here are a lot of the siblings and cousins. Lauri (Nick's mom) has 5 siblings and they all have multiple kids (and a few grandkids) so getting everyone in one picture is almost impossible.

Here we are at The Grist Mill on Sunday after the wedding party in New Braunfels. Apparently I forgot to wear make-up, but this is the only picture I have with both Lauri and Dwight in it.

Wedding Vacation

Last week we ventured down to Mexico for Mandy and Phillip's wedding. We stayed at the Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita resort on the Riviera Maya, which was a fabulous resort! The rooms were incredible and the resort was small, only 90 rooms, so it wasn't loud or crowded, which we loved. We got to hang out on Wednesday through Friday before the wedding, and it was great to relax and enjoy the beach!

We arrived on Nick's birthday. Here he is preparing to do a celebratory shot of tequila on the balcony of our room. Here's the birthday boy with the groom-to-be.
This is half of the family at dinner on our first night there.

Here are Andrea, Drew, Nick, Jay, and me at dinner on Thursday night. I hear the food was really tasty! Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy much of it...

Here are all the brothers and sisters at the post-rehearsal cocktail party.

The Wedding

Mandy and Phillip's wedding was absolutely gorgeous! The ceremony took place on the pier at our resort and was followed by a cocktail hour and seated dinner at the beach. Mandy was a lovely bride, and I can't imagine how the wedding could have been more perfect!

Here's the pier where the wedding took place.Here's Drew (Andrea's husband) immediately after the ceremony.
And here he is a few minutes later after a quick dip in the ocean. He had to go in to save an heirloom handkerchief that had blown into the water! Fortunately, he succeeded in his mission.

Sisters with the bride!

All the siblings: Drew, Andrea, Phillip, Mandy, me and Nick