I love November

November is such a great month. As I sit here tonight I am so happy with where I am. I had a wonderful weekend and have had lots of time off lately. I am listening to Christmas music and my Evergreen candle is burning away. Jon is outside working on Cole’s changing table and our carpets are freshly cleaned. I am so thankful for the life I have and the people God has blessed my life with. It is so easy to get caught up in the ways of the world and forget the simple things: friends, family, laughing, my puppy dogs, cool autumn evening walks, card games with family, sitting around the table with people we love sharing our lives with each other, family members you don’t see often enough... I could go on and on, but I will spare you.

Last weekend we had our beautiful nieces Jenna and Ashley spend the night with us. On a whim I called my mom on Saturday morning to see if we could take one or more of the girls for the night while she watched them for the weekend. I initially was only going to take Jenna but I knew that Ashley would be heartbroken. Jenna has spent the night several times, but it had been a while. And I knew that I wanted Ashley to spend the night before Cole came, because after he gets here who knows when they’ll be able to come down again. I wanted to give her that opportunity, I knew how much Jenna loved it and I knew Ashley would. When I asked her on the phone if she wanted to come down she was SO excited and she wanted Jenna to come with her. So, we met my parents at Ollie Koalas. Which turns out to be for a little bit older kids. But they loved it just the same.

The girls were so good for us that night. After Ollie Koalas we went to Al’s Pizza for dinner with mom and dad where both girls proceeded to eat 3 pieces of pizza each. They loved it!!!! I was impressed. This was almost at 4pm... Well, we headed home then and made a couple of stops at Lowes and Home Depot. Then we got home and Jenna declared that we still needed to eat dinner even though we had stuffed ourselves with pizza. So, I made so pasta and gave it to them. Jenna ate most of hers and Ashley wanted none of it. Jenna also decided she wanted pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream. We told her we would wait a little while for that. I bathed both girls and then dried Ashley’s hair which was easy. I dried Jenna’s for at least 15 minutes and it was still wet and I was sweating and in pain on the floor. I gave up after that and let it air dry. At 8pm Ashley’s said it was bedtime so I tucked her in on our love seat in our bedroom and we didn’t hear from her again. When I put her to bed I said, “sweet dreams,” to which she replied, “why?” I am not sure what that was about but it was cute. Jenna picked out a Christmas movie got her dessert and settled in for the night. At 9pm she said it was time for bed and we didn’t see her again until 6:45 the next morning. They were so good and we so enjoy our time with them. They have been such a blessing to our family as a whole and we are so thankful for them

Last week Jon and I were off on Friday. Why you ask? We went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at midnight on Friday (late Thursday night). We managed to get a pretty good group of friends to join the craziness with us. We all met up at 9:30 at Starbucks and then headed over to the theater. People were dressed up and it was so much fun. The movie was really good too. The only downfall was we didn’t get home until 3:30am and most people either went to work or school the next day. Thank goodness we were off.

Matt, Staci, Roddy, Annie, John and me. Not sure where the others were....

Death Eaters

Me and Annie :)

Me and Jon

Friday night we went to my parent’s house for dinner with family (my Aunt Beth was in town). We had a great night. After dinner we headed back to the house, played with the kids and then my mom and dad, Beth and Jon and me played Nerts. It was the first time for everyone but me and Jon. They loved it. Now we have more people to play with. I plan on playing again when we go up Thanksgiving. I love sitting around the table playing with family and laughing and just having a good time.

We spent the night there Friday night and got up nice and early Saturday morning to go to Savannah. Beth has never been and it has been at least 2 years since Jon and I have been. We left at about 8am and got up there a little after 9:30 to put our name in for Lady and Sons (Paula Deen’s restaurant). We had reservations for 1:15, so we walked ourselves ragged for several hours, bought and ate lots of candy and then went to go stuff our faces. The Lady and Sons restaurant is so good, you have to go if you are ever in Savannah. We all left feeling a little sick and stuffed. So we walked some more, at least 2 more miles!!! But, it was fun and so worth it.

Beth and a statue reading... :)

SUPER steep steps!!!!

Jon and me at Forsyth Park

Mom, dad, Beth, me at Forsyth Park

It has been a great couple of weeks to say the least and I know it can only get better with Christmas on the way. Our Christmas tree will hopefully make it’s way down on Saturday. I am so excited!!! I love to decorate the house all pretty for Christmas!! Yay!! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and remembers how blessed we truly are. Give thanks for all the things in your life, love your family and enjoy every moment you have with them.

Here is my update:

27 weeks

28 weeks

I cannot believe I am 29 weeks!!!! 11 weeks to go! The time is flying by!!!! I cannot believe it. Cole will be here before we know it. It is exciting and scary all at the same time. What makes it even more nerve wracking is the fact that I am going to quit my job. I haven’t told my bosses at work yet and I am so nervous to do it. I want so badly to stay home to raise Cole but it will be so weird to not have to go to work everyday. That is all I have known for almost 8 years of my life, getting up and going to work, whether I wanted to or not. Most often not... I have always wanted to be able to stay at home when I had children and now that it is here I don’t know how to tell my bosses what I want to do. They think I am coming back so it will be very awkward for me. We will also be taking a huge pay cut in doing this but we both discussed it and it is the right thing to do for us. We will manage, we have been cutting back for months now in preparation and paying off bills getting ready for this. I just wish we would’ve started sooner. I cannot imagine someone else watching my little boy grow up while I am at at work 11 hours every day. That thought breaks my heart. So, pray for me as time gets closer for me to tell them the truth about my future in working with that company. If you have any advice please let me know. I will take any I can get :)

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!