This is gonna be a long post!

Tanner and I found out on Thanksgiving morning that we are going to be parents! I know most people wait a while to tell everyone, which I think is great. But there was no way Tanner and I would be able to keep that secret. Neither of us are real good at not just saying what is on our minds ... and this is certainly on our minds. So we are telling everyone! I wouldn't be surprised if the mailman knows by now!

I am still overwhelmed right now. I keep telling myself I have nine months, but I want to do everything right away. I found this cool website called www.make-baby-stuff.com and I can't wait to start making some things on there. My mom says to wait three months before I really buy anything ... which is probably wise ... but I'm not sure I'll be able to restrain myself!

Debra already bought the baby's first gifts. I love the feel of baby stuff. I just want to rub that little bear on my face every time I walk past. And I bought a journal to start recording everything. I had a friend who did that, and since I journal anyway, why not make it a little keepsake.

The most comforting thing to me is knowing that God was really in charge of this. We haven't been "preventing" a baby for about 4 years now, although we haven't really been trying either. I had actually just started charting temps and stuff last month, but hadn't even gotten any patterns figured out to start trying when I realized why the pattern was so off! So, even though I'm a bit overwhelmed and scared about how this is all going to work out, I know God thinks we are ready ... so I can handle it!

OK, now for 9 months of trying not to spend every single second of my life thinking about the baby!

Oh, the due date (according to a calculator on a website, we haven't had a doctor's appointment yet) is August 3rd. That mean no Morgantown Triathlon next year, but it doesn't mean I'm going to sit on my tail either!

Guest Bedroom

I said I would show you this after I paint, but I don't have anything more interesting this week ... so here is the newly cleaned out and decorated (kinda!) guest bedroom! TA DA!



OK, so looking at the picture now, it really doesn't look as grand as I had worked it up in my mind ... but if you knew what it had looked like before, you would be impressed. That would have been fun. Before and after pictures. Too late now!

Guests

I love having guests. They have been few and far between now that we live in Waynesburg in a not-as-nice house, but we did have some this weekend. Tanner met Monty through powerlifting, so he came up from Virginia this weekend to lift with Tanner and brought his wife and daughter along for the ride. It was fun to meet them and have an excuse to eat out! And, it gave me a reason to do some things I had been meaning to do, and now the guest room looks really great! It just needs a coat of paint and some new curtain rods to look awesome. I'll put up a picture when I get to that. For now, here is a picture of little Jackie sleeping with my bear on the bed. And here is a picture of her playing with Tanner. She must like cameras because she was staring right at me! She was a great baby. She sat through an entire football game and only started to get cranky at the very end ... but so did everyone else, so it was ok!

Lyrics

Somewhere Out There

written by James Horner, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil

Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

My Tattoo

My last post about my vacation (since I didn't take any pictures of rainy Williamsburg) is to show you my new tattoo! Lori and I had been talking about getting tattoos together when she lived with us. I have been thinking about getting a tattoo for a long time, so I knew I wanted to get stars on my foot. My foot because I'm a runner, and stars for a couple of reasons. I have always enjoyed looking at the stars on a clear night. This was especially true the first summer I worked far away from all of my friends and family in Colorado when I was 17. Being up in the mountains of Colorado you can see them so brightly. And it made me feel not so far away. I used to sing that song from "American Tale" called "Somewhere Out There" to myself. The song talks about how we are all looking at the same moon and stars no matter how far away we are from each other. Maybe I'll find the lyrics and post them here.

And probably because of that experience, I really liked the Bible verse in Phillipians that talks about how Christians should "do everything without complaining or arguing so that we can shine like stars in the universe and so bring glory to God." That's a paraphrase, I don't have it memorized. But essentially, buy living our normal lives with subtle differences because of the peace and love that we have in Christ, we stick out and shine among the world. I love that concept.

So, I got a tattoo with Lori one of the days we were in Williamsburg. Too bad I didn't get a picture of our feet together. Hers is waves on her ankle. Pretty cool. But here is a picture of mine.



Oh, and kinda as an afterthought. I liked the idea of having different kinds of stars. Mainly because I liked the way it looked better. But it's also kinda cool to think about how we all shine in different ways. OK, I'm going to see if I can find those lyrics anywhere.

Sunshine!

Oh, it is so fun looking back at these pictures now that the weather is turning chilly here in PA! The second day at the beach was beautiful! There was enough sun all day that we did get something of a tan. There wasn't enough wind to fly my kite, but I did play my guitar on the beach. I have decided that I need to get a lot better before I start playing around other people ... even if those people are my sisters and have to love me anyway! Lori left after lunch that day so she could get back to class, but Julie and I actually went swimming in the ocean that afternoon. Who'd have thought we would be swimming in the ocean in October!