tonight, my firstborn nephew graduated high school.  I can’t believe how quickly he’s grown.  this is the young man who’s shining example finally convinced me to open my heart to Jesus.  I am so proud of him and so grateful to have him in my life.  I can’t wait to see what fantastic and exciting things his future holds.

“congratulations to my nephew, jimmy, and the rest of boone hs class of 2014!!! and now… go gators!!!”

From Grad Night 2014, posted by J’Lynn Holloway on 6/11/2014 (20 items)

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28 May 2014

We had to take this week’s pic a couple days early due to our upcoming travels to Orlando.  This trip will start a whirlwind month of travels and visits and showers.  It’s going to be exhausting but great!

I want to take the time this Memorial day to express my gratitude for all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of our country. It is truly sobering to think of so many young men and women paying the price for our rights and privileges with their lives, not to mention the price that their family members paid by letting them go.

the weekend found us, once again, celebrating with friends at the annual lake party.  the turkey and I had a great time floating in the water and relaxing on the beach while hubby enjoyed the water toys.  the bastard suns were back again this year so baby boy got to attend his first concert as I carefully jumped around and sang along right up front.  we always have such a great time and this year was no different.  although we did choose to go home instead of staying the night like we usually do.  with all the traveling we’ve got coming up, I just didn’t want to give up any more time with my bed than I had to.  not to mention that the pile of pillows I’ve got to have is a little embarrassing.

From Memorial Weekend Lake Party 2014, posted by J’Lynn Holloway on 5/26/2014 (54 items)

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23 May 2014

I’ve been feeling all kinds of great about this pregnancy until I got a phone call yesterday from the dr office saying that I failed the glucose screening and have to go back for the 3 hour test.  anything over 126 requires advanced testing; mine was 148.  looking back over labs from the last few years, it looks like my pre-pregnancy glucose level stays right around 90.  insert major funk of depression here.  I know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that I have gestational diabetes and I know that, even if I do, it’s fairly common and easy to control and blah blah blah… but I just can’t shake this disappointment and melancholy.  I’ve been trying so hard to keep us healthy – I’ve been eating nutritionally, I’ve largely avoided junk food and fried food, I’ve been exercising – and all for what?  just a big smack-in-the-head reminder of how much my body hates me.  just like when I lost forty pounds and my cholesterol shot up instead of getting better.  it feels like I’m already failing my kid as a mother and that’s a lousy feeling.  so it’s going to be 2.5 weeks before I can get in to do the long glucose test.  here’s hoping that I can pull myself out of this funk and learn to deal with whatever comes because there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.

tonight was the VIP premier opening for the new dave & busters.   our friends managed to score us an invite so we went to check it out.  first, the invite said it was a cocktail attire event (which made no sense to me for an adult arcade but whatever) and we four ended up being entirely overdressed amongst all the jeans and flip flops.  I’d be upset about it if it weren’t for the fact that I so rarely have the chance to get all gussied up so it’s nice to look pretty once in a while.  when we walked in, they gave us each a $10 game card and two drink vouchers.  good thing I brought my ID since hubby had to use all four of our vouchers!  we did a loop around the joint to see what there was to see and try to find our friends.  they had a couple free buffets set up with hors d’oeuvres and desserts but when we met up with our friends, they wanted to sit and eat a meal in the restaurant.  we ordered a couple apps for the table and an entrée for each of us and found out after eating that there was no charge for any of it.  bonus!  added bonus:  that was just about the best mac-n-cheese I’ve ever eaten!  super cheesy pasta with seasoned grilled chicken and large pieces of bacon.  mmmmm.  the potato poppers app was also good… little nuggets of mashed taters, kinda like a tater tot except not at all like a tater tot.  after we were all fat and happy, we made our way around the game floor.  hubby and I did a few of the racing games that we so enjoy (I totally kicked his rear at Daytona!).  chef and trainwreck had a blast with the carnival style games that give you tickets.  a good time was had by all, especially for the price of free.  it’ll be a fun addition to the local entertainment offerings but I was a little disappointed.  turns out, I had gotten d&b confused with another place we used to go in Atlanta.  I went in there expecting it to be a huge place with a bowling alley and billiard hall in addition to the giant arcade and restaurant and I was confused on how they were going to pull it off because everyone kept saying that it was the largest d&b built but it just didn’t look big enough for all that from the outside.  turns out that the place that our big boss used to take us to in atl was jillians, not d&b, so I went into this expecting a lot more than was fair.  I guess we never actually went to the d&b up there; I have no clue why I had it stuck in my head that we did (pregnancy brain!).  so this place is what it’s supposed to be – an oversized game room with food and drinks.  I’m sure we’ll go back plenty with friends (heck, we still have $ on our cards) but it would have been nice to have the whole shebang that jillians was.

or at least a sickly sweet orange syrup.  yep, today was the glucose screening.  it actually wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I avoided carbs all day – eggs for breakfast, cheese for midmorning snack, breakfast ham for lunch.  they give you five minutes to choke down the glucola (ha!) but I just went ahead and chugged it.  it’s strongly reminiscent of the mystery orange drink that fast food restaurants used to serve for birthday parties when I was a kid.  really, I’ve had worse.  they were efficient enough to get me in to see the dr while waiting for the hour to pass for blood draw.  today’s heart rate was 140 bpm, 26cm uterine measurement, and i was up 3.5 lbs from last month.  dr r seemed pleased with everything and told hubby to quit hassling me about my weight (honestly, who would’ve thought he’d ever be worrying about me being too thin?!).  now that we’re in the third tri, we start doing two-week appointments until the last month when it goes weekly so lots more trips to town now.  we ran several errands after the appointment and i was completely exhausted by the time we got home… hard to say whether that was the sugar crash or just the zero sleep last night. 

so, the last trimester… 94 days to due date… i can’t wrap my head around it being that close now.  where has the time gone?  i feel like I’m going to be very sad for the pregnancy to end… of course, I’m super excited to meet our son but this has just been such an incredible and fascinating experience.  there are plenty of aggravations but, overall, it’s just an awesome time.  when i thought i would never be able to conceive, we talked about adopting.  while i still would not be opposed to adopting one day, knowing what i know now, it would have been a huge regret to not be able to have this experience. for all of the minor pains and annoyances so far, I have loved every minute of this pregnancy and wouldn’t trade this time for anything in the world.

in other news, since we have been in purge/organize/cleanup mode around here, we’ve both had items that take up a lot of space and won’t be used any time soon listed for sale on line.  tonight, i sold my scuba gear.  woot!  i even managed to get just $50 less than what i paid for it so double-woot considering i surely got more use out of it than that (and there were a few things i didn’t include from the kit i bought).  i love diving but, realistically, it’s going to be a few years before i even get the chance to go again so there’s no point in having the equipment sitting around, unserviced, and taking up space.  the last few dives we did were on cruises or at resorts and we just used their equipment anyhow.  hubby has had a few nibbles on his listing for bike #3 but nothing concrete yet.  I’m sure it’ll go soon enough.  bedroom furniture goes next month and then we’ll have a few other things to get rid of too – huge, old, tube-style tv; my first stereo system that i hate to part with because it’s the nicest gift i ever got from my brudder but it takes up a lot of room and we don’t use it; other miscellany – that we’ll probably just take to goodwill.

cheers to the start of trimester the third!

16 May 2014

A couple weeks ago, a friend tried to set me up with her other friend who is any-day-now pregnant.  She was given two crib mattresses and was looking to sell one and maybe some other stuff too.  I finally remembered to contact her yesterday and today we got together.  Just in the nick of time too since she’s on labor-watch and will be induced Thursday if she doesn’t go earlier.  We got a brand new crib mattress for $15 (I looked it up online and it’s a $60 mattress so I was super stoked about that).  we ended up sitting and talking with them for about an hour which was nice because not only is she a few months ahead of me but this is her second so she’s been there before and we were able to compare and get advice and all that jazz.  Before we left, she hurried out of the room and came back with a little device for listening to the heartbeat.  She said they’re done after this one so she doesn’t need it anymore and gave it to me.  I liked her family a lot and look forward to having another little boy close in age.  When we got home, we immediately headed to the couch where we each donned a set of headphones and went to searching for the turkey’s heart.  He was moving around a lot so we heard a bunch of knocking on the walls but we finally found the heart and enjoyed the soothing washing-machine-like sound for several minutes.  I’m going to have a lot of fun being able to hear my bouncing bundle of belly any time I want!

09 May 2014

the heartburn is back with a vengeance and I assume it’s probably here to stay.  also, the sacroiliac on my right side keeps slipping out of joint and I cannot for the life of me figure out a stretch or movement that pops it back in place.  when it’s out, there is much discomfort and I can’t bend over at all.  like, not even to pick something up from the couch.  when it magically puts itself back in alignment, I have no trouble at all.  it’s not slowing me down though… I’m still doing a lot of walking.  somewhere between sixteen and twenty-three miles a week, depending on weather and motivation.  all else is good.  he is active and getting stronger all the time.  hubby can not only feel his movements without effort but can also see them a lot of the time.  no obvious feet pressing out at us but big rolls of belly motion that are unnatural and creepy in a this-is-so-cool-I-love-my-baby kind of way.  when we were down in Orlando the week before last, my dad was laughing about me playing music on my belly.  I told him the turkey likes music.  he jumps around when they’re playing at church.  and when I play him music or sing to him, he likes to roll around.  hubby has been talking more to him lately too.  he likes to lay his head on my belly and dare him to kick daddy in the face.  he gets his wish about half the time.  around the house, we’re trying to de-clutter some more.  we’ve got ads up to try to sell some stuff and we’re gathering boxes to take to ‘bama for storage or giveaway.  hubby has also been doing a phenomenal job of keeping the house clean since we’ve been back from Orlando.

hubby has been doing a much better job of nesting than I have. he worked like a mad man to get all of the home improvement projects that we already had supplies for finished up before my sissy came to visit back in march. he put up all the crown molding throughout the entire house and finished the shoe molding around the baseboards in the closets and laundry room. he framed out the mirrors in the bathrooms so that they don’t look quite so much like giant, ugly mirrors pasted to the walls.

framed mirror and crown in master bath

he put up some accent tile around the top of the guest bath.

framed mirror and tiled accent around the top of the guest bath

he tiled the backsplash in the kitchen. I can’t say enough how much I love this tile. it is gorgeous. we’re debating doing something with the space above the cabinets… the light color up there just seems to draw my eye and I don’t like it. we’re trying to decide if we want to continue the backsplash tile up there or if we should just paint it gray. thoughts?

fabulous backsplash in kitchen

in the main living area and the master bedroom, I had him do extended crown to dress those areas up more. I think it looks fantastic. he also got my 53-pounds-of-glass photos hung back up over our bed.

extened crown and my custom artwork in master

he says he’s just going through his honey-do list. I say he’s man-nesting. and if all that work wasn’t enough, he’s now in hyper-organizational mode. he finally went through and shredded/tossed boxes of papers he’s been holding onto since before me (15+ years). he’s also buying all kinds of storage and organizational stuff to help put things in order. maybe one of these days we really will be able to start making a nursery out of the guest room which is stuffed to the gills with stuff.  I’ve been doing what I can to help with all of this but I certainly don’t feel like I’ve been able to get into nesting mode nearly to the extent he has.  maybe once the guest room is empty and it’s time to start building the nursery, maybe then it will hit me.