Thanks aunt Sarah!

Now before you all go chastising me about dressing my son in- YES- a PINK elephant sleeper, let me throw out the disclaimer that he got this outfit from his aunt Sarah.  So I take no credit in purchasing the offensive article, but every ounce of credit in dressing him in this, and posting pics on the internet for all the world to see!

I maintain my philosophy that "real men wear pink" and take every opportunity to convince my husband of this mantra and anyone else who will listen.  Bradley will no doubt get his fill of my pink propaganda once he's old enough to understand English, and becomes aware of the fact that his mom is dressing him in "sissy colors."  But for now, he's my precious little doll, and I get to dress him in whatever I want to, and right now, I have an adorable pink elephant onesie sleeper that will only fit him for so long, so I might as well take every opportunity to get some use out of it!

Nursery Times

Here they are- the long awaited pics of Bradley's nursery!  Brian and I spent yesterday putting together the crib which then gave me the go-ahead to put on the bedding, set up the mobile, and hang the wall hangings.  Everything else had been tackled and organized by me and Mama B when she was here, and then Dad helped us hang some things on the wall when he was here this weekend.  So after much anticipation, I give you my favorite room in the house- partly because it's decorated in bright colors, partly because it is my son's first room, but admittedly most of all because my OCD nature loves that everything matches!!

Bradley looks on while Brian puts together the crib!

home sweet home

Bradley & I are here in sunny Florida, getting settled in nicely. Luckily for me and my OCD need to get everything put away ASAP, I've got Mama B here to hold Bradley while I organize and vice versa. Brian is putting the crib together tonight so I should have nursery pics up soon! I definitely miss TN and all that comes with it (especially Laura, Dad, George, and The Boys) but I know that I will soon establish a new sense of normal and the homesick feelings will fade as our new little family starts to build our life here.

I am itching to get to the beach and see the Real Ocean- as opposed to the sound, or as I call it, the Fake Ocean, that I can see from Highway 98, but that's going to have to wait a few weeks. As a new wife and mom, the sun, surf, and sand are not exactly high on the priority list right now. Luckily the thought of trying to squeeze my postpatum self into a swimsuit is enough to keep those feelings of want at bay right now anyways!

I will post pics soon of our cute little house, but for now, this is Missus V, signing off to head to the kitchen for more organizational antics.

Viva Nashvegas!

It's the end of an era, and the beginning of another.  Bradley and I are saying so long to Nashvegas, and hello to sunny Florida today.  I love my hometown of Music City USA, but the time has finally come to branch out and allow our little family of 3 to start our life together under one roof.    Don't worry kids, we'll be back for lots and lots of visits.  Keep reading the blog as we make the transition to beach life from the country music scene!  

The Lil' B 2 week in review

Bradley is 2 weeks old today!  Since he came into this world, he has turned our household upside down, but in the best way imaginable.  Once we get settled into our new home I am hoping the blogging can resume once again, but for now, here are a few more pictures of my precious son to show how much he is changing every day!

Julius takes his role as guard dog very seriously!

Bradley's first bath time experience- he did surprisingly well!

So fresh and so clean clean

Mom has taken to calling Bradley "Little B" which Laura & Conley both  remarked that it sounded like a rapper's name, so when we snapped this picture the other night, we were all in hysterics that with Bradley's current pose with hands gesticulating, and the sock cap on, it looks like he's trying to make his hip-hop debut!

Me and my precious little boy!

Dads' Day

Daddy B and his girls

Grandpa Bradley, Brian, and Bradley

Dad and Daddy's little wing man

Like father like son!

We celebrated a special Father's Day yesterday.  It was Brian's first father's day, and Daddy B's first father's day as a grandpa!  Bradley told me what he wanted to get for his daddy and sent me shopping at Target!  Some of the purchases can be seen above- new hats and shirts for the dad and grandpa.  And in true Bradley family fashion, we spent the dinner conversation discussing the correct pluralization and plural possession forms after Laura asked if dinner was to the fathers' liking. 

Baby Bradley's Visitors

Whew! What a whirlwind of a week it has been! Today is my due date, but of course Bradley decided he didn't want to wait quite that long to get here. Bradley is over a week old now, and we are starting to settle into day-to-day life. As much as I anticipated his arrival, many others were anticipating Bradley's arrival too. He's had lots of visitors so far with many more to come, so I wanted to put together a blog with pics of Bradley and all his adoring fans!

Meet the Grandparents!

Grandma "Mama B" Bradley and Grandpa "Daddy B" Bradley

Aunt Laura & future Uncle George

                                                                                     "Uncle Tadd"

Emily & baby Bradley

The Gang's all here: Natalie, Emily, Brad, Rhonda, Joe, Amanda, Brian, Bradley!

The DIVA contingency

"Aunt" Ari with DIVO Bradley Jr.

"Aunt" Conley with the Little Wurker

DIVAS Angela, Ari, Bradley Sr., & Conley

B-DAY

So as many of you have probably heard by now, the 9 month waiting game is over!  Our precious son, Bradley Derek Vilendrer is now here.  He came into this world at 4:58 p.m. on Saturday with the coolest birthday ever, 06,07,08  weighing in at a healthy eight pounds and measuring 20 inches in length.  Bradley has blue eyes, and a beautiful head of blonde hair, which the doc said may just turn into a head full of red hair before too long!

The labor didn't go at all as we had anticipated though.  So much for blogging from the hospital giving blow-by-blow, up-to-the-minute details!  (PS- the happy upbeat song list ended up being the music du jour!)  I started to feel like I was having contractions early Friday evening, so Brian left Florida to make his way up here at 8 pm Friday night.  In the meantime, I did everything I could to convince myself that I was Not in labor, that the pain was Not that bad, and that everyone around me was fussing and making a big deal out of nothing.  In the meantime Brian, thinking he had plenty of time to get up here for what was surely to be false labor pains, spent the night in Birmingham before finally arriving here at 10:30 am on Saturday morning.  We called the nurse on call as soon as he got here, who told us to head for the hospital, so in true DIVA fashion, I showered, shaved my legs, fixed my hair, and put on makeup all in between some severe contractions!

Here's our last picture before heading to the hospital!

Still, I was not convinced that this really was "it."  I thought we might get to the hospital and they would tell me to go back home and come back later.  On the contrary- when we finally got checked into triage around 1pm, I was already dilated to 7cm, and I started to cry when the nurse told me, "you're going to have a baby today!!"  Everything happened really fast from then on out.  As we walked down to the 5th floor where I got settled into my room I asked the nurse, "what's the date- the 7th?"  As she confirmed this, I got excited when I realized my baby boy would have 06-07-08 for his birthday.  Dad also reminded me later on that today was D-day, and so I countered that it was now also B-day!  Less than 4 hours later Bradley Derek Vilendrer made his way quickly into this world.  I'll spare you the details of labor but let me just praise God for once again making things extremely easy on me.  He blessed Brian and me with an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery, and now has blessed us with a beautiful healthy son.

Less than a week later, as I'm finally finding time to blog (my how one's priorities can quickly change!) in the middle of another sleepless night, it is hard to comprehend all that has happened.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the images speak for themselves...

Bradley Derek Vilendrer born 6-7-08 at 4:58pm

Me and my beautiful baby boy

the proud papa

Bradley's homecoming on Monday

L&D Mix

No, not LSD- we're not talking about hallucinogenic drugs here; L&D as in Labor & Delivery. As we all know, music is very important to me. I enjoy the constant noise of the radio or a cd playing in my car, so when I read about women requesting low lighting in the hospital room, and asking that hospital personnel speak in soft voices at an attempt to make the room as peaceful as possible, I tend to shy in the opposite direction!

I say, Bring it on people! Lights, Camera, Action (well, maybe no cameras until Bradley is here)!

But I have been waffling on what kind of itunes mix to create for my labor & delivery. I already have a mix of "happy songs" that are upbeat to lift my spirits during early labor. Conley keeps suggesting I play "Final Countdown" which then gets stuck in my head and makes me mad. I considered uploading Mozart's Requiem Mass to my ipod because I find it calming and relaxing, but then I thought there was something intrinsically wrong about playing a death mass to welcome my son into the world. So my final idea was to create a mix of mellow songs with artists like John Mayer, Coldplay, and James Morrison.

But the jury's still out, so while we're in the homestretch here, I thought I'd open up the floor for discussion. Notice the poll at the top of the page- feel free to vote on what is there, and make your own (helpful) suggestions.

38 weeks

So here I am at 38 weeks preggers. We're hoping the little bundle of joy comes any day now because as if taking up my entire abdominal cavity weren't enough, he feels the need to put constant pressure on my tummy and back!

It's here!

Get excited people, it's upon us- the most highly anticipated beginning of an era...

The start of Hurricane Season officially begins today. Click here to get all your updates during the coming months. I am excited that the possibility of fulfilling my lifelong dream of being in a hurricane is within my grasp. My dad tells me this s a sad dream to have, but it's a dream nonetheless! At any rate, for those of you who share my obsession or even mild interest in the tropical storms, this weather channel link above should be bokmarked on your homepage.

the blog's birthday

Wow, has another year of blogging really flown by? I am ashamed to admit that I missed the birthday of my own blog. (I hope this is not any indication of what type of parent I'm going to be!) Back on May 25th, the DIVA Domain, in all her pink glory, turned 4 years old.

It's always amusing to look back to 2004 and remember where I was, and what I was doing, but it's funny how some things don't change. I started the blog because I was completely bored with my job, and here I sit, blogging at work, because I'm bored with my job!

secrets revealed

so earlier in the week I decided that I would take a day off and drive up to TN to see the wife who has missed me a lot in the last couple of weeks. I do not inform her of my plans, instead I try to arrange everything in secret. But, wouldn't you know it, Amanda went and figured it out anyways. Turns out I had told my sister about driving up there this weekend but failed to inform her that it was a secret so she told Amanda. Finally after a few moments of being questioning by my wife I broke down and informed her that I am going to be there for the weekend to visit and take another car load of stuff to FL. I will have to say though that after hearing me tell her that she would see me this weekend her attitude did a complete 180 and she has been talking about it ever since then.

Moral of the story is, if you are going to try to surprise Amanda you better have all your basis covered.

a not so quiet riot

Please pray for South Africa. This country and their people are very near and dear to my heart. I don't know if you've seen any stories on the news lately- but it looks like riots that started in Johannesburg between native South Africans and refugees from other countries have spread to other parts of the country including Cape Town. Mike and Pam Talley are missionaries from Brentwood Baptist Church serving in Cape Town right now, and their blog has updates on the goings-on in Cape Town.

the nonexistent Spring Break 2008

It's the end of an era. For the past 4 years, my friends and I have taken an annual beach trip over Memorial Day weekend, dubbed Spring Break 04, 05, 06, and 07. We've gone from 2 to 5 to 8 to 9 girls. We've drank watermelons, stayed in swanky beach houses and condos, giggled our way through dinners at Aunt Peggy's, drank margaritas, danced in Publix parking lots, soaked up the sun, fought over space in the back seat, been mistaken for lesbians, met Sammy Stephens of the Flea Market Montgomery (hey hey!), and even met future husbands.

This year, we're all grown up, and are going our separate ways. I hate change, so it makes me sad, even though every one of these ladies with whom I've shared the company of a 7 hour car trip with is doing fun and fabulous things with her time:

So where are they now?? Rhonda & Hubby Joe are spending the weekend here in town (no doubt doing cute coupley married things)! Emily & Amy will be in Moldova leading a team on a mission trip. MA, Mandy, Siebe, and Lana just got back from their own fabu trip to Europe. Scottie-too-hottie is with her fiancee in the Big D (we miss you Sarah!). Lisa and Melissa are taking their own beach trip this year with a new set of girls- and thus, the cycle continues!

And me? I am confined to the local area, unable to travel, not-so-patiently waiting for Bradley to arrive. My treat to myself is a mani-pedi this weekend, and hopefully a healthy dose of sun.

Happy Memorial Day to you all- may it be a fun and memorable weekend, no matter where you are!

Bump Day

The Gods have smiled on me today. Natalie and I had plans to get ice cream after work today, so imagine my surprise when she called first thing this morning to share some exciting news. One of her coworkers gets emails that alert him about deals around town, and it just so happens that Baskin Robbins is apparently giving away free ice cream today for expectant moms. I did some checking and the rumors are true!! Glory, hallelujah, today is Bump Day! We are headed there after work to take advantage of this super deal.

Labor of Love

Labor of Love is the cutesy name for the childbirth classes offered at Centennial Hospital where I'm delivering. Brian came up last weekend and this weekend so we could attend these back to back sessions together. It was a LOT of information in a short amount of time! The thing that got me most excited was the tour of the hospital, and getting to see one of the labor & delivery rooms. It helped me to envision where I will likely be spending a lot of time getting ready for Bradley to make his grand appearance.

I volunteered Brian to wear the empathy pregnancy belly which weighs 40 pounds that gives the husbands an idea of what their wives are going through. The teacher made an example out of Brian by having him lie down on the hospital bed in the classroom and practice rolling over and getting out of bed.

At one point last week the teacher was walking around with a laminated poster of the female anatomy and showing us how the expanding uterus crams all of your other organs out of the way to make room for baby. This, she explained, is why you're dealing with increased heartburn-

Amen! I exclaimed out loud-

and gas, the teacher continued, bringing chuckles from the rest of the class, and sympathetic nods and agreements from the other mothers-to-be. Slightly embarrassed by my enthusiastic unintentional admittance for both of the symptoms she described, it would not compare to Brian's bright red face after the teacher this week asked him what the highest point of a contraction was called. Brian offered "the climax?" as his answer while the rest of the class laughed, and the teacher quipped that no, but that's probably how you got here in the first place (The correct answer is peak, FYI).

Friday was Brian's and my 3 month anniversary so we celebrated by treating ourselves to dinner at Maggiano's. Here's a pic of him and me, at 35 1/2 weeks before we left for what was essentially our last date night before baby Bradley gets here!

Brian left yesterday, and I'm officially full term today, so now we begin the baby watch portion of the pregnancy. Mom was late delivering both Laura and me, but I'm praying for an early delivery for Bradley as it's becoming increasingly more uncomfortable as the days go by!

Starbux Spectacle

Time for another pregnant lady food story! This a.m. I forwent the Dunkin Donuts in lieu of yesterday's debacle and decided to make a trip over to Starbucks for my morning break instead. I had a gift card and wanted a Frappucino to tie (tide?) me over til lunchtime. When I got up to the window, the lady was so taken with my pregnant belly that after she oohed and ahhed over me, she hollered over to several other employees to come over to the window and take a look at me as well. I felt very self-conscious to say the least, with that whole fishbowl syndrome thing going on as several women stared at me through the glass drive-thru window.

And silly me, all I could think of was, here I am pregnant, and everyone knows that expecting moms are supposed to limit their caffeine intake, which I am very aware of, but I felt guilty indulging my Frappucino craving, and sat there wondering if these Starbucks employees were wondering the same thing and thinking that I am a bad mother!

Donut Drama

This morning I had a hankering for donuts, so I took my morning break and headed over to Dunkin Donuts for a dose of sugar. I knew exactly what I wanted, but once I got up to the counter and made my request for a cinnamon twist donut, I was not-so-politely informed that no such thing existed. Flustered, I described what I was wanting, and asked if they had something similar, and when I asked to see one of the Cinnamon donuts that the impatient lady at the counter did say they had, all she did was point to the baking rack. Well of course I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't get a good look at the selections from where I was standing, so in a fluster, I ordered 2 chocolate glazed donuts instead.

Upon walking out to my car with my purchase, I glanced in the bag and discovered that the donuts in my bag were Not what I had requested which caused me to make a U-eey and go right back inside the store. Of course by this time, there is a line, so I have to wait with my little bag to get back up to the counter and get the correct donuts. Finally I reach the counter and hand the bag back to the Dunkin Donuts employee and try to politely explain that this was Not what I had asked for. I didn't want chocolate cake donuts, I wanted regular donuts with chocolate glaze. Well this lady behind the counter is probably thinking I'm just crazy and pregnant, because apparently what I asked for is what I got, and what I was really wanting were "chocolate frosted donuts." Notice the subtlety here in the naming differences.

I'm feeling ashamed that I am so flustered about donuts, but realize that I am also very pregnant and make no apologies. I scarf down the donuts on my way back to work in hopes that the day will look up from here. And yes, for you astute readers, I recognize the irony of me complaining that I am now the size of a small house in one blog, and then recount my donut-eating antics in the following. Again, I am pregnant. I make no apologies.

Chunky Monkey

You know you're fat when even your maternity shirts start busting at the seams and fitting a little too snugly! I know, I know, I'm pregnant, I'm supposed to gain weight. But yeah, remember all those months when I gleefully announced how I hadn't gained a pound? Well karma, as they say, is a bee-yotch, and now I'm gaining at the rate of 2 pounds per week! So here I sit, tugging at my shirt all day, and switching positions frequently to quell my back pain. Ahh, the joys of motherhood!