Finally Friday

It's Friday... where the heck did the week go???  It's funny how even though I'm not "working" anymore, I still look forward to the weekends.  That's when Brian and I usually run all our errands and hang out with friends and each other.  Tonight Wes & Jess are watching Bradley for a little while and Brian and I are actually going out on an official date!  Woo hoo!  I used to think it was so cheesy and unnecessary for married couples to go out on dates.  You see the person all the time, I thought, why are "dates" necessary?  Well buddy, don't knock it till you've tried it- especially once you've got little ones in the mix!  A night to dress up in my nice clothes and be a wife, and not a mom, for a few hours is something to get excited about.  (Of course I'll worry about Bradley the whole time I'm gone and will be elated when I get to pick him up later on, but still!)  The plan for tonight is to go out to the Boardwalk on Pensacola Beach.

Speaking of the little chubster, here are a few of the latest photos of Bradley.

Bradley examines his Pooh Bear

The "Nakey Baby" and all his chub rolls, sitting in his Bumbo seat

Happy after his bath, and enjoying some Tummy Time

The little rascal has started to suck the same two fingers I did as a kid, except here it's his left hand.  I have yet to pay attention if it's the same hand every time.

I plan on being an informed citizen and taping the Presidential Debates tonight, and watching it later, unlike Nerd-Alert Heather whose Friday Night plans include watching the debate with some friends!  (Just kidding- I think it's awesome that they care enough to make their plans revolve around this political event.  More of us should be so sheik.)

Sunday Night Fever

Well you can tell by the way he uses his sleep, he's a woman's man, no time to peep...

I caught the little guy sleeping like this last night, and I exclaimed to Brian, hey, he looks like John Travolta!  So the blog title and picture opportunity were too good to pass up!  It was too risky a move though to try and manipulate his pointer finger up, so use your imaginations.

weekend recap

We had a great weekend.  Me and Double B (that's Brian and Bradley) went over to Wes & Jes's for dinner.  Jes fixed alfredo noodles and cheesy potatoes, and Wes grilled steaks.  It was delish.  Then on Saturday, we returned the favor and had a bunch of people over to our house (I counted 8 adults plus Bradley).  The weather was awesome.  I went to the pool with Bradley, Wes and Jes, while Brian and a few other guys put together our new storage shed.  Sunday we went to church, and the pastor gave an awesome sermon about Moses.  He also quipped a few lines that I loved:

The head can only absorb as much as the rump can take

There's no U-haul pulled behind a hearse

We relaxed the rest of the day, ate leftovers from the cookout for lunch and watched football.

Bradley is getting cuter every day.  He's now started to really laugh and squeal when we tickle him.  In other news, Brian is sick with some kind of bad cold, and now my throat is hurting so I fear the worst is in store for me.  I don't care so much if I get sick, but I'm dreading Bradley catching whatever we have, and not being able to comfort him.  Keep your fingers crossed that all my hand-washing, and Lysoling the house will keep him healthy!  Here are some of the latest pics of the little one:

Bradley and me at the pool

A happy baby, content after enjoying the pool and a mid-afternoon snack

My boys smiling at each other... watching them together makes me love each of them more!

Our little man holding his head up this morning

NF-L if I know

I've got a sick hubby and a sleeping baby, so I'm stealing a few minutes to myself to catch up online.  I'm checking all the NFL scores as Brian and I are in a pool together with people from his work.  This week we picked 8 games correctly, 5 incorrect.  That will be 9 or 10 correct based on the Steelers game still in progress, and tomorrow's Monday night football, and 11 correct possibly with the game postponed from Hurricane Ike.

(A quick shout out to Conley, who's in Houston and survived Ike, albeit without any power still at this point)

Anyways, I was reading a recap of the Titans game today when I stumbled upon what I think must be the funniest quote from football this weekend.  This came from TN Linebacker Keith Bulluck:

I got hit with a piece of box and pretzel wrapper flying around.

Yep.  You heard it here second (after reading it on ESPN).

In the NFL, our teams the Titans and the Packers are 2-0.  In College pigskin both the Kentucky Wildcats and Wisconsin Badgers are 3-0.  We are happy football fans these days.  Bradley even had his Blue on in honor of gameday yesterday!

3 month update

Baby Bradley is now 3 months old officially, as of Sunday, which coincidentally enough, was Grandparents' Day.  A belated shout out to Grandma & Grandpa B, and Grandma Ann!

We took Bradley to the doctor last week to make sure he is still gaining enough weight and to see about the excessive fussing and spitting up our precious little one has been doing.  We got no helpful answers on the crankiness and baby urp that keeps finding its way onto all of my shirts, many of my pants, our sheets and couch among other things (and that is with burp rags catching the majority of the stuff!) but the doc assured us that Bradley is healthy, and basically told Brian and me, this too shall pass.

Bradley is weighing in at 12.4 pounds and is 23 inches in length.  He can still wear some of his 0-3 month clothes, but has graduated to wearing mostly his 3-6 month gear.  This makes me both happy and sad- happy because I have a whole new wardrobe to dress my little doll in, but sad because, like everyone says, they grow up so fast!  He is making fun squealing noises when he gets excited, and loves to have his tummy and feet tickled.  The swing is still my lifesaver in the afternoons, where Bradley takes most of his naps, and he's still sleeping in the bedroom with Brian and me in his bassinet.  I still haven't quite figured out the trick to getting him to sleep all night long without his pacifier falling out, and him waking up and wanting it.  Until I solve that problem, I'm not moving him into his crib in the nursery, lest I be trudging down the hall at 2 and 4 am to replace a dropped paci.

One cool thing Bradley and I are doing together now is Kindermusik.  It's a weekly mommy-and-me music class with moms and babies ages newborn-1.5 years.  Bradley is the youngest in his class, but he seems to enjoy it so far.  We've had 2 classes, and he likes moving to the music, and is especially curious at looking at the other babies.  I like it because it gets me out of the house, introduces music to Bradley in a structured way, and lets me get a workout too, standing, sitting, rocking, and swaying with a 12 1/2 pound baby in my arms!

Guess that's all for now!

Weddings and Funerals

This past weekend was full of ups and downs.  Brian, Bradley, and I made our second trek up to Tennessee for a wedding and a funeral, both for which I was asked to sing.  My childhood friend Dana passed away last Monday night.  She was a seemingly healthy 27 year old girl, who was there one day and gone the next, making it the most heart-wrenching funeral I have ever attended.  I forced myself to hold it together until the end, after I sang Amazing Grace.  What do you say to the mother who tells you she wishes it had been at her daughter's wedding and not her funeral that she had wanted you to sing?  

Dana's passing was a reality check for all of us.  We know we are never promised tomorrow, yet we live like we have an eternity.  As I ran through the words of Amazing Grace in preparation for the service I found a glimmer of hope at the end of the third verse:

Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come

twas grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.

I realized after hearing these words again that God is with us in the best and most difficult times.  He will never leave us, and by leaning on Him we can get through whatever life tosses our way.  It's so hard not to question God when He takes a person in the prime of their life, but I have to go on believing that there is a reason for everything, and know that in the Big Picture, Jesus is in control and will lead us safely home if we will let him.  

That same day after the service, we piled in the car and drove up to western Kentucky for my friend Ellen's wedding.  Ellen and I were potluck roommates our freshman year at UK and have stayed friends ever since.  I was so honored to sing for her special day, and stand next to her as a bridesmaid.  

About an hour outside of Nashville I realized in horror that I had left the cd for the song I was supposed to sing in my car (dad was driving)!  Luckily we were near Clarksville, so dad hopped off the interstate, pulled in front of a Hilton Garden Inn, and we used his laptop to steal internet from the hotel, downloaded the track again, and were back on the road in minutes.  Once in Princeton, Brian bought some blank cds from the Walmart down the road, and I had my soundtrack to sing along with for the rehearsal that night.  I heart technology!

We stayed in this shady motel in Princeton, KY- hop over to TAR for a long overdue shout-out to all things not right.  For a small town though, Paglia's where the rehearsal dinner was held had some of the best pizza and service I have ever had!  Ellen said that place is the only sit-down restauraunt in Princeton, but buddy, if that's the only place I could go to eat I'd be one happy camper!  

Ellen and I at Paglia's Pizza

Saturday was a gorgeous day, sunny and 80 degrees.  The ceremony was beautiful, held in the quaint, country Crider Baptist Church, and Ellen was the picture of the classic bride, complete with "Shelby hair!"  I have never been to a sweeter wedding- the church was surrounded by corn fields, the food was in the fellowship hall, with a tent outside.  Along with the usual nuptual fare they served homemade punch and lemonade, cream candy, country ham and biscuits, and Ellen handmade white chocolate suckers and individually wrapped them for guest favors.  Bless her mom's heart, Betty was up at 5 am making those biscuits and ham, but they sure were tasty.

Freshman Friends:  Stephanie, Ellen, and me

Mr. & Mrs. Jason Mach

Ellen, our gorgeous Bride

One funny story was that some old white haired lady turned around and asked Momma B how old Bradley was.  Mom replied that he was 3 months, and wasn't he just the cutest grandbaby ever?  Grandbaby, the woman exclaimed, I thought he was yours!   My mom got the biggest kick out of that, and it sure made her day!

Congrats and Best Wishes, Ellen and Jason!  I'm done with weddings for a while- it's been a hectic season, but next on our list is the Big One:  Laura & George on March 14th, 2009!  The countdown is on!

Gratuitous baby pictures

Just so you don't forget how absolutely adorable my little munchkin is, here are a few of his latest photo ops!

Able to hold his head up now, here he is in his Bumbo seat

wearing the outfit that Jim's mom gave him

I kid you not, my son posed himself like this in the bathtub.  He's such a stud!  I only put the washrag on him so I could take his picture without it classifying as kiddie porn.

Bradley sitting in his bouncy chair, holding his soft puppy dog.

"I love mommy-" can you blame the kid?!

Hurricane Aftermath

Yes, that's right.  To be festive, we made a pitcher of Hurricane mix that we'd been saving from our trip to New Orleans.  We even got out swizzel sticks and straws!  What better night to make hurricanes than when we were waiting to see what Hurricane Gustav would do?  Amber and Mobes came over (Mobes is a nickname based on his last name, Mobley, but I have a hard time remembering to call him James when Brian's always referring to him as the latter) and we had a girls versus guys game of Taboo.  Guess which team won?  Sorry guys, maybe next time.  Or not.

Monday after the worst of the storm had passed us, me Brian and Bradley headed out to Pensacola for a little shopping.  Curiosity brought us over to P-cola beach to see the waves for ourselves.  This was taken around 4 in the afternoon, and just to give you an idea, the worst weather we had was earlier that morning around 6:30 am.  I can only imagine what the waves must have looked like then.

I will say that despite my morbid fascination with tropical systems, it's a little different watching the storm on tv from land-locked TN as opposed to watching the storm head right towards you on the coast.  It's very ominous.  Lucky for us (and only to my mild, and yes, sick disappointment) Gustav missed us.  And once again, someday I'll figure out how to get the fascinating weather-channel quality video uploaded to my computer.