Catching Up

Let’s see… lots to catch up on! 

I’ll start with a baby update.  We’re now almost halfway there!  The second trimester is treating me MUCH better than the first.  Being very sick 24/7 was way rougher than I expected, so I’m glad to have that behind me!  I’m now in maternity clothes pretty much full time.  Speaking of which... where have maternity clothes been all my life?!?!  Elastic waistbands, longer tops, longer sleeves... it's everything I've ever wanted in clothes!  Several friends/family gave me plenty of casual maternity hand-me-downs, which I’m very grateful for!  Building a new work wardrobe has not come cheap, though, but giving speeches wearing a suit where the skirt was only half-zipped just couldn't cut it forever!

Here’s an 18 weeks belly picture:

[P.S. Posing in pictures alone is among my least favorite things in the world.  I apologize for looking so awkward in these... I'm embarrassed to do this at all but I know I'll like having it to look back on.]

In other news, guess who’s back?!?

That’s right—it’s Summer Kolby!  What a relaxed guy.  I have a lot of jealousy about Kolby getting a summer break, but I am working on it!  Then something like this happens:

K: Hey, I didn't fix you a lunch today because I figured you’d go out to eat.

E: Why would I go out?

K: Because it’s Friday.

E: Honey, it’s Thursday.

Oh what I wouldn't give to be off a schedule and lose track of what day of the week it is!  But he deserves the break for sure.

 

 

I know y’all are all on the edge of your seats waiting for an update about our garden.  No?  Well here’s a picture of some of our loot anyway:

We often eat sliced tomato with sea salt as a snack, Kolby puts jalapeno on EVERYTHING, we have roasted and stuffed poblanos for dinner about once a week (yum!), and a few weekends ago I made my first batch of homemade salsa and it was delicious!  We've really enjoyed having the garden.  And public service announcement to anyone planning a garden soon—beware of tomatillos.  Everyone warned us that our cantaloupe plant will take over our garden, but it’s been our tomatillo plant that has gone bizerk and will likely make its way to your front porch at any moment.  Plus the stupid thing is too busy taking over the world to produce a single mature tomatillo.  So my batch of homemade salsa verde remains only a dream.

 

Let’s see what else… oh, we have a new roommate!  It’s Russell :).  You may recall that we have a detached garage in the backyard that the previous owners finished out and turned into a game room.  We had a friend from church live out there for the majority of last school year, and then another friend from church lived there for a few months this winter.  I was just about to turn it back into a nice guest house when Russell decided to take us up on our offer for a free roof over his head after graduation.  He started a job that keeps him pretty busy, but it is so nice having him so (very) close.  I don’t know how long he’ll stay, but we’re enjoying it while we can.

I don’t have any pictures to share yet, but we have a small remodel going on in our house right now.  We’re reconstructing the wall between our living room and kitchen to open up the space.  It looks amazing so far (thanks to the fact that we are doing none of the work ourselves). We considered the project for years but finally went for it.  I’m using it as an excuse to redo some decor in our living room as well, so stay tuned for some pictures of the finished product in a few weeks!

Oh, another great thing… Kolby preaches at our church once in a blue moon when our pastor is out of town or just needs a pinch-hitter for a Sunday.  It’s a great honor (pastors don’t give their pulpits up for just anyone!), and Kolby is an incredibly talented teacher—including the teaching of scripture.  I’m so amazed at his ability to write such incredible sermons, and it’s just so great to see him deliver them and hear so many people talk about how it touched them.  Anyway, he preached on Father’s Day this year.  I don’t really have the words to share what a wonderful and unique experience that was.  I think I’ll try to find a way to put the text to his sermons on the blog somewhere because I promise it’s worth your time to read them!  He preaches again toward the end of the month.

Well, that’s about it around here!

 

 

We find out whether we’re having a boy or a girl VERY soon… so stay tuned for that announcement!  To go ahead and answer the questions I get asked a lot these days—no, I don’t have a feeling as to what it is…. and no, we don’t have a preference!  A boy seems natural since both of our families started with boys first, but my heart melts at the thought of Kolby with a girl.  Can you even imagine thatfather-of-the-bride toast?!?  Oh dear.  So we’re thrilled either way!  As far as names, we have about three of each that we both absolutely love.  Some are ones that we've loved for years, and others are new.  We’re hoping one will jump out to us when we find out the gender and see our little one on the sonogram screen (which I absolutely can’t wait for!!!).  If not, our fallback plan is to have six children so we get to use all of the names :).  Sounds like a great plan to me!