Mommy Line-Up

Kara Merriam (Feb. 28), Sarah Bailey (Feb. 16), Whitney Evely (Jan. 30)

I love this picture, ha!!! :) Ever since we found out we were expecting, it seems like everyone else around us is too! Ben and I actually found out we were expecting the weekend after Sarah and her husband announced they were pregnant. We hadn't told anyone and so I was so excited to know that there would be someone I could talk to and ask questions! It wasn't until 4 weeks later when we had our first ultrasound that we realized I was actually further than Sarah.

Sarah and her husband, Tim, are friends of ours from church. It has been a lot of fun going through this whole process with her and sharing stories, concerns, questions, etc. You can check out Sarah's blog on the left of this page (Edisto Surprise). She was my inspiration, along with suggestions from friends, for me beginning this blog of my own.

Kara used to attend our church with her parents. Her dad, Bruce, was our minister until he retired a little over a year ago. I have only attended Love Chapel since Ben and I started dating, but I'm pretty sure Kara spent the majority of her life growing up in the church. She lives with her husband, Rob, in Nashville. He is actually stationed in Afghanistan right now - he flies those big chinook helicopters.

So anyways, Kara was in town for Christmas and we had her baby shower at church yesterday afternoon. Bruce, her dad, insisted we get a picture of the three of us while we were all together. I think it was a great idea! So within about 4 weeks of each other, we should be adding 3 new babies to our church... wow!

I'm thinking there is something in the water going around. I wish I could say it was just Erwin, but I'm excited to know that it isn't! There are two more women at the end of our street (like 3-4 houses down) that are expecting in February and March, AND two of my highschool friends are also expecting! OMG!

Christmas Photos

Christmas morning... look what Santa brought us!

(You can't hardly see Malachi because if his black coat, ha)

(L-Peanut, R-Malachi)

Peanut is my brother's dog. He is a pit-bull/boxer mix.

He is very sweet, just extremely energetic...he's only about a year old.

Malachi is my dog. We think he's a lab/chow/mut mix.

He is the world's best dog. He's about 6 yrs old.

Peanut eating his bone we brought him for Christmas. He was so excited, his tail was going like a high-speed windshield wiper the whole time he ate his bone!

Malachi loved his bone! He saved some for later and buried it under the porch, unless Peanut finds it later. :)

Here we are opening the rocking chair/glider. It never even dawned on me until later that the wrapping paper was from Ben's mom. It had been at her house until my parents went and picked it up. I'm such an idiot!

Here I'm making fun of my brother. In all those old home videos we watched at my grandmother's, there was one of Aaron's birthday party when he was like 8-9yrs old. Everytime he got something he liked, he gave this cheesy grin and a crooked thumbs-up. So, I'm showing that I really like the rocking chair we got, HA.

This is my attempt at a Christmas photo, in our beautiful Christmas attire. Ben hates photos, but I think it actually turned out pretty good.

Ben putting his new toy together - the iPod Jeep Stroller.

Ben and my dad putting the rocking chair/glider together.

My mom and I sat on the couch and "supervised". :)

Christmas Day 2008

After climbing in bed around 1am, we (or I guess I should say Ben) got back up around 8:00am Christmas morning. I was up about 3-4 extra times in the night to relieve my bladder, ha.

We started out the morning by seeing what Santa brought in our stockings and exchanging gifts with each other. I got Ben a DVD/VCR recorder and he got me some shoes and a new comforter for our bed. We didn't get each other much since we just bought new bedroom furniture about a month ago. I was excited to wash the comforter and get it on our bed. It's the same as our other one, just this new one is king to fit our new bed. I rushed it into the laundry room to wash it before putting it on the bed and wouldn't you know it won't fit! Everything we purchase seems to "not fit" where we need it to. Unfortunately, taking the comforter up through a window, like our furniture, will not make it "fit" into the washer any better. :(

Next we headed back to Ben's parents' for his Mom's family Christmas. There we exchanged gifts and ate lunch - turkey, potatoes, corn, green beens...you name it. Ben and I received our stroller we registered for. We'll need this one when Aidyn out-grows the infant one our friends gave us. Ben was excited about the stroller because it was what he had picked out. It's kinda like a jogging stroller (becacuse I'm sure he'll get lots of jogging in with Aidyn, ha)... but his favorite part is the handle. Up in the handle is a speaker and iPod dock. Yes, you heard me right. Ben can plug in his iPod and listen to music while pushing Aidyn wherever he needs to go. :)

After finishing up lunch, we headed back to our house so I could finish (actually start) my brother's Christmas gift. I made my family fleece blankets this year and hadn't even started on my brother's yet. We were supposed to be at my parents' by 3pm. I finished the blanket and wrapped it up by 2:30pm, and we headed back to Johnson City.

When we got to mom and dad's first thing was first... I had to give my 4-legged son, Malachi, his Christmas gift (and my 4-legged nephew, Peanut). Apparently Santa brought them both a huge raw-hide bone, and Malachi wanted nothing to do with his. Peanut ate most of his and buried the rest for later. When we went to take Malachi's, because clearly he didn't want it, they almost had a fight. Just like kids! He didn't want it, but he sure didn't want anyone else to have it.
I took them both a different kind of chew bone and they both went to town. If Peanut (my brother's dog) didn't get sick later, I'm surprised. He ate all of his! Malachi ate most of his and buried it for later under the porch (where he buries all of his bones).

At mom and dad's we got our rocking chair/glider we registered for. My brother and I were going to go see the movie "Marley and Me", but we were running and short on time and his girlfriend was on her way over. Maybe another day soon. The glider chair is very comfortable! Ben and my dad put it together yesterday and Ben spent lastnight sitting it in (smiling from ear to ear) while watching football. The chair is for Aidyn's room, but now Ben thinks we may need to get another for downstairs. :)

We finished up our Christmas "week" by going out with our friends John and Lori (and their kids, Ava and Cole) lastnight. We went to eat dinner at Outback and had a great time. Ben's family had gotten them an Outback gift card, and they had gotten us an Outback giftcard. Ha! Go figure! Silly thing is no one knew until we got there and were eating and decided to go ahead and exchange gifts, ha. It was great and worked out perfectly I guess. :) A nice meal to end a hectic week, yet fun, week!

Christmas Eve 2008

Ben and I had a wonderful Christmas this year with both our families and lots of friends! We got lots of great things that we'll need for Aidyn, and I was very excited!

We are very lucky to have friends that have a little boy, Cole, that just turned a year old on Dec. 24 (I think). They gave us their infant car seat and 3 car docks. This will allow us to keep a seat dock in both mine and Ben's car all the time and leave an extra for the grandparents to fight over. :) The car seat will hold Aidyn until he's about 20-25lbs. They also gave us the stroller "frame" that the car seat fits into it. We are so lucky!

We started our Christmas on Monday, Dec. 22nd with Ben's family. Due to basketball on Tuesday and trying to make it a million places in two days starting Wednesday, we met with them early. Everyone pitched in and bought Ben's dad a leather Harley Davidson jacket to wear while he rides his Harley. Wish I had a picture to add on here. Ben got his mom a figurine from Disney World of the 7 Dwarfs crossing a log on their way to work. They got us a video camera that I know will come in very handy in just a few short weeks! We love it!

We started out on Christmas Eve going to our friend Karen's (in Erwin). Then we headed to Ben's parents' house (in Erwin) for his Dad's family Christmas. We ate turkey, potatoes, corn, green beens, stuffing, rolls, and anything else you can possibly imagine. Oh yeah, punch - Ben's favorite! Instead of exchanging gifts, everyone brings a $10 gift to play a game. We had to leave before they started the game, so we ended up bringing our gifts back home. We had taken a board game and two card games, so we were glad to add those to our game collection.

Next, we headed to my grandparents' house (in Gray) for my mom's family Christmas.

At my grandmother's we had soup and lots of finger foods... which we ate none of. My Nana acted like we were hurting her feelings, but I tried explaining we had just eaten a buffet like 2 hrs earlier. She had old home videos of the family playing throughout the evening. We all sat around watching ourselves and cracking up. Hair styles have sure come a long way since the late 80s and early 90s! And let's not forget the large circular-framed glasses that went along with the hair! HA! Instead of exchanging gifts, we played the $10 gift game where you can open or steal from someone else. We had 21 people and it took FOREVER. I was the first person to steal (#8) and once everyone caught on to how to play, it was lots of fun. :) Ben and I ended up with a tin of sugar cookies and the movie HOOT. Ben traded his board game that he really wanted for the sugar cookies... my 8 yr old cousin was so sad about cookies, ha, so he traded with her. Wasn't that sweet??

We finally made it back to my parents' house (in Johnson City) to get our car and then pulled in our driveway by 12:00am. I was exhausted! We forgot we had to deliver some Christmas gifts to a family we had bought for, and Ben still had to go get my gifts he had been hiding up at his parents' house. We finally climed into bed around 1:00am.

We have a name...

Well, after much waiting and hasseling, Ben finally decided on a middle name for Aidyn. He decided to go with Garland. Garland is Ben's middle name. It is also Ben's father and grandfather's first name. So, its official I guess, Aidyn Garland Evely.

I have also added a photo of Aidyn's crib all ready with the bedding. The quilt that's folded over the back wouldn't fit right (it's too wide and too short). So for now, I have a fleece blanket that matches in the bed.

This is all that's ready for now. I've spent the day trying to put Aidyn's clothes away and clean our dining room (and do all of Ben's laundry from Disney). The dining room is stacked full of gifts and things from our previous showers that haven't been put away because the nursery wasn't ready. It still isn't quite ready, but we're getting closer. So this picture was "strategically" taken so that you can't see the other junk and mess in the room. :)

Making progress...(kinda)

Well, we're getting closer to having Aidyn's room ready. Ben's mom came over after church today and helped me put up the sports border that matches the bedding. Ben and I bought one roll a few weeks ago just to see if we liked it or not. Once Leeann (Ben's mom) and I got started today, I realized we didn't ever go back and buy a second roll. We went ahead and got to work hoping we would have enough. Wouldn't you know that we did... except for the LAST 7 INCHES or so!!! I could've died. Go figure.

So below you'll see the room coming along, and I've also added a picture of the unfinished part. The border cost $21 for a 30ft roll, and wouldn't you know we only need like half a foot. Ugh!

This is the front corner before we got started.

This is the same corner, in the end when we finished.

And here is the lovely, unfinished corner behind the door.

If we knew that the door would always be open, I may be able to live with it (may being the key word). But anyone who just slightly knows me, knows that isn't possible. :) So I guess we'll be making another trip to Babys-R-Us soon. All of the furniture is still in the middle of the room. Ben get's home from Florida late tonight, actually like 4am Monday morning, and hopefully we will get everything in it's place sometime tomorrow.

My mom and I went and bought the bedding and crib mattress Friday night with gift cards and cash we have received at showers. So, as soon as I can get a decent picture with everything in place, I'll post a picture for everyone to see.

Busy, busy, busy...

Well, this has been a very busy week to say the least. I think it's funny how everyone always wishes everyone else a "happy, restful, relaxing Christmas" and yet it seems to be the busiest time of the entire year!

Sunday evening we had our Youth Christmas Party at our house. The kids came over and everyone brought a $10 gift. We do a gift swap, like the White Elephant game, where you can open a gift when it's your turn or steal from someone else. Even if we don't want someone else's gift, it's always fun to steal anyways, ha. Makes for a more interesting night. We always have people in the end that end up trading gifts anyways.

Monday we had another baby shower (#4) at Ben's school. The ladies in the math department that he teaches with threw us a shower. It was very sweet and we got lots of good things including more diapers and clothes. It always cracks me up at the school showers to see some of the older coaches come, to support Ben I guess, ha... because showers are usually just women. I think they really come for the cake and mints. :)

Tuesday I got to finally meet my interim, Lisa Messimer, that will be teaching my students for the last half of the year. She taught 3rd grade in Kingsport for 6 years before staying home with her son. I think she's going to be great and I'm alot more relaxed and relieved knowing how much experience she has.

Ben and I also had our 3rd baby class Tuesday evening. It was supposed to be about C-sections and infant CPR, but the CPR people didn't show up. We didn't really mind since that allowed us to be finished around 8pm. After leaving the class Ben had to run by the bank, come home and finish packing, and be up at the high school by 9:30pm. For those of you that don't know, he is the freshman basketball coach at their high school.

Yes, I know... just incase you haven't caught on yet - Ben is the youth minister at our church, teaches high school algebra, is the freshman basketball coach, helps with varsity football, is currently getting his Education Leadership Specialist (EDs) degree, AND is expecting his first child within the next 6 weeks. Can we say busy?!?!

But anyways - because he coaches basketball he got to go with the varisty team to Disney World this week. He lives a rough life, ha. So, Tuesday evening I dropped him off at the high school at 9:00pm to start helping load luggage for the players. He will be back early Monday morning (like around 4-5am).

Wednesday I had my 34 week OB appointment. Much to my dismay, Aidyn is STILL BREECH! Dr. Hinton instisted that he still has plenty of time to turn. My concern is whether or not he has the room to turn. He gave me an exercise to try every night for 10-15 minutes that is supposed to help Aidyn turn, if he's going to. I am waiting until the first of January to try this though because evidently if the baby does turn, it can also cause some moms to go into labor. Why wait until January? Ben will be back Monday from Disney and then leaves again on Saturday to take our youth to a conference in Gatlinburg, TN - about 2 hrs from our house. He will be back December 29th, and so I may start the exercises then.

Wednesday evening the youth came over and because Ben wasn't there, we just played games. They love catch phrase, so we played two rounds of that and then they all headed home about 8:45pm.

Thursday was our last full day at school. I also had the priveledge of introducing Lisa, my interim, to our class. Many of them were just as excited as she was. I know they're going to have a great spring semester.

We also had our work Christmas Party at our principal's house. I had to run to the store after school and got home at 4:30. We had to be at the party by 5:30. She actually just built a house up on Buffalo Valley Golf Course, and it's beautiful! Most of the party took place in "Man Land"... her husband's part of the house in the basement. They have an air hockey table, pool table, poker table, golf green (as the carpet) with several holes to put to, and a golf simulator. It was awesome! Each grade level had to sing karaoke to earn our gift from Carol - a polo shirt with our school name and mascot embroidered on it. I love mine!

Friday was my last day at school for the year. It was a half day with noon dismissal and our Christmas Party. I bought fabric for the students to make themselves a scarf, pencils with their name on it, and we had a breakfast brunch while watching Jim Carry's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

After the students left, I hung around to clean up, take down our class tree, straighten, leave last minute notes for my interim, and was finally able to leave around 5:00pm. I was worried about it being a sad day, but luckily none of my students got real sad (like the day I told them I wouldn't be back after Christmas), and so it made the day much easier. Before I left I turned in my keys so that Lisa will be able to get into my room if she needs to over break.

My dad had his chemo port taken out Friday afternoon also. The procedure got postponed from 10am until like 3pm, so instead of fasting for a few hours, he wasn't able to eat ALL DAY. Luckily, everything went well and after I left school I went through Chic-fil-a (mmm!) and got us all dinner. We ate and my mom and I went out to get some Christmas shopping done. I actually bought my first gift, ha. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

On our way home we went by Outback and got some cheesecake for dessert, ha, and went back to my parents house where they spent the next hour or so watching Aidyn twist and turn in my stomach. What a fun Friday night! Ha

Saturday (today) I think may actually be a little more relaxing. I was able to sleep in this morning, which was nice after getting up 4 times lastnight to empty my bladder. My mom came over to finish painting Aidyn's room so that we can get the sports border put up. While she did this, I washed all of the baby clothes and blankets we have received so far. We have TONS of newborn and 0-6 month outfits and clothes. I think he is going to be set for a while and we are having one last shower with friends and family (Ben's and mine) on January 3rd.

I'm planning on doing nothing today, ha, except maybe running to BabysRus and doing a little shopping for Ben while he's still out of town. We have gotten several gift cards and so I want to go ahead and get the crib mattress so that we can start getting Aidyn's room ready.

--- Now that school is out, I hope things will slow down a bit. (Wishful thinking, I know). Let's hope that Aidyn decides to turn, but gradually. I just talked to a friend of mine who's daughter was transverse (sideways) up until the last minute. When Lacy finally turned, Sarah said she practically fell to her knees because of the feeling and how it took her breath away! I can't imagine Aidyn doing a complete turn at once. I hope to get some pictures up soon of the nursery!

Baby Shower #3

Today I had a very special baby shower. My 3rd and 4th graders got together (with their parents ofcourse) and threw me a baby shower. It was very sweet. The plans have been in the making for a couple weeks now, and ofcourse I've had to act like I had no idea what was going on.

It wouldn't have been so bad had they not all been passing around a card (in the middle of class!) yesterday trying to get everyone to sign it, ha. I finally had to threaten them by telling one student, "If you don't put whatever you're playing with away, I'm going to have to take it and throw it in the trash." Luckily, that worked. We were reviewing for a science test and here they were all trying to be sneaky. I hated to be mean, ha.

But anyhow, it was all with good intentions. We ended up having cookie cake, chips and cheetos, ice cream, and juice drinks. They had a blast and even sang "Happy Baby Day" to me. Ha... just take "Happy Birthday Day" and change the second word. They thought they were halarious and got a real kick out of themselves. :)

They all sent in money to get me a gift and were able to get me two giftcards to Baby-R-Us. It was a very nice time, and I really appreciate all the work and effort the parents put into it.

My 4th Grade Homeroom:

My 3rd Graders for Reading/Grammar:

Christmas Tree 08

I finally was able to get Ben to help decorate our tree. Last year we had the "Griswald" tree. It was HUGE! We asked for a 7ft tree and somehow ended up with a tree over 9ft tall. Let's just say we had to cut like 2ft off to get it to stand up in our living room!

This year we tried to go a little more "modest" I guess you could say, ha. Ben's mom crocheted the star that's on top and stuck some lights in it. It's pretty. I put the same ornaments on our tree as last year, but for some reason it seems bare this year. I don't know why... but it looks pretty good. :)

Prenatal Class #2

Tonight was the breastfeeding class at Johnson City Medical Center. Ben didn't go because someone had told him it was "awkward and uncomfortable" for guys. My mom went instead.

The class was taught by Ann Perry, the lactation consultant for Specialty and JCMC. She was really nice and helpful. The class started with a powerpoint that she was going to use. It ended up shutting down and the computer turned off. So, we ended up "practicing" holding babydoll's in different positions to nurse. The remainder of the time she talked about different issues, concerns, and took questions. It wasn't awkward at all.

At the end as a few people were leaving, her powerpoint came back up. We sat there looking at the slides, just to be sure we didn't miss anything, and I've decided that must have been the "awkward" part. The powerpoint was full of half naked women trying to breastfeed. Ha, I'm sure Ben would not have been interested in seeing that. :)

Overall the class was pretty good and helpful; I would definately recommend it to women interested in breastfeeding. Next week we go back to Specialty for more birthing/infant care classes.

Baby Shower #2

We had our 2nd shower today after church. The girls in my Sunday School class (Christy, Sarah, and Leslee) helped get the shower together. Other women in the church helped decorate and prepare food too. We had cake (yum!), sandwiches, and lots of fruit. Oh yeah, and punch... Ben's favorite! I brought him home almost a gallon of left over punch. He's already drank a huge glass of it. :)

Center of attention, again...

Getting started...

Diapers!!!


This basket had a cute MVP basketball onesie inside...

Here are the bottom of the onesie feet...

...Dad's MVP

I had a great time and we got a lot of wonderful things. In 3 weeks we will be having a baby shower for Kara Merriam, and then another 2 weeks after that for Sarah Bailey! (Must be something in the water at Love Chapel)

Pictures of the Clampetts hard at work...

After carrying the dresser out the front door and around the house (because our Christmas tree is blocking the side door, ha), they covered it with blankets and the original box.

Moving the dresser (upside down w/blankets in the box) onto the lift:

The box was so heavy (and unsturdy) that my brother stood on the edge of the "fork lift" pieces and rode the lift up. He was not excited about this. So they wrapped a rope around him and my mom held on to it so he wouldn't lean backwards. Now, had the thing tipped forward with him falling back, not sure what we would've done... all the while Ben was on the roof waiting to help and I was "supervising" with the camera!

We had to have pictures!

My brother (left) and Ben (right) could not lift the dresser because of the sloped roof enough to get it to move toward the house. Luckily, they wrapped the rope around and handed it to my dad (in the window). He pulled the rope while the other two tried lifting and pushing toward the house.

Coming through our bedroom window (almost there):

The dresser is finally in it's place and everyone was exhausted!

The Clampetts are moving in!

I told my mom today that our neighbors must get really excited when they see moving trucks or furniture delivery guys show up at our house. I know they must think, "Great! We are going to be entertained sometime in the next week or two!"
Ben says we probably look like the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies.

In Sept. 07 when we moved in, most of our furniture for the upstairs had to go up a ladder and through our upstairs windows. When we bought our king size mattress and box springs in October, we assumed it would too. WRONG! Neither would go up the stairs and the mattress wouldn't even go through a window. Much to our parents' dismay, we had to take out the stair spindels that were original to the house. It was built in like 1902-1904; I can't remember exactly.

We never replaced them because we knew we would need to get our new bedroom suite up the stairs also. Well, woudln't you know that even with an open stairwell, our new dresser still wouldn't go up and it was definately too big to just slide up a ladder.

We ended up having to borrow a manual "lift" from where my mom works. My dad literally had to hand crank it with this handle, ha. It was pretty scary looking. Here it is in the back of my dad's old pick-up truck:

I am putting pictures, and hopefully a video, if I can get it to work in a second posting of the eventful morning we had today. But luckily, in the end, we got our dresser in our bedroom. We have decided that we literally cannot ever move because EVERYTHING will either have to be taken out the upstairs windows, or sold with the house.

Baby Shower #1

My wonderful friends at school (where I teach) threw me my first baby shower yesterday afternoon. We were in the school library, which you may be able to tell from some of the pictures. It was "Turkey Trot" day, so you will see lots of us in our Turkey Trot shirts. I started to take a different shirt to change into so I would be "cute" in the pictures, ha, but changed my mind. Any time I get permission to wear a tshirt to work, I'm taking advantage - especially these days when hardly anything else fits. :) The Turkey Trot is a 5k road race in Johnson City on Thanksgiving Morning. Our school always participates, and I always drag Ben along with me. This year he actually ran the race in 24 minutes. I walked it in an hour. Ha.

The shower was so much fun! The table decorations were a pack of baby wipes with diapers tied on top with blue ribbon that said "It's a boy!". Very cute. They had red velvet cake (my fav!), and I got lots of awesome gifts! Some of my friends that I worked with at Mountain View also came. It was great to see them again! Baby Aidyn is very lucky to have a mom that works with so many loving and wonderful people!!!

Here I am getting ready to get started. I HATE being the center of attention... except in my classroom, ha.

Below is the pack and play some of my friends bought me. I was so shocked and excited! Can you tell by my reaction?

Here are some of my lovely friends from school that bought the pack and play and helped put the shower together. I am a little weird about people touching my stomach all the time. They thought it would be funny to all reach down like they were going to...

I wish I had a picture of all the awesome things we got. It was a wonderful shower and I am so thankful for everything and everyone that I work with.

Bedroom Furniture...finally!

We have a bed!!!!

Ben and I sold all of our furniture at our yard sale during Apple Festival (Oct 3-4). We sold our bed, dresser, and night stands in order to have extra money to put towards a new bedroom suite. We had a queen set, but I had decided we needed a king. Ha.

Ben and I both need our own space when we sleep, not to mention room for all of our extra pillows. As I sit here typing, I am looking and counting 6 "regular" sized pillows and my body pillow. So in all, we have the 2 of us plus 7 pillows in the bed at night. Ha. It's no wonder we felt like we'd ran out of room in our old bed. Haha.

Since then we have been looking everywhere for furniture and can't find any we like or can both agree on. We finally decided to drive up to Blowing Rock, NC (to the Broyhill Furniture store) and look there. Luckily, we found some we liked over Thanksgiving break:

We ordered everything except for the tall armoire in the corner. My dad met the delivery guys at the house today. We were soooooooooo excited!!! We've had our king mattress and box springs on the floor and our clothes (from the previous dresser) in plastic tubs.

Well, wouldn't you know that the dresser is too big to go up the stairs! That seems to be the story of our lives! So we have a bed and nightstands... and a dresser in our living room. Looks like we'll be taking it up and through a window like everything else that's too big for the stairs.

Our bedroom:
We bought curtains over a year ago, but couldn't ever find any curtain rods we like. Go figure. So, nevermind the $3 walmart sheet hanging behind the bed. Ha. It definately matches the comforter, but that's all it has going for it. :)

Prenatal Class #1

Well, we survived our first prenatal (birth, parenting, etc.) class this week. I started not to attend any classes since I've been reading a lot and have heard from people how they can be stupid and a waste of time. But you know me, I was afraid I might miss something I need to know. Like, how soon can I get an epidural, and how long does it last? Ha.

Aidyn will be born at the Johnson City Medical Center. The only class they offer is called a "Marathon Class" and it's on Saturdays from 9-4:30pm. Ben and I weren't either one excited about that. So I called the Specialty Hospital. They offer a 4wk class (every Tuesday evening during the month) from 7-9pm. That didn't excite us either. ALL DAY Saturday or LATE AT NIGHT for 4 Tuesdays. ???

We decided to go with the Specialty Hospital - 4 nights for 2 hours. So, Tuesday night Ben, my mom, and I met at the Specialty Hospital. My mom went because Ben had a basketball game and wasn't going to be able to stay the entire time.

They showed like a 30 min video, had a bathroom break, asked for questions regarding the video, and went through check in procedures at Specialty. We were done by 8pm. The worst part was when they showed the placenta being delivered... ugh! The most informative part, I thought, was the check in and nursery procedures. (Too bad we'll be at JCMC). After learning so much about the "other" hospital, where we won't be, Ben and I decided we maybe should "drop-out", ha, and attend a marathon class at JCMC.

I called JCMC and the only marathon class available is in 2 days. Ben has his E.D.s class Saturday from 8-3pm and then we have a wedding that afternoon. Oh well, so much for that idea. Looks like we'll be attending the classes at Specialty and I'm planning on calling JCMC to set up an appointment to meet with someone and just take a tour of the birthing suites on our own. That may work on better anyways.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a....

Elbow? Knee? Foot? Maybe it's his butt!

As the days go by and Aidyn continues growing in his small quarters that he's been given, we are beginning to be able to notice body parts bulging out to one side or the other. We haven't been able to identify what they are yet, but he clearly is running out of room. Some times I'll be able to feel a rounded bony "part" trying to push out to one side or another, so we've been playing a lot of "Name that Body Part" here lately.

Instead of just feeling him now, we can see, and Ben get's a good laugh out of that. For some reason he finds it halarious to watch Aidyn twist and turn. Although he's actually just seeing one bulge move from the right side to the left. :) I don't always find it as funny as he does.

Friends have told me that eventually I may be able to see an "imprint" on my belly of what I'm actually feeling, a foot or hand. So when he decides to practice his gymnastics, Ben and I will watch, but nothing definite yet. I've been told I have to take a picture when that day comes... we'll see.

Baby Aidyn's Room

Here is the best picture of me I could get for now. Hope it's ok. This was taken this afternoon... 31 weeks pregnant.

My mom very graciously agreed to paint Aidyn's room for us on Saturday. My dad and Ben were downstairs working on other "projects" and I wanted to help really bad. She let me help tape off the floor boards and window trim, and then I retreated downstairs while she began painting.

In the pictures you'll see the original room color, a light blue, that matched our guest bedding. We've decided to do the bottom half a navy color and the top a khaki to match the sports-themed bedding we chose for the crib. We'll need to do one more coat of the navy and then hopefully just one coat of the khaki on top. We had to move the bed and dresser to the center of the room to paint, but you can kinda see it in these pictures.

We are planning on using the second color on the right that you see above the navy.

As we get more accomplished in Aidyn's room, I'll be sure to take more pictures. Only 9 weeks left (if we're lucky) to get everything ready!

Promised Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our "work day" accomplishments.

My chalkboard in the kitchen that I bought from Tuesday Morning. I love it! Although my turkey looks a little stupid...oh well.

My coat rack and message board by the back door.

Evely Work Day

Today was a very productive day at the Evely household. Ben gave his guys (basketball) the day off, and my parents came over for a "work day". The original plan was for my mom and I to plant flower bulbs and my dad was going to help Ben get some things done around the house that we still haven't finished. Well, since it was like 20 degrees and snow still in my yard, we didn't quite make it to planting bulbs. I have a variety of almost 200 bulbs, if not more, to get planted before it's too late. It may be too late. :(
We did, however, get A LOT done! We were able to fix a leaking toilet, put winter weather stripping around all of our doors (no more heat escaping), screw in the dishwasher so it doesn't lean out of the cabinet when opened, hang my chalkboard in the kitchen, hang a coat rack in the laundry room as you come in the back door, and what I call a "message board" also by the back door. AND, my mom was able to get the first coat of paint done in the baby's room.
Evidently several people have asked that I put a pregnant picture or two on here, so we were going to today before my mom left. Unfortunately, we both fell asleep on the couch while my dad watched football. (Ben had left for a basketball game). I'll try to get some pictures posted soon.

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar

Well, I passed my 1-hour glucose screening test. (Much to my surprise). I had to drink that wonderful "fruit punch" flavored junk in just 5 minutes and then wait an hour without anything to eat or drink. I thought I was going to die, ha. Even though the papers said "DO NOT eat or drink anything until your appointment with the doctor", I had to do something to get the nasty taste out of my mouth. I followed the wonderful drink with 2 whole goldfish and a sip of water. Didn't figure that could do much harm - luckily it didn't.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love chocolate. I had been trying to watch my sugar intake for the several days before my test, so after leaving the doctor's office I felt like celebrating. I drove through Pal's and got a yummy, delicious, vanilla milkshake. And boy was it good! Unfortunately, Ben didn't know and so that evening when he asked if I wanted to get an ice cream, I couldn't turn him down. So I had a Reese Cup blast from Sonic. Mmmm!!!!

So I may have passed the glucose test, but now our little man was probably in a diabetic coma of his own. Within about 8 hours "we" had consumed 8 oz of pure fruit punch flavored sugar, a Pal's milkshake, and a Sonic blast.

A "normal" sugar level is 70-140. My count was 131, which I consider more on the high end. Luckily, the doctor doesn't. But, I am still trying to keep an eye on my sugar intake for now.

My sympathies go out to anyone that ever has to drink that stuff... especially more than 8 oz. My suggestion: "chug" it as fast as you can so that you don't taste it. I got mine down in 2 gulps.

Where are we now?

We are quickly approaching our exciting day - January 30, 2009!

I have just begun my 3rd trimester (29 weeks pregnant) with 11 weeks to go! It seems insane that the time has flown by so quickly. Although, I guess when you don't find out until you're 4 months along, the time does go by fast.

I am constantly feeling our little man moving about within me preparing himself for this big, strange world he will soon be apart of. I haven't been able to distinguish between hands, feet, elbow, etc. as many people tell me I will be, but it is nonetheless a neat experience to just sit and watch my stomach push out and move and to feel him become more and more active.

A "Quick" Catch-Up on our Family

Ben and I got married on Saturday, March 10, 2007. We had discussed starting a family and both decided there were some other things we would like to get accomplished first, such as school. So Ben began working on his master's degree and I worked on getting my first and second years of teaching under my belt.

Last spring, Ben completed his master's and I had successfully survived two years of teaching. He decided to begin his educational leadership specialist's degree and I applied to begin working on my master's degree this past August.

(During all this time, we had been using one of the "most effective" types of birth control - the deprovera shot, which is supposed to be 99.9% effective.) We still weren't quite ready for any children. We had actually just pawned our dog, Macie, off on Ben's parents. :)

In June 08, we were scheduled to take our youth group on a trip to North Myrtle Beach. I had been feeling a little sick, and so Ben suggested I go to the doctor before leaving for our trip. The doctor gave me a prescription for stomach ulcers and sent me on my way. My mother, however, new differently. After talking with her I reluctantly (and secretly) stopped to get a home pregnancy test. Well, mother's do know all. The test read positive in like 2 seconds! Ben was out of town and I was freaking out.

I contacted the doctor and the rest is history. A month later we went for our first ultrasound (August 6, 2008) expecting to see a "blob". Our friends at church, Tim and Sarah, had showed us their 8 week ultrasound and we knew we wouldn't be seeing much. To our surprise, and the doctor's, we saw A LOT more! Evidently, I was almost 16 weeks (4 months) pregnant!

Here is what we saw:

His head is in the top left of the screen looking away from us. You should be able to see his right arm and right hand resting on his knee.

Welcome to our family blog!

Welcome to the Evely family blog!

Some friends of ours have been keeping a blog to keep their friends and family members updated on their new pregnancy. I think it is a WONDERFUL idea; I have been thinking about doing the same. It wasn't until some friends of mine were in town from Nashville that I decided to step up and try this whole "blog" thing. They were showing me a blog of their friends that allowed them to keep up to speed on what has been going on. So, here is my attempt to keep everyone posted on our new family addition and all that excitement yet to come! Hope you enjoy!