She's Ready for Her Close Up

As promised in a previous post, here are some fun ultrasound pictures of Girlie at 19 weeks:

Long legs like her daddy and easy flexibility like her mother.

Profile Picture

She wasn't fully cooperating for the previous ultrasound, so we went back the next week and scored some cute feet and profile pictures:

Profile, mouth open

Profile, mouth closed

Feet

Cutsie Feet

Robert Turns Thirty

Robert's thirtieth birthday was in October. I had spent the weekend in the Nashville area and drove home on his birthday. We celebrated that night with a dinner at Chili's, and I gave him his birthday gifts: a Titan's T-shirt and car decal that I picked up while in Nashville and tickets to see Bill Cosby the following weekend. His mom and brother came to visit, and his sister hosted a family gather in honor of his birthday, complete with a yummy chili bar. It was delicious! Our nephews even helped her to decorate his cake. We had a great time eating and visiting with everyone. Then, the following night, we totally enjoyed laughing along with Bill Cosby. It was a fun show.

We're Having a Baby!

Once again, I find myself feeling behind in my blog posting. Most of the people who read this blog probably already know, but just to point out the big pink elephant in the room: we are having a baby! It's a girl! She's due March 7, which makes me 23 weeks pregnant and happy in my second trimester. The nausea involved in trimester 1 was less than ideal. Combine that with the heavy heat of a southeastern summer and apples (big food craving) being out of season, and you had one cranky, hormonal mommy-to-be this summer. Actually, it's probably for the best that I wasn't posting overmuch at that time. Now, however, it is autumn. There are apples, and pumpkins, and squash. It is cool enough to take long walks outside without the concern of fainting from heat exhaustion. It wasn't just me either. Benny, a long time lover of the ongoing walks, refused to be outside for much more than 10 minutes at a time. Apparently, this summer was too hot for even the dogs. Fortunately, fall arrived, and we are happily out walking again.
Just for fun, I'm posting a picture from my 8 weeks ultrasound. I'll post the newer pictures in an upcoming post.

Jak is Five!

Jak's New Nap Spot

I've fallen a bit behind in my bloggety blog posting. Jak, our "littlest one," turned five years old this August. He is both the youngest and smallest of our three "furry kids." He loves mischief and getting away with mischief by being cute. He is also fond of heights and can often be found napping on the highest shelf of any room. He has found a new higher nap spot in the kitchen, since I unpacked his napping boxes. He also loves to play-especially with "curly fries" made by curling pipe cleaners and throwing them across the room for him to fetch. I think he's also a bit of a psychologist: he enjoys avidly watching his human parents swing the fishing pole style toys around in all directions trying to fling them in the most enticing way to encourage Jak to play rather than just watch as we make fools of ourselves. It seems like he is gathering data for his two research projects: how long these humans will fling around a cat toy, and how exactly each cat toy functions. He is also a sweet little kitty who loves to snuggle.

Baby Jak

Jak's Fifth Birthday

Robert's Wedding Vows

The moment you’ve all been waiting for…Robert’s Vows! Here, you can see his fun loving personality shine, and he even provided a little comic relief and earned much deserved and appreciated laughs.

          Amberly, thirteen years ago, almost to the day, our young, blossoming souls touched. I now believe, we were given a vision of our future and also received wonderful, loving memories to help us endure our hard times to come. This moment was always meant to be, but, sadly, we needed to go through the final stages of understanding ourselves, and our purposes in this world, without each other to allow us to truly cherish the blessing we would receive; the blessing we are receiving today. Then, when we desperately needed a true friend, desperately needed the strength, passion, support, and unconditional love our souls had found all those years ago, a modern miracle happened. Our souls, tired of our stubbornness, reached out and found each other in a way I had all but forgotten, AOL instant messenger. Once our souls reconnected, this moment was sealed in fate. I knew without any doubt that we had found our soul mate.

This ring signifies my approbation of my soul mate and with this gesture I promise to be your best friend, to continue striving to communicate honestly and openly, to love you unconditionally, and love no other greater then I love you, to be there when needed, to continue trying to just listen, to support you, and to respect and cherish all aspects of the woman you are; spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

I promise to continue being an individual part of our union and to forever appreciate your contributions to the life we are creating for ourselves. I promise this in front of those whom we hold most dear. For today, tomorrow, and everyday to come.

Amberly's Wedding Vows

We decided to write our own vows for the ceremony, so they would be authentic and a meet the needs of the writer and recipient. I also think they portray each of our personalities and love of each other well. Like many things where our AD/HD enters the scene, these were finished last minute (well, as last minute as our more organized officiant, Tricia, could stand). Instead of polishing them up or editing them in any way, I think I’ll stay with the authenticity and present them to you in the form they were read and are kept in our wedding binder (a beloved wedding gift from Tricia). I am posting in them, like our wedding poems, in the order in which we chose to read them in the ceremony. We concluded each of our vows with the ring exchange, so I am posting those pictures as well. Enjoy!

Robert,

As the moon and the sun compliment each other in their heavenly journeys, so, too, do we thrive when our lives are united.

                        I believe you are in my life for many reasons. You have taught me how to love and accept the person I am. I promise to continue developing my individual self and offer you the same loving acceptance to continue developing yourself. Your have taught me how to play and enjoy life. I promise to keep looking for opportunities to look at life with a light heart and a curious mind. You inspire me to nurture my goals and believe in my dreams, and I offer you that same support.

                        As we have been together, I have discovered the value of openly expressing love. I promise to give affection and attention to you and your needs, while tending to my own. I promise that with you, I will continue to nurture our relationship from which many of our needs are met.

                        The moon dances through the sky in her ever-changing guises, and the sun casts his mirthful light as he steadily marches through the sky celebrating each season. They are forever circling and complimenting each other-sometimes making space for each other and sometimes being intimately close. These cycles demonstrate the natural rhythms of two individuals as they pledge with their hearts to enter into marriage. Like these cycles, this ring symbolizes the promises I make to you now and will keep forever.

Kitchen Unpacked!

            The kitchen was my first priority as far as unpacking. I got the majority of it done the first week in the house. However, I left a couple of boxes lingering until May 15 - at which point it was time to finish the job. One month later, in typical "Amberly" fashion, I'm posting about it. :)

Jak was able to enjoy his box tower for two full months. I think he especially liked the crinkling bags on top. I took some pictures, resolved to find a replacement for Jak's morning nap in the kitchen, and set to unpacking. 

See how cute he is? That is worth procrastinating for!

Could you take this guy's box tower away?

Some of the boxes had plastic storage containers, which I loathe and, quite frankly, did not want to find a place to put them in our new house. Thanks to fabulous wedding gifts and diligent saving of glass jars, we have ample storage containers that I love. So, I recycled all the plastic storage containers, and those boxes were easily and happily unpacked.

Benny appreciates that the kitchen, which he considers to be his room, is fully unpacked. As you can see in the pictures below, the kitchen is where he does all of his major work: watch us cook, oversee cat activity, eat whatever food cats may happen to get to the floor, and nap.

Settling down for a nap

Benny overseeing Albert's activities

House Guests

            We had our first overnight house guest this past weekend. Robert’s younger brother, Michael, stayed in our guest bedroom Saturday and Sunday. He and their mom drove to town for Mother’s Day weekend. They both received their first tour of our new house. It was so nice to have their perspective of how great the house looked and just how exciting it is that we own our first house. It helped to change my eyes from looking at everything that wasn’t unpacked or every project that I had not yet started and remember to enjoy this process of making our house a home and appreciating the excitement of this new adventure in our lives.

            Their visit also prompted a little extra cleaning and unpacking prior to their arrival, as is the benefit of having company. We paid special attention to the guest bedroom. No, it is not exactly as we want it, but there is still time to get it there. It is painted a very, very bright pink. We chose some neutral shades for the bed linens to tone the brightness down a bit. We are grateful to Robert’s sister and her husband to giving us their extra guest bed. Robert only just brought it home the weekend prior to Michael’s stay. So, all-in-all, we are proud of what we have done with the guest bedroom and bathroom. They make for a cozy stay this early in the game, which is impressive.

            While Michael was here, I noticed we had, perhaps, overlooked another house guest. We haven’t actually seen this guest “up close and personal,” but our new tenant has made its stay undeniable. 

Snake Skin

Robert's Wedding Poem

Here is the poem that Robert chose, which was read by his friend, Patrick:

Wondrous Moment

            By Alexander Pushkin

The wondrous moment of our meeting
I well remember you appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.
 
In hopeless ennui surrounding
The worldly bustle, to my ear
For long your tender voice kept sounding,
For long in dreams came features dear.
 
Time passed. Unruly storms confounded
Old dreams, and I from year to year
Forgot how tender you had sounded,
Your heavenly features once so dear.
 
My backwoods days dragged slow and quiet
Dull fence around, dark vault above
Devoid of God and uninspired,
Devoid of tears, of fire, of love.
 
Sleep from my soul began retreating,
And here you once again appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.
 
In ecstasy the heart is beating,
Old joys for it anew revive;
Inspired and God-filled, it is greeting
The fire, and tears, and love alive.

Photo by Kristina Strane

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley

Photo by Rachel Beasley