Off to the woods in search of fall.

Why is it 75 degrees in late October?

To celebrate our new digital camera (and because I have not been on any wilderness trips since the summer and needed a fix) we decided to go for a hike. We love walking in the woods.
There is something wonderful about being pulled out of your house by an over eager dog. Once he sees his pack being loaded, there is no containing Moses' shoulder popping excitement. We hope you enjoy this picture story of our day outside.
-P

Just loading the car is an adventure. As soon as we turn off of the main road and Moses sees the forest he starts to get excited. The tail wags, the smile forms and he starts to cry out seeming to ask, "are we there yet?"

My LEAST Favorite Things

Some people make a list of their "favorite" things. Well, today I'm making a list of my LEAST favorite "pregnancy things."
1. Clothing - nothing fits right...nothing. I was given pregnancy clothes that I'm already considering wearing (although I'm not showing yet), just because I KNOW the nice wide, elastic waistband in them would be 100 times more comfortable than what I'm wearing now.
2. Hormones - they cause lots of problems like zits and mood swings. My face looks like I'm going through puberty again (I'm 26 for crying out loud!!!) and my mood changes in the blink of an eye...poor Paul. Yes, please pray for him!
3. Water consumption - I'm always drinking water (which is a very good thing), but my bladder's space in my body is being compromised already, so I pee every 15-20 minutes during the day. I cut myself off around 9 or so every night and I still get up at least twice and pee in the middle of the night. The doctors say to "get plenty of rest during your pregnancy" and to "drink plenty of water." Huh?! Which is a priority because in the evenings you've got to pick one or the other.
4. Not showing - cars currently don't stop when I'm standing in a crosswalk. I sometimes have to wait up to 10 minutes sometimes just to get across the street. I'm excited to start showing, those cars will be stopping left and right, I just know it!
5. Did someone speed up the clock? My first trimester is almost over, already! Where did the time go?? Paul asked if I could make this last a year. I told him I'd try.

Ok, ok, now for a list of my favorite things:
1. Anticipating seeing, holding, and meeting our baby, and knowing that (pending anything else the Lord would surprise us with) that dream will become a reality.
2. A new adventure - I've never done this before in my life. Everything about this process is new and interesting. There is a wealth of stuff to think about, research and investigate during your pregnancy and every day is a new adventure.
3. The support you receive from friends and family. There's no other way to do this and it's amazing to feel so encouraged and loved. Y'all are the most generous and gracious people we know and we're so blessed to have each of you in our lives! This baby has no clue what an amazing community he/she's coming into.

Well, I know my list of "favorites" isn't as big as my list of "least favorites" but the "favorites" are big ones. Alright, that's all for today! Have a good one!
-H

The Dog Days of Summer

Well, summer is officially over and here is our overview...

We LOVE our sweet sweet puppy...even though he is huge!

Paul patched and re-finished (which includes sanding, staining and polyurethane-ing) the hard wood floors on our entire first floor. It was our "summer house project" and one that, according to Paul, we will NEVER do ourselves again. You've got to be crazy once, right?

We enjoyed lots of fresh fruit and veggies from our garden and Paul's parents' garden. YUM!!!

And finally, the biggest news of all...

I AM TWO MONTHS PREGNANT!!! We were planning on doing this in about 2 years, but obviously God has other plans. Being pregnant has given us a very real deadline for almost everything: our house, Paul's grad school plans, etc. etc. etc. For right now, we're trying to simply get used to the idea. We are excited about this, but the excitement came after the initial "WHAT THE HECK" feeling. I'm due in late April/early May. I'm sorry that we weren't able to tell everyone personally and that some people are probably finding out about this just as they read this, but (as you can imagine) life has been pretty crazy recently. Thankfully I've been feeling good, just nauseous and tired. I'm done by about 9:00 every night (I already feel so old!), and I don't sleep at night very well thanks to my shrinking bladder. So, there will be lots more posts now that the "big news" is out.

We hope your "dog days of summer" were wonderful as well!

-H

Whose pile is bigger??

One last picture of our Dolly Sodds trip. The pile on the right is of the "human's" food for the trip, the pile on the left is of the dog's. Whose do you think is bigger? It was hard for us to tell.

-H