A Busy Month of May

Here is a recap of the more exciting things we did this month.

A VERY busy weekend

My parents came to visit for part of the weekend. My brother graduated on May 2^nd so they wanted to see him walk. After my doctors appointment/sonogram we net up with my parents for lunch at Atlanta Bread Company. I took the day off for the appointment and to visit so the whole family was able to enjoy our time together. After lunch we chatted at my parent’s hotel room for a little while and then went home to nap. Josh is loving this pregnant stuff because it means we take naps at least once a week if not twice. Later Josh went off to finish a job and I went with my parents to see my brother walk. It was so weird seeing my brother graduate. It is still hard to think of my little brother, who tagged along with me and my friends for so many years, growing up and being ready for a career. The next day, after Josh and I did a little grocery shopping we met up for lunch again. We went to my brother’s favorite, TGI-Fridays. This visit was so relaxed. Most of the time when we go home it seems like we never have enough time to spend with anyone. Between seeing both of our parents and our friends we are worn out by the time we head back to Gainesville. After lunch we said our good-byes.

Our day was no where close to being done though. We got home got on our swim suits and went to Jen and Joel’s Cinco De Mayo party. Ashley and Matt were in town. They had stayed with us earlier in the week but it was nice to see them again. We didn’t really get to do much other than swim but it was nice hanging out with everyone for a bit at the pool. We left early because Josh’s family was coming into town.

We had a handful of visitors the first weekend in May. Dad Williams had a Barber Shop chorus competition in Jacksonville Friday and Saturday, so the family decided to spend the rest of the weekend with us. We went out to eat at a favorite, Joe’s Place. They have the best salad bar and sandwiches. After a yummy dinner we came home to settle in and watch a movie and eat ice dream. It was a very busy but fun day.

Sunday was a big picnic after church. After service, the congregation went out to the church lawn for a pot lunch picnic lunch. The seating wasn’t the best, since we didn’t bring something to sit on but we still had fun. After the picnic we went home so I could get ready for the Pampered Chef party.

I hosted a Pampered Chef with Ashley as our consultant. Josh and I were able to stock up on some great needed and maybe not so needed kitchen supplies. Ashley had us make YUMMY tiramisu brownies.

Mark moved out the second week in May. We have started converting it into baby’s room, since we will be in this house until December. It has been weird and fun to start. Now our family will grow by one more and this time it isn’t a furry body. My dad said after we ended up with Chang that he wanted the next family member of ours to be pink with soft skin. Looks like he got his wish.

Josh and I went to Janeen’s wedding. She and her family go to church with us. The wedding was gorgeous. She had a garden theme with lots of flowers and real trees and bushes.. Janeen was beautiful and looked so happy. We had a blast at the reception. We sat with Vernine, Mike, Mekayla, and the Crowe family. What great company, we laughed almost the whole time. We, luckily for my tummy, were one of the first tables to hit the food. We had a great waitress. Plus after all the food, Josh and I got to dance. I love dancing. Josh use to take me out almost every month to go dancing. Unfortunately, most of the places around town that you can dance are clubs so people are smoking. Pregnancy and smoke don’t mix well. The great thing about wedding is no smoking! Even though I didn’t have any where near the stamina I normally have we did get to dance for about 2-3 hours all together. I am going to miss not going out and dancing this summer since we normally go out a lot during the summer. This helped me make it a little longer. I know the first mom/dad alone date we have is going to be dancing!

A happy couple

A happy beautiful family

What a cute brother and cute but silly sister

Mom and daughter dancing away

Ready for the bouquet!

Who is going to catch it?

This was my first Mothers Day I could kinda consider myself a mommy. I can’t wait until next year and the years to come. Josh and I were in the nursery with all the babies at church. It made gave us a good glimpse at the future. Three babies… hopefully our four are more spread out in age than the little ones in there with us. After church Josh took me out for lunch. He also gave me a very sweet mom to be card. I also got cards from a couple of my students at school plus two of my friends mailed me cards. I felt very loved this Mother’s Day.

May 14^th was the last Family Fellowship Dinner at church. We will start back up in the fall. To end it with a bang we all met up at a local park/playground and had a cook-out. It was a lot of fun. The weather was nice too. A couple of the guys played basketball against the local kids. It was so funny watching the adults play those kids. I don’t know what the final score was but the whole time I was watching it was tied. Our Bible study group is still meeting but I will miss getting together with everyone for dinner.

Playing basketball- the old guys versus the boys

Goofy kids! I stole these from Kera's Facebook. I had seen them taking taking these pictures while I was watching the guys play basketball. I thought they were so awesome I had to steal them and share.

We had the Bainters over for dinner the next evening. We have been trying to have dinner every other week to plan for the mission trip. Last time we met at there house, this time the came over minus Taylor (she was at a school play or something). It is really neat talking to them about when they first started their family. It is encouraging to see such a wonderful family and think that in years to come ours can be such a faithful and Christ centered as theirs. I have gotten a lot from our dinners and time together. I even have 2 great recipes that I can wait to try out from Linda.

Thailand mission yard sale went great! With all the donations from our church family and friends we were able to make a little over $600. That is enough to pay for half of one ticket. Josh, Linda, and Taylor were out there setting up at 6:15 and the people started coming. We keep selling until around 2pm. Darrell and the Fairrows came over to help with the garage sale. They helped us back up the little remainders. I am still very thankful for the amazing outcome.

We invited the Nate, Michelle and their sons over for dinner. After we picked up the lawn Josh started the grill up. The Fairrows are a new family to our church. We really enjoyed spending some time together and getting to know them better. They have such well behaved children. Their boys are very polite and respectful. I think they will be a great influence like many of our other friends when it comes to raising a family.

Alex is a friend of mine at work. We actually are from the same town and Josh and Jessica went to high school with her. I didn’t know her until I started working at Westwood. She is getting married this summer so I gave Alex a surprise bridal shower along with the help of 2 other friends. I was pretty hard to keep a surprise at school and make sure everyone knew about it. She is an ESE teacher like me which means she goes all around campus to different classes throughout the day, this makes it that much harder. She tutors a student twice a week after school, so I had him and his mother help in making the surprise work. He kept his normal tutoring hours after school with her. Instead of pulling out homework for her to help with he pulled out a riddle. When she read the riddle she realized this was not for him to complete but for her. I also got a hold of her mom and she drove down the 4 hours to add to the surprise. The riddles took her all over campus and finally to the media center where we were all waiting. She was so surprised! Instead of most of us getting her gifts we chipped in to help them pay for their honeymoon. Check out the pictures for so great pictures of the bridal dress show we had.

Surprise Alex, its your bridal shower!!!!

Reading the clues to everyone

My team's TP bride- isn't she just beautiful?

Our sexy brides!

The unbiased judges- Taylor (the son of Susan Shrum, the lady behind the boys) and a friend of his

Our brides.. Blow them a kiss goodbye

Memorial Day weekend

Friday night, we went on a double date with Mike and Vernine to movies. It was so much fun hanging out with them. We watched the new Chronicles of Naria movie and then went to our house for many hours. We stayed up talking until 12:30 1 o’clock. We had so much fun!

Saturday was a pool party at the Strodes. Brian and Brandi invited people over for some fn in the pool and snacks. The pool was the perfect temperate. Half of the pool was in the shade so you could get out of the sun if you wanted. The weather was so nice, warm but not too hot.

Sunday, we spend a few hours at the pool with Jessica and her friend, Thomas. The weather was really nice. The pool felt so good. We played with the beach ball Jessica had bought. After cooling down we came home took a nice nap and then got ready to go over to Chris and Jason’s for dinner. We hadn’t spent much time with Chris and Jason in the past month and was long over due for a visit. The guys love it getting together because they like to talk about politics. Chris and I join them occasionally but typically talk about psychology stuff or how life is going.

Monday, Josh and I cleaned the house, he played video games and I scrapbooked. That evening we invited Jimmy, Katie, and Isaac over for dinner. We always enjoy their company. I can’t wait until our little ones are old enough to play together. Later Josh and Mike had a late night video game session. Memorial Day weekend was a great time to catch up with a lot of our friends we had not spent time with lately. Josh and I were starting to feel that drag that can happen. This weekend made it go away. Jesus knows us so well. Fellowshipping with friends is such an important part of having a healthy life and marriage. Josh and I have noticed in our few short years (almost 4!) of being married that our marriage really starts to dip if we don’t make an effort to spend time relaxing and hanging out with our friends, especially our Christian brothers and sisters. We are so blessed to have so many friends who share our love in Christ. They help us grow in our faith and help keep our marriage strong.

A couple of friends of mine got together at work to have little baby shower surprise for me. I felt very loved. We got so great gifts to help with baby when he/she arrives. When I get the pictures I will post them. A friend took them and I am waiting for her to send them to me. .

In other exciting baby news, Josh and I signed up for our birthing classes. We are taking them in July. It made baby coming seem even closer. Oh, I can’t wait to meet this little one that dances around inside of me all day (and night!). I am trying to make sure I keep getting the baby room organized so that with all the traveling we are doing this summer I won’t be caught at the end scrambling.