Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with our friends, the Shareks. The weather was absolutely perfect: sunny, calm and almost warm! We started the afternoon playing some "extreme croquet". If you've never played, well.... you're missing out. It's similar to regular croquet, except you set the metal wickets in really random and difficult places, such as in the middle of a garden (see picture below). I don't know how he does it, but Jeremy almost always wins, and this day was no exception. Here's David and Jeremy playing. I didn't get any pictures of the actual croquet game. I'd like to note, however, that I did come in second place. :-)

I really don't love looking at myself in pictures these days, but oh well.

After croquet, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with the Shareks, along with David's mom Catherine, and some of their friends who are from Germany, Tom and Anya. Here is some of the gang enjoying a German beer that Tom raved about (not the pregnant lady, of course).

David and Jeremy helped assemble the Waldorf Salad. David had a unique way of chopping the walnuts.....

















I should have taken a picture of the massive quantity of food that we all made and consumed, but I didn't. I guess I was too busy eating.

And then, as a perfect ending to the evening, my Longhorns stomped the Aggies in football, 49-9. It was beautiful. Overall, just a lovely Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving factoids

A local grocery store that I frequent sends me periodic newsletters. I got these little tidbits from them yesterday, which was kind of interesting:

• In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.
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• The cranberry is one of only three fruits-the others are the blueberry and the Concord grape-that are entirely native to North American soil, according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association.
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• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It was baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.

Jeremy and I are certainly keeping it close to home this Thanksgiving. Westin's arrival could be any day now, so we're being as low key as possible. We look forward to sharing a yummy meal with some church friends and playing games. And then we plan to watch the Texas Longhorns hopefully crush Texas A&M.

We're already so thankful for the little life inside of me, and we can't wait to meet him. If I eat massive quantities of turkey, will that help induce labor? If so, bring it on!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Lightening?

I've got about 2 and a half weeks until my due date, and I must say I'm feeling surprisingly good. For whatever reason, I am sleeping better than I have in months (except for the previously mentioned snoring, which affects my husband, not me!). Although I have to shift positions every few hours and get up to go to the bathroom 1-3 times a night, I am getting pretty solid sleep - a major blessing to me!

The other day, out of the blue Jeremy said to me "You know, you really are doing so much better than I thought you'd be doing at this stage". I think I laughed out loud, because although he meant it as a compliment, I immediately asked him if he thought I'd be a monster or something. But really, he's right. I've had a pretty easy pregnancy, and I am extremely grateful. And yet.... I look forward to not having a huge belly and all of the discomfort that goes along with it. I'm ready to have my body back (and my son in my arms!).

I've read of a term called "lightening" that is used to describe the baby engaging in the pelvis before birth. It is thus named because as the baby moves down from under the rib cage, the mother may feel a sense of relief in that her rib cage expands more easily allowing her to draw deeper breaths and eat without feeling full so quickly.

One expert says "In essence, lightening can be the calm before the storm. It cannot be directly linked to indicating that labor will start within a certain window but it usually occurs up to two weeks before labor in 65% of first-time moms. Although it can't pinpoint the beginning of labor, it is a sign that things are headed in the right direction."

Hmmm... could this be what I'm experiencing? At my last appointment, the doctor said that the baby is definitely settling head-down into my pelvis, which is a good sign.

And... we officially decided on a middle name - Charles. This was Jeremy's grandfather's name, and it is his dad's middle name. So - we'll be introducing the world to Westin Charles Hansen any day now!

Another Blog?

I'm thinking of starting another blog in addition to this one... it would be a personal finance blog. Oftentimes I find myself wanting to write finance-related things here on this blog, but then I think of my audience (small as it is) and I think that I'd turn off at least three-quarters of you if I constantly had posts about my money musings.

It's not that I'm a brilliant money manager, or that I have lots of finance knowledge. I don't. Heck, my bachelor's degree is in Speech Communication. But I do have a big interest in learning, and possibly sharing what I'm learning along the way.

My relationship with money is tricky as a Christian. What is the balance between being a very good steward of what you've been given and yet not putting any faith in money? My hope lies in Christ, not in my net worth. Yet I'm fascinated by economics and finance issues, and I believe those are God-given interests. He has uniquely wired me, just as He has uniquely wired every one of you. So there has got to be a way to tap into these interests without being consumed by them.

1 Timothy 6:10-11 (NIV): "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV): "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said 'never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'."

I Peter 5:2 (NIV): "Be shepherds of God's flock.... not greedy for money, but eager to serve."

So... I'm not ready to be held accountable to this, but I at least wanted to announce that I'm thinking about it. I'd probably even accept ads on my site and try to make a few dollars from it. Who knows. I also realize that I'm about to have a baby, plus I'm going to keep working in mortgages, so maybe this is a pipe dream. We'll see.

You know it's bad when....

...your late-term pregnancy snoring is so loud that your husband sleeps with earplugs.

Sorry honey!

The Daly Sisters

My sisters, Jennie and Julie, came to visit me last weekend from Texas. Their assignment, other than spending time with me, was to help me get organized and ready for Westin to come. They were very helpful and I'm so grateful to have the sisters that I do. Other than my husband, they are the people that I trust the most in this world, and anytime they're around me, it's a good thing.

Before they got here, I broke out a lot of our baby gifts that we hadn't put together yet, such as car seats, exersaucer, high chair, pack-n-play, etc. In the past I've had to have to borrow all of these things when anyone with kids came to visit, but now I own them all! Still so weird! Here is how we spent the night before they got here getting ready:

Cooper enjoyed the fruits of our labor:

Our time together started out great, after a nice Chili dinner. We all 3 went to the University of Texas at Austin, so we geared up to watch the Texas Longhorns play Texas Tech in football. (The Longhorns were #1 in the country, in case you didn't know). Here's a pre-game picture of us (left to right: Julie, Joey, Jennie, and Cooper and Landry on laps):


Unfortunately, watching the game together proved to be a mistake, as the Longhorns lost for the first time this season and lost their #1 ranking. We were quite stunned and sad. We concluded that maybe we shouldn't watch games together anymore.

This picture was too cute not to post. 15 month old Landry is on the left, and 10 month old Cooper is on the right. Makes me eager to see Jeremy with our son!

On Sunday we went to church, and then took a nice walk on the greenways by my house. On Sunday evening, I made dinner and Stephanie came over to eat with us and played with my nephews. On Monday, the work began in earnest. We spent time in Westin's room going through all of my clothes and baby supplies, and we made a list of things I still need. Since they are both moms, they were very helpful in taking inventory and making suggestions. For lunch on Monday, my friend Julie Thompson came over with her 2 kids and we all went to Chick-Fil-A. This is where things started to get interesting. Little Landry, my 15 month old nephew, wasn't feeling good this day, and threw up at the restaurant. He was very clingy and unhappy most of the day, poor little guy. In spite of that, we had a nice time with Julie and I'm glad she came over.

On Monday evening, after a little fretting and decision making (because of Landry's sickness), we went ahead with our plans to leave the kids with babysitters so the 3 of us could go out to dinner together. Jeremy was deep into paperwork for clinicals, so he couldn't join us. We had a nice time at Yoho Asian Bistro in Apex (I would not recommend it... just an average restaurant). We talked and laughed and enjoyed just being sisters. Shortly after dinner, however, I started to feel a little "funny". Later that evening, I really felt bad, and that was all she wrote. Apparently I got whatever Landry had, and Jeremy got it too. I woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday morning with stomach problems (I'll spare you the details) and a 101 degree fever and aches. Jeremy and I both had to basically stay in bed for the next 2 and a half days. It put an unfortunate damper on my sisters' visit, but there's nothing I could do about it. They were so sweet to carry on the mission of going shopping for the things I needed for Westin. In fact, Jeremy and I were so sick that my sister Julie left a day early to give us some rest. I was so sad to have the trip end that way.

Overall, we had a great time and I am so thankful they came. They'll be back after Westin is born - let's hope I stay well next time!

Thank you, sisters. I love you!