Returning

I want to blog again. I'm not even going to try to "catch-up" on the blog. My Mom is probably the only one who checks this blog and she's already updated on my life. Instead, I'm just gonna start again.

Not sure what all I'll write about, but definitely don't want this to be a "Mommy blog." Spencer and I have been spending a lot of time unpacking theology the church often blindly follows. There's been a lot happening on the interwebs with all the controversy Piper, Driscoll and others have been stirring up. I have lots of thoughts and opinions, just trying to figure out how to productively join in the conversation.

In the meantime, I leave you with my current obsession:

Gonna try not to embarrass Spencer too much...

So tonight I'm going to the Mack Brown Women's Clinic at UT. We've been trying the last four years to get me tickets, but they always sell-out right away. This year I happened to remember that it was happening soon and googled to see when it would take place. The tickets had gone on sale the day before, so I was sure it would be sold out. I was going to register a friend and myself, but it only let me do one and I kid you not, I literally got the last spot. That's right, I want to go badly enough that I'm willing to go alone.

Basically this thing was started to help get women more excited about the game and to learn more of the rules. I thought it would be great if I came up with some questions and excitedly told Spencer about my first idea. He looked at me like a deer in headlights and begged me not to ask that question in person. Ever since he keeps asking me if I have any questions about football that I might want to ask him in hopes that I don't embarrass him - HA! These include...

What should I be looking at besides the Quarterback?
Do you have a team Mom? If not, can I do it? If so, can I still please bake cookies for the team?
How do you make a fake-out work so well? I totally lose the ball sometimes...

OK... so I guess I can only think of 3 questions that I've come up with at this point that are kinda embarrassing. And don't worry, I won't be asking any of these questions. Honestly, I doubt I'll have the chance to ask anything at all. And me and my pregnant self are not going to get there before the doors open because this girl won't stand in the heat. No really... last night I had to stand in the house with the garage door open while Spencer was taking some measurements of the spot we're going to put an extra refrigerator so we could talk about it. I seriously couldn't handle standing in the heat. It's getting bad. So since I'm going to be showing up right as the doors open, I doubt I'll get a great seat. But that's OK, I really don't mind. It's going to be super fun and hopefully I'll learn a thing or two so I don't cheer at the wrong time while watching the game. Yes, that still occasionally happens, but way less than it used to.

And yes, this post was actually written by me. Aliens have not taken over my body and I actually like and watch football... well, mostly just the Longhorns and Colt McCoy. You can all thank me for hell now being frozen over.

So much to catch up on...

Here's what's been happening in our world as of late...

* I think most everyone who reads this blog is friends with me on Facebook, so this is old news, but we're having a GIRL! To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was so convinced it was a boy, but nope, it's a girl! Spencer's world is going to be rocked, but I totally know what to do with a girl! :-) I'm very excited for all the bows. Not just any bows, I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to bows and ribbons. I'm not a big fan of the headbands, mesh things and large flowers.... but I LOVE the classic ribbons that I remember wearing as a little girl. So far I've been able to refrain myself from buying clothing and such, after all... that's what the grandparents and Aunt are for!

*  We've made all kinds of decisions in the last month
that took me about my entire pregnancy to make:

      
          - We picked out a stroller! No small feat I'll tell you. Holy cow there is so much crap out there when it comes to babies and kids. And of course everyone has an opinion on what you HAVE to buy. We wanted a stroller that would work the longest for everything we might need and landed on the Bumbleride Indie. Since I don't jog or go hiking on trails on a regular basis now, I figured I probably won't be starting with the new baby. So I felt like a Bob was a little more than we needed. Plus we'll be taking this sucker when we travel so I wanted something a little more slender. So there we go, decision made!

           - We also ordered our crib. I like the wall color we already have in the nursery and didn't want to change it, but that room reads a little dark so I wanted to go with white furniture. (BTW... picture to the right is one I found online, it's not our nursery) Now to decide on the bedding. I want to find something that is pink and orange, but am SUPER picky. I'm not into all the animals and overly cutesy stuff that I've seen in stores. I found some stuff that I love at Layla Grace and added it to my pinterest and everything. Then I looked at the price. $400 for a skirt, bumper and crib sheet. What the what???? I don't think so. That's just ridiculous. So I think I'm going to have some bedding made which means I now need to find some good fabric stores and make a decision there. Have I mentioned that making decisions isn't my strong suit when it comes to this kind of thing? Poor Spencer.

           - We also braved Ikea on a Saturday afternoon and got a dresser for the nursery. I wasn't finding anything I liked on Craigslist that was white and was completely unwilling to spend much money on a kid's dresser (that will double as the changing table), so Ikea it is. We even put it together in about 2 hours without fighting... I think our marriage will stand the test of time.



            - As we made all these decisions, we also registered. Ummm... so not as fun as registering for wedding stuff. I've babysat a ton over the years, but I've never had a child of my own and considering I don't know what she'll like, I spent much of the time staring at the aisles full of choices just guessing. My favorite was when the worker at Buy Buy Baby (who looked to be like 16 years old) very seriously gave us this massive list of items we HAD to have as a minimum to bring the baby home. Uh, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to take care of my baby even if we don't have a wipe warmer. Oh yeah, and we definitely didn't register for the whirlpool baby bath. I don't think so.

So that's mostly what's going on for us. Just trying to enjoy our weekends of sleeping in, going to movies whenever we want and getting stuff prepped as well. Oh, and this HEAT! Oh my goodness, I officially quit summer this week, but apparently that doesn't make the 100+ degree weather go away. Man, it's been brutal. But hey, if I can survive being pregnant during the hottest summer in Texas on record, than I can survive anything. Maybe. :-)

Boy or Girl?

Thursday's the big day... we find out what this little baby is going to be. Of course that's provided the baby cooperates.

So... will our baby be wearing this:

 Or this?

 Have any guesses? I feel like it's a boy and Spencer thinks it's a girl. One of us will be right! :-)

Can you guess which role I play in my marriage?

What the what???

Umm... I'm pretty sure our baby will not need a whirlpool tub. Just a guess.

One of the most overwhelming places EVER

We've now been into Buy, Buy Baby and Babies R Us once. Just wanted to scope things out and see what items will be taking over our house for the next couple of years. Buy, Buy Baby is the Bed, Bath and Beyond version of baby stores. Let me just say I like it WAY more than Babies R US. It's cleaner, seems to have a wider and better selection and was overall a more pleasant experience.

But one thing was the same at both stores... I nearly had a panic attack in the stroller/car seat section. Seriously, one of the most overwhelming places ever. There are so many options. And it's not like you can just pick the one that's the prettiest. Nope, you have to think about safety, tires, cup holders, handles, how well it collapses, etc... And forget about being able to figure out how to work the thing on your own. It took us a good 5 minutes to figure out how to get one of the car seats out of it's base.

Even my husband who is a research genius is overwhelmed by the whole thing. After our first trip to this section, I looked at him and said "You're just going to have to research all this because I'm completely overwhelmed. I have to get out of here." Well, he started researching but found that everything is clearly influenced by the manufacturers and everyone has a different opinion. Here's the system we like the best thus far:

It's a Baby Trend and the things we liked? The handle is adjustable and it has that triangle thing on the car seat that will make carrying the thing a bit easier. Side note: I'm going to the gym today and telling my trainer that we seriously need to work on my upper body strength. The car seat alone seemed kinda heavy. I think I'm in trouble.

But seeing as I've never needed a stroller before, I don't know what the heck I need or want. So I'm asking all you Moms what you needed/wanted in your stroller. Let me clarify a few things: I am not a runner and don't have any plans to become one, but I would like to go on walks. I'm guessing we'll mostly be using the stroller when shopping, traveling, and going other places where you'll want to push the baby instead of carry it. And I already carry a big purse, so I'm guessing between me and the baby we're going to need something that will hold a good size bag.

So... what should I look for in a stroller? In other words, HELP!!!!!