26 Weeks

How far along: 26 weeks

Maternity clothes: Yep. Mostly. 

Sleep: Eh, it's okay. 

Best moment of this week: We went on a date to Lake Fayetteville yesterday. That was fun. (picture below) Justin even made a list of everything we were doing on the date, so I could cross things off. 

Miss anything: Being able to breathe! This baby is pushing on my diaphragm. 

Movement: A ton. She's a busy girl. 

Gender: Still a girl.  

Labor signs: No 

Belly button in or out: In. 

Wedding ring on or off: On. 

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, I hope. 

Looking forward to: Seeing the little person who's moving in my stomach. It's weird to not know what she looks like. 

Baby is the size of a: I don't know, a heavy baguette?...weighs between 1.5 and 2 pounds. Around 14 inches long. 

24 Weeks

How far along: 24 weeks

Maternity clothes: Yes. I only have one pair of shorts that fit now. Bummer. 

Sleep: Still wake up to pee a lot, but it's fun to wake up and feel her move in the middle of the night. I'm tired. A. lot. 

Best moment of this week: Well, we were on vacation this week, so there were a lot of great moments. In regards to Ev, we registered at Target yesterday. Yay! Also, for the first time someone I didn't know told me congratulations, so I'm hopefully getting out of the 'maybe she is pregnant or maybe she ate too many donuts' phase. 

Miss anything: Not monitoring my caffeine intake. 

Movement: Yes. A lot. Justin's felt her move several times, and I can see my stomach move when she does. 

Gender: Still a girl.  

Labor signs: No 

Belly button in or out: In!

Wedding ring on or off: On. 

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, I hope. 

Looking forward to: Being able to comfortably lay on my stomach and back again. 

Baby is the size of a: Ear of corn? About a pound and a half, apparently and around a foot long. So, really we should just call her a Subway footlong.  

Here she is in Charleston during our vacation. 

Here's Justin's food baby. 

So, we're having a baby.

And, I've been (not-so-subtly) reminded by my dear, dear friends that I never update my blog, and now I have to. Well guys (girls), I haven't had anything to say. Now I do. Plus, my core 4 girls are ALL moving away within, like, 3 weeks of each other, so I have to keep them updated. While the likelihood of me doing this every week is slim, I'll try my best. I would love to read stuff like this from when my mom was pregnant with me or my bro. 

(And thanks, Jen, for making my life easy. I stole your questions.) 

How far along: 21 weeks

Maternity clothes: Some. A lot of dresses. My pants fit with the stretchy band thing, but dresses are more comfy. 

Sleep: I get up to pee 2-3 times per night, so that's exciting. I'm way better at sleeping right before my alarm goes off and during the day than I am at night. 

Best moment of this week: Buying a glider rocker for baby's room with my mom. I love starting her nursery stuff!

Miss anything: Not having to pay attention to my caffeine intake. 

Movement: Yes! I feel her for a little bit every day. Justin even got to feel her, which weren't expecting at all this early! He kept gasping every time she moved. It was presh. He then got his stethoscope out to try and hear her heartbeat. #mursehusband

Gender: She's a she! Evelyn Louise Morgan. Evelyn, because we like it. Louise, because it was my grandma's name. More on her later. 

Labor signs: Um, no. PTL. 

Belly button in or out: In. Also, PTL. 

Wedding rings on or off: On. 

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, I think. Maybe ask Justin.

Looking forward to: Working on her nursery!

Baby is the size of a: Carrot. Length, I think. However, Chelsea likes to relate her to processed food, so maybe a Twizzler? I don't know how long those are. She weighed 12oz at our appointment last week. How do they even know that?

Things I've asked other moms (including mine) recently: 

How(ish) old is a 35 pound child?

Is a nursing bustier for real?

Can I eat deli meat?

Can I eat canned tuna?

How much espresso is in that?

Can I get a massage?

Can I take a bath? (because you're not supposed to be in hot tubs, apparently.)

 

Mid June, texted to Sarah in Ethiopia 

 

 

A couple weeks ago.

 

Just a few days ago! 

Spring Breaks - Part 2

If you're wondering why I'm telling you about Spring Breaks from college, read below. If you wanna read about the first one, click here.

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So, I got to thinking. I have a lot of stories that I don't want to forget. Not like, ultra cool, life-altering stories, but they are stories and they are mine. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some taught me something. Some are lovey. Since I don't want to forget my stories, I have decided to compile them here. Maybe it will be like a 50 First Dates kind of thing and someone will read them if they get amnesia or dementia or something. I don't want that to happen, but it's plausible, I guess. Also, maybe my babies or babies' babies will read them. I would l-o-v-e love to read stories from grandmas or mom when they were in their 20s. (If you don't know me, folks, it seems that I have to have a reason to do something. Not just a 'Hey this seems like fun. I'll do it.' reason. Weird. I think I just learned that about myself.) Anyways, #storykeeper, y'all.
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Sophomore Year:
I can say pretty confidently that this was my favorite trip ever. 6 of us and a paper cut out of our friend Sarah drove a total of 61hrs round trip to Boston and back in my parents' car with our luggage strapped to the back.

Along the way we stopped outside of Nashville at Julie's uncle's house, New York, Philly, Boston and Annapolis, Maryland. Having 6 people in one car for that long had its moments for sure, but we had a shout cup that we made strongly suggested everyone put something in every now and then to say anything they wanted without getting hated on. I still have the papers somewhere, I think, but they ranged from serious, whiney things like, "Please no more country!" and "I hate Firehouse" to "Sarah (paper cut out) and Jason should date." They're hilarious.

A few happenings on the trip:

• Along the way, somewhere in Tennessee I believe, we were looking for food and the GPS said "Beach Creek Deli". It sounded pleasant, but it seemed a ways off the highway we were on. So, we went, obviously. After driving down back, windy roads and a few of us almost vomming we passed a closed down, ghetto gas station called "BeechCreek Deli". Yea. We didn't stop. Here she is:

• Annapolis. Probably doesn't mean a lot to a lot of you, but it was actually my and Chelsea's second time there. There's a Naval Academy there, and it's just a stinkin' cute town, y'all! Chels and I made up a story about being interviewed for a documentary and using British accents. I think everyone believed us for a while, but we told them we were kidding later. We also stood outside and danced to Diva by Beyonce somewhere in Annapolis. 

• Boston. I want to go back here. So. Bad. We didn't get to spend as much time here as we'd like, but it was still so great. We ate dinner with our (now) friends John and Heather. They were locals at the time, so they showed us around a bit, and we got to go to the John Hancock building where Heather worked. Turns out we were in Boston on St. Patrick's day and it was CRAZY. We heard tons of f-bombs on the subway, and the subway STOPPED WORKING while we were on it. No one did anything except the guys we were with. Ha! We went to a restaurant, The Barking Crab, which came highly recommended by a cursing, tour guide man. He said he used to be a chef. Who knows. We also went to Harvard (!), and it was beautiful, but people blew whistles if you got on the grass. I think they had orange vests on, too. When we we there we met a freshman girl whose major was Neurobiology or something. Seriously. We didn't belong, but it was SO pretty. 

• Philadelphia. I had the first and only Philly Cheese Steak I've ever really enjoyed here at Pat's. It's famous, apparently. We were only here for maybe an hour, so we didn't do much more than eat. We did run up the Rocky steps. I've never seen Rocky, so I don't know what that means, and I didn't run them; I video-taped other people running up them. :)

• New York. We did so much here and were so exhausted, and it was so worth it. We saw Wall Street, went to a Charity:Water exhibit, went to Central Park, Times Square (where we saw a car wreck) and the Seinfeld Restaurant. We maneuvered the subways, didn't get mugged, saw the WTC memorial, went to Chelsea Market, Canal Street, rode a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and watched the boys gooze on 2 German girls. 

May have been photobombing....

Other things not to be forgotten:

• Someone may or may not have said they would hide under someone's bed during their honeymoon. Yep.

Spring Breaks - Part 1

In case you missed my Story Keeper rant, here's why I'm telling you about Spring Break from my freshman year of college:

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So, I got to thinking. I have a lot of stories that I don't want to forget. Not like, ultra cool, life-altering stories, but they are stories and they are mine. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some taught me something. Some are lovey. Since I don't want to forget my stories, I have decided to compile them here. Maybe it will be like a 50 First Dates kind of thing and someone will read them if they get amnesia or dementia or something. I don't want that to happen, but it's plausible, I guess. Also, maybe my babies or babies' babies will read them. I would l-o-v-e love to read stories from grandmas or mom when they were in their 20s. (If you don't know me, folks, it seems that I have to have a reason to do something. Not just a 'Hey this seems like fun. I'll do it.' reason. Weird. I think I just learned that about myself.) Anyways, #storykeeper, y'all.
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Y'all. When I was in college I had Spring. Breaks. Like, good unforgettable random spring breaks. I don't ever want to forget them for a lot of reasons, but one of them being that we did kind of silly, spontaneous things, and they are absolutely some of my favorite times. Here's the first. I'll split 'em up though, because some will be longer.

Freshman Year:
My bestie from high school, Shannon, was engaged (maybe just dating at the time, but I think engaged) to this guy (not 'a' guy, rather her now husband) whose family lived in Tampa, FL. We drove there and stayed with his family for the week. We went to the beach a lot and shopped and I ate a Cuban (sandwich) for the first time. It was great. I don't remember too much else, other than someone thought we were in Jr. High when we were at one of Andrew's cousin's basketball games or something. Cool. A couple pics: (I can't find any more. Hmm.)

Story Keeper

So, I got to thinking. I have a lot of stories that I don't want to forget. Not like, ultra cool, life-altering stories, but they are stories and they are mine. Some are funny. Some are sad. Some taught me something. Some are lovey. Since I don't want to forget my stories, I have decided to compile them here. Maybe it will be like a 50 First Dates kind of thing and someone will read them if they get amnesia or dementia or something. I don't want that to happen, but it's plausible, I guess. Also, maybe my babies or babies' babies will read them. I would l-o-v-e love to read stories from grandmas or mom when they were in their 20s. (If you don't know me, folks, it seems that I have to have a reason to do something. Not just a 'Hey this seems like fun. I'll do it.' reason. Weird. I think I just learned that about myself.) Anyways, #storykeeper, y'all.

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One time, I was babysitting. I was babysitting a fam of 4. Their dad had dropped them off, and we were getting ready for bed. Once everyone was in bed the eldest told me his stomach hurt. I asked him what he ate for dinner, and he told me Chinese food and pizza. Oh no. That can't be a good combo. I told him to lay on the couch and that I would rub his back. He told me his mom usually got a trash can when his stomach hurt like this. Oh, good. So, I got a trash can. I started rubbing his back, and about 30 seconds later he was vomming his face off and crying. I was so sad for him, and so gag-gy. I called his mom. No answer. Turns out I had 2 numbers for her in my phone and one was wrong. I found the right one and she still didn't answer. Luckily, she called back within about 5 minutes saying she was on her way home. (I left a voicemail saying, 'Um, hi. It's Celeste. Xyz is sick and throwing up. Uh...yea. Bye.'

When she called back she asked to talk to her babe, so I gave him the phone even though he was still a little preoccupied crying and dry-heaving and such. He was holding the phone. He leaned over to spit. He dropped said phone into the bag-o-chunder and looked at me all wide-eyed and nervous. Sick. 'It's okay.' I said quietly, as I pulled said phone out of barf-can. I put it on speaker phone. She kept praying. I tried not to gag.

Eventually he quit throwing up, mom came home and I cleaned my phone off. And I used that phone until the day my contract expired. Still works today (over a year since I've gotten a new one, y'all.) Ironically though, I did get very sick the next week. So did my bestie though, and I hadn't seen her since the incident, so I don't really think the 2 were related.

Are we God-honoring?

*First off, I'm rarely this think-y on my blog. This has just been on my mind a lot lately.

For the second time in our marriage (both out of town, actually), Justin and I were walking down a street and asked by 2 men if we supported gay rights. The first time, we were in Denver on our honeymoon and Justin just said, "Uhh.." as we were walking. We were walking by. The timing was poor. The second time was very similar, except Justin said, "No, thanks."

As we were walking away I asked him if he thought our responses to those 2 situations were honoring to the Lord. Not that I was anti-what he said. I wasn't/am not. I just don't know the answer to that question. First off, that's a reallllyyyyy loaded question. With everything going on lately, my guess is that they mean in regards to marriage, but 'rights' makes me think of the right to vote, shop, drive, get a job, etc. I'm pretty sure that's not what they meant.

Anyways, if I agree with what the Bible calls marriage, but I'm supposed to love everyone - all my neighbors, straight, gay, purple, liberal, conservative, northern, rude, etc., then is saying "No, thanks" a loving response? Telling them why they're wrong and making them think I'm judging them certainly doesn't seem appropriate either. A sin is a sin is a sin, and a believer would not respond well to me being jerk to them and telling them how wrong they are, so why would a non-believer respond well. If I told them in love (whatever that looks like to a stranger on the street), I cannot expect a (potentially) non-believer to respond as a believer would if I approached them in love anyways.

I don't know the answer. I'm just thinking on it. I'd love anyone else's thoughts, but I would not love to argue with anyone about this. I will not talk to you if you try to argue with me.