Traveling Masons

James and I are heading out this weekend...in two different directions. Don't worry, we'll eventually meet up. He's leaving Sunday for Hilton Head with his parents and sister. I'm flying out Saturday to Pensacola to help move my two eldest sisters (my Donnie dad's kids) into college. I'm not too excited about flying alone as I've never done that before, but I was even LESS excited about the prospect of driving for 10+ hours with this wee little bladder. So, fly it is. I'll be there with them until Tuesday, then I'm flying to Savannah to meet James and drive the 40 minutes back to Hilton Head until Thursday when we're coming home. Whew! Should be an event. I'm excited about getting to spend time with my dad's family...I don't spend near as much time with them as I should. And I LOVE Hilton Head, so I'm really excited about that. Plus, this will be our last vacation until Kendall arrives, so we're gonna live it up!

In baby news, I went to the doctor today because last night I was having a lot of tightening in my lower abdomen...what I now know are Braxton Hicks. She said normally women don't notice them this early (which contradicts research that I did that said they can be noticed WAY early), but that I shouldn't worry because after a thorough check she determined that all is well. Big relief because I was a little freaked out.

Anyhoo - I'm off to pack! Hope everyone enjoys their last summer holiday...personally I'm ready for cold weather.

Oops - almost forgot - wanna give a quick "you're awesome" shout-out to Rachel Pittman for loaning me all the snazzy maternity clothes I've been sporting lately! She has very good taste and I'm getting lots of compliments on her clothes, so I thought I would publicly give credit where credit is due!

Sharp dresser...

I finally did it. I gave in to the temptation of sweet baby girl clothes. Yesterday mom, Joseph and I headed out to look at baby stuff. Our first stop was Babies R Us, which has tons of super cool stuff that I can't afford. The bedding was absolutely beautiful, but alas - it ain't coming home with me. Just can't afford it (however if any of my blog reading friends want to take up a collection, let me know). Then we headed to Old Navy to look around and then to lunch (Joseph loves guacamole!) then home for naps all around. After Joseph was picked up, mom and I headed back out to Target. Ahh! This is more like it. We saw a ton of clothes and mom ended up buying Kendall her first pair of baby jeans and a shirt and I bought her 3 pair of little cotton pants with shirts to match. I think we did pretty good bargain wise, but then again I'm comparing that to how much I spend on my clothes, so I'm sure I'm WAY off! After Target, we checked out Michael's and Hallmark for a baby book and then had dinner at mom's house. It was a really fun day and I just have to tell you all (in case you didn't know) that I have the best mother on the face of the planet.

It's a...

We went in today for our ultrasound and everything looks great! PRAISE GOD!! I was, of course, my usual anxious self until she told me that everything looks normal. And we also found out that we're having a sweet, precious GIRL - yay!! To be perfectly honest, it didn't matter to me one way or the other, but I'm excited about all the cute clothes I can start buying. However, you guys know that I'm already fretting about how her hair will be...I can't do my own hair, much less a little girl with (most likely) curly hair! So if anyone wants to give me lessons, I'm game!

In all seriousness, I'm amazed at this miracle. Seeing the way she's already moving, touching her little face and kicking her legs just blows me away. God is so good to us.

We have also been blessed by the Brown family. They are loaning us a beautiful crib and a Pack-N-Play. I picked them both up last night and I'm thrilled at how God is providing for us with the baby furniture.

I'll have pictures of our little girl at church on Sunday (don't know how to work the scanner thingie).

Everyone have a great weekend!

Half way there!

I'm 20 weeks today!! Only 20 more to go until we need Baby Mason (I really need to think of something catchier to call him/her). Yay!!

In other news, it's hot outside. Don't go out there.

That is all.

3 down...1 to go

Today James and I accepted the challenge of cleaning out closets. It started with the downstairs coat closet (which had not only every imaginable coat, sweater and athletic vest but also an assortment of James' suits, shoes, and golf clubs). Okay, in all fairness I had shoved a bunch of stuff in there, too. Anyhoo - after that we decided we'd tackle the guest closet and then I decided we'd do the linen closet. At the end of all that, we took bags and bags of stuff to Goodwill and we are one step (actually 3 steps) closer to being organized when Baby Mason arrives. Now all that's left is the baby's room closet which is going to be a CHORE. We'll handle that bad boy next week. It feels good to have accomplished that much, though.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying as cool as possible. We called Time and Temperature a little while ago and it said the temp is 113...I'm assuming that's the heat index, but still. I, for one, am staying inside in the air conditioning.

Pretty quiet...

Things have been pretty quiet around the Mason household. I'm feeling good (except for this heinous indigestion...let me guess, it's not going away anytime soon!) and I've been feeling Baby Mason moving around a lot in there. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but it's definitely not. Last night I was poking my stomach (it's cool how hard it's getting...closest I'll ever get to rock hard abs) and the little one poked back!!!

I babysat Joseph Ihlenburg Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and he's just a joy to be around. Such a content 2-year-old. He minded like a good boy, ate very well, took naps right on schedule and made me laugh a bunch. I'm sorta on standby to fill in when my mom can't watch him, so hopefully I'll be able to enjoy his company again soon.

We celebrated my Granny's (my Donnie dad's mom) birthday last night and that was a real treat. My Granny and Pa weren't exactly thrilled about my marrying outside my race and so I had sort of stayed away from them for a couple of years just to avoid the issue (real mature, right?). Well, about 9 months ago, Granny had a stroke and since then I've been spending lots more time with them and I feel like we've developed a good relationship. I'm thankful that God took a seemingly bad situation and brought something good out of it...He has a way of doing that as you all know. So anyhoo, we had burgers and chips and cake and just hung around laughing and joking - nice evening. James was working, so he couldn't go, but just the fact that he COULD have gone is a huge improvement from a year ago.

This week will be pretty low key - nothing pressing on the agenda. Looking forward to spending lots of time with the hubby because he's off today-Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a good week!

First piece of baby furniture!!

Yesterday James and I went and picked up our first piece of furniture for the baby's room! Bill and Rosanne Powell gave us a changing table/dresser that their little ones used! We are so excited! I am contemplating just using it as a dresser (not putting a pad on top). It has 3 dresser-sized drawers, one small drawer and a cabinet with shelving. We are very thankful for the Powell's generosity!

In other news, James and I are celebrating our 3-year anniversary today! At this time three years ago, we were saying our vows (and sweating to death...outside wedding at the end of July = sweltering). I can't say enough how blessed I am to have James as my husband. He truly is a gift from God.