Good afternoon! I'm sorry that my posts have been few & far between - and less than fun to read - but life has been REALLY busy (with the promise of becoming WAY busier - but more about that in a minute).

First, let me share what Nathan & I did 2 weekends ago...

We had thought about leaving this bed up in Little I's room (yes, I am going to start referring to him as Little I - at least till I change my mind about that - haha). But it's not THAT big of a room, and with all the other furniture that needs to go in here, we opted to take the bed down. Here is the room before (and yes, this is even before I realized I had lost my passport) and after:

(click thumbnails for larger images)


So now we just have to put all the furniture in here, find shelving, hang pictures...Oh the list goes on...but it will happen!! (more about stuff for the room in a minute)

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NOW... many of you asked about the pancake breakfast. It was a huge success! I have to publicly say that Little I's Aunt Kristy, Nana, and Papa did a WONDERFUL job. This is the first time they've ever done anything like this, and I tell you, they pulled it off like professionals!

We also had about 50 people come enjoy breakfast. I thank you ALL for whatever role you had in this breakfast! Whether it was cooking, cleaning, or coming to support us, we appreciate it greatly!!

Nathan was not able to make it - he had Drill this weekend - so he had to miss out on the great food and company... if we do this again, we decided that we'll make a concerted effort to not have it on a Drill weekend. (this weekend, though, was perfect b/c of UA's practice football game this weekend - there were 90,000+ people at the game)

Here are a few pictures from the morning.

Click the thumbnail if you want to see the picture bigger. For a description, roll your mouse over the picture, and a description should pop up.



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And then yesterday was my first shower, at church. I have a bazillion pictures (thanks to my friend, Ginger, who I put in charge of the photo journaling) so I chose a small portion of them for you to see the experience. Many thanks go to the hostesses of the shower - they outdid themselves - the food was excellent and they just made the whole experience enjoyable!! Okay, I'll hush so you can see the pictures:



The tissuepaper-folding party. I caught a lot of flack for keeping the tissue paper, but as you can see, my friends were good sports about it & helped anyway!


And I am also very excited about one thing that I failed to take a picture of...for this shower, my parents gave us our changing table/dresser for Little I's room. It is beautiful (and SOLID - it took 5 people to move it from the truck to the house!) and it looks great in the bedroom!

So that is my weekend...it was busy but very fun. And this motherhood thing is starting to come together...and is becoming more real by the minute! Thanks again to everyone who had a part in it - we appreciate you all and are ever thankful for your thoughtfulness & generosity!

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Now, as promised, I will briefly tell you about why my life is about to become even busier. I have 2 showers next weekend that I am extremely excited about - they will be 'up home' where N & I are originally from. It will be so fun to see people we haven't seen in quite a while!!

And, if you don't know it, the program where I work is funded by a grant from the state. We (well, before I worked here) used to write grant proposals every year - and the last time we wrote a proposal was 2 years ago, when I first started my job. This year, the grant will be a 3 year deal...which is fabulous!!

But if you have written grant proposals before, you know that grant writing is a HUGE thing...it takes a lot of thought, time, and energy. Guess what came out bright & early this morning? The RFP (request for proposal). It's officially grant-writin' time again!

The good thing is that it is due May 31. I must've prayed for lots of stuff to keep me busy - because this will definitely do just that! Not that I won't still think of Little I a lot...but I will definitely have something to help pass the time.

The interesting thing will be if we are able to travel in the next 2 months...talk about busy, preparing the nursery, writing a grant, making travel arrangements, and packing...

Yeah, I think I might be a busy girl.