Ole Miss friends on the move!

Here's an old picture with college friends, taken last October at Autumn's baby shower before a Rebel football game. Lots has changed for some of us since then. Jennifer recently told me she may be moving out of NYC to Louisiana this Fall. Amanda will become a Mrs. in December and has also moved to Louisiana. Holly is soon to be moving back over from across the pond to Atlanta. And Paige (not pictured), a college softball friend, had a quick move with her husband to Chattanooga before finding out they're about to move to Louisiana as well. Looks like Louisiana is the place to go! Paige & her husband are expecting their first baby at the beginning of '09. Congrats everyone!

other nursery pictures

Here's the newly refinished buffet/changing table. The room is somewhat of a construction zone, please excuse. Here's the crib (the lone new piece in the nursery) that Rod & Karen bought for us.

our latest nursery project

This is our latest completed nursery project. This wardrobe came from my Wadsworth grandparents' house in Ripley. As you can see, it was very "loved" and needed some work. My husband is the greatest; he can fix anything! When he disassembled it, we saw a marking on the back of the mirror that said "1915". Naturally, I wanted to know more about where it came from. I was also curious about the lineage of the buffet that we're using as a changing table (I mentioned it in an earlier blog; I'll try to attach a picture of it, too.). It also came from my grandparents' house. I've had the matching china cabinet in my living room since we've been married and the table & chairs to the set are still in Ripley. Slowly, but surely, the whole set will live under one roof again some day. So, the other night, I called Grandmother on her new cell phone since she doesn't have a land line at her new place. The wardrobe originally belonged to her grandmother, Alice Bettis. That was her mom's mom who they went to live with in Ripley after they left Crockett County when Grandmother's dad died. So, to the baby, it originated from the great-great-great grandmother. The buffet originally belonged to Grandaddy's sister, Mary Trueblood (the baby's great-great aunt). We also got a wooden rocking chair that had belonged to Grandaddy's grandmother Thompson (his mom's mom). That's where he got his name. So, the baby is going to be surrounded by lots of old family pieces (& some new things, too!). We are so grateful for all these beautiful antiques.

By the way, Krystal, did you know your dining room suite belonged to Aunt Lillian? She was the only relative of Grandaddy's that we ever knew. All the others had passed away before we were born. Aunt Lillian was Grandaddy's sister who was 20 years older than him.

Last night we started on our next (final?) project for the nursery. It's an ottoman that doesn't match anything in our house & has been sitting in the corner of our bedroom. It had been at mom & dad's house for as long as I remember. I don't quite know when or why it ended up here. I did remember that Gran had done the last upholstery job on it probably close to 20 years ago, so last night while Marty was working on it, I called Gran to ask her about where it came from. She did a great upholstery job on it, by the way, we're just re-doing it to match the nursery. She said she bought it at Goodwill years ago for .50 cents! It lived at her house awhile before it went to mama & daddy's; now it's here!

the # 23

We've always thought it was funny how the number 23 seems to be a significant number for us without intending for it to be. For starters, M's birthday is Feb. 23rd and he was 23 when we met. I was 23 when we got married on November 23rd. We joined our church on October 23rd. My job anniversary is the 23rd of May. Now we have a baby due on Sept. 23! Those are all more significant things, but the other day we ate at Pei Wei and got fortune cookies before leaving and had a "23 experience". You know how the back of the fortune often has lucky numbers......well, what do you think was the only number our fortunes had in common? 23!

more fun @ the spray park

All the pictures wouldn't fit in the last post, so here are a few more. Too cute not to show!

Spray Park Fun!

After we left my baby shower at work, we changed into our bathing suits & headed to Collierville where there's an awesome public spray park (free & fun for the little ones!). Collierville is out of the way, especially for Mom, Krystal, & the kids, so we took advantage of having them already somewhat in the area at the clinic where I work. We've only been once before. It was when Avery was 2, so this was Brodie's first time. They had an absolute blast and can't wait to go back! Getting them to leave was tricky.

Campbell Clinic baby shower

My baby shower at work was awesome! I am so blessed to work with a large group of caring & supportive people. The shower was yesterday (Wed. 7-16-08) at lunch time. We all have crazy schedules at work, so it was come-and-go. The picture I'm attaching is only a fraction of the co-workers. A large group picture wasn't possible with all the hectic schedules we have. Aside from Campbell Clinic employees, Karen (M's mom), my mom, Krystal, Avery, Brodie, & my doctor's wife, Carol, came. I took off the remaining part of the afternoon so we could take the kids to the spray park in Collierville, which I'll mention/show in my next post.

Pregnancy week 30

This picture was taken before church on Sunday (7/13/08), technically one day before the start of week 30. Finally, an accessory that overshadows my big butt (at least in this picture)!

4th of July

These pictures were taken at the Navy fireworks show in Millington on July 3rd.

It's me, Audra......at 3:00am

It's 3:00am Saturday and I can't sleep, not that unusual these days. If I put any more pillows in the bed, there isn't going to be much room for M. I've been having "growing pains" in my ribs at night---THEY'RE EXPANDING. I think I'm accepting pretty well the fact that they won't be going back to their original position. Overall, I really have no big complaints. God has blessed us with a healthy pregnancy to this point.

It's probably safe to say that even Jackson is still asleep in Dublin where it's 9:00am, but hey, I've got Skype turned on just in case he wakes up & decides to turn his computer on & we can talk.

These pictures I've attached are some of my favorites. I don't have the original copy, just a scanned one, so I don't know exactly when it was taken, but I'm guessing 1987-ish. The family stairstep stage didn't last long as Jackson "ruined" it and quickly grew out of being the lowest step.

This week was another busy one. Among other things, we met with our financial advisor to talk about college savings for the baby. M went to talk to someone about health insurance for the baby (I wasn't able to go b/c I was working late).

The tomatoes are coming along, all still green though. No squash yet.

I've been working on putting Ireland pictures on Shutterfly all week. I've narrowed them down to just 335! Last night, while a batch was loading, the computer decided to shut down! I haven't gone back into Shutterfly to see what happened. I'm kinda scared to know.

We're heading into week 30. I had my glucose testing this week (all ok there). My next appointment is in 2 weeks, another in 2 more weeks, then weekly. I can't believe it. It's really flying by and I still have alot to do. My co-workers are planning a shower for me this week and I'm very excited about that.

For those that know me really well, guess what movie I watched last night......

Steel Magnolias! It was on TV, so bits were cut out for commercials. I caught it just as it was coming on! While we're on the topic of my favorite things and I'm still awake, here are some of my favorite entertainers/public figures (in case there's ever a trivial pursuit game about me!): Elvis (!), Kelly Ripa, George Strait, Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, Dolly Parton, & Dave Ramsey (he cracks me up because he cracks himself up!).

I don't like ending on sad notes, but I will. When we got back from Ireland, I was saddened to find out that "Coach Rob" had passed away of cancer. He was my coach when I played softball for Germantown when I was 18. He was one of the most passionate for softball/baseball people I've known. He did not coach because he was paid (like my college coaches). He did not coach because his children were on the team (like most coaches). He just loved the game and his life was surrounded by it. He was a senior sales executive for the Memphis Redbirds. We had not kept in great touch over the years, but talked every now and then at Redbirds games. He'd occasionally provide us tickets to the games. One of the weeks while he was in the hospital having chemo he was the Redbirds' top salesman for the week. That's amazing!

Once again, this thing is not doing my paragraphs correctly. Sorry this is all running together.

while we're waiting....

While we're waiting on the video attachment to be worked out for yesterday's entry, here's a picture I forgot about that I like. It's from last year's Germantown Festival (September, I think). Avery had a soccer game that morning, then we went to the festival.

Dublin: Play by Play

Ok, so we figured out why we can't attach the video. We'll need to lower the quality on the camera before recording a video we want on the blog. The quality made it too big for the blog to hold. So sorry.

This video (that we can't attach) is when we saw Jackson off the last night we were there.

Some of the following will be sentence fragments and incorrect grammar & tenses--please forgive! We ate breakfast at the hotel daily so I won't mention that each day. The croissants were the best thing. We didn't try the baked beans or blood pudding (or whatever it's called). Martin did try the gross looking broiled tomatoes and the mushrooms, but didn't get them anymore.

TUESDAY 6/17/08

After flying overnight, we arrived at the hotel & took a nap! Jackson met us after he got out of school and we went to eat dinner @ Blarney Inn Pub where we had fish 'n chips & smoked salmon.

WEDNESDAY 6/18/08

We walked to the Dublin tourism center to book a Cliffs of Moher tour to the west coast for Thursday then to the bank (that didn't open until 10:30!) to exchange money. We rode the city bus to Jackson's campus to see his apartment. All three of us then walked to Blackrock (I'm guessing 3 miles) where Jackson's classes are. It rained, of course. We ate lunch at a restaurant in that town before walking back to the campus where Jax lives. We bought snacks to have later in the week at Centra, a store on campus where you can get hot sandwiches & where Jackson gets his lunches occasionally. All 3 of us rode the bus back to the hotel. For dinner we grabbed sandwiches from Spar, a convenience store around the corner, and ate them in the hotel lobby while we took advantage of the Wi-Fi, making calls back home.

THURSDAY 6/19/08

We took a PaddyWagon tour across the country to the Cliffs of Moher (very windy!). The bus picked us up a little after 7:00am and dropped us back off in Dublin a little after 7:00pm. We got to see the countryside and the Cliffs--both were beautiful! There were stops at Galway Bay and the rocks @ Burren (sp?) Lunch was carvery style at a bar in Doolin, stew & soup. My interpretation of "carvery" is like our cafeteria style restaurants, with fewer choices. We had another pit stop in Limerick before getting back. Once back in Dublin, Jax went back to his campus & M and I walked around the Temple Bar area (a pedestrian street like Beale Street) briefly before getting Chinese take-away (we call carry-out or to-go) for dinner. It was 9:30 by that time, but it didn't seem that late because it was daylight until about 10:30.

FRIDAY 6/20/08

Beautiful weather this day, which worked out perfectly because this was the day we set aside to walk the WHOLE city nearly. We walked the O'Connell bridge across the river Liffey (where Jax met us) & saw the O'Connell monument and Dublin Spire. Walked back across the river on the Ha'Penny bridge to the Temple Bar area. Stopped at St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedrals. Next was Dublin Castle where we ate lunch. Don't assume a burger comes with a bun here. Martin had a great ham 'n cheese panini. Dublin castle has been used for lots of government things over the years. It is currently the place where they inaugurate the president and heads of state are hosted. Trinity College was our next stop. We didn't view the Book of Kells, but enjoyed the place anyway. They had actually just finished their graduation ceremony which was weird because tourists were all inside the campus at the time. I guess students are used to tourists year-round while they're inside rooms taking classes. We then went to the National Gallery of Ireland and the National Museum of Ireland (our votes are for the museum). Next stop was St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park I equivolate to the U.S.'s Central Park, which I've never been to, so that's just a guess. The park was beautiful. We went back to the hotel where the boys napped and I played on the computer. We ended the day with dinner at Abrakebabra, a chain, kinda fast-food sort of place that specializes in kebabs. Their kebabs are not on a stick though. It's really like hot pita sandwiches; they were good.

SATURDAY 6/21/08

We went to the Custom House on the river Liffey. We'd wanted to go yesterday, but it's only open on the weekends. It's history was pretty interesting. We then walked to Grafton Street, a pedestrian area full of shopping. We had planned to go back to St. Stephen's Green for a celtic band concert @ 3:00, but it was rained out---napped @ the hotel instead. We found a pub (Kate's Cottage) we wanted to try for dinner b/c the sign said "traditional Irish music" @ 9:00pm weekends. We got there @ 7:30. The music didn't start until almost 11:00 due to the EuroCup (big time soccer tournament) on the big screen. This girl gets up there to sing and what does she start with?!!! "SWEET HOME ALABAMA", followed by a Beatles song! We left before the 2nd song ended. Needless to say, we were disappointed after waiting all that time to hear that when we were expecting "traditional Irish music"!

SUNDAY 6/22/08

Took the DART (commuter train) to Malahide to tour the Malahide Castle. It stormed on the ride there and a tree fell on the power lines to the DART which caused a delay. After the castle we went back to the train station to find out the train wouldn't be running in that area for hours. It was an adventure, but we found the bus that could take us to Sutton, then one to Howthe where the train line was running again. We walked around Howthe a bit. It's a fishing bay. We went to a small farmer's market there and got some yummy bread. Rode the DART back to the station near our hotel. Ate dinner @ Fitzimmons in Temple Bar. We had more fish 'n chips and salmon. I opted for a 7UP @ dinner this night instead of water. It equaled about 5 American dollars! & wasn't that much drink. This is when we figured out beer was cheaper than sodas.

MONDAY 6/23/08

We took the DART to Dalkey where we toured the Dalkey castle. Dalkey was a neat town, not many tourists. It's a harbor town on the coast. After back in City Centre (main part of Dublin where our hotel was) we walked to Grafton Street again, then met Jackson after his class was out. We ate at Mona Lisa, an Italian restaurant. This is where we had the waitress from Arkansas I mentioned in a previous blog. Winston, I believe, is the town she was from. We then saw Jackson off at the bus stop for the last time (sob) (see video). He had school the next day and we had to be at the airport early, so we wouldn't get to see him.

TUESDAY 6/24/08

Had to be at the airport @ 7:30 for a 10:30 flight back home. It was a great week!

Southern Sitings in Dublin

These gave us a laugh! There was a Johnny Cash mural on this truck and the scooter was painted like the General Lee! Also, they love Dolly Parton. She had a couple concerts while we were there and got great reviews in the newspaper. Eric Clapton (that I mentioned in the last entry) didn't get good reviews. Dolly's tickets were more expensive than both Clapton's and Jay-Z's! We also ran into Elvis fans, of course. When people would ask where we from and we told them Memphis, the usually mentioned Elvis.

Ireland pictures

The first picture was taken shortly after arrival. There's an Italian restaurant on the first floor of the building behind us, which was near our hotel. We ended up eating dinner there our last night. Our waitress was from Arkansas! She's been living there four years. She was a student at the University of Arkansas and came over to study abroad at UCD (University College Dublin), the same school Jackson goes to. She met her boyfriend, who is from Dublin, while there, so that's why she's living there now.

The second picture was taken in front of Malahide Castle. Eric Clapton had a concert in front of this castle the night before we toured it. Very windy as you can see.

The last picture was at the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. We enjoyed the trip across the country, which you can do in one day. The countryside was beautiful. It was VERY windy up on the cliffs, too! The cliffs are 400-600 feet high (from what I can remember). The coast guard was there when we arrived. We read in the paper the next day that at the same time we were there, the coast guard was pulling a man's body from the water. He didn't make it, of course. I don't know what happened to him, but we heard several people had commited suicide there and people had also died by being blown by wind gusts over the edge when they go past the barriers.....and we saw tons of people going past the barriers! No way were we doing that with that wind.