Wow, what a week it's been. We are just over the halfway mark of getting to meet our little Dean Edward, yay!
John and I had our anniversary trip/baby-moon this past weekend! We left Friday after work and headed to his aunt and uncle's house to stay the night (thank you again John and Glynnis for letting us stay with you!). Then we got up Saturday morning and headed for Charleston. We stopped for lunch at the mall in Columbia, where John started watching the UT/South Carolina game. Oh boy. This meant finding a UT radio app on the phone, and listening to the game the rest of the trip. This also meant that once we got to Charleston, we found a restaurant to watch the end of the game (and for me to have my second lunch of the day). Bless him, I just wish the Vols could have pulled out a win.
Sidebar: I rarely ever talk about sports, much less football, but this has been on my mind: People need to lay off Derek Dooley. I feel (yes, I'm using the "I feel" statement, so you can't say I'm wrong) that UT fans have gotten rather cocky. Toward the end of Fulmer's era, fans demanded he step down...and he did. That was probably in the works for a while, just coincidence it happened after fans demanded his leaving. Fan rejoiced. UT hired Lane Kiffin. Fans rejoiced. Lane Kiffin put together a team that seemed to be doing decent. Fans rejoiced. Then, Kiffin up and left UT. In the middle of the season. Fans went insane (just YouTube it, in case you've forgotten). So Kiffin left, taking staff, coaches, and "big recruits" with him. Then Dooley was hired. After all that mess. Needing to clean up the mess. And rebuilt to make his team. People, it takes time to build a team. These are not necessarily the players he recruited, but they're who he has to work with. So because UT can't seem to win any conference games, fans are (as they do) demanding UT fire him. Come on, give Dooley some time. Let Bray graduate so we can get a good quarterback, not just a decent one (I mean come on Bray, take a sack rather than throw an interception. But try not to fumble when you do, like you did Saturday). One of our local sportscasters ran an editorial the other day that in summary, places all blame on Kiffin (rightfully so), and to ask fans to lighten up. So, stop calling for Dooley's firing. It'll cost UT more money to cut him out of his contract anyway, money I'm betting they don't have. He's going to be there for a while, so sit back and enjoy the ride. And support him.
ANYWAY, we had our anniversary dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sullivan's (and it was YUMMY!). Sunday was a gorgeous day! We walked around downtown Charleston, went to the market, got tea and dessert, and went to the beach. We didn't lay out or anything, water was way too cold and dirty from Sandy, but man, it felt GOOD to be warm outside. This whole time, John and I are keeping our eye on the storm and how it was going to have effects back home. We came up with contingency plans, even back ups to our contingency plans. Eventually, yesterday morning we decided we would cut our trip short a day in order to make it home before the snow started. Thankfully, we made it! Although we did deal with plenty of wind, rain, and even snow as we came over Sam's Gap from Sandy. And when I say "we," I mean John. He did an excellent job driving and getting all three of us home safely. Big thanks to Dave and Krista for being willing to keep us for the night in case we had to re-route our path!
Do continue to pray for all those who have been impacted by the Super Storm Sandy.
While the trip was shorter than anticipated, I am so grateful for the time John and I got to spend together. That was the one point anyway, to have time alone together. Traveling for work is difficult, and was even more so this year. So our time meant so much, and I'm glad we've had that.
I'm not even going to address my last week of travel in NoVa. It came. It went. Praise Jesus!
On to the Baby update!
Size: Carrot baby! Little Dean is around 3/4 of a pound now and is approx 10.5 inches in length!
Physical Features: His eyebrows and lids are now present. Awe, cute little baby eyebrows :)
What I'm Thankful For: The flutters! I love feeling little Dean move around. He seems to be most active right before I go to sleep and as I wake in the morning. People say he's got his days and nights confused. I think he's just happy for me to take time to relax, so I can pay him more attention :)
Cravings: Soda. Again. I had a Sprite this weekend, and it tasted like the best thing ever.
Overall Feelings: Still great! Getting excited to starting our baby registry. I believe we've picked out a bedroom theme (and by "we," I mean "me" :) So happy to have this little guy!!!
Appointments and Coming Events: It's Fall, y'all! Getting ready for all the end of the year events and holidays. The glucose appointment is the week of Thanksgiving. Looking forward to Thanksgiving, not so much that appointment.
The Week 21 Bump Pic:
Yes, from Charleston, at Waterfront Park. Right behind where I'm standing is the location where John proposed to me 4 years ago. Back then, I wouldn't have thought that 4 years later I would be standing in that same spot, expecting our first child. So blessed!
Have a fantastic week!
