Will we ever see our deck again?

David tried to tell my mom that the snow on our deck was all the way up to the chairs. She didn't believe him, so I took a few pictures as proof.

Keep in mind our deck gets very little sunlight, so some of this is snow from December. Still, it will be awhile before we can use our deck...

Home Sweet Home

We made it home a little after 8 tonight. Daisy laid on our bed while we unpacked the car. Her smile expresses how we all felt about being home.

Once we unloaded, we put on our Bears gear for Monday Night Football.

It's been a great game so far... go Bears!!!!

------------
12:15am update:

After the game went to OT, the Bears pulled off the upset win over the Vikings!!!!

What a game!!!

Daisy Claus

David was on a business trip on Wednesday so je wasn't going to get home until late. I decided Daisy and I would surprise him by decorating the exterior of our house for Christmas.

Since it was cold outside, I bundled Daisy up in her red fuzzy suit... Hence Daisy Claus was born.


I then strapped Daisy to me in a carrier and we went to work putting up bows, candles, and a flood lamp.

Here is the final product of our surprise for Daddy David. He loved it!



Mommy's little "deer" was a great helper! :)

August!

The month of August has flown by...

The first weekend we had a 2-day childbirth preparation class at the hospital. We learned all about labor and how to breathe during it. We took a hospital tour and found out a lot of good information to help prepare us for the big day.

This next picture was taken Monday, August 3 before work...


We've been at home every weekend, not traveling this month because our baby is due Aug. 29. This meant we missed the annual NLCF staff retreat, which was the second weekend of August. While it was a bummer to miss out on hanging out with our friends, we enjoyed a relaxing weekend full of getting things done around the home. We also were able to go to Steppin' Out, Blacksburg's annual downtown summer festival.

Jeanette's birthday was on Saturday, August 8th, which is when the staff were out of town. When they returned on Sunday, some of us went out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. (Her dad was staying with us for a few weeks while he worked on the house he and Mrs. Staats own in Blacksburg and plan to retire in this fall!)


On Monday, August 10, my wonderful friends threw me a baby shower here in Blacksburg. My mom and sis drove up from Richmond and my sis came with me to the shower while my mom entertained my hubby. It was definitely a unique baby shower, full of interesting games (one with melted chocolate in diapers), and of course I was showered with wonderful gifts. It was a huge blessing to receive all that we did, and I had a great time celebrating with everyone. Probably the most original shower food for a baby shower, too, since my friends had all my favorites: cream soda, grilled cheese, oat fudge bars, and dark chocolate candy! Also, the ladies made origami animals to hang on a homemade mobile for the nursery (nice idea Jessamyn!). It's pretty cool.

Some other folks have better pics I know, but here are two taken on my camera. The first is of me and Kristal, who returned from being gone all summer at LT. She had fun making up for lost time talking to Mini-Chinny. The second is a pic of Rachel's head on a stick along with booties from Guatemala she mailed me. She wasn't able to come to B'burg for the shower so I made sure she "attended" while I opened her gift. :)




Finally, we have gotten the nursery ready for Mini-Chinny. I think I mentioned before that we were using a panda theme, and have as a result named the room "The Panda Room." (All the rooms in houseofchinn have a name...) We moved "The Cheetah Suite" to the basement, where the guest room now is, and it makes more sense since Peter started his Cheetah research living in the room in the basement.

Here are some pictures from the nursery...






This past week was "move-in" here in Blacksburg, as the students have all returned. We had several church events in the evenings that kept us busy, which helped pass the time as I have been anxious to get this "show" on the road!

So here we are... August 22 and awaiting the arrival of the baby. David has been nesting like crazy this month, doing a deep clean and organization of our house. I cannot explain how much he has gotten done -- so much that has needed to be done for years. He has been amazing!

I have had "false labor" several times this week, having been experiencing contractions for about four days now. Of course they come and go -- sometimes in the middle of the night -- and a few times I have thought "this is it!" For now, we are just waiting, though, knowing that the time will come soon enough!

We'll keep everyone posted as we count down the final 7 days until our due date. I promise we'll send a few updates when I go into labor/deliver Mini-Chinny.

Rescued by the white stuff...

That's right. It's a snow day. Oh how I desperately needed one.

We returned home safely on Monday night from our trip to France. I promise soon I'll post an update and some more pics from our week in Paris. But we got back late Monday and Tuesday morning it was back to work. I've had trouble sleeping the past several nights, and have had things each evening. So David has been doing laundry and taking down Christmas decorations when he gets home each night.

Today is my turn to help out...I desperately need to get our bedroom in order to start the new year. I have bags and stacks of clothing and you name it stacked up everywhere. It's time to make some sense of the mess and get our bedroom uncluttered.

Yes, the snow couldn't have come at a better time. The white stuff saves the day!

time for a few updates...

there are several things i want to update everyone on:

1) Before & After - no i didn't forget. i know the deadline passed on this one from what i wrote earlier. boomama has postponed her date, but i spent all weekend working on our bedroom and bathroom (items #2 & #3) and can let you know that I AM DONE!!!

that's right: SUCCESS! so i didn't finish until july 28, but still... i'm finished! i don't have any before pictures, but i'll post some after pics later. stay tuned.

2) ICE CREAM FAST - a number of you know i gave up ice cream from early july until AUGUST 8 (jeanette's bday). its kind of like a summer lent, i guess, but i wanted to practice self-discipline and give something up that sometimes has power over me. (did i mention how much i love ice cream?)

this weekend, i did eat few bites of ice cream while at a baby shower, but only because it was an ice cream cake and a piece was handed to me and i could not hand it back. that would have been totally inappropriate to make a scene in such a setting. it was during the gift opening and there was just no way not to eat it without drawing attention. kati, who we all know is very wise (no pun intended), was next to me and i told her my dilemma, and she agreed i had to eat it. i don't want to be legalistic about this "fast" so i decided it was only a few bites (i was handed a very small piece).

here's the thing: i didn't even enjoy it. it wasn't very good. all the other ladies raved about how yummy the cake was. and i'm sure it was. i believe that God didn't let me enjoy it so that i wouldn't feel guilty. he knew i wasn't succumbing to temptation, so i think he let me not really enjoy it so that i would stay strong.

this was put to the test the next day. we had some friends in from out of town, and after church a group of us went to el rod's for lunch. katie had been promised by her hubby jason that they'd get tcby while in town, because she had been craving it and there wasn't one in richmond. so after lunch, we walked across the street and they all got ice cream/yogurt. except me! i held up and did not give into the temptation. the boys all sat at the kiddie picnic table, which i thought was cute. they are so funny!



anyway, i feel good about not falling off the wagon and look forward to officially breaking my ice cream fast while celebrating the olympics and sassy's bday on aug. 8!

back...

i am back in town... and back online (sort of).

before i left on my road trip, our internet at home stopped working. i didn't have internet while in richmond, and although i'm back, the internet at home is not great.

if i have time at work today, i'll post my pics and recap from my trip. otherwise, it might be a day or so. i've got to get the internet thing at home figured out... david says it is going in and out and we've been getting error messages from comcast. i was about to pull my hair out tuesday night but i've settled down now after my trip and am ready to try again. i think.

more later...

b & a update

before and after update:

item 1) get navajo room ready for jesse is complete!

okay, i still gotta make room for her clothes in the closet, because currently david's are living in there. but that's so minor. she and her mom (who was visiting) stayed in there last night so i can check that box off!

one down, two to go...

boomama's before and after!

i just found out about this (somehow i missed it earlier) but boomama has hit on something i too struggle with -- setting goals and actually accomplishing them around the house!

she has decided to do an internet "before and after" where we all set some goals, post it on the web, then DO IT, and then post pictures for all to see.



i have decided to participate even though i only have one week! we have really been doing this all summer, but now i have extra motivation to push through this last week.

my goals:
1) get navajo room ready for jesse to move in
2) clean/organize the master bath
3) get our bedroom "decluttered"

in one week's time, you will see some pics of houseofchinn! :)