no pain, no gain...?

I had mentioned some back pain last week.

And I had reported it was healed...

and then I woke up the next day...

not feeling so healed.

Now that I have finally been to my dr. I have found out that, as I was suspecting, this was not typical sore-back pregnancy pain. Graham had decided (very unwisely :) to camp out on my sciatic nerve. oh, boy...it was painful. I was hobbling around like an 80-year old lady. Actually, my grandma is 80 and she gets around much better than I was! It was painful to stand up, lay down, walk, move...turning over in bed was about beyond impossible...it was not good. I thought I was doomed to spend the next 3 months in agony. However, God very graciously intervened and caused Graham to move from wherever he was. I really am healed this time (I think!). Of course, there is the possibility that it could happen again. But after 5 days of that little episode, every day that I feel "normal" (as normal as pregnancy can feel) is so wonderful! I would almost do a little dance, but don't want to risk it happening again! Again, PRAISE GOD for being so gracious in allowing me to go back to functioning normally. We are going home to Minnesota in less than 3 weeks (so very excited!!), but I am especially praying that this doesn't affect me during the visit. Thank you to those who knew and were praying for me. God is good!

Fall Fun

On Saturday we finally had time to go searching for some "fall stuff'!! We found some mums & pumpkins for our front and a couple of little pumpkins to carve. Neither one of us have ever carved pumpkins (!!), so we decided to start small!

I finally found a good basil plant! I tried to grow one last year and I am terrible at the whole garden thing! So I am hoping this one will work because there is nothing better than cooking with fresh basil.

ready to go...

seeds ready to be toasted with sea salt & cinnemon

can you guess whose is whose?!!

yep...the boring one
definitely...the wacky one!

sharing the love... :)

Do them good...

It has been an interesting last couple of days...while I cannot complain at how well I have felt these last couple of months, 2 days ago one of the "minor inconveniences" of pregnancy hit me ~ BACK PAIN!! I'm not sure if a walk with my weekly walking partner triggered something, or I was on my feet too much...or it just happened! But I felt like I had a knot the size of a softball in my lower back. Wednesday is the only day I work 2 jobs and it ends up being a 12-hour work day. So I had called my dr. to see what I could take or shouldn't take or do or not do, etc... she said to lay down and put my feet up...right...not going to happen on a Wednesday!!

Anyways...I have a point in sharing this and it is not to elicit sympathy AT ALL...fast forward 2 days, after a lot of heating pads, some tylenol, and massage it is feeling much better!

BUT...it did get me to thinking...

The girltalk blog this week has been talking about that lady we love to hate, the Proverbs 31 woman! They have been encouraging us women to make sure that we are doing good to our husbands, all our days. This was such a good reminder to me, one that I easily forget. Check out their postings here.

But in the middle of my "uncomfortableness" it got me to thinking of all the ways that my husband does ME good! And I wanted to say a special thank you to him for them. To name a few...

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*running upstairs to heat up my heating pad when you want to get in bed

*bringing home take-out when I just can't make dinner that night

*keeping our cars running in tip-top shape and figuring out how to fix things yourself which has saved us so much money

*keeping track of all our budgeting & expenses and being such a good SAVER

*helping me clean our now huge house

*bringing me home my favorite treats

*making our weekly dates a priority

*loving God with all your heart, soul, & mind

*indulging me in baby registry trips (which bore you & panic you all at the same time!)

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and there are many more...but thank you to my favorite husband!! You make life so fun! xoxoxoxo

A cozy weekend

Our temps dropped from 85 degrees to 60 degrees between thursday & friday. I was so glad! I love the cooler weather. It was a little rainy as well, and so it was a perfect weekend to stay inside, go nowhere, and enjoy a little break from dashing everywhere during the week. it was a good weekend for cooking & baking! Friday night started with homemade tortellini soup, and we had fresh chocolate chips cookies on Saturday (what can I say - Graham was demanding them :)

Saturday night we caught up via the internet on all the SNL election sketches that we have missed. If you haven't seen them - they are hilarious!! Though they probably aren't as funny if you didn't see the debates. Here is one of the funniest from when Tom Brokaw was the moderator. You may know that he kept cutting off the candidates which was annoying that night, but SNL made it so funny! If you haven't seen it, you have to check it out! http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-thursday-debate-open/742065/



Saturday I also spotted this coupon on slickdeals.com - for those who like a good expresso drink - free cappachino at Barnes & Noble now through Oct. 31st. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?r=1&PID=24816&r=1

Weekend Away

It was that time of year again...we were itching for a weekend get-a-way. Let me just encourage, encourage, encourage any married couple to make these a priority in your life. Whether it's once or twice a year, our short weekend get-a-ways have been some of the most special times for us. We have been to D.C, Alexandria, The Outer Banks, Richmond, and now added to the list, Williamsburg. We've taken plenty of day trips to Williamsburg, but never stayed overnight. It's amazing how only going an hour away is far enough from your regular routine to be so relaxing! What are your money-saving travel tips...?
Our specific purpose for this trip was to talk through and about parenting goals and plans, because we are entering the land of no return shortly, and by that I mean parenthood! So we definitely wanted to get away before little Graham changes our world.
We have been taking a parenting class offered at our church going through the book Shepherding a Child's Heart, I have also been in a weekly ladies Bible study called Creative Correction and also recently read On Becoming Baby-Wise. So, needless to say, we have been bombarded with parenting advice, tips, strategies, etc... and while they have all been good things, we needed to sit down and sort through specific parenting goals and ideas. I don't think we can be given too much advice...but I think we can be given too many perspectives!! So anyways, parenting was a specific topic for the weekend and we spent a lot of time talking through things. We had a great time, it was extremely profitable, and had a lot of fun too!!



For those of you whose first thing that springs to mind is "we don't have the money to get away" let me just share a couple of tips that we have put into use, (because we certainly are not rolling in cash!)



1.) Priceline
2.) Entertainment book



Hotel...
We have used Priceline numerous times for booking hotels and almost always have gotten a steal of a deal! Now it does have some cons to it...but overall has great! We usually have gotten a 3 or more star hotel for $50 or less. But we soon found out that the fall is one of Williamsburg's busiest times, so we weren't getting the deal we were hoping for. So we turned to our entertainment book and ended up getting $80 off the listed internet price!


Food...
Since we were driving up on Saturday, we packed a picnic lunch for that day. We also were able to again use our Entertainment book and buy dinner on Saturday with a coupon for buy 1 meal, get 1 free. Sunday morning was oatmeal and apples brought from home, and then we had a Panera gift card for lunch on Sunday and were home for dinner on Sunday night. So again, just for those concerned with the cost, it can be done without spending a ton!



And now for the pics...
Here's Colonial Williamsburg


Andrew obviously needed a break from school... :)

Our hotel was very quaint...the next couple of pics are of the grounds which were beautiful!

a trip to Williamsburg would not be complete with a stop at the Outlets! Here's the largest Yankee Candle store I've ever seen! I also couldn't resist this outfit for Graham from The Children's Place!

This post is not letting me label pictures very well...so after the flower pics are a battlefield in Yorktown. Then we also went to President's Park where they have GIANT busts of each U.S. President.

Ghent

Saturday we spent the evening in one our favorite places in this area - Ghent of Norfolk. It is one of the older parts of the area, but one that has been maintained well. We love the old beautiful architecture. Andrew is the good photographer of the family and so these are his handiwork.

Dinner...so good...
this pole has seen quite a few posters...

in case you were concerned...
what could be better than a nice pumpkin spice latte for a nightcap!so cozy on a perfect fall evening...