Thanksgiving!

My parents came in for Thanksgiving. It has been so much fun having them here. We had some delicious food that we all helped cook... and by all, I am including myself. Yes, I baked! Shocking, I know. I decided that I want my son to be able to tell his friends one day that they all need to come over to his house because "my mom makes the best apple pie". This, and only this reason motivated me. So my mother brought over her delicious apple pie recipe and Wednesday night we prepared as much food as we could for the following day. My mom and I baked the apple pie (my dad cut and sliced all the apples), pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and sweet potato casserole. Chris and my dad prepared the turkey. Everything was so delicious. I was so proud of Chris because his first attempt at smoking a turkey was absolutely scrumptious! Here are some pics of us in the kitchen... and one of me at 6 months!

This just in...

Corporal Punishment is allowed in Tennessee! When I heard it I could NOT believe it. Chris and I help lead the youth at our church and one of the students, who goes to a private school, is getting paddled today. I thought I misheard him, but I didn't. He preceded to tell me that paddling was allowed at private schools if your parents sign a waiver when you first enter the school saying it is OK. Of course I was curious so I asked all about how it goes down. He said that he has to go into the principal's office, get patted down (making sure he doesn't have a wallet or anything that would get in the way of the paddle. Which, yes, means the principal touches his butt), touch his toes and get paddled 3 times. Seriously? That just seems so 1800s to me. And wrong. How can a parent actually think that having their 16 year old son get paddled by their principal is going to make him behave better? Ridiculous!

On the Edge

Kristine and I feel we are on the edge of something great. We've been praying the same prayers and fearing the same fears for long enough. We have struggles and questions and joys and answers, but we feel something big on the horizon. We just pray that we stay sane and patient long enough to get there, and to appreciate it when it happens, instead of saying "it's about freaking time!"

Kristine told me to blog about something funny, so I'll lighten this up a bit.

Is it weird to pray for your unborn child to have superpowers? (If your answer is "yes," then we probably aren't very close). Nothing that would effect his appearance (i.e. gills, prehensile tail, green skin), but flight, invulnerability, or super strength. I'm not saying I do pray for this, nor am I denying it.

Follow up question: Would you take the power of flight IF you could then never walk again? You could land on your feet, sit, lay down, etc., but you couldn't run, jog, skip, or walk when you wanted to move. You could only fly, or hover from place to place. Would you?

I would in a freaking second.

Let's get this straight... there are certain things you can say and certain things you CAN'T say to pregnant women. Let's just say the list of things you can say is way shorter than the list of things you can't. Here is what you CAN say:

You look amazing!
Wow! Pregnancy REALLY agrees with you.
I hope I look as good as you when I'm pregnant.

The end. That's ALL you can say. I will say that this is completely unacceptable: You're ONLY six months along? You're big for six months.

Just thought I would share that advice with you. Chris knows what he can say, and is so great at making me feel beautiful, even though my face keeps getting fatter, day by day.

Some photos

My sweet nephew Jacob... look at those teeth!

My beautiful niece Abby, holding a blanket my neighbor knitted for our son.

My friend Kaitlyn and me at just over 4 months. Yes, I realize my face is gaining weight.

Me at 4.5 months...

My amazing sister and precious mother... aunt Mindy and Bebe

I loathe Kay Jewelers commercials. First of all, they have the worst actors. Second, could they be more cheesy? For example: the last one I saw (2 minutes ago) a couple is at their cabin, looking out the window at the "horrible" storm. Lightning strikes and the woman (who apparently has never seen nor heard thunder before) spins around to her husband and hides her face in his shoulder. And he says, "I'm right here... and I always will be" and then hands her a small jewelry box with a diamond necklace in it. Come on! Really? They couldn't come up with anything better than that? And now, the song at the end has a man singing an octave lower with the familiar lady's voice, which my husband has said makes it sound like a Beauty and the Beast song. Ridiculous!