$1, $2, $3

After dinner last night we decided to see a movie but we had about an hour and half to waste before it started so we did what any expectant couple would do. We went shopping at the outlet for Ensley. We found this little pair of fleece pants for $1,

the little onesie that will fit her around Valentine's day (it says I Only Have Eyes for You) for $2,

and this adorable little dress for next spring for $3.

How cute!? I think we saved about $40 with our purchases...I love a good bargain. I can't wait to see her in all of these cute little clothes!! I am pretty sure the first thing I will do when we get in the house is go through all of the clothes from my nieces that are in storage and wash them, hang them, and oooo and cooo at them excitedly anticipating Ensley's arrival!!!

Anniversary Flowers

When I got home from running errands Friday afternoon, I was greeted by my sweet husband who had bought me flowers for our anniversary. What he didn't know when he bought them was that I packed all the crystal including our vases when we moved into the apartment. So he greeted me with my flowers in a plastic pitcher. Memories!
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Five Years

Five years ago today I married the man of my dreams. Literally...I can remember sitting in the sanctuary as a sixth grader watching him in the youth choir on Sunday nights and thinking how cute he was. Then as I entered junior high and got to know this cute guy in the youth group, I fell hard for his blue eyes and ability to make me laugh anytime. As we both matured and I entered high school our friendship grew and I began to fall hard for his desire to follow God's will in his life. As a young girl the dreams of my future included EJ Wood, and God graciously blessed me with the fulfillment of those dreams.

Going into our wedding five years ago, I knew that my for love him would grow more every day but I really didn't know how it could be possible to love him more than I did this day five years ago. I can't completely define it but I know that through our tough times and dirt poor times and happy times and road trip adventures and now with the upcoming birth of our first little girl I love him more than I can express and can't imagine having the capacity to love him even more, but I am sure five years from now I will look back and realize that indeed I love him even more then than I do today.

Happy Anniversary E! I love you more than you will ever know!

Prayer for Wisdom and Guidance

As the time draws closer to Ensley's due date, there are so many things that tend to overwhelm my mind. Will she come early? Will she be healthy? Should we immunize according to government standards or follow a less strenuous alternative schedule? Not to mention, when she gets older...will she desire obedience to God? Will she understand the love He has for her? Then there are the parenting aspects like how to teach her the importance of discipline, right from wrong, purity and modesty without being dictators but rather shepherds of her life and heart. Will we follow God's direction in raising her or knee jerk according to the world's standards of parenting? All of these thoughts plus soooo many more flood my mind every day.

Every time I think of another worry, I pray for sweet Ensley. I have been reading through 'The Power of a Praying Parent' by Stormie Omartian as a guide to pray for Ensley as well. It is a bit of sanity in the midst of my weakness. She does a fantastic job of praying scripture. Here are some excerpts from that have been an encouragement and given me so much peace that I thought I would share them.

"No matter what stage of life our children are in, when we release them to God they are in good hands."

"We don't want to limit what God can do in our children by clutching them to ourselves and trying to parent them alone."

"We are to depend on God to enable us to raise our child properly, and He would see to it that our child's life was blessed...God didn't promise that nothing bad would ever happen to my child, but praying released the power of God to work in her life, and I could enjoy more peace in the process."

I know all the verses on anxiety and worry and I know that God's plan is best and His timing is best no matter what happens but sometimes I let my flesh take over my mind. I so needed to hear these words in the midst of my weakness.

Lord, show me how to pray for this child. Help me to raise her Your way, and may Your will be done in her life.

John 15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
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Lookin' Good!

We went out to the house Tuesday night. It is hard to believe they will turn over the house to cleaning and quality control in five more days! We are so ready!

Laundry tub in garage.

If you look around the edge of the cabinets you can see our hardwoods.

Master bathroom

Guest bath

We are going back tonight and are expecting to find carpet and some work on the brick and stone including a start to the porch.

25 weeks

This past week I had two patients at work notice that I was pregnant. I wear my white coat everyday and it covers my belly so it is harder to see while I am working. I can't wait to have Ensley here so I can show them pictures rather than a belly.
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Closing!!

We are closing on June 9th!! We have our interest rate locked in and are counting down the days to moving into our home sweet home!

The brick and stone on the front hasn't been redone yet so pardon the southwestern Tudor.

The dining room to the right of the entrance.

The appliances should be installed now.

The living room.

Monday the toilets, faucets, and plumbing will be finished. Tuesday the hardwoods will be installed. Wednesday the final trim will be done and Thursday is carpet! I don't know what all is on the schedule for the following week but it is scheduled to be done on the 19th. Then the quality control team will walk through the house marking things that are not up to par, and then they give the construction team a week to finish the touch ups. Time flies!!! I can't believe it is almost finished!

A-OK

Everything went well at the doctor today. One cyst had slightly decreased in size and one was the same so they are not going to monitor again until after Ensley's arrival. Praise God!

Ensley's heartbeat was 144 bpm today and she gave us another good profile picture.

Next visit is the glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes...yuck! We will pray that visit goes well too.

24 Weeks

We go back to the doctor tomorrow. During the last ultrasound they found two large cysts on both ovaries, so they are going to do another ultrasound tomorrow to monitor them. They said they could have been there for years or they could have just come up since I got pregnant, but either way they want to make sure they are not enlarging. It is common for women to get corpous luteum cysts during pregnancy and they were pretty sure that is what I had. We are praying that they go away on their own so I don't have to have them removed after Ensley gets here, but trusting that God will take of us either way.

The Great Flood

And by great I mean big not fantastic. It has been raining hard here for 2 days now with only a few couple hour breaks in between the interstates were closed last night and I haven't heard if they have reopened yet. The city of Nashville has a mandatory curfew of 6pm...not sure how they will enforce that but I am sure it is to decrease rescue calls after dark. Schools are closed tomorrow. It is craziness!
When I got off work last night there was a small break in the rain so I stopped at the new house to check on it because we had already expressed concern about the drainage in the back. The living room had definitely been flooded, there was water all the way back to the new kitchen cabinets and water in the master bedroom which is adjacent to the living room. Most of he water was already gone but you can see in the pictures where it had been. It has rained nonstop today since about 9am so EJ is going back out there to check on it tonight. We don't know how far behind this will put closing but we figure at least a couple of weeks. However we are both fine and have a lot to be thankful for.
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Daddy's Big Kick

EJ has felt Ensley kick twice now, but both times he has had to ask, "Was that it?" Well, Thursday morning after breakfast EJ was on the couch and I was sitting across from him in the chair and my shirt moved. He got this huge smile on his face and said, "Oh my gosh, was that her?!" The next 30 minutes he would do a belly check like every 30 seconds to catch another glimpse of her. He is going to be such a great daddy. I am falling deeper and deeper in love with him every day as I watch him fall in love with Ensley.
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