Canoeing and more baby room stuff...

On Saturday Nate and I went canoeing on the Buffalo River with some friends from college, as well as some other people they knew from church and work. We had to leave at 8:30 in the morning and didn't get back until 7:30 that evening, but we had a great time. We rented canoes from Crockett's, and their canoes were awesome! Well the only real difference was that their canoes had backs to the seats, but still! It made for a much more comfortable ride. I will definitely be renting from them if we go again! It took us about 3.5 hours to make it down the portion of the river we canoed. Nate and I got separated from the group right at the beginning when we went a different way around a bend and then never met back up with them, but we finally found them later after stopping on the bank and waiting for a while. It was a nice day, not too hot, and the river was deep enough that we didn't have to "ford" any parts of it. Some of our group ended up tipping over at various points throughout the trip, but thankfully Nate and I managed not to tip. We did have one close call when we got to some rapids and I lost my paddle and Nate was trying to save it, but we made it! We brought plenty of food, water, and sunscreen, but for some reason even though I applied sunscreen 4 times (yes Mom, the first time was an hour before we got in the water) I have two strips on my legs that still got pretty badly sunburned. I think it could be because i had my legs up on the sides of the canoe alot (I let Nate do a lot of the paddling!) but I figured that applying sunscreen as often as I did should protect me. Oh well. All in all it was a fun trip!

Here is how I rode most of the way down the river!


We stopped and swam for a while.


I've finished my crib skirt and some wall-hangings to decorate our baby's room. I used a pattern for the crib skirt, so all I gotta say is, cribs better all be a standard size! I'm gonna be upset if I spent all that time and it doesn't fit! Here are some pictures of my completed projects. P.S. Notice the pleats on the crib skirt. I was very proud of those! I haven't decided if I'm going to add anything on to the wall hangings. Any suggestions? I've also considered making the two outside rectangles the same fabric...which fabric do you like better, the flowers or the stripes? Or should i leave them the way they are?





I'm starting to run out of things to do to keep my mind off the waiting. Suggestions anyone? I do have one more book I have to finish reading, but other than that, I don't know what else I can do to the baby room. I'm also about to have a bunch of free time with summer coming up. I have a wedding in June, and a 2 week Orff class to take in July, but other than that I don't have much going on.

Keep praying that the adoption process moves as quickly as possible, and God has the perfect baby ready and waiting for us to take home. I would like to say "thank you" though to all of you who have written recommendation letters for us. I hope you know how much Nate and I appreciate it.

Ohio Wedding!

This weekend Nate and I made a quick trip to Ohio for a wedding! Nate's brother was getting married to a wonderful girl named Lauren, and Nate was obviously a groomsman in the wedding, so he kinda had to be there! I had been going back and forth about whether or not I was going to be able to go. I know...I know...it's my brother-in-law's wedding, how could I miss it?? Well this was my first year at a new school, and I had already missed more days this year then I had probably missed in all 5 of my years at WCC, due to illness (dang swine flu!) and infertility issue stuff, so I really didn't feel comfortable missing more days. (Yes that was probably an exaggeration, but I have missed a lot more days this year than I usually do!) I did have one more personal day left though, so I decided if I was able to just miss that one day then I would go. We ended up leaving Thursday afternoon after work, Nate picked me up, and we drove 6 hours and found a hotel outside of Nashville. The next day we got up early and drove the next 7 hours to get there in time for the rehearsal and dinner.

Unfortunately Eric and Lauren had planned on having an outside wedding, but with a 90% chance of rain the next day, they had to find a church at the last minute. This made for a long night because everyone was scrambling to figure out how everything was going to work. We finally got it worked out though, and the wedding turned out beautifully. My husband looked really sexy in his brown tux...I'll try to post pictures later. I wasn't able to take any pics with my camera because I was in charge of taking pics with my mother-in-law's camera since she was obviously preoccupied. Even though I had my laptop with me, she didn't have her camera cable, so I will have to get the pictures another time.

One of the biggest things this wedding did was made me appreciate the relationships my parents and my in-laws have. I won't go into a bunch of detail unless I am given permission by those involved, but both my parents and my in-laws have loving, stable relationships, and cared more about me and Nate at our wedding then they did about themselves. I don't think we always realize what a good thing we have until we see someone else forced to be in a difficult situation through no fault of their own. I'm also very disappointed in parents who think it is ok to put their own selfish interests before those of their kids. That's all I will say about that, but I am very excited for Eric and Lauren, and know they will have a wonderful life together.

I started sewing my baby room stuff! Here is a picture of the valance I finished. I'm a little disappointed that the green didn't match the walls better, but I don't think it's going to bother me enough to try to change it. I'm planning on making the bed skirt look exactly like this valance.



No adoption news, except that I did hear some reference forms have finally been received by some of the references we put down. We had to list a TON of references, including a minister (and I think our preacher or an elder), a bunch of friends who had known us a while, and our parents. Not sure how many of these have been sent out...but it's nice to know that something is still happening.

Pilates and the baby room!

Well I went to my first night of a pilates/aerobics class that Harding is offering for the summer (so apparently "pilates" isn't a word according to blogger. am I spelling it wrong?). It was wonderful! Very relaxing and I definitely got a workout. I have never done pilates before, only yoga, but pilates seems to be very similar. I did miss doing my "tree" pose, but other than that I got to do the other yoga poses I love, and did a bunch of other exercises that I can tell really worked my muscles. I am not sure what to expect from the aerobics part of the class, but I will at least try it out. I won't be able to go much anyway until school is out. Because Conway is an hour away, I barely made it in time for this class. If I become a regular though I could probably walk in late because I did notice some people do that. Hopefully I will be able to go to just about every class offered once school is out.

So I've decided to make pieces for our baby's bedroom instead of purchasing them for a variety of reasons. I was originally looking online and found a really cute bedding set I liked. It came with a crib skirt, bumpers, quilt, and sheet. After reading here though, I realized that I wouldn't be able to use half of this set because of the risk of SIDS caused from excess bedding in the crib. I didn't like the print on the set enough to make it worth only using half of it. I don't know if it's just me being paranoid, or the fact that I feel like I'm having to work REALLY hard to get a baby, but I have this fear that once we get a baby something is going to happen to it. I just don't want it to be anything we could have prevented. So...I'm planning on making my own crib skirt for the crib, along with a curtain and other cute matching decorations, purchasing coordinating sheets, and possibly using these bumpers. I'm sure all the moms out there will have opinions about the use of bumpers, so let's hear them. As far as the room goes, we've already painted the room sage green, and I'm planning on using the colors green and brown since they are very neutral. Once we know the sex of our baby I would like to add pink or blue into the mix as well...so hopefully I'm able to incorporate those colors when the time comes. I am planning on making the crib skirt and valance solid brown, with a green section at the bottom with white polka dots on it. I wanted the theme to be polka dots, but i found some really cute material that is green with a brown floral design on it, and green/brown/white stripes, and I couldn't pass them up, so now the "theme" is just green and brown.

There is no news on the adoption front, and it's getting a little discouraging because there is nothing I can do about it. I like to be in control but this entire process keeps reminding me that I don't have any control at all. Even though I know we are supposed to give everything to God and let him be in control, don't we still need to have some control over the circumstances in our lives to be able to stay sane and function? I want to have SOMETHING I can be doing to help the process along in some way, but I haven't been able to find anything I can do at this point.

Please pray I can find peace in the fact that I have no control over the most important event going on in my life right now.

Music Program Over!

On May 3rd I finally had my 3rd and 4th grade music program, that had been postponed since February. That had definitely been a major stressor because it kept dragging out, and the kids and I both were getting tired of working on the same things. Well my kids did wonderfully and I got many comments about how great it went. I think it went about the best that it could have gone. Now I have a lot less to worry about with the end of the year coming up. I have had a wonderful first year and I am so thankful that I have the job I'm at.
Just thought I'd share. No adoption news...