…when you forget how to log into your blog.  Or maybe its the pregnancy hormones that are taking my brain cells.  Either way, I’m sad once again because I am now forcing myself to write a “review post” rather than my thoughts along the way.  And what’s funny, is there are a lot of things that are worthy of their own post but alas, I have not the time.

*  So definitely not last…is the fact that we did decide to find out what this little one is going to be and…It’s a Girl!  I truly did not care but am very excited that we are going to get to raise a little chica first.  The day we found out, we asked the tech to put it in an envelope and we opened it up later that afternoon with two of our close couple friends.  It was way fun to get to celebrate with people who know and care about us.  We immediately left for the RHS football game (It was Senior Night!) and got to tell all of our FSM kids after texting our families.  We just didn’t have time to make phone calls.  The girls were way excited…especially since most of them were convinced we were having a boy.  We also were a little overwhelmed by a group of 50 8-9 year old girls who were there to cheer at halftime.  We both had the sudden thoughts of prom and weddings and everything else….slightly overwhelming.  I feel confident in the baby stage and even the teenage stage but the elementary school, super girlie phase is a little much to comprehend.  I think Daniel was just seeing $ signs.    And we have not named her yet and have no clue when we will.  It could happen next week or the day she is born.  Who knows!  And the ultrasound showed that everything is where it should be and that she is “perfect” according to all of their little test, scans, etc.  I didn’t really ever think about all of the “what ifs” because I guess I just was focused on the fact that God created this child and knew what He wanted to give us and what this child needs.  So it was almost a little surreal to hear them call her “perfect” and was interesting to put that into context.

* We started our new community group out in The Ville and are very excited to get to know some people who actually live within 5 miles of us.  So far, so good…we just haven’t had as much time to invest in these new relationships as we’d like.

* We welcomed home The Wheeler Family of 3 from Guatemala with their new daughter in tow!  It has been a crazy whirlwind for them and we are grateful that they are reunited and finally “home”.

* Emily M came to visit too!  It was really fun to get to show her our house and where we have been living.  She has not been able to come visit because we were more than two hours from the hospital but she promised me she would come before they moved back to Texas.  She moved 1.5 weeks after she came to visit which is absolutely crazy.  I almost felt guilty she was with me and I was not at her house packing boxes with her but I definitely took advantage of our time.  She helped me register and we watched Father of The Bride 2 (a movie I have never seen).  It was way fun!

* After that, my body decided to get super sick with some allergy/cold/bronchitis stuff.  I was pretty miserable for about 10 days and sounded like a man for almost two weeks.  Daniel also got sick so we were pretty lame for awhile.  I’m so glad to finally feel better.  I absolutely hate being sick.  And, of course, we had a hard time slowing down so I went with Daniel to Birmingham for work, and we continued to work on the house.

* And for the house update….I’ll need to add pictures soon now that things are finally getting completed. Here are the projects that we have been working on in the last month or so:

1. Tear out exterior dining room wall & install french doors

2. Seal up backside of house (a big task in an old house).  Paint entire back exterior.

3. Build deck.

4. Drywall interior doorway and add new doorway for new master bedroom.

5. Build wall for new master bathroom.

6. Paint, crown, drywall, install lighting & ceiling fan in new master.

7. Build temporary master closet.

8. Tear out windows in old master/new nursery – dry wall & paint.

Ummm…understatement of the century:  We’ve been busy working hard, and are very crazy.  But, when you are leaving town for a month, heading into the holidays, and entering your third trimester by the time you get back….it lights a fire under you to get some things done.

* We also held the largest bonfire we have ever had.  You might recall the pile from earlier pictures of the deer in our yard.  Well…it got even bigger and we invited all of the Seniors in the Foundry to come over during Fall Break.  When Daniel lit it, the flame was as big as our tallest tree.  Thankfully, I had not made it home yet or I might have called the fire department on him.   This was also significant because we finally figured out parking so that we could have a big group over.  I think we had about 50 people and fit over 30 cars on our property without any fender benders or damaged property.  Yeah, more Party @ The Tardys in the future!

So I hate that this post is so factual when there is so much more that I’ve been processing and would love to have the outlet to blog about it.  These next 10 days are extremely busy as we both try to get ready to leave for 4 weeks straight which makes me think I won’t have time to blog any time soon.  Daniel’s event in Mexico is coming up really quickly which means he is especially busy and since we are driving to Texas over Thanksgiving, I’m adding pressure to my life by trying to get all of our Christmas shopping done so we can drive it and deliver things early to save on shipping.  Much less spending time with everyone before we duck out of life here for a month!  So if you don’t hear from me for awhile again, at least you know why this time.