Weekend in Ohio

The Wedding
Jessica's wedding was more beautiful than I could have imagined. I took lots of pictures, but these three are my favorites.

Jess, the beautiful bride, and the fall foliage.


Aunt Jessie is super excited about Baby Kipp.


Andi told Dustin to "look GQ" and this is what he gave us. I think he's handsome.

Busy Saturday
I didn't take pictures, but it was one busy day! I went shopping with Barb, Momma Music, Andi, and Preggers Erin. We went shopping for the "new mommies" and spent a few hours in Jeffersonville making fun of each other in maternity clothes. It was such a good time, it makes me sad now because I wish I could do that all the time.
We then popped by the Douridas Pig Roast for a while and caught up with the church crowd. We then stopped by the Music's to watch the first half of the game and then left at half time to go back to the Kipp's house for me to go to sleep. But before I could go to bed, I had to have Johnson's Pumpkin Ice Cream.... the best ice cream in the whole wide world.


Busier Sunday
After church on Sunday Mom and I met up with Nick to have lunch at the Buckeye Hall of Fame. I had the best Reuben I've ever tasted and the view was all Ohio State as well.
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This is the best billboard I've ever seen.
Nick and I then went to Mom's dance lesson she takes with her friends (since it is in Grandview, Nick and I snuck out for a bit to go to Stauf's- Yum!). Then we picked up some of my cute little cousins to take them to meet Mom's new horse, Rocky.

Mom and Rocky, my fifth brother.


Amber showing off her tonsils.


Trever turned three a few weeks ago!


Cailynn's going to start learning how to ride horses soon.

My Favorite Part
The underlying best part of my whole trip was that it was truly autumn while I was there. I wore sweaters and real shoes and felt a nip in the air. Hot tea was great while it was still hot, and the leaves were a myriad of wonderful colors. My cousin Jacob found a few beautiful leaves and some wonderful acorns for me to take home with me, if I could have fit this tree in one of my suitcases, I would have brought it home too.


Baby Kipp is already popular (like we knew he/she would be)
Everyone was so sweet to me about my "condition" while I was home. I should have made a short informational pamphlet to pass around so I could have saved myself from sounding like a broken record, but I enjoyed answering all the great questions and kept trying to think of a different was to say we are absolutely thrilled to be parents soon. The best reaction was John Harmony's (who was our youth pastor in high school and performed our marriage many moons ago). He said first- "Is it Adam's?" When I laughingly replied that I hoped so he said, "Did you think this through?" Oh, John, you crack me up!
Baby Kipp even got some presents while we were in Ohio (and even more were waiting for us when we got home). Baby got some Ohio State gear from Aunt Kara and Uncle Nicky (which I don't have a picture of yet), and Aunt Andi made the baby some really sweet onesies as well (she was still working on one so I'll share that one once I receive it)

At some point Adam decided he wanted to name our kid "The" so that his name could be The Kipp and Andi made a shirt in homage to that long lived dream of his. I especially laughed at the PK one (slang/term used by Christians to denote Pastors' Kids [there is also the term MK for Missionaries' Kids])

When I got home last night this package was waiting for me from Aunt Glenna. It was the perfect gift for us bookwormie parents. Baby Kipp's first book and the cutest book ends I've ever seen (I love the turtle).
So until the thank you notes get in the mail. Thank you to everyone who helped me, hung out with me, and was super sweet to me this weekend. I had a great time "home."

things that make me happy

This next week, I will have been at my job for a year.... This makes me happy because for the first time in 5 years I like my job well enough to stay.
The other great thing about my job- I thought I only got 7 vacation/sick days for the next year and my boss told me today that I actually get 13! Wow that's almost double what I thought! That totally changes my outlook on life.

This commercial is the other thing that makes me happy. Usher and Martha Stewart together at last. :)

Thoughts

It seems so backwards to me so many people wait until the second trimester to tell "everyone" they are pregnant. Because (this is all without having anything to compare it to mind you) it always seems that the most understanding and support is needed in those first 12weeks that it just doesn't make sense to me. I've needed a (huge) extra amount of understanding these past 6 weeks that we've known I was pregnant and the whole thing hit me full force. I pretty much started feeling sick before the little line even turned blue. And the sleeping! Ah, the sleeping. I sleep more than I am awake by a pretty large margin these days.
But now that I'm working on my 11th week and climbing out of the mire of "all day sickness," and complete and utter exhaustion I'm wondering why we waited so long to "tell everyone." (I put this in quotes because I ended up blurting to a whole slew of people, for different reasons, and among those people quite a few more found out too.) I could have really used those extra prayers while praying myself that my food would just stay down and that I could get out of bed and spend half the day at work.
So I'm looking forward to the time up ahead. The times when I feel good and healthy and awake. Where I can return to "normal" activities like crafts (especially crocheting) and feel like a productive member of society again. Hopefully that time will be here swiftly.

The Announcement....

Here's what's been secretive and taking over huge portions of our lives lately-

That's right.... we'll be expecting a baby in May.
We are so excited (and don't get me wrong, totally nervous) about being responsible for a human being. But hey, we normally take care of ourselves and everthing so this shouldn't be too hard. (I'm totally just kidding, I've been around babies and children my whole life. We do know what we're getting ourselves into and the chaos that will be our lives for more than 20 years)

For those of you who are looking at your calendars- this would be the same week that Adam graduates from DTS, so plan on coming for that and also possibly seeing our new addition.

Man so now that the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, I have some hilarious pregnancy stories to tell already.... But those will have to wait for a new day.

Crafting! :)

Yup I finally started (and finished) a new project. The sense of accomplishment left me completely satisfied. It's a Christmas present (but I won't say who for). The pattern came from Bend the Rules Sewing that I got for my birthday.

Wonderful world

So my husband was wonderful to me. Friday evening we traded Bob Evans (the place where we ate the evening we first started "dating") for a steakhouse and coloring books for Half Priced Books (ok we're still poor). But our evening was still fun nonetheless and we had a wonderful night out on the town :)

Lots of things....

There are a lot of things going on right now, but many of them I'm not ready to put out into the blogsphere/internet just yet. A lot of surprises would be ruined if I did. But a lot of decisions are being made and plans are being checked on, but in reality they are all so consuming I can't think of anything to write about, but then I had this conversation with Adam.

Me (thinking that today is Oct 6): Happy one day past our 8 year dating anniversary.
Adam (realizing that today is really Oct 5): Happy dating anniversary today honey.
Me (Thinking: Oh crap, now I seem like I don't know what day we started dating): Isn't today the 6th?
Adam: Nope it's the 5th.
Me: Oh good.

All this to say that a really long time ago, Adam was driving me down Main Street in Reynoldsburg. You see I couldn't drive. I had my license suspended (oops, speeding and an at fault accident in the same week....) But we were on a mission to find something really important.... A coloring book. Adam's always been good at humoring me. But we couldn't find one in any of the drug stores or grocery stores. So as Adam was driving us out to his parents house, it's quiet in the car, and he awkwardly asked me if I was his girlfriend. The rest is history.
Main Street doesn't look the same, and gosh, Adam and I don't look the same (although surprisingly similar) but what started then, continues today. And yep it's really been eight-whole-years. Whew, it's been a wild ride.
I love you honey. Happy Dating Anniversary Today.