St. Louis, Part the First

Mike and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary later this month, but we went ahead and got the party started this past weekend with a quick trip to St. Louis. It was so much fun, and it is a great place for vacation. The whole weekend I just kept thinking that I can't wait to take Max and his future brothers or sisters back with us! For now though, it was really nice to get away just the two of us.

On the way there we stopped at Lambert's to eat. It was so incredibly crowded, but those "throwed" rolls are worth it!

Apparently I took this picture in 1982. But you get the idea. The idea of what it looks like when I eat large amounts of bread in one sitting.

Friday night we went to a Cardinals game. You know if there is a major league stadium anywhere around, we are going to find it. It was fun, because a lot of people where we live now are Cardinals fans. Their minor league team, the Redbirds, play in Memphis, and St. Louis is probably the closest team to this area. Mike decided the Cardinals can be our National league team, since our American league Rangers will always be our favorite!

Whew...enough about that. Back to the game! It was a blast. Mike says he told me about the seats he got us, but I didn't remember which isn't completely shocking. I was totally surprised and excited. We were in the Redbirds Club, so we sat in the shade, in padded seats, and we had a separate food court with great food and restrooms to use. He even got me a seat on the aisle. He knows how to keep this pregnant girl happy!

They were giving these away at the game. I think the piece of hair hanging in my face makes the look extra special.

Is it a bird? Is it a person? Who knows?

Yes. I took a picture of the food choices. It's good to remember the most important things about the trip.

At this point I almost passed out.

What? Haven't you ever seen a guy eat a giant red velvet cupcake at a baseball game before?

These guys were part of the pregame show. And that's our hotel in the background. It was great for watching fireworks on Sunday!

I'm not sure if I wanted you to see the plane flying over or let you know about the apartments for lease. Either way...it works.

Albert Pujols. Because after all, it was a baseball game.

The game was great and the Cardinals won! The rest of the weekend was a blast too, but I'll write more about it later. I think that's enough craziness for one post!

Shoes and Lemonade

This week hasn't been nearly as eventful as last week. But few things in life are as eventful as spending the day making sure 5th and 6th graders don't disappear or harm each other while under your watch.

This week has been all about trying to get the house back in order and figure out what is still on the list to get done before Max gets here. I keep reminding myself that he won't actually be walking when he gets here, so I probably don't need to worry about covering the electrical plugs just yet. But I do like to be prepared.

Two things have pretty much dominated my week: shoes and sparkling strawberry lemonade. On the shoe front, I now know what it must feel like to be a butcher stuffing sausage casings. Seriously. I have a whole summer to go, so my shoes really should still fit. But they don't. I ventured out to buy some, which only made the situation worse. Does a butcher want you watching him stuff sausage casings? I don't think so. It became very clear that if I wasn't willing to go up a size (or 3) it just wasn't happening. I did finally find a pair, but they are nothing to write home about. Or write a blog about.

On the sparkling strawberry lemonade front, Sonic is trying to suck even more money out of me than usual. But it's just so good! And somehow it makes me feel better than ordering a chocolate cream pie milkshake. Probably because it's less than half the calories. Luckily my friend Misty shared an excellent recipe for strawberry lemonade with me! You mix one can frozen condensed lemonade (thawed) with four cans of water, and then you add a large tub of sweetened sliced strawberries (thawed). Yum! I've been mixing half a glass of that with half a glass of Sprite to make my own sparkling concoction. Take that Sonic! Until I want a milkshake, that is.


Oh! And I have to admit something. As much as I talk about WalMart, I must give credit where credit is due. I went Monday, and I was very impressed by the changes in the produce department. Well played, WalMart. Well played.

The Homestretch

It feels like September is still looming in the distance, but this week marks the beginning of my third trimester. I guess it won't be long now!

A Great Week

VBS 2010

Yesterday was the big day...my three hour glucose test. Let me tell you what. That's a good time. Thankfully, I passed, and I won't even tell you what I ate yesterday to celebrate. But it involves pizza. And popcorn. And chicken fingers. All that to say, I felt pretty fabulous by last night when I passed out in a food coma. Today I am a new woman. Except for the fact that I ended up bringing about 1000 fun-size candy bars home from VBS yesterday, and they have been whispering sweet nothings to me from the pantry all day. I may have had one or two. Or six.

Yesterday was the last day of VBS, and I was so sad to miss it. I DID get there at the very end. Right in time for Mike to inform me that we was about to go up on stage and have his head shaved. Which I totally knew about before hand. But not really. The kids had raised over $1000 for missions, so off with his hair! They loved it, and I think he's enjoying his new summer 'do.

I don't know what this picture says about him...ha!

Overall, it was a great week. I'm looking forward to lots more fun coming up in July! Trips to St Louis and Dallas, our 5th anniversary, and getting closer to Max's arrival...can't wait!

VBX

Whew! What a busy week it has been! Mike and I have been helping with our church's VBS (Vacation Bible School), and it has been a blast! Tiring...but a blast!

We are in charge of 5th and 6th grade VBS, which is actually called VBX (because 5th and 6th graders are X-tremely cool obviously). Basically, we are more self-contained than the rest of the VBS, and we spend our days playing games, crafting it up, memorizing verses, and if you are a VBX boy, trying to figure out ways to take years off my life. Such as seeing if I really meant it when I said hot glue was extremely hot. Or figuring out a way to turn basically any game into an extreme sport.

This age group just cracks me up! They are too old to trick into doing preschool crafts like my 4th graders once upon a time, but they are still young enough that the idea of tying a balloon to their leg and running around the gym sounds like pure heaven. And, by the way, if you load a paper bag up with potato chips and tell them they have to eat it without using their hands, they will pretty much love you forever. Just FYI.

We are having a great time learning about the ways God cares for us and learning how we can rely on Him and His plan for our lives...definitely something we ALL need to be reminded of! Now I'm off to load more bags with potato chips...