Rainy Day

It's a dreary, rainy day here in Winston-Salem but Adam and I intend on making the most of it anyway. Today is the Barbeque Festival in Lexington, NC (just a short drive from us) and Adam is excited to get down there and get his hands on some NC style pulled pork. As for me, I'm just going a long for the ride and to browse at the merchandise displayed by various vendors--I'm not a barbeque eating kind of girl.

Adam told me that Sarah Palin is going to be in Asheville tomorrow, but I don't think we are going to go. I'm not in the mood for a 4 hour drive (round trip), especially on a Sunday.

There's not much else to report from the land of the Lanes. Have a great weekend!

(Sur)Real Life

Today I am 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant and besides my breasts being sore, being tired all the time, and some mild cramping/pulling in my lower abdomen, I don't feel any different. There are times throughout the day when I have to remind myself that there is a little Lane growing inside of me. :)

The reminders that I am indeed pregnant are coming more from the few people who actually know about the pregnancy at this point asking me how I'm feeling, the gifts I've been receiving, and my husband rubbing my belly, which, by the way, is too cute for words.

When I got home from work on Monday (or was it Tuesday?) Adam greeted me with a dozen beautiful red roses.

My friend Cynthia suprised me with an adorable onesie and one of those baby blankies with a bear head on Wednesday night at dinner--our first baby gift! :) Cynthia and I went to Panera after work for some girl talk. Guess what topic dominated the conversation? Thank you, Cynthia! :)

More updates to come!

Finally...

Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of what it would be like to have a baby of my own. I loved my baby dolls and I would wish they would be real babies for me to play with. I never grew out of it. As I got older I would dream of what it would be like to be pregnant. To take the test and see the positive result pop up. To cry and laugh. To share the exciting news with a loving husband. I am ecstatic to say that I finally know what those things feel like-- I'm PREGNANT!!

I had my suspicions last week; I was so tired that I would be asleep on the couch by 8 o' clock. I knew that my monthly visitor was due by the end of the week and I was praying that this month my visitor would finally get lost. :) Friday came and went and by the grace of God I was so busy that I didn't have much time to think about it during the day--well I thought about it, but I didn't obsess over it. Saturday morning I went out early to pick up a few things I needed to prepare dinner for company we were having on Saturday evening, so I picked up a test, too. On my way home Adam called me to let me know he was going out to pick up a few things himself--it was perfect timing. As soon as I got home I took the test. As I sat there waiting I prepared myself for the digital "not pregnant" that I saw last month. I gave myself a talking to saying, "If it's negative it's OK. You're period is late. You can test again another day." When I got done talking to myself I looked down at the test and saw it: PREGNANT. I lost it. I cried. I laughed. I momemtarily lost my voice. I kept saying, "Oh, my God....Oh, my God." And then "Thank you Lord!" over and over again. I was shaking. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled. I'm going to be a mommy! Reliving it in my mind now is making me cry all over again...

The night before Adam had asked me to upload the rest of our Alaska pictures to the Walgreens website so that we could have the rest of the prints made. Thinking of this, I grabbed the camera

and took a picture of the test stick and uploaded it to the computer. When Adam got home I told him that I was going through the rest of the pictures online and that I needed his help to determine if a few of the pictures were already printed or not. When he come into the study the picture of the pregnancy test was on the computer. He looked at it. Got closer to it. Looked again. Looked at me. I was smiling and teary. He had a big smile on his face as he hugged me. I think it took a little bit for it to really sink in for him though.

I showed Adam a picture of what the baby looks like at 5 weeks pregnant and we agree that it looks like an alien. So, we've affectionatley named him or her so until further notice. :)

We are eagerly anticipating the ultrasound at my first doctor's visit on November 14th.

More updates to come!

The Dixie Classic Fair

OK, so I wrote this last week and I forgot to post it--Life is busy! :)

On October 8th Adam and I headed over to Winston-Salem's yearly claim to fame--The Dixie Classic Fair. It's held on Winston-Salem's fairgrouds, right across from Wake Forest's football stadium. I've never been to the state fair in Raleigh, but I can't imagine that it is any bigger than the Dixie Classic Fair--it's that big.

Our local radio station, WBFJ, hosted a FREE concert at the fair on Wednesday and Adam and I were excited to see Josh Wilson, Mandisa, and Matthew West live. In addition, we were able to get into the fair free by bringing 10 Lowe's Foods brand cans of food. What a deal! (A savings of $16!) It was a bit rainy when we got there, but the grand stand was covered and once the concert got started we forgot all about the rain. The rain subsided by the time that Matthew West sang his last song and we were able to walk around and get our fix of fair food--elephant ears and ice cream. Yum! We didn't get to see the Swifty Swine Racing & Swimming Pigs which was a disappointment, but there's always next year.

MANDISA

MATTHEW WEST

On a seperate note, Adam and I are doing well. Nothing new is going on in our lives, we're just busy with work, church, and life in general. My life is extra busy this year because I am the Yearbook Advisor. What a job! I mean that in everyway you can make it sound... At times I love it, at times I hate it, but anyway I look at it, it has added extra stress to my life!

Oh, while I'm rambling here, let me just say to my friends and family in New Jersey that we will be in NJ for about a week at Christmas and we hope that we will be able to see all of you! I don't get to get up to NJ as much as I'd like and that makes me sad at times, but that's the brakes I guess. Being a teacher you'd think I would have more time to get away, but in the past year or so my get aways have been to other places leaving no time or money for good old Jersey.

Of course my NC friends know that I'm from NJ, but I don't think I've ever pointed out on a map exactly where I'm from. So, here it is--Jersey. If you find Barnegat Light on the island (Long Beach Island) off the coast and then move your eye straight along the water to the mainland you'll see the area in which I grew up, Barnegat. It's not labeled on the map, but it's there. A seaside town with a quiant downtown. All the buildings downtown are historic; the church Adam and I got married in is one of these historic buildings. Every time I go back to Barnegat something is new and different. I'm not sure that I would necissarily live in Barnegat today, I like living in a bigger city, but I love it. I'll always love it. When I'm there it still feels like home.



Ok, now for my New Jersey (& PA) family and friends. Let me intice you to come down and visit me by showing and telling you about where I live: Winston-Salem, NC.

That's all for now. Have a good week!

Random Thoughts

I'm sitting at my desk fully aware that I have real work to do, but I've been a procrastinator my entire life... so here I am blogging instead. Up until now I've been posting about significant things (well, significant to me) but today I thought that I just give you a glimpse in to my very random mind. Here we go...

The "Amazing" Race: (The Ultimate Reality TV...)

I can't wait for the election to be over! I don't know about you, but I am so sick of campaign ads that it's not even a pleasure to watch TV. Before I left for work yesterday morning the Today Show had a teaser as to what was coming up in their next half hour. One of the things they mentioned was "Why you can't get through a commercial break without seeing at least one campaign ad." It's a sad day when the media has to explain this to the general public.

I am in no way trying to come off as unpatriotic; I love this country and I am constantly telling my students that they need to remember how blessed we are that we live here. And yes, I still believe that. It's just been an extremely long race and I think our country is ready for the struggle for power to come to an end.

While I'm on the topic of campaigns let me get this off of my chest. Vote! Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. And if you don't... Don't complain! OK, I feel better. :)

For voter registration information, visit the following link:

http://www.eac.gov/voter/Register%20to%20Vote

Cloth Diapers:

I know, you're asking yourself, "What the heck is she blogging about cloth diapers for?!?" (And, no, I'm not trying to imply anything either...) For some reason the topic of cloth diapers has come up several times in the past few weeks and I have to say that the idea of using them on my future children does not thrill me. We live in a nation, dare I say world, of convenience and it seems to me that disposable diapers are truly one of those great conveniences! I know that using cloth diapers will lessen our environmental fingerprint, but there are other ways that I do my best to recycle, reuse, reduce. However, I did read that you can go from newborn to potty trained for $300 with cloth diapers or $3,000 with disposable diapers. Now, this figure of $300 seems a bit low to me. If my figuring is correct, assuming that a diaper is changed anywhere from 7-10 times per day, and also assuming that the mommy doesn't live in the laundry room, wouldn't it be a wise idea to at least have 15 diapers on hand? Even with that, wouldn't you constantly be washing diapers? Since this topic keeps coming up within my circle of friends, I looked on line and found that the average price for a decent cloth diaper is $17.

$17 x 15= $255, and that's just for one size diaper. Factor in the different sizes, extra washing (water and electricity), detergent, and precious time and that cost goes even higher. Am I wrong?

(I have no idea who this baby is!)

That being said, I just learned that two of my friends, both with newborns, are using cloth diapers. I am truly interested in learning about their experiences! I won't say that I 100% against trying this when God blesses Adam and I with a child, but it's going to take a lot of convincing that it's worth it. :)

Thanksgiving:

I know it's still two months away, but I am excited to say that we will be hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. My Mom, Dad, Brother Michael & family, and my in-laws will be joining us. I'm pretty excited that family will be traveling to us for a change! I'm also excited that my brother and his family will finally get to see our house! (Now I just need to get Christopher down here...) Speaking of our house, here are a few pictures that I took a while back but never posted:

Dining Room- I painted it Woodlawn Colonial Gray this summer

Kitchen-Painted it green, but can't remember the name of the color off the top of my head. My dad put up the awesome "tin" back splash for us on my parents last visit.

Our new kitchen table. Up until now we still had my table from college. It took us a while to find one that we both liked, complimented the space, and came at a reasonable price. We love it!

Family Room: I painted this room and the hallway by our garage Toasted Almond. I also hung the ceiling fan (all by myself, thank you very much!) early in the summer. I just recently hung new curtains on the windows in this room and the windows next to our kitchen table, but I don't have a picture to share of those yet.

Downstairs Powder room: This is the first room that I painted soon after we first moved in to the house almost a year and a half ago. I recently added the shelves above the toilet and I also found a curtain that matched all the colors of this bathroom perfectly.

A close up of the shelves

I stenciled this around the same time that I painted the bathroom

OK, so the pictures aren't exactly random thoughts, but I DID randomly add them. :)

That's all for now!