Devastated

In Virginia, we lived about 5 minutes away from The Cheesecake Factory. We love-love-love to go to this restaurant. We went a lot before we moved in anticipation of not having one not having one nearby in Biloxi. However, I am currently devastated. Today you could get a slice of cheesecake for $1.50 (yes you read that right...$1.50!!!!) with a coupon, and tomorrow all of their cheesecakes are 1/2 off in honor of National Cheesecake Day. I'm heartbroken that I am missing out on this monumental occasion. So please do me a favor and go to The Cheesecake Factory in my honor if you live nearby one of the restaurants..and order the new Reese's peanut butter cheesecake, and let me know how it is! That's the one I want to order the next time I go!! :)

I'm Back!

Did you know I was gone?! Sorry for being MIA...I drove to GA last week, then up to St. Louis to visit family, then back to GA, and then back to Biloxi today. Phew! I'm tired just typing that! This baby will be more than prepared to be a good traveler on road trips! :) And my left ankle definitely disappeared somewhere along the way on this mega road trip (not sure why only one ankle swelled up?!)...so if you see it, let me know! Ha!

Now I'm busy unloading my car from the trip, doing laundry, and cleaning the nursery out b/c some of the furniture is being delivered tomorrow! But I'll check back in soon with details & pictures from the trip! Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)

Top 5: Moving Edition

Okay, so it's not Friday...but indulge me on this Top Five Friday: Moving Edition. We have officially moved, and it's "official" now b/c my change of address announcements finally got mailed out this week. :) I ordered them a while back from Tiny Prints, but I didn't want to mail them without my custom return address stamp from PSA which took a little longer to arrive. But I was really pleased with how they both turned out. :) Most of my family & friends have already seen this, but I wanted to share it with the blogging world as well!

address has been altered for obvious reasons :)

Now for 5 things I'm loving about our new house/town..these aren't really my top five fave things b/c I could really go on and on about how much we love our new little life here!

5. Living about 5 minutes from the beach and having our neighborhood right on the bay. :) It is b-e-a-utiful!
4. Being 4 hours closer to family!
3. All of the space in our house!!!
2. The garage & yard are at the top of Derek's list :)
1. The fact that Derek can ride a bicycle to work every day. For those of you who may not know, in VA Derek would wake up at the crack of dawn to try to avoid DC traffic. But he still had a nasty commute from Centreville to Bethesda every day. It would take him for-ev-er to get home from work every night, and that's the last thing you want after a long day at work. Now, he can ride a bicycle to work and I can drop by the hospital and see him if things are slow. It's such a nice change!

Happy Weekend, Everyone! :)

Summer Reading

Since I've got some down-time this summer (well, in between getting the house in order and working on the nursery that is!), I've got a very ambitious summer reading list. I never have a chance to read for pleasure during the school year, so I've had my eye on some of these books for a while!

We'll start off with what I'm currently reading...this book was actually a birthday gift from my sister that I'm just now getting around to reading (my b-day is in January). So far, I'm really enjoying it!
Next up are the books to help me survive my post-September 8th life. :) All of a sudden, it dawned on me that I've read all of pregnancy books very thoroughly, but I haven't a clue what to do once the baby actually gets here! (That is, aside from giving her lots of love and calling my mom every 2.5 seconds for help.) So here's my attempt at rectifying this problem: I went to Barnes & Noble last night and bought these three bad boys...
Another book that kind of falls in this category that I plan to check out from the library is...
Last but not least, a few pleasure reads...since I've enjoyed Sarah Palin's book so much, when I came across Laura Bush's book at Barnes & Noble last night I knew I wanted to read this too. Last summer, I borrowed Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah from a friend...then I came across a few more of this author's books while at B&N, so now I've added them to my long list of books awaiting me. And last but not least, here are a few more pleasure reads....
Now wish me luck finding the time to tackle all of these! Ha! I actually have a road trip to St. Louis planned for next week to visit family (yay!!!), so hopefully I'll be able to get a jump start on my list during the long drive.

32 weeks!

How far along: 32 weeks!
Weight Gain: 15 pounds
Maternity clothes: Nope :) I'm still able to wear my regular skirts and dresses, so that is the extent of my wardrobe these days!
Sleep: I'm still sleeping pretty well these days. I do wake up a few times each night though due to some discomfort, and I have to readjust my pillows. My hips are usually my main source of discomfort during the night.
Movement: Yes! :)
Food cravings: None!
Symptoms: One thing that I've been feeling recently that seemed kind of strange to me is a tingling sensation right above my ribs..kind of at the top center of my belly. It's a weird feeling! No pain..just strange! I can't remember what Derek told me was the cause of it...oops!
Gender: GIRL!!! :)
What I miss: Nothing..I am really enjoying being pregnant!
Best moment this week: Ordering the furniture for the nursery & getting to hear our baby's heartbeat at our doctor's appointment yesterday.
What I'm looking forward to: At our doctor's appointment yesterday, we were able to sign up for our birthing classes at the hospital. We were already looking forward to this...but even more so now that we realized one of Derek's doctor friends and his pregnant wife are going to be in the same class as us! How fun! :)
Milestones: Finally getting to go to the hospital where our sweet baby will be delivered! I wasn't a huge fan of the hospital I went to in VA, but I am love-love-loving the hospital here. It's a much shorter drive (in VA, I had to drive an hour to get there...now it's a 5-minute drive!), the doctors/nurses are friendlier...I just couldn't be happier about the change!

Finally!

We're a mere 8.5 weeks away from our expected due date, and we have FINALLY purchased the furniture for the nursery! It still won't be delivered for a while, but we're so excited! Here's a sneak peek of what we ordered...

the crib

the changing table
the glider

The fabric on the glider we ordered will actually be light green in color...we are planning to do a pink/green color scheme in the nursery.

We've had this furniture picked out for quite some time, but we wanted to wait until we moved to order it for obvious reasons. (ie no room in our little VA condo for baby furniture!) Then once we got to MS, we've just been busy-busy-busy with unpacking & getting settled. We knew we needed to order the furniture, but we had so many other pressing things to take care of. Anyhow, we FINALLY have it ordered...now everyone please keep your fingers crossed that the furniture will be shipped in a timely fashion! We were told that the changing table & glider are available for immediate shipment, but the crib is on backorder and may not arrive until September 3rd. For those of you who might not be keeping track, that is 5 days prior to my due date! Thankfully, baby girl Smith will be sleeping in our family's cradle for her first few months anyhow. :)

Fourth of July Weekend

We had a wonderful first Fourth of July in Biloxi! My parents came to visit us, and we were thrilled to show them around our new city and have them see our new home. We really enjoyed our time with them...and the extra help they provided with organizing/decorating the house. :) I was definitely sad to see them go this morning, but here are a few pics of the weekend!

This picture was taken on Friday afternoon to prove that Derek did in fact survive his first night (Thursday) of being on call as a real doctor. :) My sister and I always had our pictures taken on our first/last days...so my mom and I were both waiting for Derek to come home on Friday with our cameras in hand. :)

On Sunday evening, we grilled out hamburgers and then headed to the beach to watch the fireworks.

As you can tell from the picture, it was a very windy evening...but despite that, we really enjoyed ourselves! I hope everyone else had a wonderful time celebrating with family & friends as well!

I thank God for my life
And for the stars and stripes
May freedom forever fly, let it ring
Salute the ones who died
And the ones that give their lives, so we don't have to sacrifice
All the things we love