the blog of kimness

MOVING!

2011-08-18T22:22:00.002-04:00

I decided it was time to have a blog that was totally for our family and start fresh with a new address and all.

So, flip on over to http://thetappfam.blogspot.com because the Blog of Kimness is closing its doors!

4th of July

2011-07-04T14:35:00.002-04:00

I took Caden out to the cemetery this morning to visit mom's grave. Can't believe it's been 3 years since her final earthly breath. How she would have loved her 3 grandchildren!

Such a big boy - sitting up better & better each day! He was sitting up in a tripod position (leaning forward on his arms), but just this weekend he started coming off his hands & sitting up straighter for a little bit at a time.

Love this bench, donated by the family of a little girl named Hope, who died of cancer. Mom is buried right next to her & this bench is in the trees a few feet away.

My sweet baby & my sweet mommy.

Cutest little patriot I've ever seen :).

4 months & counting

2011-06-13T22:46:00.002-04:00

My deepest apologies for my blog neglect... I always seem to put stuff on Facebook & then never make it any farther than that! Our sweet boy is growing, growing, growing, and getting cuter by the day. He'll be FIVE months next week - holy cow.

He is sitting & standing if you hold his hands, grabbing toys & stuffed animals, putting things in his mouth, rolling over, eating solid food, and it probably won't be too long before he's crawling! He loves his mama - and will not let anyone else put him to bed - no sir.

I'm still breastfeeding 5-6 times a day, but he's also tried sweet potatoes, rice cereal, applesauce, mangoes, green beans & peaches so far. He's getting the hang of the spoon & swallowing food, and has eventually liked most everything I've given him. He goes to bed between 8-9 p.m., sleeps til sometime between 5-7 a.m., and usually goes back to sleep again after nursing until 8-9 a.m. He still doesn't have a definitive nap schedule, but that might be coming soon.

At his 4-month check-up, he weighed 17 lbs and was 27.25 inches tall - still off the chart for height. He's wearing mostly 9-month clothes (anywhere from 6-12 months), and I just put a size 2 shoe on him the other day and it just barely fit. He wears size 3 diapers, and diaper blowouts or leaks are almost a daily occurrence - giving my Shout Stain Stick a workout.

He still takes a paci well (which is a lifesaver for me), and also likes to hold his lovey(ies) in his carseat. We've dropped the swaddle at night, and he often rolls onto his side to sleep (like his mommy). Aunt Hillary has been keeping him a couple of the days I work, and Grandma Joli the other day, but now Wade will be taking over Hillary's days while he's off for the summer (since my new niece Riley is due any day!).

Life is tough when you're dealing with crazy parents like us.

He was baptized on May 22, the day he turned 4 months old. A good number of our family came to celebrate Caden becoming a member of the covenant family! He even wore Wade's baptism outfit :).

He does this open-mouth grin/laugh all the time & it's so cute.

I think he's getting my hair color/texture, and it is slowly growing back in after a slight baby hair loss period.

We got him this exersaucer for $15 at a yard sale, and it is great for him to learn to balance & hold himself up. He won't play in it for hours or anything, but it's a good diversion for a few minutes when I need to do things in the kitchen.

2.5 months!

2011-04-06T19:02:00.002-04:00

It is obviously beyond time for me to update this blog, considering Caden is going on 11 weeks now. He is getting a lot more fun, as he smiles and sortof laughs, kicks on his playmat & in his bouncy seat, and doesn't cry quite so often! He's been wearing 3-6 month clothes since he was 6 weeks, and he has a really long torso, so a lot of onesies are just too short & wide. At his 2-month checkup he was 14 lbs, 5 oz, and 26 inches long (95th percentile for weight & off the chart for height).

He's sleeping 8-9 hour stretches at night (one time 10!), which usually means going down between 8:00 and 9:00, waking up around 4:30-5:30 to eat, and then going back down until 8 or 8:30. It is definitely nice to be getting pretty good sleep again!

Sleeping in the bouncy seat... this usually happens in the morning after we get up, I feed him & put him in the seat while I eat breakfast & do other kitchen things. He'll kick & play for a while and then fall asleep.

This was a nap one day... love those little feet curled up under that cute bottom!

Many people say all he does is sleep, and it probably seems like it from my pictures too! We're just now getting to the point where I can take decent pictures of him awake. Before now, if he was awake, he was generally eating or crying.

After bath, stretching out.

Kicking on the play mat - one of his favorite things :).

Caden is here!

2011-01-30T11:52:00.003-05:00

Eight days ago, our sweet Caden Mitchell Tapp joined us at 1:34 a.m., on January 22, 2011. He was 8 lbs, 9 oz, and 20.5 inches long. I was in labor for about 18 hours from the time I was induced Friday morning.

It was a very long day, and there were points where I wasn't making any progress and the nurses suggested I could just go home and come back another day. But I'm so glad my body finally kicked into gear and allowed Caden to come before I had to do that!

Caden had some trouble breathing at first, so they had to take him to the NICU, where they found a small pneumathorax (air bubble in the thoracic cavity outside the lungs). Luckily his was very small, and he only had to stay in the NICU for about 12 hours. It was pretty scary and emotional to have him whisked away so quickly, but we had great nurses, doctors & midwives who made the whole experience so much better.

We've been home for almost a week now - a hectic, crazy week - but things are starting to seem more manageable. God has been so good to us with this precious boy. We love him so much already!

40.5 weeks and ready for Caden!

2011-01-18T16:55:00.000-05:00

Yeah, still ready. Still no baby.

36 weeks and ready for Caden!

2010-12-19T19:05:00.002-05:00

I was officially 36 weeks on Friday, so I guess Caden could supposedly come anytime now. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for him to come early, but you never know :). We just need to get the car seats put in our cars & then we'll be all set. Oh, and I guess I should pack a hospital bag.

I feel like Caden is getting huge - he's definitely running out of room in there! Lots of feet or knees or a little butt poking me these days :).

Looking quite round :)

Christmas decorations!

2010-12-19T18:56:00.002-05:00

Since we were about to move last Christmas, we didn't decorate the condo, so this is our first married-Christmas-decorating attempt. It mostly involves lights, because I really love Christmas lights.

I do love our stockings on the mantle though! I'm planning to buy one for Caden after Christmas if I can find a good one on sale. I hope I have better luck finding a "C" initial than a "W" - I never could find a W stocking, especially that I liked the stocking part of. So I need to figure out how to put a W on Wade's at some point.

Christmas lights on the banister

Christmas lights by the dining room table

Christmas lights in the sunroom!

And the Christmas tree! I love turning on all these lights every night and having them be the only lights that are on, unless something else is needed in whatever room we're in. It's just so cozy feeling (I would say warm & cozy, but since we're still keeping the thermostat at 63 until Caden comes & we have to bump it up a bit, it's not exactly warm in here :)).

So behind...

2010-11-08T21:20:00.002-05:00

So, I guess I wasn't kidding when I titled my last post "beginning a busy fall" - it has definitely been just that so far! On October 9, my sister & Wade's sister threw my first shower. It was very fun and special. I neglected to get any pictures, except Danielle took like 50 of me opening gifts, so I'll spare you a ton of them & just post one :).

Wade & I went to his good friend Jonathan Jakes' wedding the next weekend (once again, no pictures), and then I went on our church's women's retreat the weekend after that (still too lazy to get pictures!). We had a low-key Halloween weekend, and then this past weekend we drove down to Kiawah Island, SC, for the wedding of a good friend of the Tapps' - a girl who is like Wade's sister.

Everything was gorgeous, including the beautiful sunset over the ocean at the golf club where they had the reception.

It was pretty chilly, so I was all bundled up all night. Not the best fashion that way, but I was glad I had brought my leggings & sweater in addition to my dress!

I'm vowing to take more pictures the next 2 weekends at my last 2 showers. Less than 10 weeks until due date :).

Beginning a busy fall

2010-10-03T17:25:00.002-04:00

This first weekend of October kicked off a busy fall - so many fun things between now & Thanksgiving - I can't wait! I know it will make the time FLY before Caden gets here.

Yesterday I went up to Raleigh with some of my best friends for Diana's baby shower. She is 3 weeks ahead of me, due on Christmas Day, so we've been swapping belly photos & experiences all along. It is always SO good to see these ladies. God blessed me with really amazing friends from Carolina, that's for sure!

25 weeks

And after the shower, a few of us went to Chapel Hill for part of the UNC vs. ECU football game (thanks to some tickets Jess was given by a doctor she works with). It was fun & nostalgic to go to a football game again for the first time in forever... although our seats were on the sunny side and it was really hot in the sun! So, we stayed for most of the first half, then walked up to the Pit & Student Stores, and I got one belly pic for the road. Evidence of Caden's first trip to Chapel Hill!

23 weeks & we have a name!

2010-09-17T17:45:00.002-04:00

I'm 23 weeks today... less than 4 months to go (let's hope)!

A couple weeks ago, we decided on a name for our little man. He's going to be Caden Mitchell Tapp. Caden is a name we just liked - it means "fighter." Mitchell is from Wade's great-grandfather, Ivey Mitchell Wade, whom Wade is named after as well. It means "who is like God?" Tapp means "oaf, clumsy person or simpleton." Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad :). Ha!

Here's me at 23 weeks!

Just this week, I started feeling like the belly was a little bit cumbersome. It started to actually be in the way of me tying my shoes or shaving. But it's still not bad, and I've been sleeping really well, so that's a blessing.

I went to the doctor on Monday and everything still looked good. At my next appointment I have to do the gestational diabetes test (yuck), and then after that I start going every 2 weeks! Crazy how this time is going to fly. I'm just ready for cooler weather - the highs in the 90s have got to stop!

Halfway through!

2010-08-30T18:37:00.003-04:00

We've passed the 20-week mark - only another 4.5-ish months til we meet our little boy! I have not been feeling too huge... until I saw the belly pictures after Wade took them today... yikes! This is one of the better ones.

20.5 weeks

Here's the dresser & mirror we got for the nursery! I finished painting it gray, and put the varnish on last night... now our house reeks of varnish, so I hope I'm not causing brain damage to the baby just living here. (The drawers are a little open because the varnish is still drying.) The mirror may stay white, or it may get painted black - not sure yet. It will hang above the dresser, and we'll use the top for the changing table.

This is an incredibly special gift from my Aunt Dale (not a real aunt, but she was my mom's best friend when I was born - my middle name was after her). Mom had saved all different fabrics from the pajamas she made us when we were kids, so that we could have quilts for our children made out of them. So Dale made one for Madelyn, when she was born, out of Hillary's pajamas, and now this is mine from my pajamas! It is so sweet to have the memories of the things mom made and be able to wrap my baby boy up in her love and Dale's loving handiwork.

And Wade wanted me to include a picture of his new passion... he traded all his X-box games for a guitar earlier this summer, and he is teaching himself to play through YouTube videos and online tutorials. I think he has a lot of potential, and is certainly way better than I would be at this point (at any point).

So that's the update... I'm ready for the weather to get cooler - I think that will make everything start feeling closer. The fall will probably fly by - I can already see that our October & November weekends are almost completely booked, and then December will be full as well, and then it will be baby birthday month! We're still deciding on a name - will post it when we know :).

It's a boy!

2010-08-19T15:15:00.002-04:00

We went for our 19-week ultrasound yesterday and found out we're having a boy! Wade is over the moon, and I am excited too - a little nervous of how well I'll know how to parent a boy, but then again, how well do I know how to parent anyone? I know Wade will be an awesome boy-dad, and I can't wait to observe lots of father-son moments over the years!

You can see our shy little guy above - he kept putting his hands over his face and turning toward the back, but we did get one shot of his profile. I think he's so cute already :). They said he has long legs (no surprise) and I think he has big hands in these pictures too, so he's all set to be daddy's little basketball player.

They also said I'm measuring a week ahead - I don't think that changes the due date, but maybe it's just because he's tall. We've also made a little more progress on the nursery - finding a great dresser & mirror last weekend for a total of $115! I'm going to paint the dresser a distressed gray, so I'll post pictures when that's done. And my awesome friend Erin is going to sew some curtains - I just need to pick out & mail her some fabric!

Yay - almost halfway through! After seeing these ultrasound pictures, it is so much harder to wait until January to meet our little guy... but hopefully the fall will fly by, and we have plenty to do in the meantime!

15 weeks!

2010-07-24T10:07:00.002-04:00

I was 15 weeks yesterday... Wednesday I went to the doctor & heard the heartbeat again - so fun :). The baby had hiccups (the midwife said) while she was listening to the heartbeat. So far everything is going really well. I feel good, Wade's home from grad school and gearing up for CDS to start.

The glider & the crib came in, so the nursery is even starting to take shape!

The glider is so comfortable, and I picked this gray color so it would be neutral (boy or girl) and also could go in another room of our house someday after we don't need a nursery. The crib is a little taller than most of the others I saw, which I figured would be good for tall parents :). It was really easy to put together too.

Me at 15 weeks... whoa, starting to pop out.

Even from the front.

So, August 18 is the big day for the ultrasound and finding out if we're having a boy or girl! I can't believe it's so soon - can't wait!

The belly begins

2010-07-02T22:16:00.002-04:00

I'm 12 weeks pregnant today, the baby is just over 2 inches long (so I've read), and this week the belly has begun to show itself! I went shopping for some maternity clothes last weekend, partly out of boredom, but it ended up being just in time, because they've been sooo comfortable this week.

Gotta put my hand there or else it looks like one large blob :). It's a little difficult to hold our huge camera and take a self-portrait... probably would be easier with a little pocket size camera, but oh well.

Not showing too much from the front yet, but you can see it some.

Maternity jeans! Love them! It's kinda weird that I probably won't be wearing any pants with buttons or zippers for the next 6.5 months.

So far, I have been so blessed to not have terrible morning sickness or really strong symptoms of any kind. I definitely have some of most of the symptoms, but totally bearable thus far. I haven't wanted vegetables at all though, which probably needs to change soon so I can get all the right nutrients! And also the whole exercise thing has not been happening because I've gotten completely out of the habit since, um, October, but I know I've got to start doing that again as well. I'm going to try to go for a walk most days (here's hoping the 90+ degree heat will stay away for a while).

Wade went with me to the doctor before he left for grad school, and we got to hear the heartbeat! So cool. We'll go back next when I'm about 15 weeks, and then the NEXT time after that will be the gender reveal appointment! So exciting. That will probably be in mid-August I'd guess.

In the last couple weeks I also ordered a glider and crib! It felt rather early to do that, but I got good deals on both I think. The glider was still a pretty big splurge, but it's sooo comfortable and I know I'll spend many hours of the day and night in it. The crib was on clearance and was the only one that seemed tall enough for Wade & me. Now to find a relatively inexpensive dresser we can fix up and paint - the baby dressers they sell at baby stores are crazy expensive!

Tiny Tapp is on the way!

2010-06-07T14:03:00.003-04:00

Well, blog world, we have a new addition on the way to the Tapp household! "Tiny Tapp" is due in mid-January... making me 8.5 weeks pregnant now. We had our first ultrasound last week, so here's the little gummy bear, measuring a tall 1.62 cm.

We are so excited about this little one! It's still very surreal and hard to connect this picture with a living thing actually inside my body, but we are so thankful that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with a new life and pray He will be preparing us for parenthood over the next 7ish months.

I haven't been feeling too bad yet. At this point I think it's a boy, but I don't know what that's based on :). I'll be very surprised (but excited too) if it's a girl. I guess we'll find that out in mid-late August. Our next scheduled appointment will be to hear the heartbeat (they couldn't get the sound to work at the first ultrasound) when I'm 11 weeks, before Wade leaves for grad school.

Yippee!

One year!

2010-06-01T22:42:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, we celebrated our one-year anniversary! Everyone has asked "whether it feels like it's been a year" - which I don't know how to answer, because I don't know how long a year is supposed to feel like. But, it's been a busy year, with lots of new things, so I guess it does feel at least that long!

The country club made us an anniversary cake just like our wedding cake, which we nibbled on while watching our wedding video Sunday night :). We're going to a conference this weekend, which will be kindof like a "weekend away" anniversary trip... it's all the way in exotic Concord, NC - but hey, it's a free stay in a nice hotel with all our meals paid for. And there's nothing more romantic to me than free & cheap things :).

Jess & Beau got hitched!

2010-05-12T11:31:00.002-04:00

We had a blast this past weekend watching one of my best friends, Jessica Simmons, marry her beau Beau Mack!

Aren't they adorable! Jess looked so beautiful and both Friday and Saturday were perfect, gorgeous days :).

These lovely ladies were there... 2 of my faves, I must say!

Oh and I danced with this guy. He is my VERY fave!

Aaaaand the wheelbarrow made an appearance! Hilarity ensued. Gotta love that Clint Beaver's antics never get old.

Congratulations Jess & Beau! Hope y'all are enjoying Hawaii :).

Spring discoveries

2010-04-25T16:30:00.003-04:00

One of the fun things about living in our new house is discovering what the yard looks like in the spring. Since we bought it in December, we didn't know what trees would bloom and plants would pop up when the weather warmed up.

The two dogwoods in the left of the picture are right outside the kitchen/sunroom windows - so fun to open the blinds and see those every morning!

I don't know what these bushes are, but I was very excited when all of a sudden they had beautiful white flowers all over them!

Paisley loves all the green grass! Here she is just rolling away in it :).

Precious puppy.

What would I do without sweet Paisley?

Meanwhile, back at the condo...

These azaleas had been quite dead for about a year before we moved out. I have not grown my mom's green thumb yet, so they were all sickly, diseased-looking, scraggly and not a single flower on them all last year, including last spring. Imagine my surprise when I went over to check on the condo the other day and they looked like THIS - despite the fact that no one lives there or takes care of them! Apparently they are independent little guys.

But that wasn't all... These guys I had planted in October when we put the condo on the market thinking I would just get a few weeks of life out of them since they're annuals. Nope, they are standing tall and proud, again with no one watering them or anything else!

And, last but not least, my knockout roses - no buds on them yet, but these were so sick-looking last fall that I just cut them down to the ground and figured they would kindof go away. Now with zero care they are full and green and 3 feet tall again! Crazy.

Update on life:

As you can tell, we still own the condo and it is still for sale! It's been on the market almost 7 months now. We've had about 10 showings in that time and 1 offer for an absurdly low price (25% less than our asking price). Unfortunately those buyers were totally unreasonable and their best offer would still have resulted in us losing $25,000 of our actual money we've put into the condo, so we would not go that low. Unless someone shows up real quick (like tomorrow), I guess the tax credit is probably going to pass on by as a selling point. But we're still just praying and trusting that God has a plan.

Wade is still busy with basketball camps, teaching & grad school. I am still busy with who knows what - I don't know where the time goes :). We're loving each other and being married more and more each day it seems like. So sappy, but it's true! Even when some circumstances in life aren't ideal right now, it's so fun to have someone else with a sense of humor like yours, someone else to bounce ideas off of, someone else to just rest your head on at the end of the day. I can't thank God nearly enough for perfectly matching Wade and me, and loving us more than we can even love each other!

Chop chop

2010-03-20T18:56:00.002-04:00

It's the first day of spring, and the Tapps thought it would be a good day to shorten things up a bit.

My hair...

Wowza! This is probably the shortest Wade has ever seen it.

Not the most amazing haircut in the world, but when you're on a budget, sometimes ya gotta use your $4.99 coupon to Great Clips and just rock it no matter what.

And the yard... first mow! The weeds were out of control before this, so this looks a hundred times better.

Check out those lines. Wade did a great job :).

And, just a silly picture of Paisley wearing Wade's shirt to round things out.

Maybe with the onset of spring I'll be more consistent with the blog. I've been feeling like there's nothing to post about (and there really hasn't been). But in the next couple weeks I have some bachelorette parties & showers & such, so they should be some fun weeks! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T13:51:00.002-05:00

Our sweet little Valentine niece turned ONE yesterday! Can't believe that a year ago I was putting together wedding invitations when Hillary called to tell me she was in labor.

Here are a few shots of Madelyn's first birthday cake experience :).

Oh boy!

A taste of icing...

She has the best mischievous smirk :).

Some damage done... after 30 minutes or so of meticulously picking at it.

Sweet through and through.

What else is going on?

2010-01-28T14:50:00.005-05:00

So all my posts in the last two months (and by "all" I mean "both") have been about house-buying & selling (attempting to sell), but you might wonder what else is going on with us these days. That has been a big chunk of life recently, but I suppose we've got a little more to us than that...

Wade is nearing the end of basketball season with his JV team. They've had a decent season, record-wise, and Wade really enjoys coaching. It makes for many long days, the longest being home-game days when Wade is at school from 7 a.m. til about 10:30 p.m. On practice days and away-games, he might get home at 7:30 on average. Then on Wednesday nights (the only day he doesn't have practice or games) he plays basketball with some guys from church and others who come. It's fun for him to have a little chance to keep playing and all the guys are super impressed with his skills :).

On another front, he is taking the GRE next Saturday, and then will be applying to grad school at Covenant to get a Masters in Educational Administration. Assuming he gets in (which we are, because how are they going to say he's not qualified when he graduated from their own undergraduate education program?), he will start that this spring. It's 3 years, with online stuff most of the year and then a 3-week period each summer where he'll have to go to Covenant and sit in classes 8 hours a day. It hasn't hit me yet how much work it is going to be for him, and how long... 3 years sounds short on one hand, but then again, a lot can go on in 3 years and I'm sure our lives will change so much in that time! He'll still be teaching & coaching during grad school, and at this point he still plans to continue his 2nd job of site manager for Yes I Can Basketball in the spring, summer & fall, but we'll have to see how much is too much eventually!

We're both really enjoying our new(ish) Community Group at church, and I've gotten myself into a Bunco group somehow :). My dad called the other night and I told him I was at Bunco and had the weirdest feeling of being mom at that moment (she used to go to Bunco)! We've only had it once so far, but I won $20 (after putting in $5, so I'm +$15) - yay!

I'm also trying to get back in gear with various other friendships I haven't had as much time to invest in. One of my best friends is getting married in May, so I'm trying to coordinate a shower for her, and attend various other wedding & baby showers too. I'm also trying to get back to working out, cooking regularly, spending time with the Lord, etc. Working out hasn't yet made it into the schedule, but I have actually cooked some this week, and we're reading through the New Testament along with the church where I work.

Paisley is loving the new house I think, and will love it even more if we can get a fence and she can be out in the backyard more. Although with the rain we've been getting, the backyard stays pretty soggy.

That's our life right now. It's a continual battle to remain thankful and dependent on the Lord when our hearts are prone to look at the hard circumstances and the things we're discontented with (condo not sold, constant busyness, missing mom). But He is good, and worthy of our thanks and trust no matter what!

Pictures of the house

2010-01-18T14:05:00.009-05:00

At long last, we are finally moved in to the new house... only a month after closing! We had the popcorn ceilings removed the week after Christmas, and the guy did an amazing job - it looks like a whole new house. But that process was delayed just enough that we couldn't move in January 2 like we first planned, and then the next weekend didn't work either, so we had to push it to this past Saturday. It worked out really well weather-wise though - WAY warmer this weekend than the past two!

A crew of family & friends from church helped us load all the furniture & boxes that were still at the condo into the Uhaul & unload & set up at the house. We are SO blessed by the Lord to have so much support and love from so many people!

Here are some pictures of the inside...

The "sunroom" - it's really the breakfast area, but since we don't have 2 tables but we do have this futon, it is now a sunroom. It works well though because there is a lot of light from all the windows & skylights. A door on the left wall leads out to the deck.

The kitchen - a tad smaller in terms of cabinet space than our other kitchen, but I've added some cabinets (see them on the left in the sunroom pic) and we added some depth to the shelves in the pantry to hold a ton of stuff.

The half bath downstairs - it's so hard to take good pictures of bathrooms!

The dining room - the doorway on the right leads into the kitchen, and these windows overlook the deck. (The half bath is off to the bottom right of this picture.)

The "office/study/workout room" which is still very messy at this point :). This room is off to the left of the dining room picture above. There are built-in bookshelves/cabinets that you can see the corner of in the bottom right of this picture. Wade's desk is the one with the black chair, and mine is the little one with the iMac on it.

The den, from the office looking over the railing. The den & entryway are on one level, and then there are a couple steps up to the level where the office, dining room & kitchen are. You can see the side of the front door at the top left of this picture.

The view of the den from upstairs, which obviously overlooks it :).

The guest room, just waiting for a visitor :). And no, that mirror is not staying in that location on the wall, awkwardly between the bed & nightstand. The sellers left a picture hanger there, so I just stuck something up there for now.

I didn't take a picture of the 3rd bedroom (the "nursery") because there's nothing in there except boxes of decorations I'm figuring out what to do with. So that room will just be storage until there's a little Tapp to put in there :).

The guest/hall bathroom upstairs.

Master bedroom... it is huge. The mess on the left is the Ikea dresser that is waiting to be taken back because the holes were drilled wrong or something and it is not going to be able to be put together.

So there's the mini-tour! We're still getting boxes unpacked & pictures on the walls, but I think we've gotten pretty far for 1.5 days in the place :). We should be getting internet on Wednesday. Wade is stoked that apparently in our DISH Network package we get ESPN-U and several other ESPN channels we didn't have with Time Warner Cable, as well as a bunch of HD channels. And for $15/month cheaper :).

Two of the best things I don't have pictures of are the garage (oh how I am going to love having a garage) and the 2-minute commute to work (for both of us). 1.5 minutes of the commute is just trying to turn left out of the neighborhood!

We bought a house!

2009-12-18T13:31:00.007-05:00

I have been very MIA lately, in large part due to this little purchase we made this week...

This is just the picture from the MLS listing. I will take some pictures of the inside once we get moved in :).

So, we closed on Tuesday, had a few appliances delivered this week, and a guy is going to start work on Monday to remove the popcorn ceilings (and make them smooth). Then we plan to move in over New Year's weekend!

The house is about half a mile from where we work, so we're very excited to have a 2-minute commute AND hopefully use the house to bless others as much as we can. Wade plans to have the guys from his basketball team over for video games or team parties, and I'm planning to volunteer us for the teachers' back-to-school party in the fall. I'm hoping to host a friend's bridal shower this spring and our community group from church sometimes. And then of course other friends and family are more than welcome anytime!

FYI TO ANYONE WHO POSSIBLY KNOWS ANYONE WHO MIGHT WANT TO BUY A CONDO: our condo is still for sale, so we are just praying for a miracle that it would sell quickly! It would be very, very nice to not have 2 mortgage payments to pay for very long.

A Madelyn update

2009-11-19T18:05:00.002-05:00

I got to hang out a little bit with Hillary and Madelyn the other night. It had been so long that I don't think she really knew who I was for the first few minutes - sad! But she warms up quick :).

Clapping, of course

Standing, holding onto mommy...

Reading some books before bed

Silly girl high-fiving herself in the mirror :)

Climbing the stairs

An after-dinner sippy cup

Walking

Can't believe she's 9 months already!

Weekend in Montreat

2009-11-13T20:21:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Montreat, NC with the lovely ladies of Hope Community Church. It was a great time - just nice and relaxing and fun to build some better friendships with girls I've just started to really get to know.

I don't have any pictures of actual people, but just trust me that they were there :).

Look who learned to clap...

2009-11-09T14:19:00.002-05:00

Halloween

2009-11-02T13:12:00.003-05:00

We had a low-key Halloween, but we did go to my good friend Marcy's party for a while Saturday night. We're such costume cop-outs... I borrowed Marcy's scrubs and went as a doctor/nurse/medical professional and Wade took Jim's costume from The Office and went as Facebook (he has BOOK written across his face). We thought about taking it a step farther and printing out a bunch of status updates and putting them all down the front of his shirt, but that's as far as we got :).

Just as an update, still no showings or anything on the house, 3.5 weeks on the market. It doesn't sound that long, but it would be nice to just have some tiny little nibble or interest. Oh well.

House for sale!

2009-10-15T10:56:00.025-04:00

Today is Day 6 of our house being listed... no calls for showings yet :(.

I have tried and am trying to prepare myself for a potentially long process, but it's so hard! For one thing, I feel like I've already been cleaning it constantly for a month, and it is just neverending...

Even after the initial sweep of taking all personal photos down, streamlining all decorations, clearing clutter, wiping down doors, trim & baseboards, and thinning out my closet - to keep the dishes always done, the bed always made, the floors always vaccuumed, swiffered & mopped, all clothes, shoes & dog toys always put away, all papers & mail always filed away, toilets, tubs & sinks always scrubbed, furniture always dusted, etc. on top of normal life just makes the process seem to drag that much more.

I'm praying so much for patience and the Lord's timing because I know how much ahead of Him I always want to get. I think I know the best way. I think I know how it should go. And the way it should go is easily, quickly, smoothly. But why would I need God in that? If I know the way and it's not difficult in any way, what's going to convince me to depend on Him?

We've been to see several houses in the neighborhoods we're considering moving to. Each has its plusses and minuses - newer or more updated, but small; bigger but in need of repairs or updating; really great but too far away; inexpensive but backs up to a major highway, etc. We'll definitely have to make compromises somewhere along the way.

We've gotten into the groove of Wade's schedule working at Yes I Can basketball camps on Monday/Tuesday nights and Saturdays. Things are about to change again though, because that will end in a couple weeks, and we'll have to learn the new winter schedule of his JV basketball team's season. When that's over, it will probably be Yes I Can time again, and applying for grad school (and hopefully moving somewhere in there!).

Funny story that just happened

2009-10-08T17:44:00.003-04:00

So yesterday Wade came home and was washing his hands and he started singing "Happy Birthday." I joined in with him (because we're kindof silly like that) and then asked him why he was singing that. He said you're supposed to sing Happy Birthday twice to gauge how long to wash your hands. Yesterday I think we sang Happy Birthday to me.

Well today, he came home and started washing his hands again and singing Happy Birthday again. I joined in and we both randomly happened to say "Happy birthday dear Pais-leyyy"... and then right when I said it, I was like, wait a minute - it IS her birthday! I had been thinking about it coming up a few weeks ago, but had totally forgotten. But sure enough, it's October 8th, Paisley's birthday. It was so funny and random.

So happy birthday sweet Paisley-dog. Your 3 years have been so much fun for me!

From this little face

To this one

To this

You love those tennis balls.

Here's to a decade more!

Highlights of life lately

2009-09-23T12:17:00.010-04:00

Life has not provided me with much blogging material lately - certainly not any pictures :(. But it's been busy nonetheless. Let's see if I can come up with a few highlights...

(1) Wade's new 2nd job of directing a site for Yes I Can basketball camps is going pretty well. He works Monday and Tuesday nights and all day Saturday (for a 7-week stretch, basically til the end of October). I don't see him much on those Mondays & Tuesdays, and then we eat dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 but I've been able to fill the time with plenty of chores & errands, so it's been good. He'll finish this and go straight into basketball season for his JV team at school, and then will have another Yes I Can season in the spring.

(2) Madelyn is 7 months old now and starting to crawl. The last time I saw her she could scoot forward on her belly at least, so I'm sure it will be a full-blown crawl before long. She is still the most adorable baby ever. I'm a little nervous that my own kids won't be as cute as her, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it :).

(3) One of my best friends since 9th grade and former roommate got engaged a couple weeks ago. I'm so excited for her and am looking forward to helping with wedding plans from the post-bride perspective.

(4) We decided to put our house on the market! I'm trying to clean and declutter like crazy this week to get it ready. I took down so many pictures of us and our friends & family that were up everywhere - it's a little crazy to see how many pictures of ourselves we had displayed - ha.

(5) Next weekend I'm going to the beach with a few girls for a kindof 2nd annual fall trip. Can't wait for that!

And yeah, that's about it. Hopefully I'll have pictures of something interesting soon :).

That week when we had 2 dogs

2009-09-09T21:44:00.004-04:00

So, a few weeks ago I went into the storage/pantry closet to get something while I was cooking dinner and stepped in a big puddle of cold water. We discovered that the air conditioner had been leaking a flood of water every time it ran and shut off for probably several weeks. All of it had gone UNDER the linoleum and hardwood floors so we hadn't noticed, until it started seeping back out from under the wood that night.

Wade had to rip up 7 or 8 rows of boards that were all totally wet underneath. We were freaking out that we were going to have to replace the a/c unit and the floor of the entire room and all this stuff and it was going to cost like $7,000.

That was a Monday night. On Tuesday, with our floors a mess, our air conditioner turned off to prevent more leaking, and half the stuff from the closet out in the middle of the living room, we went up to our photographers' house to pick out our wedding proofs.

When we got there, this cute Basset hound puppy greeted us, and they explained that they were keeping this dog for some friends of theirs who couldn't keep her anymore and needed to find a home for her. She was so cute and over the course of time we were there, we decided to take her home to see if Wade's parents would keep her, because they'd been looking for a second dog.

So we load the Basset hound, her crate, a container of food and a couple of toys into our car and bring her home to our messy house for the evening, planning to surprise Wade's parents by bringing her over the next evening.

She's supposedly housebroken, but is only a year old and we are taking her to her 3rd home in about a week, so the next morning did not go so well. She can't be let outside without a leash, but she won't go to the bathroom on a leash. If I leave her outside on a long chain, she barks and I'm afraid she's waking up the neighbors. So I took her outside with no success, then brought her back inside and kept her in our bedroom while I took a shower. Get out of the shower and have 8 or so poop droppings all over the floor of our room (and both dogs pacing around).

I clean it all up, clogging the toilet in the process, and leave the dogs gated in the kitchen & entry way while I go to work. Paisley is so scared of the baby gate - and her water bowl is near enough to it - that she doesn't drink anything all day and starts gulping water down when we get home and take the gate down.

Meanwhile, Hillary's maintenance guy came and fixed our air conditioner that day (and didn't charge us - what a blessing!) and said he could fix the floors that weekend. We take the dogs over to the Tapps' that night, and Joli (Wade's mom) falls in love with the dog but thinks she's a better playmate for Paisley than their dog Duke and tries to convince us to keep her! Wade tried valiantly to sell them on Ellie, but it did not work.

So she stayed with us several more days while we tried to coordinate either finding her a new home or getting her back to our photographers. Meanwhile, she's so cute but also stressing me out completely because having 2 dogs in a condo is way harder than having 1, and I forgot how much attention and effort puppies take. I'm used to Paisley and she's used to me and I'm now so much more grateful for how easy she is!

We debated whether to keep her, but pretty much the only reason to keep her was she was cute. Every other reason led to the logical conclusion of DO NOT KEEP HER. Do not take on a 2nd dog that you will still have when you're 40 and have kids and she starts getting sick and needing all kinds of vet expenses. Do not take on a 2nd dog that you have to buy food, heartworm, shots, flea medicine, toys, leashes, spaying surgery, etc. for when you are trying to figure out how you're going to live on one salary when you have kids. Do not take on a 2nd dog that will make it a lot harder to find someone to keep both when you go out of town.

So, luckily we were saved by an old friend who saw my Facebook status and said he was interested in getting a Basset hound. He came over that Saturday and took Ellie for a test run, and from what I hear she's doing great in her new home and he loves having her.

The guy did not really come through for me on the floors, but we called our old neighbors and they just finished fixing them all up today! Hallelujah, I can put my living room back together now.

The other night

2009-09-05T12:53:00.003-04:00

Me trying to understand the video game Wade has been playing lately where he's trying to save the universe from mass takeover or something:

(All the characters on the game are wearing space battle type suits and the set looks like a very techie spaceship type of place. There are also weird looking characters that are various types of aliens apparently. Wade's character dates an alien girl, and she is trying to decide whether to get routine gene therapy to prevent a heart defect in the baby she's carrying from her dead husband.)

Me: So what year is this supposed to be taking place?

Wade: About 100 or 200 years from now - not that long.

Me: So are you on Earth?

Wade: No, I'm on another planet in a different galaxy.

Me: Are you from Earth though?

Wade: (with a slight twinge of frustration) YES, Kim, all humans are from Earth!

Duh.

Scammer

2009-09-01T11:18:00.010-04:00

I had a fun time this morning messing with some person who was trying to scam me through Facebook. They must have hacked into my friend's account, so the following is the IM dialogue between me and supposedly a girl I went to middle school with but haven't seen or talked to since 8th grade...

"Laura": Hello Kim
Me: hi
"Laura": how are u doing?
Me: good, how are you?
"Laura": not fine! I'm in a mess right now and i really need your help
Me: oh no, what's wrong?
"Laura": I'm stranded in london, got mugged at gun point last night
Me: really
"Laura": yeah...all cash on me has been stolen including my credit cards and my phone
Me: who are you with?
"Laura": I'm just alone
Me: why are you in london?
"Laura": believe i'm really scared and freaked out here
well i had to visit a resort in london and i was robbed at the park close to the hotel where i lodged
Plaese can u help me?
Me: why don't you go back to the resort and have them call the police?
"Laura": I've done that...but what i need is to get back home,thats why i really need your help
Are u there?
Me: sorry, i think you need to get in touch with your parents or something
"Laura": Please i don't want my Mom to get freaked out,not for her present condition okay
please i'll appreciate anything from you
Me: wow, what's wrong with your mom?
"Laura": she's having HBP...but its not serious,so i don't want it to get serious now
really scared about her
so please anything u can help me with,i promise to refund the money back
Me: what about your dad or other family?
"Laura": Actually i didn't tell them i was coming here,it was suppose to be a short visit
my return flight leaves soon
Me: so why would you need money if you already have a flight?
"Laura": just to settle thr hotel bills i owe
its not fair if i leave like that
the manager has been of good help to me
Me: where have you been living that your English phrasing is kinda weird?
"Laura": look,i'm typing fast...u know how i feel right now
are u there?
Me: you know, considering i've heard of this scam before and i don't think a girl i haven't seen in 14 years would ask me to send money to london, i'm gonna have to get back to work now
"Laura": can u remember who i dated in high school?
Me: i didn't know you in high school
"Laura": forget
Laura is offline.

Madelyn's 6 months old!

2009-08-19T14:05:00.004-04:00

A few days ago Madelyn turned 6 months old! She gets cuter and cuter every day, and I think we're entering the zone when the milestones pick up the pace and she's doing new things all the time. She's sitting, pushing up on her arms like she wants to crawl, eating pureed foods, standing and "dancing" if you hold her hands, getting teeth... I can see similarities to Hillary's baby pictures more & more, especially in her expressions & her eyes/brow area.

Hill sent these pictures, so I'm being her unsolicited blogger to get them out to the world (or the small piece of it that reads my blog)!

Hi little miss priss!

The grin, showing the teeth :).

Trying to feed herself some sweet potatoes.

Johnny Jump Up

Naked baby!

Num num num.

3 days til we get to babysit!

End-of-summer fun

2009-08-17T12:07:00.028-04:00

The last couple weeks have been a fun time in transition between our unexpectedly busy summer schedule and our upcoming busy fall schedule. Even though I still had to work normal hours, Wade had in-service teacher meetings and was prepping lesson plans & things, we've spent more time doing things together lately and it's been so fun.

Two weeks ago, we started P90X together... in case you don't know, it's a pretty intense workout program on DVD that you do at home with minimal equipment. It is intense because each individual workout kicks your butt, and you also do it 6 days a week, so the soreness just magnifies & multiplies and makes you feel like you will never again be able to do such things as wash your hair, walk up a step, bend over, etc. The thought behind P90X is muscle confusion - you don't give your muscles a chance to get used to the same motion or routine, so you avoid the plateau effect. Wade is doing this to get ripped - I am doing this to actually consistently work out again and to have a common goal to reach with Wade.

We've also slept in until almost noon the past THREE Saturdays! I always feel slightly guilty & grumpy when I wake up that late, because I feel like I must have things to do and now I've wasted half the day, but in retrospect, I'm sure we should enjoy as many of these lazy Saturday mornings as possible before we have kids!

This weekend, we also went all-out crazy college-esque and stayed up til almost FIVE a.m. Saturday night (Sunday morning) watching a movie, then slept in til 1:00 (skipping church, yes, I know bad, but we did listen to a Tim Keller sermon when we got up). I love the movie North & South - it was actually a TV miniseries made in like 1985 - with Patrick Swayze, Kirstie Alley, David Carradine and a bunch of other people - about 2 families leading up to and during the Civil War. The whole thing is about 24 hours long, but we watched 6 or 7 hours Saturday night and some more yesterday. It's so addictive and I finally got Wade hooked too :).

Other things we've done together lately:
(1) Domino's Pizza run one night because we had a coupon
(2) Super Walmart for groceries
(3) Homeowners' association meeting (and somehow we got signed up for the grounds committee during that)
(4) CDS teachers' potluck dinner
(5) Got new phones at T-Mobile and I joined the Tapps' family plan
(6) Emergency ice cream run around 11 p.m.
(7) Watched various comedians on YouTube on Wade's laptop in our bed before going to sleep
(8) Looked at houses online and debated the pros & cons, whens & hows of selling our condo and buying a house

School starts tomorrow for Wade, and this coming weekend we're babysitting for Madelyn for Hillary & Allen's 5th anniversary. Fun!

Getting an early start...

2009-08-09T22:40:00.001-04:00

LOVE these pictures that Hillary just sent me. Here is Madelyn, getting acquainted with a Carolina tradition.

So cute!!!

Madelyn's first trip to the pool

2009-07-25T23:51:00.002-04:00

I joined Hillary for a quick trip to the pool today, to get Madelyn in the water, since she didn't get too much of an opportunity at the beach. Of course, Aunt Kim made herself the designated photographer, and bravely kept the camera dry, while capturing every moment on (digital) film... it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it folks.

She didn't like it too much at first...

But started to warm up to the idea of a gigantic bath tub...

I hope I am this gorgeous when I take my first baby to the pool.

She mostly sucked on her fingers the whole time... probably feels good with those 2 new teeth she has :).

And dipping even a little farther into the water. She's no Michael Phelps, but she's a heck of a lot cuter :).

I'm back... with a guest room

2009-07-24T15:37:00.002-04:00

So sorry for the long delay in posting. Life has been really busy lately, although not with a ton of interesting stuff. For me it's mostly been work, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, going to the grocery store, exchanging and buying stuff for the house, and walking Paisley. For Wade it's been helping me with some house things, working out, playing basketball, coaching basketball, refereeing basketball, working with kids one on one in basketball, etc.

Here is a photo update of the progress of the house, this time the guest bedroom / Wade's office. I'm really pretty satisfied with everything at this point (except some clutter I'd like to figure out how to get rid of). I bought pretty much all this stuff at Target with our wedding gift cards :).

The bed... I love this comforter (so much that I had to get it even though they only had a king size and not a queen). I also got a couple pillows to go with it but contrast a little. I put that mirror over the bed even though it's a little small for the space, because we already had a hanger there from the picture that was there before, and the gold frame kinda goes with the goldy/yellowy/green of the bedspread.

I got a nice plain khaki cover for the futon and some cool big pillows, so I feel like it looks a little more stylish and a little less college-y. I guess we still need to hang that picture up, but for now it's just propped :).

And the view from the door, so you can see Wade's desk, the bookshelf, and the picture above it, which was a wedding present created by his uncle's girlfriend who does these watercolor pieces apparently, and did this one of our engagement day & pictures. Hard to explain, but pretty cool :). Please pardon the clothes hanging over the closet door and the Duke paraphernalia that is confined to Wade's desk area only :).

And a bonus photo - Wade carrying like 20 bottles of Gatorade that his parents sent him home with. He's trying to look mad because he was about to drop them and I made him wait so I could run upstairs and get the camera :).

That's about all for now. I'll try to be a little less delinquent about posting :).

4th of July at Litchfield

2009-07-09T12:41:00.024-04:00

We had a great family weekend at the beach for the 4th of July. Wade and I, dad, and Hillary, Allen and Madelyn occupied our family's timeshare condo that we've been going to since I was probably 2 years old. It's so crazy to think back over the years and the various stages of life that we've been through in that condo. From the days when my dad's parents were the heads of the family, when Hillary and I were the little grandkids, and my aunt Lisa was a newlywed barely starting her family... to now, when Hillary and I are the "adult kids" bringing our new families, our dad is "grandpa," and Lisa's kids are leaving for college one by one.

Anyway, it was Madelyn's first beach trip, so of course she was really the main attraction of the weekend. We did remember mom, each of us in our own way for the most part, just thinking back to what we were doing this time last year. Hillary, Allen, dad, Laurie and I released some balloons at around 9:45 on July 4th, the time mom died... it was a brief, anticlimatic commemoration of such a weighty anniversary, but I don't think anything more was needed.

On to the pictures...

Here is Madelyn getting suited up... the swim diapers were a little on the large side you could say. The smallest size Hillary could find was for 16-26 lbs and Madelyn is 14 lbs.

Allen was vigilant about the sunscreen, so he got the task of greasing the baby up with SPF 60.

Yes, I look like my daddy.

Starrett family lookin' good.

Checking out the ocean with daddy.

Going in for a dip...

Oh, no, not a good idea. Madelyn was not a big fan of the water or sand, but it probably was pretty cold, and not helped by her lack of sleep.

Madelyn has had enough - trying to get some sleep if these people would leave me alone.

Some people around here build sandcastles... Here we have my cousin Carson (front left), his sister Dorothy, Wade, my dad in a goofy hat, and my cousin Mark in the background.

And, saying goodbye...

Wade and I stayed to watch the end of Wimbledon on Sunday - WOW, 16-14 in the 5th set! Mom would have loved it. "Breakfast at Wimbledon" was one of our favorite things, and we would slightly guiltily skip church to watch it, and then call each other partway into the match and laugh that we were both doing the same thing and not feel so bad anymore.

A year ago tomorrow (by date) was her funeral... I still get jealous when I see pictures of other girls' weddings and babies and their mom is there, and I think "you have no idea how lucky you are to have your mom there for these events in your life." The main thing I feel without mom is just a lack of an anchor, and a lack of a caretaker. That one person I knew I could count on to steer me right and love me completely is not ever going to be here again. I know that, in fact, God is really that person. But I guess this just puts the rubber of that faith to the road, and so far it's not getting a lot of traction. But He's not going anywhere. So I guess I'll learn it yet.

Laugh for today

2009-07-02T08:54:00.001-04:00

This is the most ridiculous and hilarious thing I have ever read:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_homely_doll_to_improve_self

Back to the Madelyn show

2009-06-30T01:10:00.004-04:00

Wedding - done. Now we can get back to auntie-style blogging with more pictures of Madelyn! She's 4.5 months now, and starting to get towards sitting on her own. She also loves making noise and various expressions with her mouth :). I can't wait to play with her at the beach all weekend for the 4th of July!

I was there for bath time the other night... here she is giggling, getting ready.

Naked baby, making out with her stuffed bunny. So cute.

"Oh no you di--n't!"

Slightly distressed, probably by the camera flash.

No flash = much better.

Just relaxin' all cool, you know, gettin' my hair did.

Babies, bathtubs, washcloths... they just make cute pictures.

Always making funny lips, this one.

Still coming together

2009-06-30T01:04:00.003-04:00

Our master bedroom is still slowly coming together... I'm excited by the two most recent accomplishments, which are hanging pictures and getting nightstands.

The desk area and that side of the room are still rather cluttered with papers and wedding stuff and just things I don't know what to do with, but I like finally having pictures back on the wall. The black & white ones over my desk are some of our engagement pictures :).

We hung my bridal portrait over the dresser - I think it's a good spot for it.

Yay for nightstands instead of the lamp boxes the lamps had been sitting on! We found these at Ashley Furniture - they went with a kids' bedroom set, but we liked that they weren't too big because most of the things we saw were just huge for trying to fit two of them in a room along with a big bed. I think these are going to be a great size.

Professional wedding pics

2009-06-25T10:23:00.001-04:00

Ok, I got no comment love for the honeymoon, so here is the link to our professional photo proofs from the wedding :).

http://bellaloren.zenfolio.com/p645529824
Password (if it asks): bella

Honeymoon!

2009-06-17T10:39:00.008-04:00

We're back and getting settled after a WONDERFUL time in Mexico! We would definitely recommend have a week in between the wedding and honeymoon. It was perfect for being able to re-group, shift gears, pack and be ready to relax.

We flew out early Saturday morning, June 6, and arrived in Cancun around 11:30 local time. Everything was really smooth (minor check-in panic when we saw the line for Delta at 5:45 a.m. but it went fine) and we didn't even see many people with masks or anything related to the swine flu.

This is in the main lobby of the hotel. It's actually when we were about to leave, but it could like like a just-arrived picture too :).

This is also on the flight home, but just pretend it was on the flight there :).

The resort had a maze of pools everywhere you went. It was crazy how perfectly it was made for relaxing. They had these hammocks over the pools in some places, some areas with jacuzzi jets (within the regular water though, not hot tubs), big ledges with shallower water where you could put your lounge chair and slip into and out of the water as necessary, swim-up bars to get your all-included drinks without getting out of the pool, beds and lounge chairs everywhere with plenty of shade or sun as you liked... And the water was the perfect temperature - cool enough to be refreshing, but never cold enough to make you hesitate to get in.

The water was gorgeous, as you can see here, and the sky always looked like that - deep blue with white puffy clouds scattered throughout.

For a little diversion, we liked going over to the game area, where they had pool and ping pong. I was impressed that there were no balls or paddles or cue sticks missing, especially since you didn't have to check them out from anywhere - they were just there.

My life goal of seeing clear ocean water has been realized! It was a little rocky and seaweedy going into the ocean, so we didn't go in a lot, but it looks pretty here. Also, the sand was really nice and not too hot... we were saying that maybe the fact that it's a little lighter in color helps it stay cooler than, say, SC beach sand - so you didn't burn your feet walking across it, even in the middle of the day.

This is actually the day we arrived - here is Wade with his welcome drink in a melon :). Mine was in a pineapple. The people at the Excellence Riviera Cancun take care of everything! It was a stellar place to go, I'd say.

First few wedding pics!

2009-06-02T12:06:00.003-04:00

These pictures are courtesy of my wonderful new sister-in-law, Whitney! I'm sure our photographer pics won't be ready for a while, especially considering they had 3 weddings to photograph our weekend alone!

This is from my bridal portrait day back in March.

Bridesmaids' luncheon with Hillary & Madelyn :). Lunch was wonderful - many thanks to my aunts Lisa and Charlotte for hosting it!

More bridesmaids at the luncheon - love my Carolina girls!

Taking pictures before the ceremony. Our family friend Mary Ruth Diffey did all the wedding flowers and they were beautiful!

Whitney and me :)

Wade and his groomsmen before the ceremony

Cutting the cake

Bumbo girl

2009-05-24T17:03:00.002-04:00

I had a fun visit with Hillary & Madelyn yesterday, catching up and working on a couple last wedding projects. My camera battery needed charging, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked, but I got a couple of the big girl sitting in her Bumbo. It's still a little hard to keep that head balanced on her little neck for a long time, but she liked it at least :).

Staring intently at the feet.

What? You want something from me?

Bummer that this rainy/cloudy weekend has prevented me from getting a little more tan, but it's been nice to just relax inside for the most part and enjoy our last weekend before marriage! I've been a lot more conscious of wanting mom to be here this week - it just doesn't feel like I should be able to carry out all the plans and get married without her. I'm hoping to spend as much time as possible this week just reflecting on the bigness of everything - the commitment we're making, and the changes we'll go through, and the support we have, and the losses we feel even in the midst of it. There's a lot of soul stuff to recognize, I'm beginning to understand.

The Home Stretch

2009-05-18T14:11:00.006-04:00

Well, we're on the home stretch, folks. Only 12 more days til Kris pronounces Mr. and Mrs. Wade Tapp! I can't believe I only have ONE more weekend of not being married in my whole life!

The past couple weeks have gone by pretty quickly - just filled with to-do list tasks and spending time with Wade. The wedding checklist is looking good... I just have to finish printing & assembling the programs, have a few last communications with vendors, delegate the day-of tasks like getting presents & stuff back from the reception, and that's about it! Oh, and lay out as much as possible this weekend if it is sunny.

Paisley has been enjoying all the time she gets to spend with Duke (the Tapps' dog). At Wade's mom's insistence I NEVER go over there without bringing Paisley. They are two of the funniest dogs you will ever meet I think. They have so much personality and we laugh endlessly at them and their antics.

I'm also trying to actually think about life after The Wedding. Mostly, what and how I am going to COOK to feed the appetite of The Wade. What I got used to cooking as a single girl is like 1/30th what I need to be prepared for going forward. And the last couple months with wedding planning, I've barely cooked or gone to the grocery store at all (counting on Wade getting enough to eat at his parents' house). Plus all the pressure (mostly self-imposed, not from Wade) to fix something new most nights of the week (instead of cooking once and eating leftovers for the next 5 days like I could do myself). And no more "I'm not that hungry, I'll just grab an apple and some crackers for dinner." My kitchen and I are about to get hard-core reacquainted!

A Bridal Mad-Lib

2009-05-11T18:14:00.003-04:00

The following is a Mad-Lib (remember those?) created especially for me by the ladies at my last bridal shower. The fill-in-the-blank words are in pink. It's pretty funny :).

Dear Diary,

I can't believe I'm getting married 4 weeks from today! I am so excited to go to Mexico for our honeymoon!

I can already picture it: Wade in his chartreuse swim trunks, me looking loud in my bikini, lying together on the sand under the Mexican sun and drinking sangria. It's going to be ridiculous.

I hope I don't forget to pack my crocs because without them I would be completely stinky. Wade says he's going to bring a toilet brush but I'm not sure what for.

The trip's not just going to be about having lots of sex. (Although I am enthused about the sex part.) We're also going to play cricket and wash the windows and hopefully even pick our noses.

I'm sure the food will be smokin', just like our love. I bet we'll eat pigs' feet, edamame, broccoli and beanie weenies. I hope the local food and water doesn't give us a sinus infection.

This is going to be the slowest week of my life.

Love, Kimmie

P.S. Do you think Wade swallows in his sleep? I guess I'm about to find out.

More weekend festivities

2009-05-05T23:17:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I had my final shower as a bride! They have all been so much fun, but the fact that they're over just means the wedding is that much closer!

I actually went to two showers on Saturday because my small group leader from high school had a baby shower in the morning. It was so good to see Kim again - I am so excited for her and Keith welcoming this miracle baby girl into their family in July!

The Kims :)

Hillary and Libba threw a Mexican themed shower Saturday evening. They fixed some amazing fajitas, margaritas and tres leches cake - YUM! Thanks girls - I love you both so much.

After the shower, I stuck around for Madelyn's bath time... which apparently she usually loves, but decided to hate it when Aunt Kimmy was there. These were pretty much the only two moments she wasn't screaming during the whole time :). But so cute!

I think she looks like such a big girl here! 11 weeks old :).

A few things from this week

2009-05-01T18:28:00.002-04:00

In reverse order of how they happened (because that's just how Blogger decided to upload the pictures despite any correct order I might have put them in)...

I went to dad's house today after work with the intention of sewing myself a little ring bearer pillow. Because mom taught me how to sew a pillow when I was like 9, and I'm sure it's just like riding a bicycle. But not knowing much about working the sewing machine other than turning it on, it jammed every time I tried to start a stitch. I had no idea whether it needed a different setting or different thread, or just a different operator, but it was obvious it was not going to work for me. So I got out the needle and thread and sewed it by hand, all the while thinking why am I doing this just to save $10 or however much it would cost to buy one? The finished product isn't bad - I'm no Linda Johns in the seamstress department, but it will suffice for a 30-second walk down the aisle I think.

Earlier this morning, Haverty's delivered our new bed! I love it!

Wednesday night, the girls in my community group from Hope threw an Around the Clock shower for me! It was so fun and we got some great, creative gifts for every time of day (and night!). This is the PPC (party planning committee) afterwards... next up, baby showers for the two on the ends :).

And last weekend, was my bachelorette/lingerie shower Friday night, and then a bed & bath shower with college friends Saturday. It was so great to see all these girls, many of whom I don't see that often, and I think I was recovering all week from staying up late Friday and all the festivities.

My last shower is tomorrow - I can't believe I'm getting married LATER THIS MONTH!!

Bored

2009-04-21T23:12:00.001-04:00

Paisley is SO over wedding planning...

HGTV, here we come!

2009-04-14T23:44:00.006-04:00

One of Wade's & my favorite channels to watch is HGTV, especially the shows about buying and selling houses. But we did our own little sprucing up last week while Wade was on spring break (read: Wade did 80% of the work; I did 20%). We painted the master bedroom, both upstairs bathrooms and their ceilings, and my dresser.

There will still be some improvements to come (i.e. actually hanging the pictures up instead of leaning them against the wall, and a couple new pieces of furniture and other wedding-gift type things :). But here's how it looks so far...

Unfortunately this is the only "before" picture I got. This is my bedroom - formerly painted a chocolate brown color (called Zanzibar Spice - ooh la la). We thought the chocolate brown combined with black furniture would be a little dark.

And voila! New light blue paint color (called Galactica), and new/semi-new bedding. The white comforter was Wade's (I convinced him to get the white one last summer when he was getting bedding for his house after college - because I knew I wanted white bedding someday - sneaky, sneaky). The taupe coverlet is new, from Wade's Aunt Kim, and the pillow and lamps also new. They are sitting on their own boxes right now in the absence of night stands :).

Wade's black bookshelf was our first piece of black furniture, but we also plan to get a new black dresser and black bed.

We painted my dresser black, and I love it!

This is me trying to get the wall color, the shower curtain and the rug in the master bath all in one picture. The wall color was leftover paint from some of the other rooms in the house, the rug is new and the shower curtain I had in the guest room back when I first moved in.

New bronze light fixture to match the existing towel bars. (Please ignore the fact that one light bulb is missing.)

You can see more towel bars, and the artwork I bought to put up on that wall. By the way, I have the smallest master bathroom known to man, so these were as wide of shots as I could get standing in the bathroom!

This is the guest room slash Wade's office! We didn't paint this room, but we moved my old bed in here and inherited that desk from my grandfather. The bed is sitting on the ground because we broke the bed frame while moving it - oops!

The newly improved guest bathroom... this used to have ugly '80s wallpaper with small rows of blue and pink flowers. We peeled it all off and then had THE RESIDUE FROM HELL still stuck all over the walls. Wade sanded with a power sander, chipped at it with spackle tools, sprayed it with water, vinegar, wallpaper removal chemicals - all to no avail. So finally after 5 days of frustration, we decided we were just going to have "textured walls." I put extra spackle on the walls to kindof artistically make it look like it was all on purpose, and then we painted it the same color as the bedroom. Also got that new light fixture.

Here's the new black & white shower curtain that will be in here. Everything will be black, white and chrome/nickel, except the walls.

And another view, where you can see the "T" we'll hang on the wall above the toilet!

Yikes, sorry this was so long!

Some Maddy pics

2009-04-14T13:27:00.004-04:00

Madelyn is 2 months old today, so I thought I'd post some pictures of her (Hillary actually took these, not me). Soon I'm going to take some pictures of our "renovations" (i.e. painting) in the house and post them, but I have to clean up a little first.

Rah rah, Carolina-lina! National champs!

With mommy

Oh, that's just too funny! Stop, stop, really, my sides are aching!

Can this toothless grin not just melt your heart?

Already sporting mom jeans

Bath time

So cute!

Funny conversation

2009-04-07T14:39:00.003-04:00

Wade is on spring break this week, so we agreed that it would be really helpful and sweet if he would do some painting in our house. We needed to paint the master bedroom, 2 bathrooms and the ceilings in the bathrooms, which have been peeling. Yesterday he worked on the ceilings all day, stripping the peeling paint, priming, spackling, cleaning brushes, etc. It was kindof a frustrating day. Today he was going to work on painting the ceilings and getting the other walls/rooms ready for painting.

He just called me at work to ask me to pick up a few things at Lowe's on my way home, and we were discussing various details about the projects, etc. When he got to my house earlier there were some boxes of wedding gifts that had been delivered - plates and stuff he wasn't too interested in. So while we're on the phone, the doorbell rings and it's another delivery of a wedding gift.

Wade: "This one's from Target."

Kim: Oh really, what is it?

(Wade unwraps the brown paper, reads the card from his cousins)

Wade: I'm not going to paint anymore.

Kim (Thinking what the heck, we just worked out all these details and you told me all the stuff you were going to do): Um, why?

Wade: Because this is a Nintendo Wii.

Bridal portraits!

2009-04-02T13:00:00.002-04:00

My bridal portraits came back quicker than I thought!

I asked Wade if I could post the link on my blog and trust him not to peek, and he said I could, so here it is :).

http://bellaloren.zenfolio.com/p542747721
Password: Bella

I'll take suggestions of your favorites if you want to give them, to help me decide what to order!

Busy weeks

2009-03-31T11:17:00.010-04:00

The last week or two has been pretty busy it seems, but fun stuff mostly. I did have my bridal portraits last Saturday... even though it was a little chilly, I'm thankful that it was the one sunny weekend sandwiched between two completely rainy ones!

The photographers thought it would be cool to do an "architectural" look, so we went downtown and took them at various spots. It was really fun to get my hair done (Hillary's girl Kathy did an amazing job!), makeup (Wade's sister Whitney also did an amazing job!), put on the dress and shoes and jewelry, and get to be a semi-model for a few hours :). We took some on the steps of an old church, some along Tryon Street with the beautiful cherry blossom trees in bloom, some on this old turquoise couch they brought with them and staged at a couple locations... I can't wait to see them, although it may be another week or two before they're ready. I'm trying to forget about them in the meantime so the time will go faster!

Last week I also met with the wedding coordinator at Church at Charlotte for a little bit to ask some questions and look at the sanctuary. It was good to have a little communication with them and be assured that they really do have our wedding on their calendar!

This past weekend (in the pouring rain) my roommate moved out and into her new condo that she bought! She's been a great roommate for 2 years, and I'm excited for her taking the step of buying her own place. It was so weird how quickly the house began to feel more like "our" house (Wade's & mine) without Jocelyn there. Wade and I moved some furniture around (read: out of my room) to give us some more space. The house feels SO big now! There's, like, actual floor space in my room. Where you can walk. Or sit. Or do handstands. Or have a picnic. The possibilities are endless.

We claimed/inherited my grandfather's desk and it was moved in to the guest room yesterday. It's a big, substantial desk, and it looks really good in there. Wade is so excited because he's claiming basically that whole room for himself :). His knees can actually fit under the desk, and he can look out the windows while he sits there. He says he's going to use that bathroom when we're married too because his knees won't hit the tub while sitting on the toilet (master bathroom = tee-tiny), and he'll probably use the closets in there as well.

At some point in the coming month I'm going to turn him loose on painting a bunch of stuff - starting with both upstairs bathrooms and their peeling ceilings. Then we'll probably paint some furniture, and possibly our bedroom.

The time is going to pass so quickly (as I think about all the things I need to do). There are just 3 "open" weekends, then I have showers 2 weekends in a row (can't wait!), and then there are just 3 more weekends before the big day! That's so crazy to me. Everybody keeps asking me if I've got all the planning done, and the answer is no. There are so many little details still to do. It will help now that RSVPs are coming in, so I can start to do the things that depend on numbers and names.

And tomorrow, I will officially be able to say "I'm getting married next month!" :)

Madelyn update

2009-03-19T10:11:00.002-04:00

Since I've become the semi-official source of Madelyn updates, I may as well spread the news that she went to the doctor yesterday (I'm assuming for her one-month checkup), and was 8 lbs, 11 oz and 21.5 inches long. That's 25th percentile in weight, 75th in height - long and lean like her mama!

And in Aunt Kim's world... my bridal portraits are on Saturday! Thankfully, it should be sunny, though a little chilly. I will have my hair done for real, and Wade's sister Whitney is going to do my makeup. It will be fun to get everything on - dress, shoes, jewelry, hair, etc. - just like the real day. Maybe it will help it seem more real to me, because lately it just seems like this nebulous thing I'm planning. 72 more days...

One month old!

2009-03-14T22:28:00.004-04:00

Madelyn turned one month old today. We didn't have a big party or anything... she's pretty modest, and asked for no gifts and no clowns or magicians or jumping castles. Just a visit from Aunt Kim and Uncle Wade and grandpa. She also asked for a Tar Heel victory in the ACC tournament, but unfortunately you don't always get everything you ask for...

Here I am with mommy - I'm getting so big already!

My baby papasan chair at least looks like the most comfortable thing in the world. Aunt Kim wishes she could be snuggled up like this right about now.

The end.

The faces of Madelyn

2009-03-14T22:10:00.005-04:00

I think Madelyn's top talent at one month old is making faces. She is a very entertaining little show with all the faces she makes. Here are some from today...

Laughing at something in her sleep

She likes to stick that tongue out

Just chillin'

Yay! I don't know if I'm playing or about to fuss...

This is all SO beneath me

Uh oh, something's not going right

Yawn/sneeze

Big yawn!

Zonked out

Genius on our hands

2009-03-09T09:53:00.002-04:00

Ok, I still don't have any new pictures of Madelyn... I know, terrible aunt! I wanted to get one of her in her Tar Heel onesie yesterday when we watched the Duke game, but I just never did, and then she was asleep and I didn't want to wake her up with the camera noise.

But, I just had to post a little brag that Madelyn ROLLED OVER this weekend, at 3 weeks old! Front to back. Twice. Yes, we have a prodigy here :).

End of brag.

Kitchen Shower!

2009-03-04T11:14:00.002-05:00

I had my first shower right before the snow hit this weekend :). Some of the women in Wade's mom's covenant group hosted it, and it was so sweet and such an honor for me to experience.

First gift - a 6-sided cheese grater, which will no doubt be 50% better than my existing 4-sided cheese grater!

Opening up something else

Dad came and chatted it up with all the women :). My aunt Laurie (mom's sister) gave one of the devotions, evoking several tears in the room!

We got all of our silverware - so exciting!

Love this lady! Mary Ruth gave the other devotion and encouraged me to always give Wade respect, even when he doesn't deserve it. I know that will be a sound piece of advice for me to remember!

My aunt Lisa came down from Hickory - always fun to get to see her :). Hope she made it back in the snow!

Some of the ladies (and dad).

Margarita set! Who wants to come over for the first party?

Reading sweet cards from people :).

My dad's so cute back there :).

We played a game where everyone had to answer a multiple-choice quiz with questions about Wade and me. I think dad technically won, with 22 out of 26, but since he probably didn't have a lot of use for the gift, it went to my aunt Lisa with 20/26.

Lots of good food going on. Also, check out my sister in the striped sweater... yes, she just had a baby 2 weeks ago! It was Madelyn's first trip out besides the pediatrician, and she did great (sorry no pictures of her!). All the women were like, "does this baby ever actually cry?"

So all in all, it was a very fun afternoon. Wade and I also bought our wedding rings this weekend! I still need to pick mine up from being sized, and then we just need to find the best place to keep them for 3 months where they won't get lost!

Name Game

2009-02-25T13:40:00.002-05:00

I saw this on Amanda's blog and couldn't resist!

YOUR REAL NAME
Kimberly

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother and father's middle names)
Carla Whorton

NASCAR NAME (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad, add "Jr" to the end)
Albert Gary Jr.

STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Johki (soon to be Tapki)

SPY NAME (favorite color, favorite animal)
Brown Dog

SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, town where you were born)
Dale Charlotte (I don't know about that one)

SUPERHERO NAME (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Blue Milk (haha)

FLY NAME (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Kins (soon to be Kipp)

STREET NAME (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Heath Sugar (ok, so I adjusted my favorite ice cream flavor a tad to make this cooler)

SKANK NAME (1st pet's name, street you grew up on)
Molly Asherton (excellent)

GANGSTA NAME (first 3 letters of first name plus 'izzle')
Kimizzle

GOTH NAME (Black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Paisley (also excellent)

STRIPPER NAME (first pet and name of car you drive)
Molly Civic (maybe Molly Honda - that sounds better)

HIPPY NAME (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
Dangit, I can't remember the name of my perfume. I like too many kinds of candy to choose anyway.

MAFIA NAME (Dad's first name, animal that scares you, add "da" in between the two)
Greg da Roach

NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (adjective that describes you, problem body part, add "Chief" to the beginning)
Chief Run Ragged Tummy

SAINT NAME (Start with "Saint", Grandma's first name, fav alcohol)
Saint Carla Baileys or Saint Dottie Martini

EASTERN EUROPEAN HOCKEY PLAYER NAME (Your first name, middle name adding "ski" to the end)
Kimberly Daleski

The first week

2009-02-20T23:02:00.003-05:00

The first week of aunthood has been SO fun. I think I'm dangerous because I'm about as obsessed as a mommy in terms of taking pictures, but I have a lot more time to post them on Facebook and blogs! I've gotten to go over and visit two afternoons this week, so in the 4 total visits I've had, I've taken 148 pictures (not counting the ones I deleted for being too blurry, etc.). It doesn't help that I love my new camera too!

Today I was there for all kinds of activities - bath time, tummy time, fussy time, feeding time, and sleepy time.

I just can't get over the sweetness of her! I can still smell her little baby scent on my hands after I get home and it's the best thing ever.

It's been really fun to see my sister become a mom. She's a natural and it's just so cool to see her love this little person SO much. Here she is giving Madelyn a little encouragement for tummy time :).

Doesn't she look like she's always been a mom?

Post-bath, the hair was a little fro-ish, but so soft - I love it!

It doesn't get much better than a clean little baby wrapped up in a towel!

100 days!

2009-02-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

As of today, there are just 100 days til the wedding! Hooray!

Love has a new name... Madelyn

2009-02-15T01:43:00.004-05:00

We had a surprise little Valentine join us today... Madelyn Marie Starrett was born at 9:33, weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces. I am so in love with her already, which is why I'm up at 2 a.m. posting this on the blog!

Everything's so cold and bright out here!

Hillary called me at 8 a.m. to say she was having contractions. They went to the hospital around 10, got admitted a few hours later, and finally she got the epidural, which made things much better! We all sat around for the afternoon, until the nurse kicked us out when she was 9 cm. The rest is history.

My first bath was not my favorite thing.

Big yawn.

Aunt Kim!

Future Tar Heel.

Grandma would be so proud of her girls!

Precious.

All the preciousness.

I'm a daddy's girl already!

The new Starrett family!

I'm so proud of you Hill! You were a champ!

Night night.

Proud to be a Tar Heel!

2009-02-13T14:08:00.002-05:00

Ahh, does this bring back memories or what?

Rushing Franklin Street

Go Heels!

Wedding hair!

2009-02-03T19:01:00.007-05:00

I had my hair consultation for the wedding the other day! I went to the girl Hillary goes to at Ulta at Stonecrest, and she did a great job. She gave me strict instructions NOT TO CUT MY HAIR one iota between now and the wedding! Haha. I was planning on getting one more tiny trim before then, but I guess I won't :).

She wants my bangs to grow out at least another inch (which they will, no problem) so she can sweep them better... right now they don't reach my ear on this side.

I may or may not have her do the back a little looser on the wedding day. Tight is kindof nice though so it definitely doesn't go anywhere for the whole day!

On this side, we'll probably put a flower of some sort. I need to figure out what kind it should be. Do hydrangeas look good in hair? Those are the wedding flowers, but we shall see.

Last night I made 3 new RULES for the remaining 116 days til the wedding...

(1) The Bride must get 8 hours of sleep every night.

(2) The Bride must have 30 minutes of alone time each day in which she is not doing wedding plans, anything on the internet, chores, cooking or working out.

(3) The Bride must take time to buy and prepare balanced meals instead of grabbing random stuff on the go.

I think those 3 things will go a long way in keeping me sane, helping me enjoy the planning & preparation, and ensuring I feel healthy and well by the time the wedding comes!

Quick updates

2009-01-23T09:57:00.010-05:00

I can't seem to find much time or interesting things to blog about these days, but here are a couple updates...

~ Wade and I ordered a new camera when both of ours broke right after Christmas and it finally came in yesterday! I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to start using it :). It's a Nikon D-60 for anyone into that sort of thing.

~ Wedding plans are going well. I ordered our favors and got them in this past week - and even put them all together. I also ordered our invitations, and am told they have been shipped. But I got the slowest shipping because it was the cheapest and I have plenty of time, so it might be another 3 weeks before they arrive. I have a hair "consultation" next weekend, and then my dress and the bridesmaids' dresses should be in next month. 127 more days to go!

~ I bought 2 new bathing suits yesterday for Mexico! Yay, fun :). Target has some cute stuff right now.

~ I started doing yoga over the past few weeks. It's a really good workout - so different from what I've done for years that I can really feel where I'm not strong and I don't have the muscle memory for the yoga poses yet. It's nice, too, because I feel like I'm going to the gym to relax, even though it's still working me out, so I'm more likely to go. It's a fun new challenge.

~ Wade has been driving a 2007 Acura MDX for at least 3 weeks now while his 1999 CRV is in the shop waiting on a part (we think - not even sure what the hold-up is). We don't know why the Acura people don't seem to want their loaner back all that badly, but we're not complaining in the meantime with our heated seats and GPS and XM radio!

~ Paisley is quite the snow dog. She played outside for hours on Tuesday when it snowed - eating it, rolling in it, running around, chasing Duke. I guess she likes frozen water much better than liquid water.

~ I've been making dinner for Wade more recently, trying to get us in the habit of "normal" evenings at home together, and that has been fun. It's also surprising every time to me how much Wade eats! And he's not even working out a ton right now because he doesn't have time between teaching & coaching. I can't imagine what I'll need to feed him when he's burning a lot more calories a day. Last night I went through a dozen eggs for one meal! Granted, I made french toast and scrambled eggs, but it would normally take me 6 months to go through 12 eggs. We will welcome a membership to Sam's or Costco as a wedding gift :).

I guess that's all for now!

Tagged!

2009-01-11T23:32:00.002-05:00

This is a fun tag! I've been tagged by Kristin to go into my 6th photo folder and post the 6th picture in that folder, and it just happens to be this picture of my beautiful mom with her two girls.

It was taken outside Maggiano's at SouthPark around Labor Day 2007. Mom had just found out she had (we thought) two months to live, so we sped up the meeting-of-the-families since Wade and I had only been dating a month or so. All the Johns and all the Tapps (and even all the Steeles, my cousins) went to church together at Christ Covenant and then had lunch at Maggiano's.

Everyone got along so well, and mom was so excited for mine and Wade's future :).

Letter to mom

2009-01-06T12:16:00.004-05:00

Dear mom,
A couple days ago marked 6 months since you've been gone. Half a year that has been filled with more change than I can handle at times. It's hard to believe you haven't been here for all these new things.

Wade and I got engaged in October... you would have been SO excited to hear the story of him whisking me off to New York for the day. And you would have dived into the planning with me and had fun thinking of all kinds of creative things to do. Hillary and Laurie were sweet and excited to go dress shopping with me, but I still missed you a ton. I kept remembering our trip to Dar-Lynn's the year before and how you said you were going to take those new drugs and be there for the real day. We're doing pitchers with hydrangeas for our centerpieces in honor of your love for collecting pitchers. Our first dance song is going to be Me and You by Kenny Chesney, which I played for you in the car once and you agreed it was a great first dance song. My ring is beautiful with Mama Dyke's diamond in the center and the ones from your amethyst ring on each side. It means so much to me to have that reminder of you and 2 generations of Dykstra women before you on my finger every day.

Hillary is just 6 weeks away from having your first little granddaughter! I was going through your attic looking for Christmas decorations a month ago and came across all the toys and dolls and books you saved for when the grandkids came to visit grandma. You would've had such a blast getting all that stuff out and playing with her, as well as sharing long talks with Hillary and me, advising us on our new roles as mother and wife.

We celebrated Christmas so differently this year. It is nowhere near the same without you! I missed the cute things you would find to put in our stockings, although dad did get the basics at least, putting baby food peaches and animal crackers in a pair of his socks to bring to us :). Everybody came to my house for pancakes, which was fun, but it just didn't feel like I was ready to be hosting Christmas morning yet in my life. You would love the ornaments I got from a couple people marking our engagement though - one is a big diamond ring and the other is a boy and girl with a "diamond" on her finger.

There have been so many situations in the past months where I've missed your wisdom, your counsel, your smile and laughter and just your presence. It's been so long since we've curled up on your bed and dreamed about the future together, imagining how it could all turn out. It's good that Wade and I are starting to build our own traditions and imagining our life together, but it sure seems like a very sudden way of doing this.

By the time I get married, it will have been one year since we got your final diagnosis of the cancer coming back. It seems like eons ago, to be honest. But I'm glad that for you in heaven it also seems like a thousand years that you've been there, and your pain and suffering here on earth is nothing but a distant memory to you now.

I love you!

Baby boom

2009-01-04T22:18:00.003-05:00

People always said it would happen this way, but holy cow, I think just about everyone I know who is married is pregnant! That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. I find out about somebody else every day!

There are 2 girls in my community group and at least 7-8 other women at my church, my sister, a friend from high school youth group, a family friend from pre-kindergarten days, my high school small group leader, 5 friends on my blog list who just had babies in about the last year, plus another 2 fellow bloggers, numerous friends-of-friends that I just hear about through the grapevine, and at least 5-10 friends who have had their babies in the last couple months...

This is crazy... but wonderful. Congrats to all the moms-to-be in my world! :)

5 months!

2008-12-30T13:35:00.003-05:00

Today marks the official 5-month countdown until the wedding! I don't know whether 5 months is that much more important than 6 months or 4 months, but it feels like one big, long homestretch now that it's (just about) 2009.

I didn't get as much done over my 10-day vacation as I would have liked, though it's not surprising since I was out of town and/or busy pretty much the whole time.

A few of my next to-dos are:
(1) get back to working out regularly again
(2) finish designing and order the invitations
(3) think about wedding hairstyles, cake styles, favors, bridesmaid gifts, etc.
(4) come up with a plan for flowers & ceremony decorations

We've started our pre-marital counseling (just 1 session so far) and we're looking forward to the rest of it... it's so good to have that to help us focus on preparing for our marriage, when it's so easy for me to just plan the wedding.

We're also thinking about all kinds of home improvement projects and what we can or should afford... painting, upgrading the kitchen, upfitting the bathrooms, putting in more security like kickproof doors and tempered glass (after increased break-ins in the area, including my neighbors across the sidewalk).

And finally, less than 7 weeks until Hillary's due to have my first niece! I can't wait :).

Christmas-ish

2008-12-25T21:38:00.005-05:00

Holy cow - I do not know where all of December has gone! Sorry for the lack of post in the last 3+ weeks! This has been a very strange month and season for me - it's hard to even put into words how it feels. I've been feeling a lot less festive than in previous years, mostly for the obvious reason of not having mom here. So the Christmas season just hasn't had its normal appeal, and I can barely remember what it's supposed to feel like and be like. I thought I'd have these vivid memories and more acute pains of loss at this time of year - and I certainly have missed mom a lot - but it's more of a dull emptiness than I expected it to be. Just the feeling that things don't matter and there's no reason to do anything special. The fun is taken out of gifts and surprises and parties and baking and everything.

Plus, Christmas just seemed like a minor deal this year, since the real things I'm looking forward to will happen in the coming months - my new niece and my new marriage :). I'm just focused on those things I guess.

But nevertheless we did have a little Christmas celebration today. Hillary, Allen & dad came over to my house around 11:30 this morning and we had some sad pancakes with thin batter (my bad). We weren't really doing gifts this year, but dad did give us gift cards to Harris Teeter, me a couple shirts and Hillary a check for her windshield replacement. Then Hillary gave me the luggage she got as a Harris Teeter giveaway and I gave her a couple baby outfits I've picked up at random times on sale. We watched some of the Christmas Story movie and later made some potatoes to take to my aunt's house for dinner.

Christmas dinner was dampened by the fact that my uncle spent the entire afternoon & evening at the emergency room with his dad who had fallen and needed stitches in his ear. But the rest of us had a subdued dinner and gift-giving and that was that. Tomorrow we'll go to Hickory to see my dad's sister and her family.

I do have some pictures and a video though to make this post worth something :)...

These are my wonderful Christmas presents from Wade and the Tapps. Wade got me (us) the 42" flatscreen, and his parents bought us the TV stand and graduated shelf. All together it makes the house look so much sleeker - and I finally, for the first time in my life, don't have the smallest TV of everybody I know!

I joined the Tapps and their good family friends in Kiawah for the first half of this week, which was fun and relaxing. (They stayed there for Christmas, but I came back Christmas Eve.)

Paisley had her first experience with the beach and had a blast! What's not to love about running free on a wide open beach with 3 other dogs and tons of new things to explore?

In typical fashion, she had to chew on all the new things she saw - including dead horseshoe crabs - gross.

She's not a fan of water, but she did ok with the ocean. She was scared of the tide, but it was hilarious to watch as she tried to escape it when it came toward her.

Here's me and Whitney (Wade's sister).

This is the Tapps' dog Duke who is quite a character - we all love him and his crazy antics.

Duke and Paisley are two peas in a pod, just running and chasing each other - they had so much fun.

Some more running.

Here's Wade probably trying to get them to fetch a piece of driftwood in the ocean.

Aww, so cute.

One more of us.

I had a little video of Paisley being scared of the ocean but it's not wanting to upload, so I'll try again later.

Engagement pictures!

2008-12-01T17:25:00.002-05:00

Our engagement pictures are finally ready!

Click this link to see them: http://bellaloren.zenfolio.com/p92703892/slideshow

The password is Bella.

Thanksgiving Old & New

2008-11-29T15:11:00.002-05:00

We had our first big holiday without mom this week... I don't know what I expected, but it went very well under the circumstances. There was a big piece missing, and the day of preparations was not as full and lively as it was with her, but I believe it's a testament to how well she prepared us for life, and how much of her lives on in us, that we can still carry on and be a family and do a big Thanksgiving dinner like she would have.

It was fun to reminisce with pictures from last year's October Thanksgiving that we had when we didn't know if mom would live until the real Thanksgiving. She walked us through and taught us how to do the turkey, from removing the innards, to rinsing and patting dry, to making the stuffing and getting it in the turkey, to pinning all the flaps and putting it in the oven.

Here she was teaching us to dry the inside with paper towels before stuffing it.

This is my favorite - me, Hillary and my aunt Laurie all learning how to do this from the pro!

This year, through a collective effort of Hillary, dad and me, we pulled off a pretty good turkey if I do say so myself. We all collaborated to make the sides as well - I made sweet potato casserole, Hillary made potato rolls and tore the bread for the stuffing, dad hosted and bought peas and sauerkraut, and my aunt Laurie made apple pie and cranberry relish :).

Us with our turkey :)

Golden brown coming out of the oven (even if it was a touch overcooked!)

Ally and Paisley enjoyed their Thanksgiving bones from my dad in the yard all day!

It's a hard life

2008-11-25T20:11:00.002-05:00

Wedding dress shopping

2008-11-25T20:02:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I said I got my dress at David's Bridal for $99... well, I did get that dress... and then I had buyer's remorse and ended up getting a different dress at The Wedding Mall for $399! I'm much happier with that one though, and a friend is going to help me sell the other one on Ebay, I hope :).

These are some pictures of the first store I went to... Don't worry, none of these are THE dress, and I cropped my face out of most of them so Wade's not getting the whole picture before the big day. These are all $2,000-$4,000 dresses so that was definitely not happening!

This one was my favorite at this store, but again, $3,000 was not in the budget for a dress!

Also pretty

Really heavy at the bottom of this dress, even if it doesn't look like it

I did like the waist detail on this one

Very lightweight (dupioni silk)

Wedding updates

2008-11-10T12:40:00.002-05:00

I am so THANKFUL for various things that have been going well and falling into place recently for the wedding. The first couple weeks I was stressing out about lots of details that were frustrating and not coming together, but God has been so gracious lately and given me a bunch of incredible blessings:

(1) Wade has been the cutest fiance ever :). He's willingly come with me to meet with vendors, participated in wedding discussions, gotten excited with me, and even separate from wedding planning, he tells me he loves me constantly and is so excited for our life together.

(2) We were able to change our date to May 30 with no problem. There were several conflicts for June 13 with people in the wedding party, and most of the other dates around ours had conflicts as well. But the church and country club were still open May 30, and we're able to do an earlier wedding & lunch reception to get it within an affordable range with our guest list.

(3) I got my dress! And it was only $99! On my third outing to look at dresses, I went with my aunt to David's Bridal and found a dress I really liked. I didn't buy it right then because I had one more appointment set up at another store, but the next day, the sales guy called to say he found out the dress was on sale for $99! And the size in the store really fit me and shouldn't need any alterations except adding the loops for the bustle, so I just went and picked it up this weekend - done!

(4) I've been going back and forth on what to do for the cake. The club charges $1 per person "cake cutting fee" if you bring in a cake from another vendor. The club's social director told me their cakes start at $2 per person, so I was going to just go with that because I'd never be able to find a cake for less than that from another vendor. Then the pastry chef told me the cakes start at $4 per person, and I was back at square one because that would not fit in the budget. But today I learned that we get a $2/person credit towards the cake because of our reception, so it'll work out for the club to do the cake after all!

(5) I really like our photographers. I found them on the internet, but then found out that they've done the weddings for multiple people that Wade and I know. They're a husband and wife team and really fun. We did engagement pictures this weekend with all the beautiful fall leaves around, and it was a blast. I can't wait to see the pictures in 2 weeks!

The next things to do, I think, are finding a good DJ, florist, and looking for honeymoon spots. DJ recommendations are very welcome, because I definitely don't want somebody that's obnoxious or weird. And if anyone has a good place in Mexico for a honeymoon, let me know - we think that's where we want to go.

Quirks

2008-11-03T11:16:00.001-05:00

I've been tagged by Kristin, April AND Amanda over the past month and a half to give 6 or 7 quirks about myself, so I should probably not shirk my blogging duty any longer!

(1) I always use white-out to correct mistakes when I'm writing - I cannot stand to cross things out! I use white-out in my journals, on my desk calendar, in class notes when I was in school, on birthday cards, you name it. I bring it with me when I go out of town and write in my journal. I even use white-out in my journals that have cream-colored paper, because it still looks better than a big black spot.

(2) I'm a little obsessed with calendars and writing my schedule in them. For instance, on my Outlook calendar at work, in addition to work meetings, I schedule in my workouts, TV shows I watch, every social event, important errands, church, birthdays, anniversaries, countdowns, Wade's schedule, my sister's pregnancy weeks, Carolina basketball & football games, etc. I also have things color coded with like 10 different colors for all the categories.

(3) To eat apples, I cut them in exactly 12 slices - in half, then each of those in half, then each of those I make a v-shaped cut to take out the core, then cut each of those in thirds. I don't like them cut with those little apple-corer things, or with a curved or haphazard cut to take out the core. It has to be a v-shape.

(4) I have 2 light switches at the top of my stairs - one that turns on the upstairs hallway light and one that turns on the stairway light. But each light also has another switch (at the opposite end of the hallway and at the bottom of the stairs), so up or down can be on or off depending on which one you used last time. I like to keep the 2 that are together going the same direction, so if they are going opposite ways I'll flip one and then walk to the other switch to turn the light on or off, depending on what I'm trying to do.

(5) I have even more specific procedures for cleaning and organizing the kitchen... When loading the dishwasher, certain types of plates go in certain slots, certain bowls go on the bottom rack while other types go on the top, silverware is loaded handle down in the bin, glass cookware and metal mixing-type spoons can be washed in the dishwasher, but only if it's almost full and I'm about to run it. Other cookware, pots, knives, etc. can only be hand washed. Dirty dishes stay on the right-hand counter beside my sink and they move left as I wash them, rinse/drain them, and then dry them on the left-hand counter.

(6) I don't really want to list any more of my OCD habits because it's a little embarrassing :).

Do you think I'm going to have a hard time after I get married trying to live with a boy? :) Or, do you think Wade is going to have a hard time after we get married? We better start that premarital counseling ASAP. Haha.

If you have not yet voted

2008-10-31T08:22:00.003-04:00

I received an email forward today, and thought it was too important and too compelling not to post here. This is from Randy Alcorn on his blog, randyalcorn.blogspot.com, but I agree with it probably 100%. Even if you normally stop reading the second you see "abortion" because you think it will be another crazy, dogmatic Republican Christian who equates the party with loving Jesus, please don't. Randy is not John McCain's biggest fan, and neither am I. But his point is still very valid I think:

When someone says, “Abortion isn't the only issue,” I agree. If neither candidate were committed to the legalized killing of people, any people, then I would say, by all means weigh and measure those other important issues and make your choice. But can you seriously argue that these other issues trump the killing of millions of innocent children, not just now, but in the decades to come under a pro-abortion Supreme Court that could have been a pro-life Supreme Court? Don't you believe that though there were other issues in Nazi Germany besides the killing of Jews, Gypsies and the disabled, that all those other issues were trumped by that one?

I am not excited about John McCain in every area. But when I compare him to Barack Obama in the overriding issue of our day, the right of preborn children to live, there is a stark and radical difference. In America right now, the rights of Jews to live is not on the table. The right of unborn children to live is on the table. The killing of the unborn is the holocaust of our day. Where do you want to have stood on this issue? Where do you want the man you vote for to have stood on it? If your grandchildren ask you one day whether you voted for or against the right of children to live, what will you say?

Would John McCain be a great president? I don't know. Maybe he wouldn't even be a good president. There are so many claims by both candidates that their words seem like wind to me. I don't feel like I know a lot. But I do know for certain that one candidate defends the right of the unborn to live, and the other is utterly committed to be sure that it remains legal to kill them. In one sense I'm not voting mainly for John McCain. I am voting for McCain because it's my only way in this election to vote for the right of unborn children to live rather than die.

Now, if you think that's an overstatement, that the difference between the candidates isn't that great, or they will not influence the future of abortion in this country, I challenge you to look at Obama's dogged commitment to the legalized killing of unborn children, backed up by his 100% pro-abortion voting record. And look at McCain's repeatedly stated commitment, also demonstrated by his voting record, to oppose the legalized killing of children. If you think your presidential vote is not for or against unborn children, you don't understand the significance of the Freedom of Choice Act or the significance of the balance of power of the Supreme Court with the Obama judges who are certain to be pro-legal-abortion and the McCain judges who are virtually certain to be anti-legal-abortion.

But is it too strong to say that Obama is “pro-abortion”? He’s not pro-abortion, just pro-choice, right? Wrong. What would you think if a politician said, “I'm not pro-rape, I'm simply pro-choice about rape. And though I would not choose to rape a woman, I believe that every man should be free to rape a woman if that is his personal choice.” And what would you do if that politician promised the rape lobby that if he is elected president, the first thing he’ll do is to sign legislation that would invalidate all the state laws that restrict rape in any way?

I don't think that anyone has the right to vote for a candidate who is committed to legalized abortion unless you are willing to watch the video link below showing you exactly what abortion does.

http://www.abort73.com/HTML/I-A-4-video.html

If you are not viewing the video to see what happens as the result of an abortion, then I hope it's because you know the truth. But if you refuse to watch this because it is too horrific to look at a dismembered child, then don't you think abortion is too horrific to be legal? And too horrific to be supported by your candidate? And too horrific for you to vote for by voting for him?

Things I've learned in 4 days of being engaged

2008-10-23T10:47:00.000-04:00

1. Facebook is ON IT... they already have every ad that shows up on my pages geared toward weddings!
2. It's harder than I thought to make sure the ceremony and reception sites are not too far from each other, distance-wise.
3. The initial budget vs. guest list examination can give you a heart attack (or at least elevated blood pressure).
4. Wade can only stand talking about wedding things for an hour or so before he needs to do something else for a while and take a break :).
5. Looking at bride magazines is way more fun than working (and way more fun when you're engaged than before that).

Engaged!

2008-10-20T12:06:00.006-04:00

On Sunday, October 19th, Wade surprised me with an EARLY morning proposal and a day trip to New York City!

He woke me up at 5:30 a.m. and read a couple Scripture passages about husbands and wives, and then just said "Kim, will you marry me?" I had tears running down my face as he read the Word to me, and then I just hugged him and finally got the "yes" to come out of my mouth and not just scream in my head :). He took out my mom's diamond ring and told me that we would go together soon to pick out my own setting for her diamond. Then he told me I had to get ready because we had a big day ahead of us.

I didn't know what we were doing, but I got ready and we drove off in his car, and I couldn't believe it when we pulled into the airport! Then we checked in and I saw the destination was New York City - total craziness :).

We actually got bumped to first class on the way there - nice - and then we arrived early for our first activity, so we walked around Central Park for a little bit.

My handsome fiance (!) in Central Park

Showing off the ring :)

By 10:30, we had made it back to Hunter College for church at Tim Keller's church, Redeemer Presbyterian! It was awesome to start our day and our engagement with worship and great teaching.

After church, we had reservations for lunch at Tavern on the Green. The picture above is on the way there, walking through Central Park again.

I had a very STRONG drink at lunch made of peach schnapps, mango, grapefruit and vodka. We learned that this was a restaurant much more concerned with presentation than with quantity, as Wade ate his 4 tablespoons of crab bisque and 1 waffle for like 25 bucks :).

After lunch, we made our way across the city to Times Square. It was busy and crazy and loud like New York is, but really pretty weather by that point - it had warmed up enough to feel great in the sun and chilly in the shade. While we were there, Wade was taking a picture of me holding up my ring hand, and this cute lady came up and said, "It looks like somebody just got engaged - do you want me to take your picture together?" She was so nice and took 3 pictures from different angles (not at our request - she was just so excited, she kept saying "and one more"). She said she was there celebrating her anniversary with her husband, and she just so excited for us it was so cute. As she was leaving, she said enthusiastically "Have a great day... and have a great LIFE!" Too funny.

At 3:00 we had tickets for The Lion King! Of course you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theater, but the show was so amazing! All the colors and songs and amazing costumes - it was incredible, even with a screaming 2-year-old sitting directly behind me. The show was almost 3 hours long, so when we got out it was about dinner time.

We wanted to do something New York-y and didn't have a ton of time before we needed to head back to the airport, so we grabbed a slice of pizza at a little place and then got ice cream (one of our favorite things to do :)).

After that, we walked around for a little while longer, and passed Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

By that point, we were getting REALLY tired, so we decided to just go ahead and get a taxi back to the airport. We called a bunch of family and friends while waiting for our flight, and then finally got on the tiniest plane ever, crunched ourselves in our 3 square feet of space, and made it back to Charlotte at 11:30 p.m., utterly exhausted and happy :).

It's still so surreal and crazy to call Wade my fiance and start to plan wedding details (out loud - you know I've done my pre-preparations behind the scenes ;-)). But I couldn't have imagined a better man to spend the rest of my life with, and I know my mom loved him and would have been so proud and excited for us now. His parents will make the best inlaws, and my dad gets another son-in-law to tip the male-female balance in our family his way.

Stay tuned for updates on the plans :).

Paisley turns 2!

2008-10-08T17:52:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday sweet Paisley! You've grown so much :).

First and last beach trip of the summer

2008-10-03T22:38:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, I spent 4 days at the beach with some of my best friends from college. It was GREAT to get away, to catch up with everyone, to be silly and girly, to get a little sun, and to have great conversations about our lives with these girls who know me, love me and share an unbreakable bond.

From L to R: Marcy, Jessica, Susie, Lindsay, Diana & me

Friday night, we stayed in and cooked pasta for dinner... and perhaps had a little too good of a time. Let's just say, the wine in Marcy's hand was only the beginning :).

Saturday night, we went out to dinner to a little Mexican place we found... not seafood, but it was much cheaper and had gluten-free options for Marce.

We live around the corner from each other in Charlotte, and yet we had to drive 4 hours to the beach to actually catch up and hang out! Marcy and I had an interesting time finding gas in the small SC towns we passed through, but luckily it all worked out and we didn't get stranded.

Diana displaying the plate where her Mexican food once was.

I got home from the beach to find a WONDERFUL surprise waiting for me - my leather chair finally fixed from where Paisley chewed it up last summer! Wade's parents wanted to get it fixed as my birthday present, but the leather shop was booked from June til September, so they just got it done now.

If you can't tell, they replaced the leather on the front part of both arms and both sides of the ottoman. It's not an exact color match to the original leather, but I think the variation gives it a little bit of character & uniqueness :). I can finally sit in the chair without worrying about stuffing falling out and having to cover up the eyesore with a blanket! THANKS ROD & JOLI!

No photography tricks here

2008-10-01T08:53:00.001-04:00

I promise I did not pose Paisley like this... I just looked up the other day and she was in exactly this position. She's so funny and cute.

Also, my car recently hit 100,000 miles! The '99 Honda Civic has served me well. At this rate, it'll last until I'm 35 (though I hope it doesn't have to).

Not Yo Momma's Women's Retreat

2008-09-23T16:37:00.003-04:00

This weekend I was in Montreat with 70 women from Hope Community Church for our "Not Yo Momma's Women's Retreat." It's always a blast, with a lot of Hope-type shenanigans.

On Saturday, some of us went on an extended hiking trip... extended by the fact that we ALL failed to see the huge stone marker for the trail we intended to go on, so we went on a trail that led nowhere for quite a while before finding the one that actually went to the top of the mountain.

The North Carolina mountains are SO pretty! And it was about the most gorgeous day we could've asked for.

This is an annual competition at the NYMWR called the Bag Game. There is a paper grocery bag on the floor, and you have to stand on one foot, bend down and pick it up in your teeth, without falling or touching the ground. Then you rip off a piece of the bag, so it gets shorter & shorter. Last one to be able to pick it up in her teeth wins!

This year we had 2 bags - one for 5'6" and shorter and one for 5'7" and taller. That made it much more fair because we have lots of barely 5 foot women at our church that win every year. Our community group represented well, with the "tall" winner (Megan, above), the "tall" runner-up, the "short" 3rd place, and the "tall" 4th place (me!).

The fun and games had to continue, of course, so we had the brilliant idea to attempt a cheerleading pyramid... despite the fact that I don't think any one of us was ever actually a cheerleader.

Here's the triumphant pose, right before Christy fell and broke her wrist :(. She subsequently spent 5 hours in the emergency room in Asheville getting it X-rayed and set. We all felt SO bad, but Christy's a tough cookie, so she laughed it off and made the best of it.

Next up, the beach with a bunch of college friends this weekend! I can't wait!

Whitewater Falls

2008-09-18T16:45:00.003-04:00

Wade and I got spontaneous last weekend and drove out to go hiking at Whitewater Falls, near Brevard, NC. It was a 2.5+ hour trip, but our guide book said this was possibly the prettiest waterfall in the East. I can't say for sure, but it was very pretty :).

Ever since I was little, I've loved rocks and water, especially together. They're just so powerful, so soothing, so beautiful, so constant.

There were actually people at the top of that waterfall, way across there. We got there too late in the day to explore how you actually get over there. But the signs were quite blunt with the warning that "a fall from the waterfall WILL result in death." Eek.

I love hiking with Wade. By the end of our hiking trip to Linville Falls the first week we were dating, I knew he was completely the one for me :). And it doesn't hurt that he tells me I'm beautiful even at the END of the hike when I'm dripping sweat and gross!

That's Lake Toxaway. Which is a terrible name for a lake. Who would want to swim in (or even visit) a lake called Toxaway?

God's creation is just amazing. Every time I look at it.

I wanted to jump over on that rock I'm heading towards, but it was just far enough and steep enough, with enough rushing water under it, that I decided not to risk it. But I love the challenge of "rock hopping" in places like this.

Thanks honey for an amazing day and all that TALKING in the car :).

Dogs at Play

2008-09-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

Paisley made a good friend the other day... my friend Julie's dog Berkeley :).

Berkeley loves to swim, Paisley not so much. She was nervously pacing the bank until I threw a tennis ball out in the water and she DOVE in after it without a moment's hesitation. Then when she surfaced, she had this look on her face like "Oh crap, WHAT did I just do???" She got the tennis ball and quickly swam to the shore and did not go in the water again!

Letter to mom

2008-09-08T00:05:00.002-04:00

Dear mom,

I'm sitting in my living room watching the U.S. Open... You've been gone for 2 months now. I don't know whether I can't believe it's been that long, or I can't believe it's only been that long. I just wanted to tell you how things have been the last 2 months.

The weekend after you died I stayed home from church for "Breakfast at Wimbledon," like we always did together. Nadal actually beat Federer in a really long 5-setter. I can picture how you would've cheered for the great shots and what you would've said as they kept pushing it out to another set and something like 9-7 in the 5th.

Wade's teaching is going really well too, mom. I painted 2 walls of his classroom bright green - I wish you could see it - it makes it look so cute in there. I've helped him enter his grades a few times, and I make him lunch every day. I had so much fun that first week, putting together his turkey sandwiches in one side of the Tupperware, with carrots and a little cup of Ranch dressing in the other side. The ladies at work make fun of me a little, but he appreciates it because it's one less thing he has to worry about after teaching, grading & lesson planning.

Mom, I wish you were here to commiserate with me about my condo flooding and the HOA being very slow to do anything about it. It rained a lot the week you died and the week of your funeral - some people said God was crying with us - but because of that, the water came into my condo 5 times in those 2.5 weeks. Then more recently we had a huge day/night of rain and it flooded all the way in to the hardwood floors & the closet under the stairs. Now my A/C is broken too, so I'm kindof overwhelmed. I wish I could come over to your house and flop on the end of the bed and tell you all about it.

Oh, but mom the flowers and plants we picked out are doing so great! I've been out there so many times and wished you could see them. You'd be so excited and proud of my first little gardening.

The encore azaleas have already started their fall blooming, and they're a gorgeous hot pink color. There are a couple places where they look a little bug-eaten, though - I wish I could ask you if that's ok or if I should do anything about it.

The knockout roses are great too, and they just stand straight up and soak in that sun all day. The Mexican heather are going crazy, growing so big - I don't know if you'd be surprised or not. I did transplant that day lily to behind the rocks like we talked about, but I haven't taken that lantana out yet. It did provide me with a couple wildflower-esque bouquets for my kitchen table (I stole a vase from your house because I figured dad would never need them all!).

I planted 2 hydrangeas in my back patio area - so far only 1 bloom though. I don't know what the deal is with my garden phlox - it hasn't grown nearly as well as yours.

I finally put the screens back in my windows that you took out and cleaned for me when I first moved in! Before too long we'll start to get some "dog weather" - when you would have loved to take the dogs and go camping, even if dad wasn't a fan :). I'm going to be in Jill's wedding in December, and I bought my dress for it last night.

Can you believe that Hillary is 4 months pregnant? We'll have a little Starrett before we know it. You would have had so much fun shopping with us for all the cute baby clothes & everything. You'd be really proud of dad and excited that he's going to church now pretty regularly. I haven't called him as much as I should, but we talk about once a week. I left Paisley in your garage one evening and she escaped by jumping out the window that's 3-4 feet off the ground! That little rascal. She'll be 2 years old in another month!

There are so many other little things I would tell you if you were here. I sure do miss you. I guess by the time you blink and turn around I'll be there with you, telling you about the 60 years I was married to Wade, and all our children and their children! Just save me a place on the porch swing!

I love you!

Sarah Palin for VP

2008-09-03T23:41:00.003-04:00

"In politics, there are some who use change to promote their careers... And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

~ Sarah Palin

Love that quote. Love Sarah Palin.

Did anyone else who watched her speech at the RNC see the camera shots of her youngest daughter Piper licking her entire hand and smoothing the baby Trig's hair down across his head? How funny was that? And then she was up on the stage afterwards, waving at the crowd just as big as can be, as if she was the one running for VP. Hilarious and adorable.

Count me in as one of those Republicans who wasn't the biggest fan of John McCain before, but combined with Sarah Palin, I am very excited about the upcoming election!

Aunt Kim!

2008-08-26T11:12:00.002-04:00

I think the news has been announced to everyone who needed to hear it from my sister herself, so I finally get to announce it on the blog that I'm going to be an AUNT!

Hillary and Allen are expecting my little niece or nephew in February :). It is an amazing story how we all found out. On July 3rd, when we were at mom & dad's house getting ready to take mom to the Hospice place in Huntersville, Hillary didn't feel that great, kinda nauseated, etc. We didn't really know anything except she wasn't hungry for lunch, but it wasn't that strange given the circumstances. So dad, my aunt Laurie & I took mom up to the Hospice place, and Hillary was going to stay in Charlotte til Allen got off work and they were coming later. Apparently she decided to take a pregnancy test then and it was positive, so she set up an appointment with her doctor for the next morning.

She and Allen came up to the Hospice place later and didn't tell any of us about this, and as the evening went on, mom wasn't doing so well and we knew the end was near. I coudn't bring myself to leave the Hospice facility that night, so dad & I slept there and H & A went home. They came back about noon the next day, July 4th, and before I knew it, Hillary came over and handed me this little piece of paper. I looked at it and was completely shocked to see an ultrasound! And to find out they had been to the doctor that morning, heard the heartbeat and everything!

It was a really bittersweet moment as Hillary sat on the edge of mom's bed and held up the ultrasound picture and told mom she was going to be a grandmother. Mom probably couldn't see anything by that point, but they always said the sense of hearing is the last to go, so I think she heard the news, even though she couldn't respond.

The other amazing thing is that the baby is due essentially on my mom's birthday. The doctors kept changing the due date around, but Hillary is pretty sure it's going to be born on February 26th, because that's just how it has to be :). In another month or so, we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. I can't wait!

Another Tarheel in the Family

2008-08-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, I had the privilege of going to Chapel Hill to help my cousin Sarah move in for her freshman year as a Tarheel! I can't believe she's old enough to go to college, but I'm stoked for her and the wonderful 4 years that lie ahead :).

Here's me and Sarah in her dorm room in Craige North. She lucked out with that room assignment I would say, getting one of the newest dorms, central A/C, bathroom only shared between 2 rooms, and not really that much walking now that they've built a bunch of stuff closer to South Campus.

I don't know that I helped all that much because they had the car unloaded within like 20 minutes (with a family of 6, I guess they're pretty efficient), but I tried to answer any questions about where it was best to put things and stuff like that. My aunt & uncle both went to Carolina too, but since that was in the mid-1980s, they nominated me the MCCC - More Current Carolina Consultant - for Sarah's questions. After we were done setting up the basics, I recommended a trip to the Yogurt Pump because I had been craving it for weeks, knowing I was going to be up there. It was a big hit with everyone :).

Here's the whole Hart fam, hugging Sarah goodbye - so cute :). She's the oldest, so there's still hope for 3 more Tarheels to come!

New look

2008-08-19T14:20:00.002-04:00

I finally decided to redecorate after seeing so many other people's cute blog backgrounds. And I do plan to post something interesting as soon as I find the time! Hopefully pictures of Wade's new bright green classroom and my cousin Sarah's move-in day in Chapel Hill.

1 Year Anniversary

2008-08-11T10:00:00.004-04:00

Today, August 11, 2008, Wade and I celebrate our one-year dating anniversary! One year ago, we were at the lake with some of my friends from church and finally made it official that we were dating :).

Here we are at the lake house. We were playing a goofy game of Family (I think that's what it's called) and it was very hot & sticky (the weather, that is... and us, I guess, as a result).

At the lake, glowing from happiness... or sweat.

The next day at lunch after church - we were so cool.

I could never have imagined what a perfect fit God could give me in Wade. We love being with each other and often say how glad we are that the other one is as goofy as we are. We've gotten through a lot already, from 9 months of long distance to Carolina/Duke rivalries during basketball season, to losing my precious mom.

We've gardened, we've hiked, we've eaten (a lot. of ice cream.), we've watched movies, we've taken Sunday naps, we've cried, we've laughed, we've been obsessed with The Office and Arrested Development, we've discussed job prospects and finances, we've fallen asleep on the phone together, we've prayed, we've babysat together, we've established our very different paces of walking and styles of smoothies, and we've spent time with both of our families.

I'm so excited for the things we will experience in the coming year, whatever they may be.

I love you Wade!

Busyness

2008-08-08T15:35:00.003-04:00

It has been kindof a crazy week - or two - here in the Land of Kimness. What have I even been doing? I can't remember.

My cousin Sarah came to visit Wednesday night & Thursday of this week to shadow me and my sister at our jobs and ask us questions about college, majors, jobs, etc. She's going to be a Carolina freshman in one week! I'm so excited for her, and hoping to relive college a little bit through her :). I'm already planning on helping with her move-in to Craige North next Saturday. We already told her to go ahead and forget about going to basketball games this year and give all her tickets to us... you think she'll go for it?

I'm trying to figure out the best schedule for myself again, for work, working out, cooking, seeing friends & Wade, etc. I used to work out in the morning (several years ago) and worked 9:30-6:30 at the Girl Scouts. Then I hit a wall where I couldn't get myself up at 5:30 a.m. to work out anymore, so I shifted my work hours to 8-5 and worked out in the evening. The bad part of that is having to take 2 showers a day and being tempted to skip working out after a long day at work or if other fun plans came up (although I'm also tempted to skip working out at 5:30 a.m. too!).

Now my hours at the church are 8:30-5, so if I can manage to get up at 5:30 and work out, I'll have the WHOLE evening from 5:00 on to do anything I want! I can come home, take Paisley out to run around, water my plants, chat with neighbors, cook a whole dinner and still eat at a reasonable time! That concept is lovely to me. It does, however, mean getting to bed at 10 p.m., which is hard to stick to. I only managed to do it twice this week, but I'm going to keep trying.

And for anyone who wondered whether it's true... it is. Not having a mom leaves a huge void in your life and heart. It's this need that you know will never be fulfilled again. Like one third of my soul is gone or something. It's been more than a month now, and the time has just passed me by somehow.

I don't know how I'm grieving exactly, other than crying in the car when I'm driving somewhere and talking about it with friends. I would like to journal more, but haven't carved out the time yet. It's really hard to work at all the relationships that are now my responsibility to maintain, instead of mom's. It's like the hub of the wheel is gone and I have to make sure all the spokes are still connecting and holding together. It honestly feels like I'm still waiting for her to come back. I'm not trying to be in denial - it just hasn't computed all the way yet. And I have to trust that that's in God timing, not mine. Plus I don't know what it looks like to feel that way anyway.

Life, of late

2008-07-23T12:10:00.002-04:00

I feel like I need to post something, not to move away from remembering mom, but kindof... Just to process life and know that it is still going on. And it has been going on, pretty busily - just with a void and emptiness without mom's presence.

A week or two ago, my aunt/uncle/cousins got a little yellow lab puppy named Maggie. They got her at 8 weeks old, and about 9 pounds... SO cute. I wish I had pictures, but when I went to visit I only had my cell phone with me and she wouldn't look at the camera phone or even let me get near with it (not that I would have known how to upload the pictures I did take). I'll have to take Paisley over to meet her once Maggie has all her shots, and then maybe I'll have pictures.
Last Friday night, Wade and I babysat for my friends Lindsay & Adam's 7-month-old Caleigh and her 1-year-old friend Maggie. It was so fun because they are the cutest little girls. The funniest thing (and kindof scary) was that Lindsay & Adam had put their dog Bailey (a boxer mix) out on the porch because she really doesn't like strangers and especially Maggie. So Bailey is baring her teeth and barking ferociously on the other side of the glass, and Maggie is just banging on the windows and laughing her head off at this dog. It was probably better than her being really upset the whole time, but it was a little disturbing that she wasn't at all afraid of this dog lunging & barking at her.
Saturday I went to a pool party with my friend Marcy, which was fun and relaxing, then a Christmas-in-July birthday party for one of Wade's roommate. After that Wade and I went downtown to meet up with his roommate from this past year at Covenant who was in town for the evening. It was so fun to see him, and funny to be the "outsider" to a different group of friends recounting college stories and old jokes. Now I see what other people experience when they crash our Carolina reunions :).
Other than that, I've been trying to get my homeowners' association to take care of a problem with drainage I have at my condo - namely, the area outside my front door floods and fills with mud every time it rains, and 4 times now it has flooded under the front door into my house. I'm enjoying my job at Christ Covenant too, and excited for Wade to start teaching in just a matter of weeks!

That's about all for now... hopefully I'll have some pictures of something fun soon :).

Mom, Remembered

2008-07-11T00:10:00.002-04:00

We had a wonderful memorial service for mom this morning, where God was honored and His Word was preached clearly and unabashedly - exactly what she wanted. The graveside service with our family was really special, and the cemetery where her ashes are now buried is just beautiful. It's so mom. A lot of it looks just like her backyard, with natural areas, trees, bushes, flowers and benches. She's buried right next to Hope Stout, a 13-year-old girl who died of cancer several years ago and was in the news for her "make-a-wish" being that all the other kids got their wishes.

Hundreds came to celebrate mom's life, and more importantly the life of Christ she is inseparable from. For those who wanted the words to the poem I read, here they are... Mom wrote this for me before I graduated from high school 8 years ago:

God chose you for His very own before all time began.

He spoke your name and formed your soul forever in His plan.

God's plans for us are certain; they're not a passing whim.

He placed you in my life and heart, my precious daughter Kim.

Trust the Lord for everything, though you can't understand.

His ways are not like our ways; His plan is not our plan.

Seek His face and read His Word; spend time alone with Him.

Then spread His love to all you meet, my precious daughter Kim.

Give God your gifts and weaknesses, for when you can't, He can.

He has a purpose for your life forever in His plan.

Delight each day in His love for you and return that love to Him.

I thank God every day for you, my precious daughter Kim.

Update

2008-07-06T21:44:00.004-04:00

Visitation will be Tuesday, July 8 from 5-8 pm at the funeral home, Harry & Bryant, on Providence Road.

The service will be Thursday, July 10 at 11:30 am at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews.

Come and be touched by mom's life if you'd like :).

It's finished.

2008-07-05T00:12:00.006-04:00

Linda Johns

February 26, 1951 - July 4, 2008

Mom went home to be with the Lord about 9:45 tonight. It's been a very long few days, not to mention the weeks, months and years leading up to now... But praise God that she is out of pain - no more cancer, no more nausea, no more drugs & needles.

I love you so much, mom - more than I could EVER express with words or actions. You've been the best mom in the entire world, and you've touched everyone who knew you with your sweet spirit, warmth, and especially your unwavering faith in our Lord. We'll see you again!

--------------------Added Saturday, July 5th----------------------------

Thank you all so much for your prayers for me and my family over the last weeks, months, and even years. We decided Mom "went out with a bang" on the 4th of July. My dad, sister, brother-in-law, and I were all there with her at her bedside. She had been unresponsive for 22 hours or so, just breathing shallowly and finishing the race. All day, we had all been holding her hands, talking to her and telling her how much we loved her and that it was ok to let go now.

Around 9:30, my dad started talking close to her ear about how much he loved her, all the people waiting for her in heaven, how we were going to take care of her garden and everything here for her and we were going to be ok, and things like that, and her breathing and heart rate just slowed and slowed until she was gone, while he was still talking. It was really heart-wrenching, but special too.

It's hard to let it sink it that this whole battle is over and she's completely free of suffering and pain FOREVER now. It's overwhelming and relieving, like a huge burden has been lifted and at the same time a huge hole has been gouged in my heart. Right now, the grief is a little stronger than the joy, but the joy is still there for her - dancing on the streets of gold, completely whole and new.

I don't know yet when funeral services and things will be, but I will let you all know for anyone who wants to come. Thanks again for everyone's prayers and support - it means a lot to me and our family.