Sunshine and Banana Bread

We have just soaked up every minute of this beautiful weekend...and a long weekend for me! Sometimes simple days are just the best! The weather has been perfect, and the breeze has felt so good! I'm loving the longer days too!

We spent Friday afternoon outside and at the last minute decided to eat dinner downtown at George and Louie's...outside of course. There is something about that place that screams Thomasville charm. And of course we saw everyone that we knew. Fun!


We spent the ENTIRE day outside on Saturday. We started with a trip to a baby store downtown. Then Matt trimmed bushes, weeded, and hit some golf balls. We made some much needed organizational lists while hanging out on our back porch too. We have lists of things that we still need for our baby girl. We made lists of things that we want to organize before she gets here (thankfully it's not too long). I love the kind of day where I where a baseball hat all day long. LOVE it!

We took Blakely to the park yesterday afternoon...thank goodness she didn't jump in the lake this time. Matt made banana bread last night and we (I only helped with the antique white details) finished painting the dresser for the nursery. I love the way it turned out! Matt worked very hard!!


Y'all this is hilarious news to me. It is such an honor that I truly don't deserve....but I'm the teacher of the year for my school. I got these beautiful flowers and they smell so good. I put them in the nursery, thinking that my baby might be proud of her Mama. :) I also have a lot of work ahead of me that is all due by April 19th. So I kind of sorted through some of the questions that I'm going to have to answer today and am getting prepared to lock myself in the office one weekend soon and write.


Another thing that I'm loving lately is how smart my adorable golden retriever pup is. Whenever Matt lets her in from outside, she always runs in and tries to find where I am. I can hear her so I always know when she is coming. We spend so much time in the nursery these days that when she comes in the first place that she looks for me is ALWAYS the nursery. Isn't that the sweetest thing EVER?

Saturday at the hospital

Here we are about to walk in...


to the hospital where I will deliver our sweet baby girl! We had our all day childbirth class last Saturday and I am not kidding, we found it to be amazing. Yes, some of the videos were kind of graphic, but other than that....I would suggest that everyone take it. I am kicking myself for not getting at least a few pictures. We took the class with our neighbors, Leslie and Jim, who are expecting in July. There were 6 couples in the class altogether. Most were due in May. I had seen all of them before at the Shaw center actually. We found out that one of the soon to be new dads is a new Dr. in town at our family medicine practice. His wife is due just two weeks before us. Y'all I just loved it. Ok, let me tell you about it.

The teacher of the class is a RN in mother/baby and also lives in our neighborhood. She is fantastic and I can only hope that she will be there to take care of us. I also found out that she is a Moms on Call consultant and I will be calling her if I ever feel that I need too. I've heard great things about Moms on Call through the Blog World. Plus, I LOVED all my packets and checklists!!

The first half of the day was all about labor and delivery. She even gave us a birth plan that was suitable to use at Archbold, so the nurses and Drs won't think you're crazy. I am a hard core researcher and pretty much knew all of these things that we learned about. However, I loved reviewing them and learning about them in greater detail...especially from a nurse. I also liked learning about the different types of labor that I could have based on her position...and how to move if she is posterior...VERY INFORMATIVE! Matt loved this part because he doesn't like to read, and kept saying, "I'm learning so much!" :) She gave the dads lots of jobs to focus on...from timing contractions before coming to the hospital, to learning breathing techniques to do during labor. She also gave them a heads up on things that would go on during delivery. We also learned about pain management and epidurals.

Then we toured the birthing suites and post-partum rooms. They are really nice for us living in such a small town. The first thing that we both noticed were the plantation shutters in all the rooms...haha! It was fun to peek into the nursery and also the waiting room and picture our family members waiting!

The hospital provided us lunch....grilled chicken salad and snickers cheesecake. I wasn't planning on eating, but it was actually good!

After lunch was my favorite part. We talked all about hospital survival kits for before and then after delivery. We went over what to pack and what our hospital would provide. We learned about postpartum....what to expect and how to care for yourself and baby. She even went over the basics, changing diapers, swaddling, giving your baby a bath, how many wet diapers you should look for for the first week or so to make sure your baby is eating enough. *Matt got to demonstrate swaddling a baby and he did such a good job! I am saddest of all that I don't have a picture of him doing that. We spent a long time on breastfeeding, which is why I really wanted to go to this because she is known as an expert. I feel so much better after this class! She truly didn't leave anything out. I needed her and this class! She also gave us some tips on her favorite baby necessities...ones that she swears work the best! We talked about a sleep schedules and learned some soothing techniques from Happiest Baby on the Block.

I'm sure I'm leaving things out, but we just enjoyed this class so much!!! Hopefully the next time we'll be up at Archbold is when we're having our little bit. :)

All my fountains...

I updated my favorite chalkboard in our house this morning.


I will never, ever get tired of this song...or what it means!


Another song that I just want to write all over my walls is this one. The lyrics to me describe how I want my heart to be. It is pretty much my anthem. I listen to this every single morning. I cried the first time I heard it during Passion in January. I told Matt this is my prayer...WHO wrote this??? It was written from my prayers!!!


I'm super sad that I'm not at Passion City Church tonight (yes, I begged) for the live release of the new album. However, I am just so, so thankful for their ministry and team. Their leaders and real and I love that!

The Luck of the Irish

It's that time of the year. The month that I wear green almost every day. I'll always be true to my hometown and their traditions...even 3 hours away. We have some fun little Irish touches here and there in our house. Although, I'm very into Easter decorations right now, so I only have St. Patty's Day decor in my breafast room, guest bath, and on the front door. BUT I do have lots of green everywhere in the house...so that counts.

A season baby and a roadhouse date!

Friday was a special day because our first season baby, Karlynn Katherine Swain, was born. Our very own Fall Season, Jenn, became a Mommy! Jenn was actually induced and Karlynn was born on her due date! Isn't she precious?


CB, Matty, and I met up at SGMC around 6 to visit our first seasoning. :) Of course we had to bring "Birthday Cake" cupcakes from SmallCakes. Yum!!


Jenn was feeling great and Karlynn was adorable!!!


Afterwards we had a Texas Roadhouse date. I have been wanting that for about 7 months. So, I was pretty excited! Their rolls are the best!


It was whirlwind visit to Valdosta, but so much fun, and so worth it! I also took a few pictures of the beautiful VSU campus in Spring. We hope to get over there for a baseball game soon. Even though Hopper Hall (the dorm that I lived in for a year) looks different now, it still brings back such good memories!

My days, these days.

So I have a student teacher. An awesome one at that. She is doing a great job and has taken over my job for the next month or so. Y'all not teaching all day makes me TIRED! Most days I'm locked in our conference room with 2 other teachers that have student teachers and work really hard on updating our curriculum notebooks and making common assessments, etc. Sometimes I get pulled to sub if a lot of teachers are out. I thought I'd document my days.

Lots of kindergarten notebooks being put together.


The wing that I'm on has the worst tasting ice. So before I leave my wing in the mornings, I make sure and fill up my tervis.


I am thankful to have a little break from my normal routine for awhile. I think I'll go back feeling refreshed for the last month of school!

Matt's Birthday!

I'm a little bit late blogging about this! Matt turned 31 on February 22nd...the rainiest day of the year I think! I don't have a lot of pictures but we did some good celebrating!

I woke him up with breakfast in bed (pancakes with a candle in them), which has become a little tradition. Poor Matt though, it was pretty early when I handed him his breakfast. He just held the plate in bed with his eyes closed and said, "Just let my eyes open up." Lol! Then I gave him his goodies and presents. His favorite gift was his big ol' tool chest. I was proud of picking that thing out at Lowe's by myself.


After work, we planned on staying in town and going to dinner and a movie. His choices. He wanted seafood, and we had just eaten Jonah's with my family the week before, so we tried out our new Red Lobster. We had to wait in the rain for a while. So...we missed the movie. We took this picture under the umbrella!


Matt requested chocolate ice cream cake so that is what he got! Abigail actually braved the rain with me to go pick it up. She didn't mind though because she got a free ice cream treat out of it. :)


Then, last weekend his Dad and Ellen came over and grilled steaks and ribs for his second birthday dinner. They actually brought him a mini ice cream cake too.

My hubby is one amazing man. I am just so thankful for him and can't get over how much more I love him today than even when I married him almost 7 years ago. He spoils me and works so hard for our little family. He makes everything fun, is so thoughtful, and is the leader that I need him to be in our relationship. I could go on and on and on. I'm grateful for every year we have to celebrate together! Happy Birthday Matty!