Whatever it takes...

I didn't know what I was getting into when I started... honest! Doing geneology is so addicting! Dustin is very very very much into the "Chapman" name... and all the history behind it, but has been unable to find anything as far as info goes from his family because his father and his grandfather have both passed away. But, DUH, in this modern world.... everything is online! :)

I found this neat site www.Geni.com where you can put together all the info. I'm an amature for sure, knowing my sister has my family tree back to the 1500's, but I'm really enjoying this exploration stage of our families!

This weekend was the 30th anniversary of Bele Cher Dustin & I have been in the area for 3 Bele Cher's now, but haven't made it to one until this year! Well, it was an interesting time. Anytime we go to Asheville there are always someone we do a double or triple take at... but this weekend, Asheville was FULL OF QUACKS! Between the goths, hippies, homeless and the Gay Pride... our night was full of never ending entertainment. I guess Asheville is a mecca for the Homosexuals and is advertised in San Fransisco and Mass as a city that is welcome to that type of lifestyle... All that being said... we had our extremely religious people with signs shouting that all sinners are condemned to Hell and the Homo's right in front of them shouting their beliefs. To be honest, it was very sickening... I kind of felt like I was in that 1970's movie A Thief in the Night All in All, we took $40.00 out of the ATM, bought 2 limeades, 2 corn dogs, 1 cheese fry and a candy apple... good eating & good times...

hmmm. when should a babies Incisor's start coming in? Our poor baby, She has 3 teeth on bottom and 2.5 teeth on top. Her two bottom teeth came in first... those weren't so bad as far as crankiness goes... then her top left came in.... she became a little more of a hand full... and then her top right has begun to poke through and then all of the sudden her top & bottom incisors came through on the same day! Ouch! I couldn't imagine! I'm glad they have tylenol for infants... and oral gel... because she is in some serious pain!

Pressley stood by herself for about 10 seconds last night. She was holding onto my knees and I moved and left her standing there clapping. It was quite exciting... especially for Daddy--- snoorttt snooorrrt! :) haha!

Braelyn has been so active. I honestly don't remember if Pressley was this active at this point in my pregnancy with her. I know she was our tiny dancer during my 3rd trimester but for some reason I don't think I could feel her this much around 22 weeks... I just can't honestly say. Either way- Brae is a big mover!

So, living 4 hours away from your family is tough. Each day, I sort-of dread the lul of lunch time at work. Mostly, my boss and I go grab lunch... or one of the 2 friends I have in town go and each lunch... or sometimes, more rarely than any, Dustin & I actually get to eat together. But today... today was a ton of fun! I saw that Oreo commercial where the Daddy & son are about to eat an oreo--- little did you know that they are eating it via webcam... So I got the idea Justin & I could have lunch together... via WEBCAM! We both went and got our lunches, came back... logged onto Skype and sat and talked and had lunch! It was quite fun and hopefully we can do it more often!

...It is finished! :) Maggie & Chris' baby shower turned out well! Everything was perfect (to me) and I enjoyed spending time with mom getting ready for the shower!
Here are some pictures of the shower...

Well I am not sure where to start this blog, because it's going to be a conglomeration of several things that have happened this week. :/ I had planned to come back into town with a new healthy kick! Dustin and I have been talking for several months now about finding foods that will help his heart or heart healthy foods! So I planned meals, went online found good foods, reciepes etc. On Sunday, we both went to the grocery store and begun to work through my list of heart healthy foods. We didn't even make it to the bread section when my list was veto'd. He told me that he was going to stick to his 3 main food groups. Chicken, broccli & egg whites. Now, if you know me, I am very strong willed, and it ticked me off that he would throw all my planning out the window because he didn't want to eat preztels as a snack. Seriously... are you kidding me? So I told him that I was going to eat the heart healthy foods, and what ever he chose would be up to him to cook and eat. I wouldn't be any part of it! He then took the cart and proceeded through the isles looking for his items. About 30 minutes later we were in the check out line, getting ready to check out, and I look into the bottom of our cart and low and behold, there is a box of TWINKIES! I about fell out! Needless to say, he returned those twinkies. :)

During relax time last night, Dustin admitted to getting 4 twinkies out of the vending machine at work yesterday! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! I packed him a nice meal of turkey speghetti with wheat pasta and a side of fresh pineapple to eat for lunch. Instead he had 4 twinkies. tisk tisk tisk.

So this morning, on my way into work, I picked up a whole DOZEN of fresh glazed HOT krispy kreme doughnuts... they are fabulous. I bet those twinkies don't taste too good now.

While at the beach, we went out to eat at Joe's Crab Shack... the food was good, the atmosphere was entertaining... and the whole experience... well, I won't be going back.

I think 3 times total this year, something has gone wrong with our HVAC. During the winter, we were with out heat for a day... brrrrrr. And now, this makes the second time this summer that the A/C is out. We've pulled out all the box fans and stuck them in the window, called the repair guy immediately and still, he is yet to come out! AHHHH! So when we get home at the end of the day, the house is nice and hot! Forget cooking or doing laundry, any extra heat will make the house go up in flames :)

Makes me think, life would stink if there were no a/c! I'm thankful that I don't live back in those days! Thank God for modern technology... when it works that is!


Well, on Saturday, I am hosting a baby shower for Maggie & Chris, they are dear friends of ours from Hendo. Maggie was our teacher for child birth class and also our Doula! They are expecting their first in September so we are going to throw them a shower! I am super excited because I love planning parties and I love decorating and cooking (only for parties!) Mom is headed down on Friday to help out! Keep us in your prayers for the a/c guy to come and fix our a/c and for traveling mercies for mom.... and that the shower goes well too!

Here is our baby enjoying her blueberry pancakes while at the beach... She ate 1 whole pancake by herself!

Today is the last day at the beach. To be honest, I am so worn out and ready to be at home with my hubby. Life is so different when you're a single parent even if only for the week! I know that Dustin is missing both Pressley and I tons too! I will be heading back west on Sunday...

I really did enjoy myself, and I know Pressley enjoyed meeting her Cousins again and getting to play with them too! She sure did love them!

Right now, Baby Brae is kicking and swimming around. And I am about to pass out from tiredness--- laying on the air mattress listening to the news... ready to sleep. Well, this blog was pretty much pointless... but I felt like I needed to blog about life, today... this week.

Have a great weekend!

Here is a picture our girl at the beach for the first time, she had so much fun! She would look at the sand, and play in it and then get up and bear crawl deeper into the surf! I had to keep a close eye on her so she didn't get toppled by the small waves! She did get a taste of the sand a few times... yuckie! I was trying to tell her no but she was insistant upon doing it so, I let her... :P

Well, I know its not too late, but it is late for me, I am usually in bed by around 9 ish, and here it is 10:15, and I am blogging. This week has been so fun, so many new first... but also bitter sweet. Dustin has been at home working this whole week which has left me and my family to enjoy the sweetness of Pressley's new things. First off, she got in the pool for the first time, then she went to the beach for the first time, and had blue berry pancakes for the first time too! Right now, as I am blogging, she is over there tossing and turning in her pack-n-play trying to lul herself to sleep. Our lives are off balance with out daddy! WE MISS YOU! :)

Today was an eventful day, Mom, Pressley and I made a short trip down to Charleston, SC to catch up and have lunch with my Best Friend Abby. With in seconds of pulling into Charleston, we were involved in an accident (IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!) Everyone is fine, Pressley was asleep and didn't even wake up when the collision occurred, but never the less, it was a fiasco. Mom and Dads car is a little mangled and my spirit was dampened by the lack of attention on the other drivers part. We are all safe though, and it could have been worse so I will take what I got. We did have a wonderful lunch and got to spend about an hour catching up and visiting with old friends!



We arrived back home and had some fun times playing around and being excited that we were finally out of the car!!! Pressley was in rare form as she gallivanted through the condo searching for something... :)

These are for Daddy because he wasn't able to be here with us for Pressley's first time in the pool! She had such a wonderful time and kicked and splashed and played with Cousing Abby & Andrew! Poppa got actual video footage of it and as soon as we find the cord to transfer that over from Video camera to computer, I will post it!

Today, we are headed off to the beach for the first time, hopefully we will be out there soon so the sun won't be so hot, and I'm sure we'll be back around noon or 1pm before it gets way too hot! I'll post pictures of those too!

I've got a few things in the hopper as far as pictures goes, we attended the McLaurin Family reunion and the pictures from our Fourth of July extravanza! :)

Dustin, Pressley and I all had a WONDERFUL 4th of July! We just had good 'ole family time! Around 7:30, we headed off to Greens Six Oaks, the local Gas Station, Library, Grocery Store and Post office all in one. They had a barbecue and singing and then around 9, there were fireworks! Here is a slide show of all the festivities.

So I didn't have much time to write a detailed blog about our doctors appointment.
Dustin and I met with the ultra-sound tech that did Pressleys ultra sound so it was kind of neat that both our girls had the same technician! :) Anywho- Baby Brae was very active during the ultrasound and it was super neat to see her eat her hands and just move and move in my belly! Like I said in the earlier post, Dustin swore he saw "tools" but it was pretty evident that there were no "tools" to be found! We were both extatic about having another girl, but had yet to pick out a name... The ultra sound tech took lots of pictures for us and we are still peeking at them and just eating up our newest little girl! After the ultrasound we met with the Doctor to discuss the pregnancy and we were introduced to the fact that I am classified as a high risk pregnancy. Since we got pregnant before 8 months after having Pressley, the probablility of me going into Pre-term labor is extremely high. The Dr told both Dustin and I that starting in October I needed to start taking it easy to prevent going into labor. EEEK! That really worries me! :( So, please please please be praying for all of us that we prepare ourselves for whatever God has planned for Baby Brae and her arrival!

Well, we met our second little girl yesterday, Braelyn Noel Chapman. She was so active and we got to see so much cute little things she did! Dustin was certian it was a boy but he had no luck! :) Here are some cute pictures of our Baby "Brae"