Week of April 21

Sunday - after church on Sunday we drove from Centralia to Fenton to stay with my parents for the night before heading back to Indiana.  We got to go to my parents' church Sunday night and see a few friends.

Monday -  we drove back to Indiana and got to drive our new-to-us van back!  We bought my parents' van from them.  They got a new SUV and their van is in really good shape.  It will definitely be nicer to have more room when we have a baby, even if I have to endure some pokes at work about driving a "mom van" already.

I meant to take a picture of the van to post on here but I forgot and now I don't feel like walking downstairs just to take one, so this one will have to do that I found on my mom's facebook.  Along with the Hyundai that's getting replaced.

Tuesday - After I got home from work we headed to Chick-Fil-A to have dinner with some friends from church.  We love getting to hang out with their family and their kids are pretty awesome too.  We are going to miss our whole church family!

Wednesday - Caleb and I went to the dentist Wednesday morning.  With moving and changing insurance, we're not sure about the future of our dental insurance, so might as well go now!  Despite being pregnant, I got the thumbs up with no cavities!  Caleb has a couple of little ones that need to be filled, but that's not too bad for not going to the dentist in over 10 years.  :-)  Also apparently Caleb's bottom wisdom teeth are trying to come in sideways.  It looks like we will be trying to find some dental insurance before too long to get that taken care of.

Our pearly whites!

 

Wednesday night we sold my car!  Caleb relisted it on craigslist that day and lowered it by $50.  He had several calls/texts that day asking about it. It's crazy what a difference $50 can make.  So the car was listed at $3950 and he had someone text him and ask if he would take $1000 cash and a 4 wheeler in exchange for my car.  Caleb said no!  Can you believe it??  Think of the adventures we could take baby on if we had a 4 wheeler!  (Mom, I'm kidding.) But then someone called shortly after dinner and they wanted to come look at it and they were there in about 30 minutes with cash in hand ready to buy.  It was sad to see my car drive away, but I'm doing ok.  ;-)  *bottom lip trembling*

Thursday - Caleb took me to Orange Leaf in consolation of selling my car.  :-)  I was kind of upset when we walked in and saw that they replaced their brownie batter flavor!  The nerve!  Don't they know I'm pregnant??  They can't be taking away my favorite flavor like that. 

Thursday night when I went to bed I'm pretty sure baby got his first case of the hiccups.  I kept feeling these hard jabs.  Baby has been moving around a lot more and kicking harder lately, so I didn't think much about it until I realized that these jabs seemed to be spaced evenly apart.  After about a minute it stopped.  It was so cute.  :-) 

Friday - I was able to get free circus tickets at work for the Ringling Brothers circus this weekend.  :-)  Baby gets to go to his first circus!!  I'm sure it's all he'll talk about once he's born.  He's already made it known to me that he wants a rainbow snow cone, cotton candy, nachos, popcorn, one of those light up spinny toys.  His daddy has to oblige, right? 

Saturday - We went to a refugee artisan event thing at a church with some friends from seminary.  It was actually really neat.  There's a church in Louisville that works with a lot of international refugees and they had kind of like a craft fair type thing where there were booths set up.  Some of the booths had items for sale that the refugees had made and were selling, and there were a couple of booths that were raising money to help fund international adoptions.  There was a booth that was selling items from Uganda to raise money to adopt a little girl from the Congo.  They had some purses and even though it was the first thing I looked at, I knew I wanted one. (a large crossbody purse?  Yes please!) I decided to wait and look at everything else and by time I went back the one that I really wanted was already gone.  (I'm still a Haley by blood and Haley's have bad luck).  But really I liked most of the purses there so Caleb helped me pick out this one:

Those are elephants on it by the way.

I mean, how can you turn down a purse when the profits are going to a good cause?  Can I get an amen?  (Mom?? Amy??  Anybody??)

We also went and registered for baby stuff at Wal-Mart today.  We've already registered at Target but New Albany's Target is kind of small and didn't have everything that we wanted. 

Now Caleb and I are chilling at home for the evening even thought it sounds like the city of New Albany is on fire or something.  I lost count after the fire trucks left three times.  An evening is always relaxing when you can listen to your husband singing and playing guitar while your crock pot cooks for you.  (It's yogurt!  Smoothies in the morning anyone?)

One thing that I forgot to mention in my blog last week was this place that I went to in Old Louisville.  It's called The Root Cellar.  I was getting desperate looking for some honey with our allergies starting to take off and a coworker told me about this place.  It's kind of like a farmers market that's open six days a week in this little garage thing. 

Not only did they have local honey, but they also had bison burgers!  Oh yes, dinner was delicious that night, especially since we had some Kings Hawaiian hamburger buns left over.  Their honey was kind of pricey but the more you bought the cheaper it was per pound.  Since I like a bargain, I left with a jug of honey. 

Oh one more thing to leave you with.  So there's a new song on Christian radio.  If you haven't heard it just wait because Christian radio stations always seem to over play every single song.  It's called "You are" by Colton Dixon.  Don't get me wrong, I like the song, but Caleb pointed out these lyrics to me last weekend on our road trip:

"If I had no voice, If I had no tongue, I would dance for you like the rising sun. "

I almost think Glozell could make a video over this line.  What kind of a dance does the rising sun do?  Would you just stand up realllllly slow?  But I don't know, maybe Colton Dixon is a Southern Baptist and that's how he dances in church so he doesn't get judged. 

Weeks of April 7 and April 14

Weeks 21 and 22 of the long wait for this baby are over.  :-)  He has been moving and kicking more and more.  He has found where my bladder is and that seems to be one of his favorite places to kick.  I'm also starting to get more uncomfortable at night when I sleep, but all of this means that we're getting closer to getting to meet him!

Gender Reveal Cake
One of my co-workers makes some really awesome cheesecakes.  She wanted to make one for a gender reveal for my baby for work.  I texted her what we were having and she brought a cake to work the next Monday for our department to eat and get to find out what we were having.  (I'm always up for any reason to get to eat one of her cheesecakes.)  Doesn't this look delicious??

Taxes!
We finally got our taxes done.  My boss, Steve, looked over everything for us and pretty much had to start everything over from the beginning in order to get our state taxes right.  He was baffled at how botched up our taxes were.  Caleb was finally able to get all of our tax documents back from the tax lady.  It took several trips to her office but we eventually got all of them the Friday before taxes were due.  Steve took our taxes home and had them ready to go for us on Monday (April 15).  Caleb came to the station and got our taxes and sent them off.  Nightmare over :-).

My Car
Do you know what happens when your car is almost out of gas so you take your husband's to work and leave him with the empty one?  He puts your car on craigslist.

That's a true story...sort of.  He did put my car on craigslist that day but we are trying to sell my car since we are buying my parents' minivan.

My junior and senior year of high school I saved up as much money as possible to be able to buy my own car before I went away to college.  After high school graduation I was finally able to pay cash for my own car.  I have been so happy with this car for the past five years.  It has never given me any problems other than the door handles breaking and being terribly uncomfortable to travel long distances.  It has such great AC and only has 70k miles on it and gets 35ish mpg on the highway.  I'm really sad to see my car go, but I'll get over it.

Just give me a minute....

Ok, moving on.

Wait!  Here are some pictures for memories sake :

Ok moving on for real now.

Falls of the Ohio
Caleb and I wanted to go back to Madison IN on our free weekend which is where we went with Caleb's parents and saw waterfalls...and I really wanted to stop at the same ice cream place in Charlestown because that was super delicious.  Since allergy season was just starting to get underway and I was trying to go this season without any allergy medication (I lost that battle.  I'm so thankful for Zyrtec) so we didn't want to drive almost two hours just for our allergies to be miserable.  So instead we settled for a 15 minute drive to Falls of the Ohio.  On the way there we found the park that I've been wanting to go to for quite some time now because you get such a pretty view of the Louisville skyline.  We had to stop to take some pictures!

Then we headed on to the Falls.  It was really pretty and peaceful. 

 

I couldn't walk around a whole lot so I sat while Caleb explored a bit.  it was pretty rocky along the river.  Then this conversation happened:

Caleb - "Let's go out to that big rock.  Which way do you want to take, right or left?"
Me - "Does it really matter?"
Caleb - "Well, would you rather break an ankle or fall in a crevice?"
....what options!  I chose the broken ankle path and came out with all bones in tact.

The big rock is on the top right of this picture.

                        


Our trip to Missouri
I took this past Friday afternoon off of work and we headed to St Louis.  We stayed with my parents that night and got to visit with them for a little bit.  The next morning we headed out west to go look at a house that I found on craigslist for rent.  But it's about a 20 minute drive away from the church so it would be nice if we could be just a couple of minutes away from church so we can be closer to most of the church members. 

Once we left there we headed to the church to meet with the pastor search committee and deacons of the church.  We got to know some of them more and also had dinner with them.  After our time there we went and stayed with a couple from the church who is around our age.  They were so hospitable to us and it was fun to get to hang out with them!  We went to the mall and then went out for some delicious ice cream. The next morning we headed to the church...

Aww!  :-)

But since I try to update my blog by the week, you'll have to wait until next week to find out how Sunday went.

But if I were to tell you about how Sunday went it would go a little bit like this:
Caleb got to preach during the service Sunday morning.  Then they had a carry-in dinner and a question and answer time with the church.  Then the church voted to decide whether or not they wanted to call Caleb as their pastor.  We went into another room while they discussed all of that.  After a little while we heard some clapping coming from the sanctuary.  The ended up voting unanimously to call Caleb!  Of course we accepted and are so excited to be able to be moving back to Missouri and being a part of this church's ministry.  It was such a blessing since we've been praying for the Lord to make His will obvious to us as during this time. We are hoping that May 19th will be Caleb's first Sunday as pastor.  Really the only thing holding us back will be finding a good place to live.  But I won't worry about it...I won't worry about it...I won't worry about it.  Nope.  I won't.

Anyway, it's such a bittersweet time for us.  I love my job (most of the time), I love the city of Louisville, I love all of the friends we have made here, I love the opportunities to take classes at the seminary, I love our church and all of the wonderful people there, and now all of this is coming to an end in just a few short weeks.  I'm so incredibly excited to start over (again) in a new place, but I don't think it's quite hit me all that we are leaving behind.  But Caleb is going to get to do what he is passionate about and I get to be a stay-at-home mommy!  We always come back for a visit, right??  :-)

Week of March 31

Week 20!  Isn't that exciting??

Easter! 

We went to church Sunday morning, and ended up going to Cheddar's for lunch.  We thought restaurants might be more crowded on Easter but it was less crowded than normal.  It was my first Easter not being at my parents house which was sad.  :-(  But we will see them in a few weeks!

Baby Gender
Can you tell which one we were each rooting for??

We are definitely having a boy and he wasn't shy about it.  

He also wasn't a fan of the ultrasound.  The tech said he was either stubborn or shy.  He takes after his daddy on both of those!  ;-)  We got some neat pictures and even some 3D pictures.  Check out this cutie (even if the pictures do look a little creepy). 

Feets!

3d baby!

As for a name, we have some potentials but nothing set yet. 

Women of Joy Conference
Friday night Amy and I went to the first session for the Women of Joy conference.  Amy got me tickets for Christmas so we've been looking forward to this for months now.  The music was really good and then the speaker came out....and we were less than impressed.  We ended up booking it out of there after she had gone over 30 minutes and there was no end in sight.  We were kind of afraid the rest of the weekend would be the same way.  So the first speaker at the conference on Saturday morning was awesome.  She actually used her Bible and kept your attention.  She also rapped her way through the book of Ruth.  My abs and cheeks hurt after she was done speaking. Saturday evening we went to the Jeremy Camp concert.  It was so good, but I'm not so sure all of the old ladies in front of us enjoyed it.  They were all so set on getting a good seat too.  Overall the weekend was good, but I wasn't standing in line waiting to sign up next year.  I guess I was just a little taken back by the fact that you didn't need your Bible and there really wasn't much to take notes on.  I can't say I walked away feeling very challenged or overflowing with new knowledge, but I did really enjoy the music and seeing Jeremy Camp in concert is always a win. :-)  (Also getting to spend the weekend with my sister was awesome)

The Case of the Missing Wedding Band
When I got out of the shower Saturday morning, I somehow lost my wedding band.  I have no idea what happened to it.  I always take my rings off before I take a shower and I'm sure I would have noticed only taking off one ring if it was lost before that.  I searched all over the bathroom and can't find it.  I had to go break the news to Caleb but I was somehow able to hold back all tears.  I got home and searched the bathroom for my ring.  I took everything off of the shelf above the toilet, went through the trash can, search the floor...nothing.  Caleb said he looked while we were gone and even checked in the trap thingy in the bathroom sink to make sure it wasn't down there.  Nothing. 
Then came bed time.  I took out my contacts and found my wedding band stuck to the bottom of my contacts case!  I'm still not sure how in the world that happened because I've even tried getting it stuck on there again just to see what happened and it won't stay.  Anyway, I am super excited that we are officially married again.  ;-)

Turtle
Monday night we got to see Oscar on a commercial!.  He did make it onto one of the promos!  I know it's not a big deal, but it's fun to get excited every time I see him on tv.  Just a job perk I suppose.  :-)

Walking Bridge
Saturday afternoon we went and walked across the walking bridge in Louisville with my seester.  You can't walk all the way across yet because it's not completed on the Indiana side, but it was still a good walk!

She has mad picture taking skills. And she's single.

 

Taxes
So we've been having a bit of a nightmare with our taxes.  We went to the same lady we went to last year that used to live right next door to us.  We were really impressed with her then.  When we went one Saturday she said that she had issues filing state taxes and she would give them back to us that Monday.  Well that was now 4 weeks ago this past Saturday and still nothing.  Every time I call I'm told that they still aren't done yet because she's backed up or some other excuse.  Finally on Monday when I called she said she was done and I could come pick them up.  Her receptionist tried to get me to forge Caleb's signature on our state taxes before mailing them, but I refused and said I would take it home and let him sign it.  I finally left with our taxes and thought we were out of the woods.

Well it turns out after a more careful look at our taxes that they were not correct and I can't mail in our state taxes the way they are.  She did not have our original w-2s and the fake ones she had on there were incorrect.  Caleb's UPS w2 had my name instead of his on it.  We were also missing our Kentucky return.  Honestly I went and cried to Caleb about it.  I feel like this is so much more complicated than it needs to be (and I'm pregnant and this is my first meltdown.  That's good, right?).  I called the lady when I got to work on Tuesday and she said she would have our original tax documents ready for us by the end of the day.  My boss also told me he would look over our state return and file a Kentucky one for us so we don't have to deal with this lady anymore.  Crisis averted, right?  Well 5:00 comes and I call the tax place back and she said that her receptionist didn't come in to locate our papers so she'll have them ready on Wednesday.  I never heard anything on Wednesday from the tax lady so I called around 5:00 and got a voice mail.  Phone calls on Friday did no good.  Saturday I just got more finger pointing and unanswered questions.   We are now resolved to the fact that we aren't getting our original documents back which means we now have to scramble a week before taxes are due to try to get copies of our w2s from our employers.