Busy Busy Busy

Well the last few days have been busy ones around the Lyons household. Jeff has been amazing and within 3 days everything is packed and ready to go - and it is only Tuesday! Tomorrow Jeff has to work the Music City Bowl and then Thursday we will use to visit the house, run a few errands, and do some prep work for moving weekend to start on Friday... and of course watch some bowl games to relax. So far this move has gone smoothly and I hope the next phase progresses just as wonderfully. We already have some great volunteers to help us with cleaning, moving and unpacking - the out pouring of love and support from our church is amazing!

Sunday was a day that we took off from packing, but were able to do a little Craigslist shopping for items we need for the new house. We found a washer and dryer right here in Spring Hill. It was a little older than we wanted, but we ended up talking him down from 175 to 125! We can be clean in our new house now :) Our next stop was also in Spring Hill. We found a good quality kitchen table and chairs that were just about brand new and they match our kitchen cabinets perfectly! We were able to get these for 70, down from the list price of 100. So far, we had saved 155 bucks from what we had budgeted for these necessities. The next item we picked up was a needed nursery item - a glider rocker for all those restless nights! Our favorite chairs were fluffy fully upholstered glider rockers that ran anywhere from 500-thousands - way more than we are able or even willing to spend. We were ok with settling for the basic glider that you can find just about anywhere - wooden with a padded cushion. I fell in love with one on craigslist that was a little out of our budget, but because of all the money we had saved elsewhere, we ran up to Franklin and picked it up! I was hoping to have a picture, but no luck - you'll just have to come visit to see it in the nursery :) It is a wooden glider, but it is also a swivel rocker so you can rock or sway and had an ottoman too. It has a higher back and has a little more modern design with painted white wood and the best thing being pretty light pink colored chenille fabric to match our nursery. It was perfect!!! I am so glad we were able to find this little gem on Craigslist. So that was how we spend our afternoon on Sunday! It totally wore me out and probably was a little more running than I should have done, but we found all the items we needed close and cheap - that is a deal for sure. We feel much better about moving into our new home now.

Today was a great day! We had our OB appointment and an ultrasound. We hadn't had one since 20 weeks and missed seeing our little girl! Today was another long one as they had to measure lengths and blood flow and amniotic fluid and on and on. Everything checks out fine and she is weighing in at 5lbs 1oz - aiming to be about 6lbs if we have to deliver at 37 weeks and about 7-8 if we deliver at her due date of 2/14. I am doing well too with great blood pressure but still some swelling. I get some other test results that is the big tell-tell sign for pre-eclampsia sometime tomorrow. That will determine my level of bed rest for now. We did go ahead and make the decision to let me stay modified pending tests, but that I am not going to be working anymore. I experience the most swelling, headaches, etc when I am at work, even though I have been sitting only for the last couple weeks. We think we stand the most chance of not developing full pre-e by going ahead and staying home and not pushing it. So I am going to be home for another 3-8 weeks before she joins me... yikes!! Feel free to come visit or bring me games, movies, books... all that fun stuff! Thanks to everyone who has already offered, I may be calling soon :)

Well that is just a catch up from the last few days - now we are headed into the home stretch of Move 09. I leave you with a little photo of the mess we have made in the garage.

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope all of your Christmases were wonderful and filled with love and loved ones!

New Stroller and 32 week OB appt

Today was a great baby day! This morning I had my OB appt for the week, we are 32 weeks and 3 days. Because of my condition I am having an appointment once a week - they are getting tired of seeing me around! Today I met with one of the other doctors in the practice just in case my doctor isn't available during the day of delivery I won't have to have this baby with a complete stranger. Dr. Bell was very nice, really energetic! She gave me great news - everything is looking good, I even improved over last week. They checked weight, blood pressure, swelling, urine and did some blood tests and they all came back either holding strong where they were last week or looking better. I am excited to know that the restrictions I have with work and home are getting results. It makes sitting around feel a lot more productive! With luck we will be in this pre-pre-eclampsia stage and not ever progress to full Pre-eclampsia. If this is what it takes to keep this baby in as long as possible and have her come out healthy, I will do it joyfully.

Another great baby thing happened today too - we got our stroller and car seat! Mom and Dad were so awesome and actually got us a travel system for my birthday - one of the biggest things we still needed and have to have before she gets here. After looking at the features and quality of this system, we all decided that it wasn't going to suit our needs the best, so we started looking for other options. I always feel bad about returning gifts, but mom and dad completely understood and even encouraged it. They knew we had done our research with strollers and had features we were looking for and they were totally fine with our swapping it for a stroller that would work for us better. Well today I found the one! I was at Essex - if you don't know, you need to go - just to look at their selection of baby stuff, not expecting at all to find much. But I walked in and was shocked to see not only car seats and strollers, but the brand and model car seat that we loved in the right color! It was on sale today even - just 25 bucks for a car seat that was about 80 bucks. Typically this set would have been beyond our price range at about $250 total, but after seeing the car seat on sale and even coming across the stroller for 60 and the car base for 25 we jumped at the chance to save so much. All three pieces came to only 120! We even have some money left over from the set mom and dad got us. Amazing! I was doubtful that we would find a set we would love that we could afford and bam, there it is. I see God working in all the little ways and big ways to help us get prepared for this baby's arrival. Again I must say... Amazing!

We rushed home tonight and got started putting it together. I know it is just a stroller and there isn't a lot of romance or creativity in putting on a few wheels, but it was a great time to spend together. This was one of the first things we were really able to get ready for her so it definitely makes it more real that she will be here very soon.

This will be the last post before Christmas, so everyone have a wonderful time with your family and friends! I am looking forward to some family time - and probably more baby gifts! yippee! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

A plea for help!

Some of you may have received this via email or facebook, we just wanted to get the word out every way we know how!

Birthday Weekend and Rudy Christmas

This was a fun filled weekend with both Birthday and Christmas celebrations! And yes, I took care of myself! This weekend was a little busy and I had fun traveling and celebrating while all the time staying seated as much as possible and keeping to my "bedrest" rules!

The weekend started out on Friday at 12:30. Jeff got off work for a half day so we could celebrate my birthday just the two of us (because, as you'll read later, my birthday was a busy day!) We headed to Opry Mills to see my pick of a movie - Four Christmases. The movie was great (for a cheesy holiday movie) and we enjoyed the time together - and the time with movie butter popcorn! After the movie we had about an hour to kill before our dinner reservations so we did a little baby shopping at Essex and Old Navy and got some cute pants, stuffed animals, and little play gym - all clearance! The highlight of the evening was our beautiful dinner at the Melting Pot! (thank you NorthStar Christmas party door prizes!!!) We had a great 2 hour dinner and dipped til our hearts were content! I was a bad celebrator and totally forgot to take pictures until the last course - dessert - and then only got a dim picture from my iphone :( Even without pictures Jeff and I will be able to remember this weekend, probably our last big to-do before baby arrives. We enjoyed the time together and the great experience that is the Melting Pot!

After our bellies were way too full, we journeyed a little further north to Bowling Green. You may call us silly for our next stop, but we highly enjoyed it! We had reservations at the Drury Inn in Bowling Green! Indoor Pool, King size bed, and a plasma tv - it was the perfect setup to relax and be lazy! We enjoyed our swim in what turned out to be quite a chilly pool - we were even entertained by the cannon-ball kids followed by what i can only assume was a honeymooning couple in the hot tub. (more disturbing then anything, I assure you!!) After the pool we took in the simple pleasure of watching random shows on cable tv while snuggled in the huge king size bed!! Add a few cheetos and reeses pieces - it made for a perfect night :) I enjoyed my birthday celebration day with Jeff and was glad that even though I have to take it easy, we were able to spend time together and make memories for my 25th birthday. Thanks my love!

After we checked out of the hotel the next morning, we continued our journey north to the grand metropolis that is Owensboro KY. This is where my mother is from and where most of the Rudy clan still calls home. We always celebrate Christmas by getting together at my aunt and uncles house the weekend before Christmas. With this group you know you will have tons of great food and hear a tale or two that will get the whole room rolling with laughter. The tradition of late as our family has grown so large is that instead of swapping gifts between us all, we play a rousing game of Dirty Santa. We have a girls gift round and boys gift round. This year started out pretty smooth for us ladies, but the last couple rounds got cut-throat as the stealing picked up - Sarah even stole her own gift from Hannah, poor kid :( I ended up with a cute snowman ceramic drink dispenser... jug... thing... I don't know what it is called?? It holds a couple gallons of drinks with a little spout to pour from. Help me out people, what is this called?? Sadly, the snowman suffered an injury... he fell off the couch when i got home :( The base broke, so he is still usable, just not as cute... sad times. Jeff had an interesting time with Dirty Santa... he ended up with a gallon of Jim Beam. That's my family! One of my uncles "took it off Jeff's hands" (for a fair price!) So Jeff can now go buy his own Dirty Santa gift of his choosing, haha. All in all, it was a great start for this Christmas weekend and we enjoyed spending this time with the Rudy Fam.

The weekend wasn't over yet! Sunday brought a big day of Titans Football! (and my actual birthday!) Because it was a home game, we hosted and smacked the Steelers thank you, Jeff had to work :( I missed being able to be with him for my 25th, but it helped that we had already had such a great weekend together. We did have special visitors to spend time with though-my cousin Susan and her daughter Maya. Since they live in Atlanta we don't get to see them very often, so we were glad that they were able to come up for a few days and spend some time with Nana and Poppa and the rest of us too! Hannah and I were able to join them at Nana and Poppas for the afternoon to watch the Titans game - and entertain 4 year old Maya of course. Susan brought up a whole bag of 0-9 months clothing that Maya wore to pass on to our little girl! I am super excited to be able to inherit :) Susan is now pregnant too with her second due on July 27th, so the clothes may be passed back and forth a couple times! We girls had a great time together playing go fish and talking babies.

Every year for our birthdays Nana and Poppa take us out to eat or cook for us - our choice! This year my choice was Macaroni Grill. We were crossing our fingers that the Spring Hill Olive Garden would be open in time, but no luck. So all 9 of us (Jeff was able to join us after the game!) filled up and pasta and bread and chocolate cake! I received wonderful gifts of more baby clothes, some $$ and amazingly - a stroller and car seat! Mom and Dad went above and beyond and bought a great travel system for us - I must say it was the perfect birthday gift for this mom-to-be. Thank you so much :) My birthday dinner was a wonderful way to wrap up the weekend of Birthday and Christmas fun with all my beloved family. It is amazing to think that this birthday was spent preparing for our daughter and next year she will be just about walking and talking and getting ready for her first Christmas. Amazing.

Well I hope you enjoyed the break down day by day of this weekend, haha. I think we will find that the more I am home on bedrest, the more un-needed details you will read about my life. I know you are more than excited. Thanks for being a part! I am going to continue my day of shopping online (I have changed my mind about nursery decor about 5 times now) and doing what I can to prepare for our move in less than 2 weeks! Time is ticking away... tick tick ticking away (yes, that was a DC Talk reference...) ha!

Yet another doctors appointment... with some interesting news...

I have had yet another doctors appointment this morning!

Pregnancy update for 31 weeks!

2 posts in one day! You lucky people you! I wasn't planning on posting after today's doctor appointment because it was not going to be anything major, just a little check up. But low and behold, I am on modified bedrest for at least the time being. Agh!

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with this weekend during the baby showers. Saturday night I woke up feeling a lot of painful swelling in my hands and feet. I thought it was just from the days activities and sleeping in a hot room with no fan. The swelling ended up staying with me for Sunday and Monday- my poor feet looked awful! I could barely put on my clogs and it was painful to walk around. I called my doctors office to get some advice on reducing the swelling. Turns out they thought it was a bigger deal than I thought and wanted to have me come in that day to run some tests. My doctor wasn't in that day so I met with the nurse practitioner. We did the normal checks on weight and blood pressure, pee in a cup ect. Everything looked ok, but when she looked and measured my legs, she was concerned. She ordered me off my feet and out of work for 2 days to see if the swelling went down. They also did some blood tests too and we were going to wait on results. Turns out everything looked fine and they said I could to back to work and just keep my regular appointment Friday.

That brings us around to today!! I went in today and was able to meet with my normal doctor. After measuring my legs it showed that the swelling only went down about a centimeter and I only lost about 2 pounds of water weight and my legs and feet are still tight and painful. My doctor is concerned about pre-eclampsia and toxemia because the swelling came on rapidly and pretty heavy. So here is what we have going now. I am now on bedrest when I am not at work and when I am at work, I must be seated!! Yikes!! In the mean time we are running more tests on blood and urine and added a doctors appointment for this coming Thursday to check in on the legs and get the test results.

Obviously, Jeff and and I are praying that all will be well and these limitations will only last this week. Of course we will do whatever we need to to keep me and our daughter safe and healthy, but if I have developed pre-eclampsia and must go to complete bedrest it will be a lot on jeff to handle work, the holidays, and moving - all happening in the next 2 months!!! I am trying to keep from worrying before we get any results and doing my best this week to get the swelling down.

That is the pregnancy update for now! Just a little kink at week 31 - only 9 weeks to go! I realized that on Sunday the 14th we will be exactly 2 months away from D-day!! How crazy is that. I can't wait to meet the little girl that keeps kicking me :)

Spring Hill Snow!!!

We have had some fun times the last 24 hours with all this snow! When I left work last night in Green Hills there was a mix of snow and rain, but then by moving up to Jeff's office on Dickerson Pike, it was just rain. Regardless, traffic was a MESS! We decided to wait out the traffic and just go ahead and eat dinner at the Macaroni Grill in Opry Mills. Our meal was great, but cut a little short by a phone call... Dad called and talked to Jeff - the weather in Spring Hill was much worse! Mom and Dad were not even able to get home last night in the car, they had to park at the bottom of our street and walk up! The roads were slushy and icy and the snow was about 3 inches deep. For those of you who have been to "the ridge" you know how steep the hill is and covered in snow it would be no fun to try and drive up - much less to have to hike up! After this news we decided to leave Macaroni Grill and get home as soon as possible before the roads got worse. It was so surreal driving down from north nashville to south nashville! We had rain, the slush, then a little dusting of snow, then a ton of snow - All in less than an hours drive. Jeff did awesome driving in the snow and though it took us a while, we got home safe and sound! We took it slow, had a few slick moments but my new car, with Jeff behind the wheel, was able to make it up the ridge and safely home with no hiking needed. I was very grateful for that! It was a fun adventure :)

Once we safely got home, we realized how beautiful the snow was! We had to get out and play in it! :) We ran inside and got all bundled up and grabbed our camera (it is water, freeze, shock and crush proof so no problems taking into the snow!) The snow was at least 3 inches deep and the trees were totally coated - again I must say how beautiful it was! Brady was having a blast in the snow too. And for those of you that know of Brady, he hates it when it rains and will not step foot on wet grass unless completely necessary. For some reason, when it snows, Brady loooooves it! He runs and plays, he will try to eat the snow and will just about bury his face in it coming up with snow all over his nose. It was so fun playing in the snow with him and seeing how much he loved it. Jeff and I had a great time taking pictures (or trying) of all the snow and trees and Brady of course. It was one of those memorable times when you are just having pure fun and enjoy being with your loved ones (dog included) and you almost feel like a child again. After the snow, we curled up inside with some hot chocolate and football. It made for a great ending to a great night!

This morning I was able to sleep in and get up and enjoy the snow more! After breakfast Brady and I took a little walk and though the snow was starting to melt, I was able to get some good pictures to remember this awesome snow! Enjoy some below or visit gallery.me.com/jordan.lyons to see them all.

Baby Shower Weekend!

This was a wonderful weekend! I have wonderful friends and family who threw me 2 wonderful baby showers!

On Saturday the 6th, Mom and I drove up to Bowling Green KY for baby shower number 1 thrown by my friend Sarah Edmundson. Mom was able to have lunch with her longtime friend Donna Rigdon and I met up early with Sarah for a little pre-baby shower lunch of Bowling Green's finest - Mancinos!

The shower started at 2 and we had a great spread of potato skins, mini quiches, dip, fruit, cream puffs, cookies, and more! Sarah went above and beyond and we had a great time eating and catching up with friends that we hadn't seen in too too long. And of course, we had to play some fun baby games. We had a blast trying to catch each other saying the word "baby" and were trying to capture as many clothes pins as possible to try and win the prize. Sarah had also loaded up a clear container with baby diapers and we had to guess how many diapers were packed into the container. 103 diapers to be exact! Finally, all the woman had to guess how big my belly had gotten - scary thought! They had to cut a run of yarn that they thought equaled the measurement around the belly and then they all got measured. Mom was the winner! She guessed within 1 inch - good job mom! Present time came next.

I received some wonderful gifts - a bouncer, little pink outfits, teeny wash clothes and hoody towels, blankets, toys, slings, monitors and more. But more than this, I already feel that our little girl is loved and that we are blessed for having these women in our lives. I will always cherish the advice and memories that were passed around from mothers who have gone before me. They reminded me that I will not always do everything perfect, but we will learn together and no matter what, she will always love me. Thank you Sarah, for all the time and love you put into this shower. For all the women who joined us, I will always remember this time preparing for our little girls arrival and you made it even more special. Thank you Thank you Thank you!

After our Bowling Green shower, Mom and I kept heading north to Owensboro. We had a great night with my sweet Nana :) The next morning we took Nana to Mass at Precious Blood and enjoyed seeing the John Rudy Clan at church. Spending time with my Nana and mom was great, I heard stories from when Nana had her twins many years ago - it is amazing how times have changed! I wish we could visit more often, but even just this visit did good for my heart :)

The Rudy women gathered at 12:30 at my aunt Weenie's house for a beautiful baby shower luncheon. Weenie went above and beyond and fixed a great lunch of Chicken Poppy Seed cassarole, spinach salad with raspberries, blueberries, and candied pecans, and a wonderful orange cranberry bread. Oh and the dessert! Peppermint ice cream pie with a chocolate crust and hot chocolate sauce drizzled overtop. mmm mm good :)

It is a rare occasion that just the women are able to gather and gossip! I heard stories from them when they were children, and their stories of raising their own children! We laughed and carried on through lunch and into present time - I learned many fun things about my own mother from her friend Donna who was also able to join us with her daughter Holly. My little one received great gifts of clothes and toys, a Bumbo, blankies and crib sheets, and her first Baby Einstein dvd - among many other pretty pink things. Thank you to my aunts and cousins and friends who were able to join us for this time - it is more than special to be able to learn from my family before starting my own family.

Well I must wrap this up! My weekend of baby showers was wonderful but exausting and I must now head into work! Again, thank to everyone who joined in the fun - Enjoy the few pictures I have posted here and more at gallery.me.com/jordan.lyons

3rd Trimester!!

Pregnancy update! This week we hit a big pregnancy milestone: our 3rd Trimester! 2/3s done, 28 weeks and 7 months pregnant, or 12 weeks to go - however you put it our little one will be here before you know it! It is amazing to think that we will have our little girl in our arms in just a matter of 3 short months. And this being the holiday season, those 3 months are going to fly by even faster. I can't believe it is the week of Thanksgiving with Christmas a mere 31 days away.

My 28 week OB appointment was today! It was just a quick in and out check, no ultrasound or anything cool like that ;) I did get to hear her heartbeat, very fast and strong. Other than that everything looks great, a little anemic but nothing a little iron can't cure! I am now up to an appointment every 2 weeks and then in a mere 7 weeks up to once a week. WOW I probably won't have another ultrasound unless they have something they want to check. I have to say that that stinks! I really want to see our little girl again - it has been since 22 weeks and I can't believe I am going to go the last half of the pregnancy with no new picture.

I have been very blessed by having a pretty uneventful pregnancy thus far with no morning sickness or complications, and other than the normal tiredness and being worn out I am pretty happy with making it this far with no crazy stories to tell! However, the past couple weeks as I have been moving toward this final trimester, things have been picking up a bit. My heartburn and indigestion has been kicked up a few notches making me feel very icky at night and it has continued on throughout the day as well. I have learned that I can no longer bend over to pick things up thanks to this rise in heartburn as well as the growing belly. As for the belly... I haven't really been uncomfortable thus far with the added weight or bulge, but that is also catching up with me! Certain positions sitting or laying down, even walking, I can really feel the pressure and weight keeping me from doing what I would normally do. Even rolling over in bed is becoming a task! (and of course every time I roll, my bladder gets squished which inevitably makes me need to get up and pee!) At this point, she has all her parts in place and everything is as it should be, she is pretty much just putting on weight from now on. For mom, that means that I will get bigger faster and more uncomfortable quicker in the last 3 months than in the first 6. Here we go!!

What else is going on in life... the new car is still great! With the cold weather setting in the remote start is pretty darn awesome :) Work is also going well. We are moving into holiday, so the store is getting more and more busy. They are being really great at understanding and working with me on days off, OB appointments, and time needed off my feet in this busy time. In other news, we still have the kittens. We have had 2 people that have promised to take them, we were giving directions and figuring out a time to meet and then all the sudden we hear nothing from them. We were very disappointed :( we just want to find a good home for them and that is getting harder and harder to do. They are back on craigslist now and maybe 3rd time is a charm. If this keeps being a pattern they may be with us when we move - which hopefully is just about a month away. The nesting is starting to kick in, especially with my baby showers right around the corner, I need a nursery!

I think that just about sums it up for now. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and all the many Christmas parties that we get to enjoy over the next month so I am sure we will have more to blog and more pictures to post!

New Car!

As you can see from the title of this post... we have a new car! We knew my VW would need to be replaced, but were hoping it would keep holding out for us. Looks like that didn't happen. While it was not the best timing, God worked everything out for us and we think we have made the best decisions and are excited about our new car for our new little girl.

Here is the long and the short of it...

Wednesday night we were heading from work to small group game night (and we were very excited) but passing downtown on 65 the cars check engine light came on and it was shuddering real bad. Jeff was driving thank goodness, so he pulled of the interstate and coaxed the car along. It was very hard to accelerate and he put it in neutral as much as he could, he did a great job! We finally made it to firestone hoping they could help out in some way. They were going to try to look at it that evening so we had some time to kill downtown. We decided we might as well be proactive and visit the chevy dealership to start looking around (worst case scenario we thought). We looked at a chevy impala that would be closest to our budget and looked at what it would take to get out of the VW and into this car. The terms were not great and firestone hadn't gotten to look at the car yet, so we really didn't know what we would need to do yet. The guys at Beamen were great though - they let us take an "overnight test drive" so we could get home that night and for them, they wanted to sell a car! So home we go! It was a late night and a long day.

Thursday we go the bad news... it was going to be at minimum 1000 big ones to fix the VW. They also said it would need tires and breaks again soon - both things we had to work on about a year ago - that was another 1000 we had spent. We weighed our options and it seemed like the VW was on its last leg and it would cost us more to keep it and keep putting money into a car that was worth maybe 1500 bucks that it would be to go ahead and look for a new car. We decided to start looking around at other cars. The impala deal that beaman had for us was just not good, so we made the choice to turn that down. Good thing is... Jeff's brother Matt is Finance Manager at Gary Force Honda in Bowling Green (wow, that is a lot of capital letters in one sentence...) There was nothing more we could do on Thursday, it was in Matt's hands. Jeff had a video shoot to direct for the YMCA, so we were there til about 11 thursday night.

Friday! Friday was a crazy day. Me, Jeff, Matt, and their Dad spent all day back and forth on the phone calling and texting trying to find them best deal. Matt had a car on his lot that would work great for us, we could trade in the jeep, just had to get it up there... in comes Jim(dad lyons)! He had AAA and amazingly enough they towed it from Nashville to BG for free! As soon as Jeff got off work - and this is after hours of craziness - we headed up to BG! We rolled into town about 7:00 and met Matt at the dealership. Now, we are going into this a little blind. We know he has a 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix for us, but other than that, we didn't know a lot. This was the car we could get, we didn't really have a choice, the VW was already up there... a little nerve racking for sure, and we had our hesitation about if we liked the Grand Prix to begin with. Well, we were happily surprised! We loved the car, took it for a wonderful test drive. The interior was much better than we thought it would be. Very sleek, all black with chrome accents, and it was very comfortable. The car was really easy to drive and had some great features - like remote start! I am thrilled about that one, especially with a new baby and cold winters and hot summers. Matt had all the paperwork ready and we were in and out really quick in our new car :)

We couldn't imagine the situation working out any better than it did. We are very grateful for all our family that helped in getting this all figured out. Thanks guys! I love the car and it will be perfect for our growing family!!

Wow this was a busy weekend!

I am sitting here watching the green bay and titans game by myself and thought I would do a little multitasking and give everyone a little update. I guess really everything I am blogging about is from this weekend - no wonder I am tired!

I guess we will start at the beginning - Friday. I had the day off which was wonderful, but we had some sick kitties to take care of. They both had some sneezing and runny noses and watery eyes that needed some attention. We took them to a great vet that saw them both and gave them meds but only charged us for one. Some things we learned: "little bit" is a girl and she is getting some stripes! They are both about a pound and a half, probably 7 weeks or so, and are perfect other than a slight upper respitory infection that is common amount young kittens. We have some antibiotics and eye drops and you can tell they are already feeling better. Well we are still looking for homes for them if anyone is interested! They are getting more and more playful and cute and we would love to get them to their permanent home soon!! Here is a photo of our new little girl! Haha she is enjoying the game with me.

Onto Saturday! We started early: 9 am childbirth class! It was very informative... Almost too much so! We learned a lot in this first class about the 3 trimester, stages of labor, and relaxation techniques. It was a delicate balance between learning and not getting too scared for what will happen just a few months from now. Next week we talk epidurals, so that will help I am sure ;)

After class we got some lunch and test drove a couple new cars. We are looking to trade in jeffs jeep - the hour and a half to two hour daily commute is wearing on him with the noise and cold with a soft top wrangler. Plus it is not the ideal vehicle to tote a baby around in either! So we test drove a hard top 4 door jeep wrangler as a possibility. It was much much quieter and had a smoother ride. It has a full back seat and would be easily accessable for the car seat and the "trunk" space is huge! We looked at an automatic so I could drive it and jeff would be able to tend to the baby while driving instead of haonf to whist as well. It had some "modern" conviences too: power windows and locks, iPod ready, cruise, better temp and sound too. So all this would make it a better family car but is also trail rated so a can go off road when we want. Option 2 is the ford flex. I was not a huge fan of the exterior but the rest of it totally won me over! We just looked at the entry level flex but it had everything and more! 3 rows of seating, iPod ready, leather wrapped steering wheel, rear assist, tons of storage, great safety features and just huge inside! It felt great to drive, very smooth and natural and felt very safe and secure. Me likie! This decision is still a few months out, but so far we like these 2 options!!

Part 3 of our Saturday was the church retreat at daves farm. We had a great time!! We are really feeling at home at the bridge, even more so when we were there at the beginning - our small group has so much to do with that, so thanks guys we love you all :) we enjoyed hanging out, grillin out, setting up the tent, a HUGE bonfire, and just some awesome fellowship time. We were totally worn out and finally headed home about 10 - smelling like firewood of course! We would have loved to camp but with my current condition and jeff having to work the towns game this morning, we decided it wouldn't be the best option.

So that brings us to today, Sunday! Jeff was up and out early to work the titans game, and I joined the rest of the retreat at worship at 10. It was a wonderful service in the barn with issacs music, josh's teaching, and great news from the staff and the elders. I am excited to see where God leads the bridge next. Dave cooked some great BBQ and we had another great meal with friends and family. That beings me to now- watching the titans game!! The day is still gonna be a long one, just over in time to start a new week or work- eiyaya.

Well, this blog went on a little longer than I thought it would! And can you believe i typed it all on my phone. no wonder my fingers are hurting! Sorry if I bored you, everyone have a great week!!

6 months and counting!

Well, we hit month 6 this weekend!

Rescued Kitties!

Well this weekend brought some fun - new kitties! I was at home Friday and kept hearing what I thought was meowing, but didn't really think much of it. About 5 that evening I went out to take out the trash and 2 tiny black kittens crawled out from under the AC unit meowing up a storm! I coaxed them out with food we had from out cat clark (for those of you who do not know, Clark got sick about a month ago and passed away. We never had the heart to throw out all his stuff). While adult food was not the best for these babies, they were starving and could not stop eating. It was getting pretty cold, so I took them in the garage to warm them up and feed them. They were a little skittish at first, but warmed up to me pretty good. Jeff got home from work with Zaxbys for dinner... and actually hung out in the garage for a good 30 minutes before we ate! (for those of you who love Zaxbys and know Jeff's passion for it, this was a big deal! lol) We ended up having a little picnic in the garage to keep an eye on the kittens. They were adjusting well and were very tired, so we set up a little "nest" for them with food and water and they settled in nicely.

Saturday was a busy day for us! We got up and spent some quality time with the kitties, they learned how to use the litter box! and we figured they are probably about 5 weeks old and both boys, but there is no way for us to know for sure until they are old enough for their first vet visit. We left them in the garage for the day while we were running our errands. We picked up our nursery furniture finally! We don't have a room to set it up in yet, but it is wonderful knowing we have it all just about ready to go :) We also made a target run and visited petsmart to pick up some new litter, kitten food, and a couple toys for our "foster kids."

When we got home I undertook the job of bathing them... cats are not huge on baths ya know, so it was a messy job! They were too young to use even kitten shampoo, so we used dawn dish soap - crazy I know. They smell like Apple Blossoms now :) We had a few traumatic moments, but they smell better and are much softer and hopefully are flea-less. To reward them for the bath time (and because they are now clean) we let them hang out inside with us while they dried and introduced them to their new toys. I guess we are softies, cause we have kindof moved them indoors semi-permanently! Partially because it was so cold last night and even the garage was pretty chilly, plus, we liked having them around. We have put up a baby gate for the office and brought in their food, water, blanket, toys, and litter, so they are right at home. They are enjoying being around us and have become very cuddly and love running around playing together too.

And before you ask... we do not know what we are going to do yet - keep them or find homes for them. Regardless, we are going to care for them for a few weeks until they are at least 8 weeks before we separate them to different homes and so they are able to grow and feel somewhat stable. We are back and forth every 5 minutes on what we want to do... I guess if we never decide the decision will be made for us! Here is a photo of the babies, there are more at gallery.me.com/jordan.lyons if you want to take a peek at our little ones.

Crazy Times

Well life around here has been a little crazy.

Kicks, Doctors Appointments, and Baby Showers! Oh my

Well, many things have happened since our last visit!

Ultrasound fun

Welcome again everyone to our ultrasound! We had our 19 week visit today with the "big" ultrasound that measured everything and checked to make sure she had 10 fingers and 10 toes and that I was doing my part as well! She looks perfect! The ultrasound was about 45 minutes long, and my mom Marianne and Jeff's mom Jolene were able to join us to see their first granddaughter in action. It was a little tough to get all the shots they needed because she wouldn't cooperate (she normally does not!) so I will go get yet another ultrasound in a couple weeks up in Nashville. They said they are at a 98% that she is totally healthy and growing fine, but still need a couple checks for anatomy and such. Hey, I get to see my little girl even more so it works for me :)

She has moved up quite a bit over the past few weeks, her feet were up near my bellybutton, that is when she was not in her favorite position - a ball. We got to see her feet and hands, she kept hitting herself in the head for some reason, haha. She is 8 inches long head to toe and weighs 11oz - randomly, her thigh bone is 1 inch long. We also got to see her kidneys, bladder, her nose and eyes, all 4 chambers of her heart, and finally got to hear it beating at 152 bpm!

All of her photos including her first video can be found at gallery.houseoflyons.net

Jeff's Birthday

Jeff Lyons is 28! This past Saturday was Jeff's birthday, though he had 3 days of celebration! It was crazy thinking that the next birthday he has will include a 7 month old little girl.

The celebration started Tuesday as a surprise- jeff and I went on a picnic! The weather was beautiful, it was my day off, and we wanted to so nothing on Saturday but relax, haha, so all these things added up to surprise birthday picnic. I packed a dinner with tuna salad, chips, grapes and cheese, carrots and ranch... Lots of yummy picnic food. Add a red and white checked tablecloth, wicker basket, and a few bugs and you have a perfect picnic setting at Thompson station park. I even got Brady a bath and some treats so he could come play fetch with us. Overall, it was a relaxing evening to start a birthday celebration.

The next birthday step was Saturday. Jeffs present from me was a mic that he found online that he can game with. Our goal was to do nothing on Saturday but have a relaxing birthday so that he could play with his new toy, and end with a family dinner at zazbys that evening. Unfortunatly that plan didn't last very long. Jeff needed a piece to connect his mic to the iMac, so we began the search in spring hill and that search took us to 100 oaks and cool springs. 4.5 hours later we returned home... Empty handed :( jeff had to resign himself to ordering the part online and we are still waiting for it to come in :( the day got a little better with a zazbys meal with nana, poppa, mom, and dad. Jeff got a keylime pie for dessert, and gifts of $$ and an iphone dock. While Saturday didn't turn out as planned, it was still a good birthday we were able to spend together.

The celebration continued Sunday too!! Jeff had to work sunday for the titans game, but we had birthday dinner that evening. Jeffs parents came down for lasagna dinner with us and my parents and they brought the signature strawberry cake! They also brought a great present- our fun new camera! It is an Olympus 850w, which dosent mean a lot... But it goes underwater!! It is a totally normal looking 8mp, LCD screen, slimline, digital camera but it is waterproof up to 10 feet, plus shockproof, and dirtproof. These are great qualities for a camera when you are going to have a new baby. We are very excited- thanks jim and jo! We finished the night with some football and went to bed that night totally wiped out but (I hope) had a good birthday for jeff.

Happy birthday baby! Love you!!

Furniture!

This past weekend USA Baby was having a "huge" sale. Of course the 60% off sales were few and far between and there were many more of the 25% varity. The prices of this store are usually more than I would ever pay for a crib and such, but just as we were getting ready to leave, we came across a floor model set for sale. It was a beautiful set with a lifetime crib (it can convert to a toddler and then full size bed) and a 6 drawer dresser that can double for the changing table, and a 5 drawer chest that jeff and I are actually going to use! The brand is top notch, great quality that will last for years and the style can grow with her for years to come. It is a contemporary style stained in an espresso brown so it almost looks black. Because of the brand , quality, etc the grouping was originally upwards of 2600.00!! Crazy. Fortunatly, we found one of those great 60% off rareities :) we are thrilled with it! I can't wait to pick out everything else for her room. We have some front runners for nursery bedding and such, I can't wait to register and decorate! It is hard to really see all the details that we love about these pieces in the photos below, but enjoy!!

New Photos

Hey everybody,

We have uploaded our ultrasound photos to our MobileMe Gallery. I've attached a couple below, but if you'd like to see more then click here.

Drum roll please...

We're having a GIRL!!! After 17 and a half weeks of debates and guessing we finally have our answer, Baby Girl Lyons. Jeff and I were both leaning in this direction and are completly thrilled to finally know. Now we just have to decide on her name, and sorry folks, we are not sharing! It will be announced to the world when she makes her debut this winter.
We were a little worried when we got to the doctor because our nurse said we weren't down for an ultrasound today, but after a little magic we were able to squeeze in for a quick peek and thank heavens she was in the right position!! I would not be able to stand it if we had to keep waiting. We will have our next appt on the 25th for the "big one" where we count all the fingers and toes and make sure she is growing right. It will be about 45 minutes long and we will be able to record part of it as well. We have had more ultrasounds than the norm, but I am ok with that! This one will be just as special. It is amazing seeing her move around and stretch and kick. I will post photos and maybe a movie after the appointment in 2 weeks (I don't think our daughter would want her girl parts spread posted for all to see!) thanks for following!

The "girly clothes" we got today... Pinks, purples, and a dress!!

Her growing wardrobe...

New digs

As you may or may not know, last January jeff and I moved into the basement apartment of my parents new house in spring hill. We felt the move was best for us so we could save money to get out of debt and prepare for our future: house, kids, etc... Little did we know the "kids" part was gonna happen sooner rather than later!! So even though we have only been here about 9 months and the thought of moving again so soon is not exciting, we need more space! We love where we are now, but it is only a bedroom, an office, living room, and bath. Big enough for us, but it is amazing how much stuff a baby needs.

So we started our search. It is amazing how many places are out there for rent or lease/purchase! We looked at so many places, and time after time felt that we found the house for us. Then time after time we lost out! We kept wondering why were getting excited about a house only to lose it and have to keep looking. Well, I think we figured it out.

We are moving into my family's old house! My parents decided to rent out their old house december 07, but it has not worked out very well, the tenent needs to move out early. And the door opens for us! We are totally excited about the house. We love the area and the floorplan, and it is huge! 2500 sq feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, eat in kitchen plus dining, living, family and bonus, 2 car garage... All kinds of space. A little big for us now, but it will be great for us to grow into. We are going to have the opportunity to purchase in a couple years and are ready to just live in a place for a few years. We have been married 3 years and lived in 4,going on 5, houses! I know, we are nuts. But that is all finally and hopefully coming to an end with 125 Crestwood Lane.

Anniversary Celebration Day!

Jeff and I had a

Maternity Clothes!

Hey Guys!

Thought I would go ahead and blog about a few things that have happened the last few days.

August 12th Appointment!

Hello Friends!

It is my first blog post - very exciting!

My 50 day fast: How

Most of the time when I tell people that I'm on a fast their first reaction is...

"Is that healthy?"

My response is always...

"Very."

Before I explain why I believe that to be true let me first that I have no background or training in the medical or nutrition field. My opinions come from lots of reading and personal experience. So please do your own research and always consult your doctor before making any drastic changes in your diet.

In January of 2002 I started and completed a 40 day juice fast. A juice fast just means that I didn't take anything into my body but water and fresh juice. What kinds of juice and how much varies from person to person, but I'm a fruit juice about once a day kind of guy.

My 50 day fast: Why

If you have ever talked to someone who has fasted or fasted yourself then you'll know the most important thing for your fast is the why. Fasting is a test of mental, emotional and spiritual wills.