Alabama Summer

Last December I blogged about how great it was to avoid Iowa's long cold winters. Now I wouldn't mind getting the nice Iowa summers back. Alabama's summer heat has been a bit over the top for my liking, but we're still enjoying it down here.

Typical days include the dogs' favorite past-time of chasing the big blow-up ball.Chaz looks kind of funny in the above picture, but it captures a few things. First of all, this is his absolute favorite thing to do, so he's pretty well behaved whenever we go out to play. We kick or throw the ball up the big hill and even if he can't get it back down on his own, gravity works to our advantage in keeping the game going with as little effort as possible. Notice the worker in the background -- in any other case Chaz would be going nuts over the "intruder." During this game he is completely oblivious. If you're wondering about Kaeda -- she just runs around and chases Chaz wherever he goes.

My parents came down to visit a week or two ago. We went to the military beach near Destin, FL and ate some really great food. They brought Mac-dog, so our place was pretty wild for a few days.
They look so innocent... don't let them fool you. (except for Mac -- he actually is innocent)

Ft. Rucker had fireworks on the 3rd. Our friends had us over for some excellent burgers before we headed out to see them.


Afterward we got to hang out with Aaron R. who graduated from flight school last fall. He stayed over -- it was great to catch up with him!

Matt & I are starting some baby prep these days. Thanks to our generous neighbors who are done having kids, we're getting hooked up with some of the essentials for free. We've also been keeping our eye out for good deals. One of the recent finds was a baby carrier.It seemed to be pretty sturdy :) Hopefully our little girl likes being in it more than Kaeda did...

Matt thinks some of my "nesting" is somewhat unnecessary. He teasingly said to me the other day, "Now why do all of my clothes need to be jammed into my closet right now so that our unborn daughter can have her own closet for her ONE outfit?" He has a good point... :)

Don't let him fool you either -- he's excited to get the room all ready for the little one. Those of you who know me well won't be surprised by the color choices you can see pictured above. Someday I'll branch out a bit more... I told Matt, in my defense, that it's convenient because our rooms are very complementary -- if we end up having to mix and match things when we move (which is most likely with an Army life ahead) we're just saving ourselves some headaches!

Now, for the glamor shots (right...) Feel free to avert your eyes, but I thought a few of you would enjoy these. This way those of you in Iowa won't be so shocked when you see me in the next couple of weeks!









I guess we got lazy on week 20. You may have also noticed the same gray pants in the majority of the shots. They are the most comfortable thing I own right now, and I default to wearing these most days by 6 or 7 pm. We started weekly photo shoots after Leslie (sister-in-law) got me The Belly Book and showed me her pregnant belly shots. It's kind of fun to see the change. Yesterday the little squirt felt like she was either making popcorn in my belly or grooving out at a party I didn't realize I was invited to. Just 3 months to go -- it's nuts!

We're bummed Matt can't make it back to Iowa to see family/friends and to go to Rach's wedding. He'll be stuck back home taking care of the dogs and the business while I'll be off relaxing at a cabin in MN with my family. He does get to reap the benefits of my recent "meal prep." 6 other ladies (soon to be 7?) and I just started this, and I think it's going to be brilliant. We are going to meet monthly to exchange prepped/frozen meals. Ahead of time we each shop for and cook/prep enough meals for each of our families. My meal this week was honey dijon chicken. It was a bit of a challenge to fit 28 servings of chicken on our 4 burners, but it was well worth the effort. I left tonight with 7 meals for a ridiculously low price that will be easy to make later. Plus, I don't have half-used ingredients that I would normally have thrown away eventually because of not needing them again. Hopefully Matt saves me some -- they looked pretty tasty!