Telling our Parents :)

We wanted to think of a good way to share the baby news with our parents.  Just like with how I told Jake, I wanted it to be in a way that they had some tangible memento to hang onto.  So, although it was earlier than we had thought we wanted to tell them, we decided to share on Father's Day. 

As most newly-weds can probably attest to, once you hit that 1st anniversary, you start getting the baby questions.  And then as the 2nd anniversary starts approaching, you start getting the baby pressuring and accusations.  I felt the eager eyes at every holiday or occasion...like people wondering "Are they going to tell us they're pregnant?"...All the while, none of these people actually knew that Jake and I have talked about children and when we planned to start trying all along.  Our original plans got pushed back a few months because of my car accident, healing, and chiropractic visits that followed it.  If you would ask, Jake's standard response would be "Nah, we're going to wait about 5 years" or something along those lines.  We just didn't want the pressure.  You never know how long getting pregnant might take, so we felt like admitting or announcing that we were trying was like setting a timer and people would constantly ask about it.

So, with that said, a random "Let's get together" would cause too much suspicion.  We decided that Father's Day was the best time because we could get cards that said "grandpa" to reveal the big surprise.  We gave them to each of our dad's at their Father's Day dinners, and it worked like a charm!  Mark played it cool, grinned at us and passed the card to Jake's mom.  She didn't understand at first since Mark has other grand children so she thought we were just trying to be thoughtful.  Then, once she got to the inside of the card she saw our note at the bottom about Baby Walden and on came the water works!  We got a similar reaction out of my parents.  My dad read the front of the card, and when he opened it to read the inside my mom got  a glance at the front where it said "To the best FATHER and GRANDPA...".  Her jaw dropped, tears started falling and lots of smiles.  It was perfect, and I love that they all have those cards to look back at and cherish.
 

 

Week[end] Wrap-Up

Well, I have had a really great week.  I apologize I haven't updated on here, but we have been busy and when I've had time I didn't feel very motivated to do so.  I'm still seeing my chiropractor and things are not back to 100% but I got good news from him this week and it seems like I'm re-aligning the way I should.

Wednesday night the hubby and I decided to have an impromptu movie night.  Thanks to Redbox, the line-up was...

   

They were both great movies!  It has been a few years since I saw the first Taken movie, but I remember that it was really good.  I would say that this one was even better than the first.   Pitch Perfect was hilarious.  I have been begging Jake to rent this movie since it was released on Redbox a few weeks ago and we finally picked it up.  While a couple parts of it are obviously cheesey, we were both cracking up the entire movie.  Entertaining story line and fantastic comedic timing.  

Then on Thursday night, it was the first night of our bowling league! Yep, you heard right.  We are officially in an 8 week bowling league, haha...Our friends Gretchen and Braxton found out about the league and invited us to join with them and another couple.  The first night we found out that it's three-person teams so we split up to girls vs. guys.  There are 5 or 6 teams in the league, and at the end of the 8 weeks we get our own custom bowling ball :)

 

Friday night April and I went to Enso [my fav sushi place in Charlotte] for dinner.  We split a groupon purchase for Enso a couple months back and finally got around to going there for dinner!  We started out with some yummy shrimp as an appetizer, both got some sushi rolls for dinner, and then split a chocolate kahlua toffee cake dessert.  So good!  

Saturday Jake's softball tournament got moved to today due to rain, so we both went down to Columbia to meet sweet baby Presley Jane, my best friend Eden's little girl.  She was born Friday morning and is so precious! She looks just like her momma.  Both of them are doing very well!

We also celebrated my mom's birthday [a little early] with a nice lunch and then little trip to Starbucks.  

Today was church, teaching the Preschool Sunday school class, and then doing some things around the house.  Shanti and Reina went to watch one of Jake's softball games with me, and we're doing our usual Sunday night dinner--Charanda's :)


Once Jake's games are over tonight we might catch some of the Oscars, and I'm hoping to catch up on more Grey's! About 6 and a half years ago I invited Jake to hang out with my roommate and me to watch Grey's Anatomy, and ever since then it's been one of our favorite "us things".  Because of some of my late studio classes in college we have gotten a bit behind so we've been slowly catching up on Netflix.


That's all for now...


XO, Stacey

New Shiny Things

Well, the sadness of losing my beautiful old car has been cured with how much I am loving my new one...

2013 Kia Sorento EX, Satin Metal exterior with tan leather interior
[Side note--Yes, this is outside Nichol's Store, we bought the car in Columbia and stopped by here on the way home because Jake wanted to look at safes]
 

I have to say I am loving all the extra space...and all the fun little bells & whistles that this one came with. I never understood the "smart keys" before but man are they convenient when you get used to them.  We got a heck of a deal since this was the third car my family has purchased from this dealer (My mother & I both bought Kia Souls in 2011).

 It took a little bit longer than planned because of the issues we have had trying to deal with Allstate, which is the insurance company that the guy who hit me has. I have to say, we are not Allstate customers and through this experience I do not see us ever deciding to use them. You would think that they would want to keep me as happy as possible so that I would agree to an easy settlement, but it has been the biggest hassle and that in no way makes me want to try to be understanding or compromise with them.  I'm still being treated by the chiropractor for the next at least six weeks, so we will see how everything ends up I guess.  By the way, if you or someone you know is in need of a chiropractor, I highly recommend ChiroCarolina.  They are members of a networking group that I am a part of through work, and they have been so professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. 


Okay, now back to The Bachelor...