Beautifully Bald

Addison is starting to get hair. I am happy that she will not follow in my footsteps and be bald till she is three but at the same time watching her hair grow in makes me a little sad. She is the third beautifully bald girl in my life. I would often kiss her soft head and think about the other two beautiful heads I once kissed. When everyone would tell me "she looks like you" or "she looks just like Dan" I would smile to myself and think "no, actually she looks just like my Mom and Sister". I loved when people would call her beautiful because I think it is hard to pull off beautiful with no hair, but she wasn't the first in my family to accomplish the feat. I hope that Addison takes after the other two in lots of areas in her life and I am glad that for a few months she reminded me of how much I loved those beautiful heads.

For Aunt Rachel

Addison

Dan's Garden

Juli's Visit

An Aunt Visit

Juli, my sister-in-law is coming to visit today. I am super excited! Somehow the day sorta snuck up on me and like a typical Price encounter, the communication was lacking a little. So I am hoping that I will be able to find her at the airport. Pretty much every airport experience has occurred on the fly and so far no one has had to spend the night. Although, in Australia Katie and I did have to find our own transportation and accommodations for the first 24 hours. I still consider it a success because she did eventually find her friend and we were picked up at the hostel. So perhaps with a little prayer I will be able to find Juli. It will be an adventure from the start because I will have Addison with me and if today is any indication of how tonight will go, she may scream the whole time we search. I think the concept of having her first Aunt come to visit is over her head and she has not been on best behavior so that I can properly prepare. Maybe I will finish vacuuming and maybe I won't. Either way, it doesn't really matter because Juli won't mind a messy house and it will be so nice to have her here that I won't stress out about a messy house.

4 Years

Today Dan and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary. I can't believe it has already been four years. In my life four years of anything is quite a long time. In the last 12 years, I have not lived in the same apartment, city or State even close to four years. Yet, time feels like it has flown by. Everyday I thank God that He brought Daniel and I together. It is one of the best gifts God has ever given me. My life is so much richer having a best friend to spend my time with and a companion to explore and take on the different challenges in life. Dan constantly supports me in all my crazy adventures. He wrote me everyday I was at LDAC crawling through the mud. He slept in the jeep so he could be with me in Texas while I sat through hours of Army torture . He left his friends and family in the States so he could live on the other side of the world with me in Germany. Everyday he does tons of little things to help me out and make my life just a little easier. I am sad that not everyone is blessed with a husband like mine. I love all the memories we have made in the last four years and I can't wait to spend my life making more with him. Here is to the best four years I could have asked for from a husband!

Addison at two Weeks

Addison McKenzie

Baby Girl

Okay Baby Girl, it may be time to join the real world. I know I am a pretty entertaining person and I am sure it is nice to be carried around and enjoy life in a bubble (I actually wouldn't mind floating in a bubble myself at times) but this bubble wants to pop. Plus, I think you really will enjoy the world from the outside perspective! It is even sunny today and the flowers smell amazing. I think perhaps you have sucked up enough of my energy and now it is time to start stealing from other people:) Your Dad is super tall and has lots of energy to spare, and when he gives you rides you will be high up in the sky and able to see so much more than the dark unpleasantness that I can only imagine describes my insides. I like to be lazy and usually wouldn't complain about a few extra minutes on the couch, but feeling forced to stay on the couch out of shear exhaustion is different than out of pure pleasure because I have nothing else to do. So feel free to come join me on the couch, but instead of on the inside, I will make a nice nest with lots of blankets and toys you can lay on. It will be right next to me I promise, so if you start to miss my constant touch, I will grab you up in a second and reassure you I am still at your beck and call for 24 hour service. But you never know, you may enjoy the nest of blankets more than you think!

Peace

The other day I realized that my life has entered a very peaceful phase. I was looking at a picture on the wall at work and the incredible feeling overcame me that the picture was how I felt about life. It was a beautiful lake with water like a mirror. All around the lake were green trees and bushes with the occasional burst of color from different flowers. As I continued to stare at the picture I began to feel grateful that my life resembled this scene. It has been a long time since I could take a deep breath and not feel stress invade my muscles or mind. Of course no life is free from the small everyday stresses but I am talking about the major life stressers, such as illness, job insecurity, and others that fall into that category. I am content with where God has placed me, the job he has given me, for my husband who constantly goes out of his way to take care of me and the million other small things that makes life not just bearable but enjoyable. I know the peaceful phases in life can not last forever, and really should not or we would loose our appreciation for them, but for now I will revel in the quiet beauty I have been given. I will keep taking deep breaths like I can really smell the trees, flowers and water of my life. But mostly I will be thankful for this time and try not to forget how it felt when life turns to the next phase and stress creeps back in.

The Larger Baby Bump

The Small Baby Bump

38 Weeks

Today is the 38th week mark. As most people in my state would probably agree, this week felt like it would never come and now that it is here I wouldn't be a bit sad to see it disappear quickly. For all the warnings about how miserable you are supposed to feel at this point, I must say I don't actually feel that bad. I am still averaging a good night (actually day) sleep and I am not that swollen or stiff or running to the bathroom every few seconds. I keep waiting to turn the corner and become completely miserable and ready to make everyone around me miserable in retaliation. Hopefully, the corner never appears! I am however ready to welcome the pink bundle that will be handed to me after hours of pure misery. I am interested to meet this person who kicks and squirms like crazy at all hours of day and night. I am ready to stop bruising my stomach every time I try to squeeze through a small space that my mind says I can fit through even though my body disagrees. I finally took a picture of what my stomach looks like. So many people kept asking for pictures and although I feel like pregnancy pictures are slightly odd, the more I thought about it the more I wish I could see what my Mom looked like when she was pregnant with each of her kids. So now my baby will know that she really was inside my tummy and how silly she will look if she ever has a baby inside her tummy. Overall, I am thankful that God has brought us this far with few complications and I pray that he continues to protect us and especially this baby girl that He has created. Meeting her sooner than later would be great!

TO DO LIST

My sister has always loved lists. It seemed like we could never do anything unless we made a list first... summer plans, Seattle activities, house cleaning, grocery shopping. I was always a go with the flow and make up items as you do them. However, I did enjoy getting to cross things off her list once they were completed. Tonight I was called off of work and instead of sleep the hours away I thought maybe i should look at my long to do list which has gotten filled with last minute errands and chores I need to accomplish before this baby girl arrives. Yes, it only took me 30 years to realize that maybe my sisters "lists" were actually beneficial and aided in accomplishing things that would otherwise flitter into my mind and then disappear forever. Plus the satisfaction of crossing something off is to tempting. So after watching bottles and random other baby items float and bounce in boiling water, I was able to cross one more thing off. Now I just have 102 other items to tackle. It is a little bewildering to think, "if this baby is all this work now, what in the world will she be like once she is actually staring at me wondering where her food is and why her diaper is still wet". Luckily, if i continue to use my sister's to do list philosophy I will slowly be able to accomplish the essentials of everything I will have to do for the rest of this child's life.

Night Shift

Tomorrow I return to night shift. As excited as I am to escape the craziness of days, I am dreading the thought of making my body adjust to a night existence. If I was 20 I wouldn't think twice about life in the dark but now days my body rebels. Plus, in Germany there really is a limited amount of entertainment for the dark side. I can't quite see myself clubbing it up till 4am and therefore might have to start frequenting the scary 24 hour gym. The last three nights I have been trying to make the transition. Each night making myself stay up for as long as possible. My goal for tonight was 4 but it is not quite 2 and I am fading fast. On reflection I am not sure slow torture was the best option and I should probably have just taken the plunge. All the pain tomorrow night based on three dreamy night sleeps prior. I guess I will know for next time. Although by next time I will most likely be a crazy sleep deprived individual who doesn't know the difference between night or day and has forgotten what sleep really feels like. So in conclusion maybe my current torture is good preparation for what is to come and I should just embrace the experience. Either way I think now is a great time to say goodnight and scoot off to bed. So much for 4:)

3 Months:( Is really quite embarrassing. Funny how sometimes life just takes off and it's everything we can do to keep up. I think for a few weeks I was not even successful at that, but now since life has started slowing down maybe I am back on track. The other reason I avoided blogging was the big event in life. Turning 30! What do you say to 30. I thought about the unavoidable day my entire 29th year. In fact I thought that I had accepted it's coming quite well and would be prepared to embrace the status change. After all, everyone kept saying that the 30's were the new 20's. Not to mention my 20's were not always the happiest days on earth. I got to experience events in my 20's that most people put off until their 40's, so really I should have had no problem kissing them goodbye. Yet, as the day kept creeping closer, I kept getting a squirmy feeling and really did not want to face the reality that yes, the old creepy song "Time Marches On" was in fact true. Now having been 30 for almost a month, my acceptance is here. I have some great memories from my 20's, some heartbreaks that taught me a lot, and moments I wouldn't give back for all the heartbreak in the world. I am now excited to see how my 30's will unfold. Perhaps less heartbreak, but maybe more. I plan to make more amazing memories and embrace all the changes God has in store for me. I don't want my 30's to be the new 20's, I think I am ready to enjoy them just as they were meant to be, the good old 30's.