Softball Champs!!

Justin's softball team (not the famous "Big Daddy's" team, but in the fall league they were the "World Futon" team which is pretty much the same group of guys ) won their tournament this past Tuesday night. Justin came home acting like a little kid because he was so excited about the game. Apparently, they were down 10-0 and came back and eventually tied the other team 19-19. Justin got on base and Shawn Bennett made a hit and Justin made it around the bases and made the winning run. He then started doing the "gorilla" because he was so excited (some of you may have seen this before...), anyways, they won! Boys will be boys...... :-)

Justin and the big fish

Justin has been anxiously waiting for me to share some pictures of him and the big fish he caught last week....so here they are! He was on vacation last week and one day went fishing with his buddy, JB. They were floating down the Holston River in a little bitty canoe. Apparently, this must be fun when you are a fisherman!! He took these pictures with his BlackBerry so the quality is not great but you can get the idea....

And if you are needing something to make you laugh, here is a sneak peek at what our new baby boy may look like:

Yes, this is Justin at around 1 1/2 - 2 years old!! Everytime we see this picture it just makes us laugh. Justin's mom says that everyone would always ask her "When are you going to cut his hair?"...it was hard for her to get those cute little curls cut off!! Anyways, we saw this picture the other day and just had a good laugh because little Drew may look just as cute as his daddy!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....:-)

Madelyn's 1st time on Rocky Top!!

Justin and Madelyn went to the UT game last night and Madelyn had so much fun!! I'm not so sure Justin had as much fun as she did considering how pitiful our Vols are playing this year....but that's a whole different story....:-). They just stayed for the first half of the game but Madelyn was so excited because she saw not 1 but 3 Smokey's (the real dog and 2 mascots..apparently one with a black face and one with a white one). I think that was the real highlight of the game for her. It was a good father/daughter outing. Here are some pictures....

This is just before leaving for the game. Madelyn was going all around singing "Rocky Tock" as she says. We put out our fall decorations yesterday so she was very excited about "Annie" the scarecrow which sits at the end of our driveway.

Here they are at the stadium!

And in other news....I am 34 weeks pregnant today! Very exciting. It looks like the baby is going to be delivered sometime during the week of November 10. I will be a scheduled C-section so usually a delivery is scheduled during the 39th week. Looks like I will be through with my clinical hours for school around November 5th or so which will be perfect timing. I still have a few classes to attend after the baby is born but the major part of the work, most importantly the clinical time, will hopefully be complete. God is working everything out for us!!

I do have a prayer request for this week. We have our comprehensive exams for school on Tuesday. These exams determine whether or not you will graduate from the program. They will take place from 8:00 to 5:30 this coming Tuesday, Oct. 7th. Although we are supposedly "very prepared" to take the exams...it is really anxiety provoking to say the least. So if you think of it between now and Tuesday...please say a little prayer for me and my friends to remember what we have learned and be able to prove this with our answers!! Thank you in advance for praying... prayers really do help!!! My friends thank you too!!!!!

Getting ready for baby!!

Here is a "before" picture of baby Drew's little "spot" which will be his bedroom! Half of his bedroom is our bonus room....aaahhhhh small houses, gotta love 'em. Anyways, we got his crib furniture this weekend and have been working to get everything organized and ready for Drew's arrival in 6 short weeks from now!!!! YIKES!! I'll post an "after" picture when everything is complete!!

Here is Madelyn in the bathtub tonight with her lovely Hollywood sunglasses on!

Soccer~~~Florida Week~~~Babies!

Well the soccer season is now in full swing and Madelyn is having a great time. She has had 2 games so far. Needless to say, the games have been quite entertaining!! Every time Madelyn runs down the field she looks over and waves so proudly!! Pretty much she just follows the pack of players but makes sure she stays clear of the ball!! ha ha ha... She does enjoy it when the coach lets her kick the ball in after it has gone out of bounds (which is a lot!) I still think she is going to be a little cheerleader because her favorite part is when they all put there hands together and on the count of 3 and yell "PANTHERS!!!". So funny... Here are some pictures from the past 2 Saturdays on the soccer field. I'll even try to post a "movie" clip if I can!! :-)

Just before the 1st game

Her favorite part!

Sitting on the bench with Dad!

Yeah! We have a movie clip!! Click play and you'll see Madelyn kicking the ball in!!

Justin has been busy with work as usual this week. Of course he is looking forward to the big Florida game this weekend and is already thinking of what the perfect tailgate menu should be. Not to say he has been pigging out though...this boy is such a changed man!! I can't hardly get him to eat bad at all!! He continues to do really well with maintaining his HUGE weight loss and is now thinking of training for the Knoxville Marathon which takes place next March (he ran in the half marathon this year). As for me, well I just keep getting bigger which is good when your pregnant!! I went to the doctor today and everything continues to look good. Praise the Lord for that!!

Here's Justin at last year's South Carolina game. Nice tonsils, huh?!!

Here are a few pictures of me with some friends of mine from school (love you guys!!). Sara and I are pregnant together which was totally planned this whole time we have been in school! We both hoped to be pregnant at the end of the program so we could have a baby before starting jobs!!

30 weeks and so thankful!

30 weeks!

Baby boy Drew's sweet little face at 29 weeks

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant! Ever since I had the cerclage done (at 19 weeks) I have had certain milestones in the pregnancy that I have hoped to achieve. Reaching 30 weeks was one of the them! Certainly, it is still too early for the baby to arrive but every week is better than before in terms of survivability. I have done nothing but worry about absolutely everything since I had the "incompetent cervix" diagnosis back in June. My OB/GYN at the time only made my worries worse and just made me a complete basket case. Of course my number one priority is a healthy baby but I would also like to be able to finish school in December as well. My doctor was not being very supportive of that and threatened every week to put me on complete bed rest. I made the decision to switch from my regular doctor to the high-risk OB's since I had to see them occasionally anways. At my first visit with them as a full-time patient, I instantly felt better and they were extremely reassuring of my status and the ability to carry full term. Of course, I know this means to continue to be careful with activities, etc but at least no bed rest at the moment.

So anyways, this past week and today at church I have just been so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to make it this far. I truly believe the Lord is teaching me a huge lesson through all of this. I cannot plan everything!! When I first found out I was pregnant, I made the assumption that I would have no problems and could handle being a mother, wife, student and mom-to-be all at once. I even thought I could handle a small little part time job too. Everything in this pregnancy has been different from when I was pregnant with Madelyn and all that I had "planned" has now been changed and is now up in the air! Now I know that God is still in control of everything and He decides how much we can handle.

We had the best service today at church and I was just so thankful that the Lord has allowed me to make it to 30 weeks! One song we sang today was "In Christ Alone" (if you have your speakers turned up you will hear it!) and I was just reminded that we cannot do anything without Christ alone. This is such a great song and really just speaks to your heart. I cannot even sing it at church without completely breaking down! I am so thankful for all of my friends and family who have been praying for this little baby!! Thank you God.