TEAM Hardison

Pregnancy Update

2012-01-24T19:06:00.000-06:00

If I ever needed affirmation to the fact that M and I are COMPLETELY clueless about becoming parents, going to register was just what I needed to send me overboard. It's enough to make you go from feeling anxious to inadequate in about 0.5 sec. Now, I blame part of this on the baby industry. There is NO reason to have so many different types of bottles and pacifiers, what's wrong with just a few?

M and I spent the better part of 3 hours at Babies R Us wading through baby gear with our handy book in tow... Thank you J and K..without it, we would've been even more lost. Thanks to friends who have suffered countless calls and texts from me, I feel semi-confident that we have registered for most of the "must-have" items before Avery Grace gets here. Wish I could say the same thing about her nursery....

Let's just say that Andrea is a ~~little~~ lot indecisive when it comes to outfitting Avery's room. I have this wonderful picture in my head of what I want it to look like...it's just actually putting it all together. I wish I had a decorator on speed dial to do it all for me. We went to one baby boutique in town, and within minutes of looking at fabric swatches, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. Had to save it for another day! Thankfully, I'm going to Nashville this weekend, and hopefully Mom and I will be able to get some things done. Also, after having a mini freakout on the phone with Mom a while back, she and Ash are going to come down in February to help me even more! And celebrate Mom's bday while we're at it!

25 weeks yesterday! Getting very close to the 3rd trimester! Today at my doctor's appointment, he said, "Ok, I will see you in 3 weeks, and then we will be switching to every 2 weeks". WHAT!? Has it really gone by that fast. Energy level has come back up in the last 2 weeks...yesterday after work I not only went to the gym, but did laundry, washed dishes, and cleaned bathrooms when I got home...I used to barely be able to do all that pre-pregnancy after a long day at work! Unfortunately, my back hasn't fared as well as my energy level, but since I've been sleeping with a snoogle (big body pillow) it's been a lot better. M hasn't complained once about having a monstrous pillow taking up a foot of space at night...bless his heart.

Other than that, we are counting down the days until Avery's arrival! Just not too soon baby girl, your mom needs to at least get you a crib first!

24 weeks

25 weeks

From Decatur to Houston

2012-01-23T19:09:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, our good friends Charles and Cara came to visit us here in Houston! They were our first couple friends to come see us, and we were so incredibly blessed to have them here for 3 days. We went to church with Charles and Cara in Birmingham, but they now live back in their hometown of Decatur, AL...a short 1 to 1 1/2 hour drive from Bham. We only wish we could've convinced Charles to take the Texas and Alabama Bar so that they could've moved here with us :)

After they got in late Friday afternoon, we took them to eat at our favorite Mexican place, Lupe Tortilla, before we headed downtown to see the Rockets play the Sacramento Kings. It was our first Rockets game.... more fun for the guys who actually care about NBA basketball (I usually only halfheartedly cheer on the Celtics), while Cara and I were far more entertained by the "cheerleaders"/dancers.

Love my sweet friend

Charles won a free hat AND t-shirt at the game.

Saturday we slept in, cooked a big breakfast, and lounged around all morning before we could all get up the energy to get up and head down to Central Market to eat lunch. Saturday night we stayed in, watched the playoffs, ate white chili, and most importantly made homemade donuts. It's a Hardison family tradition to make homemade donuts on Martin Luther King Day....M decided he wanted to carry on the tradition this year while we had our friends here. I'm generally not a big donut person, but M knocked these out of the park! I was bragging on him all weekend.

Charles and Glen were in the same social club at Harding, so were friends while they were in school. Cara however had never met Glen or Kelly. No surprise, they loved her!

Pre-fried

Thanks to Ed and Shawn for their leftover fry pan.

Best part...icing them

This is how much Glen participated...by watching the 49er's game

Yummy goodness.

Sunday we took them to church, and then to eat at BJ's. I had promised Cara that I would take her down to the Galleria Sunday afternoon, until BOTH of us proceeded to fall asleep on the couch for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon. Whoops! Next time I guess!

We had a blast getting to catch up with y'all. We miss our friends back in the Magic City terribly, so it was nice to have a little bit of home come here for a few days! Thank you so much for coming! We will hopefully be able to return the favor sometime soon!

Pregnancy update soon! I would say nursery update, but there's been no progress...does that already make me a bad Mom?!

Ash and Laura's Visit!... Also, Can I Get a Roll Tide?!

2012-01-10T16:52:00.000-06:00

Ash and Laura gave up their New Years to come see us in Houston this year! This is actually saying a lot, because the last 2 New Years they spent in Chicago and NYC... I'm sorry we can't live up to the hype of a big city celebration, but we were SO happy to have you both here. We spent the weekend eating (Mexican and BBQ- what could be more Texas than that, although nothing remotely compares to Memphis BBQ), shopping (we have it all here), and relaxing on the couch....plus watching our Titans beat the Texans in what ended up being a pointless game for us anyway :)

Lexi wanted to be BFF's with Laura... The feelings were not so mutual ;)

Love this... Apparently something was funny. Most likely Laura trying to evade Lexi kisses

You know what else my husband can bake? Homemade tres leches cupcakes! To DIE for!

This was before I told the man sitting behind us that he was being extremely rude for shushing my sister... Just my little bit of Vicki coming out

So thankful to have visitors for our first NYE away from Nash in 5+ years. Please come back!

On a Side Note... Feeling extremely happy to consider myself a former Alabamian. ROLL TIDE!! LSU got owned!

Now, we just need UK to pull one out in basketball... It's been too long.

2011 Review

2012-01-04T17:01:00.001-06:00

*Warning! Long Post Ahead!*

2011 has been a roller coaster. We started the year off with me in a new job and finally falling in love with Birmingham. We settled into an incredible group of friends, were forced to say goodbye to them in June, found out we were expecting in August, and when that was all said and done, realized we were both a little more homesick than we thought. It's been 1 crazy year...definitely more challenging than we anticipated, but I cannot imagine a better partner to go through these ups and downs with me. With 2011 ending, I can honestly say that I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in 2012. In a few short months we will be welcoming our child into this world. What could be a bigger blessing for the year than that?! (Plus a big tax break! ;)

January:

Went to Memphis to see Mimi and Papaw.

February:

Hardison family Staycation in the Magic City

Knoxville to see Heath and Russ

March:

Went to the Final Four in Houston! Outcome= Not So Awesome. Ok...I think the game was actually the beginning of April..but it counts for March Madness!

April:

Completed my first half-marathon with my Dad and Sis!

May:

Went to the beach with great friends.

Same as Above

June (busy!):

Said goodbye to friends in Nash

Hardison Family Vacation

Visited Senath, MO for the first time!

Goodbye to the Fam

Went out with a bang in NOLA!

So Long to Geoff :(

and Ed and Shawn

Going Away Parties x3

Moved into our first house!

July:

Saw the final installment of Harry Potter; coinciding with the end of my childhood. :)

Matthew's parents came to visit

August:

Matthew and Kelly's birthdays!

Aimee's came to see us!

PREGNANT!

September:

Mom and Dad in Houston

Trip with the Allens, Hasselbrings and Joneses to Chicago

October:

Benjamin and Morgan's wedding

Trip to see friends back in Bham

Geoff came to Houston

November:

Thanksgiving in Cinci

Game in Rupp

December:

It's a GIRL!

Bump and Baby keep growing!

Post soon about Ashley and Laura's visit this past weekend! Happy Near Year!

Christmas Part II

2012-01-03T17:56:00.000-06:00

For the 2nd part of our Christmas holiday, we headed down to Columbia, TN to spend time with Matthew's grandparents, parents, brothers and their wives, and of course our favorite nephew Sam! We hadn't all been together since Benj and Morgan's wedding, so it was so nice to be able to catch up in person!

We spent our time there mostly eating Grandma Eva's delicious food and desserts....If you want to taste the closest thing to heaven bottled up in a jar, you need to have some of Grandma's strawberry preserves (M would say the peach)... Either way, I firmly stand by that statement.

Monday the 26th, some of M's extended family came over to his grandparents house for the annual "26th Hardison Lunch"... I was at the "Big Table" again :) Not to make anyone else in the family jealous, but I've always gotten to eat there :) I'm sure it has nothing to do with my shining personality but more likely due to the fact that because of my work schedules over the years, I've only made it about every other year...but who's really counting!

Uncle Neal...Aunt Kay refused to be in the pic :)

Vising Nannie

All the Kids

On the move for presents!

Christmas 2012 has some big shoes to fill! But who am I kidding, because of baby girl, all Christmases from now on will be infinitely better!

Merry Chris Smithmas!

2012-01-01T17:25:00.000-06:00

If Dad ever happens to say his name quickly, it always happens to come out sounding like Christmas...hence the blog title. Smith Family Christmas came and went way too fast... of course anything would seem short compared to the 2 weeks we spent at home the first Christmas we were married. M hadn't been in Nashville since June, so we also had to try and squeeze time in to see some of our friends during our stay.

We kept saying that this would be our last Christmas as a family of 2, and that next Christmas we would be celebrating with our 7 MONTH OLD! Too fun.

Before the Christmas Eve service.

Yes, we still think it's cute. Somehow next year we will have to find baby girl matching ones too!

Even Lex had her pajamas!

Mom and Dad totally surprised M with a new Xbox and Kinect. He was thrilled! I on the other hand fell asleep the other night to the sounds of machine guns firing from our living room. :)

Dad's Christmas consisted of a bunch of new running gear. Yawn!

Sums up my mom.

Heath, Maddie and I also got to go by and meet Katie Bug's new baby boy Carson! Best friends and our babies!

Thanks Mom and Dad for making this Christmas so wonderful! It was VERY hard to leave...as in M had to practically bribe me to get on the airplane home. We love you and are very thankful you put so much effort into making Christmas special every year.

Pictures coming soon from Christmas Part II.

IT'S A....

2011-12-29T18:22:00.000-06:00

SWEET BABY GIRL!!

Matthew and I are over the moon excited about our precious baby girl.... To say we were shocked would be a total understatement! Now that we know it's a she, we cannot wait for this little girl to get here!

We found out Friday, Dec. 23rd with both of our families..minus J and K and Benj and Morgan.. Hate that y'all couldn't be there! As I said before, my good friend Kelly called Puffy Muffin a couple of days ahead of time to tell them the sex of Baby H. I could not WAIT to cut into that cake.

No one expected to see pink. At dinner, we polled the whole table to see if anyone thought that it was not going to be a boy. Not a single person raised their hand. Ha! Baby Girl you are already full of surprises! Dad took video of the whole process, but I will have to wait until I get back up to Nash and download it to our computer. For now, the pics will suffice!

And no...we have not picked a name. We currently have a Word document with a list of our top picks. We're going to mull them over for a few days, heck maybe a few weeks... this little girl has got to live with this for the rest of her life!

I cannot wait to see my sweet husband with this little girl. No doubt she will be a big daddy's girl :) After it was all said and done and M and I were falling asleep that night, he looked over at me and said, "I secretly wanted it to be a girl". Precious. I love him so much. So incredibly thankful for my little family. God has blessed me so much.

21 Weeks

Absolute favorite! You can tell M is about to say "GIRL!"

Trying to get a better view!

M wanted to be the first person to get clothes for the baby, so he surprised me with a little UK dress!

Christmas posts coming soon! Probably after the weekend. Ash and Laura are on their way here from the airport with M to stay for a few days! Cannot wait!

20 weeks! Halfway There!!

2011-12-20T16:33:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was exactly 20 weeks pregnant! It's nice to be on the other side of 20, now we're really counting down... We went to get an official anatomy ultrasound yesterday to make sure Little Bean is developing like he/she should. Happy to report that everything looked great. It was amazing to be able to see baby's heart (all 4 chambers), aorta, liver, bladder, up close of hands and toes, mouth, etc... We were still able to avoid finding out the sex...only 3 more days!

I was telling someone at work today that most of the time I hope that the next 20 weeks fly by...then I remember that our "nursery" is currently a pile of unused frames, boxes of winter clothes, and our pieces to Rock Band... I think I'm going to need all that time to get ready for this baby to get here. :)

Here are my 2 favorite pictures from the ultrasound yesterday.

Baby is limber! Knee to Nose!

We didn't realize that we were going to get any 4D pictures. I always kind of thought they were creepy looking. But this picture changed my mind. Look how sweet that face is!...With those little hands....

20 weeks.. I put a picture like this in the last post, but with the lighting in this one I think you can see the bump a little better :)

Merry Christmas My Dear!

2011-12-18T12:07:00.000-06:00

Matthew and I celebrated our own Christmas last night by driving to Galveston to eat at Willy G's (right on the water) and see a showing of Tuna Christmas (the funniest play ever written). I had seen Tuna Christmas a couple of years back in Nashville much to the insistence of my parents...I was convinced that there was no way the show was quite as funny as my parents kept saying...but I don't think I have ever laughed that loud at a show. So, last year, Tuna (the 3rd smallest town in Texas) was playing again in Nashville, but I realized it too late, and the cheapest tickets I could find were $200 each. I wanted M to see it badly, but not enough to spend that!

When we moved here, I figured that the 2 original guys had to do at least 1 show somewhere close...I was prepared to drive to Dallas...but to my surprise, they were doing a week stint in Galveston, a short 50 minute drive from our house! Christmas plans sealed, I couldn't wait.

It was nice to get out with M last night and take the time to both get dressed up, enjoy a nice dinner, and stay up later than 9:30 :). M had already spoiled me enough this weekend by making me homemade chicken parmesan Friday night (which was the first meal he ever cooked for me when we were dating). Spoiled even more by finally getting me a great steak...something I have been craving for weeks! Thankfully, Matthew thought that play was hilarious, I hadn't talked it up too much...although I don't really know how you could, it's that funny.

Merry Christmas to my incredible husband! Next year we will be celebrating our own personal Christmas with 1 more!

20 weeks!

Cast of Tuna

Little Bean at 19 weeks! My gender is secretly sealed in an envelope...and my parents are dying to know!

18 and 19 weeks and Missing the Magic City

2011-12-12T17:30:00.000-06:00

19 weeks today. Almost halfway! Another doctor's appointment tomorrow. Anatomy ultrasound next week. We are super close to knowing pink or blue....and I can hardly stand it!

Feeling pretty great except that my energy level hasn't really bounced back from 1st trimester misery. Thankfully I'm awake enough to make it through the day at work, but once I'm home, it's all she wrote. Weekends I take a nap everyday to try and catch up. My home was DEEPLY cleaned for the 1st time in a long while...obviously, knowing me, you know that it's not like I hadn't cleaned in 3 months...but this time I really went after it...and it felt so great when we were done. I think it was the highlight of my weekend :)

We spent Friday night finishing up our shopping at the Galleria (the BIG mall). Saturday we cleaned and fnished decorating for Christmas...I was on call and didn't get called in. Another highlight! Sunday was church, small group, and then I took a 2 1/2 hour nap :)

We've officially reserved our parking spot at the airport for Christmas. Lexi has her reservation made as well. Hoping I can survive the next week and a half.

Missing the Magic City (Bham) more than usual today. As I was walking through the OR today, I heard a visiting Sales Rep say, "Well I'm originally from Tuscaloosa"... I just had to, I couldn't help, so I interrupted their conversation to say, "Roll Tide!"...to which he replied "I heard that!". It led to a conversation about Birmingham, and I lamented to the whole crew of strangers how my husband and I missed our old home a lot. As I sit on the couch in my Bama sweatshirt...here are the reasons why today:

1. Every year while we lived in Birmingham, I would go up to Kristen's school at Christmas to help her 1st grade class decorate gingerbread houses...This event happened to take place last week and of course due to a mere 650 mile separation, I was unable to be there. Xmas Tradition missed. Still hoping that there will be another day where we will live within 5 minutes of J, K and Sam :)

2. Christmas season in Bham also brings Ed and Shawn's Christmas party. Missing any kind of party at their place is a big disappointment.

3. Matthew and I started the Christmas tradition every year of going to eat at our favorite Birmingham restaurant, Chez Fon Fon, and then going to the Alabama Theater to see It's a Wonderful Life. There's no Fon Fon in Houston :(

4. Swapping creative gifts with Geoff, and our Christmas celebration consisting of take out Little Caesars.

5. And then there's our sweet dear friends. You know who you all are. Hoping to see you soon.

18 weeks. Wearing maternity jeans and shirt... Thanks to my good friend Kelly :)

Our UK tree! We ordered a white tree online and found some blue lights at Wal-Mart. Perfect edition to our bedroom. Apparently it was bad luck on Saturday... That's all I can say about it.

After 4 married Christmases, I finally found a place to hang out stockings. Still not monogrammed...

Bought some new sparkly Gold chargers that I am obsessed with! Cannot wait to get some Christmas china...but for now our wedding china will do. And yes, I did set a whole table for 8 even though I still don't have dining room chairs.

19 weeks!

18 Weeks

2011-12-05T20:55:00.000-06:00

A lazy weekend was just what M and I needed, and thankfully that was what we got. Friday night, I willed myself off the couch when M got home to go eat and finally pick out our Christmas tree. I was still having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit... It had been in the mid 70's all day. But once we got the ornaments out and put the Christmas music on, I started to get into it. I was on call Friday night until early Saturday morning, but was fortunately not called in... So we spent the whole evening decorating.

Early Saturday morning I woke Matthew up at 6:15... "Baby wake up! I just felt the baby move!" I know, I'm awful to wake up my husband that early, but it was the first time I had felt the baby, and I was just too excited not to share. Since we were already up, we decided to head out and get some Christmas shopping done before the crowds got too bad. It was a great decision. We spent the afternoon at the Russells watching UK beat UNC!! And the SEC Championship game. Much needed lazy Saturday.

Nothing else much going on here. We're counting down the days until Christmas and finding out what Baby Hardison is! Our ultrasound is December 19th, but we're going to wait and not find out until we are with our family on Christmas Eve. Don't know how I'm going to wait 5 days, but my friend Kelly is taking the envelope from me and calling the bakery to get a cake made....I know, a million and one people have done gender reveal cakes in the last couple of years...but ever since I heard of the idea a couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to do that when the time came for us. So, I don't care that it's "old", I'm incredibly excited about it! Then we will start the difficult task of cleaning out our catch all room that never became a guest room and will now become the nursery so that our child will actually have a space in this house. It may take a few weeks :) Hope everyone has a good week. At least the hard part (Monday) is over!

Able to go for a 7-8 foot tree this year. Loving the extra height!

If this isn't a face saying, "I can't wait for Christmas"..I don't know what is.

18 weeks.

A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T18:40:00.001-06:00

When you live 800 miles away from your family, you begin to appreciate family gatherings even more...which is saying a lot, because I'm pretty much obsessed with my family. So a month ago, after Matthew and I dropped Geoff off at the airport (me in tears), Matthew very strongly suggested that we take the plunge, buy the plane tickets, and make it for Thanksgiving with both of our families. One of the million reasons I'm INCREDIBLY thankful for my sweet husband.

We flew out VERY early Thursday morning...woke up at 3:30am. Flew into Louisville, rented a car at the airport and drove to Cinci to make it just in time for Thanksgiving lunch with the Smith fam. We spent Thursday and Friday in Cinci....hit up the mall for some Black Friday shopping, watched LSU kill Arkansas, ate our traditional Friday night Abuelos, played multiple board games, and formed new memories that we will talk about for years to come. So very blessed.

Newest addition. Katherine and Ben's sweet Baby Barrett!

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without these people. Also, check out the newly engaged Andrew and Keela to the left of the picture! Hooray!

I'm pretty much the cutest thing ever!

Lexi found a new best bud in Uncle Grady.

We then spent the better part of an hour playing with Ashley's Ipad...

I literally cannot look at this picture without busting out laughing...Favorite picture ever.

Saturday morning we woke up early again to head to Lexington to spend time with Matthew's parents and Benjamin and Morgan. We got there in time for breakfast and spent the day watching football.... AKA... Watching our Cats WIN! We had tickets to the game, but decided last minute to stay at the house instead (we're convinced that if we had gone we would have lost again like we did 4 years ago when we were there). I absolutely couldn't believe it...but we'll take it. The streak is over!

Saturday night after a dinner of Joe B's, we headed to Rupp to watch the Cats take on the Portland Pilots. Morgan had never been to Rupp, so we were all excited to be there for her first UK basketball experience. Sunday morning we went to church at Southside, ate lunch and headed to Nashville to catch our returning flight to Houston...much to my displeasure. We did get to see precious Maddie Clendenin before we left Nash... I can't believe she is already a month old! Cannot wait for Maddie and Baby Hardison to best friends!

17 weeks!

Sweet Maddie. Absolutely perfect.

It was the best weekend. A lot to be thankful for....4 weeks til Christmas!

Pregnancy Diaries #3

2011-11-20T12:03:00.000-06:00

This is the post I wrote when I was 9 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately, I'm feeling worse today than I was I was feeling on that day. Currently unsure if it is a virus or Baby H has decided to make sure we're all aware that he/she is still around. I've been holed up in bed since midday on Friday. As long as I'm better before Thursday, I'm ok. We're also keeping watch on our 1st child (Lexi) since we just gave her a sedative. We got them from the vet to give it to her before we take her on the plane Thursday (yes, we're paying money to fly our dog...long story that basically ends with we love her too much to have her boarded).. Anyway, the vet suggested that we try out the medicine early to see how she reacts to it. We're now 2 hours in and haven't seen an ounce of difference. 2 minutes ago she was jumping up and down in front of the refrigerator begging for a piece of ice. I'm thinking we might need to call the vet and ask her if we can up the dosage. All that said...here's the old post!

October 2, 2011

Today I am 9 weeks pregnant....and homesick. Oh, and remember that time I said I hadn't been sick? I take it all back. It hasn't been Zofran worthy, but it's definitely been enough to make me feel miserable about 40% of the time. It hits most of the time in the afternoons. I feel fine all day at work, which is a huge blessing, but once I'm home I start to feel super queasy. Only managed to "get sick" once...hoping it never happens again. Although that one time, I actually did feel better afterwards.

I have very weird food aversions. Mexican is a big no-no, which is a shame considering it's definitely one of my favorite types of food. Seafood sounds absolutely disgusting, the thought of eating anything combining cheese and bread has me considering heading to the bathroom to upchuck, and eggs...gross. Ice cream is my new favorite food. Why it couldn't have been smoothies or something a little healthier is beyond me.

We have been to the doc twice now. First appointment there was nothing much going on. But the second time we got to see Baby H, although at first I couldn't see him/her and thought to myself that I was barren. But then the ultrasound tech steadied enough that we could see the heartbeat... coolest thing I have ever seen. Baby H measured a little behind what we were thinking for due date... I'm somewhere between 9 weeks today and Thursday. She said that next time we'll have a better idea. We have another appointment in a little over a week. Our doc's office has an ultrasound machine in house, so we get an ultrasound everytime for free if we want, why not?!

We have the option to find out the sex now if we wanted to. Matthew's job is fortunately and unfortunately related to this kind of thing. We could run a genetic test at his work for free and find out boy/girl. But, I think I've decided to wait a few more weeks until I feel like I'm out of the miscarriage window. Thankfully I don't have to sit in Matthew's conferences at work where they discuss certain cases/patients who have suffered from various/rare genetic conditions. Sorry, honey, but I actually DON'T want to hear about your day!

We had an exciting weekend getting to tell our parents about the baby. To say my parents were shocked would be an understatement. Their reaction was pretty priceless. Some of Matthew's family said they say it coming, J and K, but it was still somewhat of a surprise I think :) I will post the videos we took of how we spilt the beans at some point.

Let’s talk about how incredible my husband is for a minute. He deserves some recognition for being a total champ so far. There have been weekends where I couldn’t get enough energy to do the laundry, and you could forget the bathrooms…but he has been so helpful. Multiple times I’ve looked up at him with tears of exhaustion and said, “I’m sorry, I feel like I’m a deadbeat of a wife”. To which he sweetly replies, “I don’t think it’s lazy that you’re tired from carrying around another human being!” I really could not ask for a better partner. All I have to do is barely get out the word nauseated and he’s already headed to the kitchen to get Sprite and crackers. I can already tell he’s going to be the most incredibly father.

I'm currently sitting in the Atlanta airport on the way back from Benj and Morgan's fabulous wedding weekend bemoaning the fact that I'm about to leave the South, my home, and head back into the extreme heat of Houston. Visiting with family this weekend made both of us a little more homesick, me especially...stupid hormones. But it's alright, in 31 weeks we will be close to bringing our CHILD into this world. I can't really complain, except for the fact that the Chinese place down the terminal is close to making me lose my lunch :)

15 weeks

2011-11-16T16:24:00.000-06:00

I was 15 weeks pregnant on Monday. I would have posted then or yesterday, but I was busy doing my civic duty by serving my community on a JURY! That's right. Lived here less than 5 months, already called in for jury duty...not just called, but selected. 12 people out of 80+. At first I was a little annoyed that I was already getting asked to serve...until I figured out that work was still going to pay me for the days missed, and I got to sleep in 2 hours later. I sort of hoped our trial would last a tad bit longer!

Nothing much else going on here. Doctor's appointment is next week, and then we are headed to Cinci/Lexington for Thanksgiving! Could NOT be more ready. I'll take a 3 day week this week and next week thank you very much! So much to be thankful for already :) Other highlights: they are putting up a Christmas tree stand right next to our town center, which is a half mile down the road from us...exciting! Also, our Christmas radio station just popped up onto our XM radio a couple of days ago. Looking forward to cranking it up as soon as we are back in town! Lowlights: It's mid 80's here today, ugh. I have only been able to wear boots once. And I'm dying to make white chili again, even though it's hot. I'm considering doing it anyway.

Still feeling great, although I keep waiting for that energy level to go back up that people keep talking about in their 2nd trimester...Hasn't happened for me yet. I MISSED the entirety of the UK-Kansas game last night, because I couldn't keep my eyes open another second...the WHOLE game. Bummer. But that's alright because in a little over a week, we'll be seeing our Cats play live in Rupp! Seriously Thanksgiving...get here already.

15 weeks wearing the same outfit so I can compare from week to week. Definitely starting to show.

15 weeks.

She's been having sympathy fatigue so Mom doesn't feel left out :)

And...Another reason I have the best husband in the entire world? He made this for me this past weekend. A homemade chocolate chess pecan pie....he also made his own whipped cream. He's incredible.

Pregnancy Diaries #2- Family Reveal!

2011-11-13T19:50:00.000-06:00

Once M and I found out we were pregnant we tried to think of creative ways to tell our families. We knew that we had to do it in person, and it just so happened that Benj and Morgan's wedding fell when we were 9 weeks pregnant...long enough that we felt comfortable telling family.

The Set-Up: Luckily for both of us both of our dad's birthdays fell within a couple of weeks of the wedding, a good excuse to have them open a gift....My parents were coming to the wedding already because my dad was officiating the ceremony. We decided to tell my parents on Friday, the day before the wedding, while we were at my grandparents house. We designed a t-shirt online for dad that on the front had a check mark and written beside it "Have a Grandkid". And on the back it said, "Mission Accomplished May 2012." It took them a little while to get it...most likely because they were pretty shocked to hear that sort of news! But it was incredibly fun!

For Matthew's family, we decided to wrap up a frame with the picture of the ultrasound in it. M was actually at Wal-Mart with his brothers and dad the day of the wedding, and I reminded him that we needed a frame for the ultrasound. So he picked one up, and while they were checking out M's dad tried to pay for it. Ha. M, however, insisted that he needed to pay for it. We decided to wait until after the wedding to tell M's family, we wanted the day to be completely about Morgan and Benj and did not want to take anything away from them. So before bed, M and I persistently asked everyone if we could meet and talk about Christmas schedules. David at first thought that he was just getting the frame that he had tried to pay for earlier in the day...until he looked a little closer at what was inside of it!

For my siblings, I had decided that I would wait and tell them in person the next weekend when I came up to surprise all of them for little Matthew's play. Dad knew all of this of course.. but Mom didn't really understand why I was waiting to tell Ash and Buddy when everyone else in the family knew. Thankfully, Ashley's birthday had been about 2 weeks beforehand so in her birthday card I wrote a note and then had a big arrow to point to the back of the card that said, "Surprise, You're going to be an AUNT!". Her reaction was by far the best. We couldn't have had more fun telling our families our big news!

Pregnancy Diaries #1

2011-11-10T16:39:00.000-06:00

I mentioned before that I had written a post or two while we were keeping our secret under wraps... Here is the post I wrote when I was 6 weeks pregnant! Also, I hope to upload the videos of telling our family in the next couple of days!

Today, I am 6 weeks pregnant. I know, since when did I get old enough to carry another human being inside of me?? Most of the time I think it's completely strange, aside from the fact that I think it's incredibly awesome. I tell Matthew that most days I don't feel pregnant. Miscounting that I make multiple trips to the restroom, I'm all of sudden clumsy and tired. Plus this enhanced sense of smell thing has totally wigged me out. There are just certain things you don't want to smell, especially when you're a nurse...trust me on this.

I guess I will eventually post this on the blog when our big secret is finally out. I just wanted to keep an account of the pregnancy, mostly for me, but I figure Baby H might eventually think it's cool to read this, or he/she (But I really think it's a He) will most likely think it's embarrassing... Now, I'm thinking how weird it is that I will soon have a child that I will be able to embarass at some point down the road...

I'm feeling pretty good. A couple of days after we found out, I noticed that I was slightly more tired. Nothing major, I was just asleep within minutes of crawling into bed at night, whereas it used to take 30 minutes or so. The last two days have been a different story. Yesterday, I told Matthew that I was feeling more tired than usual. An exhausted feeling that I have really never felt, and that only women who have had babies could probably understand. Today, I was tired after being up about an hour, and as soon as we got home from church, I was asleep within minutes, and didn't wake up for 2.5 hours.

I'm still feeling nervous that this pregnancy may not "stick". I know, worrying about it doesn't help anything, and I'm sure the stress is not good for me or the baby. You would think being a nurse, I would be slightly more calm, but I think the extra knowledge makes a lifetime worrier go from bad to worse. I'm so irrationally superstitious that I won't even write down the due date in my calendar! I told Matthew today that I was a little nervous because I hadn't started feeling really sick yet, and that in my book it said that most women if they get sick, will start to feel bad around week 6. It also said that women who were really sick were less likely to miscarry... After reading that, my mind was in overdrive. M said that I was the only person he knew that would actually worry about not getting sick during pregnancy. He's probably right... I'm certifiably crazy.

The mood swings have been interesting. Some days I'm so incredibly excited, and then other days I tell Matthew that I feel a bit sad that "our time" is coming to a close. It won't be just us two for a long time. I suppose that sounds selfish, but I figure I can blame part of it on the hormones, or all of it :) Of course our lives are going to be turned upside down, but I've never heard anyone say it wasn't worth it. Either way, God has blessed us tremendously. We have the privilege of soon becoming parents... how awesome is that?

14 Weeks= 2nd Trimester!

2011-11-07T16:31:00.000-06:00

Today I am 14 weeks pregnant and 1/3 of the way there... A milestone! Nothing too significant has happened since our last ultrasound/doctor's appointment last week. I won't go back to the doctor until right before Thanksgiving. At the next visit we will schedule our ultrasound to find out the sex of Little Bean! Should be scheduled for right around Christmas...couldn't think of a better Christmas present.

Now, we are basically biding our time waiting for Thanksgiving to get here. We decided last minute that we wanted to go to Cinci and Lex this year, and I am INCREDIBLY excited. Just got to get through 2 1/2 more weeks of work, hopefully just a day of jury duty (lived here less than 5 months and already been called!), and we will be on our way. It CANNOT get here soon enough. I had somewhat emotionally informed M that I didn't know how I would handle missing Thanksgiving this year...hormones :)

I'm feeling a lot better, minus a few days of nausea. I have some energy back, but I'm still pretty beat when I get home from work everyday. It takes a LOT for me to motivate myself to work out these days, but I've been doing pretty well. I am still running some, lifting occasionally, and forced myself to do yoga the other day much to my hatred of it. Still able to wear all my pants, but I'm thinking I'm not too far away from needing one of those little nifty belly bands. I'll be putting off buying maternity jeans for as long as possible!

On a side note...much to my chagrin, our neighborhood decided that this past weekend would be the perfect time to put up Christmas decorations. 1. Everyone knows how I feel about decorating before Thanksgiving..too soon. 2. It's still 80 degrees here today..Not really feeling in the Christmas spirit yet. I just need some turkey, some of Aunt Jeannie's cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, and a few days of wearing a winter coat, and I'll be good to go! Countdown to Turkey Day is on!

14 weeks

We were devastated that the Tide lost on Saturday. We hosted a party for the game and everything. It was the first time all week that I had actually fixed my hair, so I decided it was high time to take a picture with M!

and...BABY MAKES 3!!!

2011-11-01T19:02:00.000-05:00

Matthew and I are BEYOND excited to announce that we are expecting our first baby around May 7, 2012!!! Is it possible to be old enough to have a child of your own? I've been asking myself that question over and over the past 13 weeks... Regardless, What's done is done! We'll find out soon enough!

Yesterday I was 13 weeks pregnant. How we've been able to keep a secret this long, I have no idea. Thankfully our family and close friends have guarded our secret well, and after my doctor's appointment/ultrasound today we were ready to spill the beans! I won't bore you with the details of the last 13 weeks. I did write a journal entry or two along the way to record how I was doing/feeling....nauseous and tired, that I will post sometime soon. We also had a BLAST telling our families and were able to sneakily get the footage on camera...But for now, I'll leave you with the pictures we have up to date, and the video from our ultrasound today! We also got to hear baby's heartbeat today...pretty awesome. Going strong at 150-155bpm!

Get ready, I'm about to be one of those bloggers who only blogs about their kid. :)

Need help waking up at 5:30 AM? Try finding out your pregnant!

In shock...

Parents??

Apparently I didn't trust the first 4...I should know better.

Starting point. 5 weeks.

7 weeks

Little Bean at 7 weeks. You can see him/her in around 8:00.

12 weeks.

13 weeks...Feeling bigger.

Ultrasound from today!

"Wanna Go to Birmingham"

2011-10-24T20:20:00.001-05:00

2 weekends ago, M and I were planning on having a nice weekend here in Houston... I had been out of town the two weekends beforehand, work had been pretty exhausting, etc... Until my boss decided to call into my room on Thursday afternoon to inform me that our case load was slow for Friday, so I was getting the day off.   Not only that, but as soon as my case was done, I could leave early... Perk of working in the OR. My first thought was, oh this is great, I can get the cleaning done, run errands, catch up on some of my TV shows while Matthew is at work... I quickly came to the conclusion that that particular plan was incredibly boring and stupid and instead I immediately hopped onto my email and wrote Matthew these lines, "GUESS WHAT? I'm off work tomorrow...Wanna go to Birmingham?!"

About 11 hours later, after running home to pack and grab Lexi, and then a short 10 hour ride, we were pulling in to J and K's adorable new house right in the heart of Homewood, AL...Felt good to be home, people. I know, 10 hours is a LONG drive, but it honestly felt more like 7 or 8, most likely due to the fact that every 30 minutes M and I would look over and say, "Aren't you so excited we're doing this?!"

Due to the craziness of the situation, neither M nor I remembered that M's parents had already made plans to be in Birmingham that weekend, added bonus after J reminded us. We woke up Friday morning just an hour or two before his parents got there. We spent the morning taking sweet Sam to the park, and then met Geoff for lunch at Newks. I could have driven the 10 hours just to eat a Newks Q :)   After lunch we headed downtown to M's old lab to say hello to all of his former co-workers, and then headed back to J and K's to hang out that afternoon. Friday night we met all of our closest friends, Drew, Katie, and McNeill, Holly Beth and Blake, and the Charles and Cara at Davenports. It was SUCH a blessing to be able to see our friends again...we have been missing them SO much. We spent hours catching up; it felt like we had never left. We stayed Friday night with Charles and Cara, got up Saturday morning to eat breakfast with all the same people. Had to fit in as much time as possible!

I'm a big boy!

Sweet McNeill

Love my wonderful friends!

I don't think she could be any cuter!

Beautiful Bham.

After breakfast we headed to meet the WHOLE Hardison fam at a pumpkin patch just north of Bham. Benj and Morgan decided to drive down from Nashville to meet us for the day and ended up staying that night! Afterwards we hit up Milo's for lunch....I could have also driven 10 hours just to eat there...and spent the rest of the afternoon watching college football. Pretty much a perfect Saturday.

Benj and Beau

Cutest little family.

I'm one happy girl.

Saturday night we had already made plans to stay with Ed and Shawn. Shawn had offered to cook, which is something you NEVER turn down. A week or 2 beforehand, I had told him on the phone how I had been craving his spaghetti bolognese...thankfully he remembered :) We spent the evening watching football on Ed's ginormous 60inch TV, eating, and falling asleep before 10:30.

Sunday we got up so we could go worship with our former church family at Homewood. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to walk in and see so many familiar faces. We have missed being at Homewood a lot. We were very blessed to have been a part of that church family. Who knows? Maybe someday we will return!

After church, M and I decided it would be best to go ahead and get on the road... After getting Milo's again...shameful. This time the trip felt a little more like 10 hours, but still worth every minute we spent in that car. So thankful to have gotten to spend a weekend back in the Magic City. We miss our former home!

Operation Stealth

2011-10-19T16:00:00.001-05:00

The pastor (Dad) and I had been cooking up a surprise for the rest of the fam for months... code word.. "Operation Stealth". You see, my little brother is a rockstar, and although he is smart, funny, plays the piano, runs cross country, plays soccer, sings in the chorus...his real talent lies in the theater. A talent that the rest of our family missed out on... my brief dabble in the dramatic arts was a complete debacle and ended with me leaving the stage in the MIDDLE of my performance...another story for another day, or just ask one of my family members, they would be more than happy to share it. Nonetheless, a couple months ago, Matthew was selected to play not only a part, but the LEAD in the middle school play. The musical was Willy Wonka Jr... and he was of course, Willy Wonka. Like I said, total rockstar. So, in order that I not miss yet another of little Matthew's boyhood milestones, Dad and I planned for me to travel in that weekend and surprise Mom, Ashley, and Buddy.. SURPRISE!

Heather and Aimee picked me up at the airport late Friday night. Dad couldn't think of a good reason to get out of the house that late on a Friday, so these two benevolently gave up their Friday evening to come get me! Not to mention that Heather was 36 weeks preggo at the time... Mom was already in the bedroom getting ready for bed, so I nonchalantly walked back there and scared the heck out of her; Little Matthew's reaction was not quite as dramatic. We couldn't think of a good way to get Ashley over to the house, so Dad thought it would be a good idea to just call her and tell her that he and mom needed to talk to her...barely slipping it in that there was nothing wrong. Poor Ash said the whole way over she was convinced that one or both of our parents had been diagnosed with a terminal illness...Note to parents, when you say nothing is wrong, we automatically think that something is wrong... Anyway, Ash's reaction was pretty great as well...I hadn't see her or Buddy since June. Overdue.

Thanks friends for coming to pick me up!

Celebrating Ash's birthday...a couple weeks late, Whoops.

Mom, Ash and I spent Saturday morning at a Parade of Homes in Brentwood, then off to lunch at Puffy Muffin. Mimi and Papaw got in in the afternoon and we all hung out watching football until dinnertime, which was pulled chicken from Hog Heaven... yum. The play was that night, so we headed out early to make sure that we got good seats. We got there early enough that I had time to peruse the hallways of my old stomping grounds with quite enough nostalgia :)

Who doesn't want to forever be immortalized in the hallways of their high school? Especially with a picture that doesn't even look remotely like your current self.

Thanks to this Lipscomb Tradition... that picture is there to stay!

The play started with Matthew walking down the aisle of the theater singing a solo. How he can sing in front of that many people alone, I will never understand. I think I was more nervous than he was! He was FANTASTIC. I could not have been more proud of him. He was by FAR the best one on the stage, maybe I'm biased, but multiple people came up to us after the show to tell us how much of a natural he was. I kept leaning over to Dad during the show saying, "I never knew he could sing!" So glad that I was able to come and support him even though I live 800 miles away. Way to go Buddy! Who knew you had it in you?!

Coming soon, pics and a post from our impromptu trip to Bham!

Benj and Morgan's Wedding Weekend!

2011-10-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for my blogging hiatus.. I had almost forgotten that I hadn't updated in a while...a blissful ignorance, until my lovely sister-in-law burst my bubble and reminded me that I had been neglectful! My apologies for the 5 of you who actually read this consistently :)

2 weekends ago, my favorite little bro-in-law got hitched to the beautiful Morgan Philley in gorgeous Oxford, MS. It felt incredible being back in the South after 4 LONG months. M and I attempted to get to Memphis on Thursday night, but unfortunately after months of no rain, the universe decided it would be a perfect night to storm. After being delayed, we had the WORST flight out...I was convinced that the only way I was making it off that airplane was in a body bag, seriously. After the turbulence, I had to sheepishly ask the flight attendant for a bag in case I were to get sick...the man in the next seat over was laughing hysterically at me. We finally made it to Atlanta, missed our connection, so then spent 5 hours attempting to sleep in a hotel near the airport :) Nonetheless, we made it to Memphis early Friday morning to the delight of my grandparents! Mom and Dad made it in time for lunch, so that I could finally suppress my craving for Memphis BBQ...the best BBQ in the South. Afterwards we made the short drive to Oxford to catch up with the Hardison clan at the Bed and Breakfast where the wedding was located....gorgeous! Guess who was there? Our favorite little boy, Sam!!

Mimi and Papaw

Friday night they had the rehearsal, and then we headed to Oxford Church of Christ for the rehearsal dinner. They have a beautiful room there that used to be the old auditorium that had beautiful stained glass windows and dark wood beams. David and Sandra had gotten a local restaurant to cater the event, and the food was to DIE for. Let's be honest, a lot of times, food at rehearsal dinners just isn't that fantastic when it's cooked in bulk, but this was some of the best food I had ever had at one...went back for seconds! Thankfully it was an early night, and I was in bed by 9:30 :)

I'm a Sweet Boy!

Saturday, Sandra, Kristen and I drove to Pope, MS to attend a bridesmaids brunch with Morgan and her bridesmaids/family while the boys were at breakfast. Again...the food was INCREDIBLE. I was the 1st to go back for round 2...Kristen followed my lead..no shame here. I'm a sucker for any good breakfast casserole. After the brunch, we headed back to Castle Hill (the B&B) and M and I went with my parents to stroll through downtown Oxford. Coolest small Southern town...it had been years since I had been there, but I definitely didn't remember it being so cute. There were TONS of neat boutiques, and plenty of Mom and Pop bookstores for M and Dad to peruse through. We ate lunch at a local meat and three, Ajax Diner.

We got back in from downtown around 2, so that Matthew could get ready for pictures. I walked in the front door and ran right into Morgan already dressed in her BEAUTIFUL gown. She was breathtaking! The ceremony started at 5...it was short and very sweet (thanks both to David and my Dad), and then the party started. They had a terrific band, incredible food, some of the prettiest wedding flowers I've ever seen, at the most perfect location. All in all, the wedding was a hit, and at the end of the day, we could not be happier for the new Mr. and Mrs. Hardison! So thankful for a new sister-in-law to join the fold...already have 1 great one..why not add another!?

Beautiful venue, right?

Love my sweet husband.

Our favorite Columbia, TN residents, Grandma Eva and Grand Daddy Wayne.

We love you Benj and Morgan. We are so excited for you both...hopefully we will see you soon, maybe Christmas?!

Mom and Dad's Visit!

2011-09-18T18:34:00.000-05:00

Last week my parents made their first visit to Houston! I was SO excited, especially since I hadn't seen them since June. Unfortunately due to weather and the very seldom idiocy of Southwest Airlines, their flight didn't make it in until almost 10pm Wednesday night. Thankfully, my mother made it in one piece..bless her little phobic heart. We brought them home and immediately all went to bed, M and I had to work the next day.

Thursday, I put on the charm, and somehow convinced my boss that it would be a good idea for me to be off on Friday. How awesome is that? So instead of working all day Friday, I was free to hit up the Galleria with Mom and Dad! The only stipulation was that I had to stay late to finish up a case , but staying an extra 2.5 hours, totally worth it. After work, we met Mom and Dad at Pappadeaux, one of Mom and Dad's favorite Atlanta restaurants, that was actually started in Houston, along with Pappacitos, Pappa's BBQ, Pappa's Burger, etc... Pappadeaux has some of the best fried seafood around, even though it is a chain.

Friday while M was at work, I drove Mom and Dad into town and took them to the Galleria. Dad spent most of the afternoon reading on a couch in the mall, while Mom and I went shopping. We ate lunch at the mall at a local place called The Daily Grill. I won on best entree. The waiter convinced me to get their signature chicken pot pie, and it had the flakiest/best crust I've ever tasted.

How cute are they?!

Doesn't it make you just want to dive right in?

Friday night we stayed in/cooked dinner and preceded to watch one of the worst movies I have ever seen. DO NOT see The American with George Clooney. It was boring. So boring that every 5 minutes or so, someone would mention just how bad it was (Mom or me) while others (Dad or M) would say, "Well maybe it's about to get better"....it never got better.

Saturday we drove them to Sugar Land to show them where we go to church, went furniture looking, and then went back home to watch some college football before lunch. We took them to a local place in Pearland called Lupe Tortilla. We had eaten there before, but this time it was 10 x's better. Mom even said that they had the best tamale she had ever eaten...and Mom is extremely picky about her tamales. Sadly, after lunch, we had to take them to the airport to catch their flight :(

Someone was SO glad to see her Honey and Pops.

It was so much fun having my parents here! Only hope next time the whole family gets to come! Come back soon... Don't let the airways scare you away!

Love my family! And no, we didn't purposefully leave M out of the pictures...Mom has them on her camera... so in 10 years when she finally figures out how to upload them to her computer, we will finally get to see them.

CHI-TOWN!

2011-09-14T16:32:00.001-05:00

How to celebrate 3 years of marriage? Well since our 20 day trip through Italy fell through :) ..Ugh, don't I wish...we met our friends in Chicago over Labor Day weekend!

My dad recently stated that my blogs tend to almost always be about food. I don't really know what that makes me....food obsessed, food snob, lover of all things tasty?? But I would like to point out that there is a reason I am this way, and I think my father played a part.

So...to preface. This blog may contain a food theme.

Friday night Matthew and I flew in to Midway and took a shuttle to our hotel for the night. The Palmer House Hilton. It was REALLY nice. And we Pricelined it for like 90 bucks! We then hurried to get ready and took a cab to the Second City. It is a comedy club/venue that is fairly famous in the comedy scene. Stars such as Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, etc... all got their starts in the business there. The show was absolutely hilarious. So glad that we went, even though it meant staying up until after 1...after we'd been up since 5:30am!

Saturday we met our friends who had arrived late Friday night at their hotel. Yes, we stayed at 3 different hotels every night we were there. We spent the day shopping and eating...

Sears Tower...Although it has a different name now. Can't remember.

Giordanos Pizza. We had been told that if you want Chicago style pizza this was the place to go. So So good.

Lawry's Saturday night for dinner. Yes, it is where the seasoning salt came from. Although more famously known in the Smith household as a really good seasoning for popcorn!

Prime Rib so good that you've gotta pick it up..

Sunday we spent most of the day at Navy Pier...

This is how thrilled M was to be riding the ferris wheel...not too fun for someone with a fear of open heights!

A lady we met in Nordstrom's Rack told us that we needed to check out a mural a couple of blocks away. Unfortunately we enjoyed it in a different way that I don't think she had in mind....

The Bean

Sunday night for dinner M and I went to this Italian place for our official anniversary dinner. Some of the best homemade pasta I have EVER had. I would definitely go back to this place.

Chocolate cake for 1 please!

M's cannolis.

Such a great trip with fun friends. We had a blast! We definitely need to do this more often... Miss you all!

Reflections on 3 Years

2011-09-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

3 years? Where did the time go?.. 3 years ago yesterday, Matthew and I were married and were eagerly anticipating what this crazy journey/roller-coaster called marriage would bring. I don't think 100 hours of premarital counseling could have prepared us, but it's been so fun trying to figure this thing out together... I'm sure we will spend the next 60 years wading through it one step at a time. 3 years...went by too fast.

In 3 years we have:

- Lived in 2 different cities
- Resided in 1 mansion, 1 tiny apartment, 1 OLD townhouse, and together bought our first home
- Bought our first ~~dog~~ child, named her Lexi, and decided we would love her more than life
- Survived one PhD and a Nursing degree
- Vacationed in Jamaica, Amelia Island, Savannah, Destin, Panama City, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, went on a cruise, and paid an exorbitant amount to watch our Cats lose in the Final Four (Houston)
- Defended a thesis and passed the NCLEX a few months later
- Sat through 2 graduations
- Spent thousands of dollars on unnecessary medical bills (thanks GERD)
- Lived off virtually nothing, we literally could have qualified for food stamps...and I wouldn't trade it for anything :)
- Started jobs, quit jobs, and started new jobs again
- Struggled (me) through months of homesickness
- Made wonderful new friends (in both Alabama and Texas), and kept up with old (in both Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and California (shout out)
- Discovered a joy of food and cooking together (shocker that we both love to eat)
- Trusted God to lead us to new opportunities, and here we are... (dying in the heat)

Ok, time for me (Matthew) to commandeer this post, I mean for those avid readers of our blog you know that this is the time for my (roughly) yearly post. I am going to take this space to brag on my beautiful wife. God has truly blessed me more than I can say with this woman that I get to go through life with. She is loving, hilarious, gorgeous, a gracious host, uber-competitive, a wonderful cook, and a supportive Christian woman, who could ask for more? These three years (to paraphrase Dustin Hoffman in Hook...has it been three years?) have flown by and I cannot believe all of the things listed above that we have done, but more important than those is the day to day that we spend together and that we enjoy spending together. Thank you Chris and Vicki for entrusting me with your daughter, I do my best to cherish and love her in the way God wants of me. On to year 4 (start the countdown to the Olympics!!)

Aimee's Visit!...and our new table!

2011-08-31T20:20:00.001-05:00

Aimee came to visit this past weekend after being in Dallas on business. Thank you Southwest for having cheap flights from Dallas to Houston! Aimee pledged Pi Delta with me in the fall of 2005, and the rest has been history... We lived next door to each other in the dorm sophomore year, shared a bedroom in an apartment for 3 months junior year, and then lived in Royal Arms together with Whitney for 2 years. Needless to say she is one of my closest friends; I am so very thankful for her!

Aimee got here Thursday night just in time for dinner. We took her to one of our new favorite Pearland places and hung out until bed...I missed my 9:30 bedtime :)

Unfortunately on Friday, both M and I had to work, but Friday night we all went to a new Mexican restaurant called Taco Milagro in town. The food was great; both it and the atmosphere reminded us of Baja Burrito, with a larger menu. On the way home we passed a sign saying "Houston House of Pies"...None of us could help it, we just had to go in. And boy, I'm so glad we did. We took our pies (well M got a cream puff) home and all fell asleep watching TV :)

Aimee and Matthew dancing to the live music.

Saturday we took Aimee to one of our ABSOLUTE favorite Houston places, Central Market. The only thing I can say to describe it is that it's a Whole Foods on Steroids. For two foodies like M and me, it's a cook's Mecca. The best part is the cafe in the store where you can get sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta, quesadillas, vegetables, dips, etc... We've lived here only 2 months and have made the 25 minute drive 4 times just to eat there.

Saturday night we (or I should say M) cooked in. He grilled a delicious salmon, roasted some peppers and asparagus, and my new favorite...swiss chard with onions/bacon/and garlic. Delicious. How lucky am I to have a husband that cooks!?

Sunday we took her to church, a little furniture shopping, and then sadly the airport :( Aimee it was so fun having you here! You are welcome anytime!

So our table finally came in... No chairs yet, so don't get too excited :) But I am so happy with the table. I was a little leery that it would get there and I would change my mind, but fortunately I have felt no buyer's remorse! We will be keeping this thing for a VERY long time.

Here she is! I'm obsessed with it.

It's already 8 feet long and it came with 2 two foot leaves...for whenever we have a dining room big enough!

Close up...

That's all going on here! Headed to Chicago for Labor Day Weekend and then Mom and Dad will be here!! Can't wait.

Almost There

2011-08-27T18:42:00.000-05:00

This picture accurately describes my feelings on this Saturday..especially since our local stations aren't picking up the Titans preseason game tonight, but instead the Pretentious Patriots... Ugh.

Also, Aimee Crick is here for the weekend! Hooray! And...the table is in! Stay tuned for pics :)

Life in Houston

2011-08-23T17:38:00.000-05:00

5 Things to Love About Houston

1. Shopping anyone? I know. I'm not the most enthusiastic shopper, but when it comes to quality shopping...don't send a girl. How can you not love a mall that has a Nordstrom's, Neiman Marcus, and a Saks...all in ONE place! Matthew can think of $100's of reasons I'm sure. Add in Gucci, Bvlgari,Chanel, Fendi, Armani, Stuart Weitzman, Valentino, and Versace...just to name a few, and I'm short of a going into a clothing coma. I think everyone knows where Vick the Chick and I will be spending some quality time in a few weeks when Mom and Dad get here!

2. Professional Sporting Events. With the NFL Lock-out over and done with, Matthew and I cannot wait for the Titans to come play in January... Now that the NBA season's future is looking dim, M and I are heartbroken. We were already planning to buy a pack of tickets to enjoy seeing the Rockets...and more importantly Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes play. And then there's the Astros.... bless their hearts. Of course, there's always the MLS team, the Dynamos...where they will pretty much pay you to show up to a game. I'm interested, M would take a little more convincing.

3. Shipley's Donuts. How a ball of sugary dough can bring you so much joy is beyond me. I have NEVER been a donut fan. I've always been able to pass on Krispy Kreme's "Hot Now!". But something about Shipley's has me hooked. I can't get enough of them! Our house rule is donuts on the weekends only....Sometimes once, other times twice :)

4. H-E-B- Our local grocery store! Most people assume that H-E-B stands for "Here Everything's Better"...which is totally true, but a true Houstonian like me knows that it actually stands for Howard E. Butts. Not surprising that they are trying to distance themselves from the name :) This grocery not only has the BEST deals, but it's clean, has incredibly fresh produce, coupons attached to items in the store, free food samples EVERY day of the week (not just Saturdays), awesome pre-seasoned/stuffed hamburgers/seafood/chicken/etc..., a homemade sushi station, a cooking demonstration in the afternoons, and a Hispanic lady that makes homemade/fresh corn and flour tortillas everday! And they are A-MA-ZING. I seriously couldn't ask for more. In Birmingham, I missed Kroger a lot. We have one a couple of minutes from our house here and I've never been...I love H-E-B that much.

5. New Friends. God has been so present in our lives ever since we got here...from placing us behind people at church our first Sunday that we had connections with, to them in turn introducing us to a couple who lives just right down the road. I know that I've said all this before, but hardly a day does by where M and I fail to mention to each other how grateful we are!

5 Things to Dislike About Houston

1. Traffic. I don't ever want to see another facebook status from someone in Nashville complaining about traffic.. Come to Houston. A 3 minute drive can turn into 30... not exaggerating, it happened to us last weekend. If you want to avoid traffic, you can take the Tollway. But in order for me to do that to come home from work, it cost $2.50, ONE WAY! Crazy? I think so! Now, I know, Green Hills traffic can make you want to pull your hair out; I lived it for 4 years. But here, it's just on another level. I've got to find me some good books on tape... Or I guess I should say CD. Newflash, it's not 1990 anymore.

This is actually Houston, according to Google Images.

2. HEAT!! It is unbearably hot here right now. We are currently on day 23 of 3 digit temperatures..a record here in case you were wondering. With no end in sight. Everyday the meteorologist acts as if the city deserves to win a prize for beating the odds once again! Our grass is slowly dying one blade at a time. There's only so much watering you can do. Apparently the best time of day to water is at 3:00 in the morning. Well, what if you don't have a sprinkler system?...I would rather have dead grass then set my alarm at 3AM to wake up and water the yard. Although, everyone can just be jealous when it's in the 50's and 60's here in Jan/Feb....I secretly think I'm going to miss the cold.

3. Hurricane Season. Right now, anybody in Houston would tell you that we'd love for a little tropical storm to pass right on through. We need rain badly! It hasn't rained at our house in close to a month... On the flip side, I'm not looking forward to a big boy of a hurricane making it's way here. Unfortunately, we live on the south side of Houston, AKA closer to the coast. In 2008, Hurricane Ike caused $29.6 billion dollars of damages in the US after hitting landfall in Galveston, TX...45 minutes south of us. Ike caused the biggest evacuation ever in Texas, and I know that a lot of the roofs in our neighborhood wore torn completely off due to the storm. I think this is actually the hurricane we were worried about hitting us before we left on our honeymoon... I've been told to put all of our important documents in water-proof containers, buy non-perishable foods to keep in the pantry, and always keep a gallon of gas in the garage...Haven't done any of the 3.

4. Everything's BIGGER in Texas. I don't know if this is really a bad thing, it has just taken some getting used to. Nashville was a decent size city, but because of the southern hospitality it felt more small-town. Birmingham was even smaller... In Houston, everything is 20+ minutes away. You could get from one end of Birmingham to the other in 20 minutes! Driving to church is 30 minutes, work is 30-45 minutes (for M it's 20), the big mall is 25 min...you get the drift. Thankfully our little suburb covers most of the bases. We've got tons of restaurants, a small outdoor mall, Target, tons of grocery stores, etc... And Matthew's staples- Best Buy and Home Depot. We don't have to leave if we don't want to on the weekends other than for church, which is nice.

To give you an idea of where we live/work/drive. We live in Pearland...Although our house is actually west of the Pearland marker. We go to church in Sugar Land. And Matthew's work is right inside that interstate loop that surrounds the city. My work is directly north of Sugar Land on the interstate that takes you directly west out of Houston towards Katy. Far..

5. Being Far Away. I'm NOT adjusting well to the "flying only" option for traveling home. 1. I don't love flying (I'm not phobic, I just don't always like it) 2. It's expensive. Right now, we're debating flying to Cinci for Thanksgiving vs. buying a new rug and loveseat. The flights are so expensive on those dates that the latter option might possibly be cheaper. The furniture we can keep for a while, while a trip is only a few days...but then again memories are priceless :)

Birthday Celebrations!

2011-08-14T20:58:00.000-05:00

Friday night M and I took what turned from being a 25 minute drive to a 50 minute drive to get to dinner... Who would have thought that in the 4th largest city in the US, traffic can be a bit of a problem? At 7:00 though..seriously?? Since my husband set a precedence before we moved here that we would never use the tollway for ANY reason...we got to Cheddars a little later than anticipated. Nonetheless, we arrived, and the Casual Cafe did not disappoint...I had been saving up calories all week. Chicken tenders, bbq ribs, and the infamous cookie monster.

Birthday boy excited about Cheddars.

We figured our arteries weren't clogged properly enough...

Saturday night, we hosted a dinner party to celebrate Matthew and Kelly's birthdays. Kelly and Glen are our new incredible friends that we met the first Sunday we went to church in Houston... We have a lot in common with them...and it also helps that they have one of the cutest/happiest babies ever :) Sam and Christel and their sweet baby boy Eli came as well! We all live within a couple of minutes from one another, such an awesome blessing to have friends that close in a city this big!

No, our dining room table still isn't in. Hopefully this week. Thankfully Sam and Chris have a folding table that seats 6!

Matthew and I spent most of the day Saturday cleaning, cooking, baking, and other chores... Lexi really must be used to sleeping ALL day while we are at work because this is what she looked like around 3 in the afternoon... bless her heart.

Baby Glen wore something special in honor of M's birthday...his Birthday Suit!

We served one of M's favorite homemade meals... Fish tacos with homemade slaw, cilantro/lime sour cream, Mexican rice, and black bean salsa.

Christel and sweet Eli

Big Glen and Sam

The Birthday Kids.. Homemade carrot cake per M's request.

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!

2011-08-11T16:27:00.000-05:00

The Big 2-8. Happy Birthday to the sweetest, most caring husband who showers me with Christ-like love everyday! I'm so incredibly blessed to have Matthew as my better half.... I can't believe that the first time I called M to wish him a happy birthday he was turning 23 in 2006! Here we are 5 years later...

2007- Our first dating birthday celebration. I surprised him for his 24th in Bham with a German Chocolate cake on the way back from the beach with my family.

2008- Due to M's birthday falling less than a month before our wedding, we were crazy busy. The closet picture I could find to his bday was at our bachelor/bachelorette parties a week later... I do know that the weekend of his birthday, we watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on 08/08/08...and celebrated his 25th birthday at Demos!

2009- Panama City Beach. As luck would have it, we got to celebrate M's 26th birthday at the beach during Smith family vacation!

2010- M rang in his 27th by working all day on GrandDaddy's farm. M would rather be breaking a sweat at Happy Acres than doing pretty much anything else! Grandma Eva cooked a delicious birthday dinner...and a few days later we left for our cruise!

This year, M's one birthday wish was to eat at Cheddars tomorrow night... And Saturday we're having some couples over for dinner to celebrate as well! Happy Birthday Matthew. I love you, and I hope that we get to celebrate 60 more!

Since We've Been Here

2011-08-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

I got off work early today. Score! As I was walking to my car, I briefly contemplated that I might go to the pool and take in some rays, until I got into my car and realized that today it is 105! My chalky white skin could definitely use some sun, but definitely not enough to die of a heat stroke.... So, instead I opted to sit in bed and blog while watching my DVR'd episodes of ENews... I know, trivial as it may be, I can't get enough about The Royals, it's borderline obsessive.

We've been here about a month and a half. I figured I'd fill everyone in on life in the Lonestar State.... Other than it being blistering hot, we're slowly(or maybe quickly...who knows) adjusting to life here. We've already found a great church...we're placing membership on Sunday. The congregation has been super friendly and made it very easy to get plugged in. Answered prayer. We found a small group that meets in our neighborhood with couples our age... HUGE answered prayer. And we found some really great friends, making it easier to be so far away from our old ones...never to be replaced though! Jobs are going well. M is still getting used to having a set time to go into work and leave :) He's also still tying up loose ends in Birmingham... he has had 2 reviews to write and submit, and another paper of his just got accepted...I'm failing to remember the name of the Journal. Whoops. Anyway, all that to say, Matthew has been extremely busy. Going in to work early, leaving late, and getting home to do his "old" work. I'm so proud of him! Other than that, here are some pictures to bring everyone up to speed.

We went to an Astros game the 2nd week we were here. It was a lot of fun, but definitely a different experience with the Park being enclosed. Not to mention that the Astros are TERRIBLE!

I tried my hand at a chocolate souffle. The recipe was awesome...although I wanted mine to come out fluffier... I'm pretty sure it's because I over folded the egg whites. Thankfully it was an aesthetic issue and not a taste one :)


JULY 15- Does the date give you any idea where we were? Waiting in line for HARRY POTTER! It lived up to every expectation. Definitely sad. I'm not gonna hide it, of course I cried.

We literally received all 3 of these publications in the mail in 1 single day. The mailman must think we are total losers.

And 1.5 month later... Guess what came in the mail today?

Due to a mix-up, we made it to Houston without 2 things.... Our toolbox and my make-up (long story). SO excited to finally have this back in my possession! Call me shallow...I don't even care.

Guess what else is supposed to come in the mail today? My new phone! Goodbye stupid Android phone and hello Blackberry. Sprint, you are terrible. I hate your stinkin guts... I know hate is a strong word, but after spending 3.5 hours on the phone with them this past Saturday... I'm so over the "Now Network"... and as soon as our contracts are up next summer, we are peacing out! IPhone 5's all around for these Hardisons!

House pictures: Here is what we have done with the house thus far. We still have a lot to do. Baby steps.

Can't wait to get a new beautiful rug for this room.. Wait being the key word. It's way down on the priority list for now. Also planning on getting a loveseat...at some point.

I love how Lex is chillin in the corner of this picture. Notice the pretty flowers M brought home!

Our first furniture purchase in Houston. We found this antique buffet/sideboard at a furniture flea market in the antique district in Houston. Built in the 1950's... I'm obsessed with it... Not to mention we got a great deal on it. I'm still contemplating whether I want to paint it. I guess I will wait until we get our dining room table in... that we just bought this past Sunday! The table was on back-order so it won't get here for a couple more weeks. The house will definitely feel more complete with it... disregarding the fact that people will probably have to sit on folding chairs until we get real ones!

That's about it. Gearing up to celebrate M's birthday next week! Hint hint..it's the 11th :) He has a presentation the day after his birthday, so it looks like we'll be waiting to celebrate until the weekend. My good friend Aimee is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Labor Day we are going to be in Chicago with the Allens, Hasselbrings, and Joneses. We are staying a couple extra nights to celebrate our 3 year anniversary! And the week after we get back, Mom and Dad will be here for a short visit! Looking forward to all the fun!

Hardison's Houston Visit and House Upgrades!

2011-07-30T14:37:00.001-05:00

Matthew's parents came to visit us last weekend here in Houston! It was nice having people to show around our new town! We (or should I say David and Sandra) spent most of the weekend doing various home improvement projects. Incredibly awesome to get some more things done around here! Since I've started work, M and I have been so busy during the week, we haven't had the time to tackle our growing house "to do" list.

Project #1. Finally recovering our kitchen table chairs! I've been wanting to do this since we lived in Bham! We got a great deal on the fabric at Joann's.

Before

After!

Project #2- Fixing our garage door! It is now functioning properly! Thankfully our cars don't have to sit out in the sweltering heat anymore!

Project #3- Repainting our bedroom furniture. M bought this furniture 5 years ago when he first moved to Bham. Needless to say, I wasn't too attached to the "manly" look of them... Leather hardware involved... So we decided to paint them and put on new hardware. David did all the work! I picked an antique white paint color.

Project #4- Teach Andrea to sew! Success! I have been intimated by sewing for years. I finally took the plunge and bought a sewing machine. Since, we had leftover fabric from the chairs, Sandra and I made pillows! Sandra was a very patient teacher.... I didn't catch on too quickly! Unfortunately the fabric for my curtains for the kitchen hasn't come in yet... We'll see how I do on making those on my own!

Saturday night we went out to eat for an early celebration for M's birthday. We went to a 5 star restaurant in Houston called Mike's American cuisine. Food was exceptional.

Finished project! Having them dry a little longer before putting them back in our room.

Sunday afternoon we took them to the Natural Science Museum in the Museum District downtown.

Now for some before an after photos of our bedroom. A long time ago, I posted about how M and I were going to use an antique door as a headboard. Well it's finally done!

Before picture of the furniture and bed. I left it unmade cause I figured it would make it look more sad :)

I started out by washing the door with a solution of soap and a little bleach.

After 4-5 hours and 6 trips to Home Depot, M finally got it hung on the wall. Let's just say, there's no way this thing is coming down for the 3 years we'll be here!

And now After! We bought risers for the bed too. We didn't like being so close to the ground. Matthew's old bed is currently in our "catch-all room". It's possible we may have it set up with mattresses before my parents get here... but not likely! No worries, there's another guest room down the hall..fully furnished!

The room still isn't completely finished. We only have a few things hung, need curtains, etc... we eventually want to put a chair in the corner as well.

But seriously... how good does the furniture look? Thanks David! Way to be a professional painter!

Houston?

2011-07-15T13:55:00.001-05:00

It's possible that some anonymous readers of this blog could be wondering how in the world we ended up in Texas. It's more likely that I don't have any anonymous readers, but I feel that for myself and for the future book form that this blog will eventually be converted to, I should revisit how we got from Alabama to Texas... Sit back, it's sort of a long story.

Towards the end of Matthew's last year of grad school, we started contemplating what our next move would be. In theory, we wanted to end up back towards "home"- being the Nashville/TN/KY area.... Sidebar: God sure does have a sense of humor. Through a contact at Vanderbilt, Matthew became very interested in this program/fellowship called Molecular Genetics. After some research, M decided to apply to various programs that offered this fellowship, but we had no idea what to expect, because this field is a COMPLETE departure from what he has been doing for the last 4-5 years. Through all the applications, he found out that Vanderbilt, Spokane, WA, Baylor (in Houston), and Harvard wanted to interview him for the position.

His Harvard interview was first. I blogged about this trip a long time ago.... We absolutely LOVED Boston. I remember walking through the streets of Brookline Village and saying, "If they offer you a spot, we are definitely coming here".... Oh the irony. :) He loved the program....and again, Boston was amazing.

His second interview was at Vandy. He liked it, but didn't love it like he had loved Harvard. So we began conversations of, "If they both say yes, how would we turn down moving close to family/friends to move far away", to the next day, "How could we turn Harvard down to move to Nashville?".

A week or two after his Vanderbilt interview, he got a call from the head of the program there. She was personally calling him to inform him that they had decided to go with someone else for the spot. Up until that point we didn't know if they were only going to be taking one person, but that ended up being the case. She wanted to let him know because she thought he had been an excellent candidate, and she felt he deserved to hear it from her and not from an impersonal letter in the mail. To say we were bummed would be an understatement. We felt like if Vanderbilt was saying no, surely Harvard would say no.... not to mention we were heartbroken over the realization that moving "home" was not in the cards.. for now.

A couple of days after the bad news, I am being shaken awake by M. Harvard had called and left a voice-mail... they said yes. How you can go from extreme sadness to utter excitement in such little a time is pretty amazing. We were ecstatic. We spent the next few days looking at apartments on-line, job openings for me. As far as we were concerned, we were moving to Boston.

His last interview was at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He almost cancelled the interview, because at the time, we didn't want to move to Texas, and Harvard had said yes. But, Baylor had already paid for the flight, so we decided he might as well go. Once there, Matthew loved it. The program was fantastic, he loved the facility where the department was located, he was awe-struck by the amount of funding/money available...and on top of that, they would allow him to do a dual fellowship in Biochemical Genetics after he completed the Molecular portion. He came home speaking of how impressed he was by everything he saw.... One problem, Harvard wanted an answer, and Baylor was a week or two away from making any final decisions.

Through Divine Providence, the lady at Harvard agreed to give M more time to make his decision. So we waited... and waited to hear from Baylor. Matthew even called the head of the program at Baylor to explain that Harvard was waiting to hear from us. Even at this point, if Baylor said yes, we still didn't know which to choose, we just wanted to know all of our options. A few days later, Baylor calls, and it's a yes. Now the decision-making really began.

How do you choose between 2 really great programs? Through talks with the head of this particular program at UAB, Baylor's program was better, they were offering a dual certification, but how do you say no to Harvard? It was also essentially choosing between 2 different lifestyles: apartment-living vs. house-buying, public transportation vs. 2 car driving, small to non-existent churches to big church family, Democrats vs. Republicans (ok, not really, but seriously how different could Massachusetts and Texas be?!)

We were torn. We had our families/friends praying fervently that God would lead us to the right decision. But we almost felt like we couldn't make a bad choice. We were still undecided the day before we were to make our final call. The night before, I told Matthew that I was ok with either choice, and that I felt that as the leader of our family he needed to make the decision. I would be supportive either way....after all, it was his career in the first place :) Matthew spent most of the night downstairs in the den praying, and the next morning he earnestly explained that he felt God was leading us to Houston, he knew that at the beginning it was not our first choice, but that he was positively sure that this was the right decision..... So here we are.. Loving it so far!

I'm sorry Boston. Maybe we will buy a second home off the Cape sometime down the road :) ha.

"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday"

2011-07-10T23:00:00.001-05:00

We're 2 1/2 weeks in to our Houston adventure, and it seems more like 10. We were so blessed to be thrown not 1 but 3 going away parties before we left Bham! Here are the pictures to recap:

Our first going away party was at Amit and Shilpa's house. It was the "lab party". All of the PhD's, MD's, medical students, grad students, post-docs, etc... that work(ed) or were affiliated somehow with Matthew's lab. Amit and Shilpa had catered authentic Indian food, and it was incredible!

Old Roomies

Love me some Shawn!

For so long it was just us 3!

Going away presents.

Doctors Brown and Wells...or Mike & Mikes :)

Pat

Phillip

They framed Matthew's first paper and had everyone in the lab sign it!

Thank you Amit and Shilpa!

"The" Ed and Shawn

Katherine and baby Samuel

The night after the lab party, we had dinner at Ed and Shawn's. Shawn made our absolute favorite meal he's ever made: prime rib (roasted for hours!), potato gratin, English popovers, and asparagus.

Ed and his favorite grad student.

Backyard renovation! It's more gorgeous in person!

The view from their new deck.

Slow roasted to perfection.

Here it is in all it's glory.

The night after our 5 star meal at Ed and Shawn's, we had our church going-away party thrown by the Newtons, Bootons, Guesses, Harrises, and Elliotts. Due to our move to the Wild West, our theme for the party was "Cowboy".

SID brothers :)

Cupcakes made to look like the Alabama State flag... too cute!

Our favorite toddler.. T-Bone! (Thomas)

HBH and Stonewall

Sweet Cara

We love the Elliotts!

The Ashley's

Our Lextown buddies, the Newtons... and Baby Newton #2 on the way!

Anyone who knows us knows that our FAVORITE restaurant in Birmingham is Chez Fonfon. It is owned by Frank Stitt (a James Beard Award winner), a famous chef who is the owner of Highlands Bar and Grill (voted top 5 restaurants in the U.S... and it deserves it!), Bottega, and Chez Fonfon. Our friends in Birmingham have heard us incessantly talk about our obsession with Frank Stitt, so they surprised us with his cookbook and had signed it with sweet notes throughout the pages. Something we will hold dear for years to come.

It's hard to sum up 3 (5 for Matthew) years in one post. As you can tell from the pictures above, it was very hard to leave a place where we felt so loved. We really began to view Birmingham as our true home, and we are so glad that the Magic City was where our marriage began. We miss our friends everyday, but we know that we will share many more life events with them! While we may not physically be there, they will never be far from our hearts and minds, because thanks to Lynyrd Skynyrd it may be years before M and I hear the lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama" without a little mist in the eyes :)

NOLA!

2011-07-05T12:44:00.000-05:00

One of the perks of living in Bham... it's only about 5 hours to New Orleans. M and got to take advantage of this twice while we lived in the Magic City. Ah..the food!... it's all about the food.

We basically got a free trip to New Orleans, thanks to our good friend Blake. It was the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and since Blake is a rock star while being a political consultant working for Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign, our rooms were comped. Free trip again to New Orleans...we'll take it!

We left Friday around 2. Got to New Orleans just in time for dinner. We ate at the hotel restaurant at the Hilton, and it was delicious. Saturday we went to vote, for Huntsman of course, and then we were free to spend the day doing whatever we wanted. We went to a hole in the wall burger place called Port-of-Call. It was at the very back of the French Quarter, a 30 minute walk from our hotel, but it was worth it! We spent the rest of the afternoon browsing boutiques and pool-side at the hotel. Saturday night we went to eat at the famous Arnaud's. BEST STEAK I HAVE EVER HAD. No lie. Matthew got the duck, which was pretty amazing too. All in all, our bill for 3 couples was close to $500. It will be months before the Hardison's splurge on food like that again... but I'd do it over again in a heartbeat!

View from the Room

Arnaud's

Holly Beth, Blake, and me

Jazz Band. They played "Stars Fell on Alabama" for us Alabama folk :)

Worn out from a week of whatever political consultants do!

Matthew is currently at his first day of work! I'm at home waiting on someone to come fix our disposal :) Oh the joys of home-ownership!

"Country Boys and Girl Gettin Down on the Farm"

2011-07-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

Once we got back from the beach, I headed out to take one last "tour" if you will to see friends and family one last time. I first headed to Memphis to see Mimi and Papaw for 2 days. I went fully expecting to be spoiled with food ( I was... homemade chocolate pie and fudge!), and for Mimi and me to go shopping and bowling. 2 for 2.

We tied.. cute.

This past bowling season, Mimi got an award from the league for bowling over 200!

After Memphis, I drove about 1 hr and 45 minutes to see my best friend Katie in her new hometown of Senath, MO. (Population 1,750) Katie lives in Senath where her husband Landon is a cotton farmer. I've spent time on farms before, but I'd never seen anything like this! We spent the day touring the farm, going into town to eat, and taking a walk. Katie Bug is one of the sweetest people on the planet. It doesn't matter how long it has been since we've seen each other, we pick up right where we left off. She is one of my biggest prayer warriors, and if I'm having a tough day, she's always one of the first people I call. I'm not eloquent enough with words to fully explain how much Katie means to me, so I'll say it like this... God has blessed me greatly through her friendship. I was SO glad to be able to visit her in her town.. and I CANNOT wait for Baby Small to get here!

A bale of Cotton...

Ok Mom... Look Away.

Yes, this is an assault rifle. Yes, I did really shoot it. And yes, it was awesome.

I also got to shoot a pistol... but I didn't take a picture.

Me, Bug, and Muddy.

Love you friend! Thanks so much for having me!

After I left Senath, I went to Nashville for 2 days to see my Nash friends one last time and to celebrate little Matthew's birthday and Father's Day. Friday morning, I accidentally set my alarm too late, so I ended up rushing to get out of town so we could leave for New Orleans on time.... it ended up being a blessing in disguise, because I was too busy to cry as I was leaving my parent's house. I said this in the car to myself on the way back... I apparently spoke too soon, because about an hour outside of Bham, I decided to listen to one of my Dad's sermons on CD....I picked the wrong one. Unfortunately, it was a sermon on parenting and being a blessing to your children. I won't get into details. But let's just say that the pouring rain drenching my windshield was not the only water falling on the Sonata that day :)

Dinner with friends at where else?? Baja!

Dad's Father's Day gift.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Bday dinner at J. Al's.

Enough time procrastinating. Many pictures to be hung and floors to be cleaned. Post about our trip to New Orleans soon. Pray for Matthew as he starts his new job on Tuesday!

We're Alive!

2011-06-29T20:17:00.000-05:00

This is not going to be a post about the big move... Sorry if you were anticipating a play by play of the horrors of moving 800 miles :) I will get to it, I promise. But in short for those that are curious, the house is fantastic, Houston is hot (not that much hotter than B-ham), church was awesome, I got a job today, we finally got a refrigerator, our internet is working, and I'm about to cook our first meal in our new home with a gas stove! Life is pretty grand.

I have yet to post pictures of the last couple of weeks that led up to moving. We were EXTREMELY busy! I quit work on June 3rd; I liked to refer to it as "early retirement" (don't I wish!). We made a quick trip to Nashville to celebrate sweet Emery's (Blake and Julie's baby girl) 1st birthday! It was also M's last time up in the 'ville.

After the party we headed to the Santa Rosa, FL to spend a week at the beach with the Hardisons. We had an awesome time! It was great spending time with family, and our house was the bomb! Thanks David and Sandra for such an wonderful vacation. We had a blast!

Need I say more?

Worn out shopping...

New favorite game... Just Dance

Making homemade cinnamon rolls.

As Kristen calls it, "Dad and Lad" matching!

Sandra was the putt-putt queen.

Stay tuned... I have updates and pictures from my visits to Memphis, Senath, MO, Nashville again, and our trip to New Orleans with friends. Also, our going away parties :(

14 is OLD!

2011-06-16T23:04:00.000-05:00

Today was my brother's birthday. 14... as in 1 year away from a learner's permit, and 2 years away from a driver's license.

I can't believe our "little" (He's 5 inches taller than me) Buddy is getting so old. We love you Matthew. You are the sweetest, funniest, most gentleman-like 14 year old I know. I could go on and on about you, but I'm already emotional this evening, don't want the flood gates to open :) As Mom said today, you are truly what your name means.... a "gift of God". Happy Birthday!

#1 Exciting Thing Happening This Summer

2011-06-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

In a way, I feel like even now at 24, the final piece of my childhood is coming to an end, with the final installment of Harry Potter coming out in July. Yes, I'm that girl. I have lived my life dreaming of Hogwarts, Quidditch, and wondering exactly what butterbeer tastes like. I've memorized more spells than I care to admit and used one too many Harry Potter inside jokes. Maybe it's just one more reason to be obsessed with the British. They've given me Harry, an obsession for Henry VIII, and a new fascination with Kate Middleton (she's beautiful!).

I can't watch it without chills running down my spine. More exciting than moving into our new home in our new city... Close Call.

One more day of beach fun, then it's off to Memphis, Senath, MO (to see Katie Bug!), Nashville one last time, New Orleans for the weekend with friends, 3 last days in Birmingham, and then Houston... or should I say Pearland. :)

Beach Trip and Birthdays

2011-05-26T20:38:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, Matthew and I got to spend the weekend at the beach with our good friends the Harrises and the Guesses. I apologize for my lackluster approach to blogging as of late. All I feel like doing when I get home from work and the gym is crawling into bed... which shamefully happens more than it should.

Anyway, we had a blast in Orange Beach with our friends, eating, relaxing, eating, reading.... and more eating. Confession: I think I pounded ~~four~~ five donuts while we were there, and I don't even eat donuts! Not to mention the pound of crab M and I splurged on. What makes crab better? Dipping in it in pure melted butter. Totally worth every heart clogging calorie.

Enjoy the pics!

Drew, Blake, and M. The sweet baby girl is Katie and Drew's baby, McNeill. She is PRECIOUS!

Katie, me, and Holly Beth (whom I like to call HB)

We celebrated HB's birthday while we were there.

Like I said, absolutely precious. How sweet is her little outfit?!

I have the most beautiful friends!

The pound of crab.

This past Tuesday night, we celebrated Jason Booton's birthday at the Fish Market downtown.

Holly Beth, me and Brittney

Happy Birthday Jason!

We're headed to see Grandma and Grand Daddy Wayne this weekend, then spending Sunday night at the Smith compound...no work on Memorial Day!

Huge Congratulations to our best friend Russ! He is graduating from medical school tomorrow. Way to go Dr. Clendenin!

House Pictures

2011-05-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here it is folks! La Casa De Hardison. It's taking me forever to get around to putting these up. I think I was trying not to jinx it, since we had such a hard time actually selecting/putting in offers on the THREE other houses we liked before this one :) Apparently, the real estate market isn't hurting in Houston as much as it is other places. Nonetheless, unless the rapture really does come between now and Friday..barring any life changing event, we will officially close on our home and become "real world" adults. Exciting, huh!?

9 more work days until my last day of work. 13 more days until Hardison Family Vaca in Santa Rosa, FL and roughly 32 days until the big move.

Real Hardwoods!

Office right off the entryway.

Something I can get behind! More counter space and a gas stove!

Double sinks! And there's a soaking tub.. not pictured. Awesome.

Guest Bedroom #1. Otherwise known as Ashley's room.

Guest Bedroom #2. Currently a nursery, obviously.

Fenced in backyard for sweet Lexi!

Steps away from the playground, community tennis courts, park, and pool!

We're incredibly excited... I'm also incredibly nervous about this whole transition into home-ownership. What's more debt, right?! We can't wait to get there, get settled, and see the place with our own furniture/and finishing touches.

I'm pretty sure I will cry the whole way out of the state of Alabama. B-ham, I hated you so much when I first arrived. I couldn't wait to the heck out of here. But, now that the time has finally come, I can't imagine what life is going to be like outside the Magic City. We've been SO blessed with a great church home, awesome jobs, and lifelong/forever friends. God definitely placed incredible people in our lives here, and we hate so much to leave. But we know that through this move to Houston, God is going to guide us to a new church home, with new friends (not to surpass the old!), new jobs, and new opportunities. We're just along for the ride!

And in case you were wondering. Door to Door.. 807 miles from our new home to my parents' house. Can't think about it too much, or I might start the water works early :)

Marathon Video

2011-05-11T18:43:00.000-05:00

Here is the video of Team Smith finishing the marathon. You can see us at the very end of the clip, wearing our lime green t-shirts. As we were getting up to the finish line, Dad said, "We gotta hold hands!" And we did.. and we were cute.

I'm swinging my arms so badly. Very poor running form :) I guess I was just so glad to be done!

Also, the clock says 3 hours. We did not take that long. Although, we were by no means fast. Ha. Your actual time starts when you cross the starting line, not when the "official" race starts. I'm not sure what our exact time was; I'm sure Dad knows.

Have a great finish to the week! I will post pictures of our beach trip with friends in the next few days!

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=75416&BIB=16963&S=230&PWD=

Half Marathon Weekend

2011-05-02T19:06:00.003-05:00

Team Smith took to the streets of Nashville this past weekend.... on foot, for 13.1 miles. We decided back in January to run the Nashville half-marathon. I was fully expecting my knee to give out a couple of weeks beforehand, so I didn't get too excited about it, assuming that I would have to drop out again this year, but fortunately my knee held up! Dad has run a couple of full marathons before, but this was a first half for both Ashley and me. And we did it! Ashley has a bum knee as well, but we both did great, despite both of our knees hurting around mile 6. We finished, without walking, and I'm so glad that the three of us did this together! As dad said, "we're making memories!"

Our theme for the race... Fitting. Although dad is not technically called a pastor, we couldn't think of anything clever than rhymed with preacher or minister.

Pre Race. Before the pain :)

Proud of our medals.

Aren't we cute?!

Mom's stance on driving to LP Field with road closures for the race.. "All y'all had to do was run... getting down here was stressful!"

On another note.. Please continue to pray for the families of those who lost their loved ones, homes, schools, businesses, during the terrible tornadoes in Alabama last Wednesday. If you would like to find a way to help, you can go to myfoxal.com and click on the "How to help, donate and volunteer"

Easter!

2011-04-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

M and I went to Nashville this past weekend. We had originally planned on staying put for Easter, but the closer I get to moving (yes we're moving to Houston...post on that by MTH later), the more nostalgic I get. It was a must to spend one last Easter in the 'Ville, with my parents and at Harpeth.

Saturday for lunch we went to Taco Mamasitas. Conveniently right across the street from the bakery that made my wedding cake... Dulce Desserts. Juanita, my cake lady, was in and was so excited to see us! It made me even more glad that we used her! She has a replica of my cake in the window.. And she offered to make M and me a 3rd anniversary cake in our favorite flavor for FREE! Love her.

On Saturday, M and I went to an antique store called Preservation Station off Wedgewood. We bought an antique door that we are planning on using as a headboard in our new home. I forgot to take a picture of the door to show. It's currently at Mom and Dad's. I will post pics of a before and after as soon as we move and get it done!

M's parents were also in town for Easter. Mom had everyone over for lunch Sunday after church.

When did Buddy get taller than Ash?

The 3 "Smith" girls

After lunch on Sunday, Matthew flew to Houston to make a walk-through of our new home and be there for the home inspection. It makes me a ~~little~~ lot nervous to move to a house I have never seen in person! But I trust Matthew's opinion. I will post pictures of our new house soon!

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter. What a wonderful day to celebrate that Christ is Risen!

We will be back in Nashville this coming weekend. Dad, Ashley, and I are running the half marathon on Saturday... Trying to remember why I thought this was a good idea :)

Calls That Start With "Don't Freak Out"

2011-04-13T16:33:00.000-05:00

These are the type calls that I don't look forward to as a mother. Unfortunately I received ones of these distressing calls today. Here's how it went down...

Around 9:45, I called Matthew to check in with him during a break from work, per usual. He answered the phone in a completely normal tone. We proceeded to have a normal conversation, until I heard these words, "Now baby, I don't want you to freak out...." He continued on to tell me that he had been working with some cobratoxin, and a few minutes earlier he had started to get really flushed, was having trouble breathing, and felt like he was going to pass out. A co-worker in his lab had to call 911, because they were afraid that he was having a reaction to the toxin. M then said that he was feeling a lot better; they had canceled the 911 call, and he felt like he was fine. I felt a little uneasy, usually there are doctors working in his lab, like "real" MD doctors :) but at the time it was just him and a fellow PhD, so I told him I would feel better about it, if I could come over and check him out myself.

I run to tell my boss, tell her that it doesn't seem like a big deal, and that I will be back in 20 or so minutes. I run up two blocks to M's building, and he's sitting down in the lab.. not looking "fine". Right before I had arrived, Phillip, a pulmonologist, had gotten there and was checking M out. He was shaking, still having trouble breathing, and said his throat seemed tight. Not good signs.

M says he wants to go outside and get some fresh air. I oblige, although I'm a little uneasy about him walking anywhere. Outside, the symptoms continue. I'm trying to coax Matthew into going to the ER, while at the same time trying to pretend I'm not worried. He then tells me that he looked on-line, and apparently 4 micrograms/kg of cobratoxin is fatal. Great news...things are looking up at this point. I then get on M's phone and call our good friend, Jason Booten, who conveniently enough is an ER resident at UAB. He says that if he continues to feel worse, he should come in, and he would speed up the process so that M wouldn't have to wait in the ED..which can take extremely long at a Level 1 Trauma Center.

M decides that he thinks it 's best to go home... I don't want him sitting outside alone while I go get the car, so I decide to walk him upstairs back to his lab. Except we don't make it back to lab, because M's symptoms get worse again. Emergency Department it is...

4 tubes of blood, an IV of saline, an EKG, a chest x-ray, a call to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), and 4 hours later... the attending ER physician said that M could go home. We're not sure what happened. Whether he happened to inhale some of the toxin, or got some on him... we're not positive. Either way, let's just be thankful that he didn't accidentally inject himself with it.

Moral of the story: Don't play with deadly toxins at work. Stick with the boring stuff, like neutrophils. I love you Matthew! I'm so glad that you are ok!

The Proof...