Happy Birthday To Dane

Yep, he's 32 today, and as spry as ever.

We've been celebrating all weekend. We had Dane's favorite meal on Friday (pizza, apple crisp and frozen vanilla yogurt) and then went to Chris and Rachel's house for the carving of pumpkins.

Can you tell what they are?

The extended family came over to the house on Saturday night for a "hymn sing" per Dane's birthday request and a hot dog and marshmallow roast over the "fire pit" Dane made out of his parents old grill

Our old piano never sounded so good

We were going to sing in the living room, but we had enough room in the middle hallway to stuff everyone in there

Saturday morning we went out to a farm in Goodletsville to get a load of old composted horse manure to put in the garden beds that Dane revised a couple of weeks ago. We picked it up from a farm that has been in the same family since the 1700s! There is just something special about that kind of longevity. We were planning on shoveling from the big pile into the back of our truck, but the old farmer got out his front-loader and a couple of scoops filled up the back of the truck. We didn't get as much exercise, but it was faster. Just down the road from the farm was a little produce stand called "The Garden" that was alive with fall fare. We got a pumpkin, a couple of squash and a jar of honey. We also scoped out some of their huge pumpkins to get some advice for next year's pumpkin growing contest! I think we're going to win.

The newly filled garden beds

A Walk in the Park

Dane had Fall Break last week, and it almost made me feel like I was on vacation too. We took walks every morning before I left for work, in lieu of my early morning swims. A walk with Dane is just so much better than swimming.

I only have to work until 1pm on Fridays, so this past Friday we planned a hiking excursion. We settled on Montgomery Bell State Park, which is where we got married. After we arrived at the park, I realized that it was our 4 1/2 year wedding anniversary to the exact day! After our wedding ceremony (those many years ago) Dane and I hiked a short distance on a trail near the chapel before joining everyone else for the reception. So on Friday we started on that same trail, but hiked the entirety of it while doing some reminiscing over the past few years. I wouldn't trade them for anything. Dane is an incredible husband.

A moth we came across in the middle of the trail. It was so beautiful, with such intricate detail.

Bye for now!

Life's progressing along

I meant to do this post a couple of weeks ago after our mid-wife visit, but two weeks worth of time just got away! Dane's work has been very very busy, but thankfully this next week is fall break for him. I've heard stories of "The first year of teaching school", and now we're living it. It's a lot of figuring out and keeping up.

We've had a couple of visits lately from people that we love. Abbye came for a weekend from Memphis and it ended up being a restful weekend (as she had planned) for all of us. We love Memphis friends!

Abbye with her urban wildflowers to beautify our home

An urban caterpillar to take notice of on a walk

Mom and Dad came for a visit last week after spending some time in Missouri with Mom's parents helping them out after Pappaw's back surgery. I took Wednesday off to spend time with them. We enjoyed Dad's plethora of technology and watched a couple of movies on his laptop. Mom and I went for a visit to Goodwill and made some good finds. Then on Friday night I went out to Miriam, Adam, and Joseph's home in the boonies and had a delicious supper that Miriam just whipped up.

The baby is growing at an amazing rate! I've gained about 20 pounds already and apparently only two of that is baby, so maybe it's just me that's growing at an amazing rate. I love feeling and seeing the baby move. Little human inside of me, being created day by day.

Dane had a dream the other day about a baby that looked a lot like him. He described feelings of tenderness for the baby in his dream that he's never felt for a child before. Isn't that sweet? Most people are predicting a boy. I have no idea.

27 weeks today

I went to put on my pregnancy picture clothes and then realized that Dane and I matched!

Does anyone want to buy an antique couch? It's beautiful, but it won't fit in the room where Baby Forlines will stay, so we're trying to get rid of it.