I’m SO sorry it has taken me this long to write another post!! Last weekend was my baby shower and things were just INSANE the whole week. My mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and some of my sweet friends/”family” came in town on Friday for it and left yesterday afternoon, so I have just been one busy girl preparing for them and enjoying them here!

So, pretty much, I’ve been writing this same blog post for the last week!

I’m working on one about the baby shower, but in the meantime, I figured you guys wouldn’t mind another post about back when Jon and I were dating. 🙂

And can I just tell you girls how much I loved reading your comments on Monday’s post? Some of them were fun to read (you guys have such FUN romance stories!!), some brought back tons of memories of when I was in high school and dreaming about my future husband, and some just broke my heart (and know that I’m praying for all of you who are playing the waiting game right now).

And can I also tell you that I was twenty-one before I ever went on a date? It is so completely okay to wait for awhile. I’m SO glad I did. Jon was the second guy I ever dated and I can’t tell you how huge of a blessing it was for me to walk into our marriage without tons of baggage from previous relationships.

Getting back to memory lane… 🙂

I remember that Wednesday night Bible study was starting to become my favorite night of the week and not just because of the Bible study. Every week, everyone would come and then around ten-ish when everyone else would be leaving, Jon would be just sitting down on the couch and I’d go take my place in the recliner and we would end up talking until way past midnight every night.

A couple of weeks after it was starting to get obvious that he wasn’t just hanging around because the poor guy was lonely, I took a bunch of high school girls from my church – including my sister Cayce – on a long weekend retreat.

The Wednesday before I left, Jon was talking about a family that we both knew from church and how they were moving and he was going to go hang out with the kids the next day and would I like to go with him?

SUCH a smooth move! I totally noticed how great he was with kids and how nuts they were about him.

He ended up texting me the rest of day and by the end of Thursday night I was completely certain that Jon O’Brien was not interested in just being friends.

So, I went on the retreat. And there was very little – if any – cell reception, which ended up being great because it gave me a lot of time to just think and pray about Jon and whether or not I was ready for a relationship. I would tell all the girls to grab their Bibles and find some alone time and then I’d go find Cayce and tell her that we were going on a walk.

Poor Cayce got almost zero alone time that weekend.

But she did listen very well as we walked all around the camp and I talked and talked and talked about Jon. Did he like me as more than a friend? Did I like him as more than a friend? Did she think he was a nice guy?

And, I didn’t know this until much later, but apparently my brothers and parents invited Jon over for dinner while I was gone. Just to “get to know him better”. Apparently, it was obvious to everyone else but me that he was interested.

We got back and Jon asked if I’d like to go to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. I remember being SO nervous before he showed up at my house but by the time we got to the restaurant, I was completely fine. I felt all small and petite next to him (again, not an easy thing to feel when you are 5’7″!!!) and we ended up talking at lunch about everything and there was never a moment where the conversation got awkward.

Actually, I take that back. I was playing with my straw wrapper during part of the conversation. I was tearing it into little squares and then arranging the squares on the table and he – Mr. I’m-Going-To-Teach-Special-Ed – told me that I probably had a mild form of ADD and OCD.

Um. Thank you.

We started noticing that a lot of people had cleared out of the restaurant and there was some new people sitting down and realized then that we’d been talking for FOUR hours and we were running into the dinner crowd. Our poor waiter guy. I hope Jon tipped him well.

More memories to come! And I want to keep hearing yours! And new question – is there (or was there) any characteristic in a future husband that would (or did) keep you from marrying him?

I’ll post pics of the shower in a bit! Have a great Tuesday!

~~

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the olden days.

As in, the days before Jon ever saw me with the flu, before he discovered that my idea of camping and “roughing it” was sleeping on a crappy mattress at a creepy motel, before I found out that a “deep snapper” was not something similar to a “loud clapper”, before we were commiserating over the sudden explosion of dog hair surrounding our house and waaaaay before our little pumpkin head was busy ramming his head, foot or arm into my bladder (um. I’ll be right back).

Back when Jon and I had first met and first started flirting and first began dating.

The first time I saw him, I remember thinking, “Hey! He’s tall!” When you are 5’7″ and living in a state populated by guys whose average height is around 5’5″, anyone over six foot was considered quite the find. And the fact that he was really cute didn’t hurt. We met at a college Bible study that took place at my parents’ house and it wasn’t too long after we met that Jon started staying quite late afterwards, making himself comfortable on the couch and just talking to me.

I thought that he must be very lonely and probably missed having a home with a family in it since he was from California and came out here to play for the football team as a deep snapper.

I didn’t ask him what that was, I just nodded like I knew exactly what he was talking about. Then I asked Dad to meet me for lunch so he could tell me what it was.

Apparently, these people snapped the ball between their legs for all punts and kicks. All-righty then.

It took a little while (aka two months) for me to realize that Jon was not lonely, nor was he just coming over to hang out with my family, but he was actually coming over to hang out with me.

Well, this changed things. Now I had to worry about what I was going to wear when he came over instead of just being content with whatever I’d worn the rest of the day.

I remember the first time he hugged me. I was standing on the porch step outside my front door and he was leaving after a very long night of talking after Bible study. It was just the two of us outside and we were finishing up our chat when he stepped over and wrapped his arms around my waist.

He was standing a step below and was still taller than me.

And I can still remember how I thought he might be able to hear my heart banging out of my chest. I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe through that whole hug. Suddenly, I was very aware that Jon liked me and I was definitely certain that I liked him.

I love remembering those days! 🙂 There was so much uncertainty – was he the one? How would I know if he was? What if he didn’t feel the same way about me as I did about him? Or vice versa?

If it’s okay with you guys, I might just take a trip down memory lane on this blog. 🙂 But in the meantime, I want to hear your stories too (and if you’re single, I want to hear what you are looking for in a guy)!

~~

Guess what’s now available for pre-order on my website?

🙂 Note that orders won’t ship until on or around July 1, 2010 – but you can go ahead and order it now! Be sure to specify who you want the book signed to!

In other fun news, Cool Beans is now available for download on Kindle! Yay! 🙂

Last night, I tried making the Pioneer Woman’s spaghetti and meatballs and oh. my. gosh. It was SO good! Not too expensive either – I did a mix of ground beef and sausage. I did splurge and buy the good kind of parmesan cheese (aka not the Kraft shakeable one), but for how many meatballs it made, it wasn’t too expensive at all!

It did take me about an hour and a half to make dinner…but I think most of that was me getting over the thought of mashing raw meat (ew) with raw egg (double ew) with my bare hands (triple ew). So, this might not be the best meal to make if you are a) in a hurry or b) pregnant and prone to nausea. Particularly when it involves eggs.

Bleugh.

But the finished product was well worth it. And I would have taken pictures, but we were SO HUNGRY by the time I finally finished making dinner that it didn’t sit on the plate long enough for posterity. Besides, PW is a crazy good photographer anyway, so you should go salivate over her pictures.

Anyone else watch American Idol last night? I find it slightly unnerving that watching a guy sing is making me want to get highlights put in my hair. All in all, I thought the duets were the best part of the show. And I’m still calling Lee as the winner. Guess we’ll see!

So, despite this tragic demise as I documented last year:

Jon still got another geranium at school last week as part of the school’s fundraiser. I’m not sure what this little plant did to deserve to come live with us, but I’m going to try as hard as I can to keep it alive this time. So, I’ve been watering it, but trying not to water it too much and I’ve been giving it pep talks on stayin’ alive (I could SO have put a cute little Bee Gees quote in right there, but notice that I restrained), and for now, it’s an inside plant. And I didn’t even try to transplant it to a nicer pot, nope, we’ve still got him in the ugly plastic green container that so does not go with my house decor.

I don’t particularly care for green. Which I guess might be why I keep killing all my plants.

And I’m finding it funny that Jon is the one who brought home this plant when he specifically told me that no, we could not get flowers this year because we did not demonstrate horticultural care last year.

Very interesting.

After American Idol last night, we watched part of this special on quintuplets and those babies were born weighing less than what our little guy weighs right now according to What to Expect. I told Jon that it’s easy for me to think that I’m pregnant, even easy for me to be like, “Oh, he’s kicking so hard right now!” But when I think about what’s inside of me?

Hard for me to associate “baby” with the sudden abdominal growth I seem to be having.

Well. Time to go water the geranium and consider highlights (for me, not the plant). If any of you would be considered something along the lines of a Plant Whisperer, would you mind sharing a few thoughts on how to keep one from dying?

~~

So, last Friday afternoon, my sweet husband who normally looks something like this (at least in the winter):

Morphed into someone who looks like this:

And stayed that way for the whole weekend. He and a group of guys from Bible study decided to go turkey hunting – and I think it was the first time for all of them. Jon had a complete blast. He got back last night in time for dinner, sunburned and full of stories.

I asked him if he caught anything and he just sighed and said, “Erynn, we weren’t trying to catch the turkeys, we were trying to kill the turkeys. So no, I didn’t catch anything.”

He didn’t kill anything either, in case you were wondering. Only one turkey was harmed in the making of the above photos. My thoughts on hunting? I’d rather not know what kind of animal I’m eating, I’d rather just believe that it comes in a nice package in the grocery store.

But, I think they’re planning another trip for next year already. Maybe next time they’ll catch, I mean kill, something like one of the cows they saw out there. Steaks for a year! 😉 Seriously, though, I’m so glad that Jon has such a great group of guys to hang out with!

Meanwhile, I stayed at my parents’ house and spent the weekend with my family. I swear Caleb’s puppy has grown a HUGE amount just in the last week. I’m sure she’ll be ridiculously large in a few months.

She’s such a hilarious dog. I spent most of the weekend laughing at her, honestly. I’ve never seen a dog get more excited about food or food smells. Then I felt bad for laughing because this is what she looked like most of the time when food wasn’t around:

Pathetic. And not my brother – I think Caleb looks adorable in this picture. I’m pretty sure that little Joey has the saddest eyes of any dog ever.

We watched a few movies, talked a lot and just hung out at the house for the most part. One of the movies we watched? Nacho Libre.

I’ll never get that hour and a half of my life back. It’s depressing to think of all the things I could have been doing during that hour and a half that would have probably been more entertaining, such as counting how many fibers make up the carpet in my living room. If you like that movie, I’m sorry, but I’m just not seeing the appeal.

So sad.

And then it was Mother’s Day and I just have to brag a little bit because my mom is awesome! 🙂 I’m SO incredibly blessed to have had such an amazing example of what a mom looks like all growing up. It was very fun to get to live back at home over the weekend. We got to talk a lot. It was quite wonderful and I’m just so thankful for her! We’ve always been very close and I’m so glad she’s always there to answer any questions I have or if I just want to talk for a while. She’s more than just my mom, she’s one of my best friends. 🙂

And even though I didn’t see her yesterday, I’m super thankful for my mother-in-law as well! She is another fantastic example of what a mom should be like. God has just blessed me so much with all these amazing women in my life!

Today, my next door neighbor, her three-year-old and four-month old boys and I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. And I learned a couple of things:

1) I will never be the marathon runner who continues to run every day she was pregnant (and I won’t be a marathon runner regardless).
2) I do need to walk more just because it’s supposedly such good exercise if you’re expecting – maybe because you’re lugging an extra twenty pounds up those hills with you.
3) If nothing else, I should walk more just for the tan. I really don’t want to blend into the sheets at the hospital.

And now, I’m off to make a quick dinner and then get ready to go to tonight’s softball game. The guys are undefeated and amazing this year, which is a good thing, but it doesn’t make for super enthralling games when the score is 22 to 7. I was almost cheering for the other team during that game. How demoralizing.

To all you moms out there – thank you for the HUGE sacrifice you make for your kids day after day! I hope yesterday was relaxing for you!

~~

Today is just one of those days when I’m SO excited that I won’t be pregnant soon! 🙂 I’m so ready to have our little guy here, I’m so ready to sleep on my stomach again, I’m so ready to put him in all the adorable little clothes we’ve been finding over the last few months and I’m so ready to put ME in some of the cute summer non-maternity clothes that are in stores now!

Very long sentence, but I think you get my drift. I. Am. Ready.

However, sadly, The Little Man is not. I’m 31 weeks today and I keep telling him that six weeks from today would be a fantastic time to be born. We’re aiming for 37 weeks (officially full-term!) and about six or seven pounds. This is what I tell him every day. That and how great it is out here, so don’t try to stay in there, but come on out as fast as you can.

Has anyone seen the previews for Letters to Juliet? I think it looks sooo cute! I really want to go see that one. I think it comes out next week!

I’m on the home stretch with my deadline (which is why I haven’t been posting on here as frequently), so hopefully I’ll finish that up soon so I can concentrate on finishing up the baby’s room! 🙂 Here’s a little sneak peek at what I want to make for his room.

I bought a huge bulletin board and I’m going to get denim fabric to cover it and add brown ribbon stripes and a bunch of different shaped pushpins to hold the ribbon against the fabric. I really wanted a place to put pictures of our out of town relatives so maybe he’ll recognize them! 🙂 Plus, I just love memory boards. I think they’re adorable.

I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend!

~~