Landmark Photography

On Saturday Brian sold some of his original pictures above at a St. Peter Vendor Fair. He donated all the profits from his sales towards the 8th grade class trip to Washington D.C. Being his wife, I'm the co-president (with his Mom of course) of the Brian Davies fan club so I might be just a little bias, but isn't he talented? The customers of the vendor fair must have thought so too because Brian sold 26 framed and unframed pictures and will be donating the proceeds from $360 in sales. What a fun afternoon.

October's End

This spring Brian and I planted a new maple tree. It is a Red October Maple and we can certainly see why it is so named. The tree is a beautiful sight out of our kitchen window. With the end of October, the leaves are now quickly falling, but we will look forward to its beautiful return in the spring.
Also, with the end of October is the end of pastor appreciation month. We have certainly enjoyed all the ways everyone has shown Brian their appreciation, from greeting cards, to baked goods, to gift cards. People have been so generous and thoughtful. One gift however, we must admit we will NOT be eating. Brian was once visiting a St. Peter family in their home and commented on the good aromas from the kitchen. The woman of the house replied that is was squirrel for dinner. Brian almost laughed thinking it was a joke, however, it was not...
It has now become an inside joke between Brian and the family (a wonderful family by the way). One day last week we came home and this family left a gift at our door. Can you guess what the mystery meat is? We are posting a picture so we can refrain from the famous Dave Barry line, "I am not making this up."

Start of Month 7!

Today we have officially finished 6 months of pregnancy and are starting our 7 month! The last week or so has been a big growth spurt for both the baby and me (as you can see from the picture.) The baby is now over two pounds and close to 15" long. We are in our 27th week and as the baby grows she will be adding mostly fat and weight to her already newborn-like body. Her kicks are strong enough now to not only feel them but see them, as my stomach moves with her. My belly button is also dangerously close to becoming an "outtie" in the near future.

Last week we had a little bit of a pregnancy scare. I had a little bit of light spotting on Tuesday night and actually went to the hospital to get things checked out. Everything was just fine and the doctor on call seemed to think it was related to the cough I've had for the last week and a half. Whatever it was, it was certainly a little scary. The good news is that our baby girl is far enough along at this point to live outside of my stomach, but it is also very good for her development that she has not decided to come this early.

So for the end of last week I found myself on bed rest. It actually didn't bother me at all to be off my feet for the three days, and I slept more than 10 hours each night which makes me think I might of actually needed the rest. My cold is now almost 100% gone as well. I am going to return to work on Monday and try to take it as easy as possible while trying to coral 150 kids into learning Algebra. So it has been an eventful but also not eventful last couple of days. As my friend Kristen says the baby will probably be two weeks late now and have to be enduced. I can only hope! If that happens, remind me when I'm two weeks over due that I once said that was a good thing.

Parsonage Party

Last night we had the band members from the contemporary service and their families over for dinner. It was great to thank them for all of their work at getting the new service going. We made a ham and our guests brought an appetizer or dessert to share. We played a music lyric game and had a fire in the beautiful fall night. It was quite the successful night.
About five minutes before we had people arriving Brian stubbed his toe on a wall upstairs. It was pretty bad. Looking back, I don't think I've seen Brian in so much pain since I've met him. But being the loving wife I am, all I could do about the problem was laugh. I'm not sure why exactly I found it funny. Maybe it's because it's not like the wall has moved for the last 80 years its been in existence, or maybe it's because I'm usually the one who does such careless things, but for some reason I thought it was funny. At least I was showing sympathy through my laughs and trying to help him attend to his bloody-stump-of-a-foot. I really wasn't that cold hearted, just a little giggly.
While I was apologizing for laughing as I helped him, Brian likened this toe-stubbing to the time he broke his hip during baseball and Hunter laughed at him from SS. In fact he told me, "You're just like Hunter when I broke my hip." Geoff, if you're wondering, Brian may still harbor some resentment about that. I hope as his foot pain subsides so does his recollection of my less than stellar wife performance. Brian is doing much better today and hopefully we will have no more instances of moving walls or laughing unsympathetic wives.

Deep Thoughts....

Saturday was another beautiful day weather wise here in MI. It was also a great day because Brian took about 50 people from St. Peter, food, a truck full of donated clothes, new socks, new underwear, and jackets to downtown Detroit where they put on an Oktoberfest with Peace Keepers International. They made the lunch in the Church's kitchen downtown and served around 400 needy people in the area. They had games for the kids that came and rented an inflatable castle bounce-house. It was a truly successful afternoon.
In the evening Brian and I attended a silent auction to benefit the Macomb Charitable Foundation that Brian is a board member of. This is a charitable foundation that a local man started with his own contributions years ago and another local woman embraced to help grow. The foundation helps out needy kids and families from Macomb County in numerous ways. There were over 300 people last night at the silent auction and besides being a fun evening, a lot of money was raised for the foundation, and the foundation does awesome things for the area!
I guess what has been occurring to me lately is how much Brian and I have, and how much our little girl already has. She has two loving parents, four loving grandparents, numerous relatives, and many friends all ready to lavish love on her. Contrast that to the people at the Oktoberfest or the people helped by the Macomb Charitable Foundation. I also can't help but think about my own students. One of my 16 year old students is also pregnant. She is about 4 months and going to her first prenatal appointment. I can't help but see the vast head start our little girl is getting.
Being six months pregnant, I think its natural to get a little reflective. I just want so much for our daughter already! (Besides health) I guess I just hope because of all she has been given and all we will give her, our little girl will help to make a difference one day. It makes me think of the Bible verse in Luke:
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
Brian and I are certainly being entrusted with much. Hopefully, we will be able to give much as well!

Mr. Decorator

Fall has officially arrived here in Michigan. We went from close to 90 on Tuesday to under 60 in the same week. It was a nice break from the heat on the school front and has been just spectacular the last few days. On Saturday Brian and I spent some time winterizing the yard and doing little home projects getting ready for our our little girl. Brian worked on the baby's closet and we are happy to report he is now finished with that project. In the afternoon we went to one of the local garden nurseries to pick up some fall mums. Brian was too cute and decided on a fall theme for our side door. He said we should get two regular pumpkins and one little pie pumpkin in honor of our baby. So adoralbe He envisioned and put together the fall scene in our picture so I've been calling him Mr. Decorator. Who knew he was so multi-talented.
On Sunday we capped off our weekend with a big celebratory Octoberfest. Brian's church, St. Peter is celebrating its 125 year anniversary and the Octoberfest was the pinacle of the year long commemoration. There was plenty of German food, German beer, and dancing to be had. My favorite part was the homemade bavarian creme puffs! It was a great night and a great fall weekend.

What could be worse than being a Chicago fan?

As the Major League playoffs enter the division championships minus the Cubs, and the Bears have given a lackluster start to the NFL season, the disappointment of having Chicago allegiances is all to real. This past Monday night, however, we got an inside look at an allegiance that may even be tougher to stomach. While driving back to Michigan from Albany we stopped in Rochester, NY. There we were able to spend some time with the Hunter family, Geoff and Giselle, Chris Gerber, and Geoff's college friend, Andrew. The Hunters generously hosted us all at their house for the evening, lined up tickets for the guys to go to the Monday night Buffalo-Dallas football game, and put on an excellent tailgate party. I got to experience the art of the tailgate party which was complete with Mrs. Hunter's delicious taco dip. The guys threw the football around and impressively pulled off a Brian long snap, a Geoff 40 yard punt, and an Andrew successful catch. Considering the number of people, the number of cars, and the fact that we had been tailgating for around three hours already, this is more of a feat than you realize. The atmosphere for the game was something to experience and it was great to visit with everyone. The guys went on to the game and the girls headed home to watch with the expert analysis of one, Tony Kornheiser.

The game as you may know was amazing. I'm glad that the guys were able to be there for such a unique night. As Tony so eloquently put it during his commentary (something like), "You don't need a full moon tonight, it is 80 degrees in Buffalo on October 8th. Any amount of money anyone spent to be here tonight, however much work you had to miss, this is worth it." Pretty special for the guys to be a part of that night, except of course if you were a serious Buffalo Bills fan which the Hunters happen to be. Though it looked like a lock for Buffalo, somehow it just didn't happen for them. As a Chicago fan I could say I feel your pain, but I'm not so sure I do. I don't think 100 years of being lovable losers is worse than the one disappointment we Cubs fans had in 2003. Well, The Bills have had a slew of 2003s, which may indeed be more gut wrenching. Experiencing this somewhat first hand, makes me almost say being a Buffalo fan could be worse than being a Chicago fan. It certainly makes it harder to medicate your pain with the tried and true Chicago remedy of "next year". (By the way "next year" looks pretty good for our Cubbies.) Thanks Hunters for a truly great evening and great stay in Rochester!

NY Baby Shower

Saturday was our first official baby shower. Linda and Cheryl hosted it at Normanside Country Club, and everything was just perfect. The room was beautiful. The pink accents were just perfect and the menu of salad and panninis delicious. Mrs. Davies made chocolates molded into baby shapes and Cheryl made adorable boxes that held the favors. It was wonderful to see everyone that came on a busy Saturday and the presents were so generous and fantastic. I think anything baby-size is just too cute, and of course I love anything pink. I had three great helpers at the shower too, Michaela, Jenna, and Katie!

It was a special day and it made me realize again just how blessed my little girl and I are. To see pictures from the great day CLICK HERE.

Chicago Visitors

More news on the baby front; I am happy to report that her grandmother and others are seeing to it that our little girl is going to be a well dressed little lady. We are washing and hanging her clothes and as you can see from the pictures she has quite the wardrobe. My Mom has assured me that she will need all of this and much more. Considering they grow so fast out of the different sizes, I may agree. Already though, she has more pairs of shoes than her Daddy!

This past weekend my brother, Dad, and Mom visited. Someone Brian knows from church got the guys Lions-Bears tickets. The guys had a great time watching the game from the Chrysler supplier's luxury sky box. The game was good, but too bad the Bears are struggling so much. While she was here my Mom helped me organize some baby stuff and she finished the woodwork upstairs. My Dad and Bri went golfing on his "home" course Saturday morning and my Dad helped Brian cut the lawn on the riding mower Saturday.

Saturday night we went out to a local brewery and had a fire at home in the beautiful fall night. We played around the fire where I pretend I'm Tony Reali from Around the Horn and Mike and Brian give me their takes on sports questions. My Dad did a good Woody Paige. It was a great weekend!

Virus Free Computer

You may have noticed an absence in blog posts recently (or maybe not.) We have been very busy, but the real reason for the absence in updates is that our computer came down with an ad-ware virus. We were somehow getting annoying and not very nice pop-ups whenever we used the Internet. We had to bring it to a computer hospital (a store on Romeo Plank), get all our files taken off, the computer wiped clean, and all of our programs put back on. It is amazing how much you can miss technology. Though we have a little more set-up work on our end reinstalling programs and organizing files, I think we are now good.
The last two weeks have brought many fun activities. The baby has been very active in my stomach. I actually felt her for the first time at 14 weeks which was very early and now I feel here all the time. She is especially active after I eat and Brian has felt her kicks many times now too. I had my five month prenatal appointment and all is going smoothly. He asked if I was feeling the baby yet and that was a definite. He said that you can usually feel the baby when you are quiet and resting for the night. I feel her at all times during the day, even in the midst of a busy class period, and at least every hour! It is really special when I feel a jolt from her in the middle of the day. We got a new rug for our baby's room which you can hopefully see in the picture as well as an updated bump-watch.

Fall Harvest

The month of September has been absolutely gorgeous in Michigan. We have been trying to embrace the weather while we can by taking long evening walks and advantage of fall activities. Saturday was absolutely beautiful weather wise so we headed to a local apple orchard where we picked a half bushel of apples and hade some cider doughnuts. We've been using our little harvest for apple crisps, lunches, and snacks. We're not sick of them yet.
From our own backyard we have a large patch of Concord grapes. Last year the birds got to them, but this year we decided to take advantage of our little crop. We are making wine out of our grapes this year. We talked with some elderly people from church that have been making wine for years and found a hobby shop called Cap 'N Cork which specializes in making homemade beer and wine. The last weekend of September we invited two fellow wine loving friends from church, John and Leanne Stallman, and made our elementary attempt at wine production. By the way there was no grape stomping involved. Overly simplified, you make a sugar water solution and pour it over a third to hall full jug of grapes. You need special corks to keep the system sealed but not explosive (air is let out, but not in.) Over a month's time, the sugar eats the yeast of the grapes and produces alcohol. Then it takes a month to separate the sediment and let the wine age. Hopefully, by the time I'm ready to imbibe our homemade vintage will be palatable. We'll keep you posted.

Davies-Bundalo Visit

This past Wednesday my Mom arrived for a visit. Besides helping me buy my first official maternity wear (black pants and jeans), she is helping us in refinishing the wood upstairs. The parsonage has all this great 1927 original dark hardwood trim, doors, and built-ins. She uses goof off to strip all the grime and messy paint splotches from previous parsonage dwellers, and then freshens it up with a min-wax stain/poly combo. She is very good at this task and it makes such a difference in the overall appearance.
The Davies arrived for their visit on Friday! We certainly kept them busy. Linda, my Mom and I did some serious baby shopping with a travel system and rug for the baby's room as our conquests. As usual we were very successful. Brian and his Dad were busy with many home improvement projects. They replaced the ceiling fan in the baby's room, put up new shelving in Brian's closet, winterized the lawn, and fixed the paint splatters on the house shingles. I think I was most excited about the shingles project. When the eves were painted a long time ago it was done a little hastily and there were a lot of white paint splatters left all along the side of the house. It was kind of like the garage doors and every time I pulled up they bothered me. Wa and Brian bought a can of reddish brown spray paint to match the shingles, Brian went up a ladder with his Dad holding, and they covered the 100 or so white paint splotches with the new color. You can't even tell where the white annoyances were anymore. It was great and brings a smile to my face whenever I come up to the side of the house.
On Sunday our visitors got to see the new contemporary service in action. Overall, it was a busy but fabulous weekend and we can't wait for them to return again soon. Thanks for all your help and everything you do for us!

Special Delivery

My first week of school has passed and it was actually quite the tough week in some respects. The kids were great and very excited their teacher is pregnant (maybe because that means a sub for the second half of the year.) I felt a little bit like a spectacle at times when my kids from last year saw me, gasped, and pointed to my expanding belly. I also tried to start out conversations with the fact that I was pregnant to avoid any awkwardness for the other parties. "No I did not gain 20lbs over the summer just from being lazy and eating chocolate, this bulge is my new little girl." I'm kind of glad the initial notification of my pregnancy is done at school.
The bad part of school has been the heat. It was 90 degrees last week, we have no air conditioning and I teach on the second floor which is nothing new from last year. However, our school is building a 9th grade addition to the south side of the building. Therefore, all of the classroom windows facing the south side have been boarded up for the addition, so now I have no windows as well. The classrooms got as hot as 97 degrees. The first day was particularly rough because I actually tried to dress professionally. I don't know if it was the pregnancy hormones or the heat or both but when Brian, my Mom, my Dad, and the Davies all asked me on occasion how my first day went I started sobbing. Sorry everyone! The rest of the week I wore sundresses and felt much better, but sweat more than I thought possible. Next week should cool off and hopefully will be better. I've already decided that when my work environment becomes a little more professional I will start dressing a little more professional.
There were many more important great things this past week that certainly pulled me through. The ultrasound being number one. Then on Friday my cousin, Ginger, sent me pink Gerber daisies at work in honor of my little girl. That definitely brought a smile to my face and made me forget about any heat I may have been feeling. The picture above is myself, my growing belly housing our little girl, and the beautiful bouquet.
On Saturday Brian and I started to register for some baby gear. Boy, were we out of our league. We realized that we know barely anything about baby equipment and decided to regroup and bring our parents to help. Brian was great though. I gave him an A+ for behavior. He is usually good for the most part during our shopping trips, but then starts breaking down at the end. This time as we were nearing the end and he was starting to get a little tired of contemplating between shades of pink, he held up his four fingers and started saying in the middle of the store, "Fourth quarter, Fourth quarter." This little self pep talk is a common football routine for the fourth quarter of a game, and I found it funny he employed the same technique to finishing the job that he used in a grueling head bashing football game to deciding between baby bedding. I'm not sure which was actually more difficult for him to finish out. Really, he did great in his Dadly duties. Our little girl and I are certainly blessed!

It's a Girl!

We had our first ultrasound today and we rejoice in thankfulness that we have a healthy little baby. It is amazing everything you can see from the ultrasound from the spine, to the heart, to the little hands. All seems well with our little one and we are so thankful. That was really the most important thing to us. The baby was sleeping at the beginning of our ultrasound and after all the poking became one active little baby kicking and waving hands, which was awesome to see. The baby was a little uncooperative in determining the sex but the doctor is reasonably certain our little one is a little baby girl! She had her hand on her hip which is something my Mom and I do all the time, which is crazy. Brian said with that tendency and her stubbornness to turn around she had to be a girl like me. Now we anxiously await her arrival sometime around January 28th. In the meantime we will worry about all the pink accessories I now feel the sudden need to acquire! Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Bump Watch

Due to requests from Giselle and Kristen the bump watch continues. The last two weeks have been busy for all three of us Davies!

Brian has been busy getting the old sanctuary at church (Kaiser Hall) redone for the new contemporary service he is leading this fall. He has been working so hard and spending many hours there, but the payoff is coming. The sanctuary looks great and almost everything is in place for the September 9th start.

I had my first experience as a consultant and really enjoyed the experience, despite the 104 degree weather of Kansas City. I could talk about teaching and pedagogy all day so I think this job might be a good fit for me. The talking will turn to action soon as my school year starts on Tuesday. My mind is elsewhere, and my old clothes don't fit anymore, but going back will be a great distraction for the remaining half of my pregnancy.

Our little peanut is growing rapidly and has made me officially look pregnant. There is no hiding the bump any longer. A big milestone in the last week is that I have started to feel the baby's movements and kicks. I think our little one is quite the active guy or girl, which has been very fun. Speaking of guy or girl, the count down continues as to finding out the sex of the baby. 10 days left until our ultrasound Sept 5th. During which, hopefully, the baby will cooperate and we'll know if that movement in my tummy is from our little girl or little guy. Crazy! I think that word pretty much sums up this whole experience. We'll be sure to keep you updated on all big news in the future!