Waiting....

So, when we found out that we were having a baby, December seemed so far away! When I called my doctor's office to schedule my first appointment, I was disappointed that they did not want to see me for another 4 weeks! It might as well have been waiting for December!

When I called, I asked for a Friday appointment. Ellis is off on Fridays and I knew that he would want to go with me. So, on April 20th I scheduled my first appointment for Friday, May 15th. Since that time, Ellis's work schedule has changed a bit. There are some deadlines coming up so he is having to work 5 days for the next 6 weeks or so. So last week, in an effort to make it easier for Ellis to attend the appointment, I called to see if I could get a Friday afternoon appointment instead. But, they didn't have any because they are closed on Friday afternoons. (I am sure the doctors work plenty hard during weekend deliveries so that having a Friday afternoon is a nice treat!)

After all the finagling, imagine my surprise when I received a call on Wednesday confirming my appointment on THURSDAY. I was a little distraut at first, but then I decided that I would rather hear my baby's heart beat earlier rather than later. Ellis checked with his boss and made the necessary adjustment so that he could come in late on Thursday rather than Friday due to the appointment change.

THEN, (the scheduling drama continues) this morning Ellis enjoyed sleeping in. Getting up at 5:40 every morning can be tough. But sleeping in until 9:00 and looking forward to our first appointment wasn't exactly what happened. At 8:35 I received a call that my doctor had called in sick. And that they were having to move around all of her appointments. The next time she could see me will be NEXT Thursday at 2:30. I tried to get squeezed in with another doctor today, but the only time open was at 3....which would essentially mean that Ellis might as well take the whole day off. Since he is working over time hours, that just didn't make sense. At least with our new appointment time, he can go in to work and leave early and be done for the day.

So here we are.... waiting some more. One more week until our next appointment. At least we only have seven more months to wait!

Magnetic Prestidigitation - by Ellis

Hola!

Those of you that ever made their way to our house on 8th street will probably remember the scores of magnetic poetry that covered our old refrigerator. When we moved out (over a year now), we took down the old magnets and they are somewhere, in some box, in the new house... I think. The last renters had their own fridge, so we moved the old gal to the new garage where she sat in the corner. The fridge has been a great backup; holding extra drinks, ketchup packets, nearly empty pickle jars and the like. We bought some shrimp at some point and the freezer really started to smell... Crap, could I digress ANY further from the actual story?

ANYWAYS.

Tamara and I were cleaning the beast last weekend (Easter weekend), and there was a lone word we missed. It had, for just over a year, clung unassuming to the bottom of the door to the freezer. Tamara found it, handed it to me, and continued cleaning. I almost just tossed it, but instead, hoping to reunite the lil guy with its family, I put it in my wallet and continued scraping dried egg from the underside of a tempered sea of hazy glass. Seriously, I think I found 3 tiny chunks of dried egg on every square inch of that thing. I swear an Egg McMuffin had pooped in there or something.

So here I am today, putting a post-it into my wallet, when my little lost friend is staring at me... clinging to the very spot I laid him, waiting for a morsel of life-changing news to be delivered.

God, I'm happy.

Imagonnabeapaw - A Message from Ellis

Good GREAT Monday morning!

Some of you know, some of you don't... But now you all will!

This weekend afforded me a great surprise...

A wee baby infiltrates the Humphres house! Like a trojan horse!

If the online calculators are indeed correct (and who wouldn't trust the internet?), I shall be indoctrinated into fatherhood, kicking, screaming and all sorts of nasty things on or around December 19!

If calculations are correct, baby's first heartbeat will be Sunday(ish)!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*Artists representation not to scale

How it came about....

Back in January, I was talking to my good friends Melanie and Andrea about the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon. I haven't run in a few years but I really wanted to start running again. This is a big race and a big distance. But both Melanie and Andrea assured me that if I followed the running schedule that I could take on this race. I made the decision soon after reading the book The Alchemist and I felt like running such a big race was part of my "Personal Legend."

The process has been wonderful! Melanie and I meet up to run every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We have been following the Hal Higdon's Beginner Training Schedule. I have totally enjoyed it and I finish every run feeling very proud of myself! And it doesn't hurt that I have lost about 12 pounds in the process, too! Also, Melanie and I have run about 130 miles since the beginning of February. Wow! I can't believe it!

Our race is this coming Saturday, April 25th. We had our longest run, to date, last Saturday, April 18th. As you can imagine, running together affords us a chance to talk about a lot of stuff. Everything from in-laws (mine are AWESOME!) to bodily functions issues (please don't ask!) to kids. Melanie and her husband, Joel, have two wonderful children. And I have thoroughly enjoyed the stories of Daphne's princess obsession and Micah's experiences on the pee wee football team. Melanie and Joel are great parents and being friends with them has helped me realize that parenthood is full of rewards and fun, not just disciple and laundry.

On our Saturday run, Melanie and I were a little quiet. It was strange. I think we had acutally run out of things to talk about. A few miles in, we started talking about kids. Melanie always says, "I can't wait to meet your kids!" After running for a while, I admitted that I couldn't remember EXACTLY when my last period was. I vividly remember that in January, it started the day after my birthday. In February it started the day after Valentines. For some reason, I think I had a light period right around March 14th. Obviously, I wasn't super late or anything.

Melanie told me that she found out she was pregnant at Chick-Fil-A. She said that she and her mom were driving around and got a PG test and stopped there for lunch. She then told me that Joel was a waiter at O'Charley's and was working that night. She went there to have dinner in his section and took him a little rattle as a gift to signal to him that he was going to be a father. I thought that was such a cute idea! It got me to thinking that if and when I am PG, I will have to do something funny or cute so Ellis could tell everyone how he found out.

When I got home from our 10 mile run, I was hot and stinky and sweaty. Ellis was playing Call of Duty on his Xbox so I decided to just jump in the shower and get cleaned up while he was playing his game. Before I got in the shower, I decided to dig out the pregnancy test my mom gave to me about a year ago. She brought it to me from the lab, just a little something to have on hand as needed.

I really didn't expect anything. I really didn't. But something happened. Two stripes immediately appeared. Clearly. Quickly. I am pregnant.



I spent about 15 minutes in the shower quietly thinking and holding on to my little secret. No one else in the world knew at that moment but me.

At the end of my shower, Ellis came in and started shaving off his huge beard. It had gotten pretty wild. And I was happy to see it transform from a large, furry, red rug to a small little patch of bristle. I had left the PG test on the counter and he hadn't noticed yet.

I quickly snuck into his closet and found an old undershirt. Then I went to the kitchen with some markers and scribbled out a message. I couldn't stop smiling. I threw a little skirt on and headed to the bathroom.



Ellis looked up from his handy work (his beard was nearly gone) and I watched a variety of feeling fleet across his face. His first words were, "Is this a joke?" Followed quickly by, "Are you kidding me?!" The faster, "Are you joking?"

All I could do is laugh. And shake my head, and squeeze out a "It's true!"

In 15 days....

In 15 days Ellis and I will have been married for 5 years! It surprises me every time I think about it. Partially because I feel like we have been together for a life time. I don't clearly remember life before Ellis. There are flashes of roommates, college, travel. But so much of my life now revolves around him. 5 years also surprises me because I think that kind of sounds like a long time. In some ways, I feel like we are living the same lives we had the first year of marriage. In other ways, I realize that a lot has changed. We have had a lot of great experiences in the last 5 years.

Here are a few of our adventures and experiences:

Travel
1. Honeymoon in Park City




2. Yellowstone National Park in August 2004
3. Yellowstone National Park in September 2005
4. Florida March 2005
5. Park City 2006 - 2007 - three visits by Tamara



6. Florida June 2008
7. Park City December 2008



8. We travel to Michigan every Christmas and try to visit one other time each year.

Life Changes
1. Married March 27, 2004



2. Tamara wrecked her car in July 2004
3. Chewy was adopted October 2004
4. Ellis left CPC in November 2006
5. Ellis worked at Trails End in Park City Nov 2006 - April 2007
6. Ellis has been working at Mohawk since May 2007
7. Tamara tragically lost her gallbladder in August 2007
8. February 2008, moved to Robinhood Drive and started renting the 8th Street house
9. Bought Robinhood in June 2008

Fun Memories
* Riverbends with Ellis
* Ellis taking pictures in downtown Chattanooga
* Camping trips and hikes
* Taking small airplane rides over the Tennessee Valley
* Pirates for Halloweens
* Dirty feet after cleaning off the fences at 8th Street
* Funyacking on the Ocoee
* Ellis talking in his sleep
* Ellis dream sequences
* Ellis driving heavy machinery
* "Rollin' Down the Highway" - Ellis
* Air Show in Chattanooga
* IKEA visits and Ellis begging to leave
* Junkman's Daughter
* Relaxing in our new house
* Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and other TV shows we secretly love
* Ellis fixing a flat tire
* Ellis fixing my car



* Ellis and his tool belt (RAWR!)
* Scarlet O'Haras, Buttery Nipples, Gin and Ginger Ale, and 7 &7s
* Laughing




* Laughing a lot



* Laughing until I accidentally peed my pants.... oops.
* Excited Ellis running through the house.
* Spending time with the Harem
* Spending time with the 8th Street Family Band
* Spending time with AKB
* Meeting new friends and hanging w/ the Lyons
* Moving Mari, Mo, AKB, and ourselves
* Yard Sales

There is no one else I would rather spend the rest of my life with. I never knew that being married would be this wonderful, because I am married to my best friend. He knows me better than I know myself. He is amazing!

More Carpet Pics

Putting in new carpet is HARD WORK! Seriously! We had to move all of our furniture out of the rooms we were carpeted. In addition, that meant having to pack up all of our trinkets, knickknacks, TVs, cables and cords, movies, and stuff. It was tough! Ellis and I also decided that we would remove the old carpet our selves to save some money. So here are some more pictures of that process.


Just a reminder.... we started out with BLUE carpet. Isn't it lovely?!?

We moved all of the furniture out of our bedroom two nights before the new carpet came in. And I just couldn't miss two days of the Today Show, now could I? Ellis was so nice and put together this fancy set up for me! Big TV at the foot of the bed, nice! Chewy seemed interested in this new development.

My toes on the blue carpet in the living room. There was a little wear and tear over the course of 24 years!

Our blue carpet in the dining room. And no, that is not our permanent dining room table. It has been great for wrapping Christmas gifts and stuff. But if will NOT be there forever.... just until I find the perfect table! Do you like our new paint?

Our blue carpet in the living room! Check out my new living room lamp! Sweet! (Oh, and we were watching Showtime's Dexter. I love that show!)

After we moved all of the furniture and started pulling up the carpet, we had to be a little silly. Ellis took some pictures of me on the floor.

(Notice the outlets that are in our floor. We'll talk more about those later!)

Chewy had to see what was going on. Very curious!


I even got a little kiss on the cheek from her!

I think I was getting ready to start a dance routine.... maybe a cartwheel.... I don't know. Once we moved all of the furniture, that area near the piano was FULL of couches and cushions! You couldn't even go through that area.

Before the carpet could be installed, Ellis needed to move the floor outlet. The current location did not work with how we had our furniture arranged. The outlet appeared to be in the middle of our floor. We wanted it to be under the couch so it had to be moved about 3 feet towards the front door.

To do this, Ellis donned his overalls, work boots, and head lamp then crawled under our house. He was a dirty mess when it was over!

He had to start by finding the new spot for the outlet. Chewy was acting as his supervisor.

She offers encouragement as needed during these big projects. She must have been whispering a little hint in his ear.


Once Ellis was under the house, we had to remove the old outlet.

I stayed in the house and helped Ellis from above. Sometimes passing his little drill through the hole. I must have trimmed Chewy's nails while I was helping Ellis. What can I say, I multi-task like a pro!

Chewy tried to help, too!

Ellis's new headlamp came in VERY handy during this project!


Isn't he cute!!!!???


It was so funny to see him working through a hole in the floor.


Chewy was really trying to figure out what was going on.

In the end, Ellis did a great job with the outlet. The new position is perfect and we haven't had a single problem with it. Go Ellis!!

First Tennessee