Atlanta Shower #2

The blessings just went on and on. On Sunday, Carrie Anne and her mom, Kathy, hosted a shower for youth group buddies, family, and some Complex Sale ladies. It was in my old youth building, which was a fun trip down memory lane.

In the picture above, I'm opening the group gift from Aunt Gail, Uncle Ronnie, Susan, Ryan, Jaclyn and Hank - our infant car seat and stroller! It was a huge blessing; now we can bring the baby home. We received so many awesome gifts - sentimental ones, practical ones, and just plain cute ones. Our cup overflows with all the love...

Here's mom and Kim Lowenthal - one of my surrogate youth group moms.

Lindsay, Erin, Carrie Anne and me. These girls were my cohorts in many a youth group adventure. It just warmed my heart the whole weekend to be back with all these RUMC people.

And some Carolina girls! Megan (far left) came all the way down from Nashville for the shower. It was so great to get to hang out with her and all the family this weekend.

Carrie Anne, as God intended her to be, holding a baby. This is Selah (pronounced Say-lah with a proper twang. As Carrie Anne says, "There's nothing like Southern Hebrew").

On the left are two more youth group moms - Mama Kathy (Carrie Anne's real mom) and Mama Dee (Erin's real mom).

Atlanta Shower #1

The ladies in my mom's reunion/accountability group through this shower for me and Baby Boy. It was a really sweet time with a group of women who pretty much watched me grow up. It was mostly people from my parents' Sunday School class (which they've been in for 20+ years) and their daughters. Some of them have known me since I was in diapers.

My Aunt Marisa came all the way down from Asheville for this shower. It was so great to have her there and get to catch up with her over the weekend.

Here are some of the Berean baby/youth group gals. We're all grown up now!

Isn't this a cute Noah's Ark blanket?

While I was opening presents they passed the camera to Ruth Fletcher, who is an amazing photographer. Not everyone gets a professional to shoot their baby shower.

I think Mom might be excited about this grandbaby.

This little toy was hysterical. Every time you shook it, it let out this explosive giggle, which had everyone howling. It also went off in the car when we were driving home and scared Jonathan when he was unpacking it from the car.

North Carolina Shower

We have been so blessed to have three baby showers in the last two weeks. I traveled with mom up to Raleigh for the first one. It was so great getting to see some friends who we hadn't seen since we moved. I also got to see my old college roomie Amber all-pregnant, but I'm not regretting not having a picture with her (I'm regretting not having lots of pictures from this shower).
The hostesses stuck with the safari theme that we're going for in our room. This cake was so adorable...and tasty. The shower was thrown by Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Fisher and Courtney Pike. The Pikes and the Fishers are dear family friends for the Moseleys, and Jonathan grew up going on family vacations with them.


Yes, the baby has lots of Carolina gear, all provided various sources (this one by Aunt Joan). When Reba sent her Carolina present, she wrote, "Consider this a 'starter kit' for raisin' that youngin' right." Preach it sista!

Southwestern Salad Bar

Couldn't really think of anything to blog about these days. I would like to have posted some pictures of my shower in Raleigh, but alas, I forgot my camera. Then I forgot to borrow my dad's. Sweet Mrs. Pike, who helped throw the shower, said she would send a CD of hers though. I had a wonderful time seeing friends and family. Thanks to Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Fisher and Courtney for throwing it!

I always enjoyed it when friends posted recipes, so I decided to follow suit. This is a salad bar that I put together for the Atlanta group that came down a few weekends ago. It worked well for a few reasons: 1) people could choose their toppings, so it fits a variety of taste preferences 2) I had everything prepped beforehand and just moved everything out to serve 3) healthy. Even the guys liked it because as Jonathan claims that salads are good for meals if there is meat on them.

I didn't do the green onions and radishes at the end. I would suggest also putting some jarred salsa out for those who like it. I used fresh mango instead of bottled, and it was a yummy addition. You'll need more salad dressing and cheese than this lists if you're really going to serve 8 people. You can get this recipe off myrecipes.com (which is a fantastic place for recipes. You get access to all of Cooking Light, Southern Living and Real Simple recipes, which are probably my three favorite magazines).

Southwestern Salad Bar
Ingredients
1 tablespoon fajita seasoning
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears)
5 teaspoons fresh lime juice, divided
2 teaspoons minced fresh cilantro
2/3 cup chopped red onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and chopped
1/2 cup diced peeled avocado
3/4 cup light ranch dressing
1 1/2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
12 cups packaged chopped romaine lettuce
3 cups chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat Mexican blend or cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups unsalted baked tortilla chips, crumbled (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1 cup bottled sliced peeled mango, chopped
1 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup thinly sliced radishes

Preparation
Cook the seasoning in a large saucepan over medium heat 2 minutes or until toasted, stirring frequently. Combine fajita seasoning, corn, 1 tablespoon juice, and cilantro in a medium serving bowl.
Combine onion, garlic, beans, and bell pepper in a medium serving bowl. Combine avocado and 2 teaspoons juice in a small serving bowl, tossing gently to coat. Combine dressing and chipotle in a small serving bowl.

Place lettuce in a large serving bowl. Place chicken in a medium serving bowl. Place cheese, chips, mango, green onions, and radishes in individual serving bowls. Arrange the bowls, buffet-style, beginning with lettuce and ending with dressing.

Fun Baby Presents

Here is a few catch-up posts on some of the fun baby gifts we've received.
Mom and Dad Page came down and bought us our crib (on the left). On the right is the rocker that Grandmother and Granddaddy Moseley passed along. Both Jonathan and Jonathan's dad have been rocked in it, so it has a sweet heritage.


Mom and Dad Moseley and Anna came down last week. They gave us our pack 'n' play, a mattress for the crib and the gift of helping us paint the nursery.

Here they are assembling the pack 'n' play (practicing for when it comes to their house to visit!). Sorry for the blurry pic!

Here is Jonathan with the mobile for the playard that he really didn't like. It's not very colorful or eye-catching for a baby, so he refused to register for it until he confirmed that it detached.

We found this great storage piece and the changing table for a steal at Baby Depot. On display are a few of the gifts we've already received for Baby Mo. I'm planning on getting some baskets for the shelves instead of just stacking things there.


When Parker and Rachel were down, they brought us their gift: another rocking chair. Even though we already had the one from the Moseleys, this was also such a sweet and precious gift that we'll get to use to start another family heritage with. Do I look like a mom yet?

I "helped" Parker put the chair together.

We now have furniture and a painted room - this baby thing is starting to become more and more real! The color is a sage green, and the Moseleys did a wonderful job with painting - it only took one coat.

Hopefully we'll pick up some more decorations soon with the safari animal theme we're going with. It's come a long way since we moved in. I feel better knowing our little one has a place to sleep, but even better knowing how loved he is already by so many people.

Georgia Visitors

My brother Parker, sister-in-law Rachel, cousin Ryan, and friend/cousin-in-law Susan came up from Atlanta for a day trip today. We had a great time exploring Birmingham and just hanging out. Jonathan, sadly, had to work all day, but we did swing by the hospital to visit. Everyone was very disappointed though because Jonathan came down without his lab coat or wearing a stethoscope or anything fun and doctor-ish (except his pager).





















We didn't get to do that much sightseeing because it was raining, but we did get to go see the Vulcan. Here is Parker posing like Vulcan (yes, I made him do it, but as his older sister, I retain the right to make him do silly things like this. Not that he really puts up that much of a fight).

The Vulcan is sort of the symbol of Birmingham. He overlooks the city from the top of Red Mountain, and being the Roman god of fire and forge, he symbolizes the city's steel-mining heritage. It's also the large cast-iron sculpture in the world, and it had a good view of the city from the top.

I don't think it's a good thing that the symbol of Birmingham is a pagan god, but golden calf or not, they should have at least put a loin cloth on his backside or something. I mean how does that side of Birmingham feel about constantly being mooned by this guy?

Baby Story

Sheesh.
I've never been much of a crier. Though marriage and growing up have gradually made me more of one (in a good way), I'm still not an emotional, watch-a-sappy-movie crier.
But watching TLC's A Baby Story just kills me. I used to watch Wedding Story pretty often in high school/college, but never cared much for the baby show...until recently. I watched one episode pretty early on in pregnancy, probably around 8 weeks or so. I was on the treadmill in my parents' basement and totally shocked myself. When the baby came out on the show, I just uncontrollably lost it. I didn't even feel it coming on...all of a sudden I gasped and bawled - just for a minute.

Well, I just watched my second episode and thought by now I would be more emotionally prepared. Nope, lost it again. Totally uncontrollable. Jonathan and I have discussed how we don't even know what our emotions are going to be like or how much we're going to love this little one until he gets here. I mean, can anyone really be prepared for that moment? But my primal reaction to seeing someone else's child for the first time is giving me a little hint of how I'm going to feel. We'll see how much I lose it after delivery.

Bird Hangout

We stopped hanging our bird feeder up at our home in Chapel Hill because it was mostly squirrels getting at it, but we decided to put it up again here. Apparently Alabama birds are a lot less skiddish or our feeding location feels safer because birds just come and hangout here. In Chapel Hill, they would land quickly, nibble and fly away fast. But ours just hangout here - lots of birds - and they eat a lot. We got through at least a tube of birds seed a week if not more.

32 Weeks

Here is a requested belly shot at just over 32 weeks (which by the way Jonathan would like to correct my previous post saying that this is 8 months; It's a little deceptive, true). Apparently I'm showing enough now that strangers have the boldness to ask me when I'm due. I feel like I'm ballooning each day, and I'm definitely significantly bigger than when I arrived in Birmingham.

Countdown...

I added a ticker at the bottom of the page, so everyone can keep tabs on Baby Moseley. I'm 32 weeks today (8 months already...yikes!).

Birmingham Perks

There a few perks to living in this city that I have really enjoyed thus far.

Perk #1: Our mail is delivered to our door (see the black box in the picture). Not our mailbox, not community group of boxes, but our door. It's ridiculously convenient. The other day I went to mail our Father's Day cards. I signed and addressed them at around 10 p.m. and stepped outside my door in my pajamas to mail them. I now have no excuse for not getting birthday cards in the mail on time.


Perk #2: The public library system is really awesome. Kristen gave me the run down on it, and I got my card the other week and checked out a few books. It's entirely possible that I've lived in cities with other great public libraries and never really employed them. This library system has tons of branches and a great online search. You can also find a book online at any of the branches and have it sent to a branch closer to you.

So far I've checked out:
-What to Expect the First Year
-Bringing Up Boys (by James Dobson)
-The Way of the Wild Heart (by John Eldredge)
-The New Mom's Manual (filled with little tidbits of advice from new moms)

You can tell what I'm preparing for...I'm attempting to remedy my cluelessness on infant care. For all you parents out there, are there any other parenting books you'd recommend? I'm planning on checking out Baby Wise. I've heard mixed reviews, but definitely think it would be worth perusing. Any other recommendations?

Updates

Just thought I'd send a few updates about what's going on with us.

• We were originally under the impression that Jonathan would start work July 1, but found out last week that he would actually start a week earlier than that. So that pushed some plans we had, but most stuff got done. So he started on Sunday. His first day was 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m., but yesterday was much easier. He was home by 1:30 (in the afternoon).
  
  
• We visited Jonathan's grandparents in Montgomery. It's nice to be so close to them! We came back laden with peaches from the curbside market and tomatoes from Granddaddy Moseley's garden (soooo good...). I'll be having tomato sandwiches and BLTs for lunch all week. Jonathan's granddad eats them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. When we were picking them together, he kept commenting "All this needs is a little salt..."
  
  
• I went to my first doctor's appointment with my new OB here in Birmingham. He was very nice and spent a lot of time chatting with me. It's a small practice, so he should be the one to actually deliver our baby. We had our FIFTH ultrasound - how blessed are we? He has the cutest little cheeks and nose. And he's on track to be big. They said he is over 4 lbs. already. Both Jonathan and I were bigger babies, so I wasn't anticipating small.
  
  
• This was a fun little first. Jonathan mowed his own lawn (not his parents', his own lawn) for the first time on Saturday. We had some stubborn and unyielding vines in one part, but Jonathan showed them who was boss. There is still a lot of work to do, but we're under water restrictions here, so we probably won't do any planting this year.
  

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

It's Jonathan's birthday today. I'm so blessed that God brought you into this world 26 years ago today. I chose this picture because it shows his sense of wonder and curiosity (this was taken at the Atlanta aquarium) - one of the many things that I love about him. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Handyman

Jonathan has accomplished lots of odd jobs around our house. Here are a few pictures of my handyman's work over the past week or so (besides small task of moving everything into the house).
Here he is hanging a picture in our kitchen. Isn't he cute?

He mounted this cabinet in our bathroom because there was basically no place to put all of his wife's bathroom necessities (girls, you know how it is, a measly shelf is not going to cut it).

I barely cleared the height our showerhead was previously at, so you know Jonathan was having problems. He searched all around town for this extension thing. It was harder to find than you would think, but it fit the bill perfectly.

He assembled this wonderful TV stand. I think it works perfectly in the room - thank you Wal-Mart!

Here is another picture he hung. He's much better at hanging pictures than me because he's better with numbers in general. I'm glad I have him around!

Occupation?

Well Jonathan and I had lots of government "adventures" (i.e. frustrations) over the last two days, but we finally got our driver's licenses and tags; we're officially Alabamians. We had to re-read Romans 14 to remind ourselves to be grateful for the governing authorities.

The poignant part for both of us, after we finally made it to the front of the driver's license line, came when they asked us our occupation. I was a little stunned when I had to answer "homemaker." Jonathan sympathized: "I had to answer physician." It's a strange identity change for both of us...

We're at the beach for a few days with the Pages. I forgot the camera at home, unfortunately, so probably no pictures. Sad.

Sweet Home Alabama

Now is the appropriate time for this Skynrd song. We have arrived and are getting settled here in Birmingham. Most of the boxes (that we have with us) have been unpacked, and Jonathan has been very busy with a few Mr. Fix-it jobs. We're still figuring out decor though and haven't even started on Baby Moseley's room. I'll send pictures when it's more set-up.

We have accomplished the most important thing in moving to a new area: finding really good barbecue. I haven't found a regular place to grocery shop, but we did discover some very fine barbecue at the Golden Rule. My parents came down to see the house on the way to the beach and took us out there. Although Kristen took me to Jim and Nick's back in January, which did have some delicious cheese biscuits and tasty Q, I'm going to have to say that Golden Rule beats it out in the overall barbecue deliciousness. It also had some other indicators that it would be a good Q place: the waitress addressed Jonathan as sweetie, paper towels instead of napkins on the table, and you could smell the smoke from outside the modest exterior. I think we'll be visiting it frequently with out-of-town guests. Another bonus: they have a branch right across the street from the hospital I'll be delivering at.

Freebird

OK, so I just wanted to save the headline "Sweet Home Alabama" for another entry, so I decided to go for an alternative Skynrd song. Jonathan successfully closed on our house in Birmingham and started moving things in today. I go down to Atlanta tomorrow after work and then on to B-ham on Saturday. We probably won't be posting for a few days as we move in and get Internet set up.

The goodbyes have been as sweet as goodbyes can be. God was more than gracious with all the incredible friendships He's blessed us with over the past few years. It's because of that faithfulness that we are confident He'll do the same down in Alabama. Now we're ready to start this new adventure that God has given us.

It's a little cheesy, but I wanted to post a song that my camp counselors used to sing to us at Camp Glisson before we left. I've been singing it to myself as we say these farewells.

My friend, I think of you daily
Because I care and it's true.
And even though we're hardly ever near,
I'm talking to Him about you.

And I'll be praying for you every morning,
As I start off the day with the Lord,
And I'll be praying that you're walking with Jesus,
And abiding in His Word. In His Word.

Now you see this Jesus of Nazareth,
He means everything to me.
For He has taken my life, and He's come in to my heart,
And He calmed a raging sea.

And I want you to know that God loves you.
And that I love you too.
And even though we're hardly ever near,
I'm talking to Him about you...

Providence Baby Shower

My communications gals threw a shower for me and Baby Boy Moseley with all the Providence ladies. It was a sweet time as this group of women has become so dear to me over the past four years. I've admired each one's faith and service to the Lord. They've encouraged me, and I know being around them has helped prepare me for motherhood.

Part of the spread included nuggets from Chick-fil-A. These girls know me well!

Laura made this awesome baby carriage cake. She's a perfectionist and said there were flaws, but it looked pretty perfect to me. Laura and I have seen each other almost every weekday for the past four years, so it will be strange adjusting to life without her!

We played fun games. Lindsey (in the front) rocked both the baby animals game and the word scramble game (making new names out of the letters in Jonathan's and my names). After the latter, we're seriously considering Raul.

Hannah came to my party! She really was happier than this most of the time. During the baby animals game, she entertained us by telling us what sounds each of the animals made.

Here's Kristie writing down the gifts. She's my boss and helped throw the shower. Thanks Kristie! Behind her is a poster collage that the sweet people at Graphics Ink made me. I work with them on the magazine and the bulletin, and they all came to my shower. They presented me with this framed poster of the magazine covers I had worked on with them - it was so touching.

I feel like there is something UNC in each blog entry. Lian and her daughter Marissa made this fun blanket for our little boy.

Kristie found these Peep puzzles for me! I mean, for the baby.

It's not a party till you wear something on your head.


Natalie made this awesome card - Prayers for Baby Moseley. She made it previously for Janie. It has a Bible verse for each body part. For example, the one pointing to the heart is "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

Russia Reunion

Last night, we made a special road trip with Dave and Elizabeth Efird. Dave and Jonathan went on a STIM mission trip to Russia together for a summer during college. The only other guy on the team was a fellow named De Beer. Life and ministry just happened to bring De Beer all the way from South Africa to Kernersville, North Carolina. What are the odds? So the Russia guys were reunited. When they were in Russia, they were all young bachelors, and now they are all married and have/are expecting babies. De Beer has an awesome testimony and is going into full-time ministry in apologetics. You can see his website here.

Pregnant Buddies - The Elizabeth Edition

Here are two more of our pregnant friends. Both of the mommies-to-be happened to be named Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Efird is due almost exactly a month before me. (More on the Dave and Jonathan above.) It's been so awesome to get to know Elizabeth. She also graduated before me, but we got to know her through Dave. Everytime we see them, I am inspired by she and Dave's heart for serving the Lord and sharing Christ's love. I'm glad Dave married such an awesome gal!

And Elizabeth Horner is due at the end of December. We're really sad because they're moving to San Diego in July, so we won't get to meet Baby Horner for a while. Jeff and Elizabeth both went to Carolina (but we didn't know Jeff then; he graduated before we got there). I knew Elizabeth through InterVarsity and recognized her when we started going to Providence. We got to know Jeff because they were dating (and subsequently got married). His dad is also our senior pastor. They also introduced us to our friends Jamie and Caron (see the graduation entry).