A Whole New World

I know it has been a while but I wasn't sure I could get through a post without spilling our news too early!

{WE ARE HAVING A BABY!}

And frankly I have be holding off because who really wants to hear about pregnancy details from an annoying pregnant lady?!

With much thought, I have decided to be the annoying pregnant lady that documents this new life because I want Baby B to be able to laugh at the stories and I want to be able to compare future pregnancies.

And I just want to, okay?!

With that being said, if you get annoyed with silly little pregnancy/baby posts you must stop here!

Otherwise, let's just see how the next 6 months go together!  No I do not plan to be a perfect pregnant lady or the perfect mom, so please leave judgement and snarky comments at the sign in page..  Off we go!

I will start by saying we have been waiting a long time for this sweet one, but God has taught us so much during the wait that we are so thankful for.  Isn't He good, and He is so dang smart with His timing!  It's a wonder why we try to help Him so much! ;)

The day we found out was truly a day for the books.  Blake nearly turned the chair over when I showed him the test and of course we were both in tears.  Working together all day, with employees flying in and out, was interesting.  We smiled at each other all day and caught ourselves laughing at how giddy we both were.  

And wouldn't you know it, that very week the pregnancy symptoms started full force.  

I have struggled every day of the last month and a half eating.  Just plain eating.  If you know me well, you know that this has never been an issue for me!  Luckily at our first appointment our doc had some great tips for me!  Speaking of our first appointment, it was pretty awesome.  Baby B looked like a grain of rice (6 weeks) and the heartbeat was about as big as the whole baby!  We didn't have many questions because frankly we didn't know what to expect.  We hadn't told a sole yet so we had no advise going in!  I think we did okay ;)

Appointment #2 (10 weeks) was also exciting.  Baby B had grown so much and the heart was so much stronger.  This was the first time we cried looking at our little peanut.  Our doctor is so awesome and gets just as excited to show us our baby!  I really wasn't expecting another ultrasound this time, but I sure was relieved to see the baby again! 

  

Currently we are 12 weeks!  I am hoping the yucky pregnancy symptoms will fade soon and I will get some energy back!  Being able to eat normally again would also be nice but hey, I won't complain!  I really can't tell if my belly is growing because of the baby, or if it's just bloat and fat.. Whatever it is, it's starting to get a little pudgy!  Can I just say that it is a very weird feeling after you have tried to stay semi-fit your whole life?! 

Well I guess that's it for now, I will be back after the New Year and our next appointment. (possibly finding out gender then!!)  I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and Christ centered holiday season! 

Peace!

Worth The Wait

We are finally getting settled in to the new scrap yard and we couldn't be happier. I could go on and on about how hard this process was and how I wish it were easier to move a couple of businesses across town, and that would all be true, but the fact is that this has been a true blessing every step of the way.  Every tear and every drop of sweat was so worth the wait.  Blake will tell you that he is ready to do it again, but I am not that brave!  I think the man is trying to kill me!  

So for all of you scrappers out there--  

PREMIER METAL BUYERS PAYS THE MOST CASH FOR YOU METAL.. OR WE'LL MATCH IT!

On another note, I want to shout out to our sweet friends Paige and Nathan Meyer!  We can't wait to meet your precious baby in March 2013.  I'm already wetting my whistle for tons of baby kisses!! 

God thank you for guiding every move of our new scrap yard.  Thank you for keeping your hand in it and keeping us on our toes.  Thank you for giving us the fuel (coffee) that we needed to get through every day!  And thank you Lord, for sweet baby Meyer.  Please watch over Paige in her pregnancy, strengthen Nathan so that he may handle her with patience ;) and give this baby everything it needs to be a healthy child of God. Amen.

Mystery Date

Yesterday my sweet husband sent me home early from work to get ready for a surprise mystery date!  (most of you know by now that we work together!)  I was a little panicked. I sure didn't get off early enough to get decked out (I mean I didn't have time for an airbrush tan or anything! haha).  So I jumped in the shower to rid myself of this scrap yard dust and started racing through my closet.  Why oh why does it seam that nothing was appealing to wear to this mysterious place?!  Blake got home to jump in the shower only to find me in the middle of many failed outfits.  He says, "babe, we need to leave in five minutes.  Everything in there looks perfect on you."  FIVE minutes!  Ahh, men, thank you for the sweet compliment, but when will they get it?  Luckily I have this late notice thing down and I was, in fact, out the door in five minutes!  (makeup in the car has become an art for me!)

So, we head in the direction of Houston and he is telling me that I am going to LOVE this place.  I'm thinking.. what are my favorite things?!  Chinese, Italian, American, Mexican.. who am I kidding?  I love it all!  As I am trying not to get eye liner everywhere he says, "think smoked." BBQ?  Brisket?  I don't even like that stuff so much.  What is this man thinking?  Okay, must be salmon.. Smoked salmon.  But salmon I don't really eat either.  What in the world!  Okay, don't freak out.  This man knows me better than I know myself and he sure knows what he wife likes to eat!

I stay calm as we wind all over Houston enjoying conversation with my husband.  I am getting so excited as we get closer.  First, I couldn't believe B had planned this random date.  Second, I couldn't believe we were going on such a date for no reason other than to just go.  And third, I couldn't believe he actually kept it a secret.   Once we get to downtown Houston he starts looking around like we were getting close.  I perked up and started trying to find any hints but I had no clue where we were!  Then.. I see a sign that says crawfish.  Yes, we all know how much I LOVE crawfish, but hello?  I was in no attire to be elbows deep in crawfish.  But I have to admit.. it did excite me a little.

Well, we passed up the crawfish place!  Thank goodness.  It would have been so hard to contain my "romantic side" with spicy fingers and junk under my nails!  We rounded the corner and there it was!
Reef!  We had seen this place feature a smoked PORK CHOP on The Food Network and we had been dying to try it for months!  We started off with a motz pizza that was just like being back in Italy.  Blake had the smoked pork chop and I had an aged New York strip steak.  It was served with fried mac and cheese (my fav) and roasted better mashed potatoes (B's fav).  And yes, we do go all out on carbs for date night!  He topped off with a delicious cherry topped cheesecake and I had the caramel apple bread pudding.  I am not a huge fan of bread pudding but I like to try it every now and then and this one was yum!
It was a very yummy place.  The service, unfortunately, was not what we expected.  But we sure did enjoy ourselves.  I would love to go back and try the fish.  Lots of people around us had it and it look divine.  It is, after all, called Reef!

Lord, thank you for this man.  Thank you for giving him a sensitive heart and a listening ear.  Thank you for his extreme passion for providing for our little family.  Most of all, thank you for giving us each other to love so much and do sweet things like this to show it!  You sure do know what you are doing!  AMEN!

               Just a little something for you guys from http://reefhouston.com/!

Work&Work

Blessed is all I can say. We have been working our tooshies off on our new yard for Premier.

YES I RAN A BULLDOZER!!

We have made some really exciting progress and are expecting out concrete work the first part of next week. When I say our plates are full, boy do I mean it. We tend to get so overwhelmed and stressed at work, but when we get home we continue to remind ourselves that this feeling can only come from a business that has grown so incredibly quickly. This is good and bad, the only bad is that we are literally running around like chickens with our heads cut off seven days a week. And occasionally we get a little stressed about our employees and how much they depend on us and our business to feed their families. But how wonderful to be able to take on that responsibility. That is more than good, that is amazing. We are proud parents of a junk yard :)

In addition, I have taken over Budget Roll-Offs billing and book keeping. As if I needed more to do. I truly love it though. It gives me one more thing that I can handle and help my husband focus on Premier and it's needs right now. We are tag teaming and these two businesses are booming! Again, all I can say is what a blessing that God has chosen us to be a part of this. Sometimes I think that Man is crazy trusting us a little too much, but we sure couldn't do it without His hand in every single thing. God is such an amazing Man to have on your team, He will not fail you!

We love you all, and we do not intentionally send any of you to voice mail. I promise!! We just have to wait to talk until we can focus ;) Don't hate us if it's a few days later!

Christmas&New Years

December and January came and went just too fast! We enjoyed several Christmas gatherings with family, and actually still have a couple to go with Blake's side of the family this month. We love getting to see all the family and getting to watch the kids play together. It is just too much fun!

On December 22nd we left for Italy for 13 days. I should start by saying that I am not a seasoned traveler and haven't flown over about two or three hours at a time. Okay, now that you know my secrets.. The plane ride was just plain awful. We took the trip over during the night with high hopes of sleeping the 10 HOURS away. Wrong. We had a bite to eat, the lights went out, everyone started snoring, and there I was. Completely awake, bright eyed and emotional. I had never spent a Christmas away from home and quite frankly may not ever again. Blake is wrestling around next to me in the plane trying not to sleep because he knew I was full of anxiety. So sweet ;) And just when I thought I could close my eyes for a second the screen shows us going over the ocean and, oh yeah, here come the water works. If you know me you are probably cracking up because this is so me. (If you don't you are probably glad you don't!) I mean I'm on a plane to stinkin' ITALY for goodness sake! And I am crying, for a good 2 hours I am crying. About various things. (Women, you know how this goes!) Blake, poor Blake, did all he could in those tiny seats with no arm or leg room. His first question was.. What did I do? Haha, then he just let me skooch over as much as I could and snuggle up. I'm sure I was taking a great potion of his seat and all of mine, and most likely ruined all chances of him getting comfortable. But, we made it through the flight.. Only to find that the Paris airport security is on STRIKE, yes, apparently they can do that. Long story short, we and a bunch of others miss our flight to Naples so they fly us up to Milan and then back down to Naples were we should have landed at noon and instead landed at 5:30 pm with zero luggage! (No, I didn't cry again. But I wanted to!) We finally made it to Sorrento where Blake and I went out to a pizzeria and had probably the best meal we can remember. Could have been just because we had such and exhausting 20 hours of travel.. either way, we enjoyed every single minute.

Sorrento, oh Sorrento. This was my very favorite! It had the most amazing views and having Christmas there was just perfect. (We got our bags Christmas Eve night, which included my gift from Blake so he was extremely relieved!!) We enjoyed the Amalfi Coast and loved all of the food there! My favorite day was Christmas Eve. We spent the day with a native family for a cooking class. It was such a blast, the food was delicious, and this sweet family was adorable.

Yes, we had to wear hats!

Rome was our next stop. We had a great time in Rome! The Collesium was our favorite. Blake and I loved it! It seemed to be one of the only things that was so close to its original form without being restored. We saw absolutely everything possible in Rome. All of the famous sites were beautiful and had so much history it was just amazing. Not to mention the little pizza spot we found, we went there at least 3 time while we were in Rome. It was soo good!!

So much happened right where we were standing! Amazing!

This was a winery we toured on our way to the next place! We had a blast!

Our next stop was Florence. I wish they allowed pictures when we saw David. It was absolutely amazing to see the size and detail of him. We literally just stood and stared at him for a least an hour. Florence was also where we found a Hard Rock Cafe! LOL!! We had been eating so much of the same kinds of food we were just a little relieved to have american food to mix it up a little. (Awful I know!!) We also saw probably the best views from Florence, it was so beautiful.

It was a tad chilly, but just look at that!

Our final stop was Venice. I have to admit at this point we were very ready to see our dogs, sleep in our own bed, eat tex-mex food and I missed my family! Not to mention, when we arrived to Venice my camera was gone. You may have noticed the poor quality in photos from an iphone. My brand spankin' new camera was stolen at our hotel in Florence between the bell desk and making it in our van. Major bummer, I had some really great pictures on there. Anyway, it was super cold in Venice and a little hard to get around because most things were closed for New Years. Blake and I spent New Years Eve at the the Venice Hard Rock Cafe (since the menu was in English), but we did have traditional foods. They had a really neat 6 course meal set up and although it was a pretty small room, it felt very intimate. Maybe because we were the only people speaking in English, either way.. it was perfect! Oh and the 45 second water taxi was 60 euros.. yes, 60!! Not cool, we walked back ;)

Our water taxi was pretty cool! -this was the free one to the hotel ;)

All in all, we had a great trip. The flight back wasn't quite as bad because I knew I was coming home. Although I spent the first week back with a severe sinus infection, I was excited to be back and tell my family everything we had seen and done. It will probably be a while before I can work myself back up to a flight that far and a trip that long, but we will see. You all should definitely go if you get the chance. History is amazing to see when it dates back that far. Old stuff for us around here is like 200 years.. for them it's B.C. Crazy stuff!! We missed all of you this Christmas season and we hope you and your family were blessed with the joy and miracle of Christ. Love you guys, always!