My Favorite Place on Earth

Okay, I know my title is cheesy, but Camp Deer Run really is my favorite place on earth. It has been since I first started going to camp when I was nine. It's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it as a camper or staff member, but it's the place where I feel closest to God & where I can see Him most clearly. Some of my dearest friends are people I met at Camp, & I truly believe in its mission. Saturday was the celebration of Camp's 50th anniversary. We spent the afternoon catching up with old friends & eating barbecue. J probably wouldn't prefer to spend six hours sweating out at Camp with a bunch of people he didn't know, but he's a great sport (& he does know some of them). This is my friend Jodi, who was actually my counselor for a couple of years when I was in high school. She is one of my favorite people, & I love that no matter how long we're apart, we're still just as close to each other & comfortable hanging out together when we see each other again. She is having her second little one in December!

With so many pregnant women there, we just had to take a picture of all of us together, in order of due date. Here's Sarah, Katie, Mary, Kendra, me, Rachel & Jodi.

CDR Staff 2000's: And all the Deer Runners there on Saturday:

It was really a great day. Only five years until Jake & Mallory can start day camp!

Sonograms & Demolition Day

I'm officially a "bad blogger." I always have great intentions of getting things posted in a timely manner & actually having more than one post every week or so, but somehow I don't get that done. Oh well! We had a sonogram last Monday, & each baby now weighs 1 lb 12 oz. By the size of my belly, you might think they were each several pounds, but they're actually at great weights for their gestational age. Here's Jake posing for the camera. His head is on the right & that's his belly on the left with a hand showing above it. If you tilt your head to the right, you can visualize his little face better.

And here's Mallory. Because of the angle the picture was taken from, she looks like she's exactly opposite from Jake (head on the left), but they were really laying almost side by side in the same direction during the sonogram.

They were both moving around like crazy during the appointment, which has pretty much become the norm lately. I'm loving every minute of it! Feeling them move is so awesome, & it's just great to have a reminder that they're in there & are doing well. I have an appointment with my regular OB on Wednesday, & we should get a date for the C-section. Anyone that knows me at all knows I love to plan, so this is very exciting to me. Before you all comment on how they could come before that date & throw a kink in my plan, let me assure you that I know that. It's just nice to have something to shoot for, & hopefully they'll stay in there until the doctor decides it's time for their arrival. One last pic on the baby topic - here's me at 24 weeks.

On to the demolition! As part of our big flooring project that we're tackling, J & his dad are going to replace the hardwood floors in our entry hall & dining room. These are the before pictures:

They don't look that bad in the pictures, but they have tons of sun damage, & there are lots of weak & brittle boards from some old termite damage. The new floors will be installed when J's parents come for my shower in a few weeks, but J decided to start on the prep work this weekend so that he can have it ready to just put the new stuff down when Gary gets here. Really, I think he just liked having a reason to tear something up!

He's now working on scraping the old glue off of the floor & getting everything smoothed out for the new floor to go down. We also ordered our carpet on Friday, so hopefully that will be installed in the next week or so. Happy Memorial Day tomorrow!

Project Nursery

I'll start with a few more stages of belly pictures. Just when I think there's no way I could get much bigger, the twins prove me wrong! Here's 21 weeks.

And 22 weeks...

And the latest, 23 weeks!

Those very cute new walls behind me in the last 2 pictures are in the nursery, formerly known as J's office. This is the before state...

We thought about repainting it when we moved in since the pale yellow walls definitely still looked like a nursery, which is what the previous owners used it for, but we never got around to that. I decided on chocolate brown walls when we found out we were having a boy & a girl so that I can still use pink & blue bedding. J & I started the project several weeks ago. Please ignore my no make-up, bad hair look.

J decided to tackle the project of putting up wainscoting & chair railing himself, & our good friend Mark Fowler was very, very kind to offer his help (& his dad's fancy tools). J & I went to buy the lumber that Thursday night so everything would be ready to go on Saturday. I know it's cheesy that I took a picture of the lumber, but I wanted to document the whole project.

Hattie & I left for Canton at 7:30 in the morning, & the guys worked all day & did amazing work.

The next step is getting the carpet replaced in most of the house, & then we'll be able to assemble the cribs & changing table, which we picked up tonight. Lots to do!

Young Marrieds' Retreat

Two weekends ago, we went to Camp Deer Run with other couples from our Sunday school class for a weekend retreat. Camp is my favorite place to be, so I'm pretty easy to please when I get to be there. Sarah & I even got one of Scarecrow's great hugs when he stopped in to say hello on Saturday morning. Side hugs are best when hugging two very pregnant women. :)

Here are some of the girls preparing breakfast. Notice the lack of men in the kitchen. They were perfectly content to drink their coffee & try to wake up as they slowly filtered into the mess hall.

Our retreats center mostly around food, so it's always a good time. A few of our members that are parents also got a little break to relax while the kids went to the grandparents' house for the weekend. The other highlight is always the horshoe tournament. I'm really pretty terrible, but it's always fun. Justin did play one game with me as his partner, but he much prefers the other guys who have gotten ringers more than once or twice in their lives.

This picture of Sarah in action is one of my favorites from the weekend. Such a graceful toss!

Haylee, Miranda, Sarah & I played a game together. Haylee attempted to squat for the group pic since the rest of us are vertically challenged, but we probably should've gone for more of a close-up to hide that fact. Oh well!

Saturday night we built a campfire & had hot dogs & s'mores. What was fun when you were twelve is still great as adults! J, Chad & Stephen did a great job leading our small group discussions throughout the weekend. It was a great time of fellowship & strengthening relationships.