Happy Birthday Riley Thomas Murley!!!

Today is a another very special day: Riley Thomas Murley is coming into the world, thanks to one of my very dear friends, Amber!  I am very very very very very excited to meet baby Riley!
David and I are praying that everything goes smoothly and easily for mommy and baby (and daddy, Clint, too!).  We love you, Murleys!!!

A good report!

We got an excellent report from the doctor today, and I am so happy!  :)  We were able to listen to Baby Bledsoe's heartbeat (a strong 156 beats/minute), and found out that we will find out if we will have a baby girl or baby boy on March 31.  David and I are VERY excited about that.  Dr. Dewane said our little bean is growing well, even though I have only gained 2 pounds!  I was a little worried at the fact that I haven't gained much weight (am I crazy?!) but was reassured that I am right on track.  Thank goodness!

It does indeed seem that babies are everywhere this week, and I LOVE IT!  David and I are taking dinner to our dear friends, Jennifer and Justin, tomorrow night since they are so busy taking care of little Adalyn.  I am excited to see her again--I am sure she has changed in the week since I last saw her!  And, of course, I am excited to see Jennifer, too.  :)  AND, another best friend of mine, Amber (and her husband, Clint) will be welcoming their son, Riley Thomas Murley, to the world tomorrow!  I CANNOT wait to meet him and love on him!  I am very very excited to see my two close friends grow as mommies...it's going to be so much fun!!!

Life and work have both been a little stressful lately, and I am definitely looking forward to taking some time off...only 13 days (9.5 work days) left until my break between jobs.  It will be nice to not have to set an alarm for a few weeks, that is for sure.  Like I said before, though, my resignation from the University has been bitter sweat.

Well, that's it for tonight!  We are getting our living room painted tomorrow, and I need to help my dear hubby get some things ready for that (although he has worked SO hard all day today).  Tomorrow will be a great day--I can't wait to meet Riley!!!!!

What a week!

Another busy week has come and gone in the Bledsoe house.  I had a 3 day weekend, and it still flew by...I just always wish the weekends could last longer!!

Anyway, I had to go to Nashville last week for a conference for work.  We left on Wednesday afternoon and came back on Thursday night.  Although it was a quick trip, it made for a very hectic week!  I had to pile everything that would normally happen in a 5 day week into 2 days...fun, fun!  My boss, Sara, and I drove up to Nashville on Wednesday afternoon, and I was able to consult with one of the major researchers in the field of Positive Behavior Support in schools, George Sugai.  It was pretty awesome.  After the meeting, we made a trip to Opry Mills...I mean, you can't go to Nashville without going shopping!  :)  I was able to get some pretty cool things, and then we had a great dinner at The Aquarium.  So yummy!  Thursday was busy with 2 presentations and the drive home, but we still managed to make a trip for some lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Again, you can't go to Nashville without going to the Cheesecake Factory!  We finally made it home around 9:00pm Thursday night.  I was exhausted!

My boss, Katie, was cool enough to give me the day off on Friday, so I spent most of the day laying on the couch, watching tv, and waiting for updates about the birth of Adalyn Ryan Baker.  It was great.  AND, Friday night, I finally got to meet sweet and precious little Adalyn.  She is perfect in every way, and I am so happy that she is here!!! :)

On Saturday, David and I ran a bunch of errands, and then we went out to dinner to celebrate the birthday of some very special friends, Ashley and Brad.  I always love getting together with the Bradleys and the Woodalls, no matter what the occasion is.  I am very grateful for such wonderful friends!

And, today, I have spent most of the day working on a paper that I have to complete in order to move on to the next step towards graduation (and eating some left over cheesecake).  I think I may FINALLY be done, and I can't believe that I am only about 5 1/2 months away from becoming Dr. Esther!  WOW!  I know that I have A LOT of hard and exhausting work ahead of me, but I am determined to get it done!

I am very much looking forward to a much more relaxing week this week.  I am looking forward to spending Tuesday with Sara when I present to her class at Covington High School.  David and I will also celebrate Ashley's birthday with pizza and cupcakes on Tuesday night, and I hope to get to see the Bakers again on Thursday night.  I am most looking forward to spending some quality time with the hubby--he is off work all week, so we will actually get to see each other and not just be roommates!  :)

P.S.  I just noticed how many times I talked about eating in this post!  :)

Happy Birthday, Adalyn Ryan Baker!

Today is a very special day: one of my closest friends, Jennifer, is having her baby today, and the world is welcoming Adalyn Ryan Baker.  I am very very very very very excited to meet baby Addy!
David and I are praying that everything goes smoothly and easily for mommy and baby (and daddy, Justin, too!).  We love you, Bakers!!!

The world keeps on changing....

I did something majorly big today at work: I gave my resignation.  That's right, as of March 17, 2010, I will no longer be a Site Consultant at the University of Memphis.  I have been given a great opportunity to use my Behavior Analyst certification (that I worked so long to earn).  Starting in April, I will be working for a wonderful company that works with adults and children with disabilities.  For the most part, I will be supervising their home programs, which entails writing behavior plans, training the home staff, working directly with the client, and making sure that everyone and everything is working the way that is supposed to.

I am sad, though.  The people that I have worked with at RISE have been pretty wonderful, and they have taught be soooooo much.  I have been able to travel around the country, fine tune my presentation skills, learn how to talk to people that might not agree with/understand what I am trying to tell them, and, I have been able to become friends with both of my bosses.  I am definitely going to miss Katie dancing with the hula hoop in the office on the days when we all have the blahs.  I am so grateful for all that they have done for me, and I am going to miss them!!!

I am very excited about this new step in my life, for many different reasons.  BUT, probably the biggest reason for being so excited is that I get to work from home, and my schedule is very flexible.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing opportunity to learn more about Behavior Analysis AND be able to spend more time with my family.  Life is just getting better and better every day.  :)

Today, I am happy...

...for no particular reason.  I am just happy!  :)

Mondays are always my longest day.  I work all day, have a meeting with my major professor about my research, and then teach a class at the University.  I usually get home around 8pm or a little after, and am purely exhausted.  But, today, I'm not dreading everything like I usually do.  I don't know if it's because it snowed (and I LOVE snow), or if it's because my fabulous husband met me for lunch.  It could be that I got to wear my comfy clothes to work today or the fact that I got a LOT done for my research project that is due next week.  I'm not sure what it is, but I LOVE IT!  :)

Here is a good representation or how I feel:

Hope you guys have a happy Monday!

A fun weekend

This past weekend was eventful, but also super fun.  I love my weekends, and it was a weekend like this that makes me wish they were just a few days longer.

On Saturday, Sara and I travelled to Jackson to meet up with the rest of "the girls" for Amber and Riley's baby shower.  If you know us, then you know that anything we do together is not going to be simple.  :)  We left a little early so we could stop by the party store in town and pick up some balloons--30 minutes later, we finally had 2 balloon arrangements and were headed over the restaurant where the shower was being held.  The shower was perfect: the food was so yummy, the games were fun, and Amber and Riley got lots of awesome presents.  I am so excited to meet the two babies (Jennifer's daughter, Adalyn, and Baby Riley) who will make their appearance in just a few weeks!!

David called me as Sara and I were driving back to Memphis and told me that the dogs had gotten into some of the peanut M&Ms that we have had on our table forever.  He tried to figure out which one did it, but he couldn't.  So, after a few minutes, he knew he had to take them to the Vet.  Our Vet closes at noon on Saturdays (and this was around 1:00pm), so David took the doggies to the Emergency Vet nearby. When Sara and I got there, we found out that they had induced vomiting on both dogs, and found that it was Bailey that ate almost 1 pound of peanut M&Ms ALL BY HERSELF!  Bailey is only about 25lbs, which means that 1 pound of chocolate is lethal.  Thankfully, they were able to get most of it out of her system, and they gave her some activated charcoal and put her on an IV.  We were able to bring her home later that afternoon.  (They wanted to keep her overnight, but it would have cost us $1800.  We love Bailey-Boo, don't get me wrong.  But we figured we could monitor at home by ourselves.)  Bailey was a pretty sick little doggie for the next day or so...she seems to be back to herself now.  :)

On Sunday, we had the gang over for a Super Bowl party.  Of course, we ate WAY too much.  Mom brought our grill down to us on Saturday night (it was a Christmas present from my parents), so we put it to good use on Sunday for the party.  It was a great time!

Monday brought the SURPRISE snow of the year!  We woke up to a world covered in white, and it just seemed to keep falling.  I'm not sure how the forecasters missed this monster of a storm coming, but they did!  The snow turned to steady rain by the afternoon, so everything began to melt off, and today, it's almost gone.  It's still freezing cold, but I think everything will return back to normal in Memphis by tomorrow.

David and I are taking a weekend getaway this weekend, and are definitely looking forward to it!  It will be so nice to have some quality one-on-one time with no distractions.  I can't wait!  :)

It's official!

Well, after waiting for almost 3 months to shout the from the hilltops...David and I can now officially let the world know that:

We are pregnant!  :)

This picture was taken on January 6, when Baby Bledose was just shy of 8 weeks old.  As of today, the little peanut is 12 weeks, and still growing strong!  He or she is set to enter the world on August 19, 2010!

David and I could not be more thrilled!  God has blessed us so much in the past year, and this is, by far, the most amazing blessing of all!

What a day, What a day!

What a day Monday was!  Thankfully, it started off great--the 7:45am and 9:15am meetings that I had scheduled for this morning were BOTH cancelled, which allowed me to get more work done that I originally would have.  But, shortly after that, the fun began.....thud.

If you read this blog very often, then you know that David had some issues with his tooth a few weeks ago.  At the last visit, the endodontist was able to complete a partial root canal, but had to stop because of the amount of infection in David's tooth.  Well, David's follow-up root canal was this morning.  I told him that I would go with him if I could, just in case they gave him lots of medicine and he was loopy.  I am blessed to have a job that understands the importance of family needs, so I was able to make my schedule work so that I could go with David.  (And, I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled David was to be going to get a root canal.)  Anyway, we were able to get the car out of the driveway Sunday night, and we had left it at the top of the driveway (since our driveway was still COVERED in ice and snow until Tuesday night).  So, as we walk out to get in the car, I hear David say, "You have GOT to be kidding me!"  I looked over, and this is what I saw:

That's right.  The sunroof of the car was busted out.

Obviously, there wasn't anything we could do about it at that moment.  We had to leave to go to the dentist, and I was driving separately in case I needed to head into work to meet with my boss.  So, we got in the cars and drove off.  As we are driving down the interstate, everything seems normal, and I am just praying that David won't be too grumpy when we get to the dentist.  All of the sudden, WHAM!  Part of the broken sunroof comes flying off, heading towards my windshield, and cracking into 1000 pieces.  (Thank goodness that it didn't hurt the truck, too!)

We get to the dentist, and I immediately get on the phone to call the insurance company.  Oh, fun.  We don't know when the sunroof got broken (it was fine Sunday night when we got home from dinner), but we suspect that it happened due to the 2 inches of ice that sat on it for three days--between that weight, and then heating the car up to 80 degrees, there had to be some stress on the glass.  So, basically, we have to pay our $$$ deductible to get it fixed, and the insurance company is not going to be much help.  Thanks.

The root canal went well, I went to pick up the pain medicine, and when I got home, David had already found a place that would have the sunroof fixed by Tuesday afternoon.  Unfortunately, we had to drop the car off right away (at what happened to be the place that was on the absolute opposite side of town from our house), which meant I had to cancel my afternoon client (because we only have one car now), and we had to rush home in time for my to drop David off and head straight to class.

I'm tired just thinking about that day again!  Is it time for bed yet?  :)

Snowed/Iced In

Well, the weathermen weren't exactly right...we didn't get the 6 inches of snow they predicted.  BUT, we did get about an inch and a half of a snow/ice mix that has managed to make our neighborhood treacherous.  I made it home around 7:00pm on Thursday night, before anything really began falling.  By 9:30 that night, the University had decided to close on Friday, and I was prepped to sleep in.  (Unfortunately, as usually happens, I couldn't sleep that night...it always happens when I can actually sleep in.  UGH!)  I got up around 3:00am, and went to sleep on the couch--the school closings were pouring in.  It was a pretty steady mix of snow, freezing rain, and sleet for most of the day, and stopped around 3:00 in the afternoon.  The roads weren't too bad, and it actually looked pretty outside.  Unfortunately, another round of freezing rain moved through last night, and, this morning, the roads, sidewalks, and trees were solid sheets of ice.
David was sweet enough to get up extra early this afternoon (after only sleeping for about 3 hours), and take me to the Helms' house so I could work with Garrett (and get over my cabin fever...over 36 hours in the house without leaving is plenty for me!).  We also stopped by the grocery store to stock up on some much needed junk food (HA!), and then we came home.  Since nobody was out in the neighborhood, we thought the doggies might have fun getting out a little and playing with us on the ice.  They had so much fun, and were so cute slipping and sliding!
As of right now, everything is frozen solid, and our cove is a SOLID sheet of ice.  Everything that happened to melt during today has re-frozen, and it's supposed to be well below freezing (in the teens) for the rest of the night.  I am secretly hoping that, even though it's supposed to be around 34 degrees tomorrow, that everything will re-freeze again tomorrow night and I can have another day off of work.  Of course, I don't plan on that happening.

After we came back inside, the girls enjoyed playing with the presents Gammie McCarty got them for Christmas.  Thanks, Gammie!!! :)