Our Weekend

On Saturday, after a few errands (including that trip to Kohl's I didn't make on Friday), Etta and I went to our friend Owen's third birthday party!  Etta loved the cake and ice cream and playing with different toys, but we had to leave after an hour because it was past her nap time and she was starting to show it. Happy Birthday, Owen! Glad we were able to help you celebrate your special day!

Suzy put this birthday hat on Owen... poor guy HATED it! I JUST missed the shot of him crying about it.. but I did manage to get the next shot...

It's my party and I'll pout if I want to...

Saturday evening, I went up to Franklin for a Mom's Night Out with our DS Mom's group. There was a REALLY big turn-out. I think there were around 20-25 mommas there! I just LOVE this group! It's always great to get together with them and to meet a few new moms too (including a sweet and very brave pregnant first-time-mom-to-be whose little girl has a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome). Also, last night was special because we sneakily honored our ring leader, Lauren. We went behind her back and collected money and wrote sweet thoughts and surprised her with her favorite bottle of wine and a nearly $300 Visa gift card! (she had to promise to ONLY spend that money on herself for fun things like massages, pedicures, haircuts, laser hair removal... lol! Whatever she wanted as long as it was so she would take time to pamper herself!). Anyway, it was a great night! Then, I had to opportunity to drive the minivan at night for the first time. ;)  The dashboard was VERY bright! It took me a few minutes to figure out how to turn the GPS to "night" mode and how to turn down the rest of the dashboard instruments. Once that was worked out, I had a very peaceful rest of my drive home.

After I got home, I was sitting on a little stool in my closet checking Facebook on my iPod when I felt IT for the first time! I felt the baby move!! At 16 weeks 1 day, this is a little over three weeks earlier then I felt Etta move. YAY! I have felt it off and on some today too, but not it has not been as strong or for as long as I felt it last night. I look forward to feeling movement more consistently!

This morning, after Etta drank a small sample of perfume, we took her, and her smelly self, to Target to buy some diapers and baby wipes to donate to the relief efforts going on in Alabama. There was a drop-off point at a church here in Spring Hill, and I found out about it after I got up this morning. LOVE Facebook when it comes to organizing things like this! So, we bought 6 boxes of diapers, 1 box of baby wipes and a couple additional packages of baby wipes. With all of my coupons and in-store promotions, we saved $29!!  :) Then, we took it over to the church to drop off our donations. It was incredibly heartwarming to see that truck SO full of stuff and all of the cars pulling up to drop off donations. It felt good!

those are OUR boxes sitting in front, and the guy walking to the back with a tower of diapers is carrying the rest of our donation...

If you're looking to help, "Toomer's for Tuscaloosa" has created an amazing movement of volunteers and drop-off locations for donations. It began as a facebook page for Auburn students/alum to organize volunteers to help our "rival" college town and it grew and grew!  (If you're not from Alabama or the south for that matter, let me tell you that EVERY child in Alabama is taught at a very young age whether they "go for" Auburn or Alabama. If you don't "go for" either team, another kid will just assign you their team.) Ultimately though, we are all Alabamians and we take care of our own! The immediate response is unprecedented! Trucks and trucks of food and supplies and volunteers are rolling into the affected areas (not JUST Tuscaloosa). You can go to the "Toomer's for Tuscaloosa" Facebook Cause page https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Toomers-for-Tuscaloosa/127019264041188 or you can go to the webpage set up by Five Points Baptist Church (which has turned into the staging area for the "Toomer's for Tuscaloosa" team http://www.fivepointsbaptist.com/tornado

 

This evening, we went to an earlyish dinner at Applebee's. Etta did pretty well overall. She enjoyed feeding her Daddy her Goldfish and his french fries. She also tore into the fries on his plate. Keith kept calling her a "hamburgular", even though she was really a "frenchfrurgular". lol.

All-in-all a really nice weekend!

Also, I'm sure you're tired of hearing about disaster relief, but I can't NOT mention that today is the first anniversary of when the "Nashville Flood" began. It was a two day rain event that took place on May 1st and 2nd, 2010. Hard to believe it has been an entire year. In many areas, the rebuilding continues (Opryland Hotel reopened in November, Opry Mills Mall just announced plans to reopen Spring 2012. Some private residences are also still under construction...) and when I think back on those first few days I am still so in awe of the volunteer effort that immediately mobilized to help with the clean-up effort.