Fitting the Stereotype

Earlier this evening I told Nic to run and grab the camera because I was in fact: pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen.

I had to laugh at how I was fulfilling a stereotype but luckily my hubby doesn't believe that's how it should be-to his credit it was my choice to be in there. I was making chocolate chip scones which may be one of my more recent cravings :).

If you look closely at the picture you can see our sweet new back splash that Nic's parents helped us install. They along with my parents came to Blacksburg for the long holiday weekend and we spent most of our time "laboring" (note the irony of Labor Day there) on home improvement projects. It was such a blessing to have them around and to know that they really wanted to help us out. We (and mostly I mean they) painted the nursery, fixed the garbage disposal, installed a new back splash, fixed random things around the house, installed mini-blinds, and I'm sure there's more I'm missing. All in all it was a great weekend!

Overdue Update

So I know I mentioned in the last post I wanted to blog everyday during August but as you can tell it's 14 days later and that did not work out so well. Oh well! Things are starting to gear up for a new school year around here. A lot of students have already returned and those living on campus (include all the new freshmen) can start moving in as early as Wednesday. As I've mentioned before I could not be more excited about students coming back. Summer is nice but I miss having students around!

As for a baby update, I am now officially 21 weeks pregnant and halfway through. Woohoo! We had an ultrasound a couple weeks back and everything looked great.

Baby was not being so cooperative that day but the tech told us she thought it was a girl! We've heard from a couple other medical professionals that they think "probably girl too." I'm headed back in tomorrow morning just to double check that "probably" :).



In other news I am so ready for fall! I reached my breaking point with this heat and humidity last week and I can not wait for cooler temperatures to set in. Not to mention the brightly colored autumn leaves and football. Ahhhh.......here's to September (but hopefully I'll see you around before then)!

a Beach Boy kind of vacation

We just returned from a week long vacation at the beach. We loaded up the car and drove all the way across the lovely state of North Carolina to Oak Island last weekend. Our friends Jay & Elizabeth & their son Trey joined us for the week and fun was had by all. To be honest I spent most sunlight hours on the beach- I absolutely love sitting out by the water reading a good book. I finished two this week, The Help & The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (both I highly recommend although if I had to pick a favorite it'd be The Help).

One of the days it was looking a bit rainy outside so we caught a ferry and headed over to the NC Aquarium. I couldn't tell you the last time I visited an aquarium but it was so much fun to be a kid again and see all the crazy cool marine life. My favorite thing might have been the gators. Now don't get me wrong there is no way I'd like to meet one of those guys outside of their tank but their scales and massive size are so cool!

Thursday night we went to Southport for dinner at this fabulous little seafood restaurant on the water. Afterwards we walked around the quaint little town for a bit and Elizabeth, the Dawson's Creek fan that she is :), made an observation that it sort of looked like the town in the show. Turns out she was right and they did film some of the scenes in Southport!

It really was great though just to get away for a bit and forget about the worries of the world. Now that we're back I'm ready for whatever comes our way and I can't wait for the start of school! Expect another post tomorrow I really really *want* to try and post something everyday this month!

Nic & I out for ice cream one night

a frog at the aquarium

Trey being super cute while waiting for the ferry

A Week to Forget

Have you ever had one of those weeks where NOTHING seems to go right? We here at the Uebel household experienced one of those this past week. The ickiness of the week came in all sorts of varieties: one of our cars broke down en route to a friend's birthday party and had to get towed, we totally burned the mess out of this new recipe we were trying for dinner one night, I felt miserable 3 out of the 5 weekdays, and those were just a few. It just felt like every day something else went wrong. At one point during the week I thought "Wouldn't it be great if we could just hit a pause button on life and call for a redo?" but then I later realized I'd much rather just forget the week ever happened.

I don't write all that to invoke your sympathy for me, it's more like I want to share what God's been teaching me through it all. God tells us over and over again through his Word that there are many different seasons in life and times will not always be happy and filled with cotton candy and rainbows. It is during those times that we have to depend on Him most and we better hope that some sort of trust relationship already exists with Him, otherwise it's going to be real difficult to push through. The past few weeks at church we've been discussing the book of Hosea and just how great God's love for us really is. When we reject Him and choose not to follow His ways (which I have done many times this week through my outrage at not getting my own way) he still extends grace to us. Even as I sit here now I am humbled by how much He loves me!

Below is a picture of me at 18 weeks pregnant. It's pretty hard to believe I'm almost halfway there, especially since it's still hard to believe I'm even pregnant at times! Well here's to a better week!

Cravings

Now that the cat's out of the bag and people know I'm pregnant I'm often met with a fair share of questions. Don't get me wrong I love answering them all! More often than not though they're the same. When are you due? How are you feeling? Are you going to find out the gender? And my favorite...have you had any weird cravings?

Well my friends here's the answer you've all waited for..........


I know, I know it's not exactly weird (like pickles and ice cream) but I still think it's kind of funny. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't let myself buy these EVER but it just seems like I can't get enough of them now that I'm pregnant. I guess if my kid comes out orange and "puffy" we'll know why.

Inspiration Walk

Since it was a little bit cooler today I decided to go on a walk with my camera to see what inspires me. Along the way I found a few things that don't inspire me too!

The good first:

Hydrangeas

These little beauties are right outside of our old apartment. I've been seriously considering cutting some of them off to plant at my new house :). Gerber daisies will always be my first love but these are a pretty close runner up.

A Beautiful Campus

I know there are A LOT of times I take the place we live for granted. Not only is it a beautiful part of the country but the campus we are privileged to work on is incredible too. On the way to BCM from our house there are a couple views (between the trees) of the incredible Blue Ridge Mountains that surround us. Each time I see them I'm reminded that I sure do love these mountains!

Bumper Sticker

One of my favorite things about summer is being able to roll the windows down, crank up your music, and sing at the top of your lungs. I may have done this very thing on my way back from lunch today!

A shady spot to read

Another thing I love about summer is that I have more time to read. With all the moving/getting our house in order I haven't had much time for it yet. Later this month though we're headed to the beach with some friends and I look forward to reading many a fiction book underneath that big old beach umbrella!


And now the bad:

Crappy Flip Flops

I was so excited to wear these shoes this morning because they match the dress I'm wearing today (which I just so happened to get for a sweet deal yesterday) perfectly. The straps however have been falling off my feet all day and now I have blisters on the soles of my feet. I'm beginning to think fashion might not always be worth it :).

And last but not least....

Parking Tickets

It didn't belong to me but I still hate when I see them. I just know this poor person is going to come back from a fun day exploring campus or trip to the bookstore and have their day ruined by this orange blob...ugh! I kind of wanted to take it off their car to spare them the pain but then I thought that would probably make things worse in the long haul!

Well that's it for today. Hope you're finding some inspiration wherever you are on this beautiful summer day!

Go Big or Go Home

Well it seems here in the Uebel household we can't just make one life change at a time. It has to come alongside at least one other. Take for example when we got married. Not only did we say "I do" but we both moved to a new city, started new jobs, and oh yea graduate from college (well at least me).

Well this time around it's no different. *Begin trumpet prelude*-We're having a baby and we just bought our first house! Yep you read that right. I'm about 13 1/2 weeks pregnant and my due date is actually Christmas Day! We're so excited for our family of 2 to expand to 3. It's still a little crazy to think about and we have absolutely no idea what being a parent is going to be like but we're pumped!

As for the new house I promise there will be pictures to come in the very near future. It's been a crazy week leading up to and after the move. We closed on the house last Wednesday afternoon and moved ALL our stuff in that night (crazy yes I know). And can I add here that I had no idea closing would be as formal as it was? I mean I had no clue that EVERYONE who buys a house in the US has to sit at a massive table across from a lawyer and sign a thousand and one papers in an hour! I leaned over to our realtor at one point and said "I feel like I'm starring in some sort of legal drama with this giant table." Welcome to adulthood I guess.

Anways, Thursday morning the entire BCM staff (and Adrienne) came over and helped us paint 3 rooms which was such a blessing! That afternoon/evening we organized and unpacked. We woke up Friday and Saturday morning for a full couple of days at BCM Alumni Work Weekend. It was great to see old friends and give the building a good 'ole fixing up.

Well I think that's all for now. As I said earlier I'll post pictures soon! Hope you're enjoying the summer wherever you are!