IT'S A GIRL!

Meet Madison Marie Helman!

No Work Work Day

It's 11:00 and the computer network JUST came back online. I've been sitting here for the past couple hours doing absolutely nothing. No phones. No internet. No email. No work. I'll definitely be busy this afternoon (though I get to leave in a half hour for my dentist appointment).

Meet The In-Laws

I met my future in-laws for the first time this weekend. Bryan's parents are visiting until Thursday, I believe. So far, they seem really nice and they seem to like me as well. Saturday, we went to Clearwater Beach and stayed until sunset. It was almost a repeat of the weekend before. We even went to dinner at Outback again. We were going to go to Bahama Breeze, but even at 9:00 there was a 2-hour wait!

Unfortunately, I received some bittersweet news this weekend. My best friends are moving away. Jon accepted a call to a church in Wisconsin. On the one hand, I am happy for them because it is a good opportunity. The church in only about an hour away from his family. And you really can't argue with God's will. But I will miss my friends. Becky and I have become very close over the past couple of years. And while it's not like I'm never going to see her again or that we won't keep in touch, but it just won't be the same. They'll be here for about another month before they move. An interesting thing about it, however, is that I had a dream about it the night before. I had expected it. From listening to them over the past couple weeks, I was pretty sure that they would be going. But it really didn't hit me until Jon announced it to the entire congregation. I always knew it was a possibility. It's the nature of being a pastor and pastor's wife. I just didn't think it would be so soon. Bryan & I have plans of moving back to the midwest, too, and I'll have to deal with leaving even more friends behind. But that won't be for about 2-3 years from now.

Checkup

I had my 16-week checkup today. It wasn't all that exciting. They did the standard urine test and checked my weight and blood pressure. I've gained 5 pounds since my last appointment. I've started showing a little bit. Other than that they checked the baby's heartbeat and drew some more blood to test for possible birth defects. I'm continuing to feel great. I have been feeling some cramps now and then, but my doctor assured me that they were completely normal. I haven't felt the baby move yet, but I expect to any time now (or maybe I have felt it but just didn't realize it).

It's Official

I'm engaged, officially! Bryan proposed over the weekend. And I didn't even expect it. I mean, I knew he would propose at some point, but I didn't know when or how. And I definitely wasn't expecting it would be this weekend. We drove out to Clearwater Beach late Saturday afternoon. When we left Orlando, the sky was pretty much overcast. The weather channel had said that it was supposed to be mostly sunny. I suggested that maybe we wait until Sunday since it was so cloudy and already so late. But he REALLY wanted to go so we drove out there anyways and while we were driving, the skies began to clear a bit. When we finally made it to the beach, there was a large cloud blocking the sun, but the horizon was still fairly clear. There were some cool rays poking through the clouds which was actually quite pretty. We laid out a blanket on the sand and cuddled to keep warm, well, to keep ME warm. As the sun finally made its way out of the big cloud, we sat up and he said to me, "I don't know if you knew this or not, but there was another reason why I wanted to come here." He reached into his pocket, pulled Grandma's ring (which I've held in safe keeping the past 4 years) and he asked me to marry him. Of course I said YES! Well, technically, I didn't say yes. I said ABSOLUTELY! When the sun finally dipped below the water, we left the beach and went to dinner at Outback.

I was so surprised and he was so sneaky. Apparently, last weekend, he had gone into my jewelry box and taken Grandma's ring out. I never even realized that it was missing. Although one day last week, I saw the chain that I had it hanging on spilling over the edge of my jewelry box and I thought that I might take a look at the ring, but I didn't. And it's a good thing, too. I'm sure that if I had noticed it missing off the chain, that Bryan had taken it (I knew that he was planning on giving it to me and I told him where I kept it), but it would have completely ruined the surpise. But he took it to a jeweler, had the engagement ring split from the wedding band, had it all polished up and appraised. The jeweler told him that even for as small as the diamond is, it's nearly flawless. I do need to get it resized as it is a little big.

We have not set a date yet, but it will probably be next spring. We had beeen debating whether or not the wedding should be before or after the baby is born, but we have decided that after would be best. With all the things we have to do to prepare for the baby, planning a wedding is not at the top of my list.