Baby Cleland on the way!!

This past weekend was perfect. I only use the word "perfect" to describe very few things, but this weekend earns that title. I went to dinner with Katie, Lee, Charlotte, Gigi (my mom) and G-Paw (my dad) on Friday night.

But the real fun was on Saturday! Kirby's friend from college and bridesmaid, Lauren Warren, hosted Kirby's baby shower. Lauren and I did our best to plan ahead, but it turns out that she and I are both nearly impossible to get in touch with on the phone! We finally sorted through stuff, like the menu, games, and other details of a baby shower and before we knew it, 2:00 on Saturday was here!

I took 90-ish pictures this weekend so I'll do my best to sort through and pick out some highlights!

Here's Lauren, the party planner herself with the mom-to-be!

We look like we have a scarf obsession...but I love this picture so much!

This is the diaper cake that Katie made!! So cute!
Doesn't it look like it belongs in a magazine or something?

Just a glimpse of the food! I made some "mocktails" (ginger ale, white grape juice, and pineapple juice make a yummy fake champagne--just fyi)
Lauren made most of the other food and Mrs. Cleland pitched in quite a bit too!

We played this silly and fun game:
Two teams, each with the same parenting magazine, scissors, glue, and ten minutes.
The teams had to make a "baby Cleland" using picture from the magazine..and these were the results. Hilarious.
Not to brag, but my team (on the left) won! haha
Please note the baby butt on the right side of the page...I think that helped us win.

Of course we played the "measure the mom's belly" game--Momma Cleland won. By long shot. Anna and I had the exact same length string...It was too funny!

Then Kirby had to guess the baby items from a bag with her eyes closed! She passed with 100%!!

I wish I could show you a slide show of Kirby's facial expressions...You could tell she clearly thought every little girl outfit was adorable. I'll post them all to facebook later, but I just thought this was such a cute picture of Kirby's joy and excitement for her gifts!

I wish I could have taken a better picture of this gift! This is a hoodie/jacket/sweater and a hat that Kathryn (on right in black dress) knit for Baby Cleland!!! What a wonderful gift for their little girl. I was blown away by how much time that must have taken!

These girls have been friends since elementary school!!! It was so fun to see them and I know it meant so much to Kirby that they were able to come.

All of the aunts already love this little girl and she isn't even here yet!

The whole Cleland/Mardis crew was there to celebrate the anticipation of this little one!

They're on their way from being just husband and wife to mom and dad in just over a month!

8 months down, one month to go! And still growing!

And Kirby revealed my niece's name to the world!! But you're gonna have to check out Kirby's blog that she just started today to find out her name!! I'm so glad I don't have to keep the name a secret anymore and almost equally excited that my sister is officially a blogger!

My Honda is a trooper

This was my car on Friday morning.

I bet you're wondering, where did you sit?

That's a great question. I don't know how I fit into my car.

I was constantly glancing out of the window at work to check on my belongings.

Literally, all of my belongings were stuffed into that little car.

Every single inch of my Honda was jam packed with the TV, microwave, drawers with food, and TONS of clothes...really, I've got to get rid of some of these clothes....eventually...

More of the weekend later, but I really just wanted to give props to my car for hanging in there on Friday. It was definitely riding a little bit lower to the ground!!

To Russia and back

Once or twice a year, my dad travels to Russia for work. I'm not going to pretend to have half an idea of what he really does when he's over there...Daddy, correct me if I'm wrong (which I will probably be) but I think it goes something like this: He inspects the nuclear power plants over there as they take the uranium out of nuclear warheads and holds the process up to standards as they put the uranium through some crazy, smart process that does who knows what to it before they ship the uranium over to the US. My dad has literally explained this to me a hundred times and this is all I can give you.

What I do know is that my dad comes back bearing gifts for family and friends!!

Chocolate is a "given" that we can bet on him to bring plenty of! Not that we have any idea what kind of chocolate it is unless they have a very descriptive picture on the label...ha!

He couldn't leave out Charlotte!

Or little Baby Cleland on the way!
Never too early to start on math, right?

And he bought three beautiful crosses. One for Charlotte, one of Baby Cleland on the way, and he's only assuming that I'll have a little girl one of these days too because that's apparently all Mardis' have are girls!
Ignore my really weird, liney hand...I don't think "liney" is a word. But you get the point...

And look at what he found all the way over in Russia!!!

And here's little bit more of a taste of Russia...
Some Russian coins:

And borscht (beet soup) which they apparently have a lot of over there:

And some authentic Russian Vodka! My dad brought this over for a co-worker, but look at how beautiful these bottles are!!

Sorry for the picture overload, but I was so excited to take pictures of all of this Russian stuff that my dad got.

A taste of home

My blog is still definitely what I would consider "under construction". Maybe one of you more educated bloggies can help me--how do I tag/label things? Or untag them for that matter? For whatever reason, a picture of my grandmother is tagged; something that I obviously did it, but didn't even know that I was doing it?!

Okay, now on to more profound topics...like the weekend! I'll post more later about my dad's trip to Russia (and answer the burning question several of you probably have, like "Why in the world does your dad go to Russia??) but we'll just bypass that for now....

Friday night involved my mom, Chick-fil-A, the airport and my dad. Yep, you guessed it! My mom and I had dinner on our way to pick my dad up from the airport as he ended his long journey home from Russia! He was exhausted after showing us all of the goodies he brought back (to be posted!), but I wouldn't let him go to bed until he took a picture with his "Baby Bird".

And we can't forget mom either!

I slept in on Saturday for the first time in a while...only to be woken up by this dog-breathed, nubby tailed little booger. Gotta love her!

I enjoyed some mom-made (or Pillsbury made, mom-baked) cinnamon rolls, coffee, and fruit after I rolled out of bed and stayed in my pajamas until noon! Mom and I got cleaned up, went shopping for me, Charlotte, and soon-to-be here granddaughter #2! Some of those baby clothes are so precious! So glad I get to have 2 nieces to spoil :)

Saturday night was the main reason I came home from Chattanooga--to have dinner with Chandler!!

and Kathleen too :)

Chandler (read her blog! even though she hardly updates...) has been living in China since September and took a couple of weeks off to come home and see family before heading back to stay until June. As some of you know, might recall, or have no idea, Chandler was my roommate senior year and I often refer to her as my "smart friend" (not always the tidiest though...) Chan is crazy smart and earned a scholarship from Princeton (she turned down theFulbright and Harvard scholarships if that gives you any clue as to how ridiculous she is) to teach college courses in China.

She and I met up with Kathleen (my roommate junior year--hey Kackles! I know you read this! and Chandler's roommate sophomore year) and two other girls from our sorority, Victoria and Abby, for dinner at Bahama Breeze...longest sentence ever. We had so much fun catching up, laughing lots, and taking pictures! I made a goal this weekend to document things so I could have pictures to post on my blog, am I doing better? I think so!

I went to the church I grew up in on Sunday morning with my parents and really enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards, we went to our usual Sunday afternoon restaurant of choice, Atlanta Bread Company. Sunday afternoon was spent doing some yardwork, taking the dog for a walk, playing Wii with my dad, and of course doing laundry.

Before I knew it, it was time to head back home. I was so grateful for a refreshing and restful weekend with loved ones! And I get to do it all over again next weekend when I go home for Kirby's baby shower!

Mimi

My dad's mother, more affectionately known as Mimi, is a spunky, attention-loving, warm-hearted, Jesus-loving, and all around wonderful 88 year old woman. She has never met a stranger, almost always has on her bright red lipstick, and often falls asleep sitting up. In our family, I am often referred to as Mimi Jr., which is quite a compliment! I think I got that nickname for our shared tendency to remember nearly pointless details--like what we were wearing to a certain event, what we ate that day, or even what the weather was like. There is rarely a conversation that I have had with Mimi when she hasn't brought up Jesus. What a great trait to be remembered by!!

Evidence of her tendency to snooze...she would not be happy with me for putting up a picture of her so "undone"!!

Me and Mimi, Christmas 2008

Mimi lives in an assisted living apartment complex in Mississippi, close to my dad's younger sister and tries to keep herself busy between the beauty parlor, as she calls it, Bingo, and spending time with her great-granddaughter, Kaitlin. She has an "email machine", no, not computer, that she uses to send and receive emails, mostly from family members. Although I enjoy sending her an email on a weekly basis, I've found it somewhat repetitive. I only say that it is repetitive because if I talk to her on the phone that week, she usually will ask the same questions or tell me the same stories that she mentions in her emails! Not that I mind, but it's hard to interrupt a hard-of-hearing grandmother to tell her you've heard this story once, or ten times, before.

Mimi and our family, Christmas 2006

The "Mardis girls" are we are often referred to on my dad's side of the family, Christmas 2007

I was on the phone with Mimi last night as I was driving back from my usual Thursday night dinner at the Harwood's--I gave her the usual run down of the week, reported the latest updates on my life, and asked her questions about her goings-on. Nothing out of the norm.

Then she starts to tell me how much she has treasures the Christmas gift that my family gave her. My parents gave her the Bible on a set of CD's and Katie, Lee, Kirby, Daniel, and I gave her a CD player with large enough buttons for her to see. Mimi tells me that she's been listening to the whole New Testament and is about to start 2nd Corinthians--She says she'll listen up to two hours a day! What absolutely amazes me is that she has probably already read through the New Testament well over 100 times!! And no matter what, she values each and every verse that she hears as though she is hearing it all for the first time. She can quote more scripture that anyone else that I know and she often uses it to encourage me with whatever I'm facing in life.

Just as I was starting to get antsy, (it was turning into a 40+ minute phone call at this point and I was sitting in my car waiting to go inside) she asks if she can pray for me. She begins with the Lord's Prayer and speaks to God just as if He is sitting on the phone with us. Mimi prays for my heart, that it continues to grow in His love, and that He uses my gifts to glorify Him. She goes on to say several other wonderfully sweet prayers that I cannot even remember because right about then was when I started getting choked up....much like I am right now....What a treasure from Heaven to have a grandmother that lays a solid foundation in Christ and His love. I know that she is getting older, but I can't help but see her youthful heart every time she lights up to tell a story about her Savior and how He has blessed the generations of her family that are following in her footsteps. I love my Mimi more than words can do justice and hope that I can grow into half the woman that she is.

All of the Mardis Cousins, May 2009

Mimi and Mimi Jr., Christmas 2006

Under Construction

I'm doing my best to update my blog. I'm not a huge fan of the layout I had before or just the one picture at top...but I am trying my best to figure this all out on my own so please bare with me as I work through some changes. :)

The start of my nomadic life...again

I have some good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?

Good: The Liners sold their house!
Bad: The Liners sold their house!
This is good and bad news at the same time. Good news for the Liners, not such good news for me considering this house has become my home since October--I cannot say how much of a blessing their hospitality has been in my life. I am honestly very happy for them because I know they have anxiously waiting for someone to finally buy their house.

This summer, I will be living at Jerry and Heather's house up on Signal Mountain while they are at camp and then I'll find an apartment with some friends by the start of the fall semester. The only problem is finding somewhere to stay for the months in between....

Jerry suggested that I become a squatter and convince the new owners of the Liner's home that I am apart of the package deal--I come with the house. Nice thought, but I don't know how kindly they'll take to me staying in their new home!! ha!

So, I might be taking up some of the offers that I've had from friends in the past by the end of this month! I never, never want to over stay my welcome and will probably be bouncing around every 2-3 weeks starting in the beginning of March through the first of May. I have a hunch that this blog will be filled with tons of "thank you's" and "you're so wonderful's" for their wonderful friendship and hospitality over the next couple of months!!