You're in our hearts Mrs. Mavis!

I met Mrs. Mavis Banks when I was 17 years old, the summer before my Senior year of high school. She welcomed me into her home with an open door, a big hug and of course a meal. Over the next 12 years I would come to realize that those were staples to Mrs. Mavis and all 3 were always available. I spent countless nights at the Banks house. I couldn't begin to tell you how many pot roasts, servings of chicken salad or cookies I have consumed in that home...and most of those just happened to be there when we got there. Jill and I were always coming and going and there was always food on the table and Mrs. Mavis would always be waiting to hear about our latest shennanigans. We would eat, hug and run some days. Others we would stay and watch a movie or gossip or maybe go shopping.

As high school turned to college, this pattern continued. We would drop in to say hi (after a quick trip to the county line package store) - aka look pitiful in hopes that Mavis would throw us some leftovers or $20! As I pledged ZTA with Jill, Mrs. Mavis welcomed my into her sisterhood, as I had already been welcomed into her family. Over the next several years, Jill and I only became closer and Mavis only became more a valued part of my life and a staple in my support structure. When Jill moved to Atlanta after college, the two of us became inseparable. I looked forward to the visits from Mavis, Lynn and Robin - especially when they would come decorate our house for Christmas, fill our fridge or take us to dinner (and always cocktails!). I loved hearing the news from Metter and even more than that, I loved laughing with Jill and her family at any and everything. Whether they were laughing at us, we were laughing at them, we were all laughing at Jill (chipmonks are real?) or we were laughing about life - a few things were constant... Mavis, Lynn and Robin were working and sweating, Jill and I were trying to get away with the least amount of work possible and we were all laughing hysterically most of the time!

I think Jill knew before I did that I was going to marry FJ and it became more and more important to Mavis to meet this man and of course she asked "honey, does he take a drink?" I remember taking FJ to the Banks house to meet Mavis. It was a quick drop by, we weren't going to have much time. I warned FJ that there would be food...not just food, but tons of it. Of course Mavis happened to have a roast that she had cooked (my favorite) and in order to make it less formal, she was offering sandwiches...as always, the choices were 2 or 3...not 1...just 2 or 3. We filled our bellies and Mrs. Mavis got to ask FJ some questions. FJ also got a taste of some of the earlier days of Jenny & Jill or as some called us "Trouble." As we left with tight hugs, I told FJ two things. 1, Mrs. Mavis had skipped church to prepare that meal and be there for us when we stopped by coming through Metter (which those who know Mrs. Mavis know this was a big deal) and 2. I knew for a fact she was on the phone with Lynn, Jill's mom, right then letting her know that she got to meet FJ first!! That was the day FJ was inducted into the Banks family.

I can go on and on with memories of Mrs. Mavis or moments that shaped my life in which she was involved. I could list off the amazing things she's done for me and my growing family. When I tell people "this is the family, the woman who threw my bridal shower" it seems to resonate with a lot of people how much I considered the Banks family to be an extension of my own. I was known to refer to Mrs. Mavis quite frequently (both directly and indirectly) as Mimi. I sought her approval and felt terrible when I disappointed her. I valued her opinion and looked to her for guidance, support and strength. She was an excellent role model. She was full of wisdom, stories, good faith, humor and love.

As we come closer and closer to welcoming Rhett, my heart hurts that he will never know Mrs. Mavis or get to call her Mimi. I am convinced that she will know him, though. She will watch over him and continue to be a part of our family. The lessons that Jill and I have both learned from her will impact his life and he will hear story after story about Mrs. Mavis over the course of the years. And I am very lucky to be so certain that he will also have the benefit of the love and support of the rest of the Banks family as he grows up and will feel the impact of this amazing woman. And I hope that he can bring a smile to the faces of that family as they face the holiday time without their matriarch. It's often said that to every ending there is a beginning. Perhaps Rhett's beginning can help soften this difficult time, especially for Mrs. Lynn Culpepper and Jill!!

I love you, Mrs. Mavis. Thank you for looking out for me over the past 12 years on earth and I know I can count on you to keep looking out for me, FJ, Rhett and whatever else our family is blessed with over the next 12, 24, 36 and so on years from Heaven. Thank you for letting me into your family, your life, your heart, your home and your dinner table! :)

I love you, Jill. And Lynn - I am so sorry for your loss. If I could say or do anything to ease your pain, I would.

Happy Halloween!

I'm refraining from posting Halloween pictures, but let's just say that FJ and I both chose the comical route this year and now more than ever, the world should be convinced that Rhett will have an amazing sense of humor.

We had a busy weekend, yet again. Our roommate, Liz moved out on Friday night/Saturday morning, FJ had to work Saturday morning (I ran some errands) and then we went to Joani and Mark's to watch the UGA/FL game and pick up some Christmas decorations that they had leftover from the old house. We also got ready over there for the Halloween party at a friend's house. I incorporated my large belly into my costume and FJ went the pop culture route and we both received a hearty, laughter filled welcome when we walked into the party. As I saw several of my girflriends in their cute, flirty, pretty costumes, I felt a twinge of jealousy, but I also reminded myself that it's excellent motivation to get back into shape after Rhett joins us!

To give an update on the countdown, we have 7 weeks (and a day) until December 23, obviously, less than 2 months and I have less than 6 weeks left at work -- all of which is assuming he doesn't come early. Of course I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he does come a few days early but these things rarely work on the schedule or time frame that the mother prefers, so I'm hardly getting my hopes up.

That's about it for now! Rhett is growing and moving! We have a doctor's appointment (34 weeks) next week!!

Our new deck

I don't have any before pictures of the deck to post, but here are several of the finished (well, finished but not yet stained) product! I still can't believe that FJ and I have friends who are so talented. They designed and built this deck. FJ helped, of course but will be the first to admit that he was merely labor - the brains behind this operation was led by George and Kevin, two of our very close friends. They each came in from out of town for a very long weekend to work on this and a lot of time was put in with drawings, creating supply lists, etc before they ever got here. Not to mention that after seeing all the stuff they brought down as far as tools, I am pretty sure it took them days to pack and unpack, too!

The really cool part is that I did get to participate in the design by simply saying "I want ____________" and they made it happen. I wanted to take our existing deck, or something the size of our existing deck and build another one about the same size just one step below (the back yard has a very steep grade down to the lake so we were never going to have a backyard without a very expensive retaining wall) and I also wanted it to go out further - beyond the kitchen window, so that we had a good home for our grill and the kitchen window would have a better view than the rain gutter. Lastly, I wanted stairs so that the dog could go down to our limited back yard while we were on the porch. Also, whenever we were out there and something blew off of the porch, we had to climb over or go around, so I wanted some access. I got all of this and then some! I am so excited about it and so grateful to our friends for all of their hard work!

We were able to test out the deck when we had Ollie and Anne's engagement party and it was perfect! Of course a deck isn't a deck without some fun deck toys so we did buy a chimenea (outdoor fireplace) and have already used it 3 times. Boys = firebugs. Luckily we had too much deck furniture for our old deck so it's not quite empty at this point. Of course we've already developed a wish list for more deck stuff and I'm sure knowing FJ that this list will change and morph over the next weeks.

I'm so excited that we will have a deck to use for grilling, entertaining, relaxing, etc. It's also kind of cool because from the kitchen and breakfast area, it really looks somewhat like a dock - you can just see the water rather than the grassy shoreline. The water fowl seems to be pretty pleased with our progress, as well. Next we will have to pick out a stain. That wood reflects the sun like crazy till about 1-2pm!

I secretly want a large planter and maybe a box garden for herbs, but let's get real - I can barely keep a cactus alive so we'll just take that one step at a time.

I just wanted to share some pictures and say thanks again to Kevin and George for dreaming up and doing most of the work for this deck. Thanks to my wonderful husband for helping and having friends with this kind of talent (and for letting me off the hook with helping out). Thanks to Ryan B Goodman (why wouldn't you include a middle initial that made your name that much more awesome every time you say it?) for coming over to help with some of the grunt work and thanks for Fred for helping get the order placed for materials which kept us under budget!

Anyone who would like to see the deck in person is more than welcome to come check it out! We are very proud of it and as luck would have it we are homebodies for the next couple of months anyway!!

Celebrating Ollie & Anne

This past weekend we hosted an engagement party for two of our close friends Ollie and Anne who are getting married in April in NC at the beach. We were so excited that after months of badgering them, they agreed to let us throw this party...I'm pretty sure that it gets really difficult to tell a pregnant woman NO, she can't throw a party featuring a huge table of desserts so I guess I cheated in the guilt game. FJ is actually a groomsman in the wedding and has known Ollie since college (Ollie was in our wedding, too) and I've been friends with Anne and Ollie pretty much since Day 1 of Jenny and FJ so we were really excited to celebrate with them.

We did a tailgate theme for the party as Ollie and Anne are both UGA alum and fans. Of course the football team couldn't cooperate - the party started at 2 and they decided not to play until 7:30! Not to mention it was only televised on some obscure ESPN the Ocho type station...have no fear, though...AT&T online account management, click to chat and my AT&T navigation skills had the obscure package ordered by about 5 minutes after kickoff (and subsequently was canceled less than 48 hours later). I put on a huge crock pot of chili around 7am and Ollie helped me whip up some guac, salsa, dips, etc. I was also VERY smart and purchased several pounds of wings and onions for frying for late night knowing this crowd. I also set up a dessert buffet with candy and some creations from www.andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com (she's on retainer at this point) and of course we had cocktails.

We were sooooo excited to use our new deck (more to come on the new deck later this week - we have some good pics!). It was PERFECT for entertaining and we were able to use our new outdoor fireplace as it got chillier at night, too. It was a perfect day and the bride and groom to be had a blast (or if they didn't, they were kind enough to lie). We all know there is very little that I love more in this world than to entertain friends so I was excited to have a full house for the weekend and can't wait to celebrate with Ollie and Anne in Bald Head, NC in April, too!

Also, a HUGE shout out to my big sister, April. Her birthday was on Saturday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY APRIL!!!!! I love you more than you'll ever know. Your friendship is invaluable to me and you are the best role model a girl could ask for as a sibling, a parent, a friend and an overall stellar person. I hope you know how much you are loved by me, FJ, Rhett and even Tucker (the whole Tribuzio clan - even if FJ swears he didn't adopt Tucker - he's a Tribuzio). I hope Rhett can learn how to be such an awesome sibling from you given the chance - but minus pulling arms out of sockets or tossing people off trampolines. Eh - nevermind - it's part of the package, right? Especially if he has a sibling who puts Icy Hot on the toilet or does the "Wal Mart Test" to his signifant others. I can't wait to celebrate wiht you in a few weeks. You are truly loved, admired, appreciated and cherished over at Crabapple Lake Stables!

I can't believe it's almost November! We have a doc appt this Wednesday, we are on every 2 weeks now. We are at 32 weeks this Thursday so we have: about 8 weeks left, we sailed by the 2 month mark this past weekend and I have 7 weeks left at work (my last day will be Dec 13 unless he comes earlier - I'll be on vacation for the rest of the year otherwise). This is getting very crazy and real! We have Halloween this weekend and will hopefully be going to a friend's house for a party if we get everything else done that we need to.

Time is flying by and we are making some progress. There isn't a whole lot to report - we are doing great - all 3 (4 if you count Tucker) of us. I'm sleeping less and getting larger. We took some time off from the gym this past week...FJ had the excuse of the deck. I only went once - most of the other nights I worked a little later. So we are definitely getting back into the routine this week, hopefully. We lose our Liz this weekend - she's moving out and it's been great having her the past several months. I can't believe how time is flying by!!!

Oh - and Jess - have fun in the mountains this week, hope you finally get to relax after two big deadlines and lots going on! Thinking of you! :)

Less than 10 weeks - countdown is on!

Definitely not my best photos, but I keep putting off or forgetting to take pictures so I grabbed FJ and took some on our deck this morning. On another note - this will hopefully be the last picture taken on our deck as is! Kevin and George are coming in today to work with FJ to build a new (or extend the current) deck! I'm so excited to have a nice outdoor living area. We actually bought a chiminea (outdoor fireplace) last night along with a cover and deck pad. We'll even have stairs down to the "backyard" so Tucker can head down to the grass and we can have access to the backyard without scaling down the drainage path!!

I had a 30 week check up yesterday and all is well. We are measuring right on target and aside from a few minor aches and pains and the first couple months of being ridiculously nauseous and sick, this has been a relatively easy pregnancy. Keep your fingers crossed it keeps going in that direction!! As of right now, we are still on target for our due date, my appointments will continue to be every 2 weeks until 36 weeks - then they'll move to every week. I did ask and we don't get anymore sonograms or ultrasounds unless something is wrong - but our doctor really likes to sneak into the ultrasound room so maybe around 36 if she's not super busy we can get a few more peaks at Rhett before he comes!! I also found out that I can pretty much keep going to the gym until I pop - I think part of me was looking forward to a couple of mandatory weeks off! Ha ha ha!

Another big milestone this week - I have less than 2 months left at work!!! I've got a lot of vacation saved up since we weren't able to go on the Mediterrannean cruise in September, so if I don't take anymore vacation between now and then, my last day will be Monday, December 13 unless Rhett makes an appearance earlier than that. That's less than 2 months, less than 9 weeks and one of the weeks in there is Thanksgiving which is a short week anyway!! I'm very excited but it's also scary with how close it is!

We finished ordering our furniture and all of the pieces will be in for the delivery over Thanksgiving. We ordered a glider and ottoman but it has to be covered so it'll take awhile for it to come in...I'm really hoping it comes in for the Nov 27 delivery, but it's not scheduled until mid December.

It feels like we are making a ton of progress on the nursery, finally. But of course there is a huge list of other half done projects that need to be completed and an equally long list of projects that need to be started and completed. Poor FJ - most of the list is delegated! Ha ha!

We had a visitor for dinner on Wednesday! Jess came to eat some Meatza and went to Scoops with us. We got to gab and catch up and I'm always loving an excuse to go to Scoops!! This is our last full weekend with Liz as our roommate, too. She'll be out of town next weekend for her best friend's wedding back home in MO and she's leaving us the weekend after that :( I'm sure she's ready to get out of the burbs and away from the two of us but we'll definitely miss Liz... I've said it before and I'll say it again - everyone should get "a Liz"!! Ha ha! We'll have to make the most of this Caturday!

Nursery Loot

We finally bought furniture and registered for/bought some pieces of the bedding!! It was definitely exciting - not just because we actually bought things for the nursery and it drove home the point that we WILL have a baby in 2.5 months, but because it was literally an adventure -- offfffff course there is a story...

We went last weekend and shopped for furniture and found some sets that we liked. We talked about it over the week last week and we definitely liked one set more than all of the rest. We had a wedding in South Georgia this past Saturday (more on that later) but decided we should go ahead and buy some of the furniture before we went down. We had some good coupons from some of the stores from signing up for registries or mailing lists so I wanted to at least use those before the expired and get some pieces. I wasn't sure if they could hold them and we weren't ready for them quite yet but decided we could find a place to store everything if needed.

We had a million errands to run and if you know me, you know I had a long list of things to do with the full knowledge that it wouldn't all get done. This definitely made the list. We went in hovered over the furniture for about 30 seconds before a sales associate smelled our credit card and the sense of urgency to buy things that comes with passing into the third trimester. Let me interject here to say that I have the best mother in law!! She came over on Friday evening and measured our nursery and did space planning for furniture. She and FJ looked up the dimensions of the pieces of furniture and decided what all we needed and where it should go - so we had an exact shopping list of the pieces we needed, the confidence that they would all fit, the knowledge of where they would go and the buy in of a licensed interior designer on the choices we had made! We felt pretty good. And broke. We weren't planning on buying as many pieces as we did until we did the space planning. Sooooo glad Joani was able to come over Friday night!

So we laid our cards on the table and told the sales woman that we had some coupons and had full intention of using registry completion coupons to buy other pieces. She let us know that we could buy everything that day, apply additional coupons later, hold the pieces that were available today and schedule delivery for everything at once on whatever date we wanted. It was like putting puzzle pieces together and everything fit!! We really appreciated her help because it took some very creative ordering because some pieces were in, some on order, some on back order, etc.

As we sat down to write up all of the orders and go over everything another couple sat next to us...turns out that they wanted the exact same furniture. We had just bought the last crib in stock and had also purchased the last dresser that was on order. They were so distraught because they had called the day before and there were 2 of each available...apparently someone bought a set the day before and we bought ours at 10:00 or so. Sitting right next to us, they gave the manager some sob story about how they had called in advance and driven an hour and a half to that store because they were the only ones with this furniture available and that she was 8 weeks away from her due date and HAD to have it. I think she thought we were going to give her our furniture? Uhhhhh - no. I mean you would figure if it had been that important, they would have purchased over the phone or gotten there before 11:00am on a Saturday. I can't say much since we are about 11 weeks out and hadn't bought furniture yet...

The manager offered to walk through the stock room for them - the sales woman that was helping us told us later after we walked away from that area that there was absolutely nothing back there - she had already checked that morning and there was the piece we bought which she had already tagged for us.

Now I realize that bad luck can still strike and I could get a call before the delivery that some how it's not there and we aren't going to get it in time, but it was all very dramatic for the purchasing of baby furniture!

We've still got to pick out patterns for the window treatments as well as the glider and ottoman. FJ's mom is all over it! She's also going to help us look for some accent pieces, but we found some we liked at the store, too. All in all it was really fun to pick everything out.

I also put up some pictures of the bedding/theme we chose. It's a jungle theme from Pottery Barn Kids with gingham accents. Definitely a compromise and some of the only bedding choices that we both agreed on. ha ha!

Now that all the fun stuff is almost taken care of we get to start trying to figure out whose insurance we are adding Rhett to (my enrollment begins any day now so we just have to figure out whose insurance makes more sense) so that we can start finding a pediatrician. We got our confirmation from Moms On Call and it included a list of things we need to have or do before delivery and before they come...clearly this woman is after my heart because she provided a check list with instructions on things like finding a pediatrician - complete with time lines. Whew. Apparently once we get the car seat and base, we also get to take a trip to the fire station. Luckily there are about 14 within 5 miles of us. We've narrowed the list down to two daycares and need to pull the trigger and reserve our spot for one of those. There is definitely a long list of things to do and I am positive this list is going to make time seem like it is flying by even faster than it is right now...scary and exciting all at once!!

Happy Anniversary to Mark & Joani (in laws)

And another party successfully on the books! I didn't get a good picture of the couple of the hour, so I put one of us up instead! ha ha!

The dessert table with the candy buffet actually turned out pretty well! Definitely not nearly as cool as what Kate (my cake, cupcake, dessert table, etc guru http://www.andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com/) can do, but not bad for my first attempt. I had various candies, a picture from Mark & Joani's wedding, a picture of them 19 years later at our wedding, candles, bags for people to take some candy home and then I got Kate to provide some cupcakes and cake balls. I'm not sure if the pictures show it well, but the cupcakes had silver liners, white icing and green monograms with M for Moore on top. The cake balls were chocolate or yellow cake with the yummy icing and toppers that said "20" in alternating green, white and silver!

I didn't put a picture of the empty food table but for the first time in my party planninng career, the food was GONE! As fast as I could bring out more, it was consumed. I take it as a compliment to my culinary skills because there was certainly enough food provided for the number of guests! FJ even fried some stuff outside (he's figured out how to fry on a cast iron skillet on the grill) and none of that food made it inside. We actually found more food in the fridge that we could fry (chicken tenders and onion rings) around 11 and made that and I had to pretty much physically fight someone to get 1 or 2 chicken fingers! ha ha! SUCCESS!!!

Most of all, FJ's parents had a blast and were so excited that we put so much effort into celebrating their anniversary. Their friends had a great time and I think it meant a lot to Joani and Mark to have so many people there to celebrate with them!

It was a great weekend and the party was a huge success!! Congratulations to Joani and Mark again on "20 Moore Years!"