birmingham and march madness

Last weekend was Easter.
I had Good Friday off and Gow had to work.
We were hoping to be able to drive to Chicago to be with my family for the weekend... but when Gow found out he had to work, we settled in for a weekend at home.

It was MUCH needed to rest, clean, nest and just not be in the car for 9 hrs each way.

On Thursday- we were blessed with a super fun surprise....

Tickets to the March Madness 2nd session games in Birmingham!




One of the pastors at church had tickets and wasn't going to be able to go.... so he was walking around the office seeing if anyone was interested.
We were!



We went to church on Saturday night then drove to Birmingham (2 /12 hours from home) and saw Tennesse go into overtime with Butler and then we saw Louisville CREAM OU.




We had $51 tickets and decent seats. It was a treat and fun outing that we topped off with a steak at Outback Steakhouse.



It was a great day.

Tuesday, Gow took the Honda in for some evaluation.... the power steering is out and will cost about $1000 to fix. I think we are going to let it be as that is probably more than the car is worth. It still runs great and Gow really only uses it to get to and from work (about 4 miles each way).

Wednesday, we had Community Group. We are really enjoying the group and have gotten to know a couple of the couples quite well and are really enjoying being a part of the group.

Check out this site...

http://www.downhere.com/main.php

one of the lead vocals and the Production Manager and wife are in our Community Group.
We have been listening to their albums... and LOVING them.
In our minds- they are a Christian mix of Queen and U2. =)
Fun stuff!

Thursday was a breastfeeding class and a tour of the birthing rooms.
Amazing.

And tonight we are having Caspari-crust Pizza and homemade ice cream with Dave, Jessica and baby Cali from our Community Group (Production Manager of Down Here).

And that's our week!

This weekend we are preregistering at the hospital, finding a pediatrician, packing a bag for the hospital and maybe hanging out with Linds and Christian (our buddies from church).

That's it for now-- ta ta to ya'll!

out n about with mulks and kotter

this is funny... yes, we live in Nashville and yes, there are many famous musicians that live in our area.

Mulks has a certain "Fave Artist" that happens to go to our church....

Unashamedly, we did some low key stalking....



With Mulks' GPS, we found this Christian Artist's home ( I can't put her name here or I may be fired from the church as that is where I found her address) =)



This is Mulks being ECSTATIC to see this Artist's home. She is such a crack up!



Here is sweet lil Leah... worn out from travel and shopping... sleeping in Kotter's sling in the middle of a LONG ol line at Walmart.



Leah- enjoying an evening out with the ladies.





We went downtown Nashville one afternoon and found some cool places by the river....



This was a HUGE map of Nashville in the cement... and we found a town called "Friendship"!



We thought this was appropriate for my big ol belly... "Bumpus Cove" =)



Kotter and Leah....



One night we went down to the strip in downtown Nashville to a place called "Wild Horse Saloon". They have lots of shows with big name country music artists, dancing and some pretty decent food.



Being silly with the "wild horses"



Being happy - just being together...



Candy Coburn was the senorita that was playing that night... she was pretty good. But we had never heard of her before.



Another wild horse shot.



and yeah, I am pretty sure that none of us really WOULD dance for food -- but there was tons of dancin' going on that night on the dance floor.



"Can you Duet" is a CMT version of American Idol and was being taped at the Wild Horse Saloon.

Kotter and I are playing some "leg guitar" here.



Mulks and I singing our hearts out!



and giving a teeny bit of attitude! =)

The night that we went to the Wild Horse Saloon- Gow stayed on "Leah Patrol". Kotter actually put her to bed before we left so Gow could have a nice calm night.... Leah woke up about 5 minutes after we left. =)

Gow walked with her and sang and tried every trick in the book- finally got her to go back to bed about 45 minutes later. I called a few hours into the night to check on Gow... and he said she was down now- doing fine. About 5 minutes after I hung up the phone with him... she woke up again. =)
Bless my wonderful hubby's heart!
God must have been giving him a glimpse of what's to come. =)

Okay- i am off to work.

Love to ya'll!

getting crazy with the girlies

Mulks, Kotter and I (yes, I am going to use their nick-names-o-love as this is my blogsite and I can do that! ) had a sweet sweet time together.
It was a mix of baby shower fun, shopping, tons of eating out, lounging and watching 90210 =) and just being together.



Mulks is having a "blue tooth party" apparently this is something that her jr highers do on the weekends... they all get together and share blue tooth tunes with each other for hours on their phones. So Mulks is doing her "duty" of keeping Kotter and I "current and cool" with ring tons like "Sweet Child" and MC Hamma. =)



Did I mention we did alot of EATING while we were together?



This is having Fruit Pizza- after the baby shower... and also giving you a glimpse of the belly.



and the classic... "My belly IS my table shot" =)



Kotter is reminiscing of the days when her belly was full of baby...



This is Kotter's youngest (she has two)- Leah!



Mulks playing with Leah.. (do do do do dodododododod)



Beautiful Leah LOVED the individual attention from her mommy and Mulks, myself and even Gow.



She's precious! And was sooo easy to have here with us.



This has become a tradition... us three will go out for dinner at Cheesecake Factory while my amazing hubby stays home with the baby. The deal is that we bring home cheesecake to him too!



Mulks here is "coaching" the bball teams on TV!



I love these two girlies! They have been two of my best buds for 14 years and are committed to being lifers!

april showers...

Here's a glimpse at the baby shower we had a week ago Sunday at our place!



These three brave souls are Ron, Justin and Steven Eddy - these guys came and for an hour transformed our living room and entry way into a fest of pink and baby fun!
Bless their hearts!

Linda Eddy- the mom/wife of the household was the original hostess of this blessed event... but could not attend because she had had surgery on her throat the week before.

This family is our "Nashville Family". They are the ones that housed Gow for a month for the past two summers (1st summer -during Gow's internship and 2nd when Gow moved out here a month before my contract at JBU was up). As our adopted family-- they have blessed us beyond words with friendship, hospitality, support and a whole lot of love!



Here is the PINK - cutie patootie cake and roses!



This is Rachel (one of Gow's bosses at Big Idea- we went river rafting with her and other last summer), Beck Mullikin, myself and Bek Kotter. These guys (and Linda) hosted the fun affair!



The fun cake!



Rachel and I cracking up about something--



Rachel ran the game at the party.



The party was a blast. I felt so super supported by these gals. And was pretty amazed at how God has truly surprised me with people here in Nashville that care. There were a few ladies from my Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Study, a few ladies from our Community Group and then about 4 ladies from Big Idea and then Beck and Bek. It was wonderful.



This is a hand-me-down from one of the Big Idea gals... so fun to have some veggie tale garb!



Even "Momma Mulks", Beck Mullikin's mom sent along her love and support with this cute lil outfit. I was just overwhelmed and encouraged.



The hostesses all chipped in and bought us our car seat! SUCH a blessing!
They also bought us a cute umbrella stroller and some quality books.



This is Betty, the Receptionist at Big Idea and Jen, Gow's boss's wife.... laughing and enjoying the festivities.



This lil outfit says "Worth the Wait"... oh, I can only imagine. =)



Here's Bek (Kotter) Mathis...being excited with us/for us!




And closing with prayers.... lifting us up as parents, praying for the delivery and praising God for this gift.

We have been blessed.
Between our Virtual Shower, our church shower and this one.... God has provided soo many items/gear/clothes that we need.
We are truly blessed.

Okay- I have a few more postings to do to catch up... will try and do that this week.

On the baby update-- our baby girl is considered "Full Term" now. She is 36 weeks old and fully developed. If she came now.... the doctor wouldn't try to stop her as she is good to go!
AMAZING.

I am getting way more rib jabs to my right side and have had some strange little foot or leg sticking out every once in a while on that upper right side. I guess she is just reminding me that she is there and ready to be known. =)

The last few nights I have been waking up again during the night and having some back pain.... guess I need to start learning now how to take naps during the day. =)

Love to ya'll! And thank you soo much for all of the encouragement, support, gifts and prayers you have given for us!

Grandma and Grandpa Gowan come to town

With Gow's folks living in Guatemala... we have still been blessed to see them quite a bit this year. They came thru Nashville last summer, we went to their place with the whole family for Christmas and then last week they had a conference in Nashville.

And the greatest thing is that for the next 10 years they will have a conference in Nashville... so will be able to come and visit at least once a year!

It was super fun as they planned in an extra day or two on the front end and back end of the conference to hang out... and they stayed with us the whole week!




This was going out for a celebration dinner... celebrating a GREAT conference for John as he was networking for the huge Christian TV station he works at in Guatemala... and celebrating just being together!



Sharon and I were a bit giddy as we were fried from a full week... and had a great time just being goofy that night.



Smoochy Smoochy! =) (sort of looks similar to the pix of Travis and Magarita stealing a smooch at their house on the lake... the men have that twinkle in their eyes.)



Here we are... two tired- yet very happy couples...



You can literally SEE Gow is being a PHENOM support to me in this journey of pregnancy.
He is such a keeper- I couldn't ask for anything more.



And that was our time with the Gowans.
They are wonderful guests - I guess I am soo blessed to not have the "inlaw sydrome" that I hear so much about... John and Sharon- you are welcome ANYTIME at our place!

Sharon will plan to come back to visit when the baby is born.
It is possible that great grandma gowan (Magarita- John's mom) may come for a few days too!

We are less than 5 weeks from our due date now.
CRAZY.

I am beginning to try and imagine what it is going to be like to have a little one that will be with me ALWAYS. I almost can't fathom. =)

Okay- love to you all and thanks for taking the time to read, care, pray, support and love us!