Farewell to Second Grade

Many of you know I was a second grade teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School in Homewood. For three years, I helped young students prepare for the two biggest sacraments within their Catholic faith. It was an honor and a blessing for this Catholic convert to be given such a mighty task. I tried to embrace each blessing that was given to me and I can never express how nice it was to have prayer in my classroom. Honestly, I don’t know that I could have made it one day without having the privilege to pray with my students. That my friends, is the secret in making a classroom work. I made some life time friends in co- workers and met some awesome parents and amazing students, but when we found out we were pregnant – I knew my calling was to be a stay at home mommy.

Brandon and  I had discussed this reality prior to marriage. It was my dream job! I told Brandon I would do what I had to, whatever it was, for me to be able to stay home and raise our family. He agreed whole- heartily that this next step was just as important to him as it was for me. Thus, I made the decision to hand over my very important and mighty job to another wonderful young lady.

I am sure there will be days when I miss socializing with co- workers and being in the know of what all is going on in the community. As well as, running in to someone you know, be it a parent, co- worker, or student everywhere you go. But in my opinion, having the opportunity and privilege to stay home with our babies is the best thing in the world.

So on the last day of the school year, I stopped by the school to close up those last minute things and stay my “hello’s”, followed by “good- bye’s”. I will certainly make visits to OLS, but it will be with Emerson in tow and lunch for my second and third grade co workers.

These are the pictures we took on my last day! Brandon and I painted my room, my very first year! I loved it and thank heavens the girl who took my place loved it too!

 

      

   

            

    

Peachy Family… Part 2

When you have a baby, most people know the first few weeks are not easy! I know there were some nights when we hardly slept at all. Looking back on it, I think Emerson was just always hungry! Honestly, with the new exception of cutting teeth, that is one of the only reasons he cries.

Most people were mindful of the rough first few weeks. Most family would call and check on us, and occasionally visit if we had an a decent amount of sleep and were feeling up to company. However, my MeMaw really seemed to understand. Each time she would call to check on me, she would tell me… she could not wait to see me and meet little Emerson. Then she would follow it by saying, “But, I am not coming to visit until you are able to rest and get in a good routine with that new little baby”. I can not tell you how thankful I was for her understanding. Don’t get me wrong, I love for family to visit as much as anyone, but those words always brought me some comfort.

On June 30, 2012 my dad and Janice (Papa Den and MiMi – to Emerson) brought my MeMaw and PawPaw over to Birmingham for a visit. MeMaw and Paw Paw are my grandparents, and Emerson’s great- grandparents! We all were looking forward to them meeting Emerson. I know my dad and Janice were anxious to see Emerson as well. The last time they had seen him was the day he was born.

Here are some of the pictures of their visit.

We all went to Full Moon for lunch. It was Emerson’s first (of many) BBQ restaurant experiences. Everyone enjoyed the family time together. We are looking forward to visiting them again soon.

Peachy Family

Soon after we were cleared to take Emerson out of the house and around friends and family, best believe one of the first trips was to see our family in Georgia. I grew up so close to family my whole life, practically visiting my grandparents daily. Therefore, it was extremely important to me, that Emerson get to meet his loving family.

Taking an 8 week old on a 3 hour drive, can be difficult – or at least that is what I had been told. He did great. We left early and right after a feeding to ensure we would catch Emerson’s morning nap and prior to the next feeding.

We all gathered at my Gram and Pop Pop’s house and enjoyed family time. It was such a treat to see my Great- Grandmother hold her Great, Great, Grandson. I serious doubt many people can say that have a great, great grandmother – not to mention one strong enough to hold their great, great grandson.

This one has to be one of my favorites from that day! They loved each other.

Here are some others from that special day.

My sweet cousins Anna and Kayli with Emerson. I love these two so much. It is hard to believe I was just a few years older then Anna when she was born.

This is my Grandmama and her two sisters: my great aunts. If you have ever spent five minutes in the room with them, you can understand why we love family. They are a hoot!

FIVE GENERATIONS!

I am so glad my cousin, Tomi, took such wonderful pictures! This was such a special day. One day, I hope to live closer to them again, but for now we really enjoy each moment we have, live for the weekend visits and FaceTime.

Coming Home

Two days after Emerson was born we were released to go home. Initially the hospital was going to let us come home a few hours early, however, we did not get so lucky. After every check up of Emerson and myself, we cleared with flying colors, even me – who continued to have elevated blood pressure. Yet on the last check of Emerson, there was an issue. Nothing major, but enough to keep us at the hospital an additional 3 hours past the early release time.

At this point we had everything packed in the car with the exception of us, Emerson, a car seat and a diaper bag. The nurse checked Emerson’s temperature. His temperature had dropped. They brought the warmer in our room, and placed my sweet, new baby under the lamp.

After about 30 minutes under the lamp, they removed him, wrapped him in warm blankets and told me to keep him warm for the next few hours or so. You better believe I wrapped that baby in even more blankets to ensure his little temperature did not drop again. At the end of those two hours, his temperature was checked again. This time, he was too warm! Can you believe it? Thankfully, the nurse released us regardless, especially since Emerson had been wrapped in a ton of blankets.

Brandon went and got the car, we all loaded in. We were finally able to head home as a family. Once arriving home, Coco and Dandy greeted us, took pictures, and helped us all to get settled.

A special side note: Emerson wore the same outfit his daddy wore when he came home from the hospital. It was a 3 month outfit (way to big), but it was special just the same.

A True Blessing…

On Monday, April 16, 2012 the most amazing thing happened to us. We became parents to a sweet baby boy! Weighing in at 6lbs and 14 ounces, Emerson Newton Yow came into our little family. Words can not begin to express how much happiness he has brought us. To be honest, I can’t even really come up with the words to share with y’all what an amazing blessing he has been.

First Comes Love…Then Comes Marriage…

When Abbie and I got married back in 2010, we made a promise to each other, God, and the Church community there that we would love and honor each other.  We also promised that we would lovingly accept children from God.  It was more than a promise, it was part of a covenant.  One we intended to keep.

Because Abbie was born with some colon issues, yes I know she has spelling and grammar issues, but not that kind of colon.  I’ll spare the details, but let it suffice that she was born with an oversized colon.  It was something she had to deal with her entire life with diet and medication, but we finally got a surgical fix.  Problem was that we had to make sure we didn’t get pregnant before and soon after the surgery.

We are both against any kind of artificial birth control for many reasons, so we knew that was out of the question.  We had both heard of Natural Family Planning (NFP) but didn’t know much about it.  We learned a little more while on our Engaged Encounter weekend in Cullman as we prepared for marriage.  After that we decided to give it a shot, because it used the natural fertility cycle God created.  We also knew that once we were able to start trying to get pregnant, it would let us know the easiest times for that.

Fast forward a year to the middle of August in 2011 and we decided to go to dinner with Jeff and Kristen Belcher at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Sol Azteca.  For some reason, all Abbie could taste was salt.  We had gotten a few “Not Pregnants” already, so we didn’t really think this was a sign of pregnancy.  We were even out of pregnancy tests and were waiting on new ones to come in the mail.  Shout out to Amazon Prime.

Here comes Monday, August 15th, and Abbie really just wasn’t feeling all that great.  We didn’t really think we were pregnant because of all of the tests that came back negative a day or two before.  But wouldn’t you know it, UPS delivered a brand new box of Clear Blue Easy, a day before it was scheduled!  We took that as a sign from God and decided to give it another try. 

Let it be known that it has been my self-imposed job to read these tests, because I wanted to be the one to let Abbie know, not some little battery-powered wand.  I had gotten quite good at looking at it, and then saying “Not Pregnant.”  Well, this time around there was only one word in that little window.

What were my words to Abbie?  Nothing.  I said nothing.  I had gotten so used to looking at it and then saying to her, “Not Pregnant.”  This time I couldn’t say that…so I just went silent.  I showed it to her and we flipped out with excitement.  We had to make sure though…

So, we tried another one.

There was a third one in the box…so we decided we’d go for the hat trick.

So…there was a good chance we were pregnant!  We couldn’t control our happiness.  We hadn’t really thought of a plan on how to tell our parents, so Abbie just called her mom.  She was so excited to hear the great news.  Next, I called my mom, and she was at work.  So, we had to wait on her to get home so she could be with my dad when we shared the news.  They were both extremely excited and were so happy for us.  We also called Abbie’s dad and we called Sandy, who was asleep in Kuwait.  I think he was excited, but it was hard to tell given the fact we woke him up in the middle of the night.

Because Abbie was craving Papa John’s pizza, and those are only $8.99 on Mondays, we went and got pizza for dinner.  It was delicious. 

We called the doctor the next day and scheduled an appointment.  We had to wait over two weeks before our first appointment, which was agony, but probably a good thing in terms of getting a good ultrasound. 

We’ll pick up with that on our next post…

Happy Valentine’s Day

The best way to spend your Valentine’s Day is with the one you love. Fortunately, Abbie and I have been able to spend this Valentine’s Day with each other. It’s our last one before having kids, so we wanted to really enjoy it. The downside is that the reason we’re able to spend it with each other all day is because we’re both sick…and at home. In sickness and in health…right?

We started our day off with breakfast (cereal) in bed and I did some work from bed. Then we got dressed and headed to the doctor. At least we are both sick with the same thing, so the diagnosis and prescriptions were easy. After the doctor visit, we decided to go out on a date, to Wendy’s.

Abbie got the cheeseburger and I went with ‘ol faithful…the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Thank you again to the late, great David Kimani for telling me about this fantastic sandwich 10 years ago. Leave it to a Kenyan to get me to try a spicy fried chicken sandwich.

After eating lunch, we drove over to Costco to pick up our prescriptions. Of course while we were there we picked up a few more things…because that’s how it works at Costco. You can’t just go buy what you are planning on without buying a few other things.

The sad part about us feeling sick is that it means we can’t go out to a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day. So, I had to call Leonardo’s and cancel our reservation. Sad, I know. We are still going to have Italian food tonight though since Abbie will be cooking some pasta.

For our gifts, we went small this year because we were planning on doing a nice dinner. Plus, with all of the fixing up and renovating we have done at home, we had already spent a good bit of money on each other that way. I got Abbie some nice tulips with irises. I did tulips because those are the flowers I got Abbie on our first Valentine’s Day together…and irises because they are blue and we’re expecting a little boy in just over 9 weeks. (We’ll blog on that soon…promise.) Anyway…here is a picture of what they will look like once they open all the way.

I also got Abbie some Jalapeno flavored chips that she really likes…that are impossible to find. The only place we know of that has them is the Winn-Dixie in Cahaba Heights. Abbie got me a nice card and some really good looking sweets. She got me chocolate-dipped strawberries (which I’m sure I’ll share), chocolate-covered Oreo’s, and caramel cake petit fours. They were all amazing!

So, even though we’re both sick, we’re able to spend the day with each other and I think we’ll have a nice, restful night, which is something I’m sure we’ll be begging for once our little boy gets here.