Our Summer in Pictures III

Nick and Kelly. Brother and sister. How lovely...

This was taken after the ceremony for Abby Cordonnier's wedding (family photo below) and before the reception. Kelly was a bridesmaid.

It's hard to believe from this loving photo that these two used to fight over the phone with Kelly slamming the door and turning up the radio in her room in defiance of her big brother.












Even though I wasn't supposed to take photos when the official photographer was, I still snuck in and took a candid of the Cordonnier family.

Striking, huh?

Our Summer in Pictures II

This was a picture from the deck of our condo in Folly Beach. Surprisingly, Nick is spending much of his time reading and relaxing. I didn't take too many photos of the lovely Charleston. I think the weather was just too darn hot and my big camera just too darn heavy to make the effort.

This vacation was awesome!

Our Summer in Pictures I

This is Joey, our nephew who is a little over a year old.

Joey is the youngest of our nephews and niece and when they come to visit, Nick and I love to take them to the park up the street.

If this picture doesn't brighten your day, I don't know what will.

Charleston, Abby, and the Yellow Bug

The truth of the matter is that life is complex. Life is complicated and busy as a pesky summer bee.

I feel that is all I can say after I look at the unimpressive amount of blogging done in the past few weeks. And sometimes I get so behind in this particular blog that I end up just drifting by important events - like the Charleston trip - without really showing the true brilliant colors of the experience.

So, let's just start with what's most recent: this past weekend.

Nick headed to Russia with his family immediately after Charleston for Abby Cordonnier's wedding, his cousin, and I flew home to Cleveland to work two days before joining him in Russia. The two days were uneventful and full of sleepy catch-up days in the real world. Charleston is kinda magical. I felt like the architecture of the south has some sort of time-travel element built into its columns and bricks. I felt like I was in Gone with the Wind, Sweet Home Alabama, or Forest Gump at times. The houses were just beautiful. Our time there was filled with a lot of beach, exploration, Tripoly, and an euchre tourney.

But, we eventually returned to the real world and headed to Abby's wedding. It was beautiful, as anticipated.

One thing I noticed is that I am getting much better at being on time for a wedding than I used to be. Now that the Borchers house is getting more and more snug with an expanding family, I have learned when to aggressively hog the shower first in the morning and iron my clothes before everyone else notices they need these amenities. With me, Nick, ( + Baby), Kelly, Tim, Jay, Keith, and his girlfriend Anna, it's a tight run ship on Voisard street. Luckily, after 4 years of marriage and about 6-7 years of Russia trips, I've learned a few tricks to being on time.

Abby and Marcus' wedding stood out for a few reaons, but like I've written before, there's always one thing that will catch my attention. For this wedding, it was the speeches. Quite possibly, this wedding had the best speeches I've ever heard overall. And there were plenty - both of Abby's parents spoke, Marcus' father, the matron of honor, best man, and even Abby and Marcus themselves spoke. That's a lot of talking and very impressive for each and every one to hold the attention of the audience with their wit, insight, and words. Bravo!

When I got home, Nick had to scoot off to work for a meeting and I decided to weed and prune some landscaping outside. I guess this was sorely needed because FOUR different neighbors stopped by to tell me what a great job I was doing and how wonderful it was that I was spending so much time taking care of our landscaping. Soon, the 30 minutes I had planned for myself became a 2.5 hour vendetta and I stopped only when Nick came home from his meeting and the sun had all but disappeared.

As Nick happily reviewed my hard work and the piles of branches, twigs, and greenery set out for pick-up, he threw his arm around my shoulder, "Great work, babe!"

I smiled an exhausted smile and mumbled how I wanted to go to bed.

Then he said, "Hey, what's lighting up inside your shirt?"

I looked down to see a curious yellow light blinking, sandwiched between my green tank top and skin. All my gardening tools crashed on the driveway as I yelped and screamed and nearly tore my shirt in my frantic attempts to get whatever was in my shirt off my skin. Images of spiders, centipedes, and event tarantulas flooded my brain.

As a lightning bug innocently flew away from my shirt, Nick whooped a hearty laughter and picked up my gardening tools scattered on the ground. Too tired to tell him to stop laughing at me, I headed inside and collapsed on the couch.

Next weekend: Stacy Condon's wedding and golf tourney for the Borchers clan.

Brevity

I just got back from Borchers family vacation 2009: Charleston, SC.

Nick and everyone else hit the road while I flew the friendly skies.

I'm exhausted and need sleep, but this is all you need to know for now before I write up about the beautiful south:

my return flight was horrendous. The fan above my head didn't work. The girl next to me kept farting.

I was gagging into the window, trying not to breathe.

So much for pampered.

Mood Swings

Last night I woke up at 5am with a terrible pain jetting across my stomach and the driest mouth in the free world.

I was moaning and wailing and then crying helplessly on my side of the bed, looking pathetically at Nick who was sleeping soundlessly on his side.

I guess after I scooted down the bed like an old lady, holding my stomach like it was going to fall off my body and grabbing Nick's right leg like a hand rail to guide me toward the edge of the mattress, he woke up.

"What do you need, babe?" He sounded wide awake.

I start practicing deep breaths even though I haven't taken any birthing classes, "I just need some water." Nick gets up and tries to help me up but I tell him to get back in bed.

Poor guy.

I trapse to the kitchen and run the water bill into the hundreds as I turn into a camel with a pink bathrobe draped on my shoulders. I drink glass after glass of water. I can't get enough.

Now I am wide awake.

I think about the past few days. My temper's been flaring over small things. Then I get weepy. Then I'm elated. Then I am depressed because I don't know why I'm sad. Then I'm elated again.

So, today at work, I look up, "Symptoms for Week 14 in Pregnancy."

After reading this is what I text to Nick at work:
"I read today that it's COMPLETELY normal to have severe mood swings as pregnancy progresses and it's probably all hormones."

Nick texts back, "Well, that's exciting."

Poor guy.

The pregnancy so far, physically, has been uneventful - just the way we like it. Other than my emotions being everywhere, I haven't been sick (knock on wood) save a handful of bad headaches, and my energy is returning to where I am able to exercise somewhat regularly without problems or fatigue.

But the belly bulge is peaking and I'm NOT repeat NOT going to be posting any ridiculous pictures of my pregnancy stomach. I think that's something a former anorexic patient decided to do once she began a healthy pregnancy and gained weight. No...call me reserved or a little shy, the only one who gets the side angles are me and my full length mirror.

Big weekend approaching. Family Borchers is heading south to Charleston for our family vacation. I am looking forward to literature that doesn't matter, games of Tripoly, and yapping my head off with the Borchers.

Another plus about being pregnant -- for this trip, instead of driving the 11 hours and stopping every hour to either use the bathroom or stretch my legs, I'm flying while the rest of the clan hits the road. Ahh, I'm too pampered....

4th of July Weekend Recap!

Our 4th of July weekend was terrific. It was terrific in a kind of firecracker way, not big boom fireworks kind of way.

Nick came back from his week long service trip Friday afternoon and we both needed a quiet evening at home before a long weekend of activities. So we made dinner and rented Revolutionary Road and invited our friend Alexis over who brought three boxes of ice cream to share. We feasted on just mint chocolate chip and gave the movie a B rating for compelling themes but mediocre acting. Nick, who obviously read the book, kept commenting how much one loses in cinema as compared to literature. He likes to rub it in that he's such a book worm.

That night, I think I fell asleep face down in my pillow. I was exhausted.

Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning up the house, running errands, and enjoying the beautiful weather. I know my energy level is depleting as my pregnancy marches on when I have to take a 1 hour nap after mowing the lawn. Apprehensive as my Dad on prom night, Nick wondered if it would be safe for me to mow the lawn. I assured him that as long as he can rev the motor up for me, I can take care of the rest.

The jittering and jostling may have taken more out of me than I would care to admit, but I laid on the couch afterward and fell asleep. Snoring as loud as the mower itself.

Then we headed off to Christina and Brian Emerson's for a BBQ. Nick dominated at cornhole while I ate a hamburger like I've never eaten before. My appetite, to put it lightly, fluctuates. Somedays I can barely swallow three grapes without feeling like a stuffed cabbage. Other days I feel like eating a rhino would not suffice. Saturday was a rhino kind of day.

Then we watched the fireworks and I got all sappy and happy sitting on the lawn and thinking how by next year, we'll have a little live firework in the flesh of our own.

Sunday afternoon was spent in Canton, Ohio where Nick and I went to a baptism reception. My highschool friend, Becca, married and now lives in England but her son, Logan was baptized here in her hometown and had a gathering to celebrate the little tyke's induction to the holy Kingdom. I saw a bunch of highschool buds and it was great to catch up after so many years.

And that was our weekend.

Upcoming weekends are going to N-U-T-S.
July 11-15 Borchers' family vaca to Charleston, SC
July 17-19 Russia bound for Staci Condon's wedding
July 24 -26 Russia bound for Abby Cordonnier's wedding
July 31 - Aug. 2 Cincy bound for a wedding I'm shooting (like, for money!)

And if you're wondering how everything else is going -- all I can say is the God honest truth: splendid.

Nick is wonderful.
I am wonderful.
Baby is wonderful.

(You are wonderful, too, in case you need a pick me up.)

So Much for a Quiet Pregnancy

As the second trimester of pregnancy is underway, Nick and I have settled (somewhat) into a mental stability together about our impending parenthood. While the baby was a wonderful planned event, there truly is nothing that can prepare you for the words, "We're pregnant," "We're having a baby," or anything along those lines. Week by week, as the news softens from joyous shock to ecstatic reality, we've been sharing the news with more and more people in our lives.

To me, it's now commonplace to let people know that we're expecting. It's been over three months and every conversation tends to revolve around preparing for the bundle of joy in six months. But nothing, I repeat nothing, could prepare us for when we walked into church this morning.

One of our friends came up to our pew to hug us. Since we hadn't seen Jennifer in a long time, the embrace didn't feel anything new or strange. But when she pulled away from us she says, "It's nice to see you guys on the front cover of the bulletin."

And there it was, for the world to read that we're expecting.

Now, since Nick works for the parish, it makes sense and it is quite the lovely feeling of having a community of people share the wonder and happiness of our first pregnancy.

It just took me awhile to get used to have people know me inadvertently through Nick. All I know about them is that that they are very genuine and nice people. And it feels great to be supported.

So, we grabbed the bulletin, and scanned the pastor's notes, I smiled up at Nick and said, "Well, so much for a quiet pregnancy."

Nick replied, "Like this was going to be a quiet pregnancy anyway."

Wrap Yourself in a July Scarf

Last night I was listening to my iTunes collection and a Christmas song came on. It didn't even feel odd because I was wrapped up in pants and a sweater and still slightly cool. The weather had dipped into the 50s and I could hear the BOOM from downtown from the fireworks.

Yes, that's right. It was in the 50s and the fireworks were going off downtown.

The past 4 days I have woken up to chilly, rainy mornings which makes me think more and more of my due date. It's as if I feel I'm 6 months along because it's October and January is right around the corner. But, no, it's July and this weather is just unbelievable.

I actually don't mind it as much because the cooler weather feels nice and it's a lovely break from the humidity beating down on the city last week.

Break out the brass band - Nick is coming home this afternoon!

(I yell) Hip! Hip!
(you yell)_______
(hint: Hooray!)

One text and postcard later, here I am, Nick's pregnant partner eagerly eating raw vegetables and blueberries, waiting for his return. It's so wonderful to have little reunions in life, don't you think? These brief (although it sure didn't feel so brief this week) separations just make us cherish our beloved ones all the more when they come home.

I seriously feel like baking something in celebration.

Ah-hem -- I don't bake.

That's how joyous I feel.

And so, with this holiday weekend, I must bid you all a wonderful and happy 4th of July. Enjoy the empty calories of all the bbq food you will have and safe travels from place to place. I must send a grateful note to my wonderful sister, Carmen, who stayed with me nearly every night this week because I'm such a chicken to sleep in this huge echoing house by myself and am tortured by thoughts of a break-in.

I hope your summers bring you so much joy you feel like fireworks are going off inside you.

That's kind of how our growing baby feels inside me these days.