Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Break!

Finally back in Lawton and back to working at the fitness center, which means I can use my useless hours of boredom and work on the blog! Unfortunately, according to the only documentation that I have, you would think that Zach and I have shunned my family- so not the case- but no one took pictures at my house!


On the 22nd we found out that we are having a BOY!! Best Christmas gift ever!


Christmas Eve we spent with the Darlings. We went to church, came back and had a great dinner and opened lots of presents. There is a total of nine people in the family now- crazy!



The first night we got to Zach's parents house


The Darling Boys

First "Real" Christmas


The Whole Family



Mistletoe Kisses


Aaron getting kisses from the girls (and Zach is apparently one of the "girls" now)


Whoa Baby Bump....


Hahaha


A "Darling University" Onesie! So Cute!

Priceless Jake
We spent Christmas Day with my family at my Mom's house. Married and pregnant and still stuck at the Kiddie Table! Fabulous! Ally, Wes, Tracy, Eston, Zach, and I will forever be a fixture of the Kiddie Table and Wall of Silence (the "adults" apparently can't hear us when we are five feet away). Ed and Susan were AMAZING enough to bring us lots of goodies like a car seat and a baby swing.
Zach left the day after Christmas to head back to Lawton (which was under feet of snow at this point- I always miss the snow. I go to Atlanta and it snows in Lawton. I come back to Lawton and it snows in Atlanta? What the heck!?)
I stayed back with my mom for a few days who was going to help my drive back to Lawton in the truck. On the 27th Ally and Wes and I went up to Dad's and had Christmas there. We got to meet the new "puppy" of the family- Shelby. I say "puppy" because she is apparently like 12 years old or something. He adopted her from a shelter. In Wes' words "Only you (my dad) would get a dog on its last leg."
Zach and I have never spent a New Years together- ever! Basketball has always seemed to take that holiday away even now. No kisses on New Years Eve, but it seems to be working for us so far! Ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory- yummy! Mom and I literally watched the ball drop and said "alright, turn off the tv it's bedtime!" amidst the gunshots- in College Park people prefer to shoot weapons rather than shoot fireworks. We curled up with all three doggies- Rocky, MJ, and Erk and went to bed.
On the 1st we drove to Memphis! It was such a great visit, and we got to see lots of family. MJ made friends with Stephanie's new dog JJ and we got to see everyone from Jeff and his family to CB and Tommy to the rest of the Memphis local clan. It was so much fun! We left on the 3rd to head to Lawton and then Mom flew back to Atlanta on the 4th- and now here I am back at the Fitness Center working.
Zach and I are working on moving into our new house! Updates on that later! The last renter left it a mess, so I have been cleaning all day long for the past few days to get it ready to move stuff in hopefully this weekend!

Friday, December 11, 2009

6 Months and Many More

Ok, so I know I never post any pictures of myself or really of Zach on this blog but I hate taking pictures of just myself (I think that's weird) and then Zach HATES taking pictures in general, so between that combination and the fact that we aren't really doing anything picture-worthy is why you probably won't get any updated pictures of us until we go home for Christmas and someone forces Zach to take a picture with me!! So in the midst of this ramble, I have scattered some actual pictures that Zach and I are in.

Six Month dating anniversary picture

At Ally and Wes' Christmas Party

In Chattanooga enjoying our favorite city


So in a few days now- (but I am going out of town sooner than that so I have to start now) Zach and I will have been married for 6 months! :-) We will have known each other for 3 years 4 months and two days and will have been dating (including marriage time) for three years three months and seven days. Weird that I remember all this, I know- but I think its pretty noteworthy! The funny thing in all of this is that we will be four months pregnant next week technically (since you have to count before the baby was actually a baby). I know some think we are crazy, but we are excited about what God has put in our lives.

The engagement- this was actually staged later but a good ring shot nonetheless


Engagement pictures!
Zach always thought this one was corny but I loved it!

Engagement Pictures


In fact, our marriage, or relationship for that matter, has never been better than it has been since we found out we were going to have a baby. It would have been extremely easy for us to have freaked out in the midst of uncertainty and taken it out on each other, like we normally do! But actually, we have been so much more understanding of each other and much calmer in general. The fighting is now a general bicker (mostly over the fact that MJ needs to not chew on things) instead of the world wars that we used to have. We know that this is going to be quite the experience- and it will take both of us putting in the effort. What we need to make it through is to work together. And even though we have never discussed this, it has just happened naturally.

Engagement Pictures

At Ally and Wes' wedding

June 20, 2010
I married the love of my life

I know it is easy for newly married couples to say "divorce is just not an option for us," but it really isn't. Even when we were dating and things got rough- and then really terrible- the option of not ending up together was not really an option.

Wedding Day

Honeymoon on the Cruise!

Best Vacation Ever


We could not be more overjoyed about the new addition to our family. I know some think that we are crazy, but I think its a good crazy. We are young, but thousands of other people are too when they start families and to be honest I am tired of defending myself about how "ready" we are. We are ready, but I shouldn't have to worry about telling people that. This is what is happening so jump on board or jump right off- it's up to you. You won't get any more excuses about our age or the amount of months we have been married. We are in a great place in our marriage and could not be happier.

Margaritaville


Tender ride to Grand Caymans

At one of the shows on the boat

Can't wait for many many more months of marriage and motherhood. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Not so shaggy anymore

MJ finally got a new haircut since Zach has been begging me to get him one for months!

This is MJ looking super happy about losing his long hair

After-pic. SO cute!

As you can see in the pic above this one, they left his nappy tail (I'm still not sure why some people prefer this- it looks really stupid to me) so smart me decided to just cut it with some scissors- and here is the final product. haha, poor MJ is going to have a complex with his butchered tail.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Weekend of Coaching and MJ

The past week hasn't been too hectic. I ended up having Friday night off and went to Zach's 9th grade and JV game. He won his 9th grade game by 15 and everyone got to play! woohoo! Then his JV team played Wichita Falls Varsity team and was actually winning at the half 34-32. In the last two minutes though they made like 4 turnovers in a row (Zach was super happy) and ended up losing by 5 or 6. They did well for playing against a bunch of juniors and seniors.

I worked it out so that I could have Monday night off and go see his 9th grade team play and they were up by about 20 or so and then in order to get everybody in he had to start subbing at 4 min left in the 4th quarter so they ended up only winning by about ten or so.

He is much calmer than I thought he would be. He never really talks to the refs (the occasional "seriously" look is about it). He prefers to keep reminding his players that they can always take a seat next to him when they are walking, don't have hands up, being lazy in general, etc. He does a great job and loves what he does!

I had a great picture of Zach during a full time out- but considering the fact that there was no memory card in the camera- no one will ever see it. So make due with the awesomeness that is MJ.

The life of luxury
By the way mom- he opened your present that was under the tree! haha! (and then he ate my shoe...grrr)

Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorations!

Thanksgiving!! I actually cooked an entire meal by myself for Thanksgiving- crazy I know. Well, the break got off to a rocky start though- Wednesday I decided I wanted a hamburger but the patties were frozen together. Idea light above the head= Oh, I will just use the knife Zach just used (massive and completely unnecessary for the job I needed it for). Well, I sliced my thumb open. Pretty terrible and definitely should have gone and gotten stitches. But, being my mother's daughter, there is no need for stitches!! So I doctored it myself with butterfly bandages, alcohol swabs, hydrogen peroxide, and band aids. It's starting to look better and not so scary!


Thanksgiving appetizers to tide Zach over cause I was a little late getting food out. TGI Friday's spinach and artichoke dip- awesome and so easy- just pop it in the microwave. And, ranch dippers.

Mmmm. Turkey and cranberries (I just did a turkey breast- do not think I am crazy enough to do an entire turkey) Salad, cream corn, mac 'n cheese, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole. Nothing green because Zach would never eat it. Haha. Oh, and there was cherry cobbler but that was in the oven when this pic was taken.


Now for Christmas, which apparently threw up in our apartment!
If anyone steals this wreath I will hunt them down...


If you can't tell his little sign says "let it Snow"- which I hope it does!!

MJ posing for the pic- acting like he probably did not just pull out all the trash onto my floor!

Knit blanket and pillows courtesy of Mom. Unfortunately you can't tell that its green- it looks black in the picture.

Our little anorexic and vertically challenged Christmas tree. We are praying MJ does not eat all of your presents!

Home Sweet Home

A few weeks ago I got the awesome opportunity to Buddy Pass it back to the ATL to see the family. It was a great couple of days. Worked for my Mom at Woodward for a few days to make some extra cash. I figured since I was going to be there anyway I might as well get paid to hang out! Too bad I ended up having to do detention one afternoon. The first visit I have ever paid to detention....I had no idea what any of us were supposed to be doing! I did manage to tell them at the end that that was the most boring forty-five minutes of my life and I blame each and every one of them for that pain. Man, I can't wait to get back to the classroom and torture poor high school souls with sarcasm. I love it! Thursday night I got to catch up with a few of the Darling clan at Everybody's pizza. Friday we went to go see The Blind Side- amazing movie and I recommend that everyone go see it! Saturday we did lots of shopping- I found a brand new pack 'n play for 50$ woo-hoo! And we got Mom and Ally's Christmas tree. Saturday night we had dinner at Ally and Wes' with Mom, Dad, Courtney, Keith, and Avery- so much fun! Except I kept falling asleep on the couch. This pregnant lady is tired!

Look at those trees!!!! So pretty!!


Ally's dog Erk- sulking in the car because I didn't bring his boyfriend MJ. Trust me, I would have brought him if I could!

Look at that face. I know he looks cute but he is actually the spawn of satan. Haha

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

And the Nesting Begins.....

So- we are at 12 weeks now and already nesting! Zach and I went to Oklahoma City this past Sunday 'cause unless you want to shop at Walmart you need to leave Lawton. So we hit up the Babies R' Us and Target (the love of my life). At Babies R' Us we were getting a little worried because the cribs that were all decorated and set up like a little tiny Ikea room were all upwards of $300. Well let's get real- considering the fact that we are too cheap to even buy ourselves bed (headboard and footboard- I promise we do sleep on mattresses!- with sheets and everything!) we cannot pay that much for a crib. We found one in the back of the crib section up on a shelf that was perfect and totally in our price range. Although I was a little nervous 'cause I couldn't "see in the crib" so I "didn't know what I was buying" (I was too short!)- to which Zach asked "why does it matter? you like the way the outside looks"- touche. So we bought it and of course Mr. matchy had to get the matching changing table.

Here is the crib- can't buy any sheets or decorations until we know what we are having- so now it just holds all the junk that was on the desk that we had to move into the closet. And of course since it is totally going to be a little girl I put the pink bunny in there too! haha- Zach LOVED that since he has already picked out the sheet set he wants if it's a boy. As you continue reading you will learn that Zach should be on a home decorating show- at least he thinks he should be! He loves "decorating"!


This is the matchy changing table and the chest that we already had so it all goes perfect! Again, Zach informed me about the changing table that we can "dress it up with some of those baskets" (he means fabric baskets). My man is officially losing his man card! ha! The chest also holds lots of decoration stuff that was in the old room- we will save that for a later date!


Zach really wants to buy a glider as his present for me in the new room (probably because he really wants one!) But, this is the corner that we will put it in minus the double bed mattress and box springs. The cute little chair in the picture unfortunately will meet its end with the dumpster here in a few days. We bought it in July for ten bucks at a consignment shop. Unfortunately it no longer stands up by itself- hence the reason it is leaning up against the bed.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Three's Company

News to some and old hat to others- Zach and I are going to have a baby! Today I went to have my first ultrasound and what we thought was 10 weeks 6 days. According to the development of the baby I am 11 weeks 3 days. So either baby is really big (thanks Zach) or I just got my date wrong. This puts us at either May 28, 2010 or June 1, 2010 for a due date- not that it really matters because it will come whenever it pleases!

And yes I know the pictures say Shawn Daring- I promise my name is really Darling- we did not fool any of you. She just misspelled my name and didn't know until the very end.


The baby is just over 2 inches long and had a normal baby heartbeat of 173. Everything looks great!

This is when baby finally gave up on moving and squirming and wore himself out. He laid his little hand on his head- he was apparently exhausted and she finally got the heart rate.