Hindsight is pretty funny sometimes.  At the end of 2008, after all of our wedding planning and the wonderful day itself, Jack and I had resolved to make 2009 the year of nothing-- just fun times, get settled into our life in our condo and make no major plans.  It turned out to be a much more eventful year than I had thought it would be, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

After a mellow beginning to the year, we were fortunate to be able to take our real honeymoon- one full week in Maui to just spend together.  Words can't do it justice, but it was FANTASTIC!  It is a trip we both look back on with the fondest of memories and is a place that we hope to return to someday. 

As the year continued, we were able to celebrate the marriage of a few of our very close friends.  Wedding season started with a trip to Florida with friends for Jen & Ken's beach wedding.  What a spectacular time and a unique wedding experience.  A few weeks later was the wedding of my high school best friend, Kristen, and her fiance, Jay.  It was so wonderful to stand as a bridesmaid for my good friend on this important day just as she did for me a few months before.  Other friends of ours (Kate and Jared) got married the same day as Kristen and Jay so we weren't able to attend their big day, but were thrilled for them none the less.  Later in the summer, we traveled to Detroit for the wedding of Jack's college friend, Joe, and his fiance, Jessica.  As Jack and Joe had lived together for a while in Chicago, I got to know both Joe and Jessica and was so excited to celebrate this day with them.

We were also able to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary- an event truly deserving of a celebration!  My brothers and I wanted to give them whatever kind of celebration they wanted and they chose a small gathering at their house with just our immediate family.  With the help of my brothers, we planned a wonderful day with much food and even more merriment.  Later on in the fall, my parents were kind enough to let me use their house for another celebration.  I decided to throw a birthday party for Jack.  Although it wasn't a milestone birthday (he was turning 29), I wanted to get in a celebration that included both friends and family before the baby was born.  Since Jack and I both enjoy being kids ourselves at times, I themed it "Let's be kids before we have a kid", so the day included games outside, party favors for the little kids in attendance and just a relaxing day for all to lounge outside and enjoy.

In and amongst all the wedding excitement earlier on in the year, we discovered that I was pregnant.  Boy was it ever tough to keep that a secrect until everything was confirmed with the doctor and we had made it to the safe point of 12 weeks.  With this news, our life felt like it took quite a turn- a turn that was filled with both nerves and excitement.  We knew we had wanted a family together, but had planned on a little more time where it was just the two of us.  As the weeks continued though, we both worked to understand that this may not have been in our plan right away, but it clearly was in God's for us right now and that if He felt we were ready, who were we to question it.  That certainly didn't mean that the nerves went away, but I can at least say for me, that that thought always provided some comfort when doubts surfaced.  As the year continued, our focus started to switch more and more towards prepping for baby's arrival- from shopping for a crib, to cleaning out our second bedroom, baby registries, baby showers and just our own mental preparation that our little family of 2 + Bentley, would soon be 3 + Bentley. 

As the year went on, we made sure to enjoy our time together as much as we could, as we knew it wouldn't be like this again for quite some time.  We also tried to just focus on us for a while, something which sounds really selfish as I type it but that we knew we needed to do.  I think we both wanted to feel more settled in our life together in our condo before adding a baby to the mix.  We worked to go through boxes of old stuff, catch up on all the home projects we had on the list for "sometime" and make our condo a true home.  I am thrilled to say that we closed out the year having caught up on much of what we had wanted to do.  Rooms got repainted, stuff was gone through and we combined our two lives into one.

An absolutely wonderful thing happened along the way though.  After we got married, I thought I couldn't love Jack much more than I already did.  I had felt I was the luckiest girl to have found a man who held all the qualities I had looked for, who treated me so wonderfully and was my best friend.  But this past year, I discovered what so many others have said- that I grew even more in love with Jack than I thought I could.  As we combined our lives, it felt so wonderful to feel in sync with someone else all the time.  I know that we both got by for many years without each other, but in this past year, I sometimes wonder how we did and I pray that I never have to know what that feels like again, as I can't imagine life without him.  I am sure much of these feelings came from the emotional roller coaster of us being pregnant with our first child and all that went along with it, but how exciting also to know that the person we have created is going to be a part of a love that is just so strong between the two of us. 2010 is sure to have many new experiences and adventures, the first of which will likely be the birth of Baby Minster (whenever he or she decides to arrive), but it feels good to know that we are ready for whatever happens because we are in this together.

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe, but I am only 3 and a half weeks away from my due date.  When in the world did that happen and where did the time go?  It seems so long ago that we first found out I was pregnant, but at some point, life seemed to move in fast forward and we are now quickly approaching the time when our family of 2 will be a family of 3 (+Bentley, of course). 

As I am sure you'd guess from my absense on our blog these days, we've been keeping VERY busy.  The Annual Meeting for my work took place just after Thanksgiving, so there were 2 weeks where I awoke very early, worked 12 hour days on average, ate whatever we had on hand (although we had planned ahead well), and went to bed.  Jack made sure to take care of me, just as he has all the way along this pregnancy, but particularly those two weeks.  I always have a bit of a melt-down after the Meeting is over; it is an adjustment back to "normal" life, but this year, normal seems very up in the air.

I am happy to report that all of my doctors appointments are going well and I am going every week now until the baby arrives.  The docs aren't concerned about anything, so it is just a matter of waiting now.

We were fortunate to have two baby showers, which took place on the weekends on either end of the Meeting.  The first was hosted by my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law at a restaurant in Westmont the Sunday before move-in started.  The women from Jack's side of the family were invited, along with the close friends of my mom-in-law and all of my girlfriends.  It was so nice of her to include my friends in this one and I had a great time.  Both parties were smaller groups which was nice because it made it possible to talk to just about everyone.  And for me, it was nice to see girlfriends from various parts of my life all socialize together.  The second was hosted by my mom at my parents' house the Sunday after the Meeting.  Once again it was a smaller crowd of just the ladies from our family, but it was nice to talk with everyone and feel how excited they all are for us.  We are so very fortunate to have such amazing family and friends with whom we can celebrate this upcoming milestone and the gifts we received were very much appreciated!

The Meeting always puts a bit of a crimp on the time we have for the holidays, so Jack and I have been doing what we can to enjoy the Christmas season, as he knows I LOVE this time of year, while still making sure to work at our other priorities, such as making sure we are as set as we can be before Baby Minster arrives.  We bought our Christmas tree and put it up right away, but it still has yet to be decorated.  It's a task that I plan to get to this week as there isn't much time left!  We did put up the other Christmas decorations in our condo though for this year right away, so our place feels festive.  And Jack made sure to put up the Christmas lights on our balcony and in our windows during the Meeting, which made home feel very festive each night when I came home.  I made sure to watch "White Christmas" once already and we've had Christmas carols playing in the condo as we work through our many "to do" items. 

We've been working in the baby's room and going through boxes of papers and random things that were being stored in there, and I am happy to say it is looking more like a baby's room these days!  The crib, bookcase and drawers that we'll use for a dresser and changing table are in their spots and I am pleased with how it looks.  Now that doesn't mean that ALL the boxes are gone, but we've made great progress.  No decorations are up, but that will come with time, as we haven't hung pictures in the rest of our condo either.  We were able to put away just about all the gifts we received from the showers, so we are slowly almost ready. 

We also found time to buy a rug for our living room (which I think Bentley thinks is his new big bed) and a picture mantel for above our fireplace.  While we've been out, we've also been trying to pick up the items we still needed for the baby, so we are just about set with all that too.  It feels great to check things off our list!

I've also been trying to chip away at the Christmas present shopping as the longer we wait, the harder I know it'll get for me physcially.  As it is, I can tell that my pace is slower, I get tired faster than ever, and I am only able to get so much done before Baby tells me I am done for the night.    I promised Jack that I would do more online shopping this year, so after hitting a few stores for things I knew I could get easier in person, I plan to finish up the shopping online (hopefully tonight).  That leaves us with thank you cards, Christmas cards, and all the wrapping to do done, plus what feels like a hundred other little things still, but I am thrilled with any progress we make these days. 

And as if we didn't have enough occupying our time, I asked Jack if we could take a night off and see White Christmas at the Tivoli in Downers Grove tomorrow night.  As the loving, wonderful husband he is, he agreed!  I can't wait!

I would say that since we moved in to our condo just over a year ago, I have always felt like it was in a state of transition and organization.  We worked at going through boxes of things we knew we didn't necessarily want to keep, we kept trying to find just the right arrangment for the furniture we had and figure out where we could use a piece here or there, and we organized stuff to find storage space, sometimes where there was very little.  I continue to feel like it is still a work in progress and maybe I always will. 

But with Baby on the way, it seems the "transitional" state of our condo has been taken to the next level these days.  We recently bought a new mattress for ourselves.  After sleeping on my full size bed for over year, we upgraded to a queen and were able to put our new comforter and linens to use to go with the paint color Jack and Steve worked so diligently to put up in that room a while back.  With that new mattress, something had to be done with the old one, right?  Well, for the moment, it is standing up against the wall in our 2nd bedroom where it'll soon be taken to my parents' house for use in one of their spare bedrooms.  But in the meantime, that second bedroom looks like we haven't made any progress on it at all, when we really have!  It's a little discouraging to be quite honest, and I am glad that over the weekend we'll be able to make the switch.

I also just picked up our crib this week that needs to be assembled.  Since the mattress is in the bedroom, the box is currently just leaning up against the wall in our living room.  And just last night we visited with my brother, sister-in-law and their two kids, where we were gifted a whole bunch of gently used baby things free of charge.  (Thanks, Jim & Renee!)  Since I didn't want them to continue to have to store the stuff, we loaded up the things we thought we could use in my car to bring home.  And where are these items now, you might ask?  Most are in our dining/living room area.

Frankly, I think even Bentley is a little confused as to what is going on.  As we went to bed last night, instead of sleeping on his bed out in the living room, he started out laying in the second bedroom close to the door on the hard floor.

Despite being a bit overwhelmed by the current state of things, I am looking forward to this weekend when we'll be able to move some things around and get back to making our condo look like a home.

...but yesterday just wasn't my day.  Sometimes I can tell when a day just isn't going to go right and I just give in to that feeling, but despite the early signs yesterday, I fought to not let the day get me.  I tried, I worked to stay as positive as possible, but in the end, the day still beat me.  Thankfully,  it wasn't an AWFUL day - it just didn't go really well either. 

It started with me just dropping things left and right before I left the condo for work and I nearly forgot a VERY important work notebook at home, but thankfully I remembered right before I left.  Once at work, I realized I forgot my watch and jewelry and I hate the feeling of being without my wedding rings.  Then it was just work frustrations - someone giving me their work to do, someone doing something of mine, someone not reading the email I sent and basically asking me to repeat everything in the email over the phone, etc, etc.  I still hadn't lost all hope and was relieved when 4:30 came.  I was gathering my things to leave when I knocked my can of Diet Coke onto the carpet and had to spend 15 minutes getting it all up so it didn't stain.  I finally texted Jack once I left work to say I was on my way and with what had held me up from leaving.  He sent a text back "Let's eat comfort food for dinner".  I try not to be much of an emotional eater, but that offer just sounded too good to pass up.

He was a great husband and picked up my dinner choice - Taco Bell.  I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I just love it.  While he was out, I let Bentley out and it seemed that Bentley wasn't feeling so great either, so I was quite sympathetic to him last night.  Thankfully, today seems to be a better day so far.   

Wow, I can't believe that Bentley is 5 years old today!  (Yes born on St. Patrick's Day, go figure)  We've got plenty of things to update everyone on, especially our FANTASTIC honeymoon to Maui, but that will require a little more time.