Quick Family Update

Chad
As I write this blog, Chad is in Columbus, OH suffering through the dreaded Ohio Bar Exam. It's a three day exam and today is only Day 1. He has studied mighty hard and I think he's ready, but please pray hard for him anyway! We're excited for Thursday when he will have a whole 11 days of "vacation" before he starts his new job. Everyone says I'll never see him again once he's sold his soul to the law firm, but it really couldn't be worse than the 24/7 bar studying, right?

Chad did take a break from studying one evening to take me to the John Mayer concert for my birthday!

Darbie

I'm just the Jay entertainment queen 24/7 these days. We've become pretty good buddies and I even got an "Hi mom, I love you" the other day. (Chad hasn't even gotten one of those yet, and he's widely known as Jay's favorite. In fact, Chad heard Jay say it to me while he was in the bedroom studying and he came out and said "Did he just say what I thought he said?". Yup, I got the first I love you, but once this bar thing is over, Chad will get his fair share.)

I take care of our little patio garden as well, but seeing as I have Jay spray the plants 5 times a day, it pretty much falls into the Jay entertainment category. We're all loving our little patio garden and I probably worry about it way too much seeing as I've never grown anything and don't know what to expect. We have transplanted some of the plants into my parent's garden, but we're seeing if we can grow some stuff to full maturity here. Here are some pictures of our precious plants:











Jay
Jay is quite the little character these days. His behavior has improved greatly since we tried the 1-2-3 Magic discipline system. (I know, it sounds cheesy cheesy cheesy). There were a couple weeks when we first got here that Chad and I avoided taking this kid in public at all costs. He was out of control and my pregnant self couldn't handle him in the grocery store. All is well now, and he has become quite the pleasant and hilarious child.

Jay showing us his "noculars" made from play-doh tubs

I'm pretty sure I should receive some sort of parenting award for this next story:

Jay and I were browsing around Target just killing time while Chad was studying, and we headed into the toy aisles. Here is Jay's reaction/conversation with himself as we enter the aisle:

"Buy toys! No, not buy toys, just look at toys."

He said it matter of factly with no disappointment in his voice whatsoever. I started cracking up and secretly hoped someone heard my angel child tell me we were "just looking" at toys. I was in luck, and another lady in the aisle walked up to me

Lady: "Did he just say he wanted to just look at toys?"
Me: "Yeah, apparently I've got him pretty brainwashed!"
Lady: "I have a 10 year old I can't get to say that!"

I then secretly slipped a small train toy in the cart for later, I couldn't actually let Jay see I really was buying a toy. The train will be used as a reward/bribe/keep my sanity trick while I'm left alone with Jay with no car for 3 days.

Baby Sister
She's still inside my belly, due to arrive around August 21st. Nobody believes I'm due in 3 weeks as apparently I'm quite small. I'm bigger than I was with Jay, so I feel enormous. I had a couple ultrasounds to make sure the baby was growing properly due to the fact that I was measuring small, but they're convinced she's average sized. I have no idea where she hides, but I assured them that Jay weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and I was smaller last time, so my insides must just get pushed around into crazy corners of my body.

She still doesn't have a name. I don't think Chad had room in his brain to analyze anything else but Bar material up until now, so it's on the to-do list for when he returns. Any suggestions? I've checked the family tree and eliminated numerous possibilities.

I know you were all hoping for a belly shot, but no such luck as I always forget to take one when I'm actually wearing real clothing and do my hair.