So...

As promised...a better post.

We would like to introduce Baby Allison...ready to make his or her debut Feb 11, 2011.

We're so very excited and can't wait to meet this precious little gummy bear in there! Everything looks good currently, at the ultrasound the baby's heart rate was 188 beats per minute, and he or she was a whopping inch long. It fascinates me that at that small tiny little size there is a heart that is beating to organs already forming. Our God of details is just amazing!

As of right now...I'm in my 11th week, and feeling good. I am having some crazy brain issues but I guess that's to be expected...and it makes life pretty interesting! I'm kinda sleepy all the time..but I'm kinda liking an excuse to nap. I've missed those since college. As for morning sickness..I've been blessed and I'm thankful. It's been a really fun adventure so far!

So that's our news...hope you have a fantastic week!

Crazy hectic chaotic awesome life.

That sums it up. I'm not sure what we do with our time..though I can assure it is not spent blogging...and so that is the reason for not blogging. Simply...I have no idea why. I have promised my Mom for a good month now pictures..which I am yet to take, but Mom I promise that I will take that picture today..and maybe even update tonight. (Although maybe not because I know you're still at camp and not using the internet.)

I take this time today to brag a little about a particular guy named Brad. Brad Allison..the man who married me almost 3 years ago...and the man I love dearly...

In the last week or so he has:
Made me dinner
Done all the laundry
Allowed me to not feel guilty about him doing the items above
Changed our burnt out light bulbs
Replaced all the batteries in our smoke detectors
Let me buy a desk/bookshelf for the new office decor (Which is an awesome story so I will tell you about it.)
Prayed with me every night ...except last night because I fell asleep before he could
Ordered new floor for our hallway
Agreed to have someone paint our trim
Taken me to Casa Columbia so I could have empanadas
Listened to me jabber on and on about work when I don't make sense
Worked full time and put his heart into it
Allowed me to have every emotion I feel the need to have from happy to sad, giddy to crazy, needy, whiny, boring, lazy, peppy, encouraged, excited, busy...anything. I can pretty much guarantee if you name it..I've felt it.


Anyways...so I love him. And I'm so stinking thankful for him. Since I'm not blogging very much I thought that to get me back into the swing of things it would be a good opportunity to thank him for being my awesome husband.

Oh and about the new furniture...I had gone to look at this desk and bookshelf but decided they were too expensive but Brad agreed to go and look again with me. When we asked the guy if they ever went on a higher sale he said that occasionally you can find them for 50% off the whole store...and then said "well since you asked you can have them both for 50% off." WHAT?! That rocked. So we bought them.

Also...when I just spelled occasionally before - blogger corrected me..which means I've been charting that wrong for almost 3 years at work. I write occasionally a LOT at work..thankfully lately I've been feeling like I was spelling it wrong so I started abbreviating it with occ. So my charting might looks a little bit like pt. with mod. amt. serosang. drng. to blake drain and occ. prod. cough. (Brad calls that hieroglyphics) While we're on the topic...I realized I have been spelling raspberry wrong in my head for pretty much my whole life..and I had no idea that Douglas MacArthur was a general in WWII. ( I did know of General MacArthur just didn't know his first name, or that he had a corncob pipe like Frosty). All very important discoveries of the week.

That's it! Have a great week! I can almost 100% guarantee a more interesting post next time.

San Fran!!

So back in May we had the opportunity to head to San Francisco for a much needed vacation time for us. We had a GREAT time! San Francisco is a beautiful place, and there were so many things to do. We of course packed every possible thing we could in, and I'm so glad we did! A list of our top ten experiences of the trip:

1. Biking the Golden Gate Bridge...AMAZING!
2. V. Sattui in Napa. It was gorgeous! Napa itself is just beautiful! Picnic behind our hotel, so peaceful and awesome...followed by watching Baby Mama before going to bed. Hilarious!
3. Eating a whole dungeness crab at The Crab House..DELICIOUS!
4. Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway which is just breathtaking
5. While driving on the Pacific Coast Highway stopping in a tiny little town for artichoke garlic bread and garlic and herb goat cheese for lunch. WOW.
6. Taking our own little walking tour of San Francisco all day the first day
7. Driving through Tiburon/Salsalito on our way to Napa..those towns are adorable.
8. Ferry boat out to Alcatraz..and Alcatraz itself. That was so interesting!
9. Creme Brulee in our hotel's restaurant...seems strange but it was awesome!
10. Trolley rides! Those are so fun! LOVED THEM!
11. Scoma's, Pier 39, the sea lions, walking by the bay, walking AND driving down Lombard street.

Ok so there are 11 things...we LOVED it! Picture dump below...

The first day we walked around all these historical ships..

During our walking tour...we didn't plan on it but we covered a stinking ton of the city that day on foot.
During our bike ride across the Golden Gate..just before we came up to it
Brad on our bike ride
You may not be able to tell who this is..but this is Grant from Brad's FAVORITE show...Mythbusters! We were able to see them recording an episode outside!
This is either the view from our hotel or coit tower...I can't remember..but gorgeous!
Lombard street! It is beautiful!
Yum delicious ice cream!
From Coit Tower
Alcatraz!
YUMMMM!
At Sterling Vineyards...so beautiful!

V. Sattui. Amazing!
Beautiful Golden Gate!
During our drive on Hwy 1!
Our last night..
Overall...WE LOVED IT!!!

In other news..we're getting ready to replace the floors in our house. So stinking excited! We're going to rip out the back hallway and office carpet and put in pergo to complete the pergo we already have, and then eventually we'll be pulling up the rest of the carpet and replacing it. If you know me..you know how UNBELIEVABLY happy this makes me! We're hopefully going to repaint all the trim in the house then too...we need it and it's the perfect time to go ahead and finish it. All that's left then is just to paint the rooms we haven't done yet! So we're slow but we like it! Plus...NEW CARPET MEANS NEW A NEW VACUUM!! We never bought a new vacuum when we got married and then when we moved in here the people before us had animals..so I wanted to save the money until we had new carpet..so YAY! That's it for now..hope you have a great week!

Thankful.

So, Mom, landscaping pictures will come either this afternoon or Friday. Today though, just wanted to write a little about my heart. Corny? Yes. Oh well though.

Recently, we had a little bit of a stressful situation over here in our world. We have been broken and saddened and challenged all at once. We're always learning how to love like Jesus, and I'll tell you, I'm not that great at it. But, thankfully, He continues to give us opportunities to grow to be like Him. So anyways, we have talked to our families, our community group, and our friends about things, and I am just daily reminded about how thankful I am that the Lord has blessed us with people we love who love Him. Seriously. There is just something about going to a friend and knowing they are truly bringing it before the Lord with you. Or when you talk to your Dad, and you're crying because you just don't know what to do, and he prays over the phone with you from 17 hours away. Something about when a friend calls just to check in and see how everything is going. It's amazing. I've seen the power of prayer, and I've felt His hand on my heart and my life and I am just unbelievably thankful. I couldn't make it one day without Him, and whoa am I glad I'm not asked to.

So here I am, trying to be a child of God, walking through life with an AMAZING husband, families we couldn't live without, and faithful friendships that can always bring a smile to our faces. It's good. I don't deserve the blessings AT ALL, but I sure do hope I will live a life that daily shows my awe for Him. Life isn't always easy, but there is a total peace when you know you're not alone in it.

That's all I have. Sometimes, in the day to day, or in my goofy blogs I forget to mention my ultimate purpose in life. I forget to mention that Jesus died for us, that God gave him, His ONLY son, so we can spend eternity with Him. This is my heart. I want to see the world changed by people living for Him. I want to see people come to know Him and be in relationship with him. I want to see us not lost in the world around us, but in His amazing grace and goodness.
I want to live my life for Jesus.

For you mom!

Here you are Mom! Almost complete, just need to replace the lamp that's like 10 years old now.



In other news...we've had to say goodbye two THREE different couples here in Austin in the last month. So very sad to see them all go, but excited for each of our friends and their new adventures! In celebration of Brittany graduating with her PhD we went to Salt Lick with their family...we had a great time...few pictures below!



We went to Dallas this past weekend to see Brad's parents. We hadn't seen them since Brad's birthday in January so we were definitely way overdue for a visit. While in Dallas we went to see the new Cowboys Stadium. Now...I obviously am a Colts fan..and maybe I'm a little crazy...but that place is out of control. It was really awesome in there..but whoa. I'm glad we went to see it though. It was fun. We also got to have dinner with Brad's aunt and uncle and we hadn't seen them since the wedding so that was great. Other than that..we just were able to relax and spend time catching up with Brad's parents. The hotel was great and it was so relaxing there. It was a great time and we're super excited to head up to Missouri after the 4th of July for another visit.

At one point Brad said something about how he was surprised I didn't want a pink jersey..to which I replied..."I don't even like the Cowboys" LOUDLY. Oops.

Look at the ENORMOUS screen. Seriously...it's huge.

Do you know how much this ONE locker costs? Do you?! $9000!!! I'm sorry what? I had to ask the guy to repeat it..and even then I couldn't believe it.

And I'm out for the day..two posts in a day should be plenty I believe. Have a great week!

So many things to catch up on...

Busy busy last couple of months..but it's been pretty great! So here's a quick update (or a couple depending on how the time goes) of the last few months.

First...back in April I went back to Indiana to see my family. Every once in awhile I get homesick... since I was so used to having everyone I knew and loved in one place, this living across the country proves to be challenging occasionally. Thankfully I got to see almost everyone in my family (those I didn't I REALLY missed). I got to spend time with the girls and Sarah and Phil and I had so much fun with them! El met me for breakfast, got to see Manders and her precious baby bump, had a pizza dinner at Bruno's with the whole family, spent time with Mom and Dad, got to catch up with Luke, was able to go to service at Kossuth..basically I had a great time..and I can't even remember everything since we're a good month out from the trip. It's always too short..but sweet Brad was here in Austin, so I was ready to come back home to the husband. Here are some pictures of the trip. As usual, I didn't take enough...but got a few good ones in.

And on to the next post..San Francisco!

Psalm 139

When we were out of town a couple of weeks ago we missed church, so today I went for a bike ride and listened to it. Here's the link if you're interested...
http://www.austinstone.org/resources/sermons/
(It's the sermon titled "Building Towers of Disappointment")

So anyways, I feel renewed. During the sermon our pastor read Psalm 139:1-18. I've read this passage before, but today after the message I had just listened to, and the discussion/study we had at small group this week, and after the way my heart has been feeling lately...I just feel like my heart was awakened again to our AMAZING God of details. So I'm going to share the Psalm on here....hope you have a great day!

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ever there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before on e of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.