The One With a Sam Update

Sam turned 4 months old last week. Sometimes people hear that and say, "FOUR MONTHS?? Wow! That just flew by, didn't it?" Usually I smile and nod. Sometimes I give the obligatory response "Yup! He's just growing so fast!" What I'm saying in my head is, "Really? That's interesting, because actually, this has been the longest 4 months of my whole entire life." Being a mom is hard. And exhausting. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world...but flying by? Nope.

His appointment went fabulously though. Basically we went in expecting to hear that all of his development was on a 3-month level. Premature babies usually develop according to their gestational age, not their actual age, so Sam would be totally fine if he were developing 5 weeks behind. We were excited though, because while his motor skills are right on a 3 month level, his cognitive skills have caught up to a 4 month old! He looks wonderful and healthy and has gained a good amount of weight--up to the 35th% percentile! We're really proud of him. Right now his favorite things are cooing, smiling, and sitting back on the couch while someone talks to him. He is starting to enjoy bathtime more and more and we've established a good nighttime routine. Bedtime is 7pm and he is sleeping about a 9 hour stretch every night before eating once and going back down until 7a. He is a really high maintenance baby and usually isn't happy unless he's being held, although he is getting used to sitting in his exercauser for a few minutes at a time. He rolled over for the first time a few weeks ago from front to back, but he can't roll himself back yet, so sometimes he gets himself stuck! All in all, we're having more fun as each day goes by and we enjoy seeing his little personality emerge more and more. So far, I'd describe him as difficult, stubborn, and hilarious--which surprisingly enough were exactly the characteristics he had in the womb!

Being parents has been challenging and wonderful. It's made Geoff and I communicate more and differently than we ever had to before, and we've gotten to show each other support and love in more tangible ways than ever before. Geoff has been an amazing and hands-on dad. He does almost all the night feedings and is home by himself with Sam at least one day a week plus about 4 mornings a week. Sam loves to talk and babble to us, which is the best part about coming home from a long day. Sometimes balancing our jobs, the house, each other, and Sam is a lot, but his little smile makes every day worth it, and we've been so lucky to have so much support from family and friends. I'm really looking forward to the journey continuing!

The One With Things NOT to Say to Your Pregnant Wife

First, let me assure you--my husband is wonderful, amazing, supportive, and I love him dearly. He has been phenomenal to go through pregnancy with, and I fall more in love and am more thankful for him every single day.

Ahem.

Actual conversation in our home yesterday.

"Hey, Ashley. Did you use two different machines today at the gym, or just the one?"

"I was just on the one treadmill the whole time. Why?"

"Oh. Well. From downstairs, I thought I saw you, but then I looked over at another machine, and that looked like you too. But then I realized I think it was actually just this fat old lady."

::Jaw Drop:: " WHY on EARTH would you tell me that story?? If you mistake me for a fat old lady, you keep it to yourself!!"

At this point, he realizes how ridiculous what he is saying is, both of us are laughing hysterically, and he says. "Look, you're my best friend. Can't you just be happy I tell you everything??" More laughing...and such is my life.

All this from a man who one night accidently called me "fat head." (I may or may not have referred to our unborn child as fat head first. But that's completely beside the point....)

I hope you all get to live with someone as funny as I do :D

The One With the Anniversary!

(Alternately titled: The One Post NOT Written About My Ever Expanding Uterus.)

That's right, folks, today, I shall not be discussing my pregnancy, nor my Nugget, as per my previous 876 entries. Not that it's not pretty exciting, and not that I didn't FEEL MY BABY MOVE today, but still. There's more important things to discuss. (We all caught that, though, right? My baby moved. Inside me. And I felt it. Ok.) Like I said, we aren't discussing that today.

Tonight I'm super excited because sitting on my table is a big ol' box all wrapped up and in my hubby's handwriting says, "Happy Anniversary!!" (Also, the reason he had to write on it is because there is currently one roll of wrapping paper in our house, along with about 14 gift bags. The roll of wrapping paper has snowmen all over it and says "Winter Wonderland" and the gift bags all have pictures of brides and grooms or wedding rings. He opted for the Winter Wonderland, turned backwards. I'm so proud.) Tomorrow, I'll wrap up his little box and we get to have a special day!

This is our first Anniversary and I think it's so cool. Like, it's sort of like a birthday, because it's a special day that isn't shared by everyone, but MORE special because I get to share it with Geoff! I don't know if that makes sense. But I really like knowing that tomorrow doesn't mean a whole lot to everyone else, but for us, July 26 will always mark one of the most monumental days in our lives. This year has been amazing. And I'm completely baffled by all the people who tried to tell me the first year is the hardest. If that's true, then I am going to have the best life EVER because this has already been the best year of my life. I have loved learning how to be a good wife for Geoff; loved getting to know him better. I love waking up next to him, going to sleep with him, hearing the door open when he comes home from work, cooking dinner for him, cooking dinner with him, and all the other little tiny things that make our life so happy. Has it been a perfect year? 'Course not. Have there been ways we've both screwed up, and a thousand times we could have loved each other better? 'Course. But we have kept on turning to each other, and have grown this year in ways we never thought possible. I'm so thankful for this wonderful man I have been so blessed with. He makes me feel beautiful, cherished, special and safe every day. He takes care of me, makes me smile, and makes me laugh like no one else in the world. He loves me, and he loves me well.

I'm so looking forward to setting tomorrow aside as a celebration of US, a moment to stop and look at each other and think, "How did we get so blessed?" So here's to our first anniversary! May there be many more to come :)

Blogging...from the boy.

Actual conversation from the Wards today:

Me: Babe! There's new pics of Liam up today! (disclaimer: I sort of freakishly stalk your blog, Clement Crew, on account of the fact that your baby is the cutest boy I've ever seen. I also may, or may not, have watched the video of him laughing every day for the past week or so. )

Him: Maybe one day you should make our blog good, too.

Me: Have you ever even looked at our blog?

Him: Once.

Me: Ok, babe. You write this one. Tell me what to type about our lives.

Him: Ok. You should say, ok everyone. We've been really sick this week. Geoff has the squirts and poops water, and Ashley throws up a lot.

Me: Ok. I typed it. What next?

Him: Ummm....well. We're really in love and that I took care of you when you were sick, and you took care of me when I was sick....and...uhhh...the end.

Me: So...pretty easy to make this interesting, huh?

Him: Look, I already told you I didn't read this thing.

Sooooo, basically, that's pretty much what's been going on. Geoff started having stomach issues on Sunday night and is STILL having them...I came down with some sort of bug on Tuesday and spent 2 days being pretty miserable. I am on quite the upswing now; we're still waiting to see what Geoff's tummy wants him to do. That's been the most exciting thing of late.

We both survived holiday pretty well, and thoroughly enjoyed our first Christmas and New Year as a married couple! It was busy, especially for Geoff as he raked in the holiday overtime at the mall but I was really proud of how hard he worked and still kept his ever positive and optimistic spirit. We also got fish!! We love them. It's fun to have something to take care of together. Geoff's still doin well at school, although not enjoying this round of classes NEARLY as much as the last round. He learns much better with discussion instead of lecture, and this one's been ALL lecture. It's cute, though, he gets on facebook and sends me messages about how desperately bored he is. I'm hoping the next one starting in a few weeks will be better for him. I can't really explain how proud I am of him for doing full time school AND work and still making me a priority. He's balancing life well. And I'm so thankful =)

I've begun my internship at the pregnancy clinic...only one night so far but it's going pretty well. Slightly more nervewracking than I'd anticipated. I mean we practiced a lot with our forms and stuff in the training class...but somehow it's a little more scary when you're actually dropping someone's pee on a stick knowing you are quite possibly about to change their lives forever. Also my philosophy seems a little different than some of the people in the clinic but we'll see how it goes. It's been a great experience so far and I'm really looking forward to getting more involved.

All in all we're living a pretty ridiculously happy life over here. We laugh entirely more than normal people. We are way too affectionate in public. And we're way too annoying on each other's facebook walls. But we're so super happy that we couldn't care less! We've also had a great time continuing to develop relationships with our friends, especially my coworkers. God's been really gracious in providing us with some really strong friendships and lots of laughter and good times. God's really been reminding me lately of his goodness, despite circumstances and despite our feelings. I'm being continually reminded of his faithfulness, especially in looking at the places he draws us out of and the places he sets us back up again. Amazing love...

Me: Sweetie, I'm about done. Anything else you wanted to add?

Him: Seriously? More?

Me: You can't even think of something to wrap it up with?

Him: Ummm...stay classy San Diego.

....And thanks for stopping by.

.....But mostly, stay classy.

(movie? Anyone? for a hint...it's in our profile, under our favorite movies.)

Almost Christmas!

Wellllll....it's December. We're already pretty tired--I'm the at the end of an 8 day working stretch; Geoff is putting in lots of overtime plus balancing school, and life is flying by. I can't believe that the day after Christmas will be 5 months of marriage! It's gone by so quickly--kinda scary!

Work has been rough for me lately. Huge labor cuts have made my job a lot more difficult, as well as added the burden of trying to make schedules that still allow us to offer good service. So far I've done an alright job, but I've still got a lot to learn before I'm really running things efficiently. All in good time. My staff has been amazingly helpful throughout all of this. I love working with some of my best friends..I've developed great relationships with a few of my employees and their spouses and it's truly been an answer to a prayer of mine and Geoff's since before we got married. While we have many wonderful relationships in our lives as individuals, and some as a couple, we had desperately wanted a group of people who got along well, and found activities to enjoy together. We love hanging out in groups, and we were thrilled to find a few other couples, all newly married in the last 2 years, who have similar senses of humor and love board games as much as we do. More importantly, they all share our faith and we've found this the most wonderful part of it. Even more wonderfully, I've developed some great friendships with the ladies of these couples and they've encouraged me more in the past few months than I was ever expecting! It's so important to me to have companionship on the journey of learning to become a great wife for Geoff. I feel like so often women are stereotyped as sitting around together complaining that their husbands didn't clean the kitchen or left the toilet seat up--but I love having being part of relationships that celebrate each accomplishment of the men we've been blessed with, no matter how big or small. We love sharing our joy together, and being there to remind each other of that joy even on the days when we might be tempted to forget!!

The other big event of life recently was the birth of Steven Patrick Coleman, born to Bethany and Daniel on December 13th. I was so excited to go to the hospital that evening and meet the little man...who truly is a little MAN. Full head of hair, strong and sturdy (born early at over 9 pounds!!) It was really beautiful to see my friend after becoming a mom. Looking back to meeting her when I was only 12...thinking through the transformation of our friendship. We've been through SO many things together--breakups, marriages, deaths..huge life changes. To see her handle the biggest change yet with such complete beauty was really wonderful. I'm so excited to watch her and Daniel become amazing parents and see how Steven grows them together.

Welp. I'm sleepy! G'night!

Turkey and More!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Wards had a wonderful Thanksgiving...our first one as a married couple! We spent a pretty fabulous day with my dad, stepmom, stepdad, and siblings on a farm out in Pennsylvania. Despite a few wrong turns on the way out there (courtesy of me) we got there and had plenty of time to enjoy everything. My sisters cooked an amazing meal and it was really special to be there with all of them. It's the first time I ever remember spending Thanksgiving with my siblings and it was so great. I think one of my favorite moments of the day was when we went around the circle and all said what we're thankful for, and my little brother was thankful for "Star Wars Guys." Haha, little kids are too cute. Geoff got to chop some wood and we both got to ride horses! It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever. Geoff had a really great time as well, which was fun for me to see. It's one thing to hang out with each others families because we have to, and quite another to truly enjoy it. But Geoff said it was one of the best Thanksgiving days he's ever had, too!

There was one gap in the day, which was not having my mom there. And she's pretty much the most special person ever...because she spent her whole Thanksgiving being completely selfless and spending the day visiting relatives and friends in the hospital. I love my mom. I hope one day I can be as giving as she is, and be willing to put so many other people before myself on a daily basis. I'm hoping some of her has rubbed off on me already and that more continues to.

Life has been busy and different for us lately. We're still not good at not seeing each other and it's hard to adjust to our new busy life. Work has also gotten busier for both of us (especially poor Geoff--he worked a fourteen hour shift on black friday!!) but we're excited for Christmas. Hopefully this week we'll be getting our first Christmas tree and get to decorate together. I can't wait!

The biggest thing I'm thankful for this year is my husband, who continues to amaze me with how much and how well he loves me. Whether it's cute little things like going to get my favorite frozen yogurt or bigger things like knowing just how to encourage me on a bad day, or going out of his way to serve me even when it means sacrifice; he loves me in a million ways that surprise me every day. We also have both been so blessed in the past few weeks to develop a really amazing group of friends. We've been lucky to have a lot of good friends, and even a lot of couple friends, but now we've sort of morphed into a few couples that get along phenomenally well, are all Christians, all have the same sense of humor and have an absolute blast together. It's been a prayer of ours since before we even got married and it's really cool to see how God has seen fit to answer that prayer.

Puddling...

Yeah, so it's officially holiday in retail. Geoff worked a lovely 14 hour shift at the mall on Saturday, and I currently have piles of merchandise taller than I am in the back room of my store. (Luckily, I also have an assistant who is a lot taller than me at my store. Most of my days are spent saying, "Booker? Can you come get something for me?" "Um...Booker? Can you lift this box up there?" and my favorite, "Booker?? Can you open this apple juice?" He's big and tall. Kind of the opposite of me, which is why we're a great team. He puts things on shelves; I whine about them being too high. It's awesome.)

Both of us are already tired and slightly overwhelmed by everything to be done in the coming weeks but we're pushing through. Over dinner tonight, we both realized how stressed out we were getting and were able to encourage each other to push through! I'm so proud of my sweet husband--besides working crazy long shifts every day, he's also done an amazing job lately of managing his time so that he gets his homework done, goes to class, and STILL makes spending time with me and helping me with things a big priority. Friday night we got all dressed up and he took me out to our special restaurant (we went to Charthouse when we got engaged and for our one year dating anniversary) and it was so wonderful. Then this morning, he snuck in the bathroom during my shower, took my towel, put it in the dryer for me and brought it back all warm and toasty cuz he knew I was cold! He's been a wonderful husband, even when he's tired, and even when his wife is melting a bit...

November is typically a difficult month for me--or at least it has been for the past few years. November 10th marks the death of my cousin Brandon in 2005, and yesterday marked one year since my friend Dave died. Remembering Brandon was really great--it was the first anniversary that I've spent thinking of the time he was alive instead of replaying the days right after he died. Remembering Dave has been a little more difficult--if you think of it, please pray for his family. Dave died last year the day after Thanksgiving, and his birthday is also in a few days. His family will be having an extremely difficult holiday.

All in all life at the Wards is still wonderful--Geoff and I are falling more in love every day, and while that sounds cliche, it's totally true. We honestly find ourselves looking at each other sometimes and realize that we love each other more than the day before. We are continuing to find more ways to show that to each other, which for us is the happiest part of being married. Life is busy and a little stressful right now, but we're so blessed to have each other--and we try to never let each other forget!

Wow...life got insane pretty quickly here at the Wards....

Geoff began school a few weeks ago, and I'm still in my training class, which now puts one of us out the house 4 nights a week. Combine that with another night for small group, a daily trip to the gym, a few hang outs with friends, a week of house sitting, and the beginning of holiday life in retail and you're left with 2 very sleepy people. We also miss each other a lot, since we haven't gotten to spend much solid, uninterrupted time together lately. Luckily, next week settles down a tiny bit, we're back in our own house and not running back and forth when we were house sitting. And both of us are REALLY looking forward to Thanksgiving this year--for the first time I can ever remember, I'll be spending Thanksgiving with my Dad and stepmom and siblings. Plus, we get to go to a farm and ride horses (which Geoff is thrilled about.) It's going to be a really great day.

I've discovered in the past few weeks what I think people mean when they say "the first year is the hardest." I don't think it's true. But I do think that the hardest part is learning how to establish ourselves as our own family graciously, firmly, and without causing tension. Holiday family issues are difficult, perhaps even more so when everyone lives close together, and mine are even more complicated because of step parents, a sick grandmother, etc. It's going to be hard for Geoff and I to come up with a way to be fair, have fun, and enjoy the day fully with both our families. While I'm confident this will happen, I also know it will be trial and error. And perhaps this year will be error. But I hope not!

Work is going so well for me right now. I LOVE my staff. They are amazing and work so well together and are an amazing support for me as a new manager. It's been getting way busier already which is great.

I was really planning on typing more but I got too sleepy. Time to throw on some crock pot oatmeal for the morning and wait for hubby to come home from work...

Fireproof and beyond...

So it's now been 2 months since we started our journey together! We're still loving every second--each day keeps getting more and more fun as we develop our own routine and are finding out new things about each other. Luckily, our work schedules line up perfectly and we get to enjoy most evenings together and have been filling them up! We're usually pretty busy, but we're loving it. We're in the process of trying to find a small group at our church and are trying to work through scheduling issues and finding where we belong. Church is probably the most exciting thing going for us right now--we're in the middle of a sermon series called "Getting Out of Stuck" and it's been amazing! We're learning about ways to keep our spiritual growth on an incline and ways to encourage each other both as we grow spiritually as a couple and as individuals. We're touching on issues like community, personal growth, and intimacy with God. We're both really excited about continuing to learn. We are also loving our time volunteering at the espresso bar at church-Geoff is determined to perfect "latte art" and make pretty pictures with the foam and espresso shots. We'll be sure and post some pictures if he gets good!

This weekend marked our first road trip as a married couple! We went down to see my best friend Jill in Virginia Beach as a surprise for her birthday. She was shocked to see us...but even more shocked when she got engaged on Saturday! I've been working with her boyfriend (now fiance!) to help him put together some surprises and he did an amazing job of planning for her. They are SO in love and so happy and I'm thrilled for them as they plan their wedding.

One of our favorite times in the past month was going to see a movie together. We got to go (for free!) to see a sneak preview of the movie "Fireproof." It's out in theaters now, but we saw it a few weeks ago and we LOVED it. It follows a man and a woman who are on the brink of divorce and shows the man begin to pursue the woman...on the way discovering that he can never love her without God's love first. It is slightly cliche in some ways (the man struggles with pornography; the woman with an emotional affair...) but is such a story of redemption. It also presents the gospel far more blatantly than I ever would have expected to see in Hollywood. Instead of sidestepping the truth or using vague phrases about a "spirit of love" or whatever, the movie openly claims Jesus as the only way to save all sinners. If this movie stays in theaters and gets a lot of press, it could be an amazing testimony. We HIGHLY recommend everyone see it--especially married people!

Other than that, we're just pluggin along, living life, and loving each other. Life's so completely wonderful right now and we LOVE being married. It's pretty much the most fun thing in the entire world.