It's a BABY BLOG!

That's right...the newlywed blog has officially become a baby blog! Geoff and I are expecting a little bundle of joy...and since most of the questions we're asked are the same, I thought I'd start of with a little q&a. Here goes nothin!

How far along are you?

Not very!! I'm just 5 weeks along, and we do realize it's still very early to be sharing the news with everyone. Our feeling is that God has already chosen the path we will walk with this new life, and we're excited to be part of whatever it is. We want to share the excitement and joy with everyone, and should something change, we will share that with everyone as well. We're thrilled to have the support and encouragement of so many (Especially those of you who have been pregnant and love sharing your advice! I'm a sponge. Tell me everything!)

When did you find out?

March 17, St Patrick's Day! I was actually sure that the test was going to come out negative, so I waited until Geoff went to work. I took the test, then went back into the kitchen to start baking a cake. 3 minutes later I went to the bathroom, glanced and prepared to see the negative test, as usual (I may have taken a few of these...) Instead, I was staring back at TWO LINES! Needless to say, I never got around to finishing that cake!

How did you tell Geoff?

One of our most favorite episodes of Friends is "The One With the Embryos." There is a scene where Phoebe is hanging upside down on the couch trying to make the implanted embryos "stick" in her uterus, and she sings this song: "Are you in there little fetus? In 9 months will you come greet us? I will buy you some Adidas." I love to sing that little song, and so I immediately went to buy a tiny little pair of infant Adidas, put my preggo tests (yes, I took two) in the shoe box, and drove to Chick-Fil-A for his break. He opened the box, and pulled out the tests..."Are these real??" (Yes, Geoff. You can't buy fake positive pregnancy tests...) "Are they YOURS??" (Um, no. I brought you someone else's pee stick...of course they're mine!) "What does this MEAN??" (It means we're having a baby, sweetheart.) At this point, Geoff began to giggle. So I began to giggle. And we both just sat there, giggling, and unsure of whether or not to believe it!!! It took us about 3 days to get over the shock.

Were you trying?

Such a weird thing. No, we were not "trying." But we also weren't doing much to prevent it. We decided a few months ago to let God decide when we become parents....and he picked now!! We did not expect it this soon (though, scientifically speaking, I guess we should have....) but we are THRILLED. We already can't wait to meet this little person!

When are you due?

November 25, Day before Thanksgiving! (and crazy timing for me--I'm going to miss the whole holiday season at Starbucks! My assistant manager may not top the list of thrilled people...haha.)

Are you hoping for a boy or girl?

BOY!!! all the way.

Have you picked any names?

Samuel Brandon for a boy; Zoey Joy for a girl

How are you feeling?

Exhausted!!! But so far no morning sickness...keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Welp, another month, and another failed attempt at "regular" blogging. Ohhhh boy. I'm not so good at that. Which sort of surprises me, since I was super good at remembering to update my Xanga (and I'm fairly certain my life was not all that much more interesting in my college years as it is now.)

It was a pretty fun month in our lives--Geoff turned 25, hooray!! It was fun to be married for this birthday, so I could do little things like jumping up and down on the bed at midnight yelling "Happy birthday!! It's your birthday!! You're 25 todayyyyyy!!!" It was super fun. I threw him a little surprise party, his folks took us out to lunch, and then some friends took us out to Chevy's (we are completely addicted to Chevy's salsa...mmmmm) The week after his birthday we went to stay at a little hot tub cottage in Virginia where we relaxed and enjoyed the wonderfulness of not having anything to do....it was great to get away with just the 2 of us. We also got to stop and spend an evening with Kristen, my sister in law that lives in Lynchburg. We got to go out on an awesome double date with her and her boyfriend and it was great to finally see her apartment and her wonderful life :)

I'm very pleased that it's finally March and thus the weather should begin turning soon...I hate winter SOOOOOO much. I'm pretty miserable when it's cold out..it affects my mood, my energy level, everything. Granted, being a newlywed has sorta made this one a little better than all the other ones! Having someone to always cuddle with has done wonders for my temperament :)

I feel like the details of our daily lives really aren't tremendously exciting, and that mayhaps I will begin using it to actually blog thoughts. Yes. I think I shall. But not today. Gotta wake up husband.

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...