Our first trip out of the Country

Brooks, Gavin, and I, along with another couple, went to Bahrain last weekend for the day.  We "had" to make a trip out of the country, in order to activate our multi entry visas that we have, so we took advantage of our open weekend and set out for the day.  

Bahrain is located a little over an hour from Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, where we live and is a separate country.  Bahrain is its own island and is separated from SA by a causeway like highway.  Kind of like driving from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, except you have to make 5 stops along the way to get through customs, have visa checks, vehicle inspections, etc, etc.  Here is a glimpse of one of the stops we went through leaving SA.  I will say it's very nice to not have to get out of your car in order to do all these things.  However, if you are a Saudi woman who chooses to wear a face vail, you are required to get out of your car and walk to a building on the side where they hold Women's Passport Verification Checks.  The purpose of this is to have Saudi women lift their vails, to another woman of course, and verify that she is the woman on the passport.   It really does make sense to have something like that set in place seeing as how you can't see women's faces, so how do you know they are who is on that passport. Ok, enough about that.    

Before I keep writing more about our sightseeing and time in Bahrain, let me explain that since Bahrain is a separate country from Saudi Arabia, life over there is somewhat different.  First off, women do not have to be covered up in public, aka.... NO ABAYA wearing for me! Yippeee!  Secondly, women ARE allowed to drive, you can buy pork products anywhere (can I get a big woo hoo for bacon), alcohol is served & available,  and there are more American stores and products everywhere!!  Even though we were only in Bahrain for the day, there was a definite difference between where we live and over there.  You really could sense a feeling of freedom and were able to relax a little more!!  It was a nice break!!

Ok, now onto our day.....

We drove by The Al Fateh Mosque, otherwise known as The Grand Mosque, and decided to go get a tour of the inside.  Mosques are considered Muslim's churches where they go and pray 5 times a day.  This is the largest one in the city and has beautiful architectural sights!  We didn't make it here until mid afternoon, and we showed up as they were "closing" their tours, however, they allowed us 5 minutes to walk inside. Upon entering the building, we were required to remove our shoes, I had to put my abaya on AND cover my head (that was a first for me).  We weren't allowed to push Gavin in the stroller since the wheels of his stroller had not been cleaned properly so Brooks had to carry him.  Being inside the mosque, seeing parts of their rituals- the floor was all carpet, rugs were stacked up, Quran's were lined up against the wall and posters were displayed giving instructions on how to enter the prayer room, requirements before praying (you have to wash your body), and then how to pray along with the positions to be in during the prayer.   My heart just hurt.  I'm just grateful to serve a God who died for me, and my sins, and I am promised eternal life with HIM, because of what HE did on that cross.  I appreciate the love, hope, mercy, and grace that I'm given daily from HIM and I don't take that for granted.  I will say, I'm glad we went and saw the building... it's something we've never seen and now can say we experienced.   The grand room was beautiful.  It had a LARGE chandelier, I forgot where it was from, and there were arches, and stained glass windows, and more that really made the room look appealing.  We were allowed to take pictures inside since there were no lectures going on and the janitors were in there cleaning.  When we left, we were given some books on Islam, Muslim life, and how to more.  One of the titles was, Finding Jesus brought me to Islam-- hmmmm......

Bahrain is really a beautiful country and has some unique buildings.  Here were some neat places we saw while driving through the city.

During the day, we visited Gold City, just a building with tons of jewelry shops, knick knack stores, and more.  We went to one of the largest malls, called City Centre where we saw an indoor water park and regular/normal stores!  We (or I should say I) ate Cold Stone Ice Cream, we picked up Great American Cookie Company cookies (to take home), bought flavored coffee. and did a little shopping for our house.  Brooks found a speciality store for dates (his new favorite snack) so he picked up a few for him.  The store would be like a Godiva store for chocolates, but for dates.  Brooks and I want to bring Gavin back to the indoor water park before baby #2 gets here.  We think Gavin would love it!!  There was also a movie theater in the mall, something else Bahrain has that Saudi doesn't.  Our day was filled with too many things to do so we didn't go to a movie, but it's nice to know that's always an option. 

After the mall, we went to a different area and did some street shopping.  Our "street" shopping consisted of shopping from one side store to another.  We went to a DVD store, where I bought the movie Eclipse from a back room for $2.00, then we had our first experience rug shopping.  Rugs are HUGE over here and there are a lot of them all over.  I of course fell in love with a few and the one WE really liked, as the worker was pulling it out for us, he said, "Mam', you have really good taste!"  That can only mean one thing-- expensive... and yes, it was.  However, Brooks and I are still contemplating the rug, we loved it that much, and we just might have to make a trip back to Bahrain to get it!  After our shopping trip, we went to a local Indian restaurant-- Brooks was in love!!  He has wanted Indian food for weeks and was so excited to finally get some!  We enjoyed our nice dinner before heading back to Saudi.  

We can't wait to go back to Bahrain some time soon.  There are lot of other places we want to go to and places we want to see.  You just can't do it all in one trip.  

Sea Shipment

Our sea shipment arrived Tuesday and we were so excited to get that call.  We've been waiting patiently for it to get through customs and for the port to reopen after Eid.  Brooks came home from work that morning to be here to receive the shipment.  We watched anxiously for the trucks to arrive and when they did, we were all a little giddy.  I decided to start telling Gavin that all of his toys were coming and he was excited, however, I'm not sure he realized what was about to take place.  

As soon as the trucks arrived, the workers got busy unloading.  They would bring in boxes, which were all labeled from when they got packed at our house, so we told them what rooms to take the boxes into in our new home.  After 2 hours, and a few breaks, the workers had unloaded both trucks.  Our villa was filled with boxes in every room.  

The very first "box" they unloaded just so happened to be Gavin's toy car.  I ripped open the packaging around it and let him run around playing with it the whole time the workers were here.  He was so excited to have his car back!  It definitely kept him entertained throughout the day.

As boxes were brought in, I noticed this one particularly.  I guess the writing on the side didn't mean anything.  I was a little upset though once I realized it was all my dishes-- they all got here in one piece though.  I forgot to take pictures of the rooms filled with boxes, but trust me there was a lot!  We decided to have the workers unpack all the boxes too while they were here.  We figured it would be very difficult for me to unpack, unload, and set everything up alone and I was very glad that we made this decision.  The workers took one room at a time and we all unloaded the boxes and placed the contents out on cabinets or tables or on the floor, stacked nice and neatly.  This really has helped in getting things put away faster.  The workers took all the boxes and wrapping tissue that was inside them with them so we weren't left with any of the mess.  

Once the workers finished everything and left, Brooks and I took a nap on OUR mattress, which we desperately missed.  Needless to say, we slept GREAT!!  After napping, we got busy working around the house.  Brooks went to basketball (it's a set event every Tuesday night here) so I got busy to work on our kitchen.  My goal was to have the kitchen put together, everything in its place, and organized by Wednesday morning, which I'm happy to say I was able to accomplish!!  But, I didn't work on the kitchen until I got some of Gavin's stuff out and usable for him to play with.  As you can see in this picture, he was in HEAVEN!!  Normally, we have a rule, he can only take out 2 bins at a time, but I wasn't about to put that restriction on him though.  He went to town playing with his toys as if he had never played with them before.  I can honestly say that he didn't get in trouble once Wednesday, all day, since he was so preoccupied!  Plus, it allowed me to get a lot of stuff done!  

I forgot to take pictures of all the rooms once they had been unpacked with all the stuff sitting out, but here is our kitchen table with just a few things laying around on it.  I will post pictures as soon as we get the house put together and everything is in its place.  We need a few storage pieces that we're on the look out for that will help us in putting away all the stuff we bought back home in the states as well as all the cabinets are deep and tall, but they don't have any shelving in them.  I also have to call one of the compound workers to come and hang all of our pictures-- the walls here are made of concrete so it requires special tools and drill bits to hang nails.

Gavin was a huge help the entire day the workers were here.  He did really good hanging out and enjoyed all the people in our house.  

More posts to come soon.... our trip to Bahrain yesterday, revealing this baby's name, pictures of the house finished, AND my next doctors appointment is Wednesday- we're going to tour the hospital as well.

No particular order...

This post doesn't have a lot of relevance, however, I had some random photos that I wanted to share of the last week and had some news to share.  First off, our sea shipment came into today and we were soooo excited!  The trucks were at our house around 11am and by 3pm, all the boxes had been unloaded, unpacked, and all our belongings were stacked nice and neatly around the entire house.  We have a lot of work to do in the next few days, thus, my reasoning for wanting to do some kind of post, since it may be a while before I can really post!!  

Enjoy the random pictures!  

Brooks and I thought our air conditioner might have broke, so we decided to turn all of our AC's down really low.  Come to find out, they work fine, it's just really hot outside.  

Gavin seems to be Mr. Cool Guy these days and this picture proves it!  

Gavin likes to goof off a lot and he shows us more and more of his personality everyday.  This is another picture that proves how silly he really is.  

Our cleaning guy didn't come for some reason so we took matters into our own hands.  Gavin felt like the vacuum cleaner was a riding toy.

I was asked to make a cake for a gentleman's birthday last weekend since his wife isn't here yet.  I was actually excited about making it, until this happened.  It was one of the few cake disasters I've had.  

Have I mentioned that I'm having some difficulty finding powdered sugar around here?  Well, I have, until yesterday.  I bought all 20 bags that the grocery store had!  The fact that I found them in bags was huge!!!!  I don't think I'm going to run out anytime soon. 

I've also been on the look out for miniature marshmallows in order to make homemade fondant and I found some at two different grocery stores in the same week!  Woo hoo!  I felt like I had won the lottery!  

Like I said, this post didn't have much relevance to it.  Sorry.  I'll post pics in a few days from our eventful day, today and will hopefully have pictures of our house put together!  Have a great week!

Half and Half

I received my first cake order while being over here and was excited to get back into the kitchen to do my thing!  I don't have all of my cake supplies here, yet, our sea shipment made it into port last week (yipppeeee!!!), but the port closed for the holiday, Eid that is currently going on, or was, so now we're just waiting for it to reopen and hopefully get our container soon!

Anyways, I'm limited to what types of cakes I can make, but thankfully, my neighbor, 2 doors down also makes cakes and brought all of her cake supplies in her air shipment so if I don't have something I can call her for it!  I used her mixer this week for the cake I was asked to make, which just so happened to be a half vanilla, half chocolate sheet cake.  Now, I've never made one of these before, but had heard of several different ways that it can be done.  Since I'm limited to the pans I have here, I had to go with the method where you bake both batters in the same pan, at the same time.  I did a lot of research on this and was actually surprised, impressed, and grateful for how it turned out!  

Here are step by step instructions incase you are ever interested in making a half and half sheet cake:

Step 1: Make both cake mixes separately, measure batter (I used 1/2 cup less of the chocolate batter since chocolate cake mix tends to rise faster then white)

Step 2: Spray pan using some kind of non stick spray (I've been using Pam for baking, but normally use Wilton's Cake Release) and then elevate pan in some way, not a lot, just a little bit.  I put the empty cake box underneath and it worked out perfectly!  Pour vanilla batter first, I recommend that since it's a thicker consistency then the chocolate.  Begin pouring the vanilla batter in the center, but about 1 inch over so that when you move the item that is elevating your pan, the batter will automatically move back to the center and it won't be uneven.

Step 3: Entertain your child who is wrapping his arms around your legs while you are attempting to pour your batter!

Step 4: While the cake pan is still elevated, pour chocolate batter on opposite end.  I would recommend pouring the batter from left to right, slowly, so that your batter can cover all corners of that end of the pan.  Once your batter reaches over 3/4 of it's side of the cake, slowly remove the item keeping your pan elevated, then quickly return to pouring your chocolate batter.  Eventually, the 2 batters will meet in the middle.  Once the batters meet in the middle, you can pour any remaining batter in the center of it's side and very carefully, use a spatula to even it out.  

**You also want to make sure that one batter is not higher then the other one.  This will cause the batters to run over each other and you do not want that.   

Step 5: Pray your batter doesn't run over each other.  I read somewhere that you can take a knife and gently swirl the two batters in the center together, to give it more of a marble effect.  I was too nervous to try that this go around, but think it is worth doing.  I was afraid the 2 cakes would split once they were cooked since I didn't "link" them together.  

- For this size sheet cake, 12x18, I used a heating core element to help the center cook faster.  I sprayed a flower nail with Pam, and after pouring the batters, I slipped the nail into the mixture, upside down, right in the center.  It really worked and helped my cake cook evenly.  You don't have to worry about it making a hole in your cake, since this side would be the bottom of your cake anyways, once you flip the cake, you pull the nail out and it leaves a toothpick size hole that you cover with icing!  

Step 6: Bake cake according to directions.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, set on cooling grid.  Once cooled completely, have your amazing husband who has a great eye and steady hand, carve the uneven dome shape off the top of your cake.  Once again, say a prayer that the cake doesn't lose too much from the carving.  

Step 7: Very carefully and with caution, flip the cake over onto your prepared cake board and admire your work!  "Dust" off all the crumbs and prepare to ice the cake!

Step 8: Admire your work one more time.  After all, you are impressed with your ability to actually make this work and it didn't require having to make a 2nd or 3rd cake!  

- In all seriousness, doesn't that look really neat?  The cake stayed together and the funnest part for some of the guests was getting the center piece.  

Step 9: Decorate the cake and deliver!  

This cake was for 2 sister's joint birthday party.  The mom wanted the cake to be girly and to feed a lot of people.  She asked for me to use pink and purple colors (which were my favorite growing up), so I thoroughly enjoyed getting to decorate with them.  I still don't think I'm very good at hand piping things, but don't have many options since I can't make fondant right now-- no marshmallows and not enough powdered sugar.  It was fun watching the sisters see their cake and gush over the pink!  I think they love pink!!   

Good luck if you ever decide to make a half and half cake.  Feel free to email me if you'd rather more detailed instructions.  Let me know if any of you try it too!    Happy baking!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The past month we've been here, there have been more and more families arriving on our compound, which has provided many opportunities for get-togethers for us ladies to get to know one another.  Plus, with Ramadan going on, there hasn't been much for us to do outside the walls of our compound.  

Last week, I went to a Ladies Meet and Greet at the MV Complex.  There were rug vendors and a lady who makes and sells abayas as well as lunch and of course desserts!  The rugs were overwhelming to look at, so I just browsed and walked away.  I tried on numerous abayas, but was still waiting for my custom one to be made so I just played dress up for the time being.  However, there were some GORGEOUS ones there and I have a few ideas for a future abaya.  It's kinda funny how much you start to think about an abaya and want it to look, feel, and fit a certain way.  Anytime I leave the compound, I'm wearing it so it's nice to feel that you like what you're wearing and that you think it looks good.  I now have 2, the one from this post, and a new one that buttons up the front so I don't have to pull it over my head.  I also had the back panel left in so my belly can have room to grow and then I'll have it altered after the baby gets here.  Anyways, enough about abayas, sorry.  

The Ladies Meet and Greet was a lot of fun.  We laughed a lot and really got to know one another.  The food was delicious and the sweets were even better!  

Gavin and Tucker joined Cherie and I this day.  There is a built in playroom in the complex so the boys would play in there, come see where we were, then go back and play.  They liked all the food too and got LOTS of attention from the other ladies!  

Another fun evening, that I don't have any pictures from, was Bunko night!!!  I've never played, always wanted to, and finally got the chance to.  We planned for Bunko to be in the evening so that women who work during the day (some ladies teach at the international school here or own the hair salon on our compound) and women with kids could attend!  Bunko was a blast!  We had a really good turn out of women and laughed hysterically the whole time.  My belly hurt when I left from laughing so much.  We even played "Fuzzy Dice" where we literally threw a large fuzzy dice around the room while we played.  It served a purpose, but I already forgot what it was for.  Needless to say, I'm super excited we're going to keep having Bunko night once a month.  It was a blast and I made some fun memories!!  

This past Monday, we had a Craft Day on our compound.  Ladies from other compounds were invited to come and join us and we even had a lady do a demonstration on how to make a Flip Album.  I asked Tucker's mom to watch Gavin since she couldn't find any of her scrapbook supplies in her boxes she was still unpacking so I was able to go and enjoy the day, kid free!  I've always seen the Flip Album books, but never realized you could make them from scratch.  I made mine a baby boy theme and learned how you can print photos from Picassa website to be the sizes of your album (or smaller) so you don't have to cut 4x6 photos to fit.  Now that's a clever idea.  Stephanie and I also brought all of our other scrapbook pages we were working on to give some attention to them as well.  We loved getting to visit with all the other ladies and we even met a professional photographer who takes family photos, or any kind of photos you'd like.  I've heard great things about her and may use her for baby #2's newborn pics as well as family portraits while we're here.  Over all, it was a fun, relaxing, enjoyable day!  

Now that Ramadan is over, hip hip hooray, my girl time was extended and I went on a shopping trip with some girls to Khobar yesterday.  We left the compound around 2:15pm and didn't get home until midnight!  We went to several furniture/house stores that have VERY unique pieces of furniture, knick knacks, and more.  I feel in love with a table that serves as a buffet and am waiting for the store to email me pics of it so I can show Brooks as well as the dimensions so we can see where we'd have room in our villa for it.  I also found some really cute camel napkin ring holders and had to get them to represent our time here!  

We then headed to one of the malls and had dinner at Macaroni Grill.  Yes, I said Macaroni Grill.  It was delicious and I was really giddy about the food from the moment the bread came out to when our entrees came!!  The pregnant girl was very happy!!  

After dinner, we shopped til we dropped, literally!  We went into H&M store, which I LOVE and have always shopped at when I went to New York in college, and while I was walking around I kept thinking I'm glad to know this store is here for when I'm not pregnant and will need regular clothes.  Then, Laura, one of the girls with us, walked up to me and said, "Hey Lindsey, there is a full maternity section on the back wall!"  Oh my goodness, I squealed I was so excited!  I walked briskly to the back wall and began filling my bag up with clothes!  Okay, so here is something interesting about shopping here in Saudi.  There aren't any fitting rooms in the stores.  You have to purchase your items, then go to one of the public restrooms in the mall that has fitting rooms, try on your items, then return whatever items didn't fit or you didn't like back to the store.  Or, you can take it home, try it on, then return within 7 days.  However, for us, since the mall is an hour away we just kept going to the restroom fitting rooms to try on our clothes! I'm happy to say that I found several things that fit and are all geared for cooler weather, which I'm told will be coming soon!  I don't have ANY fall/winter maternity clothes nor do I have any coming in our sea shipment so finding the clothes last night was a huge blessing!  There was even a Carter's in the mall, not near as many clothes as what the ones back home have, but it's something so I picked up a few shirts and shorts for Gavin!  

Last night was a blast and I enjoyed getting to have adult conversation!  The girls are all so sweet and a joy to be with.  Incase you were wondering, Gavin had a blast with Brooks last night... apparently they boxed, played basketball, watched Toy Story and ate some cake!

First Doctors Appointment- Saudi Arabia Style

I had my first doctors appointment last week since moving over here.  We've done a lot of research on local hospitals and doctors in the area as well as talked to numerous people who are familiar with the medical care here and found a great hospital with a great doctor to go to.  I was a little nervous and apprehensive about the appointment, but I think it was because I was unsure what to expect.  Over here, just like everything else, they have different ways of doing things, so I figured an OB appointment wouldn't be any different.

Brooks and I traveled to Khobar, an hour away, where the doctor and hospital are located.  Over here, the doctor is affiliated with a hospital and doesn't necessarily have a private practice.  When we entered the gates of the hospital, we were in awe of what we saw.  There were several buildings all facing the entrance and they stood easily 15 stories high.  They looked more like apartment buildings or hotel buildings.  When we walked inside the facility, we felt like we were walking into a five star hotel.  The chandeliers, ceilings, art work, marble tile, and aquariums were GORGEOUS!!  We quickly realized we were not in some hole in the wall hospital, nor were we going to be seeing a third world country "doctor".

After registering with the hospital and checking in with the doctors clinic, I was called to the back alone.  A nurse took me to look at my vitals, check my temperature, blood pressure, weight, etc.  Then, they had me return to the waiting room.  I was called back again, this time Brooks could come back with me.  We were brought into a room where we discussed family history, previous pregnancy, medical conditions, etc by a female doctor.  She was really nice and easy to communicate with.  She even asked if Brooks and I were related.  I think the look on our faces said it all, and she explained that is common in their area.  WOW!

After a few minutes, we were brought into ANOTHER room, this time with the actual doctor.  He was great!  He did all of his schooling in the USA, did several fellowships at Harvard Medical and even taught at Harvard.  He is very familiar with the Houston area- even asked if we've shopped at the Galleria (um, hello... only since I was 3!).  Upon finding out I was from Louisiana, he mentioned he and his wife have many fond memories on Bourbon Street in New Orleans (hmmm....).  He looked through my medical records and we discussed my previous pregnancy a little more thoroughly.  After hearing all the details, he said he wanted to start me on weekly injections of progesterone as a precaution.  I think my heart skipped a beat when he gave that recommendation.  I was comforted to know that he would have had me do the exact same thing that the doctors in the states prescribed.  This made me feel even more at ease with him.

Next, it was time for my actual check up.  Now, most of you women know that you'd pee in a cup, have them check for the baby's heartbeat, measure your stomach, and then you'd be done.  Not in this case.  I never was asked to pee in a cup and I didn't get "checked".  I had an ultrasound.  Come to find out, they don't "check you", if you know what I mean, unless you come in complaining of contractions or if it's at the VERY end of your pregnancy.  To be exact, the female doctor said not until 38 weeks.
Anyways, we had an ultrasound and the prepping me for the ultrasound was VERY different.  First of all, the doctor and Brooks were sitting in one part of the room, and I was moved to the other side of the room behind a curtain, where the ultrasound machine was.  A nurse "prepped me" for the ultrasound by having me LEAVE MY ABAYA on, unbutton just two buttons on it, lift my shirt partially, then covered my chest area (which was already covered with my shirt and abaya) with a blanket, placed a towel below my waist, and covered my lower stomach with another blanket.  There was only a small area of my tummy opened to put the gel on for the ultrasound.  That didn't stop the doctor.  He was able to do what he needed to do and the ultrasound checked EVERYTHING on the baby- his heartbeat, his body measurements, everything.  Ultrasounds are performed at every appointment to check the women's cervix as well.  This is why they don't need to perform an "exam" on you.

So, we got to see our baby boy and we saw him in 4D.  He looks just like Gavin did in his 4D ultrasound.  They have the same lips and nose.  I will say this though, the doctor kept commenting on how LARGE our child's lips were.  It was a little funny how many times he commented on it and then kept going back to his face to look at the lips.  We were excited just to get to see him "so close up".  It was sweet! Just wish we had a name for him.  Well, good news, sort of... I think we may have decided on a name for Baby Perry #2.  I started typing this post days ago because I wanted to figure out how to work our scanner and scan the ultrasound pics in and since then, we may have declared a name.  I think!!

There he is!! I'll post the name later just incase we still have a few more discussions on it!  Our next appointment is in 2 weeks and we are hoping to tour the hospital at that time as well.  We still need to find out what the procedures are at the hospital for husbands being in the room, epidurals, other policies, check out the baby nursery, etc which will help us make a decision on whether or not we will have this child here or in the states.  We will keep you posted!

A little bit of guilt

Brooks and I have been having lots of discussions the past few weeks regarding hiring a cleaning person for our home.  One topic of discussion, was why do we need someone to come clean our house when I'm home daily and am completely capable of taking care of it.  However, realizing that I'm pregnant, tired, and have a 2 year old on my hands, that "argument", if you will, has complelty disappeared.  We finally hired our cleaning person and if I say so myself, he does a really good job!!!

HAHAHA, okay he's not our cleaning guy, but he does do a great job picking up crumbs when I pull out the vaccum cleaner!  

On a more "serious note", mine and Brooks conversations regarding hiring someone to clean our house vanished entirely when we were told the cost for someone to be our house cleaner as well as clean the outside.  I can honeslty say, I felt a little guilty paying the man, what little we paid him, after 4 hours of some serious and non stop cleaning that he did!  More importantly, watching what it took him to take care of this house, with NO carpet, all tile, and a film of sand that lightly covers everything, I am beyond grateful for having this blessing in our lives at this time.  Now, if only I can talk Brooks into letting me have someone when we get back to the states-- I won't push my luck for now, but I think I have a while to work on him.

22 Weeks

22 Weeks.  Ahhh-- the week I've been waiting for with this pregnancy.  It's here!  I knew it would come and I knew I'd have to face it sooner or later.  

When I was pregnant with Gavin, at 22 weeks, I was sent to the hospital after bleeding and having contractions that were 6 minutes apart.  I was told I had gone into preterm labor and that if I had my baby that moment/weekend we would not be going home with him-- most babies aren't viable until 25 weeks.  I don't think I need to go into all that- I feel like we've all heard the story before and I'd rather focus on the outcome-- he came at full term and was a healthy baby boy.  However, I will say that realizing this moment was coming, I can't help but be nervous that what if that happens again?  

If there was anything I learned from my experience and pregnancy with Gavin, it was that God is in control.  I still believe that today and know that this pregnancy is in HIS hands.  I've given up WORRYING about whether or not I could go into preterm labor again, and just like to think that I'm being cautious, or AWARE of the idea.  I'm grateful for the knowledge that we have about preventing preterm labor and Brooks and I are taking all the necessary steps we can to do our best to keep that from happening again.  Our prayer is that his pregnancy will be different and if it's not, we will be prepared and ready.  

So, I guess I just wrote all of that just to get it off my chest.  I felt the need to acknowledge this time in my pregnancy is here and I'm hopeful that this will just be another week in the pregnancy.  As I've learned from my sister in law, Anna, who gave birth to sweet Audrey at 30 weeks without ANY signs of an early labor; you just never know what can happen.  I do feel that once this week passes, I may breathe a little easier and feel some kind of relief, but who knows.  We shall see.  

I realized that other than my "I'm Pregnant" post and my "It's a Boy" post, I pretty much have neglected sharing news or anything about baby #2.  Things are going good and he is growing, and so am I!

To say that I am growing would be an understatement.  I can't get over how much my belly has grown in the past few weeks.  I know everyone says you show a lot faster with your second one, your body already knows what to do.. I get that... but oh my goodness-- is it normal to be 22 weeks and be closer to the size I was at 32 weeks with Gavin?  I'm not complaining because I don't mind it, it's part of being pregnant, I'm just shocked with how big I'm getting.  Last night, I already had to start sleeping with a pillow between my knees and tonight I may add one behind my back.  However, I think I'm going to contribute all of that to the HORRIBLE, HARD bed we are currently sleeping on.  Oh, how I long for our sea shipment to get here with our mattress.  That will be a glorious day!    

22 weeks

                                                                         20 weeks                                             16 weeks

Gavin has enjoyed watching my belly grow and now knows where "baby brother" is.  Speaking of "baby brother", he still remains nameless.  We have a short list of names we like, however, we keep running into issues of why we can't name our child those names.  For instance, we love the name Brock, but we were thinking of naming this child's middle name, Brooks' middle name, which is Lee.  So, how do we name our child Brock Lee Perry?  Do you see our dilemma?  We can't name our kid "broccoli".  There are a few other situations, not like that, but similar that we just have to work through.  We keep joking with our parents that if we can't decide on a name, we will just call him Mohammad in honor of being born while we lived in the Middle East.  Okay, I know, that's not funny; some kids are really named Mohammad (I had a student one year whose first name was that).  We will come up with something soon.  Feel free to send us some suggestions if you'd like.  We are looking for ideas.   

I have my first doctors appointment next week.  We are going to meet the doctor, check out the hospital, learn their procedures (hopefully), and get to see our little boy!  We were told we get a 4D ultrasound at every appointment.  Not sure if that's true or not, but hopefully, it is!  How fun would that be?!?!  Brooks will come with me, obviously, and once we've had some time to scope things out, we are hoping to make a decision based on whether or not we will have this child here or back in the states.  We are earnestly praying over that decision.  There are pros and cons to both ways and we just have heavy hearts over deciding which one will be the best.  We don't have to make a decision anytime soon, thank goodness, but it is a constant thought of ours.

I think that's about it for baby #2 at the moment.  I'm serious about sending us name suggestions!  

Happy 2nd Birthday, and a few days

 This post seems like it's taken me FOREVER to get posted.  Geez, I started this last Saturday night and it's been lingering in my list of posts for days.  I realize I already shared with you all about Gavin's birthday party, but I thought some of you might want to know about his actual birthday!  He had an enjoyable day and knew that something was different about the day.

For starters, I made biscuits for breakfast (suppose to be blueberry muffins, but at 7:30am I realized I didn't have a muffin pan to cook them in).  Gavin waited, um, patiently for the biscuits to cook.  

I sang Happy Birthday to him before eating his biscuits and even put some candles in his biscuit so he'd really know something was special about the day.  Only problem-- didn't have a lighter or matches to light the candles for him to blow out so we just pretended.

Brooks was able to take half the day off and came home around lunch time.  Yes, Gavin is still in his pajamas from the morning.  We played around the house all morning and were too busy to get dressed.  Gavin was so excited to have Brooks home!  At this point, Gavin was telling us it was his birthday.  So cute!

Once Gavin, and Brooks, woke up from their afternoon naps, Gavin got a call from his best friend, Cade.  Cade was singing Happy Birthday to Gavin in this picture and he was so excited to hear Cade'e voice.  It was priceless.  Gavin missed calls from his Grammy, and Captain and Kimmie.  They called while he was sleeping, but we made sure to tell him they called!  And yes, again, Gavin was still in his pajamas (so was I) and it was almost 5pm our time.  That's the beauty of living on a compound and not having many places to go.  

We decided to go out to the beach to play for the evening to help celebrate Gavin's birthday.  We've gone out to our beach before, but never made it in the water.  That night was our first.  Gavin was excited to be out there and actually enjoyed the beach since there wasn't ANY waves to scare him.  He did, however, have a confused look on his face when he walked into the water and felt how warm it was-- it was like bath water warm.  It really was a weird sensation to feel sand between your feet and have the water surrounding you feel hot.  Gavin got over the feeling and quickly realized the water was salty.  He swam a little and threw the ball with Brooks.  Micah and Stephanie were out there with us so they enjoyed the fun, too!  

We went out to dinner (totally last minute plans) to "celebrate" Gavin's birthday.  We went to a Thai Restaurant (the one I spoke about in my previous post) and ate some delicious food.  Gavin was showing off his choo choo train to Stephanie and Micah.  They didn't have desserts at the restaurant so we weren't  able to get Gavin anything sweet nor did anyone come sing Happy Birthday to him.  Oh well, mommy and daddy made up for that once we got home! 

The way we spent our day (not doing anything and just hanging out at the house) for some reason, we hadn't given Gavin his birthday presents from us yet.  After dinner, we got home and pulled them out and surprised him.  He was really excited.  Thankfully, I thought ahead and picked out Gavin's birthday present back in the states and had put it on our air shipment so it would have been here in time for his birthday.  Gavin has taken a HUGE liking to trains- almost obsession- so it wasn't difficult to decide to get him some Thomas the Trains and a miniature train track.  We really wanted to get him the big train table that is practically a city built around a train track, but we weren't sure if we would have had room for it here.  Anyways, he opened his gifts and was truly happy to have some new trains and a cool track! 

Needless to say, Gavin stayed up til almost 10pm playing with his new trains and track.  He was very grateful for the gift, too.  After he had opened it all he walked over to both Brooks and I, gave us each a hug and a kiss.  He told us, "Thank you!" and went back to playing with his trains.  It was a priceless moment!  Happy Birthday Gavin!  We love you!

One more thing- I don't know if I mentioned this, but Gavin was with Stephanie and I when we found the bike they got Gavin for his birthday.  He was so excited about it and did not want to let it out of his sight!  We had an hour or so drive back to our compound the day we went shopping and this is how Gavin rode home THE.ENTIRE.WAY.  Promise!  Not kidding.  He held onto the bike the whole ride home!