34 Weeks and a Giveaway!

Well technically 34.5714.

Also known as 34 weeks and 4 days.

And believe me, every. day. counts. 

This has been a pretty fun week. Andrew is on spring break and even though we are both working this week, everything feels a little more relaxed.

Monday night we went to dinner at Dat Dog. It was delicious. What pregnant woman doesn't love an enormous Guiness dog with chilli, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and onion? Oh, with a side of cheddar, bacon, ranch fries please. 

We went with our friends Leah and Adrian who also have fun blogs. (Leah is hosting an awesome giveaway right now, scroll to the bottom to check it out!) They are practically professional runners but they still eat crazy hot dogs which I think is awesome. I somehow didn't get a pic of Adrian... sorry Adrian!

Tuesday I had my first New Orleans snowball with my OTHER friend named Leah. It was green apple flavored and it was heaven. I told Andrew he needed to work an extra $40 into the budget because I would be requiring a snowball every day until James comes. 

Also, we are house sitting for a family on campus who have a real live, stand-alone home, with central AC and a jacuzzi tub and a king sized bed. So basically I feel like we are on our honeymoon again except we have to go to work everyday and feed the dog. Miss Laura even left a tray for breakfast in bed! I love it and I don't want it to be over. 

Lastly, our friends Matt and Leigh Anna from Georgia are here with their beautiful baby girl. Matt is taking a workshop on campus so Leigh Anna and I are getting to spend time hanging out with James' future wife, Maddie Claire. 

Week 34 of pregnancy has been really good to me so far. I'm sleeping really well and loving peanut butter banana protein shakes among all other food known to man. Seems like that is all I can talk about these days.

See that real jacuzzi tub in the background? Pretty awesome! Have a great day before Friday!

Also...

The first Leah I mentioned, the running one, is hosting her first ever giveaway on her blog!! She is giving away an Endorphin Warrior bracelet. These are awesome bracelets that can be worn while working out and have motivating and inspirational phrases on them. I totally want the conquer one to get my mind set for getting back in shape after James comes!! 

Go enter to win HERE!!!

The Best Shower Ever

I can already tell I feel tempted to use really dramatic and excessive adjectives throughout this post that may make me sound like I am exaggerating a lot, but bear with me folks... it was just so fantastically ideal! Ha! 

I just had one of the most enjoyable weekends of my life. Some of my sweetest friends threw me a big baby shower in my hometown in Georgia and every moment was like a dream.

I flew home Friday and remembered why I don't like to travel by plane. I wish so badly that I was the type to just hop on a plane like a jet-setter. I really try to fake it in the airport as if its my 23rd flight this year and rolling through security with my purse zipper hung on my sweater is no big deal. But I don't think I'm fooling anyone.

I digress...

I arrived safely with my family, enjoyed some delicious chicken thing at Applebees, and went home and got in the bed so I would be fresh for the shower in the morning.

When I arrived I was greeted by the amazing hostesses; my BFF Katie, her sweet mama, April, and Mandy. Celia couldn't come because she had an unavoidable work thing and we missed her.

Everything looked adorable and smelled amazing! And I'll just go ahead and say I ate 3-12 samplings of each and every food item because it was my shower and I didn't want to leave any room for doubt about how much I appreciated the efforts.

A few of my best friends from college sweetly surprised me and came down from various Georgia locations. It was WONDERFUL to be together as that rarely happens now that we are old and scattered about.

I didn't think our friend Faren would be able to make it because she had been visiting our friend Autumn in Chattanooga, who actually had a baby the day before. So when I looked up while opening presents and saw her standing there with her mama watching me as if she had been in Bainbridge all her life, I almost had a heart attack! They basically drove a billion miles all night/morning from Tennessee to South Georgia for little (big) ole me and I couldn't have been more grateful.

I got to visit with family (who also traveled a stretch to be there) and friends that I rarely see. I have said so many times over the past couple days that I have never felt so loved. 

The gifts were overwhelmingly generous but the company was truly the best. I don't know if it's age, living far from home, or hormones, but I felt more touched by the outpouring of love at the baby shower than I did through all of my wedding events.

I got to spend the whole afternoon after the shower with my girlfriends, laughing and catching up. I really felt like I was in some kind of wonderful dream all day. It was magical.

The next day, as I kissed my family goodbye at the airport, I was moved to tears at just how filled up I felt. It is good to be loved. And I am so thankful that James is being born into a circle of people who love him, Andrew, and myself that is so far reaching. 

I can't believe the whole thing went by so fast. I have been reliving it in my head over and over. I know without a doubt that it will be one of the most special memories I have from pregnancy. What a blessing!

Thankful

I thought it would be nice to link up with my friend Ryan today for Thankful Thursday since I spent yesterday sharing my woes. Not that there is anything wrong with sharing woes. I think it is really important to be real, especially when it comes to pregnancy. We girls tend to do a lot of comparing, self-criticizing, and trying to measure up to false standards set for us on the internet. Hello Pinterest... are those people real? I don't want this blog to ever be a place where I pretend to have all my junk together. 

But I also find it a healthy exercise to frequently count my blessings as they tend to be more numerous than I often realize. So here is a little list of things I am thankful for lately. 

1. I am thankful and flipping excited about my baby shower this weekend at home in Georgia. I can't wait to see so many people I love. I've got some really amazing friends and family. 

2. Our church. We have become a part of a really great church here in NOLA called Edgewater. It can be hard to find a church and we feel extremely blessed to be a part of this one. I could go on and on about it. 

3. Andrew's new job. Andrew got a connection through some new friends at Edgewater and is now working at the New Orleans Country Club. Not what he saw himself doing but a great opportunity nonetheless. We are excited, relieved, and blessed by this unexpected work. 

4. Flying home this weekend. Andrew now works every other weekend and as it turns out his first one is this weekend so he can't come to the baby shower. While I am sad about that, I am thankful to be able to fly home and avoid the long car ride. Thanks Don and Mama!

5. Lastly, I am thankful for the things God is teaching me right now. He has been gently showing me how His love is unconditional and completely unmerited by me. I am finding that there is so much freedom when I stop approaching my faith with a works based mentality and embrace the fact that because of Christ there is nothing I can do to earn or lose God's favor. No amount of prayer, Bible study, or "right living" (although those things are not bad) can make me any more righteous in His sight. 

Grace and grace alone people. 

And isn't it a relief?

... because Ryan is the coolest!

UGA Subway Art

For Christmas I wanted to make my BFF Katie a little homemade gift.  I started with the idea that it would be fun to make her a cute Christmasy subway art for her new house and I came up with the simplest idea ever since I am not an overly inclined craft wizard.

Check it out:

First I found a really cute, free printable Christmas subway art. You can download it too if you want! Just click HERE and print away! Oh and if you want a billion more Christmas printables, just click HERE.

Then I purchased an 8X10 picture frame. A fancier one would have probably looked a little better but since this was a first time attempt with this project and I didn't want to ruin a fancy one, I got a really basic one. 

Next, I got a can of color coordinating spray paint and painted that bad boy bright red. 

Lastly, I put the printable in the frame and Voila!

Wait a second...

My frame is the perfect shade of Georgia Bulldog red. 

Hmm....

I had an explosion of thoughts and decided that it would be way more fun if Katie could use the frame at times other than Christmas and since she is the biggest Georgia Bulldog fan I know besides my dad, a UGA subway art would be PERFECT! 

Except...

I couldn't find a single downloadable one online. (Ok, so there was one but I didn't like it.)

I decided to dabble around with that amazing online photo editing site pixlr.com and make Katie a custom UGA subway art. Doesn't that sound fancy?

Y'all know I like to dabble... 

I'll be darned if the dern thing didn't turn out pretty dog-gone well. Can you tell I'm from South Georgia? 

So for kicks, I thought I would go out on a limb and share it for free with you all since there seems to be a lack of good (mediocre?) UGA subway art in cyberspace. 

To download my UGA Subway Art for FREE just click HERE. 

The image will open up in Google Docs/Drive. You might be able to print from there but if not, just click File then Download and it should open up in a format that you can print. 

If all else fails and you just NEED UGA Subway Art in your life, shoot me an email and I will be happy to send it to you in the format of your choice! 

charlottebryan1@gmail.com


Linking up with these cool bloggers:
 YOLO Monday

Christmas Tour of Homes

I have been so excited for today's blog post for weeks! I am linking up with one of my favorite bloggers, Kelly's Korner, for a Christmas tour of homes. 

Normally my home is pretty decked out but since we are living in a smaller space and have a lot less storage we kind of went Christmas Lite. All we had was what we could fit in my car when we went home one time this fall and since I'm not a very good planner, we ended up with a really odd assortment of things.

To make up for it, I am also going to show you two other special homes, my BFF Katie's and my Mama's! (They both might kill me so make some really sweet comments down below, k?) 

This is the big picture of our living room. I hung live wreaths with gold ribbon on the inside to bring in a little Christmas tree scent since we weren't getting a real one. I got his idea from my friend Callie who did it last year. I just thought it was stunning in her home! 

This is our entrance table and tree. We took one of the trees we typically have out by the front door and put it in a galvanized bucket. Then decorated it with only our favorite ornaments since all of ours wouldn't fit. I just put some other random nick knacks that  happened to make it to New Orleans on the table . 

I hung another wreath in the dining room. One of my favorite things went on the table, my glittery red and green tree that my mama gave me. This was the day of the SEC championship so I  was getting ready for company. And that's all I'll say about that. 

As a result of the lack of decorations I tried something new this year. I took some of my favorite Christmas cards from past years and framed them and stuck them around the house. Don't know if I'll do this every year but it's good for now. 

More accouterments adorning the book shelf. Love looking at my niece and nephews with Santa everyday!

Lastly, the Willow Tree nativity that I so cherish! It is the main focal point on our entertainment center. Sometimes I want to leave it out all year. 

Moving on to Katie's! Just look at her beautiful kitchen table. I love the bright green and Fiesta Christmas china!

Chalkboards and Happy Everything platters are so in. Don't you love that little elf? 

And finally, how breathtaking is her mantle? The red trees were her grandmother's. Y'all know I love sentiment so I think this is my favorite part of her home! This is her first Christmas with her hubby in their new house... so exciting!

OK y'all. There are few sights I love more than the house I grew up in all decorated for Christmas. My mama out does herself every year and I am always left speechless. This year the theme is simple and understated. I haven't seen it in person yet but I think it is going to be one of my favorites. She used classic velvet ribbon rather than big bows so it has a very old-timey, Charles Dickens feel. Here goes!

Buffet with live garland and willow tree nativity (like mother like daughter!).

We always have a GINORMOUS tree. It's not decorated yet in this picture but you get the drift. 

Mantle with greenery, pine cones, and lights.

Staircase with greenery, magnolia leaves, and ribbon.

I adore how she hung the outside wreaths this year. That ribbon is the best. 

And the piece de resistance, the front door with the giant wreath welcoming me home for the holidays in just one week. Praise the Lord!

Hope y'all enjoyed seeing mine and my closest gal's homes this year. Merry Christmas! 

Happy Days are Here Again!

So, I have had a big resurgence of fun in my life in New Orleans as my morning sickness has slowly but surely begun to subside. However, I have been AWFUL at documenting it. I have practically taken zero pictures over the past couple weeks which have basically been the best we have had here in the Big Easy.

Just to catch up so as not to forget any of the memories we are making during this exciting season of our lives, I am going to make a list.

1. Two weekends ago my sister-in-law Heather and her friend Amanda came for the weekend. We had a great time exploring the entire city. We spent a great day down in the business district and French Quarter that included a stop at Anthroplogie which made me extremely happy! I am loving their Christmas ornaments right now!

Anthropologie

2. We ate at a little restaurant on Jackson Square called Rivers Edge. It was sort of blah… definitely not the best New Orleans seafood by any stretch. However, dinner was redeemed with beignets and hot chocolate at Café Du Monde followed by a really interesting haunted history tour in the Quarter. What a sordid past (and present) this city has!

3. We had our 16 week doctor appointment and it was totally uneventful and great!

 4. The seminary held a holiday market where folks set up booths and sold handmade items. My favorite by far was the free sample of wassail in the Lifeway store (not from a booth nor handmade, whoops!). And Andrew won a raffle. Two handmade bars of soap… cool!

5. Two of my sweet seminary friends invited me to run in the Color Run with them this past Saturday and boy am I glad I did! It was ridiculously fun and so weird! I loved it. Thanks Stasia and Leah!!

6. One of my BFF’s from college and her husband came to NOLA for a babymoon this weekend and we had the pleasure of hosting them Saturday night. Autumn is 28 weeks preggo with a sweet baby girl named Snow. We ate at a FANTASTIC restaurant called Olivier’s down in the Quarter. All four of us completely cleaned our plates… I mean completely. That’s how good it was. The best part might have been finding a parking spot on the street right by the restaurant. This never happens to us!

7. We have been attending a church called Edgewater Baptist and yesterday we had a fantastic service followed by what might have been the best church potluck I have ever attended. And my husband is in ministry so I have been to my fair share. And we are Baptist. This is saying a lot. I completely skipped the meat and went for about 5 different casseroles and a bowl of bread pudding that I don’t currently have the vocabulary to describe. It was DIVINE.

As we gear up for Thanksgiving, I think it is apparent that one thing that I am truly thankful for this year in the return of my appetite. Praise the Lord it’s just in time for my mother-in-law's sweet potatoes!!

Linking up today for YOLO Monday! 

Hello Monday, Hello New Orleans

I really don’t know where to start. I thought I would have been blogging every chance I had last week but each time I thought about starting, I got overwhelmed. There is just so much to say. Just so much. I’ll save the details for my mom and try to hit the high points from our first full week living in New Orleans.

It definitely takes a village to move the Donaldson’s. This post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t start with big thank you to: Mr. Olen and Mrs. Penny, Chris, Staci and Lauren, Kyle and Katie, Daddy and Nancy, Don and Mama, Scott and Sarah, Chris and Megan, Kris, Andrew, and Stasia. Whew. Without you all, we would still be trying to figure out how to fit the vacuum cleaner into the trailer in Valdosta. 

Hello old house.

But for real, Andrew and I never could have gotten out of our Valdosta house and into our New Orleans apartment without this generous, hard-working group of friends and family. Thanks, from the bottom of our boxes.

The first four days in New Orleans were a haze for me. I think the urgency to stop living out of a suitcase coupled with working full time and moving the previous week put me in an extended state of deliriousness. I can’t really describe it. Lots got done. The kitchen is miraculously organized (for now) and I must have experienced some level of creativity to get things arranged in a pretty way, but I don’t really remember. 

Hello newly organized cabinets.

I do know however, that we have the kindest neighbors we could ever hope for. They are the ones listed in my thank yous as Megan and Chris. They live across the hall and when they saw we were moving in, they jumped to action by helping us unload, bringing us a case of water, and giving us an impromptu tour of their (precious!) apartment so we could understand how it was all supposed to fit. On top of that, they had us over for dinner Tuesday night. They have already meant so much to us and it is only the first week. Not to mention they are fellow Georgia folks AND Megan also has a blog! 

Hello Megan, my neighbor.

I think I more or less awakened by Thursday. By then, things had gotten settled enough around the apartment and our cable was finally showing the color red so everyone on T.V. stopped looking like aliens. I could relax. We had breakfast for dinner with Scott and Sarah at their (equally precious!) apartment. It included a fantasy like cinnamon-roll-French-toast casserole (Pinterest find) that was for the record books. Maybe I’ll post it one day.

Hello bridge over the Mississippi.

The weekend felt like the week since we are not employed, but it was fun nonetheless. Andrew might have gotten hired for a job delivering furniture for a hotel liquidator but that is a post unto itself. I got a free quart of paint from Ace Hardware. We ate too much fried seafood at Deanies. We sat by Lake Pontchartrain and watched the sun set. And we went to our first NOLA church service at Mosaic.

Hello Lake Pontchartrain.

To sum up this already summed up account; I really like living here. It may be a little premature to say but I think I love living here. I actually think I love it more than I wanted to. I wanted to love it just enough to enjoy myself but not so much that I didn’t want to go back to Georgia. I’m starting to feel differently. Maybe this is what contentment feels like? I’ll keep you posted.

Linking up with #YOLO Mondays, Hello Monday, and Bits of Splendor

Go to still being [Molly] for a chance to win an amazing pair of cowboy boots!!!!!!!