Summer's Wrapping Up!

I can't believe August has come and almost gone already. What a summer! New job, new house, new baby, new friends, new church, new everything! I cannot tell you the joy Braden and I feel over the blessings the Lord has given us these past six months since we have moved to Dale. (Wait, did Sarah just say that?) Yup - who knew small town living could grow on me so quickly? I must say, its slow paced design and quiet nature have become a sort of haven and definitely not the "isolated from society, caged feeling" I initially thought that I would have. Though, I must admit, Walmart being a 30 minute drive away with the nearest mall 45 minutes away will always be tragic to me. However, I feel a little foolish for having been so disparaging about the distance in the beginning, lol.You just learn to plan better for the things you need!

Braden, of course, is used to it (he has lived here 18 years after all!) so no complaints on his side. What a wonderful encouragement he has been to me in our first few months of living here. He never made me doubt that making the decision to move here was the right one, but he was always quick to love and sympathize with me as I cried over missing my friends, family, church, and old life in general. What a wonderful leader he has been for this family! 

As the summer comes to a close, we are both excited that his hours at Holiday World will be easing up. No more 50-60 hour work weeks! Though, we may miss his overtime a bit, haha. This baby couldn't be coming at a better time! The park closes in early October and he begins working 5 days a week within the next week or so because the park isn't open on weekdays anymore! He will be able to take off a week whenever the baby comes (hopefully sooner rather than later!) The park also finally hired in the new HR director to replace Braden's old boss, Samantha. We will keep you posted on it as the year continues.

I have had the opportunity to start sub teaching, now that school is back in which has been great! It is nice to be able to have something to do instead of coming up with new projects all the time around the house. I will be doing that up until baby and then, after 6 or 8 weeks, I will be going back and working 1 or 2 days a week to help take out those student loans a little faster. 

Braden, Me, Happy, and Nick at Reception

As for the rest of August, it hasn't been a particularly eventful month... We did get to watch our close friends Michael Ostrom and Amanda Smudde (now Ostrom) say their beautiful marriage vows to one another on August 6th! It was so wonderful to finally get to see God bring 2 of our dearest friends together in the beautiful covenant of marriage. We came in on Thursday so that I could make it to Amanda's bachlorette party that evening. Dinner was yummy and we had so much fun with the scavenger hunt. I have so many hilarious pictures, but the computer wont let me put them on for some reason!The next day was dedicated to decorating and the rehearsal dinner. And then came the wedding itself. I must say, not only was Amanda a beautiful bride, but an exceptionally calm one! I was nothing in comparison to her! And after a brutally hot summer we were even blessed with some clouds during the ceremony. The pastor had actually assigned a chair in the front row to me in case the 7 1/2 month pregnant Matron of Honor decided that she was going to pass out from standing in the heat for so long. Praise God for his mercy to me, I was just fine the whole time - scratch that, I cried like a baby - but at least it was from joy and not heat stroke or back pain. :o) Their wedding was also so wonderful because we were able to see so many people we hadn't! Namely my sister Melissa and her husband Jeff, and Nick Kidwell and Happy Tao (congrats on the engagement guys!) from Pennsylvania! The weekend was over all too quickly. 

We planted a lovely garden this summer. Our failure was made complete when our corn was mostly blown over by a bad windstorm. Our tomatoes came out about the size of golf balls. The green peppers - Lord knows what happened to those. The green beans had some kind of bug all over them. The only things really thriving were our rosemary, basil, and parsley. Then I went outside a few days ago for some fresh parsley with a recipe and every single parsley leaf was gone and only the stems remained! In its place were 2 hugely FAT green caterpillars. I probably would have killed them I was so angry but Braden came to their rescue and is now allowing them to eat all our grass. 

Braden also celebrated his 25th birthday just a few days ago on the 23rd! He and I had a wonderful day in French Lick. We started the day by going to the Indiana Scenic Railway Station. It's this neat railroad in French Lick that takes you on a tour through the area. We were able to see a bit of Hoosier National Forest, this really neat long tunnel (which has a name but it currently escapes me), the French Lick area, and Larry Bird's childhood home (who knew he was from French Lick?) It was pretty cool to just get to sit and enjoy the views on something over 100 years old. After that we went out to eat at the very glamorous Dairy Queen. I had made plans for something a little nicer but, as it turned out, Braden was pretty content with cheap and simple, lol. Plus, the Mint Oreo Blizzard was delicious!! Afterwards, we decided to check out the 2 resorts in town. Wow, are they beautiful. Braden and I were particularly amazed at the elegance of the West Baden Hotel. It has this beautiful large dome when you walked inside that was enough to take your breath away. The walls all had elegant, intricate designs that rose all the way to the ceiling revealing enormous windows that bathe the whole dome in sunlight. We just sat and stared for about ten minutes before we wanted to leave. It is so amazing to think that God gives people the gift to design and build such works of art! We walked through the gardens and we (ok, I) played in the fountain for a few minutes. We even took a stop in at the French Lick Hotel's famous casino. The security guard asked for my ID and then told me that I couldn't get in because the baby was underage. Luckily, he eventually took pity and let us pass. :o) We each put a dollar in the penny slot machines - we promptly lost all our money in the course of 3 minutes. I don't know how people like gambling - Braden and I left thoroughly ready to get out of the cloud of smoke and tired of losing money so quickly, even if it only was 2 dollars.

On the way home we decided we weren't quite done with our day yet. The new Planet of the Apes movie was playing at 7 so we decided it might be worth it. At least it had good reviews and we had not seen anything in the theatres in ages! I think it might have tragically been Gnomio and Juliet (we must have been too scarred to return). We had an hour to kill so we went to our favorite store - Home Depot. Sometimes we go in there and design our perfect house just for fun. This time we focused on lighting - which is actually a near future possibility! After literally dragging Braden out of the store (he never comes willingly), we headed to the theater. The movie was actually really good! Totally worth a watch. It had excellent themes in it and really good computer technology and acting! We were pretty tired when we got home so we headed to bed basically right when we got there! We both forgot all about dinner (which is pretty impressive for this pregnant lady!)

On the 24th, Braden's actual birthday, we celebrated by having his mom, Jim, and his brother Casey over for dinner. It was yummy (I FINALLY managed to find a way to cook Aldi chicken so that it didn't come out chewy, haha) and we had delicious ice cream and cake for dessert followed by presents. A new pair of Sperry shoes and a book on renovating your house (surprise, surprise!) It is always so wonderful to celebrate the good gifts that God has given us with family! Praise the Lord for his blessings to us!

To top off the month, Braden and I finally got the second book in the serious The Hunger Games from the library! Guess what we will be doing every night for the next month?

Welp, that about wraps up August. Lord willing, it will be less than a month until baby will finally be with us. We have been looking forward to September for a long time! Hopefully the next time we update you, we will have a beautiful baby instead of a beautiful belly to show you!

Me at 35 weeks