Athens, Greece

After being delayed for over an hour and several gate changes later we actually took off for Athens. Pretty uneventful flight and we were in Greece in no time. The only weird thing that happened on the plane was that the woman behind me FREAKED OUT when I put my seat back. She yelled "NO"! and slapped the back of my seat with both her hands! Hello!? Last time I checked it was not illegal to put your seat back but I was so taken aback that I just put it back up! Moving on......thankfully our driver waited for us despite landing well over an hour late. I never thought about it really but it would have sucked if he wasn't there because it might have been a little hard to find our hotel. We made it there safely (no rioting or molotov cocktail hurling to be seen) and had dinner in a nice tourist trap in the Plaka. Here is the view out of our not so stellar hotel in Athens. It was really the only redeeming factor about the place.The hotel was called Hotel Myrto and here is what Deaner's pillow looked like.I am wondering if they stole it from the hotel down the street or something? A little bit odd if you ask me!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and out the door for our visit to the Acropolis. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking but I really thought that there was going to be a bus or shuttle of some sort to carry my butt up this trek.Sadly, when we purchased our tickets the ticket taker looked at me and said "oh no, you better take it really slow". This was my first and final clue that my own two feet were going to be carrying me up the "slight incline". I have to admit that I was a little worried but there was never a doubt that I was going to do it. We took it slow and it actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And Deaner was proud of me because I didn't complain at all! Here are SEVERAL shots of us from ALL angles of the hike up!I posted this one on Facebook earlier and someone commented that the caption should be Two and a Half Deaner's.The whole experience was really cool. Definitely one that I would recommend to anyone before they hit up the Greek Islands. I'll be able to prove to Evans one day that he has been on some pretty great vacations already!We saw several more things in Athens on Saturday including the ancient Greek Agora and a few more things. By this time I was getting very hot and maybe a tad bit cranky. Hey, I am seven months pregnant after all and climbed all the way up the Acropolis!

Anyways, we made it to Santorini without any hitches this morning. Apparently we got special treatment because of the baby bulge. We got sent to the "special services" desk at the airport and they put our bags on priority so they were the first ones out on the baggage belt in Santorini. Awesome! However, I was asked several times how far along I am so I think we might be skipping Venice in July and not risk the flight restrictions etc. Our driver was waiting for us and dropped us at our stunning hotel by noon. I am currently blogging from our private balcony overlooking the Aegean Sea. Not too shabby. It is time for bed but I'll try and post again with more pictures tomorrow. This place is unreal. Happy long weekend to everyone!!

Athens Bound

Tomorrow evening, if all goes according to plan, we will be dining somewhere in Athens with a view of this. Well, it might have to wait until Saturday but we will be checking out the Acropolis first thing on Saturday morning. We only have one full day in Athens and are really looking forward to our day of sight seeing before the relaxation begins! I hope that our weather is this nice but the forecast looks to be in our favor. Athens will be a bit warm with highs in the mid 80's but Santorini has highs in the mid 70's and the lows in the 60's. Weather should be PERFECT! If only I can manage to keep my fair skinned husband from getting sunburned, we will be in business! We all know his fear of sunburns!

None of my packages came in the mail today which was a huge bummer. However, I will have at least something to look forward to once we get back to Germany next week. Steph fixed up my roots today so I am nice and blonded for the beach. I can't wait for our trip tomorrow! I don't even have to worry about the metro or bus system and finding our tiny hotel because Deaner arranged for a car to pick us up at the airport. Love it. I will be around most of the week since both hotels have internet access and maybe I will even post some pictures through out the week! Happy weekend!!

Rain Rain Go Away

Don't even bother coming again another day if you don't want to! Today is your perfect example of the misery that is typical for German weather. It is dark, gloomy, chilly and rainy. Not the good kind of rainy where one can listen to awesome thunder, rather the kind that will soak you when you go out though it doesn't appear to be raining all that hard. I think I have heard thunder in Germany once since I have lived here in just over a year. I have zero plans for the day and that is going to make it go all the more slowly! UGH!

So last night I set about laying out clothes for our trip. I am an expert packer and usually by this point (my college buddies can vouch for this) my suitcase would have been packed and sitting outside my bedroom door for well over a week now. Girls, just think back to Spring Break 2003 please! However, being a slacker in this case hasn't really hurt me! Why you might ask? Because when you are 7 months pregnant you really don't have many options about what to bring and what not to bring! That cute sundress I last wore on our Costa Rican honeymoon last March? Well that won't even fit over my head at this point. So basically my choices are narrowed down to the maternity clothes that my mom and I bought while I was in Atlanta! I'm certainly not complaining about this. There will be no tears from trying clothes on that I want to bring only to find out they are just a bit too snug! The grand thing about maternity clothes is that THEY ALL FIT!!! With room to grow! I don't even have to try to suck in my stomach! While there are some aspects of being pregnant that are starting to wear on me, having stretchy clothes is not one of them! :) I made Deaner try on all his shorts last night and lets just say, I'm not envious that I didn't have to do this myself!

Now that I am not too worried about what is going with me to Greece I can relax and get ready to enjoy my trip! Last night was a long night and brought on a new experience for me. Hip pain. Nothing awful or completely unbearable but something that I know must be caused by my growing belly and something that is going to potentially make sleeping even more difficult than it already is. I mean, as if needing to pee 5 times a night isn't enough, now my hips start to hurt if I stay on one side or the other too long. Hopefully this is a passing phase. I am all too aware that the beds in Greece are supposed to be hard and small!

Anyways, I am off to try and make myself useful today. Something about this day makes me not want to clean. I surprisinly don't have any laundry to do either. Everyone say a little prayer that at least ONE of my boxes comes today so that I have something to play with later!!! Happy Wednesday!

Bad bad blogger

When you have nothing fun to say should you admit it or just ignore your blog all together? I tend to admit it because I don't like to go through disappearing spells. I do feel as though I have been hideously boring the past week or so. It is just that I am waiting on so many boxes of goodies that the lack of them appearing is giving me NOTHING to write about! I did check the mail today and get my shipment of books from Barnes and Noble. For anyone living overseas, it is 100% worth your while to be a B&M member. Free shipping all the time AND they arrive in less than a week. You just can't get that service anywhere else around here! I also got a gift in the mail today from my good friend Erin over at FamLee Traditions. She just had her baby 5 weeks ago so go check out her super cute baby pictures! Her package totally made my day!! I laid out for a little bit this afternoon before I got to hot and how I am just waiting on Deaner to come home. Hopefully some more exciting things will start happening to me so I don't lose all my readers!

Oh yeah, I e-mailed my doctor this morning and after my next appointment, I start going to the doctor every TWO weeks until the end of the pregnancy! That was enough to make me freak out a little bit! 13 weeks to go!

Where has my day gone?

I swear I just looked at my phone and realized that it was 4:20pm. I feel like I haven't been nearly productive enough today for it to be that late! It has been a normal Monday in the Deaner household. Laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning up from the weekend. I ran over to the base to check the mail and got a package from my mom full of photo albums of me when I was born and was a baby so I can't wait to look at those in a minute when I am done with this.

I've been getting our stuff ready to leave on Friday for Athens. We will be there for 2 nights before hopping on a puddle jumper to Santorini for 5 nights. Hard for me to believe that in just a few days I will be here!Y'all have no idea how much I am looking forward to this trip! The only thing that worries me is that my belly is getting bigger by the day and everything I have read about Santorini warns about the massive amound of STEPS that there are on the island. I just told Deaner that we will have to walk slowly and carefully! I also can't wait to see Athens. I think the whole trip is going to be great.

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was pretty low key. Friday we went out to dinner at a Weingut and had a nice relaxing dinner. Deaner ordered a bottle of wine and when he did the waiter said "but only one glass" and then made a pregnant belly motion with his hands. I almost died. Guess I need to be getting used to that. Saturday was a beautiful day in Germany and I practiced for Greece by sitting in the sun and reading most of the afternoon. Deaner rode his bike about 22km or so to Rudesheim. We had dinner on Saturday at an American sports bar so Deaner could watch the German soccer game. Let me just tell you, that will be the last time I will frequent a bar while pregnant. I felt SUPER sleazy being there at almost 7 months pregnant and it was just not as fun as when I could partake in some adult beverages! We left at halftime thank god. Sunday was another relaxing day with more sunbathing and reading. Hopefully my new shipment of books will arrive before we leave! Happy Monday to everyone!

26 Week Doctor's Appointment

Happily, there is not much to report! My appointment this morning was EARLY at 8:15am but I made it there in time. Drinking the glucose drink wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but not something that I would request to do again. Let's just hope I pass! They said that they would call me tomorrow if I flunked. Think if I just ignore my phone that will help? I just don't want to have to take the 3 hour test. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Baby Deaner is looking great! He now weighs over 2 pounds but he is less inclined to give me that perfect sonogram shot that I got of him around 14 weeks. Oh well, I kept getting glimpses of his nose and eyes etc but he won't just turn to the side and be still for a cute profile picture! My doctor said she is happy with how he looks and everything is great! I gained 4.8 pounds this month! Nice huh? I guess I ate my way through Atlanta. And I would do it again if I had the chance! I think since I have only gained 7-8 pounds total that I should go on a chocolate diet! Sound good? :)

Deaner is in Brussels working today and won't be back until tomorrow. I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day and I plan on eating a frozen pizza for dinner then sleeping in the middle of the bed! Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!! 8 days until Greece!

Bleh

Bleh about sums up this day in Germany. It was raining when I woke up, it was raining when I went to the PX, and it is raining now as I sit on my couch and stare at the laptop. It is a dreary day in Wiesbaden and I don't have much to report. I only invented my need to go to the PX to get out of the house for a bit. Deaner needed more contact solution and I stocked up on stuff for Greece. Other than that, I have not done much with my day today so I have nothing to write!

Tomorrow morning I have to get up early for an 8:15am doctor's appointment. Yuck. I have to take the one hour glucose test. Hopefully I will pass it. I will be quite grouchy if I have to return to take the 3 hour test! I am looking forward to seeing the baby tomorrow but sad that Deaner won't be able to make it with me. He has to go to Brussels in the morning for a meeting of some sort. We could have worked it out that he came and then we both left for Brussels but it was sort of a pain in the butt and I would rather him just go and get his work done with and get home early on Friday.

Hopefully the weather will improve by the weekend! Otherwise it is going to be a long dreary weekend!! 9 days until we leave for Greece!

OCD?

So there is a small chance that I might have a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder. Deaner calls me impatient but sometimes I think it goes a little further than that. My morning routine normally consists of waking up and checking my iphone for new e-mails. Well, I woke up a little earlier than normal today and instead of making myself go back to sleep like I should have, I went ahead and checked my e-mails. I should have known that there would be something in my inbox that would prevent me from a few more hours of sleep! There was an e-mail from my mom saying that the changing table and the armoire in the baby's room had to switch places. Most people would have taken this under advisement and gone back to sleep. Impossible. As I laid in bed all I could think about was how she was right and how the two pieces of furniture needed to be switched, IMMEDIATELY. Only problem? I was pretty sure it would be impossible for me to move the armoire by myself. I resigned myself to waiting until Deaner got back from work to help me. On my way downstairs for breakfast I decided I would just SEE how hard it might be to move the armoire. Imagine my surprise at how easy it was! Within three minutes I had both pieces of furniture moved and it was easy as pie! Now the armoire is against the longest wall.Also, here is a picture of the changing table caddy that came yesterday. I love it! Thanks Leigh!Since I was able to get the changing table against its final resting place I decided to go ahead and hanging up the EVANS letters. This was a bit more of an undertaking then I thought it would be. Who knew that making such perfect bows was so hard?? After about two hours I finally had them up to my liking!What do y'all think? I almost don't want the baby sleeping in there because it is so perfect! Just teasing! :)

So that has been my day so far. Not sure what tomorrow holds. I ordered our car seat on Friday and Deaner called earlier to say that it was already here. Seriously? Friday to Tuesday? That just goes to show that it doesn't take 10 years for things to get here so places should stop acting like it is such a huge deal to send things to APO boxes. Geez! Tonight we are having some friends over for dinner before their trip back to the States. I'm also getting excited because we leave for Greece next week! Barring no volcanic ash or rioting! Happy Tuesday!

Monday Funday

Wouldn't it be great if Monday really was a Funday? I typically don't mind them but I had so many chores to do today that it is 4:15pm and I have just sat down to blog. Whew! I hope that everyone had a great weekend! We had a nice relaxing weekend. Friday night we had dinner out at one of our favorite places and it was delicious as usual. Saturday we went out to lunch and then Deaner had the chore of putting together the baby's closet. He started around 1:30pm and wasn't done until nearly 4:45pm! He said it was the hardest thing he has ever put together from Ikea. I was lying in the bed the whole time and I would hear lots of banging around and cussing. I can't believe it actually turned out so great! I don't have any pictures of the progress because I wasn't allowed in the room until the product was finished. And here it is!Of course I already had all the baby clothes washed and folded and ready to go in their new home so here is a picture of the inside.I'm just excited to have another big item checked off my list and accomplished. The changing table is still a disaster but I have ordered the organizer boxes from Pottery Barn Kids and hopefully they won't take too long to get here. I'm also waiting on the real changing pad to get here from the lady I ordered the crib from. I am a bit concerned because I feel like they should have been here by now but we will see. I think I mentioned that two of my boxes with shower stuff arrived last week and this rug that my mom bought us was in one of them. I think that it matches perfectly!The rug is a Jonathan Adler and is on his website for the small price of $995!! My mom found it at an estate sale for nowhere NEAR that price and I think it is the perfect addition to the nursery! It is made out of llama hair! Deaner claims he is going to sleep on the rug next to the baby just like this....I'm not so sure I buy it! And last but not least here is a picture of the crib with all the bedding on it. I love how it turned out.I think that my chore tomorrow will be hang the letters that spell Evans. Deaner called earlier to say that our diaper changing table caddy came today that my friend Leigh gave us so I can't wait to see it! Getting the mail these days is so much fun!

Anyways, I'm off to continue writing thank you notes. I think I can finish them up tonight if I concentrate! Wish me luck!

Ikea Woes

Well really the only woe was that half of Germany decided to join us at Ikea today. Yesterday was a German holiday, thus the country shut down, and apparently everyone needed to hit up Ikea today at the exact time that Steph and I arrived. Lucky for us we got a parking space upfront and knew exactly what we wanted. Thankfully the closet that I wanted was still available (we only found this out after the customer service lady's computer froze and then crashed) but when she told me that it was still there I was happy enough to forget about it. I was also able to find some cheap drawer organizers because does anyone understand how tiny baby SOCKS are? I'd lose them all in a heartbeat if I hadn't found a little compartment to store them in.

Deaner got stuck at work and so I am still waiting on him to get home and start putting it together. The closet is way to heavy for me to carry upstairs alone. Steph and I had issues even getting it into the car! After carrying my suitcase up three flights of stairs on Wednesday and subsequently pulling a muscle in my abdomen, I think I will leave this one to Deaner. I'm not even positive he can lift it by himself! We will see how long this closet assembly takes because I am already getting hungry! Too bad it is only 5:19pm. If we get it together tonight I will make sure to take pictures! Currently I am sitting on the couch surrounded in mountains of baby clothes all freshly washed. Now they just need a home!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!! We are cooking out with Steph and Jon tomorrow and it will be nice to get to catch up with my husband! Talk to y'all on Monday!

**Addendum: Today I saw this.That would be a dog in the stroller. Just chilling out and being pushed! Some people!

Baby Shower Pictures

I know I have been promising these for a long time but I have been SO jet lagged since I have been back in Germany that I am just now getting the energy to post them! Plus, the angle that most of these pictures were taken at make me look enormous so I have been putting off posting them! Anyways......the shower was super fun and I got TONS of great things. It was at my Aunt Jennifer's house and it was co-hosted by my sister, Amelia, and one of my oldest and best friend's, Sarah Kate. When I got to Jennifer's house on Saturday I was able to get my cousin Thomas up from his nap. He was SO sweet and is just as cute as ever! He just wanted to hug me and I couldn't believe how sweet he was after not seeing me for 4 months!I hate the way my face looks as large as the moon in this picture but Thomas looks sweet so I had to give in. Here is a picture of me with my hostesses. My sister Amelia is on the left, then my Aunt Jennifer, me and my friend Sarah Kate.I got so many awesome things. I wish I could post pictures of everything but that would be impossible! So, I will have to pick the pictures where you can't see straight up my dress! The angle of the picture taker was not ideal so I have to edit!!A SUPER cute Ole Miss onesie. This baby has to be ready for Rebel football season!This next picture is a picture of the wonderful quilt that my friend Lee Lin quilted for Evans. I couldn't believe it when I saw it because it is so awesome. I can't wait for Evans to get to use it! I mean, I would hardly have the time to do something like this and she is a doctor!A few more pictures of me opening GREAT gifts!That is all the pictures of present opening where I look semi normal! And last but definitely not least here is a shot of all my college friends from Ole Miss that were able to make it to Atlanta for the shower. It was SO great to see them and they have no idea how happy I was that they came to see me! I don't get to participate in a lot of our get togethers so it was awesome that they made the shower one of them! The few that couldn't make it were certainly missed!It was a blast. My mother-in-law also had a shower for me on Sunday evening with Richard's mom's side of the family and it was super nice to be able to catch up with them. I have some pictures of that but I have a giant wet spot on my dress because a friend's little girl sat on my lap with a wet bathing suit. Ha. All and all the showers were fantastic.

Really, my whole trip was great. The rest of the week was filled with outlet mall shopping, dinner with friends nearly every night, cash and carry at the Atlanta Mart, estate sale shopping with my mom and her friend and LOTS AND LOTS of eating. I am literally scared to step on the scale at the doctor's next week because I just KNOW this is the month of the big gain! :) Not that I really care! I go again next Thursday and I have the glucose test. Keep your fingers cross that I pass it! Deaner won't be able to go with me this time because he has to go to Brussels and I just didn't want to reschedule my appointment again. I already had to make an appearance there yesterday after flying in because I have an ear infection and needed to pick up an antibiotic prescription.

Anyways, in my extreme sleepiness I am starting to ramble. I'll wrap this up but two of my boxes from the States already arrived so I have lots of pictures to share with y'all tomorrow! Off to pat out some burgers for our dinner!

My trip has pretty much concluded!

I can't believe how fast the time flies when I am at home. Seems like I just flew in last night and now I am making sure that my suitcase isn't overweight and packing to go home. My flight leaves at 4:40pm tomorrow afternoon and I know I will be sad to leave. On the flip side, I am super excited to get home and see Deaner. 10 days is a long time to be away from your husband! I am sure he is ready for me to get home and start making him dinner and doing his laundry again! :) Life alone can be hard!

This trip couldn't have been more fun. I promise when I get back to my own computer I will be posting pictures from the shower of all the fabulous stuff that I got. The crib mattress did arrive in Germany so I will be able to put the rest of the bedding in the crib when I get home! Which y'all know I can't wait to do! It might actually motivate me not to let my jet lag get the best of me and sleep all day. None of my boxes have arrived in Germany ahead of me but I imagine that I will see at least two of them in the next week or so. The parcel post package might get here before the baby is born! There are a few things that I will need shipped to myself before the baby comes (well really before our trip home in December) like the car seat cover that we were given by a family friend but I can't bring myself to make one more trip to the post office. They have taken enough of our (Deaner's) hard earned money already this week!

So, look for some good posts coming up, ones with actual pictures and purpose! I'll be looking forward to getting back into my routine at home and will be happy to share again with everyone. Also, everyone pray that things in Greece settle down a bit before the end of the month. We found out our trip is non changeable and non refundable so as long as things are stable, Athens here we come! :)

I have to brag!

I know I said that I was taking a short break from blogging but I just couldn't help myself. I am going to try and make this quick though. I have been wanting to buy big wooden letters spelling "Evans" to hang on the wall over the changing table in the baby's room. When I found some that I liked yesterday at a super cute baby store in Atlanta I was sort of surprised that they were so expensive. Sooooo, my mom and I hit up Michael's Arts and Crafts store and made a few purchases totalling about $40. Here is what I came up with!And the finished product!!!I am so happy with the way they turned out and pretty impressed that they actually look as good as they do. I can't wait to get them home and hung up. My mom and I decided that the ribbon they were going to hang from wasn't going to be strong enough so my dad drilled a hole in the back of each on so that the actual block can hang from a tiny nail in the wall. Then I will just tack up the ribbon so it will appear to be hanging from it. I just hope I am good at tying bows!!

We are off to the lake house tomorrow and I can't wait! We are stopping at a different outlet mall on the way up but god help me if I buy anything else. I will definitely not have internet this weekend so no blogging. Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Blogging Hiatus

Between all my shopping, eating, visiting and running around I have been doing this week, it has been nearly impossible to sit down and blog. I am going to probably have to wait until things settle down to start filling y'all in on the details of my trip. I have had a blast and I definitely love being home but I'll be ready to return to Germany mainly because I miss my husband! All of my boxes have been sent home and hopefully the week head start they have on me will let them arrive in Germany not too much after I get home. I will be dying to play with all the stuff in them again!

I am currently working on a craft project for the baby's room and I have to say, I am impressing even myself but it isn't done yet! I am going to finish that up today hopefully. Tomorrow we are heading to the lake house and I am praying for good weather. It has been touch and go and the forecast is iffy. If I don't get some good sun and boat time, I am going to be really disappointed. In other news, Deaner and I are discussing whether or not to cancel our trip to Greece on the 28th. If we do, I will be devastated but things in Athens right now are NOT going well and I'd rather not be drug out of a bank and murdered. Is that too much to ask? I don't know what we will do.

Hope everyone is having a good week. I promise when I get around to posting pictures they will be worth it!

Busy Busy Busy

I always know that my trips home will be full of things to do but this trip has taken it to a new level! I feel like I have been on the go since I landed here on Thursday and I am almost too tired to type this post! I will have to give a brief overview of what has been going on and go into more detail later on! Friday I got to pick up all my friends from Ole Miss who flew in for my baby shower. We had such a fun weekend and it was so much to see them and get to catch up. The shower on Saturday was awesome and I got SO much awesome stuff. Now I just have to figure out how to get it all home! I have one huge box ready for the post office tomorrow and hopefully it won't break the bank! Then I have a feeling that there is going to be one more box that is about the same size. Lord, if it all gets their in one piece I will be thrilled. I wanted to get it in the mail early because I will be dying to get my hands on it on the other side so I can organize it all!

Sunday I had a shower at my mother-in-law's house and it was nice to see that side of Deaner's family. The weather was nice and we were able to hang out around the pool. Today my mom and I went up to the outlets and I got a bunch of great stuff. Lots of cute pajamas for the baby and then all the maternity clothes that I will need for the rest of this pregnancy. I have to say that it was very stressful shopping for maternity clothes. Everything makes you look so big AND the stupid lady there made me put that belly pillow on which REALLY freaked me out. I was happy to buy some new clothes and I should have plenty now to last until August. So, my stomach is really going to get that big?? Yikes!

Tomorrow we are heading to the Atlanta Mart for cash and carry. Can't wait to see if we find some cute things! Then tomorrow night I am having dinner with a friend who is flying in from St. Louis. Can't wait to see her! I'll update more when I have more time! Hope everyone is having a good week!!