Flood...

Our house flooded this week with the aftermath of the tropical storm. It was a true God-sent that I could not sleep that night. I was up at 12:30am doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen...I had to wake up very early in the morning for my 5:30am class, so I was nervous that I was still wide awake with a ton of energy. I was "blaming" it on being pregnant...but now I am THANKING Jr. for keeping me up! It has saved us a lot of money and stress. Thanks, baby boy! :)

As I was up cleaning, I noticed some water coming in through the wall, then more coming in through the door...it was so much water that is was over-whelming. I ran in the bedroom and woke Rich up and we stayed up all night laying down every towel and blanket we could find. It was heart-breaking as Rich just laid these floors down with his dad over a year ago. To rip these up seemed like a bad dream. This was a very stressful week, just knowing that we have minimal funds to put flooring down again and only have 1 month before this baby comes! EEK! Anyway, I am at peace now with everything.

Friends have come forward and helped with so much...meals, helping rip up the floors, washing ALL OF MY WET LAUNDRY (SO MUCH), steam cleaning my rugs...bringing over fans, I was so thankful and again I hope to pay this forward someday. You know a true friend when they are there when the chips are down. Even Ramsey, Kelly and Derek said they would drop everything and come up to Austin and help. I know they would. When I go to San Antonio, I feel like I am with family...I can ask them for anything and I never feel weird. They just know me and laugh...well, everyone laughs at Kelly and me. :)) Thank goodness I'm not alone.

I was in so much control before this flood came. I would rearrange my baby room almost daily, every single item had it's place, I would rearrange the clothes in the closet to sizes, and so on...now the baby's room is full of doors, stacked furniture and everything else that we needed to move out of the water's way. We are so lucky that the baby's room did not flood. I think this is a lesson from God to get me ready for my world with a baby - to teach me to let go of so much control and being obsessed about my house being perfect. Many more "disasters" are about to occur in our house for the next 18 years and we should be able to handle it with grace.
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Whenever I think my life is stressful or I get the "poor me" attitude, I need to remember this quote:

“If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.” ~Oscar Wilde

Baby Shower #2

The group of ladies at Jill's house.






Guess how big my belly is???







My friends, Jill Marshall and Beth Borkosky, put on a cute Bunco Baby Shower for me this week. They had my favorite restaurant, Mama Fu's, cater it and they had some really cute games. I had to taste several jars of baby food, so that was interesting because I have always wondered what they tasted like and nothin' like getting to know 1 month before I have a baby!!!

I have been SO BLESSED with friends who want to throw these showers for me and continue to give me all of their baby items they are no longer using. I am having 6 SHOWERS!!! and I have no family that lives here so I feel very lucky. I am so appreciative of every single shower and gift I receive. Sometimes it blows my mind because in high school I came from a somewhat negative atmosphere where people did not want to promote others I think because of that small town mentality. It is so different here...I have met so many friends that just want to give to others while expecting nothing in return. So many people have a Christian heart and I truly believe that is the difference. When God is the center of families, they put others first. Most of my friends have a lot of money here in Georgetown and they give to so many charities and have been very generous to me and Jr. as well. It is more than I could have ever dreamed of. AND I just had several showers/bachelorette parties just 1 year ago and no one cared at all. I am the one who felt bad because that is a lot in 1 year! We got married on Oct. 23, 2009 and our baby is due Oct. 31, 2010. I hope to pay all of this generosity foward to others who are in need and hope to make them feel as special as I do. I love coming home from the showers and Rich goes through all of the "loot" to see what technical items I got. This time I got a cool Video Monitor...he immediately put it together and he thought is was awesome that it has night vision as well. :)
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Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:3-4

Doris Beaudet - Remillard

VISITING NANNY IN FLORIDA



My grandmother, Doris, died this week at the age of 83. My Nanny was very kind and used to remember every story about when I was young. She was a very pretty lady with bleach blonde hair and very good skin. She had a very thick New Hampshire (Boston) accent. She would say, "That is wicked good." Or finish every sentence with "Yah?" It was always a very different culture when we would go visit my Dad's family in the New England area. Everyone could speak French and they would kiss you on each cheek when saying hello or good-bye. When my sister and I were young they would want us to sing and dance for them...I was mortified but they were all funny. My grandfather died when he was 50 years old and he had 8 brothers (I think). None of them lived too long. My grandmother comes from a large family as well, I think she had 6 brothers and sisters. My grandmother got married again about 12 years ago to Paul Remillard, he was 10 years older than her so no one thought she would go before him. He was also from a very large family of 16 kids. He had some very interesting stories about his family and growing up during the Depression with 16 kids, he was the oldest. Nanny and Paul lived half the year in New Hampshire and half the year in Florida. We went to visit them about 4 years ago in Florida and they had a really cool house not too far from the beach.

I wish I could have gone to the funeral to support my parents, but it was in New Hampshire and me being almost 8 months pregnant has not allowed me to go.

Again, I am writing this for my little guy and I want him to know all about his roots. He will have lots of French and German in him! :)