Our Favorite Mommy-to-bee!!!

If you aren't aware that my best friend (Chef Laura) is pregnant, then you probably haven't been reading this blog much! :)  In a few short weeks, Laura will be welcoming her first baby--a girl!  A best friend for my little Nora, and finally a niece in the same town as me! I am SO excited!

My family and I recently threw a baby shower for miss Laura and "baby bee". (Laura's maiden name was Berneking, and in high school I always called her "Laura Bee"; the nickname has stuck!)  I have been waiting for this baby shower for so long; an opportunity to celebrate my best friend and the fact that she will soon be a mommy!

Five years worth of bee gifts :)

I have been warning Laura for a while about the abundance of gifts that I have for her baby.  When I was pregnant with my first son (FIVE years ago!), whenever we went to garage sales I would pick up things for my baby, and also things for Laura's future babies.  Any time there was anything with bees on it, I would pick it up and stash it away for her baby! 



Since that time, we have moved three times.  The box of "Laura's baby stuff" has gotten bigger and bigger, and I have successfully hauled it through all three moves.  When she told me she was pregnant, the first thing I did was have Matt get up in the attic and get the box down!  I've been planning the baby shower ever since.

bees, bees everywhere!

So, on Saturday night, I began the process of taking down Halloween decorations in my house and replacing them with everything black and yellow, bees, and baby. (Just so happens we are all Hawkeye fans, too...so the black and yellow was a nice theme!)  When it was all ready, my aunts and my mom and I just walked around and looked at all the cuteness. So exciting for Laura!

We all dressed in black and yellow and white in honor of Laura Bee and her little bee.  It was a wonderful baby shower...not too big, not too small.  Just a nice, friendly showering of my best friend with gifts for her little bundle.








Can't WAIT to hold that little girl in December! Little Nora Jean is ready to meet her best friend! :)


Bumblebee diaper cake!

The Year of the Couch.

Another garage-sale tale...

...a couple years ago, my mom and her friend dubbed it "the year of the furniture" from the garage sales.  It seemed like every week we were buying pieces of furniture at the sales.  We laughed so hard; our cars were so full that we would have to unload and head back out 2 or 3 times in a single day!
...fast forward to 2012, which we have deemed not the year of the furniture, but more specifically, "the year of the couch".  I'm not sure exactly how many couches we've gotten, but I know we got two in the past week, and this last one was the ULTIMATE couch bargain. 
My Aunt Becky has been looking for another couch for her house, and this weekend she and my mom were at a sale, and my mom saw a rather new-looking couch in the back of the garage. She asked if it was for sale, and the woman said "sure, it's for sale. We bought it and it wouldn't fit down our hallway, so we've never even used it".  My mom asked how much she wanted for it, and the woman said "How about $75?"
$75 for a brand new couch.  Ashley Furniture. Never even been sat on!  Now, you may think this is the end of the story...but remember who we are talking about here.  My mom, the ultimate bargain-hunter.  "I'll give you $50," she says.

And so, there is a brand new couch in my garage, waiting for Becky to take it to her house.  And it cost her $50.  It really is the year of the couch, no questions asked.

The Party House

When we first called the realtor and came to walk through our house, it was in foreclosure.  Every wall was covered in beer (and other) stains, there was not a single interior door left in the house, and every room was painted a ridiculously bright color.  As we guessed, and was later confirmed, it had been quite the party house for Ambrose students (only a few blocks away).  Long story short, by the time we moved in nearly a year later, there was no evidence left of the "party house" days.  However...

A very special wedding reception at our house.

...as we brought more and more of our family members to see our new home for the first time, the consensus was:  "every event will now be held at Sara and Matt's house!".  This scared Matt a little bit (our family is big, and very close...I'm sure he was picturing our door hanging open with random family members walking in and out at all hours of the day).  But for me, it was exciting...I love being the hostess, and the truth is we didn't get to host too many things at our first house because we lived the farthest away from everyone.

And so, very quickly, our house returned to its "party house" status.  Definitely not the same kind of parties (I can count on one hand the number of times we have even had alcoholic beverages in our house at all), but still parties...and some great ones, if you ask me!  Not only have we had birthdays and family get-togethers...we have hosted three baby showers, a cook-off, two Super Bowl parties, a Mafia-themed New Year's Eve party, and even a wedding reception!  Every single one of the parties has been a blast, and I look forward to so many more!

Blue and Brown Owl-Themed Baby Shower!

Our Mafia/Casino New Year's Eve Party!

So why post about this today?  Because today is a special day.  My grandma Shirl, one of the best people in the whole entire world, is 80 years old today.  And you guessed it...we are hosting the party at our house.  My mom and my aunts will be invading the house to clean and decorate, and Laura (or Chef Laura, as you all know her) will be here to set things up and help us look fancier than we actually are!  And to make it even better, it's technically a surprise party!  I mean, she knows that we (the family) are having dinner at my house, but she doesn't know that a lot of special people are coming to celebrate her 80 years.  I'm so excited!  I know it will be yet another great time with our favorite people, our family and our friends, and my grandma deserves a celebration more than anyone we all know!  (And for those of you who don't know, I can't write this post without mentioning that it is also my mom's birthday, too! Such a special day for our family!)

Happy birthday to my mom and happy 80th to my grandma Shirl!

Surprise? Not Yet!

Today I woke up in pain.  Sharp, sharp pain in the pelvic area.  I finally forced myself to get out of bed and get Cooper ready for church, because they were going to celebrate his birthday in their Sabbath School class.  We picked up Sam and my dad, went to church, and I got more and more uncomfortable.  Sitting is nearly impossible these days…our baby girl is very low, and I’ve had lots and lots of pressure.

I made it through church, but during the family lunch at my grandma’s house I ended up laying down in the living room—having all of those Braxton Hicks contractions I’ve now, unfortunately, become accustomed to.  However, today they were accompanied by lower back pain, as well as some other (better left un-mentioned) symptoms.  My Aunt Becky was convinced I was in labor, so she had me get outside and walk down the block, to see if the symptoms either subsided or got worse.  Unfortunately, neither happened.  I felt exactly the same, and I still do now, at 11:00 pm.

My cousin Elyse tells me I should never google medical symptoms, but of course I did, and as I read the list for “preterm labor symptoms”, I have not one, not two, but all of them.  YIKES! 

For that reason, my post today will be short…and yet, it’s still fitting for “Sunday Surprises”.  You never know what you’re going to get!  Last night I went to bed feeling normal, and today was totally off…who knows what tomorrow holds.  Maybe I’ll wake up feeling normal again.  Or maybe I’ll be making a trip to the hospital!

Keep us in your thoughts…I have a feeling that my little girl is definitely going to surprise us and come early…but 9 weeks early is a little too early for our liking.  Just wait a little longer, baby girl! J

The Raley Girls.

Because today is Mother’s Day, I am obviously dedicating this post to my mom, Patti.  But I would also like to acknowledge some other very important women in my life, all whom have loved me and cared for me throughout my entire life.  Let’s call them “the Raley girls”…

The Raley girls (AKA my grandma, my mom, and my four aunts)
with my cousin Elyse on her wedding day

My Grandma Shirl:  Where to begin?  She is my namesake (we both have the middle name Hope), she has always been one of my favorite people in the whole world, and she has been a shining example in our family of what it means to be a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, a friend, and most importantly, a Godly woman.  She is the closest thing that I know to a saint…always taking care of us, all three generations of our family, and always with a positive attitude about it.  I could go on for days, but let’s just leave it at this:  I have the best grandma in the entire world.

Joan: As the oldest of the Raley daughters, Joan has always been a loving presence in my life.  Some of my fondest memories as a child are running up and down the hallways of the Quad City airport (where you can no longer run, it’s so sad!), waiting for our Aunt Joanie to arrive, all the way from California!  She was always so happy to see us, and we were always so sad to see her go back!

Becky: My aunt Becky loved to take my cousin Elyse and I out shopping when we were little girls, because she never had a daughter of her own (she has two boys).  We loved going with Aunt Becky!  And we still do! She’s always good for a laugh, and she has the sweetest, sweetest heart.

Jean:  My aunt Jeannie is the closest thing I have to a “second mom”.  Nearly all of my childhood memories include Jeannie, and I would not be the person I am today without her in my life.  She is such a positive influence on all of the children in our family, and there is not another daycare in the world where I would rather have my children while I’m at work.  I cannot imagine my life without my aunt Jeannie in it!

“Patti” (AKA my mom!):  The reason I said that Jean was almost like a second mom to me is because I really didn’t need a second mom!  I had the best mom (and still do).  My childhood was filled with happy days—reading stacks of my favorite books(Chicken Soup with Rice, Come to the Doctor Harry, Over in the Meadow…), watching our favorite movies (the Sound of Music, Pollyanna, the Swiss Family Robinson…), and going to our favorite places (Wild Cat Den, Scott County Park…).  My mom didn’t work until I went to school, and I am so thankful for all of those days with her—and all of the days since then, too!  She has helped me become the woman I am today, the mother I am today, the friend I am today, the wife I am today…she is always here for me, always loves me, and every day when I see her loving on my children, I am reminded of how truly lucky I am to have her as my mom. My boys are so lucky to have her as a grandma!  And the very best part about my mom?  She’s all mine! (I’m an only child!)

Kathy: If you read last Friday’s post, you already know that my aunt Kathy and I are “soulmates”.  When I was only 12 years old, I flew across the country by myself to spend a week with her, and then it became tradition.  Soon my cousin Elyse joined me, and those were some of the best times of our young lives.  Kathy was always the “cool, fun aunt” because she didn’t have kids of her own (yet) and she let us do whatever we wanted!  She is still the cool, fun aunt, and we love heading to the airport to wait for her and her son Bruno to arrive for a visit!

And there you have it…my grandma Shirl raised five beautiful, loving daughters, and I am lucky enough to call one of them my mother.  I thank God for putting me in a family with such strong women to look up to, and I pray that my daughter will learn as much from them as I did.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and anyone else who has the incredibly hard, yet incredibly satisfying, job of raising children in this life!

*And a special Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law, Debbie.  Thank you for raising the wonderful, wonderful man that I am lucky enough to call my husband.  He is loving, fun, respectful, and all of the things that his mama taught him!  My children are so lucky to have "Dede" in their lives....we all are!