Woman and Man

Lately I have been contemplating the difference between a woman and a man's brain. Not the brain as in the organ, but the mind. What was God thinking when he made a man the way he is and a woman the way she is? Why are we so different, but yet so much the same?
We can be the same in our likes, dislikes, dreams, desires, etc. What makes us different is the way we pursue these.
I have noticed how my mind has begun the morphing process of preparing to be a mother. There are things I never would have been interested in til now, and things I don't desire now. My drive towards certain goals are much stronger than they use to be, and then there are issues I don't even go there with I may have harped on before.
And then there are times when I feel I don't know who this new person is anymore, because of these changes. I was beginning to feel a little depressed about this change, but then I am reminded of the blessing in disguise. I am transforming into a new person, but deep down I am still Bethany. Most of the "new Bethany" I am dealing with now is one who is beefed up on hormones, low energy, and a one track mind. I know in time some of this will vanish and I guess some will stay. Learning to be the Bethany I am deep inside and the new Bethany will be the struggle. I am going to have to learn to mesh these two personalities into one with time, patience and support from people around me.

But what about man? What happens to a man when his wife is dealing with these struggles? I have a very loving and supportive husband, thank goodness, but what is going on with him? Is he going through the same things? Is he morphing into a new person, or is he so busy trying to appease the "new" wife he hasn't been able to focus on himself? I can see little things here and there with Josiah, but I think his real transformation is going to be when our daughter enters this world. See for me I have the constant reminder of our impending addition, through heart burn, kicks and jabs, sleepless nights etc. But for him I believe it's going to be with the wonderful gift of holding and seeing our Avalynn.

What do you think? Have you noticed a change in yourself? When was the moment of change for your husband, or for you? Have you embraced the new you? Are you looking forward to transforming into the new you if you have not already done so?

Preparing for baby

The countdown has begun. We are getting closer and closer to the day that we will meet our precious baby girl. And we have yet to begin getting the room together or gathering the "stuff" which comes along with this new addition.
We do plan on beginning the process come August. I am having my first baby shower in Memphis, August 21st. And the next shower is in Kansas not until September. So I guess depending on what we get at these showers depends on how the room turns out. I am super excited about seeing all the cute and yes, lots of pink things. I am not a pink type of girl, but I have to say it is definitely growing on me.
One thing I have done is ordered the baby bedding. I had a hard time finding something I really liked, but my mom showed me this website and fell in love with this bedding.
I am going to add a green sage for an accent color. I can't wait until it comes in. I think once we start getting big items like this it will start to feel real!


We also finally registered at Babies R Us. There are still some things I would like to add to the registry, but at least we got it started. A couple of people have asked if we are going to register anywhere else and I don't think we are. We pretty much covered all the bases at Babies R Us.

So according to my ticker above my blog we have 84 days! So much to do, but excited about the process.

The number 3

This weekend I have enjoyed a relaxing time with my sweetie. We used this weekend to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. Josiah set up a prenatal massage for me, which was amazing. Then we went to a hotel and got ready for dinner. We found an upscale soul food restaurant in the heart of downtown. It had live jazz music and I was able to get some food close to my heart. Our dinner consisted of a starter of fried green tomatoes and fried okra. Then we had these amazing sweet potato cornbread rolls. I am definitely going to have to find a recipe for those, especially for the holidays. Then my dinner was fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese and my favorite, collard greens! Yes I am very southern! Josiah had fried catfish, candied yams, and baked macaroni also. You may think that these dishes should be sold on paper plates, but it was nice to eat comfort food in an elegant environment. Then to top off the dinner of course Josiah had to get the bread pudding.

It was such a nice and relaxing weekend. We both needed it.
But of course our weekend wouldn't be complete without some drama. While we were eating our breakfast our hotel started to flood. It started with some water in the lower level where we were eating. Then in the hallway the water started come in fast. Then we heard that the parking lot was flooding. So Josiah went to go move our car, and he said if we were going to get out we needed to leave. As we were leaving we saw the full flooding damage. The street our hotel was on was completely under water. It was bizarre. So it cut our time short, but we got home fine.

Yesterday when I was relaxing for my massage I realized that three months from yesterday is our due date. We have three months to prepare for our little Avalynn's entrance into our world. Wow! I can't believe the countdown has really begun. We have so much to do. We haven't even registered, started the room, or done one thing toward preparing for her. If you know me, this is not like me. I usually have everything ready way in advance. But I think this pregnancy is teaching me to slow down. Hopefully we will get a start on some of it soon.

The number 3 is also significant because in a short amount of time the two of us will be the three of us. We will have a big change in our life. If we want to go out to eat we will have a car seat with us. If we want to go out of town we will have to plan how to travel with a baby. I am looking forward to having our new addition, but it will now be the three of us. Reality is really settling in. I am looking forward to this exciting adjustment in our life.