You are my Wish Come True

I mentioned it on my blog when I was pregnant, but I didn't have an easy pregnancy. I prayed...a lot. I wished...a lot.

When I was about 7 months pregnant, the author, Marianne Richmond, visited the elementary school where I work. To say that I fell in love with her books is quite an understatement. I listened to her read her books to the students and I cried. I flipped through a few others and I cried. Yes, I was an emotional pregnant woman but her words just struck so true for me. I wanted to buy all of her books on the spot but finally settled on I Love You So and You are my Wish Come True.
"When I first wished my wish," said Mama to Barley, "I didn't know your name. Or if yo'd be a boy or girl. But that didn't stop my wishing. I asked God to think about my wish and to create the while who would be the perfect one for me."

"What did you do when you first held me?" asked Barley. "Oh Barley," said Mama. "I fell deeply in love with you. I looked into your sweet face, and right then, you became my wish come true."

I just love this book so much and can't wait to read it to Ethan when he is old enough to understand. He is my wish come true. When it came around time to creating our artwork for the nursery, I knew exactly what phrase I wanted in his nursery.

*Photo by Clary Pfeiffer

Marianne Richmond has other beautifully written books. "I Wished for You" is a story about adoption, as adopted children are wished for and prayed for, as well. "If I Could Keep You Little" makes me want to cry right now thinking about it. I just love her books. There are books for Mommy, Daddy, grandparents, siblings, and features people with different skin, eye, and hair colors. Her books are fabulous for shower gifts, graduation gifts, or just for yourself and your baby. Enjoy!

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Let's talk babies!

No. I'm not pregnant. I'm not trying to get pregnant or ready to get pregnant. BUT...I am starting to get a little bit of the baby fever! It came on suddenly, but it has definitely struck. (Maybe somewhere between my sore throat and dry cough!)I don't know why I feel the need to talk about this. Maybe because I am sick of writing about running, my dog, and my husband. Maybe because I just don't feel like grading and/or writing papers.

Since we have gotten married, naturally the next question starting coming. "When do you want to have kids." We knew that we definitely want to do the puppy thing first. Loving it.The next thing that was a must for me before kiddos was to finish my masters degree. Almost done! I will graduate in May! I also added to my "must have/do before having kids list" going to Italy with Mike. We haven't gone a vacation alone (other than our honeymoon) and it is something that we really want to do. We haven't booked our trip yet but we are planning to go this summer.Finally, and this might be vain or silly...but I want to lose 10 pounds. I really want to get in charge of my life by eating better and exercising on a regular basis. Running really has given me a reality check. No more fat, lazy, unhealthy Lauren.So, that is where I stand now. Who knows where this next year will take us but it looks like we have an exciting road ahead of us! 5K, graduation, Italy...oh my!

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Catching up!

I have been so busy these past couple of weeks and blogging has not been a top priority.

What I been up to, you ask?

The craziness started when Allison had baby Lincoln. We lost the picture temporarily but they are back!!! What a handsome guy!Why do we pose with other peoples' children? Really?
A picture with the beautiful mama.
And I just love me some baby toes ;)The next day, we went downtown for the Homerun Derby. We didn't have tickets but we had a great time partying anyways! First we met in Tess and Kevin's loft...And baby Truman!Then off to Mike Shannon's downtown. SO. MUCH. FUN!Look at all of the people. And this was before the Derby even started!The pictures go majorly downhill from there as the night went on so we are going to stop there.

After a day of packing, it was time to head to Destin, Florida for Tess' bachelorette party. I was lucky enough to be able to be in Florida from Wednesday night to Monday morning. We were able to stay in Tess' future in-laws' condos and they were fabulous. I stayed in the one right off the beach.The weekend was full of drinking, eating, and laughing with good friends.The whole group!On the night of the actual bachelorette party, we played Bar Golf? Have you ever played this game? Oh my gosh...it was so much fun and definitely ended in a drunken mess.

Here are some of us in our golfing attire...We were split into teams of 5 people...we knew immediately our time would win. Here we are!Here is a short explanation of the game. You go to 9 bars and each bar has a Par 2. That means your team needs to split 2 beers. After the 2 beers, you get 1 point for each addition beer and 2 points for each specialty drink your team takes. The first bars specialty drink was lemon drop, the next specialty drink was a Jagger bomb. Specialty drinks down line were tequila shots, daiquiris, bartender's choice... It was a blast! Starting to get a little more sloppy at the end of the night. Notice the grafitti-ed shirts.So much fun! Loved it!

For the past week that I have been home, I have been dedicating most of my time to finishing my work for my masters classes. I counted up yesterday and I have written 16 papers in the past 2 months. Seriously! 16! I am happy to say that I submitted the last of my papers to my teacher this morning and I am DONE! I am celebrating by going to the Cardinals game tonight with work friends! WOO HOO!

Of course, I have been working on the other blog and trying to get it exactly where we want it to be.

I also can't believe that I will be back to school in 2 weeks from today! Did this summer fly by or what?! I guess that is what I get for taking 2 very challenging classes and raising a beautiful little puppy. By the way...Mia is the best!

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Bad luck with pictures

I am back from vacation! I just spend 5 days down in Florida for a friend's bachelorette party. Trying to get back into the swing of things around the house. I also have 10 papers to write in the next few days.

I am pretty bummed right now because I hate blogging without pictures. I was going to blog about our awesome float trip...but I lost our camera in the river. Bad luck.

I wanted to post some pictures of my friends' new baby, Lincoln...but the computer won't show the pictures. It says the format of those pictures is RAW but Mike swears that they aren't. I only have 2 pictures that we took at the hospital (out of over 100)!!!Cute pictures, but only 2. I am pissed.

I wanted to blog about the homerun derby...but guess what...those are "RAW" too so I can't get them. Bummer!

Mike is going to try to mess with it tomorrow and hopefully we can salvage some pictures!

Hope everyone has been doing well! I need to get to work on my papers!

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Baby nurseries!

I am not having a baby but that doesn't stop me from admiring my friends' nurseries. Kristal just posted about her nursery plans just as I was going to post pictures of my friends' nurseries! Let's start with baby Collin's adorable room full of little animals.The little monkeys everywhere are ADORABLE! I have to mention that Collin's daddy, Nick, made that crib from scratch! Absolutely amazing!!! I love the green color they chose for the walls...so calming and soothing. And of course, a big comfy chair!Nice work, Nick and Mimi! I know that Collin loves it!

Next, Allison and Shaun's baby (who is to remain nameless until his birth in a few weeks) will love his new nursery. Again...I am so impressed!Leave it to Allison to have fun with colors and different shapes. LOVE IT, Al!!!At first I was a little annoyed that the baby was taking MY guest bedroom but I guess I can get over it ;) Nice work on the nurseries, ladies! Until I can decorate one of my own, I am just going to admire yours :)

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Baby F is almost here!

On Sunday, my girlfriends and I threw a baby shower for Allison! She is the first of our close college friends to be pregnant and, therefore, the first shower we have thrown. In my honest opinion, I think we did a great job!I made a delicious salad (thanks Mimi for the inspiration). Lettuce, grapes, strawberry, Gouda cheese, walnuts, and poppy seed dressing. Yummm....The diaper cake and onesie clothesline was adorable. This onesie was my favorite!Here are those wonderful friends I was talking about!
Allison looks so great and I am just so excited to meet her little boy. They haven't decided on a name yet so they are keeping it hush hush.The teacher in me just had to get her the books she registered for. Her childhood favorite was Goodnight Moon and I threw in Love You Forever because it is just so so sweet (and a tearjerker!).Congrats Allison! I voted on Baby F being born on July 9th so push extra hard on that day. LOVE YOU and can't wait to meet your little man!

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Welcome Baby Collin!

I am so happy to announce that baby Collin is here...almost 4 weeks early! (You may remember Mimi's shower a month ago.) Collin Edward Johnson was born on May 23rd and weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. What a perfect baby!!! We were lucky enough to meet the 5 day old stud last night and he quickly became our new photography muse. Mike did an AMAZING job taking these pictures! Check out the happy family!Mimi is just glowing and Nick is such a proud daddy. The family picture above is my favorite of the evening.I have never seen a newborn with such blond hair. He has long, skinny fingers like Mimi and the biggest baby feet I have ever seen!Oh, Collin...you are so cute!!!I got to hold him for a bit. Collin, just start calling me Auntie Lauren ;)Nick and Mimi, I am so so happy for you both. Congrats!

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Weekend Roundup

Hello, internet friends. Hope all is going well out in cyberland. I haven't been the best blogger lately. I am starting to get over the "blah" with some help of sunshine today! Keep it coming, Mother Nature.

This past weekend, we spent many hours celebrating Mike's Easter. Friday night started at church from 7-10:15. Yikes...! We ended up meeting high school friends out in Clayton at my favorite sangria restaurant, BARcelona. It really was great catching up with these girls. We were really tired so we ended up going home around 1ish.Saturday was Mimi's baby shower...only my second baby shower ever!!! First of all, Mimi looks freaking amazing! Still tiny all over with a basketball under her dress. I am just obsessed with Bumbos right now (I want one for myself!) so I had to get one for Baby Johnson. I just can't wait to meet this little guy. I can't believe she is due in June! Almost there, Mimi!!!I am mad that you can't see her cute belly in this picture but trust me, it is adorable!After the shower, Mike and I took our pre-church nap...from 6pm-10pm! We woke up, got dressed, and "churched-it-up" from Midnight-3. I was exhausted when I got home but it really was a beautiful service. After the service, everyone goes downstairs for a Greek feast of breads and soups. Mike's mom brought us turkey sandwiches and wine bottles because we don't like the soup! So cute!

Sunday we slept until about 10 and Pamela came over for some calligraphy work. Of course, she gave me some photography tips and I think we are going to try to get together a happy hour at Bar Louie (since she is a Kirkwood girl also!). At 2ish, we went to Mike's parents for a HUGE Greek Easter Dinner! YUM YUM! I definitely had a hard time fitting in my pants today!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!

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EXCITING NEWS!!!

Sooo...I probably shouldn't have had 20 beers on Mardi Gras, 15 on St. Pat's, and many more last week during the basketball games. I went to the doctor yesterday and GUESS WHAT...

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APRIL FOOL'S! Have a great day!

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Hey baby!

As I mentioned before, my friend Katie had her baby last week. Little Steven was able to come home on Sunday and Katie sent some pictures out. He is adorable and I can't wait to meet him next week!

Look at his dark hair! What a cutie?!?I love him already and can't wait to meet him. AND...I just found out another work friend is pregnant! Crazy!

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