Dothan Baby Shower

I went to the doctor today for my 28 week appointment! I can't believe that I am 28 weeks! It has flown by. You can definitely tell that I am pregnant now, and it is coming on fast! It just won't stop!

The nursery is almost finished. Mom finished the curtains and they are hanging in the room now. When she came this weekend we worked on the bumperpads and finished those. So my next post will be pictures of the nursery! We are still waiting for the glider, which should be here within the next two weeks. Once that comes in, then I will hang all of the pictures on the walls... and really be done with the nursery! The hard part is finding places for all of the great stuff we have gotten from our showers. How can 1 person, who is not even here yet, accumulate so much stuff! I am so thankful for our friends that threw the shower for John Turner. It was so much fun and we racked up on great gifts for our precious little boy!

The Hostesses! 

Katie Pilcher, Rhoda Weber, Susanne Richardson, Me, 

Christina Hayes, Christen Price and Connie Ridley

Thanks for everything! 

The table setting! I loved the flowers! 

John Turner's first Blah Blah! Thanks Mrs. Smith! 

John Turner's first  smocked daygown! Thanks Mitizi! 

Sign for the hospital door! Thanks Kara! 

John Turner's Christmas stocking from Mom! 

"War Eagle Hey!" John John from Ms. Faye! That will be good for 

next football season! 

Monogrammed pillow for the crib from Mrs. Hardy! 

Christen, Me, and Susanne! It was so good to see you guys! 

Katie, Me, Emily, and Christina

Gifts from the shower

Blah Blah, Monitors, whale outfit (perfect for the beach), Binky, 

tool daygown, stocking, Christmas PJs, and swaddle blankets

More gifts! 

Peter Rabbit dishes, monogrammed basket, golf outfit, Auburn burp cloths, 

monogrammed burp cloths, and knit hat

Nap Nanny, changing table pad, monogrammed pillow, 

several daygowns, and blue and white polka dot onesie and matching bib

Thanks for a wonderful shower! I had a blast and John Turner got so many nice gifts! 

Pictures of the nursery coming soon! 

To Phoenix and Beyond - Part 3

Last week was a crazy week! I had full intentions of writing the last part of our Phoenix trip, but of course things don't always go as planned. I wanted to finish all of my thank you notes from my Birmingham shower before this weekend, because I had a shower in Dothan this weekend. I didn't want them to get built up. But on Wednesday I started not feeling well. By Thursday my left ear was killing me. So I called the ENT and he worked me in. Sure enough I have an ear infection. I haven't had one since college. I forgot how horrible they are and how they make you feel terrible! I am already praying that John Turner does not have my ears! 

On to Phoenix....
On my last post I ended by telling you that we had made it back to our room and got in the bed around 1:00am. Our flight was leaving Phoenix at 6:50am, so we decided to get up at 4:00am pack and head to the airport. Everything went as planned. We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We were surrounded by many excited but exhausted Auburn fans. The flight from Phoenix to Chicago was a long one. But since it was so early most people just slept in the plane. Flying to Chicago was part of our flight plan....

We landed on time in Chicago and I turned on my phone. Mom had texted me to say that the Atlanta airport was shut down, due to the bad weather - ice and snow. We immediately checked our flight schedule and all was well. Our flight was still bound from Atlanta. But what was weird was that all the other American Airlines flights we cancelled. We had a little time to kill so we ate lunch in the airport. Just as we sat down Mom texted me said that our flight had also been cancelled. Lovely!

As soon as we finished lunch, we got on the phone with American Airlines to book another flight home. There was one flight still available later on Tuesday night, but it was full, and there were already 45 people on standby. American suggested that we fly to New York City and then to Atlanta. Why would we do that? New York was getting 12 inches of snow the next day! Then they suggested that we fly to Houston and then to Atlanta. All we wanted to do was get home. The only direct flight that they could book us on to Atlanta was on Thursday afternoon. That meant we would have to spend 2 days in Chicago. That would be fine if #1 - the airlines paid for us a hotel room (a big negative), #2 - we had appropriate clothing. Remember we had just left Glendale with 65 degree weather. Kelsey didn't even have a jacket.

So we debated our options .... stay in Chicago until Thursday, fly around the US trying to make it Atlanta, or drive home. After debating for a while we decided we should drive. So we then began the hunt for a rental car. We called five rental car companies before finally finding a car with 4 Wheel drive. Guess what the only car available in Chicago was... a Ford Escape!

An hour later we were headed south. It was snowing hard in Chicago. We did a little sight seeing from our car windows...

Leaving the airport! Lots of snow everywhere! 

"Hello Mom. I am driving home from Chicago. See you in 12 hours!"

Garmin... a must have!  It says that we will be home/Atlanta (all most home)

 in 11 hours and 34 minutes! 

Sight seeing ... The White Sox stadium

We drove for about an hour. Then Gunter said, "I don't feel so good. Sorry guys we are going to have to pull over." No big deal. I have to go to the bathroom about every hour anyway, so I could always use stop. Little did we know what we would be stopping every thirty minutes from here on out. Gunter didn't feel any better after we stopped, instead things got worse. Kyle had taken over the driving, and that was a good thing because Gunter "got sick" shortly after that. Poor thing! It lasted all night! 

The only thing we can figure out is that it was food poisoning. We all ate at Chili's for lunch, but no one else got sick. Gunter did have a delicious smoothie before we left the airport. It must have had bad fruit or something in it. Good thing we had Kyle to drive! I don't think I would have been able to drive in that weather! It snowed the whole time! From Illinois to Georgia. The roads were icy in some parts too. In Kentucky we sat on Highway 65 for an hour and a half in stand still traffic. When we reached Louisville, we decided to stop for the night. We all needed a shower, and Gunter needed to get in the bed. 

On Wednesday we started out bright and early. We had about six hours left until we reached Atlanta, and then we had 3 more hours to Dothan. Our trip from Kentucky to Alabama wasn't as eventful as the day before. Gunter was still not feeling well, but not throwing up anymore. This was a very good thing! 

See Rock City? I wish that we had time! 

At least we had beautiful snowy scenery while we were driving

Finally at about 3pm, we made it the Atlanta airport. We had to go there to turn in our Escape and get our cars from the airport parking lot. Kyle and Kelsey were headed to Birmingham, then Kelsey had to head on to Auburn. Gunter and I headed to Dothan. We got home about 7pm that night. What a trip! 

Oh Escape! We will miss you! 

I think we put about 750 miles on the ole Escape. We all decided that we would do it all over again! Well, Gunter said he would if he didn't have food poisoning. At least he lost some weight! ha! ha!  Our trip was very memorable! And well worth it to be able to see our Auburn Tigers win the National Championship! War Eagle! Hooray for great family memories! The things we do for the ones we love! Wouldn't trade it for the world! 

To Phoenix and Beyond - Part 2

When I left off with my last post it was Saturday night. We were packing our bags and getting ready to catch our flight Sunday morning for Phoenix to watch our Auburn Tigers take on the Oregon Ducks. We were going "Duck Hunting!" for the first time in my life!

Kyle and Kelsey got an earlier flight out of Birmingham, while Gunter and I had to drive to Atlanta and catch a flight to Milwaukee then onto Phoenix. As you recall the weather was little sketchy at this point. The snow and ice was going to hit Sunday night. So Gunter and I were just praying that we could get out of town in time.

We were flying AirTran to Milwaukee and then United Airlines to Phoenix. (We used our frequent flyer miles for our trip, so we had some crazy routes.) We had a little bit of trouble with AirTran. They had previously mailed us our tickets. Well we didn't understand/know what we also had to check in at the front counter when we arrived at the airport. We weren't checking our luggage, so we didn't think that there was a need. Plus the right side of our ticket said "Boarding Pass." We go through security and arrive at the AirTran gate. They begin calling people to board by "zones." Well of course our ticket didn't have a "zone" printed on it. So I went to the front desk and asked when we could board. They didn't even have us on the flight, because we had not checked in! The flight was full! We had to wait until five minutes before take off to see if everyone showed up for the flight. Luckily, a few people did not show up, so we got their seats! Praise God! But we did have to check our luggage :( We were nervous that it wouldn't end up in Milwaukee, but it did.

We were hoping our "bad luck" was over by then.... but oh no! There was more to come! When we landed in Milwaukee we had to go get our luggage (which took forever). Then to be sure that we were doing the right thing, we went and checked in with United. The lady working at the desk for United was very confused about why AirTran hadn't torn off the top portion of our ticket. She sent us to their counter to talk to them and get "proof" that we were on their flight (Who cares! Just let us fly!). We waited for 45 minutes at AirTran and never talked to anyone who could help us. By this time I was getting really nervous that we were going to miss our flight to Phoenix. Finally the United lady came and found us and cleared everything up. It ended up that it was her fault and she had not read the tickets properly! So we raced back through security and to our gate with a few minutes to spare.

We landed in Phoenix at 8:00pm. We checked into our hotel, the Scottsdale Cottonwood Resort, ate a quick bite, and headed out for a night on the town in Downtown Scottsdale. Downtown Scottsdale was really pretty! Of course I didn't make it long, it had been a very tiring day!

Monday morning we woke up ready for game day! Mom and Dad had booked us transportation from the resort to Glendale where the game would be played. But we didn't have to leave until 1:45. So we shopped around our resort ate lunch and practiced our cheers!

This was outside of our "hacienda"/ hotel room. 

That is the Camelback Mountains behind us. 

It was beautiful! 

Kelsey painted the sign for us before we left! I thought that it deserved to be on TV. That was a pretty catchy saying! 

We took about a 45 to an hour bus ride from Scottsdale to Glendale. It was a beautiful drive. We got to see the ritzy  neighborhoods of Scottsdale, where many of the movie stars have homes. One fellow Auburn fan on our bus was an Auburn Experience teacher at the University (That is a class for Freshman to learn about the traditions of Auburn, basically an easy A). He told us the history of Auburn and answered questions from the Oregon fans. Then a guy for Oregon talked, but he didn't stand a chance against our Auburn Professor! 

A better view of the Camelback Mountains

Arizona was beautiful! I have never been to that state, but I loved it! 

If you look closely you can see houses built into the side of the mountain!

Cacti everywhere! I have never seen a cactus this big! 

On our way to Glendale! 

Approaching the stadium! It was huge!

We unloaded the bus and decided that we wanted to go to the Tiger Walk first. I was blown away by how many Auburn people were there! Definitely more Auburn fans than Oregon. 

At Tiger Walk, or should I say Tiger Drive-By. 

The players just came by in the their buses.

Oh well! We did lots of cheers and bonded with our fellow Alum. 

Since we had already walked half way around the stadium, we decided to walk the other half and check everything out. 

Look who I found! Elizabeth Wyatt! 

She had just gotten engaged the day before on a hot air ballon ride! 

Part of the package that Mom and Dad got us was a Pre-Game Tailgate Party. That was our next stop. It was all you could eat and drink! They had a band and games to play. 

We partied at the Auburn tent .... there wasn't even an Oregon tent! 

This is Kelsey and I in front of the Auburn ice sculpture! 

They had delicious food - shrimp, BBQ, potato salad, desserts... Yummy! 

The four of us at the Tailgating Party with our awesome sign! 

We are about to head in the game! 

Auburn players warming up! 

We were sitting in section 112 about 30 rows back. 

We had great seats! We were mixed with Auburn and Oregon fans.

The Oregon fans were really nice. 

Before the game started! 

We win! 

I can't even begin to describe to you the way I felt during the last minutes of the game. I think at one point I was almost hyperventilating! Mom texted me around that time and said "You better not go into labor!" But when we kicked that last field goal for the win I felt such a relief and so much pride at the same time. It is just an incredible experience to say that "I went to school at Auburn! I am proud of my school! We are the champions!"It was so great to hear Auburn recognize God and attribute their strengths and abilities to Him! 

Gunter and I kept saying over and over, "I can't believe that I am here! I can't believe that we won!" A big thanks to my mom and dad who sent us! If Auburn ever gets the chance to go to the BCS again, I will not miss it! It was such a wonderful experience! 

The four of us after the win! 

Cheering on my Auburn Tigers! 

So excited at this point! I'm still in shock! 

Outside the stadium! 

We boarded the bus and drove back to Scottsdale. We didn't get to the hotel room until about 1am. Our flight left at 6:50am, which meant that we needed to head towards the airport around 4:30am. On the way to the airport, Gunter said, "I sure hope this flight isn't as bad as our flight out here." Little did we know what laid ahead....

Our adventure home will be in my third post. Let me just say that it involves snow, a Ford Escape, and the throw up virus. 

Phoenix and Beyond - Part 1

Mom came up with the title of this blog. There really could be many, many titles ..... "Road Trip Across America," "The Never Ending Story", "Memories to Last Forever," "Get Me Out of This Car!" They all would be good.

Let me just tell you that last week was very, very memorable - Auburn winning the BCS National Championship, my first baby shower, family bonding time. You will hear about all of it, although it is too much for one post, so I am splitting it up.

The first leg of our Phoenix and Beyond trip began last Friday (1-7). Gunter and I traveled to Birmingham. My first baby shower for John Turner was Saturday morning! My shower was at the Peterson's home, which is notorious for hosting various showers. They have the best layout of their home, we decided. And Mrs. Peterson is so generous and always willing to allow hundreds of people in her home. Bringing back memories of our high school Baccalaureate reception at their house. They hosted the whole senior class and their families. But that is another story.

My shower was a great time of fellowship with friends and family that I haven't seen in forever. Not to mention that we were showered with amazing gifts for John Turner. We began the shower with a precious prayer for John Turner and our family. So sweet. Then let the party begin!

Some of the lovely hostesses! 

Becky Parham, Bonnie Herenu, Sue Ann Jennings, Abby Murray, Abby Perlis, Me,

Brenda Hembree, Mom, Janice Peterson, Leta McGehee, Emily Sooter and DJ Sanders

The hostess were so thoughtful and made my first shower very memorable. 

Mom, MeMe, Me and Kelsey

Nan Nan, Mrs. Price, Me and Christen

The Pregnant Girls! 

Abby Perlis - due in February, I am due in April, and Abby Murray - due any day! 

Opening an adorable bunny from Mrs. Janie

Bumbo Seat! 

Giraffe chew toy from Laura Gaines

We got so many great gifts! Our BOB stroller, car seat and an extra base, Peter Rabbit dishes, several books, and many adorable clothes! 

Some of our adorable clothes for John Turner  and the silver fork and spoon! 

I love everything! 

Some of the sweet blankets, towels, wash rags, and bibs John Turner got! 

Other fun gifts from the shower! 

Friends at the shower

Lisa Lee, Katie Lucas, Leigh Koffler, Me and Anna Scharf

Hannah made the trek from Winston-Salem! 

It meant so much to me to have her there! 

I loved getting everything home and looking over it again! Now all we need is John Turner!

Now it was time to get ready for Glendale! But that will be the Phoenix and Beyond - Part 2. Here is a little sneak peak of our very memorable, very adventurous, and worth while trip to the National Championship! 

Can't forget to pack these! 

War Cam Eagle!