the new routine

While getting a regular check up over a month ago, the doctor found that there were signs of potential preterm labor in my future. Therefore, she instituted this statement to me " Take it easy. You can run one errand after work and then go home." All this said as I'm walking out of the office. So, I took it for what it was. I only ran one errand after work and went home, but still continued with my activities at night (in or out of the house).

Apparently that was the wrong thing to do! (Grant tried to convince me otherwise throughout the these 2 weeks and I wouldn't listen). So at the next appointment, my doctor filled me in on the reality and Grant was there to remind me that "he told me so" as she proceeded to tell me EXACTLY everything he said in the last 2 weeks. He enjoyed that moment way too much!

So, here's the deal. For now, I am still at work. I have drastically modified my schedule to eliminate walking all over the hospital to see patients and been spared the patients who require more physical assistance. I love my co-workers for being so patient and willing to accommodate! After work, I can go one place only. If I have a doctor's appointment, that's my one thing. And whatever it is, it must be an activity that limits me being on my feet.

But here's the kicker- I can do only one thing on the weekends. When I had the church shower, I had to choose between that and church. One thing, means one thing. Yuck!

That has made life at our house a little interesting. I have not cooked, washed the dishes, cleaned or exercised. Instead, my sweet husband has taken over most of these responsibilities while my Mom has cleaned the house a couple times. I cannot thank them enough! While you might think it's nice to be waited on and told you "must rest", its enough to about drive you insane. Especially when there are so many things to accomplish before this little girl enters the world!

I am now 34 weeks pregnant (its taken me 2 weeks to get back to this post I started awhile ago) and only 2 weeks left until I will possibly get the clear for more freedom. So, since I started this post almost 2 weeks ago, I've been feeling better and have allowed myself a little more freedom. (Shhh... don't tell).

During this extra time of being at home, I discovered a pretty fun and easy project I'd like to share with you. When thinking of what I would get 13 lovely ladies who hosted my church shower a couple weeks ago, I really wanted to make something instead of purchasing. Unfortunately, I do not sew (yet!) or have any other crafty talents, other than good penmanship (so I've been told). But when I saw this tutorial for making soy candles, I thought for sure I could do this. It proved to be just as easy as it looked. Here's the final product (sorry, I'm horrible about "in the process" shots).

pretty cute, right?!

What I used:
- set of Ball canning jars
-scraps of fabric on hand
-twine on hand
-small tags
-watercolors on hand
-small pieces of wood on hand (to hold wick in place)

I bought all the candle-making supplies + tags at Hobby Lobby (on sale!) and the essential oil from Whole Foods. Everything else I had on hand at the house. If I had more time, I think I would have shopped on Etsy for other essential oils as the tutorial suggested, but I do love Lemongrass. It reminds of my favorite candle that Target sells.

Possible changes for next time:
I think I'd put more drops of the essential oil in the melted wax, as the candle seems to do better in smaller, confined areas for maximum benefit. :) And I'd improve my water color skills!

There are so many different containers you could use and endless fragrance options. I would love to find a really nice fall scent and go to town with that!

I think they make great gifts!

Thanks, Pinterest. I'm officially obsessed.

Overload

A lot of things have happened since I last posted and there's no way I plan to tell you about them all right now. But two very fun and memorable things took place within the last 3 months, for myself and my dear friend, Leslie.

We celebrated Leslie and her bebe Juliette (due any day now, we hope!) in June at my house with so many wonderful women and dear friends from our church. I won't go into great detail because Leslie has already documented this event very well. But here a few snapshots of the party.

(had to sneak in one of my favorite flowers)

We had such a great time celebrating Leslie and her future Juliette :)

See Leslie's post for more details on tutorials for a few of the handmade pretties above.

Before I move on, I must say that I've forgotten one other really important event that occurred in between these two: We chose a name for our little girl!

Elliot Grace Burke

There you have it. We love it. And yes, we will call her Elliot.
(I've had too many ask if we would call her Ellie. Although, we can't control what her future friends might call her)

And just last week we celebrated Elliot's future arrival with some of the very same women from our church. It was just perfect. Since most of the photos I have involve me, I won't be documenting much from this day because as you can imagine, I don't particularly enjoy looking at photos of me right now. But I am so thankful to all the women who helped make everything beautiful and for Leslie and Martha's mom, Pam for hosting in her gorgeous home!

Look at the cute banner that Martha made

I just loved this flower arrangement

I ate way too much of these delicious treats. Everything was so good!
We feel very blessed to have so much love from our church family and friends. Such a fun day!

And for those of you who have asked, here's the one and only posed belly shot that exists throughout the last 8 months.
I hope I won't be too sad I don't have more. Oh well!

Celebrating my birthday with Grant several weeks ago (about 28 weeks)

Next time I'll tell you about the fun project I did to thank the hostesses at my shower. I promise, it won't take me 3 months to do so.

For the past 4 months, I would say that most of my thoughts have been consumed by our baby. Boy/girl, names, daycare, how long I will feel like crap (thankfully, better now!), the overwhelming thought of being responsible for a tiny human and so on.

But today, I cannot stop thinking about my other love.

This team. This crazy guy. And how insane this Saturday night will be in the FedEx Forum.

In fact, I even shed a tear on the way to work this week when I saw a logo displayed with the playoff slogan "we believe". And all I could think about was the collective joy that will be heard in the Forum tomorrow, how hard this team has worked to get to this point and how long some of these players (and fans!) have waited for this moment.

And then it happened. I began to cry. Yes, thank you hormones. And Grant said "please don't embarrass me Saturday." Because let's face it, there's a real good chance my hormones will kick in tomorrow night around 6:30. But I don't care. I love this team like crazy.

Go Griz.

Italy, part II

Time to finish this trip with pictures!

We spent our one full day in Cinque Terre meandering around the 5 towns by train instead of hiking, due to the rain. And we spent a lot of time admiring these lovely doors. Definitely a staple in all towns. Here are a few of my favs.

We sported this all day

and had fun taking pictures. I mean, there's only so much shopping and sightseeing in the rain you can do, right?! :)

The unbearable and endless cigarette smoke led me to this on multiple occasions.

I could sit on the beach for hours with this view

We trained to Florence from here and spent our remaining time there before coming home. It was probably the best leg of the trip, for sure.

We spent the first day hiking to the overlook of the city at Piazza de Michelangelo and just enjoying the city. It was perfect.

And then we took a short train to San Gimignano the next day, which is another one of my favorite towns. So many cute shops, places to eat, and of course, delicious gelato. maybe the very best Ive had yet. It has such a quaint feel to it and it was practically empty while we were there.




One of our most fun days was spent with our friends, Ryan and Laura who are currently living in Florence, spending their time serving others and serving God. And they are really doing some amazing things with people there! They were so kind to take us around for a special tour one day and it was so much fun. Even in the rain!

We were able to see parts of Florence that I don't remember seeing while studying there, a really cute stationary store and some great gelato! They also introduced us to one of their artisan friends and I have worn the bracelet I bought from him almost everyday.

Then we ate at an American restaurant that took US dollars and it was perfect. This pregnant girl was tired of Italian food and chowed down on a nice American cheeseburger!

Grant and I had no idea before we planned the trip that Italy would be celebrating its 150th year of unification the night we were with the Stephens, but so glad we were a part of it! All the buildings were lit with the Italian flag colors (red, green and white) and it was so pretty.

This is where we kicked ourselves for not having our camera. It was raining and Grant was tired of lugging it around before we started the adventure and we just didn't think we needed it. But check out Laura's post for more pictures from the celebration!

We ended the night on the roof of our hotel waiting for the fireworks that we were told would start at 1130pm, but really started an hour after. The Stephens waited as long as they could to see them before having to catch a bus home. And unfortunately, this is the best shot we got. The smoke was just too much. But the view is incredible!



I was sad to leave this time. I knew this was probably the last time I'd be visiting this beautiful place. Unless I take a 7 month old to meet Grant next summer. Ha. We shall see!

round 2 and +1

Well, we've certainly been busy over here at the Burke house. Our trip to Dallas a few weeks ago was the kick off of our traveling adventures. But really before then, we kicked off January with some great news that many of you already know by now. We are adding 1 to the Burke family in early October. And we couldn't be happier!

Part of the reason for my blog absence has been because I have just felt horrible the past 12 weeks, but I am finally starting to feel better. And I will say, I felt my absolute best while in Italy. But that all changed when I got home for some reason. Weird.

Anyway, we headed back to Italy this year because Grant is planning to take a group of upcoming seniors at MUS to France/Italy next summer and we needed to get the scoop for Grant's lessons/places to teach, etc, etc. We were thankful to go, especially since we've got a little one on the way now. :)

So, here's the recap in pictures. Not as good as last time, thanks to the weather. But it definitely didn't stop us from having fun!

First stop: Rome for a day (we couldn't help it. we love this place)

spanish steps

Trevi

We took a train to Cinque Terre the next morning where we planned to do lots of hiking. (The weather had something else in mind for us, though). Cinque Terre consists of 5 towns all accessible by a train or a hiking trail along the coast. It's one the most beautiful places in the world, even when it rains!

view from our room. about the clearest day we had!

You can begin hikes at the first town and hike your way to the last. We started at the first on the Via dell 'Amore (our only "hike" we got to accomplish and also known as "the lovers walk"). It was less than 20 min and all level ground. We made it to the next town just before the rain set in!

Couples are known to pledge their love for each other here and symbolize it with the addition of a pad lock. And probably a kiss, too. We just took a picture of ourselves, not kissing. but in love, no doubt. :)


We didn't end the trip here, but I'm going to have to end this post because its taking me like 5 min to load each picture. And I'm tired.

So next time I'll tell you about the rest of our trip in Cinque Terre and the lovely, Florence!

recent tradition

We've been blessed for the past 3 years to have an opportunity to travel with/without the Grizzlies to see an away game for almost free of charge. And I'm wondering if our luck has finally run out! I guess we'll find out next year :)

Our first year we traveled with the team to D.C. courtesy of our good friends who essentially gave us their trip. Last year, these same friends helped us win a contest at the Forum and we traveled to Orlando where we extended the trip for a couple days to enjoy Disney World with free tickets from another friend. Thanks to our great friends again this year, we traveled to Dallas with them on their plane and our other friend kindly gave us his tickets again. I told Grant at the game this year that I think our good fortune might have come to an end but I would love to be able to carry this tradition on if at all possible.

People that know us well understand our love for the Grizzlies and there's just nothing better than sitting in an opponents arena and cheering loudly for our Grizzlies. We (well, mainly I) usually make enough noise to warrant looks. And I love it. Especially when we win.

And if you didn't already know, I don't particularly enjoy flying, so this year's trip was a big deal for me. We flew on our friend's plane which holds around 6 people. And this is what everyone pretty much made me do as we landed in Dallas. I'll say, it did help ease my nerves for some reason.

yep, im playing c0-pilot.

before the game. grant wouldn't let me document me tearing up their dumb "go mavs" sign left in each seat.

After our big win! There's a handful of NBA teams on my hit list and the Mavs are near the top. To be there for this win was incredible!

We only wish we had video of the last 3 seconds of the game. Grant more than me though, as I would have been quite embarrassed with my celebration dance/screaming.

But here's a video for those of you who don't follow this team. You can imagine what Grant and I were doing after Zbo made this amazing shot.

We're hoping we get to do this again next year! But first, I'd like to make the playoffs, please.

Sweet Memories

At times, it's hard to believe that its been 5 years since my Dad left this earth but some days it feels like eternity. The 3rd of January will always be a difficult date for me because I will always think about that cold Tuesday morning in 2006. But every year since his passing, I promised myself I would not let this day be sad, but choose to remember all the great things about him, the wonderful life he led here on earth and how incredibly thankful I am for all the memories I have of us. Especially our wedding. Thank you, Lord for this.

I always think about this lovely lady this time of year, too. So very special.

We can all think of something we admire about our parents, I'm sure. And one of the things I respected most about Dad was his selfless nature. Oh, how I want to be like that. Mom and I would often "get onto him" about doing so much for others and not taking time for himself. But I've realized over the past few years what a pure joy it was for him to be with others, help others and show them Christ. I think this will be the thing I carry with me the most- his love for God and the life he lived for Him. His love for Christ and desire to serve Him was always evident to me and those around him. And I hope that one day, my future child or anyone for that matter, will be able to say the same thing about me.

I smiled when I remembered these things today.

- Dad picking me up from elementary school and both of us singing along to Roy Orbison, 50's/60's tunes and the Harding Academy/University A capella Chorus, that I vowed to be a member of one day. (And those 6 years I sang in the chorus might have been Dad's proudest :). That man loved to sing!
- Winning the Father-Daughter Bowling league and all the many pro-lessons he gave me for years. (yeah, I had my own ball (sparkles of course), gloves, bag and shoes).
- Being present for Monday Night Raw at the Pyramid, front row. Yep, I looooved wrestling in elementary school. what in the world. true love, dad!
- All the road trips we took/nights in the hotels with Dad's awful snoring! Mom and I used to always make of fun of him for that. In a sweet way.
- Snuggling up with him in the recliner and listening to Bible stories as a young girl.
- All the sweet letters of encouragement and advice he sent me at college
- Our last Christmas together
- And the day before he met with the Lord, the hug and kiss I got to give him as he wished me a good first day in graduate school. That moment is ingrained in my mind. And I love to think of it. Often.

Love you and miss you, Dad!

{Emily Smith's wedding 2004}