Fall in the Ponder Home

Now that the official announcement has been made, there's so much to catch up on from the past few months.  My last real post came after our mission trip to Georgia.  Since then, I have started back to another year in the schools.  I still LOVE the district I work for and my campus.  (Technically I have two, but one is like home).  I have such amazing co-workers in my fellow SLPs and my campus staff.  I feel very blessed to be where I am. 

This school year, Josh and I have started teaching the juniors of our youth group on Sunday mornings.  We teach with another couple.  It's a big change going from 8th graders to 11th, but it's nice to be teaching with Josh since it's a co-ed class.  I enjoy getting to watch him serve the students and pour truth into their lives.  When we were in seperate classes, I only got to see him doing the social stuff with the students.  (He's going to be such a great Daddy!!!)

Life was pretty calm for the beginning of this semester.  I have to think God made it that way for a reason since I was feeling so crummy!  But the end of September brought a whirlwind of activity.  At the end of the month, we took a trip to Houston to see Blake's team play.  Unfortunately, bad weather delayed the game to that Sunday, and Josh and I weren't able to hang around.  However, we WERE able to watch Grayson play on Saturday, and that was absolutely worth the trip!

And since Blake's game was rained out, we got to go back to his hotel and actually spend time with him!

That weekend ended up being jam-packed! We woke up early Sunday morning to drive back to the Rock. We spent the afternoon in downtown Austin (a place we RARELY go), having a lot of fun. We went to Torchy's for lunch, saw Rock of Ages at the Long Center, and then had Gourdough's for dessert. It was a great start to our anniversary week. On our actual anniversary, we celebrated with a schmancy dinner at a steakhouse we hadn't been to before.

 

The next weekend we hopped on a plane to Denver. I'm not going to lie... I was pretty anxious about this flight! I tend to have a lot of stomach issues when flying on a normal ocassion, and here I was about to fly while pregnant. Praise the Lord, it all went well. I didn't throw up once on the plane! (That's more than I can say about most flights I take). Also, I got to go through the premier security line on both legs of the trip. That was a nice perk : ) We went to Denver to watch Blake play (for real this time) against Air Force and University of Denver. We spent most of Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs. It was GORGEOUS!!! They actually had fall! The leaves were orange and red and there was a nip in the air. While there, we went to Garden of the Gods (named very appropriately... everyone must see this place in their lifetime), the small town of Manitou Springs, and the Air Force Academy.  I just can't say enough how beautiful it was! Saturday night we drove back to Denver for his game on Sunday. We had dinner with the whole team that night and got more quality time with the bro. We didn't really do anything while in Denver. We couldn't find anything to do that wouldn't take a whole day or cause us to drive forever. But it was nice to merely spend a morning lounging in the hotel. After the game that afternoon, it was time to head back home. (Unfortunately, not before spending HOURS at the airport). 

 

This past weekend I got to help host a baby shower for my dear friend Mandy.  She's having a Christmas baby.  Again, I wasn't the photographer for this event, so I don't have pictures.  But it was a really cute shower.  The whole thing was themed for her "little pumpkin," so there were pumpkins everywhere!  This Wednesday at work, I threw another mini-shower for a co-worker.  She's due in November, but just found out she will be having her c-section Tuesday.  Therefore, it's a good thing we had her luncheon yesterday!  I LOVE baby showers.  I am rather excited to be on the receiving end of them soon : )

This weekend it's fall festival extravaganza!  One at school and one for church.  I love this season and the beginning of the holidays!

(TWELVE DAYS UNTIL GENDER!!!!)