Peace Lily

Last Friday, Scott took the Jeep to get serviced since we were taking it on the trip the Athens for the football game. I went to pick it up for him and there’s a very nice older woman who does their billing and I always end up staying a while chatting with her. She lost her daughter several years ago in an accident and she talks about her a lot. She told me that her birthday is near mine and Thanksgiving and that this time of year is always hard. But, she said shortly after her daughters death someone gave her a peace lily and that she sat by it and prayed for a sign from God that her daughter was alright and with him. She said the next day, her peace lily bloomed and she knew it was her sign. It was a nice story and at the time I didn’t give it too much thought.

I have a peace lily on my desk that Mama Shell gave me in June of 2006 when I had my gall bladder removed. The last few weeks, I’ve been worried about it because it looked a little wilted. This morning, it looks great and there’s a single bloom on it. To my knowledge, it has only bloomed once since I’ve had it. I’ve been thinking and dreaming about Mama Shell a lot this week, with Georgia Lou getting closer to being here, our first Thanksgiving and my first birthday without her. I have to believe that it was a sign from Mama Shell that she knows I’m thinking of her and that she’s here in spirit. I’m upset a lot that Mama Shell died just two weeks before I found out I was pregnant and that I never got to tell her. So it means a lot to me to know that she knows anyway.

Lanx?

Just curious as to who you are?

Unveiling

It’s been such a long time since I blogged. Its not for a lack of material, its due to a lack of mental capacity to organize my thoughts into words. I was already scatter brained and this “pregnancy fog” is only making it worse. At lunch yesterday, some of my co-workers were discussing the unveiling of a statue that is coming up. Well, it reminded me of a good story that I’ve not blogged about before.

My senior year in high school, I was the VP of the Student Council. The rest of the seniors and I decided that we’d like to have a fund raiser and buy a plaque to say thank you to the two teachers that sponsored the Student Council. I helped in the fundraisers but the president handled the ordering of the marker. The plan was to place the marker at the trunk of a newly planted tree on school grounds. The stone would be partially buried with the engraved side facing up, obviously. So she was able to get a good deal on a piece of stone on which a mistake had been made. Since that side was going to be buried in the ground, it didn’t make any difference. The president didn’t bother to share this detail with me. We decided to unveil the marker at a pep rally in the gym in front of the entire student body before it was placed under the tree. The day of the rally, the President was out sick. So it became my job to pull back the sheet to reveal the marker. Well, I didn’t know that I was only supposed to reveal the FRONT of the marker so I yanked the sheet off the whole thing. A huge gasp in unison came from the senior section, which was on the backside of the marker. I was horrified to realize that a person’s name and birth and death date were engraved on the back! So embarrassing. I don’t even remember what I did at that point. In facet, I didn’t even remember it until yesterday when I told that story at lunch. I think maybe I must have blocked it.

GeorgiaLou.com

Just in case anyone is interested, I created a baby website for Georgia Lou to update as my pregnancy progresses. There is a bio, photos, family info and another blog. I plan to blog at least once a week to keep it up to date. I am hoping this will be something I can keep going for a long time and Georgia Lou will be able to look back on it one day and appreciate it. Enjoy!

Valley Takes Trash Seriously

Last night, Scott’s cousin Ambre, her husband and their son were over visiting and I was in the kitchen with them cooking dinner. Through the kitchen window, I see a vehicle I don’t recognize pull into the driveway and a man with a badge on his hip get out and head to the door. I step outside to see what he wants and the following conversation takes place.

Officer: I’m here to see David (Scott’s first name)
Me: (breathing a sigh of relief that he’s not there for me) He’s not home from work yet, can I help you?
Officer: I’m here about his trash bill. What do you know about that?
Me: Well, I don’t know anything about it.
Officer: Are you his wife?
Me: Yes, but very recently. In fact, I just moved in last week.
Officer: Well, his trash bill is VERY overdue.
Me: (sigh and say) How much does he owe?
Officer: $115. I’m actually here to write him a citation and fine from the city.
Me: And how do we go about taking care of that?
Officer: You’ll need to go to City Hall and pay the full amount
Me: Well, I can go do that right now
Officer: Well, if you can do that now, I won’t write this citation and you should be very thankful, the fine is like $500
Me: Well, I appreciate that and I’ll go drop a check in the drop box right now.

Can you believe that? First off, let me explain. About a year ago, I set up all of Scott’s bills online to be automatically drafted out of his account each month. The only bill that I was not able to do that with was, of course, the city trash bill. I told him this, but apparently he forgot. So for nearly a YEAR now, he has assumed that they were drafting it out and so he’s not been paying it. I’m not sure which I’m most shocked about… the fact that he’s gone so long without paying and they’ve still be picking up the trash, that the city fine is $500 or that they send the law out to your house to give you the citation! Either way, we had an eventful evening. And yes, I did go down there and drop off the check so hopefully the man with the badge will not have to return to the house!

Georgia Lou Yawning

A few weeks ago, Scott and I went to a place called Baby Waves in Columbus, Georgia for an ultrasound. My doctor's office doesn't do the diagnostic ultrasound where they determine sex until about 20 weeks and I'm just too impatient to wait until then, so we went there at 16 weeks. it was pretty incredible what you can see even that early on. Here is a tiny clip of little Georgia Lou yawning. Its pretty rough but hopefully you can see her little mouth opening and closing as she yawns.

Take a Guess!

We'll be finding out the sex of Baby Nolen on July 11th. So before we do, take a guess at what you think it will be, when it will be born!

Big News!

Hello blog friends! I've been rather busy with HUGE changes in my life lately, leaving not much room for blogging. Scott & I got married on June 1 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. You could probably say I'm the happiest woman on Earth at the current time. Why the sudden jump? We are expecting a BABY in December. While I am terrified, I am also thrilled at the same time. It's going to be a huge life changing experience, but I can only imagine it will make life better for the both of us. More interesting for sure.

I've already had my share of "Amy-isms" so far in this pregnancy and as soon as I have some down time to write about them all, I'll do just that. As for right now, we are working hard to finish some rennovations to his house so that we can get me moved in, while finishing rennovations to my house so we can get it on the market. Whew! There's so much too do in such little time. My goal is to be moved in with him by then end of August. For those of you who know us personally, will understand when I say that it all must be complete before the beginning of College Football season or NOTHING will get done on the weekends thereafter.

So for now, I'm enjoying being Mrs. Scott Nolen and counting down the days till I'm a Mommy. Wow?! 11 weeks down, 29 to go!

Baby Nolen

Mama Shell

As most of you know, my grandmother, "Mama Shell" passed away on Sunday, March 29th. She would have been 90-years-old on April 26th. I still don't think it has fully hit me yet, as I didn't see her one a day to day basis. But I know over the next coming months, the birthdays, holidays and other family functions will seem hollow without her. I appreciate all the support and kind words that I have received over the last few weeks and even months as she was in the hospital for quite some time before her death. It's never easy to lose a loved one, but having great friends and supportive co-workers makes it just a little bit easier.

The following is an excerpt from the program that I designed for her funeral service. I just wanted to share a little bit about her life and my family. Thanks for reading:

Sarah Frances Williams Shell was born in Butler County on April 26, 1919 where she later met the love of her life, Ralph Shell and married in May of 1938. She said the first time she saw him, he was working in a field, and he looked like a bronzed god. Of course, she was a blue-eyed beauty so they were a great pair. On their wedding day, Ralph was arrested for a traffic violation in the big city of Montgomery and his father-in-law had to bail him out of the city jail. They set up house keeping in a two-room tenant farmhouse across from Ralph’s parents. (They called it the goat house because they couldn’t keep the goats from trampling across the front porch and eating her flowers.)

During WWII, Sarah and two-year old Barbara followed Ralph to Charleston, SC where he worked in the Naval Shipyard and where their second daughter, Linda, was born. They returned to Montgomery after the war to a little house her dad had built for the family behind the “BIG” house. Then, the third child and only son, Ron (my dad), was born. He was the apple of the eye for father, grandfather and uncle.

Sarah worked at Montgomery Fair & Gayfers where she retired after almost 40 years. She was a talented and creative homemaker, wonderful cook and avid gardener. She loved to travel with camera in hand to visit family and friends. Gift giving was her trademark. She loved photography, and in her 80’s learned to “surf the web” and use email. She enjoyed many happy years at Morningview Baptist Church where she and Ralph worshiped. Her family was the joy of her life, and in return she was greatly loved by all of her children, grandchildren, extended family and many many friends.

April 26, 1919 - March 29, 2009

Grass

I cut my grass last night for the first time this year. It was already kind of dark, but there's a street light right in my front yard. I knew if I didn't do it right then that its supposed to rain for 3 days, then I'll be gone for the weekend and it'd be Monday before I could cut it. And I'm sure it would be out of control by then.

I said all that to say... I cut the grass in the dark. As I ran along the fence that separates my yard from the neighbors, I notice little pieces of white stuff flying everywhere. And then I remember, that when my new neighbor moved in, she spilled those little styrofoam packing peanuts all over her yard. I assumed she picked them up or they blew away. Wrong. They blew up against my fence amongst the leaves.

My yard looks like it has dandruff.

Baffled

As part of Scale Back Alabama, some of my co-workers and I have been dieting and exercising together. As a reward, on Fridays we eat somewhere other than in the cafeteria in our building. To be health conscience, today we walked to a restaurant I'd say about a dozen blocks or so away. We are walking through an area with some construction going on and we encountered something unexpected. A pair of underwear. A large pair. Of the tighty whitey variety. It was funny and unexpected as I watched all of my coworkers divert there walking paths to go around the pair of undies and looking down at them with a confused look on their faces.

This got me to thinking. How would this even happen? In the middle of downtown Montgomery, what scenario could end with someone’s tighty whities landing on the sidewalk? I didn’t see Tom Cruise or Dustin Hoffman driving by, so I don’t believe they were Rain Man’s underwear. Was someone carrying a spare pair in their briefcase? And why would you need to? And how would that be the ONLY article to escape? I’m baffled. Please, someone please, explain to me how this might have happened??

Pssstdddttt! Eeeeeennntttd!!

So last night was the first whole evening I have spent at home in several weeks. So I decided it was time to take down the Christmas tree and get the Christmas decorations out of my front yard (yes, I really it is well after New Years). The moose I bought for my front yard suffered a tragedy in a storm last week and was slumped over onto the ground as if it had been caught in a driveby. So, last night I was searching the yard for the pegs that had once held his feet to the ground. While I was searching, the UPS pulled to the curb in front of my house and I was excited because I was expecting a package. I walked to the end of the driveway to greet the UPS man and receive my package. He had some difficulty with the machine that scans the package so we stood there idly chit chatting for a moment, when I realized that I had left my front door open so that I could carry the moose inside. I notice a large fluffy Siamese cat creeping toward my front porch. I say aloud, “No kitty, don’t go in my house.” But the cat pays me no mind and continues toward the door. I take a few steps that way thinking surely the cat will not just walk into an unknown house. Wrong. I am running through the front yard yelling strange sounds like “Pssttddd!!! EEEEEnnnttt! Noooooooo!” trying to scare it away. The cat gets into the foyer, hears me stomping up behind it, leaps into the air, makes a u-turn then runs out the door between my legs.

Of course, the UPS man is laughing hysterically and says, “I’m assuming that is not your cat.”

“No, and I’m allergic,” I tell him. I think I made his day.