I have off this week! No work! What a blessing! I have so needed some rest!

I caught a dreadful stomach virus this past Sunday evening... ick. And spent all day yesterday in bed. I read 1 1/2 books. Even though it was frustrating... I am thankful for the rest!

This weekend is full with my BFF Lee's wedding celebrations, and I am so excited! I finally found a dress today to wear to the wedding and I am so relieved!

Tomorrow is my brother Riley's 2nd birthday. Can you believe it!? He's getting so big!! Watching him open his presents Christmas was really fun. He didn't quite understand... but he was so excited to get new toys. He hardly knew what to do with himself!

Our Christmas was good. Fairly quiet. It was nice! It's strange to think that next Christmas we will have a little Dodds to share it with. My oh my.

That's all the randomness I can come up with for now. Someday I might post a picture of my "clothed" pregnant belly... maybe.

Love you all!

Good Morning Sweet Friends!

I hope you are all doing well this morning and not too stressed while making your last minute preparations for Christmas!

I must confess that as much as I love Christmas, I have been a bit of a scrooge this year. Most of it is probably because of morning sickness and sheer exhaustion. Maybe next year I'll be back to my old Christmas loving self. I did have some hot chocolate last night... and it made me feel a little more cozy and Christmasy. Speaking of pregnancy things. I'm 14 weeks now and feeling MUCH MUCH better. Starting to feel like a normal human being again, which is a big step. Thanks for asking. :)

This is sad, but I have no idea what our Christmas plans are yet this year with my family. I guess I should find that out today. I really want to make some homemade rolls or something for Christmas dinner in my bread maker. YUM. Most of the fam is serving at our church's Christmas Eve service, so I assume that we'll celebrate on Christmas day.

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL and COZY Christmas. Enjoy your families. We love you all and are so glad we're friends!!

The Wonder of...

Duct Tape.

All I have to say is that Tyler had to duct tape my car windows shut this morning. It's a long story, but I now have the most ghetto fabulous car in town. Maybe the Permian Basin. I really should win a prize. However, I stayed warm in the 20 degree weather. I don't mind having duct taped windows... as long as my heater works. I laughed half way to work. I think it's hilarious. I am very thankful for a reliable, free, working car to drive to and from work. Such a blessing. Do you remember the story of this car from last January??

I wore maternity jeans for the first time on Saturday. It was heavenly. I can still button my other jeans thank you very much... they are just entirely too uncomfortable. Mom was gracious to get me a pair for my birthday...

Which by the way is this Friday. I'll be 24. I think I feel like an adult now. More so than when I turned 23.

Mom and I went shopping this past Friday for the mentioned jeans... and stopped by the thrift store. I finally got a bread maker y'all. My gracious mother was also responsible for this gift. I was so excited. I have wanted one for forever, because I know that I'll actually use mine. Or at least that's the plan. I was going to register for one before we got married... BUT I refrained for I hardly knew how to crack an egg and scramble it at the time... much less MAKE BREAD. HA. But now... I can't WAIT to buy the supplies and have it humming away in my kitchen. Delightful! My 20-30 pregnancy pounds might come quickly.

We have a VERY busy week ahead. Is there any such thing as "slowing down" to enjoy the Holidays? I imagine that everyone is just as busy as we are. Tonight is our only free night. I'm going to make chili and jalapeno cornbread for supper... and yes... I imagine that it will be very yummy!! Its about 25 degrees outside right now. And I wish I was still cuddled under the covers. Tomorrow, we are caroling at a nursing home. Wednesday is Pursuit (our 18-24 group at church), Thursday, Tyler and I are singing at a restaurant (Southern Velle). It actually will be really fun. The owners of the restaurant are believers and members of a church that are doing a really neat thing this season for several low income families in town. So in support of their amazing ministry and hopefully to help raise some funds... Ty and I are going to sing our hearts out! If you live in town, you should come!! We'll be there from 7-9PM. They have really amazing food! Friday, as previously stated, is my birthday... so we'll be celebrating. I love birthdays!! Saturday is something... I just can't remember what! And Sunday is well... Sunday.

So I know that you were all so excited to hear about our schedule this week. Thrilling I know.

This past Saturday night, Tyler and I went to "Imagine Christmas" at our church. It was really good. There was a part in the production where several children come out on stage in these adorable outfits and start quoting scripture. Tyler and I both teared up and cried. And what was hilarious to us, was that it was not meant to be a sad or moving at all. I'm glad we were sitting towards the back. Hormones? I heard that might happen :). I have the best husband EVER. He's so sweet to me. I mean seriously. I might cry right now. I'm tearing up!!

Well that's all for now. I hope you are all having a wonderful time getting ready for Christmas. Such a fun time of year. It will be over all too soon!!

Love you all!

Fiction Family...

UPDATE:  It stopped raining and now its SNOWING!!  That's right!!  I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself.  It's not sticking, but that's alright... It's just so lovely!

We are home.  Doing great!  Making my grocery list and doing laundry.  It's rainy and cold.  

I had to tell you all about something... Especially you Amber B (You are such a big fan of one of these guys that you probably already know... but just in case...)!!  You have to know about the new band Fiction Family.  Two of my FAVORITE singers have teamed up to make the new band.  Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek.  Tyler just told me about them, and I am SO excited.  Nickel Creek is one of my all time favorites, and I was so sad when I found out they were "breaking up" to each pursue their own individual careers.  Tyler and I went to a concert during their farewell tour.  It was amazing, and I just could not understand why they would ever call it quits.  I've been a tad bitter about it ever since the concert.  Until today.  Two of my favorites and the undoubtedly two of the most talented in the industry teaming up together!!??  Can it be!?  YES!

Just wanted to share the good news! :)

I'll write more later!! 

Love you all!!

Comfort and JOY!

Hello All...

I've missed you like crazy!  

Our Thanksgiving break in North Carolina was such a blessing.  We arrived home last night around 10pm and headed straight to bed.  A few fun and exciting things happened on our trip.  I will list them for the sake of my time, and yours!

-We flew out of Dallas, so last Wednesday we drove to Dallas and spent the afternoon/evening with our BFF's the Browns.  We miss them so much!  AGH.  Natalie made us supper, and it was amazing!  About 9pm we decided to leave... we were staying at a hotel in DFW since our plane left at the crack of dawn.  As we were saying our goodbyes... I looked at Tyler with horror on my face and asked if he remembered to bring his passport (He lost his driver's license... and had no photo ID to let him on the plane).  He said that he forgot... so we came back into Trent and Natalie's living room to think of a plan.  Trent and Nat know us better than most, (it was an event with them when Tyler forgot all of his guitars... and he was going for the sole purpose of playing the guitar.  HAHAHA), so we laughed, because this is a typical occurrence with Tyler and me... but the amazing thing is... despite our forgetfulness, and irresponsibility the Lord is always faithful!  SO... our friend Chris got into our house, and found Ty's passport and scanned it and emailed it to us.  We hoped and prayed that a copy would be enough to get Tyler through security.  Prayed and prayed.  We got to the airport the next morning... and the Lord showed us favor!  The TSA people said that they could not take a copy of a photo ID, but for some reason... they did anyway, and let us through!!!  Praise the LORD!!  I giggled all the way to our gate, because I just thought it was hilarious!  

-Tyler got glasses.  He's no longer blind... and he looks really good.  I like them a lot!  

-Did some shopping and got 3 really cute sweaters that are baby bump friendly for my birthday... which isn't until Dec. 19th... but I was excited!  

-Ate and ate and ate.  Cathy is an amazing cook.  

-Kept my pj's on at all times, unless we were going out in public. 

-Stopped feeling so nauseous!!  PTL!  And started drinking a bit of coffee again!  11 wks!! I'm starting to get my energy back!

-Yesterday we got to watch Air Force One take off from the Greensboro, NC airport.  I was thrilled, and thought it was so neat.  It's a HUGE plane!!  

-My mom overnighted the passport to us in NC so that Ty could easily get through security... so no problems yesterday!  

Well... I better let you go.  I have such a busy day!  We leave tomorrow for an event in Mississippi!!  We get to see Phillip and Shelley and are SOO excited!!  I need to do some laundry... repack... pay some bills... go get a massage :)... and tons of other things before Pursuit (the 18-25 service that Tyler leads on Wednesdays) tonight!!  

Love you all!!  Let's chat again next week, when I return home!