what day is it?!

I totally started writing a thankful on a thursday post. I'm all thrown off because I went into the office this morning and I always go in on Thursday mornings. Tomorrow, the real Thursday, we have all sorts of doctor appointments so I had to change our usual routine for the week.

I'm having a strange (in a good way) day today. I was thinking about fruit trays, like at Costco and I really started craving some on my way to the church this morning. I get there and notice that someone has a plate of fruit and so I check the kitchen area. There's a note on the counter that there's a fruit tray in the fridge and to "help yourself". SCORE! Pineapple, honeydew, strawberry, grapes and mango. YUM!

There is nothing like satisfying a pregnancy craving. Last night I had a cheeseburger and a mini oreo blizzard from DQ. I had been craving soft-serve icecream for the past 8 weeks and hadn't indulged it until then. AWE-SOME.

Then I was sitting here entering giveaways for baby stuff that we won't be able to afford after all of the medical bills from Kai's surgery and my labor + delivery. I checked my facebook for the first time today and had a message from a friend asking me if I'm still looking for an ErgoBaby Carrier and if so, to text her. Interesting.

I've been wanting an ErgoBaby every since Kai outgrew other carriers at an early age. At 10 months he refused to let me put him in any type of carry in the woven wrap and no longer fit the weight limit on our front carrier (a cheap version of a BabyBjorn). When he was almost a year old we went camping and borrowed one of those aluminum framed backpack carriers. He liked it but Ben + I both wanted to die it hurt our backs so badly.

So I've been looking for a discounted ErgoBaby, they are rated up to 40lbs and you can carry baby in the front, on your hip, or on your back. I began to imagine us at the Farmer's Market with our cumbersome stroller that irritates all the locals and how nice an ErgoBaby would be for Malakai and his parents to navigate crowds such as these with ease. I did what any internet savvy mom would do, I asked my friends on facebook. They suggested BabySteals and Craigslist. I was really hoping someone out there would have one I could just borrow. They are hardly ever on BabySteals, but I've been checking it religiously every since and the one I found on Craigslist was already gone (plus CL just creeps me out).

Back to the email. I texted her back to say that yes, we were still looking for one. I was anticipating that she perhaps knew of someone who was selling one. She texted back "Got one for ya!!!" and I was immediately confused. I asked her if she knew someone who had one and how much we owed her. She replied "Ha! you owe nothing!"...which is when I started to cry. Oh hormones. But more than that, I am just so touched that someone would see our need and choose to bless us in such a big and unexpected way. She's even dropping it by on Friday, I can't wait to try it out!

What's an unexpected blessing you've received lately? How did you respond?

SO BLESSED,

29th

My golden birthday was the 29th of December and I've finally found some time to sit down and tell you  all about it!

On the 28th as we were going to bed I started to feel achey and had a bad case of the chills. I had a slight fever of 99.1 and felt pretty awful. I haven't had a fever for over 6 years! At 2am Malakai woke up with teething pain (no fever, thank goodness!) and my fever had jumped to 100.1 and Ben was at 99.5 degrees. I was sure we'd have to cancel all our plans for the next couple of days. We woke up late feeling achey but our fevers were gone and never came back.

Ben made us pancakes for my birthday breakfast. While he was cooking I decided to check my email and saw a tweet he had just sent linking to his blog. He had written this story for my birthday. It was very sweet and of course I teared up while reading it. Then he handed me our notebook that we write letters in back + forth (something we started while we were dating back in 2006!) he had written me a note for my birthday. I noticed that some of the letters were darker than others. He had hidden a message in it!

I figured it out quickly and the message revealed what our plans were for the afternoon. He was taking me to La Perla, a pizzeria we had always wanted to go to. It's run by the same owners of one of our favorite restaurants, Bepe & Gianni's. We got a bit of a late start, but at 1:30pm Ben's parents came to hang out while Malakai napped so we could go out.

We had a wonderful relaxed lunch. It was nice to get out just the two of us (it had been a while) and the food was awesome!

As we got in the car Ben told me to check my jacket pocket. In it was this clue...

and before I knew it we were off on a scavenger hunt! We went to the chapel at our alma mater where we first met. 

From there the next clue took us to Autzen Stadium, where we had gone to a football game on the day we found out we were expecting Malakai. 

Next was our first apartment together, which was my apartment that we lived in for a few short weeks before moving into a house.

 After that the clues took us to the starbucks drive thru where I had to use the internet to find out next clue, which took us back home.

All along the way the clues told me about my birthday gifts. One was an itunes download of my choice, another was some downtime while Ben de-clutters the house, and another Starbucks drink. The last gift was in our trunk and it was Chalk Ink markers for my chalkboard!

The whole day was very unexpected. I felt so special and was really proud of Ben for keeping it all from me for so long!