Another pretty spot right around the corner that Lauren and I frequent.
Both today and yesterday’s photo were taken just last weekend – and to think they said winter here was unbearable.

The first one I will title, “Inside the Apartment, Outside The Apartment”

Inside the Apartment
After having a late start to my day, it was around 11 am. I was waiting for the shower to warm up, so the water was running. I also had my portable iPod stereo going. Then I heard a weird yipping sound and thought at first that the iPod was skipping or something. After pausing the song, I realized, no, no, it was Remy going insane with barking. Which meant, most likely, that someone had knocked on the door. Still wearing my P.J.’s, I hurried over to the door and saw a FedEx lady standing outside. Earlier that day, I had moved our bag of recyclables next to the door so I would remember to take it to the disposal room. The bag had slid down and most of the contents were all over the entrance. As I opened the door–with Remy still barking and completely freaking out, but convinced he was heroically saving my life–I had to use the door to push about 20 Coke cans out of the way. Apologizing to the lady, I signed for Josh’s iLife ’09. “It’s okay, they sound like energetic little guys,” she said. “Oh yeah, it’s just one really freaked one,” I replied with a little shame. (That’s a first–barking in such a way that sounded like TWO dogs.) Thanking her, I closed the door.

Outside the Apartment
After knocking, a FedEx lady had to wait several moments and listen to a couple of dogs’ crazy, high pitched yips. Obviously, on edge and probably stressed or underfed. Finally, the door started to open. Although it was past 11 in the morning, a woman still in her pajamas had to move what sounded like 2 dozen empty cans. She must have just woken up from last night’s party and hadn’t had a chance to clean yet.

—

“The Teague Males Talk in Their Sleep”
So Remy, as many dogs do, makes little sounds in his sleep sometimes. Almost like a chirping. Last night/this morning around 1 am, he started doing it. Josh got out of the bed and said, “Remy, Remy, it’s okay, come on in, buddy,”  and opened the door. Remy was staying put in the living room, but Josh seemed to think he was already in the room and continued to comfort him. “It’s okay, that’s a good boy,” Josh said as he got back in bed. 

“Josh, he’s fine,” I assured him.

“He was barking,” was Josh’s answer.

“No, he was just doing that thing where he makes sounds in his sleep, but he’s fine.”

After getting no answer, I suspected Josh had never really been awake. This theory was confirmed. Josh has no memory of the event.

Which means, I do believe, that man and man’s best friend were in a simultaneous state of semiconsciousness.  I may be the only one, but I find that to be an impressive bond.

Here’s some of our good friends we visited while in Atlanta for Christmas. We’ll see who’s sitting next to Mike tomorrow!

Getting to come for a 3 week long visit back to Atlanta was such a blessing. We got to visit and catch up with so many of our great friends and really spend some much missed time with family. Now that we’ve been back in town awhile, here are just a few of the fun memories and stories from the trip that I want to write down before I forget. Or things get a little crazier around here…(just about 40 days to go! Eeek!) Most of the memories involve the nieces and nephews. Sorry, adults. =)

(In case you’re not familiar with the nieces/nephews ages, I’ll include those. Just like People magazine and Entertainment Weekly does.)

~Caroline (2) being the first one to see me when I  arrived from the airport and hearing her  excited  yell of “Lala!!” and having her run to give me a big hug.

~Mary Ellen (4) asked her mom if she could have a sip of the Coke in her mom’s glass. Katie said she could, but also reminded Mary Ellen that since they were on a vacation at Gran’s house, they were having lots of fun treats. But back home, they would be back to the usual. Mary Ellen cheerfully raised her glass and said, “But since we’re here, we drink Coke!” before taking a nice long sip.

~Silas (3) hopped off his two wheeler bike after riding it for the first time BY HIMSELF without training wheels and cried, “I don’t know how I did that!  How did I do that, Daddy?”                (This story comes from Uncle Josh; I hope I told it accurately.)

~Sydney (6) and I were going to watch a video upstairs. She told me to sit in the reclining chair and even popped out the reclining foot rest for me because, as she said, “growing a baby is hard work.”

~ Seeing Josh hold his brand new nieces, Laney and Faith (both about a month old.) I couldn’t watch him hold either one for too long because it made me tear up. Especially if he was calmly and confidently getting them to stop crying. 

~ Meeting up with the Techies/designers friends at Doc Chey’s and feeling just as comfortable with them as we did before the move.

~Driving with Mom to go pick up Meg (5) from preschool a few times. Seeing her cheerful dance/skip/walk to the car and then listening to her happy chatter the whole way to Mom’s/Gran’s house.

~Going to Maggiano’s for a Teague family dinner. A highlight of that evening was watching Luke (5) pass out the stack of appetizer plates to everyone and responding with a shy smile every time one of us said, “thank you, Luke!”

~Game nights with the Petrellas/Robinsons. Even if Josh and I didn’t do so well on Scategories. 

~New Year’s Eve with some good friends. Again, being able to hang out with them, laugh, and feel like no time has passed and those connections haven’t been lost since the last time we were all together. (We have awesome friends!)

~I was told to wait upstairs while “some details were worked out” downstairs. I could hear Amy on the phone, but that was all. After I got the all clear to come downstairs, Mary Ellen announced, “Aunt Lala, you’re getting a cake!” 

Which brings me to…

~Our beautiful, amazing baby shower put on by the ladies in the family!! Seeing the guests gawk at Mandy’s gorgeous house as they walked in. And the diaper cake created by Amy and Annie. And the edible cake from the best bakery in town! (Sugar Cakes.) And just the fact that so many ladies took the time to come and be so supportive and excited about our baby. Even if they won’t get to meet him/her for awhile.

And those are just a few of the things I’ll remember from our trip back home. We are so grateful for our family and friends and so glad we were able to visit with so many of you. If we didn’t get to see  you this time, you’re on our list for our visit in the spring/summer!

Will we be the ones to break the trend?

Doesn’t the guest bed look so comfy? After buying bits and pieces of it for the last few months- a frame here, some sheets there, things called bed slats that we didn’t even know we needed- it’s finally ready and waiting. Particularly for you grandparents. (I would say soon-to-be, but you already are. But soon-to-be grandparents of a Seattle baby.) And now a room that I always avoided because it was a collecting ground for Goodwill items is one of my new favorite places to be. We’ll show more pictures once the crib comes in.

In other preparations for Baby Teague’s arrival: thanks to the incredible generosity of family and friends, we have a stroller, car seat, bath tub, and jogging stroller (amongst other wonderful things). But those are the things that had some assembly required. Well, consider them assembled. Yay for Josh! I was quite impressed. He put all those things together in one night.

As for other gifts we’ve been blessed with, blankets and outfits are washed and folded. Toys have been opened and put in their very own toy bin. (The first of many, we’re guessing.) We’re slowly but surely getting things ready for Baby. Of course, we still have about 2 months left. It’s just so fun to get things ready, what can I say?

As for baby updates, our little one has some thing in common with his/her cousins, especially Silas, Caroline, and Mary Ellen- he/she loves doing gymnastics. I’ve never noticed pregnant women flinch or shift around as a result of these gymnastic moves. So I feel like if I flinch, I look like a total wimp. So out in public, I muster up a blink or sniff or something you wouldn’t even detect. So I can be as graceful as all the other preggers. But at home, I jump up or switch positions, or do something I’ve learned pregnant women shouldn’t do- say “Ow!”  I just had no idea I’d be sitting around watching 24 and suddenly feel as if a tiny, kicking foot is about to  break loose and float around inside me. Of course, it’s fun in its own way and completely worth it to know there’s a healthy little guy/gal getting ready to make a debut.

So the guest room is ready and waiting for you. And the nursery part of that room- we are happily working on it. Progress to be posted.

Meg needed some time alone to get her feet massaged and play with
her Dad’s iPhone. The poor thing.

Thanks to Aunt Amy, the baby toy floodgates were flung wide open
Christmas morning for our coming little one.

Lauren and her sister Mandy are just 3 weeks apart!

Faith was certainly the hit around the Teague Compound as we rounded out
the Christmas celebrations there.