From Mr. Overton

Hello everyone. I have been informed by my sweet little wife that I need to become an active part of this blog. So, here is my first attempt at "blogging". So, for those of you who don't know, we now are living in the thriving metropolis of Shamrock, Texas. That is, of course, THE Shamrock, TX with the tallest water tower in the state....I know....try not to be jealous. I am working for the NRCS which I know everyone knows stands for Natural Resources Conservation Service. Basically, we are the people who try to keep the dust bowl from happening again. If it's hard for you to remember what I do, just tell people that I am a government agent.

So, to get you caught up I'd have to say that the past few years have been pretty hectic. We went from living in Arkansas where I worked at a job that I hated to living in Lubbock, finding out we were expecting our first child, then moved to Shamrock all within roughly a 2 year span. The good thing is that I love my job and that God has been great to us throughout this entire process. Although Shamrock doesn't have everything you could ask for in a town, it has very good people and has given Jamie and I a lot of time to grow closer to each other.

Of course the biggest blessing in our lives is our son who is due to enter this world in May. Just so everyone knows, yes we do know the name and no, we're not telling anyone until he's born. It has been such a blessing to see my wife's belly start to plump up, see him on sonograms, and not to mention feel him kick (which I'm up to about 8 times now). I can honestly say that knowing I am going to become a Father has been one the greatest and most spiritual experiences in my life. Knowing that I am soon going to have a Son to take care of has made me realize just how much God has taken care of me and how much I need Him in my life and in my family's. We have had great support from everyone throughout this pregnancy and can't wait for ya'll to share in our experience. As you can see in our pictures, we have everything in the nursery ready, just waiting for the furniture to come in (which Jamie reminds me to check on everyday).

Well, sorry this was kind of long, future "blogs" will be shorter. Hope everyone has a great day! God Bless America and "Wreck 'Em Tech!!"

Big Boy Update

Well, the last few weekends we have been working on our little man's room and have finally finished it. That is until we get all of his furniture in and bedding! I was planning on making his bedding myself, but soon realized that I was nowhere near experienced enough to make all of that bedding. So, as we were buying our furniture at Kids Space I saw a lady there designing her own bedding and thought it was a good idea. Shawn let me have complete say in the bedding...as long as there was green in it! **This is a huge step in our relationship...take a look at our bedroom below...not much going on!** He didn't care if there were funky designs or colors!! WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO WITH ALL THAT FREEDOM???

Well I did what any new expecting mommy would do...I had lots of fun and picked out some way cute fabrics for his bedding. Since I didn't make the bedding I decided that I needed to make something...so I chose curtains. I figured it couldn't be that difficult right? Shawn and I took a trip into Amarillo to look for fabric and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it there on the rack at Joanns...IT WAS THE SAME FABRIC AS HIS BEDDING!! I was so excited *in the words of my dear friend Ashley..."I wanted to take a victory lap around the whole store"* How cute is that?! Now, don't worry...only the outside of his bumper pads and his blanket are in this fabric..so it's not going to look like Paisley overload in his room.

We had a blank canvas to work with so we started off with the chair rail. Shawn was set on doing a texture on the wall so I let him get after it. I just about flipped when I saw all the pink, but Shawn assured me that it would dry white. It did.
After we finished all of the texture and trim we started painting! We picked out a lot of colors but settled on a "Spring Moss" for the main color and a cream for the top part of the wall. We think it turned out pretty good! I finished up the curtains today and have them somewhat up. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they turned out!Our little guy is doing great! He is very active...kicks constantly. The nurse had a hard time finding his heartbeat at our last appointment because he was moving around so much. We get to see him again on Feb. 4th! Those are my favorite appointments. I cannot believe that we are in the 6th month already. I can't wait to see his sweet face, hold him, sing to him, and to see him in his daddy's arms. What a lucky boy he is to have Shawn as his daddy.

**I don't know why that one picture won't show all the way..use your imagination.

How many times do I have to tell him??

I'm not sure if this is true for all husbands but mine just isn't the best at washing things with a fairly simple washing machine. Now, let me start by saying that I am very happy that he tries to help out. Allow me to share the most recent story with you:

It all started yesterday with 6 degree weather, wind and a doctors appointment that I had to go to by myself. That alone put me in a bad mood. Of course I was excited to have a check up and make sure that Little Man is doing good but I hate going alone. There really wasn't any reason for Shawn to go so he stayed at work. Let me go ahead and say that it takes 45 mins- 1 hour just for me to get to Pampa where our doctor is. By the time I get there I am literally running on fumes and praying that I make it to the office. I make it only to wait for an hour just to see her. After I heard our guy's heartbeat I was in a much better mood and was ready for the next task...grocery shopping. UGH.

Since there isn't a decent store in Shamrock we like to stock up when we go into Pampa or Amarillo...again I hate going by myself! After about an hour of shopping and a cart full of goodies I check out and finally get to head home. Let me remind you that I had to leave the house at 9:45 to get to my appointment and I don't make it home until after 3!!!

I walk in the door and am immediately knocked down by a horrid smell..."What has Wesley done???" I knew instantly that it was Wesley b/c he has had a tummy bug for a few days now. I walk back to the room where the crates are and there is Wes...and his dirty crate. Now, keep in mind that I am 21 weeks pregnant and smells DO NOT agree with me sometimes. It was so bad that I put the dogs out and shut off the room with the crates until Shawn came home to clean it. If I tried to clean it there would have been an even bigger mess!!

So, that leads me to the washing machine. Shawn threw all the "soiled" blankets in the washer and soaked and bleached them to make sure they got clean. I have told him REPEATEDLY to make sure he puts the blankets in there evenly or the washer will get off balance. AND EVERY TIME HE DOES IT...IT GETS OFF BALANCE AND SAYS "Gosh, I should really try to fix that..."
And EVERY TIME I say " Love, YOU CAN'T FIX IT....YOU MUST BALANCE THE BLANKETS SO THE WASHER WON'T COME CREEPING OUT OF ITS CUBBY HOLE AND BANG THROUGH THE WALL!!"

So, what do I get woken up to this morning??? " THU-DUT BANG POW BOOOOOOM"...He didn't balance it last night so why not try it at 6 in the morning when his pregnant wife is trying to recover from a sleepless night????????

If you know anything about me...you know that I HATE being woken up! So I try to "nicely" yell out to him to forget about it and let me do it later. Well, later came I balanced the washer and what do you know...it was a smooth finish. I took Shawn lunch and we laughed out loud about the whole thing for quite sometime!! Hopefully next time...he will think long and hard before just throwing the blankets in there :)

Shawn, thank you very much for your help. I hope you know how much I appreciate it and I love you so very much. :)

And we're back!

Alright, so I think I have said this at the beginning of each post but...it has been a while since my last! :) My brother-in-law, Eric, gives me a hard time about that just about everytime I see him. Well a lot has changed since my last post and I'm pretty sure I couldn't catch you guys up in just one post but I'll list of the major things that happened:

1. I started my job at Tech

2. Shawn started his job in Plainview and loved it!

3. We thought long and hard about getting a new puppy and finally decided on our sweet Lola, an English bulldog.

4. We found out we are expecting our first child!!!!!!

5. Shawn found out he was getting transferred to Shamrock, TX.

6. I quit my job at Tech.

7. We moved to Shamrock.

8. Shawn still loves his job and I am learning how to be a stay at home wife/soon to be mom.

So in our almost 3 years of marriage we have moved a total of 6 times. Luckily that is about to slow down! I am in no way complaining either; we have grown so much throughout those 6 moves.

So my dear friend Lindsey has been dying for pictures of our new place here in Sham Town. So Lindsey...here you go! We have a lot of pictures from when we first moved in but have finally finished putting everything where we want it. I only have a few recent pictures but I promise you, Lindsey, I will get them all up here soon!

Here is our living room with its new coat of a wonderful blue paint that we love. Our goal with this house was to stay away from the tans, greens, and browns that we have done in every other house! And, here is the kitchen. I'll have new pictures of this room soon too..our new countertops have been ordered!Here is our bedroom.
And finally...for now. Here is the guest room.

I'll finish touching up the rest of the house this week and take new pictures of the other rooms. In closing, Shawn and I absolutely love our new home and are so thankful that it is only 3.5 hours away from Lubbock where all of our friends and family are. We have been on Lubbock overload lately and are looking forward to a small break for a while. Our sweet pups are probably ready for a break too! :) Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years...we sure did! Stay tuned for more!!