This Man is Going to be a Father…

So I get this e-mail today from Andrew’s brother Marty entitled “You Should be Thankful Your Husband Got All the Talent”. Curious, I opened it to find no text but simply this attached:

Unfortunately, Andrew is famous in his circle of friends for his “drop it like it’s hot” move. This got him all the ladies in his single days and now he does it out of nostalgia. He really is a good dancer and I am always entertained and upstaged on the dance floor by him which I am totally OK with! So how did this picture end up in my inbox? Well, last weekend we went to the Texas Panhandle where Andrew grew up to see his family and attend an engagement party (location of above image). I am learning that in this part of the world everyone knows and is connected to everyone else. Today’s e-mail is a perfect example. The girl who took this photograph works with Andrew’s brother Marty for a bank in Amarillo. She never knew Marty prior to her employment there, but attended kindergarten with Andrew back in 1985. Andrew and this girl have known each other and hung in the same circles for years. She also happens to be friends with the engaged couple whose party we were all attending. In ordinary places this would be quite the coincidence, but these kinds of connections are everywhere there. Thankfully, she had the forethought to capture this moment on film for us all to enjoy. Then she sent it to Marty who sent it to me. I hope this brings a smile to your day....our baby is so lucky to have a daddy with rhythm.


P.S. As you can see I managed to get into that pink dress one last time….but seriously I will not be putting myself though that again.


Nathalie and Baby M

Goodbye Little Pink Cocktail Dress…it’s been a Fun Ride

I have this dress. It is pink, and strapless, and cute. It is also a size I may never see again. I bought it in May knowing that I had several wedding events to attend this summer. When I selected it at the store I was impressed with its flattering shape and fun color. It was just what I needed to get me through the season’s weddings. Or so I thought….you see, a week after the purchase of this dress Andrew and I discovered this:

While we are aware of how this happens, we were very shocked and surprised when the stick turned bright blue! How we found out we were pregnant is another story for another day, but today I am happy to announce we will be adding a new member to our family on or around February 1st 2011!! Baby McClish is currently 11.5 weeks old with a strong heartbeat (150ish bpm), which is now my favorite sound, and is about the size of a lime! There are times I still can’t believe there is actually a tiny person growing inside me. The experience is truly overwhelming and amazing, and scary, and daunting, and beautiful, and miraculous (I have been a bit hormonal lately). Although we were not exactly expecting this little miracle, Andrew and I feel tremendously blessed by this gift and how well our pregnancy has gone so far. We are humbled that God has called us to be parents and we are praying about what those roles exactly look like. It has been hard to blog these past weeks because I haven’t had much else on my mind other than our little nugget. Well that and the fact that I couldn’t stay up past 8:30PM until a few nights ago. I am glad it is out in the open now though and that I have some energy back so I can document the journey.

Regarding the pink dress, I am not sure it will get me through the summer. We attended another wedding last Saturday night and I was able to get it zipped up, but it was a bit snug in a couple of places. I am sure no one else noticed, but I doubt I will be able to pull off wearing it again…maybe ever. I hear things are simply never the same but it is totally worth it.


Nathalie and Baby M

4Th Of July with My Guy…and an Untimely Bathroom Break

As you well know our Nation’s Independence Day was celebrated last weekend. Our friend’s asked us to watch their dog while they were away so we settled in for a much needed lazy long weekend at home. We thought perhaps there would be others like us holding down the fort in Dallas who would want to share in the festivities with us, but it seemed most folks we know left the DFW area for the weekend or had other plans. So we made our own fun and went to the fireworks at a local park by ourselves. It was actually quite romantic minus the ants…

We packed a picnic full of deliciousness. This was my first attempt at bruschetta and it turned out to be amazing thanks to tomatoes being perfectly in season and basil growing like crazing in our herb garden. Yumm!

A couple of hours later the sun was setting and we knew it was finally time for the fireworks!

Trouble was I needed to pee all of a sudden. Other problem: the bathroom Port-o-Jon was at least a 10 minute walk from our lovely picnic location. At first I tried to suffer through the discomfort, but after some reflection on what it would be like to try to reach a toilet after the firework show (lines, people, craziness, more darkness…you get the picture), I determined it was best to get to one ASAP. I shared my feelings about this with Andrew. At first he thought I was kidding. Probably because we had already taken a trip to the bathrooms an hour before and in his mind it was time to relax and enjoy the whole reason we made the venture out there to begin with. What can I say…I have a small bladder. I offered to go and come back but he was not comfortable with me walking around in the dark with thousands of strangers without him. So, we packed all of our stuff up and starting walking toward the bathrooms and our car (it was also in that general direction) all the while knowing we would likely miss some or all of the evening’s pyrotechnics. We got some odd looks from others wondering what crazy couple packs up before the fireworks, but we hurried on until we finally made it to the Port-oJon. While these are not my favorite form of public restroom, I was very grateful for it. As I exited and grabbed my germ gel I realized we hadn’t missed the fireworks at all! In fact we were able to re-situate right next to our car and still had a great view of the show. The other fortunate consequence was immediately afterwards we were able to jump in the car and beat most of the traffic out of that place. Who’s laughing now that we packed up early? Next year I will try to time my bio breaks a little bit better though….the situation gave Andrew lots of fuel for teasing.

Nathalie