10 years!

Our very first picture together in 2002.

Today is our 10 year anniversary of our very first date!  On June 28, 2002 I asked Cory and his brother Shane to go to the movies with my sister Andie and I.  It was sort of a double date but not really since Andie and Shane were only 15 and weren't allowed to date.  (Andie told the story really well at our Wedding!)  Their 13 year old sister Katie tagged along too since it wasn't supposed to be a "real" date!  The five of us went to United Artists Movie Theater in Irving to see the movie "Mr. Deeds."  I rode in the backseat on the way to the theater because Katie called shotgun, but by the end of the night Cory made sure I sat in the front of the Hyundai Sonata (that he still drives) on the way home!  I guess after sitting next to each other in the theater and seeing each other laugh in that "movie light" we decided to turn the double date in to OUR date.  From then on we've been through so much together.  Lots of blissful "ups" and some very painful "downs", but through it all we've loved each other with all our hearts and now we are finally living our dreams.  That is what makes this anniversary so special.  After 10 years our dreams have finally come true and we have everything we've always wanted:  married, in our house, with a little baby on the way.  We couldn't be happier!  And this was all worth the wait!
Today, I surprised Cory with a video slideshow of pictures of our 10 years together that I made last night.  I used the recording of my band rehearsing "You're Still The One" because that song reminded me of our 10 years together and I couldn't get though singing it without crying my eyes out!  (I'm obviously a little hormonal right now)  I cried singing it.  I cried making the video.  And I cried watching him watch the video when he got home from work this morning!  Waaaaaaaaaaaah!  Here's  a link to the video if you want to watch....


Today turned out to be a very busy day!  Not only are we celebrating our 10 year anniversary but I had a very important doctor's appointment as well!  My glucose test was today.  I had to drink this orange sugar drink at 8:15 and then go to my doc appointment at 8:30 to get a sono, talk to the doc, and get my blood drawn at exactly 9:15 so the test would work.  The drink made me feel really weird!  Like drinking a mountain dew at 7 in the morning after staying up doing homework all night!  Yuk!  After our appointment we went home and slept.  Cory worked last night so he needed some sleep and I just felt gross, so I needed a nap!

Charlize in 3D at 28 Weeks

When we woke up it was time to see my friend at  El Centro to get a 3D Sonogram of Charlie!  The saxophone player in my band is studying to be a sonogram technician so he asked us to come up and get some 3D images of Charlie.  It was SO great to see her face again!  (I DID just see her this morning, but I can't get enough of it as you can tell!) We could see her chubby little cheeks, her little nose and big lips!  I just want to kiss her already!  Cory and I are SO excited to hold her on her birth day.
After the sono session, we went out to eat at Maggiano's Little Italy for our anniversary.  We reminisced over our favorite memories, all the places in the world that we've traveled to together, and ate some REALLY good food!  In the car ride I played him a playlist of songs that told "The Story of Us."  It was about 4 hours long but I skipped though and played only the first part of songs so we could remember it and then played the entire song for the songs we haven't heard in a while.  Of course I cried my eyes out while singing all the songs, but I'm pretty sure I saw Cory shed a tear when he heard some of them too!
After dinner we rushed to our Softball Game!  The Runs beat the first place team 13-2 so we are now tied for 1st place!  Whoooo hoooo!  Even though I can't really play anymore I still feel like I'm on the team and get ALL into the games!
After the game we went to our old movie theater from our first date and saw the movie "Snow White and the Huntsman" with Charlize Theron in it!  It was a good movie, but it was even better sitting next to Cory 10 years later as my husband with that same "movie light" on his face and that same smile!  I love him so much!  The best part of the night was driving home to our own house and not having to drop anyone off and say goodnight!  I'm still not used to that after 10 years of him dropping me off at my parents house or my dorm room or my apartment at the end of a date.  Now its me and him forever... and I wouldn't want it any other way!

Cooling off at the Pool

My friend Nicole invited me to Cimaron Water Park in Irving to cool off in this summer heat!  She brought her cute little nephews and niece and I brought my cousins Taylor and Mia!
At first we hung out and chatted at the baby pool while laughing at how cute her little one year old niece, Brooklyn, was. As we were watching Brooklyn I couldn't help but think that Charlie will be splashing around in this baby pool some time next summer.  Nicole even said, "Next summer we can bring Wyatt and Charlie here to play together!"  It blew my mind!  She is going to grow up so fast.  She has already grown so fast in the womb and to think of  how big she will be next summer amazes me.

Me, Mia, and Taylor eating ice cream courtesy of Grandpa!

After I got hot enough, I finally went down the water slides and played in the pool myself!  I might be a pregnant mama but I still like to have a little fun if I can!  I went down the slides with caution after watching Taylor and Mia fly down them!  I made sure not to go too fast, but still have some fun. I think Charlie liked it!  What I didn't like was climbing three flights of stairs to get to the top of the slides, so I only went down three times!
Then I decided to do laps with my 8 year old cousin Mia.  She is on the swim team in Shreveport where she lives.  It was pretty funny when the life guards told her that the lap pool was for adults only.  They told her that if she wanted to swim, she would have to do a swim test.  She showed them up when she swam free style and did a flip kick on the way back!  She gave Taylor and I some pointers on our swimming technique like the difference between the breast stroke and the butterfly and what would get you disqualified in a swim meet.  She won first place in the butterfly and back stroke last week so she was a great teacher to her older cousins!
I used her techniques to get my exercise in for the day.  It felt so good to swim in the cold water and feel light as air as if I wasn't carrying all this extra pregnancy weight.  I will definitely be hanging our at the pool all summer!  Loving it!

Getting Started on Charlie's Nursery!

Since my father's day gift to Cory was all about painting Charlie's room, this week was the perfect week to get started on Charlie's nursery!
We ordered her Damask print wall paper on Monday from Lowe's and waited patiently for it to come in so we could pick out paint and get started.   When it finally did come in, we went strait to Home Depot to pick out a paint color that would fit with the color scheme!  Of course it's pink, but there are SO many shades of pink and we had to find one that fit in the same color family with the wall paper we ordered.  The wall paper's perfect match is "Old Fashioned Pink"  but we thought that color pink all over the room might be overkill so we found a lighter shade, "Poetic Princess"  to compliment the wall paper on the three other walls.  My cousin Mia helped us pick it out! 
Cory proudly did his fatherly duty and painted his baby girl's room pink as I had to keep myself from going in and watching.  I had to stay away from the paint fumes for Charlie's sake, but I definitely snuck in to snap some pictures! 
We waited another day to put up the wall paper so the paint could dry and we were just nervous because we've never put up wall paper before.  Cory educated himself with plenty of YouTube how-to videos and we were ready to go today!  We managed to put up three strips of wall paper covering half the wall before Cory had to go to work today.  So far it looks AWESOME!  So cute I can't wait for it to be finished! 
We also made some major purchases this weekend with the help of Charlie's loving grandparents!  Denise bought Charlie's cradle yesterday at Buy Buy Baby and my mom and dad bought Charlie's crib today from the same place!  They went on an all day adventure to get her crib and even Papa Kenny had to help get it to her room!  But it is here now, waiting to be assembled by Cory.  Another fun nursery task for us to tackle! 
We still have a long way to go... finish wall papering, put up crown molding, assembling the crib, etc. but it's nice to finally get started and see all of my ideas for Charlie's Princess room slowly come to life!  More pictures of the nursery to come! 

Countryman Family Reunion

Countryman Family Reunion

It's time for the Countryman Family Reunion!  Cory's Grandparents, Grover and Virginia Countryman host a Countryman family reunion every few years inviting all of their families from Texas and Oklahoma.  This year it was at their house in Lewisville for the first time since they moved from Irving.  Each family was invited to bring an entree and of course Cory and I brought our favorite dish... a Chick-fil-A nugget tray, which was a big hit at the party! Most of our immediate family was able to make it to the reunion as well as several of Cory's first cousins that we haven't really seen since Christmas. So it was good to see and talk to all of them. It was also nice to meet Virginia and Grover's brothers and sisters and their families that came from out of town.

With Grandma and Grandpa Countryman

We had a great time catching up with everyone we haven't seen in a while, eating the delicious food that everyone brought and watching the kids play their fun little games.  Outside the kids played "water balloon softball" which looked like a pretty exciting game to play if I wasn't carrying Charlie.  After the kids got tired of the game it turned into a water balloon free for all and it was a war zone for anyone who steped foot outside!  For some reason Cory's neices had it out for him.  Victoria came up to me and asked me to destract Cory while she hit him in the back with a water balloon.  I told her that I was on Cory's team and I can't be a traitor.  (I didn't want a wet husband driving our car!)  Sure enough as we were getting ready to leave, Victoria snuck up behind Cory and hit him in the back with water!  He was so mad, so I had to do my wifely duty and get her back since he had no ammunition.  I took my cup of ice cold water and poured it all over Victoria from head to toe.     Oooooops! 

My belly name tag for the reunion!

Little did I know that, now soaking wet, Victoria and her wet sister Alexandrea were riding home with us!  So much for not getting my car seats wet!  haha!  It was all in good fun!  We had a good laugh and a great story to tell when the girls got home.

Charlize also got alot of attention at the reunion!  As soon as we got there we had to fill out name tags and describe our relation to Grover and Virgina.  Cory's name tag said : Cory (Virginia's Grandson).  My name tag said:  Cherie  (Cory's wife).  There just so happened to be three pregnant women at the reunion as well including a cousin, Michelle, and myself.   So we decided to give our bellies name tags too!  Charlie's name tag read:  Charlize (Cory's baby) Great Granddaughter!  It served as a great conversation piece with all the new family members I met!  Not only did Charlie get a name tag, but she got a cup labled with her name AND she got to be in the great grandkids picture with Grandma and Grandpa. They have sixteen great grand children with three more Countryman babies on the way!  I can't wait for Charlie to meet the whole Countryman family that she belongs to!  

Happy Father's Day

Cory's Father's Day gift from Charlize and Me

It's Father's Day!  I woke up bright and early to make Cory a french toast breakfast in bed.  His favorite!  It's his first Father's Day as a Father-to-be.  Charlie and I got him a Home Depot gift card, a paint brush and some pink paint swatches so he can get started on her nursery this week. Cory can't wait to start on her nursery, he wanted to go to Home Depot right away to look at crown molding and more paint swatches.  We quickly got ready for church to spend time with our family.  After church we went to a Father's Day celebration for Cory's Dad, Kenny.  We got him a new iPhone for Father's Day which was a great gift for someone who's had hand-me-down phones since cell phones existed.  He used to carry a pink cell phone around because it was Katie's old phone!  haha!  Now that he has an iPhone he can stay in the loop with the family even from work.  We had a great time showing him how to use it!  So fun!  After that we went to my Grandpa's house to see my Dad and my Grandpa for Father's Day.  My brother, sister and I chipped in to get our Dad the new Bose portable wireless sound system which he was playing the whole time at Grandpa's house.  It was great to spend Father's day with family and to see all the Fathers in my life feel appreciated for all that they do.  :)

Baby Registry! :)

Starting our baby registry at Buy Buy Baby

After weeks of doing plenty of online research and browsing the baby departments of several stores we finally decided to register at Buy Buy Baby and Babies "R" Us.  Today was the perfect day to register because it is the first and only Saturday in June that we have no other commitments.  We started at Buy Buy Baby.  When we first walked into the store we were flawed by the amount of baby stuff they had and though we were overwhelmed we knew we had to register at this Bed Bath and Beyond like store.  Our registry experience was much like our experience at Bed Bath and Beyond when we registered for our Wedding.... Cory zapped EVERYTHING!  He LOVES that little registry gun.  I had to get him to calm down and only zap the things we need and not to zap it if I simply said "I like that" or zap multiple things that were exactly the same.  I think we did ok.  When we walked out of our wedding registry at BB&B we had over 700 items, and this time we had a little less than 200, so that wasn't so bad. 

Ending our registry at Babies "R" Us... exhausted!

After that we had a late lunch at Tin Star Cafe and then made our way down the street to Babies "R" Us.  We chose Babies"R" Us because of their exclusive items, registry perks, and the fact that there's one in Irving close to our families for very easy access.  After being walked throught the registry process again, we made our way down each aisle and now i feel like a registry pro!  I learned so much from being able to see and compare items hands on and being able to ask questions.  Once we got to the upstairs section of the store, I started to get tired.  My feet were swelling and the gliders seemed like the perfect place to take a rest, put my feet up and talk some stuff out with Cory.  We were exhausted!  But at the same time we were so excited to finally have an idea of what kind of things Charlie needs and what we want for her.

Brynn's Birthday Party

Brynn's Sleeping Beauty Cake

Brynn's Birthday was June 8th, but unfortunately her dad was sick (with the same virus Cory and I had) on her actual birthday, so we re-scheduled her Birthday party for today!  We made our way over to Zaza's house to celebrate.  Michelle made her the cutest Sleeping Beauty cake and Brynn was so excited for it! 
Brynn is four years old and I vividly remember the day she was born on 6-8-08 because it was the day of Katie and Maddie's graduation parties.  We spent the day with Katie at the lake, the night with Maddie at her party, and overnight at the hospital waiting for Brynn to be born, so it was a very long and memorable day that we will never forget.
It's so great to watch these precious little girls grow up.  I can't wait to have my own.  :)

Nicole's Baby Shower

Nicole, Wyatt, Charlize, and Me

 My good friend Nicole had her baby shower today!  Her baby boy Wyatt is due a month before Charlize.  I'm so glad to have a friend (well a few friends actually)  that is going through the same things as I am.  Her shower was perfect!  Everything was so cute!  We played a guess that baby food flavor game and wrote "new mommy" advice on a card which she read aloud before opening each gift.  While Nicole was opening gifts, I was so excited to see what she got!  As I shopped for her gift it was my first time to go into Babies "R" Us and print out a gift registry.  The whole time I was thinking that people are about to have to do this for me and I better get started on registering but I'm just so overwhelmed on what to get!  After watching Nicole open her gifts it really helped me to get an idea of what kinds of gifts to register for.  She got some great stuff!  And so cute!  I never knew how much fun it could be to shop for a baby boy! 

Me, Nicole, and Taylor with Charlize,Wyatt, and Cooper

Nicole had 2 pregnant friends at her baby shower, so we had to get a picture with the three of us together!  Taylor "Swanson" Taylor, who also went to school with Cory and I is pregnant with baby boy Cooper and is due on July 2nd.  We had a great time catching up and talking about how she could have her baby any day now since she is due in less than three weeks.  I also got to catch up with lots of other friends that I haven't seen since my wedding, so it was a great day for me and especially for Nicole.  :) 
I can't wait for Charlie's baby shower! 

The Waggoners Big Move



Chinese Dinner on the floor!  :)

Today was the day to help the Waggoners move out and say good bye to their house in McKinney.  We had lots of fun moving stuff out to the yard and holding an impromptu garage sale, cleaning, painting and running errands.  Since I couldn't be around paint or strong cleaners, I mostly served as the garage sale attendant, babysitter and errand runner which was really fun for me!  I went out six times to get things from Target, QT, and Racetrack.  And it wasn't until the last trip when I got a little tired.  The best part was our Chinese Dinner!  We got the idea to order Chinese food and have a last dinner in the house on the floor Chinese style.  It was a great way to end a long day of moving and a long 8 years of memories in the Waggoner house!

Sickness and Health

Our first week of summer was spent sick as can be.  I woke up at 4 in the morning on Monday morning with the stomach flu.  Cory spent all morning holding my hair back, taking my temperature, and trying to feed me ice chips.  He was on his phone the entire time trying to look up how and if my sickness would hurt Charlie at all.  I was pretty much in bed for all of Monday and into Tuesday.  Finally on Tuesday afternoon I was feeling alot better.  When Cory went to work I cleaned the house, sterilized the sheets, and tried to get rid of any germs from the night before.  I went to bed happy and feeling so much better, only to wake up to the sound of Cory coming home from work and throwing up in the guest bathroom at 4 in the morning.  Oh no!  Cory got the stomach flu from me!  That is exactly what I was afraid of.  The last time Cory had the stomach flu was at Christmas time in 2002 when he had to go to the hospital because of extreme dehydration... which surprisingly turned out to be a good memory for us but  I couldn't let him get that bad again.  It was now my turn to return the favor and take care of him while he got through this stomach bug.  He slept for most of the day, but when he woke up I bundled him up in a blanket and we sat on the couch to watch TV.  He turned to me and said...

"So this is sickness and health"

He is SO cute!  And he's right.  This is our first time to really be sick together and take care of each other since we've been married.  After 10 years of dating we still are newlyweds.  This was a new experience that we didn't really anticipate, but we made it through and by Thursday morning Cory felt alot better.  It was also good practice for us to take care of Charlie when she's sick.  The entire time I was taking care of Cory, I thought of how different it would be for me to take care of a sick little baby.  I felt this was good preparation for all the mommy care I will have to do when my baby girl is sick.  Thank goodness for the WebMD app!  :)

Last Busy Thursday!

One more busy Thursday and then it's time for me to chill out for the rest of the summer!  Today is the last day of school and happens to be my last gig with New Ground for a long time.
School was a little crazy!  All the kids were super excited to get out for the summer so it got a little rowdy.  But I spent most of the half day that we had finishing grades and cleaning up my room for the summer.  It was a little sad to say goodbye, but I know that summers are SHORT and I will be back in that classroom in no time.  Which is kinda scary because when I am back in that classroom I will be 9 MONTHS PREGNANT with Charlie!  I told the kids... "See you in the fall when I'm big and pregnant!"
We also had a doctor's appointment today, but no Sono pic til next month.  We got to hear Charlie's sweet heartbeat again and get any questions we had answered.   We signed up for a birthing class so that should be fun!

My last gig with New Ground

Finally we went to my last gig with New Ground at Razzoo's!  I'm starting to show...ALOT so that is kinda awkward, plus it's getting harder and harder to stand on my feet for long periods of time, and it's harder for me to breathe for those long notes because my lungs have been pushed up along with my other organs.  Plus I have to pee all the time!  SO I think it's about time for me to retire from singing.  I will be back in the band starting in December to sub, but I probably won't sing as much because what kinda Mommy sings at nightclubs every Friday and Saturday night?  I don't want to completely stop, because singing is my dream and someday I want Charlie to know her mommy is a super star!!!  :)

Me and my pregnant friend Nicole! 

We had so many people come to see my last gig!  Allie and Ava showed up with their mommy and Olivia!  My mom and dad came with Andie, who also brought Baby Bevo!  My Aunt Kee and Uncle Manuel came!  Cory's Grandma and Grandpa came again and had a blast along with his Aunt Pam, Uncle Cope, and cousin April!  Katie and Gregory also showed up to party!  My friend Vanessa showed up too!  Also my good friend Nicole and her husband Blake showed up!  I've known Nicole and Blake since 6th grade and now they are married and expecting a baby of their own.  A Baby Boy named Wyatt, Charlie's boyfriend!  :)
We all had so much fun with everybody who came out to see us!  When we sang the last song it was a bittersweet moment.  I am happy to move on to being a mommy and I am literally tired of singing, but I had so much fun getting paid to do what I LOVE and I hope that dream never ends.  :)
Here's to an amazing relaxing summer... getting ready for Charlie's arrival!

Video of our show that night: