Coast to Coast

This past week John and I headed to California for David Turner's wedding. We left Jack with my parents while we were gone. This picture was taken on the drive to NC just after we told him we'd be leaving him for 5 days. Look how sad, yet handsome, he manages to look. He's smart. He knew he had to look sad for us, but on the inside he's thinking "YES!!! Twenty-four hour a day attention, getting whatever my little finger points to, and having everything I do be translated as cute!" Thankfully, he was excited to see us when we returned. Thanks for watching me, Mimi, Poppy, Mema and Deda!


It's been a while since I posted a dirty eating picture. This was spaghetti night at the Usserys. Jack is fully capable of eating with his utensils, but has recently decided that he prefers using his hands instead. Oftentimes, he'll just still hold the fork, but shovels the food in with his fingers anyway. Strange, but it seems to work for him.

The amenities at Hampton Lake opened up a few weekends ago, and it was incredible! It's every mom's dream! There's a pool with a lazy river and waterfall, a splash area where the water shoots out of the ground, a playground, a beach, and as many umbrellas to cover up at least a third of the SC population. I only wish Jack recognized the place for it's value. We went the other day with our next door neighbor and all he and Jack wanted to do was play with the shower that washes your feet off before getting into the pool and the mud puddle that inevitably formed while they were playing with the shower. Whatever. It kept them entertained!

So California was just as great as we had hoped. The weather was awesome. No humidity, and to preggers, here....that's music to my ears. The evenings were a cooler than I had imagined, but we got by with the clothes we packed. David and Lauren had a beautiful wedding, with one of the best ceremonies I had probably ever witnessed. We were so excited to meet their friends, be with our HH/Atl friends and get to relax. John and I know that a vacation like that won't come too easily after September arrives!

And speaking of the arrival of Lil' Uss #2, the baby is a BOY! Yes, I had decided not to find out. We had actually missed what seemed to be our one opportunity to find out when we had our ultrasound a few weeks ago, but....John had been making some comments about wishing we had found out with this one. (He had also wanted to know with Jack, but I refused.) After feeling pretty convicted that I had been pretty selfish in completely disregarding his opinion, I decided to give him another chance to find out. At one of my routine OB visits, my doctor did a quick ultrasound, wrote "it's a boy" on a piece of paper (without me knowing what it said), and I gave the envelope to John for an early Father's Day present. I told him it was his choice if he wanted to open it, but that I would be fine (meaning more happy) if he decided to shred it in my face. He decided to open it and I'm so glad he did because he was more than thrilled to know that we're having another boy! We had both felt that we were having another boy, so I didn't even feel like a surprise had been tampered with. It felt right. And yes, we do have a name that we're leaning towards, but we're not telling for fear that we'll get the cover up smile face in response that really means you hate the name.