A Baby Bump...

A baby bump...or not a baby bump... that is the question....

This has seriously been the theme to this week! I am finally have the beginnings of a baby bump but only friends and family who know me know that there is a baby in there! Walking around in public when I notice someone looking at my belly I know they are either thinking she's pregnant, or she needs to suck in that tummy! I will let you be the judge! :)

So Brett and I finally took pictures of our little baby bump last night! You may or may not be able to see it, to me it feels like my bump just popped up over night!!

Oh 15 weeks! This has been a fun week as it is winding down to a close! 

Started the week with Christmas with Mansfields from Mississippi! 

So fun to spend time with them and sweet Lyla Grace! Next Christmas we will have 3 babies with baby Finn being born in January!!

Then headed down to spend time with my family in Birmingham, 2 days full of maternity clothes shopping, and Brandi helping me start my registry and spending time with sweet Collins!!

Next was our AOII Pledge Class Christmas Party....where we had too much fun getting carried away with doing the ring test! 

According the ring test this baby is all girl!!

Then there was a fun filled day of shopping and catching up in Downtown Franklin with Carrie and Jena!! Two of the best mommies I know!!

I thought this was the cutest picture of Maggie while we were taking pictures of our bump! She was so intrigued!!

Heres to bigger better baby bumps in the coming weeks!!! :) Merry Christmas!!!

Baby on Board

It has certainly been a while since I have utilized my blog! It has been a very eventful year and a half since the last time I posted!  We recently announced we have a little one on the way, so I decided there is no time like the present to start posting again!

A little disclaimer first though....since I began telling friends and family that I was pregnant I of course..have gotten LOADS of tips, advice, commentary, etc. I have had many requests that I don't have an "alien baby" pregnancy calendar on my Facebook and that I don't use my ultrasound pic as my profile picture. I am in agreement with these but I still wanted a way to share with my family and friends who do want to keep up with the pregnancy and not be shocked if they didn't see me for two months and my belly doubled in size over night! Sooooo with that being said, here is your disclaimer...do not read on if you don't want to see ultrasound pictures, pictures of my baby bump, and of course comparisons between the size of my baby and fruit, etc. Because its all going to be here because Brett and I are just plain EXCITED! And I want to share this experience with the people that I love and don't get to see every day! 

 So lets start back at the beginning of our 3.5 month little journey here! 

Back in the beginning of October we were about 30 minutes away from boarding a plane to Raleigh to spend a much awaited weekend with our best friends at the beach in North Carolina. Nothing other than gut instincts made me take a pregnancy test that morning, I really just felt like I should take one before that weekend. So I went for it while Brett was out running errands and much to my surprise it turned out positive! It really does hit you all at once, the weight of that moment. The future, how your life will change, how it from that moment wasn't just about me anymore. I didn't have time to think of an eloquent or original was to tell Brett, I just did it the old fashioned way and showed him the test.

It was really a WOW moment for us, I think we both just said wow back and forth until it was time to grab our bags and get in the car. Being the over eager person that I am, I called the OBGYN on the way to the airport and booked my first 8 week appointment....less than 30 minutes after finding out! 

So we proceeded with our weekend, all the while trying to act like nothing new was going on with us while around the people who know us best! It was an amazing weekend with friends and slowly but surely as the weekend went on we really wrapped our heads around the fact that we were going to be parents and this was going to be the most exciting ride of our lives.

Here is Brett and I on Allen's boat on our way to dinner!

 

Lindsey, Me, Amy, and Berk---having the time of our lives! Talk about hard to keep a secret from your best friends on a weekend like that!

So Brett and I returned home and the first thing we did after getting home from the airport was go out and buy a bunch of baby books! I knew I needed to read up on the dos and donts! 

That next week I had a blood test done to confirm the pregnancy and we finally let ourselves feel as excited as we truly were! 

This picture below was taken after the doctors appointment! 

 So we waited a week or so and then came to the conclusion we could not wait until 12 weeks to tell our parents, so we gave them the news early at about 6 1/2 weeks because we could not keep it to ourselves! They were thrilled and it was a relief to finally have people to talk to about the baby!

Next came our 8 week appointment where we got to see our little bit in person (or as we referred to the baby as blueberry--that was the size the baby was before our appointment). The baby was healthy and had an amazingly strong heartbeat!!

 Baby Mansfield's First Picture

The time passed fasted after our 8 week appointment, now that we knew the baby was healthy and growing as it should be! In the weeks that followed we told our siblings and immediate family which was probably the most fun part! 

Finally the long awaited 12 week appointment was here and we had a very healthy baby with a strong heartbeat! We finished up telling all of our best friends and then FINALLY made the announcement public last Monday with Baby Mansfield's stocking! 

Such a good feeling to have our amazing news out in the open!! Thank you everyone for your warm wishes, love, and support! This is going to be such an incredible experience! Only 26 more weeks to go!! Can't wait for our June baby to get here!

Picture of the bump to come soon! Until then! :)

Alma Mater

Bittersweet. The only way to describe my feelings about my last day tomorrow.

Six years ago I left my family and friends in Birmingham, Alabama to attend UT. I knew it would be a hard transition but I had always wanted to follow in my dad's footsteps and go to UT and I was determined to make it happen.

Here I am standing outside of Presidential Court after my parents moved me in. Giving my mom the classic please hurry and take my picture this is embarrassing look.

Little did I know 20 minutes later I would be crying, begging them not to leave me at this school! 

Well as you might expect they left me, and I sat there awaiting my first day of recruitment the next morning. 

My potluck roomate never showed up so I was flying solo the first several weeks at school. When I started recruitment I didn't know much about sororities (which seems sort of comical now), but I loved to talk so I found myself loving recruitment from the start. 

Here is me with my gamma chi on Preference Night

Waiting to get my bid outside Panhellenic on Bid Day

I received a bid to AOII my first choice, so I was a happy camper on Bid Day! 

Things were really starting to go my way...

Looking through my keepsake box (I hang on to just about anything I can) I found the letter I wrote to myself at our new member retreat (which was actually returned to my as a senior)

In part of my letter I wrote,

"By my senior year when I read this I want four things to be true: 1. To have best friends that I will keep forever. 2. To not regret or feel like I have missed out on anything during college. 3. To build an amazing life in Knoxville but never lose touch with my friends from home. 4. Always stay true to myself."

Cheesy. Yes I know...but nonetheless I think wise words coming from a younger, less mature version of myself. Less than a month into my freshman year I think I had it pegged what I wanted out of college.

The next four years did not dissapoint. 

In put it well in my Miss Homecoming statement, "four years later and I am speechless. Trying to put my feelings into words about this university and all it has given me is a feat I cannot accomplish in 250 words. Everything I hoped for in my college years has come true because of my decision to attend UT."

The best years of my life so far have been spent at UT. 

#1 I met my husband. That is always my number one. I met Brett in Fall of 2005 at Torchnight, another historic UT tradition. FIJI was escorting AOII and I was the lucky girl who got a rose from Brett. Right outside on the front steps of the Panhellenic building to be exact. I literally walk by the spot where I met my husband everyday!

#2 I met my best friends EVER. I am not lying when I stand up and talk to parents and students about sororities giving you lifelong friends, it sounds cheesy but it is beyond true. 

Me and two of my bridesmaids Kalee and Amy waiting to be initiated into AOII

Bid Day my senior year

Not only do you share college memories with your sisters, you share all the memorable moments that follow

#3 I graduated from UT TWICE. Enough said.

First time around

Second time around

#4 My very first adult job was working as the Panhellenic Affairs Advisor at UT

Talk about my dream job, working with amazing sorority women everyday!

I got to be a part of the groundbreaking ceremony for Morgan Hill Sorority Village, a project so long in the making! 

Talk about a blast from the past...I thought this would give my students a good laugh! 

UT has given me (well I have earned it too!) a bachelors degree, a masters degree, and my very first job. But it has given me so much more than whats on paper

And tomorrow, I have to leave. My first job just happened to be my dream job, so it is hard to have to leave after only one year. But I know everything happens for a reason and I keep reminding myself that their is something great right around the corner.

But I am not sure it will make it any easier to leave tomorrow. I keep asking myself what is making it so hard to leave and I think I understand

Tonight when I was packing up my things in the office I walked out into the atrium, the whole building eerily quiet, and all I can think is this is where it all started.

I know its crazy but I can envision running up through those doors on bid day like it was yesterday. And for the past five years I have watched so many girls just like me run through those doors so excited for the experience that awaits them.

I work with such amazing students everyday and I get to be a part of their experience with them, and in a way it makes me feel like I have never left. 

So I know after tomorrow I have to leave and in a way let it all go. I will still have the memories but it will no longer be part of my day to day life.

Its a little scary to be honest. If you think about it, I have barely had a change of scenery in the past six years. So leaving UT and Panhellenic tomorrow will be leaving the shelter and comfort of whats familiar and taking a leap into the unknown.

Not knowing where Brett and I will be or what we will be doing a year from now is sort of alarming, but   at the same time sort of liberating. 

Tomorrow may be the end of a chapter and the end of my time at my Alma Mater, but it is also the beginning of something new. 

DIY--The 201 Renovation

For the past 50 years walking back into Suite 201 in the Panhellenic building has been like walking into a time warp.

The perfect picture of style in 1964, as you can imagine the room needed some work now that we are in the twenty first century.

With some savings from last years budget and a whole lot of hard work, we have transformed Suite 201 into a room that is comfortable, cozy, not to mention chic! :)

Let's start with the before pictures....this is what we had to work with

I know it is hard to believe...but this actually looks great compared to what we started with! This is post cleaning, vacuuming, and after junk bee gone came!

 Beautiful blue curtains!

The lovely floral wall paper

The faux-fireplace...actually just a freestanding mantle

2001 Pan Council Picture complete with its own brass light fixture!

Sarah getting started taking down the wallpaper...she was a champ! She actually thought of the idea of using the steamer to help get the wallpaper down! It was impossible!

Cam taping the base boards!

Nicki poo pulling her weight! 

Lizzy getting ready to paint!

Susan our professional painter!

Linds stopped by and lent a hand! Helping figure out how to do something about those awful light fixtures! 

Allison on our "stable" ladder, taking down wallpaper! It actually wasn't the wallpaper that was hard to take down, it was the glue it left behind! 

Sweet Mason stopping by to help us!!

Caitlin, my right hand man during the renovation! We had about 4 days straight of inhaling paint fumes! 

Painting is finally complete! After a week straight of hard work and help from Jim and Caitlin the hardest part was over! 

Now before we get to the final reveal... here is everything we did:

-Remove wallpaper

-Paint: walls, base boards, doors, window frames

-I took down the light fixtures cleaned and spray painted them white again! We also replaced all the lightbulbs with energy efficient bulbs

-Jim removed the fireplace mantle, we cleaned and painted it with a fresh coat of paint

-We installed new carpet, the cheapest sold by Lowes but I personally think its fabulous! 

-We salvaged the desk, file cabinet, and bookshelf from the old room 

-Micah and I went on the search for some furniture deals we found a tax free day at Ashley Furniture and Knoxville Wholesale furniture and got a great deal on the couches, coffee table, and meeting table. The meeting table is actually a dining room table, it was much cheaper and better looking than a conference table! 

-All of the accessories came from Target, our go to store! 

Here is the finished project! 

The picture of the fireplace was painted by our very own Cameron Foltz! She is amazing! The painting was her idea and it is actually a portrait of a hand holding a bouquet of flowers that represent every chapter we have in Panhellenic! If you come up to 201 we actually have a key that will tell you which flower is yours! She is amazing and it is my favorite part of the room! 

Meeting table! Which surprisingly enough is used every day!!

Our freshly painted mantle, which has a darker grey accent color in the interior!

Cute sitting area! Soon Panhellenic council's brand new composite will be hung right above this spot! And yes these amazingly cute chairs came from Target!!

Our bookshelf salvaged from the old room! We have the flowers on top to give it some more height! All the pictures are of Panhellenic women in the frames, one of my favorite parts of the room! Awesome floor lamp to give more light, also from Target!!

The work area! We salvaged this desk and it works great! We moved the IMac upstairs and a printer so council could meet in this space and not have to run downstairs to the computer! Now that Pan has wifi it works! Also we got the good looking computer chair from Target, a little tough to put together but Mike our wonderful maintenance man came to the rescue! He helped me constantly with this project!

These are the couches in our little sitting area! You can often find Cameron Foltz taking a nap on the couch! :)

We actually have enough seating in the room to hold all Panhellenic council meetings in 201!

Cozy little work area! 

Thanks to everyone for all your help! It was a lot of work but well worth it! Our amazing Panhellenic women deserve a great work space! 

Now come visit us in 201!