We're Having a Baby :)

Jimmy and I are so lucky to announce we are having a baby boy!!  He will be here May 25th (hopefully), which means I am 17 weeks pregnant .

I wasn't going to blog about it at all.  I feel like it's such a private event, and I just wasn't sure I felt like writing about it.  I was at a Christmas party Saturday night and saw a lot of people I had not seen in a while.  They all asked me if I was ever going to blog again.  I can't really explain why I stopped for a while... I think I just needed a break.  I was exhausted from the wedding, and then was wrapped up in the newlywed life (which consists of happily gaining back a few pounds and drinking whatever I wanted-- wine, vodka, miami vices...), and then before I knew it I was pregnant! ;)  Jimmy and I realize how amazingly fortunate we are, and we are both thankful for that every day.  Anyway, at the Christmas party I realized it wasn't fair to keep you guys out of the loop.  We have been through so much together.  Figuring out my job, becoming a photographer, meeting Jimmy, getting engaged, and finally getting married.  It doesn't seem fair to stop right at the good part!  Thus, a pregnancy blog...

To bring you up to speed I will answer a few commonly asked questions.

1. Are you excited to be pregnant?

Yes!  I'm more excited than I've ever been for anything in my life.  In fact... I'm pretty sure every decision I've ever made has been leading to this point.  It's everything I've ever wanted.  I am absolutely thrilled and thankful and excited.  I am not even that nervous, which I think is strange.  I'm just excited and can't wait for him to get here.

2. Is Jimmy excited?

Yes!  Jimmy was really hoping for a boy.  Now they can do all kinds of boy stuff together... like trains (Jimmy's favorite).  Jimmy is going to be a great dad, and he's been a very supportive husband... even when I've been throwing a fit.  It's the hormones, I swear.

3. How do you feel?

Fat.  I feel fat.  And my legs and back hurt.  Do I care?  Not really.  Yes, I very much enjoyed having a waist, and I hope to see it again some day soon, but as for now I'm enjoying the finer things in life... like frozen waffles.

4. What are you craving?

Oranges, orange juice, pineapples, ketchup, bbq sauce, salad, hummus, waffles (real and frozen), and hot tea.  I am actually a little disappointed that I haven't had any wild cravings at all.  I was sort of looking forward to that.  The strangest thing is that I normally crave Mexican food and french fries, but I haven't had much of a taste for them... which blows my mind.  About once a week I try some fries just to see if I like them.  They are ok, but I never crave them.  Yesterday, just to say that I ate something crazy while pregnant, I dipped a french fry in chocolate sauce.  It was pretty good, but tasted less like heaven and more like a french fry dipped in chocolate sauce.  I'm basically  a boring old pregnant lady with no good food stories.

5. Is the baby's room ready?

No, but it is cleaned out and empty.  The baby's room used to be my closet, which is actually a spare bedroom.  To get ready for him I got rid of half my clothes and shoes, which, other than carrying him around inside me for 10 months, I feel is the greatest sacrifice I could make for my child.  You think I'm kidding.

6. Are your parents excited?

Are they excited?  Are you kidding?  I've never seen a more excited group of adults.  He will be the first grandchild on both sides, so I'm sure he will be spoiled.  Yes.  They are all very very excited.

7. Do you know the name?

Yes, and we aren't telling.

8. Have you felt him move?

Yes.  On Friday he kicked me and turned over.  It was the best feeling in the world.  I wish he would start moving around more, although the doctor warned me against that. He said as soon as I start feeling him I will feel him all the time because he is a VERY active child.  I think he gets it from his daddy.  At our 12 week appointment he was dancing all around in my stomach.  If you've seen Jimmy dance you know it came straight from him. Great, now I will have two of them on my hands.  Better clear out the living room for a father/son dance party.

9. Does Charlotte know?

She does.  She likes to sleep right on the baby and protect him.  It's cute, except when she gets alarmed and kicks me in the stomach/the baby in the face.

For those of you who are into that sort of thing, here's a picture of our very active son.  Isn't he beautiful?

-Blayne

Honeymoon Part II

Honeymoon continued...

Leaving Four Seasons Golden Triangle and headed to Chang Mai.

Arriving at the hotel.

Dinner at the Four Seasons Chang Mai.

Bathtub surrounded by glass.

Coffee and email updating on the porch.

Welcome flowers displayed in our room.

Pooling!

To be honest, it was so hot in Chang Mai that I was sweating in this picture!  In the pool!  It was well over 100 every day, but it felt like 120!  We decided to leave a few days early and head to Koh Samui.  We stayed at the Imperial Boathouse, which was fine... bit it was definitely NOT the Four Seasons.

Exhibit A, naked lady glasses and plastic beach chairs...

Jimmy and I decided to combat our shock over exiting the Four Season bubble by doing a little beach bar crawl.  Stop #1.

Stop #2.

Stop #2 Continued...

And post drinks, on the way to dinner, we had a nice little photo op.

The next day we went to the beach in the morning, which was beautiful!

And then we went into Chaweng for lunch.  We stopped at the coolest hotel for lunch, The Library.

There was a red pool!

We of course opted for a good old Carona... too many Thai beers.

We then moved to a Thai Beach Club for a second beer and a Jello Shot :)

As well as a polaroid with a monkey.  $5 well spent... especially after doing a little afternoon drinking!

The next day we went back to the Four Seasons... which we will explore in part 3 :)

Honeymoon... Part 1/2

We went to Thailand for our honeymoon.  We took a little tour through the Four Seasons hotels in Thailand.  Wife Perk!!!

Four Seasons Bangkok

After 2+ months of juicing to fit into my wedding dress, this was a welcome site!

Pool side...

Non-alcoholic health shakes ;) -- I can't shake them... HA HA.  Get it.

We watched the woman carving these watermelon...  it was incredible.

We ate cashew and chicken goo on top of pineapple that blew my mind!  Seriously the best think I've ever eaten.

Then we traveled to the Four Seasons Golden Triangle.

This is us in a boat on the way to the tented camp :)

Our tent.  That's a bathtub in the middle of the room!  It was over 100, but I forced myself to take a bath.  Do you blame me?  It was awesome.  I of COURSE had a cold drink in the bath.   Jimmy's mom taught me about vodka, soda and orange juice, with two limes, which is the best drink in the world.  The orange juice in Thailand is actually tangerine juice, which SO much better!  I drank about a million... well maybe less, but I was obsessed.  I'm thinking of juicing tangerines just to recreate the drink.

Our bed and the view to the porch.  There is also a FREE mini bar beyond the bed, which was the source of the cocktails...  obvi.

This was the pool.  To be 100% honest with you, this was my least favorite of the pools... but I mean... come on.  It was still awesome.

This is the view of our tent from the path.

View from the Burma bar.  Heavenly.

Couples massage on our porch.  I swore I would never do a couples massage, but it was so nice we did 3.  #spoiled.

Jimmy on his elephant.  Lovin' it.

This may be our Christmas card next year... just sayin'.

Boat ride exploring the town.

Waiting for couples massage #2.

Elephant bath time.

I will post more tomorrow :)

Our Wedding in Pictures...

Thank you to Rod Collins and Katie Oblinger for the photos!

Pictures below are from Katie Oblinger.

Thank you everybody.  It was the best weekend of our lives.

Whatever happened with... (water bill, diet, wedding plans) and a new listing from Anne Powers!

There are so may things to tell you guys!!!

Last week, Glennis and I went to the Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  This is one of our favorite conferences.  They always have great speakers, and the conferences are always held in really cool places.  (Remember last year when we went to San Diego, and the year before when we went to Seattle?)

Except this time it wasn't cool, it was HOT! :)

But there were tons of pools there :)

On Wednesday we went to the awards dinner, and I got an award called "Outstanding Social Media Savvy."

I was THRILLED!  Over the years Beacham has gotten a lot of awards for our magazine, our print marketing and our marketing package, but this is our first award for social media.

It means so much to me because I run the social media campaign here at Beacham, and I am really proud of what we've accomplished.  We have this blog, which was ranked #5 real estate blog in the world last year.  A few months ago we launched a new Beacham Blog, we have more fans on Facebook than any other real estate company in Atlanta, we are very active on Twitter, and we even have a new Pinterest account.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that people read THIS blog, and they remember what I talk about!  Every time it happens I do a double take.  Over the last few months I've run into people I haven't talked to in a year or so and they will say "what happened with your water bill," 0r "how is that diet going?"  A lot of times it happens when I'm introduced to someone for the first time.  I'll shake their hands and they say, "how are the wedding plans coming along?  I read about them on your blog?"  That happened to me a lot this past week in Arizona.  It made me realize two things... one, that people actually take the time to read the blog, and two, that I've left a lot of loose ends!

First thing's first... the water bill.

Read this story to see the initial story of what happened with my $9,000 water bill.  A few weeks later I wrote this post explaining that the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management replaced my water meter and wiped away everything but $800, which they said I still owed them.  I decided to wait a few months and collect a few bills.  Every bill I've gotten has been under $50, so I clearly had one of those bad water meters that are all over the city.  Now I just have to go back before the board, argue my case one more time and hope they erase the final $800 balance.  WSB actually interviewed me about the water issue last week, but my hair looked so horrendous I just cannot post it here.  I've  since stopped using leave-in conditioner. ;)

In a huge karmic joke, I actually walked over my water meter last night and the top was off just slightly.  It slipped off and my foot fell INTO the water meter hole.  It left three big scrapes on my leg, and it's all bruised today.  I guess the water department is out to get me one way or another!

Next loose end?

The Dukan Diet.  I started the Dukan Diet about a month ago for two reasons. I wanted to lose a few more pounds before the wedding, and I was also just having a lot of stomach pain.  I did the Dukan Diet for about 2 weeks and lost 4 lbs.  I guess that's not a huge amount of weight, but it was 3/4 of the weight I wanted to lose, so I would consider it fairly effective.

At the same time I started the Dukan Diet I also gave up gluten and dairy in hopes that it would help my stomach pain.  My friend Ginny also suggested I go see Dr. Tasneem Bhatia.  She is a holistic doctor here in Atlanta who was on Dr. Oz and went to Westminster.  I loved her!  When I went to see her I still had significant stomach pain even thought I had dropped the gluten and dairy.  I also had headaches and low energy, which was a result of all the meat I was eating.  She did a lot of test and got me all turned around.  She put me on a low acid diet, kept me off the gluten and dairy and got me some supplements.  I've kept the 4 lbs off and feel SO MUCH BETTER now.  If any of you are interested in holistic medicine I recommend her 150%!  She spent a lot of time with me and listened and really tried to figure out a way to help me.  Please email me if you have any specific questions about her.

And now a wedding update...

We did a food tasting, YUM!  The food at The Grand Bohemian is amazing.  I even liked the sea bass, and I don't even like fish!

And we picked out a save the date. We are so excited because it's orange, the best color ever.We picked out flowers :)  We decided to work with Flora in Asheville.  She is going to do a beautiful mix of succulents for me.  It was really fun talking to her.  She totally understood what I wanted.

And we will end with a house...

A few weeks ago I shot this house at 2128 Lucerne Lane.  Anne Powers has this house listed, and I loved it!

Isn't it pretty?  The kitchen is so wonderful.  it opens to the family room and breakfast area.  The whites and greens go together so well.  The master bedroom suite is also large and cozy with a huge master bath and fireplace.  The gazebo pictures show a large common area in the neighborhood.   To find out more about this house please visit beacham.com.

Talk to you guys soon!

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