SPRING BREAK 2010

never in my wildest dreams would i have ever thought that an unborn child would (or COULD) move around THIS MUCH inside my belly. there have been moments where i have almost shouted out in almost-pain because he has pushed against my skin SO hard. i have had to have serious conversations with him, letting him know that, no, in fact, he canNOT exit my body through my belly button. dude. little guy is a MOVER!!! i'm loving it. i can't wait to see his little body moving around in real life person!!! if i had the camera, i would take a video of his antics, but alas. christopher has it. maybe soon. you will not believe it!!!

spring break has SPRUNG for the slatens and so far, we are doing spring break the way spring break needs to be done. saturday morning, chris and i woke up, had a simple breakfast (which is hard for me on saturdays...usually i like to go all-out with pancakes, eggs, sausage, omelettes - any or all of those combined) and then went to greenlife for laundry detergent. we left our car parked there and went for a walk - from greenlife to renaissance park to coolidge. we had alot to get done that day, so we didn't plan on staying out that long, but we wound up walking around for well over an hour. it was PERFECT BLISS!!! i love that man more than i ever thought possible. we sat on a big rock that was almost level with the water for a while, and just chatted. it was cold out, but we could tell it was going to warm up to the perfect spring temperature.

on the way back from coolidge, we headed up to frazier avenue for different scenery. we rounded the corner, and chris said, "i THOUGHT i smelled donuts!!" ah, julie darling donuts. i had been hearing about it for MONTHS but hadn't made it by yet. i said, "OOOOH! let's get one!!!" so we went in, and my life hasn't been the same since. picture the best donut you've ever had. now multiply it by a million, and you still haven't reached the pinnacle of how delicious julie darling donuts are. chris got a chocolate cake one - BEST EVER. and i'm a chocoalte snob. i got a buttermilk one, and it was so freshly hot that it fell apart when i tried to pick it up. i almost cried when i ate it.

so we ate our donuts while walking back to the car, and got our day started. what was our day? packing. chris had to pack for 3 things all at once. saturday night through monday morning, we were in knoxville for a few concerts in the big ears festival. (more on that later...) we stayed with my beautiful cousin and her new husband in their AMAZING house. i'm so jealous and inspired by how she has it decorated! it was so good to just get to be with them for a day or two.


chris left this morning to head to nashville to do some work on the album with the unbelieveably talented ben shive. pray for them! they're doing amazing work, they are.


a long time ago, i knew chris would be in nashville for our spring break, but i realized that i NEEDED the beach. this RARELY happens. so i talked my parents into taking this gigantic pregnant lady to the beach! we made reservations in savannah for wednesday-sunday (yes, this is easter...we're all okay with it) and i can barely breathe i'm so excited!! AAAND we get to see the crowders! (my aforementioned beautiful cousin's beautiful sister and her family!) perfect.

the best part about it is that chris is only working with ben through wednesday, so he'll leave nashville early thursday morning and drive to savannah to join us!!! HOORAY!!!!


so let's talk big ears for a minute. colin slaten - the amazing brother in law that he is - mentioned this festival on his facebook page a while back. long story short, THANK YOU COLIN!! we saw vampire weekend, my brightest diamond and the national. two words: HOLY MOLY. these are all three what i call "chris' bands" b/c i'm not the biggest fan of any of them, but i'll listen to them when they come across the ipod. the vampire weekend concert was, in a word, FUN!!! i didn't realize how much i liked their music. the national was, in a word, LOUD. ouch. theirs was the music i knew the least, and i while i did enjoy the concert (good GRIEF they can rock!!!), i wished it had been just a tad bit quieter. plus it was about 12:30 at night, so i was a bit sleepy. my brightest diamond...deep breath. wow. i don't really have words for her. phenomenal. breathtaking. extraordinary. these sort of come close. i cried simply because she was SO GOOD. wow.


so here's to hoping that an amazing weekend of amazing music inspires chris and ben to great heights this week!! hear hear!


ps - you know that's NOT my belly in the first picture...right?