Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Twelve

Highlight of the Week

Our house began the process of getting a major update this week!! We’re officially getting air conditioning!! (insert all the cheering, screaming, confetti-throwing here) Because we have hot-water heat in our current house, adding in air conditioning isn’t as easy as it was at our last house (which had forced air). My Dad is a heating & air conditioning contractor, so we’ve been talking about possible solutions for a long time, and this week, we began making that dream of air conditioning a reality! The solution came in the form of a mini-split system. So, they’re units that hang on the walls & will not only blow cool air in the summer but will also add heat to our house in the winter (which should help our gas bill tremendously). We’ve got 2 on the first floor, 2 on the second floor, and 1 going up on the 3rd floor – so we can move forward with making that space more usable (especially with a baby boy coming this winter & Derrick getting “kicked out” of his office space)! It’s all extremely exciting!! Dad & Steve came over two nights this week to begin the process of setting everything up & getting it all installed, fingers crossed by the end of next week, they’ll be operating!

Yes, This Happened

• I am now 22 weeks pregnant & baby boy is the size of a spaghetti squash. I had a routine doctor’s appointment this week – all is perfect!
• My poor little babe got my cold from last week. She woke up with it Sunday morning & had a pretty rough day Sunday/Monday. Whenever Braelynn gets a cold, she gets a low-grade fever & is just pretty miserable. Thankfully, it’s now Saturday & she seems to be almost completely over it! Yuck – I hate being sick! And even worse: I hate seeing my lil baby girl sick!
• Braelynn & I spent all day Thursday at Kennywood with my Mom & Ruby! It was a hot day and the park was absolutely packed. We’ve been to Kennywood a lot this summer (gotta make those season passes worth buying!) but Thursday was easily the busiest day I’ve seen yet! We had a lot of fun though (sweat & all).
• Even after all the parks we’ve been to this summer – one ride remains supreme in Braelynn’s mind: The Elephants at Kennywood.
• My brother got his driver’s license a few weeks ago & this week, he drove Braelynn & I for the first time. We had been at my parent’s house for dinner & afterward, Steve & my Dad were coming over to begin working on our new AC’s (see above), so he “volunteered” to drive us home. I knew he’d already been driving for a while & was pretty confident in his skills, so I let him. We pulled out of my parent’s driveway, but instead of making the usual left turn to go home the usual way I drive, Steve kept going down the hill to make the next left (there are literally a million ways to get from my parent’s house to my house). As we passed that usual left turn though, our little backseat driver pipes up: “Uncle Cheese? Do you know how to get to our house?” He answered, “Yes of course, Braelynn.” To which she responded, “Well, you just missed the turn.”
• Next week is the semi-annual Just Between Friends sale in Monroeville – so that means this week has been full of sale prep! It’s been a bit crazy as I’ve gone thru all of the baby girl clothes I’ve kept from Braelynn. With us having a boy, it just seemed silly to keep all of those clothes stored up in the attic! I gave a gigantic box of clothes to my sister for Alethea, filled another garbage bag with clothes for Alexandra, and whatever was left over, hung up to sell at the sale next week. I can’t wait to go shop for all the BOY stuff!!

Feeling Blessed

So, I’ve had the last 4 weekends “off” – meaning I haven’t had a wedding to photograph! It’s been absolutely wonderful to have some “downtime” after such a crazy paced spring & early summer season. The only problem is: what I envisioned as “downtime” (i.e. time spent relaxing, away from my computer, with no major “to-dos”) somehow didn’t turn out quite that way. For example: this week (which was supposed to be super chill) turned out to be something-every-day. It’s fine! Don’t get me wrong! It’s just not what I was envisioning. I’m just honestly sitting here wondering where the last 4 weeks went! And then I look back at my calendar & realize that the days were filled with time at the Lake House, time visiting Derrick’s parents, lots of trips to Kennywood, and lots more summer fun.

It’s been a fabulous month “off” (except, small business owners never actually take time off – even when I was “away”, I was still working on little things for about an hour every day to keep up). But I am SO ready to jump back into weddings today!! It feels like the second half of my season starts today (like I’m one of those photographers from Arizona who has two wedding “seasons” because of the weather out there). I can’t wait to go celebrate with Nikai & Louis this afternoon!! And, you all know the drill! Highlights of today will be on my blog next week!