The One In New Orleans

About a month is ago, well maybe a bit longer than that we went to the Great Classy Beautiful Weirdly Historic city of New Orleans with our friends the Owens. They thought they could possible change our opinion of New Orleans by showing us a different side of the city since they grew up in the state. Mr. Gator and I did leave the day thinking a little more highly of the city, so mission accomplished I guess!

Side Note: In one of my previous posts I did mention that I have grown to appreciate and love the state, and that opinion is still very true!

We started off the day by visiting the famous Cafe Du Monde and eating some delicious Beignets. If you are ever visiting the state I highly recommend stopping at one of their many locations. These treats were very yummy!

 

After filling up and a unnecessary parking ticket we ventured over to the Louisiana State Museum Cabildo, the very site where the Louisiana Purchase ceremonies took place. I now have a personal mission to visit all the famous signing sites. Luckily I have a few already under my belt due to class trips and living 15 minutes away from a very important Texas site.

The table and pews to the left are the very same furniture pieces (I personally felt like they should have been roped off or guarded more, after all this historic purchasing site did get the US closer to Texas land ;))

We learned a lot about this swamp land and saw many well preserved artifacts.....and had a little fun along the way!

In case you were wondering how I came to the conclusion that this is not a clean city
.....if it says at the state museum, it's hard to deny.

 

 

 





 

You don't want to know.....but I will tell you anyways.
Short Story: Napoleon died, before they buried him they put wax on his face and then made a few bronze death masks from the wax. Fun Fact: this one was lost and was later found in some trash I believe.

 

The One Where We Find Out

Well......after polling many friends and family members on what they thought the gender would be, most were correct, except for a certain husband and sister of mine who guessed wrong. We are having a BOYYYYYY! We are both super excited, and now that we know it feels more real! I always knew I was pregnant, believe me the reoccurring morning sickness reminds me, but now baby gator has a gender and soon will have a name. Baby gator is growing in size and reminding me he's there by little and frequent nudges inside. Mr. Gator loves listening to his movements, and we've noticed baby gator responds to his voice. An amazing blessing he is. Another blessing was when we found out that baby gator is growing at a healthy rate and everything looks good, prayers answered!

Mr. Gator and I from the beginning thought it was a girl, had a name picked out and everything. It was a pretty name too, a name I wanted for many, many years, so we will just have to save the name for the next gator.

We haven't fully decided on baby gator's name, we do know that the initials will be JMC. Mr. Gator has a really cool tradition to name the firstborn with the initials JMC. Now as a little girl, as most little girls do, I had a list of boy names already picked out. Now these boy names have varied over the years and have not all stuck like the girl name. But of the ones that did stick, of course none of them have the initials JM or even J or M.  Mr. Gator and I have gone back and forth on boy names ever since we have been dating (I think once we decided we were going to get married, we planned the rest of our life out including baby names), but we have never come up with a JMC name.

We are currently deciding between naming it after our fathers, conveniently they each have one of the initials, and are biblical, or another name that has an awesome meaning, however, neither is biblical or any family name. We love both names, but we also know that a person's name is the most important thing to that person, so we want to make sure we pick the right one. We know that God has a different name for us in the end, but I still would kinda like baby gator to like his name while on Earth.

For now and as always we will call him baby gator because after all that was his real first name.

The One With Nothing To Eat

Those of you who know me, know I love food. Not all food, but the stuff I do like, I love. After looking at magazines, pinterest, and countless blogs I cannot find anything I want to make to eat. My diet recently has consisted of potatoes, cheese burgers, french fries, and apples. Literally that is it. I want to eat healthy for myself and the baby, but have no idea what to cook.

Here's the problem:

• I am lactose intolerant, but craving some cheese (I may or may not be giving in)
• Most food items are on my pregnancy bad list, tomatoes and pork especially.
• Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food are sadly all on the bad list.
• Mr Gator can't eat nuts and doesn't like cornbread.

As I researched I realized everything has either cheese (which I already knew), tomatoes, nuts, or one of my pregnancy no-goes in the recipe. I am looking for a healthy recipe or food that doesn't have a lot of spices/flavors in it and doesn't have milk products, tomatoes, or nuts. Any suggestions? Your prize you ask? A hug from a hungry pregnant me who misses food! Not good enough....think of it like a game!

Don't forget to vote whether you think baby gator will be gator or gatorette!

**Sorry for the confusion, when I say my pregnancy bad list, I do not mean bad to eat while pregnant. I mean when I eat these items 99.9% of the time I get sick because of eating said items thus their standing on MY (personal) bad list.

The One Where The System Breaks Down

I haven't posted in three-ish weeks and I apologize for that, but I think* I have good reasons for not doing so, hopefully you will agree:

1. My 3 year old laptop died. It was not dropped. Nothing was spilled on it. It just went to sleep one night, and didn't wake up in the morning when I was ready to use it. At least it went out peacefully unlike my last one.

2. I am currently 18.5 weeks pregnant, yes the .5 is necessary, each day is a milestone. Now I have not, not been posting because I am 18.5 weeks pregnant, rather I have not been posting because I have been experiencing elevated first trimester effects in the second trimester. Of course I am super excited to be out of the first and into the second, however, I am curious when I will get to experience the joys of the second. It will come right? Let's hope and pray so.

3. Due to forgetting to bring my camera everywhere (sad day) and not having the ability to upload pictures from my phone (note the #1 reason for not posting), I felt that without pictures my posts would be somewhat boring.

Sorry to be a downer, BUT I have exciting news or I guess will have exciting news to come.....

On Halloween I will potentially get to find out the sex of baby gator, not because I like the day and will be going to a psychic but because that just happens to be the day of my next appointment!

I thought it would be fun to take a poll to see what everyone thinks baby gator will be! So please take the poll on the upper right side of the blog, I can't wait to see what you think it will be!

The One Where We Decide Part 2

I felt I should split up the post because it was getting very long….so here is part 2!

Mr. Gator thought it would be wise to visit our future home and school as well as see the most famous firework show while we were there, which by the way is a very nerve racking in itself, but that’s for another post.

See the massive amount of people

On our trolly tour around the city

Let me start off by saying I like cold but I don’t like COLD. When we first got there during the dead heat of the summer, or at least it was everywhere else in the nation, I was worried when I reached for my sweater. Now it was not snowing or even close to freezing, but there was a very nice cool breeze with a temperature around mid to low 60s.

I was worried. Then I started thinking about how I would ever manage bringing baby gator up there when I won’t even be able to handle it. 

Here are my current concerns:

1) Will I freeze when I walk outside

2) Will baby gator be mad at me and Mr. Gator for bringing them out of the sweat as soon as you walk outside August in the swampland to the start wearing coats September in the yankee’s north

3) Will I be able to drive in the snow if we decide to bring a car

4) According to Mr. Gator a cajun accent sometimes slips out of me, will I develop a yankee accent on top of my already southern/now slightly cajun accent while I live there (gross)

The One Where We Decide Part 1

When I started this blog my sister and mom both had to help me come up with a name for it because I am not super creative. There were many other names in the running, but Megan’s Merry Go Round won in the end. My life with Mr. Gator has been nothing less than a merry go round ride.

When you step on a merry go round, you know you are in for (at least in my opinion) a fantastic ride. And that is just what we have been on. Sometimes with a quick decision you get to jump off and other times it’s going too fast to be able to see the best place to jump.  God has blessed Mr. Gator and me so incredibly much and I think he likes seeing our faces when we find out about a new opportunity. I am always amazed/shocked, which is funny because I should know by now that God always has our best interest at heart…

Anyways I digress. We have been on a constant ride trying to figure out the best decision regarding our future. It really has been a ride on a merry go round with regards to Mr. Gator attending school up north. We have been going round and round looking at the best “jump” options. After much praying and deliberation, Mr. Gator is going back to school!

 

The One Where Mr. Gator Meets His Niece

Mr. Gator was working when Mallie was born, so he was not able to make the journey with me. It was a quickly planned trip to go visit her this past weekend, which means we forgot many things, including my sisters (already late) birthday gift :/. But Mr. Gator could not wait any longer to get to see his first niece and get some baby holding practice in as well, so we made the trip work.

 

Lindsey and Mallie picked me up in downtown and we made our way to lunch and then the mall. Lindsey must have taken Mallie many places before this trip because she was a pro at getting everything out of the car (in a timely manner) and had everything that a baby could need packed (but at the same time no unnecessary things). I think it will take me months before I could get anywhere near the speed of Lindsey and Mallie in and out of the car.

 

We finally all met up at Lindsey's house, and Mr. Gator was able to meet his very first niece!

 

I don't know if it was a girl thing/pregnancy hormones/or just me, but when I saw Mr. Gator hold baby gator's cousin I was very happy. Not only because Mallie will be baby gator's cousin, but also because I knew Mr. Gator was going to be a great dad.

 

As you can see Mr. Gator and Mallie are best friends already!

The One Where It Begins

Our Merry Go Round story....

Two Aggies met.
Two Aggies dated.
Two Aggies got engaged.
Two Aggies got married.
One Aggie made the other Aggie move to swamp land, and because of that he will be called Mr. Gator.

I soon learned to love the swamp land, and I am not totally sure why. I came from the greatest state to the most made fun of state. There really are gators at gas stations, in middle of downtown, and of course in the water. Whether I grew to love this state because we had our first year of marriage here, I don't have allergies, or because everything is green and pretty, I/we will never know truly why.

One thing is for sure though, the swamp land is where we started our family.....and where we grew our family. Which leads me to my next funsie....

 

We have a baby gator on the way!!