Scenes from the Bahamas!

The first weekend of June, Jordan and I spent two days and three nights at the Atlantis hotel in the Bahamas. This is most definitely not the kind of vacation we would typically go on, but I was actually going for work, and my boss offered employees the opportunity to take plus ones, provided we paid for the plane ticket and food ourselves. But my food, flight, and hotel were paid for, so we figured we might as well make it a babymoon/anniversary/birthday celebration since we will likely never be able to afford to stay at Atlantis if we were paying for it all ourselves.

You might be wondering what on earth kind of work takes their employees to the Bahamas, and while I really just don't feel comfortable discussing the specifics of my job, I will say that I work for a company that puts on events in different locations around the world, and so this was in essence a site visit and staff planning retreat. I was in meetings both days we were there, but I was really pleased to find that we did have a fair amount of free time to wander about on our own and hit the beach.

Thankfully, we had already gotten passports last year in preparation for our missions trip to Nicaragua, so that was one less thing we needed to worry about. I was really excited to get to use it this year, since I obviously won't be going back this summer to Nicaragua.

We left Saturday at noon, had a few-hour layover in Atlanta, and landed in the Bahamas around 8:00 that night. After checking into the room, Jordan changed clothes and indulged in some ESPN (we don't have cable, so any time we stay in a hotel he gets excited about all the extra channels) while I headed out to a work reception.

We both decided our favorite thing about the Caribbean is how colorful everything is, starting with the water. This picture is completely unedited! Aren't those colors amazing?

This picture was taken with my camera's self-timer. This was the view from our porch! Atlantis is actually a resort complex with four hotels. The iconic "bridge" hotel is what you see in the background. That's the super fancy hotel.

Atlantis is almost indescribable. I just keep telling everyone that it seemed very surreal to be walking around, almost like it wasn't real life. Everything is colorful, the water is so blue, and there are fish everywhere. And not just fish fish like we think--sharks and stingrays and jellyfish and giant fish I'd never heard of before. You could walk underneath Atlantis and see aquariums or walk above. People were in the tanks with scuba gear on walking with the sharks, children were petting baby sharks, people were drinking cocktails and carrying inner tubes and going down slides.

I guess I hadn't really thought about what Atlantis would be like, but it definitely wasn't anything like I would have thought it would be. For one thing, I didn't realize Atlantis was its own resort. To even walk around in certain areas and do certain things you needed either a wristband or a room key. All four hotels are connected, and as you walk through they get more and more fancy. There's a giant casino in the middle, and I totally gambled for the first time ever! I played two different slot games and lost $2. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but it was fun pulling the handle! (Note: My work did not pay for gambling at the casino; we wasted our own $2 on that.)

We really didn't spend too much time on the actual beach. It was kind of a downer that I was 30 weeks pregnant, because walking on the beach took it out of me quick. Don't let these pictures of our smiling faces fool you... it. was. hot.

Also, I wasn't too impressed with the sand on the beach. Maybe it was just the part we walked on, but we both found it pretty rough. There were lots of tiny shells and some rocks, and I've definitely walked on softer sand (I'm talking to you, Hawaii!). Still, you just can't complain about the color of that water. And I haven't been to the beach in so long! I love the sound of it.

^^^ GIANT FISH! Seriously, what on earth? This was in one of the underground tunnel aquariums. It was nice to escape the heat and go underground for bit. It smelled fishy (literally), but it was nice and cool down there.

I did rock a bikini and get in the ocean for approximately 4.2 minutes. Then I got tired of trying to tread water in the waves with my nonexistent abs, and I got out. (Then later that night the whole contraction thing happened. Thus, I have no choice but to blame salt walter.)

^^^On the last night, we walked down to the marina and ate dinner at a seafood restaurant. I used Jordan's head as a tripod to take this shot. People were staring.

On Tuesday, our last morning in the Bahamas, I got up early to watch the sunrise. There were a few people out running along the sidewalk next to the beach, and I totally wished I could have done that, but it was really nice to just watch the sun rise over the ocean. There's just something so calming about listening to the waves on the beach.

I definitely think being 30 weeks pregnant (and therefore not being able to do any of the slides and things) and having The Episode occur clouded our overall impression of the trip, but Atlantis is certainly was an experience all of its own, and all in all, we were very excited to have the chance to spend a few days in the Bahamas together.

***See part 2 from the Bahamas here. 
There's a video I put together of some scenes from our trip!

Have you ever been to the Bahamas? What did you think? 

Is this somewhere you would like to go?

Maternity Pictures (Help me choose a favorite!)

One thing I find strange on blogs is when a blogger announces that something big is going on in their lives and then publishes their next post without even mentioning anything about it. So, before we get to the pictures, a quick update:

Yes, we moved. Jordan and I almost killed each other on Friday night, and I'm only kind of joking about that. Second option was to burn down our apartment. Third option was to make a Chick-fil-A run at 9:55 at night because we were both in a hangry packing rage and needed dinner. Our mothers are glad we did not choose option 1. Our neighbors are glad we did not choose option 2.

So, yes. We have 95% of our belongings over at the house, thanks to our fabulous friends who brought their trucks and trailers (perks of living in Oklahoma, everyone we know owns a truck) and showed up at 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday. Our fridge is getting delivered soon (hopefully), so we opted to live in our apartment for the week so we could have close access to vital life things such as dairy products and leftovers. AND ICE CREAM.

As of this Saturday, we will officially be done with apartment life! There were times when I thought this day would never come, but it's here and it's awesome, and I am so thankful.

Now for the purpose of this post.... check out our maternity pictures and please leave a comment if you have a favorite! I need to figure out which one(s) to frame.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Carli Wentworth Photography*

I always assumed we would get maternity pictures if and when I got pregnant. I have been taking weekly pictures of the bump, but I really wanted some nice pictures of Jordan and I together with Baby Bum. I almost didn't go through with it because I wasn't sure if it would fit into the budget, but I ended up getting a freelance editing project that paid for it, which was a huge blessing.

I really love how the pictures turned out, and I am so happy we did them. The day of the shoot it was super muggy, cloudy, and the mosquitos were eating. us. alive. I mean seriously. I had a giant bite on my face and at least ten bites on the back of my shoulder and down my arm (not an exaggeration). Gross but worth it!

I really can't decide which one I like the best to frame, so if you have a favorite, please help me narrow it down! 

We took these when I was just over 28 weeks, so obviously the bump has grown since then, but I didn't want to wait too long until I was feeling super uncomfortable and swollen. Plus, it has gotten crazy hot in the last few weeks, and I just can't even deal with it. The thermostat is set at 72, and I'm still walking around the apartment in shorts and a tank top. Jordan says it's because I'm currently an incubator.

If you are considering maternity pictures, I really encourage you to do it! This is such a special time, and I will love having these pictures to look back on later.

Outfit details in case you're wondering: 

white and purple tanks (Target) / maxi skirt (JCrew Factory) / Sandals (Target)

So which one should I frame? I need help deciding!
Also, did you do or do you want to do maternity pictures?

Pardon the Interruption

Remember when I was bored?
I don't.

My life is a tad crazy right now, and even though I want to spend time on blogging, I just don't think that's the best use of my time at the moment. Because packing.

I have photos from the Bahamas I want to share and also our maternity pictures! I have a bump update for you, because we get to see Baby Bum on the ultrasound screen today (girlfriend is measuring big, so the doctor wants to check her out). But all of that will have to wait for a time when I'm not getting buried alive by a pile of boxes.

So, in the meantime, I figured I would share a few articles and blog posts I've come across recently that I enjoyed. Hopefully you will too!

I Went Paleo and Now I Hate Everything -- DYING. This is so funny.

What Each Myers-Briggs Type Does on Vacation

In case you're interested, I am an ESTJ; Jordan is an ISTP. We both feel this is completely accurate to our personalities.

Craigslist Best Of: Yoga Mat. Used Once.

*Note: This is long and does include some cursing, so just beware, but oh man is this funny. I promise that you will not be sorry you read this. Let's just say I was snort laughing.

Running a 1/2 Marathon as Told by Emojis

I hate emojis, but this is too good. Especially the one that's a pile of poop.

It's Not About the Nail
This video went viral a few years ago, but if you haven't seen this, WATCH IT. So stinking hilarious.

And now for a few posts on the more serious side...

Did you catch my post about the amazing God moment that happened to us in the Bahamas?

Running While Pregnant -- On supporting a woman's right to decide what's best for her and her baby. Love this.

How Christians Should Respond to the Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner Issue - Whatever your beliefs are about this, I really found this blog post well written and very thoughtful.

And also this article on the same topic. These two articles basically sum up how I feel about this whole thing. My favorite quote from the second article is this:

"There are among the gender confused and the gender reassigned future children of God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Whatever it is Caitlyn Jenner seeks no amount of surgery, hormones, or editing of a Wikipedia page will bring it. Joy comes from the one who made us to find joy in himself."

 ________________________

I hope you enjoy a few of those articles and have a great rest of the week and weekend! If you need me on Saturday morning, my mom made me swear not to pick anything up, so I'll be supervising moving day with donuts in hand.

Blog Survey Results (pt 2)

I figured I should finish sharing the results of my reader survey before I forgot about it all together. Part 1 (read it here) covered all the questions except for the specifics about which posts you all like to read. That's what I'm sharing in today's post, along with some comments on the "why do you like reading this blog" and "one critique I have is" questions.

I am not taking any credit for the formatting of this question. I saw this on another blog survey and thought it would be a great way to get more specific feedback on the particular post topics you do and don't like to read. I would link to the blog where I saw this, but it's just one I found one day while scrolling through Google, and I didn't write it down, so blogger fail on my part.

Anyhoo, here are the results:

Most people seem to like when I blog about marriage. I don't do it often, because there's a really fine line between being open and sharing personal details about our marriage that don't belong on the Internet. However, I did have someone email me a request to write about who should come first in a marriage--the spouse or the children. This is a topic I have an opinion about, and I think it might be interesting to discuss with you all, so you might see a post on that coming up in the next few months.

In case you missed them, I'm linking to a few of my favorite serious marriage posts. You can also view all the posts labeled "marriage" by clicking on the "topics" tab in the menu bar at the top of my blog and choosing "marriage."

4 Ways Shared Faith Appears in Our Marriage

The Best Marriage Advice I Ever Got

When You Decide to Love Anyway

It's no surprise that you all love my funny marriage stories. I do not make any of these up! This is real life in the Bumgarner household, people. A few past favorites:

An Elbow to the Face

The Rage

Overheard

I am glad no one said OMG stop, because you would be banned from this blog. My family is one of my favorite things to write about, and if you hate it, NOT SORRY, because I will keep blogging about them forever and ever amen. Here are some personal favorites from the last 5 years:

The Egg Roulette Game

My Grandpa's Tie
The Christmas Tree Story
Then the Cops Showed Up

Of course you like random life updates! It confuses me that anyone would say they don't like this type of post. These are my favorites to read on other blogs for sure. If a blogger doesn't write about their life and only posts recipes and DIYs and "5 Ways to..." I stop following pretty quick.

Wanna know a secret? These lists posts are written more for my enjoyment than yours. I mean, I'm glad most of you like them, but I write them mostly because they're just really fun to write. These are the ones I go back to and read and chuckle while patting myself on the back and saying, "Self, you are funny." A few favorites:

5 Stores that Make Me Want to Buy All the Things

5 Things I'm Terrible At

5 Things Other People Like that I Don't

Okay, wanna know another secret? Blogging about my faith gives me MAJOR anxiety. Like, every single time I post something about God the following thoughts run through my head: Everyone is going to think I'm a nutcase for writing about this.

People are going to unfollow me.

Wait. Why do I care if people unfollow me for blogging about God?

I shouldn't care.

I wish I didn't care.

Does that make me a bad person because I care?

Nevermind. I DON'T CARE. I'm hitting publish.

Okay, I still care, but this is my blog and I love Jesus, and sometimes I want to write about it.

This is not a faith blog, and it was never intended to be, but I do believe in God, and sometimes I want to write about it. I appreciate those of you who were honest about not enjoying those posts. I get that they're not for everyone. But I hope you still feel welcome here, no matter what your beliefs. And I do pray for you, even if it's not by name. You can see all my faith-related posts under the "faith" option in the "topics" menu above.

Some of you don't like these, and I get that. I pretty much skip all weekend recaps posts that come up in my feed, and I'm guessing this is a similar situation. The reason I like this format is because it's structured; every month I include the same topics (read this month, travel, notable events), and it's a fun way for me to recap the month and include some pictures and small tidbits that didn't make it into its own blog post. These are my favorite just for my own personal use because I use them as reference when I'm working on my Project Life pages.

Bloggers like reading about blogging. That's just a fact. Another fact is that non-bloggers don't like reading about blogging, because why would you? I definitely don't do as many blogging-specific posts as I used to. I've been at this for 5 years and don't feel the need to blog about blogging as much. But I do enjoy it and like the discussion that comes, so you'll still see a few of these from time to time. For anyone who's new, you can check out all my blogging posts here.

I was surprised to see how many people like my posts on OKC! I'm not a huge fan of local posts from other bloggers unless I'm actually planning on traveling there (or unless you're Charlotte and you live in Europe). But I'll keep throwing in OKC posts occasionally since you don't seem to hate it. I really did think the answers here would end up much more toward the bottom.

Last but certainly not least, my running posts. Insert giant, mournful sigh. You guys, I haven't run in a month, and I keep meaning to blog about it, but here's the short version: I miss running, but it's hot and I'm tired from packing and cleaning and moving, and the Braxton Hicks are large and in charge, as is Baby Bum (whose name HINT does not start with a D). Hopefully I will be rocking the race recaps posts again soon! I did enjoy this comment from one of you: The only thing more boring than running is reading about someone else running. <--- That made me LOL. I obviously can't say I agree, but I love the honesty.

I asked you what your favorite blogs are, and a few people asked me why I wanted to know. Am I targeting my advertising? Answer: no. Also, ha! The only reason I asked this question is because I want to share some new blogs with you and find some new blogs for me! 

If someone is reading my blog and likes another blog, you might enjoy it too. I had grand ideas of categorizing these and linking back to the blog, but ain't nobody got time for that. You all gave me SO many names! So I copied all of YOUR favorite blogs into a Word doc, and you can view it at this link right here. Note: While I do read and love some of the ones mentioned, I am not personally endorsing any of these blogs. I haven't had time to go through the entire list myself, but hopefully you can find a new favorite or two!

Let's conclude with a few comments and critiques.

First, critiques. You really didn't have too many, which of course made me feel good BUT I always want to improve, so if you ever have something I can do better, please let me know. A few people mentioned not really enjoying my vlogs because they prefer to read (totally understandable!). Someone said they wish I blogged more often, which is a nice compliment but there is no way that's going to happen any time soon. 

A few people said they don't enjoy my faith posts, and one person said they wonder sometimes if they would be welcome in my readership because we differ in our faith views. I guess to that I can only say that I really hope everyone feels welcome here, no matter what your views are about God. And in case I need to clarify this, I want you to know that in real life, I have many friends of various beliefs from atheism to Catholicism to different Protestant denominations. Just because we don't agree on politics or religion doesn't mean I don't want to be friends.

Lastly, why you like reading this blog. You guys really are so nice, and these comments made me smile. The words/phrases most often used to describe why you like reading The Lady Okie were: funny, relatable, honest, original, real, positive, no fluff, fun to read, great writer, thoughtful, fun. 

Seriously, such huge compliments. I never want this blog to represent anything other than my real life, so I'm glad that a lot of you see that. The biggest compliment is when someone who knows me in real life says reading my blog feels like sitting down for an in-person chat. I've been blogging for over 5 years, and it's never felt like a chore. I love coming here to write and share and interact with all of you. Obviously I won't keep doing it forever, but for now, even though sometimes I wonder if spending so much time on this is a waste of time, it's just really fun.

I'll conclude with a Photobooth pic I took just now. Jordan just came in as I took this and now he's making fun of me. I really have no shame.

Now excuse me while I return to packing. WE ARE MOVING ON SATURDAY. And by we, I mean Jordan and our friends will move, and I will supervise while eating donuts. Amen.

Project Life Update: March, April, May

Okay, people. According to the reader survey I never finished telling you about (answers to the first half here), only a few of you hate my Project Life updates. I figured if a lot of you said you hated these, I would stop doing them. But you didn't, so sorry to the 31 people who aren't fans, but this is still happening.

I know it seems insane that I'm still making time to work on this with all the craziness that's going on in my life, but I don't think you guys really understand how much I love scrapbooking. I love it a lot. Also, it's something I feel I'm good at. I'm really proud of my scrapbooks and like sharing them with people.

Below are the pages I made for March, April, and the beginning of May! (You can see pages from January and February here.)

For those who need a refresher, Project Life is a type of hybrid scrapbooking where you use photo pockets to insert pictures of various sizes and mix those with journaling cards. Check out the Project Life website here for more info. You can do physical or digital Project Life depending on what you like. Mine is a 6x8 size.

I've gotten a few questions about this on my first post, so I'll answer it here for those who are wondering: How do I print my pictures?

I currently print my pictures one of three ways: Shutterfly, Persnickety Prints, Walgreens. 

I did Shutterfly most recently because I got a code for free prints and I was already buying something else so shipping was not a factor; Persnickety Prints caters to Project Life folks and offers prints in many different sizes, along with cardstock prints and other things like that, plus the quality is amazing; Walgreens makes the worst-quality prints, but it's cheap and easy, and I don't have to wait for shipping. My ultimate goal is to buy a home photo printer, but those are expensive so we'll see.

^^^Wondering what the blank 18-week picture is? Long story short, I lost the battery charger to my point-and-shoot, and so I can't get that picture off my camera! I'm hoping we unearth the charger during packing.

^^^That black-and-white picture of Jordan and I is a 4x6 size. I cut it in half and used both halves in the 3x4 spots.

^^^I made those "Currently" 3x4 cards in photoshop and printed them on cardstock.

So that's what my book looks like so far! Are any of you doing a Project Life book or any other kind of scrapbooking? I love getting ideas from other people, so send me any links or ideas that you use in your own scrapbooking. Thanks!

Any questions about Project Life? Leave them in the comments or email me!