Breakfast with Santa aka Wodie aka The Big Dog

In our area we have Young Lives which is Young Life's ministry to teen moms. Every Christmas they have a breakfast with Santa. They serve a breakfast to the moms and their families and kids. The kids take a picture with Santa and the moms get to pick out a present that was donated to give their kid for Christmas. Well, this year Will's wish is coming true a little earlier than expected. One of Will's dreams is to be Santa Claus. We thought he was just going to have to wait for time to take it's toll but not true. Will got to be Santa Claus this year. It was VERY entertaining. A lot of unhappy children, some who didn't really know what to do, and a few very excited... here's a couple of each.

happy...

unhappy...

indifferent...

and unhappy...

Mr. and Mrs. Claus...

Merry Christmas!

The countdown begins!

Earlier this week we had our last ultrasound. Days leading up to our appointment, we were so excited to see the lil guy again! The tech first showed us his kidneys, heart, bladder, blah, blah boring. I thought "Lady get to the good stuff. Let me see his face." She kept trying to get a good visual of his face, but said his head was already snug down in my pelvis. I was bummed that I didn't get to see his face but also real excited that he's gettin ready to come out! They said he's a little over 6 lbs and a week ahead of schedule. We asked if that meant that they thought he would come a week early and they said that very much could be the case OR he could just be a big baby! PLEEEEAAASSSEEE LORD, bring the babe early!

But even though we are beyond excited for Knox to get here, we're trying to take advantage of life without kids... Staying out late when we get the chance, sleeping in, and quiet. 

Christmas Club!

This picture was taken minutes after a fiasco before club... The short version is a truck peeled into the parking lot, going way to fast, where we hang out with all our friends before club. He parks in front of the liquor store and gets out yelling at all the kids for being in the middle of the street (but its not a street but a parking lot). So of course, Will walks over to try and explain what's going on. He doesn't want to hear it. He starts yelling at Will, as Will says over and over about 15 times, "Hey man, let's have a conversation." Then the Thai lady that owns the liquor store comes out and she's yelling who knows what. My mind goes to worst case scenerio... this man or his friend is about to pull out a gun and shoot my baby daddy. Will's outfit didn't help the situation...

These are 2 of my faves...Chelsea and Marty

and the gang.

We went to the Yardhouse (our favorite late night hang out) after club with some other  yl staff people and of course Will had a story to tell.

Noise Complaints...

Last weekend we got our 4th noise complaint from our downstairs neighbors... 

to them we are moving furniture 24/7. Well, I had 6 girls sleepover and it did not sit well with them down below. These girls were "noisy from 7-11 on Saturday night and early Sunday morning"

We made these that i saw on Pinterest. Some turned out good and not so good but this one was Chelsea's that turned out the best. (sorry I didn't rotate it)

Will went and talked to management on Monday. He tried to see if we had any options of moving apartments or getting out of our lease early but there weren't. I told Will that both of those options would be a pain in the butt right now. I say, it's their issue not ours. If they're having such a problem, they can move to a 3rd floor apartment.

We're working on loving our neighbor, literally.

Mama needs her milk.

Caught!

Westside Hoedown

Last night we had a hoedown for YL club! We had a "Rockytop"n', cricket spittin', joke tellin', overall wearin' good time! In this picture left to right is Reese, me, Marty, and Megan. We sent this picture to Megan's younger sister, Anna, who couldn't be there. I've started to find my niche at Westside... Reese, Marty, Anna, Bailey, and Erin are some sophomore girls that I've fallen in love with. They are all so funny and a joy to be around! I'm having them over to our apartment for a sleepover next saturday and as an example of how great they are we are going to have an "Arrested Development" marathon.

YL has become the thing to do for a bunch of foreign exchange students... Julia on the left lives with my friend Sasha. Julia is from Germany and she's so funny and delightful. Everytime I see her she asks how Knox is. I told her that we had a party for the baby and she got so confused because the baby couldn't enjoy his own party. I knew she would be even more confused if I said baby shower. Next is Beatriz from Brazil and Marie who is also from Germany. I don't know them as well since I don't know their host families.

and yours truly! I really wanted to wear my overalls for the hoedown, so I did, but by the end of the night I felt like I was going to burst! They were so tight around the belly! After club I unbuckled,  layed on the floor, and complained about how uncomfortable and hungry I was as Will, Nsen, and Ben (2 of our beloved leaders) cleaned up. 

Will doing Mr. Chicco skit with Ben. Yeah a whole raw chicken on his arm as a puppet...

comedy gold people.

Mexican Dinner

Two roasted Black Forest bacon wrapped, cream cheese filled jalepenos.  Brown Rice and homemade black beans topped with poblanos, onions, and sautéed lemon cilantro spinach.  Finished of with a little tomato and avocado... I (Wodie) got the one out of four jalepenos that didn't get seeded all the way... put a whoopin' on me.

Happy Halloween!

A week and half ago, Will and I went to Tennessee/North Carolina for about 4 days. Our friends Whopper and Caris got married in Asheville. We tagged on a few more days to be in Knoxville and be with our family. Here is us and Will's roommates from college and their wives, also our favorite people to be around in the world, after the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday, as the boys were off doing the things groomsmen do, us girls sat around the breakfast table at windy gap talking and drinking coffee. We then strolled through Asheville and we ate a yummy lunch at the Early Girl. My time with them was really great for my heart.

Here's Whopper standing waiting for his beautiful bride! Loved this whole wedding!

 Here's Will and I with our friends the future Mr. and Mrs. Kelly Corum!

Love them!

The Bride and Groom!

And my favorite thing about this wedding, besides the people, were all the flowers!!

My camera, sadly, then died. 

We had a baby shower for Knox the next day in Knoxville! I wanted it to never end, all these people in one room, there for us and our new family member. I started to weep then and do again now as I realized that these people won't be in Knox's everyday life and Knox won't be in their everyday lives. I don't know who will really know Knox, other than Will and I down here in Houston. It was a hard thought to take in, sitting in front of 60 people, with all eyes on you. I'm thankful for that moment and those people, their generousity, their hearts, our excitement, our nervousness, and our time in tn/nc.

The weeks here go by so fast. Every Monday I think, "I can't believe it's Monday again already!" It's already half way through October. Good Gosh. Here's to another beautifully crazy Monday Night!

Will and I are way past juicing and gone to eating the real thing. We read this book called, Food Matters by Mark Bittman. Basically he says eat less meat, don't eat processed foods, and eat a lot of fruit and veggies, that way you'll help preserve this earth and your bodies. It just got us thinking.

 

So, on his birthday this past Monday, we joined a Co-op. We reserve a box about once a week and pick it up at the park. This week we had eggplant, romaine, spinach, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, avocado, lemon, thyme basil, apples, oranges, kiwi, pears, tomatoes, and green onions. We went  straight from the park to my all-time favorite grocery store, Central Market. We brought our How to Cook Everything Vegetarian Cookbook along with us and planned our meal based on what was in the box. This week has been fun, basing our meals on what veggies we have left. My only complaint is I've had a enough zucchini to last me awhile. We made a veggie ratatouille (which also had for lunch the days following), zucchini pancakes, and zucchini bread. I bet Knox loves it too. 

Oh yeah. After too many conversations over meals, in the late night hours, in the car, as we're watching tv, and on the phone, we decided on a name...

Knox Wilson Odom. 

We had a top 5 but neither of us were crazy on one name, so we let it lie, hoping one would catch our attention, hopefully before the birth. Knox  wasn't even in our top 5, but then one day as we're eating sandwiches, Will asked, "What about Knox?" We had brought the name up early on in the pregnancy and I had shot it down. But sitting there at Which Wich, I said, "I think I really like it!" After thinking about it for a few days, we put our stamp of approval on it. I was excited for a few reasons but mainly to just have one picked out and to not to have think about it anymore! I had no idea  that I would feel so much responsibility about a name! 

Babies R Us here we come!

Will and I didn't have much going on Tuesday afternoon, so we decided to begin a registry at Babies R Us. Better sooner than later, because who knew babies came with so much stuff aka shit. We were given a "guide" of "must-haves" for the baby. Half the stuff Will and I just looked at each other dumbfounded asking, "Do we really need that?" or "What is that?" or "Which one, there's like 15 different kinds?". It was fun, but it was definitely not like registering for your wedding, where you just picked out what you liked. We agreed on almost everything that we registered for...

Our biggest decision or shall i say debate right now is cloth vs. disposable diapers...

When Will imagines a landfill he pictures a bunch of dirty diapers... I'm pro healthy environment, organic when you can/should, hell i was a vegetarian for a year, but I cannot imagine myself washing poo poo everyday in my washing machine. Talk about gag reflux. And what if I'm at Target or something...I can't just throw the diaper away. Do I just carry around this poo in my purse??  I see where he's coming from, and maybe it's not as bad as I make it out to be, but in reality he won't be changing Mister as much as I will. We may try both out. 

Our first club in Houston!

Here's a picture from club last night... We left last night beaming!

Had 125 club cards in my hand afterwards...

And all heard about a guy named Jesus that welcomes all of them to Him and to Young Life.

We know we are supposed to be here.

I wanted to take more pictures (I didn't even take this one) but was just having too much fun!

Video from first club...

Dopple Gangers from Will Odom on Vimeo.
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Video try out...

We are trying to figure out how to get a video on here... found this one from a couple months ago.  Our crossover into the republic.  Let's see if it works.

REI Garage Sale

Here is Will with 2 of our Westside leaders (guy and girl in crazy creeks at the bottom) and 10 of his new best friends in Houston. This bunch camped out overnight for the REI garage sale that happens every couple of months. REI saves all their returned items to sell for 50-90% off of retail. Our goal...

This here stroller. 

Will got there at 8:30 Friday night. Rumor on the street was that there were 4 Bob Strollers in the sale. There was a guy, Roland, who was 2 in front of Will who was also looking for a stroller. Game on. Come to find out though his wife wasn't even pregnant...so he said he would let Will have the first pick. Nice guy. 

Come 9:30 AM the next morning we were the proud of owners of the above stroller. We got some "ohhhs and ahhhs" as we came out of the sale. I so badly want to sit in it myself for some reason. When I buy something I like to use/wear it immediately. For how much it's worth, I should be able to sit in it. We also got a sleeping bag, and 2 pairs of chacos to sell online. We (most likely just Will til Mister is old enough to camp) will never not camp out for a sale in Houston. 

Unrelated funny story: Saturday tied for record heat in Houston, 109 degrees. That same day Will found out that he had seat warmers in his car and they've been on high for the past month that he has been driving it. Everytime he came in from driving, his shirt would be soaked with sweat... I really was starting to wonder about his sweat glands. Now it makes sense.

pics

Here I am folks...one day shy of 19 weeks.

 Now these ultrasound pictures I could never master. Will says this is Mister's ween but I don't really know what to think this is a picture of. Oh and Mister is our new nickname for the babe til we name him.

On this one you're looking down at Mister... presh.

Today Will and I went to the Rice University Farmer's Market. I got a scone, bunches of kale, swiss chard, and cucumbers. We're going on a juice kick to get our full dose of fruit and veggies. So afterwards we went to Bed, Bath, and BEYOND to buy a juicer. I'm also going to try and make kale chips. I hear they're good, but I'll let you know.

I hate making title's for each post.

After Will and I found out we were having a boy we went to Babies R Us to see what's on the market for baby boys. Well, we found a stroller and a pack & play that tripled as a changing station and hamper with some storage for toys. Due to our one bedroom apartment we'll need something like that to save room. Clothes wise, wahhh wahhh. Everything is cheesy and has something like "I love Mommy" forcing him to love me. The next day we went into Marshall's and we found a onesie with robots on it, giving me hope that there's more out there. Found these on Etsy just making me more excited!

This one, especially if we name him Cash (which is in our top 5 thus far)

The doctor's appointment went great. During the ultrasound, she was talking as if it was going to be hard to tell the sex. In my head I was like ahhh if we don't find out today I'm gonna cry! She was showing us all different parts of the body. We could see him moving his head and arms(which I started feeling 2 days prior and now I feel him moving quite often! so weird!).  All along she would type on the screen the parts ie RFoot for right foot. And as she was done, she typed boy but didn't say it yet. I thought , is boy short for something??? or is this her telling us it's a boy??? I was so confused, then she put !!! on the end and said "It's a Boy". I raised the roof and cried. We are thrilled. We really want to have a girl one day but I really wanted to have a boy first. 

My mom has been in town for a week swooning Will and I to dinner and/or lunch about everyday. And in between buying me maternity clothes that couldn't have come in a more perfect time. I got to the point where I was only wearing dresses or leggings. Maternity Leggings=Most comfortable things ever. Ummm yeah, I'll probably shop there even when I'm not pregnant.

I promise baby bump and ultrasound pictures next post!

Drum Roll Please...

IT'S A BOY!!!

We've Got The Internets

After 11 days in our new apartment and feeling settled the "new" keeps coming...

I now have cravings... milk and popsicles. Not together.

The Astros might as well be a minor league team.

I live at Hogwarts. We are trying to read them all to be able to see HP7pt2 in 3D.

Met my local CVS employee, Joseph, who I'll be working with for years to come.

Will and I are no longer attached at the hip. He got a car yesterday. It's an Escalade. If you know us, this is real funny.

Today we finished our 2 week camp follow-up with Westside folks. We won't know what to do with our mornings to ourselves now.

I'm finally getting a belly bump. Thought for a few weeks it was some sick joke.

AND we should be finding out boy or girl a week from tomorrow!!

Back to Houston

We got back to Houston late afternoon on Tuesday. We have started camp follow up and our past few mornings have been filled with doughnuts, high school kids, and Jesus. It's been real fun to say "see you tomorrow" everyday to these guys.

We had our 2nd baby doctor appointment today. I don't know why but I was on pins and needles just hoping everything was ok. Ok I do know why, it's cause I'm really bad at taking my pre-natal vitamins and I wasn't showing as much as I thought I should be. Probably cause I'd been comparing my belly to Sharon Clark, who is a week behind me BUT is also on her third child. Anyways my pins and needles were false alarm. The doctor said the heartrate was great, that my uterus was growing, and everything seemed to being going great. Just need to start gaining weight. Normally, you would think this is the best news ever. Today I had 2 doughnuts, cheap chinese food for lunch, and greasy mexican for dinner and I feel like I'm going to explode. Don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up. We go back to the doctor in 3 weeks to find out the sex!! BOY OR GIRL???? we both think it's a boy.

Buddy and Kathie got here today! We gave them a small tour of niche of town, then went to our fave mexican place, Lupe Tortilla's. Of course, they admitted to never having anything like it. Welcome to Texas people.

We've been staying at my friend Jen's parents house since we got back in town and we're moving into our apartment tomorrow! I could not be more ready to have our nest back. And to have a dishwasher!!!! Ahhhh!!! This could save Will and I from many many fights. Happy Moving Day to us!

My B

Ok so I did take a bunch of pictures last week of camp, BUT the internet began to become super slow and I became impatient with uploading pictures so I gave up. Sorry. I'll upload them when we get home.

Then, this week began. The week we've been waiting for for awhile now. Our new high school came as campers on our last week here. I was nervous to begin the week. I just didn't know what kind of lives I would be walking into.

Come to find out, I can't imagine a week going any better than it has. It had it's hard times and conversations, but it has made Will and I so so excited to go back to Houston with these folks.

Will said it best, "You've come alive this week." I believe that to be true. The Lord has had this in store for us for a long time.

Day 1

For those of you who aren't too familiar with the daily life of what happens at Young Life camp during one full week I've decided to document each day, and this week only folks. We are here for four weeks. Today was the beginning of Week 3. 

Woke up around 9. We had all camp worship where the Assign Team, Work Crew, Summer Staff, Interns, and Property Staff all get together to sing and hear from our Camp Director. We pray for the areas across the U.S. who are about to arrive in camp in less than a couple of hours. The time is always sweet. 

After brunch, I head out to babysit these 2... Hayley and Abby. It was good practice.

Here is Devon and Will as Jescoe and Jasper White "The Dancin' Outlaws" and in the middle, Steve Gardner, our Speaker and Friend.

This is Steve's son, Grant, who lives for dessert and dinosaurs.

Here is Will, Devon, and Justin introducing the places and activities you can do in camp.

They play some games to get the kids running around and meeting some new people.

We had some surprise guests!! Our good friends, The Harris'!

We have club every night except for wednesday when it's in the morning.

In club we sing songs... at times crowd surf.

We play some games. Will has had the idea for these game characters in head for 3 years and it finally has come to life... "Hey, I'm a rabbit! And I'm a haaamster! You just  took a trip to the PAARTY CAGE!" Too funny for words.

Night 1 there is an obstacle course. Every cabin is sent through the dark into unchartered territory with one mission, to protect their leader from water balloons.  Here is Will decked out and duct taped.

The obstacle course and night all end in a huge pool party. They had a belly flop contest and here is the winner... it's blurry but you get the picture.

And that concludes Day 1.

Opera Drama... literally right after the opera on night 4, Will's back went out... This makes for a miserable Wodie. Thank goodness it was after everything that is extraneous.  He's been taking it easy, getting in some extra visits to the hot tub, and is highly medicated. Hopefully he'll be up and at 'em come Sunday. Say a prayer for him, if you're into that kinda thing.

We both stayed in camp during the hike on Day 5. The hike hadn't yet been done this summer due to snow still on the mountain. A day earlier, the ODC (outdoor crew) boys made the hike possible by shoveling waist deep snow off the path. Everyone was supposed to get back around 2:30 but 4 rolled around and we thought, "Must have been some hike."  Devon and Justin showed up around 4:30 with a story to tell... The campers hiked up to the snack site. When they got there someone comes running down the mountain saying that their jeep flipped, they don't have any phones, and they have a woman injured. We have a doctor and 2 nurses on hand. By the grace of God, the hike was possible that day. Due to the delay, the campers had to sit at the snack site around 1 1/2 hours. I've heard the woman was sent to the hospital with a back injury and is recovering. Seemed like a crazy day.

Sorry I forgot to get my camera for Night 4. Don't worry, I got 3 more tries.

Livin the Life at Frontier Ranch

It's Day 4 here at Frontier Ranch and as most of you know tonight is "the night that never ends" therefore I'm gearing up and saving some energy for tonight.

As of right now, I can't complain one bit. I haven't been able to say that since the very beginning of May. I believe (and I don't want to jinx myself) that I'm turning that corner out of first trimester blues. The first few days in Colorado were rough due to the altitude on top of pregnancy.  I was meeting all these people for the first time and could hardly keep up a conversation. I was down thinking, "They must think I'm some program spouse bia." But I woke up on Monday morning and thought, "I feel good??!!" I couldn't wait to tell Will and start having a great time really getting to know people better.

Our Assign Team is the bomb. I feel like I've known mostly everyone (but more so the staff spouses) for a long time now...not 3 1/2 days. Conversation with everyone is so natural. Housing is a little crazy compared to our assignments at SharpTop with everyone kinda scattered around. We are in Chief with the Accardi's and the Bailey's which is the perfect setup for program team and their families.

Will is in Opera Practice right now. They are killin' it. Everyone is amazed at their (Will, Devon, and Justin) chemistry. While listening to Will and Devon banter on the mics during the volleyball tournament, Erin and I realized that it's so natural because this is what they do pretty much every Tuesday night when we watch The Biggest Loser or Hoarders or anything else we do with them. We will miss them a lot, but for now we are just enjoying them. In related news, our "official" Godson, Cameron Accardi, took is his first steps yesterday!! We all screamed in excitement and then he decided he was done entertaining.

Hopefully I'll grab some photos of tonight!

Becoming Houstonians

Our first week in Houston was full of apartment hunting and sports. After a few days of seeing options in the area we landed on a nice looking, one bedroom apartment that is about a mile from the school. http://www.amli.com/apartments/houston/eldridge-parkway/  We first passed the apartment complex because we thought it looked out of our league, but u-turned it, and thought what the hay (or hey?). We met Isela, who showed us around the complex and into some rooms. It became our favorite and the price was around do-able. Isela is a quirky, thirty something woman, who had a hard time recognizing us everytime we came in...

To Jess: "Did you color your hair?... You cut it?... Oh, You look so different."
To Will: "If you shaved, I would not recognize you."

Also sports...The week we got there was the beginning of the NBA Finals in which we automatically became Mavs fans and rooted our boys onto victory. We also went to an Astros game...

Will went to another one while I was in Nashville for the Cleckner/Sadler Wedding... Stros lost both. Not the best timing to become Stros fans.

On Monday, we packed up our car yet again, and headed North to Bryson, Texas to stay with my parents for 2 nights to break up our drive to Frontier. Being with my dad, you're always into an adventure like...turtle hunting.

caught one!

My parents have a big pond in their backyard where they have about 30 catfish. As my dad is walking to feed them, he starts hootin n hollerin, and sure enough you start to see ripples, then waves as the catfish get excited for dinner! It was one of those gross but cool things to watch them all eat. I couldn't quite get a good action shot of them all eating. It seemed that everytime I took a picture they went back down into the water. 

As you can tell my parents love Texas.

A little glimpse why.

On to Frontier....