I've had some rather demanding requests for some belly photos (*ahem* Margaret!), so I've decided to post a couple just to please the people. I'm still getting used to the pregnant form that I'm taking on, so I have a hard time seeing myself this size. lol. I hope this will satisfy everyone's curiosity who don't see me too often. No fat jokes! :) Also, please disregard Alex's demon eyes. I'm not sure why his eyes always turn out blue in pictures - maybe he is trying to match my top here. He does look stoic, though, doesn't he?
...that's the answer to the most common question I get lately - "Got any cravings yet?" Only one of those two is truly interesting because I've always loved popcorn. To be clear - I love movie theatre popcorn. Nothing else quite measures up. In fact, I've been known to make the crazy request of Frank to get me some on his way home from work. I feel so bad for him walking into the movies to get popcorn and then walking right back out to his car. He must get some strange looks. I have the best husband ever. Popsicles are a new thing, though. I was very specific in my request here as well. For some reason I remember those popsicles that come in the plastic tube thing - you cut the top off and squeeze it up. Apparantly they are called otter pops. Frank spent a long time in the frozen foods isle trying to find them, but with no luck. My mother-in-law got wind of the missing popsicles and got online to solve the problem. She ordered me 15 POUNDS of otter pops. lol. I think I'm set until my kids are in kindegarten. Thanks, Jackie!
Sorry for the absense of posting lately. I expected to have alot more to say during the pregnancy, but I'm at a loss for interesting updates. Here are the basics..
Im a little over 24 weeks along - just 3 short weeks till I hit the 3rd trimester, and I can't wait!! Time has been going by pretty quickly, which I didn't expect. After my next monthly OB appointment I will start seeing my doctor every two weeks! It's hard to believe I'm almost at that stage.
The second most common thing I've heard during my pregnancy is "you don't even look pregnant!" - that's all started to change this week, though. It seems like baby girl is growing at a very rapid pace now. Some mornings I get up and look in the mirror and I'm startled by how big my tummy is getting. It's fun to finally see some progress and get out of the "I just look fat" stage. In fact, the lady at Starbucks asked me when I was due today which means that it's finally obvious that I'm pregnant!
I started feeling little kicks from baby girl on my birthday (Dec. 29th), and she has continued getting stronger. Now I feel her turn over and move from one side of my tummy to the other. She's pretty active, but she saves most of her energy for right when I go to bed. Frank likes to feel her move and kick, too which isnt hard now. The smile and look on his face is priceless. Some nights I wake up to feel him touching my belly - he says he's just "checking on his little girl". I melt every time he says that. :)
We have officially decided on a name for her, but it's still a secret. We had looked at names so many times before we found out we were having a little girl, and we would come up with a short list of names that we liked but it never failed that just days later we wouldn't like any of them. This time, I think we've got one that will stick. It's been almost a month and we still love it.
The month of March is going to be very busy for us. We plan to buy (and assemble) the baby furniture, paint, and decorate the nursery, re-design the closet for baby clothes, have a garage sale and register. So much to do! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE projects. The part I hate is getting Frank on board. He's a great helper, but I think I stress him out some. I'll try to curb my enthusiasm a little and work on my marketing skills when describing these things to him. It's all about how you frame it, right?
Anyway, all this to say that I'm having a great time being pregnant - now that I'm past the sickness part. I'll be sure to post pictures of the nursery and other events for those of you few and faithful who still check in here from time to time. Until then...
Today we had another sonogram and found out what our little baby is - it's a girl!
Now, I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't kind kind of hoping just a little bit that we were having a little boy. Besides the whole father-son things (you know: camping, sports, rough-housing, shooting guns, getting dirty doing yardwork and then tromping it through Kristin's clean house), I have to admit - part of it was that the idea of a pretty little girl scares me to death.
Now, don't get me wrong - I'm really excited! I see pictures of Kevin having a picnic with his little girl, or I read about Josh getting guided tours from his, or watch Chris with his little princess. Tonight we had dinner with a pastor from our church, and watched his little girl put on a Disney princess dress and twirl for us. And I'm totally looking forward to my little girl standing on my feet while we dance.
But I'm scared.
I'm scared because she's already got me wrapped around her tiny little finger.
We spent less than an hour in a dark room watching the 3-D sonogram on a big TV (see her little hands in the sonogram pic!). There were two couches and I was all over both of them and about every inch of the floor in between them. I was so excited to see my little girl - but the TV screen was as close as I could get, and I just couldn't sit still watching her.
I'm scared because she's going to grow up and she's going to be beautiful. I know this because her Mama is beautiful. How do you tell your darling little girl no? I have a hard time sticking to the rules when my dog looks cute, and Kristin has a whole bag of cute faces she can pull out to make me do strange things like stop by a movie theater to pick her up some popcorn (it's apparently much better than normal stuff, and yes, this was before she was pregnant). I'm going to be a total pushover for my pretty little girl, I think.
And having a pretty little girl brings all sorts of other problems, too. There's a song out right now that I find particularly amusing called, "Cleaning This Gun." The chorus goes like this:
Come on in boy, sit on down And tell me 'bout yourself So you like my daughter, do you now Yeah we think she's something else She's her daddy's girl and her mama's world She deserves respect, that's what she'll get, ain't it son Now y'all run along and have some fun I'll see you when you get back Bet I'll be up all night Still cleaning this gun
I'm scared because I know she'll keep me up more nights than I want to think about (I have a bad feeling my prayer life is about to reach a whole new level). I'm scared because one day some guy's going to come along and take her away. I remember when I asked Kristin's Dad if I could marry his daughter - and I remember that I was scared to death to do that because I had at least a vague idea of what I was asking him to let me have.
My little princess is only officially 20 weeks old - and I already love her more than I can explain. After all, I only know her from a picture on a TV screen and a tiny little thump on Kristin's belly when my little girl kicks (which she does a lot lately). And it's amazing how much more real just knowing which pronoun to use makes all this.
I'm quite certain I have no idea of the emotional rollercoaster my little girl is about to take me on. I have a feeling I'll look back and see life to this point being a little bit one-dimensional. I think a whole bunch of color is about to flood my little black-and-white world.
I went and got a much needed haircut this past week.
Such events are usually pretty routine. I am a guy, after all, and there's just not much exciting anyone does with my hair. I actually prefer it that way.
However, this past week I splurged a little, and visited a place in McKinney almost totally because of the experience it advertised.
Declare Your Men-dependence
That's their tagline. I was intrigued - at least in part because it sounded like something Stephen would say, and Stephen rarely allows himself to be associated with low-quality experiences. Stephen also takes his hair more seriously than any guy I know, which definitely added some subliminal credibility to this "Rooster's" place.
The biggest draw, though, was that they use a straight-razor and hot shaving soap on your neck and around your ears. There was a place in Albuquerque that used to do this - a couple old guys in a shop adorned with faded black-and-white photos of famous athletes and venues, and which always smelled of that hot shaving soap. It was a true barber shop - no "product" lining the windows and no glamour shots on the walls. Just some old Sports Illustrateds and a couple Field and Stream magazines. Since then, I've been willing to settle for the "unisex salon" because the price was the part of the haircut that I was most interested in, and because it's so hard to find an actual barber shop, much less one where the barber uses a straight-razor.
Rooster's was not cheap - $24 is about twice what I usually pay. Inflation's been a beast on the ol' "two bits" I guess. But I fell for the tag line and the memory of that barber shop in Albuquerque, and made my appointment.
Oh wow was I glad I did.
The environment was very man-friendly, to say the least. There's no "product" sitting around or celebrity gossip magazines in the waiting area. Just lots of dark wood, some sports and hunting magazines... and a massive plasma tv permanently tuned to ESPN. In place of outdated glamor shots, they had a few large mounted heads of elk and moose. Yeah, they knew their target audience, I'd say.
Yvonne took me to my chair, sat me down, and after some brief introductory questions (a haircut as simple as mine shouldn't take much explanation), she quietly proceeded to give me one of the better haircuts I've had in a while - which was a good start. As she tucked the towel in the collar of my shirt and lathered up the back of my neck, I smiled a little - this was what I'd come for, and in this all-important skill, Yvonne was a surgeon. Too good, in fact. I was a little disappointed when she finished so quickly. I wanted to savor the experience, and the sandalwood aftershave was small consolation.
But that's actually when it got really good.
She leaned that awesome leather chair back (picture the ideal post-Thanksgiving position for falling into a tryptophan-induced coma while watching football) and then covered my face with hot towels. I had read that a hairwashing was included, but I was expecting the kind of perfunctory rinse that simply keeps those little hairs from falling on your keyboard when you get back to work. This was nothing like that.
I want to say Yvonne used some kind of scrubber to massage my scalp, but that gives the wrong mental image. When Kristin and I were on our honeymoon, she discovered I'd never had a true massage before, and signed me up. The incense was subtle, the soft music was relaxing - pretty much what you'd expect. But before we got to the backrub part, the masseuse warned me that she was about to "exfoliate" me. I had no idea what it meant to be "exfoliated" and was a little concerned that there was any foliage on me to "ex" - but I went along because I thought this was normal. There was nothing normal about it. The nice lady took industrial-grade sandpaper and scraped the top three layers of skin off my legs and back. So when I refer to what Yvonne used as a "scrubber," don't think of something you'd "exfoliate" with. Whatever she used (I still have no idea - remember, my face was happily hidden under a mound of steaming, moist towels), I was just about as relaxed as I can remember being in some time.
When a haircut is remarkable for me, that's generally not a good thing. This was clearly a happy exception. If this is what "declaring my men-dependence" feels like, I may be making such a declaration more frequently.
Kristin and I had such high hopes to get a Christmas letter out this year - but with many of our other hopes, it - uh - lacked the follow-thru to get it done. But we did want to share with you the many things God's done in our world this year, and technically, it's still Christmas. As most of you know, in September of 2006, we bought our first house, and shortly after added Maggie to the family (as you can see in the pic, she's very helpful). Alex pretends not to like her, but they have fun running around the backyard. It gets a little crazy when we take them to Frank's Mom's house (she's much more patient than we are), but the dogs all have a great time together.
We began attending a church about a mile away, and in February 2007, we helped out with Disciple Now, held at Collin County Adventure Camp.
Before we went, we told each other, "we're not going to get into working with youth again - we need to find a young adult group." To that end, we'd been trying to start a home Bible study, but just couldn't seem to generate the "critical mass."
Anyway, we should have known better than to tell God where we were going to serve Him. D-Now was incredibly fun and within a couple weeks of praying about it (read: "Oh God, there must be some mistake - surely you don't want us in youth ministry again??"), we were regulars. Since then, Frank has taught the high school boys group, written devotionals for the kids, and occasionally taught the large group, and Kristin has worked with the high school girls. Kristin also jumped in with her mad video skills, covering D-Now and the summer mission trip, among others.
In May, Kristin's cousin Kelly got married and Frank graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, with a Master's of Arts in Biblical Studies. So many family members came into town to help celebrate, and it was so great to see them. Even though it took a lot of time and money to do, seminary was an incredible experience, on I'm very grateful for. As one of my favorite profs said, "when you come to seminary, you think you know the answers, but you don't even really know the questions. When you leave, our biggest hope is that we've at least helped you learn to ask the right questions."
May also brought sadness, with the passing of Kristin's granddad, Robert Duard Davidson, after a battle with cancer. There could be entire post written on him, but suffice to say that the effects of his simple life will be felt for generations to come.
In August, Frank's uncle Randy came out and helped Frank build a roof to cover in the back porch ("helped Frank" is a joke, if you didn't catch it. If Frank ever builds a bridge, find another way around). Laura's husband, John Talley took one of his rare days off to come help in the sweltering heat, which was much appreciated - especially since we were using all his tools, anyway!
In September, we got our first taste of small-town Texas high school football. In Melissa, you might as well close down the town between 7 and 10pm when there's a home game. In October, we found out we're going to be parents in June. I think we both know life as we know it will never be the same, but we're uncertain and hopeful and excited and scared all at once. So please pray for us: for wisdom, patience, and all the other stuff we'll need.
Frank is still working at Speech Privacy Systems as the marketing manager, and loves it. In addition, he's gotten the chance to work with his brother-in-law Eric on several installs of the sound masking system SPS sells. Eric is just a great all-around guy, and makes the long hours really fun. Kristin moved to a different role at Broadlane, where she's worked the past few years, and she loves her team - even if the 45-minute or so (each way) commute gets old.
Christmas is always a time to be reflective, and with our coming Little One, there are so many mixed emotions. Looking back, we see how God has been so incredibly faithful to us - but somehow I still struggle to trust Him with tomorrow.
But this is what Christmas is about, after all. In "the fullness of times" Jesus came to save humanity, to fix what was broke. He is our hope. Into a broken world with lots of needs and fears and struggles, God Himself came... to a barn, out in the Judean hills.
For thousands of years, people all over the world have had more or less the same hopes and fears I do now - and 2000 years ago, God Himself came as the answer to all of them. As the line goes from "O Little Town of Bethlehem:" "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."
As Kristin and I get ready for a new year with all the changes a baby will bring, this has a lot of meaning for us. We have so many "hopes and fears." But looking back has been helpful - it reminds us that God hasn't yet failed to take care of us (even when what we need isn't what we want), and there's no reason to expect Him to drop the ball now.
Merry Christmas to all of you - you are each such a blessing to us, even when too much time goes by without seeing you.
Love, The Barnetts - Frank, Kristin, Alex and Maggie (and "Yet To Be Named")
Christmas is here, and this year the house looks especially pretty. Kristin finally talked me into putting the lights up outside and getting down her boxes of decorations. (yes, that does include stockings for the dogs).
Today, a new addition was added: a BEAUTIFUL centerpiece arrangement from the Farmers (my Mom's youngest brother and his family).
Last weekend, we went with the high schoolers we work with at our church to a nearby retirement home to brighten some of the residents' holiday season. No surprise that only one of my guys showed up to wrap doors (they don't get real excited about decorating), but that also left Chase surrounded by older girls, so maybe he's just wiser than his buddies.
Anyway, there were some real wrapping paper artists, my wife definitely among them. You can see some of their handiwork here:
I was really impressed with the way the kids handled themselves. They understood right off that they were there first to show some love to the seniors, and to decorate second. This meant we didn't decorate all the doors we had hoped to do, but watching them as they listened to stories about family members, ask questions about photographs, and genuinely love on some total strangers was really cool to watch. It was neat because that's how Jesus did it - He was never too "task-oriented" to stop and listen for a little bit.
Merry Christmas to you all! (next up on the to-do list: write that elusive family Christmas letter!)
So maybe we should have thought out our blog address a little better, because now there is a little one on the way!! Frank and I found out October 1st that we are expecting our first child. S/he is due on June 11, 2008 and we cant wait to finally meet him/her. We had our second sonogram today - but the first one where Baby Barnett (BB) actually resembled a human. We learned that BB likes to sit on it's head for the most part and has a TON of energy. S/he would hardly sit still long enough to be measured! :) The doctor tried to find out if it was a boy or girl, but again, BB wasn't cooperating, so we will have to wait until next month to find out.
For those of you new at reading sonograms, BB's head is in the lower right part of the black oval. S/he's laying on it's back and has it's right hand up to it's face (possibly sucking it's thumb already!). You can see one foot in the air on the left side.
The pregnancy has been pretty good so far. I've been sick on and off for the past 7 weeks, but I think I'm finally on the tail-end of that phase. We have not yet chosen names, but we have a few in mind that we like. However, Frank and I have decided not to reveal the name until the baby is born.
We are very excited to finally be sharing this big news with everyone! We would appreciate your prayers as you think of us. I'm pretty sure we have no idea exactly how much our lives will be changing. Thanks to everyone for your support, and for those of you who have helped us keep a secret up to this point! I'll update you on any new news as it comes!
I've had some rather demanding requests for some belly photos (*ahem* Margaret!), so I've decided to post a couple just to please the people. I'm still getting used to the pregnant form that I'm taking on, so I have a hard time seeing myself this size. lol. I hope this will satisfy everyone's curiosity who don't see me too often. No fat jokes! :) Also, please disregard Alex's demon eyes. I'm not sure why his eyes always turn out blue in pictures - maybe he is trying to match my top here. He does look stoic, though, doesn't he? 
