Have you missed me?

Yes it has been almost 2 weeks since I have posted last. A lot has been going on and I have just been a crazy person. We now know the girls are identical. That means that even though my grandmother is a twin and twins run in our family it has nothing to do with that! Identical twins are just random and there is no medical reason.

I have already been thinking how I will keep them different in my head those first few days. Painting the thumbnails? Writing on them with a sharpie? Any other suggestions?

We finally registered for baby stuff last Friday. I can't believe how much a baby needs (well I don't know if they NEED all that stuff or not, but it makes life easier!). And then to have to put 2 of some items ended up making our registry look massive. Babies R Us does need a better selection of double strollers. We ended up with this sterling (icy) blue color which I really love, but doesn't exactly scream two little girls. We took our friends Larry and Kelly to help us decide what was worth registering for and what ends up being only used once. They were a huge help and we would have been totally lost if they didn't come. Even Riley and Audrey were picking up stuff and helping us out!

Here is one of our ultrasound pics of the girls with their faces beside one another. Isn't the little hand of baby a so delicate and cute.

Happy Birthday Wade!

It is my amazing husband's birthday today! I am such a blessed woman to have him in my life and I love that today is a celebration for him. I made him muffins before he went to work and I think tonight we are going on a little birthday date. It is so crazy to think that by his birthday next year our family will have doubled and we will have two little girls crawling around. I love it!

Our cruise pics

We had an amazing time on our Caribbean cruise. The food was amazing, the places we visited were beautiful and it was so much fun being able to have a week to relax with my sweet husband. We even had our waiters sing Happy Anniversary to us. Here are a few snapshots of our week.

(This was our formal night. You can see the twin bump!)

(Our stop at Grand Cayman. Wade and I didn't mean to match.)

(My friend the crazy bird and my classic picture face.)

(Here is Wade's friend, the donkey who needs protection from the sun.)

(Our table and our waiters. The other couple we ate dinner with peaced out before we were able to get a pic with them.)

Going on a cruise

Wade and I leave in the morning (actually in like 10 hours since I am writing this at 12am) for our cruise. We are so excited. We will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary May 7th which is the final night of our cruise. I am super blessed to have such an amazing husband and these three years have been the best of my life. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 50+ years!

The girls

The initial shock of knowing we are having twins is fading. I told Wade last night that I feel like I should chronicle this journey of being pregnant with twins through my blog, but the fact is that nothing is really different with me.
I am sorry for those of you that have horrible pregnancies but this has been so easy (knock on wood). Of all the things I have been looking up online apparently one of the symptoms of twins is increased morning sickness and fatigue in the first trimester. I hardly had any of that. In fact it was only like two times. I had a slow start to gaining weight. I am almost at 20 weeks and I have gained a total of 10 lbs. which is supposedly standard for one baby. I say all of this only to let you know how shocked we were when we found out it was two. You think we would have had some kind of indication. I took a little quiz online and answered questions about the likelihood of us having twins from my symptoms and such and it came back like 5% and said your chances are slim to none. Hmmm.
Now I know that I have the rest of my pregnancy left and I know it will be hard carrying two. I have noticed my legs cramp up more and my ribs hurt occasionally. So I am sure this pregnancy won't be all awesome. But the fact that I get to have two precious girls at the end makes me willing to endure anything for them. I just want them to stay put as long as possible so they are healthy.

The Update

So Wade and I found out today that we are having twin girls!!! We had no idea so it is definitely lots of excitement mixed with lots of shock. We had a boy name but no girls so I have to put in some time in my 100,000 baby names book to find 4 girl names (first and middle) and they have to at least sound good when you say them together. This is crazy!!!

The Big Day

So today it happens. We should be able to find out what the sex of the baby is at our ultrasound today. Not only is that really big, but this will be the first time we see our little baby squirming around and kicking and doing crazy things. I loved how Wade put it last night. He said in a way it is kind of the first time we will meet.

Any guesses on what it is?

Chick-fil-a

The other week Wade and I were on our way out of town and we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a to grab lunch at the drive-thru. I think most of us are fans of Chick-fil-a. I mean they have tasty chicken sandwiches and those hand-spun milkshakes. What more could you really ask for?

Well that afternoon the line was especially long. They had two guys stationed outside, one was going around asking if people needed a menu to look at in their car and the other was taking the orders. As we were waiting to give our order the menu guy came up to us and asked if we wanted any mints. I immediately told Wade to get them since I love mints and was so excited about how Chick-fil-a is really thinking about its customers. Well after a few seconds the guy came back and asked if we had a puppy in the car. Of course Scooter was in the back seat in his crate going with us out of town and we thought he might just say cute dog or something. Instead he reached in his pocket and took out a dog biscuit. What?!?! A dog biscuit at Chick-fil-a? That is amazing. Scooter gobbled it up and was loving life. And I of course go into this long drawn out speech to Wade about how amazing I think Chick-fil-a is because it has dog biscuits handy for its customers' dogs. I was very impressed.

Then fast forward about a week later. We ate a Chick-fil-a again. It started raining pretty hard outside and out of the corner of my eye I see two guys outside with umbrellas running up to their customers to walk them from their cars to the restaurant or vice versa. Maybe it is the pregnancy hormones but I got a little emotional seeing these guys help out their customers. Sure it is just good business, but what other restaurants (fast food ones at that) go out of their way to make sure you (and maybe your dog) have a pleasant experience when you dine with them? Most expensive restaurants wont walk you to your car when it rains!

So thank you Chick-fil-a for all your do and for thinking of the little things that can make someone's day just a little bit easier.

What a Weekend

I spent the entire weekend (from Saturday afternoon to Monday evening) vomiting. Apparently I either got some stomach bug or ate something bad. Who knows? But it was definitely not fun. The thing though is I could really care less about how it was affecting me. I just kept praying that it would be over soon so the baby wouldn't get dehydrated or feel sick. But I went to the doctor yesterday to make sure everything was okay and the baby was fine. Heart beating at 150 or so bpm.

It is amazing though how we revert back to our childhood days when our mom would take care of us. I just let Wade do everything for me. He was amazing and asked how he could serve me even though he had such a long day on Sunday. I am so blessed. But now I am feeling back to normal. I am still taking it slow eating, but things are getting better.

I have about 2 or 3 posts in my head so I don't have any reason not to get a good blog in within the next day or 2.

Graphic Design

Most of you probably know that I am a graphic designer. When Wade and I lived in Columbia, I was blessed to work part-time at our church there and also at an insurance company full-time doing graphic design. Right now I am still able to be the graphic designer for the church in South Carolina, but I would also like to add more freelance design projects.

I focus on print design which is logos, brochures, postcards, posters, book covers, business identities (letterheads, business cards, envelopes), etc. You can look at my website ferrisjoye.com to see my online portfolio.

If this is something that you or your company is needing then please email me at ferrisusc@hotmail.com.

Wedding season

Tomorrow Wade and I head off to Richmond, VA to see our wonderful friends Will and Sarah get married. I love weddings. I think once you are married you have this inner joy to see other people join the club.

Here are some of my reasons that I get so excited for my friends when they get married.
1. You get to wake up every morning next to your best friend. I love the mornings that Wade and I have a few extra minutes before one of us has to get up. We are sorta delirious and always end up laughing about something.
2. You have someone that is on your side no matter what. It means a lot to know that someone is there to support you when it seems everyone else is on the other side. And you become a team, a force to be reckoned with. Team Joye will take you down.
3. You are better together than you were by yourself. It is amazing how one's strengths help the others weakness and vice versa. Or how you can accomplish so much more with your different skill sets and gifts God has given each of you.
4. Your marriage only gets better with time. I know I have only been married basically three years, but I already see how things get richer with time. Our first year of marriage was AMAZING, but I am by far enjoying right now more.
5. It is fun to make babies. Wade might have told me to write that. I hope that isn't too scandalous for a blog.

Tagged...twice

My friend Rachel Olshine and Kelly Hubatka both tagged me in their blogs. I had been meaning to answer Rachel's (since she was first) but now I can do both of them at once!

Here are the rules for both:

• When tagged place the name of the person that tagged you and URL on your blog.
• Write 7 random facts about yourself.
• Name 7 bloggers that you are tagging.

1. I have a hate/no love relationship with my hair. I feel like I can never do anything with it and it is always so limp. I had one awesome haircut (thanks to Meredith Brock) that helped with this problem but it is back in full force now. But I am going to schedule a haircut soon so I won't complain anymore.

2. I love my house to be uncluttered. I want everything to have its place and if it was up to me we wouldn't have any personal items. But Wade couldn't live like this so I make do. But it is like pulling teeth for me to give my house a deep clean. I really need to vacuum and mop my house right now. You can see Scooter pawprints on the wood floors.

3. I am super awkward when you first meet me. Well you might not think so, but it is true. I have a partial shy side that comes out when I don't know someone, but I still want to make a good impression so I am trying to get out of my shyness but feeling super uncomfortable doing it. However, it usually makes for an interesting night.

4. I am the worst phone caller in the world. My friends from B-town probably feel like I don't care about them, but it is so hard for me to sit down and decide to call someone. I just hate talking on the phone. I try to make an effort but it usually only lasts for a week.

5. I have a slight fear of 18 wheelers. Whenever I am next to them on the road I either speed up to get by them as fast as I can or go really slow to avoid being frightened. I remember writing in 8th grade about our worst fear and instead of being snakes, spiders, or bees mine was 18 wheelers.

6. Some of you may know this, but I get mad at technology a lot. Wade makes fun of me because my profession is based all on technology but I feel like a lot of it has made life so impersonal. But what is stupid is the fact that I pretty much embrace it all. I just think back to simpler times and wonder how things might be different.

7. Last random fact...whenever I brush my teeth I take way longer than any normal person. I feel like I either have to sit down and chill for a few minutes or use the time to do something useful like make the bed, put clothes in the hamper, or clear the counter.

Here are my tagged ones.
Sharlie (my sister)
Meagan
Kelly Mac
Bradelyn
Candice
Felicia
Sarah

...Just testing you

This Wed. I will be 14 weeks pregnant...that's the 2nd trimester people! I went through pretty much the entire first trimester not even feeling nauseous. There was about two days in there that I did in the morning for about 5 minutes, but then was fine for the rest of the day. I haven't had any mood changes except for one random burst of tears when talking to Wade on the phone once, but I think a lot of that was from just missing him for the 3+ weeks he had been gone.

But last week I woke up, ate breakfast, still felt hungry, looked in the pantry, felt weird, ran to the bathroom, then threw up. So weird. One random day out of 13 weeks?!? It wasn't too bad though and so far no repeats so we are good!

I also received my first baby gift (except for two baby books Wade's mom had gotten). Sweet Amy Corbett got me a little onesie that is adorable. It says "Nothing's wrong...just testing you." I got a little emotional over receiving it because it is the first thing I have gotten that I could see our little baby wearing in my head.

Wade's mom and dad came up last week and we stopped into a baby store and Bev went giddy. She decided to get a gender neutral color (yellow) and got a little ensemble for the baby. It is super cute and even has little dogs on it so that Scooter got a little loving too.

And finally Wade, his parents, and I went to a Bobcats game. The Bobcats were victorious against Atlanta. We had a great time and Wade decided he wants to keep up with the Bobcats now. Wade got so excited when he saw Earl Boykins because is 5'5" and plays in the NBA! And he was awesome.

Baby Books

Before I got pregnant, I took about 6 books from my sister to get me baby ready. For the two months before I knew I was pregnant I would read something out of the books everyday. I would constantly search through the baby names book trying to find that perfect name to call a baby boy or girl. Then something happened...I found out I was pregnant. I pretty much stopped reading all of the books. I really don't understand why I would do this. Wouldn't you want to read up more when you are actually experiencing all of the stuff the books talk about? Wouldn't I be obsessing about what name I should give the little one growing inside me? Apparently not.
However, I am getting to the point where I think I need to start reading again. I am absolutely clueless about babies so I need to read up as much as I can. And since Wade and I like completely different names I am going to have to start looking so that I find the perfect blend of what we like.

I'm having a baby!

Well after 11 weeks of keeping it off my blog I am finally sharing to the world that I am pregnant! Wade and I just went to the doctor this morning to hear our baby's heartbeat. After 11 weeks of not really feeling any different, (no morning sickness, not much of a change in my energy level, etc) I was wondering if I had just imagined the whole thing. But baby Joye was ready to be heard and immediately after putting that heartbeat thing on my stomach his/her heartbeat filled the room. It is so amazing and I feel so blessed. Wade and I are ecstatic and we can't wait to be parents.
Here's a little video to listen to in case you are dying to hear the heartbeat too!

Today's Scoop

After wondering whether or not I should just delete my blog or just post something that tells you that there will be no new updates I realized that I was just taking the easy road out. I didn't start this blog so that I could entertain the thousands that come to my blog (yes, that is a joke). I started my blog...well first off because Wade started one ( and I have to be just like Wade) and then secondly because I just wanted to have a place where I could write down whatever I was thinking. In my earlier posts I talked about how this is a type of journal that I can't lose. I had many notebooks that were half full because I would eventually lose them or get tired of writing and stop. And I realized that was about to happen with this little blog. I refuse to let it. So here I am. I am going to make a promise that I will at least blog once a week, hopefully more if I have something to say.

Right now

I have a little post coming up with my sweet niece, but I have to edit some video AGAIN! And I just can't make myself sit down and edit it yet. So I decided to end the 10 day (or something close to that) blog drought and just let you know what is going on right now.

1. Wade is still in the studio. Kind of. I mean today he isn't but he leaves tomorrow and will be there until Friday night.
2. On Thursday, I am going to visit my husband in Atlanta so we can spend Valentine's together and then hopefully Friday I can get to see what is going on at the studio with the guys.
3. Can I tell you how excited I was about yesterday! It was our church's 2 year anniversary and it was amazing. An awesome morning (a fantastic message from Pastor Furtick), 165 baptisms!!!!, and a off the chain worship night where our voices were recorded so they can go on the cd, that way it will have the energy of an Elevation worship experience.
4. I have been horrible about working out. I am starting to feel like a slug or something. The guys being at the studio has made my life a little less structured so I have just fallen off the workout wagon. But I am going to get back...I promise.
5. I am just really horrible at blogging right now. I hope that in the coming weeks it will get better, but right now I just don't have much to say. It is like torture trying to pull something out of my brain to write about. Oh well!

Check Me Out (youth calendar)

I was asked to make a calendar for Mt Horeb's youth. They wanted something that could be put simple enough for parents to just glance at and understand. They also brought in a new youth minister and wanted to include a letter that the new youth director had written. They print these in-house I couldn't full-bleed anything. So I ended up making a bulletin board kind of feel with a mix of post-it notes, push pins, notecards, and a postcard with the letter to the youth group. There was also a back side with upcoming summer events that was put on a piece of notebook paper with a post-it paperclipped to it. I thought it was a simple, fun way to have a calendar.

Sweet Lost

So I hope each and every one of you are gearing up for the Lost premiere. It is one of our only fave shows that is coming on since the writer's strike is still going on. It is like a warm, breezy day after a dark winter. I thought that I was going to have to watch the show alone since some of us girls are for some reason going to eat right during the show, but sweet Beth Brown reminded me that she too is a lover of Lost. Thank goodness for DVR!

It has begun

It is official, Wade has left for the studio. He left last night and will be at the studio for three weeks with some breaks to come back for Sunday mornings. I am so sad. Wade and I are best friends and to not be able to hang out with your best friend for three weeks is so uncool.

But with all that being said, I know that this time in the studio is going to produce a worship cd that is going to be off the hook. They are all songs (except for one) that either Wade, Chris, Mack, or Pastor wrote so it is going to be great to have that cd to rock out to in the car. Keep praying for the guys as the have to stay healthy and be full of creativity as they produce the cd and then pray for me, Beth Brown, and Meredith Brock who are husbandless for a little bit.

(Wade on his way out of Charlotte and on to the studio)