Thursday, September 29, 2011

Nerd Alert

Last weekend we visited Amarillo to meet the precious baby girl pictured below:


This is Emma Sharon and she is my newest niece!  She's a tiny little thing, and just as sweet as can be.  Her older brother, KC, is already 18 months old and chatting up a storm!  He melted my heart with his flirty little smiles. We also got to spend time with the rest of Meezy's family, and it was a nice break from our super busy lives back at home.  While we were there, my sister-in-law gave us a couple of gifts that she said she had seen and knew they fit us to a tee.  I'm a little embarrassed to say, but she's totally right!  Nerd alert:

 Circuit board coasters for Meezy

10-key pencil cup for me

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Status: Confirmed

Meezy and I had already made up our minds that we were having a boy, so I'm glad the doctor agreed with us today!!  We got confirmation that our kiddo does, indeed, have boy parts.  Let the games begin!


19 weeks along

Friday, September 23, 2011

Trying My Best

It's not easy sitting by and watching myself gain weight, even though I know it's "for a good cause."  I've been annoyed at seeing the scale go up, yet it doesn't show very much in my belly.  Apparently there are other areas where the weight has been going!  I've tried to put healthier snacks in my house since I know I need to eat every couple of hours.  The weirdest part has been how quickly my stomach will tell me I'm hungry.  There have been a couple of times where I've eaten at a restaurant with friends or family, and we've hung around for a while after eating, just talking and visiting, and by the time I get up to leave, I feel hungry again!  Sweet jeez.  That's kinda frustrating. 

Since I can't really restrict my calories for the sake of me and the baby, I've tried to also focus on staying in shape.  I ride the bike or go for a walk a few times a week, just to stay active.  This is also helpful since I technically still have some work to do to get my leg back in shape since I broke my kneecap last year.  I need to make sure it's strong enough to handle me when I reach my heaviest!  Last weekend Jer and I ran the Oktoberfest 5K with some of our friends.  It's been a really long time since I've done any running because of my knee, but I wanted to give it a shot.  (Yes, it's safe to run while you're pregnant if you were active before getting pregnant).  Things started out pretty good, and I got through the first mile just fine.  We took a break so I could walk for a few seconds and get some water, and then we started running again.  We did about another mile and then took another break.  We finished off with running the last full mile.  Overall, we ran almost 3 miles and probably only walked for about a quarter of a mile.  There were definitely some painful twinges in my knee with each step, but I knew I needed to keep going so it would get stronger.  I'm glad I was able to run for as far as I did.  It felt good to get out and do something active, and it made me hopeful about being able to pick up running again after I give birth.  My quads were definitely sore on Sunday, but that didn't last too long.


So, you'd think that running 3 miles would be more strenuous than yoga, but apparently it isn't.  Lol.  I decided to try a yoga video earlier this week, and oh. my. jeez. my body is pissed at me right now.  I guess it uses a lot of different muscles that I don't normally use, because I have soreness pretty much everywhere!  I honestly think I pulled a muscle in my side around my ribcage because I almost want to scream when I try to turn over at night.  It's so weird.  I might have to find a super beginner yoga video, or just get back on the bike instead! 

Monday, September 19, 2011

More Inspiration

Here are some more items that are serving as the inspiration for the baby's room:






Monday, September 12, 2011

Personalized Art

I was on Zulily.com the other day (yes, dang it, I've signed up for another discount site that sends me daily emails), and I came across some really cute artwork for a kid's room. 


I love how the paintings are simple, but they use bold colors and include a child's name.  I thought about ordering one, and then realized I could probably just paint one like this myself.  I'd probably do one with an orange background and a green frog, or a green background and an orange dump truck.  Either way, it shouldn't be that hard, and it should save some money.  If you don't have any artistic ability, you can check out the paintings for purchase here.  I'm soooo looking forward to our doctor's appointment where we get confirmation of the sex, because I'm ready to order some bedding and start personalizing things!   

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Halfway to the Grand Slam

If you're not a tennis buff, let me explain the title.  Winning the four major tournaments in tennis (Wimbledon, US Open, French Open, Australian Open) is considered completing the Grand Slam.  Last weekend I was able to make it halfway through the spectator's version of the Grand Slam!  I traveled to New York to watch the US Open. (I went to Wimbledon last year, hence the halfway there status).  This was my first visit to NY, and I was SO excited that it included the chance to see some of my favorite tennis players.  If you want to watch the big matches, you have to buy your tickets way ahead of time, and even then, you're not assured of who you're going to get to see.  Upsets happen, players withdraw, the weather doesn't always cooperate, and sometimes they move the players around on the courts and adjust their start times depending on what works best for the TV broadcast schedule.  The highest seeded players and/or fan favorites are usually scheduled for Center Court or Court 2, and they can either play during the day session or the night session.  When I bought our tickets, I just guessed and chose Center Court day session for both Saturday and Sunday.  The day session included three matches, so I figured that would increase our chances of seeing a top player.  The schedule for the court/session isn't released until the day before the matches, so I was on pins and needles right up until we actually got to NY!  More on that in a moment.

On our first night in NY, we saw The Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neill Theater.  We had pretty good seats, and the theater wasn't as big as we expected it to be, so I kinda feel like everyone had a good seat!  Here's our vantage point:

 
The musical was everything we expected it to be: hilarious, irreverent, sarcastic, and fun.  If you can't take criticism or allow yourself to be poked fun at, then this show probably isn't for you!  It uses Mormons in its examples, but obviously there's a more widespread message being delivered.  Its theme is that religious stories/beliefs can be rigid and silly, but taking them metaphorically and not literally can bring about enormous good.  In other words, lighten up!  Here's a clip from the 2011 Tony Awards where one of the songs was performed:



Did I mention it won 9 Tony awards??  I'm glad we went and I think we chose the right show since we only had time for one while we were in NYC.

Day Two in NYC was mostly spent at the US Open.  The day session started at 11am, so we got there a little before 10 to check out the grounds and make sure we didn't miss a moment of the matches we paid for.  I was pretty excited to see that the schedule included the world #1 Caroline Wozniacki, Roger Federer, and Serena Williams.  Those are some big-name players, and it was crazy that we would get to see all of them play in the same day.  We found our seats and we were pretty happy with the view.

  
Here are some other pics from our first day at the Open:





We were able to get some sight-seeing in too:





The schedule for Sunday's matches came out on Saturday afternoon, and I almost peed my pants when I saw who we'd be watching...Andy Roddick!!  I'd like to say he's one of my favorite players solely because of his tennis ability, but let's be honest.  He's easy on the eyes too!  Haha.  There's more to it than that, but it's one of the factors!  I always cheer for Roddick because he's around my age, he's American, he's fiery, he's got a great serve, and lots of times he's the underdog.  Kim Clijsters was first on my list of players I wanted to see at the Open, but since she withdrew, Roddick was next.  I'm glad it worked out that I got to see him, along with Nadal, on the second day.  Here are pics from that session:





On Sunday afternoon we went to Rockefeller Center so we could go up to Top of the Rock for views of the whole city.  Unfortunately it was foggy, so we didn't get super clear views, but we still got some good shots.







After that we headed to the 9/11 site to look at the new buildings being erected in place of the former Twin Towers.  The visitor's center doesn't open until 9/12 this year, so we weren't able to view the actual memorial, but the new towers were pretty impressive.



From there we went to Mesa Grill, a Bobby Flay restaurant.  The food was definitely delicious, but of course the prices were high, and the service was slow.  Considering there are so many eating choices in New York, I would definitely try something else if we ever go back. 

While we didn't get to do as much sight-seeing as we would've liked since the US Open took up a big chunk of our days, I'm still really glad we went.  I don't take for granted the travel opportunities I've been given over the past few years.  My hubby is incredibly supportive of my dreams, and he works really hard to make them come true.  I am so thankful for his generosity and the fact that he shares my adventurous spirit.  While I know having a child next year will definitely cut back on our ability to travel, we're going to try very hard to see that it doesn't get eliminated completely from our lives!  It's very important to us to see other people, other cultures, other cities, other lifestyles, etc.  We'll make sure we don't lose that drive, and we'll make sure our kiddo gets to share in it too (when he's old enough to appreciate it, of course!)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Birthiversary Trip!

Last Christmas, my sisters and I gave my parents a trip to San Francisco.  (I talk about it here.)  This is an exciting time for them, because they both turned 60, and they will celebrate 40 years of marriage soon.  They got to decide when they wanted to take the trip, so they traveled there last week.  Their "birthiversary" trip was the best gift we've ever given them!  They had an awesome time, and I'm so glad they got the chance to take a few days to relax, sight see, and just spend time together.  Aren't they adorable??





 
Love you Mom and Dad!  Can't wait to spend 40+ years with the love of my life too.  :)

Never a Dull Moment

I've got a ton of pictures to upload from our awesome vacation in New York, but unfortunately there's a more pressing matter at hand.  Our stupid water heater in the attic burst!  We don't know how long it had been gushing water since it was happening upstairs and we couldn't hear it downstairs.  We got home from our trip, ate dinner, and tried to relax for a few minutes.  I went into my closet to start unpacking our suitcase and I heard the sound of running water.  That's not unusual if the washer is on, or someone is flushing the toilet upstairs, but when you know that neither of those things are happening...something is wrong!!  I ran upstairs and heard the water, and saw it coming through the ceiling.  I yelled at Meezy to tell him what was happening, and he rushed outside to turn off the water supply.  What a nightmare!  Our other water heater burst earlier this year, but it was over the garage, so it wasn't a big deal.  This one is a bit more of a problem.  The water leaked through the ceiling into our gameroom, soaking the items on that wall, and the carpet beneath it.  It's definitely going to require some repairs, not to mention a new water heater!  I just hope it doesn't ruin our shuffleboard table and wall-mounted TV.  They definitely had water dripping on them for a while.  I guess we're lucky it happened the day we got back, and not while we were in another state!




  This is how much water my steam cleaner soaked up on the first run