Merry Christmas and New Year Resolutions!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know it has been wonderful for me, especially being off for 5 days without having to take vacation days! I am definitely very relaxed. I was yelled at by my aunt about not blogging enough in her Christmas card. I have decided to make that my New Year's resolution to blog weekly. So be prepared to have some boring updates.

Everything is going well with the baby, he is kicking more and more every day. I have my sugar test next week which I am nervous about because of all the cookies I have been eating! There is still no name...I have decided this is the hardest decision I have ever had to make! We have a couple of names that we have been batting around but nothing permanent, yet. Kelly likes to call him "Senate Candidate Number 5" and there are other "temporary" names going around the family. The goal is to have a name by February.

Nothing else major is going on. Andy and I are both working a lot and don't see each other much. Today we are going on a date for the first time in a long time, we are both excited!

It's a BOY!

That's right we found out on Monday that we are having a boy! Now we have to start working on a name! Andy and I decided to surprise our parents and made recordings of his heartbeat and than went to Build-A-Bear and made a bear for each of the grandparents' house. I am not sure if the grandparents were surprised about the sex (since my mom has been referring to the baby as "him" for quite some time now) but they all were surprised about the bear!

Last night I got to experience my first bad night being pregnant. I got a flu bug and only got about 3 hours of sleep. The good news in that horrible evening was I finally felt a punch and kick, not just the head butts I have been feeling. I guess the stomach and intestinal spasms got the little guy going! I took the day off from work and am feeling much better.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I did it for the first time ever! I got up at 4:30am and picked up a friend from work and we went to Meijer's for their Thanksgiving Day sale. I waited in line for a Wii Fit and Jenny was waiting for a Kodak Easyshare Camera. The line was very long and I was worried that I would have waited one hour for nothing. At 5:55am, a worker came out and announced that there were 40 Fits and was not sure if from me and back there were going to be enough. When I got closer to the door, the workers stated that there were 7 left, and I was 10 away from the door. THEN they said that there were about 10 more! Needless to say I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. Finally there was just one person in front of me and they said there were only 2 more! We gave each other high fives and laughed! I now understand the thrill of shopping on Black Friday, and I always thought people were just crazy.

I have been told that I need to add new posts. SO the excitement lately.....Last Thursday I was in session with a client and Andy called three times. Since he never does this I apologized to my client and answered the phone. He told me that there was something wrong with Diesel and he was taking him to the hosiptal. It turns out that Diesel scratched his right eye really bad. We are not sure how he did that exactly but here he is with the cone on (which he hated). We felt bad, so we let him sleep with us that night. He is spoiled rotten.

Big news today is the SNOW!!! Mom sent me a picture from her house with no snow but look what we got (and it is still snowing).......

I forget, are we north or south of Toledo?

I know it has been awhile since my last post. Frankly not much is going on. We have gone to two more games and I decided that plane rides are not fun when pregnant (especially when you are flying every weekend). I told Andy that I would go to one more game this year. Now the leaves are falling and Diesel is loving the leaves, he blends in so well!

On one of our trips to California we made our first baby purchase, of course it was USC!

First Picture..

Monday was our first ultrasound. Andy and I went and when both had huge grins on our faces when we saw the little peanut. I was shocked at how much its legs and arms move for only being 1 inch long! The doctor said that everything looked good and healthy! Only 30 weeks to go!

FOOTBALL SEASON!!

I am so excited for football season this year, and I am a little late on updating the trips we have had so far. Our first trip took us to Virginia to see USC vs. Virginia. After spending 9 hours in the car (not including the 6 hours we spent at a hotel) we watched the football game (we were there about 5 hours) and than we were heading back to Ohio. I told Andy from now on I want to spend AT LEAST the same amount of time at a destination as the round trip takes! Here is the picture from our seats. All I can say is at least USC won!

Our next traveling adventure was to LA to see the wonderful game against Ohio State. Andy reserved us a place at a tailgate party located in the basketball arena. $20 for all you can eat (but had to pay for drinks), we were there about 5 hours, so I definitely ate my $20 worth. Below is a sample of some of the food we ate.
We went to the game and it was really neat seeing all the same people as last year. Andy and I got out favorite Southern California football food: chicken and rice bowl with hot sauce. I think we talked about it the whole way to the game.
During halftime we were able to see a few famous people. Henry Winkler (the Fonz) walked by and waved to the crowd as everyone yelled "hey Fonz" I took a picture but it was a little blurry. Than this guy walked by and I thought it was Isaiah Thomas, but the girl next to me and I said that he looked too tall. However, the guy in front of us said that it was him. We did see Denzel Washington but unfortunately mom it was only on the jumbo tron.

The game, I think, proved who should be in the national championship with USC stomping over Ohio State. Hey, at least one of my teams can beat them! Andy is already talking about going to Miami in January.

BIG NEWS!

As you probably guess from looking to the left - Andy and I are PREGNANT! I was going to wait, but it seems that almost everyone knows so I might as well post about it. I went to the doctor's yesterday just for blood work and other pre-natal stuff. So far so good, well except we think Diesel knows because he is being really protective of me around others and has been acting jealous. Who knows what dogs can tell.

A little political...

OK, I have tried not to get too political but Andy and I saw a commercial last night that I have to share. You can see it on http://www.americanissuesproject.org/ After we saw it we both just looked at each other in disbelief (mostly because the Conservatives now have a group to go against moveon.org) but also because of the contents. You have to watch it and see for yourself.

Bring a Guest....

And come to the fest! That's right it is GAF time again and as usual it was a GREAT time!

Andy, Sarah and Sean were all having a good time.
It was VERY hot and there was little wind, so us girls are just shiny!
Kelly and Chris were having a good time also.
Andy and Sean wanted to pose for a picture, not sure how Andy ended up as the girl?
My favorite thing was the pickles, Chrissy was trying to take a bite - but it was MINE!

At the end of the night (about 12:30am) everyone was dancing and Andy and I finally got to take a load off. It was a fun, yet tiring, time!

Cedar Point

This is late, but 2 Sundays ago Andy, Mom, Lee, Julie, Alex, Elena and I went to Cedar POint. Now, I did not take a lot of photos and Julie said she would send me some. Until than here are some photos I took.

As you can see our ride to CP was quite entertaining. So much that we missed the exit!
I think Andy is having more fun than Elena on Woodstock Express!
Alex was too busy driving the train to look

Elena is on her favorite ride, Froghopper, if you look closely she is on the pink frog (if you didn't know pink is her favorite color). Actually, there was another girl in that seat who had to get off so Elena quickly jumped from the yellow frog to the pink one!

My Boys

Birthdays

I invited family and friends over to our house for Andy's birthday (July 12th), but I forgot to take a lot of photos!

Julie and Lee were very kind and stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a Cookie Dough Cheesecake for Andy. For those of you that don't know, Andy and I LOVE Cheesecake Factory and have been known to drive to Columbus or Cleveland just for cheesecake. Not to mention tailgating at Crew soccer games with cheesecake!

Andy and his brother, Chris, were having a good time! (Sorry for the bad picks, but atleast there were some!)

The following weekend (July 18th) was Sarah's birthday and the annual canoe trip! Sean (Sarah's husband) had been planning a nice 30th for her for months. I was in charge of the cake (which took a dive in the car but still tasted good!)

Sean had both the sign and shirt made for her. Unfortunately, on Friday (her birthday) it was like 100 degrees so Sarah was a HOT 1978 classic! Tricia (Sarah's sister) bought her the crown and I got her the fun party cup!

Weather was good until Sunday. We woke up to sprinkles and a heavy down poor. We all decided to stay so we tarpped up everything we could and made the "grotto" (pictured below) that consisted of 3 tents.


On Monday morning we had survived the big storm that came in over night (not that Andy and I knew we slept through it all). Poor Kim and Ryan were found in their car. I asked if the "grotto" had failed and they were rained on, but the real reason was that between the thunder and Andy's snoring they could not fall asleep! Everyone asked how I can sleep in the same room with the bear, I said I go to bed first.

New Job!

I guess I haven't written anything in awhile! The big news since last time is that I got a job here in Findlay. No more driving the hour commute to Toledo and filling up my car twice a week! I will be working at Family Resource Center which provides mental health counseling to children between the ages of 2-18. I am going to start out with adolescents and they will train me to be with the little guys in the next few months. I am very sad to be leaving my job in Toledo, which has been difficult letting all of my current clients know that I am leaving. But I will remain at the Private Practice on Saturdays (and maybe one evening a week). I am a little nervous but I am excited to start working only 15 minutes from home!

Kentucky

This past weekend, Andy and I adventured south to Kentucky to see Kelli and Mike get married. Well that was the plan, but we were unable to actually see them get married because of construction on I75, but ultimately it was due to Mangoes and Papayas (thank you Julie for finding out for me and putting my mind at ease). Yes, because of fruit we did not get to Richmond, Ky until 6:00pm and hour after the wedding (but in time for the reception). For proof I snapped these photos, remember we were driving down the highway when these were taken!

The reception was wonderful and the rest of the weekend was great!

We spent Saturday night at Kelli and Mike's playing euchre, the boys won each game but we are going to plan a rematch! Congrats Pool Girl!

Diesel's New Friends

Kelly requested a picture of the Great Dane, so here are some pics of Diesel and his school friends.

Diesel and Gabby (the Great Dane) are starting to be better friends (notice the size difference). Gabby's parents say that the also have a chihuahua that keeps Gabby in her place! They also said that she grows 1 inch a week and doesn't realize it. I found that out when she tried to squeeze under my chair!

Diesel and Gus were saying "hello" Gus is about 1 month older than Diesel.

Diesel has also befriended the lab next door, Sadie. They played yesterday for about a half hour. It is amazing how having a dog can help you get to know your neighbors!

A Day with the Kids

Today Mom and the kids came down to visit. We started the day having lunch and Andy got to try on the "uncle" hat for the first time.

He played "make-up" with Elena (Don't worry he just put it on her)....

and Wild Wild West with Alex. Then we went to "Fort Findlay" located in a park near the hospital. The kids said they loved it and Alex didn't want to leave.
Elena found a good way to cool down!
Elena is in the window to the left.
The fort had a lot of places to hide, this tire swing was actually under the fort.

I had to promise Alex that we would come back another time to get him to leave. After the park we had ice cream at Dairy Queen and went back to our house. When we arrived, Alex wanted to play Wii (surprise) so Andy played with him and after about an hour they had to go home.

That night Andy and I went to see The Happening. Now I am even more afraid when the wind blows! It is a definite must see.

Who is that masked man?