Life remains busy

I have once again failed to update in a timely matter!  Emily is keeping me on my toes, however the camera has collected a bit of dust!  We are due for another photo shoot soon as she has just approached 13 months!

I thought I was going to be done with the monthly shots at 1 year, but I have been encouraged by many to keep them going.  However, gone are the days I can plop her on the chair and step 10 feet backwards to snap a few photos.  This girl is too quick and on the move to leave her perched on a chair as she will gladly tumble head first off of it the second you step away!  Daddy is going to have to assist me this weekend to keep the tradition going.

In other Emily news, we have two new teeth that have arrived!  I thought they were never coming!  She got her first four so suddenly between December and January and then nadda!  She has been a drool factory for the last few months so I just knew they were coming.  There are more on their way I'm sure.  She has had a few rough patches, but overall has taken teething like a champ.  It's gotta be pure torture - bones poking through your gums and all :::shiver:::.  Poor girl!

In Andrea news I am in the midst of training for a half marathon!  This coming September I will be running the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia.  I have been meaning to dedicate an entire post to this and to the cause I am running for.  But we are still working on the logistics and so it just hasn't been the right time!  I would like to set up another "page" on the blog as well dedicated to my training and journey.

Which leads me to another update.  I NEED to update the blog design again! My little Emily up there is only 2 months old.......I think it's time to get a new theme going!  Anyone out there got any thoughts for a new theme?  Would love to hear it!

The Lent Experience

So this year for Lent (40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday) I decided to give up my most favorite thing ever - sugar.  I LOVE sweets.  Love love love.  Can't get enough...seriously.  It's almost like a problem, lol!  So it was the perfect thing to sacrifice for me.  It would be challenging and little did I know it would be very rewarding!

So it's started out badly.  I ended up eating cake like the first weekend.  Okay, not the end of the world of course.  Just stop, try again.  A another week goes by, slipped again.  And again.  And again.  Yes, I had a lot of slip ups.  Majority of the time on weekends or at get togethers with family and friends.  It's one thing when I am at home with nothing in the house, no temptation, more willpower.  But out of my comfort zone, surrounded by others, yeah, definitely hard.

But you know what?  It's okay.  I tried.  I failed.  I tried again.  And overall I would say I succeeded.  Over the course of this forty days something a couple things happened.

1.  I lost 10 pounds.  TEN pounds....by doing nothing!  Just NOT eating sweets.  No sugar in the coffee, no quick trips to the mall to get a smoothie, or ice cream cone through the McDonald's drive-thru.  Didn't have to lift a finger and 10 pounds of apparently "sugar weight" came tumbling off.  Awesome!

2.  I am now determined to make this a lifestyle change.  Very limited amounts of sweets for me.  A teaspoon at MOST of sugar in the coffee is fine now....especially after drinking it with NONE for that long.  I never really got used to it, but I can now enjoy it with a lot less.  No more drive through ice creams, smoothies, iced coffees, etc during the week.  We can have some fun, get a fun drink or dessert on the weekend.  It's all amount moderation right?

So it was a tough but great experience this year.  And probably the first time I actually made it through the whole season really putting the effort and thinking about it everyday.  Usually in years past I would easily just forget about it or not do anything at all.

So what will it be next year???

Winter Blahs

Winter Blues
Stuck in a Funk
Cabin Fever
Seasonal Affective Disorder

Whatever the heck you want to call it.....I gots it.  I wish I was a bear and could just eat a ton and then curl into bed and sleep until spring.  Well, I've got the first part down.....

Instead I am just getting fatter and NOT sleeping that well at night.  Sometimes it's Emily waking up randomly in the night, other times it's just me - not falling asleep.

I am now left feeling in a complete funk.  I feel like a living zombie!!

I know I need some vitamins, but just haven't taken the time to figure out which ones to get and then go out and get them - can't say I'm looking forward to blowing $50+ on some pills.  Exercise would help too, but I'm stuck in the infinite loop of too tired to workout in turn feeling worse in turn feeling too exhausted to work out, etc, etc.

This time of year is always the worst.  No more holidays to keep busy and look forward too.  Just craptastic weather for the next 4 months!!

I need a beach vacation STAT!!

Great Sock Debacle

So I'm gonna just blame it on the pregnancy brain, because this is just plain dumb! So for the past few weeks or so it's been getting a little harder to put my socks on. You know how things like this are just second nature and it's like you have blinders on and just do things a certain way.

So bending down to put my socks on or trying to raise my knees up a bit to bring the feet up to me has been proving rather difficult with the bulging belly in the way. I can still reach my feet and bend down to them, but it's very uncomfortable to squish into the belly like that.

Not until this past weekend did I have my "duh" moment. If I bring my leg up "indian style" so that my foot is resting right atop my knee, voila! I can put my socks on with out any problems. I was so excited and felt like such a dummy all at the same time.

Just another post

So we took my 28 week pic the other day and I look blech, so I'm not posting it, lol. I figure we will take lots of pictures tomorrow at my shower with my cute little dress and shrug that I made (will post pics of that for sure). They are bound to be better than the one I have!

But, while we were up in the nursery snapping the pic, I took a picture of the great glider/ottoman we got (mentioned in last post). So here that is (now with bonus Sadie included!)



Looks pretty good, huh!

And here is Jim playing around as usual:






So here it is Saturday afternoon, and I had planned to be ambitious today. I started by sorting my dirty laundry and then decided to go through my closet and get rid of clothes that I just didn't like anymore or that didn't really fit me well (before the pregnancy that is). I then sorted out the clothes that don't fit my now, but should be fit after baby. After all that sorting and organizing, I got a little tired so decided I would head downstairs to take a small break on the couch....

2 hours later, I ate lunch.....another hour later and here we are. Nothing else done. I really need to do laundry since it is pretty backed up. I know I'm pregnant, but frankly, I can't always use that excuse! I am still capable of getting up and doing laundry and doing a little cleaning! And well, that is my "lent" this year. Be more productive with my time. Yes, I do need time to rest. I know my limits and I know that in between tasks and chores, I require a bit of "put my feet up" time. But probably 30-60 minutes would be plenty....not 2 hours!

So after this post, I am at least going to trek back upstairs and get that load of laundry into the wash. It's the least I can do! And perhaps I will straighten up the kitchen before the hubby comes home from work so it will be ready to make messy again with dinner.

Get With it!

Seriously, why can't I keep this up on a least a weekly basis! Blah.

Anyways, so I was hoping that I would be able to update with pictures of our nursery with our new crib.....but when it was delivered on Monday the box looked like it had been through a shredder. So of course, when we opened it up, the first piece pulled out had a few large gouges and scratches in it. So back in the box and back to the store it went. We still need to reorder it. So boo to that, I was really looking forward to setting that up!

We do have some furniture set up in there however.....we scored an amazing deal on a glider/ottoman combo! I found someone on Craig's List selling a like new glider for like half the price that it would of been in the store. I have personally never dealt with buying anything on Craig's List and have to admit I was a little doubtful. She had sent me a really crappy phone picture of the thing and told me it was "like new".....so I was suspicious. But I figured it didn't hurt to look. If we didn't like it, we could just leave. Well....it was gorgeous! It really was like new and it was just in great shape. So we loaded it up into the car (that wasn't an easy task, luckily the seller's husband was home to help Jim out, because I was pretty much useless to help...oh wait, I carried the cushions, lol) and we were on our way! I will post a photo of it when we take more pics of the nursery!

On the crafty front I have made a cute little tutu for my little girl :) We are going to use it when we get her newborn pictures taken! It is so much cuter than the picture does justice, but here it is anyways:

This weekend is the big baby shower! A little early than most girls have them, but I'm a bit glad. It will be nice to get things together while I am still able to move around and not feel too tired, etc. My friends Kellie, Ann and Kelly are throwing it for me and they couldn't be doing a better job! Kellie is just amazing at this....she seriously should be a professional party planner! She is so organized and just has everything under control. Just blows me away how kind my friends can be! I knew I had them in my wedding party for a reason ;)


So I am officially 28 weeks today! Craziness....really I can't believe it. Just feels like yesterday I found out I was pregnant! So I am due for a new belly pic today, but for now I will post last weeks picture! And we will do a survey to kick off the third trimester!!

How far along? 28 weeks

How big is Baby? 16 inches, about 2.5 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: I've really been eating a lot of crap, so I can only imagine how much weight I've gained. I am not stepping on the scale and I'm going to try to cut back on all the crap. Time for more protein, lots of water, and some fruits and veggies!

Maternity clothes? Pre-preg clothes won't be fitting me soon. Every other day or so I find another shirt that I can't wear anymore, but again overall, I've done pretty well in not having to invest in a whole new wardrobe

Stretch marks? Ugh, they are starting. I started noticing them here and there in the lower mid-section and on the boobs. Blah, where they with pride right?

Sleep: Sleep has been pretty good. I think I toss and turn a lot, but I haven't had any issues with waking up and not being able to go back to sleep. Apparently I am snoring like a lumber jack though according to the hubby.....how embarrassing!

Best moment this week: Passing the glucose tolerance test and being told by my doctor that everything is going PERFECTLY! Let's keep this up!

Movement: I think I'm starting to get a schedule going with her movements. She'll move a bit when I wake up, then get active in the mid afternoon and then again usually right before bed. It's time to start doing "kick counts" to make sure she is continuing to do well in there!

Food cravings: I think I am finally over the sugar rush. Don't get me wrong, I still want chocolate and stuff, but I don't NEED it.....like an overwhelming need for it. Luckily that has passed.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In....starting to notice a difference though, may be popping soon

What I am looking forward to: Looking forward to the Shower on Sunday!! Then we can start getting the nursery more put together!

Milestones: Well, again, every week is a little mini milestone! However, 37 weeks is the biggie. That will be full term! So even though it would be nice for her to stay put a few more weeks after that, if she decides to come a bit earlier, than anything after 37 weeks is a-okay and the docs wouldn't stop progression. So....only 9 weeks!


27 weeks!

Why is it?

I always think of different introspective deep thought kind of things to blog about when I am sitting in my car, or at work, or anywhere where I can't actually write a blog about it!!

So here I am, a boring Saturday morning...and I got nothing. Nothing new to say, nothing interesting. Just same 'ol same 'ol.

Our life is pretty uneventful....which is fine by me really! Which is soon going to change when Baby arrives I'm sure ;) Jim tells me all the time "We are so boring". Not really though. We are just older and we work all day and have chores to do etc. When we finally can sit back and unwind, we really don't want to go out and party....we just want to chill out and relax, watch some tv and go to bed shortly after. We better enjoy the quiet for the next few months while it lasts.

Well, here we are 26 weeks. On the cusp of the third trimester already! Can't believe how fast the second trimester has gone. The first was rather slow and I felt rather blah for most of the time. Second tri has been pretty great. Got some energy back, felt pretty normal. But now, third tri discomforts are creeping. Increasingly bad heartburn, uncomfortable ribs, and I think I'm starting to lose a bit of my energy. The next three months will probably slow down a bit, but I'm going to enjoy them and prepare for the big change that is ahead.

We painted the nursery! It's not 100%, we still need to do some touchups, but the paint color is up thanks to my wonderful husband. He took care of it all in one weekend. It looks great! We are very happy with our color choice. It should match perfectly with the bedding we are getting.


Here is the bedding:



Well I missed last week's picture, so here is my 26 week survey and photo:

How far along? 26 weeks

How big is Baby? 15 inches, about 2 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: Doctor said I'm up 13 lbs. Not too bad. Still don't like to think about it ;)

Maternity clothes? Slowly building the wardrobe. Picked up a new maternity/nursing bra last night since the girls are seemingly growing!

Stretch marks? Pretty sure I got a couple on the girls....no fun!

Sleep: Sleep is mostly back on track for the last couple weeks. Do a lot of tossing and turning, but nothing too bad. Usually wake up feeling okay!

Best moment this week: Passing the glucose tolerance test and being told by my doctor that everything is going PERFECTLY! Let's keep this up!

Movement: Still moving all the time which is what we like!

Food cravings: Cupcakes....and lots of sugary stuff. Not good to be craving those things!! I wish I was craving broccoli or something!

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Third Trimester. Almost there...26 weeks 6 days is the start of the last third of pregnancy.

Milestones: Every week is a new milestone. Every week she stays put is just another week of growth and development and just that slight percentage of survival rate goes up. The doctor calls this "crunch time". Babies born now will survive, but not without difficulty. Each week we go, we get closer and closer to a happy healthy baby!

Please ignore the crazy hair....it was just before bed ;)

My bad!

Yeah, yeah, I should be awarded the "lazy blogger" award.

So, not too much exciting happened since last post. Husband has been working a lot so that makes for some boring weekends. We did hit up the North American International Auto Show on Monday. That was fun to cruise around and look at all the concept cars. I actually had never been before, so it was definitely about time we went!

The rest of the week was same 'ole same 'ole.

This weekend we are hoping to plan something fun to do Saturday. We may take a drive around somewhere we've never been before. Maybe take a mini overnight vacay somewhere nearby. Or there's always the Plymouth Ice Festival which is always fun to go to.

Well, so here is LAST weeks bump picture:

On to this week...We'll start with a survey:

How far along? 24 weeks 1 days

How big is Baby? 8.5 inches, 1 1/2 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: I've stopped paying attention. I really don't want to know unless the doc tells me I need to stop gaining :)

Maternity clothes? Still managing to wear my normal tops. I need to layer them with long under shirts though. I've only bought 4 maternity shirts and a sweater. Then of course my pants that I've been wearing since practically the beginning!

Stretch marks? Might have a few on my breast.....not sure if they are veins or stretchies....hoping they are veins and will go away!

Sleep: Sleep is starting to suck. Waking up and rolling around at 3 am almost daily. Not cool.

Best moment this week: The movement is so much fun!

Movement: She is moving and grooving like crazy and I love every minute of it. She's had a slow day here and there and of course always freaks me out. But she has to sleep sometime!
Food cravings: Ice water with lemon. Very strange craving, but at least it's keeping me hydrated!

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Third Trimester. About 2-4 weeks away depending on what chart you look at ;)

Milestones: I'd say Third Tri is a good milestone. Technically this week was "Viability week" meaning that if God forbid baby decided to make an appearance WAY too early, she would have a better chance of survival with TONS of medical intervention (thank you modern medicine). We definitely don't want to see the little lady for another 16 weeks though!

These weeks bump pic featuring a new haircut! This picture sux. I am bound and determined to get a better picture of the haircut tomorrow!!

Losing (most likely lost) a good friend

Ugh, 4 am and can't sleep. Perfect time for a lengthy serious blog, right?

So yesterday morning (Sat.) all was fine and normal in my world. I was getting ready to head up to Panera to meet a couple friends who offered to host my baby shower. We were just gonna go over some planning details and such. Well, as I got into my car I noticed a strange text message from another friend of mine. It pretty much cryptically stated that she didn't want to be friends anymore and not to call her. Um, okay? I was totally confused and started running through the events of the last day or so and looking up stuff on Facebook to see if there was something I missed. Well finally, after a few unaswered phone calls and text messages, she sent me a very long letter letting me know what was up. Not only was she upset that she wasn't included in the the shower planning, she listed a few other things from our past that bothered her that I had NO clue about. So now I'm just in shock. But that's fine, she's entitled to her feelings of course.

I come home and try to respond to every issue she addressed to let her know that I care for her very much and consider her one of my closest friends and in no way did I ever mean to hurt her feelings. My other friends approached me about the shower. I didn't ask them to do anything. She never offered anything, so I didn't even know she wanted to be included. I would love to have her help, but again, it's just one of those things you don't ask people for, it just happens. They come to you.

So I try to explain that as well as going through some of the other issues that she mentioned, trying to let her know that I didn't know she felt that way and that some things were never intentional, etc. That was about 2:00 pm or so.

Never heard back.

Not sure if she "blocked" me on facebook so she didn't receive it or what? So I sent it to her email as well. Texted her to check her messages. Nothing.

Andrea=hurt and confused.

We've been friends for 10+ years. And we are going to just toss it out the window over this? Not even a chance to work it out? I don't even get a fair say or nothing. She just wants it to be over and I guess that's it.

I realize our relationship has never been perfect. We've connected and disconnected plenty of times over the years. Family situations, bad relationships, me away at college, and other stuff just gets in the way sometimes. But I never once considered her NOT a friend. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding last year. Which apparently she says I felt obligated to have her. That's another total misconception. I have a handful of "best" friends. She was one of them. Of course I would want her to be a bridesmaid.

I just always thought our relationship dynamic was different. We didn't call each other all the time, we didn't see each other all the time, but when we did....things were good. We could talk about anything and everything. We were still close. But apparently this wasn't working for her. But I didn't know that. In the last few months I have contacted her more than she has contacted me! I called on her birthday, I called when I could tell she was feeling down due to her FB status, I called when I was pregnant. I've been to her house a couple times in the last few months....she stopped by once, but she was already in the area.

But this stuff didn't matter to me. It's just what our relationship was. I know she can't come over too often because of her cat allergies, so that's fine. I'll trek over there. No biggie.

Again....Andrea=Confused

So what now? Wait it out another day to see if I hear anything back? If she just wants to give it up, there is nothing I can do about it. She is entitled to that. But I'll always be here. And I'll send her one last message to be sure she knows. Although I'm hurt, and it sucks, I can and will put it behind me if she wanted to move forward someday.

Weekly Ramblings and 17 week Survey

Well, Thanksgiving weekend was pretty relaxing. Not much going on which was nice. Had a fun night out on Tuesday with a few girlfriends which included dinner at Applebees and a walk around the mall.

Other than that, the week went by quick and we just relaxed for the most part. We finished up most of our Christmas shopping last night, so that is a relief. Just need to wrap everything up and pick up a few more odds and ends and we will be set!

In other news, one of my bridesmaids from my wedding, Kelly got engaged! I am ecstatic for her! She had an amazing proposal story too. She has asked me to be a bridesmaid for her and I am beyond thrilled. They are planning a fall 2010 wedding, so hopefully by then I can get my butt back into shape after having this baby, lol. At least I have a goal date now!


How far along? 17 weeks 2 days

How big is Baby? 5 inches, 5 oz. About the size of an turnip

Total weight gain/loss: up about 5 lbs

Maternity clothes? Still fitting into the same shirts. Bought some long tanks and tees to go underneath them though since they aren't long enough to cover the maternity pants

Stretch marks? Nadda

Sleep: Sleep is still good

Best moment this week: Possibly movement?

Movement: Still not sure completely. Feeling some weird stuff going around in there, but it could just be indigestion, lol

Food cravings: Ice water with lemon. Very strange craving, but at least it's keeping me hydrated!

Gender: 2 weeks away!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Gender appointment!!

Milestones: Eh, nothing to report yet :)

And your picture of the week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great week leading up to Thanksgiving! Last Saturday we got to take a tour of the Parade Company in detroit as they were preparing for "America's Thanksgiving Parade." We saw all the floats up close and learned some history about the parade and such. It was a very interesting and fun experience.

And well, I learned something else for certain that afternoon - Being pregnant I apparently don't do well standing in one place for too long. I'm fine upright, moving around, walking, etc. But as soon as I end up standing in one spot for too long, I always get light headed, dizzy and hot flashes. So I had to leave a bit early to find a good place to sit down for a bit. The same thing happens to me during church and I always end up having to sit down during the time we are supposed to be standing which seems like forever sometimes ;)

This week I only worked on Monday and then had the pleasure of enjoying the rest of the week off. I had a few vacation days to use, so I am still thoroughly enjoying that.

Tuesday I met up with my Grandma for lunch. She's doing well considering the situation (Grandpa passed away last month). She got a little choked up here and there and of course it just breaks my heart. I just am trying to do what I can to call her often and trying to see her whenever I can. Hopefully she will be able to come over for Christmas breakfast that I am trying to plan at our house.

Of course, Grandma rarely fails to show up without a gift of some sorts. So she got a couple cute things for the baby....she pretty excited ;)

Cute little Pooh Bear outfit and some cloth diaper/burp clothes.

Wednesday we started our Thanksgiving celebration. We headed downtown to the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) to meet up with the in-laws. Thanksgiving day everyone runs a 10K race called the Turkey Trot (I was going to do it this year before I found out I was pregnant). So we got to stay in a room there since the race starts pretty early. We had an amazing steak dinner with lobster bisque and salad to start. Finishing off with creme brulee....my favorite! But that was nothing compared to thursday!!

Thursday morning I was attempting to sleep in, but ended up waking up when Jim was getting ready to leave and decided to hang out with him and his parents for a few before they were off to the races. I spent the rest of the morning lounging in the king size bed watching tv :) It was quite nice I have to say!

Now it's time for lunch.....oh my goodness. It's the best buffett EVER! We start off with a spread of veggies, salads, and other appetizer-ish foods. Then comes the main course: all the sides you can imagine (mashed potates, sweet potatoes, green beans, roasted potatoes....), ham, turkey AND beef tenderloin, eggplant lasagna and probably some other stuff I missed.

Then is the dessert.....this is where I get in trouble. This is where both Jim and I overdid it and felt like we were going to explode for the rest of the day. There was a chocolate fountain, creme brulee, rice pudding, small little cakes and pastries, fruit, pumpkin pie, carrot cake, and more. And of course I have to attempt to try bits of everything. You could of literally rolled me out of there yesterday.

Then we had to head over to my dad's house. Of course they kept asking us to eat, but there was no way. Neither of us could take a single bite. So we just watched them enjoy their turkey dinner and that was just fine with us :) However, it's once again the dessert that gets me. We broke down and had an awesome piece of home made apple pie before we left. I was still feeling full from lunch, but that pie was good. I took some of that and some chocolate cake to go....so I'm sure I'll be enjoying some of that today!

I am now enjoying my day off, lounging in my PJs right now. Poor hubby is working today AND tomorrow. Kind of a bummer. He had a few half days this week, so he doesn't feel too bad about it, he is such a saint sometimes!

No survey this week, not much going on in pregnancy land. The bump is still growing a little and became very obvious in the non-maternity dress I managed to squeeze into yesterday. So I leave you with this weeks picture!!

So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am so thankful for my friends, family, my absolutely wonderful husband whom I simply ADORE and this blessing of having a baby that we have been given.

Big 'ol Announcement

Wow, so it's been about two months since my last entry. And I have a very good explanation for that. Jim and I are happy to announce that we are expecting!! We found out in early September but wanted to just feel things out, get a doc appointment or two under the belt and make sure everything was going well before we spread the happy news!

So as of now I am about 12 weeks along and feeling.....well I won't lie, I feel kinda blah! Tired, a bit of nauseousness and indigestion/bloating from hell! But it's all worth it. I really don't want to complain much :)

Here is the little bean at our first ultrasound (6 weeks):




So the last two months have been remotely uneventful. I have just been relaxing and taking it easy. Looking back through the calendar, here are the highlights:

Renaissance festival: Went with a few close friends and had fun as usual. People watching never fails to entertain....it definitely attracts an interesting crowd.

Garage Sale: Made $150! Not too bad. And Salvation Army picked up anything that we didn't sell, so it was nice to finally get rid of the accumulating pile of stuff that we had stacked up in the basement.

On a somber note, my Grandfather passed away on October 21st. The whole family just sat at his bedside waiting for him to pass. It was a very sad experience. He was 86 yrs old and was a WW2 Marine veteran. Him and my Grandma had been married for 61 1/2 years. 5 children, 6 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. He was very loved and will be missed.

Birthday: Came and went, especially due to the circumstances with my grandfather. Jim took me out to a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: Kruse and Muer. I got some awesome crab cakes and we had some great artichoke dip for an appetizer. I love that place!

Halloween: Pretty laid back day as well. We carved pumpkins and passed out candy. Here are some pics:


Waiting for trick or treaters


Jim was waiting too! Check out that awesome Mickey inflatable pumpkin!


Kitties wanted to come out and play!


My scary pumpkin


Jim's very creative pumpkin

Anniversary: 1 year! We made it! We had a wonderful weekend that involved a nice dinner out to Macaroni Grill, Sharing our wonderful anniversary cake (we got a fresh cake from our bakery for free), went to church at the place we were married, watched our wedding video, and cuddled up and relaxed the rest of the time. It was a wonderful weekend!



It was such a wonderful day (11-01-08)


And there we have it. It will be pretty low key until the holidays kick in....which is right around the corner! I'll admit, I'm not one who likes to start thinking about Christmas so early, but for some reason I'm getting that itch to start decorating all ready. Even Jim (who just LOVES Christmas) isn't ready to bust out the decor yet. I'll have to at least wait until after Thanksgiving.

Here we go....

Not updating again. Really hasn't been all that eventful since Labor Day. We had a good time with the family, it was a beautiful weekend. Brought home something with us that we didn't want however.....a cold. Jim and I were held up in the house for a week or so with a cold. I still have a mild cough that nags at me a bit. Luckily it wasn't too bad and it didn't last too long. We are finally back to normal again.

This weekend should be interesting. We are having a garage sale. I have personally never held my own garage sale, so I'm not sure what to expect. We priced everything out, which was difficult since I really had no idea what they were worth. We really don't care if we make any money, we just want to get rid of the crap. It's a sub-wide garage sale, so hopefully we will get a lot of foot traffic!

That's about it. Jim put up some more curtains and hung up some more art work around the house. Still tons more to do!

It's consuming...

Those darn books are just consuming my time now. Luckily I am almost done with Book 3. Only one more to go after that. I am almost ashamed to admit it. Hi my name is Andrea and I am addicted to Twilight. What am I....sixteen? Ah well, I know I'm not the only one, so that helps. What doesn't help is the hot actors they got to play in the movie. Woo, someone hand me a fan. They are some good looking fellows for sure (don't worry, I still love you sweetie).

They are quick reads. I started Twilight last Friday I think and a week later I am nearly completed with Eclipse. I don't have a copy of Breaking Dawn yet. I need to get it from my "dealer". Yep, my dear friend who got me hooked in the first place.

It all started with a friendly girls day. I don't see her enough as it is, so when we were both free one afternoon, we took up the opportunity to hang out. She asked if I had seen Twilight. I said no, and honestly I didn't have a ton of interest. Looked good, but really could care less. It was a good movie! And then she sent me home with the first 3 books. The rest is history. I now have a crush on a vampire and a werewolf.....fabulous.

All is well though. I least I am reading. I haven't sat down and read a book in its entirety since probably early college! Not that I haven't wanted to, just haven't done it. So perhaps this will start a new trend and I will start reading more again. I have a few books in mind that I would like to read and the library is just a few minutes away. This could be a good thing.

Woman Problems

No, not those kind of problems! Just sometimes I feel like it's a problem to do the things I want to do just because I am a woman. One particular incident got me thinking. It wasn't really an incident actually, more of just a paranoia and what if?

I was running, alone, on a trail in a kind of wooded, unpopulated area. It's close to my house and about 2 miles long one way. There were a few runners and bikers passing by, but overall, it was pretty secluded. A biker passed by me, I gave my generic wave and smile and kept moving. He passed by me a second time and again I wave and keep moving. Well, then he stopped on the trail ahead and had his bike on the ground and was just kinda standing there. Not really in a spot you would think to stop and take a break or anything. I passed by once again, nodded and moved on.
That's when my brain started to wander.......What if he (or anyone else for that matter) came up behind me and attacked? I am alone, I am running (therefore pretty much out of energy), and overall kind of helpless. If I was a man, I wouldn't be having this problem. I know men can get attacked too, blah blah blah, but really....what's the probability of something happening to a male runner along a trail compared to a female runner?
So the remainder of my run consisted of me looking over my shoulder every two seconds. It was kind of freaky. So I'll probably stay away from that trail for awhile. I have others to go to that are busier and there is more chance of running to someone's house in case of emergency or something instead of being stuck in the middle of the woods.
I might invest in some pocket pepper spray too...

Busy Month: A Visual Guide

So instead of typing out everything that has gone on since the last time i've updated, I thought just a brief visual tour would do the trick!! So here we go..

For our "dating" anniversary we picked up a new game:
It pretty much just monitors your steps for each day. We each have a goal of 6,000 steps which is approximately 3 miles. Over one month later, we have reached our goal every day except for one! It has definitely kept us motivated to stay active. I highly recommend it!
So yes, I have been getting into running more! It is a great workout and fun to get outside and clear your mind during a nice run. I run about 3-5 miles every other day or so (been slacking the last week though).

To help me out on my longer runs, I got this nifty hydration belt. It holds two 10 oz containers of water and has a pouch just big enough to fit my key and cell phone. It straps around my waist and surprisingly isn't bothersome at all. I really have enjoyed having water readily available when I need it and not having to run without my cell phone on me.

July 11th we headed to a graduation party for my church sponsor son.

Down to Hamtramack for some awesome polish food to celebrate my grandma's birthday.

Mmmm.....Dill pickle soup, my favorite!

We headed off to the family cottage the following weekend. The weather was actually quite cold and the bugs were just insane. So we shacked up and watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Interesting movie....it was nice to have a little getaway, even though we were doing the same thing we would probably do at home!

Since the cottage was so buggy, we left early on Sunday and decide to go to the zoo! We hadn't been there in years. I will post pictures as soon as I load them onto the computer!

We decide we would try to do a ton of geocaching for a week. We made it out for two evenings and found 20 or so. Not too bad :)

I met my MIL for lunch one afternoon. We had some great sandwiches and then headed over to the local gourmet grocery store and had some wine samples. You can actually drink wine while you shop....I totally want to go back!

We headed over to a cute local bar for a friend's birthday Friday, July 24th. It was busy and loud, but we had a good time.

Another day of geocaching, however, this time we turned into a road trip. We hit Grand Ledge which was a cool place for the geocaches, then proceeded to Grand Rapids for the bet hot dogs EVER!!

Yesterdog. Seriously. Best. Hotdog. Ever.

MIL birthday was that weekend, so we went over to celebrate on Sunday. Had a wonderful dinner and for dessert and amazing torte.....we got to take home the leftovers too. I'm sure it all went straight to my thighs.

Back to the cottage! This time the weather was great. We did some tubing. No that is not a picture of anyone in particular up there, just something I pulled off the web, lol. We all attempted to stand on the tube whilst moving. It was really hard. My legs were killing me for the next two days. We had a lot of fun and ate a LOT of food. A few favorites....

Grilled Chicken

Avacodoes!

Here we are to today! I spent most of the day trying to work on our landscaping. I was doing a lot of shoveling and moving around of dirt. I am basically trying to reconfigure the whole orientation of the existing landscaping in our front yard. I am still dirty and frankly I'm pooped.

August 22nd, Jim and I are running an 8K (5 mile) race. I really need to get back into my running routine. It's hard when we have been working on the house so much. I don't really have time for both it seems!

We finally picked up curtains and other random things for the house. Hopefully we will whip it into shape before the winter hits. I hope to have the front yard landscaping done and have this house decorated more by then. We plan on painting two of the bathrooms and our "activity room" as we like to call it is turning disney themed room since we have so much disney stuff! It'll be a fun, even though I hate painting.....

Weekend Update: When life gives you lemons....

You are supposed to make lemonade right? I would rather squirted lemon juice in someone's eyes. I had someone in mind too, but I won't go there. Instead, I made the proverbial lemonade a salvaged what could of been a miserable weekend.
On the way home from work Friday, Jim got a phone call and was told he had to travel 5 hours down into Ohio to deliver some material and work on a job site Saturday.....4th of July. Fantastic! We, of course, had holiday plans to spend with family and have a good time out at the cottage, oh and can't forget to mention we were supposed to have an awesome Frankenmuth chicken lunch with his family as well! I was so looking forward to that!! But instead, I piled into the car with Jim Friday night and we trekked down to Blanchester, OH. Blanchester....it just sounds fun doesn't it? We booked a room just outside of Dayton, about 45 min from Blanchester since there no place much closer to stay. Jim headed to work 7am and I proceeded to hang out in a hotel room for most of the day. But, alas, I made the best of it. Slept in, hung out at the pool for a while and walked across the street to the Dayton Mall. Not much of a mall, but I got a good walk out of it.
I also had brought a vase of flowers that Jim had bought me earlier that week and took a few photos of them. I was inspired to do so by another blog I was following here. She took a few pictures of flowers to decorate the house. I already have some of my photos hanging on the walls, so why not a few more. Here are a few of them:









So, Jim ended up getting out of work and back to the hotel pretty early. We had originally planned to spend Saturday night as well and do some geocaching on Sunday. A quick check of the weather changed our minds. It was supposed to be rainy and cloudy. But home sweet home on Sunday was supposed to bright and sunny. So we decided to drive on home. We got back around 7:00pm, watched a movie and hit the hay!

Sunday, we got up and went to church (it had been awhile, it felt good to be back!). We then had arranged to meet up with my dad and join him and his wife for a day out on the lake in his boat. We headed out to Orchard Lake and spent the day cruising the waters and lounging in the sun. We had a lot of fun and ended up having a pretty darn good weekend!

The week has gone by kinda fast so far, despite the fact that I have a bit of cold that is preventing me from getting a good night sleep. It's been rather annoying. I am pretty much just fine all day, but as soon as I lay down and try to sleep, I start hacking up a lung. I am pretty much just exhausted now. I can't wait to get a good night sleep again.