High time for an update - Holiday Review!

Woo, slacking once again! But the holidays are always a busy time of year, right? Well, this year went really well! This was our first year doing some of the holiday entertaining at our house. I was pretty nervous about it, but it went great! Here is the holiday rundown:

Christmas Eve:

Dinner at the IL's....wonderful as usual! They always put on a great spread from the appetizers to the dessert! I am known as the dessert girl around there, so my mother-in-law is always excited to tell me what she gets for dessert. And well, I don't mind, because, frankly, that is my favorite part and I fit the role perfectly!

We got an exciting gift from them this year as well.....a family trip to Disney World! Me, Jim and baby along with grandma, grandma and then Aunt and Uncle and their kids are all going to Disney next summer! We are totally excited. I can't believe I'll be carting around a 3 month old in Disney, it's going to be an experience for sure! Baby's first trip....I couldn't have picked a better place to go!

From Jim's Aunt and Uncle we got an awesome Flip video camera! I am really excited to put that to good use once the baby arrives! It is definitely a really fun device!

After a lovely evening with them, we decided to head over to 10:00 pm Evening Mass at Church. We knew we wouldn't make it Christmas day so....it was very nice, but I'll admit, I was really tired! We ended up leaving just a tad early. We had a busy day ahead of us!

Christmas Day:

Brunch to begin around 10:30! My dad, step-mom and grandmother came over for eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and waffles! Breakfast is kind of a tricky meal to make for a group...things get cold too quickly! But we managed. Jim handled the majority of breakfast. I was more worried about dinner!

We got some great un-circulated coins that belonged to my grandfather. That was a very special gift. We also got some gift cards and money (which is always nice!)

The first wave was out by 1:00 ish. That left us a couple hours to unwind before wave two was to arrive at 3:00. Turkey was in the cooker and everything else was prepped. My mom and step-dad, aunt and uncle, and great uncle arrived and we started with a nice spread of simple appetizers. The turkey cooked a lot quicker than I expected, but luckily turned out great! We had a lovely dinner and some home made pies (compliments of my aunt) for dessert!

We got a lot of gift cards again that I am looking forward to spending! Jim has already spent his, lol.

The weekend to follow I was just pooped. I pretty much just lounged the whole time. Jim unfortunately had to work, so he didn't get much of a rest!

Here is my 20 week picture as well as some other Christmas pics:




On to New Year's Eve:

Jim had to work, but was home at a reasonable time. I loaded up on some unhealthy snacks (chips, dip, poppers, mini tacos) and we just relaxed until midnight. It was nice!

Here we are relaxin' and being silly:



New Year's Day:

Woke up and head to an early showing of Avatar in 3D. Great movie! Very long and I was going to pee my pants by the time we got out of there, but it was very enthralling and the graphics were great! Then it was off to Babies R Us to start to register. Ugh....talk about overwhelming! There is just so much stuff and we don't have a clue what we really need, what we really don't need, what baby will like, or not like, etc. We skimmed through the store and then I decided I had enough and we went home!

The next day (Saturday) I went through the online site each category one by one researching products and figuring out what we need/don't need. When Jim got home from work, we went to Starbucks and went over it yet again to narrow down some items. I think it is finally good to go. And it should be, since the shower is next month!

Sunday (yesterday) I took down all the Christmas decorations. It's always kind of sad to take down the decorations....I love our Christmas tree! It is fun to look through the ornaments one last time before wrapping them up for the year.

So that was that. Here we are in 2010 and we are hoping this year will be a good one! Last year was well, not the best. So here is to a better and brighter year!


How about a 21 week survey!!

How far along? 21 weeks 4 days

How big is Baby? Should be about 1 lb now!!

Total weight gain/loss: I have not stepped on the scale...I will find out at my monthly checkup tomorrow!

Maternity clothes? Still managing to wear my normal shirts with maternity pants!

Stretch marks? Nadda

Sleep: Sleep is beginning to lack. I seem to wake up every night around 3-4 am and toss and turn. No fun!

Best moment this week: Movement is increasing!

Movement: Definitely feeling her move around now! It's a pretty crazy, weird, cool, amazing feeling!

Food cravings: I'm craving salads like big time today!

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Jim being able to feel our little girl move and groove!

Milestones: Still hanging in there and enjoying this pregnancy so far!

21 week 4 day pic!


And just for fun...the kitties!

New Look and New pictures of our little girl!

Decided to update the blog layout to reflect the season. Happy winter everyone!

And as promised, here are the ultrasound pictures!

Cute little foot
ProfileProfile
Leg and foot
Little hand waving (looking down on top of head)

Big News!

We had our BIG ultrasound today! Got tons of measurements of the little one and everything looks good. However, baby was being less than cooperative and made mommy and daddy have to get up a walk around the hallways for a few minutes to come back. Then for a second time, I had to lay on my side for 5 minutes in hopes to dislodge the little troublemaker. Finally, we got everything measured.

Now, for what everyone has been waiting for.....It's a GIRL! We got a lot of cute ultrasound pictures. As soon as we scan them I will be sure to post them here!

We are just thrilled! We would of been thrilled either way, but it's so much for "real" when you can stop calling baby "it"! We went straight out to the baby store and I picked out a cute outfit and Jim picked up an original "Tickle me Elmo" for when she gets bigger (he is just too cute).


How far along? 19 weeks

How big is Baby? 9 oz according to the utrasound :) Size of a small canteloupe.

Total weight gain/loss: I think I'm up about 8 lbs

Maternity clothes? Bought a couple more maternity shirts and a sweater today. Regular shirts are definitely starting to tighten up a bit.

Stretch marks? Nadda

Sleep: Sleep is still good

Best moment this week: Finding out we are having a girl!

Movement: Still feeling weird "bubbles" and such which is pretty certain to be baby. I'm looking forward to the kicks and jabs.

Food cravings: Not much this week

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: Feeling more movement :)

Milestones: Healthy baby at the 19 week ultrasound! I'll admit I was a little nervous since we have not seen the little bean since 6 weeks!

Here we are:

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.

Weekly Update

So I decided to pop on my old friend the pedometer today! I haven't used it since the end of September. 1st Tri just kicked my butt and I was literally getting hardly any steps in per day. Under 1000. It was pretty bad. FINALLY, I feel like I could actual get on the treadmill and walk a mile or just walk around the mall. Well, today, I banked about 4,200 steps. That is about 2 miles of activity. Not too shabby! If I can just get in a mile or so a day, I think that would be good for my overall health.

I'm still in the "in between" phase with clothes. I'm ready to just dive in and get some cute maternity clothes, but the shirts for the most part are still too big around the middle (except for the one in the above picture which fits rather nicely!). However, my current shirts aren't quite long enough so tend to ride up and show off the lovely large elastic waist band that my maternity jeans are sporting.

Which by the way....I LOVE. It's almost like wearing jean colored sweat pants. They are just so much more comfortable than my regular pants, which 90% can't button anymore, and the ones that can, just feel too uncomfortable once they are on. I think I could wear the maternity pants forever.....j/k...or am I?

So anyways, I'm just in clothing limbo at the moment. And I need to get a dress for Thanksgiving. I tried on a couple at the mat. store and they were a no-go. So I think I just need to find a larger sized regular dress. I'm running out of time, so I better hit up the mall again this weekend.

I leave you with another survey if you so care to read....

How far along? 15 weeks

How big is Baby? 4.5 inches, 2-3 oz. About the size of an orange

Total weight gain/loss: Still down about 2-3 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Sleep is good

Best moment this week: Actually being able to walk around the mall without getting too tired

Movement: Not yet, but I should be feeling something soon!

Food cravings: Still aversions, had a craving of chocolate covered strawberries for the last couple days. They were good :)

Gender: Still waiting!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to: My bump to keep growing and the gender!

Milestones: N/A

One of those survey things

Why not.....at least it will force me to blog something once a week, right?

How far along? 14 weeks 2 days

How big is Baby? 4.5 inches, 2-3 oz. About the size of an orange

Total weight gain/loss: Still down about 2-3 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yep, and loving them!

Stretch marks? Not yet....praying for minimal damage :)

Sleep: Sleep is good, not as good as pre-preg due to waking up to pee and just tossing and turning more

Best moment this week: Hearing the heartbeat (147) at the doc appointment!

Movement: Not yet

Food cravings: Nothing really sounds appealing really, I'm having more aversions than anything

Gender: Find out next month!

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? In, not even really showing yet

What I am looking forward to: That baby bump to become more prominent

Milestones: Into 2nd Trimester!

I leave you with a funky blurry iphone picture of me at 14 weeks. This shirt makes me look more pregnant....I need more shirts like this ;)

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!

Almost the weekend!

And I am ready for it! Not too much planned. Just going to try to see the families at some point this weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice, so It is shaping up to be a fun and relaxing one.

Hope you all have a good holiday weekend too!

We've been keeping busy!

Time for the well needed house update! We took a couple trips to Ikea and Bed Bath and Beyond over the past two weeks and have finally gotten some things together. The family room still isn't at 100%, but it's looking better and better:

Here is our new curtains. We still need to put up our celing fan.


Here is our new entertainment center. We plan to add two shelves in the middle area above the TV.


The Kitchen is complete. We put up blinds and well, since I never posted it when we painted, here's our new paint job.

The dining room is still a mess, but I wanted to show off our new china cabinets. There is one on each side of the window. This one holds my collection of polish pottery, the other one is our wedding china. We also got new chairs for our table. We have curtains to put up still.


Little by little we are getting things done. Next up on the agenda:

Paint half bath on main floor
Paint small part of master bath (toilet is in a separate area)
Remove wall paper from Guest room and paint
Paint other spare room
Hang art work throughout house


That has been keeping us pretty busy the last two weekends. This weekend we are planning to kick back and relax with the family. Supposed to be a good weekend, I'm looking forward to it!

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.....

I am here

Still alive, with tons of things to blog about, just haven't sat down and done it!! Tonight, I promise!!!