17 weeks

 Where is the time going? 

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 17 Weeks

Size of baby: Baby M is the size of an onion!

Total Weight Gain: 5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Just bought a of pair of maternity jeans and I am LOVING them!

Gender: We shall find out when this little bundle of joy arrives

Movement: I think I felt the baby move this past week : )

Sleep: I'm so tired - that I sleep pretty good!

What I miss: turkey sandwiches and raw sushi

Cravings: no real cravings, rather just hungry ALL the time

Symptoms:  serious pregnancy brain and tiredness

Best Moment this week: feeling the baby move

Here are some other bump pics from the previous weeks:

Please excuse the excessive wearing of the long sleeve white cotton tee and the PJ's in week 16, what can I say, I go for comfort now not style.

Along the lines of baby, I am in a constant state of feeling like we should be doing baby-type things.  You know the researching of strollers, cribs, car seats, etc, but my goodness the world of researching these things is like a total black hole.  There is soooooo much and it can be so overwhelming.  So I stick to online shopping that involves looking at baby clothes and saying "O.M.G how CUTE!" 

In other news, I am almost done with my M.Ed program, yippie!  My last day in my second grade classroom will be December 10th.  As much as I am looking forward to graduating, I also realize just how sad I will be to leave those 22 seven and eight year olds.  I have told them that I will be leaving and it is constantly followed by questions like, "Mrs. M are you finally graduating high school?" LOL.  They are so cute and on some days truly challenging.  However, the endless amount of cards and hugs I get make up for everything.

Mr. M and I put our house in NC back up for rent, as our renters move out January 31, 2011 and we need to stay in the Northeast for the hubby's job - so we shall see if we can it rented again.  However, with me being preggo we have set a deadline for ourselves to say that if our house in NC doesn't rent by 1/15/11 we will be making arrangements to move back into it.  And although most of you know, we would LOVE this, right now just would not be the right timing as the husband would have to be traveling up to his territory (Northeast USA) 3 times a week.  Not so great, especially with a newborn.  Oh well, it is out of our control.  God has a plan for us and we both feel secure knowing this. 

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 5 days!  Where has the year gone?  We (preggo Me, my better half, and the dog) will be driving down to NC to spend the holidays with my dad, brother, and sister.  I am so looking forward to the holidays - I do every year.  The food, the family, the decorations, and watching Christmas movies.  I feel so thankful for all that I have in my life and try to remember those things on a daily basis, as I realize just how blessed we are. 

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

 

Well, Surprise....We're PREGNANT!

Secretly, I wanted to do like a really cool blog title to capture my 2 followers (it is boggling to me how people have hundreds, I'm trying to reach a two digit number for goodness sakes), but then I couldn't think of anything so I just had to spill the beans.  So yea the BIG NEWS is out....We're are officially pregnant! And we couldn't be more excited (and scared, and nervous, and happy). 

Nothing says you're pregnant more than a few sticks that you urinate on.  And taking the picture seemed mandatory, No? We immediately drove to the nearest bookstore to pick up the latest and greatest edition of a little book titled, What to Expect.....  and began discussing how we would relay this news break to our families.  We decided on the most logical - fly to see my mom, brother and sister.  (Picture of me telling my sister below)

We would wait to see my dad in October when we was coming for a weekend stay and we would drive to my in-laws.  They were all so excited and shed major tears.  My poor dad, I'm sure for him it was like that scene in Father-of-the-Bride when actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley is telling Steve Martin she is getting married and it's coming from the mouth of a 5 year old.  Nonetheless, everyone was super excited.

We waited to tell friends until after our first ultrasound (at 11 weeks and 6 days) - oh my goodness the most amazing experience!  There the baby was jumping around in there like a Mexican jumping bean.  We send phone pictures of the ultrasound with a caption that said surprise Baby _  is on it's way!  Picture below...

It has been a whirlwind of activity and excitement.  My stomach has gone from the "I am so bloated, I feel like I just ate one of those never-ending pasta bowls from Olive Garden" to "this bloating is not going away, I think my stomach is actually growing a baby in there" to the stage where I am at now..."this is seriously the beginning of my bump.  I can no longer button my cute jeans, I think I will wear leggings and this tunic."

I am 14 weeks pregnant today.  The baby is the size of a lemon (as my mom says, "Looks like they're making their way through the produce section") and I couldn't feel more in love with my fantastic husband and future father and this little bundle of joy growing by leaps and bounds inside my stomach.





Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back

"Welcome back to school" is what I was saying on September 7th to all the adorable second graders that walked into the classroom.  So, that's what I've been up to, school.  Most of my days consist of phrases such as the following: "Please be quiet", "hands to yourself", "sit on the rug criss-cross applesauce", "it's snack time."  I have had a lot of jobs in the past (please reference earlier post), but none anywhere near as exhausting as being a teacher to 22 seven and eight year olds.  Needless to say, my obsession with getting to the gym to do the aerobics classes has taken a back seat (must work on that). 

Other than that, my fabulous husband and I have been patiently awaiting the arrival of Fall.  Yes, football is on our TV every weekend (Go Pirates!), and I constantly debate whether to just buy the Pumpkin Spice scented candle when I'm in Target, but I feel the weather needs to make a few adjustments before we can officially call it Fall.

I swear, there will be more to blog about soon, but for right now I must get back into the swing of working again and balancing that act with being the oh-so-domestic goddess that I am.  (BK cleaned, did the dishes, and laundry this whole weekend - maybe I'm not so domestic??)

Ho-Hum

Things we have been up to:

1.  Our friends Kevin and Sherrie got married on August 20th and we are excited and happy for them as they begin their life together.  My darling husband was the best man and gave one outstanding speech! 

2.  I have been studying (studying also means: taking frequent breaks that include checking my email, getting on facebook, reading blogs, bugging BK while he works, turning on the TV and eating food because I'm bored) for the Praxis so that I will be a certified teacher sooner than later.

3.  BK recently had a little surgical procedure this past Wednesday, but no worries all is good with the world he is healthy and doing fantastic. However, as a side note when we had the consultation with the Dr. before the procedure took place, he informed both BK and I the anesthesiologist would be giving BK, PROPOFOL. Ummm, yea...can we make sure Conrad Murray isn't the one who will be injecting my husband with the compound that led MJ to his final resting place?!?!  When the Dr. said that BK would be receiving Propofol I immediately looked at BK (like a mother to her offspring) to see if he correlated this drug with any negative meanings, like myself.  Thankfully, BK didn't make the connection so I acted like nothing was wrong. 

4.  Working out, cleaning, grocery shopping and doing everything else domestic goddess of me

5.  Wishing summer wasn't coming to a close, but looking VERRRYYY forward to Fall & Football - WooHoo!


Last but certainly not least, I recently had an "incident" with another driver.  Some background knowledge is needed for this story.  So the area that the husband and I live in has extremely narrow streets.  And on top of being narrow, the drivers are not the most, how should I say it, friendly. 

It was a beautiful, sunny, warm morning and I was returning from my indoor spinning class and in a great mood (I may or may not have been signing incredibly loud to "California Gurls" by Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg).  So, I make the left hand turn onto the street we live off of and I notice a hearse and a line of cars slowly approaching on the other side of the yellow line on the narrow road.  I also notice a huge black truck and a line of cars behind me.  Now, I was raised in a family that taught respect, manners, courtesy, and compassion.  So, I thought the right thing to do was to "pull to the side of the road" while the hearse and the line of cars with headlights on passed.  Let me make this disclaimer.....as I have said, these roads are extremely narrow, so unfortunately "pull to the side of the road" really just ended up me stopping at a stop sign for a really long time.  So as I am sitting at the stop sign waiting for this line of cars to pass I am rudely jolted by the horn being laid on behind me by the "Jersey Shore" Mike "the situation" driver of the black truck!  I don't think so homeboy!  You may not have respect for those that have passed on but I do and YOU WILL NOT HONK AT ME.  I sit in my car for a moment fuming that someone could be so rude.  I decide that I will now put my car in park go back and tap on this young man's window and tell him the GYM, TAN, LAUNDRY routine can wait a sec and he doesn't need to be so rude, so disrespectful and how dare he honk at me!  However, just as I am about to throw my car into PARK, I hear more horns coming from the line of cars behind the black truck and one man giving me a "nice hello" out his window.  With that, I was fearful for my life so instead of making the point I wanted to make to this guy and his fellow rude drivers behind him, I took the more mature route and got all passive-aggressive and threw my arms up in my rear-view mirror and sped off towards home sweet home.  I think the arms in the rear-view really made him shake in his boots, if I do say so myself.  Next time I will not be so friendly - watch out!

Until next time .....

ps - Oprah give it up, we get it, you're going off the air we don't need a countdown!

Laughing, and Talbots, and Blogging OH MY!

For the past 2 weekends we have been lucky enough to have our fabulous families come and visit.

My mom came the weekend of August 7th and we had a great time laughing, talking, and most importantly hitting up the biggest sale of the year..... at Talbots!  Now, I normally am not a Talbots kind of gal, but since my mom is, I figured I would accompany her in to make sure she didn't buy something outrageous.  Well, we are in the store no longer than 5 minutes before I spot the words - TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 50% OFF ALREADY REDUCED PRICE.  Say no more, I'm there.  I soon found myself totally consumed with frantically rummaging through rack after rack of what I use to term as "business casual" wear (nowadays known as super cute, classy, everyday wear).  I was in the zone and had way to many clothes.  Thankfully the lovely Talbots associate noticed my redneck way of claiming clothes (a pile on the floor) and asked if she could put them in a dressing room for me.  I mean honestly, if you are going to mark down fantastically awesome clothes like that, don't expect your patrons to keep it classy Talbots.  Needless to say I bought things.  And I could've bought more and in retrospect I wish I did.  That is until my mom and I found the promised land of Talbots Shoes & Accessories.  My mom also got super cute clothes.  We are a deadly combination when it comes to shopping, thank goodness my sister was not in the same state.  What a great weekend.

This past weekend my in-laws came to visit, which was super fun!  So let me start off by saying that my mother-in-law is a really fabulous cook/baker.  So when she arrived with homemade Italian sauce, homemade lemon pound cake, french bread, homemade apple pie, salad, and a few other goodies, I was  a) so happy because I realized I would get to eat all of it    b) even more excited because that means I don't need to be all domestic and try to act like I'm a good cook and   c) well aware that all my hard work at the gym lately would be shot to hell oh and one more thing....d) am I really such a bad domestic goddess that family needs to bring premade food? (surely this is not the case for anyone who has ever had my pb&j).  So Thursday we had an awesome truly home cooked meal. 

On Friday, BK and I decided to truly give them a taste of where we live by treating them to nothing-short-of a famous Philadelphia Cheesesteak.  As a side note, back in October 2009 while babysitting (we will discuss this type of employment further in later posts) I read a book called Skinny Bitch.  For those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading this it's pretty much about eating right and ridding yourself from food that is grossly over-processed.  This period in my life is also known as the time of completely-insanely ORGANIC Jenn, hence my love for Whole Foods emerged.  Since Fall of '09, I have only bought organic milk and dairy, organic meat, organic produce and if the marketing department at a company does a really fantastical job I might be suckered into buying organic chips and non-perishables, I'm just saying.  So back to Friday, you can now understand my anxiousness about eating not only non organic meat, but "mystery meat" as we use to say back in middle and high school.  While I have eaten cheesesteaks before it was pre-organic era and I didn't care.  Well, I am happy to announce that the Cheesesteak I ate on Friday was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and I could have cared less about where this mystery meat was coming from (correction:  I do care and I am grossed out a little by it, so I just don't think about it since surely it has already passed through my digestive tract).  Here are the in-laws loving life (aka loving their cheesesteaks)

On Saturday we decided we would take the drive out to Gettysburg as it has been on our list of "to-do" while we live here.  So, at 9am we dropped off our little Abby at her favorite place on Earth - doggie day care and began the 2.5 hour drive.  I actually love little day trips, I love the car and because I have a love relationship with talking it allows me to do it nonstop to others who are traveling with me.  Let me preface this whole day's experience with....I like history, I find it interesting, however, I'm probably not your top candidate to volunteer as a solider in a re-enactment of the Civil War.  BK and my father-in-law, on the other hand, desperately wish they could teletransport back to this time.  The Gettysburg Museum is really good and really long.  In fact, I took comfort when nearing the end of the museum I saw my mother-in-law sitting on one of the benches relaxing - thank god I wasn't the only one who was  a) starting to get tired and  b)maybe a little bored?  So having the wonderful social couth that I do, I didn't let anyone know my legs were tired, I didn't let anyone know I was bored and wanted nothing more than that damn museum to end and I absolutely didn't let anyone know that I was ready to call it a day. ( However, I somehow lost my gracious couth nearing the 6th hour of this tour).  So, after all four of us finished going through the museum, we decided we would buy the narrated car tour CD from the gift shop and take the tour of the battlefields.  HALLELUJAH!  I would be able to sit in a car, role down my window and maybe, just maybe, fall asleep.  The car tour was actually really great the first 30 minutes and after 30 minutes all the battlefields looked the same.  It was 1.5 hours into the car tour when my MIL said, "Do we really need to stop at this monument?"  GLORY TO MY EARS, I was not the only one bored to tears.  So, I felt this was my strike-when-the-iron-is-hot with my comment "I can't take it, I want to assassinate the woman narrating this damn CD."  And this friends is what I mean when I say I lost my wonderfully, gracious social couth.  With that the men in our lives knew we couldn't take it anymore.  We ended our driving tour at monument 27 (there were only 30 total, and my FIL still wants to kill me and his wife). 

While on the driving tour and still smiling, must be before me wanting to assassinate the narrator

Needless to say, it really was a fun day but the thought of taking my parents to Gettsyburg anytime in the near future sounds nauseating. 

Next time lets just watch the History Channel, shall we?

Family and Friends

We don't live by family and I we miss that.  We don't live by some of our very close friends and I we miss that too. 
Everytime we want to see our families and our close friends it has to be something scheduled and put on the calendar weeks in advance.  It normally requires days off of work, outrageously expensive plane tickets, car rides that last wayyy too long, boarding of our "child," and sadly, never enough time with the people we are traveling to see.  Although, we don't have the luxury of having dinner together every Sunday or even making impromtu get-togethers, we are lucky enough to still have awesome friends and family who travel to us and go out of their way to make sure we still feel "close." 

Steph and Friends:
I moved from Denver, CO when I was 11.  It was horrible and I was so sad because I was moving away from my grandparents and my very best friends.  Steph was one of the best friends I moved from, but lucky for me she is superior at keeping in touch.  Her and I wrote letters to one another every month, we would call every few months and saw each other every few years.  It is an amazing friendship and one that truly stands the test of time (and distance).  Some of the other best friends mentioned above - we have not been the best at keeping in touch, but thats OK because when I see them we never miss a beat and it's awesome.  One of the girls, Tiff (click link for her blog, it is PHENOMENAL and one of the major contributors as to why I started mine) just had a precious little girl.  It is amazing to think back on the time when Tiff and I "snuck" shaving our legs in her bedroom with a dixie cup of a water and a razor all because we were only in 5th grade and our moms wouldn't let us shave yet to seeing that person have a baby! 

There are so many other great/wonderful/ and best friends who we both have and although we miss not living right by them I think our frienships with these people mean more as we get older.  Here is a cheers to our fantastic family and friends around the country.

The cutest dog ever.

Steph and I

Friends since 4th grade

Our Family

Our Family


Have a wonderful rest of the week

This and That

A few updates in our lives...

1.  As of July 28th, I finished all of my coursework for my Masters program - woohoo!  And seriously this is a woohoo. 

Ever since graduating college (4 years ago) I have had 5 jobs - if you do the math you might think I was a bit of a loose cannon when it came to nailing down my career niche.  You see in college, I was convinced a bachelors of science in Communication Studies would take me BIG places (BIG places also means: an amazing loft and office in NYC, an awesomely cute J.Crew business casual wardrobe, complete with an assistant who would buy me a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks every morning).  I think I may have been a bit off, no?

So for the last 4 years I have been figuring out what type of job I DON'T want.  I have done this by having many different jobs (hence the 5 jobs mentioned above).  Here is what I've found
Job #1 - Sales coordinator at hotel.  I was so bored at this job I purposely followed around the maids and maintenance staff in order to spice up my day.  Note to self for future job- I need something challenging.  I stayed at this job for 3 months, 3 months too long.

Job #2 - Customer Service Associate for pharmaceutical company.  Let me sum this job up for you.  I sat in a cubicle, where my manager had nothing better to do than to make sure I wasn't putting myself into a phone code (like bathroom) for more than the allotted 4 minutes graciously given to us by the company (god forbid someone eats something spicy for lunch).  Most days I would be passive-aggressive to my manager, customers calling our company, and peers who thought this place was the best thing since sliced bread.  On the days I wasn't being passive-aggressive, I would contemplate cutting the power lines so we couldn't work.  Note to self for future job - DO NOT WORK as a customer service associate  where your office is a cubicle, you phone is tapped, and you only get 4 minutes for the bathroom... this could end up with me getting arrested.  PS - I miraculously worked here for 1 year and 7 months and no I didn't get fired, I quit. 

Job #3 - I actually really liked this one.  I worked with the marketing of clinical trials.  Unfortunately, I had to leave due to the hubby's job relocation.

Job #4 - I don't even remember the title of my role, all there is to know about this job is that it was much like job #2 except I was given a company blackberry and I had to make cold calls.  I lasted at this place for 1.5 months and never made a sale.  Note to self for future job - alone in cubicle and cold calling are not my forte

Job #5 - social worker for oncology patients.  This job was good...I was able to be around people, help those in need, and work in a hospital.  OK so those are the things that were good, however, I was helping people take advantage of our health care system, social security disability system, welfare and subsidized housing system, etc.  It was causing me much intrapersonal turmoil and I just couldn't look at myself each day knowing that this is  the kind of "help" I was apart of.  Additionally, being around cancer all day made me think I was getting cancer.  Every little thing I was completely convinced was a sign of cancer.  All in all, not the job for me.  I stayed here for 6 months.

So through my various jobs I learned a lot about what I want as a career orientated woman, I learned a lot about what I want as hopeful future mother and wife.  I am so blessed and fortunate for all my career opportunities but am excited to begin my career as an elementary school teacher, so ...WOOHOO!

2.  This past weekend our wonderful friends Sarah and Mark came to stay at our house.  It is always so nice to spend time with friends who aren't close. 

3.  Additionally, this past weekend was our friends Sherrie and Kevin bachelorette and bachelor parties.  We are really excited for their upcoming wedding in August!

Hope everyone is having a great week - we are still trying to catch up on our sleep from this weekend

Hi My Name is Jenn and I have a Blogging Problem

I am now totally and completely obsessed with blogs.  My blog, friend's blogs, strangers blogs, everyones blog.  The designs, the headers, the buttons, the gadgets, but most importantly the entries.  The Entries.  You see, I made an impulsive decision to "go live" with my blog before thinking long and hard about what my blog is about.  Let me set the stage....
1.  My cooking is still a work in progress.  Although, I love to eat, I'm much more of a "can I put this in my crock-pot" type of gal.  Hence, you will most likely not find a whole lot of recipes on this blog
2.  Home decor is not my forte.  Helen Keller would have done a better job decorating my house
3.  I'm not a mom nor pregnant (truly the thought of someone letting me take a child home from the hospital is a scary one)..so week by week updates are out the window.  Although, we do have an adorable chocolate lab, Abby, who we treat like a child
4.  I'm not traveling around the world at the moment, or even making any significant contribution to life on Earth - one day I will, I promise.    
5.  Finally, I'm not planning my wedding (that was 2 years ago) and I'm no longer considered a newlywed (again, 2 years of marriage and you're kicked out of the newlywed club...what's up with that?)

So maybe I should have listened to my girlfriend who told me only to start a blog if you have a purpose/reason/cause, etc - I'm positive the blog posts/entries would have come a lot easier.  Oh well, the email blast titled "OUR BLOG" has already been sent to my entire contacts list - so I'm committed.  

Today & Tomorrow

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary and I'm in love. 

I'm in love with BK like I have never been before. 

I am in love with our life together. 

I'm in love with the respect we have for one another. 

I'm in love with how much time we spend laughing, smiling, and talking. 

I'm in love with looking at pictures from when we first started dating, to the day we got married, to pictures I took yesterday hiking. 

I'm in love and I can't wait to fall more in love as each day passes. 

Cheers to many more days together

The Beginning

Welcome to our (my) blog.

Let me begin by saying that the last time I really kept a journal, it was called a diary.  It had a lock.  I would write about the boys I liked, and I would try and hide it from all other members of my family because in my mind they had nothing better to do than to figure out what boy sparked my interest from week to week.  Thankfully, I have matured some since then.  Since BK and I don't live near our families and some of our close friends, I figured this is a great way to fill everyone in on our daily lives.

Enjoy!