I feel great

I'm well into my second trimester and I feel great. Matt and I are slowly getting ready for a bundle of joy (emphasize on slowly). A few weeks ago we registered at Babies-R-US, we also plan to register at Target (coming soon). So far it has been a very overwhelming process. There are so many things to research! Library books have been very helpful, such as the latest version of 'consumer reports on baby stuff'. I guess I shouldn't get hung up with buying all these "things". This baby will have a house full of love and everything else will just fall into place. It's not going to matter if we have the perfect room or the right car seat. It will work, I'm sure of it.

So anyways, more updates, I'm obviously preggo now and strangers are starting to ask me - "when are you due?" Also people at work coming up to me saying - "I didn't know your were pregnant". Well guess what - I am. For the most part I'm still wearing all of my normal clothes. Recent styles have lent a hand, low rise jeans that sit under my belly, empire waist shirts, and long tank tops that cover my growing belly. I've raided a couple of my girlfriends' closets for maternity clothes which have been extremely helpful (Thank you --- Jill, April, Elena and Stephanie). As I continue to grow, I'm sure I will be referring to those bags more and more. I bought my first piece of my own maternity wear, a BeBand. Basically the bottom half of a tank top, you put it over pants that can't button any more. Plus it hold up your pants, no more pants gaping in the back when you bend over. I'm starting to think that this item might make an appearance in my regular wardrobe (post maternity).

We moved one of our bookcases out of the baby's room to the basement office, and got rid of a few books from it. A little bit at a time I keep telling myself. I think we found the crib we want at a local store, they have several in stock so we wouldn't have to worry about shipping and getting the crib in time. Also when we were at the baby store we bought a night light, twilight turtle it is the cutest thing, i love it.

Day 3 - BioSite and Balboa Park

On Wednesday we went to meet Elena at her work, BioSite. although we don't have any pictures from there it was really neat and intresting to see what she does at work.
Then we went to Balboa Park to see a photography exhibit along with the beautiful spanish architecture there.

San Diego - Day 2 (Stone Brewery & Coronado)

Here's a map of all the places we visited.


View San Diego Vacation in a larger map


FREE: Stone Brewery Tour with free beer at the end, always a bonus (for Matt anyways)

great view of downtown San Diego from Cenniental Park on Coronado.

San Diego Part 1

Vegas Trip

We took a trip to Vegas for Ryan and Nikki's wedding. We arrived Wednesday and stayed at the Tropicana. The Wedding was on Thursday at the MGM chapel. The rest of the week we walked, gambled, partied with friends, and went to a show (Jubilee at Ballys). Sunday we got a rental car and drove to San Diego to stay with some friends. Tune in later for San Diego pictures.

Here we are at the Bellagio with Paris in the background.

Inside the Wynn

Outside the Wynn (Fashion Mall on the left)

Sunrise from our hotel window

Vegas Wedding

After 10 years Ryan an Nikki finally decide to tie the knot in Vegas

The first of many baby pictures

"Toes" Music Video

today's theme song

"Life is Good Today"

Is Nocvember 8th.... and it was 67 degrees. SWEET !! By now we've usually seen some sort of snow on the ground but not yet. Matt and I even got a round of 9 in at the golf course. This is the first time he's played since his injuy and he said he felt great. Our scores on the other hand, not so great. We had fun anyway

Halloween Party

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in October

I'm not trying to rush winter, it's just the family finds it easier to get together in October rather that the cold December. Sarah can't get away during the holiday season, retail is a little nutty that time of year, and Dawn and Jeff prefer not to travel cross country with the possibility of getting stuck somewhere due to a snow storm. So here we are the middle of October and we are celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one week. here's a couple pics

Our 5 Year Aniversary Get-a-way

September 5th we celebrated our 5 year anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for that long! Relatively speaking 5 years isn't very long, but it seems like it flew by. I guess we've been having fun together.

Half our get-a-way was already planned for us. A while back I won a 2 night stay on Mackinaw Island that included ferry tickets and $100 Visa Gift card. We fiqured we should spend some of our own money (to keep Michigan's economy going --- I'm really good at this). We (I) decided that we should go to Traverse City for a few days also. With bikes in tow we drove up to TC, explored the area, went to Sleeping Bear Dunes, Old Mission Pennisula, beaches, and winerys.

After 2 nights in Traverse City we went to Mackinaw Island. Having our own bikes was much better then renting bikes on the island. Having gears made it much easier to navigate some of the hills toward the center of the island (the rental bikes are all single gear crusiers). The weather was perfect the whole time we were away, we couldn't have asked for a better anniversay get-a-way.


Here you can see the Sleeping Bear Dune off in the distance.

Here is the dune up close. At the top of the dune there was a sign that read "the climb up is extremely exhausting" we did not climb it.

This climb wasn't as exhausting but it was slightly uphill.

Here is us in front of our hotel at Mission Point.

Chihuly Exhibit in Flint 8-30-09

My favorite aritst had an another exhibit in Michigan so Matt and I made the 2 hour trip to the Flint Institute of Art.

Photographs were not allowed in the main exhibit, however the institute purchaced a Chihuly hanging piece (pictured here) that will permanently adorn the lobby.

Matt admiring the furniture & textiles in the Renaissance room.

Matt's favorite piece in the museum: This is a piece of solid ivory about 1' long that is very detailed in the carvings.

As It Turns Out, Golf Is Dangerous!

So, here is how it happened. Alicia & I were golfing in one cart. Brian & his friend Ryan were in the other cart. We were at Hickory Hills golf course in Jackson and had already completed the front 9 (I shot a 50, probably the last golf of the year for me). We were on hole 4 of the back 9 (blue course) a 170yd par 3. I t'd off and was on the fringe, I'll take it. The other 2 guys also t'd off. At this point I pull forward to the ladies tee so Alicia could hit, just a short 20yds in front of the mens tee. Right When I got up there a ball goes flying through the air! It was Brian that hit a second ball, as I turn around he is t'ing up a 3rd ball. Now, Brian is a terrible golfer an has absolutely no control over what his ball does or where it goes (there was also plenty of booze involved). So as he is t'ing up I am ducking and hiding inside the cart. He hits and of course a line drive from 20yrds away, right into my left forearm, extreme pain. At first I just cringed an held my arm for a few minutes before deciding that, ok it's time to go to the hospital. I was pretty sure it was broken right away, any way I moved my arm I could feel the 2 broken halves of my ulna rubbing against eachother (unnatural).




How could I possibly get hit by a ball while hiding in the cart you ask? Here is a picture of before "the incident". As you can see, there is a small gap between the part of the golf cart where you sit and where you lean your back, less than 1ft I'll guess. Also there are 2 golf bags behind the seat. When I was ducking and hiding I was kneeling half inside and half outside the cart using the cart as an obsticle between myself and the neophyte. My arm (the target) resting flat on the driver side seat. As you can see only a "perfect shot" could have possibly made it through there. Too bad Brian didn't use this shot to make it on the green.

Me in the ER. This all went down a few weeks ago 7-26-09

I had a follow up with the Orthopedic the following tuesday, got a splint, and sling but the Doctor wanted to wait out the swelling before doing anything further. Fast forward 10 days to the next follow up, new x-ray's showed that the bone had displaced slightly. With the bone in this position there is a possibility of not healing so the Doctor suggested installing a plate & screws to help along the healing.

My 1st time going into surgery, scary. 8-10-09 Me in the pre-op room. Those look like some good drugs. Special thanks to Mom & Dad for coming out to B.C for support. Love you guys!

My new hardware

Gentlemen we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the worlds first bionic man!
Well mabye not bionic but the bill might seem like 6 million.