The one with the big news!

Ok, so it's been almost a year since our last post.  Seriously, we're going to try to do better.  Especially since we have some news...

Baby Lawing is on the way!

Yep, we're expecting our first little one around June 15th.  I'm currently 12 weeks 3 days.  We just went to the OB today for our second visit, and were able to see the little one squirming around in there.  It's about 2 inches long and is very healthy, with a very strong heartbeat.  We were so excited to get a good view of the baby, and it was really fun to watch it wiggle and move.  It was so active that the ultrasound tech had a hard time getting clear pictures, but we did end up with some really good ones.  We also got to hear the heartbeat!  It was really amazing to be able to see what a miracle is growing inside me!

Since I'm 12 weeks, I should be getting out of the 'morning sickness' phase of the pregnancy soon.  I can't wait!  I haven't had traditional morning sickness (as in running to the bathroom in the morning, or any time of day for that matter), but I have been pretty sick.  I've been constantly nauseous and not able to eat much any time of day.  I've actually lost weight this trimester, which my doctor said is fairly normal, because of my inability to eat.  But it hasn't been as bad as it could be, and it's also been kind of reassuring.  At this point in the pregnancy I'm not showing and I can't feel the baby move, so the sickness has been a reminder that the baby is there, and growing!  I'm starting to have a few good days here and there, so I'm hoping this phase is almost over.

So, we'll try to keep the blog regularly updated, especially since we know our families will be clamoring for news!

Here are a couple more ultrasound pictures!

the one where we get ready for Christmas

Well,  it has definitely been way to long since we've posted a blog.  We have been really busy lately, but we're in Aiken for Christmas and things have slowed down.  While the family is preoccupied with playing my parent's new Wii, I thought I'd take the opportunity to update.

We've had something very exciting happen... my brother and his girlfriend got engaged!  We are both very excited for them, but I am super happy.  I've known Becky since high school and have been friends with her longer than my brother, Kyle, has even known her.  Plus, I've always wanted a sister.  And the kicker is... they're getting married on my birthday... so... I'm getting a sister for my birthday!  Michael and I are both in the wedding, me as a bridesmaid and him as a groomsman.  We went dress shopping last weekend, and Becky found the most beautiful wedding dress, and we've all already order our bridesmaids dresses.  It's going to be a great wedding, and Becky will be a gorgeous bride!

So, like I said, we've been very busy.  Even so, we somehow managed to get all of our Christmas shopping done about two weeks before Christmas, which has really turned out to be a good thing.  Michael's car broke down on Monday, and even though our funds have been depleted from Christmas shopping, at least we were able to buy everyone's gifts before this happened.  His car, a '90-something Ford Thunderbird, has major problems that cost more to fix than the car is worth... so, merry Christmas to us, we're getting a new (used) car!  And fortunately, we both have until Jan. 3rd off work, so even though we'll be busy visiting family, we still have time to find a new car before we go back to work and have to figure out how to get back and forth with only one car when we work on opposite ends of Columbia.

So, I had this whole week planned out... and even though I'm sure it's needless to say, I obviously was not able to do most of it when I had planned to.  Having to deal with the broken car took a lot of time up.  Somehow I managed to get all of my baking done in less than 24 hours (which included making chocolate chip cookies, sugar free chocolate chip cookies, chocolate peanut butter cookies with peanut butter filling, sugar cookies, and making two different candies, oreo cookie balls and crock pot candy).  So, instead of leaving for Aiken around 12 today, we ended up leaving around 5:30.  But we made it here, and immediately left my parent's for dinner with my cousins and their little daughter.  We had a blast with them, and then we came home and busted out the new Wii.  I would like everyone to know that while I am terrible at bowling and tennis in real life, I will kick your butt at them on the Wii.

We're in Aiken until Monday, and then we leave to visit Michael's family.  We're lucky that both of us grew up in SC, so that even though we can't be with both of our families on Christmas, we can visit both of them very close to the holidays.  We're so excited to see everyone.

We hope that all of you who read our blog (who knows how many that is... probably maybe 2 whole people, but oh well) and your families have a wonderful Christmas and that 2011 is full of wonderful things for you!

Merry Christmas!

The one with the Fair

Today, Kelli had a conference downtown, so we were lucky enough to get to carpool to work. When she got out, we met up and went to the state fair! We got there early with primo parking and had a blast the entire time. The first stop was an animal show where we saw tigers, monkeys, lions and all sorts of things. The performers were so positive and very educational. After that we caught a pig race where Kelli got to pet a piglet. After that, we saw some flying dogs chasing frisbees. The company uses rescue dogs. They would run, jump, and catch frisbees over a giant pool.

As far as the delicious fair food, we shared a polish dog, a turkey leg, and a funnel cake. The far-out combo we tried was a pair of deep-fried Oreos, a Milkyway, and a battered-up Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. As we were leaving, we passed a one-man band. He played a guitar, harmonica, drumset and had his own back-up vocals. He even played Free Bird by request!






Once we got home, we ran into our new neighbor. She had her son and their little teacup chihuahua, Brownie, with her. She told us that she's a music teacher at a local elementary school and she actually went to school in the upstate, near where Michael grew up. We're so excited to have such a nice neighbor who seems genuinely interested in keeping a nice house and being neighborly.

It really has been a wonderful day!

The one with the Re-evaluation

So, about eight weeks ago, Michael and I started going to the gym.  Since he's still a student at USC, he gets free access to the gym there, while I joined a gym, Snap Fitness, which is about 5 minutes away from our house.  I have always enjoyed being fairly active, but about 3 years ago, I began gaining weight even while on a diet.  I went to the doctor, and found out I have polycystic ovaries (maybe this is tmi, but oh well).  The way that this effects me is it throw my insulin levels off, making them very high and causing my body not to process food the way it should.  Since this discovery, I have struggled with diet and exercise, and not being very motivated to change because I felt that there was no way I could; no matter what I did, my body wouldn't cooperate.  After Michael and I got married, we began eating healthier.  Once the food was under control, we decided to tackle the exercise.

So, I started at Snap Fitness and hired a personal trainer, who also happens to be the owner.  I love working with him; he pushes me in ways I wouldn't push myself and shows me that I really can do this stuff.  This week was my re-evaluation, which went very well.  I have lost 6 pounds!  I know it doesn't seem like a lot so far, but my trainer, Tim, was very happy with my progress.  He explained that it actually is a good bit of weight loss because I have been gaining a lot of muscle.  We all know that females don't lose weight like males, but he told me that right now my body is in a state of shock; as a female, my body is supposed to have fat and it wants to try to hold on to it.  Tim said that in a few more weeks, my body will adjust and the weight loss will come more easily.

Honestly, at this point, I'm enjoying working out.  Even if I'm not losing a lot of weight, I always feel better when I'm active, and I feel so much better.  It's worth it just for that.

Everything else went well with my re-evaluation; Tim was very excited about the progress that I've made so far.  The only thing that bothered him was that my heart rates had gone up, not down.  It was funny because this freaked both of us out until I remembered that I was taking Mucinex for my cold.  So that should go down now that I'm off that; we'll recheck my heart rates tomorrow when I go back.

In other news, Michael and I have had a great weekend.  We were able to spend Friday together, without any homework or classes.  Saturday, we were very bad homeowners and did nothing all day; it was hard to get motivated.  Michael had to work the Fur Ball that night, so we were able to spend a nice lazy day together before he had to go.  After he went to work, I went over to a friend's house to hang out and play with their twins (the two year old boy and girl).  The three of us had a tea party, and it was so sweet.  Usually the little boy just wants to destroy things, but he sat very nicely in my lap and drank his 'tea'.  They both curled up in my lap and we watched 'Toy Story 2', and then I helped get them to bed.  They are such great little kids... and they are adorable!  Today has been another lazy day, doing laundry and a little bit of housework, but mostly just enjoying being able to spend time together before we go back to our crazy schedule.

Nessa and Bella have very much enjoyed being able to spend so much lazy time with us this weekend.  They've been so sweet;  Nessa is usually very hyper and hard to manage, but lately she has been settling down, and this weekend she has been great.  She's finally learning to listen and that if she listens instead of acting crazy she'll get more positive attention.  It's funny, because it's like she and Bella switched places this weekend; Nessa was very sweet and Bella was obnoxious and hard headed!  We had a lot of fun with them, though.  We love our little family!

the one with the sinus infection

Usually I won't be posting during the day like this, since I work, but today I'm home sick.  With not only a cold, but also a sinus infection on top of that.  Since it's been nearly a week since we first posted, I decided it would be a good time to do an update.

We had quite the busy weekend, starting Friday, when Michael's Step-Grandfather, Ken, took us out to dinner at California Dreaming.  He was passing through Columbia on his way home and we're so glad he let us know.  Dinner was delicious, and we had a great time talking with him and catching up.

Saturday started out like most of our Saturdays; Michael did some yard work and I went grocery shopping. When I got back, I started a very large pot of chicken and corn chili.  It has finally begun to feel like fall, so we figured what better way to celebrate than to make a pot of chili to share with some friends.  I also baked some yeast rolls (made from scratch by my own two hands) and a triple chocolate cake with white buttercream icing, topped with chocolate chips, and we took the finished products over to a friend's house for dinner.  This particular family is so giving, and there are so many of them, including a set of two-year-old twins, that it is easier for us to go over to their house to hang out (especially sine we have dog-proofed, not baby-proofed, our house).  We wanted to hang out with them, but we also did not want to burden them with having to make dinner, so we took it to them.  Everything was delicious, and we had a lot of fun, especially playing with the little ones.  Michael really seemed to enjoy himself.  He's a little wary of babies, but these are toddlers and it's a whole different story.  They can interact with him, and while it's sometimes hard to understand what they say, he enjoys them.  He had a lot of fun playing 'cars' with the little boy, and playing 'blocks' with the little girl.  I really love little kids, and I had a ball with them as well.  They both curled up in my lap to watch a movie, which was just too sweet.  We stayed for a little while after the twins had gone to bed, and then we headed home to bed ourselves.

Sunday, we took a little drive up to Charlotte to our new favorite store, Ikea!  I had inherited this really old but super comfortable recliner from my parents, which went through a couple of years of college with me, and now lives with us in our house.  When I got it, one of the arms was broken, but that only made it more comfortable.  We fixed it several times, but it finally gave out on us about two weeks ago.  We decided to replace it with an Ikea Poang chair and footstool.  It doesn't really go with our other furniture, but it's comfortable and works.  Eventually, we'll replace our hodge-podge living room set with more Ikea furniture, which we like because we don't have a lot of storage space in our house, and all of their furniture is designed to be nice-looking as well as functional.  When we get the new furniture, the Poang chair will go in the 'reading nook' in our bedroom, and then eventually the nursery.  Or, we'll just buy a Poang rocker to go in there.  As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too many Poang chairs!

We toodled around the store, looking at other furniture and all of their other stuff.  We've pretty much decided what other furniture we want to get and how we want to rearrange the living room and reading area.  We also got a wok, a wok spatula, and a watering can.  Michael has wanted a wok since before we got married, and Ikea had some for only $5, and the proper accessories.  Other stores have them, but not that cheap, and they never have any of the tools you need with them.  It may be a cheap wok, but at least he has one now.  When we got home, it took Michael all of 20 minutes to put the new chair together.  It doesn't look like it would be comfortable, but it totally is.  Michael and I both love it.

Monday, we went back to the grind, working and working out, Michael doing homework and me making dinner, trying to relax before we get up and do it again the next day.  I haven't been feeling well since Sunday, but I had a major load of conference calls to get through this week, so I pushed going to the doctor back as far as I could, which was yesterday.  I'll be seeing a new doctor from now on...  my current doctor seems amazed that I continue to get sinus infections even though he told me I have 'chronic sinusitis'.  He's got me on Xyzal and Nasonex, and I still get sick.  Instead of sending me to an ENT, he continues to throw antibiotics at me.  The lastest one is Spectracef, which the pharmacy thankfully has a generic for because it is over $200 for the name brand!  It is used to treat pneumonia, strep throat, and tonsillits, and he gave it to me for a sinus infection.  I don't do well with antibiotics, and this one has completely knocked me out...  I'm so exhausted it's not even funny, and all I've done so far today is sleep and type this!

This weekend we're visiting Michael's family in Walhalla.  I just hope that I'm feeling at least a little less tired by then!

Our First Blog

Michael and I have been married for a little over a year.  During our first year of marriage, our life together has changed due to things like owning our own home and having two dogs and a rabbit to take care of, as well as having jobs in Columbia, so we aren't able to be with our families as much as we would like.  We decided to start a blog so that our families and friends could keep up with us, as well as to keep track of the new memories we are making as a family.