Crazy stuff

Happy Thursday everyone!

Its already the last day in January. Crazy. Wanna know whats also crazy? The weather in Birmingham! One day is a beautiful crisp day next, its raining to-beat-the-band (Uncle Jim coined phrase) and we're under a Tornado watch.  Craziness.

I almost forgot, since I missed yesterday, I forgot to talk about “What I’m Loving on Wednesday”…so here is my best attempt

(1) Yup, still in love with my stroller.  While running with the dog yesterday, I ran into a lady pushing her baby in the same stroller I have.  Of course I stopped her and got her personal review of the product- which was positive-especially considering the fact her mouse-looking-yappy-dog fit perfectly in the undercarriage.

(2) My hubby.  I guess he is always the first thing I’m loving but this morning was particularly enjoyable-probably because we weren’t rushing around trying to get out the door for work.  I should quickly remind him to enjoy mornings like these because soon we will have a crying baby who will eventually spit up and pee on his suit before work.

(3) Sorry people- can’t think of a 3^rd item. Oh wait, I’m loving my new car!  It still smells like a new car, which is the whole point of buying one brand new.  And every day I find a new feature in the car- like yesterday, I found this button called “info” that will tell me the song name and artist.  Pretty nifty! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thrusday....because its almost FRIDAY!!!! whaaawhoooo!

Newest Obsession

Yes, I have a obsession….and its my new stroller.  I never thought that a stroller could be so much fun or that it could have so many bells and whistles.  When my sister and I were little we use to strap in our cat, Christi, into our doll stroller.  Traumatizing for our cat, but was the birth of my obsession with strollers.

Yesterday, my stroller came in the mail!!  I was so excited that I didn’t even get the box 3 feet from the front door before I ripped it open and started putting the stroller together.   The entire setup process totaled maybe 15 minutes and only consisted of snapping parts together and Velcro.

While I’ve never known the name brand of strollers when I was younger, in my babysitting days, I could spot a solid stroller for miles.  The main thing I noticed were (1) size of the tire (2) color scheme (3) diaper bag in tow (4) if it turned on a dime.  I am pleased to report my stroller has all the 4 best characteristics (minus the diaper bag, since I don’t have one yet). The tires are well made, I picked black/teal color scheme and it pushes like butter.

I’ve quickly learned that its important to research a baby product before purchasing it.  But I’ve also learned that e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e has an opinion, especially when it comes to how to have a baby, how to raise a baby, how to feed a baby, and baby products.  I think Amazon’s “customer reviews” on baby items far outnumber any other category of reviews.

With all that said, I still believe the only opinion that matters is yourself.

I might have already taken it for a ‘test drive’ around the neighborhood…but this time, I didn’t strap in the cat. 

And a HUGE shout out to my mother-in-law, Lisa, for gifting us the stroller.  She probably has no idea how much I love it!

Boxes torn up by the front door

Nellie helping me open boxes

The baby-mobile

Nellie protecting the stroller

Snow day!

Today is our first sunny day in Birmingham in over 2 weeks.  That’s pretty hard to imagine.  But God ended our wet gloomy streak with beautiful snow!  Yesterday afternoon it snowed about 1-2 inches, just enough to get excited about.  Work let out about 4 hrs early and this morning we came in late due to black ice.  I would say this is a pretty nice treat right before a holiday weekend.  

This morning I had another check up with the baby doctor.  I’m 15 weeks + 5 days and everything is going along as planned.  The baby’s heart rate was a strong 164.  In 3 long weeks, we’ll know the baby’s gender!!!  I’ve been waiting since day one for this- I find it very hard to shop for a baby when you have no idea the gender.  More power to the parents who keep it a secret-I could never do it!  Ann will know on Monday the gender-I have a feeling it’s a girl!!

In other exciting news, we have ordered the baby’s crib and Grandma Lisa gifted us the stroller! I’m slightly obsessed with the stroller and it hasn’t even come in the mail yet!  The stroller was the first thing I couldn’t wait to check out at all the baby stores.  Yea I know, kinda lame.  But for real, strollers now days are ballar - they have more bells and whistles than a car!  Our stroller is a stylish black and turquoise (my favorite color) and looks to be more comfortable than my bed.

Well, that’s all for now people.  Hope y’all have a wonderful holiday weekend!!  

Our 1st Anniversary!

Happy 1^st Anniversary to us!!! I’m still in disbelieve that its been a year.  I think mainly because its gone by so fast.  We have had so much fun together that I guess time just flies by.  When I think back over the year and all the wonderful memories, excitement, and experiences we’ve had together, I can’t help but get excited about our future.  I am so honored to be Scott’s wife and everyday I like to think I get better and better at being a wife.  But I shouldn’t kid myself , on our 50^th anniversary I’ll probably be saying the same thing. Hahaha.

We have so many monumental moments from the past year- honeymoon to Big Sky, an outrageous trip to Italy, attempting to cook dinner and Scott eating some nasty food, raising our wild baby-Nellie- who has doggy ADHD, Scott graduating and getting his job, dragging Scott to the mall constantly, working out together…the list could go on and on, but out of all our memories, my favorite is the morning I showed Scott the pregnancy test.  I took the test at around 6am (can’t sleep in) and it came up positive. So I checked it 100 times, and I was still pretty sure it said positive.  So I woke Scott up and asked him “What does this say?”.  He shot up in the bed, sat upright and his eyes got very big and he said “You’re pregnant!!!”  I’ll never forget that moment and I’m so excited about our future together and raising a family.

I am blessed to have Scott as my husband and I can’t wait to watch him be a father.  We had a wonderful anniversary weekend full of surprises- we even ate the year-old cake top.  It wasn’t too bad- Mom even saved the sugar flowers!! 

Thank you Scott for a wonderful 1^st year of marriage.  I look forward to the many, many more years to come! LOVE YOU!

Before dinner

The beautiful sugar flowers

Year-old cake. Yum.

National Champ trip to Miami!

Gag me-another year of Bama domination.  I guess it could be worse.  Nevermind, I lied it can’t.  Living among all the Bammers is quiet an experience.  I can’t wait for the day when Saban goes to the NFL and Bama returns to being just an average team.  Until that time, I’m stuck being a good wife and cheering on Bama when they’re not playing Auburn.  Last weekend we headed down to Miami for the BCS Championship game against Notre Dame.  We flew in and out of Tampa and rode down with Ann and John and our friends, Trey and Ashley, joined us.  We all had a blast!  My main take away was how organized you have to be to put on a tailgate outside of your own city.  Ann & John and Anna & Clint did most/all of the work (I was only in charge of the BBQ sauce and table clothes, unfortunately I failed on half of my work, and forgot the tablecloths). It was quite a professional tailgate and mind blowing how much work and planning they put into it.  So, a huge shout out to them for all their hard work-the tailgate was wonderful.  To give credit where credit is due, there would be no tailgate if it wasn’t for the BBQ sauce I brought.  Just sayin’.  Hahahah

 

Everyone headed off to the game-including Ann and Ashley, who got tickets 10 minutes before kick off!  Tricia and a few friends rode with me back to the hotel to watch the game at the Irish Pub near by.  I only made it till half time, but still, that’s the latest I’ve been up in a long time!  I’ll go ahead and assume everyone that went to the game had the time of their lives.  Scott sure did, he came home with no voice and fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.  I’m glad he enjoyed his 1^st anniversary gift- the tickets!

 

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

Me, the sis, and Tricia!

Part of the gang at dinner

our professional tailgate- Thanks Anna and Ann!

One more and we'd have a winning relay

The group with some lame ND fan (Todd)

The boys with their ticket

Right before the game

Latest casualty 

Christmas Excitement!

Hey Everyone!  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!  So many exciting things have happened since my last post, that I’m not quite sure where to start.  Lets start with the big one- HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I can't believe its 2013! Last time I checked, it was 2004 and I was graduating High School- where does time go?  Anyway, since I communicate best using bullet points here it goes:

·      * My sister is pregnant with Baby #2!!!  William is going to make the best big brother ever!!  I’ve enjoyed watching Ann’s life change/adapt after William was born and I can’t wait to see how she balances two kids!  I’m sure she’ll do an excellent job and I hope the baby is a girl this time!! Jane makes an excellent middle name…just sayin’.

·      * I’m pregnant!! I’m about 2 weeks behind Ann and am due early July- same as Princess Kate Middleton and Kim K (I’ve got a famous due date!).  Scott and I are overly excited!!  Although I almost think his mother, Lisa, is even more excited than us.  We videoed our big reveal to our parents during thanksgiving and Lisa’s reaction is priceless! I can’t wait to one-day show the kid. I havn’t been sick at all, just tired, which is an excellent excuse to not do house work! Haha.  I heard that if you don’t get morning sickness it’s a boy…true? No idea…guess we’ll find out.  In about a month we’ll know the sex! Of course I want a girl and Scott wants a boy- but if it’s a boy, id rather he be born first. So either way, it’s a win/win situation!!   I’ll keep everyone posted!

8 weeks on the left, 13 weeks on the right

·     *  Since Scott would never brag about himself, I have to.  His residency research project got selected to be presented at some big conference in San Diego- which means vacay!!! He works his butt off and deserves the recognition!  I’m so proud of him!

·      * We went on a wonderful 7-day Christmas Cruise to the Caribbean!!  It left out of Miami and went to St. Martin, St. John, and St. Kitts.   We had a blast with all 19 family members on the Celebrity Reflection and enjoyed seeing the new youngens in the family!!  To say the weather was perfect is and understatement- I’m still trying to get over the fact of how cold Birmingham was when we got home.  Here are a few pics!

Leaving Miami!

My niece Olivia and William playing 

 

William's first trip to Senior Frogs

Santa and his elfs with William

William getting fed grapes at the beach

Typical night during dinner- William and Andrew playing on the iPad

Baby monkey!

attempting to ride Andrew like a horse

He cleans up pretty good

Cousins Lauren and baby Elliot!  

The Piela Family!

·      * We’re heading off to Miami, baby, for the BCS Championship!!  Well, actually I’m not going to the game- just tailgating and then shopping, but Scott and all the boys are going to the game.  The Tampa folks have organized a big tailgate with everyone and I’m in charge of the Dreamland BBQ sauce- probably the most important job. Hahaha.  I’ll be posting pics of all the fun and I can’t wait for the warm weather!!!