New Couches!

Well, it has only taken us 3 years. But, we have finally ordered some new couches. Our old couches were very comfortable, but they were getting very dirty and getting many holes in them. They were given to us by our neighbor when we moved in, which was very generous. But, it was time to get some new ones.

So, we got some chocolate brown velvet sofas. I know velvet sounds a little 70's-ish. But, I have to say, they are very soft. Andrew already spilt some water on them and the water just beads up and wipes off. Soon we will see how well they do with baby spitup.


Since pushing your furniture against the walls is a top 25 decorating no-no (acording to HGTV), we decided to angle the couches a little bit. We are going to leave it for a while to see if we like it. We might have to move the coffee table out of the way to play our Wii. But, that's ok.

Fish Tanks

I just though you might enjoy a cute little picture of Toby, our Goby. He's pretty happy even though he is always frowning.

Here is something cool that Andrew noticed in his 125 gallon tank the other day. One of his plants was giving off a stream of oxygen bubbles. It might be hard to see, but there is a little white stream of tiny bubbles coming off one of the leaves. It did it for about 10 minutes or so one morning. We have never seen anything like it before.

Kristen and Chip Humkey

Last weekend we went to a wedding of one of Andrew's high school friends, Kristen Wiley. It was a beautiful wedding with a very nice reception.

We had a great table at the reception, table #17. (Sorry, we don't have any pictures. We took them all with the wedding cameras left on the table. I am sure Kristen is going to enjoy every photo we took :)) We even got a call out during the bridesmaids' toasts. Everyone wanted to be at our "cool" table. (Mostly thanks to our new friend, Roman, who came with his fiance, but sat with us so his fiance could sit with an old high school friend at another table. What a trooper.)

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was back in July. But, I really wanted a Nintendo Wii and we couldn't find one anywhere (because Nintendo won't make enough.) Anyways, I have been searching for a Wii for a while and I finally found one today while shopping with mom at Walmart, in Roanoke. (A Super Walmart, I might add. I miss Super Walmarts in Maryland :( )So, it is my happy birthday present a month late.

For those of you who have never played Wii or seen it, it is really fun. I have the one game that came with it, Wii sports. You can do tennis, bowling, golfing, boxing, and baseball on it. If you are playing tennis, then you hold the controller like a tennis racket and swing it. It can actually make you pretty soar in your shoulders.

My grandparents stopped by to visit and we all did a little bowling. It was very fun. I think everyone got a few strikes except for me.

Go Popeye!!


Nice strike, Aunt Phyllis!


The game got a little intense at times with dad's trash talk during mom's turns.


Bring it on!



I know, I don't look like I am bowling. It is because I am actually playing tennis. Can't you see my beautiful backhand? I played with mom too and I accidently hit her in the arm. Oops, sorry mom! She is ok though.


So, if any of you want to play with us, come on up for a visit! It'll be fun!!

Our Exciting Weekend

We had the pleasure of having some wonderful company this weekend, The Redcays! Jaime is my oldest friend (as in we have been friends for the longest time, not that she is 90 years old.) We were born several hours apart and grew up together. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family, Jed and Simeon. So we don't get together too often. But, it is always a treat to get to spend time with them. It was even extra fun this time because we got to hang out with Simeon who is almost a year old. He had lots of fun playing the piano!


He was so fun to be around because he just smiled all the time.

And why not throw in a few more pictures of him because he is so stinkin' cute.




On Saturday, Jaime's younger sister, Abbey, came over to give us hair cuts. While she was giving us hair cuts, the boys, Andrew and Jed, went to look for the canoe to see if they could work on it a little bit. So, here is the quick sequel to our canoe story. It has been stolen again. And I don't think we are going to find it this time. Sad, I know.

Here is a picture of my new do. Thanks Abbey!

Here is another picture of my hair and my belly at 24 weeks. (This is just for you Cristen. :))


After all the hair cuts, we went to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

I know, how much agricultural stuff is there in Montgomery County, the land of a million people, traffic and homes. But, you would be surprised that there are still many farms just north of us. I even saw one of my students with his cows at the fair. And we saw this amazing rabbit. It is called a Giant Angora. He was definitely giant and he looked like he had stuck his paw into an electrical socket. He was soooooo fluffy.


What else would you want to see at a fair? Perhaps the world's largest boot.



We had a great time with Jaime, Jed and Simeon this weekend. We already started working on a pre-arranged marriage for Simeon and our little girl. We are looking forward to the next time we get to hang out. Thanks for coming down!

Crab Feast

This past Friday, Andrew's company had a crab feast. To be honest, Andrew and I don't really care for crab because it is just too much work to get the meat out. You work really hard for a tiny bit of meat mixed with crab guts. So, we just stuck to the hot dogs and hamburgers. (I guess we aren't true Marylanders.) But, it was fun to hang out with Andrew's co-workers and co-worker's girlfriends and wives.

Altered Hexon, the company band, played again. Andrew not only played the trumpet this time, but also the bongos, maracas, tamberine and drums. He added quite the percussion ensemble.

The band did very well, especially for the amount of time that they don't practice. They had a great time "rockin' out" and I had a great time watching them have fun.

Proud Mary

Click to Play

New Bathroom

We finally finished our guest bathroom. I didn't take a "before" picture because I thought we already had some on our computer. But, I can't find them. So, I took a "during" picture. We painted the vanity white. It used to be a pinkish whitewashed color. I didn't like it. Plus the paint was peeling off.


We replaced the lighting...

the countertop and the faucet...

put new hardware on the doors, got a new mirror...

and got a new toilet paper holder and towel rack.

And now we have a new bathroom. It is kind of hard to tell what color we really painted because it came out different in every picture. I think it is most like the one with just our faucet. It is called "pepper spice" from Home Depot.

Now we are ready to tackle our bathroom. So much to get done before baby girl gets here!

Baby Update

We had another doctor's appointment yesterday. We also got to have another sonogram. The doctors needed to finish checking out her heart. And they said it looked beautiful. They also said that she had a long femur. So, maybe she won't get stuck with her mom's short stumpy legs. It was a little hard to make out the pictures this time. I don't know if it because she is bigger or because the sonographer didn't really take the time to explain everything like at the 19 week sonogram. But, it is still really fun to see our baby. I guess the next pictures we will get will be of her actually here in the real world full of oxygen rather than water.

I am now 23 weeks along. Last time I wrote about her, I couldn't feel her moving yet. Now, she rarely stops moving. But, it is such a sweet feeling. Before I could feel her, I thought it would be just like little kicks every now and then. But, she is a mover. I told Andrew that I thought she was going to be a swimmer because it feels like she is doing flip turns at the end of pool over and over. Sometimes I can just sit and watch my belly being poked from all her movement. It is really fun to feel and see her moving. It lets me know that she is ok and I guess slowly running out of room in there. Sometimes it feels like she is stretching her little arms or legs way out just trying to stretch my uterus for a little more room. I'm sorry for her that things are just going to get tighter from here on out.

Andrew and I think that our sonographer has a foot obsession because she always gives us pictures of her feet. But, at least on this one, I can count all 10 toes.

One Project Down...

We have started many projects around the house during the past week or so. We are trying to get things ready and organized for the baby. The first thing we completed was putting a new closet organizer in her room. Unfortunately I didn't take before pictures of any of our projects, so you will just have to imagine their "disfunctionalness" or "outdatedness". The closet had one bar to hang clothes in, which is fine for big people. But, little girls have very short clothes and we figured we could fit a lot more in with a better organizer. So, here it is with a few of her first outfits. I can't wait to fill it up!


Next we installed some cabinets above our washer and dryer. This gives us more room to store things and to keep them hidden so it looks neater. Before there was a wire shelf on the wall. (Again, just use your imagination.)

We will eventually paint this room as well. We just haven't had a chance yet because we are redoing our bathroom upstairs. Hopefully we will finish it tonight or tomorrow and I will post pictures when it is done. So, I guess it is really 1 and 1/2 projects down.