Our Boys

Here are the long-awaited (I'm sure) pictures of the makeover...

Here we have Windsor before:

And Windsor after!

And one of Wilson so he doesn't feel left out:

Plus a few pictures of our dogs in the lovely snowstorm from today.

Both dogs afraid to come off the steps.

Wilson left his brother behind.

Here they go, trudging along.

Huddling together for warmth. (Really, how cute is that?!)

Finally deciding to brave the snow and getting blown over in the process.

Just hurry up and do your business, Mister!

10: 20/326

Another snow day.

Our poor dogs were not happy to go outside today in the snow. Especially Windsor with his new haircut. We put a coat on him and everything, but I still had to drag him outside to get him to poop this morning.

More dogs pictures coming up next!

10: 19/326

Oh happy day! I have been waiting for this piece of paper since JULY. Waiting and waiting and waiting. This now means that I can get a real job, and I can put my degree to work! I am so thrilled, and even more thankful to God for allowing this to happen and teaching me patience in the meantime. I did a little dance when this came in the mail!

10: 18/326

Our newly styled dog thinks he now weighs 10 pounds and is a lap dog. He has spent most of his time since Tuesday cuddling up to us, getting on our bed and NOT moving, and generally being a pest. But a very very cute and cuddly lovable pest :)

10: 17/326

Today Windsor got groomed and had to get shaved... he looks so goofy! I'm going to post some before and after pictures soon, but for now I thought I'd post one cute one of him :)

10: 16/326

Today someone told me that I wasn't showing at all. Someone who I see every day, and I was a little bit surprised and disappointed that this person said that after my sudden pregnant belly from yesterday.

Then this afternoon I went to go buy dog food. I walked in to the store and started to ask if someone could help me with the very heavy bag. Before I even finished my sentence, the woman said, "I got it!" Then turned to the lady next to her and said, "Hey can you go get her dog food for her? She's pregnant and shouldn't be carrying a bag that heavy." Ahhh! I was so excited! It totally made up for the morning's comment.

Then I brought home the food, and Ty brought it in for me. Windsor literally spent the next 5 hours staring at his bag of food. Poor thing. You'd think we starve him or something because he lives every minute of his day waiting to eat.

Speaking of Windsor wanting to eat, Jason told me I should share this story with everyone. Tonight we ordered Chinese food (Yay for not cooking!), and we were finishing up when I took out my fortune cookie to enjoy. I was standing about 10 feet away from Windsor when I dropped my cookie on the floor. The next thing I know, we are both diving for the cookie and I am shouting, "No!!" After everything settled back down, Jason and I could not stop laughing. He said that watching a big fat dog and a pregnant woman fight for a fortune cookie was so hilarious, and I think I have to agree.

By the way, I won.

10: 15/326

Sunday morning - I got dressed for church and turned around to look in the mirror when I suddenly realized, WOW! I look pregnant! I couldn't believe it, and it made me so happy to look pregnant instead of fat.

Later that night, I felt the baby kick for the first time.

I'd say it was a pretty amazing day!

What do you think? Would you think I was pregnant if you saw me?

10: 14/326

On Saturday, Jason and I visited the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. We had such a great time! There was tons of stuff to look at while we were there, and we ate lunch there as well - it was incredible. I think the best part for Jason was the Mister Rogers' display. He is a big fan! It was amazing to see the real bench that he sat on during all of his shows.

10: 13/326

Battle of the Faculties! Jason's school won the Spirit Stick award, and he was the team captain!

10: 12/326

One of Jason's piano students learning about how the piano works from the inside out. This is what we spend most of our afternoons doing. Well Jason does anyway. I just listen and enjoy.

PS - We've had a very busy weekend so I'm a few days behind on my pictures. I going to post them all now!

The Season of Lent

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I have never really observed the season of Lent. I always thought it was a Catholic holiday, but over the past few years, I've realized that Lent is a wonderful opportunity for repentance and learning to rely on the Lord for everything. That is certainly something that I could stand to learn at this time in my life.

Some people from our church have all decided to give up sweets for Lent, and Jason and I have decided to join them. I was reluctant to do this because sometimes I feel that's all I can keep down. However, I think that giving up something is not supposed to be painless. After all, if Jesus could give up his life, I think I can give up some things that I enjoy. As my wise husband stated, "Jesus kind of liked his life a little bit." So yes, I think I can do without things I like too.

So here is my list. These things will go during the next 45 days, and then I'd love it if they stayed gone forever! I'm going to do my best.

1. Sweets - This is the one that we are all giving up together. Candy, cakes, cookies, etc. This has already proven to be quite difficult with Valentine candy littering our house. I think I'm going to gather it all together and give it to Jason's piano students :)

2. Fast Food - Jason actually thought of this first, and I realized that if he gives it up, I kind of have to also. This is bad because I like fast food, and it's so nice to have another option when I don't feel like cooking. I guess I better get to planning some meals!

3. Complaining - This is a big one for me! Some of it is complaining about how I feel physically and some of it is complaining about injustices in life regarding other people and situations in life. I say I'm just "venting" but in reality, I'm complaining about something or someone, and I'm saying things that don't need to be said. Not even to my husband. And especially not to other people.

4. Having the last word - Ugh. I always feel the need to defend myself and just say one more thing so that I look good by the end of the conversation. But the thing is, sometimes (a lot of times) I'm the one who's wrong, so I shouldn't need to look good by the end. I should just apologize or agree and then walk away.

So there it is. Please keep me accountable if the opportunity arises! That's why I'm posting this on the Internet for everyone to see! It's going to be difficult for me to do but I think that's the point. I want to use these things to learn to rely on God and spend more time in prayer and reading the Bible.

10: 11/326

Ty's last swim meet was Wednesday night. Here he is with Christian and Dani, the other two exchange student in Indiana. Christian is from Finland and Dani is from Spain. The three boys are pretty much inseparable, and I don't know what they're going to do now that swimming is over!

10: 10/326

Ty is on the high school swim team. He swims freestyle and sometimes backstroke. He's getting better and better each meet, and it's fun to watch him improve.

It makes me tired just watching.

10: 9/326

This afternoon, Jason went to the pet store and bought two hamsters for his class pets. His class had a hamster named Fluffy for the last two years, but he died in December. Jason and I went a few weeks ago and saw the cutest, tiniest little hamsters I've ever seen, but the woman said they wouldn't be ready for homes until last week. So Jason went to get them today.

When he came home, he put the cage on the coffee table and Wilson just LOVED watching them. He walked around and around the table, putting his nose right up on the cage. It was so cute.

Tonight, we took the hamsters out and let Wilson play with them a little bit. He was so gentle and sweet with them. He started herding them around the room and licking their heads. They were laying their little paws on his nose, and it honestly was one of the most precious things I've EVER seen!

Poor Windsor was scared to death of them. Put together, they are smaller than one of his paws, but he seemed to think they were going to eat him. We were laughing so much.

It made us wonder how both of them are going to act around the baby...

Five years...

It has been five years since Jason and I started dating. He asked me to be his Valentine on our first date which was the night before Valentine's Day. We had already planned an "Anti-Valentine's Day Party" with all of our friends, so we spent that that with them as we had planned but it was so exciting and new and fun!

Earlier that day, I went to the mall with my friend Kelly to find the perfect outfit to wear. I wanted to impress Jason so badly. While I was at the mall, Jason dropped by my apartment to give me a gift. Flowers, a pretty brooch, and one of the nicest letters I have ever received in my life. All purple - my favorite color. I melted when I saw all of this, and I kept those flowers for years. I still have them actually, but they are in a box somewhere.

I loved seeing my flowers this morning, and I just had to go back and find the pictures of the very first Valentine's together. And everything was still... ALL PURPLE :)

February 14, 2005

February 14, 2010

10: 8/326

Jason and I sitting by my beautiful Valentine's Day flowers :) This is us very early in the morning. I think that's obvious from my messy hair...

And check out my pregnant belly! Can you believe how pregnant I'm looking? Every day, I see more and more of that baby down there!

10: 7/326

Tonight Jason and I were able to attend our church's annual sweetheart dinner. We had great food and wonderful fellowship with many other married couples from our church. AND we were asked to speak about our marriage to the entire group.

We were surprised they asked us, and we were a little bit confused as to what we could possible share with all of these people who had been married for much much longer than us. But it was great to sit down together and reflect on the last 7 months of our lives and our time together.

Two other couples shared as well. Mark and Denise have been married for 28 years, and Art and Marilyn for 50. They are both lovely couples, and we had a great time talking to them as well as hearing about their marriages.

The verse we shared tonight (which happened to be the same verse as Art and Marilyn) was Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Have a happy Valentines' Day!

10: 6/326

Today our little neighbor friends came over to hang out with us for the morning. We played cards, made homemade popcorn, and watched Matilda. It was such a fun day and nice to do something with other people again. It made me think of a few years from now when we'll have our own children and we can pile up on the couch on snow days in our pajamas with popcorn and a movie. I can't wait.

10: 5/326

Today we set ourselves free!!!

Well... the boys set us free while I watched from the window. They dug out our cars and Jason cleared the driveway just in case we had school tomorrow. We don't... again!

Then we took a walk over to Jason's parents house - it took us a lot longer than usual but we made it! It was nice to get out for the second night in a row.

10: 4/326

Jason, Ty, and I went over to our friends' house tonight. It was a welcome retreat from our house. The snow still has not stopped, and it was so nice to walk across the street and be in a new place! We ate a delicious dinner and played Settlers of Catan for hours. Jen and I posed afterwards for a pregnant mama shot :) Jen and Stephen's baby is due in April, and we can't wait for our kids to be friends!

I Heart Faces - Week 6 Kisses

There is this website that I love a lot called i heart faces. The two girls that run it have challenges each week with a theme for the picture you have to post. I really want to start entering the challenges, but it's a little intimidating... I missed the deadline for this week anyway, but I thought I'd post my picture for practice. Next week, I'll enter my picture.

So this week's theme is Kisses...

I love this picture of my beautiful sister-in-law and her precious flower girl. This was on the way to the wedding, and Dublin was so excited to be a part of Rachel's big day!

10: 3/326

The boys after 4 days of being snowed in. We're all getting a little restless. I haven't left the house in many, many hours, but I don't want to because my clumsy self falls down in the ice. A lot. So inside I stay. All day long.

And school is cancelled again for tomorrow.

10: 2/362

Last week, my good friend Laurie taught me how to make homemade gnocchi. Last night, I tried it on my own! The great thing was she arrived for her son's piano lesson just as I started to get stressed out, so she was still able to give me a little bit of help. Jason wants me to make these every night now. I told him he'd have to settle for every week.

10: 1/326

Saturday morning, 7:30 am. We woke up to 22 inches of snow, about 16 inches over what was predicted. The dogs went out and then Jason joined them. Yes, that is above his knees, and it's still snowing.

Project 326

imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall
what you did, who you met, what you learned…

The whole reason that I started this blog was to keep in touch with my friends and family through words and pictures. That said, since Jason and I have been married, I take my camera out less and less. Partly because it's only us to take pictures of now, and partly because I am still getting to know people in our town and I don't feel comfortable whipping out my camera all the time.

However, with the baby coming, I'm worried that this is starting to become a habit, and I really want to take lots of pictures of every big and little moment in our lives, especially once we have children. To help with this, I am going to participate in several different projects that will encourage me to use my camera more often. The first is called Project 326, originally called Project 365. The idea for this project is that I post one picture every single day that sums up my day. It could be something new and exciting, or just a regular old event in our lives. I want to look for the little moments that God blesses us with every single day of our lives.

I did not start on January 1, so I think I did the math right and there are 326 days left from when I'm starting. I'm going to go back a few days and post one for the past three days, including today.

I hope you all enjoy, and I encourage you to join in on your own blog, or wherever you want!

Catching Up (Again)

I can't believe I haven't written since October. So much has happened since then. I do not want to have to do a catch up each time I blog, so I am going to try very hard to stop doing this. Since I last wrote, here are some things that have happened:

- Jason and I fostered two Cocker Spaniel puppies for two months. They chewed up and peed all over everything in sight, but we loved them so much. We still miss those little pups.

Bertram

Beatrix

- Tyrone, a high school student from Germany, came to live with us. He'll be here until June, and we love having him with us. We're learning so much about his culture and our parenting skills which is great because....

Ty and his favorite part of America, Dr. Pepper

- We found out we're expecting our first baby on August 5, 2010! We are thrilled beyond belief!

Our baby's 10 week sonogram. I love those little arms and legs!

- We took a wonderful road trip to Florida and stopped at some really fun places.

Jason and Ty being funny at the Washington Memorial

- My little brother got MARRIED to his high school sweetheart, Rachel!!!

Andy and Rachel leaving their reception. I love their happy faces.

Andy and our mom hugging goodbye as the happy couple leaves. I love the joyful look on Andy's face and Mom's fancy hair-do.

- I experienced the start of my very first WINTER. Scary stuff!

Jason and me in what I thought was a lot of snow... I had no idea.

I'm going to post all these pictures, and then I have some more exciting news to post.