The Baby Bump!

I am now just about 14 weeks along and the baby bump has officially arrived! Still a little weird to see it, but exciting all at the same time! :)

Pics from visit with Daniel

The three peas in a pod outside Dan's new apartment

Daniel outside his new apartment door.

Dan's new view of the Capital building...

Daniel wearing his shirt he got from us as part of his Birthday present.

Daniel was just so excited about his day with us that he was dancing in the street as we left....(or was he excited that we finally left....hmmmm?)

Daniel's belated birthday visit

Yesterday, Ben and I took Daniel out for his birthday (belated). We picked up Daniel from the metro in Fairfax and took him to lunch at On the Border. We had a huge lunch, got chips and salsa to go, and headed over to the Apple store in Reston Town Center. There Daniel played with the ipad while Ben and I contemplated the purchase of the 27 inch imac. (We didn't purchase it....yet) Then we headed over to Trader Joe's where we bought some delicious cookies (peanut butter with milk chocolate chunks) and of course, mochi.

Then we headed into DC to take Daniel back. We got to see his new apartment and I did take some pictures that I will hopefully upload soon.

We had fun and I think Daniel enjoyed his belated birthday day :)

Awesome!

How cool is this?!?! The Doctor said that i get the award for best ultrasound. The baby was moving all over the place! And this ultrasound was our most favorite. (It was the doctor's favorite too!) We are so excited!

The baby looks healthy and happy says the doctor. And I get to go to my old OB/GYN for a couple more appointments before the high risk doctor wants to see me exclusively. Starting in July I will be going in every two weeks so they can monitor me very closely as my biggest risk is premature delivery. But as of now, the due date is still November 24th!

For you, Aunt Martha

Say hello to our little (BIG) friend!....

The blueish green fangs.....holy crap!

Let's call him Pierre (i was feeling French when I named him). Pierre is a freaky Bold Jumping Spider. He's creepy and not welcome at our house. I think he lives up to the Bold part of his species' name as he stared me down from the inside of the Rubbermaid container to which he was imprisoned. And i felt threatened. No joke. He even started cleaning those awful looking fangs of his whilst looking me right in the eye from his many eyes....

Ben claims Pierre tried to eat his hand when he jumped from the braking mechanism on the Camry's wheel. I think he was going for the jugular. Only Pierre knows the truth.

Got the freak out yet Aunt Martha?

Arachnophobia right here in Stephens City.

Our Good Deed Done...

So for the past 2 weeks Ben and I have been watching a German Shepherd for a woman from the rescue who's father passed away. She was paying $100 a day for her dog, Harper, to be boarded while she was out of town handling the funeral arrangements. So we were asked if we could watch Harper so that her owner wouldn't have to pay around $1400 on top of all the travel expenses she had in flying to Florida, and moving her Mom up to New York.

Harper was a bit of a challenge. Within the first three days she peed on the floor four times (she is supposed to be housebroken), she got into several little scuffles with Aida, got into potted plants leaving dirt all over the carpet, ate a few receipts, and chewed on my shoes, underwear, socks, Ben's shirts, among other things.

The icing on the cake came on Friday when she made a deposit in the middle of our bedroom floor which sent me into dry heaves while cleaning it up. And then yesterday she, seemingly out of nowhere, attacked Aida which required a folding chair to separate the two of them. It was quite scary. Poor Aida has blood in her ear and lost several chunks of hair from her head. In the evening I discovered a gash on Aida's head that I cleaned up (it is looking better today). This morning it looks like more of the hair around the gash fell out so my little girl has a bit of a bald spot, but she's a trooper.

Harper's owner picked her up today, thank goodness. I'm glad we were able to help her out in this most sad time for her and her family, but I am much more happy that Harper is no longer here!

It Finally Happened...

It's been too long. I must admit I have been somewhat of a hermit when it comes to technology lately. I have barely been on the computer in the last few weeks except for updating my resume for the....get this....job I was just offered!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, it is a bit ironic that I have been applying for so many different jobs since moving down to Virginia without even a slight interest from employers and as soon as I find out I'm pregnant I get the phone call. I had a phone interview followed by an in-person interview the very next day. And believe it or not, they loved me and offered me the job a few days later!

The job is at a bank as a teller and it is only part time, however I get an awesome pay rate, benefits and PAID vacation in addition to a 401K. I can't complain.

I will start training soon and will hopefully have lots of fun updates once I start my new job!!!

**Also, my next doctor appointment is in a little over a week so I will have updates on that as well soon!**

Riley

Riley, our very first foster dog, has been adopted! He was a wonderful dog and deserved to have great home. He went to a family down in Richmond, VA. They have a Bernese Mountain Dog that is about 3 years old. Riley seemed to really like the family and we've heard that so far he is already bonding with his new owner Brian. Brian and his wife Julie seem to be very active and live close to the James River where they like to take their dog swimming. We really felt like this would be a great home for Riley, but we miss him very much.

I hope he loves his new home and I hope he doesn't forget the people who saved him from the pound. :)

Bag of Almonds - $10.00

Bag of Pita Chips - $7.00

Tollhouse Chocolate Chips - $2.50

Everything else the mouse ate - $$$$

Catching the mouse alive and releasing him back to the wild - priceless.

Mr Plow ("That name again is Mr Plow!"-Simpsons' Reference)

They finally came around and plowed our street at 4:00PM on Sunday. Not that i minded the delay...there was a lot of snow to be plowed on more important main roads. Besides, the dogs were having so much fun playing in the snow covered street. But alas, Mr. Plow came and cleared our road...unfortunately our yard was his dumping ground for the surplus snow. So despite the fact that we'll have snow in our yard until mid May, at least our road is now drivable. (And the dogs have another playground...or a play-mountain if you will.)

Snowmegeddon 2010

I can say that this past snow storm rivaled any i have seen in Ohio. Not to say that the quantity surpassed what i have seen before, but at the very least it has been quite some time since i have seen that much snow in such a short amount of time.

The snow started at 9:00AM Friday morning and did not stop until about 4:30PM Saturday. We got 15 inches alone between Friday night and Saturday morning. I have heard that areas such as Dulles got a record 32 inches while other areas did not get quite as much. We measured the snow in our backyard at 29 inches this morning around noon and that was after the sun had been out all morning.

The dogs have had an absolute blast these last couple of days. They have been running around the culdesac with the other 4 neighborhood dogs. Last night we had a "snowed in" party with all the neighbors. They all came over to have a "potluck" style dinner. It was great getting to know our neighbors a little better and after everyone chipping in and shoveling each others driveways i think we all became much closer neighbors.

Every inch of me aches from shoveling. Ben did a good job handing out beers and "supervising" the shoveling progress we were all making. He also looked after all the dogs while everyone was busy working. Although our two canines were very much slowing down our progress as they would pounce on our shovels as we were trying to throw the excess snow off to the side. It was funny/cute the first couple times...but not the last 20 times....

Overall we survived. You'll notice in the slide show of pics that i fell down and could not get back up in the backyard this morning. It was a combination of having on many layers, the sloping backyard and my supreme uncoordination. It was hilarious. I felt just like that kid from "A Christmas Story"....i feel his pain.

Hope everyone else survived whatever snow they got! And we are supposedly not out of the woods yet as we are due for two more snow storms in the coming two weeks. Yippee!

...Facebook... (and an update)

I have gone over to the dark side. I have gotten sucked into the vortex that is Facebook.

Through the persistent urging of my friend down here in Virginia, I have decided to join the "social networking" site. I am not going to promise to anyone that I will keep my facebook updated regularly, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to have it on the side. I do promise, however, to keep my blog updated. :)

So if any of you blog readers that have Facebook want to "friend" me....feel free to do so.


**On a separate note i have an update on Ben. He went to the doctor today to have his wrist checked out with the hope that he would be released back to full duty. Unfortunately such isn't the case. He is to be on light duty for at least another 6 weeks. It seems that his bone just isn't healed quite yet. He is very bummed. :( **

A Visit from Daniel

Daniel came to visit us last weekend (sorry for the delay in posting!). We had mostly beautiful weather although it did rain a bit on Sunday. We didn't do too much, but we had a lot of fun. On Saturday we took a drive into Middleburg, VA and walked around a bit there. We also had to go to Wylie Wagg to get the dogs some food and treats.

Saturday evening we took Daniel to Brewbakers, a local restaurant in Old Town Winchester. Although Daniel had already been there before, he wanted to go again for their wings. Apparently they have good wings....i wouldn't know because I don't like to eat small amounts of meat off a bone like a caveman...

We also watched a few movies, took Riley to an adoption day at Petsmart, and took the dogs to a local park while Dan was here. Before we took Dan back into DC we treated him to lunch at another Old Town Winchester restaurant. The place is called Snow White Grill and it is a really cute little place to eat. We had a really fun visit and are looking forward to having him come back soon!

Good Luck Daniel!

This is the view from street right in front of Daniel's apartment in DC. As far as getting the true DC experience, this is about as good as it gets!


And here we have the proud intern in front of his apartment (he has the basement of the townhouse behind him.)

Good luck in DC Daniel! Looking forward to reading all the updates on your blog!

Aida Roadruck | A Dog Named Christmas

I entered a pic of Aida in a photo contest for Hallmark and she needs your votes! We only have until the 15th of this month to vote! Tell everyone you know to vote for Aida!

Sorry for the late notice. :)

Aida Roadruck A Dog Named Christmas

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Meet Riley....

Ben and I have gotten a foster dog. His name was Roy, but we renamed him Riley which means "Valiant Warrior" in Irish. He's had a bit of a rough start. He was found locked up and tied down in a shed on the edge of someone's property. The owners of the property had just purchased the house and heard a dog barking and thought it was a neighbors dog. About two weeks later the owner was taking a walk and heard the barking again. He followed the bark to a shed where he had to break through the lock and found a dog tied down inside. The dog (Roy) couldn't even stand up because he was so weak. They figure he was locked in there for at least two weeks, probably longer.

Despite his rough start, this 80 pound, 1 year old dog doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He is just one big lovable goof. Although we named him Riley (for now) we have called him many other names since we picked him up 6 hours ago including, "Shit for Brains", "Damnit!", "Gomer Pyle," and the list goes on. Riley has claimed a specific wall....twice, as well as trying to claim our poor innocent Aida. He's still in tact....that will be corrected right quick and in a hurry.

All he wants to do is play. He can jump up in the air 6+ feet to catch a ball. He is absolutely skin and bones and once he gains some weight should be at least 100 pounds. But he is a lovable guy. Hopefully he'll be adopted soon and have a new start in life. :)

Vote Today!

Right now there is a site called "The Animal Rescue Site" that is having a contest to award $20,000 in grants to your favorite animal shelter/organization. All you have to do is go to the site and vote every day for your shelter/organization of choice. Since Ben and I have become involved with the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue I would like to ask you to vote for them, however if you have another rescue organization you are involved with please vote for them.

Just visit: http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

Then go to the side tab labeled "Shelter Challenge" and cast your vote. You don't have to register or even enter your email address, but the limit is one vote per computer per day. If voting for VGSR (Virginia German Shepherd Rescue) simply type in the name where prompted.

Please help us out in trying to move up in the rankings. Right now VGSR is ranked number 139 in the US. Thanks!

*I should be posting Thanksgiving pics later today! :)*

A Welcome Visitor

This little (actually he was quite big) guy was on our sidewalk when Aida and I got back from our walk. I ran inside and grabbed my camera. It has been so long since I've seen a praying mantis. I then had to go outside and rescue him as he was still on our sidewalk and the kids from the neighborhood were out playing basketball in the culdesac and they usually end up running thru our yard and i didn't want him to get smashed.

My good deed for the day. :)

Oink Oink!/O-H-I-O!

So these past weeks have been interesting.

We went back Ohio for our good friend's wedding reception several weeks ago. We had a great time and were so happy to be able to attend. Here are the pics from the wedding:



After the weekend was over we headed back to Virginia with Dad. We asked him to come spend the week with us as we were going to head back to Ohio, yet again, the following weekend for Daniel's Homecoming game at Ohio State. That week Dad cracked the whip. He was our resident handyman, landscaper and dog whisperer....let me explain. He wanted to help out around the house by organizing our garage and fixing a hole where he and Ben had previously turned a gas pipe around to hook up our grill. One of the days he went all "Edward Scissorhands" on our landscaping. Five yard bags, a cut extension cord and several scrapes later, we had finished trimming the front yard. And now for my favorite descriptor, "dog whisperer." One night I made pot roast. Ben and Dad were in and out working on the lawn mower (the handyman was tweaking it). Dad wanted to test it out and opened our double gate to the backyard and walked up to the garage to get the mower. Once he got to the mower it wasn't working quite right so he went back to the basement. All the while I was in the kitchen working on dinner. I called them both up for dinner. Ben came up, but Dad was still in the basement working on something. I got the thinking, "Where is Aida?" She hadn't been hovering around in the kitchen like usual. I called down and asked Dad if she was in the basement with him. He replied, "Isn't she up there with you?..." "No." Dad says, "OH S*%#!!!!!!!" It turns out, while Ben and Dad were in and out, they let the dog out, forgot she was out, and also forgot that the gate was open. So she had feasibly been "out on the town" for an hour. So we all went out into the dark yelling for Aida (who wasn't wearing a collar). After about 2 minutes I see a shadow come running towards me from around the pond. It was a smelly, soaking wet, Aida. She had apparently taken a dip in the pond chasing the geese no doubt. Dinner was put on hold while we gave Aida a bath. It was quite the eventful night.

Back to Ohio we went to see Daniel on Homecoming Court. We had a great time. It was my first Ohio State game and we had the best seats. It was a little cold, but we were so happy to be there for Daniel. Although he didn't win King, we are still so proud of him and think that it is amazing that he was on the court. Here are the pics from the Homecoming weekend. I also have another album on my web albums that are pics from the camera Daniel had so make sure to check it out.





After returning from Ohio, I came down with it....the dreaded H1N1...the Swine Flu! I must say, i wouldn't want to get the pig flu again, but it certainly wasn't the gloom and doom the media has portrayed it to be. Ben called off work one day to take care of me (he's so sweet) and as long as I routinely took Tylenol or Advil I was able to keep my fever down. But i'm better now and hopefully we won't have to deal with the oink flu again!

Under the Knife (again)

It has been a year now since Ben's infamous accident at work. And although he has been able to be back at work, full duty, since April this past year, he has been in a lot of pain. So after his one year checkup with his surgeon a third surgery has been scheduled. Come December 14, 2009, Ben will bid ado to his plate and nine screws that have taken up residence in his right wrist since his surgery last year. The surgery brings hope that he will regain more mobility and less pain in the future.

He will be out of work for 2 to 3 months letting his "swiss-cheese" of a bone heal. And with any luck, this will be the very last surgery having to do with his wrists. So stay tuned for some more pics of his surgery battle wounds after December 14th.... :)