Welp I am still not done with this stinkin project yet. But I really do think anyday now. I'm waiting on another programmer now to look at things. But of course I could have had this stuff for him last week, but oh well what can I say...once a procrastinator always a procrastinator. Someday God may decide to change that, but until then, why fight it...it just makes it more stressful when I do! :)

Getting ready to head up to Columbus tonight to drop Reeces off at my sister's then off to New Carlisle for a board meeting. Ryan's boss decided to give the board members a fun little get away, so we get to stay in a hotel and get $50 spending money for the weekend. Well I shouldn't say we, since I'm married to the regional director, we don't get the spending money, but we do get mileage and the hotel so I guess it's about the same. Ryan's parents and 2 of our couple friends are on the board, so it should be a good time. We are hoping to get a 6 person game of Catan in.

I just said a prayer for you and Kevin, Emily! I know God has the perfect jobs out there for you. And how fun about watching Chicago while eating fazolli's. I love going to movies by myself. My friend and I took Chinese into the theaters one time, but we weren't the only ones in there. We definitley got some strange looks. I'm sure the food stunk up the whole place, but it was yummy!


Things I love.....

~ The first breath and stretch I take getting out of a tent in the morning after camping.
~ The sound and sight of the ocean, especially when the waves are rough.
~ Having a worship experience that brings me to tears
~ Sitting in Hannah's room...so peaceful
~ Ryan's floppy lips


That's a good start. Good idea Trace!
have a great weekend all!

Happy Tuesday everyone! As you probably already read on Ryan's blog, we had a good time with my folks this weekend. It was definitely too hot to be RV shopping when you're withchild though! I think every part of my body was swollen after that, but it was still fun. There are some nice rv's out there that's for sure.

I had another great shower on Sunday and got lots of goodies. Since none of my Lexington friends read this, I can say though that I don't think anything will beat the Cincinnati shower! :)

It's so fun to just go and sit in the nursery and lok at everything and just wait for Hannah. It's so peaceful in there. It is pretty funny though that this little thing has all this room to herself and Ryan and I have most of the guestroom and our bedroom furniture packed into our room!

mmm not a whole lot of other exciting stuff going on. I've been researching digital camcorders and hopefully soon we will buy one. I can't wait! Technology is so amazing. It will be so nice to be able to have home movies on DVD instead of VHS so that way you can easily move forward and edit out stuff instead of having to sit through hours of boring footage just to see a few good parts.

Oh and Tracey, I'm glad that my maiden name was a good topic of conversation for you! And my campaign slogan for the vice-president of the 8th grade class was "Catch the Beaver Fever!" I thought it was quite clever. How was I to know what that also means. I really think I could have won had my teacher not taken all the signs down. Oh and if I wasn't such a huge nerd back then! (i know some of you are thinking, what do you mean back then) :)

That's so exciting to hear about your condo too! Yay! But that stinks about the jelly fish sting. Your family must be magnets for those things. Good improv on the ketchup though having vinegar in it. Hopefully I'll never have to use that , but it will be good to remember just in case. I did get a laugh though remembering our bay watch run in Hilton Head to help that girl. Poor girl, but funny scene by us.

Oh and hear is the recipe for the 0 point soup that you wanted and for anyone else that wants it here it is. I still have yet to make it, but it sounds pretty good for being guilt free.

~2/3 cup sliced carrot
~1/2 cup diced onion
~2 garlic cloves minced
~3 cups fat free broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)
~1 1/2 cups diced green cabbage
~1/2 cup green beans
~1 Tablespoon tomato paste
~1/2 teaspoon dried basil
~1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
~1/4 teaspoon salt
~1/2 cup diced zucchini

1. In a large saucepan, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, saute the carrot, onion, and garlic over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, cabbage, beans, tomato paste, basil, oregano, and salt; bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until beans are tender.
3. Stir in zucchini and heat 3-4 minutes. Serve hot.

Welp time for another productive day I hope. I only have 3 things left on my list to do for this project! Then it's on to phase 2, but it won't be as stressful hopefully.

~~as i see myself in the mirror I am reminded of a funny quote my friends Rob and Kimberly used to say....."how can you be happy when your hair is so nappy." -must be shower day for me. See yas!

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday Mary!! I hope you have a great day! and wow...6:08 for a mile. that' was a good half mile time for me when i was on the high school track team!

And Emily, if it helps at all, we thought the same thing about our horsderve (sp?) reception and bought more food and we had so much left over it was sickening! So I wouldn't worry about it, there will be plenty.

And Tracey glad to hear about your root canal or lack there of and I'm with you on the adult convo. Who cares about what interest rate you are getting or how you are financing..you could have a jacuzzi and cool wine rack..now that's worth talking about! :)

Break over!

Thanks so much for those sweet words Emily! You are going to be a great Aunt and you'll have lots to give Hannah. But you are right, she's going to have it made with such a wonderful family!

I hope you are feeling better after your root canal Tracey! Yuck! I can't imagine those being much fun, especially for you. I've been thinking about ya!

Ryan's been gone since Saturday and I've missed him, but he came back last night to hang out with me which was very sweet since he had to get up at 6:30am and head back up to Florence. Ryan finished putting the baby furniture together and we arranged the room a bit. It's starting to look like a nursery! We then finished the evening off with Dairy Queen. Since I've been good about not having sugar, Ryan let me get a chocolate bannana shake. yum!!!

That's pretty much all the exciting stuff that's been happening this week. Any new updates on the condo? Is your neighbor going to pull up his sod? I bet he will, he did seem like a cool guy. That's so exciting that that's all it is!

"Everybody knows it hurts to grow old" - no idea which group, but great mix cd Trace!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a fun-filled weekend. I had a very relaxing one. A little too relaxing, because I was supposed to squeeze some work in there, but oh well, I'll just have to make up for it today.

Friday Ryan and I bought our baby furniture! I was so excited, because usually it takes a week or 2 for the furniture to come in stock, but they just happened to have our crib, changing table and dresser in stock so we got to bring it home that day! We then hung out at our friend's Dan and Lisa's house and played Catan. What a fun game. I have yet to win one, which stinks, but at least Ryan didn't win this time, because he wins everytime. Dan came out on top as Lord of Catan. We played with their 3 month old Ashley and it's amazing just in the past 2 weeks how alert she has become. She sat on my lap and had almost a 5 minute conversation with me. She just smiled and wiggled and cood at me. It was so fun and now I can't wait my sweet little Hannah to talk to me!

Saturday Ryan and 3 of his friends from our group went camping at Red River gorge. They always try to go at least once a year, so I'm glad they still got to go this year with all the babies popping out. I decided to skip church and group on Saturday and go Sunday instead so I setup camp in our other bedroom and watched Where the heart is and Ever After and put together our changing table and the drawers of our dresser. It was so fun. I couldn't wait for Ryan to put them together, but i'll leave him the rest of the dresser and the crib, so he can feel like the man. :) The girls had a sleep over at Jamie's that night and we watched Just Married. It had some funny parts, but I didn't really get into it too much. I volunteered to watch the dogs at our place since Jamie is allergic, so I didn't get to partake in the sleep over, but I didn't get home until 2:00am, so I don't think I missed much by leaving.

Sunday Ryan came home from camping and had to leave an hour later to head up to Cincinnati. When he got home he asked if I was ok and I said of course and I really did feel ok, but apparently he saw it hit me before I did, because when he got ready to leave I all of sudden started crying. I felt so bad, because Ryan felt so bad leaving, but I kept telling him I was really ok. geez these hormones have got to go! Sunday was supposed to be productive for me work wise, but I ended up taking a 2 hour nap and then I went to church which was so awesome. I really needed that worship time. And then I came home and ate dinner and was going to start working, but then I got into this ABC family movie original called Lucky Seven. It was actually a really good chic flick. I talked to Ryan after that and was then going to get some work done, but decided I was too tired so I layed down. But then I couldn't sleep, but was too tired to work so I watched Life is House that I had also rented. What a great movie. So finally at around 2am I went to bed. It was a really relaxing weekend that's for sure and I guess I didn't realize how many movies I watched until I wrote it down. And I will not let myself feel guilty for not working and just try and have a productive day today!

So on that note, I guess I should get to work. I look forward to hearing about everyone's weekends!
Peace

Hello all from Kentucky where I am sitting at my desk barefoot and pregnant as I should be! :) Not a whole lot to update with, just wanted to wish everyone a happy weekend. We had a productive week getting our nursery/guestroom in order so I think this week we get to buy baby furniture! yay! i can't wait to start putting it together. Only 10 more weeks! And actually I tell myself only 6 more weeks, because she could come anytime after that. I guess she could technically come anytime now, but I'm hoping she'll at least give us 6 more weeks.

i had my now bi-weekly doc visit this week and she basically told me the inevitable. i need to stop drinking regular pop and cut out the sweets if i don't want to have a huge baby. :( oh well, i knew it was only a matter of time. so i've been making myself enjoy diet pepsi. i know it will be worth the sacrifice, i just have a hard time letting it sink in my mind that drinking that mountain dew will give me a big baby, but it is true so buck up Michelle!

oh and speaking of nutricious food...yum..i miss dime a dog night at the the clippers. i could eat at least a dozen of ball park franks. that's the only way Ryan can get me to go to a game with him is to bribe me with a hotdog, nachos and coke. oh and some peanuts are usually thrown in there too. why does that stuff taste so good only at a ballpark? well i guess it tastes good anywhere, but especially good at a ballpark.

any new updates on the condo tracey and matt?

everyone have a great weekend whereever you are!
mmmmm i feel i must end with a quote since that seems to be the theme...mmmmm......oh here's one that i am liking lately from a sixpence song, it's a good one for you summer bums!

"i'm going no where and i'm going to take my time." -sixpence none the richer

Good morning bloggers! It's Tuesday and I'm getting ready to have what I hope to be a very productive day.

This weekend was alot of fun. The American Idol concert was a hit. It was definitely a bit cheesy at times when they did some of their group songs, but Clay, Rueben, and Kimberly Locke were amazing. I actually think Kimberly sang better than them all at the concert. Clay and Reuben sang songs from their new album and I was really into them. I met my sister and mom down there around 4pm and apparently at 3pm the tour bus unloaded and people got autographs and pictures of the idols. When they were telling my sister this, I could see tears in her eyes. In one breath, I felt frustrated for her, because I know how bad she wanted to see them, but then I also had to laugh to myself about it too, because come on...we are talking about Clay Aiken here. But she did manage to throw an OSU stuffed bear up on stage at the end of the concert for Clay. She is so excited that Clay has her bear now. My whole family except for Ryan ended up going which was pretty funny I think, but we had a great time. We ended the evening by going to this great Italian restaurant where they serve everything family style.

so anyhoo, enough about that. Thanks Emily for the message last night! That would have been exciting to see the idols just shopping at a mall. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see them too.

I came home on Saturday just in time for our group, and apparently as Ryan's blog mentioned, our head pastor has resigned. It's going to be very hard to fill his shoes that's for sure, but I know that God has a plan. And sometimes I think it's always good to test a church to make sure that it is not centered around it's pastor. I think Southland will pas the test on this one, but I'm sure they will have some people leave. We may only have 7000 members instead of 8000. Oh no!! :) That night we wented 25th Hour with Edward Norton. It was definitely slow, but I thought Norton was great and the dialogue was great. It probably isn't a good 1am movie though.

Sunday Ryan and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. It was such a fun day. We started the day off with a swim in our pool and hung out there for a bit. And a swim in the pool is never complete without an afternoon nap in the air condiitioning right afterwards, so we did that too. Then we went to an RV dealer to check out some RV's for my folks. There are some definite nice ones! We then decided it was too nice to eat indoors, so we picked up some Chinese and headed to the park to have a picnic. We then went to babies r us to register for a little more and then topped off the evening with dessert at the Olive Garden. Yummmm!!!! They really have some of the best desserts. So it was an eventful and awesome day to celebrate with Ryan. Our last anniversary of not being parents!

Last night we had our birthing class. For those of you who were at my shower, you know this is not a highlight of Ryan's week, but he's a trooper. To fill the rest in, when Ryan was asked by our instructor why he was taking the class, he said in a sort of joking way, "Because Michelle made me". But then never really came back with a real reason, but he said in his mind he was thinking, "um..because we are having a baby." Which is a good answer I guess. :) I always end up being emotional after the classes, because I think they make it seem so real, like this is really going to happen isn't it? Especially when we found out the one of the ladies in our group just gave birth to her baby boy last week. I didn't think I would be too nervous about the delivery part, but I think that's because I was in denial. I'm starting to get a little anxious about it now, but I know it will be great no matter what happens, as long as Hannah is healthy.

Welp there was our weekend in a nutshell. A rather big nutshell I guess. Time for a productive day. Have a great week everyone! Enjoy your time in Ohio Sanfords! I'm so jealous of you teachers and speech therapists!

Peace!

I'm just getting sitting here getting some work done before I head to columbus for the American Idol concert! Now I know you all are just cringing with jealousy, but i'll give you all the details on Monday. :) I know I am a big dork, but I am really excited about this concert. Not as excited as my sister who is obsessed with Clay Aiken and claims she is going to marry him someday. (sorry jen if you're reading this , but you know it's true! :) ) Apparently instead of getting to the concert an hour early like normal folks we are heading down around 3:30pm in hopes to see them rehearse or see them at their hotel. It's sad because I roll my eyes and make fun of Jen, but deep down I think it's a great idea and I hope that we will get to see them.

I had a fun time with Tracey yesterday. She came down for a little visit and had lunch with Ryan and I and to look at the model home of our house! We had a little time to spare before the house opened so we did what we do best...shopped! Tracey got a cute top from Old Navy and I got a temporary wedding ring from Target since my fingers are swelled and my other one doesn't fit. Now I feel better because people won't see me pregnant and think I'm carrying a bastard child. It was so great to see Tracey one last time and now we'll be able to picture each other in our new homes. Have a safe trip back Tracey and say hi to the beach for me!

It was great to hear from Mary again. It sounds like you are traveling all over. How fun! I can't wait to hear about your alaskan adventures.

It was great to hear from Emily again too. It's been a long time. Welcome back!

Have a great weekend all!

Hello again. It has been quiet out in blogger world lately. Thanks Matt and Justin for at least keeping me entertained. I need to be a more faithful blogger too. That will be my goal for next week.

I'm happy to hear that it might just be the jacuzzi that's leaking Matt and Tracey. I really feel like that place is yours too and that God is just using this to push back your date to be closer to your lease being up. But of course He knows best!

We had a fun 4th of July of weekend. Thursday night Ryan got into Cincinnati early and I ended up taking a nap here in Leixngton untill 8pm. I wasn't going to come up until Friday, but Tracey and Heidi lured me into coming by saying that they would play Cantan with me, so I hustled and packed up and got there around 10pm. But did we play Cantan?.....no! But I did have fun chatting with the girls, so that was even better. On Friday Heidi adjusted us all on her portable bed. It was actually pretty entertaining, especially when Ryan and Mom got adjusted. You could tell they were a little apprehensive, but they were troopers. It felt so good to be adjusted! I really need to start going to a chiropractor more regularly. Then Tracey played some piano for us. I always cry when she plays for some reason. It always moves me to hear her play. Especially River of Dreams! It's my favorite. I hope that Hannah will take up an instrument. It would be fun to have music around the house.

Friday night we headed over to East Fork Lake to camp with my family. We decided to head to New Richmond, a nearby city, around 9pm to try and catch the fireworks and get something to eat. When we left the site it was perfectly clear out and no one had heard anything about rain being forcasted, so we didn't bother zipping up our tent or putting away the chairs. Well as we were driving all of sudden out of no where it looked like a scene from Twister. The wind was crazy and branches and little sutff were flying all over this dark back road that we were taking. I looked over at Ryan driving and he's all quiet and I could tell he was stressing out a bit. But did that stop my family from being loud and obnoxious, of course not! So we continued on with our name the movie quote game, which I'm sure helped out his stress level. :)

Well we finally got to New Richmond and we could tell that it was going to storm any minute, but we thought maybe they would still shoot off a few fireworks. So we stopped at this gas station to ask where the fireworks were being held at just as they were locking the doors, because the wind kept blowing them open. Well apparently the web site that I found telling me about the fireworks was from 2002, so we were a little late getting there. But that didn't stop us..we tredged on and this time it was just pouring buckets. We finally did this big loop and ended up on Beechmont by Ryan's folks house. We were just going to get something cheap to eat, but by this time it was 10:30pm we were all starving! Ryan mentioned something about Olive Garden cheesecake and we all got excited. So we went to Olive Garden and had some good grub and headed back to camp. When we got there, everything was soaked and the wind had turned our tent upside down, which was actually a good thing because it really didn't get that wet on the inside. But thankfully we had my folk's RV to sleep in and we piled in there and had a good night sleep after our adventures.

Saturday was a little less eventful, but still fun. We just hung out in the morning and went to the beach for a little bit. And then in the afternoon, the guys went golfing and the girls went shopping and then we just hung out at the camp site that night. Ate some yummy hobo dinners, which for those of you who don't know what those are, they are potatoes, sausage, sirloin burgers, carrots, and onions, and lots of butter wrapped in aluminum foil and tossed in the fire to cook. Delicious! And as Ryan continued to play with the fire, being the pyro he is, we just sat around and chatted and then went to bed.

Sunday I had my first baby shower at Ryan's folks house! To use Heidi's favorite quote..."It was perfect!" It really was such a fun shower. Tracey and Mom did such a great job putting it together. The food, decorations and games were so great. I felt so special! And it was great to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile. I was sorry I couldn't chat with them longer. We got lots of great stuff too. I can't wait to put them to use! One of the games was to see if Ryan and I would answer the same to a list of questions and instead of Tracey just telling us what his answers were, she video taped him. It was so unique and fun! I'm glad my mom taped the whole thing too, because it was fun to see both of our answers on tape. Some of them were almost word for word.

This week has been very productive for us. Ryan and I made a list of what we need to do before Hannah comes and the first thing was getting this apartment ready. So the last couple of nights we have been rearranging furniture, moving it to different rooms, tearing down beds, cleaning out drawers, etc... There unfortunately is still a ton to do, but at least we made a dent.

Welp I better finish getting ready to go meet Tracey and Ryan for lunch. Tracey is driving down from Cinti to have lunch with us and to look at our model home. I'm excited I get to see her one last time. But then it will only be October and we'll get to see her again. It is pretty funny how I think that we do see Matt and Tracey more now since they live in Cali than when they lived in BG.

I definitely need to blog more often so I don't have to write so much. Have a great weekend everyone. I hope you find another computer soon Mary so we can hear about your Alaskan adventures.

Peace!
Michelle

We had our ultrasound today and Hannah is doing great. We had to get her kidneys checked again to make sure they weren't enlarged and they were normal and healthy! Thank you God! And she is still a Hannah and not a Hank, so that was a relief too! Our birthing class instructor has been reminding us of how it's not always 100% and I was getting a little nervous, because we do have a lot of pink stuff. But Ryan and I knew that she was a girl even before the ultrasound, plus Tracey dreamed it and we know about her dreams! :)

We have to start going every 2 weeks now which means we are on the home stretch. It took me by surprise, because I didn't think we had to start that until after 32 weeks. So it's starting to hit home that this is actually going to happen. Even my calm, cool, and collected husband said he's starting to get a little nervous, so that says a lot right there!

My friend Angela is going to come by either tonight or tomorrow and take our dresser away which means that we will have room now to start putting together Hannah's temporary nursery. I can't wait!!! I have been getting so anxious to start! Now Ryan and I just have to find time to do it since we seem to be gone most weekends and week nights.

Oh and I have more exciting news! I get to go to the American Idol concert in Columbus in 2 weeks!! I know I am a dork, but I can't tell you guys how excited I am! I'm bummed that Ryan won't be able to go, but I don't think he will
enjoy it as much as I will, plus he gets to go golfing anywhere he wants now, so that should make him happy.

Welp I am going to get some work done so we can hang out with our friends Dan and Lisa tonight. We haven't seen them in a while. Then tomorrow we are going over another couple friend of ours to play Catan. I can't wait. They are the only ones down here who will play that game with us and they are hooked!

Have a great week all!
Michelle