Rings N Things

The Best Summer

2011-07-31T23:19:00.001-04:00

mmm....watermelon

Owen 'graduated' from his first class at the Little Gym. He takes a tumbling class there that is absolutely awesome and we look forward to it every week. We've decided to continue taking him to classes there at least through the end of the year... this place rocks! Anyway, Matt was able to attend the graduation class and join in on a little fun.

Here's a video of Owen getting his medal. So stinkin' cute!!

This boy would live in his sandbox if he could. He absolutely loves it. We have to make sure the back door latches every time we let our dogs out otherwise Owen bolts straight for the sandbox!

He also LOVES playing in water. It doesn't matter where it is or how he gets to it, if there's water Owen will find it and manage to soak himself. ...and loves every single minute of it.

different day, but oh so funny!

Owen and I took a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Matt's brother and family. This picture cracks me up because it totally sums up what these boys are like together...Owen = crazy, Max = (looking at Owen) who is this wierdo?! :)

breaking out the wrestling moves already!

Playing in the water again!

Owen first time on grandma and grandpa Rings' boat! He loved it, for the most part.

He was on it for 5 whole minutes before he fell asleep.

This is Owen's 'all done' look. I love it! Also notice his diaper is hanging all the way to his knees...we ran out of swim diapers! haha. :) We had the best time!

We've also been spending many days at the local Splash Parks. They are AWESOME!

this photo just makes me laugh... :) that's my boy!

And finally the most recent awesomeness was going to the NKOTBSB concert!!! It was SO MUCH FUN.

Oh and our seats? amazing!!

Say hello to Mr Carter...

and Mr. Littrell :)

Oh yes, I shook their hand!!! ahhh!

Such a FUN concert and I'm so glad I was able to finally see my favorite band from elementary school! how crazy is that that I can even say that!?! just awesome. :)

Pictures galore

2011-07-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

Finally got Owen's 1 year pictures back. I've been dying to see them and am so happy we have so many good ones to choose from...at least of Owen! Family shots on the other hand, not so much but what do you expect with a 1 year old? So here are some of my favorites. :)

This one just makes me laugh!

Firsts

2011-06-03T13:25:00.000-04:00

Owen has had many firsts lately... they are too fun not to share! Last month we made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Matt's brother Ben and his family. So what's more cute than two little cousins taking their first bath together? They were soooo fun. Here's Owen trying to brush Max's teeth while in the tub. It was HILARIOUS!

Here's Owen's first time using chop sticks. :) He was quite good at it actually.

Owen's first encounter with the sprinkler! He loved it!!

His first trip to an outdoor pool. We went with our friends Shawn and Meredith who have a daughter, Reese. Owen and Reese get along so great. They had a blast together!

And finally Owen's first 'official' haircut. (I trimmed the back of his hair right before his birthday) I took him to a place called Cookie Cutters which specialize in kids haircuts. They have all sorts of fun stuff to keep the kids occupied while getting their hair cut. Owen did great! I absolutely love this picture of him. Who knew we would have a little blondie! :)

Aloha!

2011-05-12T13:44:00.000-04:00

May 1st through the 7th we had the amazing opportunity to vacation in Maui!! Matt's employer has a recognition program called the President's Club and when someone reaches that level they get a free trip to an unnamed location. Well Matt achieved the President's Club status and got the trip!! This time it was to beautiful Maui, Hawaii. We were stoked!! What an awesome surprise! We had a blast and we were even more excited about the location because our great friend Timara lives in Honolulu so she was able to visit us for a few days as well!

So not only did we get this incredible vacation for free but we stayed the the Four Seasons..... it was sooooo luxurious! This is the Serenity Pool that overlooks the beach and mountains.

Getting ready to go snorkeling!

beautiful sunsets

one of the pools at the resort

Matt with his coworker Rob

Awesome Luau!

Timara!!

We spent a day in Lahaina and did a little shopping...

This is the popular Banyan Tree...it sprawls about 1 or two blocks along the Lahaina coast

Timara and her boyfriend Nate, aren't they a cute couple? :)

And lastly this is part of a huuuuge lava field we visited on the last day... it was very impressive. This would be a blow hole in which the ocean water shoots through and looks like a whales blow hole.

It was such an amazing trip and I'm so thankful to my husband for doing such an amazing job so that we could enjoy this amazing vacation!! AND thanks to our family for taking care of Owen while we were gone... we obviously couldn't have done it without them!!

Birthday time!

2011-04-06T11:33:00.001-04:00

I don't think I've been this excited for a birthday in a loooooong time. I know Owen has no clue what a birthday even is but I still wanted to make sure it was a fun and special one. On Friday April 1st (his actual birthday) we spent the day as a family and had so much fun! I fed Owen his usual oatmeal for breakfast then he opened the presents we got him. He LOVED them!! I was so happy he had such a great time opening them and playing with them!

Here's the birthday boy sitting down for breakfast.... little does he know the fun he's about the have... ;)

It's present time!!!

Loves the first present! Fridge Phonics!

Next up, a choo choo train!

So cute... he also loves to just push it around the house. After playing with his new toys for a bit the birthday boy was getting sleepy so we put him down for a nap and started preparing for the party! Once Owen woke up we decided it was such a beautiful day outside so let's go to the zoo! It was PERFECT too. Not too crowded and not too cold. Owen had a blast, he loved the wolf exhibit because they were 'doggies' or 'ga-gees' as he calls them, and the polar bear exhibit is always a blast, and and the petting zoo was a hit as well!

We had the best day!! Saturday was Owen's birthday party and it was such a blast. So many people came to celebrate the little guy I was truly touched by how many people love and care for this little guy! So without further ado, here's pics of the party!

Such a fun birthday! I hope to hold on to these memories forever..... :)

this little guy

2011-03-30T10:55:00.000-04:00

is turning one on Friday...

It feels like yesterday that I was holding him in the hospital like this.

Spring is coming!

2011-02-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and this morning Owen and I had a wonderful time playing at the park. It was a little chilly at first but soon warmed up to well in the 60's! I can't wait to be able to take this little guy to the park, zoo, swimming, hammock...anything outdoors. He LOVES being outside if you can't tell. :)

eating a little icy snow...

Yesterday afternoon we were hanging out on the back deck and I was getting the dogs ready to come inside by wiping their paws (the ground is soo muddy right now, yuck). Anyway Owen was entertained by a set of pots in the corner of the deck and when I went to get him he had dirt all over the inside and outside of his mouth! ewwwww, didn't even phase him. He was ticked when I wiped him up and made him come inside. Apparently he really wanted a mud sandwich!

the dreaded one

2011-02-09T21:35:00.004-05:00

I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to do about Owen's 1st birthday party. First of all, ONE YEAR OLD. Hold the door people I can't believe he's going to be ONE! OMG. It breaks my heart just to think about it. Tonight we were having a little quiet time before bed... I was attempting to read him some books (he really does not like to sit still for books) and I was trying to cherish every moment by cuddling with him (I could get away with it because he was super sleepy) and kissing the back of his next and lastly having a little snack before bedtime. He can be sooo sweet when he's tired. :)

Ok, so Owen's birthday party is coming up and we're having a party for him, of course, but the trouble is who do we invite. Our family is wonderfully huge and for the most part a lot of them are local. So JUST family would be 26 people (not counting kids). We would like to invite some friends to his party as well but where do you draw the line?? I mean 26 people is a lot in itself! Of course I don't anticipate everyone coming but still I want to invite like 10 more friends (or more??) on top of that! I know, such troubles right? It's a big deal turning one and I just want all of our close friends to be there to celebrate. To be continued...

I'm also on the hunt to find things to do during the day. Today was a new day, we went to 'Babytime' at the library. It was so freaking cute. There were a ton of kids there, and basically everyone just sat down in the room and sang songs together. How funny is that? So simple yet Owen was mesmerized for an entire 1/2 hour. He just sat on my lap as we sang and I made his arms move around with whatever the song was that we were signing. Then it was over. There really should be more indoor play rooms available so there's something to do in the winter. Seriously it's FRIGID outside and so very little to do (that doesn't require money) and what does every other stay at home mom do???? I need ideas!!

uh oh...

2011-02-08T07:24:00.002-05:00

Things are about to get a lot crazier in the Rings house...

Happy 2011

2011-01-27T13:48:00.001-05:00

It's very hard to blog after being MIA for so long... where do I start? What do I say? I think it's best to start small so on that note...
Owen is enrolled in swimming lessons and absolutely LOVES it. The boy is a fish. He get so excited when we reach the parking lot of the rec center. It's so cute to see his little face light up when we recognizes where we are! Sadly there are only 6 weeks of lessons (once a week) so it's going by quickly (already 3 weeks have passed). Every time we we do the same thing. Gather in a circle, sing three songs, then separate and have the babies kick and splash and just enjoy the water. It's really simple and only lasts about half an hour but it's something that Owen and I both look forward to and I'm so thankful we have the rec center to go to whenever we want! This pool has been a God send for us! It gives us something to do as a family and get a little exercise. That's pretty hard to do when it's freezing cold outside! Anyway, so Owen and I go swimming a lot... we went today actually. :)

I can't believe Owen turns one in just a few short months. Seriously?? I feel like he was JUST born yesterday. He is literally all over the place these days... crawling, standing, pulling, climbing, he is thisclose to taking a step. Why is it so hard to watch your child grow up? It's just happening so fast. I have a whole new admiration for full-time working mothers. I'm so thankful I get to stay home with Owen and work from home as well! I'm so lucky... in many ways, and definitely don't take it for granted either!

Well I think that's a good start for now. :) Hello 2011... let's all just enjoy ourselves shall we?

Click, Click, Flash!

2010-08-27T15:52:00.000-04:00

Check out the link on the right to see our recent family photo session! :)

update anyone?

2010-07-10T22:17:00.001-04:00

Good Lord there's a lot to update. Well first of all Owen is THREE MONTHS OLD now. I know I don't need to say it but time is flying way too fast. My little boy is growing up! He's huge too... I haven't weighed him in a couple of weeks but I'm guessing he's about 17lbs now. Isn't that crazy?! I just want to kiss him and cuddle with him all the time. It never gets old. He is just too precious! So some major milestone updates on the little man:

-He loves 'tummy time,' which is awesome!

-He slobbers like crazy

-He chews on his fists constantly

-We believe he has a tooth poking through already... one of his k9 teeth. I think that's what you call them?

-He kicks his legs and swings his arms all the time! He's an active little guy!

-He LOVES the swing.

-He also loves to be outside. This is another good calming agent for him. If I walk outside while he is upset he immediately quiets down. It's amazing!

-He loves our new hammock.... again with the swinging and being outside!

-He loves baths!

-He loves Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. no joke! One day he was fussy and couldn't be easily consoled so I came upstairs and popped on some Human Nature by Michael Jackson and he was instantly quiet! He has good taste. :)

-He's only slept through the night twice. He gets up sometime between 2 and 4, then again between 5 and 6, depending on the first time he woke up.

-He loves to go for a walk

-He smiles A LOT :)

-He's sleeping right now and I honestly miss him...

I just can't talk enough about him. He's an absolute joy to be around and I'm so thankful to be his mama.

I recently went back to work, thankfully only part-time. It's bittersweet really. On one hand it's nice to be challenged and needed for my brain but on the other hand I miss my baby and I want to be there when he's upset or happy or being silly or just sleeping. I want to teach him new things everyday and I want to be the first face he sees when he wakes up. I know I'm only gone from him for a short time while I'm at work but I just can't help but wonder... is it really worth it? I worry daily about my decision to go back to work. Not only that but we only have a babysitter through the end of August then I need to find a replacement. Matt's cousin is watching him now and when she goes back to school I have no idea what we'll do. It's so incredibly hard to call a complete stranger and ask them to potentially watch your child while you're at work. I feel awful about it. It honestly makes me sick with worry and the decision just tears at me. Ugh, what to do!!!!

It's amazing how much a child flips your entire world upside down. In a good way of course. I don't know what I would do without him, I don't know what I would do without my husband either. He is a huge help and I'm so grateful for that.

So life is great overall, we're doing just fine, and hopefully I'll be a little better about updating this thing... we'll see. :) Until next time, here's some pics of my little man.

my sweet baby...

2010-05-10T15:47:00.001-04:00

Obviously this is SO INCREDIBLY OVERDUE... and to look back now and document the events of my sweet baby Owen's birth seems very important but would take way too much time than I have. So like you don't know already, our baby boy Owen Matthew was born April 1st at 11:10am weighing 7lbs 13ozs and it was the most awesome experience ever. I absolutely LOVE being a Mom and can't believe I have this sweet baby to call my own. I love him more than anything.

so cute!!

When we left the hospital Owen weighed 7lbs 9ozs, he now weighs 11lbs 11ozs! The boy loves to eat!! He now no longer fits into his newborn clothes, which is sad that my baby is growing so incredibly fast and that soon I'll have to go back to work and won't be able to be with him all day everyday anymore. (at least it's only part time!! and it was totally my choice by the way) We'll see if I can stand to be away from the little man. :)

Other than him growing like a weed he is doing everything a newborn should be doing... eating, pooping, sleeping, being absolutely adorable, melting our hearts, wrapping us around his little fingers, making us proud to be called his parents. :)

I'm so in love. :)

What do you think???

2010-03-25T09:31:00.001-04:00

I'm just interested to know what everyone thinks. :) So I created a poll! (check it out in the right corner)

Do you think we'll have a boy or girl??? Hopefully in about a week we'll finally find out!

38 weeks... c'mon baby!

Thankful

2010-03-22T08:55:00.000-04:00

As my pregnancy is coming close to it's final days (11 days and counting!!) I can't help but think about I lucky I am. I think about the journey we took to get where we are today... all of the fertility treatments, heartache, stress, hope, fear, amazement... and then I remember where we are today. In just a few short days we will have a baby. A little tiny human being who will be ours to keep. The joy is so emotional and overwhelming. At a few points in my life I never thought that would happen. It seemed unreachable and foreign.

I'll never forget the day I found out I was pregnant. It was a Sunday morning and I couldn't sleep because I was too anxious and nervous. Once I took the test my heart skipped a beat. Was this for real? It was like I was dreaming. I was shaking with excitement, hesitation, precaution, joy.... awe. The past nine months have flown by but I feel like I remember each month so clearly and destinctly. (which is amazing because I can't seem to remember which side the gas tank is on for my car! haha!) Of course with your first pregnancy you do tend to document everything.

I guess the reason I am thinking about these things is because I see my close friends going through the same battle I went through when trying to conceive. I see the hesitation and hope in their faces when they've just completed a treatment... trying to stay positive but don't want to get their hopes up for fear of another disappointment. I feel for them so strongly I can't help but hold back the tears. I want this for them so badly it hurts. I can't do anything to help them but I hope they know that I felt the same way, and I'm living proof that it can happen and sometimes you just need the right tools in order for it to work.

Fertility is an amazing and unpredictable science. Hopefully some day in the future couple's will not have to go through the pain of wanting a child so badly only to have hurt and disappointment every month that it hasn't happened for them. Just don't give up...

tick tock, tick tock

2010-03-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

I am so tired these days. I'm having a really hard time focusing on work when all I want so badly is for this baby to arrive. I know, I should enjoy this time while I have it because once this baby comes the silence will be gone forever! I had my 36 week doctor appointment yesterday. No progress has been made as of yet... meaning I'm not dilated. The baby's heartrate was 155. He or she has definitely dropped at least a little bit which is so very nice because I'm able to breathe a little easier! :)

Over the past couple of weeks I've been so lucky to have had two baby showers! One thrown by some very dear friends of mine and another was a dual shower at work with my friend Meredith who is due a week before me. How lucky we are! Here are a few pictures from the first shower on 2/28.

This is my friend Michelle, she made the cute tiered cake with the little pregnant lady on the top!! It was so delicious too. She is so stinkin' talented... love this girl!

Everyone was encouraged to decorate a onesie. Oh my gosh they are priceless!! It was such a great idea and it will be a wonderful memory from the shower each time the baby wears one. How sweet! :)

Ah yes, the belly string game... let's guess how big you are! This is Ellie, my cousin's daughter, trying her string on for size. She did a good job guessing!

My wonderful friend Valerie made a cute-as-can-be diaper cake! We will definitely be using those here soon! Thanks Val, you're the best! :)

And last but not least, are the amazing party planners! I know these girls put a lot of work into making it a beautiful shower and I can't thank them enough!! I am so incredibly lucky to have such great/amazing/sweet friends!!! :)

What's in a name?

2010-03-05T09:05:00.028-05:00

Matt and I are having the hardest time picking baby names. We just can't seem to find one we both love. AND it's so much harder to have to pick one boy name and one girl name... it would be so much easier if we knew the gender! Oh well too late now! I just have to laugh because we're so indecisive.... here's an email chain we've been working on for oh, about 5 days now...

Me:
Do you like??
Boys:
Alec
Benson

Girls:
Juliana (I think I mentioned before but can’t remember what you said about it)
Brenna
Calista
Eden

Matt:
I like Alex better than Alec, but I'm sure that is off the table because of Mr. Stoermer (FYI-a friend of ours)

I like Bennett better than Benson.
I do like Juliana... what do you think about Julia?
Of the last 3, I like Eden the best.
What do you think of Caelyn?

Me:
Well I thought I would suggest Alec BECAUSE you like Alex.
I like Juliana better than Julia.
I like Caelyn.

Matt:
What about Dillon or Vanessa?

Me:
Not really a fan of either. For girls, I don’t really like names that end in –issa or –essa, that’s why I don’t like Alyssa either (sorry no offense to anyone!!).

Matt:
Do you like:
Hannah
Pheobe

I'm liking Owen more and more...
I really like this website: http://www.nymbler.com/
Try it out!

Me:
That website it not helping. It keeps showing me the same names over again even though I have blocked them!

Matt:
It works awesome for me...found a few more names to try on for size:
Girls
Elise
Avery
Hope
Clara
Olivia

Boys
Vaughn
Graham
Grant
Caedyn
Quinn

Me:
Oh my God I'm going to smack you... I asked you about Elise a long time ago and you didn't like it!

Matt:
We've discussed a million names at this point! You also loved Bennett and have since changed your mind. Do you like any of the other ones?

Me:
I still like Bennett... I just want to give our child his own name and feel like Bennett is maybe a little too close to Benjamin. I'm on the fence.

And no, I'm sorry I don't like the other names.

Matt:
What about Owen?

This is just hilarious to me! This doesn't include all of the countless conversations we've had about names up until now... Who knew picking a name for your child could be so hard!! haha! It's all in good fun though and hopefully we'll be able to agree on something soon! :)

much ado about baby

2010-02-23T22:15:00.006-05:00

It's about time I update this thing! So here goes... We never did get the 3D ultrasound. Due to the atrocious Ohio weather the office called and cancelled the appointment just 2 short hours before we were due to arrive. Matt and I were SOOOOOO bummed, to say the least. :( The office said they could reschedule us for late February/early March. whaaaa?? Oh I was mad. But what are you going to do? At this point the baby will be here in less than 6 weeks anyway so we'll just save the money and see our little babe then.

We're having a blast putting the nursery together. It looks wonderful! Here's a little preview so far...

It's exactly what I imagined! Is it weird to be in love with a room?? Well then I'm guilty because I loooooooove it! It's so calming and beautiful. :)

This past weekend my step-mom Angie threw me a baby shower for my Dad's side of the family. It was kind of a couple's shower. The guys were invited to come and participate in a poker tournament as long as they brought a package of diapers. We are definitely good on diapers for a LONG TIME! Well until the baby reaches about 15 pounds... which might not last as long as we think. Anyway, while the guys did that the girls did the baby shower thing. It was so much fun! We got SO MUCH wonderful stuff. More importantly stuff we need! :) Of course we need absolutely everything so it was all appreciated! We are so thankful!

My parents are HUGE Harley fans so this little onesie was quite appropriate. :) It says

From Cradle to Chrome

My cousins Kylie and Kenlea

My cousin Kenlea is due exactly one week after me!

My wonderful parents!

I have another shower this weekend with my Mom and Matt's side of the family. Then we should be all set for baby! I've also been working on a few projects of my own. I've been 'trying' to make baby bibs... 'trying' being the key word here! Here's a few that I've done.... I've actually made all of them by now I just haven't taken a new picture. They are quite cute if I do say so myself but I'm just not sure how they'll hold up. The thing is my sewing machine only sews in zigzag mode so it's a little tricky to make the stitching look pretty as well as make sure the fabric stays put. If they fall apart, oh well! I've really wnjoyed making them and they were made with love so that makes them even cuter, right?! :)

and here's few random cute pictures... Matt putting together the pack n' play. Good job babe!

and how funny is this picture of Cricket?! haha! Someone's going to be a little jealous when the baby gets here!

Time Goes By...

2010-01-06T13:00:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe that it's 2010 already. Every year seems to fly by faster and faster. I'm sure it gets worse the older you get. I am so so ready for this year though. There are SO many wonderful things to look forward to!

So to start off... things are going great with the baby and my pregnancy in general has been smooth sailing. Thankfully I didn't gain a crazy amount of weight during the holidays (like I thought I would!). My weakness these past few months have been buckeyes. Oh those sweet delicious rounds of peanut butter dipped in chocolate... I just couldn't resist them... and I didn't. Thankfully they are completely gone from our house so they won't be tempting me anymore. Otherwise the baby's heartbeat has been pretty steady at 145. I'm starting to see my doctor every two weeks now which means I'm in my final trimester! (or will be at the end of this week) How exciting! I've been feeling a ton of movement from the babe in the last couple of months. He or she is very fond of my ribs. I haven't noticed a pattern as far as when I feel the most activity... whether it's day or night, but I do cherish every movement. I love it! I feel as though if the baby is moving then it must be doing ok in there. It still absolutely amazes me how far we've come and that this is actually happening to us! We've slowly been preparing the nursery... it seems like it's taking forever. People ask all the time if the room is ready or what kind of things we've bought so far and so far, nothing. In which I get a super surprised face saying -Really?! You better get going! Nope, we don't have the furniture yet, nope, I haven't bought a single thing for the baby... wow this baby is coming in roughly 3 months, maybe I should get busy?! We've finally registered though, does that count?? I guess I haven't quite hit the 'nesting' period yet because otherwise I'd probably be going crazy stressing about it. Anyway, without further ado here is the most recent belly shot at 27 weeks. It's getting huge!!

We have also decided to get a 3D ultrasound which I am SOOOO excited about! Our last time seeing the baby before it's born... it's going to be amazing. :) I'll be sure to post pictures!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Here's to a wonderful, exciting, and happy 2010!

Babymoon! :)

2009-12-26T16:52:00.035-05:00

Can I first just say if you've never taken a cruise in your life you are missing out. I LOVE to go on cruises, you get to see soooo much without having to worry about how you're going to get there and what you're going to do. It's definitely an awesome way to travel. So this last cruise that Matt and I went on was no exception. We had such a wonderful time together and it was so incredibly relaxing and fun! We met some great people, saw some beautiful beaches, ate delicious food, did a little shopping, enjoyed some wonderful entertainment on the boat, got a little sun on our pale white skin, and just had the best time. :) And then to top it all off how lucky are we that we were departing from Tampa Florida and my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin live in Cape Coral, which is about 2 hours away. So we flew into Tampa a day early and got to spend the night with them then they dropped us off at the ship the next day. It was SO great to see them. Thanks Cindy, Rick and Nate!! :)

Our first stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We visited this beautiful fort called Castillo San Felipe Del Morro and took a ton of pictures... it was really beautiful!

The boat! Grandeur of the Seas - Royal Caribbean

Next up was St. Maarten where we took a little tour of the island (did you know that one half of it is Dutch and the other have is French??), did some shopping, then went to the beach. This is also where we discovered these AWESOME coconut smoothies (which we are holding)... OMG they were delicious!!

Next up, St. Kitts-Basseterre! We took a fun scenic train ride through the countryside and got to see almost the entire island. (it's a VERY tiny island... only about 80,000 people live there)

did I mention it was an open train ride?? So awesome! (loving the windblown hair!)

black sand beach...

It actually started to rain really hard while on the train ride but only last about 5 minutes (still managing to get us pretty wet though) Everyone on the second level of the train fled to the bottom where it was enclosed but we decided to tough it out. So I think that's why we're laughing here?? :)

Our third stop was in St. John, Antigua where we went sailing on a catamaran, enjoyed some snorkeling, and soaked up the sun at 2 of their 365 beaches.

...and finally our last stop was in Tortola, British Virgin Islands where we took a crazy 90 degree drive to get to a beach on the other side of the island! (no kidding! It was a little scary!)

When you go on a cruise you have a set table that you eat at every night so obviously on a 10 day cruise you get to know the people pretty well. We had a really great group of people sitting at our table. It's so fun to meet new people on cruises.... hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch with some of them throughout the upcoming years. Here's a group picture with our wonderful waiter Lee in the middle. :)

Thank you to my wonderful husband for planning this vacation for us. I love you babe!!!

Goodbye Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T13:14:00.006-05:00

Oh my Gosh I'm so glad Thanksgiving is over so I can STOP eating so much food!! I think I outdid myself this year. We had a total of 4 Thanksgiving's to attend to this year. That's just crazy in itself I think. And oh yes, I proceeded to have two helpings of food at each location... well scratch that I only had dessert at Matt's Aunt's house, BUT STILL! And the whole 'eating for two' deal... no that does not count. I don't think people realize I'm going to have to step on a scale the next time I go to my doctor's and she's going to say... looks like someone enjoyed the holiday's a little TOO much! It's really no fun that my pants don't fit in the first place but now, it's just really a loss cause to even try and zip them up. It was quite amusing though to have my Dad try and push his belly out to try and match mine. And look at that, I don't even have to try. :) It was also VERY amusing when I made myself a turkey sandwich last night for dinner and Matt was just astounded that I had any room left because we had just had a huge Thanksgiving lunch with family at around 2:30. Oh yes, I aim to impress. :) So yeah, I am very glad to have said hello and goodbye to Thanksgiving this year.

Now I MUST be good and workout every day this week before we leave for vacation on Sunday!!! Have I mentioned that yet? Matt and I are going on a 10 day cruise to the Caribbean! This is our 'Babymoon'... soaking up the sun, relaxing and of course, eating lots I'm sure. I can't wait but I'm also a little teensy bit nervous. I'm not technically supposed to be on the boat after I enter the 24th week of pregnancy. Well I'll be 24 weeks right smack in the middle of the cruise. I'm hoping no one will ask how far along I am.... maybe they just won't even notice I'm pregnant and just think I ate too much food on Thanksgiving?? I also fear I won't be able to do much... like the activities and excursions they offer. Seriously my lung capacity has gone downhill, and fast. I can no longer breathe through my nose (except on a few rare occasions) so that makes breathing all that much harder. I've now started a new ritual before I go to bed to help me sleep (and hopefully breathe) better. I try not to watch T.V. an hour before I go to bed and focus on reading a book (thank you Lise for that idea :) ). Hopefully this will help relax my mind so I won't lie awake at night thinking about who knows what. I've also borrowed a humidifier from my friend Beth (thank you Beth!) that I've placed on the night table next to me to also help me breathe. It also holds a Vicks vapor release thingy so that there's a cool menthol scent in the air. Aww, so relaxing. Then there's the cup of tea that I also try to drink on a nightly basis.... also relaxing and soothing. Ok have I turned into a complete basket case yet?! Oh and I can't forget the extra pillow I have to put between my legs otherwise I wake up with excruciating back pain. So I wonder how I'm going to be able to keep up that ritual while we're on our cruise.... hmmmm.

Pop!

2009-11-18T20:40:00.007-05:00

Wow time has flown, I've thought about posting about so many things these past few weeks but never got around to it. Unfortunately I only feel like doing the minimum!

This week I had the big 20 week ultrasound. What an awesome, amazing, surreal, experience. I never wanted it to end. At the first ultrasound way back around 7 weeks when I first heard the baby's heartbeat I immediately signed up on a few websites to get weekly update emails that tell you the baby's growth, development, all that fun stuff. The day I hit 20 week I got the standard email telling me the baby is around the length of a medium size banana and will weigh about 10 1/2oz. So imagine my surprise when the sonographer tells me the baby weighs 13oz!! Holy crap! This is going to be a big baby! I was also surprised to learn the heartbeat had changed drastically from my last doctor's appointment. It was at 147... interesting. All is well though and the baby looks good! Here's a good look at the little guy or girl. :)

I know it's hard to see but you get the idea! The second picture are of his/her tiny feet!

and here's the belly shot.

Have I mentioned that I CAN'T WAIT for April!?!

Welcome baby Max!

2009-10-27T18:35:00.013-04:00

We have a new baby in the Rings family!!! Meet Max Benjamin, isn't he the cutest little thing?!

One proud papa!

He found his thumb already! :)

He weighed a whopping 6lbs 15oz! Tanya had just about given up that this baby was ever coming out. Her due date was 10/16 and had to go in to be induced on 10/22 (late at night). Luckily there were no complications and little Max was born at 6:07am on Friday 10/23. I'm bummed we haven't gotten to meet the little guy yet but look forward to a weekend with the family in just over a week. You better believe I'm taking a TON of pictures. :)

I had a doctor's appointment this past Monday for our own little baby Rings. Everything is going great so far. I've been feeling pretty good lately, eating like a horse, still having trouble sleeping and catching my breathe at times but otherwise great! :) Baby's heartbeat is 160. Last time it was at 150... seems to be climbing! I will have my 20 week ultrasound on November 16th. We are so excited to be able to see the baby!! Finally! Normally at that point we would find out if the baby's a boy or girl but sorry to disappoint because we aren't finding out! It's a surprise for everyone! :) Although I have a strong feeling, at this point, that it's going to be a girl. Could be the heartbeat that's leading me to believe that... could be that I feel karma is going to come back and bite me in the butt for being such a rotten hormonal teenager to my parents! Never-the-less we will be happy either way, boy OR girl!

So without further ado, here I am at 17 weeks...

No fat jokes, please! haha, just kiddn':)

Birthday's are fun!

2009-10-21T21:30:00.009-04:00

This past weekend was a great weekend filled with lots of friends and family! Saturday was my best friend Kathy's 30th birthday. I wanted to make it a very memorable birthday so I planned a few surprises for the big day. First off I showed up on her doorstep to sweep her away for a few hours of pampering! Our friends Amanda, Des were in on the secret as well and joined us for manicures and pedicures at the Aveda Institute in Columbus. We had so much fun!!! Who doesn't love getting pampered?! :) So the plan for later that night was that Kathy would think her and her fiance Jonathan were just going to come over to our house for dinner. On the way over Jonathan was planning to stop at a wine shop in Worthington to pick up a bottle of wine to bring over. When they came in the shop, SURPRISE! There was a party of friends waiting for their arrival. She was totally surprised. Yay, my plan worked! What a fun night! :)

I hope you had a wonderful birthday Kathy! Love you! :)

I am sad, however, that we missed the wedding of our dear friend's Jim and Jenn. They planned a destination wedding in Vegas and we were unable to make it... not for lack of want but funds and the baby bug bit us. :) (but I do love that little baby bug) I hope you had wonderful, amazing, gorgeous wedding Mr. and Mrs. Russell!!

Life comes at you fast.

2009-10-12T22:21:00.013-04:00

I had my doctor's appointment last Monday for the breathing thing, she gave me an aerosol treatment at the office and sent me home with an inhaler. Not quite sure what's causing this problem but it could be stress induced. Who knows... maybe it's just physically and emotionally hard for me to just let go at the end of the day and not care if the dishes get done, or if the floor has shoe tracks all over it, or what's the first thing I need to do when I get to work tomorrow. It also doesn't help that my husband yells at me for ACCIDENTALLY breaking the chain on our new ceiling fan in our bedroom. I mean it was an accident, it hangs low, and I ACCIDENTALLY bumped it while ruffling the blanket. It's not unusable and can be fixed... I feel horrible as it is. oopsey!! Anyway, so the inhaler has been helping, but my mind keeping me awake at night is not.

As far as the pregnancy goes, I've been feeling pretty good! I am very happy to report that I have more energy, food no longer makes me sick to my stomach, and I can stay up longer at night. yay! :) Actually my appetite has been out of control... hello baby weight! I have however been experiencing major sinus congestion, apparently this is totally normal. It's amazing what is 'normal' when your pregnant... nose bleeds, sensitive to smells, acne - oh I've got loads of that, insomnia, forgetfulness, etc. I've got it all! :)

...and this is me at 14 weeks.

So I believe Matt and I have decided on a nursery wall color and overall look. I'm so excited! We're going to paint the walls a color called Nightfall. It's a pastel silvery bluish color. Don't worry it's beautiful. :) The instant I saw it I loved it. Then I'd like to add some bright green accents, things like curtains, a lamp, bedding... stuff like that. I also kind of want to do a nature sort-of theme, something simple though. I found this gorgeous wall decal on etsy.com and I'm so happy that Matt likes it too!

LOVE IT. It's the little things that make life fun. :)

Well unfortunately life isn't all paint swatches and awesome wall decals... Matt's car got crunched this past weekend. Thankfully is is A OK but the poor Nissan is not. He got rear-ended which completely took off his back bumper and the trunk hood is totally smashed. The guy behind him was not paying attention and rammed into the back of his car which then caused Matt to lightly tap the car in front of him. I cannot begin to say how incredibly happy I am that he, and everyone, is OK! No one was injured and luckily everyone had insurance. So until the car gets fixed he has a fun little G6 to jet around in.

I feel like I was going to write about something else but I just can't seem to remember! Go figure!! Until next time...

weekend update

2009-10-04T19:57:00.013-04:00

This past week has been a whirlwind. I guess I should start with last weekend... we made a very quick day trip to Pittsburgh to attend my sister in law Tanya's baby shower. It was a very nice party and I'm so glad we got to see Ben and Tanya one last time before the baby is born. She's only two weeks away from her due date.

Of course I had to get a belly shot, who knows if we're ever pregnant again at the same time! So this is me at 13 weeks and Tanya at 37 weeks. She looks so good for being 37 weeks pregnant! I look like I'm just a wannabe. haha. :)

Work has been ca-rrrrrrrrazy busy, but good. Yep, nothing more to be said about that!

Today we attended the wedding of Matt's cousin Dave and his gorgeous bride Christy. It was such a beautiful ceremony and they are such an adorable couple.

Aw, I just love weddings. :) Congratulations Dave and Christy!!! Love you both!

And here is where I tell you more about my problems. :)

So in the midst of all of our busy-ness I've been dealing with some annoying health issues... yeah I have more than just morning sickness! It seems that almost every night I lay down to go to bed I start having problems breathing, can't catch my breath, yawning constantly to get oxygen, taking deep breaths every couple of seconds, my lungs feel so incredibly tight and it makes me panic a little... this usually makes it really hard for me to fall asleep at night... as you can imagine. There have been numerous occasions where I've woken up at 1 and can't go back to sleep until around 4 because of this breathing thing. It's awful. I've had this 'problem' for quite some time now (waaaaaay before I was pregnant so that has nothing to do with it). I've tried to do my own remedies to help take care of this, like drinking tea before bed to try and help me relax, take a nice warm shower, you know things like that. I just can't seem to shake it. Nearly every night it happens, I don't know what causes it. I talked to some other people in the healthcare field and they thought it might be stressed induced which I could totally believe and there for a while I thought that's what it was, my job has been super stressful, I've got a lot on my plate, worried about the pregnancy.... well I'm at the point where I feel like I'm in control of what's going on with my job, and since we've heard the baby's heartbeat I'm feeling better about that stuff but yet I'm still having trouble catching my breath at night. What on earth could it be?! All of a sudden I've developed asthma that only hits me at night??? Ahh, it's so frustrating and exhausting. Well I've finally decided to go see my doctor about it and thankfully my appointment is tomorrow. I can't wait to hopefully get a solution to this!

Ok and that concludes me telling you about my problems. Thanks for listening. :)

Lucky number 13?

2009-09-26T21:41:00.005-04:00

13 weeks. I can't believe I am 13 weeks pregnant. I kind of wish I could've slept through the past 4-5 of them though. You know in my last post how I said I had felt sick but hopefully I was in the clearing? Boy was I WRONG. I'm feel like I have a constant hangover that just won't go away. Oh yes I said hangover, but have I had one single drop of alcohol in any way? NO WAY! But you know what I'm feeling now, right?

The constant feeling like you're going to throw up but your either not quite there or your trying to prevent yourself from getting there. (please don't throw up, please don't throw up...)

Headaches. Constant slap across your forehead headaches.

You can only eat the blandest, driest, most carb filled food out there for fear of getting sick on something else. Oh and are sure you even want to eat something? It might put you over the edge and your stomach might just decide - WRONG! You shouldn't have ate that, NOW YOU MUST PAY.

You just want to sleep, but sleeping isn't so easy because you feel so terrible. Still praying as you lay there, please don't get sick, please stomach, just feel better!

You see where I'm going? Imagine that every night from 5-9 (or whenever I go to bed)... I'm experiencing it right now actually that why I can be so descriptive. :)

Oh please stomach just feel better! I remember when I used to enjoy my food and enjoy trying new things! Now? I'll just take a bowl of cereal or some mashed potatoes, thanks.

Don't get me wrong here, I am SO FREAKING EXCITED AND HAPPY TO BE PREGNANT! But please please God, let me enjoy it. Please let me feel well enough to stay up past 9:30 and please let me have my good days back. And I mean GOOD DAYS..... you know, the days where I used to come home and run 3 miles and feel awesome! Then I'd eat dinner and not regret every single bite I put in my mouth fearing that I might see it again later. Being able to go to bed without taking 4 Tums, 2 Sudafed, and 1 Pepcid.... Oh please please!!

What to expect...

2009-09-11T11:57:00.016-04:00

WE'RE EXPECTING!!!!!!!! That's right, Baby Rings will make his or her debut early April of 2010! We are SOOOOOOO excited!!

I have been waiting to post for a while until we heard the heartbeat, then we wanted to personally tell our family and close friends rather than reading it on a blog. Although who the heck reads this thing anymore anyway!?!?

So those few that know know we have been trying to conceive for almost three years. It was a looong process as well as a huge emotional and physical struggle but the end result is, of course, so rewarding and we are so incredibly thankful to be welcoming a baby into our lives! We couldn't be happier!!

So how am I feeling? What's going on in our lives? Well the first few weeks (and this might be TMI so read on only if you're super interested in details :) ) I was super bloated, uncomfortable and crampy. This was after our last fertility treatment.... so I just felt like something was different. I had never felt that way for so long in my life! Around week 4 I took a pregnancy test (3 to be exact) and viola! The treatment worked (finally!!!!) and we're pregnant!! YAY!!! We quickly told our parents and families because we were just over the moon that this was even happening. Sometimes I still just can't believe it. I called my infertility doctor and they quickly told me to come in and get a blood draw to check my HCG level (the pregnancy hormone) to make sure it was elevating as it should be. Good news is that it was elevating appropriately so that definitely confirmed that I was pregnant. Over the next week and a half I had two more blood draws taken, again, to make sure my HCG level was continuing to rise. Everything was looking great!!! Around 7 weeks we went in for the first ultrasound. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to have an ultrasound at such an early stage. Normally they only do a doppler ultrasound (so you can hear the heartbeat) between 8-12 weeks. The first concern going into the ultrasound was (1) is there a heartbeat and (2) are there more than one heartbeats? This was a concern for us because I had been taking a high dosage of fertility drugs which increased the possibility of multiples. I thought I was going to pass out before I even got to the waiting room.... I was prepping myself just in case of a miscarriage but also what if there was more than one baby in there?! I was a wreck! Ultrasound confirmed there is one baby and one heartbeat. :) It was the most amazing and surreal experience to be able to actually SEE the little tiny baby bud and actually HEAR the heart beating!! AH-MAZING. Tears of joy all around!!!! And here's a picture of our tiny little offspring at 7 weeks! :)

Not too much to see but to us, it's a miracle picture! :)

Over the next few weeks I started to finally feel the 'morning sickness' (and headaches!!)everyone had been warning and asking about, only it lasted pretty much all throughout the day. Thankfully we were in North Carolina on vacation for a week of it so I didn't have to be miserable at work. This past Tuesday was the last time I felt really sick. (knock on wood) Headaches still come and go but I can definitely deal with that!!

I am now in my 10th week and everything is going along wonderfully! I have my first appointment at my regular Ob/Gyn's office on the 21st. I cannot wait until I get to hear that little heartbeat again!

Thank you to everyone for your love and support and I'll keep you posted along the way!!!! :)

gone too soon

2009-06-26T08:53:00.008-04:00

There are certainly other things I could write about but I just feel the need to reminisce.

I am deeply saddened. I feel like I lost a friend. I'm a completely dramatic person so this may seem silly and a little immature and unnecessary (maybe even a tad weird? yes... I can't explain it) but I was in utter shock over the death of Michael Jackson. I think it's death in general that I don't deal well with but for an icon of that magnitude to be ripped from the world so suddenly, I really had a hard time yesterday handling the news! I listened to his music all night, read the stories... couldn't watch the news because it was just too much.

Growing up I would listen to the albums Thriller and Bad ALL THE TIME. Over and over and over to make sure I memorized all of the worlds. I was slightly in love with him, I'm not going to lie. I remember being over at Bobbi's house and she owned the album HIStory. We would listen to it all night and just talk about how much we loved his music. I'm not kidding that's how much we loved him!!

Oh and I loved this movie. :)

Even if you aren't a MJ fan because of some things you've heard in the media or don't agree with some of the details of his life, you have probably at least enjoyed a few of his songs. How could you not? A pop icon and legend.

The 'come back tour' that he was rehearsing for would've been an absolute dream to see. If I were to have seen him in concert I would've totally been one of those girls that would've fainted at just the sight and sound of his voice. Yes, that is how much I loved his music. Even though I may not have listened to him much in the last 5-10 years every time I would happen to hear a song of his on the radio or a random play on itunes, you better believe I would be jammin' and singing at the top of my lungs.

RIP MJ, your music will live forever.

last but not least

2009-06-15T21:13:00.017-04:00

This past weekend was the last of our graduation parties. Saturday my cousin Nate had his high school graduation party. It was SO great to see the family! I really only see my Dad's extended side of the family at major family functions... so it's hard to catch up on life when you only see them every 6 months, so it was wonderful to be able to chat with the cousins and grandparents. Congratulations Nate!!!! Love you!:)

My dear friend Valerie also graduated this past Sunday from Otterbein. That girl has come along way. I am so proud of her and all she has accomplished... AND she's going back to get her MBA. Congratulations girl!! You rock! :)

So in the midst of catching up with my cousins and hearing about all the cute stuff their kids do and how my cousin Kylie is expecting again (with her 4th child!!!! yowza! ) I began to think, what do I have going on, I mean really? I am extremely happy with my life but I guess I'm just needing a challenge... something to push me to do SOMETHING. So I've decided I'm going to run a 10k. It's not HUGE news but it's something I'm looking forward to. I figured I can run 5k's no problem, I run 4- 5 miles average and feel pretty good... why not run 6.2?? Exactly, I'm just going to gear up for it and do it. I'm actually really excited about my little decision. :) haha, I lead such an exciting life!!!! The earliest 10k I can find around here is October (or after) time frame... but there are 4 milers. (kinda weird but whatever) So that's what I'm gonna do! Run a 10k! whohoo!

And now I leave you with some crazy pictures from our fun night at the Park Street Festival this past Friday night... hope you enjoy :)

This would be me, Stacey, Meredith, and Christy

Sweatin' to the Oldies???

kisses!

Meredith looking like a purana (sp??)

Matt's dancing because he wants some 'street meat' as we call it. (i.e. gyros) hahaha!

and last but not least... our entertainment of the night... Stacey & Meredith singing their ghetto fabulous song. Good job girls!

Birthday, Graduation, and other fun stuff

2009-06-08T21:13:00.023-04:00

I was by no means excited for my birthday this year. Alas, it was bound to happen whether I wanted it to or not. I am now a part of the '29 club' (as Kathy calls it). Oh yes, it has happened. 29 and holding! My family and friends were super wonderful to me this year.

My Mom, StepDad, and brother Glen all came over on Monday and we had dinner together. Something we don't do nearly enough. They were too sweet and got me a Camelbak to go with the NEW BIKE Matt got me for my birthday!!! It rides beautifully and I love it... what a gem! :) I definitely plan on using it as much as possible this summer... the bike and the Camelbak!

Tuesday, my birthday, Matt's Mom and StepDad brought me dinner. Matt's Mom made me a really cool wreath made out of wine corks. It turned out really awesome! She is so talented! It's fun to look at and see corks from the places we visited in California...brings back good memories!

Friday evening my dearest best friend Kathy threw together a little party with some friends to come over and celebrate my birthday. We grilled food, drank some wine, relaxed by the fire... it was a great time! I have the best friends... thanks everyone for coming!! :)

Saturday was my brother Glen's high school graduation. Wow, that just sounds so weird! My baby brother is all grown up! He plans to go to OSU Marion in the fall and study to be an xray technician. I'm proud of you Glen and I love you very much!

Glen and his cute little girlfriend Ashley

Sunday went to visit family and celebrate Matt's cousin's engagement! It was our first time meeting Christy and she was super sweet. Too bad I don't have any pictures of the cute couple. But I am super happy and excited for them!! Congratulations Dave and Christy!! :)

After our family luncheon we ventured out to Schiller Park with Jonathan and Kathy to watch The Three Musketeer's. Every weekend in the summer there is a play put on by local actors. Jonathan and Kathy's friend Bill is a lifer at this stuff :) so we just had to see him in action.

(that would be him i.e. Bill on the right)

Kathy enjoying the vino... and the show!

Very fun and we will definitely be going to the other shows later this summer!! If you've never been you must go check it out!

So after that busy week and weekend.... I need a weekend from my weekend!

7 years ago...

2009-05-25T21:26:00.011-04:00

Never new I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you, until the end of time

Come what may
I love you until my dying day

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there's no mountain to high
No river too wide
Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide
But I love you
Until the end of time

Come what may
I will love you until my dying day

..........................................................

Those are the words to our first dance as husband and wife.

On this day 7 years ago I married my soul mate, best friend, love of my life.
On this day my life changed in a wonderful way I could never imagine.

Fun Stuff

2009-05-18T07:57:00.014-04:00

This past weekend was the Race for the Cure . It's one of my favorite event's in Columbus. Every year for the past 8 or so year's I've ran in it and this year was no different. I remember in the first few year's it was held at The Ohio State University campus and there were just a few thousand people to participate and it didn't seem crazy, overly crowded. Now it's held in the downtown and area there were over 45,000 people there!!

Talk about crazy! It's such an inspiration just being there! All of the breast cancer survivors and tons of people running 'in celebration of' and 'in memory of'... definitely pulls at the heart strings. I love doing it and hope to continue for many years to come!

So I'm kind of excited that I just won these shoes from a fellow blogger. There's a cute little blog I follow called When Tara Met Blog. It's so fun! She randomly has these contest give aways every now and then so I put my name in this past time and voila!

I've never owned a pair of Keds so I'm excited to get them. Can't beat free shoes!!!! :)

In other fun news, we're going to be an aunt and uncle again!! Matt's brother Ben and his wife Tanya are having a baby!!! AHHH! So exciting, I can't believe it! She is due October 16th and they're not finding out if it's a boy or a girl. I love surprises! We're so happy for them and can't wait to meet our new little niece or nephew!! Congratulations Ben and Tanya!

cloud 9

2009-05-09T11:49:00.012-04:00

Last night we went to Benny's pizza in Marysville. Not usually something to brag about but they do have the best pizza, ever. But last night was even more special because WNCI and Carolina Liar were there! You may remember me talk about Carolina Liar a few months back because I heard their music on CD101 and instantly loved them. I quickly bought their CD and discovered all of their songs are awesome! So my friend Kathy happened to hear on the radio that they were going to be at Benny's (of all places) on Friday night. Of course I was going to be there!! I talked some other friends into coming along. :) So not only was my favorite band playing but we were right next to the stage and they were playing acoustic. Seriously, could it get any better?! Only two of the band members played and they actually only sang 4 songs (I have no idea why... probably because it was a free show) but I didn't care. Thankfully Nikki brought her camera and I was able to snap a few pic's up close.

Hopefully Nikki will hook me up with the rest of her pictures :)

After they got off stage I was just too pumped not to meet my favorite band. When will I ever get a chance to do this again?! So I quickly got the nerve to go over to them and say hi and tell them that I LOVE their music and I'm such a big fan. I asked for a picture and got one taken with the guitarist... I don't have that one yet but like I said, hopefully soon! So fast forward, the band is still hanging out and I really want a picture with both of them but feel silly asking for yet another picture. So Mike, Nikki's husband, walks over and just asks if they would take another picture....

Seriously, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much!

They were SO incredibly nice!!!! I'm on cloud 9!

I know I know, I'm totally geekin' but it made my week!!! :) SO SO much fun and I'm so glad we went!!!! If you don't know who they are go out and buy Carolina Liar's CD! It's so awesome! What a great great night!!!!

Shout it out loud!

2009-05-03T16:58:00.004-04:00

Oh and It's also my wonderful husband's birthday today!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!!

I love you!!

It's Britney...

2009-05-03T16:26:00.017-04:00

Call me crazy but I love Britney Spears! So you can imagine how excited I was to go to her concert on Thursday night. Oh my God it was AWESOME! Myself, along with some of my other fanatic girlfriends, got together before the concert to make special 'Britney' shirts... just to show our true Britney spirit. haha. They turned out awesome!

So the concert was an absolute blast. Our seats ROCKED. The Pussycat Dolls opened and they did a phenomenal job! Those girls can sing!

During the intermission before Britney came on stage they had a ton of circus acts... basically going of her latest album theme - Circus. It was pretty freaking cool, it felt like getting 3 shows in one!

So then finally the moment we'd all been waiting for.... here's Britney!

Me, Meredith, Stacey, and Christy

Tricia and I enjoying the show!

The grand finale!

Now if I could only see Madonna in concert my life would be complete. hehe. :)

Keeneland!

2009-04-20T19:17:00.008-04:00

The weather in Ohio has been less than desirable so I was super excited when we drove down to Kentucky this past weekend and it was sunny skies all the way... just in time for Keeneland! Keeneland is a horse racing track right next to Lexington Kentucky. Matt's cousin Renee has been asking us to go for some time now and we finally decided, what the heck?! We drove down Friday evening and stayed with his aunt Marcha and uncle Tom. I'm glad we went beacuse it was a ton of fun!

Here's a picture from our box seats Renee was able to score for us. They were AWESOME!

-Renee and I-

-Renee and her wonderful friend Kristin-

Watching the horses walk in!

Matt thinks he's a stud... with his eyes closed. ;)

The horses were so beautiful!

Thanks Renee for showing us a fun time at the race track. Can't wait to do it again next year!!

I heart vacations!

2009-04-19T16:43:00.058-04:00

Ok, so here are is the grand post from our California vacation. We had SO much fun!! It all began Friday April 3rd when we flew into San Jose and drove up to San Francisco.

The first big event was Kathy and Jonathan got engaged!! It was so awesome.

We were able to witness the whole thing. Kathy was beyond surprised which made it all the better! So happy engagement to the happy couple! :)

A champagne toast to the couple!

After that we just toured around San Fran... here we are in Ghirardelli Square

Lombard St.

cheesin' it up in downtown San Fran...

Golden Gate!

On to Wine tasting in Sonoma and Napa! Our first stop was a vineyard called Viansa, it was very yummy. The problem with wine country is that there are SO MANY great wines to choose from it's hard to pick ones you want to buy! Of course on the list was Del Dotto... he had to do the wine cave tour. (one of our personal fav's that we had to introduce Jonathan and Kathy to) It was a lot of fun and of course the wine was delicious. Here's a picture inside the cave:

a picture of us all in front of the cave...

This is at a sparkling wine vineyard called Mumm Napa. We took a tour of how they make their sparkling wine and also got to taste some wonderful varieties.

Next up! On to our resort in Angel's Camp where we stayed from Sunday night to Friday. We took a day to hiking in Yosemite and here are some pics from that. It was so much fun!!

The view was amazing!

This is lower Yosemite Falls

El Capitan= beautiful!

This is called the "Three Brothers"

Bridalveil Falls:

The day was truly amazing, we hiked almost ten miles and the weather was awesome the entire time! We were so incredibly lucky we were almost to our car when a huge snow storm hit.

and this was our drive home...

thankfully we made it home with no trouble!

We also did a Gold Cave Mine tour but those pictures are on a disposable camera which I have yet to develop... so here's pictures of the day we went to Big Trees State Park. This park was so much fun, we learned a TON about the Sequoia's and Redwoods... and of course got a ton of great pics...

as you can see we totally did not wear the right hiking apparel.... hahaha.

after that we deserved some more wine tasting... :)

More pictures to post soon of our cave tour... I hope they turned out!

Way to go!

2009-03-15T21:18:00.018-04:00

My little brother Glen achieved his Eagle Scout! I couldn't be more proud of him for sticking through it. So many people came to see this exciting honor take place and it honestly brought tears to my eyes. It's amazing how few people come to accomplish this huge task of achieving the eagle scout. What an extradinary award! Here are some pictures from the event.

My great uncle Paul gave a speech... it was very touching and I learned alot about his childhood. What a great man he is!

Congratulations Glen! You deserve a huge pat on the back for a job well done. :) I love you bro!

2009-03-05T18:32:00.001-05:00

I have been seriously lagging in the blogging world lately. Truth is, I feel like I don't have anything to talk about! Nothing really exciting has happened in the past few weeks to cause me to blog. Well I guess nothing's really happened in the past that's been that exciting anyway but I still managed to blog about it. So nothing new to report.

I guess I can say that my job is super busy. I had to work from 8 until midnight on Tuesday because of a system upgrade. That was the longest day ever. Someone asked me about something that happened that morning and I thought it happened the day before. Then I had to turn around and get to work by 7am the next day. People do it all the time so I'm not complaining. Honestly I feel like so much time is spent at work all I can think about are work experiences. So today we were having a meeting with a group I am in and one person asked how long is that going to take? (basically you're just getting the short version of the conversation) Well the person answering, this is a woman, said basically it shouldn't take very long because we have four people working on it. Then he, our project lead, said well you can have 9 women in a room but that still doesn't mean it only takes 1 month to have a baby! HAHAHAHA! I loved it. Everyone laughed out loud on that one... hopefully you did too or did you just have to be there?

So at least I really enjoy my job and I am very thankful for that. I'm thankful I even have a job for that matter. I get to travel back to Wisconsin on Sunday for a Training Advisory Council. Oh so exciting! I'm going by myself this time though so that'll be different. I do have some great girls to go out with while I'm there though so I'm sure that will be fun. It's kind of funny I've been to Madison, I think this will be my fourth time?? Yet I haven't really seen much of the city. I think it's smaller than Columbus, although I could be completely wrong. Anyway I'll be gone for 4 days. I'm definitely not looking forward to being away from Matt. He's been traveling SO MUCH lately. I really miss him.

Personal life is good, I can't complain! Like I said Matt has unfortunately been traveling a lot lately but I manage to occupy myself. I've got my pooches and great friends to keep me company. :) We're planning a trip to California here in less than a month. I'm super excited about it. We're going with a fabulous couple, Kathy and Jonathan. Luckily we were able to find super affordable flights and a free place to stay for most of the time we're out there! How great is that?! We plan to check out San Fran, they've never been, as well as a little bit of Napa, as well as Lodi. We're also going to take a cave tour, which I am SUPER excited about! We're going to be about 2.5 hours from Yosemite as well so we planning to go hiking a day or two. Overall I feel it's going to be a fun, relaxing, yet entertaining trip. I'm sure I'll take LOTS of pictures and I definitely plan on sharing them!

So that's it for now! until next time....

Everything happens for a reason?

2009-02-05T08:38:00.000-05:00

You know the saying "Everything happens for a reason"...do you really believe that is true? Are we just along for the ride and everything else is planned out for us or do we actually have control over everything that we do?

I can't help but wonder what would've happened if I would've actually gone to California for school to achieve my goal in the fashion industry, would Matt and I be together today? Or what if he would've taken the job in Boston, would we be living in Ohio again or make Boston our permanent home? All of these things play out to make us who we are today so what's to say we are in complete control of everything that is going on in our lives.

When I was growing up I had plans and certain things I expected to happen in my life. First I wanted to work in the fashion industry and move to California to attend school. Shortly before moving (I actually had everything planned) I chickened out. I felt like I would lose myself out there and the thought of being alone thousands of miles away from my friends and family, I just couldn't do it. So life continues, I then change courses, work full time and go to school part time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I was an 'undecided' major for the longest time. Matt and I moved to Texas for his job (only a year) then when we moved back to Ohio I felt a passion to go into nursing. I took all of the pre-requisites to get into nursing school and felt I was on the right track. Little did I know I would never pass the entry test that would get me into nursing school. I searched for other schools to attend only to be put on a 2 year waiting list. I decided I needed to have some sort of degree to my name so I just went with an associates degree. Nothing special. I just desperately wanted to be done with school.

Here I am today. I do work at a children's hospital but I am not a nurse. In computer systems actually... who would've thought?!

I'll never know what would've happened if I went to California but it also frustrates me to think if everything happens for a reason why do we try so hard to make things happen?

continuing... cautiously...

2009-02-03T15:53:00.000-05:00

I've learned I need to be more conscience of what I say for fear of hurting people's feelings. I never mean to, I just do. I type without speaking it aloud, so that it doesn't sound too harsh, basically. Things that I have blogged about have sometimes appeared more abrupt and harsh than I actually mean. In my head it sounds perfectly fine to me.

So I guess you could say I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm going to be cautious of what I'm saying, and if I've offended you I truly am sorry. I've always thought of myself as a nice person, but recently I've considered otherwise. I may even make this blog private one day in case I change my mind... so if you do read and I would love to know who actually does read this thing, please let me know so I can add you to my email list.