Moving On

I'm going to miss our friends here, in general, but especially those from our church. I don't know if we'll ever be able to find such a neat group of people again. We always enjoy each others company and there is never a lack of or a lull in conversation when we all hang out. We have been going out, in different combinations, to different area restaurants on a pretty consistent basis and I think these moments will be one of the first I remember when I think of PA.

I have a huge bag of summer maternity clothes coming my way and I'm so excited to go through all of the clothing!! What a blessing to not have the added cost of maternity clothes in the midst of everything else that will be demanding our money in the very near future. The girl who I am borrowing them from kind of has my style, too, which is awesome. She'll obviously be wanting them back (actually her mom is the one who took me shopping, she lives out of state), but I figure it's just one more reason to come back here shortly after the baby is born! Our goal is to come back before winter, so I'm thinking early November. We'll see what really happens!

Our realtor sent us 134 houses to look at today. We went through them and sent the list to my parents who know more about the areas in which the houses are located. We have to be careful with the price range we've budgeted for ourselves...some of the houses can be in not-so-nice areas. So hopefully we'll add a few more houses to our Must See list. This realtor is the same one working with my parents/Ryan and Yana and what a nice guy! He really knows his stuff and he's always available to talk to and is really good about following up where others might leave you hanging. I know all of us are happy to have someone like him helping us with such a big purchase!

When I came home on Thursday, D was sporting a beard. He hadn't really been shaving all week since he's home, but on Thursday he had it all trimmed up. He looks good. I don't know how long he'll keep it for...I told him baby might not appreciate it, but I guess it's no worse than the goatee he already has. I just thought it was cute he spent any sort of extra time on the whole process.

I'm getting excited about Ryan and Yana's wedding, so I can only imagine their level of excitement. If you must know the truth, I am excited about all the good food that will be coming my way during the entire process. I've probably already said that Mom and Dad are having the rehearsal dinner at my/my family's favorite Italian restaurnat, Portafino's. Baby is sooo looking forward to that meal. And the Marriott (wedding reception place) will have delicious food, too, I'm sure. It also dawned on me the other day that we'll have to go through the rehearsal, too. I've been in several weddings when I was younger, but this will be the first one, besides my own, that I've been in as an adult. So I think I am a little nervous, but I am paired with D so it'll be like us walking down the aisle all over again. Only this time it'll be the three of us.

This week should be a fun one. D and I are hanging out with friends, separately, on Tuesday night and then we have some fun stuff planned for the weekend. I can't believe it'll be April already. I'm not going to tell my kindergarteners about April Fools, just in case they get any bright ideas. I'll just hold the chicks over their heads to deter any mischief they might think they're going to partake in...and watch them become angels.

Well, D just successfully obtained another star in his quest to beat Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, so maybe I can wrestle the TV away from him for a bit...

To start, my 16 week belly pic:


I've been getting a lot of comments about all of the sudden popping out this week. Yana was here when we read the week 16 entry in our pregnancy book and she didn't like the part about the baby doubling in size in the next month. I still have to fit into her bridesmaid dress - without any adjustments. I did allow some extra room just for this occasion, so all should be well. We hope. Not that I'm really anxious to pop out or even to feel the baby kick because I know both will just intensify throughout the pregnancy and I'm only 4 months along. That's not to say I would be disappointed to feel our baby move by any means, but I would not be upset if he held out a bit longer. Because if he's anything like his father, he will be fiddling and fidgeting at a constant and incessant rate. So the belly is progressing.

I typed up our 60-day notice of moving and D handed it into the apartment's office on Monday. We got our moving-out to-do list from them the next day. Nothing we didn't already know, but it's official - May 31st is our last day in this apartment.

D has been diligently working on all the necessary paperwork for obtaining a mortgage for the house we hope to purchase in the near future. He's only been off a week and he's done so much work. I'm so proud of him. And Mom and Dad already have a few houses lined up for us to see the next time we are in CT. Our major goal is to move in before our baby is born, but it would be great to move from our apartment to our house. We're not really holding out much hope for that, but it's still a possibility! So there's progress on that front, too.

Oh, and D got BOTH of his contracts, one from UCONN and one from Hartford Hospital, in the mail on the same day. He has to sign and return them and then all that will be official. It sounds like he has orientation starting the 23rd of June, he gets three weeks of paid vacation (he'll probably be using one when the baby is born), and he gets free insurance for himself and reduced rates for me and the baby. Talk about a sweet deal! I'm sure there was more he told me, but those are the things that stuck out in my mind.

In case you might have forgotten, the eggs/chicks will be arriving Monday! They are 14 days along and most hatch around day 21. So we will be mother hens for the first week and then playmates the next. Can't wait!

And the Most Progress Prize goes to my sister-in-law Mary who had her baby yesterday around 1pm. Matthew Keith weighed in at 9lbs 5oz (22" long) and all I have to say is that his cousin better not follow suit. D was big, but he was a month late and I don't plan on delivering a month late, and I was average size, so I'm not too worried. Matthew is such a doll face and everyone is doing well. He lives kind of far away so we won't be seeing him in person for sometime. But I'm sure we will be seeing plenty of pictures! Congrats to Josh and Mary!!!!!

We had so much fun visiting with my parents and the almost-newlyweds this weekend. Mom and Yana visited my work just before I was done for the day, so they got to meet some of my kindergaretners. For dinner, we ordered pizza, wings, and antipasto from two of our favorite pizza places. Then we all hopped in the van that they had driven down and headed off to Walmart. For some reason we all enjoy going to Walmart together, or some combination of us. We always manage to get a trip in when any of us are together. But it was fun and Mom found this really nice dress for me that I'll be able to fit into during the summer months...for only $5! Maybe that's why we like Walmart, can't beat the deals. We (as in the girls) dropped the guys off at home and headed down the street to Kmart because we hadn't yet satisfied our shopping impulses. Again, great deals...as in $4 for all of these winter clothes. I got a cute skirt outfit...a skirt without a zipper because baby doesn't like zippers anymore. Anyway, we all watched Enchanted before bed. Well, some of us (me) watched Enchanted while we went to bed. I made it until 11pm without a nap, that has got to be some sort of record.

The next day we leisurely made out way into the city, but we didn't stay too long. We were all starving. But we did manage to stop at Reading Terminal Market for an Amish pretzel. Shortly after that, we went to Famous Dave's to celebrate D's awesome Match Day results. All of us polished off our meals. From eating, we went to the food store...yeah, this would only happen with my father. We picked up dessert and dinner for that evening. The rest of the evening we relaxed and hung out around the apartment.

It was nice spending Easter Sunday with family. I think out of the past three years we've been here, we went home only once for Easter. D sang in the cantata, so he left early to practice. The cantata lasted the entire service, with our pastor only giving a brief (but good!) message. D even had a small speaking part and he did exceptionally well. After church, Dad bought a small ham and he cooked up a delicious Easter dinner. Basically we did a lot of talking and eating this weekend! After some brief napping by all, they left around 3pm. We waved goodbye to our last out-of-town guests, as far as I know, before moving out!

Just a little countdown update...

6 days until eggs/soon-to-be-chicks arrive!!

21 days until we arrive in CT for all the pre-wedding festivities

25 days until Ryan and Yana's wedding

59 days until D graduates

60 days until D's grad party in CT

67 days until we move out of PA

69 days until my last day of work

88 days until Nick and Kristina's wedding

~ 165 days until our little guy/girl makes an appearance

And D is working on the "moving into our new home" countdown during this next month that he has off. We have to find a mortgage company and he’s hot on the trail of that. Then we have to find houses in an area we like within our price range and bid on one and get it and close on it and fix it up and then move in. So we have our work cut out for us, but nothing we can’t handle…especially with all the help we’ll be getting. I’m just soo thankful and excited that D got into awesome residency programs and about moving back near our families. The baby will have so much fun being around everyone…I’m hoping we get to see him/her at least for a little bit each day! Anyway, one thing at a time…and the next thing is chicks. Yay for baby chicks!! I decided that when my kids are old enough we’re going to hatch chicks, too. More for my entertainment, but they’ll have fun too, which is only reason I will wait until they’re old enough! I’ll try and remember to post pictures of the entire process this year. It’s fascinating.

I can't even begin to describe the range of emotions that we went through today. So I won't. We weren't nervous, though, which is odd for me because I tend to get nervous about things like where we're going to be living for at least the next 5 years of our life. And about where we're going to have our baby. But, no, nervous was not something we felt because we knew D had matched and we could live with any of the choices. Oh, you want to know where?

Preliminary Medicine (where he'll be this June to next June): UCONN
Radiology (next four years after the prelim year): Hartford Hospital

Both were his #1 picks in each category, so you can imagine how extreeeeeeeeeeemly excited we are!!!!! Just knowing where our lives are headed is great, and knowing that we will be close to our families so our child(ren) can grow up around them is a double blessing.

I kind of documented our progress throughout the day with the camera. I took the day off from work to go with D to Temple. We took our time getting up, but even before we did, I got two phone calls and a text asking if we had heard anything yet. And before we left around 10am, two more of our friends asked where D had matched. So it was neat that everyone was thinking about it and were excited about seeing where we were going.

We got to Temple around 11am for the festivities. Since we weren't allowed to open "the envelopes" until noon, there were some announcements, a funny DVD made by some of D's classmates (I thought I was back in high school...), and a picture slideshow of the last four years. It was cute and sentimental, but you know everyone was thinking about what was in those envelopes. They split everyone up alphabetically to get their envelopes and then we all gathered together again to open them at exactly noon. There was even a countdown. It only took a minute to read the short letter and then we scrambled for our phones to start calling everyone. I don't even know how many people we called and emailed, but everyone was congratulating us and all were really happy for us.

We stayed for the light refreshments and I did most of the eating while D squeezed his way around the jam-packed room to find out where all of his buddies had matched. Most were happy, we saw a few sad tears, but generally everyone was in good spirits. Once we left Temple, we made our way through the city to Trader Joe's to get D a special dinner for tonight. He picked out Blackened Cajun Salmon and Barley Vegetable soup with bread on the side. It was quite yummy. On the way to Trader Joe's, D got a call from the Radiology department at Hartford Hospital welcoming him to the program (by the way, he's one of five residents who matched there). That was a nice surprise, getting such a call just over an hour after he matched!

Needless to say we were ecstatic the entire day and all of our friends and family made it that much more memorable by being excited for us. As if the day couldn't get any better, it's the first day of Spring, which means it's free water ice at Rita's. We made sure to get ours, even though winds were in the 20mph range and it sure didn't feel like Spring.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing in our special day. It's just the beginning, but it's a great beginning and a journey we're really looking forward to taking. Enjoy the pictures!

Saturday was a baking day for me because D was working one of his last Emergency Medicine shifts from 2-10pm and I didn't feel like going out on errands. I made these Banana Nut muffins (I used pecans instead of walnuts) and I made my Grandma's (dad's mom) famous cinnamon buns. I even called her to make sure I got the recipe exactly right. I took a picture right before I let them rise for the second time and didn't take any of the finished product. Reason being, I put them in the over on Sunday morning and brought most of them to our Sunday School class, to which we were rushing. Sorry, Grandma!


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D and I have been calling each other randomly throughout yesterday and today for no other reason than to remind the other that D has matched! We'll get through that part of the conversation, ask if there was anything else that the other wanted to say, which usually resulted in a negative answer, and then end with a "Bye, I love you." We're such dorks, I know, but I'm soooooo glad we have the opportunity to be dorks because that means David matched!

++++++++++

I got a phone call at work today and it was Mom. She informed me that her, Dad, Ryan, and Yana will all be coming down Friday evening to spend Easter weekend with David and me!!!!! I was totally caught off guard, but glad for the warning because we will need some time to spruce up this place. I knew that her and Dad wanted to visit one last time before we moved, but it didn't look like it was going to work out with both of our schedules. However, I'm really excited at the turn of events and can't to see all four of them on Friday! She was even saying that if she can find a decently-priced hotel in the city, we might all stay overnight and spend Saturday walking around and saying farewell to all that is Philadelphia. Well, she didn't say the farewell part, but that's what we'd all be doing since I doubt we'll be back to the city anytime soon after D's graduation.

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Baby at 15 weeks: "Tiny bones in your fetus's ears are in place this week, making it likely that the baby can hear your voice when you're speaking. In fact, studies have found that babies who are sung to while they're in the womb recognize the same tune when it's sung to them after they are born." This baby hears so many voices throughout the day, I will almost be surprised if he will be able to recognize my voice!

++++++++++

Speaking of baby, last night Mom and Yana wanted an updated belly pic. Specifically, they wanted a belly pic taken on the cell phone. So when D got home, he happily took one and no sooner did we send it then we got an oohing and ahhing return call. That pic, Mom informed me, was now the background on her cell phone so she could show anyone at anytime "in case" it came up in conversation. There's your fair warning, people, do not bring up me, my belly, or our baby in any conversation with my mother!

We were very excited to hear, around noon today, that D has successfully matched... somewhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, some cruel people thought it'd be so much fun to tell med students of their residency match in two parts. First the "if" and then the "where." Days apart from each other. So we found out the if part today, which is yes, and we will find out the where part on Thursday. Congrats to my very smart, very hard-working husband on this first of many accomplishments!! Stay tuned!

Haven't posted one of these in a while. But not because my kids aren't some of the cutest kindergarteners ever:

We were having lunch and the kids were at their table and I was at the other, so of course they were talking and talking and talking and talking. One of the kids turned to ask me a question and another emphatically stated, "You can't interrupt her while she's eating! She has to chew her food good because the baby can't swallow big pieces." I can see the logic there...

Another lunchtime conversation: "I know how babies get out of bellies." My mind started to swirl with all the things that could next come out of her mouth and I was frantically thinking of how to respond when she said, "They just cut your belly open. Right? They have to cut it and pull the baby out." To which I stated, "Umm, yes, that's exactly how [some (I conveniently left this key word out)] babies come out..."

As I was leaving on Friday, one of the girls ran up to me and gave me a big bear hug and said, "When your baby comes out of there [pointing to my belly], I'm going to be its best friend!" I hugged her back and told her she'd be the best best friend he could have and walked out the door with a big smile. See, they are the cutest kindergarteners ever!

I haven't bought a lot of maternity clothes, for obvious reasons, but the nice weather made me think of swimming (I know--big jump. We have one 60 degree day and I'm all about swimming...). Anyway, I figure a bathing suit will be put to very good use this summer and I don't want to be scrambling last minute for one because then I can never find one I like and would be forced to pay top dollar for something I didn't love. Insert eBay shopping here. I went to Target and tried on a few sizes of Liz Lange maternity swimsuits, just to be sure I knew the right size (even though they give measurements online), and then I bid on the below bathing suit. And I won. I really like it. The first picture makes the suit look black, but it's brown with a really cute sequein design on it. The best part: I only paid $13.90 for it, including shipping. They go for about $33 in stores, which I was not about to pay. So, I am now ready for the pool. I was even thinking about joining the Y here for a few months to get some swimming exercise in, but at this point I don't really need relief from a big belly. But then I love to swim, so I'd do it for the fun of it, not the practicality of it (gasp!). We'll see, D said I can and I should. And he is off for a month, well almost 5 weeks, so maybe we could go together. Anyway, that's the story of how I got my being-pregnant-during-the-summer survival gear.

I'll let the following countdowns speak for themselves:

7 days until Match Day

32 days until we arrive in CT for all the pre-wedding festivities

36 days until Ryan and Yana's wedding

70 days until D graduates

71 days until D's grad party in CT (pretty sure about the date...)

78 days until we move out of PA

80 days until my last day of work (I'll most likely be staying a few more days here in PA after the moving truck has left to work one day in June...for insurance purposes. My work pays for insurance until the end of the month in which you stopped working. Yeah, a bit confusing, but worth all the money we'll be saving!)

99 days until Nick and Kristina's wedding

roughly 177 days until our little guy/girl makes an appearance

And hopefully I can add a "moving into our new home" countdown to the list in the near future. We're not holding our breath because we only have about two months to look for a house before we'll need to move into said house and we'll probably get a fixer-upper so it'll need to be fixed before we move in, which is cutting it close. But anything is possible, especially with Mom praying and with her and Dad looking at so many houses already with Ryan and Yana. I also wouldn't mind living with my parents for a few months, save up some money, and put their pool to good use in those very hot summer months with a very pregnant belly! That's where I'd probably be anyway with D having a full-time job and being away all day. Anyway, we hope to be in our own home by year's end, and we'll be working like it all depends upon us and praying like it all depends on God!

**SHORT UPDATE**
We went to our second doctor's appt today and got to hear our baby's heartbeat!!!! The doc said it was in the 150s, which is normal (between 120 and 160 is considered normal). So he's still in there doing his thing and he sounded so...CUTE! So my next appt is after Ryan and Yana's wedding and that is also when I will be getting my prescription for my 20-week ultrasound!
**END OF UPDATE**

We were supposed to go to the doctor last week, as you may remember, but it was moved to this week. And it was moved again to a different doctor an hour earlier because I'm not supposed to see the nurse practitioner until my third visit. They originally wanted to reschedule again to the end of the month until I pointed out that that would almost be two months since my last appointment and if I'm supposed to be going monthly then that wouldn't work so well, would it? So they managed to squeeze me in and D has the day off so he will be able to accompany me to hear our baby's heartbeat. I'll update with any interesting info we might get, but I have been getting some belly pic requests, and with D so faithfully taking them, I am able to oblige:

A friend from church who can only be described as extremely generous and beyond thoughtful took me out on Friday night while D was at the hospital. We went out for a pizza dinner, then hit the stores. Our first stop was Old Navy whose Maternity section was sorely lacking, but I did manage to find a shirt that ended up being my favorite. So we went to the mall to see what Motherhood Maternity had in stock. Before we got there, though, there was another store, Charlotte Russe, we stopped in. It didn't have maternity clothes in it, but the current style almost looks maternity-clothes like so I found an outfit there. Then came Motherhood Maternity and she went wild. I was totally satisfied with the clothing items I already had, but I went home with a big bag full of more clothing.

I felt the least I could do was buy her a coffee, so we went to Starbucks. Very small in comparison, but it was the perfect ending to a busy night.

I'm not sure if you've heard about the change-over the government is doing as far as television waves, but as of 2009 everything will be broadcast in high definition (or HD). This probably doesn't affect too many people because if you have cable it's not a big deal. However, for those of us without cable (don't feel too bad for us, we don't have an $80+ bill a month to worry about! ;), we need something called a digital converter box. And since the government is requiring such a switch, it has subsidized much of the cost. You have to apply online or call a toll free number to receive the $40 coupons in the mail (up to 2 per household) and, as you can imagine, David did just that! The Web site is https://www.dtv2009.gov, in case you're interested.

Well, D had been waiting on the edge of his seat for these coupons to come and of course they didn't come exactly when he thought they would. But they did come while we were away last weekend, so they have been burning a hole in D's pocket all week. We finally went to Walmart on Thursday night and picked up two converter boxes. They were $50 each, so we only had to pay $10 each after we used the coupons. Not a bad deal. Now we get even more channels (6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 10.1, 10.2...) with our antennae and they all come in crystal clear. I'm glad my husband's smart like that. And he's cute. So cute, in fact, that I had to document the setup process because he was just so excited about the whole ordeal:

P.S. Set your clocks AHEAD tonight!

Here is much sought after Chocolate Fudge Recipe:

350g dark cooking chocolate (the person who gave me the recipe is from England, hence the "grams" measurement!) You can also use a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
1 can condensed milk
2 Tbsp butter

Melt all this in a saucepan...SLOWLY or it will burn. (I just kept stirring everything while it melted in the pan.)

Add chopped nuts, if desired.

Pour into a well-greased pan.

Put in fridge until hardened, then cut into small squares (it's very rich).

There ya have. See how easy it is?? If I was really into it, I was going to put one of those message hearts on top of each square, but that would have meant staying up until the fudge was partially hardened and then placing the hearts ever so nicely so I could still cut 1" squares later on. Yay, wasn't feeling that into it!

Ok, I can now reveal the real reason for our visit to CT this weekend!! Mom threw a surprise shower for my brother Ryan's fiancee, Yana. And boy was she surprised! We're talking wearing-Ryan's-sweatpants with no makeup on surprised. I caught her confused reaction on camera, she didn't know what was going on or why all the people were gathered there. She eventually had to ask someone. Anyway, I was in charge of desserts and made a batch of pizzelles and some fudge from a recipe that a friend gave me. Three easy ingredients. D tried it at a recent party we were at and loved it, which is why I made it for the shower. That was Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, Mom and I were on the run, which is nothing unusual. We started with an early morning hair appointment (my new hairstyle is one of my favorites, out of the million I've had, because it's so easy to work with...and it'll be baby-friendly) and stopped for a brief shopping trip at Walmart before heading into Hartford to have lunch with Auntie. We ate at the Marriott's restaurant, Vivo's, so Ryan could join us, but he ended up not being able to. After lunch, went to the mall and to Target and finally home to relax before Ladies Night. Mom and I went over to Rita and Yana's house around 6pm where we met the guy who will be playing the piano at Ryan and Yana's wedding reception. Really nice, really talented guy. I'm sure it'll work out perfectly. We moved on to dinner from there where Rita made these DELICIOUS pierogies with a special topping. Baby liked those. Baby had about 8 of them. And this Greek-type salad she makes. Ok I'll stop there, my mouth is watering and my belly is rumbling. We started the movie, can't even remember which one, but Dad called shortly afterwards to tell us to come home because it had started snowing. Was he right! It was dark and it was snowy, conditions neither Mom nor I like to drive in. It worked out though because when we got home, Mom prepped the house for the shower and I made the fugde. D was out with Ry and his friends, so they didn't come home til much later. They didn't mind driving in the snow so much.

Saturday was the shower, which came with a lot of belly-rubbing and congrats from both my family and Yana's. I'm sure the little guy was probably kicking back in protest, but I couldn't feel him (ha, ha) and he did manage to get a lot of good food in his tummy so I'm sure he wasn't complaining too much. That same night, we went over to D's house for his Mom's birthday dinner. Ari-girl was there and she is too much fun. She was a bit under the weather, but she was cuddly and cute and that's all that counted and we were buddies for most of the night. She's going to love her cousin, s/he'll be a real-live baby doll for her to play with! D's mom requested a very yummy cake combo: strawberry cake mix with chocolate frosting. It was soo good!! I was so tired, I probably wasn't good company. I tried to catch a nap in between the shower and dinner, but that didn't work out too well so I was overtired. Busy weekends are...busy!

When we got there late Thursday night, Mom pulled out the pile of maternity clothes that I knew was accumulating. She got a lot of nice stuff for some really good prices!! I now have jean capris, black shorts, a pair of blue jeans and many, many cute tops. She also bought me a dress for D's graduation that ended up not fitting (or will not end up fitting with a belly), so we returned that and are on the hunt for another. She even got me a maternity white tank top which I'm sure will be my best friend come summer! So a big thank you to her and her willingness to spoil me/us. Actually, I'm just the "carrier of her grandchild," meaning I am no longer of "daughter" status. I continue to tell her she is welcome to the baby any time between the hours of 10pm and 8am. D's mom also got us something for the baby, a progressive utensil set:

Cool, huh? She also got the mommy-to-be, that's me, a book to use during pregnancy. Our mothers are awesome. They are so going to make my job harder as far as not raising a spoiled child!!

On to baby news. My belly really itches. Which is the only sign of baby life I can physically feel. I've been so blessed not to have any morning/all day sickness or any other pregnancy-related uncomfortableness. I truly forget I'm pregnant, which is easy to do at this stage. We were scheduled for our ten-minute doctor appointment today for those routine monthly check-ups, but the office called me twenty mintues before our appointment and said the doctor was called to an emergency C-section. They had said last time when they scheduled me that the dr. wouldn't be on call that day, but I guess something changed! So now I am seeing a nurse practioner next week, same time. Hopefully D can still come because they'll listen for the baby's heartbeat. The doctor D is working with in the ER was nice and let him leave for an hour today, but when he came to pick me up at work and I told him the news, he just turned around and went back. So that's the baby news. Oh, I asked for my test results (from the three viles of blood they took from me last time!) and everything was normal. My blood type is A pos, which is compatable with David's, and my cystic fibrosis test was negative. So baby should be floating around nice and comfy in there!

That's all for now! (Did you notice that D graduates in less than 80 days? And Match Day is two weeks from this Thursday!)