Surprise!!

Yes we are!

Nine weeks along so far- Baby Peanut and I are doing well!


How we (tried to!) tell our community group- it took a little bit to figure out pink and blue, but eventually they got the message. So fun!

How we told Mike's parents and brothers. They were surprised! Mike's dad asked if we had gotten the cake on the clearance rack or if it was really ours. Gotta love cookie cakes!

How we told Marisa's parents: All of my family was in town for the weekend and we gathered together for a normal family meal. Mike asked at the last minute if he could give the blessing and it went something like this: "Dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for our families and for the food prepared for us. We pray for Baby Alyssa and for Paige's health and we also pray for Baby Peanut and for Marisa as well. Amen." The look around the table as everyone opened their eyes was priceless. It was awesome. Lots of tears, smiles, hugs!

And, here's Peanut! He or she will be making his or her debut in April 2011! This sono was taken at 8 weeks- we could see the heartbeat and the baby looked great!

This has definetly been quite the surprise for Mike and I, but we are so thankful for the tiny life that God has given us! I've been feeling okay, for the most part. Tired, tired, tired, nauseaous at times, having food aversions, but hungry all the time, also having cravings for random things (like peppermint ice cream at 9:30pm, or mac and cheese at 8:00pm).

Zumba

This past week I found my new favorite form of exercise. This is huge for me because I HATE (loathe, despise, etc...) to exercise, but since I preach it to my patients every day (and my jeans were getting tight), I decided that I should practice what I preach and suck it up.

So, on Tuesday, I went to my first Zumba class. As I started the class, I thought to myself, "I can't believe this is considered exercise- this fun!" When I told Mike over the phone that I had had so much fun at this class and couldn't wait to go back, he said, "Wait. Is this my wife?!"

The class on Tuesday WORE ME OUT. I was seriously sore for 4 days. But, I did get a serious work out and went back agian today for more.

So, the challenge with all of this is that I'm not really good at dancing- white people (well, really me) can't dance, or something like that. I can't even shake my 'thang' really well either, but I'm sure that I'll learn. I mean, some of these people in class even have belly-dancing wraps they wear to class and these special Zumba shoes. Don't think I will take it that far.

....MIA....

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Waaayyy too many pictures to download, which is slightly overwhelming. And, honestly, not one of my top priorities at the moment.

But, I will tell you the thought that crossed my mind the other day that made me feel really old:

10 years ago this fall, I started my freshman year in college. 10 years ago!!! How in the world did that happen??!?!

I promise I will catch up on blogging in the near future.

My day off

Because I am bored, but don't want to take the time to upload pictures, but feel that I should update my blog since it's been almost a month, I thought I would enlighten you, the reader, into a peek into my typical Wednesdays off:

8:30 am- wake up, convince self to get out of warm bed and work out. Takes lots of convincing, since I hate to work out, but have the promise of coffee after I'm done.

9:00 am- go on a power-walk through the neighborhood. Power walk cut short due to rain. I love rain.

9:30 am- shower, decide not to take the effort to blow dry my hair and put on make up. It's my day off. I have to get ready every other day of the week/weekend. Not today.

10:00 am- coffee has just finished brewing, pour into favorite Frothy Monkey coffee shop mug, sit at kitchen table with laptop and read through emails (who am I kidding, I spent most of my time on facebook- slightly addicted, not going to lie).


12:00 pm- run to bank, go to SuperTarget (read, Super Targhee'), come out just in time for the down-pour; feet soaked because I'm wearing flip-flops. I get in my car and smile because I love the rain. Head to Sprouts, buy entirely too much fruit, in part because I was enticed by the fresh peach smell and think I could make a peach cobbler later in the week. Also, score for me, Sprouts has my favorite herbed Brie 40% off! Head next door to HomeGoods and grab a few things. Next off to Blockbuster to pick up a movie for tonight.

2:00pm-unload groceries. Get the mail. Let Bella out. I told her it was raining, but she didn't care.

2:15pm- decide I'm hungry and make ravioli with pesto and gueyre cheese from stuff found in fridge. Decide I've created a really good lunch- will take the rest to work tomorrow for left-overs. Let Bella back in. She decided she didn't like the rain after all.

3:00pm- Decide to go through old desk and completely clean out, throwing away tons of old dried up markers, pens that no longer work, really, really old greeting cards that no one is ever going to want to receive. Create new "desk" space under the wet bar. This is the compromise Mike and I have agreed to- in order to get one of my favorite pieces of Grandmommy's furniture, I have to get rid of the white Container Store desk I had in college. So, I resort to my "desk" being under the wet bar.

4:00pm- watch Oprah while I fold 3 loads worth of laundry, wrap baby shower gift, write several birthday/wedding/baby shower cards.

5:00pm- watch the news, put recently-found piece of old 1/2 bathroom wallpaper into a frame I bought earlier today. Have to display what the old bathroom used to look like. Too bad metallic silver, florescent yellow and lime green wallpaper isn't "in" right now.

6:30pm- pour myself a glass of wine and watch The Blindside. Fabulous movie!

9:00pm- realize I haven't had dinner yet and decide to finish off The Bob Armstrong queso I made last week, while writing this blog, while waiting for Mike to call. Look up new iphone 4G and try to decide between the 3G and 4G (my prize for Mike being out of town so much lately!) Set coffee maker to go off at 5:30am tomorrow.

9:05-9:45pm- talk to my sweet husband on the phone. Miss him like crazy. Cannot wait to spend a weekend with him!!

10:00pm- Finish the dishes and off to bed.

"Official" Vanderbilt Graduation

Warning, this is a long post with lots of pictures! :)

So, last weekend, Mike and I met in Nashville (he from NYC, me from Dallas....another story for another day) to go to my "official" master's degree graduation at Vanderbilt. I really graduated last August and did go to the Nursing School's Pinning Ceremony at that time (which in the nursing world, is really the most memorable/significant). However, since I had put in all of that work over the past year, I wanted to actually walk across the stage and get hooded! So, off we went!

I arrived on Thursday mid-day (after my kind mother dropped me off at Love Field at 6:00am- she gets brownie points!), went to my favorite coffee shop in Nashville, The Frothy Monkey, and got my long-awaited chai latte before I headed back to the airport to pick up Mike.
Later that evening, we went to the Nursing School's wine and cheese reception (see below).


While at the reception, Lauren and I were re-united! :) So, so good to see her! I keep telling her that Children's is hiring and she and Andrew need to move to Dallas! Almost convinced her when she came to visit last summer....

Thursday evening we had dinner with some good friends, Tim and Julia, who let me stay with them in Nashville a couple of times. Sad day that I don't have pictures from our dinner, but we had a great time! Julia and I actually started together at Children's in the ER, then she moved to England (difficult life!)- we actually stayed with them as well when Mike and I went to England a couple of years ago.

Friday morning was graduation! There were two parts to graduation: first part was with the entire 2010 graduating class (undergrad, grad, doctoral, etc). It was an out-door graduation and can I tell you that I steamed in my black gown and cap- it was SO hot and humid!! But, thankfully, the rain held off until after graduation!

The second part of graduation was the hooding ceremony. We broke off into separate schools and each of us were hooded by our program director (see below).

Then we got our diploma (fake one- real one is already framed and hanging on our wall at home) from the Dean.

Yay us! We graduated!

So thankful for Mike, who was my support system through out school.

So, Vanderbilt is known for their strawberries and champagne reception after graduation- you can see why. This was just one of the many mounds and mounds of fresh strawberries, that were actually really good! And, on the side of the tent were tables with free-flowing champagne!


Friday night, we all went out to dinner and then headed back to Lauren and Andrew's condo for dessert. Here we all are, with our significant others... So very thankful for each of these girls! Happily, we are all employed, but sadly, scattered through-out the country.


Saturday, Mike and I slept in and then had lunch with some friends and then spent a rainy afternoon back at The Frothy Monkey. We had dinner that evening with Melanie, Cliff and little Kaylee! Melanie was my roommate back at Samford, and graciously let me stay with she and Cliff when I would come to Nashville for classes last year. She had Kaylee while I was in school, so it's been so fun to see her grow up!

So thankful for Mel!

Mike and Kaylee


Sunday morning found us back at Nashville airport, where I headed back to Dallas and Mike, back to NYC...such is life these days. But, we had a FABULOUS weekend away!

best way to brighten your day

I got these from my fabulous husband in the middle of my day today! Love him!

Mother's Day fun

So, before I show you how our Mother's Day played out, I have to brag on my sweet husband and show you the kitchen table he built! We just got our new camera yesterday, so we took a picture of it today. He's in the process of making a leaf for it so that it can seat up to 6, but between flying back and forth to NYC on a weekly basis, he hasn't had much time for it. There is an end in site, so hopefully after the middle of June, he'll have some more time on his hands.


For Mother's Day lunch, we ate at Casa Milagro (fabulous brisket de tacos!) with Mike's parents and his little brother Max. Sad that Sergei and the rest of the family couldn't make it!

Mike and his mom

Mike Sr. and Max


Mike left this afternoon to go back to NYC, so I headed to my parents' house for Mother's Day dinner and got to hang out with my cootie-patootie nephew, Cameron. Here he is enjoying his first bite of chocolate cake (in preparation for his 1st birthday party coming up, of course!)




He is cruising and so happy all of the time!

And, here's a picture of Mike and I before lunch today. We were testing out our camera's capabilities and decided to pose. He's just so cute and I am so thankful to have him. These past couple of weeks of constant travel have been hard. But, we're making it, and I'm looking forward to being able to spend a long weekend with him in Nashville next weekend for my "official graduation!"