Two weeks!?!

How has it been 2 weeks since I blogged? Here's what I've been up to:



Last weekend I went up to Dulles, VA and scrapbooked with 10 girls that I've known online for 2.5 years. It was a TON of fun and I came back wishing we all lived closer together.



Mom and Dad called the other night. The rain we'd been having in Raleigh made the national news, and before the news was over my phone was ringing. Some things never change. :) We told them the planned baby name, and Dad thought it was cool (he's planning to call him TJ). Mom is all bent out of shape that we're not using Eric's dad's name in there anywhere. She urged us to "rethink" that so I told her we would (otherwise I'd never have gotten her off the phone). She also said they plan to send us $$ toward the baby furniture in January, which is great - so generous. She also said that she is sending stuff for my in-laws as a thank you for taking care of me while I'm pg. She cracks me up.



Friday night we had dinner at Casa Carbone - Eric's aunt and uncle were in from Richmond so we all went out - YUMMY! Also saw my coworker Shelley there, hee hee! Dinner was delicious.



And yesterday, we headed to Babies R Us to complete our registry. Eric set it up weeks ago but we had zero items on there. We had no idea what we needed, and I wanted to walk around the store and look at the items. Eric studied the Consumer Reports book too, so we had an idea of what specific items we wanted for the big stuff. While we were looking at the travel systems, we were told the one we wanted was also in the clearance section, and they were offering a discount on the clearance items. It had been a display model, so I thought it might be banged up from people looking at it and trying it out, but it was in REALLY good shape, and for $100+ off was a deal we couldn't pass up. So now we have a stroller/car seat.



We also set up a registry at Target, since I love that store, and we also know that Target is easier for people to find that BRU. It was all done online, and we'll probably add more things there too.



Last night we headed over to Eric's parent's house for dinner with everyone and we hung out, and also had a YUMMY dinner. Eric's brother and kiddos came over too (his wife was out of town) so it was fun to see everyone. We took Aggie over with us and she had a great time running around with Bugsy (in-law's dog). She is still tired now.



Today's Sunday and Eric is at work. I'm planning a run to the grocery store, and then gonna do laundry and finally unpack my stuff from last weekend!

Yesterday was also 19 weeks. We registered at a day care, so we have a confirmed spot for next July. We toured 3 facilities, and the last one was the best. Felt right to both me and Eric, came highly recommended from several coworkers of mine & Eric's, and just fit the bill. We actually had a 4th one lined up to tour and cancelled it since we both felt this was the right place. So thats one more thing off the to-do list. I'm feeling pretty good, and have gone from feeling flutters to more pronounced flutters. Nothing I would call a "kick" yet, but about once a day I'll feel these much bigger flutters a few inches below my belly button. Still get ravenously hungry every so often too. We have a check-up this week so hopefully all will go well there.

So, that, plus work, is what I've been up to the last two weeks!

haven't blogged in a long time!

Will post an omnibus update post in a second, but here's a quick recap:


- work is still nutty :)

- We are having a baby! Due date 4/10/10, it's a boy and his name will be Tyler John. 17 weeks so far, 23 to go.

- Aggie the pup is almost 8 months old. She's a great dog and we love her a ton!


So here's what's been going on this weekend:

We met up with Ed & Kristen for lunch yesterday - so fun to get caught up with them! Kristen and I are going to do some shopping today - yay shopping!


We had zero trick-or-treaters last night. Which is par for the course in this townhome community. It's mostly singles and young couples, not many kids. No ToTers is good since I hadn't bought any candy, and running downstairs to the front door all evening didn't seem to appealing.

Aggie has some sort of rash going on. We spent a lot of time in the garage yesterday cleaning up/throwing out stuff that I'd held on to for WAY too long, and I think something in there must have irritated her skin. She had some redness around the eyes, which has gone down, but is still red around her nose and on her chest. We're keeping an eye on her.


So we spent yesterday in the garage, and then moved almost all the stuff out of what will be the baby's room. Eric's computer desk is now in my scrapbook room that we are now sharing. I'm going to run to Babies R Us today to get one piece from the bedding collection we like (Pop Monkey) so that we can match paint colors and hopefully get that done in the near future. My parents have graciously offered to help us with the baby furniture, so hopefully we'll get that purchased soon and have the room all ready in plenty of time for the arrival.


I had so much old stuff to toss. A lot of it had been moved and moved and moved and should have gone a long time ago. It was fun to reminisce, and I found a couple of names of past coworkers that I have looked up on Facebook to see if I can catch up with them.


We were thinking about moving, but we've decided to stay put. We could probably get out of this place for what I paid for it, but it would be tough setting up a nursery while trying to sell. And renting this place would be a good option but we'd need to have a lot of money set aside in case of vacancies. So, although we saw many wonderful houses where we could probably make a great deal, we've decided to stay put for the time being, and pick up the search again next Spring or Summer.


And the other thing on the horizon is minivan shopping. Yes, you read that right, we'll be one of those families who buy a minivan for one child. I've never been in love with my Civic, and would love to get back into a small SUV again, but a minivan is cheaper, bigger, and gets better gas mileage. Plus all the conveniences of getting easily from backseat to front and vice versa, being able to cart around us plus baby, baby gear, and others if needed...and it seems like the right thing to do. No specific timeframe, but we're keeping an eye on Carmax's inventory of Toyota Siennas and Honday Odysseys.


Next weekend I'm headed to Dulles, VA with my friend Stephanie to meet up with a bunch of our friends and scrapbook all weekend. Hooray!! Should be a ton of fun and I'm excited about meeting these girls that I've known online for years.

4th of July report in!

Thursday, July 2:
got a lot done at work, then we had a work happy hour. One of the guys we work with got a new position (actually a spot in a 2 year management appreticeship program), so we did Happy Hour for him and almost everyone showed up. Great turnout, a lot of folks that left over the last 6 months came by, and people were there til way past 8 pm when I left. Shelley and I rode together and I mentioned my friend Krystyn is doing a half-marathon in March of next year in Orlando. Although I'd love to sign up, I just can't plan that far ahead, and Shelley mentioned a half-marathon in November in Raleigh. I'm seriously thinking of signing up for that. I will walk the majority of it, but still! I mentioend it to Eric and he's thinking about doing it too. Although he's thinking about not traiing for it which I think is a little nutty. My friend Jill is going to do it too, so that's very cool!!

Friday, July 3:
Had lunch with Mary Elizabeth (friend from Junior League) and then she came back to the house to meet Aggie. After that I went to get a manicure & pedicure. The place was mobbed, so it took forever, but I'm glad I got that done. Eric has some gaming friends in town so he met up with them and they are gaming tonight at his friend Paul's house. We have a BBQ to go to tomorrow over there. So he was occupied with them most of the day. I met up with his parents and Joann (aunt) and Bill (uncle; they are both siblings to his mom) who are in town for the Mustang show (Bill and Eric's dad Mark have Ford Mustangs in the show) here. Went back to their place and watched a (not good) movie called Crossing Over.

Saturday, July 4:
We went by the Mustang show and saw Eric's family there. It's pretty amazing that the Ford Mustang has such a following, and also so many variations on the car. Then we came home and gathered up the dog and headed to Clayton to Eric's friend Paul's house for the party. Paul and his wife Andie have a beautiful home, with a horseshoe pit in the backyard, a huge gaming room (on a separate electrical circuit, he kept turning the circuit off up there so people would come outside to socialize), and he rented a camper for a few people to crash. They cooked a pig on the grill (a bona fide pig pickin'), and had some fireworks to set off which was fun (glad Aggie can't hear). Also, one of the guys brought a beautiful 80 lb Akita, and Paul and his family have 2 6 month old Akitas. It was nice to meet his friends tha he games with and their families, too!

Sunday, July 5:
Today I went to the Apple store to get my phone checked out, and then went by work. They did a full restore on the phone, and that plus 30 minutes on the phone with tech support appears to have fixed my problem. What was going on was on email I would get an error message and nothing seemed to fix it. It would check email fine, but I had to do it twice, which was just annoying. The guy on the phone had me unlock something and now it works. Laundry is going and I'm getting ready to settle in and do some work.

Road Trip to Ohio!

Eric and I have been off work since last Thurs to head to Akron, OH. He's usually off on Thurs & Fri, and doesn't go back to work until next Sunday! Anywho, we took off Thursday morning on the road to Akron, OH to spend the weekend with my friend Julie. Her son, Jacob, graduated from high school and this weekend was the graduation party. Our friend Michele also came down from Canada too! I've know Michele and Julie since 1999, and Julie and I have met up almost every yeaer since 2001, but I'd never met Michele n person, and I was really looking forward to this trip!

We got on the road at 9 on Thursday after loading up the car with all the necessities - including a ton of dog stuff (toys, crate, bed, food, water, and more toys!). It took longer than expected to get out of NC, but other than that the drive was pretty uneventful. Aggie took about an hour to settle down and sleep, and after each stop (3 total) it took her less time to get settled in again. Happy to report that she travels well and there were no accidents in the car!

We got to Julie's house around 6:15 pm (and picked up the package that was sent there for me; long story, but thanks to Julie for letting me redirect it there!!!) and visited with Julie and her family for a little while. Then we headed to our hotel. We had to stay at a hotel about 20 minutes away because it was the closest pet-friendly hotel. It was a Sheraton Suites and not at all what I pictured....It looked like a normal hotel, and I guess I'd expected doors that open outside (motel style). It worked out GREAT though, having a suite meant that Aggie could be set up in the living room and not get used to sleeping in our room again. It was kind of a long walk to get outside for potty breaks for her, but it worked out just fine. And the hotel had wi-fi, a mini-fridge, 2 TVs, etc.

Friday morning we had room service for breakfast, then headed over to Julie's to go pick Michele up at the airport. Eric & Aggie hung out at Julie's house (with her hubby and 2 sons; they all got along well!) while Julie and I headed to pick up Michele. Once she arrived, we headed back to Julie's and hung out/got caught up. Fun fun! Julie's family came over that evening, and we had some beverages on the patio. The tent went up for the festivities on Saturday and a few other prep items got checked off the to-do list. It was also great to see Julie's family - her mom, sister and family, and her brother and his wife (with a baby on the way).

Saturday Michele, Eric and I met for breakfast then headed to Julie's around 1pm. We helped with party-prep and then it was time for the fun to begin! It was great to meet the other members of Julie's family - her hubby's sisters/brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, and an old coworker of Brian's (who's son happens to work with a friend of mine from high school -small world!!).

And then it was time to head back to NC. We hit the road by 8 am on Sunday and Aggie slept the entire way home. She was tired after all of the attention all weekend long. Everyone thought she was the cutest thing - and gave her lots of love and attention. We found a shortcut in NC that got us home about an hour earlier than expected so we were home by a little after 4pm on Sunday.

All in all, a fabulous trip! Next time, we'll fly, though!

Random thoughts from May

* having a dog is a lot of work
* there is nothing better than coming home from a long day at work to a dog that is happy (thrilled) to see you
* pretty sure Aggie the pup is deaf. Confirmed at the vet today
* won't cramp our style too much though
* she's now sleeping in her crate on the 2nd floor and doesn't put up a fight going in there anymore
* she loves puppy playdates with Uncle Bugsy (Kay & Mark's dog) and Sniffles (Amanda & Rob's dog)
* and after said playdates will sleep thru the night and then some
* she is fearless when it comes to meeting other dogs, including a beautiful 150 lb Great Dane
* still making good progress on potty training
* in other news, work is crazy busy and will only get busier
* I've become obsessed with the game Farmtown on Facebook. It's dorky, I know.
* it's been a fun month - scrapbooking, lake time, pedicures, sushi, movies, doc appts, cooking out with friends (again this wknd too), playing cards
* I'm still debating Twitter. I've been on board since it was in Newsweek many years ago, but lately have been following more "celebs" just to see what's up..for personal news, I use Facebook. So, then I started just reading Twitter, and posting my updates directly to FB. We'll see how this goes.

...and that's about all that I know!

Dog Days, episode 2

So in the continuing story of Aggie....

...we took her to the vet Monday and she's all healthy! They went ahead and gave her the next round of shots, and said she's healthy (and cute!). We got her started on heartworm preventative, flea preventative, and she's clear of worms in her poop. She's right at 6 pounds now, too.

...She has the potty training thing down pretty well, except she doesn't really like the whole rain thing. Over the past few days we've gotten tons of rain, so she's had to get used to it, though. She tries to get to where you can block the rain for her, which is pretty funny. She met a couple of neighbor dogs (from afar since she's not fully immunized) too.

...crate training is another story. We've made some progress - she can stay in her crate while I shower and get ready and seems to yell for a little while and then calms down, but try and leave her in there overnight and all hell breaks loose - she yelled for TWO HOURS the other night. So we've given up on the idea of her sleeping on the 2nd floor at night (in her day crate) and have had her sleeping in the pet carrier crate in our bedroom. That's gone really well, she snoozed HARD last night and didn't whine much at all. She almost slept thru the night, but we got her up aroun 3:30 am to go potty. So, apparently we'll be a 2-crate household. :) I had a doc appt yesterday and was gone for about 2 hours (did some errands too) and she was snoozing pretty hard when I got home - I opened the crate door and she didn't even notice. So, like I said, we're making progress. Eric's home Thurs & Fri and I suggested to him that he go and see a movie or something to get her used to spending time in the crate.

...she's gotten braver with the cats and will chase them around. She's gotten stairs figured out and will chase them up the stairs. They run into the bedroom and she stands at the baby gate upset that she can't get in there! Hail will wait til she gets w/in a few feet of her before hissing, so that's progress too.

Dog Days, episode 1

So we are now a dog and cat household!!

Eric picked Aggie up at noon on Friday, while I was at work. He sent me text message saying that Lightning was being very inquisitive, and that Hail took one sniff, turned tail and ran upstairs. This was the opposite reaction from what we'd expected; Hail is usually the brave one, Lightning is usually shy.


Friday night Jill came over and got to hang out with the puppy. Aggie took a liking to her, and we also had yummy Pei Wei and played Sequence (which was really fun!). Good times!


Friday overnight was rough -Aggie definitely likes being with people and does not take to being alone. Eric slept downstairs with her for a few hours then we put her in the crate and she whined and whined and whined. I ended up getting up at 6 and took her out, then stayed up from there. She seems to go in cycles, 1 hour or so of napping, then about 30-45 minutes of playing. That was about all we did on Saturday. Nick, Kristen, and Aiden came by to meet Aggie (great to see them!!!), and Eric's parents did too. We went to dinner with then (wings, yum!). This was her first time alone in the house in her crate, and I guess it went ok. She whines a lot, and we're working on getting her used to the crate. So far no accidents except one small one; we're really working on potty habits (after sleeping and after crate time).

Eric's parents suggested letting her sleep in our room, so we decided to give that a try last night. We got one of the cat carriers set up and it seemed to work out better. She got up twice during the night (potty breaks) but went back to sleep w/in a few minutes of getting back in there. Still up early 6:45 this morning.

So far today's been a lot of nothing. Lots of naps, including a couple of long ones, and she had more alone time when I made a run to BJs and Target. She sure can get to yelling though...I left her on the couch and was in the kitchen for a few minutes and she made SUCH a ruckus, I'm a little worried about the first day when we're at work and she's alone for hours at a time.

So - so far so good!! More to come!