Happy Birthday!

Today Jeff enters the last year of his 20s. He celebrated it by going to a job that he hates, not letting anyone at work know that it was his birthday (aka no friends at work), and coming home to a cranky 2 year old. The 30s are looking good!

To commemorate his birthday, I have added pictures of Jeff and his boy playing at the pool (unless Blogger won't let me again). I've also added a picture of the disaster that was Jeff's birthday cake this year. I swear, we've been a couple for 10 years, and I've spent probably 8 birthdays with him, and I have never destroyed a cake like I did this year. The good news is...it tasted fine!

Happy Birthday!




BTW...I spent all day coaching Andrew to say Happy Birthday to Jeff. He refused. He wouldn't sing. He wouldn't say it. He just kept saying, "It's not my birthday. I'm just 2". He grabbed Jeff's presents and opened them. He was a joy. But he still managed to have us in stitches with the cute things he was saying. I just can't think of any of them right now (he was just screaming as he went to sleep...I'm a bit at a loss for cute stories at the moment)

Texas

***once again Blogger won't allow me to download pictures. Damn free services! I'll try again later***

Well, we are back from our trip to Texas. It was great to get away from home for a few days, visit with friends and family we haven't seen in a while, and learn to appreciate what is at home.

We arrived in Austin and were picked up by Jeff's sister Sara's angelic roommate. My first observation of Texas...HOT. How you people survive pregnancy there is beyond me. I am only 6 months pregnant, and a 3 day weekend in Texas was enough to sap all energy and life out of me. Yea, I don't know how you make babies in that heat or birth them. It must be one of the wonders of the world ;) Anyway, we hung out in Sara's apartment with Avery, the most hyper dog I've ever met, until Sara came home from work. Once Sara came home, they all dragged me out of the air conditioning to go to dinner. The best quesedilla I've ever had...although I really wanted to have a margarita to compliment it :)

We stayed in Jeff's brother's rented house (Chad is doing an "internship" in Trinidad...although it sounds pretty cushy to me). The next day, we went out for a yummy breakfast, and Sara took Jeff and I to "The Story of Texas" at the historical museam. I learned lots of stuff about Texas...I'm a nerd, I enjoy things like that. I was worried Sara was going to roll over and die of boredom until we read a morsel of info that has for all time armed her against cocky Texans. We've all met Texans who brag on and on about how they were their own nation, they don't need the US, blah blah blah. But we learned that Texas desperately wanted to be annexed into the US once they had won their independence from Mexico...and the US didn't want them!!! That's right, we rejected them several times. (and we learned this at their very own museam no less!) The US basically just took them in so that Great Britain wouldn't take them (Sam Houston was no fool...he made it look like he was in discussions with the crown to do that just to manipulate the US). Anyway, this was very satisfying to Sara, since she has to deal with cocky Texans all the time.

After learning all about Texas, we went out to eat again (are you noticing a pattern). We went and got delicious barbeque brisket...yummo! Then we took Avery the wonder dog to a dog park by the "lake" (a wide spot in the river near Sara's place). Yea, it was hot. Then we recovered from being in the heat for a while. Then went to dinner. We did a lot of eating. All good.

The next day was the wedding. It was a nice affair...and I was pleased because it rained all night so the temperatures dropped nicely. Well, for a few hours at least. By the time the reception started at noon, it was HOT again. And the heat might not seem so bad, except that they air condition all the insides of the building to about 55 degrees. The shock of going from inside to outside is crazy. (can you tell I was a bit obsessed about the heat?)

We drove to our friend's house near San Antonio and hung out there before driving into San Antonio that night. A nice city, but again, HOT. The Alamo was a bit small...no wonder Mexico took it. We did the river walk, which was a unique thing, and quite enjoyable.

The next day we hung out some more and then we headed back to Austin. We had dinner with Sara (more eating), and went to bed early to prepare for our pre-dawn flight Monday morning.

So all in all...

Texas=HOT
Texas=Good food
Texas=HOT

I had a doctor's appointment just days before leaving for this trip. I'm still a bit below my pre-pregnancy weight. After this trip of heat and eating, I'm torn as to what has changed. I certainly ate enough to gain a ton of weight, but I probably sweated the same amount right out my pores. We'll have to wait until next month's appointment to find out!

Pictures from Texas

Here's Jeff and I in front of the Alamo. Sadly, in looking at this picture, I look about as pregnant as I did when Jeff and I visited Vegas during my last pregnancy. Except I was 8 months pregnant then...and only 6 months now. Let's hope the growth slows down a bit, or else this little girl's going to reduce me to moo-moos!
Texans are smart. First, they have to label where the dumpster goes (do they ever move?) and then they spell it well too. We thought this was too funny...and we would've taken a picture no matter which state it appeared in. We just happened to be in Texas. (I hope the few Texans that read my blog are laughing, and not staging a military move against Kentucky right now)
Jeff and his buddies...Bill, Eric, Keith (the groom), and Jeff. Notice they did not invite the bride to step into the photo shoot. Nice.

Yee-haw!

Texas here we come!

My first trip to Texas was less than thrilling. Shall we take a moment to reflect on our lovely cruise experience last fall? Ahhh, I feel refreshed.

We are giving the Lone Star State another chance tomorrow. One of Jeff's friends from college is getting married, and we are using it as an excuse to visit Jeff's sister and take a trip just the 2 of us. The plane tickets cost as much as a new kidney, but we get to stay at Jeff's brother's empty place and use his car while he is away on an intership, so that has helped us cut costs. We also will get to see a few other college friends that I haven't seen since before Andrew was born. And at least one of them is also pregnant, so I won't be the only one not drinking the nights away!

I will try and take pictures...but you know me. More than likely, the camera will stay safely tucked in our luggage until the plane ride home when I suddenly remember it. Let's all say it together...LOSER.

Andrew will be spending a blissful weekend with his grandparents. At this age, there is no need to take him to amusement parks...Grandma and Grandpa's works just as well, and probably better. Every time I think of a type of toy I think he'd enjoy, Grandma inevitably says, "Oh, I have that here at my house". It's a dream world for Andrew. And unlike myself, my in-laws are really good about taking pictures. Probably too good...that's why they always have over 200 pictures (of the same pose) in their camera that they have to sift through ;) Better them than me...and I get the good copies after they've done all the work. Aren't I a grrrrrrr-eat daughter-in-law? Make fun of them in my blog and then reap the benefits of having such great in-laws? Oh, and all this on the eve of their watching my child while I go have fun in Texas.

I'm a peach!

I'll post when we get back next week-

Some delayed pictures

Due to some technical difficulties that Blogger has had, I haven't been able to post my most recent pictures. I wasn't worried about my readers, as you have gotten used to no pictures. But here they are.

The first is of Fireman Andrew eating breakfast. We went to the fire station for a tour several weeks ago, but one morning Andrew decided it was time to wear the hat. I thought it was so incredibly cute!

Then come the photos from the baseball game. Notice all the girls (the only other boy in his play group was out of town). Notice Andrew's face while with all the girls. Notice Andrew's face when the girls leave and he is alone. What a cad.

And finally, a shot of Andrew "helping" his dad tinker with his resume. While we are sure that potential employers will be excited and impressed by all the extra "S" and "Z" letters thrown in, Jeff did have to go back and delete Andrew's work (who needs a 4 page resume?)

Enjoy!

A night away

When Jeff and I celebrated Christmas with our families, we were very gifted. Very gifted with cash money. Jeff promptly spent his on fencing stuff and I...well I couldn't figure out how I best wanted to spend it. Okay, so what I really wanted was a night away with some girlfriends, no kids.

This weekend it finally happened. Saturday morning, a group of 5 of us left our kids behind with the husbands and drove to Indianapolis. We shopped and shopped and shopped and stayed up until 1 am playing board games and talking and then slept a teeny bit, slumber-party style. We woke up and the girls wanted to shop some more. If you've met me, shopping is not exactly my thing. These women are hard core. But one thing saved me...and will probably have Jeff groaning as soon as he sees our credit card bill.

Carter's Outlet.

Have I mentioned I haven't bought anything pink or girlie in the 3 weeks since finding out Baby #2 is actually Baby Girl? Well, all that has changed. Such deals! Such cute stuff! I am such a sucker.

So much for being worried about having a girl. I sure had no problems buying lots of pink this weekend. ;)

I can't write much more because I am so exhausted! I even threw up my breakfast this morning...after going over a week without getting sick. I'm sure it's because I went to bed so late. My own damn fault. But it was fun!

Names names names

Ah, the joys of finding the perfect name for your child. How we agonize! The funny thing is, most people are quite indifferent to their own name. I wonder if their parent's spent this much time trying to figure it out.

Jeff and I had problems picking out a boy's name. He liked really odd names... usually with an unusual letter stuck in there somewhere (think Zeus or Xavier). Having grown up with an unusual name myself, I wasn't sure that was something I wanted to saddle my child with. I love my name...but I didn't when I was a kid. And one in every 9 people in my age are named Jeff...which results in weird nicknames to accomodate all these same names (Jeff assured me that this child would be called "Spurge" no matter what we named him, so who cared?) So to start, we printed out the Social Security's list of the top 100 names that were submitted in the year 2002. We immediately said that we would not pick a name in the top 10 because we didn't want anything too common. We each took a copy of the list and seperately crossed off and selected names. Then we met up and compared lists. There weren't many survivors. We agonized over these few remaining names. Which one would perfectly sum up our child, but not give people an impression before even meeting him? How could I convince my husband that "Dexter" is not a good name for a child that will in all likelyhood be a nerd anyway? We asked the unborn child, riddling him with names to see which he kicked the most to. With just a few weeks remaining, we decided to look at the top 10 names...just to see what we were missing. Andrew popped right out at us, and after just a bit of deliberation, we obviously chose it. Of course, he was really supposed to be Andy, but that hasn't stuck yet, but still hangs around as a nice alternative for Grandpa (who I have a sneaking suspision doesn't really like "Andrew"). I still think it's funny that after all the months of questions and doubts and issues we ended up with Andrew. How unoriginal.


Jeff and I are having a very different experience this time around. Let me just say, we were relieved not to have to go back to the boys' names. Been there, done that, already knew there wasn't much left we could agree on. On to the girls! And amazingly, Jeff doesn't have as weird of taste this time around! Maybe it's because this name needs to kind of "go" with Andrew. I still laugh every time someone learns my name and then says, "What is your sister's name?" probably expecting it to be Beyonce or something. When I respond Kate, then always go, "Huh, really?"

Anyway, we got that same list of 100, decided we wanted more options and went through the baby name book. What a waste of money. Seriously. They claim they have 25,000 names, but half of them are Native American or Hawaiian and have like 17 letters each. Although it is kind of interesting to read a name like Hinookmahiwikilinaka and find out it means Floating clouds to the Winnebago Indians. (actual entry, folks...this is what we're given to work with) And I loved the "L" section...LaDonna, LaShauna, LaKeisha, LaTanya...Okay Okay we get it! We can add "La" in front of every other name in the book. No need to repeat them all here!

After sifting through all that junk, we agreed on 22 names! And none of them have an X in them! (although Jeff does like to joke about the Chinese girl's name Xiao-Xing...what a surprise, found that in our book) Last night we narrowed it down further to 7 names! And we are only 23 weeks pregnant!!! We are so far ahead of the game this time around. We may actually have a name before I start grunting to sit down :) Of course, we won't be sharing this with all of you...I can't handle criticism. I can just picture picking out my perfect name and then someone goes, "Oh, you like THAT name. How interesting. My 2nd cousin was named that. She ended up killing her mother with an axe. Interesting, eh?" Yea, I can't handle having my named ruined like that.

But just between you and me, we're kind of leaning towards LaHinookmahiwikilinaka Spurgeon. What do you think?

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

We took Andrew to his very first baseball game last night. A bunch of families from my Mom's Club bought tickets together, so it gave us a really good excuse to try it out. And it was family night, so hot dogs and pop were only $1.

I mistakingly told Andrew when he woke up in the morning that we would be going to a baseball game once Daddy got home from work. Why a mistake, you ask? Because it was 7:15 am and Daddy wasn't set to get home until 6 pm. Oops. 11 hours of a persistant toddler loomed in my future. When he got dressed, he insisted on wearing his super cute baseball outfit. Every time we got in the car to go somewhere he asked if we were going to the baseball game. When Jeff finally got home, Andrew was BESIDE HIMSELF with excitement. He talked Jeff's ear off while Jeff changed out of his work clothes and practically jumped into his car seat.

When we arrived at the stadium (this is the minor league, Louisville Bats, aka Red's farm team), we were quite impressed at how nice it was. Okay, Andrew and I were...Jeff has already gone to a few games before this. We met our friends at the Will Call booth to pick up our tickets, and we were off. When Andrew first glimsed the field, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. And the game hadn't even started yet. He was so excited that he ran past the 3 sets of beautiful playground equipment inside the park to help keep kids entertained (have I mentioned how awesome Louisville is for raising kids?)

Now, the bad new is, this Mom's Club got tickets on "the Lawn"...a steeply sloped, narrow swatch of grass way out past right field. Or was it left field. I really can't remember how it is oriented. Anyway, far away from the players. So Andrew had a difficult time seeing anything. Which resulted in his asking every 10 seconds, "What happened now Mommy?" How do you explain to a 2 year old that it's baseball...nothing is happening? ;) This did convince us to go again and get seats near home plate. I think it may increase our expense by $10 or something!

It was pretty funny, though, because Andrew was the only little boy amongst all the little girls there. (he is one of only 2 out of about 14 in his playgroup...and Aidan didn't show up last night) I have the greatest picture of him posing with all his "girlfriends". He looks miserable. I plan on showing him this picture when he complains about not being about to get a prom date. Proof that I gave him every fighting chance! Oh, and Andrew was the only kid trying to figure out the game. The girls were just screeching and giggling and chasing. You could just see Andrew getting annoyed as he tried to catch the play by play with all these distractions. Eventually he gave up, and began walking from blanket to blanket talking the parents' ears off.

We finally got home at 9:30, and Andrew COLLAPSED into bed. Today, everywhere we go, he gives a play by play of his baseball game last night. Such simple pleasures. I can't wait to take him again.

***Blogger won't let me upload pictures, so I'll add them in as soon as I can!

Cute Andrew

Here are some of my favorite Andrew stories of the last week or so.

We were shopping over Memorial Day weekend, and Andrew and I went to the grocery store. We saw a lady wearing a teeny tiny tube top and short shorts. Andrew says loudly, "Mommy, that lady is naked."

We walked up the street to a coffee shop Sunday morning to enjoy the cool morning. Jeff got me a muffin and a strawberry smoothie to share with Andrew. My 2 year old immediately confiscates the muffin and is doling it out to me crumb by crumb. At one point when I asked for another delectable morsel, he replies, "Take a drink of your drink and then you can have some muffin, Mommy." I wonder what he hears a lot of at home?

He requested that Jeff climb into bed with him to help him settle down for sleep. Softy Daddy climbs in and is then told not to touch the pillow, Night-night, or any stuffed toy in the bed. He is to crouch in the corner of the big boy bed and stay away from all of Andrew's "stuff". Aren't 2 year olds sweet?

Crud...I know there are more...I just can't think of them right now. I wish I didn't have to rely so much on my atrophied brain.