ABQ

Well, I had a fantastic trip to Albuquerque. I flew in late Wednesday night, and it was so great to see Mrs. J again!!

On Thursday, she took me to see our house that we still own, but are renting out. I was very upset to see that the renters killed the grass!! I quickly took this picture, so I could show Grant how bad it looked.


This is how it looked when we were there:


Also on Thursday, we had a pink poker night, to relive the old days. It was so much fun! And Mrs. J actually won, which, if you knew how she played, you would be really shocked!! I did terrible, but that's okay. The way we play, everyone gets a prize at the end. By the way, the blogging world is totally represented in this picture. Clockwise, starting on the left - Mrs. J, Pinky, Erika, Jill, and Susie.


The shower was on Saturday, and despite all of my nervousness, it was a great success! Pinky's kids used their sidewalk chalk to welcome the shower guests - all 25 of them.


Here's the delicious Cold Stone cake.


I was so glad that Mrs. J's family got to come. Here she is with her sister, Kendall, and her mom.


After the shower, we got to babysit Lilly, Erika and Cody's newest addition. I call this picture, "How many G's does it take to feed a baby?"


Again, I feel like I didn't take nearly enough pictures of my trip. But I had a great time. Thanks to Mrs. J and Pinky for letting me crash at their houses, and also to Pinky for all the help with the shower.

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Last week, before I went to Albuquerque, my brother and his wife (Tony and Meredeth) came up for a visit. We had a great time with them. I should've taken way more picture than I did.

Anyways, we went for a hike in Glen Helen, which I blogged about when Grant and I did that a few weeks back. We saw these incredible dragonflies - none of my pictures turned out, but they were so beautiful!



Then, we went to the dairy farm. Had fun feeding the goats - the baby goats in particular. The grown-up goats were mean, and tried to head-butt the babies out of the way, but as you can see, we went out of our way to feed them anyway.



I was impressed with this little guy, that kept walking across the narrow pole. Reminded me of Boston Rob from Survivor.



And this one was my favorite. He was just too cute!



Anyways, we had a great time with them. As usual, I wish it could've lasted longer.

By the way, they were the first to give us clothes for our little bean. Meredeth, with her love of overalls, got the baby a pair, which is probably the cutest thing ever. And Tony, with his love of motorcycles, got the baby a onesie with a dog on a motorcycle that says "Born to Ride."

Yum

I've been looking for new and exciting things to eat for lunch, that takes little to no preparation. Thankfully, last time I was at Trader Joe's I stumbled onto frozen rice and noodle bowls. I just had my first one, and it was SO good! It was the chicken teriyaki rice bowl. I didn't want it to end. I'm so excited that I finally found something good to eat for lunch!!

I'm Back

But no time to write about my trip yet. Stay tuned...

Albuquerque Called...I Answered

So, I'm here, sitting at Mr. and Mrs. J's computer in beautiful Albuquerque. I hope they don't mind that I logged them out of blogger. Anyways, it's so great to be back. Sitting in the airport and on the plane, I was reminded of so much about this great place. The accents, in particular. People from New Mexico have very distinct accents.

This morning Mrs. J and I took Una for a walk, and I saw the mountains. Since I arrived so late last night, I couldn't quite see them. But there they were this morning. Beautiful as ever.

We're about to head to Flying Star for lunch - I miss that place! - run some errands, and just chill the rest of the day.

I'm so happy to be back here, but I do wish Grant could've come, too. Miss you, Granny!!

Family Fun

My sister and her family came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time! On Saturday, we went to Young's Dairy Farm, which is a must-do when you come to the Dayton area. My niece and nephew loved feeding the goats. And of course, the homemade ice cream was a big (but messy) hit.





Then, we went to the pool that just opened up in our neighborhood. The kids love the water, so they were in for pretty much the entire 3 hours that we were there.





Other than that, we went on walks while the kids rode their bikes; Grant (of course) showed them his new remote-controlled Ferrari, which they loved; went to church; watched old home videos. We had a great time with them!

This weekend, my brother and his wife are coming up for a few days. After that, I'm off to Albuquerque. Needless to say, June is a very busy month!!

Impatient

I don't know about the rest of you pregos out there, but every week, when I get my babycenter.com updates about my baby and how it's growing, I always look ahead to the next week to see what happens. And today, I looked 2 weeks ahead. I just think it's amazing how much happens in a week!

Danger!

To my female readers: Just a warning, but if you haven't been to Michael's recently, they now have a line of Martha Stewart Crafts. Everything is simply amazing! I made a trip yesterday to get cardstock and envelopes. Then I saw the aisle. That's right - a whole aisle dedicated to Martha's crafty genius! It's amazing I made it out of there without spending money on stuff other than what I intended to buy. But I did. I'm so proud! I fully intend on waiting until I get a 40% off coupon and buy a few of her kits.

My Husband, The Weirdo

A couple of months ago, I talked about some of my weirdness. Now, it's time to talk about some of Grant's:

He has a man-crush on Lebron James. Seriously. When he watches a Cavs game, he giggles whenever Lebron has a good play. And he'll continually say, "He's just so good!" He loves him.

He also has another new love - milk in the glass container that comes from the Dorothy Lane Market. We'd heard about this market, located in the Beverly Hills of Dayton (yes, there really is such a place), and how great it was. We were driving around this neighborhood, admiring all of the multi-million dollar homes, when we saw the market, so we decided to drop in, and not spend any money. Well, as soon as we made our way into the dairy section, I knew we would indeed be spending money. You see, Grant has a thing for cream. He loves it. Can't get enough of it. The creamier something is, the better. Butter, milk, cheese...anything that is creamy. Well, we saw that they had milk in glass jugs. We both thought that was cool. But when Grant saw how creamy it was, and saw the instructions to "shake before drinking" in order to mix the cream part in with the rest of the milk, he was sold. So we get in the car, and he immediately opens the cap to the milk jug, and there's this thick layer of solid cream at the top. It was so thick, that it wouldn't even pour! So, he poked a whole in the thickness, and then came the sounds. The sounds of falling in love with a dairy product. He was "ooo-ing" and "ahh-ing" and going on and on about how great it was. I was disgusted...he couldn't get enough. Quite a difference from our standard fat free milk that we use every day, I guess.

12 Weeks

Today marks the beginning of my 12th week! It's a milestone, and I'm very happy, because that means that hopefully I will get my energy back soon, and not feel so sick anymore. Last week was pretty rough for me, but I feel much better today.

I had my 12 week appointment today, and everything is A-OK. Even got to hear the heart beat for the first time! Grant was able to be there, too, so I was happy for that. He thought about videotaping the event as proof to myself that I actually am pregnant. Because about every other day or so, I tell him that I don't really think I'm pregnant, and that this is all just a dream, and I'll eventually wake up and be really disappointed that I'm not actually pregnant. Well, after hearing the heartbeat today, it's pretty hard for me to deny it anymore.

When I was in the exam room today, I was looking at a growth chart for both the mom and the baby. It's so hard to imagine that my baby, which is about the size of a lime right now, will get so "big" before he/she is actually born! What an incredible thing this all is!!

Muppet Time!

Copying Melissa a bit, here are the results of my muppet quiz. It's strangely accurate:

Your Score: Snuffleupagus

You scored 66% Organization, 51% abstract, and 55% extroverted!

This test measured 3 variables.

First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean.

Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type.

Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert. By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more about herself.

You are somewhat organized, both concrete and abstract, and both introverted and extroverted.

I bet you didn't think you were Snuffleupagus. Let's find out why.

You are both somewhat organized. You have a good idea where you put things and you probably keep your place reasonably clean. You aren't totally obsessed with neatness though. Alloyius Snuffleupagus (and all Snuffleupagus') is not sloppy by nature, but he moves so incredibly slowly that it is impossible for him to be totally organized.

You both are about equally concrete and abstract thinkers. You have a good balance in your life. You know when to be logical at times, but you also aren't afraid to explore your dreams and desires... within limits of course. Snuffy generally has very basic interests, but he explores his abstract sensitive side when he plays his snuffleflute.

You both are somewhat introverted. Originally Snuffleupagus was very shy and was only Big Bird's invisible friend. However as he has aged he has started to build new friendships with new characters. Like Snuffy, you probably like to have some time to yourself. However, you do appreciate spending time with your friends, and you aren't scared of social situations.

The other possible characters are
Oscar the Grouch
Big Bird
Cookie Monster
Ernie
Elmo
Kermit the Frog
Grover
The Count
Guy Smiley
Bert

Hey, don't be a grouch! If you liked the test, let others know by rating it below. Feel free to vote for your favorite character too.

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test