Wedding Pic

This is one of my favorite wedding pics. Just wanted to share it as I am testing out adding pics on Blogger (there have been some problems recently).

23 Weeks

I know...according to most of the calendars I am 22 weeks and 4 days (I am rounding up). So here is an updated picture since I have not had one on here since 18 weeks.

Things are going well, and we are very anxiously getting ready for the arrival which is months away.

2007 was a good year...for someone

One of my friends got me in the habit of when I hear a four digit number that is less than the current year to say "that was a good year...for someone." For instance if I am at a cashier and the price to pay is $16.95, that would be a time when that would at least cross my mind.

With that said, this past weekend Matt and I cooked up and prepared the pumpkin for freezing. Matt took it upon himself to write the date when we did it on the bag. Actually all he wrote was Pumpkin 2009, but one of the very first bags Matt was talking out loud and said..."Pumpkin, 2007." I quickly corrected him that it was actually 2009, but it did cross my mind that 2007 was a good year for someone.

In fact it was a good year for you, Matt! (and yes I did inform him of this as I thought of it)
-You graduated college
-You got a wonderful job at GE
-You moved to VA
-And most importantly...You met ME!

And so far the years have continued to be good years (in my opinion). I am looking forward to experiencing many more good years for both of us.

Faber Mine

On Saturday Matt and I had a very early morning.

We woke, had a very quick breakfast and were on the road. Our goal was to be parked in the Sheetz parking lot in Lynchburg by 7:30 am. The reason for this crazy action on a nice Saturday morning was because we were meeting the Gem and Mineral Society club (which we are members) in order to go rock hounding at Faber Mine.

Faber mine is a mine that is located on the edge of Nelson County but in Albemarle County. Back during the Civil War this mine was used to extract lead to use for ammunition for the Confederate army. So it was really neat to be there and to think that this area played such a part in history.

We arrived at the parking lot and unloaded our items (which we put on a dolly...thank goodness) then got ready for our 1-1 1/2 mile hike through the woods to the mine. Fortunately the hike was level and shaded so it actually a very nice walk.

When we arrived I got my first experience of rock hounding. We took a shovel and a three pound sledge hammer and hiked to the top of a rock discard mound. At the start Matt would find fist size rocks or larger and give them to me to smash open with the sledge hammer to see if there were any nice minerals inside. It was quite fun to whack open the rocks and see the mystery that was covered by dirt and time. We were mainly looking for fluorite, quartz, and many others. We found a lot of Mica which is not what we were looking for, it is pretty and shiny and lovely but it crumbles in your hand as soon as you touch it.

We found quite a number of pretty rocks (not the minerals that they told us to look out for, but still pretty rocks). Then hiked down off the mound for a great picnic lunch. After our stomachs were full and happy we went down the hill to find more rocks. Soon after we started to feel some rain drops. I thought that it was no big deal because it would pass quickly...right? WRONG! We waited, in fact we waited under a black plastic tarp that someone had made into a tent (because they did not want the "little momma"...me... to get sick or wet). After we got tired of waiting we then gathered our stuff and left. Our thinking was with all of the leaves and rocks and rain it certainly would not be safe for either of us to be going around with sharp tools and rocks on uneven ground.

We packed up, and headed out. We were not 10 yards into the long hike back when we found out that our dolly had a flat tire...a VERY flat tire. So we were rearranging things so that I would carry some items, Matt would carry some items and the dolly only had a simple small shovel on it. Thank goodness that the president of the club stopped us, and helped us rearrange our items and put all of our rocks and heavy items in a double jogging stroller that he brought as a cart for his finds.

The rain did not stop, in fact it got heavier and heavier as we continued to walk. By the time we got to the car our clothes were dripping wet and muddy up to the knees. I am so glad that we brought an extra set of clothes to change into for the ride home. But we had a fun time with the people there, and we had pretty rocks to add to our collection. It was a wonderful day.

It is all happening so fast!

"It" in this case is the pregnancy. In some ways it seems to be forever before I can see my little one and hold her in my arms, but in other ways it seems as if I just found out yesterday that we were expecting.

This is a feeling that I have had for the past few weeks, but it became very real yesterday. Yesterday I called our local hospital to set up some pre-parenting classes. Matt and I decided to attend two classes infant CPR and Prepared Childbirth Education and also attend a hospital tour. But what really made this speed of the pregnancy a reality was the realization that in less than a month we are going to begin our prepared childbirth education class!

I can not wait for the end product of this pregnancy, but are we ready...will we ever be really ready? At the beginning I thought 9 months to prepare was such a very long time, now I am realizing that really it is not much time at all.

Guests

Matt and I had friends come over for Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. It was fun to sit and talk, play games, and play with their 2 year old and 6 month old (makes us even more anxious for our own little one to come!)

I noticed that one great benefit to company is that the house gets SPOTLESS! I wanted to take pictures because the house looked so nice, but the batteries in my camera are not working. Now that the company has gone, the house still looks nice and will be fairly easy to get it back to the nicer status.

Cleaning is not my most favorite thing to do, but company is a great incentive to get it done, and get it done well. I need more people to come over...and I need more people to come over more often!

What we found...In the compost?

Soon after we moved into our new house, Matt made these wonderful compost boxes for us to use (since we both were interested in gardening and compost). The boxes do a great job. The reason that they might look a little odd at this moment is that they have removable sides so that you can mix the two boxes when turning the compost, so the sides are down on most of the boxes.

When walking up to the compost box, you would not expect to see anything odd. Well about a month ago we started to see something odd but we ignored it. That is until...
We had to pick it. Yes, somehow we had a pumpkin growing in our compost bin. We did not plant it there (or at least not on purpose). We think that it might have been a stray seed that entered the compost from when we made jack-o-lanterns last year.
We watched our pumpkin grow. We were completely amazed that we had a pumpkin. Then this past Sunday we noticed that the leaves were not long for the world and that the pumpkin was completely orange. Time for us to pick it!

Here is Matt showing off both his pumpkin and the compost boxes (both of which he is very proud of...and should be)
My turn with the pumpkin...it is on my head because that is where Matt placed it very quickly before he snapped the picture.
Yep. 11 pounds and 3 ounces. This is going to make some wonderful pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin....oh, I am getting hungry!
Since I am hungry I will finish off with a picture of some of the wonderful "Dagwood" sandwiches that Matt made this weekend. When we have produce coming from the garden these are regular staples at our house. Pickles made from the cucumber that we grew, tomatoes fresh from the garden....oh, these sandwiches are fabulous!

I love our garden :)

It has been too long!

On Friday I was busy at home straightening up and sewing roman shades. When Matt was to come home, no dinner was cooked and no ideas for dinner were in the plans.

On his way home he called me and I mentioned that there was no dinner planned. We decided to dine out that evening - It did not take too much convincing. Matt even asked me if I would like to make a date out of it :) So off to Franks Pizza we went. Frank's Pizza is a local pizza parlor that two of our neighbors had told us about and said was wonderful. Since it was a date, first I made sure to dress up and look presentable since I have not had too many reasons to get dressed up recently.

When we got to Franks we sat at a booth off to the side, and ordered a very nice pizza to share. Then we sat for at least an hour talking over plans, dreams, stories from the past, and anything else that came to our minds. Suddenly Matt looks at me and said "This really feels like we are on a date, doesn't it?" I got to thinking about it, but sure enough it felt like a date that we would have had before we got married.

Since getting married we have gone out to eat, or to the movies, but we always rush to get home and do projects or go shopping for the house, or something. It has been too long since we have just lingered over a nice dinner and enjoyed each other.

Appointment #4

On Tuesday of this past week Matt did not go to work on time. In fact he went many hours late. This is because we had our detailed sonogram and doctor's visit at 9:30 am. So after a bit of a relaxing morning we went to see the doctor. Once at the office we had to wait awhile but fortunately Matt had his iPhone with him, so we took turns playing a very fun game on his phone. Then we got called back to the sonogram room. I got gelled up and we got to see our little one again!

The heart rate was bounding along at a good 145 bpm. And we did find out what we are having... Let me just say that our little girl was either very tired, or very stubborn because she was not moving into the positions that the nurse wanted her in to take the many many pictures that she desired to have. We did get to see our little girl elbowing, kicking me, and also jumping on all fours (much like a bucking bronco). I did not feel a thing, but it was entertaining to watch. The nurse finally gave up and I had my meeting with the doctor.

The doctor said all is going well, and there are no questions or concerns. So he sent be back to the nurse to have yet another sonogram...hoping that our little girl might have moved, or might cooperate a little better this time. Well, let's just sum this up in one word "NOPE!" She was just as hard to get pictures of as she was before. So they are planning on trying to get the desired pictures at the next doctor's appointment that I have in a month.

But I must say, that in all that they did see...all looks good and there is nothing obvious to be concerned about, that was very reassuring to me.

Since I have time this summer, I have been trying to work hard at my desired sewing projects. And the one that I just finished that I wished to include into this blog is that I finally finished recovering the bumper pad for the crib (both of which we inherited).
The above picture shows how great the bumper pad goes with two of the pieces of art that I want to include in the nursery. First of all Rainbow Fish was a Christmas present from a co-worker when I was a librarian. Look at those blues and those other bright colors! The second picture is a little dog sitting among yellow flowers. This came from my mother-in-law. I do not think that you can see how well the yellows and the greens of the picture goes with the walls but I think that you can tell that it will look great with all of the blues. Thanks Sue!
A close up of how the colors of the flowers go with the walls. I am so glad that everything that we have pulled together from many stores and been given are coming together to make a fabulous nursery.One last shot. I am just so impressed at how it turned out. It was harder to do than I thought, but it is done...now to the next project!

Stephanie, Harry, and Andrea...

A week ago Friday one of my friends from my hometown came down to visit for the weekend.
Friday the 24th Stephanie (someone I have known since childhood) drove down to visit Matt and I.
She arrived at about 5:30 pm, we had a wonderful dinner followed by a great movie.

One of the main reasons that Stephanie came down was to see the new Harry Potter movie. Stephanie and I had watched almost all of the other Harry Potter movies together, so it just seemed right. Matt, Stephanie, and I all agreed that it was a great movie...we want to read all of the books again...and we can not wait for the next two movies.

Saturday we slept in, enjoyed a walk and a few video games before heading out for a GE party. GE (the GE Leaders Of Tomorrow group) had a social gathering. We attended only to find that the host had his parents there. His mother was a great teacher friend of mine so Stephanie and I spent most of the party talking to Becky and just having a good time in general.

We left the party early to be able to drive down to Smith Mountain Lake and have dinner with another friend from childhood, Cris and Andrea. On our ride down there, we relied on the Iphone GPS which was not the best of ideas. We began to climb mountains and the paved road turned into gravel which turned into dirt, which eventually led us to not getting the desired traction with the Honda Fit. The cliff straight up on one side and straight down on the other were not that comforting either. But we made it to the resturant in time (with a minute to spare).

Dinner was great, and followed by a fun evening of converstaion on the dock of the rented lake house that Cris and Andrea were staying at for the week.

The weekend ended with her leaving on Sunday around noon, and many wonderful memories left behind.

Grades

It is final.
Classes are over!
I got my final grades for my two last library classes.
Amy will not be surprised....
I got two A's!

Now I will have to work with the DOE to add my endorsement onto my teaching license....