Ice, Ice, Baby

Anyone that has ever worked in an elementary school knows that you look forward to snow days more than you did when you were in school. Typically I would yell at the person at the other end of a 5:30a.m. phone call for waking me up, but I love when it's the automated message telling us that school has been cancelled! On Tuesday, school was cancelled because we had freezing rain overnight. It actually made all of the trees look really pretty, but the roads weren't so pretty. On Tuesday night, I was surprised to hear that they had already cancelled school for Wednesday since they usually wait until the morning of. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, it was snowing and there was less than an inch on the ground. Our power went out a few times, but luckily it went right back on. It's kind of funny to think that they cancel school down here with less than an inch on the ground, when Ohio is getting over a foot of snow!

Lucy LOVES to play in the snow and she loves it even more when she gets to play with Mason and Daisy. Mason and Daisy are our neighbors' dachshunds and they love to play! She gets a lot of playdates with them!

First baby pictures!!

We went back to the doctor today for another checkup. I had to get a physical and all of the other fun exams that come with pregnancy. I just love being poked and prodded on...haha...guess I better get used to it! The doctor tried to listen to the heartbeat using the doppler thing and we didn't have any luck. I knew that it was a little early to be able to hear it since I'm not at 10 weeks yet, but it was still a little nerve-racking when we couldn't hear anything. She ordered an ultrasound so that we could see the heartbeat instead. We went back this afternoon and had the ultrasound done and we were able to see our baby for the first time! The heart was fluttering away at 176 beats per minute. It was probably the coolest thing that we have ever seen! It was such a relief to see the baby and the heartbeat going strong.

I think now it has set in and this experience is a reality! I have another appointment in 4 weeks for another checkup. It feels like August is so far away, but I'm sure that time will fly by!

I have realized that I don't suffer from morning sickness...it's "night" sickness. The hardest time of the day for me seems to be right before dinner. I just get really nauseous and of course that doesn't help me when deciding what to cook for dinner! I consider myself lucky though because I really haven't been that sick and I've been feeling great except I get very tired sometimes! We are very, very excited that we got to see the baby and we're looking forward to seeing him/her grow!!

Orange Bowl!

Welcome to Miami!!!

Such beautiful weather and it was wonderful to see so many friends there! We stayed at the Hyatt in Downtown Miami which was also the hotel where all of the students stayed. Bus loads of students arrived that afternoon and the hotel was just packed!! UC held a pep rally downstairs where Coach Kelly and a few players made speeches. It was such an awesome environment to see everyone so excited about UC football...and the fact that we were in Miami and there were so many people there!!

After the pep rally we ordered some pizzas and got ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. We went to a place in South Beach called Opium Garden. It was fun to hang out with friends, but it just wasn't our scene...way too many people and just too "clubby". We ended up getting back to the hotel around 2:00a.m. after FINALLY finding a cab to take us there!!

The next day, it was time for the Orange Bowl!!!! We got down to Dolphin Stadium around 12:30 and hung out at the tailgate spot all day. Budweiser sponsored a big event with lots of things to do and UC had an alumni tent where we could hang out. It was a great time, but we were definitely ready for the game to start. The game finally kicked off around 8:00 or 8:30. It was such an awesome experience!! I got chills when they played the National Anthem and when the team came out. The game started out pretty good for the Bearcats, but just didn't end up like we had planned. It was a disappointing loss, but we were just glad to be there and our fans definitely outnumbered Virginia Tech's! Even though the Bearcats couldn't take home the Orange Bowl trophy, Jeff and I still got to spend some time with it.

Before we headed to the airport on the 2nd, we walked around downtown to get some lunch and do some shopping. We ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. which was decent. I didn't have much of an appetite, but it was neat to see some of the memorabilia from the making of Forrest Gump which happens to be one of my favorite movies. My brother-in-law, Patrick, and I are masters of quoting the movie! I cracked up when I looked down at our table to see one of my favorite quotes written on it...

All in all, it was a great couple of days! Now it's back to reality and back to work...