Saturday, December 15, 2007

Christmas Decorations

Since we didn't win the tree in the competition for the worst tree, we bought a pre-lit tree! Enjoy the pics!
Zach always "helps" me decorate the tree. He likes to chew on it, so I have my squirt gun ready! :)
Mike's mom gave me some beautiful gold ornaments from the Danbury Mint. Here is one of them. The pictures don't do them any justice!


Monday, December 10, 2007

More Pics of Me

I took this one of myself yesterday. I'm 22 weeks today! I noticed that Kari was wearing this top in one of her pictures on her blog, so I decided to model it, too! :)

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Pictures of Me....

This is me at Thanksgiving. I must be at least a little bigger now, because I can't wear this turtleneck anymore!


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Please vote for me!!!

Please go to WBFJ and vote for my Christmas tree. I entered a picture of my Christmas tree from last year (view that post) on WBFJ's website and I was selected as a finalist for having the worst tree. Please vote for me (it's the first picture - the ficus tree with wrapped presents under it) so I can win a pre-lit 7 1/2 ft tree from WBFJ! The last day to vote is Thursday, so please do it ASAP! Thanks for your votes!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanksgiving Weekend

Here's some pictures from our weekend in Cincinnati....




And, here is the link to the album if you'd rather see the pictures that way. Enjoy!

Btw, we're on our way home now, so I'm sure we beat everyone else posting pictures. :) Kari may be home by now, but Kevin and Tara are still at the airport!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Ultrasound Pics

I had the anatomy ultrasound this morning and we found out it's a .......




BABY!!!!

We didn't want to find out. :) So, instead of calling the baby "it", I'm going to call the baby he or him. Don't assume it's a boy....I just don't want the hassle of he/she. If you have any better ideas on how I can handle this, please let me know. :)

Talk about alien baby..... He has his arms up beside the face....he is looking at you!



Foot...



Leg....




Profile...


Isn't this the most beautiful baby you've ever seen?

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Pics from NY




If you'd like to see the pictures at your own pace, here is a link to the website. Make sure you check out the video below. :)

More Pics from NY

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

David's Dedication

Here are some pictures from David's dedication in NY this past weekend. I'll post more from the weekend later.




Saturday, October 27, 2007

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain....

After going about 6 months with hardly any rain, it has been raining non-stop since Wednesday. The grass is turning green again and the river I cross on my way to school is almost out of its banks. It's so nice to see rain....well....almost....

On Sunday, my nephew David is going to be dedicated at church, so we decided to fly up to NY for the weekend. We got to the airport yesterday around 4:00 for our 5:57 flight to Laguardia only to discover that the flight was delayed due to rain. Delayed so much that we would miss our connecting flight to Albany. So they decided to reroute us to Philadelphia because that flight was leaving at 6:00. (It was supposed to have left at 3:00.) So, we decided to change to Philly even though Mike thought better about it. He doesn't ever have good luck flying through Philly, but we tried it anyway. By the time we went through security and got to the gate, the flight was delayed even more....until 7:30....just like our Laguardia flight. We didn't want to get stuck in Philadelphia, so we looked for more options. They could send us through Charlotte, but what if those flights were cancelled? We'd be stuck in NC. So we switched back to Laguardia and decided to get a rental car and drive the 3 hours to Kevin's house. Our 7:30 flight was delayed until 8:00, so we didn't get to Laguardia until 9:00. When we got there, we discovered that our original 2nd flight had been delayed until 10:30. Had we kept our original plan, we would have made it to Albany by midnight. Instead, we drove until midnight and were still 90 minutes from Kevin's house. AND, we rented a car in Laguardia that had to be dropped off in Albany so we could pick up another one for the free weekend rental we were getting. (This was the cheapest thing we could do.) So, we got a hotel room, got up this morning and drove to Albany. When we got to Avis to switch out the cars, they let us keep the one we had! Yay! So, now we're almost to Kevin's house and it's noon on Saturday. We have to leave tomorrow afternoon for our flights home, so it'll be a much shorter trip than originally planned. At least it's not supposed to rain tomorrow!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

For Mom....

....and anyone else who is curious about what I look like now. There's not much of one, but I do have a little bump!


This is me at 14 weeks.


Posted by Picasa


Here's a video from an ultrsound at 10 1/2 weeks.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Family Routine

You have GOT to check out this video!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Burger Recipe

For Sarah....copied from Robin's website :)


Mini Burger Cookies
Makes 40
Planning Tip: Can be made up to 3 days ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

INGREDIENTS:
1 can vanilla frosting
Yellow, red and green liquid food color
1 Cup sweetened shredded coconut
80 vanilla wafer cookies
40 small round chocolate peppermint cookies (Keebler Grasshoppers work well)

PREPARATION:
1. Put half of can of frosting in a small bowl; add yellow food color to tint yellow.
2. Repeat with other half of frosting, except add red food color.
3. Stir green food color into coconut until coconut is green.
4. Place a small dab of yellow vanilla frosting on flat side of 40 vanilla wafers.
5. Place a small dab of red vanilla frosting on the flat side of another 40 vanilla wafers.
6. Top each yellow-frosted wafer with a peppermint cookie "burger," pressing lightly to adhere.
7. Sprinkle with coconut “lettuce” on top of the burger, then add the red-frosted vanilla wafer frosted-side down to the top of the coconut-covered burger, pressing to adhere

Your final product will look like tiny little burgers that taste like "little bits of heaven"!

Or you can see the recipe on the Woman's Day website. I used Robin's variation.

Thanks, Robin! :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

New Post

For those of you who were asking if we had the freezer open outside, refer to my post on August 11th. :)

There....now I have a new post! :)

Monday, September 3, 2007

Misc. Things

I started working on this post over a week ago, but it was being slow so I gave up. Anyway...
Do these look familiar? I used Robin's idea for these burger cookies....oh...about a month ago and they were a big hit! They were really fun to make, too. If you can get to her post, here is the recipe.















Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Freezer

Our freezer is fixed! The technician came by on Saturday and found a leak. It didn't cost us anything to have it fixed. Yay! I should be really excited, right? Well, guess what? The freezer still STINKS!!!!!! The guy said to put dryer sheets in it (which we have done) and Mike's mom told us to clean it with bleach (which we have not done, yet) to get rid of the smell. The technician said he's never had anyone not get the smell out. Well, we could be the first ones! We've brought it back into the garage, but when you open the door.........watch out! I'm sure there will be more to this story to come later.....

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Ugh!!

So, we got home from Florida yesterday around 10 pm. When we got there, Mike opened the garage door and got out. I was still in the car and we both started smelling this awful smell! It smelled like something had died outside. As we walked through the garage, it started smelling stronger, and as we entered the basement, it was even worse! We thought that something had surely died there and was possibly in the wall. We couldn't really tell where it was coming from, but the whole basement smelled terrible! It even started to smell on the main level.



Well, after a little investigating, Mike discovered that it was our freezer....our practically brand-new, just-OVER-a-year-old freezer. It had stopped working. It was running, just not cooling. We realized that we hadn't opened it in at least 2 weeks and had been smelling something for at least that long, but very faintly. (We thought it might be the kitty litter box, even though Mike cleaned it out several times.) So, Mike emptied the freezer and got it out of the house. By then, the smell had wafted throughout the entire house, and what's worse? We had a huge, I mean huge (like 25 lbs) bag of coffee beans in there. The coffee seems to be ok, but the smell throughout the house is like rotted coffee! So while we were at the grocery store today and passed by the coffee aisle, I thought I was going to be sick from the smell! And, you may notice in some of these pictures that our windows are open to air out the house even though it's 86* outside. That's actually pretty good because while we were in Florida it was 104* here!




So, what do you do with a freezer that's not working and is just out of the year warranty? Any suggestions? We haven't checked to see how much it will cost to get it fixed. Surely that will be cheaper than buying another one!
















This is Mike trying to scare me into not taking his picture by telling me to look at the HUGE moth that is behind me. I didn't fall for it....

















Here we have the basement door open with a fan blowing out trying to air it out.

















We also lit candles all over to help cover up the smell.



















Here is our bag of coffee when we got it just a month ago.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Cool View...

Mike needed to visit some customers in Florida, so I went with him and we got to see the shuttle launch. It was so cool! I've never seen anything like it. When it was pretty high in the sky, we finally heard the thunder from the take-off.....powerful!














Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Another picture...

Here is Sarah's hospital picture. It is just precious!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

I'm an Aunt Again!!

Sarah Elaine Terhune was born yesterday at 3:02 PM weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and 20 in long. I stole a picture from Kari's blog, but you can see more here.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

More of little David...




Kevin has posted pictures on his blog of his new little boy, David. You can see them here. Enjoy!!

Monday, July 16, 2007

David Kevin Newell

Since I doubt that Kevin will post pictures of his new baby on his blog, I will! Here he is! David Kevin Newell.... You can read more info about him in yesterday's post.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

He's here!!!

I am an aunt again!! David Kevin Newell (at least I assume they're naming him that) was born this morning at 4:06 AM. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz (which is what Kevin weighed when he was born) and was 20 1/2 inches long. I haven't spoken to Kevin or Tara yet, and will hopefully do that soon, but according to mom, Tara wasn't even in the hospital for an hour when he was born! I can't wait to see him!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Kia


Well, we had to put Kia to sleep yesterday morning. We did it in the back of the Expedition because she loved to go for rides. Mike held her head while I scratched her back. It was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make. She went downhill suddenly on Tuesday and we knew it was time. Mike made a box for her and we buried her next to one of her favorite apple trees beside the pond where she grew up. (She used to pick apples off of those trees and then eat the whole apple, core and all.) It's really hard for us to be at home right now because we remember things she's done in each room. Given time, it will get better, but we're missing her an awful lot right now. Thank you all for your prayers. They have been felt.


Now, enough with the depressing posts. I'll try to post something happier next time....

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Kia

We found out on Thursday that Kia has cancer in her lymphnodes....well at least one back near her bowels. The lymphnode is supposed to be the size of a lima bean, but Kia's is the size of a smoked sausage. It's inoperable. Kia hasn't been eating real dog food...at least not since she left the vet's on Monday and came home. We took her back on Wednesday and the vet did a laparotomy on Thursday morning. That's when he found the cancer. We take Kia to the vet every day to get fluids and some medication and then bring her home every night because we don't want her last few days to be at the vet's. We've been giving her some liquid food through a syringe and she does seem to perk up after that. She seems happy and still loves to go for rides. We're just waiting to see what will happen. The vet did say that when we decided it was time, he would come out to the house...he doesn't do that for just anybody, but since Kia is such a sweet dog and is always wagging her tail and is such a good patient, he would come here. Mike and I are both pretty upset. We weren't expecting this so soon. Please keep us in your prayers...

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Update on my student...

I finally got to talk to my student's mom today and she said to tell you all, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers!" They have definitely felt them and even though mom and dad were nervous and worried, they knew that God was in control and that everything would be fine. He came through the 4 1/2 - 5 hour surgery great! He's been in a lot of pain, but now that the morphine pump is working he's feeling much better and has been sleeping all morning. They started him on clear liquids yesterday and will be having them today and then they might start him on a soft diet tomorrow. He must be eating an almost normal diet before he leaves the hospital so they're anticipating him being there a week before he can go home. As far as I know he does not have Crohn's and will not have to have a bag. I didn't ask any details, but since the surgery went smoothly he didn't have to have a bag. His mom is just amazed at how well he is doing and knows that it's because of all of the prayers....even from people they don't know. God is so amazing!!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Please pray for....

...my "babies" Kia (dog) and Zach (cat). They are both in the vet hospital because they won't eat. Zach was at the vet's for 2 days earlier in the week because he couldn't go to the bathroom, and now he's not eating. We took them both to the vet's today and the docs still don't know what's wrong with them. I hope they can get them to eat and figure out what's wrong so they can come home soon. I hope you don't think I'm silly requesting prayer for our pets, but they're my babies....

Also, one of my students, a 17-year-old guy, is having his colon removed on Monday. He's nervous and his family is worried, too, so please pray that the surgery will go smoothly and he will recover quickly. And, that his mom and family will not worry but trust Jesus to be the ultimate healer.

Thank you!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Finally....

...I'm free!!! I'm free!!! I'm free!!! I can't say it enough....I'm free! Well, at least for the next 2 months! :)

Monday, May 28, 2007

Chesapeake VA - again!!

We made it back to Chesapeake again! This time we came on Friday, and we're on our way home now....about 2 1/2 hours left to go! I have some pictures of me to post, but they're on my laptop and I'm using Mike's now since he has the aircard to get on the internet. Kari mentioned the fact that Kia rides the jet ski, so here are some pictures of her on the jet ski. If I could ever figure out how to put a video on here, I would show you the one were Mike was on the jet ski and Kia went crazy because she wanted a ride! She's hilarious!











Saturday, May 12, 2007

Chesapeake VA

My parents-in-law own a house at Chesapeake Bay, and we've finally made it up here again. We try to come up at least once or twice during the summer, but we didn't make it at all last summer. We came up on Friday and we'll have to go home on Sunday, but Mike's parents are also here, so we're getting to spend time with his mom for Mother's Day. We usually go out on the boat or jet ski, but it was supposed to be cold and rainy all day, so we didn't even bring the jet ski. I brought a bunch of cold-weather clothes and only one pair of old stay-at-home shorts. Well, guess what? It didn't rain at all today! It was bright and sunny and hot outside! Mike and Kia were out on a kayak this afternoon, and I got sunburned while watching and taking pictures of them! Then, as we were fixing dinner, it got cloudy and the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees. It's freezing now!

We have had a great relaxing day....I got to sleep in and read outside on the deck. What a nice pre-vacation before school is out! :) Here are some pictures of Mike and Kia on the kayak. Kia acts like she's supposed to be in the kayak. "Don't all dogs do this?" :)


Monday, April 30, 2007

Curly v. Straight???

In order to keep some entertained :) I decided to post this picture from our church directory. It's about 2 years old, but it features my straight hair as opposed to my naturally curly hair. I haven't straightened it in almost a year, but what do you think? Who likes it better straight and who likes it better curly? I'm kinda gettin' in the mood to straighten it again, but now that summer is upon us with the heat and humidity, it might not work too well. (Maybe since my hair is so dark in these pictures I should get it lightened!) :)



Don't ask....I think we were showing off our newly painted fingernails! :)