Oh Boy!

As in, we're having a BOY!!! We couldn't be more excited! Sean and I both thought we were having a boy, but it is nice to know for sure. We went in for the ultrasound yesterday and the doctor said everything looked perfect. He was curled up in a little ball and crossing his legs. I was amazed at all of the things we could see through the ultrasound. They checked his lips, heart, kidneys, stomach, nose, hands, feet, bum, veins, etc.! Here’s a short clip of part of the ultrasound. Near the beginning you can see he has his arm up by his face and it looks like he is sucking his thumb --must take after his mamma!

Our ultrasound nurse was awesome… the recording is like 30 minutes long and she labeled a lot of stuff so you can actually tell what you are looking at. The ultrasound made everything feel much more real. I am 20 weeks now-- halfway! Within these past 2 weeks I've really started to feel him moving around. It's a crazy feeling! I keep telling myself I am going to have a son and I feel so proud. I love thinking of Sean being a dad! I also love that I can go shopping and decorate the nursery now :) One cool thing about doing in vitro is I can say I have seen my baby at three days old. Here is a picture we got from the doctor:

Pretty cool huh? You’ve come a long way baby and we can wait for you to join our family!

A bunch of random updates

I realize I have been slacking on the blog posting, but it seems like we’ve been running a million miles a minute since we’ve been home—but boy oh boy is it good to be home! It’s so nice knowing my way around again and seeing friends and family. I really missed the comforts of home and having all of our things (not just what fits into the car!) around.

Sean is now officially a law student. So far he’s really been enjoying his classes and classmates. He keeps telling me how impressed he is with his professors and their accolades. He also loves the fact that he doesn’t have to shave every day and can buy caffeinated drinks on campus. He’s been riding an express bus which conveniently stops right by our townhouse and it’s a good thing because his precious Miata seems to be having issue after issue (at least our Honda was an easy and inexpensive fix). He loves that the bus has Wi-fi. I love that we don’t have to pay for the bus pass (gets it free from the law school) or gas. Here's a picture I took of him on his first day like he's off to Kindergarten and I am his proud mamma!


I jumped right back into work. I’m really happy to be back so I can physically go into work everyday. It was awesome to be able to work from home this summer, but it’s a nice change of scenery and fun seeing my co-workers again. Other than work I’ve been busy with VERY important tasks such as getting my hair cut and finding a patio set for our balcony. Life or death people. Everyone keeps asking me to post a picture of my baby belly, but I don’t really have a good bump yet. Right now I am in that stage where I just look like I’ve spent too much time with my good friends Ben & Jerry. I look forward to moving out of this stage hopefully very soon! My mom said she really popped around 5 months, so we'll see. Here's a picture we took a few days ago (I am about 19 1/2 weeks here):


We have an exciting week ahead of us—we find out whether a baby boy or girl is in our future at our doctor’s appointment on Thursday!

Road trip home

We made it! We rolled in around 2am Saturday night after our little 2300 mile jaunt across the country.

All I can say is there is no place like home! It feels so good to be in familiar surroundings. I knew I missed home, but I didn't realize how much until we walked in the door. I'm excited to see our friends and family again and I'm loving the absence of humidity. Also, no more waiting until 10pm to eat dinner-- hooray! Our waistlines will probably thank us for that. Sean got home around 4:30pm yesterday and it was such a nice change to have him home in the evening.

A lot of people have asked me what our road trips across the country are like, so this year I kept a little travel log-- it's just thrilling, believe me. You will see that you really don't want to be in on this action. It was fun MAYBE the first time-- sort of loses its luster by the 5th or 6th time around! It wasn't all bad though... it was really nice to have some time to just chill with Sean for two days straight.

Friday, August 15

8:30 am: Fill up with gas at Wawa (best gas station EVER) for $3.79/gallon hit up McDonalds for an egg mcmuffin and hit the road.

10:30 am: Pass through gorgeous PA countryside and learn that Pennsylvania does indeed have mountains.

11:00 am: Went through a long mountain tunnel where Sean proceeded to honk the horn and scare other drivers (continued to do this in every other tunnel we passed through).

12:06 pm: Laughing at idiot driver who cut us off and is tailgating a semi.

12:30 pm: Notice some of the leaves on the trees are already changing colors right outside Pittsburgh.

12:44 pm: Paid $17 toll. Ugh.

1:00 pm: Stop in a little town called Beaver and fill up for $3.79/gallon. Stopped at Subway for lunch and when we went to leave our car wouldn't shift out of park-- finally got it to work and vowed to leave it in neutral for the rest of the trip.

1:50 pm: Peace out Pennsylvania and hello Ohio!

2:14 pm: Pass giant GM plant where they build Pontiac G5's.

3:25 pm: Hear fuzzy recording on radio of song called "Wild Horses" and for some reason Sean becomes obsessed with it (he sang the chorus to the dang song about 500 times by the time we made it home).

5:00 pm: Sean snoozing in the passenger seat with his mouth wide open and Jenny is behind the wheel.

5:20 pm: Adios Ohio, Hola Indiana! Paid $10.25 toll.

6:48 pm: Stupid trucker almost runs us off the road.

6:56 pm: Seriously bored; Singing Funky Town.

7:28 pm: Paid $6.75 at toll.

6:47 pm: Goodbye Indiana, hello Illinois and central time! (Sorry, bad picture. The sun was blinding!)

8:30 pm: Make slight detour to Naperville, IL for some Lou Malnatis deep-dish pizza. We've been craving this pizza since the last time we ate it (three years ago). Yes, it really is that good.



11:00 pm: Stop for the night at the Hampton Inn in Quad Cities (border of Illinois and Iowa). Catch up on the Olympics and hit the sack. Bed feels like heaven after being cramped in the car all day.


Saturday, August 16

8:25 am: On the road again after hitting up hotel breakfast.


8:38 am: Crossed the mighty Mississippi River and enter Iowa.




8:49 am: Pass the "World's Largest Truck Stop" and the Herbert Hoover Museum. Simply exhilirating.


9:40 am: Listening to local coverage of the Iowa state fair on A.M. radio because we are already that bored. Fill up for $3.64/gallon in a place called Williamsburg.


11:01 am: Saw gas for $3.42 in Des Moines! Tired of looking at corn fields.


11:49 am: Played an intense ABC sign game. Jenny was victorious after Sean got stuck on Q. Decided Iowa isn't the best place to play this game since the signs are few and far between!

11:59 am: Welcome to Nebraska... and traffic.



2:30 pm: Stop at Wendy's for lunch in York. Filled up for $3.65/gallon.


3:00 pm: Passed through giant arch thing that is in the middle of nowhere. Still tired of looking at corn fields.



5:00 pm: Passed giant sunflower farms-- very cool. Couldn't snap a picture since I was driving and Sean was asleep!

6:35 pm: Howdy Wyoming!

7:20 pm: Stop for gas in Cheyenne for $3.63/gallon. It is freezing outside! Sean tries changing a fuse to see if it will fix our problem of the car not wanting to come out of park. Also realize our brake lights are not working-- fabulous.

9:15 pm: Go through KFC drive through. Sean puts car in park accidentally and we are stuck. Finally gets it to come out of park and we pull up to window to pay. Sean puts car in park again-- doh!

12:02 am: See ya Wyoming, hello Utah! No state sign picture because at this point I was slipping in and out of conciousness.

2:01 am: Pull in to our garage. Home sweet home!

Packing up

I’m spending my time packing for home this week. We leave Pennsylvania bright and early Friday morning and plan to be back in the Beehive State on Sunday! Since we’ve been married Sean and I have moved 12 times. Yes, 12. Actually, after this week it will be lucky number 13. The end of our moving madness is just around the bend. We’ve lived our lives in four and eight month increments for so long, I don’t have any idea what it is like to live somewhere for longer than that! I’m excited to find out.

I’ll tell you what though; I have gotten pretty darn good at packing everything we need for the summer into a Honda Accord. It’s funny because each year we end up taking less and less. I guess you start to realize just how little you need and that it’s not worth hauling extra stuff across the nation. It’s also funny because when you get home, things like a toaster and kitchen-aid seem like luxury items!

Summer sales has been a great experience for us. I can’t believe we’ve (I guess I should be saying Sean) done this for five summers now. I can see how outsiders can look at the industry with a skeptical eye—especially since the only stories you seem to hear stem from dishonest or unethical sales reps. I’ll tell you what though, I will always be grateful for the opportunities and experiences this job has provided us. We’ve made friendships for life and travelled all over this country. This job afforded us the opportunity to be financially independent, get through school and to see doctors to help us start a family. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but I truly believe it has been a giant blessing for us.

Purely for my own enjoyment, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and list some of my favorites from the past few summers:

-Searching for shells and sand dollars on Kiawah Island in South Carolina
-Visiting Navy Pier and Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago
-Touring Independence Hall and seeing the Liberty Bell
-Living close to my Uncle Brien and Aunt Jane in Colorado Springs
-Touring historic plantations around Charleston- I especially loved the bridges at Magnolia Plantation
-Visiting Washington D.C and seeing the monuments, the national archives, Arlington Cemetery, White House and Smithsonian Museums
-Sitting in rocking chairs with my family out on the big porch at Mount Vernon
-Going to see Wicked with Sean in NYC

-Hanging at the pool and reading US Weekly with friends. Also watching Heidi and Rob's kids turn into fish :)
-Finding great new places to eat like Lou Malnatis, Nona Rosa’s, California Dreamin’, Manny’s, Pat’s King of Steaks, Panera and Wawa!
-Visiting Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown
-Attending “Taste of Chicago”
-Riding in a flat-bottom boat through the Lilly pads with Sean at Cypress Gardens
-Hanging with friends at Folley Beach
-Going to Nauvoo with Sean and his parents
-Visiting King’s Dominion and riding a roller coaster that I thought would kill me

It’s been a great run and we’re excited to be coming home. One more drive across the nation and on to our next adventure!

A day at the beach-- Ocean City, NJ

We went to Ocean City this weekend with our friends Rob and Janelle. It felt great to be at the beach (even though the crazy New Jersians charge you $5 per person). The beach was really nice and it was a fun family-type atmosphere. We had a great time walking the boardwalk (where we happened to run into our friends Glade and Gina) and stuffing our faces with junk food.




mmmm... funnel cake. Watch out for the dive-bombing seagulls who try to steal your food! I saw a little girl get a piece of pizza stolen right out of her hands by one of those stupid birds. I am pretty sure seagulls are the coldsore of the earth. I made sure to guard my funnel cake with great care!

The water was definitely a lot colder than we were used to from previous summers, but I even put on a brave face and ventured in! Here's Rob and Sean being eaten by a wave:

We found a bunch of crabs in the surf and borrowed some kid's bucket and caught a few. We were highly entertained by this little activity. It's all fun and games until you feel a pinch on your foot and look down and see a big crab staring up at you. It didn't hurt, but it did creep me out!

Hard to believe, but we only have one more weekend here in Pennsylvania!