Sting'em is in the Band

Ah, Rock Band. I was first introduced to this game on the Road Trip with the YW. Now Daniel Nunes has brought it into our home and Greg and he have been playing it in the evenings. Daniel is on the guitar while Greg is on drums. Greg was really getting into the whole band thing and pounding furiously on the drums. Sting'em, I'm sure enjoying the racket, I mean sweet music as much as I was, starting barking and howling. I guess he had become the lead singer for their little band, as Greg called out, "Sting'em's part of the band now!" This cracked Daniel up to the point where he couldn't continue playing. After that they even named their band "Sting' em". The sight of Sting'em on his hind legs, dancing and barking trying to join in the fun was too funny. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I am sure that I will be subject to this again, I'll take a picture next time.

College Football Season

It has officially begun! Yes, that's right, the start of college football season. What does this mean to me? Well, it means that I know what I am doing everyday Saturday from now until December. I know this because Greg plans our Saturdays around when the games begin. And I can expect an upcoming trip to Atlanta for a Georgia Tech game. So last night Greg watched the first Georgia Tech football via internet-it wasn't showing on TV. And on Saturday, he will attend the first UCF game with Randy White. I do enjoy a good Georgia Tech-our team of choice-game every now and then, but not every single game they show on Saturday! Too much. I am just grateful that I have so many wonderful friends whose husbands obsess over football season too. We will get through the season together as our husbands tune out everything around them but the football!

Here comes the sun

Fay has to be one of the storms we will never forget. No one would've ever thought this storm would have created the damage that it did, as it spun across Florida, affecting, I think, every county in the state making it's mark in history as being the storm that made landfall a record 4 times in Florida-with all the exiting and re-entering the state. All the time refusing to weaken. In fact, it strengthened over land. Very unlike anything I have ever seen. Days and days of nonstop rain, as it halted over central Florida. My mother, sister and her family were in the middle of it. We didn't get nearly as much as they did. In Brevard it rained from Tuesday until Friday, nonstop. I called my mom often to check on her and the family. We joked about how miserable Noah must have been, because it was hard to for us to even handle a few days on torrential downpour with not seeing the sun. Floridians need sun. After days of being drenched by Tropical Storm Fay, we were able to make it over to our condo in Cocoa Beach to check out the damage. We had heard all week about Brevard being pounded by the underestimated storm and reports were that Cocoa Beach had received 24 inches of rain. Needless to say, we were pretty worried about how much water would be in our condo that sits on the first floor. As we made our drive to the coast, the worst possible scenario in my mind, the sun began to finally peek out from the clouds. Yeah, sun! Finally! We final reached our condo and to our amazement, there was not one puddle of water in our place! Incredible! I am so grateful and feel like the luckiest person in the state of Florida. I know many, many others did not fare nearly as well as we did. After we left our condo, we drove just a little ways down A1A to where Greg lived when he first moved to Florida. Sure enough, there was about 1 ft of standing water in the road and around the homes there. Again, I felt amazingly blessed. Here are the pics from the road we were on. My heart goes out to all those with damage from this storm. I know people are still suffering from rising waters from rivers and lakes.

Move your hand

I have been feeling our little guy move around quite a bit and now it was Greg's turn. Last night, our little baby was on move, due to the juice I had consumed earlier that evening, so I told Greg to put his hand in the spot with the most activity. Of course as soon as Greg placed his hand on my tummy, the movement ceased. Greg removed his hand and sure enough the somersaults started again. So Greg put his hand there again, and again movement stopped. This time Greg decided to rub my tummy, slightly pushing on the area. Well, this got a big THWACK right back where Greg's hand was. Greg kinda jumped. It was pretty funny. Either our little boy was giving his dad a high five or saying don't touch me! I am glad that Greg was able to feel the nudge and experience a little of what I have been able to feel!

Half Way Through and It's a Boy!!!

I hit my 2o week mark this week (I can't believe I am half way there already) and it was time for our ultrasound. We did have one four weeks before, but our tiny baby was a little on the modest side and wasn't giving too much away, although the tech thought we might be having a boy, we still weren't 100% sure. We were very excited to see our baby again and I just hoped that our he/she was healthy and growing. Greg's parents were in town and my mom drove over for the appointment, so they could meet their new grandchild. We all packed into the tiny room waiting in anticipation. The first shot we got was the money shot, there is no doubt we are having a boy! There was our baby, in all his glory, showing his stuff off for the audience that had gathered around the little monitor. No longer the shy baby we saw just 4 weeks ago. I blame it on the apple juice I downed right before my appointment to get him dancing-he was a little sugared up! Or maybe he knew he had an audience and wanted to shake it for everyone! He was squirming during the entire ultrasound. But we got lots of good shots and our wonderful tech was nice enough to print them all off for us. So here he is...little Lochlan Paxton (for those who don't know, Greg served his mission in Scotland and we picked out a very Scottish name for our first son a few years back...we are still negotiating on the middle name).

Mini Lobster Season 2008

It was time for our annual Mini Lobster Season trip to the Keys. Having camped every year due to a college student's budget, we were especially looking forward to this year staying at the Coral Lagoon Resort in Marathon, which we had booked about 11 months ago. Greg's parents came down from Ohio, along with his friend since 6th grade, Adam. The McGraths also were able to join us for our adventure. The resort was gorgeous and the weather was perfect for our two day excursion. We rented a boat and the guys were put to the task of capturing our 6 lobster per person per day limit. The whole process can be tricky if you don't find a good spot. You have to tickle the lobster out from underneath their hiding places (rocks) with a tickle stick and then catch them in your net before they escape. They are pretty fast if they get past you too. We didn't catch nearly as many spiny lobster as we would've like to have caught, but we still had a blast. Greg even captured the monster lobster of the trip and a crab. We had a great time and what made it even better was returning to a resort with showers and a nice bed as opposed to a tent and campsite showers...constantly sweating. Ewww. I don't think we will ever go back to camping after our perfect resort stay. I am looking forward to next year and hopefully catching more lobster. I only hope our little baby will be half as good as Macie McGrath. She was quite the trooper and possibly the best baby ever. We had such an amazing time. Thanks Bob, Carol, and Adam for coming down from Ohio for the week. And thanks Katelyn, Michael and Macie for joining us on our trip. Can't wait until next Mini Lobster Season!