It's a GIRL!!!

Derek and I are VERY excited to announce that we are having a GIRL!!! The ultrasound and doctor appointment went well, she is big and healthy! She weighs about 13 ounces...almost a pound, and she is in the 76th percentile. They are thinking the due date might be about 5 days earlier than expected, but they aren't changing the "official" due date just quite yet.

The first picture below is the 10 week ultrasound...it is amazing how much SHE (he he he) has grown.

Now the 20 week pictures....I like the profile picture below, because you can see pretty clearly the head (to the right) and the butt (to the left) with the leg sticking up.



This one is cool to....she is giving us the "thumbs up" sign...it looks like thumbs down...but she is upside down...sooooo thumbs up it is!!!!

The ultrasound appointment was definitely a highlight! They took video and pictures for about 30 minutes. It was so cool to be able to see her...she stayed put and gave us the definitive "girl" shot and a few profile pics, then she started moving around like crazy...probably because she was tired of getting poked! :) I was sad when she stopped...I could have watched the baby move around all day.

As for me...I have gained 10 pounds, which is right where I should be, not too much, not too little. All of our tests and bloodwork have come back clear of any diseases or complications...no down syndrome or cystic fibrosis etc. Derek and I are just happy to know that Peanut is a little girl and healthy as can be. Thanks to everyone for your love and support!

Get your Vote on....

Tomorrow is the big day!! By this time tomorrow, we will know whether our little baby is a boy or girl. But in the mean time...what do you think?? It may be tough since I haven't seen a lot of you....but give it the ole college try anyways.

So far, this is how the Lloyd side of the family and a few friends have weighed in:
Emily - Girl
Derek - Girl
Ryan - Boy
Katie - Boy
Mom - Boy
Dad - Boy
Allison B. - Boy
Julie - Girl
Shannon - Boy

So as you can see...there are a lot of boy votes out there...let me know what you think!

More evidence to Mom's theory....

So my mom has a theory that our little Peanut is going to have Red hair. At first I thought...well, maaayyyybe....two of my uncles and two of my cousins have red hair...it could be possible. Then, Derek's brother Chad came to town this past weekend and he had scanned some of the family pictures when he was back in Kansas City for Thanksgiving, and after seeing the picture below of my husband, I think my Mom might be on to something!!!

I think this is the cutest picture of Derek I have ever seen. :)

Pregnancy Update

We are 16 weeks along! For those non-parents out there, that is 4 months. :) I was happy to get out of the first trimester, not because of sickness, just because that is when most of the bad stuff happens, so now I can relax.

I had a doctor appointment yesterday and Peanut is healthy with a strong heartbeat. She actually kicked the microphone when we were listening to the heartbeat, it was pretty funny. You will note, I alternate between calling it "he" and "she" because I really don't like calling Peanut "it"....just doesn't seem right.

I seemed to sail through the first trimester, with almost no sickness, but a lot of fatigue. Derek and I are definitely on different schedules.... I want to go to bed at 8:30pm and he is just getting home from practice. That is getting better, I can actually stay up all the way until 10 pm now! :)

It is now finally starting to sink in that we are having a baby, I didn't go to a maternity clothes store or a baby store until about 3 weeks ago! I think I was trying not to jinx it. Last Saturday Mom and I went shopping and actually went in a baby store, now that was FUN!! Everything is so cute and little! That got me really fired up. :)

Baby names - we are going to keep these under wraps until he is born, Derek and I have a hard time agreeing on names to begin with, and it is hard to try to take everyone's opinions and make them happy. We are going to pick a name that we feel is right for our baby boy or girl. We love suggestions as we really don't have any favorites yet though! Ryan has come up with quite a few good ones.

Mom is convined that there is a good chance Peanut could have red hair. Why you ask? Both of my Uncle's have red hair, and two of my cousins. My Uncle Rob and cousin Micah on my Dad's side and my Uncle Tom and Cousin Jeff on my Mom's side. Who knows.....those recessive gene's are hard to predict. I am still not quite sure how I got curly hair! lol.

The baby will be born at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland Washington, where my Mom has worked in their Family Maternity Center for the past....20+ years. Has it been 25 Mom? I can't remember. Anyhow, I know we will be taken care of, we got our "VIP" tour yesterday when we went to the doctor. Mom is busy picking out our nurses and she already picked out our doctor. It is nice to have someone on the "inside".

I am happy to say I have only gained about 6-7 pounds. Not too bad! I did finally get a couple of maternity tops that are a tad more comfortable. With the baby growing, all of my intestines, stomach etc. are all shifting up, and the top part of my belly is sticking out. I think that is annoying...the bottom part of my belly should stick out...not the top! Not that you all need to know this, but my boobs are obnoxiously big, Derek doesn't think so, but I do! That was the main reason for the maternity tops. lol.

Derek has been really supportive, not commenting on my fat rolls or stretch marks, but being really enthusiastic about the weight gain in my chest! :) It has to be hard for guys, women go through all these crazy changes week by week and men have to just sit there and watch. There really isn't anything you can do until the baby gets here, it has to be a long 9 months with a crazy wife.

That is the latest and greatest! I promise to keep you updated more often, December 30th is the big day for the ultrasound to determine if it is a He or a She. Can't wait!

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! Dad hosted at his house, with some decorating assistance from Mom (of course!). Derek had a few basketball players and I had a friend from work that couldn't go home for the Holiday, so we had our "Orphan" thanksgiving. So in total we had Mom, Dad, Katie, Derek, Ryan, Allison, Valeeta, Phee and myself. Dad cooked the biggest turkey I have ever seen....30 pounds!! Dinner was fabulous. We hung out, played some Uno attack and Phase 10. It was a good Turkey day all around. :)

Mom gave out personalized Christmas ornaments to everyone, she used to do this at Christmas, but it was kind of a bummer to get an ornament when Christmas was basically over, so she decided to do it at Thanksgiving...and all of them were fantastic!

I got a ceramic "snowman couple", and the snowlady had a baby bump! It said Derek and Emily, Christmas 2008. VERY CUTE! Her and my sister also made an ornament of Peanut! They took a peanut, drew a face on it, put curly red hair (see pregnancy update blog) and wrapped it in part of my baby blanket from when I was little. It is very special. I actually got teary eyed putting it on the tree on Sunday.

Katie, Dad and Allison all got cat ornaments, Katie has a new kitten and Dad has his Lucy. Random side note - where did all these CAT people come from!!!!!. Ryan, Valeeta and Phee got baketball ornaments, and Derek got an ornament of a Dolphin holding a ball....very cool!

Coach Derek

This picture is from the championship game of the Shoreline Turkey Shoot tournament. Derek ws a little fired up for this game. I think he is yelling more than he did last year...it takes some adjusting to get used to. :) By the way people....I did say CHAMPIONSHIP GAME...thats something that I didn't get to say let alone think last year!!!

Basketball Basketball Basketball

Basketball season is here and it is our favorite, busy, time of year. Shoreline did a cool poster I thought I would share with you all, they look pretty bad ass don't they??

First Look....

The Lady Dolphins finished their "exhibition seaon" 3-0, after finishing last years 0-3. :) They beat South Puget Sound CC by 9 points on Saturday afternoon. Last year SPS beat us by 25 and they returned 3 of their starters from last year. Good indicator of things to come. But now, sadly, they are back to 0-0 for their regular season which begins Friday afternoon at the Shoreline Turkey Shoot Tournament. The team pics are in, here is your first look at the 2008 lady dolphins.

Made my day....

I had a rough week at work this week, and a friend forwarded this to me and totally made my day. I have been watching it non-stop for the past hour. LOL.

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

If there is nothing on the screen other than a white pad...check back later and hopefully they will be back!

Enjoy!!!

Basketball season has begun....

I say that like basketball season was ever actuall over....lol. Basketball season is (officially) here and the Lady Dolphins are in action, having finished their first two exhibition games. The first game was last Saturday against Pierce CC. They showed up with 15 girls, we had 8. We got off to a slow start, but managed to pull ahead by 14 at halftime. The second half was a little challenging mentally, they came out and let Pierce close the gap to one, but never giving up the lead. They pulled through and won by 15.

The second exhibition game was this past weekend in Bellingham, the Lady Dolphins played against the Northwest Indian College and it wasn't even close. Against Pierce, they didn't run their full court press because they are going to play them again in a few weeks. When they put their press in against NWIC....dang are they tough. The Native girls were VERY physical pushing and shoving, but they couldn't keep up with the speed of the Dolphins. They won by 45 points, 86-41. Needless to say the coaches were pretty happy! Last year in the 5 wins combined for Shoreline, they won by 54 points. In their 2 games this year they have won by 60. Let's just say this team is a little more fun to watch. ;) Wow...that was a lot of math for me...I'm done now. :)

Elvis has left the building.....

Ahhh....the much awaited Elvis pictures! This year was a bit different than the past few years. Derek and I have to go straight from practice/work and we basically have to haul ass to get there before they start trick or treating, we got to them when they were on their second house. Not to bad. :) The past few years it has been Ryan and his step-brother and sister. This year it was the entire (league champion) Trenton Thunder baseball team. Another sign that Ryan is growing up, it was "Hi Dad, Hi Em, Bye Dad, Bye Em" and off he went! I will put pictures up a bit later of the Monroe neighborhood, but I am running out of time....Enjoy Elvis, he looked Awesome!!

At each house, he said in his best Elvis voice "Thank you...Thank you very much"
The leisure suit was so perfect, he has the perfect proportions to make it look good!

Pumpkins...

So they looked MUCH better before we put them outside....the squirrels have been well fed! This was Ryan's skull pumpkin before they ate most of the skulls face! He did all the carving himself. Look at how the squirrels tried to scrape away the top. Hungry bastards.

This is Derek's pumpkin....the squirrels definitely liked Ryan's better...lol.
This is the front of our house....we are getting settled, although my decorating skill suck, we have really liked being in Shoreline, especially now that basketball has started.

Election Day / Halloween update

I got some great pics of Elvis on Halloween, but am having technical difficulties (as always) getting them on the page. I should have them up by tonight...I know, famous last words. :)

Happy Election Day! I don't know that I have ever been so excited to vote before. I was at my polling place 5 minutes before the polls opened at 7am. I happily voted for Obama, after reading his "Plan for Change", he is who I decided is best suited for that position. My despise for Sarah Palin might have had something to do with it too though. ;)

All I know for sure though is that I am so ready for all the crazy political adds to be over! Back to the normal commercials....90% of which feature Peyton Manning. Ha!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Derek & I are heading out to Monroe tonight to go Trick - or - Treating with Ryan. Good news! I borrowed a camera from a friend so I will hopefully have some good pics of Elvis! If we are REALLY lucky, maybe even a video of him shaking his hips. LOL!

Check back tomorrow!

Weekend with Ryan

We had Ryan with us this past weekend, so we decided to carve pumpkins. Derek carved a crazy mask that looks sort of like the Phantom of the Opera mask and Ryan carved a skull pattern, and I....well, I supervised...sort of.

It is hard to believe how fast Ryan is growing up! He needed a little help getting all of the pumpkin "guts" out and drawing the pattern, but he did ALL of the carving by himself. It was crazy! We were so proud of our pumpkins, we put them out on our front porch so the neighborhood can enjoy them, low and behold a squirrel ate most of the face of Ryan's pumpkin (thankfully he had gone back to his Mom's by then). So now, we are basically adding to our already domesticated squirrels. Dad...can we borrow your pellet gun for a while? :)

I had another Doctor appointment yesterday, this one was with the actual Doctor. She is a very nice lady and Derek and I both liked her a lot. All of my blood work and tests came back good and healthy, and we will head back to the Doctor in 5 weeks. For those of you wondering, we ARE going to find out if it is a boy or girl, and we will find that out on December 30th.

Our Little Peanut

Well, for those of you who don't know, Derek and I are having a baby! We are due May 21, 2009. I am 10 weeks along and almost done with my first trimester. We had our first doctors appointment today, which went great, I wasn't expecting to have an ultra sound today, but did! The pics are below, they are pretty fuzzy, but you get the gist. The baby's heartrate was strong and Peanut is just the right size for 10 weeks so we decided to share our news. Yes, it is 2 weeks early, but neither of us are very good at keeping secrets. We are beyond excited to add a little brother or sister for Ryan.

For those that need interpretation - in the picture above, the head is to the left and the body is to the right the line pointing down is the umbilical cord.
Above - Head to the right, body to the left.

This one is really fuzzy. lol

October 20th...

Hi All,

It has been a long time since I have blogged, so I thought I would give you all an update on the Witt's and what we have going on.

Derek - Today is the first day for "Official" Lady Dolphin basketball practice. All they have been able to do so far is conditioning, needless to say, the girls are tired of running stairs with dumbells in their hands, running timed miles around the track and doing sit ups. All of which my husband loves torturing them with! :) We are getting excited for the season, the Lady Dolphins look to be a lot more promising than last year. (thank god!) Derek has also been busy working at the school setting up for all of the sporting events and managing the work study kids that take tickets etc. He is also getting his feet wet at Cloud 9 sports where he is selling merchandise.

Ryan - Ryan is doing great, he is in 3rd grade now, we are hoping to have his school pictures back when we see him this weekend, we will be sending copies out to the family, not to worry! :) He is excited for Halloween, he is going to be none other than ELVIS. I think that is hysterical. He has been practicing saying "thank you....thank you very much"! LOL. The past few weekends we have had him have been filled with watching Lady Dolphin Volleyball, watching some football with Dad and playing basketball in the backyard.

Me - Well, in this wonderful economy, being in the sales side of the hotel really sucks. I handle the financial/Insurance market, so I am pretty much screwed! :) The Hyatt at Olive 8 is scheduled to open December 22nd, so the hotel has been busy hiring managers to run the hotel. I won't be involved in the operations of that hotel, but the two will work closely together. One fun thing we are doing at work is that we are having a "bundt cake bake off", those of you who know me well, will laugh and say...."you are JUDGING this contest, not actually participating right??". Nope! I am making a bundt cake! I did a practice run through yesterday, just to make sure I didn't embarass myself too much, and I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Derek and Dad were my guinea pigs and they seemed to like it.....hmmm. Maybe I need a better audience! LOL. The official bake off is next Monday, I will keep you posted and somehow figure out a way to take a picture of my cake. I am making a red velvet bundt.

That is all for now, I promise I will be a better blogger in the upcoming weeks!

Tagged

Thanks to my wonderful sister Katie, I am updating the blog! Sorry for the absence. I guess I am a much more creative writer when I have pictures to comment on! Guess what is at the top of my Christmas wish list? Yup...a new camera. This is where Derek and I differ...he wants a big flat screen TV. Let's see who wins this battle! LOL.

20 Years Ago

I was 11, enjoying 5th grade at Silver Lake Elementary School....What I most remember about 5th grade is that this is the year we got our first lockers! Mine was number 73...hence my favorite number. Little known fact about me....it is still my favorite number to this day. :)

10 Years ago

I spent the Fall semester of my senior year of college in Europe, I went to school at the International college of Hospitality Administration that partnered with WSU. I went to Brig with 4 other WSU students, one of which was a Japanese Exchange student who provided us oodles of entertainment. This is what Brig looked like:It was a beautiful place to go to school. We were in class Monday through noon on Thursday, so me and my travel buddies would get on a train, usually in the early afternoon. I traveled all through Europe, my favorite spots were: Cinque Terre in Italy, Rome, Venice, Paris, Barcelona, and London (though...not necessarily my company in London! LOL)

5 Years Ago

I was at the tail end of my 2 years in New York City, my friend Shannon got married on September 25th and I combined that trip to Seattle with a job interview at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. Little did I know that by the end of October I would be 26 and temporarily living with my Mother (thanks by the way!). I started at the Front Desk in Mid-October and have been here ever since.

3 Years Ago

I was living in Leschi, on the lake, loving life! I was managing the biggest department in the hotel with housekeeping customer service scores in the top 3 in all of the domestic Hyatt Hotels. My good friend was a little Chinese lady named Tiet who is short in stature and talks louder and faster than anyone I have ever met. She kept me sane through that job. I still had not met Derek, which meant I was spending lots of time with my buddy Scottie at the Bluwater Bistro. Ahh the good ole days.

1 Year ago

Just having celebrated our wedding and honeymoon, Derek and I were settling in as newlweds. Turns out my Mom had way too much fun dancing at our wedding and her knee was in bad shape. She made the decision to have total knee replacement surgery and the recovery for this is long, painful and not fun in any way shape or form. Trying to figure out how best to help Mom recover, we thought it would be best if she moved into our spare bedroom. She was a trooper, I never want to see either of my parents in that much pain again, but it is fair to say the surgery was a success and she is in far less knee pain than she was before. Needless to say...first month married....with the mother / mother-in-law living with you...not so much fun.

Today

Still working for the Hyatt (nothing changes), I have been with Hyatt for 9 years now, have enjoyed living in San Francisco, New York and Seattle. My career certainly has had its twists and turns, but I find enjoyment in each of the new challenges I face. I am very happily married to my husband Derek, he is my rock and I am so happy we found each other (thank you myspace, thank you Kristi). I love my stepson Ryan, he is in between sports right now, but gearing up for winter basketball and his role of Lady Dolphin Water boy!

Tomorrow

Not sure what is going to happen tomorrow....that's why we live each day right????

1 Year from now

Ummm. Let's see here....what will be happening in a year?? I would venture to say more of the same. ;)

I am tagging my friends with blogs....Kristi (when you get back from vacay!), Charlotte, Chad and Katye! You are it!

9/11

I can't believe it it has been 7 years since 9/11/2001. We all have a story from that day...I thought I would share mine with you.

I moved to New York City in August 2001 to work for a month with a former coworker, turns out I liked living in New York and decided to stay. I was supposed to fly back to SF to move at the end of September, I moved into the hotel in the meantime until I was able to find and apartment and move my stuff to NYC from SF.

I was working in the Stanhpe Park Hyatt Hotel (pictured below), at 81st street and 5th Avenue. I was working in the restaurant, which is generally very slow...mostly "power breakfasts" and hotel guests. On average, I would say we would to about 30 covers for breakfast, the morning of September 11th, we did over 100.

All the managers were helping out bussing tables, taking orders etc. when I got a phone call from a woman frantically trying to find her husband. I asked her what he looked like and she said "he is middle aged with gray hair and a receding hairline". Ummm that was pretty much EVERY man in the restaurant at that time. I told her this and she said "in light of everything that happened, could you please ask each person if they are my husband....you do know what is going on don't you?". I replied that I didn't know what was going on, and she informed me that a bomb had gone off at the world trade center. I found her husband's table, he had just left, she was relieved he was not at his office in the World Trade Center. I hung up with her and called my Dad, said "Dad, I don't know what is going on at the World Trad Center, but I am no where near it, call Mom, I am really busy, gotta go". This was in the days when my Dad's toll free number at work was really cool. :)

The remainder of the morning was spent trying to service all the people in our restaurant, we were getting bits and pieces of information from people watching TV. I started to hear that a plane had crashed into the WTC and couldn't help but picture it being a Cessna plane...I had been on a tour and they had explained that a plane had once crashed into the Empire States building, and it was fine. Little did I know. So as the 2nd tower got hit, then the Pentagon, I was frustrated that I didn't know what was going on. Finally, I said "Screw it" and left the restaurant full of people and went to the health club where I could see a TV. I was horrified.

Later in the afternoon, we went into our "emergency mode" as a hotel, we closed the doors to non-hotel guests, the police stopped by and told us to take our flag down as they didn't want any terrorists to think we were a government building. Myself and several other managers went to a local grocery store and stocked up on the basics...eggs, water, bread etc. They had closed down the island of Manhattan and (unless you are Michael Jackson) supplies could not go in or out, nor could our guests, and we had a hotel running at 80-90% occupancy. We put a TV in the bar and many guests gathered there to watch the news.

There are a few things I remember specifically about 9/11 and the following few weeks. I remember going down to 34th street and not being able to go any further...and barely being able to breath the smoke was so thick. 34th street is a LONG way from ground zero, it was crazy. The smell over the next few weeks is something I will never forget, it was just horrible, it was smoke, but had a very unique smell to it. Eventually we were able to go down to 14th street and from there we could still see the remains of the WTC, it was literally about 4-6 stories high. I have some pictures...they are actual pictures...not digital ones...not sure how to load those up here. The other thing I remember are a few really nasty guests that stayed with us. In order to serve all of the people staying in the hotel (again, we had a fancy restaurant that did not do a lot of volume), we put together a buffet since all the restaurants had closed down, anyone wanting to eat in the hotel could go through the buffet. Now remember, this is the Park Hyatt, this was no cheesy buffet. There were several guests that were OUTRAGED that they had to go through a buffet and couldn't order off the menu. Come on people, we had no way of getting supplies and no knowledge of for how long. The next guest was the morning of 9/12, I had a lady that put one of my servers in tears because she berated her over the quality of the coffee we serve....don't know if any of you have heard of illy coffee....brewed in ITALY...it is good stuff. She pointed out how she travels all over the country and this is the worst coffee she has ever had. Alrighty then.

I will always remember this day, I think we all will. My thoughts are with those who lost friends and loved ones on that day. God Bless America.

Anniversary Trip....

Derek and I didn't think we were going to be able to take a trip for our 1st anniversary, but about July, we decided to return to our favorite place from our honeymoon, Kauai Hawaii. Since my camera is still broken, I am including some pictures from our trip last year. The visions are all the same, but we were a bit slimmer back then. :)

Pretty sunset dinner
Poipu golf course, Derek enjoyed playing golf one day while I got a lomi lomi massage at the hotel spa!

I think in the 5 days we were at the hotel, we went down this slide aprroximately 452 times.

The hotel has a cool saltwater lagoon

Shocking....Derek with a beer. lol

It has been a year!

Believe it or not, it has been a year since Derek and I were married on September 2nd....many of you were there! It was a wonderful day, one that I will never forget....here are some of the pics from last year!

Me and Derek at the Market, this was a great part of the day, running around Seattle, taking pictures.
After the cake cutting....Annika is in the back somewhere in tears. :(

Kissy Kissy

Goofy picture in the elevator

Derek making me laugh!

Quote from an 8 Year old.....

Bad Stepmom.....

Emily: "Awww....that's BS".....

8 Year Old: "I know what that stands for!!!!!"........

Crap.

Top Ten....

Top Ten Reasons I Love My Husband....

10) He farts as much as I do
9) He understands "blonde speak" aka. randomly put together words that he has to translate into sentences
8) We finish each other sentences (when translation is not needed)
7) We call each other at the exact same time and get each others voicemail
6) He just gets me...like no one I have ever known
5) He knows if I am upset even if I won't say so
4) His enthusiasm for coaching - not everyone gets it, but I love him for it
3) His pretty green eyes
2) We may not be perfect for everyone, but we are perfect for each other
1) Ryan - nuff said...kid rocks

I love you pumpkin head....if he is not home....I love you pineapple head!

We've moved

Well, we made it through the weekend! Moving is just as bad as I remember it! You pack up all of your crap, move it, and unpack it. There is NOTHING fun about it! Derek and I looked at our movers carry our gargantuan (I spelled that right...I googled it) couch and decided it was the best money we have ever spent!

We are still very much in boxes, I won a forecasting contest at work, so I am working a half day tomorrow to try and make our wonderful new house somewhat functional!

A HUGE thank you to my Mom for all the help, she made sure we had food and our celebratory first bottle (s) of champagne! Note to self....champagne glasses break easier on hard wood than carpet. Thanks Mom!

Mission Accomplished...

When you move there is always a "to do before we go" list....well, we checked off one that I have been wanting to do since I moved in....SKINNY DIPPING!! It was the perfect night for it, it was hot all day and we have been packing all evening and the water was calm. Derek tried to chicken out but I wouldn't let him.

To all of our Leschi neighbors....my sincere apologies!

Photos of Baby Mapp

I visited the Mapp's in the hospital yesterday, Beatrice, Mom and Dad are doing great, very excited to have their wonderful baby here. Robb sent out some pics, here are the highlights....

Shannon's last prego pic...

Proud Papa!
I think this picture is really sweet....

Beatrice Delta

Baby Mapp has arrived...

Shannon and Robb Mapp welcomed Beatrice Delta Mapp this morning at 5:50am! She was 8lbs 8 oz. Mom and baby are doing great, I will see them tomorrow and will hopefully have a picture to put on here. Sorry Shannon....I am not forking out 14 million for the first picture rights...I hope you are ok with that. :)

Shannon's brother got married yesterday, Shannon's water actually broke at the reception. She was happy to make it to the wedding though and it is a great story to tell down the road!

Congratulations Mapps....we are so excited for you!!!

Moving Update....

The sad time has come to leave the 5-1-8...we have our packing boxes and got started packing the living room last night. Our official move in date is August 9th...yes people...that is NEXT SATURDAY!!! I made Derek promise to me when we got our massive couch and bedroom set that when we move out of the apartment we would get movers. I have moved enough times in my life (twice across the country!) to know my limits and I am done lifting heavy furniture...we are leaving it to the pros! Two Men and a Truck are the people coming to help us next week. To my local friends...you are welcome, there will be no begging, pleading or bribing to help us move. :)

On a more fun note, this weekend is Seafair! Anyone in the area is welcome to come, BYOB, we will be hanging on the dock all weekend.

No news on the camera...I haven't taken it in to the fix it place yet. I think I am hoping it will magically fix itself...good news is Kristi will be my photographer this weekend, so there will be Seafair pics for all....

More vacation pictures

Soooooo sad....vacation is over. :( We had such a wonderful vacation! It was nice and relaxing and we got to spend quality time with our family. Today was the end of 17 days with Ryan, we had such a great time, it was the longest stretch of time that we have had to spend with him not only since I met Derek, but since him and Shawna split. Ryan is such a wonderful boy and we loved having him with us. It was so special to have him with us for that long. It is difficult sometimes being the stepmom, because I don't know where to balance "mom" and "friend", about half way through our trip to Oregon, I really started to wonder if I was doing right by him or if I was being too hard on him at times. Ryan answered that question over the next few days in his own way...once he walked up to me before going to bed and hugged me, told me he loved me and planted a big kiss on my cheek! My heart melted. The next few days he got really cuddly and snuggly and both Derek and I could tell that he had a great time with us and we loved every minute of it.

Here are some more pics to fill you in on our trip. Update on the camera.....still not working....will have to take it to a camera shop. :(

Dad and Son watchng the sunset....the ocean was so calm that day....it practically looks like a lake.

My cute Witt boys....

He's a ham!


One day, Rob went off to Coos Bay and went crabbing....we had an excellent crab fest...we were even able to get Ryan to try crab and clam chowder...a big deal for a kid that doesn't like syrup!!

Ryan and the Dungeness Crab..

More Pics....

Rob..aka MacGyver brought a truckload of fireworks to light off...he was great about including the boys...with all safety precautions of course. Rob has a set of walkie talkies so the boy could communicate with him...otherwise known as fire-dog code! Notice the sign...that comes into play later. :)

Family Photo in front of proposal rock
The Firedogs preparing for their mission....

Derek...having a birthday drink for me. :)

Katie, Rob, and Derek putting the fireworks in order for the big finale...

Firedogs in their bunker watching the fireworks! The finale required them to stay away...they were nice and safe in their bunker far away from the action.

From left to right....Firedog 11, 5, and 1 in their protective bunker....notice the feather fence to "protect" them. ;)

Roger and his wife Dot enjoying the show

Since fireworks are illegal in Oregon, we knew we were pushing our luck, so eventually, a local came down the beach and warned us that we needed to stop, he was very nice about it, so we did and the show was over. Rob (and his assistant lighter Derek) did a great job with the show even though we didn't get to see all of them.

Vacation

Hi Everyone! This is my first post from the beach! We are in Neskowin, Oregon, one of my favorite places in the world. My family has been coming here since long before I was born and it is great to be back here with my wonderful husband and stepson. It is fun to be able to show them all the places that my sister and I used to play and tell them all of our legendary stories (Emily barfed pink...I mean Emily barfed pink and yellow too...) . Ryan is having a blast, he has been playing hard each day. My third cousin (it took us a while to figure out the geneology) has two boys ages 7 and 9, they all became best friends instantly and played together all day....they soon became known as the fire-dogs...more about that later. Enjoy these pics for now....on a side note, my camera got sand in it and is now having a "lense error"....I am so bummed. Borrowing Katie's pictures for now, so enjoy!

Moving....

For a while now Derek and I have been talking about moving to Shoreline once the summer was over and rent a house. We did quite a bit of looking over the past few weeks and everything in our price range were total dumps! Until this house came along....it's an older house, but very well maintained, it has hardwood floors, fireplace, WASHER AND DRYER, and dishwasher. The room is listed as a 3 bedroom house, but really has 3 normal sized bedrooms and 3 extra rooms that aren't really big enough to be bedrooms but would be a great office or storage room. The thing that sealed the deal is that there is a basketball hoop in the backyard....a certain 8 year old is VERY excited about that. :)

The house has the perfect location, it is only about 1 mile from the college where Derek coaches and 2 blocks off of a bus line that gets me to work (thanks Jeff for the bus pass!). As lame as this sounds, I am very very very excited about having a washer and dryer in our house....as much as I hate doing laundry, this will at least make it easier! :)

We will keep you posted on the moving date, but we will still have our place on the lake until the end of August, so for all you locals...get your dock time in quick!!! Suburbs....here we come!