My birthday was this past Sunday, and these boots were my present from Cory. So cute! We went out to dinner on Saturday to Buffalo Wild Wings (which I'd been craving for weeks) to celebrate and unfortunately, my food didn't stay down. Sigh. But it sure was yummy while it lasted. We had a nice, laidback Sunday and Cory made me dinner. Luckily that stayed down :)
I've wanted a rocking chair for years. Even more now that we're expecting; I want to put it in the baby's room. This was my dad's present to me for my birthday/Christmas. It's genuine Amish handcrafted. It's so pretty and I'm so excited about it. It will be nice to have a tangible souvenir to take home to Utah with us from New York. Other than all the pictures and memories, of course.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend. We stayed in town and had dinner with a family in our ward. Of course, I took my camera and then forgot to take a group picture. The Simmons family has been a true blessing to Cory & I. I tutor 3 of the kids with their math homework, so that's been an additional source of income. They often feed me dinner when I'm there (and then pay me on top of that). They graciously welcomed us into their home for Thanksgiving, and let us bring all our laundry, so we didn't have to go to the laundry-mat (one of my least favorite things to do, especially whilst pregnant).
As we were eating the delicious feast Deena made, we went around the table and said the things we were grateful for. Cory said he was grateful for the true gospel and that no matter where you live, there's always a ward family there to take you in. The Simmons family has done that for us - taken us in while we're so far from home. I'm grateful to them for that. I'm also grateful for Cory, for I don't think I would have survived these past 5 months without him. As much as this pregnancy has been not fun, I'm so grateful that Cory and I will get to welcome a beautiful little spirit into our family.
Instead of going shopping on Black Friday, we slept in, cleaned house and went to a tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree.
We played Christmas music and decorated the tree. It was a nice alternative to the craziness that is Black Friday. Normally I love Black Friday shopping, but we live so far from any stores ... and I'm 5 months pregnant and just so very lazy :) We did venture out to the malls on Saturday, and just about completed all of our shopping. Hooray for us!
Here's a picture of the decorated tree:
And a picture of me at 23 weeks, with the tree. People keep saying to me "wow, you look pregnant" ... which I guess is a good thing, since I only have 4 more months to go!
What I really wanted was a picture of me at the movie theater, hugging a poster for New Moon. There wasn't one, anywhere. Sad, huh?
I LOVED it! I thought it was awesome! Better than Twilight. Better acting, better special effects, better make-up and costumes, better flow to the story ... just all around better. I loved Twilight, don't get me wrong, but it seems most of the rough edges and kinks were smoothed out in New Moon. Parts of the movies moved faster than the book, which I appreciated. Less of Bella sitting around and crying. Less of her moping over Edward's gorgeous face and never getting to see it again. Good job on the werewolves. And the Volturi. Those red contacts were creepy! And what a cliffhanger of an ending (well, for those few people who haven't read the books). Well done!
We drove all the way to Rochester to see it on a humungous screen, since theaters around here suck. Cory, being such a good sport, came with me. He estimated that about 10% of the theater was male. The baby cooperated for the movie, for which I was glad. We enjoyed dinner afterwards, which I promptly threw up in the parking lot. I guess dinner and a movie was too much to ask. But at least I saw the movie without incident. Now I'm ready to go again!
I think I feel more pregnant than I look in these pictures. I'm at 20 weeks, so about halfway done. In that first month of being so sick, I never thought I'd get this far. I couldn't fathom being pregnant and sick for one more day, so even one more week felt like an eternity. But here I am, halfway done! I can't believe it. Now we've got to think of things like a registry, names, etc. I find myself talking to him all the time. Sometimes I still can't believe I've got this little miracle growing inside me!!
We're made the decision to stay here through mid-April. For lots of reasons that I won't get into -- but the main one was insurance. We'll stay here, I'll continue to work and be insured, Cory will also continue working at the school, and we'll have the baby here. Then in mid-April we'll pack up and move back to Utah. A cross-country drive with a 2-week old... wish us luck. Better than going at 6 months pregnant and in the middle of December, right?!?! It will be adventurous, that's for sure.
And we're starting to think about getting stuff for the baby. So I'm open to suggestions from all you experienced moms. Stuff you can't live without... stuff that seemed cool then wasn't worth the money... pretty much any advice you want to throw my way!
BOY!!! Kudos to all you readers who guessed boy. Cory and I were both convinced we were having a girl. Everyone I work with thought it was a girl, my OBGYN thought it was a girl, my acupuncturist thought it was a girl... but nope, it's a BOY! After a little bit of initial shock, we couldn't stop grinning at each other. He will be the first grandchild on my side, and the first grandson on Cory's side.
Baby is healthy, which is what I'm most thankful for. I've been half worried that baby is starving to death, since I so often throw up my food. But nope, baby is growing and quite active. We could see him kicking, squirming and rolling. I think I've been feeling a little bit of him squirming, but no kicking yet... and watching him on the screen, I'm sure that's going to change. The ultrasound tech said he was very cooperative, and she got all the pictures and positions she needed.
It was so neat to see all the little parts on the screen. His little femur bones, his spine, his heart chambers... everything. So precious. We feel so blessed!
And now for the best part... pictures!
Nice profile shot
Cute baby feet
And my personal favorite... the alien picture
We're just so excited. We've told all our immediate family members... but my mom wants to be surprised, so if you're reading this, don't tell my mom. We'll see how long we can keep the gender a secret. I'm sure I'm going to slip up and call "it" a "he" and the surprise will be out. But in the meantime, we'll see how long it lasts :)
This past weekend we went down to Sleepy Hollow, NY (yes, it's a real city). We went last year and it was one of our favorite trips, so we decided to go again this year. We met up with Em & Brett, who drove up from D.C. The weather wasn't quite so nice (it was a bit cold), but we still all had a really good time.
On our way down, Cory and I stopped at Taughonnock Falls, about 30 miles south of our house. We wanted to take some pictures of the waterfall, surrounded by the fall leaves. We got more than we bargained for ...
SNOW!
Philipsburg Manor. This is a working farm established in the 1700's. You can take tours of the buildings, the mill, and walk around the grounds. My favorite... Abby's expression. Priceless. The Blaze. This is the main reason we went down again. They carve thousands of pumpkins and arrange them in scenes. You walk along a path and marvel at the talent on display. This picture is the Manor House. Different lighting of the Manor House Pirate ship Captain Jack Sparrow Marine life Sunflowers Graveyard Washington Irving's house (author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) Love this picture of the 2 of us
As most of you know, I work at New York Chiropractic College. I work in the Office of Institutional Quality and Assessment (long title, I know). Basically, we're quality, which means we're responsible for a lot of stuff at this school. I work with accreditation for our various programs. I administer and then analyze a bunch of surveys. I keep track of board scores. Etc etc.
Recently, NYCC applied for a Malcolm Baldrige Award, and that effort was spear-headed by my office. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards are regarded as the “gold standard” of quality awards and named after Malcolm Baldrige, 26th Secretary of Commerce.They are bestowed through a program managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to promote excellence in organizational performance, recognize the achievements and results of U.S. organizations, and to publicize successful performance strategies.
Since 2001, only seven educational institutions have received the Baldrige Award – none in the area of natural healthcare education (which is what we are). And of the seven education winners, only three were higher education.
Basically, it's the most prestigious quality award you can win, and if you do win, there's a fancy-smancy ceremony in Washington D.C. and the President himself gives the recipient the award. So yeah, this is a big deal.
So you're probably thinking... "wow, they won one?" Alas, no. At least, not yet.We were awarded what's called a 'site visit', which means that certified Baldrige examiners come to our campus and verify what we wrote in our 50-page application. It’s still quite prestigious, since over 70+ companies applied for the Baldrige award this year, and only 15 were awarded a site visit… and out of those 15, only one education institution was awarded a site visit.Us.Stinking cool, huh?
They started their visit yesterday, and they’ll be here through Wednesday.It’s been so cool to watch the process (I’m a nerd, what can I say?)Still… it’s been a hecka lot of work.Hecka lot.I’m going to be so glad when they go away and even happier when it’s the weekend.We won’t find out til November if we won the award or not… but win or not, I already feel very proud of NYCC. This is one very good institution.
I'm finally getting to the point where I actually look pregnant, and not just fat :) Some of my regular clothes still fit, and some... well, not so much. I bought a few maternity things and Em was kind enough to lend me some of her stuff (thanks Em!) Plus my mom promised to take me shopping when we're home in a couple of weeks. We figured since I'm finally looking pregnant, it was time to start taking some pictures. So here's a few.
I'm not photogenic and I hate posing for the camera... consequently, I just look awkward.
This was Cory's suggestion for a pose...
I wish I could report that I'm feeling fabulous, but no such luck. We went to the doctor last week, got to hear the heartbeat again, and were basically told by the doctor to "hang in there!" We did get an ultrasound appt for November 2nd, so assuming baby is cooperative, we should be able to tell whether we're having a girl or boy. I'm putting a poll up on the right hand side of the blog, so people can vote (you've got 3 weeks). I'm not telling what Cory and I think we're having until after people vote, cause I'm interested to see what others think. Enjoy!
Cory's sister Danielle and her boyfriend Trevor came to visit us last weekend. I took some time off from work and gave myself a 5-day weekend (nice!) It was so much fun having them here, and getting to show off New York.
First, we went to see all the church historical sites (that's what we do for everyone who visits). This is the frame home the Smiths built (I love fall!)
The temple, framed by fall leaves. The original rock wall the Smiths built to mark their property line -- it's up on the temple grounds. The next day, we drove 2.5 hours north to a place called 'The Thousand Islands.' When Cory and I moved out here, we made a list of all the places we wanted to visit while living on the east coast -- and this was the only place left on our list. So now we've seen everything :) The Thousand Islands is actually a group of more than 1800 islands, stretching from northern New York into Canada. Many of the islands are privately owned -- people buy the island then erect these gorgeous houses.
The only way to see the islands is by boat, so we took a 2 hour boat tour around the islands. This is us on the boat. Haha, this is where Trevor is going to some day live... This is the smallest of all the islands. All you need to be counted as one of the islands is a tree and some other form of vegetation. Wa-la! They call this the world's shortest international bridge, cause it passes right over the American/Canadian border. Our tour guide says the guy who owns the islands used to banish his grand kids to another country when they were being bad. This is Boldt Castle, as seen from the water. The Boldt Castle pump house. For a few extra dollars, you can take a tour of the castle, which is exactly what we did. The grounds were gorgeous. And the castle was so cool-looking. Haha, I was trying so hard to keep a straight face... and failing miserably... I love this picture of the 4 of us, on the terrace of the castle. This is a state park called Watkins Glen. It's so pretty, carved out over centuries of time by water. Cory took Danielle & Trevor down to visit (I stayed home, by this time, I was feeling rather sick... too much playing, I'm afraid) This is a good picture showing how narrow it is.
We'll sure miss all the cool stuff that's in or nearby New York when we move. We've seen some really cool places and it's so fun to show them off. It was nice having visitors, even though I felt crappy for lots of the time. Thanks for coming and seeing us, guys!
I've wanted a rocking chair for years. Even more now that we're expecting; I want to put it in the baby's room. This was my dad's present to me for my birthday/Christmas. It's genuine Amish handcrafted. It's so pretty and I'm so excited about it. It will be nice to have a tangible souvenir to take home to Utah with us from New York. Other than all the pictures and memories, of course. 
