Five on Friday

Yey, it’s Friday and I’m off work! Woohoo! Time for another edition of FIVE on FRIDAY…

<..ONE..>

We went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a few hours last weekend, EM seemed to really enjoy meeting the characters. Maybe we just liked watching her reaction more. We took her on one ride in Dino-Rama (not sure what it was called, but it was like Dumbo but with Dinosaurs) and at first she started to cry because it required her to stay seated in one spot but then seemed kind of like it once we started moving (although it was getting close to nap time so she was cranky too).

the is the only picture from the ride, clearly not a very good one

<..TWO..>

We went to our neighbor’s son’s 1st birthday party Saturday after DAK and EM enjoyed the bounce house! We have two birthday parties this weekend and one will definitely have a bounce house so I know EM will really enjoy that! G is out of town this weekend so it’ll be a Mommy and EM type of weekend!

<..THREE..>

On Sunday we spent the day at our friend’s house celebrating his Birthday and seeing their 3 week old daughter, Finley. I really enjoyed spending the date just BSing with our group of friends. This was the first time EM met little Finley and she seemed pretty dis-interested. She didn’t seem too jealous when I was holding the baby either, which is good and something I really worry about once Baby # 2 comes. She’d just kind of stare at us. While hanging out over there, once most of the others left, EM was practicing taking steps and we finally got it on video. She got up to about 8-10 steps (although on video it was only about 6). She’s doing better every day and soon enough she’ll be running around!

<..FOUR..>

I bought EM these adorable shoes at one of the 2^nd hand shops in our area. I think buying babies/toddler shoes brand new (they outgrow them so quickly), is just silly if you can find gently used ones for half the price. I got her these Nike sneakers which looked brand new for $12 and a pair of sandals and dress shoes for like $4 each. Some sucker paid $40 for those Nike’s and their kid hardly wore them.

<..FIVE..>

Since I’m off today, I’m totally looking forward to a “ME” day today: Massage, Pedi, and Eyebrows! I’m finally out of the 1^st trimester, so I scheduled a prenatal massage and can NOT wait until this afternoon to get it. I usually get a massage once a month and it’s been like 3 (a lot of places won’t do them in 1^st trimester so I didn’t even try) so my back/neck/legs etc are in dire need! Speaking of being out of the 1^st trimester, my due date got moved (back) to October 14^th. Based on my LMP it was originally 10/14 but was switched to10/19 based on our 1^st US but then after the 2^nd US it got moved back to 10/14 – which doesn’t really mean much, it’s only 5 days, but it’s hopefully 5 less days that I’ll be pregnant and 5 less days until we can meet our little one! I’m dying to find out the gender, but we have probably a good 6-8 more weeks before that US will be scheduled and I refuse to pay extra to have a gender determination one earlier. Well, I told myself if I could find a place for $40 or less I’d do it, but of course I couldn’t find any offers for that cheap, although I am keeping my eye open for a Living Social or Groupon deal!

I’m on travel for work ALL next week and SO not looking forward to being away for the week. I used to travel kind of frequently for work a few years ago and got to go to some neat places like Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Montreal, various cities in Cali… no I get to go West Virginia. Not quite as exciting. Not at all.

Five on Friday!

(1) EM and I had a great time visiting family this past weekend when G was up in Philly. She especially loved playing on her cousin's swing set. She'd mimic their squeals of joy, if was soo cute!

she had fun on the trampoline too!

(2) G and I had our date night on Wednesday. We had dinner at Chipotle and then went to Dave and Buster's for some fun! We played a bunch of arcade games and won some tickets that we cashed in for some games to bring home. And a giant Pixy Stix - I couldn't resist. And I'll tell you what, I'm completely out of shape, my arm is actually hurting from doing all the throwing/ball games. #sosad My favorite games were those plus Deal or No Deal and Monopoly. Probably because they took more than just a second to play. 

(3) We're taking EM to Disney's Animal Kingdom tomorrow. We were supposed to go a few weeks ago but it ended up being a rainy weekend, so we postponed. We took her when she was a few months old and am excited to see how she likes it as a toddler. 

(4) EM FINALLY took about 4 steps for me! She took them for Daddy last week, my Dad last weekend, and her Nan the other night, but of course I didn't see ANY of those occurrences and she wouldn't do it for me, until today! And she's done it twice! Now to try to get her to do it again so I can video record it! 

(5) We had baby #2's ultrasound on Monday (at 11w1d) and everything looks good! If I remember correctly, the heart beat was a strong 168 bpm. 

Big NEWS!

Yey, it’s Friday and an “Off-Friday” at that, so hello weekend! Today’s 5 on Friday is really only 2 things and some pictures to make it 5!

(1) EM and I are visiting my parents this weekend. It was supposed to be just me since G was supposed to take EM to Philly for the weekend to surprise his sister for her 30^th birthday (Happy 30th Birthday C!) but since it was supposed to rain the entire weekend and they were planning on being out and about, we decided it wouldn’t be good for EM to be out in the cold. There was a 70% chance of rain and temps in the 50’s. If it had just been cold, they could have bundled her, but with the rain, I didn’t want her to get sick. And since I was already planning on spending the weekend with my parents, now we both are and of course my parents are happy to have us both for 3 days.

(2) And now for the big news! Well remember how I’ve been sucking at “Follow through Friday”? Well, the reason is because I’m pregnant! yey! I’ve been feeling like crap in the mornings (nauseous only, luckily have only thrown up twice) and then going to bed not much later than EM, most nights because I’m so tired! This happened when I was pregnant with EM too. Now that I’m nearing the end of the 1^st trimester (I’m 10 weeks 6 days, today – so 2ish wks to go!) I’m hoping that my energy level perks up a little so I can at least do some walking as I haven’t been doing anything (besides the few races, but nothing since my last one) and feel disgusting! I’ve luckily only put on 2 lbs, which technically you aren’t supposed to put on anything in the 1^st trimester so hoping to not put on anything more. I haven’t been eating healthy and letting my cravings get the best of me, so I’m surprised I haven’t put on more. I FEEL like I’ve put on more as my body is already starting to shift and my clothes are already starting to not fit. I seriously don’t know how some people stay so active during pregnant. I’m going to try better than last time, but it’s hard when all you want to do it sleep and eat carbs!

We found out back in February, two days before the cruise. Normally, we wouldn’t have told ANYONE (not even our parents) until after we went to at least our 1^st doctor appt, but since we were all going on a cruise together, they would figure it out if I wasn’t drinking so we told them before the cruise. It was fun as we left with G’s dad so he found out first as he walked in the door, EM crawled over to him wearing her “Big Sister” shirt, then we went to pick up G’s mom from work and she saw the shirt. Their reactions were priceless (yes, we video recorded them!). My parents were meeting us at the cruise terminal and because of the birth certificate fiasco, we were kind of off to the side waiting to get that figured out when they showed up in line to check in. So we walked over to them with EM in my arms facing out and my mom always likes to see if EM puts her arms out for her, and of course she did so that’s when  she picked up on the shirt and pretty much screamed “You’re pregnant” in true New Yorker fashion and then my dad noticed it. (yes, we video recorded that as well!) They too were priceless! And for anyone who saw pictures of me and my drinking from the cruise, they were staged pcitures, my sister kept asking if I was drinking (she knew we were trying to get pregnant) so we posted those pictures to throw her off until after the cruise so I could tell her myself. We’ve been telling family and close friends the last few weeks with the final person (G’s Sister) being told today while he is up there surprising her for her 30^th Birthday. (He insisted on telling certain people in person and since this trip was already planned it just worked out perfect with the timing of when we planned to announce). So far, we’ve had two doctor appts and an ultrasound and everything looks good. We go back for our next ultrasound on Monday and I’m excited to see the baby look more like a baby and less like a “blob”. My official due date based on the ultrasound is October 19^th, and of course my father-in-law is hoping I have the baby early on his birthday (October 7^th) since I had EM early and it happened to fall on my Dad’s birthday.  Of course, the baby will comes when he/she is ready and we are just hoping for a healthy baby and delivery! So now, without further ado, here is our picture announcement (we had a little photo shoot with EM and G had some fun playing with Aperture!):

see, she isn't ALWAYS smiling

 

our little "blob"

And our only family photo from the cruise where we told our family

Bachelor Recap / Fantasy Standings: Week 3

(via)

Well I'm a little delayed on posting this, it's been a busy (read:LAZY) week for me. I guess I don't really do recaps, just more so have some observations/comments so I'll just say FIVE  things and make this my FIVE ON FRIDAY post.. bam!

//ONE// JP is kind of dumb, and by kind of, I mean really dumb. At first I thought it was the language barrier, but now I'm not so sure. and yet, the girls hang on every.single.word. like he said the most amazing things ever! At least he's got his looks going for him. 

//TWO// I didn't realize Cassandra was so young (21) and even though she's got the single mom thing going for her, I don't think it's going to last. She sounded like a broken record with her "I haven't done blah blah blah since I was 18" or whatever it was that she KEPT sayng, ugh so annoying!

//THREE// Sharleen is the most awkward person ever. EVER. 

//FOUR// Just because you jump off a bridge together Chelsie, does NOT mean you can get through anything.  Granted, I do think having a first kiss hanging upside down from a bridge is pretty freaking awesome! Although if that was me, I'd still probably be shaking and soaked from peeing my pants (terrified of heights here!)

//FIVE// I think he should have made them stand in their swimsuits for the rose ceremony since he already changed the cocktail party to a pool party (which I thought was way more fun!)  

NIkki is still my fave (at least I have her on my non-money league! I'm down to just Kat in my money league... come on Kat, gotta stay in the game for a while!

Bachelor Fantasy League Standings:

Money League Standings after Week 2

LL: 770
JL: 690
DS: 580

JR: 510 

KW: 330 

ME: 295 

SR: 270

The Teams:

JL:  Elise, Lucy, Lauren H, Christine, Victoria

JR: Amy L, Christi, Elise, Kat, Victoria

LL: Alli, Cassandra, Elise, Lucy, Valerie

DS: Victoria, Sharleen, Nikki, Kat, Andi

ME: Alexis, Christi, Kat, Lacy, Valerie

SR: Alexis, Amy L, Chelsie, Kat, Lauren S

KW: Alexis, Ashley, Chelsie, Lauren H, Valerie

Received a Rose:

Alli, Andi, Cassandra, Chelsie, Clare, Danielle, Elise, Kat, Kelly, Lauren S, Nikki, Renee, Sharleen

Sent Packing:

Lucy, Christy

Points Earned:

Involved in a real kiss: Cassandra (20), Andi (20), Sharleen (20), Chelsie (20)

Swears: Chelsie (20), Andi (20)

Cries: Sharleen (20), Chelsie (20), Clare (20), Christy( 20), Lucy (20)

Receives a rose on group date: Nikki (30)

Gets a 1-on-1 Date: Cassandra (30), Chelsie (30)

Reads a Date Card: Alli (50), Andi (50), Cassandra (50)

Receives first given rose at Ceremony: Andi (50) 

Eliminations Points:

JL:  100/each: Danielle, Lauren - ZERO earned

JR: 100/each: Danielle, Lucy - 100 earned

LL: 100/each: Danielle, Lauren - ZERO earned

DS: 50/each:  Alli, Cassandra, Danielle, Lucy - 50 earned

ME: 50/each:  Alli, Christy, Danielle, Lucy - 100 Earned

KW: 100/each:  Danielle, Lucy - 100 Earned

SR: 100/each: Cassandra, Sharleen - ZERO earned

Five on Friday - Health and Fitness, Diet Bets + EXCITING NEWS!

(via)

(ONE) Like always, I'm trying to refocus myself with eating better and exercising more. Last week I said I was going to come up with some strength training to start this week. Well, my friend's husband (who is super into fitness) made a circuit type workout for me to do and I plan to start on Monday with a 10k training plan. I decided I need to come up with a plan and try to stick to it, otherwise I keep making more and more excuses. I know I can run a 10k, I obviously did last week and I don't want to commit enough time I do a true half marathon training plan (which I also know I can run) so figured I'd just mix strength training in with a 10k running plan and I found one online which seems exactly what I am looking for. I figure even on days I don't feel like running, I will at least walk the miles that I'm supposed to. I also plan to switch a few things up: take 2 rest days instead of 1 (by removing one of the cross train days) and start my week on Sunday instead of Monday. As long as I do 5 of the 6 things listed for the week, I think that'll be good and way better than what I'm doing now which is only cardio (1-2 times per week). Oh yea, we got a weight bench/multi purpose bench for Christmas and went to put it together on Tuesday night and it was missing a dang screw, so now we're waiting for the company to send us one (should be here any day) so hopefully we'll get that finished and can finally "finish" our home gym.

the original plan

my modified plan

(TWO) To help with my motivation for the above, my celebrity crush, Chris Powell, and his wife Heidi (who is also pretty awesome) is hosting a Diet Bet. It's $30 to join and you have to lose 4% in 4 weeks (28 days). Everyone who meets that goal will split the pot - which is currently at $10,680 ($30 x 356 participants). And there are still 11 days for more people to join (well before it starts, apparently you can join late but you still have to lose 4%, so that'd be tough)! I know I can do it and I told myself that with my winnings (which hopefully will be a decent amount as I can't imagine everyone will make it - I'm guessing it's about 50%) I'll get a FitBit (or something similiar, haven't done enough research yet). I know they are the trendy thing right now, but I want one! Everyone I know who has one, loves it. Wish me luck, competition starts on Jan 28th! Want to join? Use this link: http://diet.bt/1at3Urm 

(via)

(THREE) It's a beautiful day out, weather wise (a little chilly), so I think today is going to be the day that I ride my bike to pick EM up from day care. It's just about 3 miles each way, all on sidewalks and trailing the bike trailer is a piece of cake. 

(FOUR) Today is my off friday and we have Monday off for MLK Day which means I have a 4 Day Weekend! The only actualy plans I have are on Saturday (a baby shower and a birthday party) unless you count the mound of laundry I have to do. Looking forward to what will hopefully be a relaxing weekend (minus the laundry). G is 

(via)

(FIVE) Super exciting new!! In two weekends, my sister and her hubby are  finding out the gender on their baby and having a small (family only) gender reveal party! I'm so excited!! Can't wait to see if I'm going to have another niece or nephew!! and a plus, my cousin from NY happens to be coming that weekend too so I'll get to see her, haven't seen in probably a good 9 months!

Five on Friday

(ONE)

I ran the Inaugural Walt Disney World 10k this morning, yes on a work day – and somehow still made it to work by 9:20! Full race recap to come over the weekend, but until then check out the sweet medal!

(TWO)

This weekend I’m going to work on putting together a strength training plan. I got resistance bands and kettle bells for Christmas and I want to start incorporating them into my workouts (currently all I do now is run/walk). Any suggestions? I’m going to start with adding this in at least one day a week. It should be at least two days a week, but I need to get back into a routine so I’ll start with just one.

(THREE)

As I was running this morning, it got me thinking about how many different races I’ve participated in. I used to keep track of them on Daily Mile and then I started using Run Keeper and now I keep track of everything on an excel spreadsheet but it didn’t capture all of my previous races so I decided to compile a list and keep here on the blog and add to it as I complete more. The times listed are my “official chip times” unless the race wasn’t shipped and then it’ll be my own timing of it. To date I’ve completed 26 official races. Not bad, especially considering I only running races in April of 2010. If you are interested, here is a list of all of them.

(FOUR)

Today completed EM’s first week in her new classroom, Toddler A, at Day Care. This was a big move for her because in Toddler A,  they take naps on mats, not in cribs. Apparently she’s doing well with that. I’m shocked. She only ever sleeps in her crib, pack’n’play, swing, or car seat, so a mat on the floor seemed like it was going to be tough to get her to fall asleep, but they say they just pat her back and she eventually goes to sleep. They also are on a strict curriculum, changing activities every 15 minutes. They also do a lot more educational stuff and play outside. She’s come home with 2-3 pages of things she did each day. They are teaching her how to color as well. All of this in one week. 

(FIVE) 

EM and I have a play date tomorrow with some of the neighbors. We're excited :) 

We drove, we saw, we won! - FIVE on FRIDAY

As I mentioned earlier this week, we took the long drive to Glendale, AZ to see UCF win the Fietsa Bowl against Baylor University, so with 6ish hours left of the drive, I figured I'd work on my Five on Friday post and our trip recap (sorry in advance, it'll probably be long)

(ONE) THE DRIVE

The drive there wasn't that bad, I kind of recapped it during my earlier post but here is a little FlipaGram (btw this app is awesome!) documenting it! (PS. Hubby made it and  is a huge Eagles fan and they clinched their division as we were driving through Tx, while playing the Cowboys, so that is why that is in there). Took us 32 hours and ~ 2,200 miles to get there and 30 hours, 51 minutes; 2,165 Miles  to get home (that includes stopping, it's much faster when you don't get lost lol) The drive home was uneventful and we didn't many pictures - believe me, no one needs to see what I look like lol, but the few that were taken are in the video below.

During the drive, I've been able to finish 4 (well 5 if you count a short story prequel) books. I haven't had this much time to read in so long and I loved it!!  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight were both really good! I also read Diane Chamberlain's Necessary Lies which was amazing (although I'm a little biased since she's one of my favorite authors). - I also read the short story prequel called The First Lie. I threw in a kindle freebie called A Family Affair by Mary Campisi which was good (although predictable). 

(TWO) THE STAY 

We stayed in Downtown Phoenix, which by the way is the lamest city ever. I get that it was a holiday, but seriously it was incredibly dead. Even Starbucks! The most action in the 3 days we were there, was when we went to breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast. (Was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drives, and Dives). We had to wait 45 mins, food was really good although I wouldn't wait 45 mins again, but being 10am on New Years Day, I guess it should have been expected. I saw more people there than I saw the entire rest of the time while walking around Downtown Pheonix (including going to 3 other restaurants and Starbucks). I did get a chance to meet up with my 2 cousins and Aunt and new baby cousin (does that make her like a cousin once removed or a 2nd cousin? I never know). It was nice to see them, it had been 8 years. I had been nervous it would be awkward since we hadn't spoken much on those 8 yrs besides FB comments and such but it wasn't awkward at all and I'm glad we got to get together! Our hotel was nice and we got an excellent deal on it since we got the employee discount from our friend so that was a plus but if we ever come here again we're totally staying in Glendale by the stadium, the nightlife seemed to be much more exciting there! 

(THREE) NEW YEARS EVE

We drove out to where the team was staying in Scottsdale (our big man-ly UCF Football players were staying at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, couldn't help but laugh at that) on the morning of NYE. We picked up some UCF Fiesta bowl gear and our commemorative tickets (our reason for going there) which showed all of the scores for the games this season. We explored the gorgeous resort, complete with a winter wonderland and $25 ice skating (which I wasn't paying to do but still cool they had it). We then went down to downtown Scottsdale since we heard there was another store with UCF gear, and the store was actually the Liberty Bowl Museum which turned out to not really be as cool as we thought it was and had the same stuff they had at the team hotel headquarters. (Plus ugly Baylor stuff too).  For NYE we went to a sports bar by the stadium called McFaddens. We knew the "place to be" was at the Mills Ave Block Party in Tempe but none of us felt like being super crowded and not able to get drinks so we chose what we hoped would be more low key (the UCF Alumni association was also supposed to be there but for some reason they weren't). It was definitely more low-key but we didn't make a decision on what we were doing early enough to get reserved seating so the only table we were able to find was outside and it was really cold. Good thing we were dressed casual and in sweatshirts plus they had heaters so it wasn't too bad and we made nice with the bar tender so drinks were served very quickly to us! We did get a chance to move inside towards the end of the night though. I was expecting the night to be more like the night before the Penn State game, and it wasn't, so I was slightly disappointed but I got to ring in the new year with my love and some great friends while making an awesome memory!

(FOUR) THE TAILGATE

We couldn't decide what we were doing in advance so we picked up two 12pks, parked the car, and walked to the organized Fiesta Bowl tailgate. Well obviously we couldn't bring our beer into it and there was no re-entry so we decided to stay out and drink our beer first and hen decide if we wanted to go in. G wasn't feeling well so he wasn't drinking and went in to the tailgate to meet up with some friends that were already inside and I called some of my friends who were doing a normal tailgate in the parking lot and they invited us over there so we went over there to hang for awhile. Turns out they randomly parked next to a large group of people who went all out for the tailgate (they were locals who apparently come every year regardless of the teams playing). I mean they were grilling prime rib, ribs, burgers, dogs, etc. the spread was incredible and they had a full liquor bar, margarita machine, tons of beer and music playing. Best of all, they were the most friendly and generous people ever. Invited us right over to drink and eat and have a good time. We ended up staying there until the start of the game, it was a ton of fun and I got to hang out with my friends who drove in from Santa Barbara plus some other Florida friends. I think I speak for the group of us when I said it was an awesome time! 

(FIVE) THE GAME

The game was awesome! We had great seats on the 20 yard line, back row (which is our preference so we can stand and not bother anyone) the row in front of us was empty and so ewe had a lot of space to spread out and be comfortable. We were surrounded by (mostly) UCF fans and the atmosphere was so much fun. We played great, always ahead of Baylor (well they tied us once) and came out with an amazing victory of 52 to 42. (I was annoyed that it was impossible to get a picture of the scoreboard that was clear though!) UCF, the team who wasn't supposed to win (unless you ask the Phoenix Zoo Tiger who has now predicted the correct team 4 years in a row), the underdog, the team from the school that people don't hear about often enough, yea WE WON A BCS BOWL! We went in ranked 15 and beat the #6 ranked school. Just another milestone for UCF's incredible football season! We have come a long way from my first year at UCF where we were on a 17 game losing streak in a crappy conference. I couldn't be more proud to be a UCF Alumn! I'm very anxious to see where we end up in the rankings on Tuesday. We stayed after the end of the game to watch our team receive the Fiesta Bowl Trophy and continue to cheer them on. This was such an incredible experience and totally made the long drive worth it. (And the ride home not feel quite as long as it would if we would have lost). I won't lie, I didn't go into this thinking we'd win, I mean I was hoping we would but if we hadn't I wouldn't have been too shocked only because just getting to this bowl was a big deal and we were playing a "better" team.  Boy, am I glad I was wrong and the tiger was right! 

receiving the trophy

And just because I miss my baby girl so much (she stayed with my parents for the week) I figured I'd throw I'm a couple pics of her that my parents sent while we were gone. Can't wait to see her in a few hours, I swear she looks like she grew!!  (my parents really do need to learn to take better quality pictures *hint hint*)