ModensinaNutshell

Parker is 2!!!

2011-08-30T09:28:00.003-04:00

Can you believe it, Parker is 2, today. So we thought we should share some Then and Now.

A Few Months Old

Two Years Old

My, how far we have come. Can't wait to see Then and Now in 10 years if this is what we have in 2.

Finally Updating!!

2011-03-15T13:03:00.006-04:00

Well life has been a little crazy and I started to think that I should really get back into the blog and updating everyone on the fam. Lately, everything has been going fairly well, except that all three of us have been sick for 3-4 weeks with a cold that we can't seem to shake. We are hoping to get over this bug soon.

Parker's stats:

18 Months and counting
17 lbs
Almost walking
Eating all solid food
Loves Chinese and Pasta
Loves Music and dancing
Loves Books

So what has happened since my last post. Well, lots of stuff. Erik turned 31 and I turned the big 30 and most of all, Parker turned 1. We had a great birthday party for him at the park with some of his friends (and our's too). We also had a party in Georgia with Parker's great-grandmother, great-great aunt and the rest of the Redden/Crawford clan.

Halloween was a blast and Parker went as an Astronaut. Thanksgiving was fun as well and we had a great time at Christmas.

Parker has been attending daycare and loves it. He is one of eleven boys. He has a blast and they love him there. We were so lucky to have found such a great place to take him.

Work for everyone is as usual, stressful but good. Erik's company Outdoor Spaces LLC is going strong and while being self employed offers new challenges, overall he loves it. I am still working for CLARB and traveling but really enjoy it.

What else....New picture's below and I will try and get back into this. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep you posted.

Growing Boy!

2010-05-14T16:43:00.003-04:00

Well, Parker had two appointments this week. One was with his pediatrician. He is now 12 lbs and growing. He is still in the 5th percentile for weight, but "wait for it", he has advance to the 25th percentile for length (who knew). Grow baby, grow.

The doctor wants to hold off for about another month before we introduce solids so that was disappointing because we were so excited to get to start feeding him other stuff besides milk and formula. I probably have about another 2 weeks worth of frozen milk and then we will have to be on formula only (big bummer). I will say that the doctor thinks he is doing great and thriving.

The second appointment was back at the hospital with the Follow Along Clinic. This is in the Rehabilitation department. The did a few tests, with pictures, bells, rings, and people to see how Parker responded. As well as some tummy time and strength tests. According to the doctor, he is doing great. I think that this appointment was more of a benchmark and he will go back in 6 months and they will see how much he has developed since this appointment. The doctor did mention that we should not let Parker watch television, as preemie's have a higher risk of ADHD and television can cause that to develop even more. She said that not allowing television until the age of 2 has shown to reduce the risk of ADHD.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Back to Work!

2010-03-24T16:15:00.004-04:00

Well, my maternity leave is now over and I am back at work full time. I have to say, the 3 months of not going into my office really spoiled me and this traffic is now even more annoying then it was before but I have to say that I don't really mind being back. I truly believe that it takes a special woman to be a stay at home mom and I know that I am not cut out for it. I believe that for me, it is quality time with Parker not quantity.

Well this is my second full week back and things seem to be running smoothly. Both my mother and Erik's mom have agreed to help us out for the next 12 weeks with child care by alternating weeks and coming to stay with us to take care of Parker during the day. We are on the second week of this routine and it is working perfectly. We are just so happy to be able to have Parker stay with family for a little longer before we have a stranger take care of him.

Parker has turned out to be an amazingly great baby. He is already going to bed around 10pm and sleeping until around 8am so that has been wonderful. He is a great eater, happy, laughs and smiles all the time and as we watch him, we just know that he will be rolling over on us sometime really soon. His personality is already so developed that it is scary. You can definitely tell when he is giving you the "Don't bother me look" and the "What do you think your doing" look. He also says "I love you", "Your funny" and "Please Don't" with just his facial expressions. He loves bath time TV time, story time and of course MUSIC.

We are having the best time getting to know him more and more each day. We can't wait for everyone to get to meet him and of course, based on my previous pictures, he will definitely be a Mountaineer fan.

God Bless.

2010-03-20T22:25:00.004-04:00

We know it has been a long time so we thought we would make a quick post. Here are some photos from the past few months. Everything is going really well. Parker is now six months old and doing awesome. He is over 10 lbs and 23 inches long. Growing rapidly. I am back at work and Erik's business is off to a great start this year. Hope all is well with everyone of you. Take Care. God Bless.

Homecoming!

2010-01-26T13:25:00.002-05:00

Well, I know that is has been forever since we have updated but here it is. Parker came home on December 21st just in time for Christmas. It was wonderful. Erik's parents were able to come over from West Virginia and spend the holiday with us. After Christmas, Uncle Tim and Aunt Kate stopped by to meet Parker as well before they left to go back to Turkey. We really enjoyed having all of them come.

We have been to see Parker's pediatrician and ophthalmologist a few times so far. The eye surgery for his ROP that took place right before he left the hospital went really well. His eyes are healing great and now we will continue to just follow his eyes with the ophthalmologist. The pediatrician is perfect. He seems to know preemies really well and is working out great for us. Erik and I really like all of the doctors that Parker has had so far. The major thing we have to get used to is adjusting Parker's age. With premature babies, they take Parker's actual age and calculate what they call an adjusted age to use as a guide for his development. For Parker, he is actually almost 5 months old, however, for medical and developmental purposes, his adjusted age is 1 month old. To calculate Parker's adjusted age, they take his actual age and subtract the number of weeks he was born early, which would be 15 weeks and 2 days.

For a couple of weeks Erik and I were just able to be alone and spend some time with Parker which was wonderful. We then took him on his first trip to the ski house which went really well. He tolerated the car ride very well and seemed to transition just fine.

On Martin Luther King weekend my parents were able to come up and see their grand baby too. We had a wonderful time. We went out a couple of times, took Parker and Erik to Fort Belvoir and just hung around. It was a wonderful weekend.

Since Parker came home Erik and I have been adjusting to his changing sleeping patterns. Some nights he does wonderfully, others, like last night, not so much. We have been told that in a couple of months, when he is roughly 3 months old, we can start trying to set up a sleep pattern but at this point he is still too young to not pick him up when he needs it.

Our next visitors are Uncle Ben and Aunt Vikki coming this weekend. We can not wait to have them. Then President's day weekend Uncle Scott and Aunt Danielle will come to visit also. Then we are hoping to have Uncle Trent and Aunt Jennifer come sometime in March.

Having Parker home has been a big adjustment but has been amazing. I will post some photos soon. I will try to get back into a regular schedule of updates. Hope everyone is doing well.

Short Update - Lot's of Changes

2009-11-11T10:29:00.000-05:00

There are some great changes in the world of Parker, so here they are.

1) They took Parker off the CPAP machine and put him on the nasal canula. He is at a flow of 1 (which is great) and his oxygen is set to 21% (which is room air, what we all breathe) which is awesome.

2) They have moved his feeding tube from his small intestines to his stomach and he is handling that perfectly.

3) They have now started to compress his feeds. Currently, he is being feed through his tube for 2 hours and the he goes 1 hour with out food. This is to introduce the feeling of hunger and full so that he can tell Erik and I in the future when he is ready to eat. He is doing great with this also.

4) He now weighs 1710 grams which is a little over 3 lbs. 12 ounces.

5) Hopefully soon they will be able to introduce a bottle for feeding so that he can learn to actually eat on his own and soon they will start his vaccines that full term babies normally get.

6) He had another eye exam on Tuesday, which he hates but the nurses say he tolerates better the most babies do. He still has a level two ROP but at this point they are just going to watch him. They have said he may need Laser eye surgery but that the ROP could still resolve on it's own as well.

Even with everything that is going on he is doing great. We appreciate all the prayers and support. Please keep them coming. All of our nurses know of our great support group and of our Christianity since we talk of it. With that in mind, our nurse Megan informed us that another family (they are not allowed to give names), lost one of their twins on Monday. She asked if Erik and I and our group could prayer for them and I of told her absolutely.

Love to All.

BOO!!

2009-11-04T10:17:00.004-05:00

Well, this was Parker's first Halloween and we were able to dress him up and take off his CPAP for a few minutes for a photo-op. He was splended and looked amazing. Enjoy!

A quick update: Parker is now 1590 grams or roughly 3lbs. 7 ounces. He has been taken off the CPAP and put on a low flow nasal canal and his feeding tube has been moved from his mouth to his nose. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will pull his feeding tube back into his stomach and as long as that goes well they will start timing his feeds instead of having him on a continous feed and they will start introducing a bottle. Cross your fingers.

Hope everyone is well.

Happy Fall!

Big Update

2009-10-05T16:06:00.012-04:00

Well, our life has been a little hectic since Parker was born. Sorry for the delay in updates. So, two days before Parker was born Erik and I had a mini vacation in Baltimore. We went to the acquarium and an Orioles game. It was a great time.

Then our little guy arrived after church on Sunday. What a scary but amazing day. Parker Brooks Moden is doing very well. He is now gaining weight and is off the the ventilator. When he was still on the vent we really could not hold him a lot but we did get one opportunity to hold him. Now that he is off the vent we can hold him almost anytime unless he has had a bad day, which would mean that he was needing more oxygen support and was restless all day. So far he has not had many bad days and we were able to hold Parker again yesterday.

Below are photos of our mini vacation and some of Parker. Enjoy.

BALTIMORE:

PARKER BROOKS MODEN:

Parker Brooks Moden

2009-09-07T22:31:00.001-04:00

As most of you already know, Parker Brooks Moden is here!!

We are updating a blog provided by the hospital to us, specifically for him. If you have not received the email with the link and I would like to see updates on his status please just shoot me and email and we will get you the link.

Hope everyone is doing well.

God Bless!

Erik's 1st Post!!!

2009-07-26T20:16:00.031-04:00

It took me a little over year, but Rebecca was finally able to convince me to post on our blog. I know, I know...what took me so long. Well, all that's important, is that I'm posting now, and that you all can enjoy my witty writing.

So what's new in the land of the Modens?

First comes baby Moden! Parker or Katherine is growing, growing, growing...and with growing baby comes growing Rebecca.

Here she is on July 26th @ 19 weeks and 5 days

To every ones amazement (and some envy), she is still wearing her regular jeans. She has however, begrudgingly started to leave her jeans unbuttoned while wearing her belly band.

We had our 20 week sonogram this week, a few days early, and were completely blown away by the experience! All hands, feet, arms, and legs were accounted for, and were growing just as they should be. Our sonogram technician said the baby has my nose, but I just felt lucky to be able to locate the nose.

Actually, the sonogram was very clear, and because the baby is still fairly translucent, we were even able to see individual bones. Seeing it's spine was probably the most dramatic. We asked not to be told the sex of the baby, and of coarse once it started, we wanted to know...but we stuck to our guns and now can only speculate as to what we may or may not have seen.

Here are the a few of the new photos: Baby Moden - 19 Weeks and 3 Days

I'm quite familiar with the photos, and am aware of what they are, but for those of you who haven't been staring at them (dumbfounded by how this little baby of ours is moving around inside Rebecca) , here is an explanation.

Baby Face - Our baby is sleeping with it's hand curled up under it's chin. You can see the eyes, nose, mouth, and right shoulder.

Baby Arm - Here you can see our babies right arm reaching up in front of it's face. You can see the translucency of the skin exposing the humerus bone.

Sleepy Time - Hopefully our baby will like to sleep (like Rebecca), but then get up early and keep themselves occupied by cleaning (like me.)

In this photo, our baby is reaching up to scratch it's eye. You can see it's right shoulder, arm, and hand, as well as it's mouth and nose.

And so the accumulation of STUFF begins.

I'm glad the baby's room has a big closet, because I'm a neat freak and won't be able to handle having crap all over the house.

Both old and new, we have our first few clothing items. Some of which were mine when I was a baby, and others are impulse buys we just couldn't pass up the last few months.

We have both been doing a lot of reading, taking in as much information as humanly possible. Of coarse, we have also been inundated with opinions on how to raise a child. Most of which are valid and very much appreciated, but some are aggressive and a little over the top. All you new parents out there, you know what I'm talking about! HAHA.

The baby's room transformation is complete and the furniture has been ordered. More photos to come later.

Lastly, because we don't have enough stress in our lives, a partner and I have decided to start our own business.

Outdoor Spaces Landscape Design (The most likely candidate for our name) will be a two person operation designing residential pools, decks, patios, walkways, retaining walls, etc. and subcontracting the installation.

We are still in the research phase, but are hoping launch this fall. Wish us luck!

Well, hopefully that is enough for now. I should do this more often! We'll fill you in again soon.

Love,
Erik

June 11th Appointment with OBGYN!

2009-06-11T11:58:00.011-04:00

Well everyone, we had our next appointment with the OBGYN (Dr. Stokes) this morning. It went very well. It was a little scary at first because Dr. Stokes could not find the heart beat. So, we went to another sonogram and there our little baby was just flipping around in my belly and having a great time. Below we have a few more pictures since we were able to get another sonogram.

As it turns out, Dr. Stokes could not hear the baby's heartbeat because my blatter is pushing the baby up higher in my stomach then most women experience so he was basically looking for it in the wrong place. With the machine (no idea what it's called) we could finally hear the heartbeat after we new where the little rascal was hiding and we were able to record it on my cellphone. I tried to upload it to the blog but was unable to so, I will send it via email to everyone I have. If you don't get it and want to hear is just shoot me an email and I can send it to you. There is a lot of noise because I could not stop laughing because I was so excited. But if you listen to the whole thing you can hear it really well at the end.

Well we hope you enjoyed our first experience with the baby's heartbeat. It was moving at 135bpm this time and measuring at 7 sonometers (I think that's what he called them). So our little one is right on track and everything is going great.

Hope everyone is doing well and I am sure I will talk with you soon.

Love, Erik, Rebecca, Smokey, Dusty, Shadow, Ghost and "IT" (Baby Moden)

Aging, Changing House, Body and Baby!!!!

2009-05-13T19:08:00.007-04:00

Well life has been a little wild here in Virginia. Lot's of stuff going on and it's pretty hard for Erik and I to keep up.

First, changes in our house. We finally decided to have new carpet installed because the old carpet was ugly and probably pretty nasty with two dogs and two cats. Here's what the new carpet looks like now.

Next, we decided to have new windows installed because the old windows were about 30 years old. In the winter the let the cold air in and in the summer they let the hot air in and we had to use 2x4's to hold them open, at least the ones that we were able to get open. Below, please view the beautiful before and after photos.

Before:

After:

Last, we started working on the nursery. We painted the walls and added beadboard and a chair rail.

Second, in the Moden household, Erik turned 30. To surprise him I sent him golfing with his friend Andrew and then had all are friends come over to the house that afternoon for a cookout. We had a wonderful time. Sorry, I was so busy having fun and coordinating everything I forgot to take pictures.

Last, Erik and I had are last appointment with Dr. Khan our fertility doctor on Monday and our first appointment with our OBGYN today. At the last appointment with Dr. Khan we had our second sonogram. The baby, my uterus and the heart beat all changed rapidly. The heartbeat jumped from 129 bpm last time (2 weeks ago) to 176 bpm on Monday. It was crazy to watch how fast the heart fluttered on the sonogram. Below you can see how much the baby has grown since last time as well and if you know me very well you can see how much I have grown too. I have already put on 8 pounds and am weighing in at a whopping 113.

Baby:

Belly:

Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I will keep you posted on my growing belly. Our next doctors appointment isn't until June 11th so we have a little while to wait this time.

God Bless!

Update from the Modens!

2009-04-29T15:14:00.004-04:00

Well, sorry it has been two months since my last post but life has been crazy for a while. As most of you already know, Erik and I have been going through fertility treatments trying to have a baby. Well our most recent IVF treatment, I am pleased to say was a success and Erik and I are expecting our first child on December 15, 2009. We are 7 weeks and 1 day pregnant.

We had our first sonogram on Monday and everything looked great. They said that it (people make fun because I call the baby "it") is measuring at a good size and it's heart rate was 129 bpm which is supposed to be well into the healthy range.

The most exciting part was that we received our first baby picture and I have already found a place on the refrigerator for it.

We go back to the doctor on the 11th for another sonogram and then I am scheduled to see my regular OBGYN on the 13th.

We hope everyone is doing well and we thank you for all your prayers and support.

Happy Spring!

Skiing in Utah!!!

2009-02-17T18:49:00.016-05:00

Well, it has been a while but life has been a little busy. It never seems to slow down but I am sure I am preaching to the choir when I say stuff like that.

This past weekend Erik and I took a couple of days off and went out to Park City, Utah with Krista and her husband Paul and some other friends to go skiing.

On day one, Thursday, Erik and I went to ski at The Canyons. This was my first time skiing in Utah and Erik helped me challenge myself of the double black diamond called the Yard Sale. From what I know about a Yard Sale while skiing it basically means that you whipe out and lose all your gear from your skis to you poles to your hat and goggles.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2172/2241493668_e1a21ea34a_b.jpg

Laugh all you want, luckily that did not happen to me.

After a nice lunch break, Erik and I decided to do some hiking to ski as well. This is where I called it quits.

Erik kept climbing,

And Climbing,

Until he finally made it to the top.

He did all this work and it only took seconds to ski back down.

We had a great time. However, to end the perfect day, clumsy Rebecca decided to fall on the ice entering the condo and jam her shoulder. So basically that was it for me and the skiing. My arm is feeling better so no need to worry. I know that you all are shocked and upset by this turn of events. The up side to this was that on Friday, I was able to go shopping and get a massage. Erik on the other hand decided to be insane on Friday and he went on a back country tour called the Interconnect Tour through Ski Utah.

http://www.skiutah.com/interconnect/

I will let him make another post with photos of that because he was there and can better explain his insanity. I do know he had a great time and that it was the experience of a lifetime.

On Saturday, we both took it easy. We lucked out and the Olympic Park was hosting the final races for the World Cup Bobsled tournament so we were able to go and watch them. It was amazing and cold. I was sure they were going to have to cut off some of my fingers aftering being out there for so long.

On the last day we went to Alta. Erik skied alone but I am sure he did not mind being able to ski all the harder runs that I can not. He took pictures that day too but again I will let him post them since he knows what they are.

We took the redeye home on Sunday night, which I will NEVER do again, but we survived. Now its back to the grind. We'll post some more soon. Hope everyone is doing well and that we can get to see you all soon.

Love Ya!

I've Been Tagged!

2009-01-23T10:14:00.004-05:00

The Rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer.

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder.

3) Explain the picture.

4) Tag 4 people to do the same.

(This is Andrea a friend of ours here in D.C. at our house for Erik's 28th birthday (2 years ago). We were roasting marshmallows (I believe it was Andrea's first time.) Sitting behind her is Dan another friend that lives in Hamilton with us.)

I am tagging Kate and Tim and Kevin and Genny!

Later!

A Rough Few Weeks!

2009-01-19T15:39:00.003-05:00

Well, as most of you already know our first attempt at IVF was unsuccessful. However, Erik and I are still really optimistic. We met with our doctor last Friday and he gave us the go ahead to start a second treatment. The doctor's have been great and learned a lot from our first cycle.

Apparently, my body tends to over react to the medication and last time they had to continue to adjust my dosing. The doctor feels that these adjustments are probably the cause for the failure of our first attempt. With this knowledge they will be able to better regulate my response by adjusting the dosing before we start the cycle. The next cycle will begin in February. The "fresh" cycles take two months so we will know in April whether our second attempt was a success. I will try and keep the blog updated with our progress as we go.

On some other bad news, Saturday, the 10th, my grandmother passed away. Luckily, I happened to be in South Carolina for business and was able to make it to the Hospice center about a 1/2 hour before she passed so I had a chance to see her one more time. I had to leave for Montreal on Monday but was able to return to Georgia for the funeral and visitation on Wednesday and Thursday. The service was beautiful and everything went really well. My grandmother was an amazing woman and I will truly miss her.

Will update again soon. Hope every one's new year is going well.

Christmas & A Wedding!

2009-01-04T21:18:00.015-05:00

Well, this Christmas was very exciting for us. First, we went to a tree farm in Round Hill and cut down our Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun but really cold.

For Christmas this year everyone came to Virginia and we had Christmas dinner at our house. Luckily, Erik's mom still cooked.

After Christmas we celebrated my brother Tim’s wedding to Kate. Below we have included some pictures from the Rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding.

Well that's all for now. Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Take Care!

Thanksgiving til now!

2008-12-15T21:34:00.003-05:00

Well, a lot has been going on since our last post.

First, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Georgia and had a very nice time. I was able to take a few extra days off and also go to South Carolina and visit for a while as well.

Work has been a little crazy for both of us and I think it will stay that way through the new year.

We are counting down to Christmas. Our Christmas this year will be a little wild. The Moden's will be coming to our house in Virginia to celebrate. Plus, my family will be headed up this way for my brother Tim's wedding on Saturday the 27th. Should be a great time.

For the update on IVF....

I finished the first month of medicine (birth control) in November. I then started the next round of medicine. It was one shot and a baby aspirin in the morning and then two more shots in the evening. Because I have been responding to the medicine so well they had to add another shot to help control my response in the evenings as well so that made three. YEAH!

You would have to ask Erik but I think I have responded fairly well emotionally.

I took my last shot of those medicines tonight and will take what they call a Trigger shot tonight as well. Then on Wednesday, I will have my egg retrieval and fertilization. They have to put me to sleep so I am not too excited about that but at least it is close to being complete. The final step is the embryo transfer. This will occur three to five days following my retrieval. After that we just wait. We should know if the treatment worked in early January.

We are very excited and think that being pregnant would be a wonderful way to start the new year.

We appreciate all your prayers and support through all of this. Hope everyone is doing well.

God Bless!

A little crazy here in Virginia!!

2008-11-11T21:20:00.004-05:00

Well, I am finally home long enough to post another update. A lot has been going on over the last few weeks so here it is.

Erik and I traveled to Knoxville, TN to see our friends Scott and Danielle and their daughter Ainie over the weekend of November 1st. We had a great time and really enjoyed the football on Saturday with WVU beating UCONN and Michigan losing. I tell you life doesn't get much better.

Erik and I also celebrated our 5 year anniversary over the same weekend. We loved sharing it with friends and actually can not believe that it has been so long since we took the plunge down the aisle. The last five years have flown by but have been great.

Over last weekend, November 7th, I went to Santa Fe, NM for work but also got to include a short visit with Krista and her husband Paul in Albuquerque. I had a great time with them but had to suffer through the dreadful loss of WVU to Cincinnati. That stinks.

On some other news, Erik and I have just gotten the go ahead to start our first IVF with ICSI treatment. The next three weeks will just be some medication that I have to take and then we will get into the actually procedure in December. We are very excited and hope to have news of the success of our treatment early next year. We will keep you all posted as it goes and feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Erik and I just wanted to let everyone know that we appreciate your prayer and support through all of our infertility and other times of trouble. But most of all, we want to thank everyone for their continued support of our growing marriage. Married life is not easy and having such a strong support system over the past five years has been great.

We hope that everyone has a nice Thanksgiving and we will update again soon.

God Bless!

Fall Update

2008-10-20T17:27:00.004-04:00

I figured it was time for an update so here it is.

Erik and I have been trucking along about the same. We had our second IUI cycle and it was completed on October 10th. Unfortunately, this cycle was also unsuccessful. At this point our doctor, Dr. Kahn with Shady Grove Fertility, feels that it would be best to move on to a more aggressive approach with IVF with ICSI. This program is definitely more invasive but, it will up our chances from 30% to about 65%. We are very excited and as long as the calendar will allow it, due to the holiday's, we will start in November. This process will take two months, more drugs and doctors appointments, so be fair warned, that if you see me after the drugs have started I may be a little meaner than usual.

Other news with us is pretty normal. I just returned from a business trip to Nashville and will be headed to Santa Fe in November. Erik is still being kept very busy at Hidden Lane which is definitely good news. We are planning a short vacation to see our friends Danielle and Scott in Knoxville over Halloween weekend but other than that are lives are fairly calm at the moment.

Hoping everyone is having a nice fall and enjoying the change in seasons and weather. I will keep you posted on our fertility journey and appreciate all the prayer and support we have received so far.

Trip to Timberline

2008-09-15T22:13:00.003-04:00

Erik and I took a trip to Timberline to see his parents and just get away. We had a great time and really enjoyed relaxing and just hanging out. We went on a horse back ride, hiking and just enjoyed doing nothing for a few days.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life.

More photos - Erik's Reunion

2008-09-15T22:09:00.003-04:00

As Promised!!!

2008-09-09T18:42:00.009-04:00

After dinner at the German restuartant.

On our way to my reunion.

Playing in the pool.

Cranium is the best.

Dinner at the german restuarant.

Tim and his fiance Kate.
Chillin in the pool.

My brothers just hanging out.

Well there is our trip to South Carolina in July. I hope to have some pictures of Erik's reunion up soon. Hope you all are well.

We've Been Tagged!!!

2008-08-26T18:45:00.002-04:00

Here are the tagging rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post (except, we're doing 1)
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

1) We both have a habit of changing our underwear before bed, Erik from boxerbrief's to boxer's and Rebecca from, we'll say bikini's to boyshorts, but they are more like the underwear that Cameron Diaz was wearing in Charlie's Angels when the delivery guy came to the door.

2) Our morning routine never changes, I must shower, dry and fix my hair and put on my makeup all before getting dressed. Erik must shower, then get dressed and then wet his hair again to fix it.

3) I refuse to take my shoes off until I am getting ready for bed and I never go without at least socks on in the house, while Erik almost has his shoes and socks off before we even get in the door.

4) On Saturdays, we quickly found out that a relaxing Saturday for me is sleeping in and watching TV and a relaxing day for Erik is working in the yard and cleaning the house (Have I got it made or what!)

5) Since Erik is always hot and I am always cold, we have agreed to disagree on the tempature of our home and have it set at 70 during the day and 65 at night. Erik always wears shorts and a t-shirt and I always wear sweats to ensure we are both comfortable.

6) When we were married, I wanted dogs and Erik wanted cats. We now have both and the dogs are Erik's and the cats are mine. (Ironic huh!)

We're tagging:

Kevin and Genny Miller

Finally Updating

2008-08-22T07:03:00.006-04:00

Well it has been forever since we last posted a blog but life has been a little crazy. Where to begin?

In May we had our very good friends Danielle and Scott visit us here in Virginia and we were able to celebrate Erik (5/7) and Danielle's (5/8) birthdays with a cookout and a little karaoke. We also had the opportunity to take Danielle and Scott to our church, which was awesome.

In July, we traveled to my home in Pomaria, South Carolina. We had the joyous experience (a little sarcasm) of attending my 10 year high school reunion. I definitely do not miss high school. On a better note we were also able to celebrate my brother Tim's engagement to Kate Anderson. They are scheduled to be married this December.

In August, my parents had the opportunity to come up to Virginia as well. The trip turned into a big success since we were able to help them select the location for the rehearsal dinner and introduce them to Kate's parents Joyce and Bill. The next weekend in August, we traveled back to Athens, Ohio to attend Erik's 10 year high school reunion. Now that was fun. I was able to meet all his friends from high school and I know it was great for him to catch up with everyone too.

On some sad news we have had a couple of disappointments as well. As most of you know, Erik and I have been trying to have a baby for about 3 years. Over the last few months we have been working with an excellent doctor, Dr. Kahn, with Shady Grove Fertility. This past August we attempted our first IUI treatment but found out last week that it was unsuccessful. We are keeping positive merely based on the fact that statistically it takes more then one treatment since IUI only has about a 30% success rate. Our doctor is very positive as well and has cleared us for a second treatment as soon as we are ready.

The other sad news is that our loved and respected pastor, Randy Ashcraft, has had a calling from God to move on in his walk in faith and has announced his resignation from Leesburg Community Church. We understand and respect his decision, while saddened for our own lose at the same time.

We will hopefully have pictures very soon of both the engagement party and the reunion. Hope all is well with everyone else and I will really attempt to post more blogs in the future.

God Bless!

Our First Attempt at Blogging!!!!!

2008-04-02T09:07:00.001-04:00

Well, Erik and I thought it would be nice to start a blog since "everyone else is doing it" and the peer pressure finally got to us. There is not a whole lot going on in our world at the moment, just your regular run of the mill busy lives that everyone seems to have. Erik's work is getting busier by the day since Spring is approaching and mine never seems to stop surprising me. Sorry for the short first entry, I'm just testing the water. I'll make another entry soon with more interesting information, I promise.