Adventures in Houston...continued

So the rest of the trip has been pretty uneventful. There's not much to do around the hotel and we haven't been to many restaurants outside of the hotel. Like I said, kinda boring. We did go to a restaurant in a shady part of town that the concierge recommended. There was a group of us and it was actually pretty busy but there was a security guard out front. That was kind of funny.

Then this one guy that we know from Michigan told us that he went to Galveston to see the sunrise and hang out on the beach. While he was sitting there a dead body washed up on shore!! No lying!

One thing I did have fun with...there's a long red carpet separating the meeting rooms and the exhibitor show. I pretended like it was the red carpet of an awards show or a movie premiere. Tom even took a picture of me! :) Hey, I have to entertain myself someway.

We head home tomorrow, finally.

Adventures in Houston - Day 1

Yesterday Franklin and I headed to Houston, TX for a soccer conference. I wasn't that excited about going to Houston, but I was glad I could be with Franklin all week. Our first adventure was at the Detroit airport. When going through security we had to go through this Ion machine before going through the metal detector. You stand in it, it blows a bunch of air on you and then you wait til it's done processing. My guess is that the air would blow around any bomb making material you may have on your clothes and then it would detect it, but I'm not totally sure.

After a delayed flight we finally make it to Houston, get our bags and get a shuttle. The shuttle drive was very scary. When merging onto the expressway the shuttle driver almost ran into a car that she didn't see. Then we got off the expressway, she was in the right lane but needed to turn left so she went ahead and crossed two lanes of traffic. And what was this for you ask? Well she needed to get gas. So we're sitting at a gas station as she's pumping gas. She puts the nozzle in and walks away. Then she walks back and without even looking to see if the pump had stopped she pulls it out. Gas went everywhere! Then she tried to put it back in and get the $.05 she paid for but didn't get. We finally get back on the freeway and can see the downtown area, everyone in the shuttle feels better. But does she get off at downtown, nope, she gets onto another freeway headed away from downtown! And then finally gets off the freeway, goes under an overpass (which looked like a homemade shortcut) and heads back towards downtown. Franklin and I were happy that our hotel was first. We wished everyone else luck and got out of the van.

The last exciting thing of the evening was dinner. We went to the steakhouse in the hotel and started talking to our waiter. Because the NBA All Star game was just here this past Sunday I asked him about that. He served Kobe Bryant! That was just kind of cool.

So now today is much less exciting. Franklin has a meeting this afternoon and I'm just gonna hang out in the room. Hopefully there won't be too many more adventures to blog about!

Unemployment

Well, two days into my unemployment and things are going just fine. :) I've mostly been catching up on taped shows from when I was in Albuquerque. Today I slept in more than I would like but I figure I'm allowed to do this in the beginning.

We went to the doctor yesterday and everything is moving along just fine. We heard the baby's heartbeat again and it was moving around. I have an ultrasound in 3 weeks and we can't wait to see how much the baby has grown. And I learned that I've gained 5 pounds so far. I took Tom to Babies R Us this past weekend and he was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff. He also said all of the men in the store looked exhausted!

And I no longer have my same cell phone number. I'll be sending out my new number to everyone soon!

I felt the baby move!!!!

Today, in Albuquerque, I was sitting at our registration desk and I felt the baby move for the very first time!! It's so exciting and of course I called Tom right away. He was sorry he missed it, even if he couldn't feel anything himself. :)

Albuquerque...just as brown as expected

I'm in Albuquerque for my very last business trip with Internet2. It has been nice to see the sun and be able to be out without a coat sometimes, especially because we flew out right before the snow came in! But other than that, I'm not that impressed. It's a nice city, nice campus but it's just okay. It could also be that i'm pregnant, can't drink and everything interesting to see closes at 5. :) I would've like to have gotten up to Taos but it's 2 hours away and we don't have any free time.

So I'll continue with this being a downer of a post...I will miss my friends at work and I will miss the job. Sitting here thinking this is the last event I'll be at is just kind of weird. I don't think it's set in yet.

16 weeks and things are looking up

So now that I'm 16 weeks pregnant I haven't thrown up once, nausea has been kept at a minimum and I've had to get out of bed and get dressed in the morning 2 days in a row!! Thankfully this is allowed because my energy has been mostly returned.

Here's to a happy 2nd trimester!

Busy lives

I was sitting here feeling guilty that I haven't really posted much in awhile. But then I take a look at my friends blogs, and they really haven't either. I've always looked at January as kind of a blah month, but apparently it's a really busy month for people. :)

I guess I'll post a little update about myself. I'm almost 14 weeks pregnant. Feeling sick less than I did a few weeks ago but I still have days. And moments. And nightly indigestion. But that's the beauty of it, right? I'm headed to MI to work for a couple of days. This will be my last trip into the office, as an employee anyway. Kind of sad, but life goes on. For those of you who don't know, my company only gave me four months to work remotely and that is up on 2/10. So I am looking for another job, but haven't found anything yet. I'd like to find something before I'm obviously pregnant. Illegal to discriminate against me, yes, but doesn't mean they wouldn't.

Franklin has been busy at work too. Spring time is on the way which means the kiddies all want to play soccer!

Hope all is well with all of you. :)

Is the kiss of death hereditary?

So, it's a sad day in my house. I put on my brand new Peyton Manning jersey this morning with the thrill and hope that they would win their game today. It didn't work. I wore my Giants jersey last week and they lost too. My Mom says that whoever my Dad roots for loses because he is the Kiss of Death. I think I've inherited that from my Dad. :( Oh well, go Steelers!!!

Cute as a button!

I picked up Sophie from the groomers today and she had pigtails!!

Merry Christmas!!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Hope Santa brings everyone good presents!!

Carolers

Last night Franklin and I were watching tv when the doorbell rang. I went to the door and looked out the window and there wasn't anyone there. I opened the door and saw a group of people on the sidewalk and they were singing! It was the neatest thing. Sophie and I stood out on the porch and listened to them sing. I've never had carolers and it really put me in the holiday mood!! Franklin was lying on the couch in his boxers so he decided not to go out on the porch. :)

Our first Ohio Christmas Tree!

I thought I would share a picture of our beautiful tree! Now that counts as two posts. :)

It's almost here!!!

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? I sure can't. I've been made aware that I haven't been keeping my blog up to date and I swear it's because time goes so fast. I thought it hadn't been that long since Dana came to visit, but it's been weeks. Weeks!!

So, here's my post. I'm still trying to wrap all the presents while trying to finish up the shopping too. We were in MI for a few days last week for work and we'll be headed back up on Thursday. It seems like I don't spend any time at home. Oh well.

If I don't post before Sunday...Merry Christmas to all!!

Dana's Coming to Visit!

Dana's coming to visit, she's on her way here
I'm so excited I let out a cheer
We'll have lots of fun chatting and laughing whole hearty
Guess Tom will get to experience a slumber party!

Let the holiday season begin!!

This past weekend was the Candlelight Holiday Walk in Medina. It's the town kick off to the holiday season. There was a parade, all the stores were open, horse drawn carriage rides and Santa came! It was great! Franklin and I had a great time and it really did help us get more in the mood. We shopped that night and all day yesterday!! Only 34 more shopping days!

Happy 1st Anniversary Franklin!

I can't believe it's already been a year, time has flown so fast. Even though we went through many things this year I know every day we love each other more than the day before. I can't imagine my life without you, you've made me the happiest I could ever be. I love you.

Featured Speaker

Franklin was the featured speaker at the Niles McKinley High School Soccer Banquet last night. Even though it was over an hour away I think we both had a good time. We got to sit at the head table and everything!! Franklin did a good job on his speech, tried not to bore the kids too much. He was then followed by the Superintendent of the school and I was quickly reminded how much I hated listening to these guys at school assemblies. He totally made it into some kind of political speech about the separation of church and state and then about the war. The kids looked as zoned out as I did. I don't think anyone got the message he was trying to give. Plus, he wouldn't shake my hand! That always makes me mad when Franklin and I are being introduced to people and they shake his hand, but not mine. Out of the dozen or so people I met last night, only 2 didn't shake my hand, the superintendent and the athletic director. Hello! I'm not just a soccer wife!!!

Moving away

On Friday night Franklin and I attended a going away party for one of our neighbors that are moving. It's amazing how fast we became friends with Sylvia, Brian and their boys. The party was a lot of fun and it gave Franklin a chance to hang out with the men of the neighborhood, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I was even invited to a girls weekend in Florida while we were there! It was just another example of how much we LOVE our new neighborhood. :)

Medina or Seattle?

Okay, I know it's fall and the weather is changing, but this is ridiculous! It's been gray and rainy almost every day for two weeks. If we have to have Seattle's rain, does that mean we won't get as much snow either? LOL, fat chance, I know.

Happy Halloween!!

Last night was filled with excitement as I got all dressed up and the trick or treaters came out! Our city decided to have trick or treating on Sunday rather than Monday, who knows why. Sophie wasn't very cooperative with her costume this year so she only wore it for a little while. I saw many princesses last night and a couple of cool costumes. There's a lot this year that are like the blow up things you put in your yard for Halloween and Christmas. One girl was dressed like a cowboy and the horse was inflated, just like Ellen wore today on her talk show!! And another was a group of kids dressed as a milkmaids, sumo wrestlers and body builders. Pretty funny. I was a hit with all the kiddies, can't go wrong with SpongeBob!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!!