IT'S A BOY

Ok, so you already know we are having a baby boy, but I just found the pictures from our big reveal! I decided to bake a blue cake and smother it in chocolate icing for a fun reveal. It happened to be my Dad's birthday so I made his favorite cake - marble cake. Interestingly enough, marble cake is yellow. What do blue and yellow make? Find out for yourself....

Mom and Dad super excited...boy or girl? Dad wore pink and Mom wore blue!

What does GREEN mean?

First Holy Communion

I am a proud Godmother to my sweet cousin Catherine. This past weekend was her First Holy Communion. Because of our hectic schedule with the triathlon, we didn't get to actually attend the Mass with her, but we did go to the pre-party for some delicious BBQ and lots of fun.

Comparing Bellies!

San Antonio Baby Shower

Baby T's Aunts-to-be (Ann Marie, Sara, and Mindy) hosted a shower in his honor this past weekend. Rockport is a popular theme for this baby. He was showered with a number of bathing suits, tackle boxes, and sunglasses -- all perfect items for a great weekend fishing in Rockport! I know it was a very busy weekend, being Memorial Day and a big graduation weekend, and I am so thankful that so many people were still able to come! In Forrest's family alone they were celebrating a couple other graduations in Austin and Ft. Worth, and still made the trip to San Antonio to celebrate Baby T. Thank you!

Rockport Swim Gear!

As most of you probably already know, sushi is my most favorite thing to eat. Because I am forbidden from eating raw fish, Mindy (my sister-in-law) made candy sushi! 

This is the what Forrest wore the day he came home from the hospital. I think Baby T will have to follow in his Daddy's footsteps!

Matching Rockport Fishing Buddies Shirts!

My sister, Ann Marie, one of the Aunts-to-be! I didn't get a picture of all three hostesses on my camera, so I will post that picture once I get one.

Bucket List: Triathlon

Memorial Day 2009 will be a day to remember. History was made! My dad, Forrest, Kelly, Brandon, Matt, and Jaki all completed the Cap Tex triathlon. And they are all still alive!!!

Sunday, the day before the race, was a big day gathering all the gear, dropping off bikes at the race site, and loading up on carbs. It was early to bed and super early to rise! My mom and sister volunteered to 'body mark' the triathletes so they were up at the race site at 5:30am! Every triathlete has to have their numbers written in permanent marker on their bodies and their age written on their calves. This way they can identify you for disqualification, pictures, and of course in case they find you at the bottom of the lake! I was in charge of getting Forrest and my dad up, fed, and out the door.

The race took place right in the heart of downtown Austin. The half a mile swim started in town lake (Lady Bird Lake), a chilly start. Then they biked 12.5 miles down Congress towards the capital. They each came across the finish line a little exhausted, but happy, after running 3 miles.

These 6 triathletes were surrounded by supporters and felt the love! Our cheer group alone had about 20 people, all in our matching Mark Felice Childhood Cancer t-shirts. With our matching shirts, people thought we were official and were asking us all sorts of questions. Sorry, I don't know where that is and no, I have no clue what time the transition areas open up. It was such a HOT day! I know the triathletes worked hard, but we were running all over the place trying to get the perfect spot to cheer each of them on... also hard work. Because they each started at different times, it was a game of timing each one of them and guessing where they should be along the race. I was worn out by the time Forrest crossed the finish line. It was time to find shade and take a break.

These pictures are a bit backwards...

Forrest and Dad after crossing the finish line!

Me and Kel celebrating her race!

Part of the cheer squad!

Dad getting ready for the 12.5 mile bike ride!

Semper Tri!

Before the race and before the heat!

Neighborhood Petition

This afternoon, something shocking and very sad happened on our street. Forrest and I had been at a Dr. appt, as we turned on our street, we noticed two cops arresting a man. There were a couple neighbors out watching. A little girl had been riding her bike home from school and was hit by a truck when a man ran the four-way stop sign. Luckily, the tires did not run her over so she survived, but she was dragged underneath the truck along with her bike. Thank goodness she was wearing a helmet! There are marks on the street where her bike was dragged across the pavement. We live on a very tiny street, just two blocks long. So many people use this as a thru street, especially the high school students making their way to the baseball fields. When we first moved in, we were told by neighbors to be wary of people running the stop signs and speeding down the street. I know no neighborhood is 100% accident free, just a couple weeks ago a San Antonio family almost lost their daughter because a drunk driver ran into their yard where the kids were playing. She was in her own yard! Either way, it's a good reminder to be extra careful, whether you are the driver who should be aware and going the speed limit or the bike rider who should wear a helmet. The neighborhood has been trying for years to get 20 MPH speed limit signs, speed bumps, or other restrictions to provide a safer street. We are going to be signing a petition in hopes that we can make some improvements for our street.

She's Not Pregnant

Forrest and I were in Rockport this past weekend. We enjoyed time at the pool, great seafood, and a nice sunset boat ride. Saturday night we decided to eat out at the Boiling Pot! As we were waiting for our table, two men sitting at a table by the hostess stand made a comment about the spicy food saying, "I hope the baby can handle this spice!" Forrest (as though he had been waiting to say this to someone for a long time) said, "She's not pregnant!" The man's face dropped from a smile to a horrified open mouth! I immediately put the smile back on that man's face by reassuring him I am pregnant and not some crazy beer gut lady! Hilarious! We then sat down to enjoy our delicious shrimp and crab (no crawfish this time!!!!) meal and had fun writing potential baby names on the paper tablecloths!

A Little Self Control

I'm not sure how I should be thanking my friends who have me hooked on the Twilight series. I guess I could start by saying, thanks for the loss of sleep due to my new addiction. First of all, I finished Twilight (the first book) this past weekend in Rockport...thanks to a completely relaxing weekend of floating in a pool. We had a great time! At HEB last night I noticed they had the 2nd book on sale, so I bought it. I stayed up till 1am last night reading and now I'm already half way through it. Do I need to go buy the third book already? It's been a rough day, but luckily I have found the self control to walk past my book without picking it up. Vampires will have to wait till tonight. The books are an easy read, which is why I think people flip through them quickly. I can't really pin-point my addiction, I guess the mere suspense and sweet love story. Before you go out to buy these books, please ask to borrow my copies!

Seeing Stars...or is it Stripes?

My mom knows me pretty well. I think she could hear the stress in my voice yesterday. We have the longest list of To Do's before Baby T arrives and absolutely no free weekends. We need to put a new door on the baby's room, paint, buy/assemble a crib, clean out the baby's closet (where we have been storing our winter clothes), buy/install a dishwasher, buy a rocker, and the list could go on and on. I'm sure everyone's To Do list is never-ending when expecting a new member of the family, thank goodness for family and friends who volunteer to help!!! So, my mom decided to come in town and paint our walls! YAY! She arrived yesterday and we went straight to Home Depot to get our paint, supplies, and hopefully some design tips. We didn't just want to paint the walls, we wanted stripes! How hard could it be? After our Home Depot trip, we decided to visit Sugarplum Dreams (adorable baby boutique) to add a few items to the baby registry. By this time we were hungry (the triathlete was in need of some carbs) and headed to a great Italian restaurant. Home by 6:30pm, plenty of time to draw our lines on the walls to make stripes, right? Not so much. Stripes might be an easy task for a new home not located in the hills of Alamo Heights. We quickly found out that our 1940's home is not level. The task was daunting to say the least but with two levels, two pencils, four hands, a calculator, a ladder, a step stool, and some tape -- we figured it out and were in bed by 11pm. This morning was step #2 -- painting! I'm not allowed to be near it, so we opened some windows in the room and my mom got started. The painting is the easy part and only took about 2 hours. I think it turned out pretty well, but you tell me!

Carefully Measuring

I was in charge of the tape! Time for the paint!
All Done!!!!

Meet Coach K

Last night I was getting a little stir crazy. Working from home isn't always the easiest thing because I find myself sleeping, eating, and working in the same place day after day. I usually try to break up the day with errands and walks with Duke. Yesterday I was too swamped and time flew, before I knew it, Duke and I had been in the house all day and it was already past 6pm. When Forrest walked in the door I told him we had to go out to dinner. So we did, we went to this great, casual, little place called Cappyccino's! Yummy veggie burgers! Afterwards we decided to head to Borders to get Forrest a new book (I'm still working on Twilight). As we walked in the door we noticed a HUGE crowd. There was a book signing. Immediately Forrest was in line, with a book as he realized it was Coach K. I, on the other hand, had no clue who this guy was. I sorta recognized him, but had to get filled in. He's not only the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball coach for the past 29 seasons and not only the US men's national basketball coach of the Olympics, but he's also the Depuy (Johnson & Johnson) spokesperson. Depuy is the distributor Forrest works for. Apparently Coach K has two Depuy hips in him! The line was pretty long, so Forrest decided to drive home and grab a few of the Depuy brochures that actually had a picture of Coach K on the front, hoping he would sign these too, and he did. We really enjoyed meeting him...what an accomplished guy. You can read all about him here: http://www.coachk.com/

Forrest with Coach K

Signing the Depuy brochures

Shoo Fly!

The crawfish boil was a success! Way to go Forrest! It was truly a gourmet boil, not only did we have corn, potatoes, and sausage boiling with the mud bugs, but we also had mushrooms, onions, garlic, lemons, and asparagus. Pattie, my sweet mother-in-law, was a huge help in prepping all these goodies and even assisted Forrest in the purging process! Batch after batch, people were here till almost midnight. I will say, I'm glad crawfish come and go with the season because I can easily go another year without having to eat another one...let alone try and keep them alive for the day!

One small glitch in the crawfish process, they attract flies! So many flies! We are still dealing with the aftermath. With so many people going in and out of the house Friday night, somehow, we trapped dozens of flies inside. Duke and I have been chasing them throughout the house all week, but they seem to multiple. Gross!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Hope you had a wonderful Birthday, your first celebration in London! This is a pic of Melissa, Me and Lauren out on 6th street a couple years ago! Wish I could hop on over to London and help you celebrate like you helped me celebrate mine! Miss you, XOXO

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

Today is my Mom's 57th birthday. I know I shouldn't be spreading the news about her turning 57, but I have to say that my Mom looks nothing near 57. She's young at heart, in better shape than me, and could easily pass for 47!

My Job Today

Tonight, Forrest and I are hosting a crawfish boil for his work friends. We've never done this before! I've been researching online, doesn't seem too difficult. My job today is to keep the mud bugs alive. They came in two sacks, in two coolers, with ice at the bottom. I was told to keep a wet towel on top of them and the cooler lids open so they could breath. Every hour I've been checking on them, to make sure they are alive and cool. I decided, as backup, to google the care of crawfish. Oh No!! Apparently they can drown and will for sure die if they sit in a cooler with melting ice! I went outside and the ice was completely melted, surrounding the sacks of crawfish, drowning those poor mud buggies. I immediately dumped out the water and poked at the little guys, one claw, reaching through the netting, gave me a little wave as he hung on for dear life. I think we're in the clear, crawfish are still alive and hopefully it will be a successful boil!

You're Gonna Love This!

Thanks to Kelly and her Tough Cookies triathlon training, we discovered a healthy and SUPER easy Greek Chicken recipe. I tried it out the other night and Forrest and I were both reaching for seconds! I didn't know something so flavorful could take such little time! Enjoy:

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts (I like to pound these to make thin)
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano (Don't drain)
1/2 oz Kalamata olives (Just add how many you want)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic (I used about 5 cloves)
1 oz feta cheese (Just sprinkle how much you want on top)


Directions:
Grill chicken in a pan coated with cooking spray for 3 minutes on each side.
Salt and Pepper chicken.
Reduce heat and add all other ingredients except for feta cheese.
Cover and simmer for 11 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
Remove from heat and sprinkle chicken with feta cheese. DONE!!

The Sacrifices We Make...

As some of you already know, Forrest is doing his first triathlon May 25th! I'm really excited for him! On a quick side note, I did not pressure him into signing up, I didn't even put the thought into his head. Thanks to Brandon and Brett, he was easily convinced! When he first signed up, the excitement was mostly around googling triathlon outfits and forwarding them to Brandon and Brett to see who could find the most hilarious one! And let me tell you, he found some hideous tri-suits. The next exciting activity for Forrest was the gear, and there is a ton of it: swim cap, swim goggles, elastic shoelaces, energy gu, race number strap, bike, helmet, water bottles, sunglasses, hat, and the list goes on. So here we are, merely weeks away from the race and the reality has set in. We've been swimming and cycling occasionally over the last couple of months, but it's time to get serious. And he has! Which is great...but it comes at a sacrifice. The sacrifice of sleep! I would have never guessed that Forrest would start training every morning by getting up at 5am! For the past couple of mornings, the alarm has gone off at 5am, Duke jumps out of bed, the lights go on, Duke goes outside, the toaster pops out toast, Duke jumps back on the bed, and the car rolls out of the driveway. About an hour later, the car comes back, Duke jumps out of bed, the door opens, the lights go on, the talk radio gets turned on, the shower water starts to rush, and Duke jumps back in bed. All the while, I'm counting sheep! I was a light sleeper before being pregnant, but now I'm really struggling. There isn't a night that goes by I don't get up to use the bathroom at least 4 times (Duke, of course, follows me) and I'm constantly tossing from one side to the other (not allowed to sleep on my back, which is my favorite position). After a couple mornings of this routine and all the sheep counting, I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to go with Forrest to the gym at 5am.

My First Mother's Day Card

I love love love getting mail! I usually pile all the bills and boring stuff on the table for Forrest while I anxiously open wedding invitations, sweet letters from friends and family, shower invitations...and today...my first mother's day card. I'm not sure I feel like a mom yet, since I haven't actually had to do any of the real hard work yet. But why not celebrate early for all the labor pains and hard work to come? Thank you, Devine, for thinking of me!

The Twilight Zone

After hearing so much about this book, this story of vampires, I ordered my very own copy of Twilight and it came in the mail yesterday! I'm usually not a huge book reader, although I swear every time I finish an amazing book that I'm ready to pick up a new one right away. Don't laugh, but it can easily take me a year to read one silly book. Because I sit at a computer all day (like most of you), my eyes are too tired at night to focus on more words. I usually need a vacation or long plane ride to read a book. I'm hoping that my bi-weekly Dr appts give me ample time to finish this book before July. I'm also hoping that this gives me a nice break from all the pregnancy books. I'm tired of reading about my skin stretching and all the horrible things that might happen this month! So thank you to all my friends who got hooked on this book and have convinced me to dive in as well. Here I go...

You're Having Two Babies!

We had a crazy crazy weekend, with one activity after the next...Can I take this week off to recover?

Friday night Forrest's cousin, Julia, spent the night with us. She took the MCAT on Saturday so we fixed her some brain-food for dinner and made sure she was in bed early, haha. We decided we are the perfect house for a calm night if you need to go to bed early!

Saturday I went to a Junior League 'Super Saturday' meeting. The meeting lasted 6 hours!!!! I had so much fun meeting new people and learning about what's in store for us this year. It reminded me of the good 'ole days of being in Chi-O. Girls always know how to make meetings (even long ones) fun. Just provide me with snacks, goodies, presents, and plenty of breaks to chit-chat and I'm happy! There are over 100 new members this year, so there are plenty of people to get to know. We have all been split into smaller groups based on where we live. I love my group. Most of the girls are my age, some younger and some older. Most have kids too, so the advice was flying this past weekend, especially with suggestions for a pediatrician. I got home Saturday afternoon and took a quick, much needed, 30 minute nap....which felt like 2 minutes! Forrest probably needed a nap too. While I was socializing it up at Junior League, Forrest bought our first lawnmower! I think it took him longer to buy the lawnmower than to actually mow our yard! We are slowly discovering that every month brings a new yard project due to something falling from the trees: pollen, fruit, tree branches, leaves, pecans. It's a ton of work! After nap time, Forrest and I headed to the Thompson family ranch out in Seguin for the annual Dewberry Festival. Unfortunately, with the lack of rain this year, we didn't have many dewberries. But we still had plenty of fun with the horseshoes and washers tournaments. Forrest and I placed 2nd in washers!!! Even being a little off balance from the belly, and I'm still excellent in washers, haha! We decided to drive home that night (we usually spend the night out there with everyone) because I was getting up at 6:30am Sunday morning to cheer on the triathletes!!! We got home around 11pm and spent 30 minutes bathing Duke, he had rolled in cow manure. Thanks Duke.

My mom, sister, aunt, Kelly, and Jaki kicked off the season with their first triathlon Sunday morning in Newbraunfels at Texas Ski Ranch. It's the perfect first triathlon - not too crowded and really easy for spectators. Forrest didn't make it, he enjoyed sleeping in. Or maybe he was avoiding facing the reality of his upcoming triathlon. My dad and I were back and forth trying to watch each of them in each event. I think most of the triathletes got to know us, we were the loud people on the side lines - one pregnant, snap happy with the camera and one in plaid shorts offering Vienna Sausages (yuck) to anyone needing protein! So exciting and super exhausting. I know the athletes swimming, biking, and running were probably super tired too, but being pregnant in the heat and standing on my feet for over 3 hours exhausts me (plus the weekend hadn't exactly been relaxing)! Doesn't it sound like my weekend should be over by now? I haven't even gotten to the story that explains the title of this blog.

That afternoon Forrest and I went shopping for a crib, for a bike, and for groceries (successful with one out of the three, the groceries). We came home for a quick nap (I love naps these days) and then walked down the street for a neighborhood party! We got to meet all our lovely neighbors. There are a ton of kids, especially boys, on our street. I was talking to one mom and her little girl, Ana (probably about 4 years old). The mom explained to Ana that I'm having a baby. She put her hand on my belly, slowly realizing that the baby was in my belly. Then she put her other hand on my boob (another bump to her), and said, "you're having two babies!" Forrest and I couldn't stop laughing! It was precious! Not to mention, we are sitting around with all these people we had just met and I have a kid's hand on my boob.

Here are some pictures from the triathlon. Everyone did awesome! My mom placed 4th in her age group!

Before the race!

Kelly in transition!

Happy Smiles at the finish line!