Aunt Skye Adventures

About a year and half or so ago, my sister Brook and I talked about trying to plan a day about once a month for me to do something with my nieces. The girls call them "Aunt Skye Adventures" and we all really look forward to them.


In the past, we have gone to movies, had a sleepover at Aunt Skye's house, gone a UVA basketball game, gone ice skating, and played on the Lawn at UVA. We always have a lot of fun. I hope it is something that the girls will remember as they grow up because it is such a special time for me.


Today I received a phone call from sweet little Sarah Beth asking if I would go to Bounce N Play with them and then to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise. I was elated with the idea! I took Sarah Beth to Bounce N Play once on her own while Anne Charlotte was in school, but I haven't been with all three girls before.


For those of you who aren't familiar with Bounce N Play, it is an indoor facility that has those huge blown up slides, like a jungle gym made out of huge balloons.


Here are a couple pictures from today:

We had a wonderful time today! I really enjoy every second I am with Brook and the girls. I can't wait until my future little one can play with the girls!

Babymoon, maybe?

I know this is a little "cart before the horse," but while Rick is dreaming of baby names, I have been dreaming of a Babymoon.

Most people who know me know how much I love tropical destinations, laying out in the sun, and traveling. Before we officially even started TTC, I have hinted around to Rick about how much I would love to go on a Babymoon, which is a trip before a couple has a baby... kind of like the last big trip for the couple together before baby arrives.

Our last trip together was to Excellence Riviera Cancun in June 2008. When we got married at Excellence in August, we had the pleasure of being stranded in a shelter for Hurricane Dean. Since our honeymoon was rudely disrupted by Dean, we decided to give Excellence and Mexico another try. We returned for a second honeymoon, but this time earlier in the summer to make sure we didn't have round two in the hurricane shelter.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Excellence (other than wedding pictures):

Ahhhhhh just looking at the pictures makes me so happy!

Ok, Back to reality.

As I was saying... I would love to go on one last big trip with Rick before we add to our family. I have started looking at different resorts to see what we could afford. I am trying to decide if I would prefer to go back to Mexico (oh, how I love Mexico) or try somewhere different like Jamaica or Dominican Republic. Rick has only been to Mexico, so part of me wants to take him somewhere new.

I am not sure if we will be able to go on a trip yet, but it sure is nice to research and dream!

Baby Dreams

Not me... but Rick! ha ha ha

Rick just told me that he had a dream last night about us having a little girl and picking a name. Apparently the name was very close to one of my niece's names. My niece was excited to have a cousin with a similar name, but my sister wasn't too happy about it.

I think it is cute that he obviously thinks about it a lot, to the point that he has dreams about it. He is going to be an amazing Dad to our little angel.

Happy Day

I have a very special friend named Holly. She is sweet, supportive, happy, loving, graceful, strong, full of faith, bubbly... I could go on and on! She and her husband Eddie have been married 15 years. They are an absolutely amazing couple. I adore them.

Today I got some very, very special news. Holly is pregnant and due at the beginning of August! I am beyond excited for Eddie and Holly. Their baby is already so blessed, because he/she will call Holly and Eddie his/her parents.

I am looking forward to sharing the same news with Holly one day, hopefully soon!

Moving On To Cycle 5

Today is the start of Cycle 5 of TTC for us. I have mixed feelings of excitement and worry, with a little bit of sadness mixed in.

I am really excited to get started again after taking last month off from charting. I thought it would be relaxing and a nice break, but I learned that I would much rather chart than not. I don't know if Rick agrees with me or really understands why I like to chart. But that is ok.

A little confession... I never thought it would take this long to get pregnant. I know it is normal for a healthy couple to take up to a year to get pregnant, and I know several people who have had trouble and tried for much longer than this. But I also know many many girls who got pregnant within the first two months of trying. I guess I was just hoping I would be one of those girls. Part of me worries that there might be a problem preventing us from getting pregnant.

So, here we go again! Here is to hoping that this is our cycle

Big Fat Fail

Car shopping was not a success... at all. So maybe Rick won't be getting a new car. While they were giving us enough for the trade in, they wouldn't budge at all on the price. I thought buying a car was all about negotiating? Apparently not with this dealership. It was a frustrating experience.

Rick really likes his car he has now, we just will need to put some money into a new transmission.

Oh well. We tried.

The best part about the night- Osakas! YUMMMM We went to get our favorite Japanese food with my parents tonight after the car shopping disaster.

A little of this and that

I haven't posted in a few days, so I will just do a quick update on life.


TTC update: we are nearing the end of cycle 4. I took this month off of charting and have no expectations whatsoever, so at this point I am just waiting to move on. I will start charting again for cycle 5. If cycle 5 is "the one" for us, we will have an EDD at the end of October.

Work update: I went down to Raleigh on Thursday afternoon for a meeting for work on Friday morning. It was a great trip.

Thursday I went to my first spinning class with one of my coworkers. It was a great workout and I enjoyed it... for the most part. I am pretty sure I bruised my butt on the seat. I was surprised I didn't have sore muscles from the workout, but my sore butt more than made up for it. Ouch! I would love to do a spinning class again, but I definitely will need to get one of those seat covers to make it a little more comfortable.

I met up with my brother Canton and his friend Madison for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. It was great to spend some time with Bug (I mean, Canton) and get to know Madison a little. He is so grown up and I am so proud of him.

My meeting on Friday went well. My position is changing a little bit and I will have a slightly different focus. I think it will be a good change and a great opportunity to learn some new things.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see everyone I had hoped to see while down in Raleigh. One night just isn't enough to get everything in.


Rick update: It looks like Rick might be getting a new car. We found out that his current car (2008 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited) needs a new transmission. At this point, we are exploring our options. If we can get a new car with a full warranty for the same monthly payment of his current car, then we will most likely go for it. This afternoon we are headed down to Lynchburg to check some options out and find out what we can get for the trade in.

Alli update: Alli is on the middle school basketball team. I have tried to go to most of her games, but I have missed two. Unfortunately, the two I missed were the two that they have actually won. Should I take a hint?? Alli says no, I should keep coming. LOL

So close

Rick and I headed into town early. We stopped at Chipotle for a quick lunch before going to John Paul Jones Arena for the game.

UVA played really well up until the end. We were ahead at half time and for part of the second half. Then UNC kicked into high gear and UVA just couldn't keep up. We lost 62-56. So sad.

Rick was happy though. Silly TarHeels.

A House Divided

The only downfall to my wonderful husband is that he is a Tarheel fan. *GASP* :)


Being a graduate of THE University (of Virginia), it has been a challenge for me to overlook this character flaw of my husband's. Ironically enough, my parents are in the same situation - my Dad is a Cavalier like me (he is the smart one! haha), and my Mom is a Tarheel. I will admit, sometimes it is hard to be a Wahoo given the lack of talent on the field and court. But my support and allegence to UVA will never falter.


One of my Christmas presents from Rick was tickets for us to go to the UVA-UNC basketball game tomorrow. Part of me feels like it is just conniving of him because the odds are stacked against my Cavs when it comes to basketball. However, I am really excited to go cheer my team on. Maybe, just maybe, the Wahoos will be able to shock us and pull out a win.


Let's Go Hoos!

Shhhhh! It's a secret!

My blog, that is.

My plan was to share this blog with Rick after we got our BFP (Big Fat Positive- pregnancy test). I almost gave in and told him about it tonight. But I stopped myself.

Hopefully, I will be able to chronical my journey through pregnancy and life along the way. Once we are in a position to announce our little miracle to the world, I would love to be able to share my blog with family and friends.

I am a little nervous about sharing it with Rick because I am not sure how he will respond. I hope he is really excited about it and enjoys not only reading it, but sharing it with others!

Special Christmas gift

My favorite gift this year was a very special photobook that Rick made for me. It was full of pictures from and captions about our trip to Walt Disney World this past September.

We had such an amazing time. Rick and Alli had never been to Disney World before. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge for 8 days and 7 nights. Our schedule was packed with great places to eat, two days at each park, and lots of fun and magic. The Robinsons (my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces) were at Disney for a few days while we were there. It was great to experience Disney through their eyes. We were ready to book another trip before we had even left!

Rick has become quite the Disney lover. Every single day I hear "did you know...." followed by some fact or trivia about Disney. I love it. I love seeing him get so excited about Disney. It is such a magical place; I am so thankful I got to share that with him.

We have another trip booked for September 2011 to stay at Port Orleans French Quarter. The Robinsons are planning on going the same week, so hopefully we will be able to spend some time with them again while we are there.

I love my photobook. I know Rick put a lot of time and effort into making it for me. It is VERY special to me!

Trust and Obey

It is hard to believe that it is already 2011! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The holidays were very busy and flew by. Christmas Eve we ate dinner with Rick's parents and then went to the Christmas Eve Service at First Presbyterian Church.

We had a white Christmas this year. Thankfully it wasn't too much snow, but it was enough to make everything white and pretty. Christmas Day we had Christmas with our family, Rick, Alli and me, at our house before heading over to Rick's parents' house. My parents and brothers came over to our house Christmas Evening.

New Years Eve we spent the night at home. Rick always makes fun of me for wanting to go to bed early. But I rallied and stayed up until midnight, then promptly went to bed.

We wrapped up the holiday season on New Years Day with Brook, Neal, Anne Charlotte, Sarah Beth and Lila Kate coming over. I made Christmas cookies with the girls.

Today our minister Keith Johnson preached about trusting and obeying the Lord. Proverbs 3:5 states "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding." Keith spoke to us about feeding the multitudes with 3 loaves of bread and 2 fish and how the disciples showed obedience and trust.

Keith's message really touched my heart today. I needed a reminder that I need to trust in Him. Often I lose sight of the fact that He is in complete control of our lives. We have so many things for which to be thankful.

This is our forth month trying to conceive. We are taking a little break from charting, which I think has been a great thing for me so far.

I know God has a plan for us, and everything will happen in His time.