The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

May I have a drumroll please?

And now, here by popular demand, in all its glory is....

MY BELLY! (and Griff's head...)

This is me at 18 weeks pregnant. To be honest, this past week was the first that I felt like I had anything to show for this kid inside of me. I've been in that awkward in-between stage for quite some time. Real clothes getting tight, but maternity clothes too big. Then suddenly, in the past week, BAM...there it was.

We finally told Griffin that the baby is in my belly. I wasn't sure how he would take it...I mean, I would be a little freaked out to find out that that's how babies enter the world (come to think of it, it still does freak me out a little bit.) He handled it quite well. He gave my belly a kiss and said, "Hi, Baby!" Oh boy...is he in for a world of change. =)

HEY-- mark April 16 on your calendar. It's the day we find out whether we are having a boy or a girl! I can't wait. I've been relying on Griffin to give us accurate forecasting. For the longest time, every time we asked him whether he was going to have a baby brother or sister, he would say sister. But lately, he's been leaning more toward brother.

So, I thought I would give you a chance to use your prediction skills. In the top right corner of the blog is a poll. I wanna know what you think!

I'll give you this piece of trivia to help guide your decision: Ehret men don't produce daughters very often. In fact, there were no girls born in the Ehret family in the past 80 years or so until this past year. So, has the curse been broken and now girls will rule the Ehret name? It's up to you to decide!

Oh...and no fair voting for both to those of you who want us to have multiples. It's not gonna happen.

One Year Ago Today....

I ran a half-marathon.

It's funny. I don't think I ever really celebrated the fact that I did it. It really was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I ended up being sick that day and so I walked a whole lot more than I wanted to. I don't even remember how long it took me, but it was longer than I wanted it to be. That last mile was the longest of my life...

But...I DID IT!!! So I am now celebrating. I ran 13.1 miles through Central Park in NYC with thousands of other women with my fantastic husband cheering me on. Someday I plan on doing it again. This time it will not be alone though. So, this begs the question...

WHO'S GONNA JOIN ME?????!

Images of Easter

We celebrated Easter in a big way this year. In the past few days, we managed to squeeze in a Seder dinner with a few of our friends, Griffin's first egg coloring experience, a walk through of the stages of the cross, a Tennebrae (Good Friday) service, a couple of egg hunts, plus TWO big meals with both of our families. Whew...

I thought I would just share a few of the many pictures that were taken of these events.

A few of the elements of the Seder
Dinner we took part in at our friends'
Dan and Tonya's

We managed to survive Griff's
first egg coloring experience without
incident!

Griffin's buddies Daniel (Doon Doon)
and Toby after a high energy egg hunt

In our Easter finest

(Some of) the Hill Grandkids
showing off their egg hunting
loot

I've felt for a while that we've rushed through Easter for the past several years. I'm thankful for the many ways that we celebrated this year. I don't think I can ever be reminded enough that it was for ME, He died.

mini road trip

So, we didn't head south.

In fact, we drove due north,

Where the snow and the cold are still in full force.

And it was a work trip for me.

But we still managed to squeeze in some late night snacking,


While watching a girl movie,


And, of course, plenty of good old-fashioned 'girl talk'.

Thanks, Tami and 'Shisha'!
-from me and G
[who is supposed to be sleeping right now,
but instead is singing a song about Applebee's--I wonder why?]

my great white hunter

I'm married to a man with a fascination with finding the sale. I, too, enjoy a bargain, but I typically let them come to me in their time, rather than hunting them down. Not Wes. He takes great delight in the hunt. I became aware of this passion shortly after we married, when he suggested that we get up early on a Saturday morning and go yard saling. The idea of giving up weekend sleep to go look at a pile of junk was not in the least enticing to me. (true confession: I'm counting the days until yard sale season now.)

Just recently, some interesting items started arriving in the mail with Wes's name on them.

First came this:

When I showed it to Wes that evening, you would have thought it was Christmas. You see, lately, he's taken up the 'free stuff hunt'. It all started when I told him about some web-sites with free stuff that he should check out. (I learned about them from my friend infarrantly creative who, without a doubt, is the queen-of-all-free-stuff.) After spending hours scouring the internet, these shampoo and conditioner samples were the first of his spoils.

Next came this:

I'll admit it...I enjoy this magazine. I guess you could say it's a guilty pleasure.

So, what could be next???

This:

Yep. They're bladder control liners. Hmmm...

Well, today, I decided to join in the hunt. A friend of mine told me about a coupon book I could get at Walgreen's with all sorts of rebates. I mentioned it to Wes and the gleam in his eye told me that we would find a reason to travel the 25 minutes to divide and conquer our closest neighborhood pharmacy.

Sure enough, we did. Check out our haul.

ALL FREE.
(The baby bottle and balmex were a gift from the maternity
store where I bought my easter dress.)

[Now if we could just find a web-site for free houses.]

happy thoughts

What is it about a little bit of sunshine and an iced caramel macchiato (decaf, of course) that fills my heart with such joy? The last week has been pretty dreary with being sick and MORE snow. So I thought I would celebrate my crossover into the bright side with a post full of today's happy thoughts.

*griffin didn't wake up until 8:30, which hasn't been the norm ever since we took his binkies away a couple weeks ago!
**made a quick stop at aldi's (cheap shopping always makes me happy). the flowers and the easter egg coloring kit made the trip extra fun.
***took griffin for his first SWIMMING LESSON at the ymca. he loved it. i did too. i wore my favorite maternity bathing suit, even though i really don't need to yet.
****did some more shopping. not usually my thing, but i found some of the cutest stuff. if you've never shopped at home goods, you should. it's just a happy place.
*****griffin's good buddy daniel (aka doon doon) is now here and they are doing pretty well at sharing.
******the house is full of the smell of fresh baked brownies which i made to celebrate my friend ellen's birthday who is coming over tonight with chinese take-out. general tso's chicken=happy.
*******and finally, this makes me happy. it's the stack of books that i pulled out of my old teaching box the other day. i plan on reading the whole thing.

my tale of woe

First of all, I need to explain that I enjoy my job. I have a very part-time position with Monster.com, speaking in high schools about college and how to prepare for it. Most days, I love it.

That being said, yesterday was not one of those days.

I also should explain that I am not one to get easily embarrassed or flustered in front of a group of people. You need to know this in order to grasp the depth of my humiliation as I share my story with you.

You see, I've been nursing a cold all week. By the end of the day on Thursday, I seemed to be turning a corner. I was glad about this because I had to speak in a local high school on Friday. I toyed with the idea of calling in and letting my company know that I was sick. But I knew this would mean that they would probably have to fly someone in to cover for me...and that seemed a little extreme for just a little cold.

Friday morning greeted me with a pretty nasty cough...but mornings are always the worst. All I needed was to get my head cleared, drink something hot, and I would be good to go.

When I finally arrived at the school and greeted the guidance counselor, I was a little concerned at the raspy sound that came out of my throat. She looked a little concerned as well. But I grabbed my water bottle and took a chug. That should do it.

So I got set up in the auditorium and confidently greeted the members of the junior class as they entered and took their seats. I stood by as the counselor introduced me and then stepped forward, prepared to hold their attention for a full 45 minutes as we learned all about searching for just the right college.

But something was terribly wrong. What were these sounds coming out of my mouth?

To say my voice was raspy would be an inadequate description. Raspy has the potential to be cute. This was the opposite of cute. I found myself laboring to get each word out, feeling out of breath and completely unable to control the grating voice that came out of my throat.

Within the first few minutes of speaking, I had to stop three or four times for water, desperately attempting to clear my throat each time. At this point, it all felt quite night-marish. I found myself thinking, "Any time now, the teacher will stop everything and tell me I can just go home and do this some other time."

Instead, she gave me a cough drop. And so I continued. For not just one, but TWO presentations, I filled students' ears with the principles of college success as told by a chain smoker...with bronchitis. To be fair, the students were fabulous. I'm not sure I would have been so nice.

In the end, I survived. After a pack of drown-my-sorrows blueberry pop-tarts, a big hug from my husband, and a few shed tears, the world started to look a little brighter.

I knew my therapy would not be complete, however, without sharing my story with you. And be thankful you get to read it. Much easier on the ears.