O.k., I promised to let you all know what went on in our neck of the woods this Christmas. It all started mid- day Christmas Eve, when Matthew and I set out for my parents house. It is about a 2 1/2 or 3 hour drive, depending on traffic. This time the roads were wide open, so we made good time. Sweet Matthew even did ALL the driving on this trip, which was a Christmas present in and amongst itself! I despise driving. Anyway...we made it up there and even finished dragging all the Christmas packages from our car and Lexi's gear inside the house before it started pouring down the rain. We had driven the entire way in the rain (it followed us up the interstate) but we were lucky enough to finish unpacking before the real rain got to their house. After that, we just sat around for a couple hours and watched my 19 mo. old nephew play with his toys. He was in rare form, showing out for everyone and was quite hilarious. I even snuck and gave him an early present because he was looking pitifully at the packages under the tree and patting them and looking up at us with those puppy dog eyes that toddlers do so well. We had a lovely dinner of tacos (my idea) and then some more family started showing up.

My aunt Jay, uncle Danny (my dad's brother), cousin Cody, and his brand new fiance Andrea came over. It was quite a surprise to find out that my "baby" cousin (he's 10 years younger than I am) had gotten engaged! They haven't set a date yet. I've only met her a couple times, but she seems nice. She can't get a word in edge wise around our family, so she's pretty quiet when we're around. ha.ha. So, with 10 of us in the house and The Christmas Story blaring on the t.v. in the background, it got pretty nuts. I think we finally left their house around 10 p.m. and headed for our hotel.

Yes, we stayed in a hotel. That is the saving grace of our family get-togethers on Christmas. We've stayed with family before and we always end up regretting it. Not that it isn't nice to be together, but I like to have my space when I sleep and I especially like to set my own go to sleep and get up times. My parents LOVE to get up at 5 a.m. and open presents. I can't stand getting up that early. So, we decided to buck tradition this year and get up at a decent hour. I will say that this ended up being one of the most enjoyable Christmases because of it. Everyone was rested. My parents still got to get up early with my nephew and let him open his presents from Santa. But, the rest of the gifts sat unwrapped till nearly lunch time. No, we didn't sleep in that late. ha.ha. We got up around 8 a.m. We just headed to my Granny & Papa's house after that.

Granny and Papa are my dad's parents. Every year it gets harder with new folks added to the family and so many places to visit on the couple days surrounding Christmas. I don't know what we'll do next year with a baby! But, since Uncle Danny and family came up to mom and dad's, Matthew and I only had to make 2 stops this year, so I felt pretty lucky. Oh yeah, we went to Hardees for breakfast Christmas morning! I couldn't believe it was open! My grandparents get up even earlier than my parents so we had long missed breakfast by getting to their house around 9:30 a.m. After Hardees, my dad, brother, and nephew met us at my grandparents and we got to see them and my Uncle Robbie (my dad's other brother) for a couple hours before heading back up to mom and dad's house.

Once back at mom and dad's, we opened presents and sat down to lunch. We had ham, mashed potatoes, peas, green beans, stuffing, and rolls. We had about 5 different kinds of desserts. I was in charge of dessert. ha.ha. Even though I was lazy and didn't make anything this year, I did bring along a host of goodies courtesy of the Kroger bakery. We had chocolate cupcakes, sugar cookies with sprinkles, carrot cake, some yummy lemon cookies that my dad got at work, and some white chocolate covered trail mix that Aunt Jay made. It was soooo good.

After lunch, mom and I went through some baby clothes (a big project) and we tried to straighten up the house where we had all demolished it over the past couple days. We played with all the cool toys that the little dude got (all 5 million of them) and just visited till about 8 p.m. By the time we headed for home we were all full of food and worn completely out. We had a pretty good time but I am glad Christmas only comes once a year! Being on vacation sure is tiring!

Now for the next several days, Matthew and I will be tackling the baby's room which is currently the junk/guest room, taking down the Christmas lights, and trying to rest at least a bit somewhere in there. There are several movies out at the theater that we haven't seen, so I am sure we'll end up seeing all of them by the time he goes back to work. I hope you all had a good Christmas and that you have a safe and Happy New Year!

Hi there! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was a short whirlwind of activity (more on that later) and now we are safely ensconced back at our house for the remainder of Matthew's vacation. Whew! I am worn out, let me tell you.

I guess you are curious as to today's topic from my title post. Well, we went to eat at Mikados tonight and Matthew's fortune cookie was quite interesting. It said, "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you." Hummm, wonder if that means an early baby? Interestingly enough, March 26 was our very first original given due date. It has since been moved forward till April 13 after many ultra sounds and doctor visits, but that 26th date has still stuck in my mind. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes anytime between the end of March and the middle of April. I'm ready either way!

Speaking of preparing for baby, Matthew and I have signed up for a childbirth preparation class at our hospital! I know that is definitely not something you can really prepare for. When I asked my doctor if I should even bother with the class he said, "Take the class if you want to and if you have time. I promise the baby will come out either way." ha.ha. He just cracks me up. So, starting Jan. 5th, every Monday night, we'll be getting schooled in all things childbirth related. I was on the fence about taking the class. I definitely plan on getting an epidural. I'd decided that WAY before I got pregnant. Nothing they say in that class about fancy breathing exercises is going to change my mind. So, I'll just take everything I hear with a grain of salt. I figure the worst that can happen is I'll hate it and then we can be drop outs. :) But, we just might learn something. I think the best thing that will come out of it is getting to meet other parents in the same stage of life as us. I'll keep you posted on our progress. :)

I'll check back in later this weekend with my offical "what we did for Christmas" report.

Hello everybody! I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas! I'll be taking a blog-cation for the next couple days, so don't worry if you don't hear from me. I'll just be off stuffing myself with cookies and other assorted goodies.

I guess you noticed from the title of this post that it is an update on the baby. Yep, I'm 24 weeks along now. More than half way! I had a doctor's appointment today and everything is looking a-okay. I had to take the less than fun glucose screening test. For those of you who don't know what that means, here goes. It is a screening test to make sure that your body is producing enough insulin for both you and your baby. I had to drink a "fruit punch" drink (glucose) and sit and wait an hour. I put the flavors in quotes because no fruit punch I have ever drank comes close to being that gross. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it still wasn't a walk in the park. I think the worst part was that I had to drink it in 5 minutes. I finished it in 3 minutes (I wanted to get it over with) and felt sort of queasy, but managed not to toss my Christmas cookies. Then, I had to have blood drawn. Again, lots of fun. I get the results back in a few days. I will say that the worst part of the entire process was removing the foot long piece of masking tape from my arm that the technician used to hold down the cotton ball over the injection site. ha.ha.

Other than that, they just took the baby's heartbeat (which was good) and I got to find out how much weight I've gained so far. Want to know how much I weigh? Not on your life buddy! But, I will say that I have gained 6 pounds total now. Four of those have been in the last month. The doc said it would be pretty reasonable for me to gain a pound a week for the rest of my pregnancy. Great! Just what I need, my back hurting worse than it already does from sporting even more extra poundage. You wouldn't think 6 pounds would make that much of a difference, but when that 6 pounds is all belly, it is pretty noticeable. Oh well, I guess I'll live. But what fun would a pregnancy be if I didn't get to complain a little (o.k., a lot). ha.ha.

There was some excitement at the doctor's office, that didn't involve me but was pretty wild none the less. I am so bummed out that I missed it. But, hearing Matthew tell the story is pretty hilarious anyway. I had went to the bathroom and Matthew was standing outside in the hallway waiting, which is a pretty typical scene with us these days. He said all of a sudden a woman, presumably her husband, and another couple (presumably one of their sets of parents) comes around the corner. The lady looked like she had been crying so Matthew said he tried to look away because he just knew something bad had happened to her baby (she was very, very pregnant according to Matthew's description). Then the lady says, "I didn't know we were supposed to go straight to the hospital instead of stopping by here first." Matthew said he was a bit confused for a second until it all became VERY clear. The lady yells out, "Oh my God! Son of a *^@%!" and starts grabbing at her lower back. Then it hits him that this woman is in labor! The set of parents stands there dumbfounded while all the husband can think to say is, "Oh no, I forgot the suitcase! I knew I should have brought it with us!" Matthew was so excited to share the news with me when I got out of the bathroom. He said he doesn't think he's ever seen a woman actually in labor before. Come to think about it, I haven't either, except on t.v. Maybe it is a good thing I missed it, since that will be me in a few months!

Ummm, that would be meat. This is the nastiest thing I have ever heard! Burger King has launched a new men's cologne that is meat scented. Great, just what we need is another stinky men's cologne! Would you like to smell just like a juicy burger? Then, just click on the link and find out how to order your very own meat scented cologne! If you do, just let me know, so I'll be sure to stay far, far away from you! :)

On Dec. 15th Matthew and I attended Skate with a Pred at a local ice rink. The Nashville Predators players (4 of them) were there skating with fans and signing autographs. Of course, I didn't skate. I wanted to really, really, really badly but there was no way I was going to risk falling and hurting the baby. So, Matthew decided he didn't want to skate either and just joined me on the sidelines.

We did stand in line to get autographs from Ryan Suter, Greg Zanon, David Legwand, Greg deVries, and our mascot Gnash on a Preds hockey jersey. Nope, not for us, this one is a size 12 months (the smallest they make). Who knows, maybe he'll be here in time for the playoffs and can wear it this season!?

We also got pictures of Suter, Zanon, and Gnash autographed. We could have also gotten Legwand and deVries' autographs on pictures but forgot to get them until after we'd left the autograph table. Oh well. At least we got the jersey autographed and some very snazzy photos of me with the players.

I was soooo beyond excited to get to meet 4 of the guys (especially that hottie Ryan Suter). :) Yes, Matthew knows I think Suter is cute. He's used to me fawning over the Preds by now. My list of main men keeps growing. Right now Arnott, Tootoo, and Suter are on it from the Preds and Adam Rodriguez (Eric Delko from CSI:Miami) rounds out the list, but that is a story for another day. :)


Photo 1: Me with Ryan Suter #20
(I thought it was nice that both Suter and Zanon (below) stood up from the table to get their photos taken with me. They didn't have to do that. I certainly didn't ask them to, but thought it was a sweet gesture. And yes, I did nearly faint when Suter put his arm around me. ha.ha.)
Photo 2: Me with Greg Zanon #5
Photo 3: Me with David Legwand #11 (left) and Greg deVries #7 (right)
Photo 4: Me with all the kid's favorite Predator, our mascot Gnash
Photo 5: David Legwand signs fan autographs out on the ice.
Photo 6: Greg deVries signs autographs on the ice. As you can see there wasn't much actual skating going on with any of the Preds players. :)
Photo 7: An adorable photo of Legwand and a little fan.
Photo 8: Greg deVries
Photo 9: Ryan Suter signs autographs.

Hi there! I just wanted to share some photos taken when Matthew and I visited
ICE! at Gaylord Opryland.This was a very cool exhibit (both literally and figuratively). The only downside was that it took us WAY less time than I thought it would to see it. I think we were in and out in 20 minutes and we really took our time, looking at everything and taking photos along the way. The exhibit tells the story of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Since it doesn't "tell" the story while you are walking through the exhibit, I'd either read the book or watch the cartoon before you go if you aren't familiar with the tale. This trip to see ICE! was part of a birthday celebration for yours truly. Yep, these photos were taken on the day I hit the big 3-0!

I would highly recommend this exhibit, especially for those with children around age 3 to mid-elementary school aged (see the photo of the ice slide to see why). I wouldn't take a small child here though, as it is VERY cold. As you can see from the pictures, we look really "poufy". We both have on our heaviest winter jackets and the parkas supplied at the exhibit on top of that and we were still cold. Enjoy the photos and get on down to see ICE! if you can. This is the last year they will be having it and it would be a shame to miss it!


At the beginning of the tour. Everything you will see is made of ice!
MaLeah "north of Who-ville".
Matthew goes down the ice slide. Yes, the slide is extremely cold.
MaLeah goes down the slide. Yep, I did look the other way, act casual, and try to suck in my belly when the sign at the top said "Not recommended for pregnant women". I figured if the 3 year olds there could go down it, I would be alright for just 1 little turn down the slide.
Matthew in a really snazzy ice cave.
So he got his dog Max and he took some red thread and he tied a big horn on the top of his head.
Matthew, MaLeah and The Grinch
The little Who's all snug in their beds.
Matthew tries to snag a slice of roast beast.
The nativity scene at the end of the exhibit (also made of ice).
A close-up of the shepherd and his sheep.
Matthew with a goat. No, don't ask. ha.ha.
MaLeah with an angel.

O.k., I've been wanting to type those words for weeks now, but wanted to let everyone who hadn't gotten a chance to watch our video yet watch it if they wanted to. If you still want to see the video, you can find it off of our family website. When you get there, click on the ultra sound picture of the baby.

So, what did we think when we found out it was a boy? Well, I think we were both in shock. We were thoroughly convinced that our baby was a girl. No particular reason, but we just thought it was. We had picked out girl names and not one single boy name. We'd looked at clothes and baby furniture and accessories and all of them were girl themed. So, it took some time to get used to the idea that our baby was indeed a boy. I think I actually took longer to digest it than Matthew did. I was in shock for about 2 weeks. Not that we cared one way or the other whether our baby was a boy or girl, we just assumed it was a girl.

Now that we are officially on Team Blue, I went through baby clothes that people had already given us and and packed up all the girl stuff. The good news is that a friend of my moms just had a baby girl and was able to use all the clothes. I was glad they could be put to good use and that I might at least get to see a couple of the tiny pink outfits on a real baby. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love little boys. My nephew is a real cutie. But, there is just something about little girl stuff. It is always sooo much cuter than boy stuff. Anything for boys is always sports or transportation oriented (football being the most popular and cars and trucks). Matthew and I aren't really into football (*gasp* I know) and you can only stand so many outfits with cars and trucks on them.

I don't know why I was really surprised to find out our baby was a boy. There is something in the water here in our neighborhood, I think. :) Standing on our front porch, I can see at least 6 houses that contain babies. All of these babies are boys! The only girl was born before her family moved into the neighborhood. So, in a few years it will be insane around here with all those little boys running around.

We've been asked what we are decorating the baby's nursery in. Well, of course it will be Nashville Predators! Yeah, I know that is sports themed, but at least it is a sport WE like. :) With my previously mentioned gripe about baby boy stuff, most of the baby bedding for boys is of stuff we just aren't interested in/don't like. So, Predators was something we could both agree on. We are both huge hockey fans and hopefully our little dude will enjoy going to the games as much as we do. If not, we'll have to find a sitter, because we aren't stopping going to the games. ha.ha.

We have also already started buying things for the baby. We got his car seat already! It is totally awesome and Matthew picked it out from a million other car seats at Babies R Us. When we first started looking at seats, we saw a couple people with these out around town and asked them their thoughts on it. We got rave reviews from parents and since this was the one Matthew had wanted from the first time we saw it, we got it. We had a hard time choosing a color, but finally decided on the Extreme, which is gray with burnt orange accents. We're also getting the matching stroller. Here is what the seat looks like if you'd like to see it.

I'll leave you with today's parting shot. There is no doubt that he is a he. :)

Hello everyone! Guess what happened here last night? It was a rare occurrence indeed, but we had snow! Don't let my excitement fool you. We aren't exactly psyched about this snow. We are warm weather folks at heart, but it did make for some great pictures. It started snowing around 4:30 p.m. yesterday evening and we had 1 to 1 1/2 inches in an hour. Then it was like someone flipped a switch and turned it off.

Matthew braved the cold to take these photos for the blog. He's such a sweetie! After Matthew took the photos, we decided to celebrate the first and hopefully last snowfall of 2008 by looking at Florida condos for sale online. :) Also, you guys finally get to see what an awesome job Matthew did putting up our Christmas lights. Yeah, I helped hold the ladder and hand stuff to him, but he did all the hard work. I've got to give the guy some credit! I think he made our house look like a gingerbread house with little gum drops all over it! What do you think?!

1st photo: This was taken the day we put the lights up, right before Thanksgiving.

2nd photo: This was taken last night around 5 p.m. or so from our front porch.
3rd photo: Our Christmas lights in the snow.4th photo: Another view from our front porch of the snow and lights.

5th photo: How do you like our tree in the yard? It was too new and fragile to decorate last year so we were excited to do it up right this year.

What started out as a good game (meaning we were either winning or tied) ended in a 6-3 loss for my Nashville Predators last night against the St. Louis Blues. Losing is bad enough, but having to write a blog post congratulating the winners...well, that is just dandy! Yes, I lost the bet that I have with Kim, yet again. This is 2 in a row. Dang it!

I was going to dedicate this post to the Blue's main man, Keith Tkachuk. I will give this guy some credit. I saw him do an interview on the pre-game show last night and he seemed like a well put together guy. I've heard it said that he is a real role model for his team, both on and off the ice. And, I can't really hate on the guy too much. He reminds me of my Jordin Tootoo. He seems to spend as much time in the penalty box as he does scoring, both of which he is good at. Turns out, he just had his 1000th point (not too shabby) and has spent 2000 plus minutes in the penalty box. I just love a good hockey fight, so I can't say that that is a bad thing. But, I digress.

This post is about last night's star B.J. Crombeen. I don't know where they found this kid, but they should hang onto him. He got his first career hat trick last night which gave the Blues 3 of the 6 points that they got against Nashville. It was especially painful to see that last one of his, the empty net goal, that he got in the last minute or two of the game. Like a good fight, I do like to see a hat trick. Granted it isn't as much fun to see the caps raining down on the ice when that hat trick is secured by a guy from the other team. But, it is still pretty cool.

Hopefully, this will be the LAST ode to the Blues I have to write. Don't worry, there is lots more Preds/Blues action to come and we still have a chance to redeem ourselves. The battle continues on Feb. 12th, at the Sommet Center in Nashville.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and got some relaxing done. I know we did. We spent all weekend working on mrorex.com and am happy to report that we are making some progress on our previously seriously outdated family website. Other than that, we just watched a little t.v., went out to eat a couple times, and slept in late. We finished up the last episode of one of our new favorite shows Storm Chasers. I just love that Reed. He's the best one on the show. His enthusiasm for tornadoes is definitely catching. Watching him is every bit as fun as seeing the actual tornadoes!

Since we haven't been doing that much traveling, I don't have that many new photos to post. I do have these awesome shots below that I captured last Friday. The Christmas (yes, I said Christmas, not Holiday. ha.ha.) travel season is heating up here and the airport is just buzzing with excitement. We live about 10 miles from the airport and are directly in one of the approaches. It goes right over top of our house and is totally awesome. Well, Friday was a great day for flying. The condensation trails (contrails for short) from all the jets were highly visible today for some reason. We were on our way back from lunch and I didn't have the camera with me and I was just hoping that I'd be able to get off a few good shots before they disappeared. These photos show you just how many planes are going and coming in such a short time period. I'll try to get up some pics of our Christmas light display for tomorrow's blog post. Stay tuned.

Hello! I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Ours has been lazy and boring---just how we like it these days! We've spent a lot of time revamping our family website this weekend. Matthew put a lot of time into it up front to get it looking nice and we've spent the past 2 nights going through our photos and deciding which to post. Anyone that knows us knows that we take A LOT of pictures so this is a huge undertaking.

As you can see from the title of this post "Baby Catch Up" I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to reporting in on our little one. We kept the baby news a secret for a very long time. We didn't even tell any family or friends till 13 weeks (no, not even my mother) so we have a lot of catching up to do. I've been keeping a baby book for our baby-to-be so this weekend I've been looking through it to refresh my memory as to what all I need to share that I'd kept under wraps before. Turns out there is A LOT and I just don't have quite the motivation I need to post it all. So, I figured I'd get right down to the good stuff.

I'll post my "belly shots" photos that I have so far here. Also, I'll direct you to our family site that has all the goods on it that most people really want to see. Ultra sound photos from each of our visits and the best part of all, unveiling whether our baby is a he or a she! Want to find out? Go visit our family site at http://www.mrorex.com and click on Baby Rorex's picture. Make sure you have your speakers turned on before you watch the video. It's only 4 minutes long; its not the full ultra sound video, so even those anti-baby among us should get a kick out of it. Matthew worked really hard on the video and I just love it, but then again, I am a bit biased since it is of our baby. :) If you just can't stomach watching a baby video or looking at baby photos, maybe you'd like to lose yourself in our tropical destination photos for a while?! We've completed all the non-USA photos this weekend. Want to visit Anguilla? How about the Bahamas? Bermuda more your speed? See them all and more at our family site listed above.

Here are my belly photos in case anyone wants to see them. I'm around 21 or 22 weeks right now and don't have any recent belly shots. I need to get back into having those taken because I know that is something I will want after I have the baby. But, you won't believe how big I am now! Just this week, I've gotten a HUGE belly. I had to go out and buy a Boppy today in order to try to get some sleep. It's hard to sleep with an expanding belly! Before you look at the photos, yes, I was a big girl before getting pregnant but not THIS big (in week 13). My belly popped out really early. I don't know how anyone didn't notice that was around me all the time. I guess they thought I had just gotten REALLY REALLY fat. ha.ha.
Above: 13 weeks pregnant
Below: 14 weeks pregnantAbove: 15 weeks pregnant
Below: 16 weeks pregnant
Update: I finally got around to taking a recent belly shot, so here is my 22 week one below. Nice, huh? ha.ha. I think in this one my belly is actually starting to look round instead of my waist just thickening and me looking fat. ha.ha. Did anyone notice the other new addition in the left corner? That's miss Lexi and she is usually not around during belly shots, for some reason. But, she decided to make an appearance today, I guess.As a third party observer, you may not be able to tell a difference in these photos. I purposely wore the same clothes in each shot. I'll try to get up one this weekend of me in this same outfit. It will be comical, let me tell you. I've only gained 1 pound so far (which is a miracle) but my weight has very obviously shifted forward to my belly. I assume that since I've been trying to eat better and walk 3 times a week that I must have lost some weight while the baby gained weight. That is the only explanation for my huge belly and slowly changing scale numbers. I'm guessing that with this weeks progress that when I go back to the doctor on Dec. 23rd, I'm going to have gained way more than 1 pound. That is normal at this point and time though, since most ladies I know gain 1 pound a week from now on out. Oh my. Also, to all my readers: I know that ya'll are looking at this blog! I have a program that shows where all my visitors are from. Don't worry, I don't know exactly where you are from, just the city and state the computer you are using is housed in. I see that I have lots of readers from lots of cool places but no one ever leaves me a comment except my ultra cool sister-in-law Leann and fun blogger pal Kim! :( Stop by and say hi in the comment section! I'd love to meet all of you all and see your blogs too if you have them! I'm really friendly and like to talk, as you can see. :)

My blogger pal Kim posted 2 Christmas tree stories on her blog after reading some of her other friend's Christmas tree stories and I was inspired to write one of my own. You should go read hers. One story will make you laugh, the other will make you cry.

O.k., here is my contribution.

It was the first time I actually remember picking out a Christmas tree. I was probably 3, maybe 4, but no older than that. I assume that until then my parents had gone the easy way out and went to the Christmas tree lot and picked out a nice, full tree.

My parents made a really costly technical error before taking me out to pick a tree. The let me watch a Charlie Brown Christmas. Yep. Big. Mistake. After seeing Charlie Brown's dilemma with picking a tree, I decided I wasn't going to get "an overpriced tree with no sentimental value." I didn't know what those words meant, but I knew what Charlie's tree looked like and by goodness mine was gonna be just as fab-u-lous!

So, it was my idea to go out and cut down our own tree from the expansive woods behind our house. My mom would have no part of it and said it should be an extra special "daddy/daughter day". I was in heaven! But, now, looking back on it, I'm sure my dad flipped her the bird behind my back as we happily set out with nothing but a hand saw, trailed by my dog Mitizi and 3 cats.

Try as he might have, my dad couldn't talk the animals into going back home. He shooed them off a dozen times before we got out of sight of the house, but they would just hang back a few minutes and then they'd be on our tail again. Oh well, he said, I guess they're coming. This sounds like the perfect day, something right out of a Norman Rockwell painting: Daddy and daughter traipsing through the woods on a cold morning, loyal dog following behind with her posse of cats.

After walking for hours (I was a very determined little girl), we came upon a field of beautiful cedar trees. There were hundreds of perfect specimens. It really looked like a Christmas tree lot, just in the middle of nowhere. As my dad meandered between the trees pointing out the finer details such as fullness, color, height, etc., I wasn't the least bit interested. He'd say, "What about this one sugar?" I'd say, "Nah, let's keep looking." This went on for 30 minutes or so and dad was just about to give up and move on to another patch of trees when I spotted "THE ONE!" I yell, "Daddy, get the saw, I've found it. It's perfect!" He says, "Which one? This one?" And he points to a very nice cedar. But, alas, that isn't the one I had spotted. Way off to the side of the impromptu Christmas tree lot was "THE ONE".

I can still remember the look on my dad's face. He says, "THAT one? Are you sure? It isn't a very nice tree honey." I nearly burst into tears and said, "But Daddy, this tree has to be our tree." The next was said in a whisper, obviously so the tree couldn't hear me and get its feelings hurt, "I know this tree is very ugly. But, that is why I am picking it. It is so ugly that no one else would ever choose it as their tree. Ugly trees want to be Christmas trees too. And, if I don't pick THIS tree, no one else will ever pick it and it won't ever get a chance to be a beautiful tree." Well, what Daddy can argue with that logic? 5 minutes later, he's hacked through the trunk and we're carrying my prize back towards the house.

I don't think he realized how far we'd walked. This was tactical error No. 2. Don't take a small child into the woods on a long hike. If you go in on foot, you have to come out on foot. Well, at least the Daddy does. The daughter will end up being carried. Even if you are lugging a Christmas tree too. That doesn't matter. The sad face and pleas of being "so tired" win out in the end. My mom says we had to have been gone 3 hours. After an hour and a half walk, stopping every so often to rest my dad's back and call to the lagging behind animals, we finally got home. When we made it back into the yard, I was riding on my dad's shoulders, he was carrying the tree and the saw and my mom was on the porch to see what sort of tree had kept us away for 3 hours. I bet she thought it was gonna be a good one. Yeah right.

As my dad stood there trying to catch his breath, I beamed with pride at my mom and my new tree. She gets the biggest smile on her face I've ever seen and I was sure I had made the best decision ever with my choice. I mean there it was in all its splendid glory. It was a fine looking cedar, about 6 feet tall, with approximately 7 branches on one side and completely and utterly bare on the other side. Seriously, I do not exaggerate. Then, she starts to laugh. I mean really laugh. Hard. Tears ran down her face and she said, "Oh Lonnie, that's funny. Love the tree. Now, where is the REAL tree? This one is just the ugliest thing I've ever seen." I think Dad thought I was going to blow a gasket, but I didn't. I simply explained my choosing methods to mom and when it finally dawned on her that this hideous tree was going into her living room, she just got really quiet. I thought she was reflecting on the honorable decision to save an ugly tree from a life of solitude and giving it the gift of lights, tinsel, and ornaments. She was really just hoping that she could come up with a plausible excuse to stop ANY company from coming to our house until at least after the New Year.

"But Mommy", I explained to her, "I know it looks ugly now but remember how Charlie Brown's tree looked after all his friends helped him decorate it. It turned into the perfect Christmas tree!" I don't think I understood that the ugly tree turning beautiful was just symbolic and that my tree was always going to be a dismal failure. But, who has the heart to tell a 3 year old that?!

We put as many ornaments as we could on the tree, which was about 20 since it only had 7 branches. And that was packing them in there side by side all the way down the branch. It made the job of putting lights on it very easy, since it only needed 1 strand. Dad tried his best to put the "good side" of the tree out towards the living room and the "bare side" towards the wall, but the tree was so sparse you could see right through it anyway, so it didn't matter. I even hung ornaments on the back side of the tree to "make it look nice". But, the upside was that you didn't have to walk around to the backside of the tree to see the rest of the ornaments. From any point in the living room you could see from one side of the tree to the other at all times. Ingenious!

By this time it was dinner for the animals so I go outside with my mom to help feed them. I figured they had worked up a healthy appetite from all that walking. Well, the 3 cats were there, pretty as you please, waiting on a meal. Guess who was nowhere to be seen? Yep, Mitizi, the poodle. My mom goes in the house to ask my dad if he's seen her. He says, "Yeah, she went with us to pick out the tree." Well, she did go with us but she didn't come home. My dad leaves to go out to look for her and comes home well after dark, with no Mitizi. I cried all night long and was completely inconsolable. The next day he spends all day, from morning till night looking for her. And the next day. After the 2nd day of dawn to dusk looking for her, he comes back to the house and I'm watching him through the window. I burst towards the front door and jerk it open, hopeful that he has Mitizi with him. Nope, his arms are empty. Then, suddenly, I see that his coat is a lot puffier and wigglier than it was when he left and a little cold, wet bundle emerges from underneath! It's Mitizi! She had survived, cold, wet, and hungry for 3 days out in the woods alone. After a warming session by the wood stove and a big meal, she was doing just fine. Needless to say, that was Mitizi's last trip to pick out a tree.

A few days later, my Granny came up to visit. I proudly showed off our tree. My dad was so humiliated he left the room. My mom stood there with her head hung in shame. I remember getting the, "Why don't you go play with your toys a while" line from my Granny and knew that it must be time for grown-up talk and made a hasty exit. They never had anything fun to talk about anyway. I was many years older when I was told this part of the story and I still smile every time I think about it. My Granny took $40 from her purse and handed it to my mom. She said, "Adele, I didn't know that you and Lonnie didn't have any money to buy a tree this year. I would like to buy a nice tree for MaLeah." My mom said she nearly passed out she laughed so hard and went on to explain to Granny that I picked out that tree and that the biggest tree on the lot wouldn't compare to my "Charlie Brown" tree in my eyes. Granny said that was sweet but that she was just glad the entire family was coming to HER house for Christmas and not ours and that she hoped for my parent's sake that no one was planning to come visit us for Christmas. I think that Christmas we had more visitors than we ever had. :)

So, did the decorations turn a puny, ugly, tree into a perfect one? Not on your life. But, it was the perfect symbol of selflessness, love, and joy to a 3 year old little girl who spent the day bounding through the woods with her Daddy. And, who could ask for more than that?

Hello everyone, I just thought I'd better lay it all out on the line for ya. After having a nice...ummm..discussion, if you will with some childless friends who are so anti-baby, baby is truly a 4 letter word, I thought I'd share my thoughts here. Yes, this blog did start out as a travel related blog and I will still post tips and photos from each of our trips. Here is where the "but" comes in.

With the current economy, Matthew is taking very few work trips. So, I don't go that many places with him for work any more. Plus, we have taken so many vacations we are vacationed out for right now, so nope, not many of those in the works either. Right now, what we have going on in our lives is planning for our baby. I know some of you may not want to read about our baby and that is totally fine. You can just check back from time to time on the blog and see if I have anything other than the baby to talk about or have been anywhere cool. This blog is really just all about my life, all parts of it. The two most important things in my life are Matthew and now our baby-to-be, who should make an appearance in April so naturally we will drift towards that topic. I thought about making 2 different blogs but then decided this would be what was easiest on me, which sorry to say but right now, being pregnant, I am my own biggest priority. ha.ha.

So, sorry to disappoint you that we aren't jetting off to some tropical locale next week or the next or the next. You may have to wait till August for that, when we will still take our anniversary pilgrimage. Until then, I hope at least some of you will stick around and share in our absolute joy as we welcome our new baby into our family. I would be glad to have any and all of you that want to stay! Anyone still with us? Leave us a shout out on the comment section if you are still on board the team!

If you just need to get that travel fix, go check out our recently revamped family website http://www.mrorex.com. It has tons of new pictures on it!

Hey there readers! I hope you had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Ours was wonderful! I have to say that it was the best holiday we've had in years. No one got into an argument, we all ate until we were about to pop, and we had quality entertainment in the form of an 18 month old. ha.ha. It was great!

Hopefully you've read my previous post before reading this one. In that post, I announced that we were 20 weeks pregnant! For the next gazillion posts, I'll be taking you back to the beginning, when we first found out and fast forwarding to the present. I've really wanted to talk about the baby stuff on the blog but after finally breaking the news to friends and family at 13 weeks, it has been a whirlwind of activity since then. Now that we are back from Thanksgiving vacation, I have some time to just blog about what has been going on here. I tried to stay off the computer and phone while we were on break and just enjoy being with family and friends. I will say it was very nice to be unplugged, but now its back to the blog!

Let's step back to August 2008, the 12th to be exact. Matthew and I were getting ready to leave for Atlanta that day. We were getting ready to take our yearly anniversary pilgrimage to the beach and we normally fly out of Atlanta when we go to the Bahamas, as it is much cheaper. We'd been "working" on the baby stuff for a few months and I'd taken 2 or 3 pregnancy tests prior to this and they had all been negative, even though I was "late". I decided to take 1 more test before we left for our trip. I had gotten up to use the bathroom around 4:30 a.m. and when I was in the middle of my business thought "Dang it! I forgot to take the test!" Not to get into too many details for those of you who gross out easily, but when you take a pee test, you are supposed to use first-morning pee because it is the most concentrated. Well, it was too late to do anything about it by that point, so I go back to sleep until around 7, then I get up and decide to try to test anyway. Matthew is still snoozing comfortably. I figure that since I've already taken a few tests in the last week or so that said "no" that this would be the same result, but why not try it one more time before we leave? Since I'm such a spazz, I knew that trying to pee on a stick was out of the question, so I "went" in a cup instead. ha.ha. Yes, I know TMI (too much information). ha.ha. I barely get the test in the cup and BOOM it pops positive!

I nearly fainted. I was expecting to have to wait the 2-5 minutes that it said to wait before checking the test, but there was no doubt, it was a + sign right away. I nearly knock over the cup of pee (gross I know, but funny) grabbing for the paperwork that came with the test to be sure that I was reading it right. Yeah, I know a + sign is pretty unmistakable, but I had to be sure. I come bursting out of the bathroom yelling for Matthew and nearly give the poor guy a heartattack. I said, "Come here! Quick! In the bathroom!" He was stumbling all over the place saying, "What? What is it? What's wrong?" And, I said, "Don't worry its a good thing, just get in here!" He finally makes it to the bathroom and I thrust the test in his face and he is squinting at it through sleepy eyes and it finally dawns on him what he's looking at and he says, "HEY! I TOLD YOU!" He'd been telling me that even though the tests kept saying negative that I was already pregnant. He said he doesn't know why, he just "knew". I should have listened. :) He gives me a big hug and then GOES BACK TO BED! I said, "You're going back to SLEEP?!" He's like, "Yeah, we don't have to be up for a couple more hours." I tried going back to sleep too, but fat chance on that one. I got up again about 5 seconds later and decided to take one more different brand of test, just to make sure and yep, this one said positive too.

I was absolutely beside myself with happiness and the news definitely gave us something to talk about on our drive down to Atlanta! Thankfully, I didn't have ANY morning sickness and was able to enjoy our vacation as usual. Now you guys know why I was super freaking out when we got stuck down there with the hurricane! I had a doctor's appointment that I was going to miss---our first appointment! Thankfully we made it to the appointment after Matthew got us on another airline and we paid an ungodly amount of money to make it home. But, we were just glad to be back and get to that appointment! I'll share our first appointment with you next.

My sister-in-law, Leann, mentioned that she liked to see pictures on other people's blogs. Sorry Leann, but these are the only pictures I have from that event. I know pee-stick photos weren't exactly what you had in mind. ha.ha.ha. Oh well. :)
Above: The 1st test that popped positive. This is the one I showed Matthew.
Below: The 2nd test that I took immediately afterward to make sure that the above test was correct. I guess the "Yes" is unmistakable. ha.ha.

Below: The 2 tests together. I took about 100 pictures of these pee sticks before throwing them in the trash. I thought about keeping them, but then thought that would be gross. ha.ha.