The Wetherington Family

Great Grandparents!

2010-01-19T11:46:00.001-08:00

Preston got to meet his great grandparents (Wetheringtons) this past Sunday evening. We will be making a trip in the next month to visit his other set of great grandparents up in northern Virginia. Besides his weight check the day after he came home from the hospital, this was Preston's first outing!

First Days/First Nights/Visitors!

2010-01-19T11:39:00.001-08:00

During the 5 night hospital stay, Preston had a lot of visitors! The most frequent visitors were the proud grandparents! Preston got loved on quite a bit while we were there!!

Preston and I were finally discharged on Friday, January 15, 2010. After leaving the hospital around lunchtime, we made a stop at Chick Fil A and then came home. It was wonderful to finally be home with our son! The first couple days were a little stressful as I was still recovering from surgery and the dogs were a little wound up and having a hard time adjusting to there being a new person in the house. However, things are much more settled now! I am feeling normal again and it is not such a struggle just get up and down.

Preston hardly ever cries! He does not like having his diaper changed, as he gets cold and he will fuss a little around feeling time. He is a wonderful baby! The nights have been extremely easy. He has taken to breast feeling wonderfully and he is a great sleeper! I also love staying at home with him all day. I would not have it any other way!

January 12, 2010

2010-01-19T11:26:00.001-08:00

Well, Preston's due date was January 1, 2010. We were hoping to have him for Christmas, but Christmas came and went. Then, we were just hoping to have him before January so we could have a tax deduction this year. Didn't happen.....Then, we thought it would be neat to have the first baby of the new year. Didn't happen either....I never would have thought that I would be 11 days past my due date before my beautiful son arrived!

Once my due date passed, I was having appointments just about every other day for a non stress test. I was making no progress as far as dialation or effacement and the baby's head had not dropped at all! After 3 weeks or no progress, I approached the midwife about scheduling an induction. On Friday, January 8, we schedule an induction. Jonathan and I went in the following Sunday evening at 5:30p.m. They were going to treat me with Cervidil (sp?) to help soften my cervix and get me dilated so they could start pitocin the next morning. When they checked me Monday morning, i had only dialated to a fingertip, but that was enough to start the Pitocin. After 9 hours of Pitocin, I had still not kicked into labor. I was having strong contractions on paper...but I was feeling none of them! At the end of the day, I had not dialted any further. The midwife decided to try a drug called Cervadex (sp?). This was also supposed to soften the cervix and help the dialtion. After 4 hours, there was still no change. At this point the midwife was suggesting that we do another round of the Cervadex and then run another day of Pitocin to see what happened. Jonathan and I were extremely frustrated and were trying to decide if that would be the best route, or if we should opt for a C-section.

One of the doctors came by our room to check on me and we asked him for a blunt answer as to what he thought the best approach was. He told us that his main concern was the fact that the baby's head was not dropping at all. He said it was highly unusual for pitocin not to kick somebody into active labor. After talking to him, I was at complete peace about having a c section. We had way too many strikes against us at this point. A c section was scheduled for the next morning at 7:30a.m.

Thank goodness we decided on a c section. Preston was a huge baby and his head was off the charts. He never would have been able to be delivered vaginally. The doctors even had to use the vacuum and forcepts to help deliver him during the c section. It was very emotional in the operating room! Obviously, neither Jonathan or I were expecting a c section, nor were we anticipating a 5 day stay in the hospital, but the outcome was a BEAUTIFUL and healthy baby boy!

Preston Luke Wetherington made his entrance into the world on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. He weighed 10lbs 3 oz. and was 22 inches long.....off the charts! His foot prints were barely fit on his birth certificate. When they held him up for me to see, I thought I was staring at a 1 month old baby. It was unreal! I don't think anybody expected him to be as big as he was! He was the talk of the hospital nursery!!

It's A Boy!

2009-07-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I are pleased to announce that we are going to be the parents of a little boy! We had a 3D/4D ultrasound last night. ( I will post pictures soon!!) He was very mobile and not shy about showing the goods at all! He did however like to cover up his face, which was a little frustrating, but we managed to get some amazing pictures of our son. His name will be Preston Luke and we cannot be more excited about his arrival this winter! His due date is January 1, 2010.

16 weeks 4 Days

2009-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I felt the best feeling in the world! I felt our baby for the first time! I was laying down and felt the incredible feeling!! I felt it again after lunch. Today, I felt it again in the morning. It's amazing.....I have been waiting 16 weeks and 4 days for this thrill!!

Hopefully in another 4 weeks or so, Jonathan will be able to feel the movement from the outside. Being pregnant is the neatest feeling in the world!

2009-07-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Team Hoyt VB- Allen Stone Memorial 5K and run/swim/run

2009-07-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, I decided to participate in the Allen Stone Memorial 5K down at the oceanfront. It was a last minute decision. Some of you know that I was involved with Team Hoyt last running season. I have not done any races with them this year because of the fact that I am pregnant. I got in touch with the founder of the virginia beach chapter of team hoyt and scheduled myself to run with them this Saturday.

Team Hoyt is a local group based off of Rick and Dick Hoyt. If you are uncertain of who Rick and Dick Hoyt are, google, them and watch their story on youtube.com. It will blow your mind!! The local group here pushes kids from St. Mary's and other disabled children/adults from the area. For this particial race there was a 5K and a Run/Swim/Run (1K run on the beach, 1K swim, and a 5K run at the end). The people participating in the 5K run would push the disabled in jogging strollers. The ones particiapting in the run swim run, would push the disabled in strollers and then pull them in boats during the swim portion......it is HARD work!! There is no complaining and when you see these kids' faces when they are "racing" it makes everything worth while!!!

I did not personally have a stroller to push for this race (I suppose it is a blessing that team hoyt not has more pushers than children to push) I still ran with them and it was awesome! This was also my first race since becoming pregnant. It really felt great to run the 3.2 miles. I ran the whole thing and still came in 6th in my age group...not bad for being 4 months pregnant!

I have another fun race next Tuesday night with the Tidewater Striders and then another 5K at the end of August. I have also signed up for a 10K on Halloween. At that point I will be 7 months pregnant. It would be great if I can still run at that point, however, I am not holding my breath. I will keep running until it is just not comforable anymore.......people say that if you exercise throughout your pregnant, you are more prone to having an easy labor. I'm holding out for an easy labor. Is there such a thing? :)

Dr's Appointment- 16 weeks

2009-07-18T09:43:00.001-07:00

Everything is great with the baby and pregnancy. We had my 16 week appointment this past Friday morning. I was able to hear the heartbeat and the midwife could hear the baby kicking. She was trying to push on my stomach a bit, so I could feel the kicks, but no luck yet. It should be any week now that I can start feeling it! I can't wait!!

Jonathan and i have a 3d/4d ultrasound schedule for a week from Wednesday (July 29th) so we will find out the sex then! We are hoping for a boy, but will obviously be thrilled either way! We feel so incredibly blessed!!

Also, a plus from the doctors appointment, is that no more weight was gained! After the frist appointment I started running again. So now I am still up 9lbs at 16 weeks. I am thankful that it slowed down a bit and HAPPY to be running again! I am doing 5 miles 3x a week right now and doing the elliptical for an hour 2x a week. My weekend exercise has just been moving boxes and unpacking. It seems never ending!

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

This Father's Day, Jonathan and I thought we would be settled into our new home. Well, we were wrong :) We're close, but not there yet! We had already scheduled a Father's Day cookout at the new house and we were going to go ahead with it, we would just have to improvise a bit! It ended up being a beautiful day, so we were able to pull the tables out on the back porch. It was PERFECT!! We had a menu including, pork ribs, hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, watermelon, corn on the cob, baked beans, and Jamie's Bakery cake and icream for dessert!

This was also originally the day that jonathan and I were going to announce to our families that we were pregnant. We ended up telling them 3 weeks ago. I had already ordered a cake from Jamies with "Baby Wetherington January 1, 2010" written on it. I was going to cancel the order after we told the families, but my mom called behind me and kept the order in. So we had the cake yesterday.

We had a great Father's Day with family. i appreciate my dad so much, and am thankful for all of the sacrifices that he has made for our family. I thank him for being at every softball game and also encouraging me to be my best!

Updates..

2009-06-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

House Update: We have been delayed a bit on the house.....again! We had planned on having a Father's Day cook out at our new house. We were hoping to be moved in or at least in the process of moving in by this weekend. The carpet was supposed to be installed this past Monday, however the carpet took longer to come in than they expected. Therefore, it is not getting installed until next Monday! So, we are still having a cookout, but there will not be any carpet. The kitchen is done, the wood floors are done,, the front and back porch are done, everything else is done except for the carpet. We are getting close!! :) Right now we are hoping to slowly move things in next week and next weekend. I am hoping to get a head start on the kitchen this weekend, so it won't be so overwhelming next weekend. The good thing is we are not on any kind of time schedule, so we can take as much time as we need moving in the new house, and out of the old!

Jonathan update: Jonathan has been BUSY with work and with our house. He cannot wait to have Clearfield finished, so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore! His job is over once we move in...mine just begins!! I'm extremely thankful for him and how hard he works to support our family. I am blessed!! He is also busy with softball. He plays on Thursday and Saturday nights. His teams seem to have finally gelled and they are winning now which makes it much more fun!!

Baby Wetherington update: I had a doctors appointment this morning. Today, i am 12 weeks. one more week and I am out of the first trimester! Yay! i got to hear the baby's heartbeat this morning and it was strong and in the 150's, which is right on target! Again, we feel so thankful and so blessed! i had a dream this week that we were having a girl. Time will tell! We have scheduled a 3-D ultrasound on july 29th. I will be 18 weeks, and we are hoping the baby will give us a peek so we can start decorating the nursery!!

Missy Update: This morning at the doctors appointment, I got quite a shock when I got on the scale! I was already up 9lbs! obviously, that is unacceptable! I am chalking it up to the fact that I was in marathon running shape and basically came to an abrupt halt with running when I found out I was pregnant. I was terrified about my heart rate becoming too high. The midwife this morning assured me that I was free to run to my hearts content! She said to just listen to my body. She also told me I was free to continue my Body Pump weight lifting classes as well. This THRILLED me and I think I will start feeling much better when i can get back into a regular running/working out schedule!! Also....the chicken wings that I have been craving are a thing of the past!! NO MORE! I'm sure they contributed to the 9lbs as well :)
I have been feeling great...just tired! I am hoping to start getting my energy back in the next couple of weeks. My cravings have been ketchup, mexican, and chicken wings....obviously nothing healthy.

Oh Baby!

2009-06-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Most of you have heard by now, but in case you haven't......Jonathan and I are expecting our first baby on January 1, 2010! We are very excited and feel blessed that it happened so quickly!

We found out that we were pregnant on April 19th, 2009. We decided that it would be in our best interest if we kept the pregnancy a secret. We didn't want to tell a bunch of people and then have something terrible happen.

My first appointment was on May 1. At that point I was only 5 weeks along, so nothing showed up yet on the ultrasound. We both went back two weeks later and were able to see our baby and the little heart beating away at 136bpm! Words cannot express what a relief it was to see that on the screen!

We were trying to think of the perfect time to tell our families. We decided that Father's Day would be perfect! We would be in our new house at that point and we would host a cookout for both families to celebrate Fathers Day. We were going to put that we were expecting on a cake.

Well, both my mother and mother in law made some comments recently that had us thinking that they "knew" we were pregnant. We decided that there was no point in waiting another 3 weeks, if they were just going to be expecting the news. So that weekend, I went to Hallmark and bought some photo frames, plaques, grandma countdowns, and cards. We decided to plant photo frames with the sonograph as well as the grandma countdown calendars in the houses for the grandparents to find. They were both SHOCKED and extremely excited!! It was so exciting to finally be able to share the news with everyone!

As far as me, this pregnancy has been easy so far (knock on wood). My sickest times come at night time. I have been getting tired really easily and am in bed for the night around 8:30 or so. I can already see my energy level picking up though. Only 3 more weeks and we will be out of the first trimester! It has gone by incredibly fast! Hopefully the next 30 weeks will go by just as fast! :)

New House Pictures

2009-05-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked what process our house is in right now. To give you all an update, Jonathan and I should be moving in, in a couple of weeks! This past week, our kitchen cabinets came in. They are still in the process of being installed, but should be completed by the end of this week. The wood floor and carpet still needs to be put down, but most of the tile in the house is already completed. Other than the flooring, there are just little things that need to be done, so it shouldn't be long at all! We are very excited! We are hoping to have a Father's Day celebration in the new home to celebrate with our families! Here are some new pictures taken from this past weekend.

Dismal Swamp Stomp 2009

2009-04-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have been signed up for weeks now to participate in the Dismal Swamp Stomp half marathon here in Chesapeake. This is the very first marathon that I did a year ago. I didn't have great luck as the first time I ran it, I had not trained at all! I was really looking forward to running it this year because now 13.1 miles is a breeze to me!

Well, I talked my friend Lori into running this one for her first half marathon as well. We were going to run it together. Well, as luck would have it, I have injured my foot and the doctor advised me not to run on it until I had no pain. Unfortunately since going to the doctor this past Tuesday, nothing with my foot has improved. They gave me a cortisone shot and that has not even helped with the swelling. I will be going to the doctors again very soon and I am hoping that we can pin point exactly what is going on with my foot.

This had me very frustrated! Then, one night at family dinner, my mother in law asked me if I thought she would be able to walk a half marathon in the time they allowed the course to be open. I said "absolutely!" Well, she asked my mom to walk it with her. They signed up, and since I was already signed up to run, I decided that I would just walk the 13.1 miles with them. We had a lot of fun! We were definitely over it by about mile 8 though....13 miles is a long walk! We finished in 3 hours and 50 minutes. It was very hard for me at the beginning seeing all the runners so excited...i wanted to run....bad! But, I am glad that I had my mom and mother in law there to walk it with. I still finished the half marathon, and that's all that matters!

Congratulations to Lori who finished her first half marathon in 1 hour and 57 minutes! AWESOME!!

I'm glad that she is hooked on these races and once my foot heals, we will be doing many together, I am sure!! Lori...can, you say triathlon in september?! :) (check it out, there is one in virginia beach!)

Homemade Milk Bone Recipe

2009-03-31T17:42:00.000-07:00

Homemade Milk Bone Dog Treats

Ingredients

1. 3/4 c hot water
2. 1/3 c margarine

3. 1/2 c powdered milk

4. 1 tsp. salt

5. 1 egg (beaten)

6. 3 c wheat flour

Directions:

-Pour hot water over margarine

-Stir in milk, salt, and egg

-Add flour 1/2 c at a time and knead

-roll out dought and cut into desired shape

-Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes

Chubbs

2009-03-31T17:41:00.001-07:00

Looks like I'm going to have to start fighting Chubbs for the coupons on Sunday mornings :)

Cleaning!

2009-03-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

Recently, I purchased "The Complete Household Handbook". In preparation for moving into our new house, I wanted tips on cleaning and organizing so I won't be totally clueless once we move. This book has been amazing! There is one section that I found extremely helpful, and I thought I would pass it along. These are cleaning tips for your kitchen, bathroom, and throughout the house and helps you know what you should be doing daily, weekly, and occasionally. Enjoy!

KITCHEN:
daily-
Dispose of trash and recycables
Handwash and dry dishes or place them in teh dishwasher
Wipe table, countertops, and range top
Wash coffeemaker thoroughly
Run food disposal and clean the sink
Sweep or vacuum floor; wipe up any spots with a damp paper towel

weekly-
Thoroughly clean range top and front, drip pans, control knobs, and back splash
Wipe down microwave oven, both inside and otuside
Organize refrigerator and wipe up spills; dispose of leftover foods that have spoiled
Clean items on countertop; move them away from walls to wipe under and behind them
Sweep or vacuum and wash floor
Wipe table and chairs

occasionally-
Wipe refrigerator sides and top and vacuum coils
Wash refrigerator and freezer shelves and drawers, as needed
Wash ventilating fan/hood filters
Thoroughly clean cabinets and drawers
Dust or vacuum wood work
Wash curtains, windows, screens, blinds, and shades
Clean light fixtures
Clean the oven

BATHROOM
daily-
Wipe fixtures, chrome, and countertops
Straighten towels
Use a squeegee or daily shower cleaner to prevent streaks and soap scum buildup

weekly-
Scrub bathtubs and sinks
Clean mirrors
Clean shower stalls and doors and disinfect toilets
Clean toothbrush and soap holders
Wipe tile surfaces
Vacuum and wash floors

occasionally-
Wash throw rigs and shower curtains
Wash windows, blinds, shades, or curtains
Clean medicine cabinet and closets; discard medicines that have expired
Clean light fixtures
Dust or vacuum walls and woodwork

THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE

daily-
Put clothing, books, toys, and other items where they belong
Straighten living spaces and bedrooms
make beds
Go through the mail; handle or recycle, as needed

weekly-
Dust furniture, books, pictures, lamp bases and shades, and electronics
Vacuum floors and upholstery- and wood work as needed
Wipe smudges off walls and woodwork
Empty wastepaper baskets
Change bed linens
Clean the mirrors, if needed
Recycle or toss newspapers older than a week and magazines older than 3 months

occasionally-
Vacuum or clean cutrains, draperies, and radiators
Wash windows
Dust or vacuum walls and woodwork
Clean light fixtures
Move and clean under furniture
Polish furniture
Deep clean rugs and carpets; clean and wax bare floors
Turn mattresses and vacuum mattresses and box springs; launder mattress pads
Straighten closets; give away unneeded items
Clean garage, basement, and attic
Clean humidifiers and dehumidifiers
Clean china cabinets and bookcases and contents, as needed

Sham-Rock On! 26.2 miles

2009-03-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that I have been training for my first full marathon (26.2 miles) for the past 6 months or so. I have 4 half marathons under my belt and decided that it was time for a new challenge. The date of my marathon quickly approached and before I knew it, March 22nd was here! Last Sunday was my last long run and the i was supposed to take this week off from running. I did end up doing a coupld miles two days this past week, but nothing huge. Friday, I started carbo loading. Jonathan and i went to Atlas pizza and then on Saturday we met some friends of ours for a pasta dinner at Olive Garden! This is me the morning of my marathon (obviously BEFORE the run) :)
Jonathan and my family were waiting for me at the finish line. Special thanks to Heather and Josh, the Otte Family, Lori, my family, Jonathan, and T J Bilbrey for coming out and cheering! You have no idea how much the cheering and supportive comments help! I'm pretty sure TJ doesn't read this blog, but Laura, please tell your husband that him and the troops were THE MOST supportive throughout the whole 26 miles. They were awesome..please thank him for me! :)

This was right after the race. I felt like I could not stand any longer.....currently I am still feeling this way! Haha

I must say that running the 26.2 miles was absolutely miserable while you're in the middle of it. But once you cross the finish line, you seem to forget about all of the pain that you just went through. Immediately after I finished, I said "No way..not again!" Now, I'm not opposed to another one at all. My official time has not been released yet, but I am thinking it is right around 4 hours and 40 minutes. I did not have a goal time for this race, I just wanted to finish. Next time I will aim for 4.5 hours. With a little bit of harder training, i know I can do it!

Thanks again for those of you who came out and to those of you who have been so supportive and encouraging these past 6 months. It means so much to me!!

Who wants to run the next marathon with me?! :)

Free Ice Cream!

2009-03-06T15:27:00.001-08:00

If anyone is interested, Brusters is giving away a free one scoop waffle cone this weekend to anyone who shows up in their pajamas. I don't think Jonathan and I will be participating, but I know some of you will do some crazy things for free food.....especially ice cream!! :)

Because I LOVE them...

2009-03-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

I just had to share these pictures of our dogs from last night. It's hard to believe that we almost got rid of Einstein because they were not getting along as puppies. They cannot be separated now! :)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2009-03-01T10:19:00.001-08:00

Many of you have been asking me for the recipe of the homemade laundry detergent that I made this weekend. I got this recipe from the Duggar family (they have a show on TLC called "17 Kids and Counting"). Here is the recipe. I will say that it was very easy to make! I have not used the detergent yet, but I have a friend who has made it as well and said that it works great! Let me know if you give it a try!

Ingredients:
Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value
4 Cups hot tap water
1 Soap Bar (pick one with a mild scent)
1 Cup Washing Soda (The only grocery store I was able to find this at was Harris Teeter)
½ Cup Borax

Directions:
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

I am eventually planning on making all of my cleaning products myself. I have ready how much better it is. As a migrain sufferer, I am looking forward to getting rid of the strong odors that many cleaners have! Unfortunately I have stocked up on cleaning supplies from triple coupon days that it will take me a while to go through them all.

If you are interested in saving money on fabric softener as well, you can cut your dryer sheets into thirds. They will still work just as well...and last three times as long! Another idea is to mix up a solution of 1 part liquid fabric softener and 3 parts water into a spray bottle. Keep a stack of washcloths in your laundry room and spray a washcloth with the mixture. Then, just throw the washcloth in with your load of clothes to dry. Works well and it will save you a ton!

Rum Cake Recipe

2009-02-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

When Jonathan and I got married in the Cayman Islands, we discovered Tortuga Rum Cakes. They are delicious! As a matter of fact, since we couldn't bring home the top layer of our wedding cake, we ordered a Tortuga rum cake for our first anniversary! This past weekend, I decided to try a recipe for rum cake. It tastes just like the Tortuga ones and it is so easy to make! I thought I would post the recipe in case any of you guys wanted to try it. Let me know if you bake it and what you think!

Golden Rum Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over the bottom of the pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in the eggs, 1/2 cup water, oil and 1/2 cup rum. Blend well. Pour batter over chopped nuts in the pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto serving plate. Brush glaze over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze and repeat until all glaze is used.
To make the glaze: in a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.

**You can add any flavor of rum you would like. I used the regular spiced rum. **

**When I pulled the cake out of the pan, I poured half or the glaze into the bundt pan and set the cake back in the pan. Then I poured the rest of the rum glaze on top of the cake. I let the cake absorb the rum glaze before removing it to serve.**

**This cake is especially good after a day or sitting**

MVB! (Most Valuable Bulldog!)

2009-02-23T05:54:00.000-08:00

Why is Eistein smiling?! BECAUSE, he caught the 5th member in the Wetherington house....a rat! We have been trying to catch this rat for weeks now! We have bought several traps and the rat was somehow able to get the food out of the trap, set the trap off, but never got caught!

This morning, while I was at the gym, Jonathan said he came into the kitchen and Einstein had the rat in between his paws, not sure what to do next. Jonathan was able to scoop the rat into an empty dog food bag (which is ironic because that is what the rat has been after all these weeks..dog food!)

Way to go Einstein!! :)

p.s. if you are wondering what Chubbs was doing during all of this, just take a look at the picture below. :)

House Update #2

2009-02-21T13:05:00.001-08:00

Here are the newest house updates. They have added the windows, front and back doors and have started on the brick. They should finish the brick this week (as long as the weather is nice) and the dry wall is not far behind! It is getting very excited now!! Jonathan designed the house and I had very little imput (mostly because I have no clue about anything). I can honestly say that he has done an amazing job and I am in love with this house! I cannot wait to decorate this house.....cleaning is another story :)

Bloom- Triple Coupons

2009-02-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

So, my newest hobby has become saving money. There was a time when I would wear nothing but Abercrombie and Fitch Jeans and would never dare look at buying things off the clearance racks. Times have changed. I consider it my job to find the best deals on everything.....and make Jonathan's pay checks spread as far as they can! It has been so rewarding to see the amounts of money that I have been able to save over the past couple of months. I take advantage of triple coupon promotions at grocery stores, double coupons at K Mart, we eat at restaurants when we have coupons (the Entertainment book has come in handy!), I shop for clothes at the outlets on the clearance racks, I have started grooming our dogs by myself (which saves about $50/month), I am beginning to make my own laundry detergent and household cleaners. These little things have made a HUGE difference!!

Anyway, here is how I did at Bloom this morning. They are having their triple coupon promotion this weekend, Friday-Sunday. They will triple any coupon up to and including $.99. You are limited to 20 coupons per day.

My final grocery bill BEFORE coupons was $65.00.

My final grocery bill AFTER coupons was $30.24.

Conclusion--I got all of these things for $30, and saved a total of $34.76!

Sewing Projects

2009-02-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

I just finished a 6 week sewing class. I am always interested in learning new things. A few months ago, I took a knitting class. I just finished the sewing class. Still on my list of things to learn are: cake decorating, cooking, and crocheting.

Anyway, here are some projects that I have sewed since taking my first class. Along with these, I have also made cloth diapers. This is something that Jonathan and I will consider using once we have a baby. Learning how to sew them will definitely cut down on the cost of starting with cloth diapers. I plan on sewing all of the curtains and pillows for our new house, I just have not decided on what colors I am going to use yet.

Chubbs

2009-02-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

Need any computer work done? Chubbs is your man! :)

Snow Day...kind of!

2009-02-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

Monday morning, we woke up to some snow on the ground. I was excited to let the dogs outside. Einstein has never seen snow before and he is such a comical dog I figured he would enjoy it!

I let them outside and Einstein took off down the steps...sliding the whole way. He did not like his paws touching the snow at first, so he was kind of doing a high step walk (like a pony) and he would not pee on the snow until it was all gone. Here are just a few pictures from the morning.

Brisket update..

2009-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

So I just have to post that I made the brisket again tonight. For those of you who know me very well, know that I am very competitive person and it bothers me when I can't do something. Therefore this morning I went out and purchased a real brisket this time to cook for dinner tonight. It turned out MUCH better than that corned beef crap!
They only sold large briskets at the meat place, so we have a lot in our freezer. The one that I made tonight could have been a little more tender. I will try some different recipes with the extra meat that we have and will post the best recipe!

Valentines Day Dinner Disaster!

2009-02-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

I can laugh about the situation now...however that was not the case an hour ago! I spent most of the afternoon/evening preparing this dinner for Jonathan and I. BBQ brisket, greenbean/bacon/tomato side dish, bread, strawberry trifle for dessert. Everything smelled delicious!! I pulled the meat out of the oven and realized that it looks pink...very strange! It was cooked all the way through....Hmm.

Well I decide to cut it up and serve it anyway. We sit down to eat and I take a bite and it is disgusting!! I pull the wrapper the meat came in out of the trash and realized that it was corn hashed beef...it was GROSS!! Poor Jonathan kept eating until I said something. He wasn't going to dare say anything first. I said "You don't have to eat anymore, this is disgusting!" He stopped eating right away.

We just ordered a heart shaped pizza from Papa Johns. Oh well, at least it is still festive...Happy Valentine's Day.

p.s. the dessert was good......next week I am going to be on the looking for some local cooking classes!!

Pre-Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't know, Jonathan and my relationship began four years ago on the night before Valentines Day. We had been friends for about a year at this point. He has just gotten out of a serious relationship not too long before I met him, so he was never interested in jumping into another. I, on the other hand, was ready to date him and marry him 5 minutes after seeing him! :) We met at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church.
One of my friends, Josh, needed a babysitter. Him and his wife were going to celebrate Valentine's Day the night before since he had to work on Valentines Day night. I offered to watch their baby while they went out. They lived in an apartment complex. Apparently their complex was incredibly strict about their parking lots and wouldn't let you park there unless you had a visitors tag on your car....which I did not. So when they got hom around 10:30 or so, I walked out to find my car was not in the parking lot and had obviously been towed.
It's 10:30 at night (and a Sunday night, so people had to work in the morning), my parents are asleep. I decided to call my sister since I knew she would be up. I called her and told her my problem and asked her if she could come give me a ride to pick up my car from the towing company. Little did I know that she had a bunch of people over at her house, including Jonathan. When Jonathan heard that I was in a bind, he offered to come pick me up. I had no idea that he was going to be the one to pick me up, but I got VERY EXCITED when I saw his white truck pull into the apartment complex!
We called the towing company and went to pick up my car. We figured it would be a relatively quick process. It was not! We had to wait for somebody to come to the building and they said it would be at least 2 hours. Well 3 hours later, at 2 in the morning, somebody finally came to give me my car. Those 3 hours that Jonathan and I had to wait for my car were AMAZING. We talked about a lot of stuff and that was the first night that our friendship changed to something deeper...on both of our ends. It was also the first night that we held hands. I can still remember being on cloud 9 the next morning at work! We dated from that time on.

Our second year together we spend the night before Valentines Day eating at Steinhilbers restaurant in Virginia Beach. We highly recommend this restaurant by the way. It is, hands down, our favorite! Our second Valentines Day together was spent in. I was just learning how to cook and so I decided that I would make Jonathan dinner at my house. I made lasagna. It was delicious! We just ate and rented a movie. I also made homemade cheesecake in the shape of hearts (He probably doesn't remember any of this by the way haha ) This was also our one year dating anniversary!

On our second year dating anniversary, we went to eat at the Vintage Tavern in Suffolk. The food was great!! After dinner Jonathan told me that he had fondu set up at his house for us. When we pulled in the driveway he told me that he had a gift for me, but he had to get it together before I could walk in the house. I sat out in the truck for about 5 minutes and he finally flipped on the porch light, which was my cue that I could go inside. When I walked inside he had luggage for me and the luggage was full of towels (all of this stuff I had picked out). It was a great gift and the fondu looked WONDERFUL!

At this time, we also had a bulldog puppy. His name was Chubbs. He was (and still is) our life!! We were crate training him and kept him in the back bedroom. Jonathan went back to let Chubbs out and he came running down the hall with a red ribbon tied about his neck. When I looked closer, I could see that he had a ring! Jonathan then took the ring off chubbs and proposed to me. We were both crying..one of the best nights of my life!! The next day we had deteremined that we were getting married in the Cayman Islands on May 17th!

Our third year together, we celebrated the night before Valentines Day. This was our first Valentine's day since being married. We decided to eat at Steinhilbers again. It was delicous. If I remember correctly, we went to a movie afterwards.

This year, Jonathan and I have been together for 4 years! We went out the night before Valentine's Day to McCormick and Schmicks in Town Center. It was wonderful food..highly recommend going there. If you do go there, save room for the apple pie. It was the best pie that I have ever had!! Jonathan got salmon for dinner and I got crab cakes. afterward we went to see He's Just Not That Into You. Funny movie..it was a great night!!

I am so thankful for my husband. He is such an incredible man and he is the best husband anybody could ask for. He is so supportive of me and he is an awesome provider. I could not ask for anything more! The past 4 years have been wonderful!!

Tonight I am cooking him a special dinner. I will have another blog about our Valentines Day...happy valentines day to you all! :)

Our New House...

2009-02-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of our new house being built. I am a little behind on them, so it's a lot further along now, than what you see in the pictures. I will update the pics this weekend!

We're Back....

2009-02-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

I have not blogged in forever. I am going to try to do a better job with this! Before, I felt like I had a lack of things to blog about. This time around I am going to do a better job of keeping you guys updated on Jonathan and I's life, share recipes, and money saving tips that I have learned!

To give you a quick update on Jonathan and I. Our new house is coming along great! They have it completely framed, the electrical stuff is finished, as well as the plumbing. They have started laying the brick this week and it is looking WONDERFUL! I am so excited about moving into this house. I am already starting to get decorating ideas and trying to get some idea of what style we are going to use.

I am still training for my marathon. I cannot believe that my race is just a little over a month away!! Some days I feel ready, and others I don't. It will be interesting. I will say that I don't have a goal time that I want to finish in.....I just want to finish :) I am ready for it to be over. Training takes up so much time, and while I will continue to run when I finish the marathon, I will not be going out for 20 mile runs! If all goes well with the marathon, I would like to train for a triathlon. There is a new Golds Gym opening up in Western Branch in the spring and they are supposed to have a swimming pool. I would love to get back into swimming and taking on new challenges of swimming, biking, and running. I have already started looking at triathlon training schedules!

Chubbs and Einstein are well. We took Chubbs into the vet several weeks ago because he had really bad itchy skin. Bulldogs are prone to numerous health problems, allergies being one of them. We had tried antibiotics, but nothing seemed to be helping him. Well, the vet decided that she wanted to change his food completely. He is not eating venison and rice. He can no longer have anything with any other meat flavor in the ingredients. Since we have switched his food, his skin has cleared up and he seems much happier. However, since he can't have any other meat flavor, this means that I have to make all of their dog treats. It can be time consuming because they go through so many treats...but at least I know everything that is going on their bodies. During that same vet visit, we also discovered that Chubbs had gained 10 pounds in 1 month. Needless to say, the vet put him on a diet. We had to start measuring out his food and started giving him 4 cups a day. The poor dog kept bringing us his bowl throughout the day. Dieting is tough...I can sympathize with him :( After 2 weeks on his diet, we took him back into the vet and he GAINED .5lbs! I couldn't believe it. The vet said to cut his food down to 3.5 cups a day now. We take him to get weighed again this Thursday. Poor guy!

That is pretty much all of our news....you have been updated! I will post updated pictures of the house later. Thanks for reading! :)

Race for Literacy Half Marathon

2008-12-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

I decided that I wanted to try to run another half marathon before my full marathon in March. Running has all of a sudden become so easy for me (not sure if it's the cooler weather or the paleo eating habits that I have adapted to). The very first half marathon that I did was last April. It was the Dismal Swamp Stomp in Chesapeake and I finished in 2hours 25 minutes and spent the afternoon throwing up. The second half marathon I ran was this past August in Virginia Beach. I finished in 2 hours and 21 minutes and still felt awful after I was finished running. Third third half marathon that I ran was in Suffolk and it was called The Race for Literacy. I am pleased and very excited to announce that I finished in 2 hours and 4 minutes!!! I could not believe how much faster I had gotten. The best part was that after I finished running I could talk normally and I was not really exhausted at all. I also expected to be sore a day or two after the race, however I never got sore! I was back at Body Pump the following Monday and back to running/training for the marathon on Tuesday. It was a huge boost for me and makes me even more excited to tackle a full marathon!

Speaking of the Shamrock Marathon....it is only 3 months away!! I have been training for a month now. This past Sunday I ran my furthest distance (14 miles) Next Sunday is 16 miles and then the following Sunday is 18 miles. It seems almost impossible, but I am so determined!

Thank you so much for all the encouragement that many of you have given me.....it helps more than you know!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on the blogs!! I hate blogging with no pictures, however, I am always that person who has the camera at every event....I just never remember to take pictures!

Anyway, Jonathan and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family! The night before Thanksgiving was spent with me cooking and getting the house cleaned for my family to come over for brunch on Thanksgiving morning. Jonathan spent the night before Thanksgiving putting together the turkey fryer. He was in charge of the turkey this year for his family's get together!

On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up at 5 am to do my morning run. I had a race the following saturday, so I just did an easy 5 miles. After I got home and showered, I began setting out and cooking all the food for the brunch. The menu included chocolate covered strawberries, muffins, pancakes, bacon egg and cheese casserole, cinnamon rolls, and pilgrim hat cookies! The food was delicious (special thanks to Laura for making the pancakes....I have no mastered that skill yet!!) My parents, sister, aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins came over as well to celebrate with us. It was a great time!!

After the brunch, I had to clean up real quick (again, thanks Laura!) and make some homemade macaroni and cheese for Jonathan's family lunch. So, after stuffing my face that morning with breakfast, it was off to eat some more lunch! We ate with Jonathan's family around 1:00. Jonathan's turkey was AMAZING!! I must admit I was a little nervous about him frying a turkey after we watched all of the you tube videos of turkey fryer fires! He did a great job with it though, and he will be frying another turkey and a chicken for Christmas dinner! The food at the Wetherington's was great and the fellowship was great as well!

Jonathan and I came home after a couple hours and took a short nap. That night we went to the movies and saw Four Christmases (I highly recommend it by the way!) Holidays are always so exhausting and they always seem to end so quick.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving........and a somewhat relaxing Black Friday!

Savings!!

2008-11-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

It might be too late for some of you guys, but in case you didn't know, Harris Teeter and Bloom are both having triple coupon savings this weekend. I have been clipping coupons for several months now and have really enjoyed seeing how much money we save! This past Thursday night at Harris Teeter, we saved $30 from coupons! Amazing!
We were also able to eat dinner last night at Max and Erma's for $12.00 due to a coupon and we saw a movie for $12.00 from using super saver coupons. It all adds up!! Not to mention I filled up my Rodeo this morning for $22!! I LOVE saving money! :)
Moving on....
Jonathan and I are both thrilled that there is no traveling required of us this weekend. It seems that every weekend for the past month or so, we have been driving up to DC/Charlottesville for UVA games and Redskins games. They games are awesome..it's the drive home that is always so long!! We finally have a break this weekend!
Laura and I are running in a race this upcoming weekend. I am running a 10 mile race and Laura is doing a 5K. The race is at Fort Story. I enjoy doing races with her..it's nice to have somebody else there. I have also registered for antoher half marathon the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am so excited to run another half marathon because I feel like my time is going to be a good 10 minutes faster than my last time. Since my last race, I have been eating Paleo. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with it or not, but basically you are supposed to eat only lean meats. fruits and vegetables.....no grains. I stick to it during the week...weekends I slide a little bit. I decided to get on this Paleo diet because it is supposed to incease your athletic stamina. Boy does it work!! The first week that I started on the diet, it was miserable. I was having bad headaches (probably due to the sugar withdrawl). But during week two , my speed in my runs had picked up remarkably. I have never been able to run so fast. I have also dropped 5lbs, so that helps as well. The half marathon will be a good way to see how I have improved. I also begin officially training for the full marathon in one week. I still cannot grasp the idea that I will ever be able to run 26.2 miles..it will be interesting! :)
Now, a quick house update...We were supposed to start last week, but it rained non stop. So, hopefully the weather will cooperate better this week. I will have pictures once there is some action on the lot!

Election Day!

2008-11-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

Today is the day that many of us have been waiting for...Election Day!! Everybody has been saying the past couple days that you should get to the polls early to vote because the lines would be much worse later in the day. Well, I took the advice of these people....even after not getting back in town from the Washington Redskins game until 4:30 a.m. this morning. I slept for one hour and then woke up to go wait in line for......3.5 hours!!!! It was unbelievable.
I was scheduled to vote at Sparrow Road Intermediate. They had 4 computers running and only one check in computer working (the other one was already broken). Needless to say, the line did not move fast! I finally made it out of there around 9:45ish and made it to work around 10:00. What a morning!
Here is how I thought the morning would go in my head. I would wake up at the same time, go and maybe wait in line 30-45 minutes. Have time to go by Chick Fil A and get my free chicken biscuit for voting and then make it to work on time at 7:30. Boy was I wrong!!
At any rate, my vote has been placed.....and Jonathan and I went out tonight and took advantage of free Chick Fil A sandwiches and free Krispy Kreme Doughnuts...yum!!

Hallelujah Harvest

2008-10-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

This past Friday night at our church was Hallelujah Harvest. This is a yearly event that our church has every year. They have horse rides, moon bounces, games, face painting, and trunk or treating! It's always so fun. I have volunteered to pass our candy at my trunk for the past 6 or 7 years. It is always so awesome to see the children dressed up in their costumes!

A lot of people decorate their trunks by theme. Jonathan and I have never really gone all out with the decorations (neither one of us are creative like that) but we had our football pumpkins out and we wore our Redskins gear. We even brough Einstein out with his Redskins bandana!

My sister in law Brittney decided to help us out at our trunk this year. She is an Eagle's fan, so to keep with the theme, she wore her Philadelphia Eagles jersey. She even brought her dog, Baxter, in an Eagles jersey as well!

The dogs were so well behaved and they were a huge hit with the kids...and their parents too!! Einstein was even caught shaking some of the children's hands :)

Some of you might be wondering why we did not bring Chubbs. Chubbs is scared of EVERYTHING!! When he gets scared, he gets defensive and mean. Therefore, we decided to leave him at home for the night. Before we left, Jonathan spent some one on one time with Chubbs and gave him a special bone to let him know we still love him! Well, when we got home, the bone was untouched.....Chubbs was mad at us!!!! We ended up putting Einstein to bed early and let Chubbs stay up with us. He was craving attention. Just like kids huh? :)

Friday night Auction

2008-10-27T08:03:00.001-07:00

Thursday night, Jonathan and I were talking about our plans for the weekend. We were frustrated because there were no new movies in the theater that we were interested in seeing....Usually on friday nights, we do dinner and a movie.

Well, Thursday night I got an e mail from my dad that said that there is a surfer (pete smith) from virginia beach who was retiring and they were auctioning off some of his stuff that he has collected through the years. Now, you might wonder why we would be interested in going to this since neither Jonathan or I surf. Well, one of the items being auctioned off was a turtle shell from Costa Rica.

Let me back up just a bit. When Jonathan and I got married in 2007 in the Cayman Islands, we ate at a restaurant there. In this restaurant they had a HUGE turtle shell hanging up on the wall. Jonathan was fascinated by it right away (these turtle shells are beautiful!). He said that he wanted one, and was going to offer to buy the one right off the wall of the restaurant. When he talked to the waiter about the shell, he informed us that it is illegal for them to preserve the shells now. They are afraid that if people start demanding the turtle shells, then more and more people will be poaching the turtles to get them. They even have a turtle farm in the cayman islands where they just breed the turtles for food purposes....however, the shells all have to be grinded. After we heard this, we realized that it was unlikely that we would ever have an authentic turtle shell hanging on our wall.

Now, back to the auction. This guy had purchased his shell back in 1968, when it was still legal. Now he was auctioning it off....this will probably be Jonathan's only shot at ever owning one. When we got to the auction, the starting bid on the turtle shell was $1200 (silent auction). The shell was beautiful, however it had been cracked and you could see where it was replaced with some tape before it was polished up. Jonathan was a little upset at that, but figured he could probably get it fixed for a couple hundred dollars. We got to the auction at 7 and the auctions did not close until 10:30. So, after we ate dinner there we walked down to 31st street and had some coffee and desert at Starbucks. We decided to head back to the auction about 9:30. The bidding had gone up a little bit, and we had it narrowed down to the guy who was going to fighting for this turtle shell with jonathan. During the last couple minutes of the auction, Jonathan and his competition were just guarding this turtle shell. Jonathan, would write down a bit and right away the other guy would write down a higher bid. When the shell got up to $1750, Jonathan decided to stop. So needless to say, we came home without a turtle shell.....but Jonathan still had $1750 in his pocket :)

It ended up being a really fun night. I enjoyed the time that we had at starbucks to just sit and talk to each other in a quiet environment. I love my husband so much, and I always look forward to the time we get to spend together on the weekends!!

So, to end this blog...if you know of anyone trying to get rid of a turtle shell, let us know!! :)

Pumpkins-October 2008

2008-10-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

This year for the fall festival at our church, Jonathan and I are going to have a football themed car for trunk or treating. Here are the pumpkins that I carved. We are hoping to out there in our Redskins gear....even Einstein! :) Should be a good time for all!

UVA/UNC Football Game-October 18

2008-10-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I had 4 tickets to the UVA/UNC football game this past weekend in Charlottesville. Jonathan and I go to several UVA games each year, and we have become big Cavalier fans! We decided to invite my parents along for this game as they are both UNC Tarheel fans. The bet was....loser pays for dinner!

We left around 10:00 that morning and got into Charlottesville around 1:00. We stopped at the University Grille (apparently the people in charlottesville don't like to eat at restaurants...this was the only place we could find after driving around for a good 20 minutes!) We had a crazy waitress who got half of the order wrong, but the food that we did get was pretty good!

We got to the stadium a good hour before the game started. We got to see it fill up! The game was pretty boring all up until the last 5 minutes of the fourth quarter. UNC was winning through the whole game and the cavaliers were just frustrating all of their fans! Well, something happened during the last 5 minutes of the game, and UVA scored a touchdown to tie the game 10-10. This means OT!! Jonathan was really excited because he has never seen an Overtime game in person. The stadium was going crazy!!!

UVA ended up scoring a touchdown in OT to win the game. Everybody rushed the field it was quite exciting! UVA's next home game is agains Miami on November 1 in Charlottesville. Jonathan and I will be there wearing our blue and orange with pride! :)

Fireproof

2008-10-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick blog to recommend a movie. Last night I went to see Fireproof with my mom, mother in law, and sister in law. The movie was incredible! I honestly went into it with low expectations since it is a low budget christian film....however at the end of it, I was most impressed! So, if you have not seen this movie, Go see it!! :)

Team Hoyt VB-St. Mary's 5K run

2008-10-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday morning, I ran in the St. mary's 5K run on Fort Story. I found out about this race after running the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, when I spoke with one of the other Team Hoyt runners. He told me that I should come out and push a disabled child during their next race (all of the pushers are local and push children from CHKD and St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children, so they can compete in the race). I had wanted to do this ever since I saw the Team Hoyt VB team at the CHKD run back in June (I think..??).
Anyway, after I got home that day, I contacted St. Mary's and that week I filled out all of the background check information that would allow me to push one of there precious children in this race.
As it got closer to race day, i had a lot of people ask me if I had ever ran with a jogging stroller before. I hadn't...I didn't think it was a big deal. However, everyone was telling me how much harder it is to run while pushing a child. I decided to practice with Addison, the little 20lb girl that I watch during the week. Well, pushing that extra 20 lbs was HARD!! I knew that the child I would be pushing in the race would be at least double her weight. I started getting a little nervous.
Race day came and when I got onto Fort Story, I was introduced to my child. Her name was Day Z (pronounced Daisy). She was very sweet and I talked to her for a bit before the race, but she didn't respond much. Well once we started the race and I began running, Day Z laughed the whole time!!! I felt so guilty for all of the times that I have looked at a mentally challenged or disabled child and thought that they had no clue what was going around them. This little girl laughing, inspired me the whole race! We finished about 30 minutes and it was awesome! It was such a wonderful experience and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to take part in this wonderful cause.
Unfortunately, this was Team Hoyt's last race until the spring. I can't wait to get more involved with this wonderful group in the spring and get to know more of the children at St. Mary's.
I have tried posting pictures, but for some reason, it has not let me upload photos. I will try again soon...so check back!!

Go Redskins!!

2008-09-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Jonathan was lucky enough to purchase one season ticket to the Redskins games this season. His buddy purchased the other ticket. He had a friend who has had season tickets to the skins for 37 years, however had a bad year financially, so instead of getting rid of his season tickets all together, he them just for this season. For whatever reason, Jonathan's buddy couldn't go to the home opener this past Sunday, so I was able to go!

I was so excited. It was my first NFL game and it was amazing!! The seats we had were 17 rows from the endzone and we were right behind the goal post. You couldn't have asked for better seats! And the game was fantastic! The Redskins came back in the last couple minutes to win the game. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to anymore games this season, but I have a feeling that I am a Redskins fan now :)

Bulldogs......x 4!!

2008-09-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

This past Friday and Saturday we offered to dogsit for our friends Morgan and Juan. They have two English Bulldogs named Tank and Gracie. Jonathan and I both love them (Chubbs and Einstein do too!!) so we were very excited to spend the two days with them. Here are some pictures from the weekend!!

This was the vision that I woke up to on Saturday morning when I went to wake the dogs up. Tank and Chubbs had both claimed a bed and seemed to be sleeping rather peacefully! :)

On Saturday morning jonathan and I decided to make the dogs scrambled eggs. The dogs sat in the kitchen and stared at me the whole time I was making them. Chubbs and Einstein had never had scrambled eggs before, however their buddy Tank gets them every saturday morning! Einstein loved them.....Chubbs, not so much! I don't think he ever swallowed one bite. All of the scrambled eggs were eating in a matter of seconds!

This picture is of Einstein after he devoured the eggs. You can see he still has a little piece above his right eye :)

Rock and Roll Half Marathon

2008-08-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

After 4 months of training, it is finally over! This morning was my second half marathon. I am pleased to announce that I finished almost 5 minutes under my first half marathon time and that I kept everything down after this race! yay!! I still felt terrible right after the race, but that feeling went away after about 10 minutes of sitting down. This race was not any easier than the last one and I still do not know how I am going to do a marathon. My marathon, which is 26.2 miles, is in March. I begin training for that next week. I have decided to take a week off. BTW, I was able to wear my Garmin watch for this race...at the conclusion of the race, I had burned 1400 calories. Not bad huh? :)
Running with Team Hoyt was AMAZING!! I enjoyed getting to meet Dick and Rick Hoyt and many of the team memebers. I very excited about running some local races here with Team Hoyt VB and pushing disabled children from St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children. I will keep you updated on the progress of that.
Thanks for much for those of you who were always asking how training was going, or those of you who supported financially by donating to the Hoyt Foundation!!

Rita's Fanatics!

2008-08-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I are frequent visitors of Rita's Italian Ice. It is a place that serves custard and shaved ice in several different flavors. It is so good!! We just discovered it last summer. We have been lucky enough to have a Ritas about 3 miles from our current house.
Well, as I was doing my run a couple Sundays ago, i noticed that they are building a brand new Ritas in the shopping center almost directly behind where our new house is going to be! It is within walking distance and I think I will conveniently end my runs at the Ritas! Ha :) We were very excited, and figured that his lot must be meant to be for us to live there!!
Before I finish this blog, a quick update on our house. The lot has been completely cleared. We received the final drawing of the house plans this week, however we decided to change a couple things in the kitchen this weekend, so she will have to send us a new final copy this week. The next step is getting the plans submitted to the city. Once they are approved from the city we can start construction! yay!!

Swimming Bulldogs......and a swimming Boxer!

2008-08-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

This is a video that I took of Einstein swimming for the first time with his life jacket on. He loves the water!! His Aunt Brittany worked with him. Towards the end of the night Einstein and Baxter (although mostly Baxter) were swimming to retreive sticks. They had a lot of fun!! All three dogs get along great, and going to Oak Grove Lake Park has become one of our favorite things to do!!

An Afternoon at the Lake

2008-08-10T18:16:00.001-07:00

My sister in law had mentioned in passing last weekend about how her dog, Baxter, loved swimming in the water at a local park. After she had talked about it, we made plans to meet up there Sunday to let the dogs all go for a swim together. We weren't sure if we were going to make it happen due to the weather, but everything cleared up around 4:00 so we gave it a shot. The dogs had so much fun!! Chubbs has never been fond of getting wet past his ankles, but today he surprised us all and took off swimming! This was the first time that Einstein has been swimming and I am sad to report that......he did not have the coordination yet to swim. He kept trying to find the bottom of the lake with his feet, so he was sinking fast!!

For those of you who don't know, english bulldogs are not known for their swimming abilities. Because they are so top heavy, many of them have a problem with swimming (they sink) and many of them die from drowning. About a year ago, I took Chubbs to his first Bulldog Play Group at the peta dog park in norfolk. There is some water there for dogs to jump into. I noticed that all of the bulldog owners started pulling out these orange life jackets to put on their dogs. At this point I had not known that bulldogs could not swim. Needless to say after seeing one bulldog at the play group fall in the water....and sink, Chubbs and I made a stop at petsmart to get a life jacket. I still remember Jonathan's reaction when I told him that I was a buying a life jacket for our bulldog!! Ha!

Anyway, next time we go to the lake, the lifejacket will come back out and Einstein will get a chance to try it out. Just for kicks and giggles, I posted a picture of the very first time we put the life jacket on Chubbs. He HATED it and he did not move for 15 minutes...he stood in the middle of our living room completely frozen.

P.S. Because it was still sprinkling I left my camera in the car so I have no pictures of them swimming. The pictures posted are the boys on the way home from swimming. Next time I will have to get pictures and a video!

Marriage

2008-08-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I asked a recently married woman, how she was enjoying married life. I was disappointed to hear the dullness in her voice as she said "it's okay...." I couldn't believe it.
I'm pretty sure when people ask me that question my face lights up. I cannot express to everyone enough how much I LOVE being married! I just wanted to take this time to express how much I love my husband and how much I love our life.
There was not a big adjustment period for us after marriage with the transition of moving in together. Everything has gone pretty smoothly. Even more recently with my change of my job/schedule I feel even better about our household as I am able to cook our own meals now and deep clean the house once a week on a regular basis. I have even gotten into clipping coupons every Sunday and we are saving a ton of money!!
I am lucky enough to have every Friday off from work. My fridays once a month are spent cooking about 20 meals. I freeze them for us to use for the whole month. It has made my life so much easier!
I am so thankful for my husband and I appreciate how hard he works to support and take care of me and our two bulldogs. I am thankful that we are in the position to have a brand new house in a couple of months. I am thankful for the similarities and the differences in Jonathan and my personalities as I think we compliment each other perfectly. I love my husband!! So next time you ask me how I am enjoying married life, be prepared to get a long happy answer along with a glowing smile! :)

Beach Appreciation

2008-08-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

I was reminded this weekend just how lucky we are to leave so close to a beach! This morning I woke up at 5am to do my run (12 miles....which ended up being only 10 due to some blistering and shorts that I found out were too big!)
I was able to see the sunrise and several dolphins in the water. It was so beautiful!! I was so focused on the water during my whole run. I even saw a dolphin jump out of the water. I have never seen one do that in the wild. It was amazing!
I really enjoyed doing my long run on sunday mornings. Hopefully I can stick to that schedule for the next marathon. I was able to get the run out of the way first thing in the morning, still make it to church, and have the rest of the day to relax.
Back to the shorts issue....I bought some shorts on clearance at Tj Maxx. They were Nike shorts for only $10. I made the mistake of wearing them for the first time during a long run. Big mistake. A mile into my run they were sliding down my waist. I had to run the next 4 miles holding them up until I could get back to my car to get my hydration belt to help hold them up. I am also in the process of breaking in some new shoes, and my feet were blistering terribly this morning. It was a rough run, but I am able to do 10+ miles now with ease. I'm really looking forward to this race and finding out how much easier and enjoyable a race can be when you train properly :)

Sunset Cruisin'

2008-08-03T08:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, Jonathan's parents invited us to go sailing for a sunset cruise. It was so nice!! We got to the marina about 7:00, ate Chick-Fil-A on the boat and then started sailing. The sunset was beautiful and the temperature was perfect! I was hoping to see some dolphins, but no such luck. Maybe next time! We sailed for a couple hours until we started to notice some lightning and decided that we should prepare for a storm and head back to the marina. We never received any rain....oh well! It was fun, and we cannot wait to do another sunset cruise. Next time hopefully the dolphins will show up! :)

This was the boat as it was leaning significantly...I must admit I was a little nervous and thought we were all going to get wet!
Brittany (my sister and law) and me
Beautiful Sunset!
Jonathan and me, afterwards

Rough Night for Chubbs

2008-07-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

This morning, like always, I went to let the dogs outside. For those of you who don't know about our bulldogs, they are so spoiled!! We build an additional sunroom onto our house for them to sleep in. Chubbs is our "good" bulldog, so he gets the luxury of sleeping on an old couch in the sunroom. Einstein is our challenge and he cannot be trusted, so he sleeps inside a large crate. As I entered the sunroom, I found Chubbs like this....Looks like he had a rough night! We keep that sheet on the couch for him to lay on. Somehow Chubbs and the sheet fell off the couch in the middle of the night. :)

Cheesecake!

2008-07-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

So, thanks for Katy, we found out that today (July 30th) The Cheesecake Factory was having a celebration and having all of their cheesecake slices selling for $1.50 today. Jonathan and I decided to give it a shot tonight. Somehow whenever we go to the Cheesecake Factory, we manage to walk right up to a vacant table in the bar area. That happened again to us tonight. The line was well out the door, we walked in and sat down right away. We decided that we would just eat dinner there as well. Jonathan had a chicken sandwich and I had a salad. The salad was $13, which I thought was ridiculous. Anyway, everybody was getting cheesecake. Jonathan had strawberry and I had Godiva chocolate. The cheesecake was fabulous!! We ended up having a $50 dinner, but we saved $8 on cheesecake Ha! :) Oh well, it was a fun experience!!

Clearfield Avenue

2008-07-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Many of you already know, but we are excited to announce that we will start building our new house very soon! We have purchased a lot on Clearfield Avenue and Jonathan (Wetherington Homes) will be building our home. We are both very excited, and cannot wait for the process to begin. Right now some of the trees have been cleared off the lot. We are waiting on our house plans to get finished being designed and then Jonathan will have to submit them to the city. We are probably about a month away from the building process. Here are some pictures of our lot....

Sick Bulldogs

2008-07-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

We had quite an interesting week last week with our two bulldogs. It all started two sundays ago. Jonathan was outside playing ball with Chubbs and I was attempting to go on a run with Einstein (a failed attempt). When I got back to the house, we went ouside to join chubbs and jonathan. As Jonathan threw the ball for the last time, Chubbs went sliding to catch it and did something to his back leg. He came back limping terribly.

We decided to wait and see how it was in the morning before we took him to the vet. The next morning he was still limping, so Jonathan took him into the vet. They said that he had torn a ligament and it could be repaired with a $3,000 surgery! Needless to say, Jonathan was not game for that. He brought Chubbs home and we just waited it out. By the end of the night, he was no longer limping! It was a miracle........or it could've been the delicious pup cakes brought to him by his aunt laura or the fact that Einstein was spending the night at his friend, Tank's house).

We thought we were done with injuries for the week until Friday I noticed something shiny on Einstein's side. When I got closer, I realized that it was exposed flesh and somehow he had gotten poked by something outside. We took him into the vet that afternoon and he was given 4 staples. He had to keep them in for a week. We just got them removed yesterday.

Both bulldogs are doing fine now, and hopefully we are done with the vet for a while now.......

Blogging!

2007-07-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hey guys-everybody else has started a blog page, so I figured we would to. Hopefully this will keep you all updated on our lives! I will try to update it regularly.....here we go! :)