Is this for REAL?!?

Affirmative! My eggo is indeed prego. If you're not shocked well then that makes one of us. ;) Not to say it wasn't in the cards at all, but we were stunned nonetheless. I take it everyone is eager for some details, so here they are, maybe a few more than you bargained for.

So as it turns out, I walked across the stage at graduation 4 1/2 weeks pregnant!!! Fun huh? Only we had absolutely no idea. Then we went to Mexico ... still not a clue. We came back and I started my bar review class and still didn't get it, though I was feeling insanely tired. Then one day I just started to wonder (I attribute it to hanging out w/ Lori and and lots of pregnancy talk). On Saturday Joe and I ran errands and I mentioned that I wanted to pick up a pregnancy test but then we forgot about it. So that evening at 9:30 I told Joe "I think there's like a 1% chance I could be pregnant, but I just need to know NOW." He thought I was crazy, but went along with it anyway.

So we picked up a test, came home, got it "seasoned," and instead of waiting for 3 minutes or whatever like it says to do of course we just stared at the thing. One dark line appeared pretty quickly and I was like "nope, Joe, not pregnant." As expected. But then a moment later this other faintish line appeared. And I was like "uh, Joe? What is this? What does this mean??" We scoured the directions and although it said that one line could be faint the picture had it as the opposite one. The only words I could get out were "Joe, I don't get this. Joe, I'm so confused!" (over, and over, and over). There was definitely excitement deep down but it just hadn't made it to the surface yet ... I think at that point I was giving myself a 50% chance of actually being pregnant (up from 1% just a few moments earlier). So our next step was to get in the car and go out for more tests. It was like we were on a fun little mission. We tried Walmart and Target (hoping to find a test that was less than the $12 one at RiteAid) but both were closed (10?? Seriously?) so we ended up at Shoppers where we had to ask this old man to help us get at the tests behind a locked counter. (Shoppers is the place though, folks, only $5 for a two pack!)

Finally back at home, I took the second test. Same deal ... two lines, one dark, one faint, but this time the directions made it clear that the instantaneous dark line meant 'you are pregnant' while the second lighter one meant that the test had worked. Oooooohhhh. My certainty was now somewhere in the 90%'s, and the news finally started to sink in. We screamed, we laughed, we hugged, we didn't really know what to think, but luckily we thought to preserve the moment for posterity:
To celebrate, Joe decided to pour us some bubbly (courtesy of Ryan & Jerianne, left over from graduation) so we could make a toast. Look at that smile!!

We were so giddy and everything was crazy ... I can barely remember it now!

Probably asking ourselves: "Is this for real?!?" But as you can see we are extremely excited. :)

So by then it was after 11 and after getting online to register for updates from some pregancy sites and calculate my due date (ahhh!) we went to bed. Immediately the next morning I took test #3 (just to remind myself that this was really happening). Unfortunately, though, the next few days turned out to be especially crazy and confusing. Less than 9 hours after finding out we were pregnant I thought I was having a miscarriage (pregnancy percentage certainty: all the way down to 20%). I waited until Monday to call my doctor and she sent me in for some blood work and an early ultrasound to see what was going on. And luckily ... everything seemed to be ok!! I had to take some extra precautions (like going on rest for 4th of July weekend) but baby's heart kept beating away. At my last doctor's appointment (8 days ago) I was 12.5 weeks pregnant and my doctor said we should be good to go! Hooray!!!!

So, to sum it all up I am now about 13.5 weeks pregnant and my due date is January 18th. It still is absolutely crazy to me that all this pregnancy talk is about me (me!) instead of someone else. But I love it. We are so happy and we already love our little baby soo much!! And, for any lingering doubters out there, I've got a belly going on to prove it! (This was taken at 12.5 weeks). Crazy, eh??

Thank you everyone for being so excited for us!! We couldn't be happier. I am going to once again sign off for a bit while I cram for my bar exam which is less than 1.5 weeks away (if I fail, I am blaming it on the pregnancy, and unless you've taken a bar exam before you don't get to say there's no way I could fail. There definitely is a way but we'll hope I just don't find it.) Maybe Joe will volunteer to post until then because we got lots more stuff to share (actually not all that much ... all I do is sit around studying, sleeping, eating, and being pregnant, and Joe just goes to work everyday). But it is pretty fantastic nonetheless. We'll keep you posted!!

This ain't no etch-a-sketch!

They say the best way to keep a guy out of trouble is to keep him busy. Obviously with the time I had between school winding down and waiting for the new job to start, I got in a little trouble and this was the result.

That's pretty much how it went down, except the reaction was completely opposite.

Innocent No More.

Four Years!


Today's our anniversary! Lindsey and I were married June 18th, 2005 in the Salt Lake Temple. It's hard to believe that four years have gone by and as I went back through pictures of that day we looked so young and innocent, and that was just 4 years ago! At least we haven't aged as much as others in the pictures and maybe now that we're done with school we can grasp that fountain of youth for a little while longer. I still remember how beautiful Lindsey looked on our wedding day. She's still just a little Angel.

She still knows how to look at me to turn my heart to puddy. She's just kind enough not to take advantage of it.

Most people can't believe I found myself a wife this cute. Neither can I.
Lindsey has helped me stop and realize the beautiful things around me in life and she's done it so patiently.
It's funny how she thinks she's my same height. Pshh, and she's in heals.
We've stood by each other, leaned on each other,and pushed each other to get through school and we'll keep doing it as we start writing the next chapter.
Luckily I learned early on to keep my ideas about the reception to myself...except for fighting for cream puffs.


This chocolate fountain was at our reception and I put it here just to make Lindsey hungry. She'd take the fruit over the chocolate any day though. I like that she's health conscious. We work well together.

For our honeymoon we stayed one night at the Blue Boar Inn in Midway, UT.
And we probably haven't had a breakfast that compares to this one.
Then we headed to Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
I convinced Lindsey to do a get-away in a condo outside Durango instead of a tropical vacation where we'd probably end up sick and sunburned. It was perfect. We had an amazing condo all to ourselves and Lindsey was a good sport to follow me on all the outdoor adventures. The mountain biking ended in tears.
But I heroically redeemed myself by grabbing Lindsey out of the air and back into the raft as she catipulted towards the 32 degree water. Look at us fearlessly charging ahead.
Man I love this girl!

CANCUN BABY!!!

Finally, Cancun pictures!! I don't even have any idea how many weeks it's been since we got back. I think just a little over 2. Are you kidding me?? Oh my that is just insane. How quickly life gets crazy again!! Anyway we will put all that aside for a few moments and go back to a place where the air is warm, ocean is gorgeous blue, sand is white, and stress is completely non-existent. Heaven? I think yes.

Starting at the beginning ... we left the house at 3:3o on Tuesday morning in order to park, take the shuttle, and make our 6:00 flight. Since we went to bed at like 1 it was a little rough but of course we got to sleep on the plane. And when I looked out my window and saw this view I certainly wasn't tired anymore ... just SOOOOO excited!!!
Side note: the plane was pretty empty as was the airport ... evidently everyone was scared away by the swine flu. Some airport heath people checked our temperature, let us into the country, and we were at our hotel in no time at all!

Speaking of our hotel, here it is! Although the swine flu has been bad, bad news for Mexicans in the tourism industry, it was pretty great news for us. We got to stay in a sweet hotel with an amazing beach - and NO CROWDS. Awesome.
We got to our room and were excited to see we had a tiny balcony with a gorgeous ocean view, shown here:

And as quickly as we could throw on our swim suits and sunscreen we were at the beach! For the next 5 days, we spent most of our time on our lounge chairs staring at this:

And after going for a few walks along the beach and taking a dip in the bathwater-temperature water, we would walk about 10 yards and refresh ourselves in some fresh water:
Not bad. Not bad at all. As we were relaxing the first day I found myself wondering if this was going to get old. How do you just spend all day so relaxed? What does your mind do when it has nothing to do? The concept was completely foreign. But ... I quickly learned not only is it completely easy, it is 100 perfect divine. It is no secret that it has been a hectic and challenging 4 years for Joe and me and I don't think my mind has ever been so completely relaxed. I slept like a baby which basically hasn't happened since, well, probably when I was a baby. ;)

Taking a swim:

One of our many, many walks along the beach. :) Ahhh .. so gorgeous.

Okay, funny story. So our second day (first full day) there we were taking a walk along the beach and I decided to stand on a rock where the waves were shallow for a picture. As Joe was getting out the camera an ENORMOUS wave came out of nowhere and knocked my feet out from under me ... landing me in some twisted position where I managed to seriously bruise my tailbone, outer thigh, elbow, and knee (w/ some minor scrapes as well). When Joe turned around I was on my hands and knees trying to scramble to shore before another wave came and finished me off and saying "Joe I'm dying, I'm dying Joe." Needless to say I learned my lesson: don't mess with the ocean because if you do it's going to take you, beat you up, and then spit you back out if you're lucky. Of course I have pictures of my bruises but I they are a little bit disgusting for the blog. No lasting damage though.

One of my favorite things to do on our walks was to look for shells. Basically I'm obsessed with seashells! I love them. I brought a plastic bag along each day so I could hold them all. I found lots of pretty ones. :)

Here's me and my beach chair. I am proud to say I was pretty smart this time around and spent a good amount of time in the shade, and the rest of the time slathering on sunscreen. The result? I came home with a mild, healthy glow instead of the painful, ugly, peeling, tomato red sunburn I usually manage to give myself. Hey maybe my J.D. really did make me smarter.

Enjoying a virgin pina colada on the beach was one of my priorities. That and reading my book.

Joe at the pool:

Joe making friends with a lizard one day at lunch:

Um I don't think all these pictures need explanations. We're just happy. We look like newlyweds (and were asked about it a couple of times) only we've been married 4 years.

Food tended to be a little expensive (with limited options) at the resort so most nights we would take a cheap bus ride a couple of stops down the road where there were lots and lots of great restaurants to choose from. One night we decided to order in (Papa Johns pizza) and have a private dinner on the beach at sunset. Pretty awesome.

Another night we had a shrimp feast. All the restaurants were right on the water - beautiful!

We decided to do one "adventure day" and leave our beach chairs to do some snorkeling and other activites. All I really wanted to do was snorkel, but after considering our options the package we ended up with included a boat ride to Isla de la Mujeres, some snorkeling, a lunch buffet, hanging out on the beach at the island, kayaking in the ocean, another boat ride to the downtown area of the island, and then of course the trip home. What we didn't realize was that there was going to be a little less snorkeling than promised and a LOT more "entertainment." Our captain and other guides on the boat basically thought they were a riot and blared music the whole time while dancing for us and trying to pour tequila down our throats. BUT ... it turned out to be a really fun day. I successfully warded off all tequila shots and we got to see some cool fish, kayak, shop, relax, and have all the water and soda we wanted all day long (since it costs like $4 a bottle at the hotel). We enjoyed our adventure and then enjoyed getting back to our routine of ... doing nothing.

I could have stayed at least another week. It was just too much fun. There was even a sweet gym for Joe to use in the early morning before we headed to the beach (while I slept) and a ping pong table we liked to use for a few minutes after dinner. We settled on our favorite meals on the poolside restaurant lunch menu (beef fajitas and chicken panini) and were just so content. The hotel traffic picked up a little the last couple of days with some destination weddings, but it definitely wasn't busy. However, we were lucky enough to come across some scary lady who started talking to us a couple of times for no apparent reason and in the elevator told us in a masculine, heavily-hickish voice: "it's my 4oth birthday and I DO want to go get DRUNK as a SKUNK." I doubt she had any trouble there.

Of course the week came to an end waaay too fast. On the last night we went in search of a special dinner and ended up taking a beautiful walk in this sunset:

We finally found the perfect place to eat and I had delicious sea bass and Joe had the thickest steak I've ever seen. Also we watched for dolphins which are frequently spotted near the place we were eating and I caught a glimpse of one.

On Sunday morning we got up extra early so we could enjoy the beach one last time before we had to check out and catch our flight home. Although we're sad it's over, we are soooo happy we had such a fantastic vacation to celebrate our dual-graduations. I suppose it's always good to be home safe and sound - and no swine flu. ;)

Last of the graduation week festivities

I know I've already said a LOT about graduation but I have just a few more random pictures from our big week that I wanted to post. First off, Joe and I just LOVED having both sets of our parents in town! Having us all together plus Nate & Lori (and even Ben & Caitlin when they were free!) just made the week such a party and so much fun. My mom arrived first and we spent a day in Georgetown together and then Joe's parents flew in followed by my Dad. We had family dinners, went out to eat, spent some time at the mall, went on a couple of walks, and mostly just hung out. But with all the graduation stuff going on we were fairly busy and it all just went by way too fast.

As a side note, I just have to provide a little explanation about my cookie. In case you haven't heard of Great American Cookies it is located in the Columbia mall and they do those big cookie things with frosting. Since we've lived here I've never gotten one but I grew up with one in my Dubuque, Iowa mall and am somewhat obsessed. For the past 4 years I have kept trying to come up with a sufficient reason to get one, since they aren't exactly cheap. But every time a birthday or something would roll around I would change my mind and decide no, I am trying to eat healthy right now and the last thing I need to do is eat an entire huge cookie (since let's face it, that's probably what was going to happen).

Well this time I decided that graduation was THE occasion and I was ready for my cookie, no matter what. We had to make a special detour on the way home from graduation in Baltimore to get it, but here it is:
Looking pretty excited, huh? I was just hoping the cookie would actually live up to my highly-set expectations since I had been having trouble with that lately (see last two posts). :) Here's a picture so you can see what it said.

And the verdict?? Yes, it was delicious. I think I probably ate like a third of it myself. Based on how rough my first week of bar study has been (very mild compare to how it will get) I'm thinking that taking the bar at the end of July will be sufficient cause for another cookie. What do you think??

Another big part of graduation day was our amazing graduation dinner. I chose to eat at the Grille at Harryman House ... this was another part of the day that I had "high expectations" for and fortunately it did not disappoint one bit. We all had delicious meals and appetizers and the meal was very special and unique, which was what I was hoping for. Thank you to our parents who were kind enough to treat us to all these fun occasions as a celebration of us entering the "real world." Hopefully someday we can return a few of the favors. :)

The group outside the restaurant:

That night we hung out, played games, ate my cookie (w/ ice cream for those who wanted it) and I gave Joe his "graduation present." I just wanted Dr. D to be able to see his official new name in print whenever he felt like it so I thought this nameplate would be appropriate:

The next day we had a blast taking our family to hunt valley to the Amish market (love that place) for breakfast/lunch/way more food that you would ever need to eat!! So delicious though.

After lunch we stopped at the NCR trial for a walk. It was a perfect day.

We also stopped at Wegman's ... also a bit of a novelty ... and got food for Sunday dinner and just enjoyed the gorgeous drive. The next day was Sunday and my Dad had to fly out right after church while the other 3 flew out early the next morning. Joe and I, however, spent the day getting ready for our very highly anticipated Mexico vacation!!