It's a . . .

Girl! And it's healthy.

Ultrasound

So in about 45 minutes we have an ultrasound. Firstly, I hope the baby is healthy. It scares me to think anything is wrong. We didn't do ANY kind of testing this pregnancy so who knows what we'll see. Hopefully it's not the baby from the 80's TV miniseries "V". Member that? I haven't been copulating with aliens anyway so really that's not a worry!

Maybe we'll also find out the gender. Gracie, my precious sweet, wouldn't show us her bits and pieces so we never found out with her even though we tried. She was grounded before she even came out!!!

So we'll see you all in a couple hours. . . Healthy baby. That's what I really want.

Oh and how cool is this? My mother in law is coming with me!! I'm thrilled that she wants to!!

Will he or Won't He?

So more names to toss around if it's a boy. ..

Will

Will Stephen Gerten

Methinks I like it but there is one little thing. . . .

Will and Grace???? I did not like that show very much. I don't want people to assume that we named our kids off of Will and Grace from Thursday night TV.

Maybe we are far enough away that people won't think that? Maybe it's just me????

Thank heavens they are out of order (girl first). At least that might throw people off.

So what's your thoughts?

Horrible Person!

So I totally forgot Susan's birthday yesterday. And the worst part? I was on the phone with her in the morning discussing the gender of her baby. OHMIGOSH! I am so sorry, Susan. I promise to remember it next year and not just talk about me on your birthday but actually wish you a Happy Birthday. Excuse me while I go and beat my head against the wall.

Ahhh. .. Nature

Ok so I don't like nature. It's usually hot and gross and there are lots of bugs. Every now and then I'll do something crazy like water my flowers but that's the extent of my nature loving. It's pretty to look at though and I will do crazy things like sleep in a tent to get my fill (4th of July - fun, but the tent was outside!).

Before my mom died (man that still sucks) she started a family tradition of renting a cabin for a week and being one with nature. My family always asks me every year what I will complain about. The first year it was the heat. That was the year that it was 95+ degrees and humid. The cabin we rented didn't have ac and we (ok mostly me) complained the whole time. Seriously my sil was pregnant at the time and she was miserable too. Somehow that justified my being hot and I could complain more. Gracie was 15 months and she was so hot that she couldn't fall asleep at night. We drove her around in the ac car almost every night so that she would fall asleep.

The second year we stayed at a different resort because there was a unanimous vote that we needed ac. My parents could have cared less but we six kids were like "I want my ac!!".

The place we stayed at had ac but the lake was across a busy road. This was my shining moment to complain. Everyone knew how I felt about the busy road. Plus we had to pay for firewood. And there was this icky guy next door that scared me. He was really pissed one night because we took his parking spot (unbeknownst to us). He ended up having a large hissy fit peppered with expletives. There were no assigned spots but I guess he was a regular there.

Last year we went back to the original place because they had put in ac. Also that was the first place we stayed when my mom started this tradition so we wanted to honor her memory. The ac was great! But the futons we slept on were horrible. I really didn't have to complain about that but the fam was expecting something from me!

This year we are going back to the same resort but our family has grown so much that we got a bigger cabin. It has a washer/dryer, dishwasher and 5 bedrooms. It sounds like heaven! I announced to my family a few weeks ago that I wasn't going to complain this year. This is my new year to turn over a new leaf.


We leave tomorrow and will be gone for 7 fun-filled nature days. I can't wait to wash and dry my clothes - in nature!!!!!

Duluth: The Recap

First and foremost I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for all my errors and grammatically incorrect writing. I am not much of an editor and I've been posting mainly on my laptop. This has caused me some grammar problems because the flaming keyboard has tiny keys. I swear it's made for midgets. Can they put the caps key any closer to the "a"? Plus editing is just another step that I hate taking. It's about content!!!

So anyway as a teacher I feel I must clear this up because I am such a stickler for good grammar and proper editing.

Now Duluth:

It was pretty cool. It was pretty too! The view from the picture below is the view we had from our hotel. If we were staying on the lakeshore side!

There was a skyway that connected us right to the waterfront which was really convenient and we walked everywhere.

For dinner Friday night we were looking for a unique place that we had never been. Somewhere we could "discover". Where did we end up you ask???? The Red Lobster. We had walked so much at that point and we were starving that we stuck with what we know! While we were waiting to eat we sat in the bar and a man came in and announced to the bar, "here I am." I announced back, "there you are". Everyone giggled and he called me his girlfriend. Thankfully the pager rang and we were seated.


Saturday we went out to Gooseberry Falls (about a half hour north of Duluth - I felt like I could spit and my saliva would land in Canada). It was nice but I've been to Minnehaha Falls many many times and felt I had seen that before! Crazy thing though, I ran into a coworker at Gooseberry Falls. What a small world!!

Saturday afternoon I encouraged le hubby to go swimming. He isn't much of a swimmer. I love to go swimming! There is nothing like floating in a chlorine-smelling pool and chillaxing. Dan doesn't like it so much. He sat in the hot tub for awhile and I put my feet in it after I swam. I didn't want to boil the baby!! Seriously we were in the pool for a total of 20 minutes.

Then we went to dinner at Pizza Luce. It was pretty yummy but loud. I am going deaf anyway so when there's a din of noise I have no idea what my partner in conversation is saying to me! But it was a cute place and you got to watch the pizza flippers flipping and turning the dough.

On the elevator on the way up to the hotel an old man got in the very crowded elevator and started teasing me. He said, "hey, I rode the elevator up with you last night." I said, "I'm sorry it wasn't as memorable for me as it was for you." No innuendo whatsover. Then he said, "yeah, you threw up on me." My mouth hung open, "No I did not!!". More giggles from the crowd.

We left early Sunday morning to get home. I'm glad we went. It was fun but I missed Grace so much!! I kept thinking she would love to have done some of the things we did. But it was really nice to have all that time with Dan. We talked a lot about names and we still haven't agreed on a boy name but have a potential girl name although I'm not 100% on it yet. We are thinking (but really I'm not sure) Margaret Audrey. But I would insist that she be called Maggie. Margaret is just so Judy Blume. As in "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret". That book had such an impact on my puberty years that I don't know if I would be able to disassociate it.
Dan's grandma's name is Margaret (she's really cool) and my extremely kind, loving, generous aunt's name is Margaret. But it's just so ... . Margaret. Does Maggie derive from anything else?

So that's the trip in a nut shell. I would have pictures but my camera batteries were dead when I pulled it out Friday night!