Bachelorette weekend

Greg and friends, Ryan and Chris, have left the warm Texas weather and headed to brave the chilly temperatures in Keystone, Colorado. Today's forecast...snow with a high of 10 degrees! Yikes! It took a little longer to get there then they expected given that their GPS left out a crucial connection between two highways. They were expecting to get in around 4 or 5 this morning. Fortunately, Keystone has night skiing, so they can still get in plenty of snowboarding when they wake up today!

As for myself, I've got a nice relaxing weekend planned. I'm going to hopefully finish Christmas shopping and get the house cleaned before we head to St. Louis next week.

Greg brought the digital camera and his new video camera to Keystone, so hopefully there will be awesome pictures and videos when they return. Really, I'm just praying that no one gets hurt and that Greg gets back in time to leave for St. Louis on Wednesday! I know they'll have a great time and it's going to warm them up for another snowboarding trip in March. Hopefully I'll actually get to go to that one!

We're PREGNANT!!!!!

Or as Greg likes to say, "Lisa's pregnant, I'm just eating for two!" Here are our first pictures. We're so excited! Our first sonogram was at 6 weeks (I thought I was 8...oops! Long cycle!) and we were not really able to see very much. Just a yolk sack or something. We went for our second sonogram today. I'm about 9 weeks along and the baby is looking good. The heart rate was 172 bpm and he/she/it is measuring at a whopping 2.64 cm! Today we were actually able to see the baby moving their hand. I can't wait until I can actually feel all that moving! And it was much easier than I thought to figure out what things were on the sonogram. Very fun!

So far I've been feeling pretty good. Initially I was just getting a little nauseous at 11p.m., so I just went to bed and woke up feeling much better! More recently I've been having a little "morning sickness", but I just eat a little breakfast and I'm good for a few hours! Mostly my "sickness" is just annoying, so I'm very blessed with that. Lately I've been super hungry and have the strongest cravings! About 3 hours after I eat, I'm ready for a snack! And until a couple days ago all I wanted to eat was fast food and anything salty. Now I can actually stand the thought of vegetables and fruit. But I'd take something salty over anything else right now.

Other fun pregnancy things that I've noticed...My sense of smell is out of control! I was at Mass the other day and I could not figure out what I was smelling. Then I realized that I could smell the wine that was sitting about 20' away! I thought I was going to have to move. And at work the baby's bands reek! One of the good things that I've found about my new heightened sense is that if I'm feeling nauseous, I can just smell the Black Jasmine Vanilla candle from Bath and Body Works and I'm instantly better! Another thing I've realized is that my emotions are a little on edge lately. I think I've been pretty good so far (no tantrums or crying fits yet!) But at Mass the other day (I wonder why am I figuring all these things out at Mass?) there was a little girl playing the violin with the band and I nearly lost it! I don't even know why! And then they had three kids dressed up as the three Wise Men this Sunday and I about lost it again! I'm worried about having more of these hormones flowing later in pregnancy! The only other thing that's been heightened is my gag reflex. When I brush the back of my tongue I swear I could throw up if I brush too long! That's nasty, I know. But just another thing I've noticed!

Weddings and early morning shopping

This past Friday my best friend from high school got married! I was honored to be a part of their big day and the wedding was wonderful! Katie is so creative and you saw that in every aspect of their special day. The church was beautiful. I thought this picture that Greg took was neat.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous bride and groom.

Me and two of the other bridesmaids, Julie and Kayte, talking with Kelly after the wedding. Kelly just had her baby, Mason, 2 weeks ago! He was so sweet! They are all good friends from high school. I love that even though we all live in different cities now, we have a great time together on those special occasions we do get to hand out! I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

Greg and I at the reception and Mike, who was Greg's table mate and took our picture so we didn't have another arms length picture of the two of us!

The rest of the weekend was great. We did lots of shopping...well, mostly browsing because there wasn't any room in our suitcases to bring things home. I did get up at 4:45 Friday morning to go online to buy something for my sister who was outside waiting in long lines at the stores. Unfortunately the website crashed and when it came back up at 6am the item was sold out online. I felt bad that I wasn't able to get what she wanted, so I got in the car and drove to the store at 6:30! They were so busy! I had to park at the back of the lot and when I got in the store things were madness! There were people waiting in lines that started at the registers and wove through aisles to the back of the store! Needless to say, they were sold out at the store too. So I hopped in the car and went home, just to get dressed so I could go help set up for Katie and Erik's reception!

On Saturday night we got a little bit of snow in St. Louis! It melted by the afternoon, but it was pretty while it lasted!

And on top of all the celebrating, visiting with friends and family and shopping, Greg was able to get all of his hours billed! Woohoo! He has been working so hard and I'm so proud of him! And he came home and ate lunch with me today! What more could I ask for?!