Where has the time gone? Our new baby is already almost 16 weeks along! If I’d written a couple weeks ago, I would’ve told you that I’m barely showing, but after complaining of uncomfortable clothes, I broke down and spent an afternoon at the mall buying a few maternity clothes. With one look in the mirror, there was no question I am showing! It’s a nice change to go from looking & feeling a bit pudgy to looking & feeling pregnant. As one of the sales girls sweetly told me, "Everyone’s cuter when they’re pregnant." When I was pregnant with Olivia, my friend Amy Hardin most generously loaned me all of her maternity clothes and I only had to buy a few pieces here and there, so when it came time to make the big switch to all maternity clothes this time around, I was a little short handed. Amy is expecting her third boy in April, so her clothes are in use by their rightful owner. At the mall I picked up a couple pairs of jeans and some t-shirts and a simple black dress. I have to admit that I do feel cuter in my maternity clothes and it’s nice to go back to elastic waistband pants! The second trimester is starting off great. I feel good and though I am starting to notice a difference when picking up Olivia or reaching into the sink, my tummy isn’t really big enough to cause much difficulty yet. I’m looking forward to enjoying the next three months.  

So it’s already less than six months until this little one is expected and we haven’t really made many practical decisions. I suppose we’re waiting for the ultrasound that will most likely tell us if Olivia is getting a baby brother or sister. There’s also the experience of having one child already and knowing that not everything needs to be set up the minute this one comes home from the hospital. But at some point, we’ll tackle the decision of making Livy and the baby roommates or collapsing our office and having two children’s bedrooms. We’ll also have to begin that difficult search for the perfect name and take stock of the baby items and make sure everything is ready by August. I have a few non-baby-related tasks that I’d like to tackle before D-day (Delivery day) and I decided this weekend that if they’re really going to get done, I better come up with some sort of schedule or the next trimester will pass as quickly a the first one did without anything getting accomplished. I also have an ever-growing "Honey-do" list and thankfully, I have an excpetionally handy husband to give it to! The nice thing is that for me this trimester is one where I will likely feel pretty good and be able to enjoy the expectation without having to be stressed about planning and preparations.

"Well, it sounded like a good idea…" I’ve signed up for a fitness boot camp through the fitness center at work that is run by a former marine. It’s MWF from 6-7 AM. Jenny said she’d never choose to get up that early for any reason, let alone for a workout, so she is looking at signing up for a boot camp being offered at the YMCA which is from 6-7 PM, but it’s just on Mondays and only for a month (wimp!). The evening schedule means I can be home to watch Olivia (and she doesn’t have to get up any earlier).

My boot camp started this past week. I’m a little sore but it’s been good so far. It’s a military style boot camp and we stand at attention, do marine style exercises, and are teamed up in squads. (I’m the Squad 1 leader.) I was a little worried that the military aspect would be too over-the-top, but its not. Our "drill seargent" mainly focuses on getting in as much punishment as possible. On Friday, we ran carrying backpacks filled with weights, and my calves are still a little stiff from that combined with running the parking garage stairs.

A quick update on Nathan – he is now in Iraq and working hard to learn all he can so that he can keep everyone safe (he’s the Intelligence Officer for his Batallion). He said that the NU v. USC game is being played on Armed Forces Network this weekend, so he’ll get to see how that one goes – should be interesting. And while you’re thinking about Nathan and the troops, here are two ways to show your support:

1. The USPS has a program for military family members and friends to supply them with packaging materials to send packages to troops overseas. To obtain a free kit of shipping supplies, simply call the USPS’ packing supplies order line at 1-800-610-8734, select option #1 ("Express Mail, Priority Mail or Global Express Guaranteed products"), and ask a customer service agent for CAREKIT04 (or a "military kit"). You need supply only your name, address, and phone number, and they’ll get a kit off to you that should arrive within 7-10 days. They will also give you an I.D. number so if your supply runs low, you just call them up and they’ll send you more supplies. (This offer includes only packing materials — senders who use these materials still have to pay the requisite postage themselves.)

2. Xerox has a website that allows you to quickly (we’re talking 60 seconds tops) create a postcard for a serviceman or woman overseas. You can’t pick who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services and may brighten someone’s day.

Thanks, Mom, for passing on these ideas!

May God bless the troops & bring Nathan and all military men and women home safely. And let there be peace on Earth!

Hey Aquinas class of ’96! It’s been 10 years. Yes, really. By now you all should have gotten your invitations to our class get together, but just in case I’ve posted it here. So are you coming? Feel free to leave a comment below to let the rest of us know if you are coming or not. Also forward this site to the rest of the class so that everyone who wants to post a message can.

Oh, and that way everyone gets to see pictures of my beautiful daughter Olivia. Shameless I know, but it is my website.

Well, my weekend was quite an adventure. On Sat. I spent the day at Bristol Mountain and went snowboarding. The "snow" was more like ice from the size of sugar to gravel, with solid ice underneath. It was a fun day and I managed to survive a full 8 hours on the slopes, and came away with the bruises to prove but for only having snowboarded once before it went really well.

There were guys dressed in full fire-fighting gear on the slopes practicing for a "Fireman’s Slalom" race to raise money for a local burn center. The race is where 4 firemen in full gear man 25 foot fire hose while going through a slalom course. It didn’t look very easy, especially for last guy on the hose. But they were having a benefit lunch too so I grabbed a hotdog and soda from them.

On Sunday there were more "Falls" but not on the slopes. One day of snowboarding on the ice was enough, so after finding a local Catholic church for mass, I headed over to Niagara Falls. I spent a couple of hours walking around Niagara Falls State Park. It was neat to be there in the winter time and it had snowed that morning which made it scenic. I heard that the Canadian side is even more scenic but I left that for another trip.

I should also give some credit to my amazing travel agent, Jenny. She hooked me up with an internet special on a rental car for $15 a day! (I paid about $8 in tolls on Sunday.) But to top off the deal on the rental car, they were out of the economy cars so I got a free upgrade to a Pontiac G6, which made the drive over to Niagara falls much nicer.

But I made it back to Rochester and my return flights were uneventful. It’s nice to be home!

Here’s an update from Rochester, New York. Yup, I’m out of the office this week and I’m presenting at some LabVIEW Developer Days in Pittsburgh, PA and Rochester, NY. Everything has been going well so far and it has been fun. The most excitement was the second leg of my flight from Cleveland, OH to Pittsburgh. I had seat 8F, which you might have guessed it was a window seat but probably wouldn’t have guessed that it was also an isle seat in the last row. Yep, that’s right. It was a twin propeller plane with 8 rows with one seat on each side. (I’m not sure why the seats were "A" and "F".) But we were sitting in the airport and they announced that there was a ground hold but it looked all clear outside so I turned to Noel who was traveling with me and said "That’s odd, usually they only hold for weather but it looks clear". That instant a downpoor started. That was kind of ominous. It passed and we were cleared to board and take off, but we had to fly right through the storm. I’m generally pretty calm, even on a rough flight, but we got thrown around pretty good. I have to admit that I even grabbed the arm rest once. But we made it without any major incidents.

We did our seminar in Pittsburgh and then drove over to Rochester and are doing it again. Then I’m staying through the weekend and I’m going to try to squeeze in a little time snowboarding. Luckily I’ve had internet access and have been able to video chat with Jenny, Olivia, and Red. I’ll update you on how the slopes are, but my thought was that the snow here has to be better than in Austin!

(Here’s a picture from the first leg of my trip which I took on my cell phone.)

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