Attention All Mommies!

Hey girlies.......so, you knew this post was coming, but I need some advice...and luckily I have all you friends who have 'been there/done this' before! Ok....so- strollers, car seats, high chairs, saucers, etc. What is your opinion/experience with them and what would you suggest now that you've used them??
This all has come up right now b/c I have a co-worker who has a 2006 Britax companion car seat (for infants) with 2 bases that she is going to let me have for like $30...never been in a car accident, great condition, etc. And all I'd have to do for a stroller than is get a "snap and go" which I found on Craig's list for $30 as well. Whatcha think? I haven't researched much about carseats/ strollers, etc. but what little I have seems to show that Britax is top of the line and this particular seat has not been recalled, etc. But- being a 'first timer'- just wanted to get some other advice! Thanks!

Bailes

We have so enjoyed having Bailey up here in Baltimore with us- can't imagine our lives without her here, despite the much smaller space, the need to take her up and down 3 flights of stairs to take her to the bathroom, and the constant black hair that she sheds to keep me constantly vacuuming/cleaning (worse now b/c of said smaller space). Anyways, poor thing has not gotten as much exercise as I know she needs lately b/c of me being pregnant and exhausted at night, and it's been cold/snow/raining alot. So today, despite the chill, I took her for a walk to Patterson Park to run off some energy. Of course I forgot that the ground would be wet b/c of the snain yesterday.....and to make matters worse I had JUST given her a bath on Friday.....but, I let her have a blast b/c it was obvious she needed to get some high strung energy out. When we got home Matt was kind enough to offer to give her a bath to get all the mud off from her bellyside. She is so great- we just tell her to 'load up' in the tub and she sweetly just steps in and waits for the scrubbing to begin. Today I just had to document the cuteness of her in the tub....."come on guys....lets get this over with".........
So, since she was a puppy, every time Matt give her a bath, he has 'pampered' her by blow drying her hair afterwards. And to this day, she LOVES it.......whenever I dry my hair, no matter where she's at in the house, she'll come sit RIGHT by my legs and look up at me until I give her a little drying. So hilarious. So of course today Matt pampered her again and I caught it on video.... (we realize this is probably not normal that we're documenting our dog here, but, figure we might as well give her the attention while we can before baby comes ;))

...............but the video won't upload! bummer......i took pics too :)

Crimmus is Approaching!

Yesterday we experienced our 1st snow here in Baltimore! Luckily, the ground was still too warm for any of it to stick around, but it snained (rain snowed :)) alll day long. And we didn't go outside for 1 min of it (other than to let Bailey out :). It was wonderful. We had our first 'lazy' day in awhile together. Stayed in PJs till after noon, and sipped hot chocolate with marshmellows and watched the random movies that were on TV (Pelican Brief, Benji, etc). Then we got spiffed up and went to Stephanie and Nathan's for their Christmas party and toy drive. Our church is doing a toy drive for the kids around the neighborhood and so this party was a great kick off to the event. Many yummy appetizers were brought and a ton of toys were gathered around the tree. We had such a great time meeting new people from church and also friends of the Neufelds through Nathan's residency at Hopkins.
Group of girls from the Gallery Church.Kristina Miller and I. Kristina and her husband, Derek, are from GA and moved up to Baltimore to help our pastor start the Gallery church. Derek leads the music on Sunday mornings. We get together at their house every Thursday to watch the Office and fellowship with acouple other friends who live in Fells Point.
Stephanie is about 15 weeks prego and I'm 10 wks here. They were the 1st people we told when we found out the big news! They have been SUCH a blessing to us here- they have similar 'life paths' that we've had with Nathan's residency, etc. and have been such an encouragement to us along our journey so far! God knows when to place the right people in the right place at the right time and I know we'll be lifelong friends from here on out!

It's December?!?!

Wow- the past 2 months have been a wirl wind! Truely a blur. Between work, appointments, visits, the beginning of Matt's interview season, and Thanksgiving.........we've kept busy!

Back in October I found out that I'm pregnant! As this wasn't truely 'a surprise'......it kind of was- and we are so excited! We thought I was a lot further along than I was at the time (going by dates, etc) but we just found out last week that I am just about 9.5 weeks now and my due date is July 3, 2010!!! Yes, for all of you 'already resident wives'- go ahead and feel sorry for me :) b/c 'of course' the due date will be during the first week of Matt's 1st year of residency! Of course! But, I know God is just a chucklin right now as I kick and scream and give over the control to Him instead of wanting to plan everything out myself (impossible at this point), etc.! So- yay! Our first precious little one is being knit together and we couldn't feel more blessed! I'm sure I'll type more about this later, but this can just be the beginning :) I've been feeling decent- nauseated and exhausted- but I haven't gotten really sick- so I count myself 'lucky' and so thankful since I'm still a full time worker. Actually have lost a few pounds and have maintained- so we'll just hope that stays the same for say, 10 more weeks before they start packin on! :)

Quick recap of the rest of the past 2 months:

My friend Erica came to visit for a long weekend for the GA/FL game weekend and Halloween! Had soo much fun catching up with her and celebrating that we're pregnant together!(She's about 21-22 wks now and just found out she's having a boy!) We went to our friends house and had a great time. I had bought our costumes before we found out the news- which made them even more hilarious...."plug and socket". haha

November came and went- we drove to Raleigh for Matt's 1st interview at UNC- I went along to see Jen and her new addition to her family, Hudson, (and Kaitlyn and Ferg too :), and my friend/old co-worker, Kerry just moved up there as well- so I had a blast catching up with both of them! Matt's interview went more than well- he got awesome feed back and he loved it as well. So we'll see..........we have a busy December and January lined up with more interviews- so it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out! Definately keep Matt in your prayers as he flies/travels and interviews all over the place and that God will open the doors where they need to be and give us clarity as we have to make our rank list by mid-Feb!

We went to NYC for Thanksgiving this year too- which was so.much.fun! My mom and Matt's parents and Aunt and cousin flew up from GA to partake in all of the Big Apple fun! We went to see Wicked on Broadway wed. night, then we braved the crowds early Thurs. morning to get a peep at the Macy's Day Parade, headed to the Rockettes at Radio City, and then walked around and saw the Macy's Christmas window decorations as well as Times Square, Rockefellar center, etc. Friday we woke up early again and headed to visit the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, etc. Saturday we went to the Met museum and then headed to Katie's to cook a fabulous Thanksgiving spread! Loved seeing our family as this was the first time we could celebrate together in person since BB entered the picture!

So......now it's already December and it's packed full of Christmas parties, etc.. I think Matt's gone every weekend and then some- so I'm going to pick up some extra hours at the hospital and then we've decided to drive home for Christmas (Wed thru Mon)......and then it's the New Year! (Below are just a few of the NYC pics that we took- if you'd like to see more, check out my facebook where I put up the rest of them :).

Exhausted!

Disclaimer: this post is super long- but I would love for you to read what's going on- so save this for a time when you really have the time! :)

This weekend was probably the busiest that I've had in awhile- but probably one of the best! Matt flew out to Seattle Friday morning to meet his dad to salmon fish (but the rivers were so flooded from the past couple days' rain that they were unable to fish- but instead they hiked/drove around Mt Rainer- had a wonderful time and the pictures are incredible!) So glad Matt was able to spend some time with his dad. Anywhoo- so, I figured while Matt was away I would play! :) Here's a 'brief summary':

Went to a conference all day Friday on head and neck cancer/treatment- which was so cool b/c the speakers were all ENT's and SLPs! Matt and I could so do that some day together! crazy!

Friday night I went to see one of the coolest baptisms ever. I have been a part of a women's mentorship program for a month now. This has been a desire of my heart probably for 2 years and Ingleside never had anything to cater to discipleship/mentoring and really no older women 'stood up to the plate' and saw the need for it I suppose. I have felt led many times to be a part of the high school ministry along the way in college and beyond b/c of the great need for the 'older generation' to invest in the younger....... and, in return, I've always wanted the 'next generation' for me to do the same just so I knew better how to 'pass the wisdom' down. My prayers were FINALLY answered as a Grace Fellowship church actually has a women's mentoring program! I was put in a group too with Christine, who is the SLP I met the 1st sunday we went and we've become great friends. The set up is 4 "younger girls" to 2 older women, we get together every other Monday and we're going through an awesome book called "I'm Glad You Asked"- which takes us through some 'hot topics' on defending your faith such as "Is God Really Real"?, etc. Great stuff and highly recommend it. Anyways, one of the mentors (Sandy) in my group is in her mid 50s and battling breast cancer. She was diagnosed last summer, went through chemo, has been in remission, but now it's come back pretty bad. She is truely a light in the darkness and her testimony is such like my dad's so I felt an instant connection. Over the past few weeks as she's done her quiet times, she has felt convicted to get baptized (she was sprinkled as a child and has never felt like she has really needed to be baptized again until now). So, Friday night she was baptized in the river that her house overlooks. It was amazing. We had an awesome time of prayer asking for God's Will to be done in her life right now,etc. and then we all walked down to the water and watched her get baptized in the freezing cold water in 60 degree weather outside! The 4 of us girls/mentorees were there to take part and celebrate!!! Praise the Lord!


Saturday morning I got up and worked (b/c my friend Erica is coming to visit this next weekend so I'm taking Friday off). On my way home I took this pic b/c Baltimore is SO pretty during the fall! The colors of red, orange, and yellow just brighten the town and make it so colorful! So, just imagine this tree x20 billion :)

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Saturday afternoon The Gallery Church (which we are now going to regularly) had an outreach/community event. 2 other churches from PA and VA donated 2000 winter coats and 2000 pairs of shoes to give to the people of Baltimore in addition to what our church gave. It was truely something I've never been a part of and what I love about our church- reaching out to our own community around us and having a desire to help those who live just around the corner from us- something I really have never been challenged to do before! The people at the 2 support churches had been challenged to leave the pair of shoes that they wore to church that day! Can you imagine?! I'll be honest, when our pastor told us that in church last sunday matt and I looked at eachother and he was looking at his brand new hiking boots and I had one of my favorite pairs of shoes on- and my heart definately did not think that I could have participated in that! Would you have given your shoes?? What would you do if your pastor told you to take off the pair that you wore to church? I definately was convicted!!! Jesus calls us to give....no matter what.....even if they are our favorite pairs of shoes- something so monitary- and some of us have acouple if not 50 pairs when other have not even a single pair! So then, I go to the school gym to help give out all of these shoes- and it was a sight to see! It actually reminded me a lot of the Holocaust display where there's thousands of shoes from people whose lives had been taken in such a grotesque way- and what a contrast yesterday to see donated shoes from hearts that want to show people Life! I had a blast watching mom's, daughters, men, children, etc with faces full of joy and utter amazement as they could pick out FREE items. It was like Christmas! We also went to a different community today after church to try to get rid of the rest of the shoes/coats- and I had just as good a time! I was able to find over 10 pairs of shoes for Ms May (pictured below) who probably had never had a pair of Merrells/name brand or even nice dress shoes in her life. And then as she was getting ready to go- I remembered the winter jackets and I went and found this awesome bright blue jacket that fit her perfect! (yes, I think today I realized I will be clothing/shoe salesman in my other life b/c I sure was having a blast rumaging through to find the 'perfect pair' haha). I was so excited the jacket fit that I literally jumped up and down and we both screamed and hugged and I had to get a pic of us striking a pose! The joy of the Lord is uncontrolled when one of His children is cared/provided for!

Last night I hosted a 'girls night' at our place and that was such a special time! There were about 10 of us including my next door neighbor (cool story- her husband just moved to Texas for a job and she's moving in Dec after she finishes up her NP degree- but I knew she was alone, never really met her before- but God just layed her on my heart yesterday so I randomly went and knocked on her door and invited her over- and to my shock she came and we had an awesome time getting to know her! So pray for our friendship that I can be intentional in getting to know her b/c it was obvious that she wasn't interested in going to church with me when I invited her). But- she came! And 2 other girls that my friend and I have been investing time in came too- which was so great b/c then one of them came to church with her boyfriend today! Praise the Lord! :) We ate pizza, chatted, and then watch "The Proposal". So fun!

Today Matt flew home so we enjoyed a little dinner date and then took Bailey to Patterson Park for the Halloween Lantern Parade with Kristina and Derek. Such a cool thing- the parade comprised of tons of families/their children who had made homemade lanterns and then dispersed between them were bands/drummers, etc. that played fun music as they marched! It was something I've never seen and another reason why I love Baltimore and it's many random festivals!

So, that's the "brief", (exhausting) summary! Sorry so long, but I wanted to document what the Lord is doing in our lives and the people's lives around us and in this city b/c He is doing something here (this city and in our own hearts) and we're so priveledged to be a part of it!

For kicks and giggles...........

I realize that sometimes, things just happen. I'm cool with that. Cuz this one will go down in the books:
So, before heading to San Diego, we figured we needed a place to stay, so we started the search for a roof over our heads. Like usual, we looked for the best deal.....did our homework, extensively- and ended up getting an unheard of price ($70/night) at a Best Western only 3 miles from the convention center where Matt had to go each day. Matt had stayed at a Best Western before on the interview trail last year and our friends had stayed at a different Best Western in San Diego and they said it was great and that they were pleased. We read comments on trip advisor, etc. and we felt comfortable making the final decision (the BW we ended up going with actually had the highest ratings c/w all the other BW in the area). So- we commited. And here's the details:
So we get there around noon Sat. They initially overcharged us, and luckily we read the bill and reminded them of our AAA price- so they fixed that immediately. No big. The lady behind the counter tells us that we had a choice b/c they would be doing construction at the beginning of the week, and with the room we'd be in, we could probably hear the noise, so we could: A) borrow a 'white noise' machine or b) get a different room on the other end of the motel. Um, who wouldn't go for the other room?! I thought. So, she gives us the keys- we're on the 2nd/5 floors. Go to our room and the air conditioning was making a loud, unbearable noise. We look outside and our balcony literally was right next to a 'sub-roof'.....someone could easily just walk right in to our room! And with Matt being gone most of the day, neither of us felt comfortable with that. So- we got our room changed- 3 doors down the hallway. So, everything looked ok- we stayed that night. Had to still get that white noise maker because the 2 lane traffic outside sounded like it was a highway. So- I take Matt to the convention center and come back. Get the continental breakfast, which was sub par (and you know I'll literally eat anything........I went for the dried cereal). Went to get OJ and there were fruit flies everywhere......including 3 that transferred to my cup when I poured it. So- in to the trash that went. I get to our room- and low and behold- our air conditioning was not working- I had it on 62 and it was still blowing out heat. Went downstairs and a guy was up to fix it within minutes. And he did. Thanks! Noticed the slider door to the balcony was off track and did not shut to lock it. O well. I thought= "we're on a budget, although this isn't optimal, I'll suck it up and realize it's not a biggy- don't want to have my nose in the air' kind of thing. The maid came in to clean- she removed/changed the sheets, but left the blanket the same. Grossed me out. Did they even change it inbetween customers? "Just don't think about it Allison.....there's probably stuff like that even in a nicer hotel that you just don't see"......... So- I go pick up Matt and we go to dinner, etc. Come home around 10pm and when I got ready for bed, my BARE feet walk by the door/bathroom and the carpet was soaked. I thought, hmmm- didn't take a shower since this a.m.- and then I felt a drop. So- look up and there's water dripping FROM THE LIGHT. Tell Matt and at that point- it was late, we were tired- so we figured we'll put a wastebasket under it and deal with it/change rooms in the a.m. Go to bed.............at 1:30 AM I suddenly wake up to a loud 'splattering' sound. I layed there and thought "what the......".......O geez! the water?!?! I jump out of bed, turn the light on- and the wastebasket is FULL- the water was now literally a stream of water........yellow in color. I look up at the ceiling and there are brown droplets hanging from the roof. O. My. Word. "Matt! Wake up!!!! We've gotta get outta here! The ceiling's going to cave in!" The water was now leaking not only from the lights but the whole hallway area, sprinkler heads, and it began to leak from the light in the bathroom. A pair of my sandals were soaked in what I don't even want to think was what I had stepped in and now had to hopefully not get dropped on. Luckily, Matt's suits (which were inches from the leakage, were spared. Thank the Lord!). So, Matt picks up the phone to call downstairs. Phone doesn't work! WHERE ARE WE!?!?! I start throwing clothes in to our suitcases as he goes down to the desk. He comes back within 5 min. Furious. He states that we're leaving the hotel. He had spoken with "Rob" at the front desk- told him everything...while Rob continued to surf the net on his computer. After Matt finished, Rob hands Matt 2 new keys and says "Hope this works better for you". No apology. No nothing. Just that. So- we get on our cell phones and start making phone calls. Many hotels were full already full from the conference, but luckily, we found a Courtyard Marriott only ~5 miles away. Praise the Lord! 2:30 am welcomed us with comfy beds, no leaking ceilings, and most of all- wonderful customer service!
We ended up getting a full refund for the 2 nights at BW. The manager was very apologetic and stated that he was having a meeting with "Rob" bright and early the next day. So, who knows what happened, but we know we will NEVER go to a BW again. So worth the extra $ to stay in a place where you could really relax and have no worries. Sad thing is, we felt totally confident knowing that we had done our homework, and still feel like we made a wise decision. Sometimes though, stuff just happens. Even if you're on vacation! :)

San Diego

After the camping, came the vacationing! Matt had a poster submitted/accepted for a conference in San Diego- so I decided to go along with him this time! We left Sat a.m. and came back late Thurs. night. Had such a wonderful time! It was Matt's 1st trip to the west coast (other than to Vancouver last year for a conference too) and it sparked so many memories for me as I grew up in Eugene, OR. I must say, San Diego is probably one of my fav. cities now. Every person I talked to who had been there told me the same thing, but I'm glad I got to experience it 1st hand and I definately agree. I taxied Matt to/from the conference for the 1st 3 days- while he was 'conferencing' I layed by the pool and read (Redeeming Love- which, if you haven't read it ladies- it's a MUST read- Christian Fiction based on the story of Hosea. I'm not a reader by any means- but I think every woman needs to read it. Go get it. Now. You won't be able to put it down!), and I did some exploring to which I would then take Matt back to later on that day to touch on the high points. We drove up the scenic 101 hwy along the coast and went to my favorite town, La Jolla- where we found some hang gliders: jumping off the cliffs, harbor seals laying out in the sun on the beach, and the most beautiful landscape I've seen. We loved it so much that we went back there the last night and ate dinner at "George's" - with a view overlooking the Pacific. Again, awesome! The 1st night we were there we ate at C-bar- which had the most beautiful view of the city:

I took a "Seal tour" in which I learned some history ab San Diego on land and then also got to have an hour boat ride in the water. Walked through Seaport Village which had a lot of 'trinket' stores and such. One night we walked through the Gaslamp District- had awesome gellato at Chocolat. Ate at the Fish Market and Hash House. Went to Coronado Island. Got a hamburger, 'animal style' at In N Out. And of course we saved the best for the last day- the San Diego Zoo. I cant' remember the last time Matt and I had so much fun together. We were like kids in a candy store! We spent the entire day walking through the whole park- just amazed at God's beautiful creations! I think our highlights def. were the lions- we were literally RIGHT in front of them- 1 foot away- while the zookeepers fed them their lunch of cow heart. Amazing.



Such a needed trip for the both of us as we had no break inbetween moving/new jobs, etc. and it was the 1st trip since we got married- just the 2 of us, where we could both relax and just enjoy being together. No school. No work. No match (yet), and no itineraries! When we got home we both looked at eachother and for the 1st time said that we didn't care to be back home and wished we were still there (which, yes, it was vacation, but with most, we've always said 'Man, it's good to be home"). And so we decided we just needed to take more vacations :)

*if you'd like to see more pics, I posted most of them on facebook since it takes forever to arrange pics on blogs! urgh.