"I'll Be Home For Chrismas"... I Hope!

Everyone wants to be with family during the holidays as soon as they can. Vladi and I talked all day as he filled me in on the weather. "Cleveland and Columbus have winter advisories and Cincinnati and KY are expecting ice," Vladi told me all day. We decided to wait until we got home (to our apt.) to decide if we would make the long trek home or wait until Christmas Eve when the temps would warm up. :( I imagined all day that we would go off the road in a dark area and be stuck on the side all night in the freezing rain and cold.


When we got home, we finished packing, Vladi changed the litter (Thanks Eric and Corazon for watching our feline babies), phone calls to our parents whom of course did not want us to drive, and Vlad made phone calls to friends about the weather in the cities we would pass through. We decided to go for it and drive as long as we could and then find a hotel. I packed just incase we got stuck-lots of blankets, food, and parenting magazines to catch up on. I let Vladi open up his BIG Christmas present, a GPS system, so we would have some fun driving and who knows, we might need all of the help it could give.

As we drove 40 mph, we could not see if the road was wet, icy, or both and when the tractor trailers were driving slow, we knew we better. Cars were off the roads everywhere and looked like they did 180s/360s. When we arrived at a rest stop and could not walk to the bathrooms without slipping, we decided we better stop soon. The GPS was amazing!!! TomTom (we call it for the brand) led us to Panera for a quick dinner, 2 hotels at different exits (no vacancy in one), and let us know our speed and when we would get home going at that speed. We left at 6:45 and our new buddy, TomTom, said we would not get home until 3:40 am if not later. Vladi did the math and going 40 mph, we would be driving another 4 hrs. when it should take 2 1/2. So we are now at The Hampton Inn in Jeffersonville, OH (1 hr north of Cincy.) We arrived here at 12:22 am.!!! Baby Boy G. must have slept the whole ride because he started moving right when we pulled up at the hotel. We will definitely get a picture of this for our "Last Christmas Just The Two Of Us" scrapbook that my teammate, Danielle, made for us.

The hotel is nice, we are safe, and we have to laugh about our adventure trying to get home for Christmas.

Our Baby G is a BOY!!!

Our Baby G is a BOY!!! Vladi and I had our 2nd and probably last ultrasound today. I am 20 weeks, halfway point, and our big boy weighs a whopping 13 ounces!!! Dr. B. and the technician, Meredith, said that he is healthy and all of his measurements are good. When we go home to KY, we will post better pics in place of these. I have to take a picture of the photos because we do not have a scanner. The picture at top is Baby Boy G's head at the right (profile shot) and his arm is up as he sucks his thumb.

This is a picture of Baby Boy G's hand. How precious! It is so wonderful to think that I will be holding that little hand in a few months.

I asked the tech how sure she was that Baby Boy G is a boy. She said 99.9% sure. If it is a girl, she is worried about what will be between the legs. We could definitely see that Baby Boy G is a boy. It gave us a good laugh.

Vladi and I are so thrilled! After we left the Dr. office, I just cried and cried with happiness. I am so excited to have a boy! When teaching, I love all my students, past & present. I like how the girls bring out my girlie side, but I also like how the boys bring out a different side of me...a cooler side. During the ultrasound, I could see in Vladi's eyes all his dreams for our little one~teaching him to play soccer/sports, male bonding, and being a great dad like our dads have been to us. I am excited about taking him to the zoo, hearing my little boy tell me that he loves me "bigger than the sky" or "to the moon and back," and T-ball games. I love cheering at games and friends have always told me that I would be a good sports mom (or soccer mom in Vladi's eyes) cheering in the stands. I can't wait to be a loving mom like Natasha and my Mom.

This is such a special Christmas and I already know that I will be shedding tears at Frankfort's Christmas Eve Mass when I see Baby Jesus. I love my little boy so much already, and I know this love will grow even more. I look forward, and I hope you do too, to many more posts about how that love is growing.

Have a truly Merry Christmas and remember many years ago three wise men followed a star and came upon a baby swaddled in a manger. Jesus is the reason for this season!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!!!

It is 6 degrees as I write this and that isn't with the windchill!!!


Today was the Browns vs Bengals game! Vladi and I bundled up each in:
2 pairs of socks (V. should have worn 3. I have fur in my boots)
3 pairs of sweatpants (I had pink long underwear-thanks Mom)
3 shirts/sweatshirts
1 jacket
2 hoods and 1 hat (Vladi is wearing his Browns Santa hat)
2 blankets
gloves
1 scarf
boots
lots of lip gloss
hand warmers
UK bleacher padded seats (Thanks Marsha Miller)

The Browns lost (the Bengals have only won 2 games and we have all our QBs out with injuries) but we had an incredible adventure! For most of the game, we were warm because we were bundled so well and we danced when music played between plays. Most of the stadium left at half time but we stuck it out. As Vladi cheered and I sat not able to move with all my layers (I felt like the brother in the movie A Christmas Story walking to school-Did you know that movie was filmed in Cleveland?), I thought about many things.

Here are my thoughts during the game:

I could make a mastercard commercial out of today:
Browns tickets $45 each
Parking at the Browns game $10
Hot Chocolate $5.75 each
Hand warmers from an outside vendor $5
1 hot dog $4
Sitting in wind chill negative temps with my
husband and making memories at our LAST
football game ever just the two of us... PRICELESS!!!

I made up "You know your cold when..."
6. there is ice on the football field.
5. you are letting out so much cold air from your mouth that your scarf is wet.
4. Santa leaves the game early (Isn't he use to the North Pole?)
3. Cleveland Men and Women are wearing orange hunting overalls
(I thought that was only in KY).
2. your hot chocolate was HOT when you bought it and COLD when you got to your seat.
AND THE NUMBER 1 "You know your cold when..." is
1. there is ice hanging off of everyone's nose and you know it is NOT water.

And I thought about how wonderful my husband is and how excited I am about our Dr. appt. on Monday.

Vladi and I had a wonderful, frigid, adventurous day with Baby G warm in my tummy.

**We have had modem problems for the last month and when we thought we had everything fixed, we couldn't get the internet to work. This is the reason for no blogs. On Monday I will blog about our Dr. appt. and then blog about everything that has happened the last month with pictures (we got that fixed on the computer also. I can post pics!!!) Thank you for your patience and I look forward to your comments. Please leave a comment because it lets me know who reads the blog and it also makes me happy! :)

Happy Birthday Vladi!

Today is Vladi's 26th Birthday!!! We ate at our favorite mexican restaurant in the area, Don Tequila's. Yet, nothing compares to KY's mexican restaurants. I wanted to get a picture of Vladi with a sombrero on but my camera battery was out. So I asked our amigos if I could charge my battery behing the cash register. haha They let me and I kept going behind the counter to check on it. Vladi got a red sweater and a cherry electronics organizer from me. Here is my adorable "Big H" on his birthday ("Big H" = Big Husband~we gave more nicknames to each other on our honeymoon. We needed something to be silly about on the long drive to Ft. Myers).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VLADI!!!!

YOU ARE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!!! I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!!!