In The Negatives!

Right now it is 3 degrees outside and wind chill -17 degrees!!! It is beyond cold. We are as cold as some parts of Alaska! We have gotten so much snow, we are definitely over a foot and expecting more. The big storm last weekend piled on top of week old snow/ice. With this weather, we still keep living~schools stay open (will only close when temps are more than -10 degrees!), we still go to work, and we still run errand/go out in the evenings. It's all about taking it slow on the roads. When we get home, we bundle up and get cozy. The top left pic shows how much snow we have - the speed limit sign is almost covered. Our apartment is the one on the 3rd floor. Many of the buildings (except ours) has killer icycles I call them. Look at the top right photo. These things are ginormous! As you can see, they are longer than the height of the porch to the right. Good thing they are not above a doorway.

A Look Back at Christmas 2008 & New Year's Eve

Vladi and I had a wonderful Christmas weekend at home in Kentucky. It was quite an adventure driving home and spending the night at a hotel, but we love adventures and we got home safely. The year I met Vladi, I remember that being the first Christmas that I did not care about the material things. He and I met in November and he was my Christmas present forever. This year, I did not ask for anything. I even suggested not giving presents. The memories that Vladi and I have made this Holiday season (Thanksgiving-New Years) have been priceless (future blog). But Vladi said let's get something so I am sure he was happy with "TomTom" our new friend/GPS system and I adore my new Pandora bracelet that has a Christmas Tree charm with a gold star to always remind me of our last Christmas just the two of us. Our families also gave us wonderful presents that we needed/wanted but never told them that we needed/wanted. Haha I guess my mom knew that I needed a warm robe for the winter time since I wear hers when I come home.

This year we knew we had the best Christmas present every...our baby boy growing stronger and stronger each day inside of me. We found ultrasound ornament picture frames that we gave to our parents and my grandpa that read on the frame "Our Best Christmas Present Ever." Our ultrasound tech even printed small pics for us to put inside the frames.

Let's look back at Christmas 2008 Memories:

• We went to Christmas Eve Mass at Good Shepard Catholic Church in Frankfort where we were married. My mom, Meredith, and Aunt Sara met us there (Dad was at work). I tell you, there was nothing but baby girls in church. During the Homily, the Priest said, "I am looking around for something very special. [he walked up to a family with the only baby boy that I had noticed] I have already spoken with his family and have permission to do this. [he picked up the little boy and said] This is Alexander."!!!!!!!!!! Vladi and I went crazy since that was what we were naming our little man. The Priest walked around with the baby and spoke about how Jesus was the size of this baby once and how we forget that he was human like us. It was a thought provoking Homily.


• This year we spent Christmas Eve at Vladi's house in Frankfort. This is Boris and Natasha's cat, "Kisia" (kitty in russian). Natasha fixed a yummy dinner and we played durak (a Russian card game that means stupid~but whoever gets durak is also lucky in love). Well, of course the first few games we played, who ended up being "lucky in love"?? I did. But I finally started to win, is that good or not?


• On Christmas morning, Vladi and I drove to my parent's house to see if Santa came. He did and we had a wonderful morning opening presents, drinking decaf coffee, and karaoking with my dad. My dad has an amazing Karaoke machine/equipment that looks awesome. The speakers are high in the air, he has the machine that puts the music in your octave, and he has the burner to record yourself. This is not a little stereo system, this is the Big Daddy of all machines. He is so cute, he even has an Asian rug underneath for a real concert feeling. Vladi and I made the Gomelsky Christmas Album. Look for it in stores. This is the bib that Meredith got Vladi. No, I'm kidding, it's for Alexander. Doesn't Alexander's Daddy look cute modeling the UK bib?
  

Christmas Day afternoon, my Family went to the Biagi house (Uncle Stephen and Aunt Marie's) for our Family Christmas. I love going there for Christmas and spending time with everyone. It was wonderful hearing about how everyone is doing. My cousin Kate is getting married in June, my cousin Megan just got married, and all my other cousins are having great adventures in their lives also. I received a soft nightgown, UK entertaining serve ware, and a pickle ornament. Let me explain the pickle ornament (I want to see comments if you have heard of this or not)... On Christmas, you hide the pickle on the tree, the first person to find the pickle gets to open a special present or the first present. I was so happy to get this because I have heard so much about the "pickle ornament" while living in the Cleveland area. My family had not heard of this except my Uncle Robert and Aunt Marcia who gave us the pickle. Here is a picture of the pickle. It is awesome and I LOVE collecting ornaments! Plus, Vladi and I wanted to start this tradition next year...perfect timing.

• (My cousins: front/lft Laura, Shelley, Marty, Rachel, back/lft~Meredith (my sister), Kate, Megan, Stephanie, and Me! Michael was visiting his in-laws and Richard is a Marine and is stationed in Japan. We are so proud of him and keep him in our thoughts and prayers).

On Friday, Vladi's parents and my Grandpa Cook came to my parent's house for dinner and fun times. My Grandpa and Dad karaoked before Vladi's parents came. My Grandpa is good. He was singing George Strait songs and I see where my dad got his talent. When Vladi's parents came, they were entertained with Vladi and me singing "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" with my Dad and Grandpa joining in. It was so funny. And then my Dad made me sing, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I must say that I did pretty good. Watch out EVITA on Broadway here comes SB! haha

On a side note: [I hope my Spanish III friends appreciate me singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I remember my Senior Year of High School giving a speech in Spanish class about Evita. I made my friends hold up signs that read "Viva Evita!" And I acted like Evita. I think I got confused about the movie and Evita's real life. That was the worst speech I ever gave and I was so embarrassed afterwards because the speech went on and on...in spanish!]

• On Saturday, Meredith and my Mom hosted a Bridal Shower for my cousin Kate that is getting married in June. It was so much fun! We played a lot of fun games... one in particular was tearing paper to look like what we thought Kate's gown may look like. Rachel's torn paper dress won! After the shower, my tired, wonderful Mom drove me to Louisville so that I could eat a fish sandwich at the Fishery in St. Matthews. Oh, it was everything that I had dreamed of! (I have not eaten fish the whole pregnancy with the scare of mercury even though some fish is ok. My Dr. said I could eat my favorite fish sandwich) Then we went by Pottery Barn for Kids because I wanted to see the new line of bedding that I saw in the magazine and to see if they still had any bedding left that I had loved from last season. Well, I saw the bumper that I had been imagining in my head but did not know exist. We bought that and when we got back to Cleveland, I called local stores and got the quilt!!!! WOOHOO! I love our bedding! We will be able to do so many themes with it: ABCs, Sports, Transportation, Animals, Colors, and more! It has everything that I wanted~ elephants, ABCs, light blue/green, gingham, transportation, and more.


• When we left to go back to Ohio on Sunday, we stopped in Cincinnati to meet with Dave, Julie, and Elizabeth at IHop. It was so good seeing all of them. Julie's tummy is showing and we are so excited about our little ones. We had not seen Elizabeth for a long time since she lives in South Carolina. Hopefully she will be able to stop by our apt. next summer on her way to her sister's wedding in Pennsylvania. When we left IHop, we ran over to the Container Store. This place has a container for everything!!!!! I can't wait to build a house one day and organize with the stuff from this store. We got a shelf/storage unit that will hold the baby's bottles/nipples, etc. We don't have much cabinet space so this will be so helpful.

• How was your New Year's Eve? We ate dinner at an Irish pub and rang in the New Year for Ireland with a waiter walking around the restaurant ringing a bell. When we got home, it was nice and low key. We watched Ryan Seacrest and I was happy to see that Dick Clark looked so good. I can't imagine being in New York on New Year's Eve. You cannot go to the bathroom so what do people do?

This is Haifa Claus with me and Reindeer Maccabi with Vladi.

Vladi and I wish you a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009!

Baby G Has a Name!

Vladi and I are proud to announce our baby boy's name is Alexander Vladimir Gomelsky. We will either call him Alexander or Alex. There is a slim chance that we will call him at home by the Russian nickname, Sasha. In the states, that is a bit too feminine (unless you are an European superstar) and we will have to see if he can handle Sasha or not. I am 99.9% sure that we will go with Alexander or Alex. I just love saying, "Alexander Gomelsky." I love the ring to it. :) He has a long name with his middle name, but when will he ever use his full name... Baptism, First Communion, Social Security, Drivers License, Graduation, and Wedding. Many of those he will not even have to write it.

I am so thrilled/excited to have a boy!!! I cannot put it into words. I always say, "I'm excited!" Well of course I am, but words cannot describe how happy we are. We have many friends that have (or will have) boys and I love reading/hearing them talk about "their little man" or "my little boy." I cannot wait to have that special mother/son bond. Plus I am also having so much fun shopping for a little boy.

***My cousin, Michael and his wife Lauren are having a baby girl in March. Dave and Julie are having a girl in May.

This is a front preggo pic taken on Dec. 6, 2008. Vladi and I went to a romantic dinner at Bravo's and then to the Radio City Rockettes Show. It was so romantic and one of our great memories we have made together before the baby comes. (look for the future blog~"Our Last Memories, Just The Two Of Us")

"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!!!!!