Congratulations, Greg!

Congratulation to Greg!!!!

He was named the "Favorite Sentinel-Tribune Writer" during the voting for the "Best of Wood County" at the 2008 Fair this year!

August 25th-31st: 34 Weeks and Counting down! Oh Holy Hell.

***I'm still waiting to find out just WHO reads this blog- i know people do-- I hear about it all the time. Tell me, tell me!

WHERE did the time go. We're now at 34 weeks-- 6 weeks left-- maybe less! Yikes! How is that even possible?!? I mean really! And there is SO much to do!

We brought home the bassinet from storage at the Rental. Evan used it, as did Uncle Lance. It looks a lot like the one that Mom used for us girls, too. I got all the bedding washed-- yellow checked, and its all set up. Right now, it's in the boy's room, but it'll move into our bedroom once we move the bedside table from my side of the bed out for a few months. We'll have a cradle in the bedroom- Mom bought it for us girls to use when Sami was born. So, I'll get that set up sometime after the shower, I suppose! Em won't let me have it until then.

We have lots of great clothes for baby! Not sure we'll need much more, clothes-wise! We just need to get all the other "stuff"! Between our mom's and myself, we've done pretty good at getting some nice clothes for our little man. LOTS of baseball-themed stuff.. Even some Buckeyes stuff! I'd love to find a few more 0-3mo and 3-6mo Buckeyes outfits for this fall! I'll have to see what I can come up with!

I had my doctor's appointment on Friday. Everything continues to be going well. I'm actually measuring a little ahead, so we'll see what happens, I suppose. Our last childbirth class is this Thursday, and then we have breastfeeding and childcare in the first year classes left. We're doing a tour of the floor. Should be interesting. Sounds like we spend the majority of the class actually in the maternity ward.

Baby moves quite a lot lately. He's very good at moving non-stop when I don't want him to, and then when I want him to, like when Evan is around, he refuses to budge. He's in the head-down position now, though, so that's a good thing. At least that's what they say! I beg to differ sometimes. LOL. He likes to use my stomach as a kicking bag and his head as a compression for my bladder. I thought I had to pee so badly when we were in Wal-Mart today. And when I sat down to go, I think 3 drops came out. (TMI, I'm sure-- sorry-- just be glad I'm not telling you about the bowl issues. HAHAAH)

It was a quiet week again last week- more of the usual- meetings, Evan night and baby class. Ev & Greg played ball all night Wednesday- We picked him up early, since I was in Findlay, so he went home a little early. we didn't have to feed him dinner. I think G & I watched a movie that night.

Greg did take Monday off. He spent the day lounging around reading alllllll day. The slacker.

Thursday was the class all about c-sections, what happens if things go wrong, as well as a few other tidbits.

I took Friday and Monday off work, so it was a nice, long weekend for me, which of course went by way too fast. I spent Friday finishing off a few things, including doing bills (blah) and watching a few shows. By then, it was time for my dr's appointment!

Saturday, we cleaned out the closet in the boy's room- For those of you who have been here, the closet is huge-- it spans the entire wall. And well, it was chock-full of stuff. By the time we were done, we had managed to whittle it down to about 1/4 of the space occupied. Woo-hoo. We rock. Closet done. Kyle came over and we did Hobo dinners-- an interesting concoction those two enjoyed. We finally managed to ask the last person the be Godfather-- Kyle. So now everyone has been asked. Baby has his godparents all lined up from both sides of the family.

Janelle King called that night to let me know that the Pampered Chef stuff I'd ordered was in. So, we met up with her and her family over at the ice cream shop by the fairgrounds. Andrew is getting SO big. He was cracking me up with that grin. He looks like his Grandpa Fauver, that's for sure.

After we picked up the goods, we stopped at Greg's folks to drop of the PC stuff she'd ordered and for what was to be a "short visit". Hahaha! It's never short. We were there for about an hour and a half. Which was fine. =-) We always enjoy visiting them, and seem to have tons to talk about! She bought the most adorable clothes for baby and Evan at some garage sales, and as always, washed them all. They smelled SO good, and are in such fantastic condition.

Sunday, we had breakfast with my family. We TRIED to go to the Forks in P'ville, but guess what- -it didn't open until 11:30. SO, we went up to Stony Ridge to this place called Roadsters. It was SO good! Much better than our usual Sunday morning. I wonder if we can talk M&D into maybe Panera or another breakfast place once in a while. Big Boys is just getting old.

After that, Greg & I went to President Hayes house & museum. That was interesting. (and yes, EDUCATIONAL, Uncle Lance-- we plan to torture our kids with that stuff. muahahaha). We had a pretty good time, other than the fact that some family from NYC was in our tour group with this bratty kid who clearly didn't want to be there and kept disrupting the tour of the house. There was a fantastic display of quilts there-- all from NWOhio. Greg got some education in the fine art of quilting. hehe. I don't think he was all that impressed, except that he did seem to like the crazy quilts. He couldn't understand all the random embroidery in them, though, or why they're thought to be rather impractical.

We went home and relaxed the rest of the day-- reading and watching movies. I was pretty beat.

Today (Monday), we had both taken off work. We were going to go to Greenfield Village, but decided that it probably wasn't a good idea, given how slowly I moved the day before- I was pretty miserable. I was pretty upset about that, but we came up with something fun. We went to the Butterfly House in Whitehouse and then had a picnic of fried chicken and chips (healthy, I know) at Oak Openings Metropark and read books for a few hours. There were some ducks that came to visit us while we were reading at the park. They kept nibbling at my toes and one even stepped on my foot! It was fantastic. I wish we would have had the camera for that.

Anyway! That's about it! Oh-- These are some pics I took on Friday. 33 weeks 4 days along at the time of those pics! I feel (and look) about as big as a house these days!

--jenn & greg

Tell me...

Who all is reading this blog?!? Leave me a comment so I know!
-jenn

Week 33: August 18-24th Greg's Birthday, Pemberville Fair! Whew!

Holy cow, it's the 33rd week. How in the world is that possible? I know, I know, I say that on a regular basis. But seriously, doesn't it seem like I was just talking about it being the half-way point? In just 4 very short, very busy weeks, I'll be considered full term. Any time in the 3 weeks after that (barring a baby that decides he doesn't want to leave) I'll have a baby in my arms! Yikes!

More on that later... But to start with...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREG & EMILY!!!

Okay, it has been another crazy busy week. I find my self crashing into bed on a regular basis between 9-10:30 every night, unable to keep my poor eyes opened!

Monday, I worked late. New client. Woohoo! Greg had a meeting, I think. Tuesday, Greg had TWO meetings, and I had another late night with the client from Monday.

Wednesday was a very important day! It was, of course, an Evan night. Yeah! We had his Big Brother class at Wood County Hospital. He learned all about being a big brother and how important of a job it is. He made a onesie for the baby with a dragonfly (VERY exciting!) and watched a Sesame Street movie about being a Big. We also got to go up to the OB department of the hospital where he got to see a brand new baby girl. They showed her belly button with the clip on it and the kids got to tickle the baby's toes through the window. There was only ONE baby in there!

Oh, and then, they read a book. During this book, the discussion came up about how you should never, ever feed a new baby "big people food". She asked what babies eat, and of course, the answer was milk. She asked how they get that milk (thinking bottles, I'm sure), and the just barely 3 year-old girl pipes up "Boobies". Of course, Evan picked up on that new word right away and said "What are boobies?". The nurse who taught the class jumped right in and talked about how cows (thanks) feed their babies. *sigh*. We're still figuring out how to approach that one. Any advice from those who breastfed? We're going to try to be descrete, but obviously, he'll be 5. He's going to have questions and comments about it.

Thursday was yet another class-- Our childbirth class. This week, we were informed about labor and delivery. I'm so glad I don't have to watch myself go through that. (No, we're not videotaping or taking pictures of that, thank you). Ouch. But, I'm sure it'll be fine, and I know that the end result makes it worthwhile.

Friday was Greg's birthday! Yeahhh!!!!! Happy 34th Birthday!!! I love you. It started out as a rough day thanks to a semi-work related issue, but it ended on a fantastic note. We went to the Flag City Balloon Fest in Findlay after we picked up Evan. We a had a fair-food picnic supper and watched about 25 hot air balloons float over us. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the balloon glow that night. Greg had to get up SUPER early for his Saturday shift.

Saturday morning. Greg got up at 5am and left for work at the Sentinel. I got up soon after, as I just couldn't sleep-- about 6am. Evan was up about an hour later. He and I had a lazy early morning, and then he hopped into the bath. Greg got home soon after that. I showered and we headed out the door around 10am to hit our favorite Saturday routine-- Stimmel's for doughnuts. Yum! We hit some garage sales (a bust) and then came home for a very short time before heading to Pemberville for the parade. Woo hoo! There were some great floats, and the kids got TOO MUCH candy. Between Sami and Evan, they had a MONSTER bag full of candy. OH MY LANTA. Too much. We hit Em's house for a birthday party for Em & Greg afterwards. The kids played on Sami's 4-wheeler around the yard for a while. Mom and Dad got Greg a set of adirondak chairs for his birthday.

We headed back to BG around 5:45- We had ANOTHER birthday dinner at Greg's folks at 6:30. OH, it was so good. Steak, potatoes and corn on the cob. We were SPOILED!!! Yum!!! Greg got some really nice clothes, a book and of course, his monster box of popcorn. I think he had a pretty good birthday.

Evan stayed the night with Grandma & Papa VV. I think he loved every minute of it. We met them for breakfast this morning a the BG cafe-- I think we were all surprised-- There was nobody there, and was right across the street from the tractor pull. Very strange.

I had a wedding shower this afternoon for my cousin, Annette Risenburg, and Greg worked on sealing the deck and new chairs, along with assembling the chairs. He did an AWESOME job.

This week brings more of the same busy-ness, although G took off this monday, and I took off this next Friday and Monday.

In baby news this week....
Baby should be settling into the head-down position in the next few days. He should be more than 4 pounds at this point and 17-18 inches long! I'm up every night at almost exactly 3:30am to take a trip to the bathroom now, and Greg is hating it as much as I am. (GOOD! If I have to suffer, so does he! mehhhH!) He seems to think that I'm jumping up and down on the bed as I attempt to uncomfortably turn my self from one numbed side to the other, and well, it's a lot of work getting this ever-increasing belly to turn over. And when I do, guess who wakes up and decides it would be a great time to play rather than going back to sleep? Yup. Baby. So then I get to enjoy the jabs all over the place as he gets re-situated inside. Oh, and those are my swollen feet in that picture. Ugh!

Love ya!
-jenn & greg

Week 32: August 11th-17th Birthday surprise!!!

Hello everyone! It was yet another busy week in the Van Vorhis family. Tuesday was Evan's baseball game again. Grandma and Papa V were able to attend, along with Greg and myself. Evan continues to be quite the ball player, but we're also learning that we need to work on the concept of SHARING with him, along with the idea that he is not in charge. He literally runs from the beginning of the game until the end while they were in the outfield. It doesn't matter where the ball goes, Evan follows it. He'll be on 3rd base, and when the ball goes flying to the right outfield, Ev goes running. Granted, so does half of the other team, but he tends to fight for the ball and win. One child came up from the pile (again, he wansn't the only one involved) crying, and in another incident, his friend from school, Breanna, got a mouthful of dirt, partially in thanks to Evan. That time, only Evan was involved. He also tries to tell the coach what to do, as well as what the other kids should do. These coaches are SO patient. I don't know how they do it!

Wednesday night, my folks were over for dinner. It was nice- we got to visit, and they got to see Evan hit the ball over the house (yes, he hits the ball over the house). After Evan left, Greg and I went to Grounds for Thought. It's been a while since we've done that, so it was nice!

Thursday was our first "Prepared Childbirth class". Eh. It was kindof overrated, at least for the first class. 99% of it, I'd already heard before or read. And Greg and I felt OLD in there. There's one couple who looks like they're no more than 15 years old (seriously-- the "significant other" was wearing a t-shirt that said "I know, go to my room"). Another couple looks like they're no more than 20.

I also had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment on Thursday. All is well and good. =-) Heartrate was 138-145. He moves quite a lot now! The nurse practitioner and I had a nice talk and really discussed the whole contraction thing in depth, which was nice. The male doctors hadn't really explained it well enough for me to understand.

Friday night, Greg started power washing the porch. He did an AWESOME job on it! Some of those boards look brand new. We didn't do a whole lot else, other than I made cookies and worked on our bookshelves some more.

Saturday, Greg continued working on the porch. At 3pm, we left, though Greg had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. All he knew is that it was his birthday surprise. I took him to Detroit, MI to see his favorite band, Poison, play. That's what the pictures are of at the beginning of the blog. He was SO surprised, and very excited. He had resigned himself to not being able to go to a concert this year, and was pretty bummed about it. We made it up to the area, (it was a LOOOOONNNG, HARROWING drive-- I hate Detroit and their roads. We had to take like 4 detours.) and I took him to Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner. We then went to the concert. I had a moment of panic-- one of the opening acts said something about someone in Poison being sick, and we thought maybe they weren't going to go on-- it was already rolling on to 9am, and they were supposed to go on at 8. But, they came on. Bret, the lead singer, had a horrible cold and sore throat and just sounded aweful when he talked, but it wasn't too bad. They didn't play everything they normally did, but they did play most. Greg didn't drink much, MOMs. He only had 2 Bud Lights while early in the shows. He was too worried about me. We were in the last row of the pavillion seats, and people were jostling us quite a bit from behind, even though security tried their hardest not to allow it. I got some beer poured on me and *I* almost decked a girl for doing it. She was so drunk. I grabbed her arm and yelled at her to stop. She apologized and walked away. lol. The only time I was a little scared was when we were heading towards the restroom and people were jammed into the walkway with nowhere to go. There was a fight about 3 people ahead of me and I was getting pushed into a railing. The bathrooms were ridiculous at this place-- We waited in line for like 1/2 an hour to get into the restroom. I probably should have gotten a security guard to help me get up there sooner. Oh well. We still had a blast.

Today, we have Evan! We're taking him to his Mudhen's game that he earned for making good choices at school. I'll add pictures later on. His next goal is touchdowns on his chart for football games. Woo hoo! We'll take him to see a BGSU or high school game.

In baby news, Everything is going very well! Baby is VERY active. I'm getting braxton hicks on a regular basis, usually at night now. My whole belly gets hard as a rock. Fortunately, they don't hurt. It's just a little uncomfortable. Baby likes to nestle right up under my lungs and use my stomach as a punching bag still. So I'm always short of breath and dealing with acid reflux. Can I just say that the makers of Pepsid are my personal heros? He moved quite a lot during the concert last night. Apparently, he's going to be a Poison fan like his daddy. He moves ALL the time now, although late evening seems to be his favorite time. My whole belly moves. Its very bizzare to watch, but also very fun. We have settled on a name, although again, we're not sharing with anyone until he is born. I think everyone will like his name, though. =0)

UPDATE:: The baseball game was a ton of fun. The Mudhen's lost, 6-7, to the Norfolk Tides, but we still had a great time. After the game was over, Evan got to run the bases, and we watched the firework show. We got him home around 11pm. G & I got home about 11:45. SO, it was a very late night. We had fun, as always. I think next year, we'll be getting lots of tickets to games. The price is right, and Evan loves it. SO, it makes it worth it.

Anyway, not much else to report.

Love ya all!

jenn

Week 31: August 4th-10th. Wood County Fair, Baseball and Combine Derby, oh my!

It was a great week this week.

The issue from last week has settled down on my end. I just roll my eyes and roll with the punches. There are still troubles, mostly with certain parties saying that neither I, nor my boss (who do this professionally) know what we're talking about or that we have any expereince. Nice, huh? OH, and they keep un-doing what we've done without ever allowing it at chance to work.

I'm FINE, and so is baby, according to the doctor. Baby has been crazy busy inside this week, stretching and moving what seems to be non-stop. He appears to have taken up residence in the spot previously reserved for my lungs and stomach, causing me shortness of breath, SERIOUS heartburn (I thought it was bad before-- I knew nothing then) and a sudden inability to bend over and pick up objects off the floor.

Tuesday was baseball- Mom and Dad decided to go to a game with me. Unfortunately, we got there right as the game was ending!! They went ahead and started early rather than practicing, since it was so hot. I felt horrible. You should have seen Evan though! He was FILTHY!!! Dirt everywhere. It was fantastic.

Wednesday, we had Rick & Myra over for dinner. I made western ribs with corn-on-the-cob. We had a great time visiting-- I got to sit and chat with Myra while Rick, Greg & Evan played ball. You should see Evan hit those balls--He hits them over the house about 1/2 the time. It's crazy!!
Thursday, Greg & I managed to make it to Evan's baseball game. Evan does really well, except that he has a really hard time understanding the concept of waiting his turn-- he also tries to coach the coach. We all have to work on his understanding that the coach is the boss, not Evan. lol. I went to a pampered chef party and bought some fun things there. Yeah! Thanks for inviting me, Janelle!

Friday, we picked Evan up, and as we were passing by Paglia's Pizza, Evan said he wanted to go there. SO, we ran our errand, and then went there. YUM! We hung around the house after that, and then everyone went to bed early.

Saturday was uneventful, as well. We did a few errands, and some cleaning. Greg & Evan went fishing, and Evan is FINALLY getting over his fear of the worms, even picking one up out of the dish and HOLDING it without protection from a towel. VERY impressive.

Sunday, I went to church while the boys slept in. In the afternoon, we went to the Wood County Fair. Can I just say that I enjoy the Pemberville Fair SO much more than this particular fair? We walked around for a little while, drank lemonade, and ate food that I'm sure will show up on the scale when I go to the doctor's next week. We met up with Grandma & Papa V and Evan finally ate something (I think he was too excited when we first got there). We went over and looked at all the rides (again) and he got his picture taken by a sign with Papa's nickname for him-- Scooter. Very cute. Then, the three of them went to the combine derby together. Greg and I felt that maybe they all needed some one-on-one time with his grandparents without us being there, so we opted out of going and went home instead. Plus, the idea of sitting on those bleachers yesterday just didn't appeal to me! I can't wait to see pictures, though!! Evan talked NON-STOP on the phone about it. I'm sure the three of them had a fantastic time, and I think this is becoming a tradition for the three of them.

I think that's about everything!! I'll post pictures later on!

jenn