Climbing in Red Rock Nevada

This is a picture that Mark took while climbing with The Boy in Red Rocks in Nevada. Can you find the Boy?

An Ode to Modern Meds

So after suffering for 12 days with a horrible cold, cough, congestion, pain and having to work and function through it, I finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday. He diagnosed me with having both bronchitis (fluid in the lungs) and sinusitis (sinus infection). I am on some antibiotics that are preggo-safe. Almost immediately I started to get relieve in the way of feeling like I was actually getting better. My cough is totally manageable and I can see an end in sight. I still had presentations today where I hacked and sniffed my way through, so I am home resting now, however, to all those out there that may have a cold--embrace the goodness of prescription meds and start on the road to recovery!!

PFG Conference

These are some pics of the recent PFG Conference March 1-3. The ones of me on stage are the coat that fit the Friday before the Tuesday night awards ceremony--as you can see, I couldn't button it up! Also, notice that you can see my white shirt through the black sweater...it's getting tight in here!

This week in the life of baby Smitty

So this week is the 29th week of the pregnancy. Last Friday I left and went down to DC to visit with the Babcock's and Brayden for the weekend before the Principal National conference started on Monday. On Friday, I had a prospective client presentation and wore my "fat" suit jacket--wasn't a maternity jacket, but was very big on me when I wasn't pregnant. It essentially fit on Friday, but was snug. Last night, we had the awards dinner for Principal and I had to put the same coat on--it didn't fit and I couldn't even get the two sides to get close by about an inch!! How could we have grown that much in just three days??? If this is the rate that I am expanding on, it is going to be interesting from here on out. I can feel him on a very very regular basis now, which is fun--makes it really seem real. I put this picture up from the What to Expect website as it is hard to visualize what the little guy is actually developing into at this point. He is about 3 pounds this week, but I have gain about 25 pounds so far...hum....that puts me on track for almost 40 pounds of gain...argh...can't wait to get out on the bike and in the water this summer!

Blasts from the Pasts

So Mark and I are notorious for buying disposable cameras when we forget to bring our digital cameras. However, we also never bring them to get developed. This past weekend, we finally rounded up all of the cameras and took them to get developed. Attached are some fun pictures from recently and far ago:-)
The pictures of Mark and I underwater are from our snorkel trip when we were in Hawaii. For those of you that remember the 2003 Hawaii trip, it was before everyone had the digital cameras and we brought a camera with real film. The film was zapped through the x-ray machine when we left from DC, so we only had these cameras. It was the worst snorkeling ever--barely any fish until they started chumming off the back which is when I got back in the boat!!

Next there are several pictures from the first weekend in February when we celebrated Tim's 30th birthday. Tim's birthday is actually in May, so Emily really planned the perfect surprise! The boys all went and played paintball in the afternoon!

Then, if you look above, you will see a picture of Mark at Jenn LaPorta's baby shower. Important to note--her son, Christian, is now two years old!!

Below that pic is Mark and I at the MS Bike tour through Manhattan. We did this October 2007--was wondering what ever happened to these pictures.

Finally, the last picture below is of Mark and Brad just now in February. Mark is pretending to be Brad from when they went to West Virginia and Brad is not impressed.

Enjoy these blasts from the past that we just discovered!

So plans continue for the arrival of Baby Smitty. He has really started to impact our lives now. First, we have finished painting his room (see picture) and he has a crib. We just bought the bed and the other furniture was delivered yesterday...everyone will have to wait to see that at our BBQ in April! More importantly to me, however, is that I now have very few normal personal clothes that I can squeeze myself into (not that I am trying that hard), but on the plus side, Julie gave me jeans that aren't too long, so I'm really not trying except during the week when I need some variety to my suit outfits!

So it took me a whole month, but here are some pics of Hailey's christening! Isn't she the cutest?? She is so much fun and you could just hang out with her all day. I held her while the water was poured over her head--she was so good and only was really fussy I think because we had to lean her down. I missed her the moment we left and can't wait to see her in April!!

A pic at 24 weeks

So this week I have been pregnant for 25 weeks, but this team shot was taken last week of the NYC PFG team. Can you find Ali?

SAS 2009??

So baby boy smitty is due on May 22nd, and the swim across the sound in 2009 is the first weekend in August. Plenty of time to train, especially if I have lots of baby help and don't have to work until then (which I won't). So chime in...I am going to post a poll...what do you think? Should we do it again???

This is a pic I stole from Amy from last year...sure looks like fun despite the jellyfish and thunderstorm and lightning...

It's Alive!

So for the past three weeks or so I have been feeling like I am feeling the baby move. It started out as a fluttering, but now it is clearly the baby. AND he's really active! At the last ultrasound, he was doing squats inside--it made it hard to do the measurements that we needed! Today as I am waiting for the movers to drop off the first shipment of m brother's stuff he is doing aerobics in there...if he stays this active once he is out, I am in for trouble!

Lots of updates!

Baby Smith has officially been cooking for 5 months...and you can tell:-) We have finally had to break down and buy stretchy pants so that I have something to wear out of the house. Thanks to hand me down and borrowed clothes, I may be able to make it another month without having to spend too much money:-)

For the holidays, we met up with Karen and Brian in NYC to see Spamalot before it goes off Broadway in January. For those of you that haven't seen it, it is well worth the trip before you can't anymore! Clay Aiken was in the show in NYC...MUCH different from when he was on American Idol!! We then hit up Carmines on the upper east side.

On the 18th we visited the doctor and found out that baby Smith is actually baby BOY Smith! See pics below of the "proof".

On the 23rd, Mark, the dogs and I headed in the car for our last 12-hour drive to Virginia Beach for Christmas. The traffic was terrible, but we were able to spent a couple of days with my parents and then met up with the A-Phi girls at the beach for our last Christmas brunch all together before my parents move to CT.

Mark and I came back to NY for a few days of work, then took the train to DC to spend New Year's with the normal gang--the Smith's, Wheeler's, Scott's and Babcocks...with one extra addition--Brayden came early and was able to join the fun! He is super cute...see pictures below...no denying who his momma is! With two preggos and one new mom, we had virgin mimosa's and played games, both video and board. This makes 8 New Year's with Julie and Brad, 7 with the Scotts and 5 with the Wheelers.

Dickens and Mogley had fun too--below are pictures of Dickens in the Michigan hat that the Babcocks gave Baby Smith and Mogley in the bow from one of the Christmas presents...