Need a new game to try?

On Thursday night, AJ's best friend Corban brought this game over for us to try and play with him and needless to say, it is really fun. So Friday night, AJ and I went out and bought it to play together. If you have a PS3 and want a good fun game for the fam, you can play up to 4 players, check this one out. I am not addicted yet, but I very well could be someday.

Oh, Ellie...

Ellie loves to burrow and lay under our comforter on our bed, but sometimes she gets too hot and can't breath under there anymore, but she doesn't want to move out from under the cover so she just sticks her little nose out and is good to do. Such a funny dog!!!

AJ has finished his Master's in Counseling at OSU! He has worked so hard and had some amazing projects that he has worked super hard on and they turned out beautifully! He had his defense on December 2nd and his last class on December 3rd. He is finishing up two papers today and then it should be all done! He is planning on walking in graduation in May 2009! What an accomplishment. All his colleagues, professors and cohorts members had nice things to say about AJ and his skills as a Counselor. Seems like he has found his passion in life. I am so proud of him and can't wait for him to be able to just enjoy working and life in the evening without homework!!!

My belly and tattoo...

Shortly after I found out that I was pregnant everyone wanted to know how my tattoo was going to look as my belly began to grow. Well, here I am at 25 weeks and my tattoo doesn't look all that different to AJ or I. Yeah, it is a little bigger but so is my belly!

Junior (I have named him this since we don't have a name yet) is doing well and growing well. He is very active and enjoys kickboxing! He doesn't keep me awake at night but my heartburn does! Such funs joys in pregnancy. Thankfully, I have learned from my mom the art of falling asleep sitting up so I am able to sit up and allow the hearburn to subside some and still get some sleep. That's about it for me.

My 32nd Birthday!

My birthday this year was on a Wednesday of a very busy week but it was good none the less. I worked as usual. My friend Lauren took me to lunch at a favorite in Salem, the Wild Pear and we had a great lunch! After work I went home to do a few quick things before, Lori and Jana, drove me down to Corvallis to meet AJ and his cohorts and celebrate them being done with school and their program. We had tapas at a cool restaurant in Corvallis called Magenta and then AJ and I were able to ride home together. We got home around 11pm and AJ had a present waiting for me. It was a huge box and I opened it to find a gift from him and my sister and her husband!!

A Burberry baby bag!!! It is beautiful and an amazing gift.

It opens up to a diaper changing pad that you can unsnap off the bag to use and it is washable.

But the cutest thing ever is the Binky holder on the strap...

So then on Thursday after work we had our family dinner and Lori made yummy chicken and rice and a spinach salad. For dessert I had asked for Boston Creme Pie which she made from scratch and it was so yummy! I really wanted German Chocolate Cake but none of the DeBacker's like coconut so I knew it would not be a crowd pleaser so I went for Boston Creme Pie. But Lori suprised me with my own slice of German Chocolate from the Konditorei and it was super yummy!

After dinner I opened my gifts from Al & Lori, Jana & JJ. They had made AJ and I a book of our wedding which is cool because I have never had the time to do this and now all can enjoy it and see how much fun our wedding was!

The cover.

Many pages and pages with lots of pictures!

It was a great birthday! My parents and AJ's parents gave me some money so I went and bought some new maternity clothes yesterday! What fun!

All in in a great day and week of love from my family and friends!

Way to go Beavers!

Just in case ya'll didn't see it or watch it, OSU beat Arizona last night. I was out with my friends and came home to watch the last 2 minutes of the game. The score was 17-16 Arizona and Arizona had possession of the ball. OSU got possession back and in a 1:30 threw the ball all the way down the field and kicked in a field goal to win 19-17! It was the best ending of a game and the most exciting 2 minutes to watch! We are all hopeful for a Rose Bowl!!

Go Beavs, next weekend in the Civil War!

Just a lazy Sunday...

Nothing all that exciting happening today. AJ is finishing up a huge project for OSU and so he is on the computer all day today just typing away. I am trying to keep myself occupied so as to not bother him. So here I sit on my laptop, surfing the web and watching TV. Ellie loves looking out the window so this is her here watching our neighborhood action for us.

I am feeling pretty good for the most part. I don't have morning sickness anymore but I do have the random puking events. It is pretty nasty but something my body just does. Other than that and heartburn, I am just plugging right along at 23 weeks. At some point I will put up a picture of me and my little belly but not today.

Baby DeBacker is kicking and a very active baby. He gets excited and starts kicking when the dogs are around and wrestling. He is ready to come and out play! We have some name options but we are not set on any one yet. We will keep you posted if we decide. I have a feeling we will be picking the name in the hospital after he is born!

It's a lemon, an apple, an avocado. No, it's a baby!

Well, here I am announcing publicly to the blog world that I am officially pregnant and AJ and I will soon be parents to a baby boy come March. Yes, I have known for some time and just have not felt like my normal self, thus the lack of posting. Even in the picture of me in front of AJ's new school, I am pregnant. But life for me has been a bit rough. Once I found out I was pregnant and had taken two pregnancies tests, it was somewhat downhill for me as far as morning sickness.

I was constantly nauseous and had very little appetite and would throw up pretty much every morning. Well, her I am at 19 weeks and I can say that I am starting to feel a bit more normal. Food in general doesn't make me sick and I haven't thrown up for a good week now! Plus, on Sunday I walked a 5K with my sister-in-law Jana and we did great considering I hadn't walked in about 2 months. I had been planning on doing the Portland Marathon prior to getting pregnant and even once I found out I was pregnant I kept training. But then as soon as I got really sick all working out and training had to stop. I think God was just trying to get me to slow down a little. So despite my desires and hopes, I watched Al, my father-in-law, who I was training with, take off and complete the marathon. We were super excited for him!

I am just starting to show a little now and have had to make the switch to maternity pants for the most part. No pregnacy pictures yet as it really isn't that impressive yet. I did feel the baby completely move and kick last night, even AJ felt it. It is such an amazing experience and we are just in awe of God and our little baby boy!

Yes, I will try to be better about blogging. Now that I am feeling a little better I hope to be able to do a few more things after I get home from work instead of heading straight to bed!

I am posting, so ya'll can stop bugging me...

AJ got a job. Yahoo! He will be working at Amity Middle School as the one and only counselor for the school of about 175 kids. We are excited and he is happy to have a job. Now he just has to finish the rest of his program and graduate in December with his Masters and life will be good. And on top of it all, we get health insurance again in October. Life is good and God is good. It has been a busy and hectic year with school and working and homework and discovering AJ has ADHD. He had to readjust the way he did homework and through all this has remained a 4.0 student. I married a smarty pants but a very cute one!

Oh, and I am training for a marathon. The jury is still out to if I will be able to do it. A few minor set backs one being I have gout! Ever heard of it, I hadn't till my Nurse Practitioner Sister and her MD-DO to be husband said that is what I have. Gotta love relatives in the health field when you don't have insurance. We love them all the time, but right now, we REALLY love them! Anyways, gout means I have high levels of uric acid in my body and it crystallizes thus it shows up a a swollen left big toe and foot and feels like someone is standing on my toe with a stiletto heel. PAINFUL all the time. So I lie here in bed, blogging and watching the Olympics drinking water and eating cherries, hoping my gout will go away. Ugh, life is painful.

That is a peek into our life for now. Can't guarantee the next post as I really have this aversion to getting on my computer when I come home from working on a computer all day. Hope this makes all you blog readers happy.

Later:)

Hey, a fun little quiz!

26

Oh yeah...

I got all my hair cut off and I am loving short hair. Made my life super easy on the cruise. I think I am going to let it grow out a little as it is just a tiny bit too short but still love it. Just in case you didn't notice in the following pictures, that's me with short hair!

Spring Break Caribbean Cruise of 2008

We are back and we had a blast! Of course, too many pictures to post them all but I will try to give you an overall taste of all the good times.

We landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and then drove down to Miami and saw the Miami Ink shop and then AJ and I saw the Atlantic Ocean in Miami in the rain. The next day we got on the ship and headed off to sea for Key West, Florida. We had not planned an excursion that day so AJ and I set off to explore and shop. We had a lot of fun and picked up AJ some very nice sunglasses. Back to the ship and off towards Cozumel.

The next day we got off the ship in Cozumel and headed toward our Eco-Jeep driving tour of the island. I drove our red Jeep all over and in the middle of the trip we snorkeled down the barrier reef for about a hour. It was a blast and a great first snorkel trip. For anyone who doesn't know me, I have hated swimming for a large majority of my life, but I am getting better and my fear of water is lessening so I was able to relax and snorkel! It was fantastic and beautiful to see all the coral and fish that AJ at various different times has had in his fish tank.

The day four we headed off the ship to the Grand Cayman Island. The ocean was pretty rough that day and we had heard from the captain that morning we may not be able to get off, but they decided to go forward with letting people off. This port was a tender port meaning we had to take tenders, boats, into the dock. They don't dock their big ships but rather anchor them out in the ocean. Very cool to ride a much smaller boat through the ocean. There were four other boats in the ocean that morning so it made for an interesting morning. None the less, we made it in and they also had cancelled all water excursions for the day, thus we would not see the stingrays as planned. Oh well, as the Crocodile Hunter and another story I had heard of recently were going through my mind. We visited a Green Sea turtle farm and tried some rum cake and rum, went to Hell and then had lunch at Paradise. What a day!

Day Five was Montego Bay, Jamaica and for that day we all had various excursions planned. Al and Jana took a wooden raft gondola ride down a river and got to enjoy some local experiences. AJ and JJ took a two hour ride to Appleton Rum Estate and saw how they grow sugar cane and then harvest it and turn it into rum and also got to try some. Lori and I went to a Sandals All Inclusive Resort to lay on the beach, and enjoy some Jamaican sun. Needless to say, we were not impressed with that all inclusive, just so ya'll know not to go to that one.

Day six was all day at sea and I enjoyed lots of time by the pool and in the sun. I needed to get as much as possible as I knew once I got back to Oregon it was going to be typical cloudy spring weather. We enjoyed fantastic meals every night and had amazing desserts and drinks. Fun was had by all and we didn't let any opportunity for more fun to pass us by.

Enjoy the pictures below!

Our Radiance of the Sea-Royal CaribbeanOn the beach in Fort Lauderdale. I am in the Atlantic Ocean, Easter morning at 9:30am and the water is warm!

Miami Ink shop-they have since moved down the block to a bigger location and have changed their name to Love/Hate Tattoo and I went in to see if I could see Ami or Chris from the show but of course they weren't there. Had they been, who knows, maybe I would have gotten a tattoo but still cool none the less.
Miami Beach in the rain!

One of the Key West Islands, a tiny one. Wouldn't mind living there!

A Mayan ruin in Cozumel. Very cool story behind it but too long to type.

Cozumel Snorkeling! We bought a new digital camera that is waterproof. Pretty cool!

Green Sea Turtle Farm

Hell! This is coral that has now been exposed as the water level has dropped and now it is in the middle of the island. We saw a couple of cool iguanas there!

We had lunch in the Grand Cayman at a place called Paradise right on the beach and fantastic food!

Nice shades!Dinner formal night!
Jamaica Sandals Montego Bay Resort

AJ and JJ at Appleton Rum Estate in Jamaica.

Part of the Rum making process.

Portland City Grill

For our belated Valentine's celebration, AJ and I along with his sister, Jana, her husband JJ and AJ's best friend Corban and his wife Lauren, went to Portland City Grill for dinner. For ya'll who have never been there it is 30 floors up in downtown Portland with windows all around and a spectacular view of the city. AJ, Jana, JJ and I got there early and sat in the bar in couches right at a window and enjoyed drinks and a beautiful night in Portland. Then for dinner the six of us at one table and we all had amazing food, great wine or drinks and we were all so full, no dessert. I would have as I heard there was creme brule on the menu. But for Lent this year, I committed to abstaining from desserts. If ya'll know me, I eat candy as if it were going out of style so this is a stretch for me and a good one, if I say so myself. So no dessert, but we all left full and well fed. We decided we should do this more often as we had so much fun!

Ellie got a haircut

Ellie and her "baby"

(if you ask Ellie where her baby is, she will go and fetch this little stuffed dog)

We take Ellie to the groomers every other month. Today she went and got a haircut and a bath. When she comes home, Lucy, our other dog, sniffs her and looks at her funny like, "What happened to you?" And then Ellie struts her stuff like she is the coolest dog on the block. Such crazy dogs! Ellie just looks so cute after her day at the groomers!