Rach!

Little Rach!

2011-02-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

So I have not updated in forever!!! So much going on and to be honest facebook makes things a little easier.

I thought I would post this picture. That is me on the left if you can't tell and this is a very classic picture of me from when I was little. Josh had never seen this picture before and a few weeks ago took a ton of face pictures of Norah and this one I came across tonight and thought it was too funny!

Josh did his picture editing magic and put them side by side for me.

We have a lot going on. Too much to write about now, maybe another day. We are doing great though and Norah has quite the personality and we love her so much!

Potty Training and general update

2010-01-09T06:24:00.001-08:00

Norah is in the thick of potty training. We have been attempting it for awhile but not intensely by any means. The week after Christmas she went and stayed with my parents for a week and spent alot of time with her cousins Cora and Ellie. After she came home all she wanted to do is strip naked and sit on the potty.

My sister-in-law said that every time Ellie went to the potty Norah would sit on the floor next to her to keep her company. Ellie is about 6 months older, so her and Norah are close buddies and everything Ellie does is cool!

We have not had alot of accidents though, which is good. Norah can't just sit on the potty though, she finds things to do and she likes to straighten up the bathroom while she is in there.

Once she stood up to organize something, stepped back to sit down, but kicked the potty with her heal, the lid flapped down, she sat down on the lid and began to pee!! I have now removed the lid.

Here are some images to help bring this all to perspective.

Here is "the potty"!!! The top removes and can be put on the actual toilet and the bottom white part flips to become a stool to get on the toilet, but for now she does better with it on the floor. You can also see how very small our bathroom is. This is probably the one thing I would like to change, but we adjust and it is fine. Lots of singing takes place here!

This is "Norah's Potty Progress" chart that daddy made! The columns read from top to bottom: Practice, Passed Water, Dropped a Deuce and Double Duty! Very creative!

And this is the "Box" that mommy and daddy are to sit on across from Norah, but out in the hallway to keep Norah company! I think this may have been established because Norah kept Ellie company. Norah is actually on the potty right now as I type, but neither myself or Josh is on the box so I think we are making progress to get her to go to the bathroom by herself. Oh and she is singing Twinkle, twinkle little star as we speak!

This is Norah with her cousins in Beaver Falls.
From left to right: Andie (not technically a cousin, but she is!), Cora, Norah, Ellie.

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Norah is also becoming bilingual and we are so glad! Her daycare provider is bilingual and teaches the kids Spanish during the day. We have noticed that Norah is saying more and more Spanish words at home. It's really cute!

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We got to spend a week in Beaver Falls for Thanksgiving and a week in Cleveland for Christmas. It was great to be able to get away for both holidays, but I am not sure that will be realistic in the future with the job that I have.

I have never had a job that I really had to worry about coverage when I took off and definitely never worked with a population that has as many needs that need to be addressed immediately, and understandably, so it makes taking time off very different. Doable but alot of preparation.

Our time in Beaver Falls was fun because all of my siblings were home with our kids! Norah definitely became more interactive than she already was before the visit. She loved spending time with all of her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Norah got some clothes, toys and best of all a play vacuum cleaner that sings cleaning songs!!!

Cleveland also brought more fun time with aunts, uncles and grandparents! Norah also has a new first cousin Truman who she got to share the lime light with! They did a great job together, mostly because Truman is 3 months old and very agreeable! I look forward to more interactive time between them. Norah also received more clothes and toys in Cleveland and got her first bike! Its a radio flyer with training wheels!

Here are some pictures that i swiped off of FB from Christmas:

Here is Norah opening presents, sometimes she would rip a small piece of paper and then yell, "Oh my gosh!!"

Here is Norah's new bike helmet and knee pads.

Here is Norah taking a spin around the kitchen! Later Josh took blue painters tape and made a track around the island in the kitchen, it was really cute!

Here's Truman in is Uncle Josh hat that we got for him! So cute!!!

Josh had his brother Jeremy for the gift exchange and bought him the video game Call of Duty. Jeremy is pretty good at guessing what he gets so Josh made an AK47 out of cardboard and the video game was the magazine. This is the gun in process...

Here is Jeremy after opening the gun. Josh had spray painted the gun and the game was wrapped. The whole gun was wrapped and you could tell it was the shape of a gun. It was really funny!

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After arriving back to Chicago for a week without Norah I felt overwhelmed with the amount of kid stuff we had. I pretty much said to Josh we need to go through these toys and donate or put away or we will end up on one of those tv shows where they will bring people in to confront us, our bedroom will have laundry everywhere and kid toys and then they will start finding dead cats under our belongings!! I tend to over exaggerate, but it gets the job done!

Now I recognize that I would never end up on one of those shows, but I was definitely feeling the emotions of how people end up on those shows. As a parent you look at your childs toys and think about the way your newborn cuddled with a certain stuffed animal, or how your sister gave your child a thoughtful gift and you think "how can I get rid of this?" and then the next thing you know your keep pile is huge and your donate pile is nothing. I actually went through most of Norah's stuff first and then asked Josh to go through everything that I decided to keep to see what he thought and he got rid of more because there were definitely things I thought he would want to keep and he really did not care.

Josh also made me put a box together of things for "the next baby." I said people would buy more toys for a new baby especially whens it comes so much further after the first! So needless to say we put a box together and labeled "baby #2".

(DISCLAIMER: This is definitely not any kind of hint or indication as to plans or even talk of baby #2, I would just like to honestly be able to discuss the things that happen in my life without people assuming that we are making an announcement.) I know people love how straight forward I can be and expect nothing less! ;)

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Josh has completed his PhD applications! Yeah!!! It was stressful for him so I am glad it is over. Now the waiting game begins. We will know nothing until March, and we do not even know when in March we will know anything.

He applied to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.

So it looks like we will definitely be moving this summer. I am actually looking forward to packing and trying to decided when it would be appropriate to start!

I know I have written about this before...I think I have, but anyways, I have always liked to pack. It used to hurt my college roommates feelings when I would start packing for a break or the end of the year way in advance because they felt like I was glad to be away from them. Not the case at all. I like to pack and be as efficient as possible.

So, tonight we are ordering Indian food to celebrate that the applications are done! Then we are having friends over to play Settlers of Catan!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-28T12:21:00.001-07:00

We will be going to Madison, WI for Halloween weekend, so we decided to carve a pumpkin with Norah last weekend.

Here are Norah and Daddy trying to draw up some ideas for the pumpkin faces.

Here is Daddy hard at work...

Mommy got bored and was being silly...

Norah got bored too!

Here is the final product!!!

You can see the pumpkin better in this one.

This was Norah after she got a little booklet of stickers she ripped up every possible piece of the booklet and put it all over her face.

We will post pictures of her costume after the weekend!

What Not To Wear!!!

2009-09-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

I officially applied to be on the TLC show 'What Not To Wear' and I'm so excited!!

I have never felt like a stylish person. I have always thought I was doing ok as far as my style, but secretly felt like it was not going so well. I have definitely had people along the way try to help out or bold face confront me.

My friend Angela in high school definitely tried to help out and I probably "shopped" with her the most. She plucked my eyebrows for me for the first time and she would put highlights in my hair every once in awhile. She would also tell me new make up tips she read about in magazines too. I would half listen and then later try to remember what she said and then repeat it everyday until...well today I guess! ;)

In college my roommates worked with me too. It was more natural in college because we all lived in a small space and could borrow clothes.

After college my friend Allie straight up confronted me about my wardrobe and we went shopping. I was pretty sure she was not going to be my friend though after we shopped. I usually get a headache as soon as I get to a mall or any kind of overwhelming store that has a million things to look through. I also get in a bad mood and want to leave as soon as possible.

My husband tries to encourage me to buy outside of my comfort zone and add a little color. That I have tried to do, but usually do not do so great.

In the application you have to put down 5 personal contacts. Here are the lucky chosen:

1. Josh - my husband
2. Amanda - my sister
3. Angela - my close friend from high school
4. Allie - my close friend/the one who confronted me! ;)
5. Marisa - my sister-in-law (She is going to freak out when she reads this!!! I did have one of my college roommates down, but switched to Marisa at the last minute because she is completely freaked out by the show and it is her worst nightmare to be contacted by them, so I thought it would be fun to put her on the list. Also, her husband wants to nominate her for the show too!)

Here are some questions from the application that I thought Josh's responses were so funny!

How would you describe the nominee's style?

Boring. She wears clothes from the mid 90s to work everyday, because she thinks that the 90s are still in fashion. As soon as she gets home, she changes into pajamas. She refuses to show off her figure, because she is embarrasses by her extra baby weight. When she buys her clothes, she buys things that match the clothes she bought in the 90s. I tell her that she can show off her figure without showing her baby weight, but she thinks I'm crazy.

Describe the nominee's worst fashion blunders.

umbros.

Has the nominee always been a bad dresser? If not, what changed?

Yes, her friend Allie confronted her on her fashion and they went shopping. This was probably 5-6 years ago. Her coworkers tell her that they'll go shopping with her for new clothes as well.

Why are you choosing to change the nominee’s style now?

Because it’s not 1993 anymore. She doesn’t agree that she can wear flattering clothes because of her shape. Instead, all she wears is bulky sweatshirts and pajamas.

If you could give the nominee’s style a unique name, what would it be?

Casual Shleep.

I answered this last question on my own!!

How would you describe the nominee’s make-up?

Plain…I always get asked if I wear makeup even though I apply the exact same makeup every single day!

So there are some of the highlights! I'll definitely keep you posted if I hear anything from the show!

Norah's toddler bed and toddle outfit!

2009-07-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

So we went to see my parents a few weekends ago and were randomly talking about how we needed to figure out what to do for a toddler bed for Norah soon and my dad said, "We have three toddler beds in the attic if you want one." Duh! I did not even think about the fact that my parents would have three toddler beds! So we jumped at the opportunity to have Norah use my toddler bed and my dad made it! Even better! We fit it in our car and brought it back to Chicago.

It turned out to be perfect timing because the next week Norah got her leg wedged in the crib slates and started screaming one night. We were not able to get her leg out without breaking the slates unfortunately. Josh had to punch out one of the slates to free her leg. It was a little scary but Norah was fine so that's all the mattered. I ended up finding out that our crib was recalled. Unfortunately the date was a month off but Josh contacted the crib company and they are actually going to investigate the situation.

So we decided that we were going to just transition Norah to her toddler bed.

We just set it up today so tonight will be the first trial! Here are some pictures of it.

I saw this outfit in Target the other day and it instantly reminded me of outfits my sister and I wore all the time when we were little and I could not pass it up for Norah. It's funny because everytime she wears it people say the same thing!

I thought the photo shoot was funny so I just included all of the pictures. (by the way our camera is still not working so I took all of these pictures with our laptop!)

Enjoy!

dropping rocks

2009-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

So today I had to run to the post office to mail something. What I needed to mail was small, but I needed to bring my phone, the address, a pen and my debit card. Then I got to thinking...we have some rocks that we need to get rid of. No big deal, right? Well in the city it's a little more complicated then that, well probably not but I seem to find easy tasks more difficult I guess! In my mind the rocks needed to be "distributed to and fro," so as to not look as if they were "dumped."

Well, I got an old "CCO messenger" back out that I have and loaded my few small items and then the rocks that I needed to get rid of. There were three larger rocks and then about 20 smaller rocks. I put on my "peddle pushers" and headed to the bike room.

I got on my bike and headed down the street. I turned down a side street knowing of an alley that was coming up, reached into my bag and grabbed one of the large rocks. As I approached the alley I checked to make sure there was no one standing, sleeping or digging through the dumpsters. The coast was clear and I chucked the rock down the alley. Unfortunately it hit the corner of the building and rolled onto the sidewalk. I kept going! I was nervous!

So my adrenaline was pumping at this point so I rode for awhile before I attempted another drop since the first drop was not so successful. As I was headed down another side street I thought I would try a handful of the smaller rocks to see how I did with those. I reached in my bag grabbed as many as I could hold and then placed my hand on my handle bar as if I was holding on a one by one every few feet I dropped a small rock. It was a smashing success! I felt like the guy in Shawshank Redemption when he shook the rocks out of his pants pockets in the courtyard and no one knew!

So with my new found success I grabbed another handful of small rocks placed my hand on the handle bar and was about to begin dropping again when I realized a car was coming up next to me and I was approaching a stop sign. No problem...I reached with my opposite hand for the hand brake and DANG IT that's the brake that doesn't work and my other hand is full of rocks so I can't grab the brake!!!! I quickly head full speed for the curb, luckily I had enough momentum that I cleared the curb and then continued to fly out of control across the corner of the adjoining streets through the grass and just let myself come to a halting stop with the use of my foot!!! Whew!!! And I was still holding all of the rocks!!! I'm awesome!

I caught my breathe, thanked the good Lord that I made it through the drama and then grabbed one of the big rocks with my other hand and just dropped it since I was standing still and there was no one around. I then continued on my bike ride and dropped the rest of my rocks successfully and made sure the hand was free for the brake that worked!

I just thought it was a funny adventure and I thought it would be fun to share!

Doe a deer...

2009-06-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

My cousin sent me this link and I love this crap!

One Year!

2009-06-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

We have lived in Chicago for one year now (June 7th)! It's crazy how fast it went. So much happened in that year too. Here are some of the highlights!

-Josh completed a year of grad school and learned Hebrew!
-I went back to work full time and as a mom.
-Norah was in three daycares...it was not easy, but we love her daycare that she is in now.
-I passed my social work board exam!
-I got my dream job as a hospice social worker and love it!
-We survived the worst Chicago winter! (Chicagoans are the ones claiming it was bad...maybe not the worst though)
-I have survived the biggest potholes ever, 2nd to those in Haiti that I witnessed.
-I have seen more men peeing in public then in my whole lifetime...never thought that would make the list but it is true...and I am still shocked every time it happens.
-I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time ever. (My friend Angela shaped my eyebrows for me about 12 years ago and I have been "maintaining" them ever since...it was time!)
-A black man became president...oh and he's my neighbor!

I can still remember when I was in the moving truck with Babs and Josh, Carrie, Wendy and Jay were in two cars behind us. We came over a big bridge and saw downtown Chicago and I thought I was going to pass out and I think I said or at least I thought, "What are we getting ourselves into?"

My directions were terrible to get to our apartment and we ended up in a bad part of town....We finally pulled up to the front of our new home and I can remember getting out of the truck and was so nervous and scared and thought to myself that our friends must think we are crazy and then Jay said, "This is awesome! This is so awesome! You are going to love it here!" I remember being so relieved. I don't know why I was so nervous.

As the guys were unloading the truck Carrie, Wendy and I were trying to get things a little settled in the apartment and in my mind I thought our bathroom was too small and the white walls were depressing and Carrie and Wendy just kicked into gear and set up the kitchen and kept reminding me that it will feel more like a home when we get pictures up and are more settled...

It seems like yesterday.

My parents brought Norah the next day. She was only 6 months old and just learning to sit up. She learned quickly because she only had a tile floor to land on if one of us did not catch her. Now I am chasing her around and she tries to bite our toes and thinks it is so funny!

We really love it here! Josh is taking his last final monday and then he will be a full time stay at home dad for the summer! Norah will be taking a break from day care until September. While Norah naps (hopefully) over the summer Josh will be gearing up for the fall learning German and applying for Ph.D. programs. Now I am so sad thinking we may need to move again in a year. I hope not, but we will do what we need to do when the time comes.

I know this post is all over the place, but I really wanted to blog on the one year anniversary for some reason. Our camera battery crapped out on us so I have not been taking pictures...I will look for some old ones to post.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This was Father's Day last year.

Now Norah has pigtails!

We really love her so much and cannot imagine life without her here. She is moving into the "twos" for sure even though technically we still have 6 months to go! She definitely has a spice for life like no other and I love watching her grow and learn.

Hope you enjoyed my year in review!

The Biggest Loser

2009-05-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I have posted. So much has happened and I wanted to post, but was too tired to take the time. I will post about alot and break it up so it is not one continuous sentence which I have been known to do in the past.

Work

I started orientation in January and began on my own working full-time at an inpatient unit on the south side of Chicago. Our hospice program (and pretty much any hospice program) sees hospice patients in their homes or nursing home that the patient lives in. The hospice that I work for has two inpatient units, one north and one south of the city. Basically our hospice program rents a wing of a hospital, remodeled it. The unit that I work at is very busy. I do not mind it at all. The day goes very quickly and my co-workers are crazy and lots of fun!

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Norah

Norah is my favorite! She is so funny! Just tonight we were walking home and we were crossing the street at a four way intersection and the car that was coming to the stop sign was kinda screeching to a stop as we were crossing in front of the care and Norah leaned forward and yelled NO! at the car! The lady heard her and started laughing so hard!

Norah is definitely learning to be mischievous. I can tell the way she looks sometimes that she knows exactly what she is doing. Norah has a little buddy Karla at daycare and they are a perfect match for each other! Karla actually loves, loves, loves Norah's cheeks and she runs up to Norah and pinches them! Norah then cries and Karla has to go to time out but I love it! It is the sweetest thing! Karla's mom and I are actually going to take the girls swimming together. It should be a lot of fun!

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Mother's Day

I had the best Mother's Day. Well Norah woke up at 6:45am which was crazy so Josh got up with her and let me sleep in. After we were all showered we went to Barack Obama's favorite breakfast place here in Hyde Park, which is a greasy spoon type place but oh so good! After that we headed downtown and Josh took me shopping! Now you need to know that I do not like to shop. I usually get a headache, feel bad about myself and get cranky! None of those things happened! Yeah! It was really fun! I really needed some work clothes, so it was really helpful.

After shopping we jumped in the car and headed to O'Hare airport. Our brother-in-law and sister-in-law were flying into Chicago after a two week trip to Europe. We went to surprise them to welcome them home. It worked out in some sense because they missed their shuttle to Madison and we got there a little late so we caught up to them and had about an hour visit!

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My cousin

In February I found out that my cousin Fred died in the plane crash in Amsterdam. He had a wife and two daughters. It was pretty awful. It was hard being away from home, but Norah and I did get to fly home for the memorial service in PA.

Fred was a fun loving guy who could talk to anyone and make you feel comfortable. He has wonderful parents and my heart breaks for them. They were all so tired at the memorial service as they had a funeral and memorial service in TX where he had lived.

The whole situation just shook me to the core. I think of my cousin's wife, daughters, parents and sister and brother-in-law often. I do wish I could do something more to support them.

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Josh

So Josh loves his classes and it is great! We could not want it to be any other way. He often tells me about his class material and I have a really hard time following him.

A funny thing happened the other day. He had to present a paper for class and asked if he could practice his presentation with me. I said sure thinking I'm a supportive wife no big deal, right?

Well we sat on the couch facing each other and the back of the couch was to one side. He began his presentation and instantly I felt very very tired. I slowly tried to lean into the couch thinking it would just look like I was trying to get a little more comfortable and soon my eyes were batting like they had never batted before, but the whole time I thought, I am playing this so cool, he has no idea I am tired. All of the sudden he said, "Could you at least sit up and pretend like you are paying attention?" I was busted! It was so funny to me though. I am getting really good sleep with him in this program. It's better than Exxcedrin PM!

After this incident awhile later he asked me to show him his flash cards so he could see if he was getting his vocab correct. I again became very tired and he was picking up on and was saying incorrect answers to see if I was paying attention...BUSTED AGAIN!

We laugh about it!

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The Biggest Loser

My favorite tv show that I watch regularly is The Biggest Loser. I have watched the last three seasons. I got hooked when I was 6 months pregnant and Josh had a meeting every tuesday night so I would watch the show. The show is like my sports team that I can't miss and have to see every show.

The 7th season finale is on now as I type. It took 2 1/2 seasons of me watching the show to finally start exercising! I always made the excuse that I do not have time. I did not want it to take away from my time with my family since I am working full time now and Norah is in daycare. So, I get up every morning at 6:15am and do "The Biggest Loser Yoga Workout" video!! Josh got it for me and I love it! Yoga has actually proven to be very helpful for me with my stressful job. I have noticed a big difference in just the way I feel. The video is workout yoga and that it is! I know I could be doing a more intense cardio video, but the yoga benefits are more important to me right now with my job. I did however go down a pant size so that's exciting for me!

So the show is inspiring to me and I love how the contestants lives are changed!

I will try to add pictures soon, but it was good to finally update this thing!

I dreamed a dream...

2009-04-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is the kinda crap I love!!! I'll try to upload the actual video later! I am at work crying because I loved this so much!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Picking Norah up!

2009-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

So the routine we have is that Josh will typically take Norah to daycare on his way to school in the morning and I pick her up. I really enjoy picking Norah up at the end of my work day because her reaction to seeing me is so fun!

She gets so excited and runs as fast as she can sometimes whipping objects across the room that she might be holding as she runs! One day she threw a plastic hamburger across the room and underneath a shelf like she was trying to skip a rock across a pond!

Anyways, it cracks me up everyday and it makes me feel like the most important person in the world. Betty, Norah's daycare provider, loves it too!

So this morning before I left for work I grabbed the camera and told Josh to let Betty know that I was going to try to get Norah on tape when I picked her up. I figured Betty would think I was crazy, but was willing to sacrifice that to get the moment captured! It turned out Betty was completely ready for it and turned the lights on as soon as I got there so we could get the best quality filming accomplished. Norah however was on the ball and started running before I could get a great shot. Nonetheless here she is in all her glory!

FYI: It takes awhile for the door to open so don't loose interest, the whole video is only 41 seconds! Enjoy!

Loads of pictures!

2009-02-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

I posted lots of pictures for ya all! We have had a busy few weeks. This weekend was nice and relaxed though so that was great. Friday night we had some friends over and played games. Saturday morning we had some friends over and ate pink pancakes! Saturday night we had a nice home cooked meal and then went to buy our tv converter box, but we ended up buying a new tv instead!

Once we got to the store and realized that we were not too far off from buying a new tv it did not make sense to buy the converter box. We were planning to get a new tv with our tax return so we just went ahead and got it knowing our return will be here this week! We got a great deal because there was a sale and the tv we wanted was the floor model so we got an even bigger deal!

Today we took a walk after church and each got a doughnut at Dunkin Doughnuts! It was a nice treat. After we got home Josh built a fort and he and Norah played in it awhile. I rearranged Norah's bedroom while they were playing! I love to move furniture around! (Check out Josh's blog for more in depth coverage of the fort! Click here.)

That was pretty much it! Josh is making peanut butter cookies now and I am watching Extreme Makeover!

On to the pictures...

Norah loves to dump out her books from her nice organized book basket and sit in it and then read her books. I think she looks so cute it the basket.

And another similar shot from a different day.

I do not know if all cities are the same, but in Chicago all of the museums are required to have 52 free days to receive a certain amount of funding. We took advantage of one of these free days at The Museum of Science and Industry. I did not really take pictures while we were there though, but afterwards we went to a little restaurant for lunch and Norah slept through the whole thing. I think she looks so funny all bundled up and sleeping.

We went to some friends house to watch the Super Bowl! Norah was more interested in the dog cage though. She was not happy to have to come out of it and leave at the end of the night.

Last weekend we went to Canton, Ohio for Adam and Carrie's baby shower. They are expecting their first little one at the end of March. We could not be more excited for them!
Here is the present pile.

Carrie's sister Amanda and her mom did all of the decorating. Amanda was the designer of it all. It was amazing! The theme was Pea in a Pod and it was the most consistent themed shower I have ever seen.

One of the food items were these little pea pods which were so cute!

Here is Carrie opening little hand made booties from her grandma!

I made this little hat for baby Babcock!
We test drove it on one of the twins that was in attendance!

Later that night we went to a friends and Norah ended up in a penguin costume!
Not sure how that happened but she looked cute!

This is Norah trying her best to be "gentle" with the twins!

Norah's hair has been a bit crazy lately. She has curls in the back which we love, but after a nap they quickly turn into corn rows or it teases way out and sticks up everywhere.

Here is Babs pushing Norah in the baby jogger on our walk.

This is Norah and I friday morning before I wet to work and she went to daycare. Her nanny is wonderful! I love talking with her everyday when I pick up Norah. She is so cute because she sent invitations to all of the kids to invite them to a Valentines Day party on friday at daycare and she would be providing the lunch! The invitations were so cute and they said to wear pink or red. Well Norah happened to have Valentines pj's that she could get one more wear out of them. They have a big pink heart on the butt, which I forgot to get a picture of, but we also had a little hat with hearts on it too!

The feet of the pj's are my favorite part!

So they had cheese pizza, milk and doughnuts for the V-day party!
It was a huge success for the kids. I was sad I could not attend!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

On my own

2009-02-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard that song from Les Miserables? Oh I love it, but that's not what I'm referring to.

So, I started on my own at work two fridays ago. It's been good, but as with any new job, there is adjustment. I have a whole new set of co-workers to get to know and learn their personalities and they will be learning mine. That's actually been good. I think I can fit it pretty quickly with people. Once my initial shyness wears off.

I think the biggest thing is that the pace is so fast! Nothing that I have ever been used to before. It is good in a lot of ways because the day goes by so quickly. I only get a 30 minute lunch break, but have found myself working through most of them. Some days it's 1:30pm before I even realize that I have not had my lunch yet.

Even though I have had hospice experience in the past every hospice is different. I am familiar with the setting, but there is definitely alot to learn.

I meet once a week with a woman who is an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker). This is to work towards becoming an LCSW myself. I am only an LSW (Licensed Social Worker) now. Basically you need to have so many hours of supervision with an LCSW, 3000 hours of hands on clinical experience and then you have to take the board exam again, but it is a little more focused on different areas then the LSW exam....so, that will take about two years to do all of that. Not looking forward to exam again, but no need to stress about it now.

I asked Josh the other day if he thinks my overall attitude in life has changed since I started this job and as I was finishing the question and looking up at him he was already shaking his head yes very affirmatively! (Is that a word?) It was really funny! I laughed out loud. I felt like I noticed a difference in myself so it was nice to know that I was not making things up. ;)

I think this sudden warm up in Chicago has been wonderful too! Today I drove home, parked my car and walked to pick up Norah from daycare...that is not something I would typically do! I made sure to send Josh a text message to let him know of this life changing event in my life!

So, there's an update on things. Sorry no pictures of Norah...just feeling lazy about uploading.

She has been a little more snugly with us when we are with other people and more easily upset, especially in the evenings...I think she is getting her back teeth in and that is causing discomfort and she is also smack dab in the middle of the separation anxiety stage (12-18 months). Can't say I mind when she screams with joy when she sees me and wraps around my legs and will not let anyone else hold her. Expect Josh. It's fun!

Josh is doing really well in his classes. It's nice to see him enjoying it alot. I think I would cry every day if I had to take his classes! He thrives in this setting and is so excited about it. Although last night we were talking to a friend who is petitioning for PhD spots at U of C and other places and the process seems a little scary. This time next year Josh will be doing it. We will know in a year from now where we will be for the next chunk of time (possibly 6-8 years)...we are hoping for here...I think. :) I could go to a warmer place though, but we will see!

PS, I am so thankful for spell check...although I am sure my posts would be more entertaining if I just left my original draft!

New Year's and lots more!

2009-01-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

I have to say this was my favorite New Year's Eve celebration in quite some time. The reason being is because I got a job offer!!!! I am officially a hospice social worker!!!! Yeah!!!

It's been fun because literally it has been about 10 years ago that I first heard of hospice as a freshman in college. The day I heard about it, I'm pretty sure I went home and told my college roommates that I would work for a hospice someday.

I loved the organization and everything they were about. I wanted to be a part of it and so I became a hospice volunteer. I loved this perspective on life that I had as a college student taking a few hours out of my week to go and sit with hospice patients while their caretakers went to get groceries or to get their hair done.

I had one patient that I really enjoyed spending time with. He was a sweet sweet little man and his wife was even sweeter! I loved being in their little apartment. Not too much happened. We just sat quietly in the living room together. Sometimes we would talk and sometimes we wouldn't. We didn't watch tv or listen to the radio. We just sat together and listened to the oxygen machine drone. It was such a change from my crazy life on campus with my roommates! ;)

After I graduated and worked for three years in Pittsburgh I finally applied to grad school which took some proding from some good friends and family. I did not think I would be accepted or if I got accepted I did not think I could do it part time and still work. I had every excuse.

I actually thrived in grad school. I got the best grades I had ever had. My advisor was awesome! He helped me finish the program sooner than I thought and he was such an encouragement through my whole time there with working part-time, getting engaged during mid-terms, moving an hour away and then getting pregnant!!! I can't believe I had good grades through all of that!

I loved my field placements with the two hospice programs that I worked with in PA. I learned so much from the people that I observed and worked with everyday.

This truly is a dream come true for me. I told a friend today on the phone that I am finally doing what I was created to do!

So, thanks for listening to all of my reminishing. On to the details. I work for Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care. They have an inpatient unit at a hospital on the south side of Chicago, which is where we live. The hospital is called Holy Cross Hospital. We have a whole wing of a floor that is for our hospice patients only that need some extra help with symptoms that may be out of control, respite for their caretakers and other things that might come up. It is busy enough to need a full time social worker and that is what they are getting! I can't wait to begin on the unit!

My orientation started on thursday (the 8th). I will be in orientation/training until Jan. 30th and then I am on my own on the unit! I am so thankful for the in depth training this organization provides. I feel very confident that I have the support of the organization and can do a good job with how well they are preparing me.

It's so funny because usually orientation is boring, but I love it!!! I love talking about the different components of the team and learning Seasons angle on things!

Well, I'm sure that you have heard enough about the job! On to more important things like pictures of Norah.

We drove to Madison, WI on New Year's Eve weekend, which is where Josh's oldest brother and sister-in-law live, Tim and Marisa and their dog Bailey.

Norah loves Bailey. I think Norah started to get on Bailey's nerves by the end because she got so much attention. Bailey just took it in stride and exited the room if Norah was running around crazy!

We went to a resturant for lunch one of the days. Marisa offered to be on Norah duty. Norah was being very sweet and I thought this was a cute picture!

Uncle Tim decided that since he missed Norah's actual birthday he was going to make her a cake and hand decorate it!

Here are the two of them with the final product!

In case you are wondering what is on the cake, it is the Quake symbol, which is a video game that Tim liked from when he was younger. It was great!

Norah enjoyed that cake!

One of the nights we were there some Madison friends came over and Marisa put the beer in the cooler and loaded it up with some extra snow that they found in Madison!

We came home sunday night because Josh started classes again on monday. Here are he and Norah getting back into the grind of studying!

I spent monday and tuesday with Norah visiting my former co-workers! None of them had met Norah before so it was really fun to take her to meet them. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures with anyone.

Norah did fall completely asleep on the bus on tuesday when we went downtown to Rush University. I thought she looked so peaceful so I snapped a picture!

In our time together at home Norah threw our remote for the computer inside the depths of one of her toys. I tried for about 10 minutes to get this thing out and then ended up taking the toy apart to get the remote out!

Norah has also started drinking from a straw! I think it's so cute! She loves it and it's a great way to get her to drink more water! The cup is from my grandparents. We used to use them when we went on vacation with them in their trailer when we went camping!

She's so big!!!

Chicago Weather/Christmas and more!

2008-12-27T13:30:00.000-08:00

The weather in Chicago has not been as terrible as I thought it might be. This was my biggest hesitation in moving here. However, last weekend was below zero for two days in a row! We took pictures of our windows in our bedroom because they looked like what should be the view from the outside, but no...these pictures are from the comfort of the inside of our bedroom!

Norah is up to all sorts of things these days. She is learning to do animal sounds which is really fun. My favorite are the gorilla and elephant sounds. We will try to get a video of that soon! She has been repeating us alot lately, or trying to, so we feel like she will be chatting up a storm real soon.

One of my recent favorites is that she makes fish lips and gives kisses! Here is a picture below!

The week leading up to Christmas we got a big package in the mail from Uncle Jim and Aunt Charlotte! Norah had so much fun with the box itself and the paper inside to hold the packages still! Josh got a bunch of cute pictures so I added those below.

This Christmas we were here in Chicago. With the recession and money being a little tight we decided to wrap up things that we already own that we know we all enjoy. We had so much fun wrapping a bunch of things up for Norah once she went to bed Christmas Eve! We also wrapped things up for each other too, which was alot more fun than we thought it was going to be! It was fun to see what each of us thought the other really enjoyed or had forgotten they enjoyed at one time!

This is a picture of all the presents under the tree after we were done wrapping!

Norah quickly found the empty wrapping paper rolls first thing in the morning! Daddy made her a sword later in the day, but it is now in the trash because it got destroyed by our little "wrecking ball,"! (My cousin Jason nicknamed her this over Thanksgiving because, well, let the name speak for itself!

Here we are helping her get started!

This is me in my Christmas Onesie! I kept seeing these at Target and could not resist once they were 50% off! I'm also taking a call from my Aunt and drinking my iced coffee!!!! Yummy!

This is Norah's piano that she loves!

Here is a Raven beach ball that Norah loves to play with! Uncle Tim works for Raven and they brought this on one of their visits and well, Norah does not want to give it back!

Here is a picture of the aftermath from the morning!
This is a picture from my mind as a kid, which is so fun!

The best part was that after we opened presents we had homemade cinnamon rolls that Josh made the night before! They were so good and we have continued to enjoy them each day since! I took this picture today, so you don't think we ate that many Christmas morning!

So that was our Christmas! Josh made a video that condensed that hour and 15 minutes it took Norah to open her presents for your enjoyment. He has had this up on his blog for awhile, so sorry if you already saw it. Oh and Josh has polar bear pj pants on that I got him on discount too when I got my onsie! There was not a lot of great selection in the men's department, but I thought they were fun!

A different Christmas

2008-12-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

This year will be a different Christmas for us. Due to me taking time off for job interviews, we are not able to travel at all for Christmas. We were really bummed in a lot of ways, but there are moments that I think it may be nice to just be at our home and not have the stress of traveling. Traveling with an active one year old is a whole different ballgame compared to when she was a newborn and slept the entire way.

The part that has been great is that we have had a bunch of visitors this past week, which has been nice to see friends and loved ones before Christmas comes. With our string of visitors, we have also had some Christmas parties with Divinity School friends! It's been a lot of fun and we squeeze in naps when we can so we can keep going!

It all started with my birthday on December 12th! I had a great day at work celebrating with Bess, my coworker. She got me a chocolate cake to have with our morning coffee and yellow roses, then she treated me to lunch at a old school diner type place that had the greatest old fashioned hamburgers, fries and coke! I went with regular coke instead of diet since it was my birthday! By the way, I'm 30!

After work I drove home and Josh was making me homemade General Tso's Chicken, which is my favorite Chinese dish! It was better then any restaurant I've ever had! Seriously it was really good! He also had a bottle of my favorite wine, Moscato D'asti! Here is a picture of the meal! Oh and our favorite beer too! It's called Fat Tire. And Brussel Sprouts too, which is my favorite vegetable.

After dinner I was sent on a scavenger hunt looking for little pieces of paper all over the apartment. Throughout that search I had little clues to a website, which led me to this. After watching the video, I opened the ornament and it told me to log on to a Gmail account. When I did that, there was an e-mail in there for a gift certificate for a Swedish Massage for 60 minutes!!!! I have been wanting a massage for so long because I have never had one. I actually started crying when I went onto the spa's website to check out where I will be going because I cannot imagine having a massage for that long! I can't wait! I set it up for December 27th!

Later that night, we had 4 friends arrive for the weekend. Branden, lives here in Chicago about 40 minutes away and then Sarah, Jay and Wendy arrived from Canton, OH. We stayed up late catching up and then had homemade crepes the next morning. After that we went downtown and showed off as much of the city as we could. We came back and had dinner and then went back downtown for a concert with a band called Over The Rhine. It was a great concert! They have amazing voices! It was great seeing everyone and fun to celebrate my birthday for the weekend!

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

L-R Wendy, Jay, me, Norah, Josh, Branden, Sarah

Here we are trying to get a normal picture and one of us is struggling a bit!

The big Christmas tree in Daley Plaza!

This gang left on sunday and on monday, two former students of ours, who babysat Norah often while we were in Wheeling, flew into town for a four day visit! Ben and Annie are their names! It was so good to see them! We played board games with them alot while we were in Wheeling, so we were anticipating some fun! They were really sweet and brought Christmas presents for us. They got Norah some books, Josh a new board game, called Last Word, which was a lot of fun and we played it every night while they were here. For me, they got me the greatest gift ever! That's right folks, "The Happy's Head Trip"!!!!! I included a photo so you would know what it was and how you use it! It's awesome! Annie had one and I was so jealous!!!

While they were here we took them to the U of C campus to show them around. We also tried to do the blitz tour of downtown. The best thing was that they wanted to go to the top of the Sear's Tower to see the view, so I did a little research and it would cost the same amount of money to go to the top of the Sear's Tower for the view as it would to go to the Signature Room, which is on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building, and get the view and lunch! So we opted for that and we were not disappointed! It was really cool to be up that high!

Here are some pictures from our time with them!

This is Ben and Annie playing with Norah!

This is the view from our table in the Signature Room! It was so high up! There are swimming pools on the tops of some of the buildings!!! I thought that was only in the movies!!!

It was so cold while they were here!

Josh's oldest brother Tim and his wife Marisa stopped by on saturday on their way from Madison, WI to Cleveland. We made them a big old filling lunch so they did not have to stop at a crappy rest stop and eat food they would regret. They were supposed to come friday and spend the night rounding out our string of visitors, but Tim got the 24 hour bug and stayed at home an extra night to rest up. It was great to see them for a short time!

It fell below 0 today here in Chicago! It was a little crazy walking to church. I bundled Norah so good and she cried the whole way there! I felt so bad, but I wanted to make sure she was warm. I carried her in a wrap thing that my friend Katie made me so that we were body to body to add extra warmth.

This Chicago weather is crazy and especially when the wind kicks in. I had to stop at one point and make sure I was balanced. I was about the cross the street and the cars at the intersection all waited for me to get my balance and wait for the wind to pass and let me cross. It was very kind as they were sitting in their toasty cars!

I added a picture for my parents because this was their Christmas present for Norah. In case some of you do not know, my mom is a world renowned piano player so it is only appropriate for them to give her this gift!

Norah loves the piano and plays it all day long. She sits in her chair half the time and plays and the other half she stands, plays a song and then makes sure everyone in the room is paying attention and then she bounces at the piano and wants everyone to join her!

In case you have never heard of my mom the piano player, she may have only been world renowned in Beaver County, but you're missing out!

Hard times...

2008-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

I have had what some would call a "heavy heart" lately. In my daily routine I have been hearing others life stories, situations and just their general everyday happenings. A lot of them break my heart. I have cried often and have not known how to respond other than crying and saying I'm sorry.

It just amazes me what some people live through in their lifetime. My worst nightmares are people's realities and I feel so bad. I think I feel bad because in some regards our time in Chicago has been hard for us. I think I have had the harder time and Josh is learning to cope with me day in and day out. I know he would disagree with that, but that's because he is a nice person. It has made me feel very thankful for him in so many ways. I have been feeling lately that I do not deserve to have such a wonderful husband. I know one of these days things will be better, but that's a hard concept to wrap your mind around in the middle of circumstances.

With that said, my situation pales to others. We have very supportive and loving family and friends who help us in so many different ways. We know we will never be able to return their kindness in the same capacity, which is difficult to grasp, but hopefully we can be creative and help them out in other ways down the road.

I think we have a lot to be thankful for and we have been very thankful. I think this time of year causes a lot of emotions, some good and some sad, and I am grateful for my interactions with people and their willingness to share hard things with me. My prayer list might be long but it's worth it in the end. It's a small way to extend my help when I am not able to physically be present with them.

Hopefully this all makes sense, I'm fighting too many tears to go back and proofread! ;)

Norah is 1!

2008-12-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

Norah turns 1 tomorrow (December 3rd)!!! I can't believe it! She full blown walks now. It's weird because I can hear her walking around the apartment. I know that may not seem like a big deal, but I love the sound!

We have celebrated her birthday twice now. Once with friends in Canton, OH for the annual Malone Thanksgiving gathering. Our friends graciously helped us travel there via plane tickets. It was really the only way we were going to make the quick weekend visit and it was worth it.

The other celebration occurred over Thanksgiving with my family. We had Christmas morning on Thanksgiving morning, then Thanksgiving about 4 hours later and then we had a little birthday party for Norah and Caleb. Caleb is my sisters son who is two months younger, but we figured we would squeeze it in since all of my siblings were together with our little ones. It was a crazy weekend, but so much fun! It was like a mini daycare.

We have over 200 pictures from the past two weekends, but we will be uploading those to flickr over the next week, so check back. I am going to add a few favorites!

Here are the cousins in the tub!
(L-R Norah, Caleb, Ellie and Cora)

This is Norah and Ellie in a laundry basket! They were little chums over the vacation.
They often had yelling wars.

These are the great grandparents with all the kids!

These are the proud grandparents!

Here are all the siblings, spouses and kids!
(L-R Jarrod and Heather with Cora and Ellie, Andrew and Amanda with Caleb, Dave and Peg with Emmet and little Hazel who is due at the first of the year!, Josh and I and Norah)

This is Norah getting a little kiss from her cousin Emmet...so sweet!

This is Norah and Caleb getting ready to eat their cupcakes made by Josh, Emmet and Cora.

This is a cute picture!

Halfway done!

BAM! Caleb rubbed it in his eye and well, this pretty much wrapped them up and they were both sent to the tub to clean up!

Now that Norah is 1 or she was close enough to it we turned her car seat facing forward in the car! She seems to like it, but I think she gets a little distracted from falling asleep because she can see us. Oh well! I love it facing forward.

White Castle

2008-11-21T05:03:00.000-08:00

So my co-workers were talking about White Castle a month or so ago and I mentioned that I have never been to one. They all about fell on the floor and said I needed to go.

Yesterday, two ladies and I went. They let me know that there are a lot of onions involved and I went into my long story about how I do not like onions and they said you can get a burger without any.

When we got there I realized that I have always eaten onions on McDonald's hamburgers, so they said I should be fine.

When I got to the register I let the lady waiting on me know that this was my first time at a White Castle and she glanced up at me and then back down and said, "Ok, what do you want." Was not the most warm White Castle welcoming I'm sure, but the economy is bad so I brushed it off.

I order the value meal that came with 4 "sliders", fries and a drink. My co-workers told me that the small hamburgers are referred to as sliders because they slide right down.

Anyways, we sat down with our food and I took my first bite. I knew for the rest of my time at White Castle I was going to need lots of ketchup! I ate two sliders and when I bite into the third one I knew my time at White Castle had come to an end.

I instantly started to feel nauseous! I had to start chewing gum to get the taste out of my mouth.

I felt sick the rest of the day and when I went to bed I thought for sure I would be spending some significant time in the bathroom through the night....but I stand here this morning to tell you that I survived! I feel much better and it's a new day!

I will not be participating in White Castle for as long as I live!

Stitches

2008-11-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a cute picture of Norah! She is walking a lot more and taking more risks. She was not really taking a big risk today, but we ended up in the ER! Here is the story...

We were at our friend Branden's house visiting and Norah was crawling all around and walking a little and at one point she tripped and fell right into the corner of his speaker and hit her head really hard right between her eyes.

I immediately picked her up and her head starting bleeding really bad and running down her face. She turned her head into my arm and when Josh got there with a cloth and she turned her head, he soaked up the blood and then realized that the cut was pretty deep and said we need to go to the hospital.

He took her at that point and Branden and I gathered our things and tried to figure out where the closest ER was. It turned out to be two streets away. By the time we got to the car at his apartment her head had stopped bleeding and she was not really crying anymore. Branden drove us to the ER,dropped us off at the front door and parked the car.

The nurse and doctor quickly assessed her and said that they would need to clean the cut, then put some numbing liquid on her forehead that Josh would have to hold there for 15 minutes. They would then need to put her in a papoose, which is basically a board with thick velcro straps that wrap around and hold her in place so they can put some stitches in.

Norah did not cry at all while the numbing stuff was being held to her forehead. She got a little frustrated that her arms were being held down, but that was it.

It was past time for her bottle, food, she had a full diaper and had not had a nap, but she did not make a peep. She did great!

Before they put her in the papoose they wrapped a sheet around her chest with her arms bound inside and then put her in the papoose and she acted like it was her favorite thing. She just layed there and sucked on her pacifier and watched the doctor. The doctor had Josh hold a towel type thing with a hole in the center at a slant so that Norah could see him but she could not see the doctor. The nurse held Norah's head and I just kinda had my hands on her legs so that she felt comforted, or maybe so I felt comforted...who knows!

The doctor started stitching and Norah just layed there and did nothing. At one point she started to fall asleep! She got 7 stitches and will need to get them out on friday. We need to wash her wound 3 times a day and apply some neosporin. I asked if I should stay home from work for a week just to be sure she was ok and the doctor did not really go for my trick! ;)

Have no fear friends I captured the whole thing with pictures!!!! I know that's what you really want anyways!

This is when we got to our Triage room at the ER and were waiting for the nurse and doctor. You can see the blood on her fleece hoodie if you look close.

Close up of the wound.

Norah in the papoose! She looked so cute but it broke your heart at the same time.

The doctor and nurse were so great with her!

Minutes later it was over!

Norah being carried by her buddy Branden to the car!

Norah loved her new bracelet!

Now what do good Americans do when times are crazy and you are thankful nothing worse happened? You go to McDonalds!!!!
It turns out that we were right near the corporate office of McDonald's and the McDonald's that is right next door is pretty sweet and that it was!

We made a new friend!

Here's Branden taking care of Norah while mom and dad pull themselves together after everything that just happened. Nothing that fries can't fix!

We were so thankful that Branden was with us. He was lots of help!

Winter is coming!

2008-11-07T17:14:00.001-08:00

It is supposed to snow tomorrow and it is getting cold here in Chicago. We are getting Norah ready. This is her new winter hat that has matching gloves. I thought the hate would look cute with her pj's!

Norah is 11 months old now. She is taking more and more steps everyday. We got a great video of her walking back and forth between our two couches. Josh will probably upload it on his blog soon.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the monkey it is....

Norah has been braving some steps lately and we got some on tape. Norah is also very much into socks. We often find her with a sock hanging out of her mouth. I don't think she has them in her mouth in the video, but I used the socks to get her to walk!! :)

(well i tried uploading the video overnight and it did not work....i will try later tonight!)

The video is here!

2008-10-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

The videos are in for the Improv Everywhere thing that we did!

There is a video combining all four cities that they did the experiment in and then you can see all of the individual city videos. We are in both!

Look for me pushing the stroller in the Chicago specific one and we are marching in the battle scene and then we are in the combination one too marching in the battle scene!

It's fun to finally see the video. The voice that we could hear through the Mp3 is the one you hear talking in the Chicago specific video. They cut out some parts that I think did not turn out as well. Enjoy!

Chicago Specific video

Combination video

Improv Everywhere!

2008-10-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a great weekend of rest and relaxation, which was much needed due to lots of stress from life.

A friend of ours here Annette told us about this group called Improv Everywhere that was coming to Chicago last Sunday. If you click on their name it will take you to their website. Basically, they are an improv group of comedians that want to help people in the world have a little fun. They post what city they are going to be in, when, where you need to show up and any specifics that you need to bring with you. If you look at their website you can see the Chicago post. They will make a video of the day in a few weeks, so I will post that when it comes up, but we just saw today that they put some pictures up.

We met two other friends in Lincoln Park, strapped Norah in the Bjorn and joined the craziness! We had to wear either green, red, blue or a yellow t-shirt, download a track to our Mp3 player, bring a balloon and and umbrella. That's all we knew. You were not supposed to listen to the Mp3 track until everyone starts listening to it at the exact same time and they instruct you on what to do. It was so fun!!! Regardless of the rain, we had a great time. There were probably three hundred people that showed up! We are pretty sure we will make the video because of Norah! People were so excited about seeing her participating and she loved it!!! She was kicking and flailing all over the place. The main guy from Improv Everywhere was in the crowd and we saw him several times. I think he even high-fived Norah at some point. I know this probably does not make a lot of sense, but look at their website. I highly recommend watching the "Frozen Grand Central" video!!!!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. I downloaded some pictures that we were in. Oh, I forgot to mention that they have a camera filming it all from above in an helicopter and then a few crews on the ground.

You can see us in the front line there. We were getting ready for a balloon battle in a huge field. I am holding the orange balloon and have Norah strapped to the front of me! To my right is our friend Annette, Josh and holding the red umbrella is our other friend Lisa.

Here we are marching! I stayed behind and quickly cut to the right to get out of the crowd with Norah! I have never had lots of luck with big crowds and getting trampled so I decided to save Norah from the fate as well!

If you look down to the bottom right corner you can see our fearless leader getting ready for the charge!! ;)

Halloween contest!

2008-09-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Before we moved from Wheeling some friends of ours, Matt and Jenny, gave us a ton of clothes for Norah and 4 Halloween costumes!!! They are very big on costumes, so we were honored to get some outfits for Norah. One of them was a giraffe costume which would not fit her by the time Halloween rolled around, so we quickly utilized that outfit then, but this past weekend we put Norah in the other three outfits and now it's time to vote! On the right as you read I added a poll for all to cast their vote and trust me folks, your vote counts here! No crazy electoral mumbo jumbo!

So without further ado.....I present Norah as a rooster, a monkey and a penguin! Oh and we tried to create a photo shoot set, but Norah is a little too active. The painting is a painting that Josh made while we were in Wheeling, we bought the pumpkin and corn, the pumpkin was specifically for the photo shoot and the corn was for Norah, but we used it in the photos and then made her corn!

Busy, busy, busy!

2008-09-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

We have had alot going on so sorry for not posting! Norah has been sick this weekend and today. I stayed home from work to help her get some more needed rest. Her daycare has been great, but I know she would not be able to nap as much there as she can at home. She woke up this morning at 7:30am, I fed her let her play a little and then gave her a bath and I think I put her in her swing at around 8:45am and I had to wake her up at 11:30am so we could go to campus and see Josh for lunch. We came home she ate and then she went back in the swing at 1:50pm. Josh woke her up at 4:50pm and then she just went to bed at 7:30pm!

Norah is definitely a sleeper. She pretty much sleeps for 12 hours every night. Even when she is sick she might wake up once around 3ish and we give her a little Tylenol and back to bed she goes! It's awesome!

Today while she was napping I mopped our entire apartment! Well almost all of it. She was in the swing in our bedroom and I did not do the bathroom because it needs an overhaul! I bought myself a mop yesterday in Madison when I had to get some more formula for Norah at the grocery store.

You see, I have never mopped a floor where I have lived. I have never owned a mop! I usually get on my hands and knees with a bucket, sponge and a toothbrush. The only time I mopped was when I used to clean a dental lab and there was just a lot of floor space to cover.

Our apartment in Chicago is all tile flooring because it is a pet friendly building. I know this is disgusting and I am not proud of it, but I have not mopped or hand scrubbed our tile floors since we moved in 3 months ago. I have had a lot going on and again, I have never owned a mop, so I did not have one. I'm not the same young strapping hottie that I used to be, so the idea of crawling around on the floor cleaning is not what I am interested in these days.

I was busy studying for a test, so I was trying to not worry about the floors. I vacuumed them everyday, but that does not cut it. I noticed that Norah's knees and tops of her feet were turning black since she has been mobile and realized it was time. That test I was studying for I passed two Saturdays ago, so I decided it was time to get a mop and clean my floors!!

So it was great to clean today! When I was younger and did not feel good I would stay home from school and clean my parents house, or organize the pantry, or make sure all the Tupperware had lids. I just got bored at home by myself! My mom never minded if I was sick! One time when I was home and organizing the pantry I decided that everything should be organized by height-from tallest to shortest! Well, that did not last very long and that was one of my first major lessons in organizing! Grouping like items is better and then by size! Thanks mom!

We were in Madison, WI for the weekend visiting Tim and Marisa Elek, Josh's oldest brother and wife. Marisa and I are bridesmaids in the third Elek brother's wedding, Jeremy and his fiance Char, so we got our dresses fitted on Saturday.

Norah started to get really sick on Saturday. She was a champ! Here is a picture of her below. This was her at her worst I think. She was so upset and crying. Her body temperature felt like 150 degrees.

She spent most of the weekend in her pj's. Aunt Marisa bought her some pretty sweet winter shoes that go perfect with her pj's! I put two pictures up because they are kinda hard to see. They are like Crocs and they have wool on the inside and it comes on the outside a little and there is a strap of wool that goes around the ankle. They are so cute!

I just think this little sweat suit is so cute! She spent all of Saturday in this because that's what you do when you are sick!

I thought this little family picture was cute even though Norah is not looking!

I liked this picture alot. Josh and Tim took Baily to a dog park with Norah while Marisa and I were getting our dresses fitted. I know Josh has a certain one of these pictures that he liked the best, so I hope this is not the one. I just picked it because I did not have to rotate it! I'm lazy.

My favorite, favorite , favorite snack is air popped popcorn!!!! We bought this popper on ebay when we were in Wheeling! It has by far been one of my favorite things! I actually just cleared a spot on our bakers rack so that we could have it ready to go at a moments notice because we make it so much. I also put a large cup of my McCowin iced tea in the picture because that is also another favorite of mine. (McCowin is my maiden name in case any readers do not know).

Well I know this was a random post, but I had time to post while Josh was studying. By the way he is a much better student then I ever was. He is so dedicated. You would have to be to learn Hebrew in two and half weeks! Shabach Shalom! Is that Hebrew???

First day of school!

2008-09-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today was Josh's first day of class and Norah's first day of daycare! We all survived!

I dropped Norah off. I met her teacher who won me over with this simple dialog:

Teacher: How old is she?

Mom: She will be 9 months tomorrow.

Teacher: Great, so then we only feed her what you bring in and no table food?

Mom: Exactly!

That may sound weird, but everyone always wants to give Norah cookies, ice cream, chips....you name it.

Her simple dialog told me she was on my team and wanted me to be the captain! :)

So I left and Norah was fine and I did well too! No tears were had by anyone all day! I called at lunch time to check on her and she was on her second nap! I was afraid she would not nap at all because she would have so much stimulation. I was glad to hear she had slept.

When I picked her up she was excited to see me and seemed to be doing great! I was very glad to receive her daily report about the timing of all diaper changes and whether they were wet/dry/BM! They also report on her eating throughout the day and generally how she did. This piece of paper was great for me as Norah can not really communicate at all about how the day was. Since she was in good spirits that was a good enough report for me, but the paper with the details also helped.

We came home and heard about Josh's first day! I'll let him tell about it, but the part that I thought was really funny was that he made two friends and they are both named Josh! One sat next to him and the other behind him!

So, life in Chicago is looking good for all of the Elek's! You should come visit now that we are stable! ;)

Oh and we had a great weekend with Uncle Tim and Aunt Marisa! Lots of walking and good food!

A tooth, freckles and the DNC

2008-08-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

Norah finally got her first tooth. The above picture is not of Norah. If I tried to take that picture she would single handily put me in the hospital. She is not down with anyone putting their finger in her mouth let alone taking a photo shoot. Last night I practically had to pin her down to try to get a quick look. I saw it but it was not a pretty scene afterwards. She was mad. It's funny though because she shoves her whole hand into my mouth because she finds my teeth interesting.

She really has not had too much of the common signs of teething. It's funny how everyone asks if she is teething. I do not know how I am supposed to know. I think maybe twice she was upset and we gave her something cold to suck on and she was fine. She does not really drool and she sleeps through the night with no problems still.

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Norah is also in a phase where she will see a little speck on the floor and she will crawl to it and put it in her mouth. Tonight we were sitting on the couch together and she kept trying to "pick up" my freckles and eat them. She would think she had it and put it up to her mouth and chew and look up at me! It was sweet!

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So tonight is the night that Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Nomination. I have been a supporter of his since the beginning. Now that we live down the street from him, it has been really interesting to observe the secret service around their house. Things have really beefed up since he got back from vacation.

All that aside, I was thinking today on the drive home from work about how significant tonight will be. Whether you like Barack Obama or not, this is history in the making. It really is amazing to think about the state of racism and the United States just 40 or 50 years ago. Now let me make it clear that I do not think that because Barack is the nominee that all race problems and racism is over. I do not agree with that at all. I believe part of what would make his presidency amazing is the fact that the United States would have race issues raised more and things could be discussed on hopefully a more productive basis. Not necessarily because Barack is raising them, but I think, in a good way, people would do some self-reflecting and engage in conversation with others about cultural differences, their own personal views and how things can change for the better.

I look forward to his speech tonight.

Our little Lioness!

2008-08-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

In case you did not know that Norah has a blog, you should go check out the video she posted of herself!

The first 30 seconds is the best part!

(Click on the word video above to see it!)

Norah Screaming

2008-08-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, don't say I didn't warn you....the video is long and I'm sure you will not want to listen to it for too long, but this is a perfect example of what happens.

So, any advice?

Bobbing your head! & Mom jewelry

2008-08-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Norah has taken to screaming lately. It was cute at first and now it is straight up annoying. This is when I am glad to not be a stay at home mom. When she screams at the top of her lungs I just do not know what to do to make her stop.

I also feel bad because we have a married couple that lives across the hallway from us and I am sure they do not want to have children because Norah screams.

So tonight at dinner I did not know what to do again and I found myself bobbing my head. Joshua quickly caught on and we ate our dinner and explained to Norah for about 10 minutes straight how bobbing your head is a much better alternative to screaming.

It was funny because she just stared at us in shock, but she was quite. We were trying not to laugh at how ridiculous we were being and how funny she looked staring at us.

I wanted to take her picture, but she was being quiet so I choose not to.

Instead I just took a picture of myself trying to imitate Norah. I know how much you like pictures of Norah so you are going to have to be creative and imagine her doing this......

Oh, by the way, you'll have to excuse my hair, but when I'm hot or it's the end of the evening I always pull my hair up on the top of my head. I just can't stand it in my face any longer.

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When we were in Wheeling I had this great idea for jewelry for new moms. I took this picture and forgot about it, so I thought I would post it now! Let me know if you think it would work out and then I could become a stay at home mom again!!!

Two Years!

2008-07-31T19:16:00.001-07:00

Our two year anniversary was July 29th! It was a simple celebration this year! Josh made a really good dinner, which was Curried lentils with rice and chicken!!! Yummy! He also made brownies which are in the background with our cake toppers in them from the wedding! If you can't tell, they are "R & J" That was kinda a small theme at our wedding. Well, they were the cake toppers and on the invitations. If it's on the invitation though that counts as an official wedding theme! He also bought me chocolate milk, which I love!!!!

We are very thankful for each other and all the blessings we have had in our short marriage so far! First being that we feel like we have a healthy marriage and we strive to work at it everyday together. Secondly, we have Norah. She has been such a wonderful baby and we could not be more thankful for her. She is so much fun and she brings us such joy!

Speaking of, we had a special guest at our second anniversary dinner!

Here was her anniversary dinner...

You never thought Cheerios could be so romantic!

Norah is really moving up in the food world. She loves to eat Cheerios and we gave her spiral noodles tonight which she devoured! We usually have to pick up a few handfuls from underneath her legs and put back on her tray, but she shoves it in.

Crawling!!!!

2008-07-13T07:37:00.001-07:00

Norah started crawling yesterday! It's not the real deal crawling, but she can up on her hands and kness and inch forward! It's really fun to watch!

We went to the beach on friday after I got home from work. The picture above is from then!

New Header...Midwest....

2008-07-09T15:23:00.001-07:00

Josh made a new header for me and I love it!!!! Don't you?

I told him awhile ago that my blog looked so boring and he surprised me at work today with a text message that said he changed it!

I meant to write about the "Midwest" the other day so here goes.

So I live in the "Midwest" now. It's so weird to say because I still think I'm on the "East Coast." The other day we were at the bank talking to the funniest guy I've ever met and we said we moved from West Virginia and he said, "Oh I used to live on the East Coast." I got all excited and was waiting for him to say Pennsylvania or DC or something and he said, "Yeah, North Carolina, I love it there!" I thought to myself, "That's not the "East Coast." Your "East Coast" is like 12 hours away from my "East Coast."

Turns out no one else thinks Beaver Falls, PA is the "East Coast" expect for me.

Now onto the Midwest. First I need to complain that Illinois roads are terrible!! I mean terrible. I can't tell you how many times my cd stops playing because I am just driving and slowing down often to try not to hit a big pot hole. I cannot get over how bad the roads are. There are so many people that complain about PA roads but those are nothing compared to here.

I am having to adjust to the accent here too. I have to have people repeat themselves all of the time. I feel bad because once I realize what they are saying or spelling it's like, Adam Smith or apple...back to the basics for Rach here in the Midwest!

Anyways, I know this post was not anything to write home about, but I wanted to share my thoughts!

Work, Apartment, the Midwest, Visitors and 7 Months!

2008-07-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

This will be a long update! Sorry it took so long to get pictures of the apartment up. First, I started my job on Monday! I only worked until yesterday, Wednesday. I have Thursday and Friday off! The first week of work was good. It was a lot of reading orientation manuals and taking little quizzes on the info. If you have ever worked in a hospital or medical type setting the orientations for those places are always usually similar and long. I am still not finished with it all, but have a huge chunk done.

Everyone I work with is so nice. I will be working between two hospitals that are about 10 minutes apart. I have only been at one of the hospitals so far though. I am a Patient Ambassador, so I basically make sure that patients are comfortable and pleased with their rooms and care for their rooms. I work in the Environmental Services department. My office is in the basement of the hospital, so no windows. Fortunately I will be on the floors of the hospitals alot, so that should balance that all out nicely. There are times I like to be in a dark room organizing! :)

I've done pretty good being away from Norah. The hospital has a thing where they play a lullaby over the loud speakers when a baby is born, which is nice, but I instantly tear up and have to distract myself so I do not start to cry.

Ok, on to our apartment! I put up a bunch of pictures so I will just start going through them and explaining.

This is from the door, you walk in and look right and this is the kitchen/dining room.

The cupboards are much bigger than we expected and we can get a lot of stuff in them. We actually have a lot of bare space, so we could not be happier.

This is our baker's rack which has proven to be well worth the money.
We have used it so much in the last two years!

This is the dining room looking into the living room.
Hopefully our wireless will work soon so we do not have to sit at the table!

This is Norah's seat that she eats in, her play pen which is not usually there, but has been helpful for dad when he needs to get a shower during the day while I am at work. :)

This is our living room area. It's a nice little area to be in. We actually do not use the AC too much because there is always a nice breeze. Unless it is near 90 then we turn it on.

This is the entertainment corner, lots going on, but fun!

This is the beginning of the hallway where the pictures are. We put tons of pictures up of family and friends so we think of you all often! That is also a free desk that we got, but we will be replacing it down the road as it does not meet our decoration appetite!

On to Norah's room! This is her shelf that Josh built that holds all of her goodies!

Here is her bed! She loves her crib. She slept in the pack n' play from the time she was born because we were all in one room in Wheeling. It's nice for all of us to have our own rooms!

This is a handmade mobile made by dad for Norah! She loves watching it blow in the wind!

This is a close up of the carpet we got, which I love! We had received something from Pottery Barn Kids that we returned and once we moved out here to Chicago we bought a carpet for Norah's room that I think goes perfect!

The other side of the room!

Here is Norah sleeping in her swing while I take pictures!
(Yes, she has a mohawk in case you are wondering. We will get to that later.)

This is Norah's closet. The closet's are huge! You will see our bedrooms in a minute. There is also one in the hallway by the door, but I must have forgot to upload that picture. It took me awhile to get all of them organized the way I wanted.

Here is the bathroom. The window freaked me out at first, but now I like it because it airs out the bathroom really quick after you take a shower.

The bathroom is very small. I am still trying to figure out my "getting ready" routine. I just cannot lay everything out in the order I use it, so I get frustrated. I'm working on my attitude! :)

Here is our room!

Corner bookshelf which we love and were glad for the tall ceilings.

Here is another purchase that was well worth it! We have an elevator, so this laundry organizing cart is awesome!!! I really love it more than I probably should. :)

And the big honking closet! I moved stuff around so many times in that first week we were here. Josh would have to see what I did each day and be questioned as to whether he thought the space was being used to the best of it's abilities!

The End of the tour!

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This past weekend Tim, Marisa, Grandma and Grandpa Elek and the best of all Bailey came to visit! Now you may ask yourself, why would you put a little baby on a German Sheppard?! Well, you don't know Bailey, she's very calm and well behaved and Norah loved her!
They both gave kisses all weekend to each other! Baily just has better aim!

Well, Norah got a mohawk from dad yesterday! He was so excited about it!
Norah didn't seem to mind either!

Happy 7 months Norah!!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

Angry Baby/Happy Baby

2008-06-27T13:23:00.001-07:00

We went for a bike ride yesterday morning to do some errands. While Josh ran into the bookstore I sat outside with Norah. She just sat there in her bike seat and looked very angry for a long time. I took a picture of her and then said, "Angry baby!" in my best angry voice and she quickly changed her expression and I captured it too!

"Angry Baby!"

"Happy Baby!"

I'm sure most of you do not care, but I thought this was so funny! I love my little girl!

P.S. We just got Norah's crib from Grandma and Grandpa Elek. I took a video of our apartment to upload on here, but am having some issues. If I can't figure it out then I'll just kick it old school and take some pictures and upload them!

Family Bike Ride, Navy Pier, Visitors!

2008-06-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

We went on our family bike ride on saturday! It was alot of fun! We ended up going 15 miles! We biked all the way to Millennium Park downtown. It was a beautiful ride. Lake Michigan is amazing!

Below is a picture of our new bikes!

Norah loves riding and looking all around at people and buildings.

This little wind suit that Norah is wearing was originally cousin Cora's. My dad bought it when he was in Oklahoma for training for work. It's the Oklahoma Sooners gear that we pass around for all the cousins to wear. I should have put Norah in it sooner because she is almost too big for it. I figured it was the perfect time for her to wear it in the Windy City!

On Monday we decided to go downtown and to Navy Pier. Here we are waiting for the Metra. We waited a long time because we did not have a train schedule.

We went to the Lego's store downtown and saw all of the big lego displays.
Norah was dwarfed by the Lego kids!

There was a Lego man sitting in the middle of the mall so of course we had to get a photo with him!

It took Norah forever to fall asleep while we were downtown,
but finally she did and was oh so cute!

This is a view of downtown from the back side of Navy Pier!

Today we checked our e-mail and saw that our friend Joel Daniel Harris was in town for the day with his friend Lindsey. We jumped on the Metra and spent a few hours downtown with them. We got free M&M's ice cream treats!!!

So that has been the last couple of days!

We arrived!

2008-06-19T07:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry this post took so long in coming! First it was because it took a long time to get our internet set up. Second, it takes so long to upload photos that I really wanted to get a bunch of pictures up here so that people really enjoy their visit after so long! :)

I'll walk you through the last two weeks!

Saturday, June 7th, Josh and I left for Chicago with our friends Jay and Wendy Oldaker and Adam and Carrie Babcock. We left from Canton, OH. Norah stayed with Grandma and Grandpa McCowin and they drove her up on Sunday, which was awesome! Norah was getting over a cold and I think it would have been a lot harder had she been with us.

Here we are in Canton, getting ready to leave....

Anyways, the drive went really fast and our friend Branden Mast met us at our new apartment building with our keys! He had come the week before to get them for us so that one of us did not have to fly in during the week to get them. The guys unloaded and the girls started setting things up and the truck was empty in an hour! We all put things away, put shelves together and started showering so we could go downtown for dinner.

We went to Giordano's for famous Chicago stuffed pizza! Here we are enjoying it....

(L-R--Wendy, Jay, Josh, Branden, Adam, and Carrie)

Now, on to some important things! The apartment was clean when we arrived, which was nice! Now after being here for 24 hours I notice that some things are not to my liking! I'll let you see if you can tell which of the four things below where cleaned by me and which were not! The picture is not a great one, but I think you'll be able to see a small example of my work!

Next comes our "junk drawer." Well, I guess there is not a lot to say about it, but I thought I would include it in our tour here!

(Pictures of the apartment will come soon! We may just do a video with our camera and upload that!
Not sure yet! Check back!)

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In case you are not aware, I am a triplet. Most of my time as a 6-12 month old was spent in a laundry basket. You see it was simple crowd control for my parents and I'm sure my older brother David did not mind the peace of mind either, even as a 5 year old! :) Norah spent some time in a laundry basket the first couple of evenings here as we tried to set things up and organize. She also spent a lot of time in only a diaper because it was so hot!

This is the view out of our living room window. It's nice that there is not a building right up against our windows.

Norah had a bath and spent some time in her robe! She looked so cute!

Our friend Katie made us this wrap and this was the first time we used it. Now this is definitely not me at my finest hour, but it was hot and we needed to walk to CVS to get Norah a fan for her room. Thanks Katie! It works great!

And Yes, I am wearing Umbros!

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We have beaches here in Chicago in case you didn't know! When we came two years ago to visit Tim and Marisa here, I was really surprised to find that there were beaches here. One day last week we took a long walk to the 57th street beach. Norah loved it! The water was cold and I could not stand in it for too long, but it did not bother her at all.

I thought this was cute!

My sister-in-law Heather's sister Suzy let us borrow this cute little bathing suit for the summer since their daughter is too small for it! It fits Norah perfect! Thanks Suzy!

Here is Norah enjoying her book from Aunt Heather. She can't put it down!

She got stuck in her little box.

For Father's Day we got all dressed up and went to try out our first church in Chicago! The funny thing was that the church we choose was a bilingual church-Chinese/American. We had no idea. The people were so nice and we really enjoyed it! We were the only ones there that did not speak Chinese. We might go back after we look at a couple more churches. This outfit came from cousins Jason and Lyndsey and we love it!

Later on Sunday Branden came to visit. He lives very close to Chicago, so we made dinner, but while it cooked we went to a Japanese garden close to where we live. It was built during the World's Fair in 1893, which I'm sure Josh will blog about soon because he read a book about it and the World's Fair took place in our neighborhood, and we have been going to some of the places that are still around from it.

Norah started holding her bottle! Yeah!

Norah and Daddy playing the guitar together.

Our friends Jenny and Matt who we know from Wheeling gave us a box full of clothes for Norah before we left. We pulled this outfit out the other day and thought it was so cute. We took Norah around on some errands in it and she drew all sorts of crowds.

If you have never used Craig's List or Freecycle in your area you should! We got some old school bikes yesterday and a child's seat for Norah for super cheap! Today we got her the smallest helmet we could find and it is a tad to big, so we have to put a sun hat underneath it....this picture is just a preview of the first Elek Family Bike Ride which will take place tomorrow (friday)! We can't wait and we promise to post pictures!

OH Yeah! I got a job! I start on June 30th. I'm working at a hospital south of where we are. I'm not going to put too much detail here, but feel free to ask questions about it. I'm really looking forward to getting started. I will be working closely with patients and that will be fun! It is not a social worker position, but similar to a social work position in a lot of ways. The great thing is that I will be interviewing for a manager position soon. They asked me if I would be interested and I haven't even started! I owe lots and lots of thanks to my friend Betsy who recommended me! Thanks Bets! More to come later...

One more thing...I figured out how to add e-mails to a list so that you can get an e-mail everytime I update my blog. If you want me to add you send me an e-mail and let me know!

And!!!! We live 4 1/2 blocks from Barack Obama!!!

Moving in 3 days!

2008-06-04T16:39:00.001-07:00

We are moving in 3 days! Everything is packed! I'm nervous.

Norah laughing

2008-05-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for awhile to capture Norah laughing and it happened a few days ago! Josh was holding our friends baby and pretending like he was riding a horse and Norah was watching and laughing. I think the video is kinda long, but her laughing is right at the beginning. I'm sure there is a way to edit the video, but I'm not going to figure it out! :)

Norah's big decision

2008-05-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Norah let us know that she had something important to talk to us about the other day. She said she had been thinking alot and talking to some students around campus and felt that regardless of her protestant up bringing she felt strongly about attending Catholic school when she was old enough.

After a long conversation about her reasoning, we let her know that we thought that she might only be interested in this because of the uniform......

She is thinking it over and we will let you know the turnout!

(Our friends Jenny and Matt handed down this outfit from their daughter and it was just too cute! It came with navy blue shorts, but we put this skirt we had on her since she looked like a boy in the shorts. She still kinda looks like a boy, but it was fun!)

Packing and Moving!!!

2008-04-26T05:37:00.000-07:00

So not sure if you know this about me, but I love to pack! I keep seeing boxes that I want to take because they would be the perfect packing box!

I think I will start packing today! Let's be honest mentally I have already packed. I like to prepare ahead of time for a move so that it is smooth and seamless. Moves are never smooth and seamless, but I like to think mine are. ;) I did pack a small box last night with small picture frames in it and already labeled it for which room in our new apartment it goes in.

This is the other thing. My husband is not crazy about packing and organizing, but he gets geeked out about computer programs. The other day he used a program on our Mac called Gimp and made a scaled down version of our Chicago apartment and then measured every piece of furniture in our current apartment and made an object shaped like it, scaled down, gave it a color similar to it's current one and then we arranged our Chicago apartment so that move in day will be easy! We have a couple of options of layouts in case of plugs and heaters being in weird places, but I loved it! I didn't say a word the whole time he did it for fear that if he knew he was organizing and planning ahead he would stop dead in his tracks! :)

Here is the plan we hope that works! I'm sure it won't make too much sense, but it's pretty.
If you are helping us move, print this off and start studying!
We only have 42 more days till we put it into action!!!

I started collecting boxes this week, but did not get very far. The local grocery store saved a grand total of 4 boxes for me. So, I went to the WJU's cafeteria and talked to some of my buddies that work there and they are hooking me up next week. I'm sure it helps that I brought Norah with me!

Ahh! I love packing! I'm getting even more excited about it as I write! I can sometimes hurt people's feelings because of it though. Ask my college roommates. Every single break or weekend I went somewhere I would start packing in advance and it made them sad because they thought I wanted to be away from them. It really had nothing to do with them. I just wanted to pack and then I was anxious to unpack!

So, I am off to begin! We have a couple of cute pictures of Norah that I will tack on to the end so that your time was not wasted here! :)

Attack of the animals!

Reconciliation of the Browns and the Steelers!

Cute little ladybug outfit from Grandma McCowin!

These pj's are so stinking cute and seem like big girl pj's.
Norah was not happy about this photo shoot!

Alright, the ultimate test. Norah in her papa's glasses: Does she look more like Josh or me?

This is for my sister. Her son Caleb received this beautiful blue flowered sweater at one of her baby showers. It turned out he was a boy though so he gave his beautiful sweater to his cousin! It was a tad chilly this morning so we put her in it before she grew out of it!

Norah's Baptism

2008-04-22T11:18:00.001-07:00

Norah was baptized on Sunday. We had a lot of friends and family come into town for the service which was fun! Norah did fairly well during the actual service. She has never made it through an entire church service so I was not sure how things would go.

When we got to the front of the church she was fine but then started to get a little fussy, but the pastor kept going and did not seemed concerned. As soon as he took her for the water part of the service she did fine. He later told us that he had two colicky children and one grandchild, so he knows how to hold a baby to calm them down! After he did the water he walked down the center aisle of the church so everyone could see her and she loved that part!

Norah's dress was my mom's baptism dress. I was afraid Norah might rip it to shreds with her fierce grip but she did great! It was really special to have her in her grandma's dress. I came across it several years ago with my mom when I was helping her reorganize their basement room and told her that if I ever have a little girl I want her to wear that dress, so it was great to have it all come to furition.

This was a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to make sure the dress was going to fit and it did!

The Elek Family!

The extended McCowin Family!

The extended Elek Family!
It was the first time Norah met her Aunt Katie and Steve.
They came all the way from North Carolina!

These are good friends from Pittsburgh. Erin and Lucy Bindewald and Allie Mollenkof!
(The picture is a little fuzzy which stinks.)

Cousins! This is the eldest cousin on the McCowin side Cora. She wanted a picture with her little cousin Norah. (Yes their names rhyme :))

Good News/Bad News

2008-04-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

Well, we will start with the bad news first. I did not pass my test yesterday. I cut and pasted the e-mail I sent to friends and family last night. As you will be able to tell it was rough. Today is better than yesterday and I'm sure it will only get better from here on out.

"I missed it by one point again. It's very disappointing and frustrating. This is essentially my life experience with tests. As far as Chicago goes, I can still pursue social work positions, but if they want someone who is licenced then obviously I will not qualify. I will probably pursue any kind of employment at this point and see what happens. I will be able to take the test again in July and it will be easier in the end to take it in IL and not have to transfer my license from state to state.

I do not know what it all means...I'm not sure that it needs to mean anything I guess. Just pray for us as we make this move to Chicago and I feel like I let my family down. I know that's not true but that's what I feel. Norah just needs me to feed her, change her and put her soothie in her mouth and that I know I am licensed to do!

So, we are looking into some infant modeling for Norah so that I don't have to work...just kidding!

Thanks for loving me, I need it.

Rachel"

*************************************************

Now for the good news! We found out about our apartment last night and accepted it today!!!! We are so excited! Below is a picture from the "typical floor plan" of what we believe will be our exact apartment (measurements wise).

We are so excited because this apartment will have character to it unlike this aparement we are in now that is three rectangles all connected. We will be able to go in a circle around walls if we want! I'm sure that will come in hand when we start chasing Norah!

As you can see the elevator and stairs are right across from out door which will make moving a little easier! We will be on the 5th floor of our building. I'm glad about that because it's high enough to not have to worry about people getting in the window! I know I'm crazy, but that's the first thing I thought!

If you click here you can see some pictures of the building and our laundry room and other fun things that you probably do not care about! :)

When we signed up for housing we decided to shoot for the stars and request a building with an elevator. Mostly for me because of my muscle disease and the ease that will have for me in the winter months with a baby and a dog!

That's right folks! We have a dog! You may not know this because she has been living in Cleveland with the Eleks since we can't have her in the dorm. Her name is Gizmo! Here is a picture...

This is one of my favorite pictures of her! She is a cutie and it will be great to finally be with her!

So, that's the good news! We are excited and it is helpful to have this piece of the Chicago puzzle nailed down! Good news always helps with the bad news, so the timing was perfect!

We will most likely move the first full weekend of June, but don't hold us to that yet as we have lots of details to tie up here. We will keep you posted!

PS. visit Norah's blog for a really cute video of her!

Nasal spray

2008-04-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

I will never use nasal spray again! I used it last night at 6:30pm and barely slept at all!!!! I used Flonase (sp?) once and had nightmares all night, but I thought, this is over the counter stuff, I'll just do the minimum dose and I'll be fine.

Well, that was not the case. I went to sleep on the couch at 2:30am because being in a room with two people sound asleep does not help. I did fall asleep for a little bit at 3:30am I think. Luckily Norah slept for 11 hours and 15 minutes so that was good! I hope to sleep today while she does.

Remember the Sabbath

2008-04-13T19:12:00.001-07:00

So I am taking my social work board exams for the second time this Wednesday. I took it the first time 10 days before I had Norah. It's a long story, but I signed up a week before I took the test and studied for 7 days straight and failed by one point. It was pretty heart breaking and my pregnancy emotions did not help the situation at all. I cried so hard I thought I was going to induce my labor!

The hardest part about it was that the test was all electronic and there are 170 multiple choice questions. When you answer #170 the screen changes and asks you if you are finished, you click yes and the next screen says, "Click Quit if you are done" you click that and the next screen popped up and said, Failed! I had no idea I was going to know my results so you can imagine my surprise! Then it said by one point and I did not know what to do. It was terrible.

I could not sign up to take the test until 90 days later, so I signed up about a month and a half ago and started studying again. Last Wednesday morning when I was a week away I started to freak out. One of our RA's Ben stopped by to visit and I was telling him about how I could not sleep and was freaking out about it. He is a psychology major and started talking to me about how the process of worrying is the same as the process for thinking positively. He told me I need to tell myself that I will pass my exam. It was helpful to talk to him and later I decided to write on all of our mirrors with a white board erase marker, "I WILL PASS MY BOARD EXAMS!" I also wrote Barak Obama's phrase from one of his earliest speeches, "YES WE CAN!" I figured while I was thinking positively I would also think positively about the candidate that I want to be the next President of the United States! :)

Anyways, it really has been helpful for me to have written this on the mirrors. Everyday as I am getting ready or just walking by, I say the phrase to myself and I have not been worrying as much or being hard on myself.

When I was in Utah I also talked a lot about this with my sister. She was very helpful too because she had also failed her exams for interpreting. She just talked to me about how looking back now she could see God teaching her things and preparing her. I know alot of times that kind of reasoning does not make sense to people and it does not always make me feel better too, but she is right. The fact that I am even writing about this publicly is a big step for me. I did not want to tell anyone when I would be taking the exam again because I felt ashamed about failing. I know that it is entirely possible that I will not pass again, but it is also entirely possible that I will pass the exam. I think the hard part about it is that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because we are moving to Chicago and I will need to be getting a job. I'm not trying to say that I am not being responsible and studying because trust me I am!

That leads to the subject of this post. Today after lunch Josh had to go do housing sign ups all day, so I came home and got Norah settled down for a nap and then started studying again. I felt very burdened by it and realized that I just needed a break from studying. I realized that it was the Sabbath and I needed to let myself relax and take a break from it all. I have been fighting a cold for too long now and this morning I felt like I might be getting worse again. I needed to let my whole body and mind take a day off and do something I enjoy since I have just been studying as much as I can when Norah is sleeping.

It felt great to put the books away. I took a nap with Norah, played with her, cleaned and organized some things and ate ice cream! I did not stress out about not studying and do not feel like it will make or break me. I am not always good at keeping the sabbath, especially now that I am a mom. I don't know how you take a day off from being a mom though! :)

I know this was a long post to get at the point of it, but I have been really proud of myself for the way I can see growth in areas that have been so hard for me in the past. I hope to have a great report for you all on Wednesday evening after the test. If I don't it will be ok, after some tears of course, which is appropriate and necessary for me to cope! Thanks for reading if you got all the way through!

Goodbye Second Cup!

2008-04-08T13:34:00.001-07:00

This was the only picture I could find quickly. :)

Our favorite and only coffee shop, as far as we are concerned, is closing tomorrow. We found out about a week ago when we returned from Utah and were not able to get there until today, due to our trip to Chicago and being ill.

The owners, who are sisters, Amanda and Jessica, are friends of ours and they got to live their dream for the past 3 years which alot of people can not say for themselves. They felt that they needed to close before they went into debt, which is a great decision. I feel bad because alot of people are upset at them because it is "ruining their monday," etc. We are excited for the possibilities for them as they will be able to do other things they may want to do. Of course we will miss being there, but they have hope to open it again when the economy is better for everyone.

We knew we would not be able to be there tomorrow for their last day, so Joshua had the idea to get a bottle of wine and toast them into their new adventures at three when the shop closed today. Norah and I hung out with them while he ran to the store. He got back right at three and when the last person left he brought the stuff in and we surprised them! It was alot of fun! We sat right on the floor in the middle of the shop and toasted and told stories. It was great! I'm pretty sure they loved it and felt honored and celebrated.

When we first walked into the shop today I completely teared up and had to hug them. I was surprised by my emotions, but it was a big part of our life here in Wheeling. These are the kinds of things that will make me sad to leave a small town and move to a big city.

Amanda and Jessica love Norah so much and she could be the one reason they consider having children down the road they say!

Anyways, I just thought I would share our joy and sadness with you all. It's nice to have a place to walk into and the owners know what you want to order. I never thought I would have something like that in my life, but it was wonderful!

Sisters

2008-04-02T19:42:00.001-07:00

This is my sister Amanda and her baby boy Caleb! Josh, Norah and I flew out to Utah to be with her and Andrew for Easter. It was a great trip! Minus the fact that most of us were sick in the beginning.

When Amanda and I were little girls we knew we wanted to be pregnant at the same time when we were older! When she got married in 2000, and there was no one in the works for me, I figured Amanda would be on her 5th child by the time I was pregnant with my first! Well, I beat her by 9 weeks!

It was really great being pregnant at the same time. It was nice to talk about how our bodies were changing and our emotions were at Cedar Point going all over the freaking place without us!! I sent her maternity clothes when I was done with them and I just flew home with an extra bag full of maternity clothes in case Heather decides to have another! :)

I am impressed with my sister as I always am. She is a good mom and I loved being able to spend time with her in her everyday life to see how she is doing the mom thing! Her and Andrew are very intentional with every decision and action they make. I have always looked up to her and admired her and still do.

Caleb slept through the night for the first time last night!! Yeah!! We rejoice in the small things of our children's lives. Norah is oh so close to rolling over. She has done it on an incline and with the help of her Baby Einstein playmat with the little plastic things that hang down, but she is very very close to doing it completely on her own!

Here are just a few pictures. The rest our on Norah's flickr account. I'm tired and need to get to bed.

Enjoy!

Josh and I are headed to Chicago tomorrow until Sunday to figure things out for the move. He has a perspective student day all day friday. I will post about the weekend next week!

College Fun!

2008-04-01T10:47:00.001-07:00

We decided to take a walk this afternoon and get lunch at the school's kiosk. When leaving the building this is the sign I saw posted on the front door of the residence hall!!!! I immediately knew that Ben one of the RA's did this as an April Fools Joke! I tore it down and when we returned an hour later it was back up!

Norah's trip to the ER

2008-03-15T15:15:00.001-07:00

We had to take Norah to the ER yesterday. I got home from visiting my family and she had been acting strange all morning. I took her temperature and it was 101.2. I called the pediatrician and they said to take her straight to the ER because she was so young.

Norah was a little frantic as soon as they started checking her out. We had to take her sleeper off and she was also hungry, so she started crying really hard. We fed her and they started to examine her. They took her temperature via her bum, which did not make her happy. We calmed her down and then they came in and said they were going to need to insert a catheter to get a urine sample. They said we could step out if we would like to because she would probably scream. We said we would stay. When they left to get what they needed I said to Josh, "Watch, she will probably like a catheter like I did when I was in labor!" Well, it turned out she did!! :) She was smiling and playing with the nurse as they did it.

Next we had to take her to get an x-ray. Again she was calm and then as soon as we unwrapped her and handed her over she started screaming. She luckily was not strapped down, a nurse was with her the whole time holding her.

After 2 1/2 hours they determined that she had a virus, constipation and gas bubbles in her stomach. The doctor said it just all occurred at once and made her unhappy. She also said that she thinks Norah is colicky, which we nodded knowing that was completely wrong because Norah is the easiest going baby and she was only freaking out because she was in the ER and people were all up in her grill!

She has been very tired and weepy (not screaming) and needing extra snuggling and sleeping. She is taking Tylenol and Motrin. I ran out to get a few things and when I came home Daddy was caring for his little girl!

All in all it was a little crazy, but she is fine in the end. It's no fun taking a little baby to the ER, but you do get through the ER system much faster!

Moving to Chicago!

2008-03-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, we are moving to Chicago! Josh got accepted to The University of Chicago's Divinity School, to study the history of world religions. He was so excited and so am I! It's nice to know where we will be going. We will move sometime this summer, not sure when yet. I knew he would get accepted, but he really was not sure. Congrats honey!

Busy Times

2008-03-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been very busy and exciting! I posted a lot of pictures and they go backwards from most recent to least recent (whatever the correct verbiage should be just switch in your mind because it's too late for me to figure it out!)

This past Friday Joshua received the St. Francis Xavier Award that I had posted about awhile ago. His speech was really good. He was nervous, but when he talked you could not tell at all. The school took pictures and had a press release about it, which I linked to. Our friend Erin was also awarded Administrator of the Year which was fun!

Joshua's parents drove in for the award and stayed for the weekend. Uncle Jeremy drove down on Saturday and is staying until Monday morning. This is him and Norah napping!

I thought Norah looked cute snuggled in our bed so I took a picture. You should know that this morning Joshua was handling a "situation" that took 6 hours to deal with. I can't go into detail because it's no over with, but it was quite a morning here in the Elek apartment.

Norah clasps her hands together all the time now and we think it looks like she if fervently praying, so we make up "prayers" all the time depending on what she is doing. This prayer goes something like, "Dear Lord, please make this a bottomless bottle of milk. Amen."

Norah has also been shoving her fist in her mouth until she gags. It's a fun game that scares me often!
It keeps me on my toes though.

Norah and I went to play with my friend Angela and her 9 month old son Grant! We had a lot of fun.
Norah took a nap in Grant's crib while we were there.
When I went to get her she was half out of her clothes!

So Norah is quite the eater lately. We started putting some rice cereal in her bottles. Our pediatrician wants us to fed it to her with a spoon twice a day, but that did not go so good. As you can see she swallowed none of it. We will try again this week.

Our friends Sean and Julie are having a little girl names Lucy any day or week now. We had a baby shower for them in Columbus with other friends from Malone that Josh went to school with. This is Julie, Norah and Lucy!

This is Norah's buddy Babs! He takes real good care of her every time he sees her.

We all made this decoration together for the shower!

Sean and Julie are doing cloth diapers so that whole group went in and bought them everything from their registry that had to do with diapering! They registered for laundry detergent so we made them into little people with cloth diapers on and Josh made them look like people. We thought Norah should have a picture with them!

Norah and I drove halfway to meet up with our friend Allie for dinner! We got to catch up on our lives and hang out which was long overdue. We also got to celebrate that Allie and her husband Phil bought a house!!! Yeah! I thought this was a cute picture!

Time on stomach

2008-02-28T18:27:00.001-08:00

I know it's been awhile since I've posted. No good reason for not posting. I just thought I would throw up a picture of Norah. She is so sweet and I love her so much! This is her having some time on her stomach, better known in the new world that I've entered as, "Tummy time." I've never been a fan of that phrase so I try not to say it! :)

Here is another picture that I liked alot too!

Eliana

2008-02-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

This is Norah's friend Eliana. They both attended a fondue party on saturday at their friend Katie's house. Eliana is from Guatemala, she is 19 months old and just about the sweetest thing ever. She was adopted by friends of ours here in Wheeling, Jenny and Matt. They are wonderful parents and are about to adopt two more girls from Ethiopia.

At the party on saturday night Eliana was in touch with Norah the whole evening. Anytime she made a peep whether laughing, letting out a little cry or anything else Eliana was there to check on the situation to make sure everything was ok. She also played very well with Norah by tickling her tummy every once in awhile.

At one point Norah was tired and just having a hard time getting to sleep and started crying. Well she ended up getting really worked up about it and was crying very loudly. Josh was holding her in the other room and the next thing I knew Eliana starting crying really hard too. I went in the other room to see what was happening that would have made her start to cry too and Jenny was holding her. She said that Eliana was so upset that Norah was so upset and Jenny was trying to comfort her. It was really sweet, but then I started thinking about what Eliana might be assoiciating with a baby crying that hard and my heart broke. Not knowing Eliana's situation before she became Jenny and Matt's daughter made me sad. It made me so grateful for Jenny and Matt and the love they show to her everyday and that they will show to the other two girls that will be here soon.

It was really touching to see such a small child have compassion and empathy for a baby in the only way she knows how.

Snow Day!

2008-02-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

Classes were canceled today at WJU! It did not really affect Norah and I as far as our schedule goes, but the whole family got to bum around and hang out together which was fun! We took Norah for a little walk on campus so we bundled her all up! We do not have any gloves for her so we put some socks on her hands! Not sure if she enjoyed the snow or not because she pretty much slept the whole time in the Baby Bjorn!

Caleb Stuart Rupke!

2008-02-11T11:36:00.001-08:00

My sister had her baby boy last monday! Here are some pictures! Everyone is doing great! He weighed 8lbs and came on his due date! We will fly out to Utah to meet him for Easter and we can't wait!

Joshua's Award!

2008-02-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Joshua got notified of an award that he received. I am going to brag about here and let you know what the letter said.

**************

Dear Joshua,

It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been selected to receive the St. Francis Xavier Award for 2007-2008. The St. Francis Xavier award is given to a member of the Wheeling Jesuit University community who has shown commitment and passion toward service at Wheeling Jesuit University. We feel that you embody this spirit in both your professional and personal life.

You have gone above and beyond the requirements of your position to ensure that every student you come in contact with sees a mentor with a compassionate ear and an open heart.

We will present this award on March 7, 2008, at the Spring Honors Convocation.

We ask that you present an address, 7-10 minutes in length, to the administration, faculty, staff, and students in attendance. In your address, we look forward to hearing about your inspiration and how a culture of service has affected you as well as others.

**********

I'm so excited for him and glad that he got this award because I tell him these things all the time, but I am sure that it means more coming from the students and administration!

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Breastfeeding

2008-02-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

****Warning: If this topic makes you uncomfortable I apologize and you can stop reading. ****

I feel like I will talk about this topic for the rest of my life because it is a daily conversation with my husband, who thankfully can tolerate my endless questioning and guessing. I go up and down about it all day long as far as liking it and not liking it. I can understand why women do not want to stick with it for too long and I also realize that people have very strong opinions about it and are usually not shy about letting you know through verbal or nonverbal communication. One person said to me, and they were someone I do not know all that well, "Are you breastfeeding?" I said, "Well, I am pumping and giving her bottles." She replied, "Well, I guess she is getting the important part, but she is not getting to bond with mommy." I'm not even going to address how frustrating that is...

I think part of the reason I struggled with it so much in the beginning was because we traveled for 20 days after Norah was only 12 days old. We only get one really big break from campus, so we choose to still travel to see our friends and families, but it was physically exhausting for me in the end. I am glad that we did because everyone got to spend a lot of time with Norah, but in the future we will probably stay at home for the first month of the babies life. I am just now taking naps when Norah does and I love it! I felt a little guilty at first and kinda lazy but then I realized that I never did that her whole first month of life, so it feels wonderful now!

Ok, back to breastfeeding. I think the benefits for Norah are great and in the end that is what I want for her, but it is very time consuming. Because of all of our traveling in the beginning and I got sick a couple of times I ended up pumping mostly. It was good for me at the time because we have such big families and I wanted to be able to visit with people and not be in a back room the whole time. It was what helped me not feel crazy. My emotions were all over the place, so I just needed to do what I needed to do to make myself be a better mom in the end for Norah.

Since that trip I have been on again off again with actual breastfeeding. I had some pain in the beginning, which ended up being a blocked milk duct and that got worked out through Norah feeding.

The biggest problem has been my milk supply being low. I have done lots of reading and talking to others about what to do about it. In some sense I just don't know if I will ever have enough for her. We have to use formula in the evening since I do not have enough for the whole day. It's been helpful to talk to other friends that have had the same struggle. It's just interesting how it comes so easy for some and not so easy for others. I would probably put myself somewhere in the middle I guess.

I am very thankful that Norah can go between nursing, bottles and pacifiers with no problems. I'm glad that I introduced the bottle to her earlier on because she is so flexible now. I know that's not always the case for some babies, but it worked with Norah.

So for now I am back to nursing for the most part. If I need to be gone during a feeding or out and about I have no problem giving her formula.... which is another topic in and of itself.

I think formula is fine and that is also something that I have found people having a lot of opinions on. I just feel bad for people that do struggle with nursing and are not able to do it or for single moms that use formula for the sake of sanity and convenience. As our friend who is a pediatrician reminded us, she was strictly formula feed and she is a doctor! Good enough!

Joshua has been really great throughout these last two months! That first month especially was rough. I questioned everything and cried often! He was always there to give me a hug and help think through everything logically, which I was unable to do most of the time! He has been so laid back about it, which helps me to be laid back. That is generally how we work together and I definitely need someone to balance out my obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

The other day Norah finished feeding and was laying on my lap all sprawled out and looked like she was drunk on milk, she opened her eyes and looked up at me then giggled!! It was great! I love those moments!

I think it's hard when you want to complain about things that are hard about being a mom because some people don't seem too fond of that, but it has nothing to do with how much I love Norah. I feel better when I get it out.

So in case you are curious or still reading, some of the things that have helped with the supply was drinking more water, taking an herb called fenugreek and having a beer. I'm not a huge fan of beer, but it was nice to have one because I wanted one so bad when I was pregnant. Every time I would smell beer I thought it was the greatest smelling thing ever! I have also been pumping for 15 minutes after she feeds, but I honestly do not know if that has helped me too much so far. I'm sticking with it, so we will see.

Well, thanks for enduring all of that. That was way longer than I ever planned.

Date Night!!!!

2008-01-21T11:14:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Joshua, Norah and I went to Canton, OH to visit with friends that Joshua went to college with. We stayed at our friends Babs and Carrie's house. They treated us to a date night on saturday night and they watched Norah! It was great! It was our first official outing away from Norah (meaning planned ahead of time).

Earlier in the day I went and bought a pair of regular jeans because I did not want to wear my maternity pants on a date because that would not feel like a date.

We left Norah in good hands and went to Starbucks first for some caffeine coffee!!!! Yummy! I was determined to treat myself to anything I wanted and not worry about the milk supply for the evening!

Then we went to a nice restaurant called 91 that Joshua actually used to work at when he lived in Canton. We had a swanky booth in the dim lit corner. I ordered steak Marsala that came with homemade ravioli stuffed with mushrooms. It was all topped with mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and covered with the Marsala sauce! It was great! Joshua had their pesto, chicken pizza which was also really good! We both had Pino Grigio with our meal. We finished the meal off with creme brele and wood fired smores!!!! I was surprised they had that on the menu at such a nice restaurant.

After that we went to see the new movie Juno! We really liked it alot. It's a cute movie. I don't want to say too much about it in case any of you reading want to go see it.

It was so nice to have the night out. Thank you, thank you, thank you Babs and Carrie!! We have not done that in so long. What a great gift for us!

When we returned home Uncle Babs and Aunt Carrie reported that Norah did great except that she had some really bad gas! I don't think it was so bad that they won't watch her again in the future though. They seem to dig her! :)

We played two games of Settlers of Catan with Babs and Carrie and even did a late night run to Taco Bell! Carrie actually did the late night run, which I was grateful for because it was freezing outside. (If you have never played this game, you should. It's not sold at any regular stores. It's sold at those game stores or kiosks in the malls)

Norah is such a good baby. She will be held by anyone, sleeps really good and is not really fussy unless she has a dirty diaper or is hungry. What else can you ask for?

This is a picture of Carrie and Babs. It is right after Norah was born and they came to meet her. We spent this whole past weekend with them and I did not take one picture of them with Norah.

********************

Today (monday) we bummed around the apartment for awhile and then got ready and went to our favorite coffee shop, Second Cup for the afternoon. Then we got fresh veggies from a local market and headed home. I then spent the next few hours rearranging the furniture in our bedroom!! One of my favorite things to do! It looks great! I'll post some pictures soon. I can't take any now because Norah is sleeping.

Well, I'll add some photos from the past couple days.

This is Norah in her cute, cute outfit from Grandpa Elek! He shopped for her himself! It is made of down and is so warm. I'm so glad she fits into now since it has been so cold out. This is also her new thing with smiling and laughing. She really does it the most in the morning and it is just so much fun! And her booties are from our good friends Allie and Phil. They stay on her feet so well. We also have a green pair too!

STRETCHY TIME!!!!!

After a bath...

This is Norah with her kitty cat from our friend Cristin! They are buddies already!

Our friends Ryan and Heather came to visit us in Wheeling! The little chicken on the right is a hand puppet they got for Norah. They figured Dad will be able to make up creative stories for Norah when she is older!

Christmas in Beaver Falls

2008-01-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry this update took so long. Life got a little crazy after returning to Wheeling from a 20 day trip!

Our students were so excited to see how Norah had grown since they saw her when she was a week old! More students were willing to hold her though, mostly the guys! Girls will hold her for sure!

Anyways, our time in Beaver Falls was really great! It's always nice to be with your family and visit all the relatives you are used to seeing at Christmas time!

We had "Christmas" on December 29th with my family. My older brother, Dave and his wife Peg and their son Emmet were in town from Boston. It was great to see them and Norah's other cousins Cora and Ellie. My sister is going to have her baby in about 3 weeks or so, they were not here for Christmas this year. Joshua, Norah and I will be flying out there to see them and their new little one for Easter and we can't wait!

While in Beaver Falls Joshua and I went out without Norah one night to go see my brother coach high school basketball. He coaches at our old high school, and I have not been back since I graduated so it was strange to go there with my husband for the first time. I had a little anxiety walking up to the doors. I was not sure who I would see. It ended up being fine. I saw one of my old teachers and an old classmate. It was funny to see how things changed and how some things did not change at all.

Well, enjoy more pictures! I did not organize them in chronological order because I'm really tired and Norah will be getting up in a few hours to eat so I want to go to bed! :)

This is Cora being silly! She put these goggles on alot while
we were babysitting her and Ellie and they made us laugh.

This was our exciting New Year's Eve! Jarrod, Heather, Joshua the girls and I had a wonderful meal that Joshua made-Salmon, rice fresh broccoli and homemade bread!

Grandma and Norah!

Grandpa and Norah (this is how Norah migrates her head when she is in a deep sleep)

Aunt Heather, Uncle Jarrod, Cora and Norah

Aunt Peg, Uncle David and Norah

Great Grandpa (Pappy), Ellie, Great Grandma, Norah, Emmet and Cora

Cousins Lyndsey and Jason with Norah

Emmet - I think he just got up from a nap. I thought he looked really cute here!

Norah in her Christmas hat from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Amanda

I couldn't resist this cute picture of Pappy holding Norah!

Little Ellie! She is so sweet in her glasses!

Cora giving Norah kisses and hugs with mommies supervision!

Goodnight!

Christmas in Cleveland...

2007-12-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!

Well, we spent 11 days in Cleveland with Joshua's family before visiting my family (I will post next about our visit with my family in a few days...stay tuned!).

We arrived a day early because Wheeling was supposed to get an ice storm, and we didn't want to get stuck there for an extra day or two. Our car was packed to the gills. Norah had stuff piled up on either side of her in the back seat. Not sure how safe that would have been in an accident, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

We had a great time in Cleveland visiting with all of Josh's brothers, their wives, dogs and his parents. (We missed Aunt Katie and Steve and hope to visit with them soon.) Norah of coarse was a big hit with everyone! She got lots of quality time in everyone's arms and even took her first evening walk in the Baby Bjorn with Grandpa Elek and met one of the neighbors. She got lots of fun presents from everyone as well. She also got to meet her extended Elek relatives and some of her cousins fed her!

Enjoy the pictures!

Norah's first evening stroll with Grandpa Elek!

Grandma and Grandpa Elek

(I am making a picture book for Norah with all of her grandparents,
aunts and uncles, so I thought I would include those pictures!)

Uncle Tim and Aunt Marisa

Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Jim

Aunt Charlene and Uncle Jeremy

Napping-Mom, Norah and Gizmo
(our dog who is living with mom and dad Elek until we can keep her!)

Napping again-Norah and Dad

Cousin Chris getting ready to feed Norah. He did great!

Cousin Scott feeding Norah

Cousin Allison holding the now youngest cousin in the family

This is Norah's crib that Grandpa and Grandma Elek bought and put up at their house since we do not have room for it in our small apartment. It is nice that she has a place to sleep when she visits and we will have it for when we move in June! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Here is a close up of the crib set! Elephants!
(I couldn't flip this one for some reason.)

Thanks for taking the time to look at all the pictures!

Visitors!

2007-12-17T20:15:00.001-08:00

Norah has had some recent visitors in Wheeling before we left for Cleveland.

Two of my close friends from Pittsburgh came to visit the day after my birthday which was very much needed. Joshua and I had an all-nighter with Norah the night before and she had not been feeding very well, so she had pretty much been crying all day and could not be consoled by the time they arrived. It was helpful to be able to hand her off so that we could have a break. As soon as our friend Allie held her she was quite. That's when I let my guard down and cried because, well, it is just a little stressful at times when you can't figure out how to help your new baby. It's great to have friends and family help out when you are so tired and can't think of one more creative way to settle your new one.

We enjoyed lunch and conversation with Allie and Erin and we got to meet Lucy, Erin's second little girl who was born one month before Norah. It was so nice to be with my friends. I wish I had been a little more putt together and not so emotional, but that's what they were there for, was to meet Norah and support Josh and I, which is exactly what they did!

This next picture is of one of our students "Chevy." We met Chevy on our New Orleans trip last year. (Chevy is her nickname.) Chevy and I became almost instant friends once we really got to see how goofy each of us was. She is a ton of fun and I'm so glad she got to come and meet Norah because unfortunately Chevy is leave WJU and will be joining the Air Force this coming April. We will miss Chevy very much!

We are now in Cleveland, so I will try to post some more pictures from here soon! We are enjoying the down time. Norah has her crib set up here too, so I will get some pictures up of that as well.

Week One!

2007-12-10T18:55:00.001-08:00

Norah is one week old today! She had her first pediatric appointment today and everything looks great! We have been pretty tired lately and not been able to blog or e-mail out pictures alot, but I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my favorite photos from the week at home.

This first picture is of Norah in the hospital sleeping under the blue light because she had jaundice. We loved these little black foam glasses she had to wear and thought she looked like a little superhero! We figure this is how they make superheros, they give them these glasses and bake them for awhile after they are born!

This is Norah on her trip home from the hospital. Her clothes are a little big, but so cute! She is just too sweet!

This is one of my favorites! She likes to have her hands next to her face alot. She had her hands up around her face in her sonograms too!

This is two of Norah's cousins that came to meet her. Ellie is on the left and Cora on the right.

These are my grandparents McCowin with their three great grandchildren! They love being great grandparents!

When we got home from the hospital some guys from our dorm made this welcome home sign! We loved it!

These are the women from my family that came to visit. (L-R) My mom and she is holding Ellie, my Aunt Linda, my grandma, Cora being held by my sister-in-law Heather and me. And Norah of course!

This is one of our first family pictures!

This is one of my favorite moments in the day, which happens several times each day. When she is ready to feed I put her up on my shoulder to get situated for feeding and she starts to make out with my neck, then cheek and then nose! It tickles so much and is the best feeling. She is so sweet!!!

This is just a cute one!

Joshua's brothers all came to visit too and Marisa our sister-in-law! We loved having them! (L-R) Jim, Tim, Jeremy, Joshua and Norah (front and center)

Uncle Jim drove from Virginia so he stayed with us for two nights. He and Joshua played lots of XBOX and Norah played too! I loved this picture of her little bum!

So there they are, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. More to come for sure.

Norah is Born!

2007-12-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, this is Joshua posting for Rach. No time to write a full post, but you can go here to see pictures of Norah and the delivery if you want to.

Trying to Induce Labor

2007-12-01T20:21:00.001-08:00

Well, we've tried almost everything we can think of to induce labor, and nothing has worked. So, we decided we would try to guilt Norah into coming out. We figured if we baked her a birthday cake, she would HAVE to be born. So, we baked her a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and wrote "Happy Birthday Norah!" in home-made vanilla frosting. The cake was very delicious, and... ultimately ineffective (so far at least). So, even with an honest to goodness birthday cake, Norah's still not born. Ugh. Tuesday it is.

Here's the cake!

Norah didn't seem to be motivated by the guilt, but we ate the cake anyway. (We went to our friend Katie's house and ate while we decorated her Christmas tree.) Now... all we need is for Norah to actually be born.

P.S. Our apologies to Uncle Tim for Norah not being born on his birthday. Maybe next time.

Christmas in Wheeling

2007-11-27T11:52:00.001-08:00

This is our real Christmas tree that we put up the day after Thanksgiving! I love having a real tree in our apartment!!! We knew we needed to do it soon one because Norah would be here soon and we would not have the time or energy after her arrival and two because we leave for our Christmas break on December 15th or 16th, so we need to get as much Christmas in in Wheeling as we can!

We rearranged (Josh did, not me) the apartment to make room for the tree and to make room for Grandma Elek's rocking chair in the bedroom. That's why Grandma B's (Josh's grandma) davenport is in the living room now, but it is only out in the living room under one condition and this is a condition that Grandma B set up many years ago, "No eating on the davenport!"

I also took a picture of Norah's corner in our bedroom so that those of you who may not be able to make it to Wheeling to see her can see her "crib."

We hope to visit with lots of people over the holidays while we are at our families houses. Feel free to stop by and visit us and meet Norah!

By the way, I will be induced on December 4th if I don't go naturally before then. I am getting a little anxious now that we are a week away from life drastically changing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

My family came to Wheeling to share Thanksgiving dinner with us since we are unable to travel 6 days from our due date!!

It was really nice to have everyone hear. It was my grandparents, my parents, my brother, sister-in-law, two nieces and cousins.

Josh made his first turkey and homemade stuffing!! It was really good! I decorated the table as you can see below...

Here we all are at the table in the lounge across the hall from our apartment! Who would have thought we could pull off Thanksgiving dinner for 12 in a college resident hall!

These are my grandparents with my two nieces Ellie on the right and Cora on the left. Ellie is 6 months old and needed glasses, so Cora wanted a pair too. I happened to own 2 pair of fake glasses so i wrapped a pair up for her when she came! She loved them!

I hope everyone had as great of a day as we did! Now the wait really begins as I do not really have anything major to do, so Norah can come any day now!!

Spaghetti Sauce

2007-11-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

So here I am 8 days from my due date! I'm feeling pretty good for the most part, but I am having a little bit of lower back pain, and this is really the second day that I have had any, so I'm not complaining.

Josh came home from work tonight and started figuring out what to make for dinner. Now in case you are not aware, I am the number 1 pickiest eater in the United States of America and if there is one thing that I am the most picky about it would have to be spaghetti sauce.

He offered to make some homemade sauce because he knows that's really the only acceptable option for me. Since my back has been hurting we decided to eat in the living room where I could keep my feet propped up and sit in a more comfortable seat. He prepared the plates and drinks and carried the plates out to me first. He handed me my plate and then handed me his and I put his on the end table next to me. He turned to get the drinks and a grated cheese. I quickly assessed our plates and realized that my plate had more spaghetti on it and I knew I probably would not be able to eat it all. I quick scanned to the kitchen to see if he could see me and quickly switched our plates. The reason I didn't want him to see me switch the plates was because I have a million and 1 quirks that he is learning to live with, so I try to spare him the moments to observe that there may be more that he is unaware of!

So we eat our dinner and he turns to me and says,

J: What did you think of the sauce?

R: I liked it but I thought it was a little spicy.

J: (mouth drops) It was a sweeter sauce though and my secret ingredient was grape jelly.

R: Really! Grape Jelly! Well that's weird, because honestly the sauce has a kick to it.

J: I did not put any spices in it! Not even black pepper! Wait....(quickly darting his eyes back and forth between my plate and his)

R: (I quickly realize that I did something wrong and need to confess) Ummmm, I switched our plates!

J: Why did you do that!!! I put alot of red pepper flakes on my sauce! I was wondering why mine was not that spicy!

R: Well, it looks like Norah's coming tonight!!!

We both started laughing so hard because I'm so weird. I told him how I thought he might think it's weird if he saw me switching plates.

Below is a picture of me and how I need to eat my meals with a towel over my stomach. I can't not spill things down the front of me and spaghetti sauce is a hopeless cause when it comes to spilling!

He explained his ingredients, they were as follows: sauce, paste, garlic, salt, a tiny bit of onion and grape jelly. It all went into the blender as any type of chunk produces the gag reflex for me! :)

This is just one example of how hard he has to work to make our meals good for both of us. I usually know that there is a difference, but since I was not in the kitchen the entire time he made dinner I didn't even think that our plates would be different! The funniest part was that the whole time I was eating it I kept thinking to myself, "Why does he have to push it with these spices to get me to try new things."

Ahhhh, marriage....you never know what's going to happen!

Catching up...

2007-11-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile and I thought I would catch people up on what's been going on.

We are currently 3 1/2 weeks away from our due date!! I am hoping Norah comes early, but she probably won't. I have been having pain almost every time I stand up or walk in my lower pelvic region, which is annoying. I've been to the doctors twice since it started and there is really nothing they can do for it.

On top of that my muscle disease, Myotonia Congenita (click to read about it if you are interested), is getting worse, which we knew would happen throughout the pregnancy, but it has really cranked up several notches in the last few weeks. My doctors do not really seem to understand it though, so they really only respond to the pelvic pain. They never ask how it is. It's great! I highly recommend seeing doctors that don't understand what your disease is! :) They keep saying, "your almost done," and trust me I know!

I've had a few scary episodes with the myotonia and one involved driving, so I've pretty much decided on my own that it's not worth the risk of something happening that I would really regret, so either Josh drives or I don't go unless I can get a ride with someone else. I'm grateful for the fact that we are completely ready for Norah to come because otherwise, I would be going crazy if I knew there were things I needed to get done right now.

Students have been visiting me more throughout the day and bringing me movies to watch. Even our janitor, Jim, yells at me if he sees me in the hallway. He tells me to go put my feat up and relax! :)

Josh has been really great! He does the grocery shopping, dishes, cooks (which he does everyday anyways!!), gets me my late night bowls of cereal and my glasses of iced tea! I was teasing him the other day because I typically wash the dishes because I love it and it's my domain, but lately it's tiring to stand that long, but the way we do dishes is 100% different. My dish drainer looks like a well oiled machine that stacked the dishes in the most efficient effective way possible. His dish drainer looks like abstract art! I do not know how things do not go flying out onto the floor! It makes me laugh! They have never fallen, which I think is a miracle.

I have also learned the sounds of our apartment and dorm very well. I know exactly who is in the hallway at all times. I know how often the kid upstairs vacuums his carpet (he is OCD about it and I love it! I want to meet him and just have a conversation about the joys of vacuuming!). I hear Father O'Brien singing hymns upstairs. I hear our clock ticking, which often leads to me pulling the battery out! Our tub runs constantly and we need to use a wrench to turn it on and off, but the nut is so stripped that the water will not turn the whole way off!!! That sound drives me crazy so I keep the door shut.

I know what you are all thinking at this point. She needs a life, but I have a lot of time at home lately, so this is what my life consists of at the moment!

We had a joint service last night at our church. The three services combined into one and all of the musicians played together! It was really great! Josh played his djembe (click to see a picture), African drum. It turned out that the one song was mainly him and another guy playing drums and they had a little duet part in the middle of the song. He did so good, I was so proud of him and was tearing up! Everyone loves his drum playing and he does not think he is that good at it. I can honestly say he did not practice for one second for the service, so he had no idea that he would be playing that much. He was really nervous, but did such a great job. I told him that's how you know you are good. You don't practice and then you kick butt on a duet!! He laughs that I call it a duet, but I don't know how else to describe it.

Ok, that was a long update and kinda random, but that's kinda how I talk, all over the place!

Furby

2007-10-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!

I'm a furby!!! This is my favorite halloween costume ever!!! I have been a furby for halloween for the past 7 years! This costume has a great story that I will share with you....

In October of 2000, I was a junior in college. My roommates and I lived next door to some popular senior girls who were having a halloween party and they invited us to attend. We were all very excited as we had never really been to a halloween party since we were kids.

We made a special trip to Walmart late one night to purchase our costumes. We started looking around in the adult costumes, but I was not finding anything I liked. I wondered to the children's aisle and there she was...The Furby costume! I had to have it. Little did I know that it would be the best $6.78 I had ever spent!

The night of the party, my roommates and I made a special dinner for our big night and then spent the next hour getting ready for the party. My roommate Stacy was a baby doll (she is about 5'9"), Mandy was Dr. Evil (she has very long naturally curly hair and jammed it all into a bald cap!), and Kimmy was Zorro.

After all of our preparations, we were ready to make our way to the party. I was the first one to the door and knocked excitedly! The door opened, and picture The After School Special when the nerds are invited to the cool kids party and the record player stops. The majority of the people at the party were dressed up as pimps or hoes or some version of a slut for whatever costume they were trying to pull off (ex. nurse, military, etc.).

My roommates and I decided without even communicating that we were going to stay for the whole party and not be made to feel like we are the odd ones out. Sooo, I turned sideways, as my furby ears were too wide to walk straight in and we entered the party!

It was one of the funniest nights of my life. We participated in all the games, one being that you had to line up guy, girl, guy, girl and pass an apple down the line between your neck and chin using no hands. So here I am trying to get an apple from some "pimp" and my furby ears are slapping him in the face!!! It was priceless.

We left the party and laughed for hours for the rest of the night as we talked about the situation that we had just been in. That is one of my favorite stories from college!

So, I continue to wear the furby every year as it is still a crowd pleaser and the story always seems to be a winner as well!

Expectant Mother Parking

2007-10-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

So since I found out I was pregnant I was very much looking forward to parking in expectant mother parking spots.

Now the only time I have come across expectant mother parking spots is at Babies R Us and Dick's Sporting Goods corporate office (where my mom works). The two times that I was at either of the those two places while being pregnant, it was pretty early on in my pregnancy, so I did not feel the need to park in those spots.

Now that I am significantly bigger....

My incredibly talented husband distorted a recent photo of me so that I could make my point more clearly!

I would like to start parking in those spots, but unfortunately, there are no expectant mother parking spots. It stinks! I can't find them anywhere here in Wheeling.

I do have to say, the weather has gotten significantly cooler in the last two days, so going on outings is not as bad as it was when the weather was in the 80's and 90's.

Becoming a mom...

2007-09-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

This has been a hard week here at WJU. We found out Monday afternoon that one of our students died. This student went on our New Orleans trip last year for spring break and he was such a sweet, hard working guy. He was pretty quite at first which made me want to get to know him all the more. I would talk to him any chance I got and I think he probably thought I was a crazy lady at first.

I remember one day we had a bunch of black soot and debris on the floor from the ceiling that had been riped down and I looked at him and said, "Come on lets race to see who can get the most cleared off the floor!" And off we both went and within seconds I slipped and fell flat on my butt!!! He laughed so hard as he helped me off the floor!

He started dating one of the other women that was on the trip, who is equally as sweet as he was. I was so excited to find out after we returned home from the trip that they were dating.

This week I cannot stop thinking about her and the grief and loss she is experiencing. I spoke with her briefly Monday night. Tomorrow is the viewing and Friday the funeral service. Every time I find myself in silence I think about him and his girlfriend. Then I start thinking about his parents and even his girlfriends parents.

I can't help but think about how devastating it must be to see your daughter grieving her boyfriend or to feel the depth of pain of loosing your adult child. Then I feel Norah kick and I think that she is safe inside of me and although I am so excited to meet her and hold her I'm scared to have her out because I know I will never be able to keep her wholly safe. I also recognize she is not wholly safe inside either because anything could go wrong.

I know that I can't continue thinking about all of this or I will feel crazy, but my grief for our student is pretty intense right now and my emotions are hard to put to the side. I also think about how this all challenges my faith. I think I am learning to put more and more faith and trust in God. I do not like cliche answers and statements that seem to fly out when a death occurs, especially when it is someone who is young. As I have worked with many Hospice patients and their families and seen the struggle of those comments that they have had to field, I now experience that frustration myself and do not have the answers even though I desire and have worked in a field of death and dying. When it hits you personally it is very difficult. However, I do feel closer with God and that I want to understand the depth of who He is and His love.

I know Norah will have pain and grief in her life and I just keep thinking about how I will respond to her as her mother and how it might be harder for me to see her that way than it is for her.

I remember the day my first niece was born. I loved her so much instantly. I can't imagine how I will feel when I am holding Norah for the first time.

I also need to say that I am loving Joshua more and more through all of this. I love seeing his excitement for Norah to come and even how he is with our students during this difficult week we are experiencing.

I know this post is all over the place, but I just had to express some of what was going on inside of me this week.

I'm getting kicked!

2007-09-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Norah has been quite active lately! We went to a restaurant today to watch the Brown's game and I was leaning forward over the table and she kicked so hard that I sat quickly back from the table because she kicked right at the part of my stomach that was touching the table! It was such a weird feeling.

She kicked later tonight and I had to shift positions in my chair. It's just a strange feeling, but so fun at the same time.

I will be 30 weeks on Wednesday! I can't believe how fast it all seems to be going now. We feel ready in the sense that if Norah came earlier we could sustain her in this world with what we have set up in the apartment, but it will just be a big change and I do not know how to prepare for that. I guess I can't, but I "prepare" in my own way and do anything that I can control.

We just got our diaper bag this weekend so we are going to be packing it this week! You never know! :)

We started our birthing classes last Tuesday and have four more Tuesday night sessions to go! Last week our instructor walked us through the whole process from when contractions start to when the baby is born. It was great! I'm definitely an information gatherer, so these classes are helpful for me. I'm looking forward to the hospital tour so I can see exactly where we will be and all the machines, tools and other things that might come into play during the labor.

Another interesting thing that we just learned is that our doctor likes to be standing when he delivers babies, so they crank my bed into the air at his level of standing to deliver the baby. Now, this raises a concern for me being that we Elek's are short and I fear that I will need to yell down to Josh to let him know how I am doing! We have an appointment on Friday with the doctor, so we will be looking into our options! :)

So, that's an update for now about Norah and all that's been going on!

I cooked dinner!

2007-09-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

We also reorganized our kitchen a little to make room for baby stuff and I cooked dinner last night for some friends! I had this great dinner at my friend's bachelorette party last week and I got the recipe.

Josh typically cooks, well cooks all the time, but I can make something every once in awhile. (It's actually wonderful to have a husband who cooks!!! I'm sure I do not appreciate him enough for it.)

I woke up at 7:45am and prepped the meal so that I could get some work done during the day. I couldn't wait to eat it later because it is so good. It is Chicken and broccoli stuffed shells with an Alfredo sauce. Here is a picture of it in my favorite purple casserole dish that I got for our wedding over a year ago and am using for the first time because we have a full kitchen now!

JOY!

2007-08-18T11:47:00.001-07:00

Last year, we did not have a kitchen in our apartment. We pretty much made up a kitchen, but the biggest challenge of that living situation was the dishes.

I was happy to take the challenge on though and after some brainstorming and shopping around we purchased a cart on wheels and made it into our "dish washing center."

Below is a picture of dishes after they were completed. We would put dirty dishes into the white plastic bins in the three basket drawers underneath and then roll the cart into the bathroom (2nd picture) and wash dishes in the bathroom sink and put them on the dish rack on top of the cart and then roll it back into the kitchen.

"Dish washing center"

It was quite the process!!!

Well, after finding out we were expecting, it became pretty apparent to us and the university that we were going to need a new living space. So, this summer we moved into the graduate apartment building just off campus and they began working on a new living space for us. We were not expecting as nice of a kitchen as we got! We were really excited about it even when it was not completed. I teared up the first time I walked into our new kitchen. It is just beautiful!!

Now the best part of the kitchen for me is the sink!!! The first night the water worked, I did a bunch of dishes and it was stress free!!! Just like the good'ole days! I love my new kitchen sink! We will be able to put the little baby tub right on the counter top to give little Norah a bath and when she is able to sit up we can give her a bath right in the sink! Like I used to do, which I only know because I saw pictures of it! I took some pictures after doing the dishes because I was so excited!!

So now, there is even more....

in my life!!!!

Officially done & Les Miserables

2007-08-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

So today I am officially, officially done with grad school. I had my last day of my internship with Hospice Care of The Washington Hospital.

It ended up being a very productive day. My supervisor had to go take care of an emergency situation, so I was left with a long list of things to do and I was the only social worker on the in-patient unit. I had a great initial assessment with a new patient and their family. They were a very pleasant family to work with. I also took care of a discharge plan that ended up being a little complicated, but I handled it just fine. The nurses were looking to me for help and I just felt like I was in a groove.

I felt sad though towards the end of the day because I do not have a job lined up to keep that momentum going. I am very glad to be done with grad school, but all that hard work and still no job. It just feels strange.

So, on my way home from my last day I was listening to the second cd of the musical Les Miserables. For some background info, Joshua just finished reading the book Les Miserables on Sunday, I rented the movie (no music) Sunday night and we have the Original London Cast Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert cd, which is the greatest and their is a DVD of it as well.....

Anyways, I am driving home feeling a little strange about being done with my grad program and being unemployed and as I listened to this fabulous musical I cried most of the way home and especially every time someone died or hit a high note!!! Regardless of my pregnancy hormones, this very well would have happened to me on any given day. I just love this musical and am hooked on the music right now.

I wish I could say that I read the book or will someday, but that's just not who I am. I can love a musical without reading the original story. Joshua on the other hand does not care for musicals, but I think this might be the way to go for him. I think he is enjoying the music now that he knows the real story behind it all. I may win him over yet!

I do own the VHS of the 10th Anniversary concert, but we do not have a VHS right now. Our friend Damian does though, so we are going to watch it with him soon! OH! I almost forgot! The best part of the concert is that at the very end actors who played Jean Valjean (main character) from around the world all come up on stage in tuxes and they sing a famous song from the play and each of them take a line and sing it in their native tongue!!! It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen/heard!!!

So, that was my day today. My mom comes to Wheeling tomorrow to help me organize the chaos in our new apartment and then my college roommates come tomorrow evening for the weekend! I can't wait!

Graduate Degree -> Check!

2007-07-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

So I am officially finished with my graduate degree! I had a final presentation today and then I left the University of Pittsburgh for the last time....and had a parking ticket! Of course!

It felt a little strange to leave and drive out of town. I almost teared up a little. It's just so nice to be done. Three long years have come to an end. I can remember going to my first class. I was excited and not sure if I would be able to do it. I've never been one for the class room setting. I really did well in grad school though. I got higher grades than ever before, I got published in an online magazine, I worked for two Hospice organizations and wrote a lot of papers. I feel good about all that I accomplished.

It took me so long to fill out the application to apply for grad school and lots of encouragement from friends to just do it! :) I'm glad I did.

I also had an interview with a Hospice program and should find out in a few days if I will be hired. This job would be huge for me in the long run. I never expected to get hired into a Hospice program right out of grad school. I feel like there is a good chance that I will be hired, but you never know.

We went to dinner tonight to celebrate! It was fun! Then we went to our favorite coffee shop and played a speed game of Monopoly and I dominated!

Well, I need to go rest up for our big vacation. We leave friday for Bryson City, NC to stay in a cabin with our friends Babs and Carrie. (Babs=Adam)

I am officially an MSW!

Norah!

2007-07-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

We are having a girl!!! We just found out on Friday! We loved the ultrasound because she is so much bigger than the blob we saw a few months ago. We got to see her spine, head, eyes, nose, heart and the blood running through it, we saw her kick her legs out and move her head back and forth. The best part was that she stuck her tongue out!!!

Our technician is so great because she gets just as excited as we do and this is what she does all day long!

From the title you can guess that her name will be Norah. We have not picked a middle name yet. That's the harder part for us for some reason. The name Norah means honor, from what I found. That was not a driving force behind the name, we just really liked it!

I am definitely starting to feel her kick now. I think it was helpful to see her do it on the monitor. She is 11oz. and in the 50th percentile for weight and length.

We left for Coopers Rock, WV about 3 hours after we found out about Norah. We had planned a camping trip with our friend Damian who will be moving to California in a few short months. (Joshua will be posting pictures, I just don't have the patience right now to upload them.) It was actually nice to get away and I had busted my butt on one of my final papers Thursday night so that I could go camping and not worry about it.

It was nice to get home and take a shower and clean!!!! I think it's funny that people keep saying things about "nesting" in my pregnancy becasue to tell the truth I think I have been "nesting" since the day I was born!

Alright, I'm off to finish my paper.

Lots going on....

2007-07-06T13:43:00.001-07:00

I've been really busy as I near the end of my grad program!!! I have a total of 5 more classes left. I will be finished with my very last grad class on July 25th and I will be done with my last day of Hospice (for my grad program) on August 9th! I can't wait! It's so close. I am supposed to be working on one of my final papers right now, but I'm too distracted.

I just talked to my sister Amanda who is also pregnant!!! She is 11 weeks! I'm so excited that we are pregnant at the same time! She lives in Utah though so we will not get to see each other too much, but we are making plans to fly out there with our little one about a month after she has hers!

We will find out next Friday at 8:30am if we are having a boy or a girl. We both want a boy, but we think it will be a girl. Not sure why, we just do. We will be excited either way! We already have names picked out for either.

Two days after my last class we are going on vacation with our good friends Babs (not a women, his last name is Babcock) and his wife Carrie. We will be staying in a cabin in the mountains of Bryson City, NC which is just a few miles away from the bottom of the Smoky Mountains. We will be spending a day touring The Biltmore Estate, the three of them will be going white water rafting one afternoon. I asked my doctor if I could go and I thought she was going to scream! She was funny! I figure there's no hurt in asking. I've been promised a slow canoe ride on a calm body of water!!! We will also spend a day in Cleveland, TN visiting the area where Babs and Joshua spent a summer at a pre-school camp teaching Bible lessons and chaperoning, "The Lions Den." They also want Carrie and I to eat some type of beef sandwich which they cannot stop talking about. It should be a nice time. I got a maternity bathing suit the other day for the trip!

I have been applying for some jobs as well. I have received one call back, but they are not sure if I have enough experience. I should hear back from them in a few days. We will see.

So, that's my update. I'm trying to find a picture, but I do not know what to put up. We will see.....

You might ask, why would she put a picture of elephants up? Well, that is going to be our nursery theme...boy or girl. We found a cute gender neutral crib set at Target that has little elephants and the main color is green with some brown. It's really cute! We are excited about it! The designer is Amy Coe.

Anyways, hope to hear from some of you!

Ellie!

2007-05-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

This is my new niece Ellie! I got to take a nap like this with Cora when she was this small too! It's helpful to have another familly member who wants to sleep all of the time! It makes me feel normal!

Our nephew Emmet will be here next weekend so all of the cousins will be together soon! It's fun to see our family grow!

Baby!

2007-05-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

That's right! We are having a baby!

It's been a wild first trimester so far. We will officially be in the 2nd trimester on May 16th! I am very much looking forward to it. All I read and hear about is that the 2nd trimester is the best. The first trimester has really been very manageable for me. I have had no morning sickness at all which I am thankful for. The biggest thing is that I am so tired all of the time. I just do what needs to be done and then I need a nap. I feel lazy, but it's just what my body needs right now. I will be excited for the day that I wake up and feel energy!

We told the students before they left for summer break and they were all so excited. Of course our families were too! Students keep asking us where we are registered. They are funny!

Since my last post, I "walked" at my graduation ceremony for grad school. I will start my summer classes this coming tuesday and will officially be done on August 10th! I can't wait.

My internship with Hospice has been going really well. I suddenly turned a corner and am doing assessments on my own now and other staff are looking to me when they need things and families as well. It's nice to feel like you are grasping what you are supposed to be doing.

I surprised Joshua with an early birthday present today. I along with some family and his whole RA staff chipped in and got him an XBOX 360. He has been dreaming about getting this since the day that he heard about them. I wanted to give it to him early (his birthday is July 18th) because his summers are so much more open then during the school year when students are here. It was fun because all of his RA's hid in an empty room and one of the guys told him that they needed to check the room out so he opened the door and they all yelled, "SURPRISE!" I had wrapped the gift earlier and it was sitting on the bed. He was completely surprised and when he realized that it was an XBOX I think that he could not believe it. He always joked about getting one knowing that we could not afford it right now. He was so excited! It was really fun to see him open it. He really deserves it. He works his butt off during the school year and his hours are crazy. I was excited to be able to do this for him and have lots of help from others.

Well, it's senior week here on campus so we have been going to all kinds of dinners and parties and I'm exhausted. Off to bed.

The red pen...

2007-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I got my public policy paper back today. This is the one I have been blogging about...the only thing that I have really been blogging about!

I love my public policy class. My professor is one of the best professors I have ever had! She is so smart and can really teach this subject so that it is interesting and you can understand what is going on and enjoy it!

When I was typing this paper, I felt like a fish out of water. I have never done a paper with footnotes before. I always use APA style, which I pride myself in knowing, but with my research all being governmental based, I was not sure if I was citing it correctly and really felt like my professor was going to think I was a loser after she read my paper. I really wanted my professor to respect me. She is just great! She knows our names and talks to us at conferences and just gets very excited about public policy.

Anyways, as I was driving to class today I was kicking myself for not having Joshua read over my paper and tell me what I should change or point out what doesn't make sense. I was fully prepared to have to take the class again because I knew I probably failed this project.

When she handed back the papers, I flipped to the back in search of the damn read pen score, the dreaded red pen and saw 99% circled!!!! I teared up because I was so shocked! I wanted to run to the front of the room and embrace my professor that I look up to so much...she has asthma though so lord knows I end up taking her to the emergency room and she would fail me for being crazy!

Here is what followed the 99%:

This is a well researched and well developed paper, Rachel. I'm glad you were able to interview with Senators Costa and Fontana even if you don't agree with their support of the proposed legislation---and I appreciate your own thoughtful analysis of the positives and negatives of this bill. This paper was a pleasure to read!

I really hope people do not think I am a jerk, but this kind of thing does not happen to me often. It's really encouraging when it comes from someone you really hold in regard.

Anyways, thanks for sharing in my excitement!

My paper

2007-03-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

I finished my paper on the senate bill for the medical release of hospice inmates. A few people expressed interest in reading my paper when I was done, but to be honest, I have a hard time letting other people read my papers. I always have, so I thought I would share what I found and the conclusion that I came to.

Interviewing the senators unfortunately had to happen through e-mail because we got a ton of snow the day that I was supposed to meet with one of the senators and everything was cancelled. Also being gone in New Orleans 10 days did not help for having a flexible schedule.

After researching the bill I came to the conclusion that I do not support the senate bill. I think that the prison system should think through what it means to have inmates with life sentences because basically that is the same thing as "long-term care." They had to have known that inmates would get ill and die in the prisons. I think that correctional hospitals should have hospice wings or a certain amount of beds available. I strongly believe that it is the prisons responsibility to figure it out. I do not think that it is fair to the victims of the crimes or their familitesto have the inmates be released.

So, those are my thoughts on the whole issue. Feel free to comment.

New Orleans and Haiti

2007-02-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

Joshua and I are going with two other leaders from WJU to New Orleans tomorrow with 20 college students for spring break! We went last January, so it will be interesting to see how things have changed. I am afraid that it will feel like they have not changed much at all.

I have been to a small village in Haiti two times and going back a second time was one of the best things I could have ever done. It was helpful for me to learn that while these folks live a very different life than me, they are still some of the most joyful people I have ever met. I left the second time with a sense of joy and hope that life happens at the pace that they are familiar and comfortable with and while they greatly appreciate "our" help, they are content with their lives. I love the people of Haiti and they will always hold a dear place in my heart.

Going to New Orleans last January was a completely different feel from Haiti. They very much looked similar in a lot of ways after the levies broke, but the attitude and sense of morale were very opposite. Of course I understand that New Orleans had just experienced a major natural disaster and a series of unfortunate events, but I could not help comparing my experience to Haiti, who also experiences natural disasters on a fairly regular basis and has for the most part of it's entire existence experienced series of unfortunate events.

Because this devastation happened in the United States it has had a very different reaction. It was amazing to me how many people were shocked that something like that could happen in the US. I'm not saying that we should not be helping down in New Orleans, because I clearly see the need and am thankful that I am able to help out in a small way, but Americans never surprise me I guess.

Being there last year, and helping was some of the hardest physical labor I have ever done. I can see how people feel like it is an overwhelming problem and basically that's because it is. With what I have learned from being in Haiti (and also knowing folks who have been going there for the past 13 years), you have to have perseverance and hope that small change is big change. You have to continue living life and celebrating ever step of the way.

Below are some pictures from last year when we were in New Orleans. I thought I would give a small glimpse into what we will actually be doing for our 6 full work days while we are there.

This is a picture from the 9th Ward. This was the area closest to the levies. From what I understand this area is still pretty much untouched because the folks that lived here were displaced all over and most have not made an attempt to come back for various reasons.

This picture is from one of the homes that we worked on. As you can see mold is everywhere. This house was in one of those neighborhoods that you saw in pictures or on the news where water was right to the roof tops. This homeowners neighbors were rescued from their roof.

So basically what we do is take everything out. This house was full of furniture and everything as it was on the day the levies broke. I had to unload the dishwasher and sink in this home before we could rip them out of the wall.

Everything that we take out of the house we take straight to the curb and pile it up high. FEMA drives around the neighborhoods every day or so and picks up all the trash.

So, this is what we are headed to do. We will be staying in a lodging type place near downtown. Last year we were usually so tired by the end of the day that we all just ate dinner, showered and talked for a little while before heading to bed. We hope to get out a little more this time.

I will share pictures after we return!

Ping-Pong

2007-02-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Joshua and I have been playin a lot of ping-pong lately. There is a table in the basement lounge. I grew up playing ping-pong and never thought much of it, but after one of our students observed us for a few minutes he said to me, "You've played before haven't you?" And I said, "I grew up playing." And he said, "Yeah, I can tell and Josh did not!"

I won the first 7 games we played! I think he has won 3-5 since then, but it was humourous!

Our whole family would get into around the holidays when extended relatives came to visit. I have a lot of good memories about ping-pong. It was really fun to watch my mom and her brother get so competive and tease each other and laugh the whol time.

Hospice for Inmates

2007-02-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Alright public, here's a topic for discussion...

For my grad class I have to pick a PA bill from last years session or the current one and research it and do some interviews with some of the congress men or women who introduced the bill. I choose a bill from the Senate, #1072 if you are interested, that would allow inmates over the age of 50 to be able to be released from prison for hospice services if they are in need of them.

My topic was just approved last week and I am trying to get a hold of two of the senators to interview. I am also going to interview the medical director of the hospice that I am now working for and the executive director as they have had some involvement with the issue.

What are your thoughts on this PUBLIC? CRY it out and let me know what you think?

Rachie Goats

2007-01-21T19:49:00.001-08:00

I have a muscle disease called Myotonia Congenita. It's an interesting disease that I don't really mind having for the most part. Joshua's mom sent him a link to a video the other day that had a description of some goats that apparently have this same disease and it shows it very well. If you listen, the woman says Myotonia Congenita.

Essentially the exact same thing happens to me when the disease sets in. Since my friends and family do not often get to see an episode play itself out, I thought I would share this with everyone.

Joshua suggested that I film a Myotonic fall just in case you really want to see what it looks like when it happens to people. Go ahead and laugh, it's funny.

Apparently...

2007-01-18T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have had a blog for awhile now, but I did not take the time to figure out how to login and update it and all of that stuff. (My husband set it up for me and I knew about it, but I wanted to incorporate the word "apparently" into my first entry.)

I thought about starting a blog a couple of years ago and never did. Now that I am an Elek and that is what you need to do to stay in touch, I should probably just starting updating this thing!

I just started my second field placement (intership) at The Washington Hospitals Hospice in Washington, PA. It is halfway between Wheeling and Pittsburgh, so I can continue on to class, which I do ever tuesday this semester.

This is my second week there. I watched 5 hours of videos today as part of my orientation. I am glad to be in the Hospice circle again. I like the environment and the people that I meet.

I hope to share stories from my experiences there and my class this semseter as well. It is called Social Work Pubile Policy in Gerentology. I was not excited to be taking this class because politics intimidate me, but my professor is awesome! She is an adjunct professor, which I think are sometimes better professors, and she is determined to not make the class exciting. She is doing a great job so far and I am really looking forward to our assignments. I just got my book today and I can't wait to start reading it.

Well, I need to hem some dress pants now that I have to dress up three days a week and I am abnormally short!

Hope you enjoyed this entry!

Rach