30; And Never Looking Back

We celebrated Morris's birthday with his family while we were in Utah. We had a nice dinner with most of his siblings and a few friends to complete the night.

During dinner we each took turns talking about the table topics questions left on each plate. Morris's question was: What are you most looking forward to this year? He had a hard time deciding between the birth of our baby, completion of his residency program and starting his first job. Wow, we have a big year ahead of us!

Morris was really happy to spend some time with is good friend Sam.

And we were so happy that Ben and Heidi were able to make it from Las Vegas. We love spending time with them.

Boys will always be boys.

I had big plans for my ice cream cakes but as you can see in the pic above they didn't turn out like I had hoped. There is always next year.

Thank you to everyone for coming to the party and for celebrating Morris with me.

Retirement

Just before Morris and I left for Utah I retired. We went out to dinner to celebrate. Morris said it was funny we were spending money to celebrate me not making any more money.

I was working as a nanny for the last 6 months for a baby boy (a little hands on training) but now I am looking forward to spending my days with my baby boy. Just under 10 weeks from now!

2009 in Pics

I wasn't much of a blogger last year so maybe a quick glimpse into last year will make up for months of absence.

January

We rang in the New Year in the big apple! We saw as much as many Christmas trees as we could and as many sites as our cold bodies would allow.

February

Took a quick trip down to Orlando, Morris attended a conference and we enjoyed seeing our friends the Craguns.

Was surprised by a surprise birthday breakfast with good friends.

March

Spent a weekend in Charleston, SC. Loved it there.

Had a chance to visit with the Henriods before they headed back to California.

Ran the Monument Ave. 10K with friends. Morris showed his support but volunteering and cheering me on along the course.

Met up with UCLA friends in DC for the Cherry Blossom festival.

Convinced the Shamos to spend a few more days with us in Richmond.

April

More time with UCLA friends, this year the AAO meeting was in Boston and we had fun seeing these faces.

We were lucky enough to see the Shamos again in Boston.

Janae and I at the library.

Boston Public Gardens

May

Had to go see what all the OBX fuss was all about. Spent the weekend in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and loved every second of it, even the brutal sun burn I returned home with.
And the friends who made it possible, thank you Hendrys for letting us crash your family vacation. We will happily invite ourselves on any future trips.

June

Had a visit from Papa Morris. We spent a Sunday afternoon visiting Civil War battlefields.

Morris had a conference at the Greenbrier in West Virginia. One of the most memorable "vacations" we have ever had. I know who knew in West Virginia?

We played many games of shuffle board and decided we will be putting a court in our backyard--one day.

In front of the Greenbrier. I want to go back.

July

Made it to Utah for the festivities. All of my sissies + Mamma came to the celebration at the Pooles.

And the Hendrys.

We were able to sneak up to Bear Lake for a few days to spend some time with the Pooles

And then up to Park City for some r & r with my side of the family.

I was also able to spend a girls weekend with some old roomies.

Celebrated our anniversary with a night at Coldplay.

August

Headed up to Hershey, PA to spend the weekend with Ben and Heidi. Went to Chocolate World

Learned about the Amish and took in some sites in Lancaster County, ate too many cider donuts and drank too much Amish Root Beer and not enough Hershey ice cream.

September

Spent another weekend in the city I love, New York City.

We helped the Lees move into a new place to get ready for Baby Boy and Baby Girl and enjoyed spending time in the city with good friends.

I got back in the chair and let Morris put braces on me. He put lingual braces on me (on the backside of my teeth) so I can avoid being called "brace face" for the next two years.

October

Went to Lake Gaston, NC for the weekend. It was unusually warm and on Sunday we weren't ready to come home so the girls decided to stay an extra day. Thanks again Joy and Ted.

It took a few seasons but he finally got it and has the T-shirt to prove it. At UCLA they always managed to get to the championship but just couldn't get the W. This year the VCU residents were able to take the all school championship in intermural football.

Dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert for our ward Halloween party.

November

We took advantage a warm day in November and visited the home of George Washington; Mount Vernon.

We attended a wedding near Pittsburgh, PA. I was really more interested in spending the weekend with Tiffany, a friend from high school who lives near Pburgh. The weekend went way too fast but it was so great to see Tiffany and her cute family.

December

We hosted a mustache and ugly sweater party for the ortho residents. There was a few classic outfits (and a few completely wrong) that will certainly not be forgotten.

My brother Ben had an interview at VCU for residency and he brought Heidi and Max along with him. We were so happy to have visitors and to see family at Christmas.

A huge snow storm hit while they were here so we were stuck inside for a few days and Ben couldn't get out of town so he missed an interview in Boston. I had no complaints about the extended stay and more cuddle time with this cute guy.

Our last Christmas spent away from family, thank goodness we have the Hendrys who invited us over for Christmas dinner and made us feel right at home.

And now a frest start for 2010!

Oh, by the way...

...this is my current physique
It's true, we are expecting!

A sweet little baby BOY due the end of April. Yeah, I know I am a bit late in my announcement. We have had a few bumps in the road on this journey that has made me a bit more than a nervous Nelly about sharing the good news.

Things are going very well and I am enjoying the little love taps I have started to feel from our little guy and the return of a mostly normal life.

We are so grateful for the many prayers that have been said on behalf of our little family and thank you for your concern and support.

Can't Wait!

9:43:21

Total time spent on the phone with Dell operators overseas attempting to fix my broken computer.

Lets cross our fingers I am not on the phone with Giriraj for a little while.

Off on a fun weekend vacation, I will finally update when I get back.

The Low Country

I don't think a lifetime would have been long enough to enjoy all the charm and history of this wonderful city. Morris and I made a quick trip down to Charleston, SC "The Low Country" this weekend and loved every minute of it.

We visited Middelton Place-one of the many gorgeous plantations in Charleston. The grounds and gardens were beautiful, we were a little to early to enjoy the azaleas but we did get to see the last remains of the camellias.
We were able to stay with our good friends, the Henriods, from UCLA. They were excellent hosts and tour guides.

This is the main house on the plantation, it is pretty amazing, especially the waterfront view of the Ashley River.

Side note: The Ashley River runs along one side of town and the Cooper River on the other (I think) well anyway pretty much everything in town is named Ashley something or other. I think that means I need to move there or at least visit time and time again.

One of my favorite things we did and a must do if you ever visit the city is take a horse drawn carriage ride.

The tour took us through historic downtown Charleston and gives you a little background on the homes and architecture. It really was great.

Another must do when in the south; eat something and everything fried (except for the peanuts, they boil those so they actually end up being more like beans, I was a fan-Morris not so much). So fried lunch is what we did. We had our first taste of Hush Puppies (fried cornmeal dough with jalapenos), actually they were pretty good. Fried baked potatoes, fried shrimp, fried fish, I think they even fried our coke. You get the point, basically a heart attack.

Charleston is a great walking city. We walked all over downtown and saw some other sites that were not included on our tour.

We saw Rainbow Row...

Waterfront Park, Mt. Pleasant Bridge, Fort Sumter (from a distance), The Battery area and shopped in The Market.

Oh lovely beach, how we have missed you.

The Carolina beaches were so pretty and such a welcomed site after a long winter. We walked around Folly beach and drove around dreaming about owning one of the many beautiful beach homes for sale.

We took a walk along the sand to the Morris Lighthouse, I really think we are meant to live here; a river and now a lighthouse just for us.

The whole weekend we were Gator hunting. We had heard rumors of gators in these parts but we didn't see any until Sunday afternoon. As soon as we went outside to get some proof he snuck back into his pond.

He really is there, just between Morris and Joel along the bank of the pond.

P.S. This is right in the Henriods backyard. Yes, this is correct they have gators in the backyard.

Oh and Morris had a little girlfriend the whole weekend. It was pretty cute to see the little crush Clara had on him and how excited she was to be near Morris, I think he secretly loved every minute of it.

Here is the close up of the alligator.

Thank you Henriods for the wonderful weekend, we loved it.