March 10, 2012

2012 - The Year of the Boys

Remember me?

Yeah, the author of this blog.  I'm here and still alive. Haven't forgotten about the blog world, just on hiatus I guess.

Since my last post, as you can imagine a whole lot has happened. I've been working 40+ hours every week, Halloween, Thanskgiving, Christmas and New Year's have all come and gone.  What a fun end of the year it was but how exciting 2012 has been and will be.  Here is where the fun began for us!

On Tuesday Aug. 30th, I hadn't seen that lovely friend yet that visits every month.  I didn't want to be too hasty so I had figured I'd hold out until the weekend and see what transpired.  It was a very quiet peaceful evening, just Robert and myself, eating dinner and watching Wipeout and suddenly right in the middle of the show, Robert says "I can't wait until the weekend! Go take that test now!" I asked if he was sure cause the longer we wait the more accurate it would be. Well, less than 30 seconds later I was in the bathroom pulling out a pregnancy test.  Just as I went to set it down on the counter I said, "Now it says it can take up to 2 minutes to show a result" and that's when Robert said, "I don't think it takes two minutes" and he turned to look at me with a big ol' Robert smile on his face.  That's the day we found out we were going to be parents.



Of course the weeks following included many discussions on how we wanted to surprise our families with the news, what we thought the gender would be and what we hoped for, our.favorite names, different.parenting styles and all those fun conversations after those two little lines appear.  Not to mention within a week Robert was already coming home with boxes of diapers.  Following those weeks were more of the same-- how are we going to reveal the gender to our families (which is a funny story in itself), narrowing down our favorite names and how excited we were for all the new change.


Amongst all of our fun, my sister was due 3 months ahead of me.  So here we are with an exciting time in their lives and we're following right behind them.  So to condense all the fun we've had and are still having here are some pictures to sum it all up.


Our "blob" at 7 weeks 4 days - first ultrasound

 
Our tiny baby at 11 weeks 1 day -- second ultrasound
As for our 3rd ultrasound, that is where we found out we were having a boy.  We were given 17 pictures which I proudly displayed at work, but surprisingly we have not uploaded any yet.  (I'll make sure to do a post on those when we finally do).






Also, the  night before Halloween my mom, sister and I built this costume-- "Bun in the oven" and had a blast with it! The timer said 4:27 --- our due date.

I'll be writing a few more posts on other fun stuff that we've been working on while getting ready for our boy.  Along with details about how we surprised our families, the name for our pip-squeak, cravings and funny pregnancy stories--- but until then here's what's REALLY been fun the past 4 weeks.


Presenting
Bentley Christopher Mailo
February 5th 7:27pm 8 lbs 2 oz. 20.5 inches



My sister is amazing.... All natural, baby! It is truly amazing to see my sister be such a wonderful and natural mom.  I only wish I could be half the mom she is!  I have loved seeing her and Bentley.  It is so precious and I treasure every moment with them.

This bundle of happiness has been nothing but pure joy to his parents, Heather & St John and to my entire family.  He is just adorable and coos when you hold him! I feel so lucky to have such a handsome nephew.  To know that we are going to have our own little boy to love as much as we love Bentley (and sorry Heather) and probably even more, is such an amazing thought.  These angelic babies are truly miracles that I am so blessed to have in my life.  I can't wait to see these two grow up together.  Now here are some absolute irresistible pictures for all those baby lovers out there.




This was after his first bath... Look at that hair!


August 1, 2011

Homeless for the weekend


So, we were forced out of our place.  Yes, we pay our rent on time.  Early almost every month actually! Our wonderful landlords needed to replace our tiny little porch and our stairs because it had some dry rot. Which has been attracting frogs on our porch because of the bugs... so, we all know how I coexist with those little creatures. (In case you don't know...the answer is that I don't!)

So ever since I started dating Robert I've heard about this place called Camp Winton.  It is a Boys' Scout Camp that he went to and loved.  He has been talking about doing this "extreme camping" trip, which is right next to the beloved Camp Winton, since we were only dating. So since we had no home for the weekend (or at least no way to get up into our place) it was the perfect time to go try out this "extreme camping" thing.

We packed up as little as we could, borrowed my Grandpa's canoe and headed up to Bear River Reservoir.  Robert and I took the canoe down off of his truck, packed it up with our stuff and started paddling.  Three miles later we made it to the dam.  We then had to unpack the canoe and little by little hike everything up and around this cliff to get to the upper reservoir.  Needless to say the canoe was the hardest part.  Just Robert and me on steep ground.  It took us two and a half hours and I was exhausted!  BUT-- once you get to the top you pack the canoe right back up and start paddling for another two miles.  Since the upper reservoir cannot be accessed without a boat, you are practically the only crazy adventurous people there.  We saw only three people once we made it to the top of the dam.

So, there you are on this gorgeous lake, surrounded by mountains and where we camped, not a soul in sight.  It was truly beautiful and we had a great time just relaxing, eating, playing card games together like Gin and Split Pea!  Robert taught me how to tie all your food up in a tree and we had a blast just exploring this ridiculously silent nature.  Not to mention that as we were camping, our little place got an awesome renovation.  We plan on going again and want to make it a tradition, but I sure am working out more before we do.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.
Robert starting our Hobo Dinner's...YUM! Dad you are right... EVERYTHING tastes better in the woods! Why is that?

Such a gorgeous place.

We saw 4 different amazing waterfalls!

On our first morning there we went out for a ride to see what we could see...
My attempt to get a picture of us both...FAIL.
Out for a ride.



Our new porch!

Over double the size. Thanks, Lance!

July 4, 2011

Graduation

Yeah, I'm a College Graduate... and I was EXCITED!

So, obviously, I survived those last few crazy weeks in college. I finished all my papers, projects and other deadlines and got all A's but one B. Not bad for a busy last semester.  We had a fabulous ceremony on May 21st and enjoyed a delicious BBQ afterward at the Elk Grove Park with family.  The actual day was so surreal because it felt like a fun celebration but in the back of my mind I kept thinking I'd be back when the next semester came around.  That's just what I've always done.  One of my most favorite things about the ceremony was the unity you could see from my major.  The Deaf Studies major is such a tight knit group and we were all friends too.  We all signed the Star Spangled Banner and **waved hands** as our fellow graduate received the Dean's Award on stage.  I will definitely miss my friends, school and all the fun experiences I have had but I have learned so much and have had some great times!  Also, if you know me at all, you know that I am a huge ally of the Deaf community, obviously why I majored in Deaf Studies.  If you feel like reading one of my final papers here is my 15 pager titled, "Medical Biases Decide the Fate of Your Child's Deafhood".  As I had just finished writing this, I sat down and read it out loud to my parents to get their input. (Yes, I made them endure all 15 pages). At the end I was literally crying.  I am so passionate about the awareness of Deaf Culture and ASL.  The injustices forced upon the Deaf community are unreal and the worst part is that the majority of people have no clue what has been done.  Anyway, lets not get me fired up on that subject! As of right now, I am applying for any job opening I see.  I truly hope to go back and get my Interpreting Certification or by some miracle go back and get a Master's/Teaching Cred. so I can teach to Deaf children.  My internship was in a Kindergarten-2nd grade class and I just fell in love with it!...One day....one day...


My biggest supporter! Could not have finished without this hunky guy!
My two best friends...my sisters. Aren't they absolutely beautiful?

Deaf Studies Graduates and Dr. Vicars, Dr. Rayman and Dr. Egbert!

Oh do I love these girls: Lindsey, Becky, Libby, Torre, Sarah, Casey, Chrissy, Joey and me!


Robert's parents and youngest brother, Kyle came too.

The Gale Family & Popi who is also a CSUS Alumni!

Heather made these adorable "ILY" signs and my professors and other grads loved them!! My whole family was in the first row right as we walked in waving the signs.... I love my family!

May 2, 2011

The final stretch--

It is crazy to think that my whole college career has boiled down to the end and I am in a final sprint to home plate.

It took 4 years and one semester ( I took a semester off to get married!!) ....but still not too shabby.

In 19 days I have:

--One 15 page research paper
--Six 2-4 page papers
--Video project
--Two in class performances
--One 10-minute presentation
--Two finals
--Only Eight and a half more hours at my placement

I'm feeling quite stressed but I just remind myself, THIS IS IT!
Whew....I'll feel a lot better when this is all done.
I can do this....I can do this...I can do this!!!