Uh....okay

I stumbled upon a sneak preview of the cover I can anticipate seeing on my next issue of Marie Claire. Wow....talk about extremes! One day, Christina Aguilera consistently denies she is pregnant (despite obvious evidence to the contrary), the next she is posing nude, belly and all, on the cover of a popular national magazine. Hey, I'll be the first to say it takes guts - you won't see me flashing my pregnant belly in public. I see lots of beautiful pictures where very pregnant women have had professional pictures taken of their stomach - it's just not me. Looking at this picture, I have to think that (a) it's extremely airbrushed (MC does ALOT of that), or (b) Christina has the prettiest baby belly ever. I mean seriously...no stretch marks, and her stomach is tan (big no no for pregnant women)! I am going to have to go with option (a).

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!

I hope all of you, my friends and family, had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty relaxing. Since getting married two years ago, Ryan and I have switched Thankgivings - one year we will spend with my family at my grandmother's in eastern Kentucky, and the next we will spend with Ryan's family in Paducah. This year was our year with Ryan's family, and Ryan and I enjoyed a nice visit with all of his extended family. This was the first year I have even attempted to eat two Thanksgiving meals in one day - it was tough, but Ryan and I gave it our best effort! I don't even want to think of how many calories I consumed that day.....

We got back on Friday and just spent the weekend around the house. I spent Friday afternoon and evening putting up our Christmas trees. Yes, folks, I said trees - we have two this year! I know, I know, it's insane. I wanted to have our traditional tree in our den where we spend the majority of our time. However, I have always wanted to have a "fancy" tree with matching, color-coordinated ornaments. We have a big bay window that faces out onto the street in our living room, and I thought this would be a perfect place for our new tree. It looks fantastic from the street, all lit up - too bad we don't have any furniture in that room yet! Hey, it takes a long time to furnish a house.....

I'm really happy how both trees turned out - while my "fancy" tree looks just how I wanted it, I am still partial to our traditional tree in our den. Not only does the latter contain all of the beautiful Christopher Radko (spelling?) ornaments that we get every year from Ryan's dad and stepmother, it also has ornaments with alot of sentimental value - like the ornaments my Mom made from the mobile which hung over my crib.

Here's some pictures of both - I had to show off my handiwork!

Our "fancy" tree:





Our traditional tree in our den:





Ryan and I really do have so much to be thankful for this year, and consider ourselves blessed. It's a really exciting holiday season for us - knowing that the baby is on the way makes it that much more special.

Kelly & Josh's Baby Shower

I'm so, so late in getting around to posting pictures from the recent couples baby shower that was held for our friends Josh and Kelly, who are expecting a boy in February. Here's a few pictures from the fun evening:

The proud parents-to-be:



I never realized how much Josh loves the Green Bay Packers until I saw some of the baby's gifts - this bib was hilarious:





Congrats Josh and Kelly - I know you'll make wonderful parents.

Kentucky IS Southern Living at Its Best

Wow, I am a blog posting machine this morning - I'm so inconsistent with my posting, I go a week without anything new and then you have four posts back to back! At any rate, I have to go on a small rant this morning, and I think you women from Kentucky will understand why.....

I've been a devoted subscriber to Southern Living for the past couple of years. My mother is a subscriber, as well as my grandmother and probably many other women in my extended family. Since I love to cook, the recipes are great - there are also tons of home ideas and great articles on different places to visit in the Southern region (and, I should point out, locales in Kentucky are always prominently featured). For some reason, I haven't gotten the latest issue of Southern Living in the mail - I can only guess that my subscription has expired. While I was at a local Rite Aid last week, I just happened to look in the magazine section to see if they had SL. Imagine my horror when instead of my beloved Southern Living I found a copy of ...... brace yourselves .... MIDWESTERN LIVING. What the hell is this?!?!?! I stand firm in my belief that Kentucky is undoubtedly a Southern Living state. This was confirmed when I got my 2007 Best of Southern Living cookbook in yesterday's mail and noted all the Kentucky influences in the recipes (such as hot browns, bourbon balls, etc.). We might not be the deep South, like Mississippi or Georgia, but by God, all the good things about Kentucky - Derby, horses, bourbon, landscape, charm - are all things Southern. This girl will NEVER switch her subscription over to Midwestern Living!

Nursery Thoughts

So yesterday, I got the disappointing news that the ultrasound technician is booked solid on December 6th (the day we anticipated finding out the baby's sex), and now my appointment is pushed back another whole week till December 13th. So disappointed - Ryan puts it all in perspective, of course, and repeated that it is only one more week, but damn it, I wanted to know what this little peanut was YESTERDAY, so another week seems like an eternity!





In the meantime, I've started to look around on the internet to gather possible nursery ideas - here's one I have fallen in love with if we have a girl. And no, for the record, I have absolutely NO idea what we're having. I've had three gender dreams - the first was boy, but the most recent two were definitely girl (we even named the baby in the last dream). Half of our friends and family say boy, others say girl. I guess we'll just have to wait 3 weeks and 6 more days till we know for sure!

Love, Love, Love Project Runway

At long last, Project Runway is back for another season. I didn't get hooked on this Bravo show until last season, which was the third season, I think. I don't watch a bunch of reality television, mostly because it's so cheesy (okay, I admit it, I'm still a closet Bachelor watcher!), but Project Runway stands above the rest. It doesn't hurt that Tim Gunn is so fabulous. This looks to be a pretty talented cast - my early favorite is Rami, whose beautiful gray dress pictured to the left just happened to be the winner of the first challenge. I can't wait to see what else he's going to come up with.

Freak of Nature

Have you seen the latest cover of Fitness magazine with Kelly Ripa on the cover?? She looks skinnier than ever - I can't get over the fact that this woman has had 3 children (I think that's how many - no matter how many she's had, any one that has that body after ONE kid is amazing). A woman can only hope to get such washboard abs after having a baby - of course, if I had my own personal trainer and dietician, like I'm sure Ripa does, that might be a more attainable goal!

4th Month Check-Up

Just wanted to put up a short post following my monthly check up with the obstetrician this morning (I am 15 weeks along this Saturday, or almost 4 months, however you want to look at it). Ryan has been with me for all of the appointments but unfortunately he could not be there today as he is working in Bowling Green this week. I invited my Dad to go with me so he could meet the doctor and hear the heartbeat.

My blood pressure was normal and I had gained a ½ pound since my last appointment – so far, I’ve only gained 1 ½ pounds in this pregnancy, which I’m pretty happy about, but I’m sure that will change before too long! The doctor reviewed my last ultrasound and blood work from the first trimester screening and said everything looked great. She measured my stomach, though there is not really much there to measure, and then used the Doppler so we could hear the heartbeat, which was very strong. Dr. Kuntz also confirmed that she will perform an ultrasound at next month’s appointment on December 6, at which time we will be able to learn if the baby is a boy or girl. It is safe to say that the next four weeks are going to go so slowly because we are so excited to find out what we are having!

More Wonderful News to Celebrate

Two of our dearest friends in the world - Andy and Amanda - got engaged on Halloween evening. Ryan and I just couldn't be happier for them if we tried - not only are they wonderful friends to us both, they are a wonderful couple and they really compliment one another. Now we get to look forward to their fantastic wedding (maybe in Chicago?). Recently, a group of us went out to L&N Wine Bistro to help them celebrate (yet another fantastic restaurant here in town - huge wine selection, unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it!). Here's a great picture of Terry, Amanda, Natasha, Ryan, myself, Mark and Andy following our dinner.

American Gangster

My sister got into town from Boston on Saturday and is leaving to head on to Las Vegas today. I am very thankful we got an opportunity to hang out some this weekend and just catch up on all the crazy things going on in our lives.



On Sunday, we went to see American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. I'd heard great reviews about the movie before going to see it - with those two Oscar-winning stars, I couldn't imagine it being bad. We were definitely not disappointed, it was a fantastic movie! It was long - about 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is a long time for anyone to sit in a movie theater, especially a pregnant woman - but well worth it. The fact that it is based on a true story made it that much more interesting. I'm going on record right now to say that Denzel will win another Oscar for that performance!

Congratulations Shanna!

I went to a baby shower this past Saturday for Shanna, a sorority sister of mine from UK. We had a really great time celebrating with Shanna, who is quite possibly the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen. Really, look at these pictures and try to tell me you are not shocked she is due in just a few weeks! Farrah, another sorority sister who hosted the shower, broke out a few old scrapbooks from our college days, which made for some interesting stories, flashbacks, and lots of laughter (especially over the transformation of my hair over the years!). Congrats, Shanna, you'll be a wonderful mom.