Oh boy, a BOY!

Wes and I are delighted to announce that we are having a baby boy! His name is Noah Wesley. He definitely wasn't shy during the ultrasound. He showed us right away that he is a boy :) . But the best news of all from the ultrasound is that he is healthy. All of the pictures looked really good. Based on Noah's measurements from the ultrasound, my due date could actually be a week early. However, the doctor still wants to stick with February 21st. Right now, Noah is 1lb and 1oz. He is a growing little boy! I've been feeling him move more and actually felt him from outside of my belly. Wes was able to feel him last night and we both saw my belly poke out from his movement. What an exciting time! I can't wait for the movements to get stronger. We are really looking forward to meeting our precious son! In the meantime, we have this sweet little picture of his face to look at every day. Isn't he handsome?!

A Dinosaur Birthday

A little over a month ago, we celebrated our nephew Jacob's 3rd birthday. In a way, it's hard to believe he's already 3. God had truly blessed me with the wonderful opportunity of watching him grow up, especially when I lived in Bowling Green. I saw him almost every week of his life during the first year and pretty often after that. Sometimes it's hard being farther away from him now and seeing him less often. But thankfully, my brother Kyle keeps us updated with cute stories, videos and pictures on his blog. Occasionally, I'm fortunate enough to get Jacob to talk to me on the phone. His words are always so precious!

We had a great time celebrating Jacob's birthday. Next year, we will have two new ones who will also celebrate his birthday in person - our little bundle of joy and Jacob's little brother or sister. Jacob informed us that he thinks both babies are boys. We will see if he's right or not in about a month. Even though our baby is still growing in the womb, he/she did join in in our celebration (see the photo below). Happy birthday, Jacob!

Thomas The Train

I saw this today on the Girl Talk blog. I had a good laugh. I definitely can relate since my nephew LOVES Thomas and all of his friends. At least Jacob is kind and loving to his Aunt Jenn when he has to correct her!

Kruisin in the Kia

I'm currently sporting around town in a Kia. I took my car in Tuesday to get it repaired after my accident a couple of weeks ago. Surprisingly, the Kia is pretty peppy. So far I've had fun driving it. I like that it is smaller than my Camry and easier to back out/pull in to a parking space. However, I do miss Cami. She's a good car. Hopefully, she will be as good as new next week.

Speaking of new, Wes and I had another "first" experience as a married couple the other night. We were out buying some supplies at Target. We realized that we were almost out of his toothpaste (I had already used up mine and had been using his) and needed some more. I was very excited that it was the first time that we got to pick our toothpaste together. When I said something to Wes about it he said "Wow, I'm so excited. I've got butterflies in my stomach." Of course, he said it sarcastically but I thought it was cute. I guess girls just appreciate these little mile markers more than guys (or at least think about them more). It wasn't a difficult task even though there were so many options to pick from. We were pretty much in agreement about what we wanted. For me, it was a fun experience - another "first" that I can mark off my list.

On the contrary, this is the "last" post that you will read from me as a 27 year old. That's right...tomorrow is my birthday! Twenty seven has been such a great year. After all, it's the year that I fell in love with the wonderful man who then became my husband. I'm so thankful to be celebrating this birthday with him. As good as 27 was, I have great expectations that 28 will be even better. Hopefully, it will be a year of many more "firsts" with Wes.

So here is what you missed....

Well, it's been a while since my last post. So here's what has been going on with me....

FINALES.... and lots of them. A couple of weeks ago marked the season's end for many of my favorite tv shows. Dancing with the Stars ended very satisfactory for me. I was rooting for Apollo all the way. I even voted for him. I'm glad he won although Joey was a worthy competitor. He was just a little too goofey for my taste. The Office ended with a long awaited move in the office romance department. I hope that Jim and Pam work out. Of course, most tv shows start losing their appeal once the guy and girl finally get together. I hope this doesn't happen to The Office. It's such a funny show. As a side note, Wes surprised me one day and actually downloaded the theme song for The Office as my ringtone. I love it! Back to the shows. Veronica Mars...RIP...I can't believe it's over! And the finale was so frustrating. They turned what should have been a series finale into a regular old season finale with several cliffhangers. Why would they do that? It was very unsatisfying for me and I'm sure several other loyal fans. Ok, so I saved my favorite for last. LOST. Wow. That just about sums it up for me. I got bored with this show for a while but the writers have really reeled me back in. The ending for this season was really mind-blowing. A flash-forward! If you don't watch LOST then that doesn't make any sense. But trust me, it was something I didn't see coming. Unfortunately, I have to wait until February to find out what happens next.

HOUSE GUESTS....which included some friends of ours, Wes's parents, and my brother and his family. We had some friends of ours , Todd and Anca, over for dinner about 3 weeks ago. They are fellow newlyweds (married in December) who invited us over for dinner a couple of weeks after the honeymoon. It was nice to be able to finally have them over. It was a great night of food and conversation. We also had Wes's parent come to visit on Memorial Day weekend. I was a little nervous because it was the first time I ever cooked for his parents. Thankfully, it went well. We had a picnic on Saturday at the Arboretum at UK and watched a movie that night. Sunday I had a little time to recover before my brother and his family came to visit on Monday. They arrived shortly after lunch. We had several hours of fun playing with our nephew Jacob. Wow, I really do miss seeing him. He is so much fun! We had some adventures playing hide&seek around the house and did A LOT of swinging at the playground. We were able to have dinner together that night at Chedder's and did some driving around Lexington to show them the area. It was a busy but good weekend.

CAR ACCIDENT AND THE CLINIC....but they were two unrelated events. Last week I was rear-ended on my way to work. Thankfully, I was ok and so was the other driver. The traffic on that road is always backed up. I guess that she didn't notice that I was stopping. My car could have been worse (at least it sounded like it could have been much worse when she hit me) but I'm sure it will cost an outrageous amount to fix. Thankfully, her insurance is paying for the damages. All I have to worry about is finding a place to get it fixed. That should happen within the next week or two. Finally, I decided to go to the Lexington clinic to have my ankle x-rayed on Monday. I fell down the stairs at home about 6 weeks ago. My ankle has been bothering me ever since. While I thought it was just a bad sprain, I wanted to be sure. And...I was right. The x-rays did not reveal any fractures but did show that I had small tissue swelling. So, they referred me to a podiatrist to check for ligament damage. This whole experience has been such a pain, literally and figuratively. I'm never falling down stairs again!

Well, that pretty much sums up the events in my life since my last post. Hopefully, I won't wait so long to post again. Until next time...

Marriage and Pinto Beans

Wednesday night, my good pal Kristi called me to catch up. She asked the usual "So what are you up to?" And I replied "I'm just watching tv and cooking some pinto beans." We both got a good laugh out of that! Wow, how things have changed. Before I got married I would never have thought about cooking beans for two hours, watching them carefully, adding water every few minutes so that they don't burn. I mean, you really have to babysit those beans or I guess beansit is a better word. :)

Yes, marriage changes a woman in many ways. For me, cooking was one of those ways. I didn't do very much cooking when I was single (well, to be honest I really didn't cook at all.) I enjoyed eating out quite a bit or sometimes I would just eat cereal for dinner. I didn't care for leftovers so cooking a big meal for one person seemed like a waste of money and food. But cooking for my husband is important to me and something that I do enjoy. It is difficult sometimes though because there's still part of me that would love to just eat out. Let someone else do the cooking for me. But fortunately for me, Wes likes to cook occasionally and he's good at it. It's a real treat for me when he does.

Before we got married, I was concerned that I wouldn't be a good cook. I used to have conversations with my mom about this issue. I told her that if I could just be a tenth of the cook she was that I would be happy (I've said the same thing to her about being a mother which is very true!). She assured me that cooking was in my genes. She didn't cook very much before she got married but she said that she just figured it out, trial and error. That gives me hope, since she is the best cook I know. So far, I would say that cooking has been a success. Wes seems happy with our meals which is what I care about most when I cook. It's funny because every time I cook something new, I have to wait for his reaction to it before I can enjoy my own meal. He is very encouraging and complimentary of my cooking (what a great husband!) I've also learned a lot about leftovers. In general, they are a good thing! They save me from cooking extra meals and we don't waste food. Surprisingly, I've decided that they actually don't taste that bad.

So, the pinto beans turned out pretty well. Wes enjoyed them so it was worth the two hours of beansitting! They still didn't taste as good as my moms but nothing I fix tastes that good. Like I said to her, I will settle for a tenth of her skill. So far I'd say that I've at least got that. I think that's a good place to start.

Hello, Love.

I just love the Gecko on the Geico commercials! Anytime that I am flipping the channels I stop immediately when one of his commercials is on. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen often enough. Instead, they show the commercials with the silly caveman. I just don't think he's very funny. At least the Geico website and store are almost all about the Gecko. He always brings a smile to my face with his cute British accent. Hopefully, Geico will keep this cute little guy around for awhile. But even if they don't, I've always got my husband who does the best British accent (even better than the Gecko!) Pip, Pip Cheerio!

Let The Blogging Begin!

Hello everyone! I finally decided to create my own blog. My very smart and creative husband (did I mention handsome too!) came up with my clever blog name. The purpose of this blog is exactly what the title says - to share the inner me with you. These thoughts might be profound (at least to me) or completely random. But I also want to use this blog to keep my family and friends informed about our life here in Lexington. I've found that since being married it is difficult to stay in touch with everyone as I would like. Hopefully, this blog will help. I've left the comments open to everyone so you don't have to have an account to post a comment. Please feel free to comment on something I've written or just say hello. I hope you enjoy the Jenn within!