What's new...

Well, actually a whole lot isn't new. I am starting to "get bigger", and I'm 17 weeks along today. It feels weird to start gaining a baby belly, as I'm sure those of you who have gone through it know. I mean, I'm not stranger to gaining weight, but baby belly appears in a different spot than where I gain weight. Also, it's kinda hard rather than squishy, so it's a totally different feeling! I knew eventually I'd start to get one, but it still came as a shock when it started... I mean for months I knew I was pregnant but the outside of me didn't change! Then the last two weeks... Bam! Expansion!

What else is new?

1. We got our first baby present, from my cousin Lisa and her family - 2 very cute rattles. It was really touching to get a surprise like that in the mail.

2. I didn't get my thank you notes and some cards I wanted to mail out. I'm bad at these things on a normal year... but these days by the time I get home, I'm tired and I'm also terribly forgetful. It's not a good combination to get anything done.

3.We've packed up some stuff we don't use daily. It's my goal to pack at least 2 boxes a day this week. I don't want to be scrambling at the end to get things done.

4. We got the appraisal on the townhome and it was for the price we're paying so all is good there! Only a few steps (and a few more weeks) to go and we'll be on our way!

5. I singlehandedly saved Northern Virginia from a bad snow storm yesterday. You see, we only got 4 inches... and it's all because I bought a snow shovel earlier this week. If I hadn't we could have gotten a lot more. But the storm stayed south just to make sure we didn't have the opportunity to shovel. Works every time. It's someone else's job to buy one next storm.

Terra Cotta Warriors

This weekend we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the National Geographic Museum. If you want to know more about them you can click Here.

If you're thinking about going, make sure to order your tickets in advance. They're sold out for several weekends ahead. Harland bought these tickets for me because I had tried to buy some before Christmas and every time I chose a day, they were sold out!

It's a small museum but the exhibit was really nicely put together. They had different kinds of the warriors. Some were officers, some were horsemen or servants or government officials... others were soldiers. They're all life-sized and it was interesting to learn that they all looked different (every single of of thousands and thousands!) and at one time had been painted in brightly colored paint.

You can't take any pictures inside the exhibit, so I will have to show you these outside pictures...
Here's the museum...


Here is a picture taken through the sign on the building when were were waiting in line, looking out towards the street. I thought it was a cool effect...

And here is Harland with a fake terra cotta warrior that they had at the end for picture purposes. It's the same size as the real ones so you can get a sense of size.


It was a really nice day to go out and about - it reached 53 degrees yesterday! Perfect!

Happy Busy New Year!

I don't really have any pictures to post this week, mostly I just came on here to make sure people know I'm alive! We had a lot going on in this household this week!

1. My company merged with another so that has been pretty exciting!

2. I told my boss and co-workers the big news! We are expecting a baby in July! Now I'll have to do all kinds of planning for time off and things at work. whew!

3. We went to see several townhouses last week. We were not planning on buying any of them, but just seeing what is out there. We also went to one single family house. But the big news there is we ended up loving one of the townhomes!

4. We bid on a townhouse and it was accepted! It is in a really nice neighborhood, has lots of "Greenspace" areas (including a park across the street), has a decent (well, for this area) sized backyard and was recently remodeled with granite counter tops in the kitchen! It looks so nice! So depending on the inspections/appraisals/etc. it looks like we'll finally have a place to call home! And one with 3 bedrooms even! I am excited.

5. With all this excitement and change - unfortunately came with a cold. So I'm really rather out of it today. Which is no fun. But I'm terribly excited about all the wonderful new things going on this new year - new company, new house, new baby on the way!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well it is beginning to look a lot like winter at least... The DC area got hit with it's biggest storm (maybe ever, but def. since the blizzard of 1922). We, being apartment folk, don't own a snow shovel (which is now on our Christmas list, haha) so we had to get a little creative in the digging out process...

Here are some pictures of around our place...
Evergreen trees always look so pretty in the snow...

As does the local lake which I took a little walk to... although I couldn't get close since I only have my ankle high hiking boots... I guess I need to get some winter gear!


We employed an inovative snow removal system... a regular shovel and our laundry basket (so we didn't just shovel it into the "plowed" area. Our apartment complex has kind of slacked, our roads are pretty terrible.


And here is the before scene... it took a while to clean off our cars, especially since a lot of snow drifted in between them, causing the snow to pile almost waist high!!



All in all, pretty exciting for this area!!

A Walk, A Zoo, and A Sunset.

So yesterday we went to the annual walk for the homeless. My work is a sponsor so I have gone the last 3 years. It was a lot nicer than last year (last year it was less than 20 and windy). This time around I could just wear a fleece instead of a coat.

Here are some pictures... you can see how calm the water was.



We also went to the Zoo.






Harland really liked to see the Tiger, while I enjoyed the Pandas...





And this is a sunset picture from a few weeks ago that I kept meaning to post...

Pumpkin Harvest

Today was the first sunny day in a really really long time.
Or so it seems, the sunny days seem to always fall during work days.

We decided to go to the farm and pick out our carving pumpkin.
Here is Harland inspecting our pumpkin and some scenes from the farm.

This is the pumpkin we picked out...


There were some wild flowers blooming as well...

Here is a pretty shot of the farm...

And did you know Goats like to eat pumpkins?


We also went over to the vineyard. It wasn't open the last time we went, so this was Harland's first time. It was a beautiful view.

I also had time to make an apple pie (Here is the recipe). I used my usual butter crust - which is fabulous with this recipe, it makes the top lattice part taste like cookies almost. Harland was impressed and he is the apple pie expert in this house.

And I made some Chinese dumplings from scratch (well I bought the dough circles, but the rest I made using H's mom's recipe).

I'm back!!

Hi Everyone, I was taking a small blogging hiatus to get connected back with Harland... but since it is back to his real job tomorrow this is a good time to spend some time blogging!

We did a lot of things when he was home on break. We visited his family, went to the farm, spent time in DC and other local places.

This past weekend we went to Baltimore to see my cousin Bob and his lovely wife (who I am really enjoying getting to know... they just had their 1st wedding anniversary this month).

Before Harland left to go to Iraq he bought us a new camera so he could use the other one. It has an aquarium setting and I was excited to see how awesome these shots came out!!

So now I'll let you see what I saw (The Baltimore aquarium is my favorite!!).