November Update

I'm really bad at taking pictures and when I think about doing a blog post, I think I need to include pictures, so I'm like "I'll wait to post until I have photos to post" and then I don't take photos, so then I don't post anything...

An update on the goings ons - Mom, Dad, Chanda and Hank visited at the beginning of October, it was awesome to see them! Hank is just getting bigger and cuter every day, I think. While they were here, I was blessed with a baby shower hosted by my lovely sister-in-law, mother-in-law and aunt. It was a fun time, it was good to see everyone that could make it, and we got some great things for baby.

Chanda and Hank flew back to Billings and my parents headed to Chicago for a week to visit my cousins and also their friends Rich and Beth. They returned to Minneapolis the following week and helped us work on the house, get the nursery ready to go and we also fit in a Vikings game as an early birthday present for dad. The Vikings won and it a good time!

The last few weeks, we have mostly been working on the house and getting prepared for the little one. We are both still working full-time and also making time for friends on the weekends - since we'll probably be MIA for awhile after our little angel arrives, it's nice to get some socializing in now.

And the current countdown is 32 days until the due date! On the one hand, it seems to be coming up so quickly, but on the other, I feel like I've been pregnant forever! I'm still feeling really good considering, but am just starting to get uncomfortable and achy and haven't been getting the best sleep the last couple nights. Otherwise, things are going well, but I am so excited to meet the little one and be done with being pregnant (for awhile.)

Labor Day Trip - Vegas and San Diego!!!

Helllooo! I know it's been too long since I've updated the blog and now I'm writing about things that happened over a month ago!

The Thursday before Labor Day, we flew to Las Vegas with lots of other Gopher fans to watch the Golden Gophers take on UNLV Thursday night. Ryan and Sara drove up from San Diego to go to the game, also! It was a fun, but long day - I think the game went to triple overtime! It was 12:30 (2:30 MN time) by the time the game ended and it was a little hazy. It was a very long day, but we had a fun time tailgating with lots of Gopher fans and the Gophers did win, so that was good.

Friends tailgating

Ryan having a great time grilling

 Aaron and me after the game (finally ended) in a Gopher victory!

 

We stayed at the Sam's Town casino near the stadium (not on the strip), which made for a nice short drive after the game. This was our view from the room.

This was the view in the hotel atrium with the majestic waterfall and the entertaining animatronic animals.

Ryan was startled by the life-like cougar

We found the sign!!!

The guys had to make a stop at the "Pawn Stars" store. It was smaller than we thought and seemed to have a lot more TV merchandise for sale than actual pawn items...

 

After doing some sight-seeing Friday, we headed to San Diego for the weekend.

 

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we decided to make it a beach day! The day was going great - laying in the sun, tossing the football in the surf - until tragedy struck!

 

Okay, not really, but I got stung by a stingray on my foot! I was just standing in the waves, minding my own business and a wave swept in and a felt a sharp poke on the side of my left foot. It started burning, so I hurried out of the water to see what it was. There were 2 little slits on my foot bleeding. I thought it was just stinging because of the salt water, but nobody was really sure what it was. I put some ice on it and elevated it and it started to feel a little better, but the stinging was travelling up my leg, so Aaron asked if he should go down to the lifeguard station and see if this might be something more serious. So he ran down there - it was about 1/4 or 1/2 mile away. When he described the wound to the lifeguard, he lept onto his 4-wheeler, started the flashing lights and asked Aaron to show him where I was. Aaron didn't get to ride on the 4-wheeler, he had to run back!

 

The lifeguard was all business, he called in the situation, he told me that it was definitely a stingray sting and that it's better to put heat on it to break down the venom protiens instead of ice, so he wrapped my foot with a heatpack and said a boat will be here for you soon. I'm like, what? A boat?? So this motor boat shows up with 2 more lifeguards and they take me to the main lifeguard station a few miles up the beach - Aaron came with, too. We went over a lot of waves and I thought I was going to throw up, but I held it together. I was greeted by another lifeguard with a wheelchair to take me over the sand to the station.

 

Then after all this, the amazing stingray sting treatment I got was putting my foot in a bucket of hot water. So for about 1 hour or so, I just soaked my foot in hot water to break down the venom. It was really very painful to take my foot out to refresh the hot water, but once it was in the water, it felt great. Everyone at the lifeguard station was very nice and they got me water to drink and they had a TV with cable that we got to watch while we waited.

 

Ryan and Sara went and got their car and met us at the station, so we headed back to their apartment once my foot was feeling better. So after the excitement, we took it easy the rest of the day.

 

Sunday, we went and saw the Midway aircraft carrier. It was pretty cool, but a lot of walking and a lot narrow stairways.

 

Inside the Midway

Aaron checking out the planes on the flightdeck

The "island"

 

Us on the Midway with Coronado bridge and island in the background

 

 

The rest of the weekend was lots of fro-yo, a meal at the legendary Albie's, a visit to the San Diego Mission, and some fishing on the pier.

 

 

 

Overall, it was a great, fun trip, and can't wait to go back!

 



Summer 2012

This has been a very busy summer for us. I just wanted to upload some photos I have...

I took 2 trips to Montana. The first trip was supposed to be so I could meet my nephew, Hank, but he didn't want to cooperate. Instead, I spent a lot of quality time with my very pregnant sister, Chanda:

This is her at 41+ weeks preganant and so excited that I'm taking her picture :)

Here is Mateo, very excited for the impending arrival:

I got to meet up with some friends for dinner (we went to elementary school together!!) Central Heights ladies:

Dannialle and Megan

Angie, Melissa, and baby Olive

Besties!

Pregnant Ladies! :)

Then we went to MT again in July, when we did actually get to meet Hank! Here is the handsome fellow:

Hank Norman

Happy Family!

Hank taking a nap on Auntie Jessica

The end of July was more family time with a Fust family reunion in Medora, ND. I have no photos from that, but it was a fun time and got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen since the last reunion.

The first weekend of August was a family trip to Ortonville, MN with Aaron's immediate family - mom, brother, sister and her husband and daughter.

Me and Tessa

The Trygstads

Paddleboat fun!

Brothers

Tessa sharing her orange juice with Aaron - so generous :)

And last, but not least, here is a picture of the bump at 24 weeks! Only 16 weeks left to go - yea!!

 I know I don't look very happy, but I was just concentrating on getting a good photo - harder than it looks!

Welcome to The Blog!!!

Welcome to my blog. My name is Jessica, this is me:

This is me with my handsome husband, Aaron:



We both went to the University of Minnesota (can you tell we're fans??). Aaron was friends with our neighbors and we met at a party at their house. We met 10 yrs ago this November - I can't believe it's been so long! We just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary!

 

These are our ADORABLE puppies, they are two of the joys of our lives:

Waiting patiently to eat

On the dock this summer during our family cabin trip

This is where Lola likes to be whenever I'm in the kitchen... she's very good at helping me clean up food I drop on the floor.

And this is our little Fritter Monkey arriving in December:

We could not be more happy, excited, terrified...

This blog is intended to be generally about my (our) life to share with our friends and family who don't get to see us all the time. Probably 3 people will read this on a consistant basis - but even that makes it worthwhile :) Love you guys!