Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year. We had a wonderful Christmas and it was so nice to be able to spend it together. On Christmas Eve we had some friends over as well as a couple single gentlemen from our ward. We had a wonderful dinner. It might have been a little too wonderful because we ate way too much. We then sang Christmas songs, read Luke 2, and played a game. It was so nice to have friends to share our Christmas Eve with.

Since we stayed in Ohio for Christmas we unfortunately weren't able to spend the holidays with our families, but we were blessed with peace and happiness under the circumstances. We were able to talk to our families on Christmas Day, and we were even able to talk to both Melodee and Matt who are Mike's siblings serving missions. Christmas day was pretty laid back. We woke up at 6:00, opened our presents, had breakfast, and just enjoyed being together and talking with family for the rest of the day. I have already bragged about this to our families, but my favorite present was the Christmas picture book that Mike made for me. It was so creative and very unexpected. It was a story about our cats' quest to find us a Christmas present. It seems like the gifts that come from the heart are the ones we treasure the most.

Mike has had the past month off of school and so we have had a lot of time to spend together which has been great. Once school starts time will get crazy again so we will take the time together while it lasts. Tonight for New Years we are going to some friends for some Fondue and Fun. It should be a great time. That's about it for us. Take Care everyone!!

Overzealous

I wish that I had a picture to share of my current craziness, but no such luck. For my day off this week I had the wonderful idea of making goodies for all of the people at work as well as the sisters that I visit teach, friends, etc. My husband can attest that sometimes I get into these crazy moods where I get an idea into my head and I have to follow through and finish it, no matter how impractical it may be.

First I decided that I would make pumpkin rolls. This then turned into an assortment of goodies including homemade mint truffles dipped in chocolate, and peanut butter carmel brownie bars. I was also planning on making carmels, but luckily didn't have all of the ingredients.

I got off to a late start and around 12:00 p.m. I started the baking. 4 pumpkin rolls, 50 truffles, a pan of brownies, and 8 hours later I was finally ready to package the platters up and deliver them. I have the most amazing husband in the whole world. He was so patient through the whole process, especially when I wasn't. I was so frustrated that I hadn't just made cookies which would have been 1000 times easier, cheaper and less time consuming. Instead of getting frustrated himself he just decided he would help me. So we packaged everything up and went to make our deliveries at 8:00 at night. When we got home he helped me package up the remaining 15 plates of goodies that I was taking to work the next day. AHHHHHHHHHHH we were finally done.

So this may have sounded as if I were complaining, but I guess my point is that I hopefully learned some things about myself. Sometimes I just need to do things that aren't on such a large scale. It may have taken a long time, but those who received the Christmas goodies were thankful for them. I was reminded again of how wonderful a spouse I have who was willing to help me through my craziness. So, for those of you who received one of these wonderful Christmas treats you will just have to settle for chocolate chip cookies next year because I have learned my lesson.
(I guess we'll see huh:)

A Little Bit of Random

A lot has been happening lately and I haven't found the time to blog about it so this will be a post about a lot of random things. A couple of weeks ago we had our friends the Gardners over for dinner and some holiday fun. We decorated gingerbread cookies and watched "Mickey's Christmas Carol". They are also staying in Ohio for Christmas so they are kind enough to spend their Christmas Eve with us. We are excited for the opportunity to spend time with friends here in Ohio since we will not be able to go home. I am trying to keep a positive outlook. We will really miss being home, but it will be good in a lot of ways. Any ideas for some fun new traditions that we can start just as a couple?



Our cat has been so fickle lately. Somedays she is sweet and content and other days she is just irritable and crazy. I guess that's to be expected with a cat, and we are getting used to her verbal/nonverbal clues for when she needs space, but seriously isn't she supposed to be cute and cuddly all of the time.:) We are really enjoying her and she is a lot of fun when she isn't grouchy. (Maybe she's feeding off of the pregnancy hormones) She has come up with a lot of ways to entertain herself, including sticking her head in our empty drink cups. She is always trying to eat our food and gets it in whatever way she can. It's kind of funny though when she gets her whole head stuck in the cup. We got her some new toys for Christmas so hopefully she won't get so bored. We are trying to decide what to do with Deb our hampster before the baby comes. Deb currently resides in the baby room and Gracie is NOT allowed in that room, so of course it is her main ambition and desire in life. We are either going to have to find her a new home, or buy or adjust her current home so that the cat cannot get to her so easily. Any suggestions?



So I am finally starting to get a bigger belly. It's nice to be showing now because it makes the pregnancy seem more real. I'm sure that in a couple of months I won't be as excited. There are also a lot of things that no one prepared me for such as sore hips, (mostly from sleeping on your side) No one had ever mentioned the random aches and pains that you get. It is a little interesting feeling your body change and not work the same way anymore. I guess the whole process is pretty amazing in general though, minus the aches and pains.

Lastly, a cute story from my class. There is a new girl in my class who doesn't come very frequently but apparently remembers me because her mother had to tell me that on Thanksgiving she asked where "Miss Amy was?". This child also just recently got a new doll and she named the doll "Miss Amy". I thought that was pretty funny and cute. The holidays have been a lot of fun for the kids in my class and they get so excited whenever it snows. They keep asking me if they can see the baby in my tummy. There isn't a whole lot for them to see right now, but I'll definitely have to bring the baby in for them to see. They are pretty cute kids.

Well, Goodluck to everyone with your Christmas shopping and preparations. We hope you are enjoying the season.

It's a GIRL!!!

So our families already know, but for anyone else who may be interested we just found out that we are having a baby girl. We had the ultrasound the day before Thanksgiving which was perfect timing. I am so amazed by all they could see with an ultrasound. It makes me thankful for modern day technology that helps to detect problems while the baby is still in the womb. The technician who was running our ultrasound was getting quite frustrated because our baby would not stay still. I thought for sure that was were going to be having a boy, and a wild one at that, but no, we are having a girl that will probably keep us on our toes as well. According to our doctor everything is looking good so far, but she will take another ultrasound in 6 weeks. We have been really blessed to have gotten in with our current doctor. I had initially been visiting with her at the Ohio State "High Risk Pregnancy" facility due to our previous complications, and once she found out we were expecting she decided just to keep us as patients although everything seemed to be looking good. She has been very thorough and helpful at resolving concerns. This whole experience is pretty surreal, but we are very excited and feel so blessed. I had to post these fun pictures. I hope you can tell what they are. There is a profile shot, a picture of her arm and hand as well as her leg and foot. It's amazing!

18 months and counting!

So yesterday morning I woke up like any other day and started to get ready when my husband presented me with an 18 month anniversary present. He has started out the Christmas season by giving me my new Christmas ornament. It's pretty sad when the husband is the one remembering all of the anniversaries, but he is wonderful at it. I can't believe that it has only been a year and a half since we have been married. In some ways time has gone by quickly, but it's amazing to see how much has happened in such a short amount of time. I just feel so lucky and blessed for all of the experiences that we have had so far. We definetly have our good and bad moments like everyone else, but I am happy that I can share them with Mike. He really helps to bring out the best in others and I truly appreciate his great example to me. I can't wait for him to be a Dad!! Woo Hoo, our kids are going to be sooo lucky. :) O.K. I think I have probably embarassed him enough to last for awhile.

So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! We are sad not to be able to be home for the holidays, but we are being blessed and watched over. A sister from Mikes mission invited us up to Michigan for Thanksgiving. It will be nice to spend some time with them. I am also gearing up for Christmas. I think I had all of my presents bought last year by Thanksgiving because I just couldn't wait. I am looking forward to putting out Christmas decorations, watching "White Christmas" and listening to "The Messiah". Fun, Fun, Fun. Although we won't be home for Christmas we are going to make the most of this time together and it should be nice. Well, Happy Holidays from us.

Go Cavs!!!

We had a really fun evening last night. Mike had wanted to go to the Utah Jazz game vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers since it would be our only opportunity to see the Jazz this season. We weren't sure if we could afford tickets until Mike found them for an awesome deal, $4.00. We couldn't pass it up and so we took a road trip to Cleavland. It was so nice to be able to get out and do something different. It's probably a bad sign if I am stir crazy already, just wait until the baby comes.:) There was a really nice mall right next to the arena and so we were able to park there and have dinner. There were at least 4 Chinese restaurants in the food court there, and they were all competing for our business. They had employees out giving away food samples like used car salesmen. We probably could have filled up on samples.

I love the holidays when all of the shopping centers are decorated, it really helps to get you into the holiday spirit.




I wanted Mike to write this post because he has a lot more to say about the game, but all in all it was a pretty embarrassing 4th quarter. It was a lot of fun to be there, but we were pretty outnumbered in our cheering section. By the end of the game I felt like we should have been cheering for the Cavs as well, but I guess we will stick with the Jazz. We had a good time, and hopefully we'll get a chance to go and see the Celtics play in Cleavland as well.

Supportive Spouse

Well there hasn't been a whole lot going on in our neck of the woods this week. Yesterday was a fun day for us. Mike got done with school early and was kind enough to come to my class and entertain the kids. He does so well with kids and every child that he meets tends to just cling to him and make an automatic friend so I thought it would be great for him to come and read to my class. He only came for a little while. We sang silly songs and read stories. Most of the kids thought it was the greatest thing and they all wanted to sit on his lap. There was one boy who got a little scared though. I guess he thought Mike was a little scary.:) He didn't get to know him very well. That night we were able to go the temple and perform baptisms. It had been awhile for both of us and it was a special experience to do the work for some of Mike's family members. I am always pleasantly surprised by the sweet spirit that accompanies the baptismal fonts. It was a special time for us. We have the opportunity of working in the temple once a month doing laundry. The laundry facility is in the baptismal area and so we are always in the baptistry but never able to do baptisms so it was a nice change.

It is raining here which tends to make things seem a little gloomy and gray, but tonight Mike invited his "little brother" over to make some homemade ice cream and watch a movie. He is a great example to me and so sweet. I sure love him and think he is the best. So although it is a rainy day, he has made it a good one.:) We'll have to let you know how the ice cream turns out.

Happy Halloween!!!

It is funny how many people have asked Mike and I if we celebrate Halloween. I guess celebrate is a funny term, but Yes we enjoy the festivities of the Halloween holiday.:) For Family Night we got to carve our pumpkins. I remember while growing up I would ask my mom back in September when we could carve our pumpkins. It was my favorite part, besides dressing up and the candy of course. We always had to be patient though and wait until a few days before so our pumpkins "wouldn't go bad."
Last year we bought pumpkins and never got around to carving them so we had to show off the awesome finished products. We had to do the cat in honor of "Gracie Lou Hoo". It was fun and definitely a lot easier when you have a pumpkin carving kit. (I am a big fan) I guess in our county the kids will be going trick or treating on Thursday instead of on Friday. This makes it so the kids won't be out so late since they schedule it on a school night. I guess it makes sense, but seems a little odd to me at the same time. We are going to our friends the Gardner's for a Halloween party. We will be watching "Watcher in the Woods" and for those of you who know me well, you will know that the scariest movie I have ever seen and have previously refused to watch since, is Watcher in the Woods. I know, it's pretty tame, but I HATE!!!! scary movies, so I will hide my head in Mikes arm and enjoy the fun of being together with everyone. I'm sure I'll be fine. It has been nice to have other couples to do stuff with. It's nice since we are so far away from family.

For work last week we had a "Boo Bash" , basically a Halloween party for families. There were games, costumes, candy, etc. For months my co-workers have been asking me what I am dressing up as. Apparently they all take it very seriously and go and buy elaborate costumes. This was my perception anyway. I am pretty lame when it comes to costumes. I usually just find something in my closet and make it work. This year I wore my pajamas, a bathrobe, put my hair in curlers, and put a green mask on my face. I thought it was pretty lame, but since only 1 other person dressed up for the day at school, my costume was a hit. It was really funny to see all of the Dad's and their "double takes" of the crazy teacher in pajamas. "What was she thinking?" Luckily the other teachers finally got in costume by the party. So we have had a fun and eventful fall so far, and although we might not be able to go home for the holidays we are excited for those as well.

So I know this is silly to post a picture of my Prego body, but my sister Jackie wanted a month by month update of my growing belly. Since I always thought is was fun to see her getting HUGE, I guess I an afford her the same pleasure. So here ya go Jack. This is me at 15 weeks.

A Weekend in the Life of Mike

One of the nicest things I can do for my wife is to write on our blog. So since we had a fun weekend, I thought I would write a few words about it and surprise Amy. I'm imagining when she finds out she'll probably get a little teary eyed with excitement, then she'll probably want to hug and kiss me a lot.
It started with a Friday night excursion to our favorite pumpkin festival in Circleville. Circleville is only 30 minutes away according to locals, but it took us an hour to get there in the "everybody in Columbus is trying to get to the same little small town" traffic. We ended up going with some of our friends from our Ward, which was fun. The festival was a really good time besides the elbow to elbow people traffic that we had to shimmy our way through to get from place to place. There wasn't as much pumpkin stuff as I was expecting, but I was still able to try some pumpkin cake, pumpkin scone, pumpkin donuts, and even a pumpkin burger (which surprisingly didn't taste very good). They also had an enormous thousand pound pumpkin and the largest pumpkin pie probably in the world, but maybe just Circleville. Either way, it was larger than Amy's nephew's could probably eat, but maybe not.

Saturday morning was an amazing adventure in taking my little brother Mike to the zoo. Since my real little brother is serving a mission in Seattle I decided to get a new little brother by becoming a mentor with the Big Brother's Big Sister's program. So far it has been a lot of fun. I made the mistake yesterday, however, to let little Mike get a Volt soda pop. I'm not sure why I thought letting an already attention deficit seven year old drink a highly caffeinated and sweetened drink would be a good idea. He was all over the place, but the zoo was a good place for that. There is so much to look at that he could just bounce from one animal to the next. He wanted to look at every little thing as well, so even though he didn't want to look at anything for too long, we still didn't make it around even half the zoo. It was funny because he decided that he was going to be my zoo guide. Whenever we would go to see a new animal he would tell me what it was and other random information. For example "oh Michael! look here is a flat green snake, it is poisonous and can eat a whole kid, I mean man whole, it lives in Texas." He told me when we left that I should quit school and work at the zoo so that we could go all the time.
Saturday night we played some games with some of our other friends here in Columbus. We ate some Delicious soup compliments of Chef Amy, and played a couple of games. Of course I dominated! Today has been a really good Sunday. We are helping our primary kids practice for the primary program next week. Our primary presidency is pulling out all the stops, singing in different languages, chimes, sign language. It should be pretty fun. Well, this post is over. Now I just have to wait for the tearful hugs and kisses.

Introducting........Baby Sharp!!!!!

For those of you who were under the impression that we would be forever cat owners and never parents, we finally have some good news! We had our 2nd Ultrasound today and everything is going well with Baby Sharp #1 Yeah!!!!! We are currently 3 months along and counting. I am crossing my fingers and praying that everything will work out o.k. For those of you who know me well I am the biggest worrier! I guess I take after my mom in that respect. So although I worry and want everything to work out o.k. we are also really excited and hopeful. I feel really blessed that after a long wait I will hopefully get the opportunity to be a mother. Mike is going to be a wonderful father and I am so thankful that I have such a great companion to help me through everything that is to come. It's definitely a changing point in our lives. It's funny to think back to when I was younger. Everything seemed so easy and effortless back when I was naive and had no clue what to expect. Since being single for awhile and now being married, it will be an adjustment of my time for sure. It's amazing how selfish you get with your time when you don't have too many other responsibilities needing it. So, while I am obviously STILL naive, (of course you can never truly prepare yourself for something like this), I am excited and have a desire to share whatever time, means, etc. will be necessary for our growing family. We truly have been blessed.

P.S. We weren't able to get any fun pictures of the baby because the ultrasound machine wasn't working so stay tuned for official baby pictures in 6 weeks.

Big Fish Story

So for those of you who think we lead a very busy and crazy life, our evening conversations tend to go something like this, "So what you wanna do?" "I don't know, what you wanna do?" "I don't know..." This conversation usually ends with us watching something on t.v. or a movie. This tends to get old, so in order to break the monotony a little bit I decided it was my turn to plan something different to do. Mike is really good at doing this on a regular basis, but I'm just not quite as creative. So on my way home from work I picked up some sandwiches and headed off to pick up Mike from school. He had noooo idea that I had something up my sleeve. He had recently taken his "little brother" fishing, and so the poles and tackle were still in the care. (The "little brother" story is Mikes for another day) So I picked him up and slyly drove to the river to have a picnic and go fishing. We aren't avid fishers but we like to fish now and then, but had yet to catch a single fish the whole time we've been together. Our luck was about to change. I had no sooner cast my line when I got a bite! And boy was it a big fish!!! (The guy in the picture is the one we found to gut it) It was a bass and I am used to trout. Well, after an enormous struggle on my part we finally reeled it in. We were TRIUMPHANT!!!! Well, it wasn't exactly the biggest fish I had ever seen. It was actually only about 4 inches long, but it was a catch none-the-less, and we let it go. Now we know where and when they like to bite so we'll have to go back before it gets too cold. Even if we hadn't caught a fish it was just nice to be out on the beautiful river spending some peaceful time with my sweetie. Well, until our next adventure!

La Michoacana

Most of you know that I (Mike) went on my mission to Detroit speaking Spanish. Since then I'm always craving good authentic Mexican food. Columbus, even according to locals, is pathetically void of good Mexican food. Last night, however, we were able to find a diamond in the rough when we ate at "La Michoacana". It is a small Mexican market in a somewhat dicey area (the best place to find good Mexican food), and in the corner of the store is a quaint little taqueria. I had to teach Amy a couple of Spanish words to get by, because the waitress didn't speak any English, which was another good sign. Compared to other Mexican Restaurants the food and prices were awesome, however compared to some other authentic places, it was about average.
After eating we grocery shopped in the Market. We got killer deals on some meat and produce. All of the products and smells and people, really took me back to my days in Detroit. It was a lot of fun!

Sick Kitty

So some may say that we are overly obsessed with our cat, which is partly true because she is pretty spoiled, but she is also not feeling well lately. Awhile after we got her we started to notice a sore patch above her eye up to her ear. She likes to scratch it which makes sores. We took her to the vet and they told us that she probably just has allergies. So when she continued to sneeze and have eye colds we just chalked it up to the allergies. Well, we decided to take her to the vet again, and just make sure that she was o.k. or get some kind of medication for her eyes. 2 hours later we had received multiple possible diagnosis's including "ring worm" as a possibility for the patch over her eye. So we're getting that checked out and our cat now has a stack of medicine for eyes, upper respiratory infection, as well as a flush for the possible fungus. Wow!!!! I hate to think what all of our outside cats had while I was growing up. They sure didn't get this kind of special treatment. Although we are trying to help, Gracie sure doesn't think this anything too great. She puts up a fit whenever we try to give her her medicine. Hopefully she'll get used to it, we'll discover there really isn't that much wrong with her, or we'll just stop worrying about every little thing. (We, meaning Me (Amy)) Mike had decided that when we have a kid that I am going to take it to the doctor every week!!! I don't think I'll be quite that bad. At least I hope not because it sure is getting expensive. She's worth it though.

Out with the Old, in with the New

Sorry it has been awhile since we have posted. Everyone survived the last storm although people are still without electricity a week later. We were one of the lucky ones. So we had a great evening at the Lion King. Mike surprised me and took me out for dinner which was great and then we really enjoyed the production. On our way to the theater we realized that our seats were not together. They were actually a whole row and section apart. Luckily the show wasn't sold out and so we were able to find some good seats together. If you have never seen the "Lion King" ala Broadway style they have the most amazing costumes and scenery. It is what really made the show. It was really impressive watching how they were able to create the scenes and characters with just costuming. Also, the woman who played Raffiki was amazing. I have never heard a human being sound like that. She would sing in different African tribal languages like the one where they just "click" their tongues. It was great. She was very talented. We were also able to see more of downtown Columbus than we have seen. It is a relatively nice, clean and quiet town. (At least the areas we have seen) We are really enjoying our time here.

So our summer is finally coming to an end. The weather is starting to change, which I love. I love the Autumn and I hear it is beautiful out here with all of the trees. Also, Mike starts school tomorrow. He was lucky enough to have such a long break, but now he won't have another long break until next June. I guess we've been spoiled. So this is a good luck post for Mike on his new quarter of school. Only 4 left, Yeah!!!!!




(Here's Mike and his class preparing for a hard day working with Food)

Unfortunately it is not going to be that easy, but a lot more rewarding. Love ya Honey.

Crazy Fall Weather

So yesterday we had a wild wind storm. It started out pretty mild but then picked up some good speed. Wind is definitely the weather condition that I hate the least so it wasn't too exciting for me. We were really lucky though as we have been checking out the damage. Many trees were ripped in half or just tore up from the ground. Our neighboring complex had a lot of their siding and shingles torn off as well. We were thankful that our complex has kept up on a lot of those things since we didn't have too much damage. As a result of the wind many power lines were down and most of the surrounding areas have been without power. As I woke up this morning I hoped against hope that my work would be without power and they would cancel school. My hopes were made a reality as we pulled into the parking lot to find a couple employees wrapped in blankets ready to send everyone home with a paid day off for "emergency circumstances".

So luckily Mike and I were able to have a day off together. We ran a few errands and because it was such a nice day I thought I would get in some spring planting. I decided to plant some tulips and daffodils. It will be such a welcome sight in the spring to have flowers right outside our door. It's too bad we can't see them right now. Other than that we are just gearing up for fall. Mike starts school in a couple weeks and I am loving the nice weather and anticipating the holidays. This is my favorite time of year. OH, we are also going to "The Lion King" on Wednesday. It is a traveling Broadway group and Mike was able to get us a really good deal on tickets through the University. It will be nice to have one last summer Hurrah before Mike starts school. We've had a nice long summer and we've been lucky to have done so much.

Officially a scientist

My senior year of college I worked on a research project with one of the professors at Utah State. It has finally been officially published. Here is a link to look at the abstract: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121381836/abstract . It took a lot of work and time, but I definitely learned a lot, and it's pretty sweet to have my name out there in the world of science.

Living with Superman!

This weekend I have learned again how nice it is living with "Superman". I guess that best part is that I am actually married to him. Yesterday, Mike was a sweet heart and helped my friends the Bailey's move into their new home. It's nice to have some more people out here that we know. He really worked hard and helped out a ton. I was really thankful for him. Even after his exhausting day yesterday he has been working just as hard today running errands and getting stuff done around the house. He changed our burnt out headlight, played with the cat, (and hamster), changed the hamster cage and the litter box, "helped" me clean out and organize our downstairs closet. He says I cleaned it, but I mostly just got all of the Fall decorations out while he hefted things upstairs and really did the organizing. He then vacuumed the house, paid the house and pet rent, as well as checking out our budget for this month. Ya, and he did all of this by 1:00.
And what was I doing this whole time you may ask? Absolutely NOTHING!!! I have been the most lazy wife today. I haven't been sleeping the greatest this week and so he has made me sleep all day. I feel so guilty, but I appreciate him so much. He never complains and he works so hard. So this post goes out to all of the other superheroes that you all may have the pleasure of living with as well. What would we do without them.

Cute Kids

So I have to gush a little bit about the cute little ones in my life right now. Now that I am no longer working with toddlers, but with 3 year olds, my work days are definitely a lot less stressful and the kids are sure cute. I just wanted to post a few pictures of the kids in my class. It is always nice to walk into work and hear 5 kids yelling "Miss Amy, Miss Amy". They really help to start the day off right. It isn't perfect all of the time, but they sure have their moments when they tug at your heart. One of my favorite little girls just left to go to a different "center". I am really going to miss her. I hope she does well at her new school. A new school year is starting and so we are getting a few new students as well. There is always a transition time for student and teachers and we are getting a couple younger students from the toddler class. It is amazing to see the difference in the students who have been in our class for a few months compared to those who are just coming in. This new little girl has no desire to sit during circle time, or follow many directions. She is presenting an interesting challenge for us, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it. She's still pretty young as well. I'm also enjoying my co-workers a lot more. I've finally gotten to the point where I feel more comfortable being myself around them and they basically know what I'm all about. I felt a little unsure how to fit in at first because I was new to the state, and just had different ways of doing things since I am from Utah and am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but it has been a great learning opportunity for me and I've had some great opportunities to share the gospel with my co-workers. The Lord definitely has some wonderful things planned for us here in Ohio.

The other cutie in our lives right now is our CAT!!! She is so adorable. I guess our lives pretty much revolve around her right now. She is such a novelty.:) Gracie loves to sleep with us at night and play during the day. It's sad that we are gone so much because she gets so bored, but Mike has come up with some homemade cat toys which she loves to play with. She also just loves to sit and look out the window. I'm guessing the birds are pretty interesting. She gets sad that she can't go outside, but for her own safety we want to keep her inside. Hopefully she'll get used to it soon. Gracie and our hamster Deb are the best of friends. Gracie is facinated by Deb in her little ball. Deb loves to run full speed in to Gracie. Of course we don't let them play unsupervised.:) So that is our fun life for this week. Life is going well and we are truly being blessed.

Utterly Dissapointed

So I just have to vent for a sec. I just found out that the movie Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince has changed it's release date from November of this year to July of 2009. What!!!! For those of you who are avid Harry Potter fans this may be as much of a let down to you as it was for me. (By the way Mike does not support this post:) I guess Warner Brothers wanted to release the film during the summer months in order to make more money. I'm sure they would make plenty of money as it is if it were released in November. It wouldn't be as unfortunate except for the fact that they already posted their release date and got my hopes up. Oh well. I'm sure it won't be as good as the book, which was my favorite of the series. I guess that gives me one more thing to look forward too (or wait for). So that is the end of my rant. I guess it's time for me to move on and not be so obsessed.:)

Albert Pujols, Arctic Glaciers, Kentucky, and No Bats

My wife is the best wife in the whole world!!! Not only did she decide to get a cat (which she loves), but she agreed to go see a baseball game with me (something she has been dreading). Yesterday we headed down to Cincinnati and it was a lot of fun (sorry there are no pictures our camera's batteries died). It only ended up being an hour and a half away. We first went to the Museum of Natural History. And although I think we both agree that we would rather see live animals than prehistoric bones from animals, it was really interesting. They have a full size cave and arctic glacier replica. They are supposed to have live bats in their cave, but we didn't see any. After the museum we were on our way to the stadium to see my favorite team the St. Louis Cardinals play the Reds, we got a little lost and ended up in Kentucky. It was OK though, because now I can say that I have been in 18 states. The baseball game was way sweet. Albert Pujols hit two home runs and the Cardinals won easily. I think that even Amy enjoyed herself.

"It's a GIRL!!!"

So after a long deliberation, we have decided to add a new addition to our little family of two. It has been quite the long and process. We are really excited to announce that we have officially adopted a beautiful 2 year old girl.:) She is soooo beautiful and very well behaved. She does like a lot of attention which we are both very happy to give. Unfortunately we both have to work and so we'll have to leave her home alone for a lot of the day. Hopefully she won't get too stir crazy.

O.K. so I FINALLY caved and today we got ourselves a cat. She is a lot of fun. She just loves to be with us. She truly just follows us wherever we go. We had to leave her for a couple of hours today and I was so nervous. (Mostly because she hasn't gone to the bathroom in her litter box yet, but luckily she hasn't gone anywhere else.) I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes. She is actually sitting next to me while I'm writing this. She wanted to help me write at first but that wasn't working out to well. We decided to name her Grace Melodee (Gracie) after her aunt Melodee who goes into the MTC tomorrow. YEAH!!!!! Melodee, we are so proud of you and Matt. It is so nice having 2 missionaries in the family right now. Matt is doing great and has been learning some valuable lessons. He has his first baptism soon. We are definitely going to be missing Melodee as well, but she is going to be an awesome missionary.

So life is going really well. We are loving our time here in Ohio and are having some great experiences as well.

Eventful Weekend

This has been a wonderful summer for us because we have luckily had a lot of time to travel and see a lot of sites out here. Mike doesn't start school until the middle of September and so we still have a bit of a summer break left. Once school starts and the machine that Mike is using for his research gets fixed then it will definetely be crunch time. As it is we were lucky to be able to go to Kirland last weekend. It is only 2 1/2 hours away and so we decided to make the trip in just one day. It was a great experience going to the church's visitors center. It was dedicated by President Hinckley a few years ago and has the original Newell K. Whitney home and store. We were also able to learn more about the saints in Kirland at that time. We also had a great tour of the Kirtland temple. It is interesting to see the Community of Christ's perspective on things. They've done a pretty good job of keeping the temple and the grounds looking nice. I was able to go to Kirtland about 11 years ago and things have changed a lot since then. We could really feel the spirit of the Restoration while we were there. I just wanted to break into singing "The Spirit of God" as we were sitting in the Kirtland temple. It was a nice weekend and then on Monday my Dad and Dorothy came out to visit. They were nice enough to come and visit us while on their trip out East. We had family night with them and a new couple in our ward. It was a lot of fun. On Tuesday we went to the Columbus Zoo. The last time Mike and I went it was raining and really didn't seem as big to me as it did on Tuesday. Wow they really had a lot to see and we pushed pretty hard. It was a good, but tiring day at the zoo. Mike was able to get some pretty good pictures of the animals. Now it's time to get back to work again. We've been very blessed to be able to see family so much this summer. We'll take every opportunity we can.

The Worst News of The Week

I just found out that Ken Griffey Jr was just traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Chicago White Sox. Normally I wouldn't really care since I'm not a big Griffey fan, and I don't really care about either the Reds or White Sox. However, we have tickets for the Reds vs Cardinals (my favorite team) on August 16th, and I was really looking forward to seeing one of the greatest hitters in the game and the smoothest swing I've ever seen. We even have seats right behind where Griffey was supposed to play. What a joke!!!

On a related note, the ohio welcome packet hotline is going to need another spokesman. We were told about the hotline last week and when I called I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by none other than Ken Griffey Jr. Now that he's gone to Chicago, maybe I'll try out for the spokesman Job.

Duck Update

I just received word that our little duckling we saved a couple months back has been successfully re-introduced into the wild by the wildlife center!!! In other news, we've decided that for now we will not be getting a cute adorable kitty. A special sarcastic thanks to all of our family who convinced Amy against the idea.

Campout Crusaders

Although I would love to take credit for the beautiful testimony, that was shared by my sweet husband. It was even a suprise to me. He was reading this months Ensign and took Elder Ballards message to heart. He is a great example to me.

So we have had a crazy past couple of weeks. The trip we had been anticipating for months has come and gone and now we are getting back to normal, but first we need to relive some of the great moments we had in Utah.

Our trip started out with a few glitches. We arrived at the airport bright and early only to discover that our flight had been delayed 4 hours. This delay therefore prohibited us from making our connecting flight so we were delayed a few more hours until we could find a flight to Salt Lake City. The wait wasn't too bad, but we unfortunatley missed the Sugar House fireworks. The Sharp side of the family had a wonderful 4th of July planned and they had to change their plans pretty quickly. It was great of them to be so flexible. We were able to see some pretty good fireworks for the 4th and it was just great to see family. We were able to see our newest nephew Holland for the first time and he was sure a cutie. We had a great weekend spending time with family and enjoying just having a nice break. We then headed up to Logan/Tremonton. My brother David was nice enough to lend us a vehicle and on the way up north we stopped and took our nephew Ian out to lunch. He was luckily in Utah the same time we were and it was great to see him. He's great. That night we ran a few errands in Logan, had dinner with some friends and then I got my hair chopped off. I had been wanting to donate my hair to "Locks of Love" for a long time and this was a good chance to do that and have a change. Luckily Jackie was able to cut it for me and I am really happy with it. It is definetly not as heavy. We spent the next few days with the Pierce side of the family. We helped my Mom around the house. We accomplished a little bit, but there is quite a lot left to do. I wished we could've been able to stay long enough to finish it, but it was a big job. We went to the Pierce reunion/campout and had a great time. It was just nice to be around family. We don't get together that much and so it was really nice. We went "surfing" behind David's boat and we both made it up and surfed for at least a little while. It was sad to say goodbye, but good to see everyone. Luckily we were able to spend some more time with family as it was the Sharp family campout the same weekend. It was quite a different expereince because this time we were actually "camping". We had the firepit, tents, and bugrepellant to show for it. We had a great time. Mike's family loves to sing songs around the campfire and we also had a dutch oven cookoff. It's great when no matter what it is you are doing, it is just nice to be around family. Mike's sister Merilee and her husband Mark were able to come from Vegas and so we had all the sisters there. We don't know when we will be coming home again, but it was nice to have such a long visit. Coming back to Ohio has really made me realize, even more then before, that for Mike and me this is really "our" life together. It's a little scary not knowing where we will be for the rest of our lives, but the important thing is that we have each other, and everything else will work out for the best.

It has been nice being back in Ohio. I was really starting to miss the kids in my class. They were so excited when I walked in the door. "Amy, it's Miss Amy"!! they all shouted. I guess they had missed me just as much. It's nice that we are able to get so attached, but sad at the same time to realize how much more time they spend with us as the day care then their own families. Hopefully when we have kids, I'll be able to stay home with them. Unfortunatley not everyone has that opportunity. So we are trying to get back into the swing of things. Mike is just doing research for the summer and school will start back up in the end of September. It gives us a long Summer.
O.k. so I know this post is FOREVER long but I just have to put in a word about the movie "The Dark Knight". I was a little tenative about seeing it and probably for good reason. We saw it a couple days ago, and while it was VERY well done, it was pretty dark and disturbing. I could really appreciate a lot of things about the film, but it is definetly something you will not want to take your children too, and if you are looking for a fun, enjoyable movie, THIS IS NOT IT! (Just my opinion you understand)
I guess that's it for my soap box.

Well, we hope you all have a great 24th of July.