32 weeks!

Only 8 weeks to go!

All about Dustin

My mother tagged my cousins and I to do this blog about our husbands. So...here goes:

1. How long did you date before you got married? Umm...well it depends on what you define as "dating". Lets say...10 months.

2. How long have you been married? 4 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 5 days

3. What does he do that surprises you most? Well, it surprised me that he wanted to have a little girl as much as I did. And it continues to surprise me how friggin' excited he is to be a dad!

4. What is his best feature? His eyes. They twinkle.

5. What is his best quality? He's very funny.

6. Does he have a nickname for you? Querida. It means "special one" in espanol.

7. What is his favorite color? Black

8. What is his favorite animal? Monkey. He's always wanted one for a pet. I'm going to say...NO.

9. What is his favorite food? Pizza. Every week he and his work friends go to Cici's Pizza, where he consumes an average of 12 pieces of pizza and two brownies. (and I'm the one who gains weight?!?)

10. What is his favorite sport? Basketball. Basketball. Basketball. But he did decide today that he wants to become a Bowling fan.

11. When and where did you first kiss? On my couch at college. It was about 2 am and we had just finished watching A Goofy Movie.

12. Do you have any children? Just the one in my belly! Although people think I'm carrying twins. Its...just...ONE!

13. Does he have a hidden talent? Dustin keeps wanting me to write something dirty. But I won't, I'm going to say....Dunking. He's really good at dunking basketballs. Check out the valentines post for video proof.

Oh wait. I know what to say now. He's actually a very good writer. The blog he writes, "Cut Goran Dragic" is featured on a Suns fan website.

14. How old is he? 27. He will be 28. He is continually freaking about getting older.

15. Who said "I love you" first? He did. I did about a week later on New Years Eve, after our midnight kiss.

16. What is his favorite music? Early 90's rap. He even owns Shaq's cd, Shaq Diesel.

I LOVE YOU!

Why We Live on the Third Floor...

I know, I know. Two posts in one day? Lame. But this happened at our apartment complex this morning, and it’s just so crazy I had to blog about it! This truck crashed into the building in front of ours early this morning. I didn’t hear it, but I did hear the many sirens from the fire trucks and ambulances. We live near a fire station so I didn’t think anything about it, until Dustin texted me “Did you see the accident this morning?” Then I turned on the news and saw this! This kid must have been going super fast to be able to do this. He had to cross over the median, 3 lanes of traffic, go through the ditch in front of the complex, to finally hit this apartment’s patio. Crazy. Crazy crazy crazy.

Here’s the official article about it:

Truck crashes into Gilbert apartment

by Nicole Ethier and Sarah Macdonald - Feb. 17, 2009 09:49 AM
The Arizona Republic

A Williams Field High School student escaped injury after crashing into a two-bedroom building at a Gilbert apartment complex early Tuesday.

No one was home when the unidentified 17-year-old male driver crashed into the Edge at Lyon's Gate unit near Ray and Higley roads.

Police said the accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. as the student was headed westbound on Ray Road. As the result of an unspecified medical condition, the driver lost control of his pickup truck and crossed over three lanes of traffic into the east side of the street, police said.

The truck hit part of the patio, dining room and living room of the 1187-square-foot apartment, said Charles Goldsberry, maintenance manager for the complex.

The cost of the damage was not immediately determined.

As a precaution, the student was taken to a hospital after the crash. The residents of the apartment have been notified, police said

Valentines Day

This Valentines Day was our 5th Valentines together. In honor of that Dustin gave me 5 little gifts in remembrance of our time together.

1. Some DVDs. Baby Mama and Legally Blonde. For our first Valentines as a married couple Dustin had bought me DVDs.

2. Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. My favorite! Dustin once brought me this ice cream home for breakfast.

3. Breakfast in Bed. On Saturday, Dustin woke me up to eat Cinnamon Life and toast cut into heart shapes. He did this the morning after he proposed to me. Which you might remember from the previous post…

4. Scattered Valentines on the floor. One year Dustin bought Spongebob valentines and had them scattered all over the house. He had written something on each one, and if I remember correctly they formed a path to my gift that year. This year they were of those creepy animals with the big eyes (he always has to get the weirdest ones!) and they led to the baby’s room in which I found…

5. A big cheesy stuffed animal. You know those big horrible ones that they sell at gas stations and at Wal-Mart? Yeah. Dustin one year bought me a huge pepto-bismol pink dog, and he had tied some lingerie around its neck. This year it was a white lamb. (Minus the lingerie. He said it was inappropriate because he had put the lamb in the baby’s crib) I’d been saying that I wanted to get a stuffed lamb for Kate (I had one when I was a baby), but maybe I should have specified the size. Haha. At least it wasn’t that big pink unicorn we saw at Fry's...


I really wasn’t planning on getting Dustin anything this year since we had gone to San Diego two weekends before. But on Friday I was going to the bank to deposit my check, and I drove past the San Tan Mall. I thought to myself, “I wish I could afford those Hyperdunk basketball shoes that Dustin wants so badly! Wait…I actually CAN afford those!” I had some tip money saved up. So I made a decision. Decision made. I was going to buy Dustin those shoes.

Apparently they were a very popular gift for Valentines this year though! Nobody had the black pair (I knew that was Dustin’s choice because that’s what he tried on a couple of months ago) and nobody had a size 12! Finally the guy at Foot Locker helped me out by calling a couple of other Foot Lockers in other malls. There was one, size 12 pair left at the Superstition Mall. They were a red and white pair, but I didn’t care about color at this point. I figured he could exchange them later if he wanted to. So I drove there as fast as I could (I only had an hour before I had to get to work by this point), bought that pair, drove home, frosted the big cookie I had made for Dustin, got dressed, did my hair and makeup, and drove to work completely exhausted. It was worth it though! He loves them!


On actual Valentines Day we went to see Jaron and Bethany’s new house that they had just bought in Queen Creek. Congratulations you guys! We all had lunch together at Red Brick Pizza, then Dustin and Jaron went to check out the All-Star activities that were going on in Phoenix. They saw the HORSE contest, saw some famous people, and entered themselves into a dunk contest. Dustin won second place!



That evening Dustin and I went to dinner at Applebee’s. It was a great Valentines Day!

Not Your Average Engagement Story

Well today is Friday, the Thirteenth, the day before Valentines Day. This day holds a special place in my heart because 5 years ago, on Valentines Eve, Dustin and I got engaged. That night in 2004 was also a Friday the Thirteenth. Bad timing? Maybe. But so far we haven’t experienced too much bad luck in our marriage.

In honor of this anniversary, I thought I would post my journal entry about that night. You may remember my post about how I fell in love with my husband. In it I stated that the Adversary did everything he could to keep us from falling in love, getting engaged, and getting married. He did so by confusing me….a lot! Every time I would pray and get a good feeling about Dustin, he was there a split second later with feelings that would say “Are you sure you just felt that?”. Ugh. I’m feeling stressed just thinking about those days! Anyway, I reminded you of that, because you’ll understand the story better when you remember how I was feeling.


Feb, 18th 2004
This past weekend was amazing. Dustin and I went home for a much deserved and needed break. Dustin had earlier before told me that he had bought the wrong ring, and that he had had the shipment reversed and changed, so I was thinking it would be another week or two before the question was popped. But when we pulled into his mom’s office to pick up a package that his sister had forgotten to get earlier [good job Sherice! Haha], I knew that it was coming. All the way up there I had had the suspicion that he was going to purpose, despite the “wrong ring” story, so I was just praying in my heart that I would be able to know the answer. I knew, but sometimes I just freak myself out so much that the whole ideal becomes blurred.

So that night we hung out with his sisters. We ate dinner at El Cupidos and watched the All-Star Rookie game. When the game was drawing to an end he said, “When this game ends, our romantic weekend will begin, I promise” So after the game he went upstairs to get some coats, then took me into his backyard. He lives up in all the pine trees and snow so it was really pretty. I just thought he was taking me back there to make out to get away from his sisters, because in the back of my mind I was thinking, “No way- he’s going to do this tomorrow!”.

But then he started reminiscing about a night that he had taken me to his late grandmothers house. We laid in a sleeping bag watching the stars, and that was the first time that we had talked about marriage.

**oh, lately I had gotten into the habit of wearing my CTR ring on my wedding ring finger, because whenever Dustin would see it on any other finger he would place it back on that finger**

So as we were talking he said, “Let me see your ring” and he slipped off the CTR ring (little prayers are just flying off my head at this point) and then he got down on one knee, slipped the gorgeous princess cut three stoned ring on my finger and said,

“Erin, will you marry me?”

Well, being myself, I silently flipped out for about 3 minutes (that’s not an exaggeration.)

Dustin’s knee was still in the snow, about to get frostbitten, and he was saying, “I kinda need an answer!” Well, he eventually got up- and then the thought came to me “Erin, you’re not gonna say no” –so then I said yes. Then we went inside and I freaked out some more, so I went into the bathroom to pray. I prayed with all my heart that if I had made the right decision that I would feel at peace. And I have ever since. So now I’m engaged!

I wonder if I had met Dustin at 21 or 22 instead of 19 if I would have been more level-headed. But, then we might not have gotten married. Everything happens for a reason right? Well the next day was Valentines Day, and I’ll continue on with the story.

The next morning I was awakened at 7:00. Dustin had made me breakfast in bed. Cinnamon Life and toast cut into heart shapes. The toast was too pretty to eat, but we both ate the life cereal.

Later that night, Dustin told me to get dressed up really nice, so I did. But instead of taking me out to dinner, he led me upstairs to his room. There he had set up a romantic candlelight dinner for us. On the blanket he had set out there were white rose petals and he put Martinelli's sparkling cider in pretty glasses. The lasagna he had made (specialty of Safeway) wasn’t done yet, so we just sat there in the candlelight talking, cuddling, and kissing. It was so great. When the lasagna was finally done, we had to turn on the lights to eat, so the romantic part was done- but then we spent the rest of the night just laughing and playing. I love him so much. I am so very happy.


I love you Dustin! I’m so glad you asked me to marry you 5 years ago! You’re the best part of my life, and I love you more every day.

Happy Valentines Day!

I need your addresses!

It's about that time! I need to collect everyone's addresses for baby shower invites/baby announcements. My shower will be on Saturday, March 14th. It's about a month from now. So keep your calenders open! I know most of you are out-of-towners and can't come, but I still need your address so I can send you an announcement after we have her! You can leave it in a comment here on the blog (I will delete it as soon as I get it, for safety purposes) or email me at erin4e@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

30 week Ultrasound

Today I had another doctor’s appointment. It’s always fun to hear the heartbeat, and today we had another ultrasound. But the part I always dread, and need to vent about a little, is the SCALE. Ugh. I hate it! I already feel enormous, so watching the numbers creep up, and the doctors criticize me about my weight gain, really just makes me want to cry. I’ve gained 30 pounds so far, and I’ve got about 10 weeks to go.

It’s not like I’ve been one of those pregnant women who eat everything in their path. I’ve never taken “eating for two” literally. I eat healthy, I’ll give into the occasional craving, but for the most part I keep it around 2000 calories a day. Which I think is really good considering the huge appetite that comes with being pregnant. I take walks and do prenatal yoga. Yes, I could do these things more often, but it’s getting harder to be motivated because I’m so tired all the time.

Other than feeling fat, everything else is going really good. My glucose screening (that 3 hour blood test I had to take) came back normal, so I don’t have diabetes. That’s awesome! I was worried about that one for a while. The baby is healthy and growing at a normal rate. As of the ultrasound today, she is about 3.5 lbs now.

I love ultrasounds because it’s so cool to see your baby. She was really moving around in there today (she kept kicking the ultrasound lady's hands), which made it hard to take pictures, and she had her face up against the placenta, so it was really hard. So, as fun as it was to see her, the pictures didn’t really turn out, but I’ll post some of them anyway.

Her foot


A side profile, sort of.

A 3-d picture of her face and arm. Can't see it? I couldn't at first either. Like I said, her face was up in the placenta, so the ultrasound lady tried to digitally remove it so we could see her better. But if you look closely you can see the side of her face: an eye, nose lips and chin. Her arm (or maybe it's the cord) is blocking the rest of it.

10 weeks left! We can't wait to meet her!

Part five: We plead innocence!

This is the last of the Babymoon saga, I swear. But I just couldn’t be done without telling you all about the trip home.

We woke up at 4:00am and were on the road by 5:00. I tried my hardest to stay awake (I think it’s rude to fall asleep while Dustin has to be awake. Is that weird?), but I just couldn’t! We got to Yuma around 8:00, and stopped at Love’s truck stop for gas and a bathroom break.

I noticed this sign above the pump:

These people watch MythBusters! For all those that haven’t seen that episode, they were trying to figure out what causes freak fires at gas pumps. They figured out it had to do with static electricity. If you enter your car while your gas is pumping, then get out (creating the static), and the first place you touch is near the nozzle, you might create a spark that could create a fire. If you can’t read this sign, it’s the middle three bullets that caught my attention:
-Discharge your static electricity before fueling by touching a metal surface away from the nozzle.
-Do not re-enter your vehicle while gas is pumping
-If a fire starts, do not remove nozzle then back away immediately

Okay, I know I’m a nerd, but I think that’s cool.

The next part of the story needs some explanation. You’ll probably find it reassuring to know that the US is really cracking down on Border Patrol. We got stopped 3 times on the way to California, and twice on the way back. Usually they just wave you on by, or they’ll ask you if you’re a citizen and you show your ID. No big deal. Well, on the last stop on the way home it got really interesting.

We pull up to the station and the guard says:
“Where are you guys coming from?”
“California”
“Where are you guys headed?”
“Home to Arizona”
“Are you two US Citizens?”
“Yes”
“Could you show us your ID’s please?’
“Sure.”
As we’re getting our ID’s out of our wallets he gets impatient and says, “I need you to pull over under that tent over there”

Dustin and I exchange glances that say, “Okay, this is weird” and we drive over to the tent, ID’s ready to show the next officer. But the next officer doesn’t even care about our ID’s and says
“Do I have permission to search your vehicle?”
“Ummm…yeah”
“Please step out of your vehicle and stand over there please”

So we get out, I leave everything in the car, but Dustin has his wallet in his hands so they say,
“Set your items on the table and stand over there”.
“Yes sir”
“For your protection and mine, I’m going to need you to put your hands on your head”
Then the officer completely patted Dustin down!

What were they searching for? Drugs? Weapons? They didn’t see anything threatening about a pregnant lady, so they just told me to have a seat.

Meanwhile they brought out their dog to search our car! I thought this was all very funny, but thought it would be unwise to laugh.


They eventually decided that we were harmless and sent us on our way. I bet you are all wondering why they stopped us. I think this may have had something to do with it:



Doesn’t he look dangerous? Haha. Maybe it’s because he looks like a pothead, or bears a resemblance to the Unabomber. Maybe they are required to stop men who wear beanies and sunglasses. I think it’s the facial hair. It makes him look untrustworthy. Dustin hadn’t trimmed or shaved his mustache for a long time because he believed it to be linked to the Cardinals winning streak. The beard hadn’t been trimmed for a while either. Plus we left early in the morning so he looked tired and had on baggy comfortable clothes. All together in one package though, I’d say he looks suspicious. Wouldn’t you?

Part Four: San Diego Zoo

Our last stop of this trip was the San Diego Zoo. We once again got to the park right as it opened. It's so peaceful to feel like you're the only ones there. The animals are much more active in the morning. We actually saw the tigers wrestling around, the baby panda was climbing all over the place, and the baby koala was trying to get her mom to wake up. This zoo is so beautiful, and so BIG! I knew it was big, so I had planned on riding the tour buses and shuttles to help me around the zoo. But- if you do that you miss about half of the exhibits and we wanted to see the whole zoo. So we walked. And it took us all day. I was not anticipating on how exhausting it would be! I'm still tired! haha. But it was worth it.

Grizzlies

The most entertaining part of the day was the Gorillas. We got to the exhibit just as they were bringing out the baby gorilla. He was only 4 months old, and pretty much the cutest thing ever! He was brought outside with a zoo-keeper. The mother couldn't feed him anymore and they have to keep him away from the other gorillas because they are too rough with him.

We ate lunch at this restaurant up in the treetops. Expensive, but fun.

If you can't read my shirt it says "Love Child". I usually don't wear shirts with writing on them, but Dustin loved it so much that I bought it.

At the end of the day we rode the Grand Tour Bus. We just wanted to sit down for awhile!

This snake was following Dustin's hand around the glass!

We left the zoo around 4:30, right about closing time. I did not think it would take us all day to see the zoo, but it did! The original plan was to go to the zoo in the morning and then the beach in the afternoon, but that didn't work. By the time we left the zoo and got something to eat it was dark outside. Plus, we were so exhausted. Oh well, maybe next time.

This was such a fun vacation! I'm so glad we got a chance to take one last trip together. Well, not the last trip, but the last trip as a childless couple. I love my husband so much, and I'm so excited for the next chapter of our lives!

Part Three: Wild Animal Park

We arrived at the San Diego Wild Animal Park as soon as it opened. We needed to be back in time to watch the Superbowl. Yeah, we went here on a Sunday. We're sinners. Instead of church that day, we worshiped by celebrating all of God's beautiful creatures. This zoo was so beautiful! I guess growing up in the desert really makes you appreciate greener landscapes.

See what I mean?

There was an actual campground at this zoo! How cool would that be? It's right near all the lions and elephants. It'd be so fun to wake up to the sounds of lion's roars.

Dustin swinging from the vines.

Since this zoo is sooo big, you have to take a safari to see all of the african animals. It was really really cool. Also, if you're willing to pay extra (which we weren't) you can take a hot air balloon tour, or a up close and personal photo caravan. Very cool. If we had the extra money we might have done that.

Awesome.

The lion's exbihit was the best I had ever seen! You're so close to the animals.

A landscape view of the Journey to Africa tour.

Dustin has the same wingspan as a gorilla!

Even though this zoo is enormous, it doesn't take that long to see, since most of the zoo is viewed in the safari. I loved it! It was so much fun. We left around noon, and went to eat at a resturant near our hotel called Souplantion. It's basically Sweet Tomatoes, but it's called something different here in California. I enjoyed my healthy lunch, while Dustin filled up on the self-serve ice cream.

We then headed back for the Superbowl. I was actually excited for the Superbowl this year. I always watch it, but it's a lot more exciting when you are really rooting for a team. We had to be quiet since we watched it from our hotel room, which was really difficult because the game so so exciting. What a great game! Highly disappointing at the end though. It looked like we we're really going to win it there for a while. We we're so close!

Dustin's comment on the Superbowl: "Worst officiated game ever."

Tomorrow: San Diego Zoo

Part two: Sea World

After a good nights sleep (and I mean good...these beds are soooo comfy!) we headed to Sea World Saturday morning. The weather was perfect! I had bought some long sleeved shirts to wear over here because I thought that it would be cold, but it definitely is not! Its perfectly warm with a cool breeze. We had a great time. We saw the Shamu, dolphin, and sea lion and otter shows. We ate some very delicious burgers at the Shipwreck Cafe, and had a great time exploring all the exhibits. We took a lot of pictures. I don't know why, but we always take an average of at least 85 pictures everytime we go some place like this. haha. A lot didn't turn out because my camera hates being indoors and in dark areas (which is all the aquariums), but here are some of them. Enjoy!

This turtle was waving at us!

Shamu!

Part of your....world!

Wild Arctic

We had such a great time!

Tomorrow: San Diego Wild Animal Park