Felicity and The Beltway

So. Roughly two hours of my day are spent each week day driving on the beltway. You could say that the beltway and I have a love/hate, stop and go kind of relationship. Some days- it is fabulous (usually Fridays- though today disappointed), however most days The Beltway seems to say to me, "I hate you, go back home." I would happily follow this advice to go back home, but... work beckons.
When I drive anywhere I have this little mental race car game going in my head... I pick and choose a 'team' among other drivers. Sometimes a car will be on my team, but as soon as they pass in front of me without a courtesy wave- OFF my team!
On the little note of courtesy wave- Honestly. Is it a difficult thing to do to flick your wrist and wave at the car that so graciously let you cut in? I know it was a remarkable physical feat to put on the blinker as you start cutting into my lane, but for my mental health, could you PLEASE just wave? It's amazing the difference in my daily commute when a driver waves. One grateful woman even rolled down her window, stuck her entire arm out, and waved enthusiastically. Made me grin the entire rest of my drive in.
Can I just say to my fellow commuters heading home last night: It's only a broken down car getting towed, NO NEED TO HIT THE BREAKS. Blows my mind how that can create a traffic jam. It's one thing when it's a fender bender in the CENTER LANE (of 5) that decided to PARK THERE, rather then pull off to the side like all signs direct- those drivers give us no choice-we have to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting them. When I'm on the phone to my sweet husband during these discoveries of the cause of a back up, he asks if people are honking. Nope. We're all so disillusioned with it all- just keep on going- water under the bridge. I'm not quite that broken in yet- makes my blood boil (clearly) but eventually I recover... I will...
Well anyway- enough on that. Already takes up too much time in my life as it is, no use continuing in the 'ode to the 495'. One last thing to say to my old pal Beltway: Our days are numbered- I hate you too.

Maximus

Max is son to Annie and BJ. He is happy and carefree, as every 6 month old rightfully should be. He greets with smile and now lifted arms! I think his coo's are adorable- as is this picture- taken by Annie:

Purdy boy

Man, I'm fired from this blogging thing!
Life has been fun and exciting for us. Yesterday was our 22 month anniversary and Nathaniel (once again) surprised me when I came home with some red roses and some homemade brownies! They didn't turn out quite like planned, but with some vanilla icecream we'll be all set.
Last weekend Nathaniel and I drove down to North Carolina to visit his grandma Jacque, her husband Ike and many many other extended family members. Nathaniel is an instant hit wherever we go. Many a stranger (relative or not) has come up to touch his face and say "YOU a purdy boy!" At church, as I was standing amongst the women admiring my husband, one oh-so-gracious soul told me how lucky I was to catch him. uh-huh. thanks to you too lady. We enjoyed our stay there, I even got to see some remnants from Captian Blackbeards ship!
Pregnancy- well it's far more fabulous now that I'm past the 1st trimester. Tomorrow I'll be 17 weeks! On November 1 we'll find out what the baby is...we'll see how that poll holds up! At first, almost everyone I talked to thougt that I was having a girl "for sure!" and now, most people I talk to seem to think we'll have a boy. So. We'll keep you posted.

My very own 'Purdy Boy' and Grandma Jacque

Joella (1st cousin once removed or something like that...) and her crew with Nathaniel

Emily (same relation as Joella) and crew with me and Nathaniel. Please note my very first pair of maternity pants (everyone should have pants like these for the holidays and all-you-can-eat buffets).

Ike and the ever glamerous Jacque

Thoughts?

Where's the Baby??

THERE S/HE IS:
What happened?! Well.... on our second month on Clomid I went in for my blood test to see if I had ovulated and it came back negative. Very discouraging. Apparently my progesterone level was at .7 when just the month before it had been 29. Durn it all. I went in to talk to my doctor to talk about 'options'. It was looking like we'd take one more go round on the Clomid, though at a double dose, and then after that it would be on to a specialist. Seeing as I hadn't ovulated my dr. prescribed Provera to bring on my cycle- but before I could start that I would need to take a standard blood pregnancy test. Ya'll are seeing where this is going... right? I called in for the results and my lovely doctor let me know that the test had come back positive! After having 4 or 5 blood tests to make sure my levels were rising appropriately we got to have our first glimpse at the little.... yolk sac. Hmm. A week later we got to have another sonogram to make sure that the pregnancy was viable. Our little Jelly Bean was just visible! And yesterday- we saw our jumping bean. The baby seems to have grown so much! It is amazing to see little arms and legs waving all over and the tiny heart beating so quickly. With the crazy circumstances of actually getting pregnant- they still haven't tagged one specific due date. I'm gonna go with April 2 since we've been dated anywhere from March 30-April 6. Love to all- and we'll keep you posted.

The Twinkle in his/her Father's eye: If you look at this picture sideways- it looks more like an eye and eyebrow than a baby....

Our little Jelly bean: It looked like most of it was just a beating heart!

Yesterday's portrait: These pictures aren't transferring on here very well... but I hope you can make out the head, body and legs.

Do Not Attempt.

For Labor Day, Nathaniel decided to take me out someplace that we have never been before. FREDERIC, MD. Well. As it was a holiday most stores and restaurants were closed with the exception of every "novelty" shop and pub. Uh huh. We quickly strolled up and down the streets (Nathaniel was a champ on his now less-gimpy knee) looking for something decent to look at. The first think we found was this little bridge. Ahh, aren't we sweet?

This... well. This was just interesting. And of course Nathaniel naturally had to mimic this tortured mural man.

Then... it was our turn to be tortured. Not having found a decent place to eat in all of the 'downtown' we decided to eat at a restaurant called Roy Rogers. I was entirely intrigued as I had never heard of the place before! Would they serve Shirley Temples too?? Never did I imagine that it was a sick, twisted, and worse version of a KFC and Arctic Circle in one. However, Nathaniel posed perfectly for this picture:

The feast that should not have been:

Call out to the birthday girl...

TAMAR! Happy 30th!


<-- Caption "Sis, it seems like just yesterday you were a little boy."

I'll get a picture of Tamar as a child on here soon. ;)

So much for that...

Hours and hours I spent toiling in our front yard attempting to grow grass. I had a vision of a lush soft lawn, perfect for a mini picnic or mini mini slip n' slide or... not. In anycase, my vision did not come to pass. At first little shoots of fresh grass sprung up everywhere! It was so exciting, but the first rain storm took a good toll- wiping out my crops. Then, our trip to california left the poor lawn parched and it never quite recovered. Finally, to top it all off... last week verizon came and destroyed what was left of my little lawn to instal fiberoptic cables. Hmph.

So, now what should I do? I've heard that now is the time to re-seed. But man. It seemed to take way too much energy for nothing in the first place!! Maybe I'll find the motivation this labor day weekend. Wish me luck!

Orange you glad?

August 18, 2006:
I came home to beautiful flowers, a coordinating bear, and a lovely card (which, at first glance, looks like it's us!) ! Inside the card: "Orange you glad we're married?!" My sweet sentimental husband. I love that he celebrated our 20 month anniversary :) Yes, my darling. I am so glad that we're married forever.

New Camera!!! Yay!

Horray! I Love my new camera!! In an effort to make sure that it was a quality and worth owning camera I had to test it out. First- take a picture of the fan on low. Result- nice and clear. Second- take a picture of the fan on high. Result- suprisingly nice and clear. Third- toss Belle (you all know Belle, I hope) into the air for a dual action shot. Result- highly successful! I started laughing so hard, that I took like 12 of these pictures. Here is the best of Belle, along with a little other pal that Nathaniel threw in there.

Another really cool feature of the camera: Nathaniel shakin' his groove thang.

Not for the faint at heart....

So! Now that said new camera is up and running, I managed to get off all of the other pictures that we had stored on our memory card! I warn you... Do not scroll down if you get squeamish at the sight of a recently operated on knee (which by the way, is healing slowly but surely).
Before: The before shot- after Nathaniel went to town on his knee with my venus razor. He was certain with his experience shaving his legs that he would be better qualified then the medical technician. I'm sure he was right- what a beautiful knee:

AFTER: Nathaniel still drugged up- Sweet wife, Felicity, gets to change the 'dressing' and take pictures.

Like a hole in my head...

Yes... I need a hole in our lovely painted ceiling like a hole in my head. Regardless of my needs, however, we have a hole in our ceiling. On Monday- in true Monday fashion- when Nathaniel walked in the door from work he was greeted by our dining room ceiling with a drip of water right down in front of him. While in some cultures, this could be a sign of good luck, such was not the case for our AC unit. The past months record breaking temperatures took their toll on our sweet AC unit and it froze over. Can you say "DANG IT"? We did!
Thankfully! We have a wonderfully talented friend named BJ and his very accomodating wife who promply came over to calm my husband while I was still at work and to blowdry away the ice. I'm really not sure if Nathaniel and I would have qualified to be homeowners without having the Mitchells as our friends. I'll try to work our camera and document this hole for all to see shortly!

Man of Steel

We all know that my man is a man of steel akin to some of his more famous counterparts. On July 10, Nathaniel went from man of steel to man of steel... leg brace, that is. Back in April Nathaniel was pulling off some sweet moves on the soccer field (don't worry, not like Zidane) when out of nowhere up came a defender and boxed Nathaniel to the ground. Poor Nathaniel limped off the field. Diagnosis: Torn ACL, will require replacement. UGH. So... 8 days ago, Nathaniel went in for surgery while his sweet wife waited and was tormented by the lobby television set on Maury Povitch. Hours later I got to go in to see my drugged up baby and drag him home. The past week has been rough to say the least. I can only complain of lack of sleep though. Nathaniel has the pain AND lack of sleep. Hopefully things will get better! We'll keep you updated!!

row, row, row your boat...

On July 8 Nathaniel and I joined Spencer and Janae Haycock on a river rafting trip down the Lehigh River Gorge. Nathaniel was due for Knee surgery (post on that to come) on July 10th, so we felt like one big last "hurrah" before going under the knife.
It was a 3 1/2 hour drive there and Spencer graciously drove his gloriously airconditioned car (neither of our cars have AC) both ways while N and I slept most the time. We may sound like slackers, but we weren't come rowtime! "ROW LEFT!" "ROW RIGHT" "TOGETHER!" we bellowed. Yee Haw, we had an awesome time! I can't wait to go again when Nathaniels knee is back up to par. After river rafting we went to eat some dinner at... a diner with way too many constanants in it's name. Nathaniel had a blue cheese wedgie which ended up being about as appetising as it's name. He ended up sharing some of my chicken and Janae's chicken primavera. Yum! Right before we started the main haul home, we ran into a Rite Aid to get some Solarcain for my fried thighs- ouch! You should have seen the clerks face when I asked him if they had a bathroom and he figured out that I would be putting it on then and there. Silly clerk.

Brilliance

I wish I had something fantastic to say today. But, no. All I can say is that I am BORED today. This comes as no surprise, but still... it always seems to amaze me how long it can take for 8 hours to tick away. However, I did manage to figure out how to post pictures today! Here is a timeless and beautiful picture of two wonderful people... I wonder who they could be?! *giggle* Too bad I'm not that hot anymore. It's mainly my hair. It's too HOT (especially with those pesky hot flashes) to bother with my hair these days.... Estoy una flojita! Nathaniel is still hot though. I'm a lucky girl!

By Special Request....

Here comes the sun....... So Felicity might think. But... no. It's simply another hotflash. One would think that I, at my mere age of 25, would be too young for such things, but no such luck. Well... to be fair, I brought them on myself. Some of you know of my fertility "issues." My silly little ovaries don't seem to want to ovulate all by them selves, so we've brought in the big boys (aka Clomid) to boss them around. An unfortunate side effect though is the hotflashes. Oh my gosh, they are miserable! I'll be fine and comfortable in my moderately airconditioned lobby/office and then BAM "Oh my gosh I'm so HOT i'm going to die." I feel like one of those old women in church who sweats while everyone else is shivering. Hopefully the hotflashes will be worth it. And no- I'm doubt I'm going to have 7 kids in one pregnancy because of the clomid. Chances are only 5% of having a multiple birth. Plus I'm on the lowest dosage, and I'm going to say that it takes a few months to really be effective- so I'll keep you posted with information as you need to know it. haha.

Spider

Today....I have had a "special" day. Nathaniel and I are in the process of trying to grow grass to fill in the bare spots (which is actually most of our yard) in our lawn. Growing grass is a delicate process. The seeds must be watered twice a day! This morning I enjoyed the mild weather while I watered the back yard. I had about 10 minutes to spare to water the front yard before I had to leave to work so I decided to lock the door knob and just leave the door open so when I left I would only need to lock the deadbolt. Here's wher e my supershort attention span comes into play. When I went to walk out the door, I noticed a spider on the screen door! Determined not to let the nasty beast into the house, I shut the front door. UGH. Neighbors didn't answer their doors - so I decided to get walking to a friends house. 25 minutes later- she isn't home. Lets try friend #2- 20 minutes later, she's not answering the door. Friend #3- not home. So. An hour and a half later, I make it to the library with blisters from my Old Navy flip flops (I'm just happy that I decided to wear shoes when I went to water the lawn) and email work and call N to come pick up his silly wife. What a good man. What a day.