Superbowl Sunday & more fun with Pappy & Gammy!

On Sunday February 7th, Easton watched his first Superbowl with his Dad & Pappy. Mama & I decided to go out and shop for a few hours and left the boys to themselves - but of course we got a few pictures before taking off for the stores :-)

We also gave Easton another bath - this time we made sure to dress Easton up in the cute doggy bath robe that Mama gave me at one of my baby showers ... I found some precious slippers that matched the dog theme as well. Doesn't he look like a little version of Hugh Hefner??? :-)

And here is another photo of Easton hanging out with his Pappy:

Another crazy thing - Easton is three weeks old today! Where has the time gone??? We are nearing the end of our time in Michigan .... in a few days we'll be loading up the car and heading south for good! Until then, we plan to enjoy hanging out with the little man - he is so sweet & cute!!! :-)

33 weeks .... 47 days to go!

It's time for the weekly picture again - we were having some flash issues with our camera, so this picture is not the best quality. Luckily, my belly is pretty far "out there" so you can still see that :-) But I guess the flash issue is just a sign that we definitely need a new camera before Easton arrives (which is what we were planning to get for Christmas anyway). Here I am at 33 weeks:

I am really starting to feel the effects of pregnancy. It's becoming a bit difficult to breathe, especially when laying down. Easton tends to lay on my bladder the majority of the day, which makes me feel like I need to rush to the bathroom (only to find that nothing comes out) :-) I've had some swelling, primarily in my hands, which has caused me to stop wearing my wedding ring. All in all things are still going great, I am just a bit uncomfortable at this point - oh, and tired, did I mention how exhausted walking a flight a steps gets me? And keep in mind, we live in a 3-story house, so I am up & down steps all day. At least I get some exercise in that way!

I start bi-monthly doctor appointments this month, and my next visit is next week. Jason is planning to go the appt. with me & we want to give our doctor the thank you/Christmas gift that we bought her. We're also excited to get an update on how Easton is doing - from the looks of my belly (and all the action within) he seems to be growing just fine!

This is my last week of teaching, and after I will officially be on maternity leave. Since we will be moving early next year I will not be returning to my job after Easton arrives. My boss & co-workers were sad to hear this news, but also happy that we'll be getting closer to family. My boss also mentioned that she would recommend me for some potential online teaching opportunities. It would be great to have the option to work from home and also stay with the Baker College system. I really enjoy my job & that will be one thing I will miss about Michigan.

We had our first snow last night (Tues Dec 8th) but this morning the rain came and washed it all away. It looks like the "yucky part of winter" has officially begun. I am thankful it held off this long, and even more thankful that we only have to endure a few months of the MI winter this year!!!

Michigan Baby Shower

Today was our third & final baby shower - this one was with my Michigan friends. Carrie, her mom Betty, Niki & Andrea all hosted the event. Several of our Michigan friends attended, including our landlord Debbie, neighbor Kay, my boss Marge, hairdresser Cristin, former student & friend Jen, and my teachers from dance, Jessica & Amy. It was a gorgeous day --- the weather was sunny and warm for a change!

We started by eating some delicious food, then begin to play a few games. The first game was "Do you have these items in your purse?" ... guests were asked to find random items in their purses, such as postage stamps, 17 pennies, a grocery receipt & a dollar bill with 2 "7s" in the serial number. Cristin won the purse game, and she definitely had the largest purse to find buried items in!!! :-)

The second game was "Let's try & guess how large Keely's belly is!" Each guest had to take streamer ribbon & guess how big my belly was .... after they ripped off their guess, we measured it around my belly to see who was the closest. It was a two-way tie - both Debbie & Marge were extremely close! (FYI - my belly is currently 43.5 inches around). Here's a few pics from the game:

Amy's guess was WAY too big :-)

Marge's guess was close! Carrie is the "judge" :-)

After the games, I opened gifts & then we had some delicious cake. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with friends, and we are so blessed to have such thoughtful people in our lives. Our Michigan friends do a great job of making us feel "at home away from home" and we really appreciate it! A special thanks to our hostesses for throwing a wonderful shower. And, a few more pictures from the event:

Posin' with the BUMP sign....

If there is one constant in Michigan during the summer, it's there will undoubtedly be road construction everywhere! You often hear Michiganders say that there are 2 seasons in Michigan.... winter & construction! It is so very true.

Jason & I pass this bump sign each day when we leave our house, so I decided it was time to pose for a picture with the sign. I got a bit of grumbling from Jason, my trusty photographer, since we had to block the flow of traffic. But it's worth it - after all, I thought this would make a great pic for the blog & scrapbook! Here is my "bump" with the BUMP sign :-)

Posin' with the BUMP sign, 17 wks & 4 days

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th!

I realized I haven't made an update since we got back from our VA/NC trip - however, there really hasn't been anything going on. Since returning to Michigan we've mostly been in our usual routine of working and doing things around the house. Jason did get some time off this weekend for the Fourth of July, which was nice (and much needed, he has been working A LOT)! We did some shopping, ate out a few times and went to Jason's co-worker's daughter's 1st birthday party.

We were planning to see the fireworks on Saturday, but apparently Port Huron felt it was necessary to coincide their firework display with Canada's, so it was done the week before! Canada celebrates Independence Day on July 1st, so I am not sure why the fireworks were shot on June 27th..... Regardless, what in the world was that all about, now we celebrate the Canadian Independence Day!?!? I refuse :-)

We do have some exciting events coming up - next Saturday we are attending (yet another) Tigers baseball game & the following weekend our friends Lesley & Edward are coming up for a visit. We are going to the Kid Rock concert while they are in town, which should be a fun experience since it's at Comerica Park AND Kid Rock is originally from Detroit. I'll be sure to "report" on these activities soon, until then it's life as usual in Marysville for the Joneses :-)

I am officially a MBA graduate!!!

My Mom, Dad, brother Jacob and sister-in-law Ashley traveled up to Michigan to be present for my MBA graduation and luau party. They arrived on Thursday - we hung out at the house most of the day and played a lot of Wii Bowling & Rockband 2. We also had a great dinner of king crab legs, steamed shrimp and rice.

Friday started with a quick trip to Lexington, Michigan to have lunch and check out the sites and shops. We then went home to get ready to head out to my graduation, which was in Flint, MI. (we did A LOT of driving on Friday!!!) The graduation ceremony was Friday night at 7pm - after a nice event we stopped at Lucky's Steakhouse on the way home for a tasty celebration dinner.

Saturday Ashley, Mama and I did a little shopping for Michigan souvenirs, then we headed home to set up for my graduation luau party. The weather was a bit cold, but we still had a great time eating the Hawaiian food (provided by Chef Chell's Catering, it was delicious!), catching up with friends and of course playing some more Wii bowling. Even my Mom gave it a try - she was actually quite good!

Sunday we relaxed and packed up everyone's belongings - we stopped in Greektown on the way to the airport. We had a great dinner at Pegasus, then checked out the Greektown Casino and some other downtown Detroit sites. It was a fun and busy weekend and I am so happy my Mom, Dad, Jake and Ashley were here to share this special time with me. I will post some pictures soon!!!

February update

Again, it's been several weeks since my last post - I am becoming quite the blogging "slacker," I need to work on that! :-) Here's an update on what's been happening with us......

The weather is still crappy here in Michigan. Earlier this week we had some nice days that reached 50 degrees. However, midweek we were back down to the 20s and have had more snow. Looks like the snow is here to stay for a little while longer - spring cannot come soon enough!

On Saturday, January 31st I hosted a "Body Shop" party at my house. For those that are not familiar, Body Shop sells lotions, shower gels and other beauty products - you may have seen the store in the mall, it always smells good and citrusy (is citrusy even a word?). The home party is a lot of fun because you can try out all of the products and decide what you like best. It was a great time, and I made some new friends in the process which is always nice!

I put in my notice at the community college where I work fulltime in the Adult Learning Lab. I decided to cut back on work so I can focus on my last few MBA classes (have I mentioned I graduate on June 5th!?!?!). As many of you have heard me mention (or complain!), it has been quite challenging trying to balance work and school for the past year, and I am a bit burnt out. My last day at the lab will be March 6th, which is also the day that we are having a GED Recognition Ceremony for many of our GED completers. It will be a good last day because I can see a lot of the students that I have helped over the past year be recognized for their hard work. I will still be teaching parttime at the local Baker campus, which will keep me busy enough to not completely lose my mind from boredom! :-)

We have some other fun events planned for March - our second anniversary is March 7th. We have planned a trip to Traverse City, Michigan for the last weekend of March to celebrate our anniversary (our work schedules prevented us from going on our actual anniversary). Traverse City is located in northern Michigan and they have a lot of wineries, which we are excited about! Also, my brother Jacob is coming up for a visit March 13-16. This is the weekend of the annual "St. Patty's Day Pub Crawl" in downtown Port Huron. March should be a busy month filled with good times.... we'll "blog" about it soon!

January 2009 update

I just realized that I haven't made a post in several weeks - there really hasn't been anything exciting or out of the ordinary to report. It is really cold here, and it snows practically everyday. We are becoming somewhat immune to the cold weather and really don't think it's freezing unless the temps are in the single digits! Even though we are used to the weather, we are still anxiously looking forward to warmer weather. As the saying goes, you can take us out of the south, but.... :-)

Jason is still working all of the time - it still amazes me at the amount of hours he is required to work each week! He is now in a new office in Richmond, MI, which is about 25 minutes south of where we live in Marysville. He is loving the new office and finally has his own desk and workspace (it's about time since we have already been here for a year and half!). Jason has been very successful at recruiting duty so far; I am very proud of how hard he works.

I am staying super busy as well - I'm still working full time at the community college and teaching math part time on Saturday mornings at Baker College. This quarter I am teaching Pre-Algebra. I'm also finishing up my MBA classes - my current class is "Human Behavior Management of Organizations" - whew, what a long name! After this class I only have two more classes to complete (Economics and Global Environment Strategies). My graduation is scheduled for June 5th - I can't wait!!!

One more interesting (at least to us) tidbit - we got a Wii! You would think there are teenagers living in our house considering we have a PS3 and a Wii now, guess we'll never grow up! We are enjoying some Wii bowling and we also got the Wii Fit. I really like the Yoga and the hula-hooping game. I also got "Dance Dance Revolution"... that game is WAY harder than I anticipated, so I need to practice A LOT! It's been nice to have something new to do, especially since it's so cold and yucky outside. It also forces us to get up off of the couch, so who knows, maybe we will drop some LBS? :-)

That's about all that's happening in MI - hope everyone is having a great 2009 so far, we miss you!

Blizzard of the Century (at least to a southern girl....) :-)

You may have heard on the news, Michigan and other areas in the Midwest were hit with a bit of a snow storm. Yes - I am well aware that many of you are envious of the snow ....... I will admit, it is pretty. But you would probably change your mind if you had to drive in it.

To give you an idea of what it is like, I took a few pictures on my way to work this morning. That's right, even in a foot of snow you still have to work in Michigan; there is no such thing as a "Snow Day." Rest assured, I took these pictures while I was stopped at a light so my safety was not jeopardized. Look at these pics, can we say "zero visibility"???

I did tell you that this was taken during the day time, right? Looks like night to me!

I was having a bit of a panic attack at this point - a driver passed me going at least 50 as I was putzing along at 10mph :-)

As I mentioned, life goes on in Michigan, even during a winter storm. We had our holiday get-together for work today as well. Here is a picture of me with some of the folks that I work with at the community college:

L to R: Bonnie R (my partner in crime in the learning lab), Karen, Michelle (our department dean), Julie, Me, "Chevy Chase" :-), Bonnie D, Kelly & my boss Doreen

Boat Night in Port Huron 7-11-08

Jason and I went to Boat Night on Friday 7/11 .... this is a huge party event that celebrates the kick-off of the Port Huron Mackinac Boat Race. We have heard a lot about it, so we figured we'd check it out for ourselves. There was a carnival, beer tents, food vendors and hundreds of boats set up along the Black River. The streets were blocked off, and thousands of people (mostly intoxicated) roamed the streets. It looked like a fun social event - Boat Night would definitely be a good time to visit Michigan (friends, go ahead and plan your trip for July 2009) :-) It also really made us want to buy a boat .... the people on the water appeared to be having a fabulous time Here are a few pictures from the night....

Jason & me on the Black River Bridge

There were hundreds of boats lined along the river, and THOUSANDS of people wandering around - those are some local bars in the background

Another exciting night at the VFW ...

Last night Jason and I went to the VFW ... things have been so busy lately, we realized we had not seen our VFW friends in almost 3 months! Granted, the VFW has a reputation for being a gathering place for "older people," but it's somewhere we can go and not deal with the usual bar/club drama. We played Darts and pool, then did some karaoke. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Jason is singing his usual, "Queen of Memphis"

Jan (Jan & her husband Pete run the karaoke) and me singing a tune! :-)

Are we back in Danville???

Jason and I attended the Marysville Carnival last night. The carnival was held at the park on the river about a mile from our house. The event was quite reminiscent of festivals and carnivals that are held in and around the Danville area, so we felt very much at home.

The band did a great job of butchering Alabama & Lynyrd Skynyrd songs and there were several ladies attempting to flat foot. The locals were sporting their best 1980s attire and hairstyles .... one guy in particular caught everyone's attention. I apologize in advance for my shaky cinematography skills, but you HAVE to see this guy's outfit in action. Don't blink or you will miss it - he's the one sporting cut-off jeans and a CROP TOP! You will also have a chance to jam out to the band's "wonderful rendition" of Free Bird. Enjoy! :-)

The Midwest storms ....

As you may have heard on the news, the Midwest has experienced several bad storms over the past week. Last Sunday we had a power outage in our area. The storm did a lot of damage and left over 250,000 residents in and around Detroit without power. Some people lost power for up to 4 or 5 days. Fortunately, we were only out for about 24 hours. The reason our power was out was due to an old pine tree ... the tree was struck by lightning and fell into our power lines. Check out the pics below:

That's our neighbor Kay in the bottom right corner :-)

The tree had such deep roots it lifted up the ground!

Martha, Roger & Anne Rylee visit Michigan!

Martha, Roger & Anne Rylee visited Michigan for the first time last weekend .... their visit happened to be the same weekend as my 31st birthday. :-)

They arrived Thursday afternoon at the Detroit Airport - it was Anne Rylee's first plane trip, and she was a trooper! On Friday we visited the outlet center in Birch Run .... it is a shopping lover's dream. Martha said she had "sensory overload" because there were so many stores to choose from. We shopped until Anne Rylee dropped and then met my friend Alison for dinner.


On Saturday we headed over to Canada (Anne Rylee's 1st "foreign" adventure). There actually wasn't much to do right across the border, so we agreed that during their next visit we would plan a few days at Niagara Falls. On our way back into the US we were detained by security. Apparently security got Jason confused with a 6 foot tall black man from Texas! The process moved quickly, although we were secretly hoping that Anne Rylee would choose that moment to throw a fit. Unfortunately, she was a little angel and did not cry :-)

Saturday night we had dinner (crab legs!) & birthday cake and played Rock Band on the PS3. We recorded one another playing the guitar, drums and singing - let's just say Roger wins the award for the funniest performance on the drums!!! If I can figure out how to upload videos onto this blog, you'll soon see the performance for yourself! FUNNY STUFF :-)



Their flight left Sunday afternoon - on the way to the airport we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and did some last minute shopping at an outdoor mall called Partridge Creek. It was a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to their next visit.

Here are a few pictures from the trip - we stayed so busy we forgot to take many pics!

Martha, Roger & Anne Rylee @ Big Boy (the northern version of Shoney's)

Martha & me - what is Big Boy looking at???

Anne Rylee loves to shop like her Mom & "Aunt" Keely! :-)

Uh, oh - somebody is not happy ...

Maybe it's not Spring quite yet ...

I just cannot get the hang of this Michigan weather! I was all excited, thinking Springtime was here...... OOPS, I was WRONG. Today the high was 48, and we are expected to get temps in the low 30s tonight - it's even calling for sleet! What in the world!?!?!

Hopefully the weather warms up soon. I'm not sure how much more of this our "southern selves" can take! :-)

It's finally SPRING! (I think.....)

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to give the latest weather report .... I believe spring is FINALLY here! Early mornings and evenings are still a bit chilly (usually in the 40s) but during the day we are hitting temperatures in the 70s! I cannot explain how happy I am to not see snow everyday - the water is no longer frozen, the boats are riding by and people are out for walks on the beach. The locals have informed me that we are not out of the woods yet ..... apparently a cold front sometimes comes through again before the end of May. Keep your fingers crossed that the freezing temps are behind us, at least for a few months! :-)

Miss you all - now's the time to come and visit!!! :-)

St Patrick's Day Pub Crawl

We had a blast at the Pub Crawl! We made stops at the HAC, Quay Street Brewery (where we had a tasty lunch!), Zebra Bar, Military Street Cafe, Rum Runners & Enigma Dance Club. We finished the night with some karaoke at the VFW. Here are some pictures from the day/night .... enjoy!

Jason & me, ready to head out to the Pub Crawl

Prul & me, decked out in GREEN!

Prul & me @ Military Street Cafe

Jason, Prul & me @ Enigma Dance Club

Accounting class is OVER - I got an A!!!

Hi everyone! I just received my final Accounting grade via email - I ended up with an A!!! This is a huge deal to me since Accounting is my worst subject. I must say, I owe much appreciation to Jessica, my accounting tutor. Not sure I would have made it without her. Thanks Jessica!

So far my MBA GPA is a 3.91 (I got an A- in my Statistics class, and A- apparently count for less points) :-( But I am still quite happy with how the program is going ....

Thanks so much to everyone for the support and words of encouragement throughout the program - next class is Management Info Systems, which I will be relying on my Cisco friends to help me with! :-) Have a great weekend!

Some snow pics ...

Over the past few days we have accumulated over a foot of snow!!! I believe most of you have sat at the patio table below at one time or another - it'll give you a good idea of how deep the snow really gets here. Oh, and check out the grill! Apparently the cover flew off in one of our many storms (it's buried under snow to the left of the grill) .... anyone wanna cook out and hang out on the deck??? :-)

Our daily routine :-)

Removing snow from our vehicles has become a daily routine! Last night we took the truck out for a spin (it had been sitting for several weeks) Here are a few pictures of Jason cleaning off the truck.