Bradford, Relatives, Shopping & A Baby Shower

Well last weekend we went to Bradford to visit family and to attend the baby shower my Mom & cousin Amy were having for me. Syd was super excited because not only were her Aunt Jackie & Uncle Aaron going to be there she got to miss school on Friday. I figured with there future living arrangements in Alaska it might be awhile before we saw them. So we wanted some extra time. She had alot of fun & immediately took up with her Uncle Aaron whom she tormented the rest of the weekend. Sorry Aaron! (Luckily he is a VERY good sport!)

Of course going to Bradford in April the weather is not very cooperative! We ventured out anyway on Friday in the rain to do some shopping. We found this really great kid's consignment shop in Olean. So if you know of anyone in need of anything especially clothes send them there. It was insane. Then we were off for one of Aaron's favorite eats Tasta Pizza. It has been a long time since I have been there boy was it good. Brings back memories of middle school.

Saturday we had the baby shower. Only it did not rain it actually snowed a little (again it is Bradford). First surprise for everyone our cousin Jen came up with the twins Benjamin & Annamarie so that was exciting. I had alot of fun getting to see people from Evans our old church. These are people who have known me since I was in fifth grade. They are always supportive of our family. Of course the food was good. Aunt Cathy makes an AWESOME cake!! If you have never had a piece you are missing out. Amy was in charge of games which everyone seemed to get into.


I was lucky to receive a bunch of great gifts and salot of really cute clothes! The Little Man should be one well dressed baby. Big thanks to Mom and Amy for all they did. Also to Jackie I know she chipped in too. And for the rest of the family for helping out. Especially for Jackie superior cutting skills where the pasta salad is concerned! I don't have any pics yet Jackie took them & she is somewhere between Port Allegheny & New York. I am thankful she took a bunch for me. We will miss her photo taking skills after the baby gets here.


Saturday evening was a crazy one! I am sure we may have broken some fire code with all the people in my mom's house. It was like being back at Nana & Grandpa's for a holiday. We had beds set up on all available floor space. Between the 7 adults, 3 kids & 2 dogs I am sure the house breathed a sigh of relief Sunday evening.
It was fun seeing everyone time always seems to pass too quickly though!

Baby Update

First of all as I write this it feels as if there is a circus going on inside my stomach. Needless to say he has not slowed down any. Steve said if he did I would get all paranoid which is probably true.

I had an appointment on the 26th just a regular visit. I am almost 31 weeks now so I get to go every 2 weeks. I found out at my appointment that I am measuring large for my due date. Incase you did not know they take a fundal measurement (which measures the size of your uterus on the outside of course). This happens for many reasons some being a large baby, alot of amniotic fluid, loose stomach muscles & some health issues.

Well they scheduled me for an ultrasound to check the size of the baby. Luckily, all was well with the baby we know for sure it is a boy. She measured the size of his head & other things. One which was the femur bone. She saw that & said "Wow! Who is the tall one in your family." She obviously did not see Steve when he walked in. She did realize when he stood up to go. It was pretty funny. Sorry the pics from the ultrasound are not real great. As they get older they actually take 2 shots & put them together as one. We did get one with his little boy parts but I figured you would want to pass on that.

So we found out that he is measuring the size of a baby that is 32 weeks old. Kind of scary because he is just entering the stage when he starts gaining body fat. As far as the measurements go they figure he is about 4lb already and is in the 98th percentile.

So with that news we will see what my doctor says on Tuesday when I go back.
And his big sister is ready for him to be here. She keeps asking when he is going to be here. maybe sooner then later!

As a side note Congrats to Karen & Clay on there new addition who should be here around October 2009! (I met Karen through Jackie when she was living in Watertown.)

A Kid Thing

As I watch Sydney growing up it makes me reminisce about things from my childhood. There are alot of things I remember Jackie & I doing. I am not sure if she remembers or not. One her friend Karen touched on running through the house in your socks and sliding. Well we went one step further and would spray Pledge on the floor to make sure we would really slide. (We did get along no matter what our parents say.) When Mom & Dad left to go for the evening if we got left Chef Boyardee we would eat it right away then have to scrap together something to eat at supper time. Watching TV after school and waiting 30 minutes til our parents got home to start our chores. One of the others Sydney has been doing for a little while but has recently perfected.

She sits and watches TV like this.

Do you remember doing this as a kid? What other things do you remember doing?

PS. I know I blogged about her losing her tooth but she has also gotten a black eye at school and fell down the stairs in the past week! She fell tonight on her way to bed. She wants to know what is wrong with her. Klutzy stage here we come. Look Out!

Just bring me the money!!!

Well Syd has done it again! This time by herself.

I knew her other front tooth was getting loose. When I picked her up tonight. She could really move it around. Well after the last one I figured it would be another month before it came out. She went into the bathroom to "try" and pull it. She came out and said she could turn it all he way around. I was getting ready to go & see with a little pull she yanked it on her own.

Luckily the other front one has started to come in.

Good Job Sydney!!!

To Louisville & Back!

On Thursday morning I left to head to Louisville, Ky. First stop was not very far away I went to my friend Bob's house in Pittsburgh. I rode down with Bob who was going to the dog show. I was taking Gravy to meet up Sandra. The trip was fun but a long one in a short period of time. I am really glad I was able to go. Everyone here could not believe I took a trip like that being 7 months pregnant. A road trip with having to stop and go to the bathroom may not be the best idea.
Of course I was able to attend the dog show which last four 5 days and has a daily entry of about 3300 dogs. It is insane and fun all at the same time. Well I guess if you are into those things. I was able to visit with people I have not seen in a couple of years. Nothing like good friends and good food!!
Thanks to my Mom and Amy who kept up Syd so I could go!! And big thanks to my hubby who was okay with it too! (He was just excited to be able to get rid of the dog.) I still love him though!

New Hairdo!

On Saturday Sydney and I went to get haircuts. After a very very long wait she was able to get her new do. I realize we normally cut her hair short every year but this year we are ahead of schedule. I have started making her dry her own hair. At least she starts then I take over. Her hair is so thick it takes a little while to get done. She cannot wait til it gets warmer so she can let it air dry. Well all she has done is complain about how long the drying process takes I told her a easy solution was a haircut. She finally agreed.

Then came the struggle of how short we were going to cut it. She wanted it up to her ears. I was trying to explain it was still cold and we could go shorter when it warmed up. So we compromised and did halfway between.

Do you know when we washed it the first time she complained about drying it! UGH!!!! I told her my next step was to shave it if she did not stop.

The hat pics are from Dr. Seuss days. This week they have a fun thing to do everyday to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. Monday was wacky hat day. What you cannot see on the hat was the way it was decorated. I love this one of her laughing!

You would think she had seen Pulp Fiction. She was dancing like that. I have no idea why. I can only give the excuse I always give....She is crazy just like her Aunt Jackie!

Rare Act of Sportmanship

I am not sure if any of you have heard this story but it is worth reading again! I hope if Sydney plays any team sports she is coached by someone like Dave Rohlman.

It didn't matter that his DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee, then waited another hour past game time to play. Didn't matter that the game was close, or that this was a chance to beat a big city team.
Johntel Franklin scored 10 points in the game following the loss of his mother.Something else was on Dave Rohlman's mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter. His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before.
Only this time it was different.
"You realize you're going to miss them, don't you?" Rohlman said. Darius McNeal nodded his head. He understood what had to be done. It was a Saturday night in February, and the Barbs were playing a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison. It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states. The teams planned to get together after the game and share some pizzas and soda. But the game itself almost never took place.
Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam.
Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.
"She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. "He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn't have time to grieve."
Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play. And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.
Early in the second quarter, Womack saw someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Franklin, who came there directly from the hospital to root his teammates on.
The Knights had possession, so Womack called a time out. His players went over and hugged their grieving teammate. Fans came out of the stands to do the same.
"We got back to playing the game and I asked if he wanted to come and sit on the bench," Womack said during a telephone interview.
"No," Franklin replied. "I want to play."
There was just one problem. Since Franklin wasn't on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws.
Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points. It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief by playing.
Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn't so willing to take them. He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play.
"I could hear them arguing for five to seven minutes, saying, `We're not taking it, we're not taking it," Womack said. "The refs told them, no, that's the rule. You have to take them."
That's when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal's hand went up.
He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.
His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand.
It didn't take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.
They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands.
"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It was the right thing to do."
They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night.
Dave Rohlman, head coach of the opposing DeKalb team on what his players will take away from this experience.
Franklin would go on to score 10 points, and Milwaukee Madison broke open the game in the second half to win 62-47. Afterward, the teams went out for pizza, two players from each team sharing each pie.
Franklin stopped by briefly, thankful that his team was there for him.
"I got kind of emotional but it helped a lot just to play," he said. "I felt like I had a lot of support out there."
Carlitha Franklin's funeral was last Friday, and the school turned out for her and her son. Cheerleaders came in uniform, and everyone from the principal and teachers to Johntel's classmates were there.
"Even the cooks from school showed up," Womack said. "It lets you know what kind of kid he is."
Basketball is a second sport for the 18-year-old Franklin, who says he has had some scholarship nibbles and plans to play football in college. He just has a few games left for the Knights, who are 6-11 and got beat 71-36 Tuesday night by Milwaukee Hamilton.
It hasn't been the greatest season for the team, but they have stuck together through a lot of adversity.
"We maybe don't have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business," Womack said. "We have a losing record but there's life lessons going on, good ones."
None so good, though, as the moment a team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.
Yes, DeKalb would go home with a loss. But it was a trip they'll never forget.
"This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said. "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night