Yet another busy weekend :)

I continue to be amazed at how fast the weeks are flying by, only about 6 more weeks to go (give or take a week) until my due date!  Although the saying "time flies when you're having fun" can apply here because things have just been busy.  Last Thursday was my last grad class as well as Tom's and this morning I finally finished up the last of the post course work.  Whew! Now the work can begin on my thesis! I am hoping to do the bulk of the research before the baby comes so I will only have to type it up once I have her.  

Friday night we went to a surprise birthday party for our friend "S" who was not completely surprised unfortunately...(I will try to put up some pics of this later)

Saturday morning, tom and I took a tour of our hospital and I must say I was very impressed.  This hospital is known for being very midwife friendly and there are two tubs for women in labor to use which I was very excited about. The only problem was, while we were going on the tour, there happened to be a woman who was in the process of giving birth and even with her door closed I could hear her screaming a horrible blood curdling scream.  It was more than a little scary imagining myself in the same position in a little over a month.  

In other news, after the tour, we both got ready to go to my cousin Jon's wedding.  I should have taken the camera but of course forgot so these pics are compliments of mom.  

It was actually a very different wedding than I am used to seeing...they were married on a dock outside overlooking a beautiful lake and everyone besides the grandparents stood and watched.  Immediately following the short ceremony performed by none other than dear old Dad, every sat in their seats and began their meals. Pretty efficient, no traveling to get to the reception, it was all in the same place.  It was nice to see Jon get married...he has been dating this girl for close to 10 years.  

Here is the latest belly pic...34 weeks and counting! I am so thankful for the weather.  So far, this summer has not been extremely hot and seeing as I am a little heater now, that has been a HUGE blessing!

Sunday afternoon, it was off to another party, this one a graduation party for the son of Tom's boss.  

Monday, we had dinner at a friends house...(MMMM, eggplant parm!) and now I am waiting for my second loaf of bread to finish in the breadmaker.  This loaf will be potato oatmeal bread and it is smelling pretty good right now.

Spofford and other happenings

I am finally ready to tell you what happened this weekend...it took me all of Monday to recover from the long car ride ;)

Friday morning, Tom and I and four of our friends started our drive out to Camp Spofford.  Since the wedding was on Saturday morning but about a 6 hour drive from us, we reserved a little cabin on the camp to stay for Friday night. 

I had to get a picture of our friend "S" trying to put up the TomTom...it must have taken at least 10 minutes of him fiddling with it and we were all enjoying watching him struggle to get it to stay!

Since the wedding was on Saturday morning but about a 6 hour drive from us, we reserved a little cabin on the camp to stay for Friday night.  Below is a pic of our cabin.  It wasn't really anything special, remember, we were at a camp but it was fun being together.

Here is a pic of the lake.  It was quite a big lake and since we were staying there overnight, we were allowed access to all the boats, canoes and kayaks that the camp had to offer.  So Saturday morning after our camp breakfast of eggs, bacon and oatmeal we decided to make use of the amenities.  I took one of the single kayaks as did our friend "K" and the boys took the canoe out and we crossed the lake and watched them jump off a rope swing.  The water was actually very nice, not cold like I expected and quite refreshing. 

We had marvelous weather as well.  The drive to Spofford on Friday was very rainy and wet but Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous (70's, low humidity and sunny!)

I had to get a picture of our friends little girl...I think she is so adorable!

The wedding day! We actually hang out with these guys a lot and really enjoyed carpooling with them.  Saturday after the wedding, we drove to Conneticut to "K's" parents house and they made us dinner that night, then we played a game of "Settler's" (our favorite), slept over and were on our way home the next morning after breakfast. 

I am holding my belly because I think it makes me look not so much like a tent when I am wearing a dress :)

I can't believe I only have about 6 weeks to go until I can hold my baby for real!  Tonight I will have the first of series of childbirth classes and tomorrow is the last night of my grad class that I have been taking...yay!!! Other than that, the rest of June is pretty booked but I will keep you posted as much as I can.  

Oh, and Tom has a new favorite bread from the bread machine...potato bread (courtesy of tasteofhome.com)

A beautiful baby shower!

Well, it was quite an eventful weekend!  The shower went so well, I think over 70 people came and it was really nice to see everyone and less stressful than I thought it would be.  There were a large array of gifts as you can see and after about an 1 1/2 hours of opening presents, I think I received everything I needed for the baby so I feel really blessed. 

A huge thanks to both my mom and mother-in-law who helped to make this shower so beautiful and such a wonderful, unforgettable experience for me. 

My mother-in-law had these wrappers covering the candy bars!  The back of the candy bar says, "baby Sherf due July 28th, check the blog for daily updates and pictures."
I thought this picture of Joanna was so cute I just had to include it....
Three moms and one "mom-to-be."  The way I am standing here, I hardly look pregnant. 
I wanted to include a picture of my bread machine that my friend Ramona got for me at a yard sale for $3.00!  I thought I would try to make my own bread now that I am at home more...the house smells really good right now and hopefully my first attempt will be successful!  I am making a half whole wheat/half white recipe. 
Some pictures of the baby room...I set up the crib last night myself (it was really easy), it is starting to look really cute in there, even Tom thought it looked really good and he is not one to notice these things. 
The room is pretty small but a good size for a baby room.  The only additional thing that might be nice would be a rocker but I don't want it to look to squished in there so we'll see. 

The beach and other happenings

We are back from a wonderfully relaxing and beautiful weekend at the beach!  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show you this time since I forgot the camera.  

Some of the highlights include: 

1.  A walk every day

2. Sitting and reading on the beach enjoying the great weather  

3. Morton's Steakhouse on Saturday night 

4. Renting tandem bikes with some friends and riding on the boardwalk to get fresh doughnuts

5. Spending time with family and Tom!

Last night, I started the last graduate class I will ever take, a four-hour class called "Inclusionary methods."  Tom also started a three-hour class last night, "World Civ" so it will be busy for both of us, especially him since he is working full time.  Both classes are three weeks long so it will be over before we know it.  Tom really likes his class, his professor is one of Tom's favorites.  My experience last night was the opposite.  My professor spent four hours reading her powerpoint last night with only one fifteen minute break the whole time.  Yuck. Five more classes to go! 

The zoo!!

So...you may be wondering, what I am doing with all this extra time now that I am done student teaching? Last night, when Tom got home from work, he really wanted to go surf at LBI so we drove down there and I took my camping chair (Christmas present from Amy) and a good book, read a little and watched him catch some waves.  Sorry, no pictures of that as I forgot to take the camera with me!

Today, a friend who lives nearby and has two young children asked if I wanted to go with her and another friend to the zoo.  I can't even remember the last time I went and since today was supposed to be really nice.  I thought it would be fun.  It was really a blast.  Our friend got a year pass to the zoo which covers the whole family and any guests you bring with you for as many times as you can go in a year.  She thinks she has probably gone at least 15 times so she's got her moneys worth.  And of course the kids love it.  Her kids are really cute, here they are sitting on a couple of hippos...

This was in the "rare animals" section of the zoo.  
Cheetahs
Baby giraffe...apparently, the adult giraffe's had died.

   So cute!! She is quite a ham!

Tonight we're going over to a friend's house for dinner and then will be at the shore all weekend through memorial day.

By the way, anyone have any suggestions on a good way to get into baking fresh bread.  I know Christy makes it by hand but would that be too complicated for a beginner like me and should I look for a breadmaker on craig's list or something?  Tom eats a lot of bread and now that I am home more, I would like to make it for him. 

Time for an update

After experiencing such madness this semester with student teaching and leading the musical at church, it has been such a welcome change to have some extra time on my hands to finally putz around the house and clean, cook and bake.  I am even thinking it actually might be fun to follow in my families footsteps and start making my own bread which I never had the time for before.  I have also been meeting a girlfriend for long walks about 4 times a week (when I say long, that means 5 miles) and catching up with her while we enjoy the weather.  I finished painting the baby room and it is ready for the furniture to be moved in.  I painted it a very nice green color and did all the trim in white since the furniture will be white.  I will put some pictures of the room up once I get the crib, changing table and dresser set up so you will see what it looks like. 

Last week, some of the PBU girls threw me a little shower.  It was really nice, I walked in the room and they had set up a clothesline with baby girl clothes, here I am looking at them all.  

It is time for another preggo update...I am now 30 weeks along and have quite the little belly.  There is no denying it now.  I got a few maternity dresses to wear when it gets hot in the summer, but so far, have gotten away with not buying too many clothes thanks to Amy lending me a lot of hers. 

Whew! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind but student teaching is finally over and I am officially "certified."  I had a much better experience at this last school and actually enjoyed getting to know the kids and teaching so it wasn't all bad. :) 

I knew that I wanted to get some painting done once I had time so here I am in my respirator that Tom insisted that I wear when painting despite having all the windows open.  I decided to do the bathroom and had fun doing it.  Walmart paint by the way...only $13 a gallon and it turned out great.  The only problem is, no one knows what they're doing there so you have to be patient when you go to get paint matched.  It took the guy at the paint counter a good 45 minutes to figure out how to match my Benjamin Moore swatch to their paint matcher. 

See the shirt I am wearing?  It says "baby on board."  The baby is holding a bottle and is riding a surfboard.  Amy bought it for me and I wear it all the time!

                    The finished product....

Tom and I went to Belmar last weekend.  Here he is coming out of the water.  He can stay in the water for hours while I am content to sit under my umbrella and read my books or go for a walk. 


This is Tom's buddy "S." They were joking around and wrestling and Tom was pretty much on the ground the whole time getting beat.
I think to be nice, "S" let him get a picture where he looked like he was winning.

Pictures of the baby room to come soon!  I painted it today but want to wait til I have everything in place to post it.