Back in a New York minute!

New York was a blast (as usual!)! We had a great time! We left Friday morning early (well, after a 2 hr. rain delay in DFW). Got to Newark, NJ around 12:30-ish (NE time), grabbed a quick bite to eat (I'm a pregnant lady...enough said!), and then jumped on the NJ Transit train to get to NYC! The weather wasn't great due to the hurricane. We did have rain on and off Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning, but we didn't let it stop us! We didn't let the weather stop us though. We decided to do some shopping and find activities that would keep us indoors during the rain on Friday evening. Friday evening consisted of dinner at POP Burger, dessert at Serendipity (were we had a Frozen Hot Chocolate! YUMMY!), shopping at FAO Schwartz, and mouthwatering fun at Dylan's Candy Bar! It was a great evening!

Saturday consisted of breakfast in Times Square, walking the Brooklyn Bridge, Washington Square Park, shopping at South Street Seaport and 34th & Broadway, and gourmet pizza for dinner! The weather ended up turning out nice, but it was humid and muggy. Again, we didn't let that stop us.

Sunday was nice! We spent the morning in Central Park taking more pictures, the afternoon seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway (It was fabulous!), and the evening with dinner uptown and people watching in Times Square!

Monday morning was beautiful! Wouldn't you know that the weather would be perfect the day we were leaving. We spent the morning at the Natural History Museum, did some last minute shopping, and grabbed one more New York slice of pizza before heading back to the airport.

It was nice to spend this time with Brent. We spent the majority of the time talking about baby names and wondering what our little piece of heaven was going to be! It was fun!

With New York comes a lot...A LOT...of walking! I need to brag on Brent for a second here! First, Brent has always been a gentleman, always treating me with the upmost respect. He has that chivalry that most women pray for in a husband! He was so attentive to me and my needs during the entire weekend. He carried our bags (up and down plenty of stairs to and from the subway and train), continuously insisted that we stop, sit, and take a break during long walks, and made sure that I had plenty to eat and drink along the way! He was fantastic! I already felt that he was a great husband, but this weekend just reaffirmed that! I a m so blessed to have him!

NYC is a fun place to go for everyone! I love it there and was so happy to have been able to have made more memories there with Brent! Here's a picture of some souvenirs that we bought for the baby! The zebra is from FAO Schwartz!

There are so many more pictures that I planned on posting, but I wasn't able to get them all posted. I will try to post them later!

Home Sweet Home

Well, actually, it is more like Construction Sweet Construction! But, hey, at least we are started! FINALLY! We are so thrilled to get the house started and to see light at the end of the tunnel! We are currently trying to go up to Prosper at least once a week and check progress on the house, so I will keep you posted. So far this is what we have.This is the street view of the driveway! No foundation yet, but this is progress compared to last week. We are hoping to have a foundation this week!

This is the view of standing in front of our 2 car garage. Our house is a J-swing design, so the front door is to the left, at the bottom left corner of the picture.This is a view from standing just to the left of the front door. The front door is located at the bottom right corner. If you walked through the front door, to the left is the dining room, to the right is a half bath, and straight back is the living/kitchen. The half bath pipes and secondary bath pipes are those pictured here.This is standing directly in front of the dining room. Just to the left is the 1 car garage. Directly behind the dining room is our kitchen. This picture doesn't have the greatest lighting to allow you to locate the kitchen plumbing.This is the 1 car garage with the back side yard!For this picture, I was standing in the backyard. Located closest to the neighbors house is the back of our master bedroom, next is the porch, and located in the bottom right corner is the kitchen nook.This is the view of the house from the back. Closest to you is the kitchen nook.The park is located just across the street! I walked over and actually checked out the playground! Very Fun! I would have loved it as a kid!A pavilion picnic area is situated next to the playground! I can picture future picnics here!

The Love of My Life!

August 16th is a very special day in my book. Actually, it is THE most important day in my book! It's my and Brent's wedding anniversary! And, this year, we are celebrating 6 years! It seems so unreal that we have been married for 6 years!

In December of 1999, I received an email from Brent. We had been friends for about 9 months at this point, and because he was in college and I was in high school, most of our communicating occurred via email, online chatting, or if we hung out with our group of friends on the weekends. Starting at the beginning of our Christmas break, my parents had agreed to allow me to invite my friends over for an all night get together (yes, we had parental chaperoning the entire night! Thanks, Mom!) Brent came for most of the night and we were able to spend quite a bit of time talking and laughing!

So, the next morning, I woke up to an email. It was so cute! He "hypothetically" asked me out. Literally, the email (in a summed up version) stated that he had a hypothetical question to ask: Would I want to go out with him sometime? Then he clearly stated that the question wasn't hypothetical. I thought it was great because that is Brent! Luckily, my parents agreed, I said yes, and we were able to go out on our first date!

On our first date, we went to a movie and to dinner. It was what happened before dinner that assured me that God was blessing me and that I could spend my life with this man. He asked me to pray before dinner! I was thrilled! I had been praying for a Godly, Christian man to love and spend my life with, and here he was!

We continued dating for 3 1/2 years before we married, and every day since has been a new blessing provided by God! In 6 years of marriage, we have both graduated from college, started our careers, moved 6 times (yes, 6), traveled to New York (almost 4 times), Las Vegas, several Floridian destinations, Mexico for a cruise, and Los Angeles, been blessed with 3 nephews, started building our own house, and (most recently) ONE big blessing of our own...a baby! The past 6 years have been wonderful, and I have God and Brent to thank for that! On August 16, 2003, I married the love of my life, my best friend, and the one that God blessed me with!

Happy Anniversary, Brent! You are the most wonderful blessing in my life! You always make me smile and laugh, you encourage me to be my best, support me unconditionally, and keep me grounded! I have enjoyed the past 6 years, and look forward to many more years with you as Mrs. Brent Gartrell!

New York! New York!

After discovering our wonderful news of having a baby, Brent and I decided that it would be good to go away for a weekend to celebrate our 6th anniversary ( a few days late) and enjoy our great news!  We thought of a few places and decided that we needed to go somewhere that we would definitely not be taking a baby, toddler, or anyone under the age of 10.  We decided on New York!  (Can you imagine trying to haul a stroller around on the subway....or rather up and down the stairs to get to the subway?  NO THANKS!)  

So, we are going to the Big Apple in 2 weeks, and I am thrilled!  I decided that if I wasn't pregnant, enjoyed living close to our families, loved my job, and enjoyed the luxury of having a car, I could live in NYC!  I love it there!  I know....many people of looked at me with puzzled faces before when mentioning this, but I DO!  It is fabulous!  I have never denied that I am a city girl at heart that was raised in Texas country!  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the peace and quiet of the country, the small town feel of knowing everyone in town, and being able to look out my window and see trees and grass, but I still love NYC!  

This will be my and Brent's 4th trip to New York!  We went in August 2005 with Carol, my mother-in-law and Kathy, Carol's sister.  We stayed with a friend, Alice, in Jersey and rode the train into the city!  We were only there for 2 days, so it was a whirlwind!  We were able to see the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, the out skirts of Central Park, NBC Studios, FAO Schwartz, Toys R Us, and Michelle Branch performing in Bryant Park (thanks to GMA's Summer Concert Series, which was free!), and more!  However, again, it was a whirlwind that went by too quickly!  

Our 2nd trip to NYC was our honeymoon in August 2006!  It was so much fun!  We stayed for a week, which allowed us to see so much more of the city and enjoy it!  Brent was sweet enough to surprise me on our last night there!  He booked us a room at The Plaza!  It was wonderful!  We had a lot of fun on that trip!  We revisited some of the same tourist spots, in addition to going to a Yankee game, spending a morning in Central Park exploring, and getting on TV while watching The Today Show!  

Our 3rd trip was in December of 2006!  Brent took me as an early celebration of me graduating from OT school.  I loved NYC at Christmas time!  The decorations throughout the city was well worth the trip alone, but we also went to see David Letterman, the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, a Knicks game, and Macy's all decorated for Christmas!  We also went ice skating in Bryant Park!  Who knew that this Texas girl would get to ice skate outside during the winter?

I LOVE NYC!

So, stay tuned!  I am sure that I will have some (or many) pictures to share once we return! The most exciting news about our trip is what happens when we return....we go to the Dr. the following day to find out if we are having a boy or a girl!!!!  SO EXCITED!!!!

Eastin Sunday!

Eastin!

I had to share this, not only because I am a proud aunt, but because it is worth sharing! I had the joy of playing with Eastin all day Sunday while Taylor and Kelcie went to finish their scuba certification!

Despite being up at the wee hours of the morning, Eastin did great! We slept, we ate, we played! It was a blast! He is such a sweet baby! And, the OT in me was particularly proud of his ability to withstand nearly an hour of tummy time! He would roll back and forth, push up on his extended arms (like other advanced 4 month olds! Yes, this is me bragging!), reach and grab toys placed near him. Plus, he has a new trick, scooting! He pushes with his arms and scoots backwards! I love it! He has even started pulling his knees underneath himself. Such a talented baby!

Here's a few pictures of Eastin throughout our day!Eastin had been trying to get to this basketball all day, but each time he would reach for it, he would hit it, and it would roll away! He's smart though because when it rolled away, he would pull the blanket to get the ball closer to him! (Yes, this is my nephew!) He finally got it!

This is during our nap in Aunt Ash and Uncle B's bed! We had an exhausting morning of playing and our belly's were full, so it was definitely nap time! Such a sweet baby! At one point, while napping (and of course the only time, I wasn't prepared with a camera!), he threw his arms in the air and smiled really big! I love that! Too sweet!

Thanks, Eastin for a great day! You are so much fun and growing so fast! I am so happy to have been able to have these precious moments with you! I love you so much!~ Aunt Ash

Oh Baby!

I think that most of everyone who knows us knows our BIG news! But, I felt the need to blog about it anyway since it is the biggest life changing event that has happened in our nearly 6 years of marriage.

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

We are thrilled and can't hardly wait! Apparently, when you go to Hawaii, you come back with a baby! Well, that's at least our story! It's a funny story really! Brent knew before me! I'll explain....

So, as blogged about before, we went to Maui, HI! It was wonderful! However, the flight back was not! We were delayed by 4-5 hours, my seat was anything but comfortable (so I didn't sleep for the whole 8 hr. flight), and by the time we made it home, I couldn't really relax and sleep to help my self rejuvenate! Therefore, I went back to work feeling pretty exhausted. I had been told that jet lag from a Hawaii trip could be pretty torturous. I had no idea!

But, as the we entered the 2nd week home, I was still coming home from work finding myself falling on the couch and sleeping for a couple of hours, waking up long enough to eat a quick dinner, and then heading to bed and sleeping all night. Brent was a little concerned! Finally, in an attempt to pull me out of the "lag," he suggested we go for a walk.

We had started out the front of our complex when he said, "I'm a little concerned about you!" I looked over at him and asked, "Why?" He said, "Well, we've been back from our trip for about a week and a half and you are still sleeping like 12 hrs or more a day. I know you like to sleep, but this is unusual, even for you. Do you think you could be pregnant?" My response was "Absolutely not! I highly doubt it!"

Now, I should mention that 3 years ago I was given the diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and was told that having children would be very difficult. Because of this, Brent and I decided that I would change to a fertility specialist Dr. when we decided that we were approaching the time to start having a family. We had decided to pursue this, so that we would be fully prepared when we decided to start trying! I had my first appointment with Dr. Ehmer on May 4th. (We left for Hawaii, May 8th!) At the appointment, he prescribed a hormone stimulant and explained that I needed to take this once a day and when ready to start trying, to stop taking my birth control, but continue to take the hormone stimulant throughout my pregnancy. During the trip, I continued to take BOTH pills (except for that one day that we got in late, and I fell asleep before taking either of them!)

Back to the story....
Brent asked if we could take a test just to be sure. We returned home, ran to Wal-Mart, got a test, and went home. Immediately, it was positive! I didn't feel assured at that point, so we returned to Wal-Mart and bought 2 more. Went home, took both, both positive! At this point, Brent realizes we are pregnant, I am still doubting it. The next morning, I went back to Wal-Mart, bought a pack of 2 digital tests, went home, took both, both= Positive! Brent was at work, so I called him immediately and announced "Honey, we are pregnant!" He responded with, "Yes, we established this last night. Are you just realizing it?" Apparently, I was! I called the Dr. to make an appointment...long story short, I made a point to tell Dr. Ehmer that he prescribes miracle drugs!

So...we are due end of January/first of Februaury! We will find out the gender on Aug. 25th, so I will keep you posted! We don't have a preference, we just want a happy, healthy baby! We feel so blessed and can hardly wait! I will try to post "belly" pictures once I start officially showing. Currently, I have the "pooch" at the end of the day, when I can no longer suck in the day's worth of food! I am growing though. Sweet Jodi (Spies) Bishop gave me the Mommy Measurement Tool, which is a cloth measuring tape that allows you to measure yourself throughout your pregancy and document the week, baby's heart beat, etc. Such a neat gift!

Here is the first picture of our sweet little one! It's amazing how much I already love this little piece of heaven and yet, I still have moments where it seems unreal! I will provide more sonogram pics as well! Stay tuned!

Baby Gartrell!

Aloha Hawaii!!!

ALOHA!

So, my intentions were to blog each day that we were in Hawaii, but unfortunately, my iphone wouldn't allow me too! Silly technology! So, instead, I kept a daily log, so that I would remember everything that we did! I should start be saying that Brent and I have been trying to go on this trip for the past two years, but with our work and school schedules, it wasn't until February that we realized that this May was a possibility. Luckily, everything worked out and we had such a blast!

When we were booking everything for our trip, we decided that we were going to go on an extended vacation of 10 days, which after everything, I truly believe is the perfect amount of days for Hawaii! It allows for fun/adventure and rest/relaxation. We took advantage of both! Another note and tidbit I should add in is that we booked our vacation through Costco! Yes, Costco! On their website they have a link for travel! A friend at work had told me about what great deals she had found through them! Who knew? So, when we were searching for the best deal, we discovered, Costco won! And, to top it off, our package was awesome! We received 2 roundtrip direct flights, 9 nights in a 5 star resort, a free in room movie credit per day, free breakfast at one of the hotel restaurants, 2 free dinners at the nicer of the 3 hotel restaurants, our rental car, and a $100 resort credit to be used as we liked! It ended up being worth every penny! And, for those of you asking...Yes, Sam's Club does have the same type offers through their website as well, we just found Costco to have the better option at the time that we were booking and planning!

So, to makes this easy for you as the reader and me as the "still trying to catch up on sleep and return to normalcy" blogger, I will type out my daily blog with an explanation of each day to help give you a bigger picture! Again, I realize this would have been so much better if I could have blogged on the actual day, but I am an occupational therapist (OT) working with special needs children, so adaptation is in my blood!

Friday, May 8th:
Depart DFW on an 8 hour flight to Maui.
Depart time: Dallas- 11:55 am (Maui- 6:55 am)
Arrival time: Maui-3:00pm (Dallas-8:00 pm)

*Our flight wasn't bad! We were both so excited that I don't think the flight could have ever been that bad. It was long, but it was doable! We did arrive at the airport on time, got our rental car, and got to our hotel (Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa) by 5:00! Not bad! We were allowed enough time to go walk around the resort a little bit and then we headed to Front Street. Front street offers a variety of shops and restaraunts for tourists and locals. We at a gourmet handburger at Kool Kats! We arrived in Maui with our bodies still on TX time, so it was strangely akward and weird to be physically exhausted and sleepy at 7:00pm. We were in bed by 9:00pm!

Here are some pics from the plane ride over!

Here is Brent anxiously awaiting to arrive! Weren't we all?!?!

Here is a view from my window seat before arriving!

And, here is the view of Maui as we began our descend for landing!

Saturday, May 9th:
4:20 AM- woke up and watched "Role Models" as our daily movie credit!
6:30- went to breakfast! Oh the food! So much to choose and only one tummy to fill! And, what a view!

This was the view from our table!

7:30- walked around hotel and took pictures!
8:50- went to pool laid out in sun! (No burns for me thanks to my SPF 70 sunscreen! Woohoo!)
11:30- ate a snack and prepared for NW shore excursion!
12:30- drove up along the shoreline and hiked down to blowhole! Stopped along a cliffside and wrote our initials (BAG...yes, bag!) in stones! This is a traditional symbol to gods turned into a fun tourist thing to do! As the story goes, once stones are placed, they aren't to be touched, so who knows? Maybe if we return someday they will still be there!


The blowhole! Cool, uh? Me with our initials!


4:45- ate pizza for dinner!
5:45- went to hot tub and laid on hammock and watched sunset!
8:00- back in room for the night! Still adjusting to time change.

Sunday, May 10th:
6:45- breakfast at Umula. It was Mother's day and they had done some rearranging at the Hotel, which allowed for us to have a wonderful ocean/pool side breakfast!
7:45- went snorkeling and beach bumming at Kaanapali Beach! This is the best beach I have ever been too! On the far north, end there is the idea calm waters with plenty of reef and rock for snorkeling with tons of tropical fish! On the far south end, there is the ideal calm waters with open ocean for swimming!


This is Brent snorkeling!

11:30- at Subway and headed back to hotel! Us (practically Albino) white skinned people have to leave the sun every so often so that we don't fry like bacon!
5:15- went to the Old Lahaina Luau! Had a ton of fun! Great...no Fabulous pinacoloadas! Plus it was an open bar, so they were FREE!

Top: Our view of the stage from our table.
Side: Us at the Luau
Bottom: The pig pit! Brent would have been disappointed if I had neglected to show you this. Yes, that is a pig barried under there. No, the dirt didn't get on the pig!

9:00- Back to hotel and went to bed! Still on Texas time and had to get up early for a fun adventure involving turtles!

Monday, May 11:
5:45- left for Wailea for Kayak adventure involving snorkeling and swimming with huge sea turtles!
7:00- Met our group of 8 and out tour guide. I was so happy that Brent willingly offered our services to be the first ones out, especially since this was my first time. All went well though. We didn't tump over. Thank the Lord! Went to our first stop for snorkeling with tropical fish! I saw an octupus that our tour guide nicely poked, so that it would squirt ink! Second stop was the Turtle washing station. This is where the turtles come for the fish to clean the allgee off of their shells. These turtles were amazing. So gentle, unbothered by us, and interesting. Some swam towards us out of curiosity. Others were used to the human interruption and could have cared less. My apologies to Brent for not making it to see the Mantaray that swam away to fast. Brent was like a 5 year old on Christmas morning when I pointed and announced that I had spotted one. Without a thought, he had jumped back into the water and was swimming frantically to catch up to it! No such luck! Sorry babe!
11:30- returned to beach, showered and changed clothes.
12:15- had lunch at Maui Tacos! Pretty good!
1:00- stopped at some merchant shops and took pics at the beach park across the street.
2:30- back at hotel, took nap, finished watching a movie. Went and made reservations at Spa, swam in pool, sat in hot tub, laid in hammock!
6:30- had pizza for dinner and talked to a few locals about activities to try! I love love love talking to locals no matter where I go! Not only are they very informative of free stuff to do and what to spend your money on, but they are just interesting! It is a great look in to what their reality is in living in this beautiful place!
9:30- in bed!

Tuesday, May 12:
6:45- breakfast! Oh such a wonderful breakfast that included Maui gold (fresh pineapple)!
8:00- went swimming and laid around pool area! Had another delicious pinacolada!
11:45- went to room to snack and shower!
1:00- massages at spa! Loved this! We did a couples massage! Brent had never had a massage before, so I eager for him to join the club!
3:15- I went for a beach side run along the nicely paved walking path that ran along the beach side portion of the hotel property and extended 4 miles north! NO, I didn't run all 4 miles!
4:45- joined Brent for a nap!
7:30-Went to dinner at Cascades (one of the hotel restaraunts)! Ate the entire 8 oz. steak! Yummy!...and oink! Yes, I know!
10:00- in bed!

Wednesday, May 13:
6:45- breakfast
7:45- left for Hwy 37 (alternate route to Hana)! Scariest experience of my life... I think! Picture this....one lane shared by both ways of traffic, steep hills, unpaved portions, cliffside areas (WITHOUT GUARD RAILS...I was sitting in the passenger seat....enough said!) We did make a few stops for picture moments! Saw some breath taking views!)
11:30- arrived at state park! Hiked up 2 miles though a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall and back down the 2 miles, plus an additional 1/2 mile to the 7 sacred pools! Got in and got out! We were exhausted!

Top: Path through the bamboo forest!
Side: View of the 7 Sacred Pools!
Bottom: The 400 ft. waterfall!

3:30- Left and went to roadside fruit stand where I pedaled for my smoothie! Cute concept. There was a bike attached to the blender. In order to blend, you must pedal. Very fun! Brent ordered tea!

Me pedaling for my smoothie! YUMMY!

5:00- stopped at roadside deli! Bought a drink and postcards for the nephews!
5:45- stopped and at dinner at Italian restaraunt!
7:00- back at hotel!
8:00- watched Lost! Even vacation won't keep us from Lost!
10:15- asleep in bed!

Thursday, May 14:
7:30- breakfast
10:00- went to black rock in Kaanapali and went snorkeling/swimming!
1:00- went to taco bell for lunch!
2:00- came back to hotel!
4:30- walked to whalers village for shopping and dinner at Leilanis, a beachside restaraunt! Watched sunset!
8:00- back at room to watch The Office and relax!

Friday, May 15:
2:30AM- up and dressed
3:00- leave for Mountain
5:00- arrive and waited in cold for sunset at 10,000 elevation. So, we are in Maui where you associate warm weather and sunshine, but up on the summit, in the dark, it was 54 degrees! I was freezing!
6:00- sunset and pics. We got a ton of great pictures of the sunset though, so I guess it was worth it.

Brent's view of the Sunset! I told you it was worth it!

7:00- left and headed back to Lahaina for bed! We were exhausted and it wasn't even mid morning!
8:00- Ate breakfast
12:00- up watching a movie
3:00- At pool relaxing!
7:15- dinner at Maui tacos!
9:00- back at hotel!

Saturday, May 16:
7:30- breakfast
9:00- went to Big Beach and saw large waves! Not snorkel friendly! Took a few minutes to watch a few surfers!
11:45- back in Lahaina... lunch at Subway
1:00- watched movie at hotel
3:45- went back to snorkel at Kaanapali
5:30- back at hotel, took pics of sunset and played in hammock
8:00- had dinner at Dollies! A pub and grill!
9:30- back at hotel!

Sunday, May 17:
6:00- at Black Rock for snorkeling
8:15- breakfast
9:15- showering quickly before electricity shut off! The hotel was having their annual safety drill, which includes shutting off all power for 2-3 hours! Ugh! We got free snowcones out of it though!

No, I didn't eat both of these! I didn't even finish all of mine!

11:00- pics of hotel lounging at poolside bar
12:30- quick nap
2:00- checked out of hotel
3:00- got to airport, only to wait due to a 5 hr delay!

Monday, May 18:
10:30 Am- back in DFW after a long sleepless flight! Sad to be home, happy to be home! Already miss Maui, wanting my bed desperately! Might need another vacation to recover from flight!