The Life of Tim and Chloe

chronicled by my iphone.
As I was looking through the pictures on my phone, I realized I take a lot of pictures of the cats throughout the day. Most of them I text to Jeremy at random times with messages from the kitties. Most frequently touting their nap times or asking "daddy" what time he will be home. Our cats are very dog-like. They greet us at the door every day, they play with toys, they sit on our laps all the times, and they are very involved in our every day lives. Both of us were more of dog people before we got them, but they have definitely won us over to being both cat and dog people.

I thought I would share with you some of their shenanigans.


The last couple of months, milk really made me sick so I have been avoiding cereal. Just last week I was able to start eating it again for breakfast and the kitties were excited. They sit nearby and stare at me the entire time just waiting for me to spill a little bit of milk. It never happens, but still they wait.

They also love to watch us while we are in the kitchen. The little scavengers definitely have a staring problem.




.





One of their favorite things to do is to sleep in our bed. We don't let them sleep with us at night because I am kind of allergic to them and of course they both want to sleep on my pillow with me. So if I take a nap in the bed during the day I leave the bedroom door open. They always sleep on either side of my legs so I can't move the entire nap.






Chloe has been helping me try out baby stuff. Here she is trying out the baby sling my sister sent me. Chloe LOVED it! And it turned out to be a good trial run since I was doing it completely wrong.










We thought by now, at 6 years old, that surely they would be fat and lazy. But we were wrong. They still play alot and get into lots of trouble.
















This was the packaging for a new pillow that I just got.
I told Tim this was his new timeout spot.
Too bad he thought it was awesome to be inside.
















They both love to get in boxes.....the smaller the better

They also like baby stuff. Here they are playing in Ella's stroller.















Tim also really likes the babies that come with that stuff.
He loved playing with Ella when she was here a few months ago. They played with her toys and with his toys. Ella even wanted to share her snacks with him. They were playing with one of Tim's favorite toys here...the ring off a new milk jug. Chloe as you can tell prefers to keep her distance.

16 week checkup

Today I went to the doctor for my 16 week checkup. I can't believe this Saturday will be 16 weeks. That is 4 months! As in, almost half way!!! Absolutely crazy! I've gained 6 pounds so far which is below average but I'm surprised I've gained any weight with how often I throw up an entire day's worth of food. My doctor said it was okay because the baby is still growing and getting what he/she needs. The baby's heartbeat is 156bpm now which is right in the normal range for this stage of pregnancy.
I almost had a very embarrassing moment at the doctor, well, at least I think so. When the doctor walked in and asked how I was doing, my eyes immediately filled up with big crocodile tears. It came from nowhere and I almost lost it, which would have really embarrassed me. But somehow I kept the tears in my now overly glassy eyes and just explained to her that I had not had a good day. I have had a major craving for green grapes the past two weeks. Major! As in, I've eaten 5 bags of green grapes in the past week. First thing this morning, I threw up what seemed like at least 3 of those bags and I felt like I was going to choke on undigested grape peelings. (TMI?....sorry) Pregnancy throw up is so different from normal throw up and it hurts so bad. So much of it is really strong stomach acid, and when I throw up first thing in the morning, it ruins my appetite for the rest of the day and just makes me feel awful and weak. So when the doctor asked me how I felt I wanted to cry and beg her to let me have the baby right now before I throw up again. I wanted to tell her how I am never going to have another baby because I have never been more miserable in my life. I wanted to whine to her about how unfair it is that I have such bad headaches when I am allergic to the only medicines that pregnant women are able to take. When she asked if I had any questions, I told her no. Nothing has changed since the last time I saw you doctor, I still feel like total crap.
Then she put a doppler on my stomach and we listened to the heartbeat and a few of those crocodile tears finally rolled down my cheek. And I remembered what I too easily forget when I feel really terrible. That there is new life in my stomach. A heartbeat. A sweet little face. A tiny baby that I have the privilege of bringing into the world. Sometimes I laugh at women when they tell me I will forget how awful I felt during pregnancy as soon as I hold our baby. I just think, there is no. possible. way. But today I did forget and it was bliss.

Summer of 2010

Every year since we were married in 2005, we have been able to take a trip in the summer. This is usually the time of year we are planning and booking tickets. So many of our summer trips have been for swimming, but they have all been so much fun and given us so many amazing memories together. Jeremy has been on about a million other trips in the past 5 years and some of those I have been able to tag along, but these were the big ones, our favorites.

2005- our honeymoon in Costa Rica










2006- Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, Canada












2007- Thailand for a mission trip (and apparently to be harassed by animals)











2008- China for the Olympics











2009- Maldives for a swim clinic













and now we are announcing our trip for 2010........












We are beginning our journey into parenthood! ahhhh!!! That's so crazy, I almost don't believe what I am typing! We are so excited about our little blessing that is due to arrive April 30, 2010. It is surreal to think that we will be parents in 6 months. This is definitely going to be our most amazing trip yet!
Maybe this will give me something to blog about since I've been such a slacker lately. We'll find out if we are having a boy or a girl around Thanksgiving. Until then we are just focusing on keeping the food in my belly from coming back up, and both of us trying to stay away from the flu of any kind!

Look who came to visit!

Ella is officially taking over the blog!!! I think she is the only thing I have written about recently. Kellie and Ella came to Charlotte to visit for a few days. It was so much fun!! She just started walking last week so we had a great time counting steps and going for new records! Her current record is 9 steps. She gets mad and hits herself in the head when she falls down.
She is cuter than ever and ready for football season! War Eagle!!

Ella and the Grasshopper

We went to Alabama the last week of July to spend some extra time with family before things got busy again. Jeremy and I kept Ella one day and we were thoroughly entertained all day long. We took her outside to play and Jeremy gave her a grasshopper he found. She sat there and stared at it for a moment. Then she squealed, flapped her arms as if she was about to take flight, and threw her other hand on top of it as fast as she could. oops. Sorry Mr. Grasshopper. No more hopping.

Smoothie Goodness

I'm a big fan of kitchen gadgets but not small kitchen appliances....I don't like to clutter the counter top. But we finally broke down and got a good blender to make smoothies because we had them a lot in the Maldives and I have been hitting up the Smoothie King next door way too often since we got home. Our favorite recipe so far is 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup cherries, 1/2 cup bananas, 1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt, 1/4 cup orange juice. I also add a teaspoon of local honey to supposedly help with my allergies...I will try anything. :)
I figured out that if I do all the chopping and prep work in bulk it saves a lot of time and mess. So yesterday I went to the local farmer's market and bought a ton of fruit. It took about 30 minutes to individually bag ingredients for 10 smoothies. Probably would have been quicker if I didn't have the urge to photograph everything in life. Now all we have to do is pull the frozen fruit out of the freezer and add the liquid ingredients, its just as fast as pouring a bowl of cereal! I also like the texture of the smoothie better when using frozen fruit. Its a win/win situation.


See those little blue specks....those are tiny pieces of blueberry skin. If you make this smoothie, you might want to check your teeth before leaving the house. It hasn't happened to me or anything....like at church or something....I'm just saying.....

Summer pictures

I finally uploaded some pictures from this summer into an album online. I narrowed 4 weeks of fun down to 89 pictures. I definitely left some fun stuff out but its a start! Click here to check them out.

Permanent Permanent

In other news, we were SOOOOOOO excited when we got home to find a special unmarked envelope in the mail! We both had an idea of what it was so after a second of fighting over who would open it, we ripped it open together and there before our eyes was Jeremy's permanent Permanent Residency card!!! You have no idea how exciting that was! Well, a few of you may (Sissy, Ellen, Tamara...). It took us 15 months after we got married to get Jeremy's green card and that one was conditional upon being married for three years so last September after the Olympics we were able to send that one off to get the conditions removed. Of course there was more paperwork, more running around, and more money, but we mailed it off in the Fall and we were not expecting to get it back until this September. It was a good surprise to get it back a few months early. Now his status does not expire until 2019!!!! Holy moly!!!!
Now we get to start working on his citizenship.

What is Jeremy's favorite part about being a green card holder? When we come through immigration, they tell him "welcome home".

I'm a terrible blogger....

I really wanted to upload some of our pictures this week from our trip but I didn't have time. I thought I would share this one for now. This is a mega-yacht that was in the marina at Atlantis when we were there with my family. It was close to 150' long and made the Briland Gal look like a minnow. Interesting face.... it is registered in Charlotte, NC. When I first saw it and noticed that its name was "Wheels" I thought it might have something to do with Nascar so we thought it might be one of the team owners' yachts. Later on we saw a little flag on the front that gave away the owner's identity. Let's just say it starts with a "Hen" and ends with a "drick"....I don't want my blog to end up in search engine results for their yacht. :) Mr. Wheels has a ton of fancy car dealerships here in Charlote and owns one of the big racing teams. He also really knows how to vacation. ;) While we were there, Nascar was on a two week break in their season so I guess it was a good time for them to head to the Bahamas.

Home Sweet Home

Jeremy and I arrived back in Charlotte Sunday evening after 4 weeks in the Bahamas. I have to say.... yes, we do know that we are blessed to have that opportunity, and no, we do not take for it granted. Seriously. We are so thankful.
For the two years leading up to the Olympics, we couldn't do any extra traveling. The only time we went anywhere was for a swim meet, which we definitely didn't mind, but it cut down on Jeremy seeing his family tremendously. Since Jeremy had the summer off from teaching and since I *may* be going back to work in an office this fall, we thought it was a great opportunity to spend some time with his family. The first two weeks with his family that we planned grew into three when we invited two of our couple friends down, then that grew into four weeks when my family decided they were able to come at the end. So we had an awesome time with 3 different groups of people during those 4 weeks.
I was able to do some photography work while we were down there which was nice, and then I hit the ground running when we got home. So I haven't had time to go through all of my pictures yet from this summer but I should be able to really soon. Here are a few from the week with Laura & Nathan and Paige & Brandon. All of these are from one of our spear fishing trips. Jeremy loved teaching the guys how to spear and clean fish. Then we had it for dinner that night. Laura, Paige, and I played with the fish like little girls. :)


It will probably take me several blog posts to catch up and I'll probably have to do one just for our 18 month old nephew Joss to show all my pictures of him. We loved loved loved getting to play with him so much. He is such a cool little dude. We spent two weeks with all of Jeremy's family and that was the longest we had ever been around him, so we felt like he really got to know us.

I really thought that I was going to have to drug Jeremy to get him on the plane to come back home, but he came pretty willingly. We are excited to be home and still have a few weeks before Jeremy starts coaching August 3rd and starts back teaching on August 18th. I am shooting a wedding in Alabama next weekend so we are going to go see my family for a few days and I have a few photo shoots scheduled while I am there. I can't wait to see Miss Ella!!!!!! I have missed her SOOOO much! I'm going to try to catch up on the summer pictures and blog posts before we go.