We're preggo.

I wrote that because when I say it out loud, Carrie gags and feels nauseous. She does not like the pronoun "we" in a sentence referring to pregnancies. When the phrase is used Carrie will remind those within earshot that:

1. No one pukes along with her.
2. No one else has to wake up in the night to visit the toi-toi
3. No one else gets acid reflux every night
4. No one is extra sensitive to sun
5. No one else has to avoid the very medecines that would give relief from the extra headaches she gets
6. No one else has an overwhelming need for Cheetos
   

So, yeah. "We" are not pregnant. I would say that I live with a beautiful, pregnant woman, but I am not pregnant. I will be a dad, so that gives you doomsday people five and half months to flee the country. Our child, regardless of sex, will be forcefed Red Sox baseball, Harry Potter books, and the scriptures, not necessarily in that order. I already have daydreams of playing with our child, holiding it while I am watching March Madness, tossing our infant safely in the air to celebrate the Red Sox second straight world series victory. And don't scoff- it's my fatherly duty to teach our child to trust the unknown and feel safety with trusted others, and tossing them in the air, safely, is how I am going to do it. It's all about their emotional regulation.

Weekend with the Johns

**This post is also much overdue**

We got the chance to spend the weekend of Anthony's graduation with his parents, who were kind enough to fly out despite their packed spring schedule.


Besides attending Anthony's graduation, we hit up Branson and saw SIX perform. It was an entertaining concert and a fun way to introduce Doug and Tina to the Ozarks.

The next day we headed up to KC and hit up a Royals game. Unfortunately Anthony's rally cap didn't do the trick, but I had fun checking out the new K. The K may not have the history of Fenway, but it does have the nicest bathrooms I've ever seen at a baseball stadium.


On Sunday we went to church in Independence, toured the Independence Visitor's Center and Liberty Jail, and stopped by Far West and Adam ondi Ahman. Doug's cousin and her husband are currently serving a mission at Adam ondi Ahman and they were very gracious when we stopped to see them. We even got a behind the scenes tour. Here are Anthony and I standing on the rock--it was so green! We had a great time, our only disappointment was that we didn't get to do everything we had hoped. I guess that just means they will have to come visit us again. :) We also wanted to thank my dad for hooking us up with the Royals tickets and also for getting us rooms at the Sheraton.

School's Out!

**This post is much overdue**

To date, this year's most anticipated event (for us) has been Anthony's graduation.


It is hard to believe it has been two years since we found out we would be moving to Missouri and started making plans to get here. It was great having Anthony's parents, my parents and sister Melanie here to celebrate this greatly anticipated day with us!


The actual graduation itself was a little dry, but those of us watching still found ways to pass the time.



Melanie snapped a great shot of Anthony on the scoreboard, where the processional was broadcast for those of us who struggled to see what was going on.


Here is the graduate with his proud parents:



Graduate and proud wife:


It was a very pretty day (besides being a windy, so please excuse our hair in the pictures) so after the ceremony we walked around campus and Anthony showed off his stomping grounds.

Maybe Anthony isn't ready to leave?


Just kidding, he says. He's ready. After 20 (I think) years of school, he is ready to move on. Thank you Missouri State for being our home for the past 2 years and thank you for giving Anthony the skills he needs to rock the business world.

Rowing on the river

Because we had to miss the Crane Reunion today (which I am very sad about) we decided we needed to do something fun this Saturday. Luckily our good friends, Patrick and Stephanie, arranged a canoe trip along the Niangua River and invited us to come along.

Pat's mother, brother, and beagle came too.Lucy isn't exactly a water dog. She is definitely more of a landlubber. It took many hands to get her into her life jacket. She got all sorts of attention as we progressed down the river. My favorite was when the drunk guys asked if Lucy was short for Lucifer.I don't have a lot of canoeing experience. Stephanie has been a part of most of them as we usually canoed together at Girl's Camp. Here are the hot mommas right before we loaded up the canoes:Stephanie packed us some delicious treats, so we stopped about half way and ate an early lunch. We had to eat early because I was hungry and I'm grumpy when I don't get to eat. What can I say? The way to my heart is through my stomach these days.We may have been the only sober people on the river. At first I was most afraid of hitting a log or sandbar and getting tipped over, but I quickly learned that the intoxicated people were much more dangerous (and unpredictable) than nature's speed bumps. Seriously, it was like Sodom and Gomorrah, Ozark Style. I hope every one makes it home okay. There is a heat advisory in the area today and I although there was lots of drinking going on, we didn't see any of them drinking water.Thanks to the Zysks for letting us tag along and thanks to TJ for being the brains and brawn behind our canoe.

Happy Birthday, Sweet 16!!

Last weekend we got to celebrate Laura's 16th birthday with her and it was a blast!! Laura is great for so many reasons, which include but are not limited to the following:

• her quick wit
• her loving and kind nature--she's great with kids!
• she can make the most symmetrical jewelry you've ever seen
• she's THE Style Master
• she has the best email aliases ever
• she is a great natural athlete
• and she is always willing to give up her bedroom when we come to town
• She loves to play games--IMGONNAWIN ring a bell?

We love you, Laura! And hope your birthday was great!

I don't know, but I've been told...

...someone here is getting old.Birthday's here are lots of fun,

and today you're #1!
Sound off...
one-two.
Sound off...
three-four.Hap-py Birth-day TO YOU!

(Thank you Aunt Karen for teaching us the "Birthday Song")

On June 12th a few years back I lost my status as only child. I'm not sure I knew what I was getting myself into: sharing my room, my parents, my toys. What I can say is that although it hasn't been a total cake walk, I'm so glad Jill came along. Jill is smart, funny, vivacious, and kind.

Jill, I hope your big day is AWESOME!!

"Take me home momma and put me to bed. I have seen enough to know I have seen too much."

For those of you wondering, the title of this blog post comes from the classic baseball movie, A Leauge of Their Own, and it quite accurately describes how I felt while watching TJ's softball game last week (it started at 9:30 pm).

Anthony joined a softball team this summer and is loving his Thursday nights. His team is a motley crew who call themselves the Ringers. However, they get better each week and have a lot of heart. Anthony is one of the best all-around players, if I do say so myself.

Here he is in the outfield. Either the field is really big or our camera has NO zoom (probably both). Anthony plays between the right and center fielders. The right fielder is still in high school, and very skinny. I overhead his mom ask, "What did they do, stick all the pencils in right field?" when she saw that my svelt husband was playing next to her son. This was probably my favorite quote of the night.

Here is Anthony posing for a picture while he is waiting for his turn to bat. We calculated his OPS last week while running together and it is 1.196. (FYI, Albert Pujols' OPS is 1.095 and Tony tells me that OPS is a truer measure of how good a hitter is, but that his softball OPS should be a lot better.)

Here he is at the plate, before getting walked.

This is the scoreboard at the end of the game. Anthony's team lost. But not with a score of 9-2. It was actually 22-9, the scoreboard had to start back at 1 once the other team scored 20. The score is kind of misleading though. The other team put in a relief pitcher during the final inning and he gave up 4 runs. I'm no baseball expert, but I think the reason Anthony's team is struggling with the runs is because they spend so much time in the field. I timed it, they are in the field for about 11 minutes and at bat for 2 1/2 minutes.

I forgot to mention that the park where Anthony plays is a little ghetto, the infield is very gravely. At his last game Anthony had to slide and ended up with a nice raspberry on the side of his leg.

Doesn't he look so legit?

All Dogs Go to Heaven

"Brandi"

1996-2009

Last week my family suffered a great loss. Our sweet dog, Brandi, lost her battle with osteosarcoma (bone cancer), an aggressive, highly metastatic cancer. With Brandi it came on very quickly and was quite a shock to us all. Within a week she developed a large tumor on her right front leg and lost her ability to walk with that leg. True to form, she was stubborn to the end, and resisted most of our efforts to help her walk, insisting on doing it on her own. When Anthony and I tried to help her walk with the support of towel under her waist, she practically dived onto the pavement. Word has it she only would let my dad pick her up. I wasn't sure if I should admire her independence or be frustrated with her dangerous lack of cooperation.

Brandi wasn't a perfect dog, but she was perfect for our family. She was the friend, companion, and playmate that everyone needed. Part of what made her great was how low-maintenance she was. All she wanted from you was to scratch her ears, take her for a walk, or to gave her some food. She didn't care what you looked like, what grades you got, and was never embarrassed to be seen with you--in fact she loved to be seen with you!

For those of you who never got to know Brandi, I have taken the liberty of compiling a list of random facts about her to help you feel like you did know her, because chances are, I will talk about her at some point around you.

Likes:

• long walks
  
• barking at smaller animals
  
• chasing frisbees
  
• bread
  
• meat or any food scavenged from the kitchen/trash
• scratches
  
• riding in the car
  
• The words walk, outside, treat, food, and leash

Dislikes:

• any animal within a visible distance (esp. small dogs)
• grapes, lettuce or any fruit/vegetable
  
• her attention collar (AKA muzzle)
  
• being left out (gates of any kind)
  
• baths
  
• loud noises (thunder, fireworks, etc.)
• people touching her whiskers or paws

I like to think that Brandi was fiercely loyal and didn't like anyone messing with her peeps. She would always act agitated and bark really loud in an angry fashion when people did much hugging or picking each other up. But maybe she just hated PDA, although I never thought picking up another adult was a sign of affection. Anthony found this to be particularly funny so he would like to give me bear hugs and pick me up to get a rise out of her.

Anyways, I could ramble on for awhile with stories about Brandi, so I will end with this. When I was young I was scared of dogs. I was scared of their barks and afraid they would bite me. Brandi was a sweet dog, who was generally cheerful and loved being social. She was (usually) nothing like the dogs I was scared of in my childhood. Brandi is a dog that will be sorely missed by all who knew her (except our neighbor's dog).

Stay tuned...

Our blog is about to get exciting!

Random happenings

For the past month our blog has been devoted to "shouts out" to our beloved family members. Lest you think our lives are all play and no work, here is taste of some of the things we have been up to in between the birthdays.

We don't have to get divorced. Some of you may remember Anthony mentioning how confident I was that he would pass his comprehensive exams. In case any one was wondering, he did pass and will be graduating in May. Atta boy, TJ!

House guests. My dad and sister (Laura) spent a weekend with us and we had a lot of fun! We drove to St. Louis and spent a day at the temple, did Branson, ate lots of good food, played games, and watched lots of movies. We ended up watching a few more movies than originally planned, but that was because the weather tanked. We had big plans to ride the go-karts, but they don't opened when it rains, and boy was it rainy. I guess that just means they'll have to come back again...?

Sweating it out. Now that it is officially spring and the overeating excuses of holiday season are no longer valid, we have been increasing our efforts to get in shape. Anthony is playing basketball at the church every Tuesday night, and I have started running again. I thought I was doing alright by using the elliptical and other cardio machines at the gym, but I guess there is no

real substitute for actual running (maybe aqua-jogging?). I feel like I am starting back at square one with my running. Anthony is also pretty pumped to start playing city league softball next month.

Draft day(s). With the baseball season just around the corner, Anthony has been busy preparing for his (fantasy) managerial duties. The draft is his favorite part and to prepare for it he has participated in many a mock draft along with scouting players and putting together his own personal player/position rankings. Let's all wish him and his multiple teams luck.

March Madness. We both filled out brackets and Anthony especially has been enjoying copious amounts of basketball. I am currently ranked 1,715,101 according to ESPN, while Anthony is ranked 293,772. Things will change in my favor when UCONN defeats Purdue. I'm not surprised Anthony is beating me, but to be honest, even though I know he should be beating me, I still wish I was winning.

Quote of the Month: "Is there anything better than doing a baseball draft while watching college basketball?"
--TAJ, March 2009

Getting 'bit' by the Twilight bug. Since the DVD was released last weekend while Dad and Laura were in town, I finally got Tony to watch the movie last Saturday. While he wasn't ready to commit to watching it again Monday night with our friends the Zysks, he admitted it was better than he thought. He is not a Bella fan and said the movie made him not look forward to having teenage daughters. Whatever. Drama is fun.