Gotcha! The only people who know what we’re having are the ultrasound tech, the doctor, and her nurse. We want to be surprised (and we both covered our eyes during the ultrasound yesterday when she was checking out the baby’s “parts,” so to speak). So you’ll have to weigh in on what your prediction is! We’ll all be surprised together!

The ultrasound was amazing! I’m sure if you’ve had a baby, you already know this. Rob enjoyed watching the baby’s mouth moving, and I seemed to focus more on the baby’s arms and legs moving (and how somehow it could put its legs all the way up by its head – something mommy can’t do). There are 10 fingers and 10 toes, we saw the heart with 4 chambers, and even the diaphragm (among other things). Because Baby Patin is in breech right now, we get to go back in 4 weeks and have an ultrasound so they can check out the lower spinal area, just to be sure (although everything else has checked out normal). The ultrasound tech told us that 80% of people have to come back for a second ultrasound just because the baby isn’t necessarily in the right position during the first one, in order to get all of the really important pictures/measurements.

It’s definitely an exciting time! I’ll get Rob to scan the ultrasound pictures and post them up here (I’m not as techie as he is).

We are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary a few days early this year, but we definitely deserve a weekend away. It’s been a busy fall with the start of the school year and the last of the weddings to tape. We are looking forward to a night on the town in GR and just being able to spend some time together.

In baby news, well, I’m at 17 weeks tomorrow. The last appointment heart rate was 154 – very comforting to hear. We go for the BIG ultrasound on November 16. Not sure yet about finding out the gender. At first neither of us wanted to know, and now I’m kind of wanting to know. If we do find out, we won’t be sharing that information with anyone else though (sorry). Rob will probably win this one though and we’ll get a surprise. The due date is still April 3. I graduated out of my size 4 pants WEEKS ago. Thank goodness for stretchy New York and Company pants without zippers or buttons! I have a couple pair of jeans that I bought a size bigger that are working for the time being. It’s amazing to me how much my body has changed already though!

It’s been a busy few months, but a good few months! Before we know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here. Let’s hope that our leaves fall soon so we can get to them before the snow starts flying this year…

The best things in life come to those who will wait! Isn’t that the truth! After a year and a half of frequent visits to the doctor, and after many prayers from family and friends, we’re blessed to be having a baby! It has been a journey, and we truly thank all of our family and friends for their thoughts and prayers. We are overjoyed. The big date is April 3.

As far as baby preparations go, we’ve told family and some friends. Daddy has put up a bookcase and a shelf in the nursery (we bought the baby’s first book today – “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs” – one of Rob’s favorites as a kid), and Mommy has been trying her hardest to eat well (lately, she has been fighting some nausea – just in time to go back to work).

We’ve had a couple of ultrasounds already. The first was to see how many we have (just one, FYI), and the second was just to make sure that the baby has a strong heart rate (everything looks great). So now we’re back on the “normal” doctor schedule. We consider ourselves fortunate because most people don’t have the first ultrasound until the 2nd trimester. We got to see the baby’s heart beat – SOOOOO cool!

Stay tuned for more updates, questions of the week (baby related, of course), and general information.

The front page of the Grand Rapids Press “Your Life” Section today has an article all about “Skinny Jeans.” Specifically, this article is about how they are fashionable, even for guys to wear. Stop right there! I’ve heard enough! Skinny jeans are absolutely THE MOST UGLY JEANS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE – on a male or a female.  When I saw some male students in the hallway across from my room wearing skinny jeans, I actually had to do a double take to figure out if they were guys or girls (didn’t help that they had long hair either). They are also NOT flattering on anyone I have ever seen with them on (even they guys in the paper today, who are also athletes). Unless you are a size 2 model, who has no butt or thighs, skinny jeans are not for you!

In other news, I’m bummed that I couldn’t buy orange roughy at the new Meijer in Cedar Springs. Apparently, I was the third person who asked the meat counter guy this week about it! I wrote Meijer to tell them that I was disappointed that I could get orange roughy at the Meijer in Rockford and also at the Spartan Store down the street (smaller than the Meijer in Cedar Springs). Maybe they’ll be convinced and stock it?? Ah well. There are bigger fish to fry (yuck, yuck)! I’ll have to drive to get my fish in the meantime!

UPDATE on the fish: This is a very sad day. Apparently, orange roughy is now considered an endagered fish, and so Meijer elected not to buy it any more. I feel bad that I sent a complaint email, but at least now I know! That’s too bad that it is endangered. It was a really yummy fish (not too “fishy,” which I liked).

We spent the last week on an East Coast road trip, complete with stops in Ohio, Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington D.C.! It was our BIG trip of the summer, and it was well worth it. We started our journey in Ohio, visiting Jessica and Scott. We headed to Philadelphia to pay Lindsey and JP a visit. They showed us around their city. We even ate our first cheesesteak – YUM! Then, we headed south for Erica’s wedding. Let’s just say that the traffic along the eastern seaboard is much more dense than around these parts. We ended up missing the wedding by 15 minutes, but had a great time at the reception on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The scariest part of the trip came when we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. Yep, that’s right, it’s a bridge AND a tunnel. I was not too thrilled about going UNDER the ocean, but we did it! We then headed north to Washington D.C. We had both visited there before, but it was a long time ago. We did most of the usual “tourist” stuff – monuments, museums, and walking – oh, did we walk! We both decided that Washington D.C. is the most clean city we’ve ever visited. Highlights of our nation’s capital: Seeing Senators Levin and McCain speak on the Senate floor, seeing Mrs. Obama and her daughters on the White House porch, the Holocaust Museum (everyone should have to go there once in their lives), and our strolls through DuPont Circle for yummy ice cream! I posted a lot of our pictures on our website. There are several, but I had a hard time choosing which ones to share.

Things we’ve learned from our experience:

1. Cheesesteak is really yummy!

2. We take the 70 mph speed limit for granted here in Michigan! You can’t go that fast in other states!

3. We also take the fact that we don’t have to pay to drive on our roads in Michigan for granted. We forked out plenty of dinero to pay for toll roads. Can you believe that the ONLY 2 miles (yep, that’s right – 2) of toll road in all of Virginia is the 2 miles you have to travel on if you want to get to the Outer Banks/Atlantic Ocean!

4. Our new Toyota Rav4 gets GREAT gas mileage for a SUV (averaged between 26-30 mpg)!

5. We do not have a desire to visit/live along the eastern seaboard – too much traffic – Lake Michigan is just as pretty, and you won’t encounter even half of the traffic that we encountered in Virgina/North Carolina in order to get there

6. We have great friends and family! We had so much fun visiting with everyone!

7. We can’t wait for our next road trip! Hmmmm. where should we go next?

So, I woke up the other morning and decided that I should try something. I decided that I needed to make bread. Now, if you know me, you know that I don’t do a lot of baking/cooking – pretty much anything that is related to food preparation. However, if you know anything about my family, well, baking/cooking REALLY good food runs in the family. And, if you know anything about my mom, well, she’s simply the best cook on the planet! So I THINK I have it in me, but I’m not too experienced (no pressure or anything)!

I went to the grocery store and bought some things that I (obviously) did not have in my pantry (yeast, flour, sugar, shortening – pretty much everything but the salt). I originally was going to surprise Rob and make it while he was at jury duty on Tuesday. Well, he got sent home pretty early, so I didn’t get around to making it. Yesterday we were pretty busy, and so today’s the day!

So, I’ll let you know how it goes. The loaves of bread are baking in the oven (it smells good in here).

UPDATE: Yummy! Loaf #1 is completely eaten, loaf #2 for tomorrow! (I think that the water I put in the dough was too hot for the yeast, but otherwise, not a bad first attempt. I think I’ll try it again sometime!)

Remember 2003 when the Lakers stockpiled a bunch of talent? Besides Kobe and Shaq, they brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton. The goal: winning the NBA title, of course!

Pistons fans remember how THAT turned out.

And now, the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing the same thing. First, Shaq signs. And now, news reports are surfacing that LeBron James is meeting with Ron Artest AND Trevor Ariza.

Bring it on boys. We’re gearing up for another championship run!*

*Okay, so the Pistons are “rebuilding,” and I’m not fully behind that statement, but hey, it’s fun to dream and it could spark some debate!

About time.

The news is just now making its way around the Internet, but Michael Curry is no longer head coach of the Detroit Pistons. Yeah!

We’ve spent some time debating his coaching on this blog and how much Joe Dumars was tying his hands. I think this firing makes it pretty clear that Dumars saw that Curry was doing more harm than good to the team. First, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson–two players that Dumars made clear that the Pistons had big hopes for–received several DNPs. Then, there was the whole Rip Hamilton-Allen Iverson fiasco, where Hamilton–the Pistons’ leader–was asked to give up his starting spot to a guy who clearly didn’t have it any more. Hamilton was rightly pissed and gave up on Curry from that moment on. Now, I’m not defending Hamilton’s whining, but reports are that Hamilton found out about the benching during a team meeting. It was obvious that Curry lacked the cajones to talk to his team leader one-on-one. That sure can’t help a struggling team get behind their coach.

If one thing was certain about Curry’s coaching style, it was that he was inconsistent and couldn’t back up his promises. Now he’s gone. The Pistons Nation takes a big sigh of relief!

I’m sure we can get into a debate about whether this was a good move, but think about this: this Pistons will start wheeling and dealing for free agents tomorrow. Getting rid of a coach with a horrible record might sound a whole lot more enticing for those players looking for a new home.

So who’s next? Bill Laimbeer? Avery Johnson? Jeff Van Gundy? Another assistant coach (Please, no!)? The Pistons’ summer just got a lot more interesting!