adios, christmas! hola, 2011!

the first christmas in our new house is definitely going to be a memorable one. to kick off our celebration, we did an all day bake-a-thon with morgan's family. we made a variety of different desserts and even watched mark use a hand mixer for the first time. jerome won the reward for 'most creative dessert' for his recipe -- snowmen on a stick! he and morgan got a little too creative with the decorating and it was almost scary. (yarmulke-wearing snowmen aren't exactly traditional. but imaginitive nonetheless.)

after baking cookies and a eating nice midwestern dinner, we worked on a puzzle (didn't get very far) and then decided to open up presents. there was wrapping paper everywhere, except for in logan's corner. we made the poor kid wait and open his present last. in his giant box underneath a few blankets was an electric guitar. and after the guitar and amp were plugged in, we had a very confused puppy! we finished our night by watching a christmas story. (well, some of us...the mays' are infamous for their uncanny ability to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. mark, rita, morgan, and jerome were out like a light before randy could show them how the piggies eat.)

on christmas morning around 8:30, morgan and i decided to crawl out of bed. (probably our last christmas where we'll be able to wake up on our own terms!) we went downstairs and opened up all of our christmas presents, including a few gifts for our growing little baby. christmas as a married couple is much different, as well as christmas with two incomes! we may have gone a little overboard this year, but i think it was well-deserved. morgan says his favorite gift was apple tv. my favorite gift was a 12-pack of bumgenius cloth diapers. kash loves his new bed, and weasley goes crazy for his catnip ball. baby mays can't speak for itself, but i'm sure he or she will really love the pale yellow hawkeye onesie (s)he got to come home from the hospital in. :) 

later that day we drove into bettendorf to spend a little time with the maine side and to see my cousin jessica, who flew back from beirut for the holidays. we then made a quick stop at morgan's parent's house to play boggle and watch elf.

we ended our holiday festivities with our family christmas with our dad today. the overall result was mayhem, but that's what happens when you have 3 rowdy boys ages 5 and under in one house! we enjoyed having everyone over, and weren't quite sure what to do with the sound of silence after everyone left. 

so, to fill the void, my world-traveling cousin jessica came over and dropped off a furry little christmas gift named ramses. ramses is jessica's cat who was technically homeless until today. we offered to take ramses for her and give him a home. poor little guy hasn't come out from behind the toilet for the last 2 hours... probably has something to do with the warm welcoming that weasley had to give him. (it wasn't good... my cat is such a territorial jerk.) we hope that ramses will warm up to us soon... and that weasley will warm up to him!

we hope you all had a safe and merry christmas. now onto the new year... what are your resolutions? ours is to clean out our dirty mouths. i'm creating a high-tech swear jar that is going to end up being a savings account for baby mays. there will be a fee for each word.. the dirtier the word, the more costly. SO... watch your mouths while you're in our house or you'll have to pay up!! get it all out of your system before the first of january. :)

-the mays'

lazy weekends

we don't know if it's a good or bad thing that we've been spending so much time lounging around on the couch. of course, i can easily use my pregnancy as an excuse since i've been so exhausted, but we still feel like giant losers spending our weekends in the living room. but what else are we going to do in this crazy midwestern weather?

morgan is finally done taking his week-long trips to chicago and madison for work...hallelujah! i hate being in our house alone and i wake up to every small noise. needless to say, i haven't been getting much sleep lately, and the lack of sleep plus an already weakened immune system has caused me to feel pretty cruddy for the last few days. i miss the days where i'd just pop a few ibuprofen if i had a headache. tylenol shouldn't even be put into the category of a "pain reliever" because it does nothing! that is the one part about pregnancy that i do not like (so far). if you asked morgan, he'd say that his least favorite part about pregnancy is the hormones. (hehe) can't say that i like them either, but poor him does take the brunt of whatever emotion decides to come out. twenty-eight or so weeks left... we can do it!!

kashmir continues to get better, and has recently been dubbed our "miracle puppy." my mom took him to a chiropractor last week and we have been continuing treatments every few days. after yesterday's session, kash was putting a lot more weight on his bad leg - amazing! he has put so much weight on and is acting so much like a normal puppy. we are so happy to have our kash back.

our christmas tree has become much more of a nuisance than i ever could have imagined. weasley likes to steal the ornaments, and kash tends to run underneath of the tree and mess the skirt up. we've been spraying the tree with "keep off" before leaving for work in the morning, but it doesn't seem to phase our pets. we love having the tree up, but quite frankly can't wait to take it down.

as far as my pregnancy goes -- i've been feeling absolutely great. no morning sickness at all, just been pretty tired. i am a little worried, though, because i'm already starting to show! i feel like a circus freak. everything i've read basically says with your first pregnancy you don't really start showing until your second trimester. well... i suppose my second trimester is right around the corner, but i still feel like i'm freakishly large for only being 11 weeks. you be the judge...

the mays'

12/12/10 - 10w7d - HUGE?

growing family

we hope you all had a nice thanksgiving. we only had two to attend this year, which is definitely a record for us. it was great to see our families and share some big news with them...

we're going to have a baby!

the idea of it all still has not even sunk into our heads! we are expecting this little one on or around july 4, which just so happens to be his or her daddy's birthday! we've decided to embellish the surprise, so we are not going to find out the gender, nor are we going to share our names. (and yes, baby mays has already been named!) july will be one big surprise for all of us, and we can't wait to share the big news!

in other news, kash is healing up nice and is just starting to put more weight on his bad leg. he had a run-in with a flu and ended up in the vet for a weekend, but now he's back to good and working on his leg strength. they said it could take up to six months for him to be fully recuperated, although we hope it takes much less time. he's still not able to play with the neighbor dog, his girlfriend bugsy. this is really hard for him to comprehend, and he usually spends his potty breaks whining for her.

this morning we accompanied my brother, jake, and his wife, steph, to their ultrasound to find out the gender of their baby. we are happy to say that we are going to be welcoming ANOTHER maine boy to the family!! he's so active, and not afraid to show off his manhood, if ya know what i mean! he will be here around may 23, just in time for his aunt betsy's birthday!

we spent all day yesterday cleaning our house and gearing it up for christmas. we bought a tree for $79 at walmart and i must say, it was a heck of a buy. it's so big and full, and looks great in our foyer! we decorated the tree with silver and blue ornaments. we have to spray it with "keep off" every morning to keep weasley and kashmir away from it. darn pets.

other than that, just gearing ourselves up for winter and for baby. july may seem like it's a ways away, but we know it will be here all too soon!!

the mays'

lesson learned

so i guess the saying is true that you don't know what you have until it's gone... or almost gone.

my mom picks up our puppy, kashmir, every weekday so that he can get out of his kennel and enjoy some socialization with other animals at the crazy treimer farm. on a normal day, morgan and i leave the house by 7:00 for work, kash waits patiently in his kennel for 'granni' to pick up him, and he leaves our house no later than 10:00. morgan generally picks kash up from doggy daycare in the evening, brings him home, and the pooped-out pup crashes until the morning. (as you can see, it really works out in our favor!) however, last monday (11/1) was a bit of a different story. it started out like normal, but instead of going out to granni's to play, kashmir went out to granni's and got ran over.

i received a panicked phone call around 10:00 from morgan, saying that kash was being taken to the vet and that he got ran over. i began to freak out immediately, to the point where i had to leave work. (it was my second day in the new office and i was crying hysterically - great impression!) i drove as fast (and safely) as i could and met my mom at the vet. there was my poor puppy, sprawled out in a kennel with an IV of morphine. according to the vet, kash had internal bruising which caused his lungs to fill with blood. the vet said it wasn't bad, but he was concerned that kash's heart had possibly been bruised, which meant there was nothing they could to for him. kash also sustained a broken hip and some horrible cuts to his leg. we were told that the next 24 hours were crucial, and that as long as he lived through the night, he should be okay. i returned to work that afternoon (determined to show my new supervisor & coworkers that i'm not irresponsible) and waited to hear any type of news regarding the fait of my six-month-old pup.

about two hours later, i get a call from mary (that's my mom) saying that kash has done a complete 180 and is being sent home. confused, and remembering what he looked like just hours before the phone call, i asked my mom how this could be humanly (or caninely...?) possible. my mom said that kashmir's gums had gone from white to perfectly pink, which was a good indicator that he was on the fast-track to recovery.

so my mom took kashmir back out to her house (this time, inside) and watched him like a hawk until we were able to get off work. poor puppy. he was in so much pain and could hardly stand. he had no control over his right leg due to the break in his hip. we had to take him outside in the freezing cold every couple of hours so he could try to pee and/or poop. it was so sad to watch him try so hard to do something that used to be second nature to him.

he had his hip replaced on wednesday, 11/3, and got some stitches in his leg. (there was a big gouge from the gravel road.) he was able to stand much better after that, and was even walking on it some. by the weekend, kash had come back home with us and was putting more and more weight on his leg. he even got to play with his girlfriend, the neighbor's dog bugsy. (of course, they had to take it easy.)

up until yesterday, kashmir was making great strides in his recovery. unfortunately, yesterday he got knocked over by one of my mom's dogs and fell right on his bad hip. mom says he cried for a little bit. she called the vet and they said to keep him away from the big dogs for a while. we saw him last night and he was more interested in laying around and sleeping than anything else. :(  mom said that he is in a lot of pain today and she has to help him stand up. the vet said that he would be hurting because of his fall, but it's still so depressing to see him like this.

we're hoping he's better and back to himself soon. the house is so lame without him around, unless you're weasley - who thinks that being the "man of the house" is absolutely amazing. damn cat.

the mays'

happy halloween from the mays'

after a long week apart, the two of us got to spend a nice weekend together, being lazy and boring - just how we like it.

morgan was in madison, wisconsin all week for a continued education class for work, and i was stuck at home by myself. (although, i wasn't quite 'alone' as i made my sister stay with me all week!) morgan got home friday evening and, after a minor encounter with a turkey (don't ask), we both crashed around 9pm. oh the joys of being old & married.

on saturday we attended the annual dean family spookfest in durant. we showed up decked out as wayne campbell and garth algar from wayne's world. it was quite hilarious seeing everyone in costume... especially our friend robb, who dressed up as poop. (yes, you read that right.) kashmir may have even worn a small accessory for halloween...

today we start our weekly "scrub the house" event where we clean up our extreme messes from the week past. of course, since i was the only one home last week, the messes are a little larger than normal. this is also the reason why i'm on the computer, updating our blog, and morgan is downstairs cleaning. muahaha. :)

we're excited for the trick-or-treaters tonight. morgan's brother, jerome, volunteered to help us pass out candy. hopefully we don't eat it all before the kids show up!

the mays'

garth & wayne

our über intelligent dog, aka buddy holly

growing up too fast

we were lucky enough to get to spend the weekend with morgan's sister, martina, her husband, billy, and their daughter, reagan. although the circumstances weren't ideal (morgan's uncle passed away unexpectedly on monday), we made the best of our short time together. reagan turned one on tuesday, october 19. hard to believe that she's been here for a year! she is such a happy little girl and we love her dearly. we had a small family birthday celebration for reagan on friday night. she even blew out her birthday candle all by herself (multiple times...we were trying to capture it on camera!) we hate that they live so far away, but it makes our time with them so much more precious!

betsy

once a hawkeye, always a hawkeye:)

reagan blowing out her candle

falling into fall

it seems like the days/weeks/months since our wedding have passed by very quickly. i can't believe it's already october... scratch that.. mid-october! there are so many things we thought we'd get done before the first snowfall but it's beginning to look like those tasks will have to be finished in spring. our jobs have been keeping us pretty busy -- morgan works as long as the contractors are working, which some days is 12+ hours, and i'm still working my reassignment in burlington, which is a brutal 65-mile drive one-way. luckily, relief is ahead for both of us: the winter will keep morgan in the office working a straight 40-hour week, and i took a transfer to the davenport office effective october 29. we are looking forward to spending more time together!

morgan and i went on our second annual fall drive a few weekends back and were able to get a couple of pictures of us having fun. we felt like pretty big losers as we were the only people there with a camera in tow without any children! we just laughed it off, though, and had a great time walking around the pumpkin patch & apple orchard at wilson's in iowa city (located on dingleberry road - ha!)

our children (or more accurately speaking, our pets) have been keeping us busy, busy, busy. kashmir continues to grow like a weed and shock us with new tricks and surprises. an example of said surprises: pooping on our couch. oh yeah, it's all true. he's still learning, though, and luckily granni (aka mary) has been gracious enough to pick kash up daily and take him out to the farm for "doggy daycare." she has taught him how to walk on a leash, sit, lay down, and stay. and -- SHOCKER -- he lets us know when he needs to go outside! woohoo!! weasley - on the other hand - recently came down with a slight case of fleas. have you ever tried giving a cat a flea bath? yeah. not cool. luckily we caught them in time and have a strong hold on the situation. nasty little buggers. i will never skip a round of frontline ever again!!

other than that, things are pretty much the same around the mays home. still trying to get our house fixed up to make it feel more like "home." our strict tv schedule usually gets in the way of that, but someday we'll have it done! :)

the mays'