Less Than a Week!

We have had a great weekend! Very quick weekend but a good one. Friday night Jeremy had an Awards ceremony at his school so he brought home Monical's Pizza for dinner! Always a good Friday or Sunday night dinner to have Monical's Pizza. Saturday he had a game at school so I cleaned the house and ran a few errands. Later in the evening we went to Champaign so I could get a baby shower gift and we went to dinner at Lonestar! Not a place we go to very often but it was good. Today we have relaxed, Jeremy took the dogs for a run on the golf course, they wet about 9 holes, and I had a baby shower to attend for the town vet, Emily. She is pregnant with twin boys, Thomas & Tucker!
Her shower was soooo nice. I could not believe the flower arrangements and center pieces and the cute cake! They also served iced sugar cookies that were monkeys...too cute, and some fabulous truffles. Baby Darnell was on a sugar high after eating all that. The punch was very good too, it was a yellow color and I believe it may have just been lemonade and ginger ale or sprite but I am not sure...I thought that is what I saw the hostess mixing up. I should have taken pictures at the shower but I didn't even get my camera out. There were sooo many gifts. Obviously, when you are pregnant with twins, you need two of everything.
While I was gone, Jeremy went and got a few groceries and made up some yummy kabobs! He grilled them for us tonight. Although I was not very hungry after eating all the goodies at the shower. So we are having them again tomorrow, only cutting everything up and having them with Gorditas. They were made of chicken, mushrooms, red peppers, zucchini and squash. We will add some beans and cheese tomorrow night!
Now we are relaxing and flipping between the Pro Bowl and the Grammy's.
We are very excited this week! As I have said in many posts, we are looking forward to Friday. One, I am off on Friday for a Furlough Day. Not excited about Furloughing but I guess it is a day out of the office. But mostly, we will find out the gender of our Baby! We have a party planned for a few family members on Saturday at noon to reveal the sex of the baby! I haven't had many pictures of Jeremy on here but I hope we can get some good cute pics together on Friday and Saturday! Stay tuned!
Here are a few pics of my prego belly! I am 19 weeks!

This was yesterday before we left to run errands!


This was today before I left for the Baby shower!

Stay tuned this coming weekend for exciting news from The Darnell's!

Things on my mind this week!

Something very exciting happened this week. I felt some flutters in my tummy! I was sitting at my desk working and felt it and had to stop and turn in my chair and really pay close attention. I was not sure if what I felt was accurate, but I have felt the same feelings more...so I think that is what it was!

Only one more week until we find out Baby D's Gender. We can hardly wait!

Jeremy has had a crazy week this week. He has had something every night this week. Good thing is, he entertained some people that serve on a panel to decide upon a National Middle School Award and we are pretty sure his school is going to get the award. An awesome accomplishment for his school! The Awards ceremony would be in Washington, DC in June, so I don't know that we will be able to attend.

I have been thinking about a girl this week that is around my age. She is neighbors with one of my best friends, Erin. Her name is Dawn and she just gave birth to her second child, a son last week. Just in the past couple of weeks she had been showing different signs and they had to take the baby about a month early in order to run scans on her and come to find out she has tumors throughout her body and there is nothing more than can do for her. I am praying for Dawn and her husband and two kids that they get through this time and that my friend Erin and her neighborhood get through this time as I know it is a hard time for them since they are all a pretty close neighborhood. I could not imagine this coming upon so quickly and what they may be going through.

Two years ago this evening a very horrific thing happened to my long time childhood friend's husband. He and his best friend were murdered in the home of his best friend in a rural area in Central Illinois. My friend was pregnant with their son at the time. To this day, they still do not know what happened and I just hope they find out what happened soon so everyone involved can be at ease with this. Ryan and Mark were your everyday Joe's. Good farm boys whom had many friends and were hard workers and came from great families. No one knows why this may have happened to them and I just hope the answer will come out soon. Thinking of Amy & Carson today!

Lucie has proven to us this week that she can not be trusted to be left out of her kennel for very long! We left for literally 45 minutes this week to go grab some dinner up town and came home and she had shredded one of my magazines. She also brought downstairs a stuffed cat I had in our guest bedroom that my Mom gave me a long time ago for Valentine's Day and proceeded to chew it's eye off! Needless to say she got in big trouble and has proven to us she can not be trusted for very long!

We don't have many plans for the weekend. I have a baby shower to attend for a girl in town who is having twin boys. Looking forward to that and meeting some more people from Gibson City.

Baby Furniture!

Yay! The baby furniture is in the room and assembled. It looks really nice. We love it and it is nice quality furniture. Thanks to my Mom & Steve for helping us get it here and helping put it together. It is hard to see the color of the walls in the room. There is never the right light in the room to get a good picture. We do not have anything on the windows yet so I think the glare from outside does not help. The color is a neutral green that will go for a boy or a girl.

The convertible crib. The furniture is an antique black finish.


The dresser. I am going to hopefully get a round shaped mirror to go over the dresser so Baby D can look in the mirror and see how cute he or she is:) You will also see the glider that Aunt Darci gave us. It is soooo comfortable. I am going to replace the cushions with something that matches the room decor. But the glider itself is in excellent shape.

We decided that Baby D will love to shop just like Baby D's Mommy and Grandma's, so we better get another dresser to put all the clothes in that Baby D will get. Plus Baby D has a walk in closet that will hold ample amounts of clothing. The portion of the wall that is bare in this picture I have plans to hold a book holder I have seen on Pottery Barn. We will encourage Baby D to read a lot of books and become a great student so Baby D never ends up in the Principal's Office. Oh boy, would that be bad to have to answer to Dad at school!
I have seen some bedding online that would look really cute with the green color. Less than 2 weeks until we find out the Gender so we can plan the nursery accordingly.

Meet Frick and Frack!

Picking up Baby Furniture Today!

I am so excited that we are going to go pick up our Baby furniture today. It has arrived already and my Mom & Steve are meeting us at Babyland with my Uncle's horse trailer to pick it up. The trailer is enclosed and it has been awfully rainy and just wet and nasty here so we thought that would be the best thing to do. I am anxious to get it and put it in the Baby's room.
We still have to research mattresses and pick a good mattress as we have not purchased that yet but we hope to do that soon. Once we find out what we are having on the 5th, we will then decide on bedding and get that ordered since it will take some time to come in since I want to get custom made bedding.

So stay tuned for pictures of the Baby furniture!

17 Weeks

This week I am 17 weeks pregnant! I have been feeling great. I have a lot more energy and a lot more of an appetite. As you can see from the picture below, Baby D is growing, and growing, and growing! My tummy has really pooched out in the last week to two weeks. I am anxious to go on Monday and see how much weight I have gained. I will have a weight check and get blood drawn for a test to check for birth defects. My next official appointment is on Friday, February 5th. That is when we will find out the gender of Baby D. We have a Gender Reveal Party planned for Saturday, February 6th for our family. After that, we will be announcing to other family unable to attend and friends. Let's hope Baby D cooperates!
I have not had any weird cravings. I am still drinking a ton of milk. I have a big tall glass almost every night with dinner. It tastes so good.
My Mom and I went shopping this past weekend for maternity clothes. We found a lot of great bargains.
I have yet to feel the baby move yet, that I know of, I don't really know what I am feeling for other than what people have told me it feels like. When I went to the Dr. last she told me it could be around 20 weeks before I feel anything. Still very anxious to feel "it" move.
Lucie will still lay her head on my belly in the night. She has never done this until I got pregnant. I wonder what she hears or senses.
Jeremy and I are both more and more excited every day about Baby D. We can't wait!
Today we learned of a few great things. We found a Daycare provider for Baby D. Yay! Such a relief. We will be meeting with her more in depth in the next few weeks. We also found out our baby furniture came in today. We will have to make arrangements to go pick it up with a trailer. I am anxious to get it!
This picture was taken when I got home from work this week. I feel like my bump is a little more rounder in the evenings.

Baby Shower for a Friend!

Today, I attended a nice Baby Shower luncheon for my friend Casey. Casey and her family are also our neighbors, they live directly diagonal from us. They moved in to their new house the end of November.
This is the cute invitation that was sent. The location had to change because the German restaurant where the shower was supposed to be held had a scheduling conflict. So, the shower ended up being at Dos Reales, a Mexican Restaurant in Champaign.


My friend Erin could not be at the shower so her and I went in on a gift. Our big gift to Casey was a Target gift card, with a couple of small things. This is my creative wrapping job.

Here I am before the shower. My tummy looks a little bigger than what it really is in this picture because I got a new shirt (non-maternity) and it is kinda big on me. I found this shirt at Bergners in the Juniors section. I thought I could wear it with my "skinny" maternity jeans or leggings. It is also very comfy!

This is Reese, Casey's oldest child. She is so cute and so sweet. She acts like she is 15 sometimes. She is precious. She also has a little brother Nick and the new baby will be a girl named Miley. Too cute!

This is Casey's niece. She was styling her friends hair with a fork:) I think they were getting bored. These two girls are both students at the school in which Jeremy is the Principal. I told them I had to take a picture to show Mr. Darnell what they learn to do at his school:) The stylist with the fork, her Mom owns a Hair Salon/Spa here in town. Her Mom does my hair. Her mom is Lyndi, Casey's sister, whom you will see in a picture below.

Cute cake!

This is the prego lady of the luncheon picture! Emily is on the far left and is pregnant with twin boys. She is due in April. Emily is also the Vet here in town. Then there is me, due in June, and Casey, due February 9th with Baby Miley.

Casey and her sister Lyndi. Lyndi helped throw the luncheon. Lyndi is also my hairstylist.

Casey & Lyndi with their Mom!

After the luncheon, I brought our neighbor Jenny and her daugther Payton home with me. We decided to stop at Old Navy and the Borders before heading home. Our husbands and Jenny's twin boys were at our house watching football along with some other guys so we were in no hurry to get home. I was so glad we stopped at Old Navy. I ended up getting a ton of maternity clothes for $2 and $3. I could not believe the sales. I got some short sleeve shirts for when the weather gets warmer, as well as a few long sleeve shirts for now.

These two cute little girls are Payton and Hadley. Hadley's Dad came over to watch football and hang out. Hadley's Mom is a teacher at the school in which Jeremy works and Payton and her Mom Jenny rode home with me from the luncheon and are our neighbors. Payton's Mom Jenny also is a teacher at Jeremy's school as well.

This weekend was the weekend for Kim to purchase Maternity clothes. I found some awesome bargains this weekend. Not only did I get my bargains today at Old Navy, but yesterday, my Mom and I went shopping and we found some bargains as well. I was excited to get a couple of shirts that aren't maternity but are big enough to wear as my belly expands in size.

Another cute story from today: Jeremy had a bunch of guys over to watch football. He grilled gourmet cheeseburgers for everyone. They were all sitting here eating, watching football and all of a sudden Lucie comes in the living room with a big ol burger in her mouth. The burgers were on a platter on the counter and she reached up and helped herself. She has never ever done that before and if I could have been here to witness it, I bet it was hysterical. You know she was thinking well if you all can have a burger, so can I! He immediately took the burger from her but he is pretty confident that she may have already helped herself to one burger before trying to help herself to a second burger.

The best part of today is knowing I don't have to get up for work tomorrow! Another day off.

Random Stuff!

This is a random post a few items I wanted to be sure to add to the blog!

First off, last weekend, Jeremy and I went and visted Baby Holden! He is so precious! I love him so much! When I first saw him he looked so tiny to me, only because I have not seen a baby that small in a while. He really isn't "that" small. He was 7 lbs when he was born which is a good size for a baby. I can't wait to go visit him again. We took his Mom & Dad and big Sister lunch from Hickory River and enjoyed visiting with them. His Big Brother was not home at the time, but we hope to see him too next time we visit.

This is just a picture I took today of my pitiful Lu Lu sleeping with her Daddy on the couch. She loves to lay between his legs and she curls up in a little ball. Except when she lays in bed with us, she stretches out like a limousine and is like an electric blanket laying between us:)

This is an Uppercase Living project I did in our master bath. It is on the wall above our big bathtub.

I chose the colors based on our decorative towels we have in the bathroom.

Thank You Students for Still Being on Break!

Today is one of those days when I had an immediate craving! I was sitting at my desk this morning, thinking, I really need Chipotle today! Burrito Bol sounds super! But I dread driving down to Campus, parking at a meter, and dealing with the long line at Chipotle. Although the students are still on break and won't be back until next week, Chipotle is always ridiculously busy! It is a very popular place on Campus.
Well someone was really looking over this pregnant lady! I drove to Campus and got Rockstar parking at a 30 minute meter right by Chipotle, walked into Chipotle and no long line!!! Thank You God! I just chowed down on my Burrito Bol and this Mama and Baby D are both Happy Campers right now! I was back to my desk by 12:23!
That is all folks! My excitement for this Wednesday! Doesn't take much huh!?

Dr. Appt Today!

I had my Dr. Appt today and everything looked great. Baby D's heartbeat was 149. I have only gained 2 lbs thus far. I was thinking I was going to gain more since I got my appetite back and have been eating more but since I lost in my first trimester, she said it may take me a little bit to get caught back up. And the 2 lbs is from the last time I got weighed which was less than what I normally weigh so technically I have not gained any weight yet. I was a little worried about not gaining at this point and my Dr. said not to worry. If I get to a point in my pregnancy where I am not gaining enough or gaining too much, that is when we will re-evaluate the situation.
We are excited to find out Baby D's gender on Friday, February 5th! I am soooo excited. I am taking the whole day off of work. Not because I want to for fun, but because the State of Illinois is in such financial distress and I work for a State Institution, I get to take Furlough Days! Fun fun! So I guess I better not go shopping that day since I won't be making any money, however, once I find out Baby D's gender, I will be going to buy the first gender specific outfit! But what better day to take off than that day. I will have the whole day to do whatever and enjoy the day.
We are looking forward to sharing the news with our family & friends.

Skype!

Today, Jeremy and I signed up for Skype. We have never had a reason to Skype before so have never created a Skype account. We first tried it out with his parents in Pekin and then we tried calling Darci, Kyle, Maggie & Hank in London...we Skyped with them today! It was sooooo cool! I could seriously Skype everyone all the time.
Except I was still in my pajamas today, next time I will try to make myself look more presentable! It was good to see them and talk to them.
Jeremy's laptop has a webcam on it so it worked out well for us.

I am looking forward to my Dr. appt tomorrow. I am anxious to see if the baby is doing good and anxious to see when our next sono is to find out the gender!

I am trying to think of what we want to do for a Gender Reveal! I really want to do something fun and creative since this is our first child and we waited patiently to become pregnant. I thought about getting a group together at Alexander's Steakhouse in Champaign or quite possibly having a little gathering at our house. I have a few cute ideas in my head and thought this would be really fun! Jeremy and I will have to talk about it and decide what we may want to do.
Back to work tomorrow. Luckily, next weekend will be a 3 day weekend! Yay!

Baby Names!

Yaaayyyy! Jeremy and I picked out our baby names tonight. We have 1 girl name and 1 boy name. Soooo exciting! I am just glad we agreed on some cute names.
We have decided that we will find out the sex of the baby and tell people but we will not be telling the name. We want that part to be a surprise until we have the baby. It will be hard to keep the secret but I think we can do it.

I have also been calling around to daycares. That is going to be sooo hard. I am not looking forward to putting our baby in daycare, but I think it will be a good thing. So far Gibson City is very hard to find childcare. There are a ton of kids here and a lot of the daycares are full. Very frustrating.

We don't really have many plans this weekend. I hope to go visit my friend and Baby Holden.

It is really cold and the temperatures are dropping so we have been hanging out inside....trying not to go out too much.

Snow Day!

Today is a snow day for us! Well sort of. I actually brought some work home and was very productive this morning. I guess watching Rachael Ray and Price is Right makes me more productive!
All the schools around us are cancelled and it looks like the wind is supposed to pick up so blowing and drifting will be an issue for this evening and tomorrow. So I may be having a snow day tomorrow as well, although I won't be working as I only brought enough work home with me for today.
The snow is very pretty! The dogs have enjoyed going outside sticking their faces in the snow!

On a different note, I have had several people contact me and ask if I am on a commercial. Well, come to find out I am on a commercial! A few girlfriends and I visited a new Tapas restaurant in Urbana in October. There was a guy taping while we were there but we were under the impression it was just going to be our hands, etc...(not our faces). Well come to find out, I am on a V. Picasso commercial in the Champaign/Urbana televised area. He offered us all a pitcher of sangria if we approved of him taping us. I did not get to benefit from the Sangria as I found out I was pregnant just a few days before and was not telling anyone so I did not partake in any Sangria drinking. Once the baby comes, I will look forward to having both Sangria and Sushi!
So although I have not seen the actual commercial yet, a friend of Jeremy's recorded it and sent it to Jeremy's phone and I saw it on there. So I guess that is my most recent claim to fame!

My next Dr. Appt is Monday! I can't wait!

Hope everyone has a great day! It is nice sitting with the fireplace on, working in my pj's and watching daytime tv. I could get used to this!!! Come on June! Ready to have our baby and be on maternity leave for 12 weeks!

Almost 15 Weeks!

I am almost 15 weeks. My little Lilypie at the top of the blog is a day behind. Not sure why...
Today, when I went back to work after being off for two weeks, people really noticed a "little bump". It may be from being on winter break and eating too much but I can notice a little bulge beginning. My stomach was itchy the other night and I had to rub lotion on it, I think it is because it is stretching!

15 week bump picture.

***Some highlights***
-I am feeling a lot better than I was. I have not felt nearly as nauseous. I am still a little gaggy at times, especially when I brush my teeth and in the mornings but I feel a lot better than I did.
-Some smells still bother me, however, I have pretty much been able to eat most everything.
-I chug a huge glass of milk every night with dinner...I have always liked milk but not drank THAT much of it, but for some reason I want milk every night!
-I don't really have any certain cravings, just eat what sounds good at the time.
-I have not had to wear any maternity clothes yet. I did order a few Bella Bands this weekend to hopefully wear my regular pants for a while longer.
-My next appointment is Jan 11th. It is just a regular appointment and I hope to find out then when our scheduled sono will be to find out the gender of the baby! I am wanting to think of a good gender reveal to do with our family/friends.
-To my knowledge, I have not felt any movement yet. However, I don't really know what I am looking for as I have heard different things, so there could have been some and I just don't know it.
-I have been sleeping with a body pillow or a pillow between my legs for comfort. I am not too uncomfortable, just had a couple of nights where I was uncomfortable and the pillows seemed to help.
-Jeremy has been great to me about cooking dinner, doing things around the house and helping me out when I am tired. He was great about all those things before I got pregnant but I am more appreciative I think now that I am pregnant.
-We are convinced that Lucie knows here is a baby in my tummy. She is typically a crazy little girl but has been real calm around me and will lay her head on my tummy in the middle of the night when she sneaks up in bed with us. She also snuggles up with me every night on the couch.
-We ordered furniture this weekend...see post below.
- I have started to look online for bedding for both genders.
-We have discussed names but have not come to any agreements on anything yet. We are still undecided if we will reveal the name before the baby is born or keep that a secret between the two of us.

Below are a few gifts we received.
A teacher at Jeremy's school gave us this frame for our sonogram picture. Very cute!


One of my best friends, Erin, gave us this Willow Tree Angel figurine as a congratulations on being pregnant.

Random Post

***Second post within about 10 minutes, see post below also***

Jeremy and I's Holiday Break is coming to an end. It has been a good relaxing break. I pretty much slept in every day so tomorrow morning is going to be rough. And since it is soooooo cold here, we have been hanging out at home most of the day yesterday and today, other than going to Champaign yesterday to Babyland to order our baby furniture (see post below of our furniture). For some reason, I fell asleep on the couch last night watching TV before 7:00, Jeremy woke me up to go to bed and I slept until 7 something this morning, laying in bed until about 8:30. Today, I organized my closet to see what clothes I could wear while being pregnant and moved some of the other stuff to the back and organized all the maternity type clothes I currently have. I had a good friend at work and Jeremy's sister give me some really nice maternity items that will definitely help out. I also received a couple of gift cards for Christmas for Motherhood Maternity so I am looking forward to going shopping. I have not had to wear any maternity clothes yet but I am sure I will have to soon enough. I did try on a couple of pairs of maternity pants and wow are they comfy!!!!! Not so attractive but very comfy! I did order some Bella Bands online today as well.
Of course Dee & Lucie love it when their parents are home. They were able to do a lot of pheasant hunting with their Daddy over break. Here is a pic of my girls with their birdies. They each got one bird. The past couple of days it has been too cold for them to go out hunting.

They are quite the princesses!

And since our dogs live like Royalty, you will see them here cuddled up to each other on the couch napping while their Daddy watches football and their Mommy plays on the computer. These two girls do not know what they are in for when Baby Darnell arrives. They will still be treated like Queens, however, they will not be getting the most attention any more.


When Jan and John came over Friday, Jan and I went and did a little shopping and I got this picture for above our fireplace. I love it!! It is red poppies and it looks soooo good up there. I am adding a few hints of red in our living room to add some color. I still need to get a few red throw pillows and also some candles to go on my candle holders I got at Hobby Lobby before Christmas. I am sure I will add a few more things to the fireplace, I just don't know what yet because I don't want it to look too cluttered.

Off to London They Go!

This past Wednesday, Jeremy and I took a road trip just for the day to Chicago to see Darci, Kyle, Maggie & Hank before they left on Friday for their move to London. It was a quick trip but we wanted to be sure we saw them before they left. We enjoyed lunch with them and played with the kids while everyone was diligently working packing things up. They had movers there to pack everything and load it on the moving truck and they were amazing. They would carry 2 boxes at a time behind their back. I took a few fun pics while we were there. We are sure going to miss them and can't wait until we can visit them in London and introduce them to their baby cousin!

Maggie loves her Aunt Kim!

Magpie B. on the boxes!

It was so funny, Maggie decided she wanted to do a fashion show, so the cardboard boxes they had on the floor to protect it, we made her runway. And Lady Gaga was on the Ipod at the time and she was singing along....too cute!

Give Hank a computer, laptop, cell phone, anything electronic and he is happy!

Hank also loves his Aunt Kim!

Enjoying the sprinkled donut his Aunt Kim brought him! What more could a little boy want for lunch, pizza, donut, yogurt and berries:) And having a picnic watching his movie!

We tried to pack Maggie up and send her to London but she didn't want to go that way!

Pictures below...this is what it looks like to pack up your whole house and move to London. Some things were going Air and some things will go via Ship.

John and Jan came to stay with us Friday and they received the call from Maggie bright and early Saturday morning that they had made it to London. Maggie was so excited she was in London. So they have made it safe and sound and I hope we can talk to them soon!

Baby Furniture

Today was a very exciting day for us! We made our first big baby purchase. We got the furniture for our nursery. Below is a sneak peak of what we got. We got black furniture, the crib below is exactly what we got (sleigh crib). We got the dresser, but without the hutch part (it will come with a gallery rail, so it will look a little bit different than just a flat dresser. We also got a tall drawer chest that is not pictured. We wanted to get something that will last a long time and this furniture is really nice and sturdy. I will be able to put a changing pad on the dresser and we will have the tall drawer chest for lots of baby clothes:) It will take 6-8 weeks to come in and they were having a sale until the end of Jan so we decided to purchase it now. We will order bedding according to the sex of the baby...when we find that out!

I am also excited that Jeremy's sister gave us a Dutailier glider rocker with glider footstool. I will just purchase a new cusion for it and it will be as good as new. It is a really nice rocker. She also gave us many more baby items such as a brand new jogging stroller which we are excited about as well.

Happy New Year!

Jeremy and I are looking forward to 2010! One reason in particular is WE WILL BE PARENTS!!! Oh how we can't wait for June to get here!!! Only 6 more months:) It will be here before we know it!
2009 was a great year for us. To recap a number of things that took place in 2009...

In January we traveled with friends to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! We can't wait to go back again! It is beautiful there! We had so much fun.

Jeremy had surgery the end of January on his wrist/arm. He got a bone shortened and was out of work for 2 weeks, could not golf, fish, etc for a few months after. He recovered very well.

We found out we were pregnant in January, only to miscarry a few weeks later. It was a very traumatizing experience but we got through it and now we are expecting our bundle of joy in June! Can't wait!f

Jeremy applied for his first ever Principal job. He interviewed at 2 schools only to find out that both schools wanted him. He went with his gut on the better choice and here we are, in Gibson City, Illinois. He is Principal of GCMS Middle School and didn't think twice about his choice. So far the community has been awesome and he loves the school he is at.

With that being said, we had to find a house in district. (Requirement of being a Principal in this school district, you have to live in district) We looked around at houses in town and found nothing we liked so we ended up building a house that we love so much! It is bigger than what we need for right now but we will sure grow into it!

We listed our house for sale in Urbana and with no luck, it still has not sold. The good thing is, for the time being, as of January 1st, we have some good renters to live in it for about 5-6 months. We have taken it off the market for the time being and will relist it in 2 months. We blame it on the economy that it has not sold as it is a very nice house and Jeremy was the original owner.

I received a promotion at work as well. I became a Proposal Coordinator in the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My job consists of reviewing research proposals faculty submit to various agencies to make sure they comply with rules and regulations, follow guidelines, that the budgets are accurate, and I submit the proposals on behalf of the faculty.

We traveled to Kalamazoo Michigan and visited our friends Sean & Tiffany. They have since welcomed their new little guy Luke, whom we are dying to meet! We had a great time visiting wineries and just hanging out at their house. They have since moved back to Iowa, which we hope to visit them in Iowa soon!

I tured 32 and Jeremy turned 35 in 2009!

We visited our niece and nephew Maggie and Hank in Chicago a few times. Along with their parents Darci & Kyle. Today, they are flying out to London for a 3 year move. We can't wait to go visit them in London and introduce them to their new baby cousin!

We attended Illinois Football games as we got our season tickets again this year. I don't have much to say about this since the season was SAD!

We have moved into our new home and have settled in pretty well.

We celebrated the holidays with our families and had a wonderful holiday season. We were extremely spoiled.

Looking back, 2009 was a great year for us. Again, we are incredibly excited for 2010 as we already know we have several things to look forward to!