A case of the Mondays...

I hope you all had a great weekend doing something fun! I hear Iowa got some "white stuff"?!?! Don't feel bad, we got it too:( It rained and snowed all day Sunday...nice day for a lazy afternoon of watching Basketball. Congrats to Michigan State for representing the Big 10 in the Final Four!!! (no...we have not become MSU fans, although our entire neighborhood is flying their flags)

We had a great time in Chicago, although a quick trip, it was so nice seeing the family and some of my girlfriends. Friday night we went out for dinner to celebrate Kate's birthday and then on to her Sibling birthday bash, where we met her parents, twin brother Adam, and sister Erin...such a great family that Bryan is marrying into...I can tell this will be a fun wedding come next May! My friend Carrie even stopped by for a visit, so nice to catch up with her. Saturday morning we went out to brunch before everyone hit the road. While in Chicago, I also attended a baby shower for my dear friend Carly, due May 9th! (Baby Merrick's future buddy) I didn't get to spend much time there but was glad I got to stop by to see her and my friend Sarah, that I hadn't seen in awhile. Sean always tells me I try to do too many things at once, I am starting to agree with him!

This morning I had a doctor appointment to check on Baby Love and measure my expanding waistline! I have never stepped on the scale at the doctors office and "wanted" to see weight gain until now!!! We have a little mover and shaker on our hands. Our little one didn't want to stay in one place very long, however Baby Love cooperated momentarily so they could get the heart rate...150 bpm. My next appointment is scheduled for April 30th, along with another ultrasound. It's crazy to me to think that in 4 1/2 weeks we could find out the gender of our Little One, although tempting, we have decided to for go any gender shots!

Bump tracker: 14 1/2 weeks

more beautiful flowers from our good friend Steve, Christy, Lahana, and Baby Lowe

Happy Birthday to Kate

The Birthday girl Kate, (ninja Kate) from the IA/IL game!

Today is all about celebrating Kate, my future sister-in-law! We are so excited that we are going to get to celebrate and see the birthday girl tonight. Sean and I are heading to Chicago to see most of the fam, minus a few:( It's hard not having everyone together but it really makes us cherish the times when the WHOLE family (which is growing) can get together. Nate is flying in from San Fransisco, actually he arrived last night, to go to a concert with Bryan tomorrow night. Mom and dad will be making the trip to Chicago today to spend the day with Nate. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers, their first time driving downtown Chicago alone!!! It's not that often he is within in a couple of hours so we decided long ago we would make the trip to Chicago to see him. Ironically enough...it just so happens to be Kate's birthday today. Kate and her twin brother Adam, along with their older sister Erin, all have birthdays to celebrate so we are heading to the Jankowski Sibling birthday bash tonight! Should be a great time.

Happy Birthday Kate and Happy Weekend everyone!

Baby Love

We are having a baby! It feels so good to say that...!!! We found out January 13th that we were parents-to-be and feel so completely blessed! We are so excited to finally share our fabulous news with you. During the last three months the toughest part was not sharing the existence of our "Sweet Little One" with all our friends and family. I have to say I have been feeling pretty darn good...knock on wood! There were a couple of weeks where I wasn't feeling so hot and a few occasions I had to leave the OR during surgery because I started getting hot...not a good sign! We always say, the room is not getting hot, you are...so get the heck out! So that is just what I did. I am hoping that I will start to regain some energy as I have been completely whipped the last few months. But all so worth it!

When is our bundle of joy arriving??? Baby Merrick will be making an appearance around September 24th, so I have a feeling I will be sporting lots of dresses this summer!

I am 14 weeks and have had two ultrasounds at this point. I had some early bleeding at 8 weeks so we had an ultrasound at that time, to learn that Baby Merrick was healthy and so was mama!!!! There were a few possible causes of the spotting, but they were not alarmed. I had a scheduled ultrasound for 12 weeks on March 2nd, only to learn that Baby Merrick was measuring about 11 weeks, so you will see below our Baby Love at 11 weeks.

We were finally able to share our news with my parents on Feb 25th and I tortured them by not letting them share their excitement with ANYONE! I felt bad enough keeping it from them as long as we did, but hindsight I am glad we did because I don't think they could have bottled up all their excitement for three months like we did...we just became antisocial, in case anyone was concerned about our lack of communication:)
The Einck Uncles found out a few weeks ago and I am sure if they are anything like my "Einck Uncles" this lucky baby is in for a lifetime of teasing!
Thank you for checking in on us. We are so blessed and we pray that everything continues to go well and we stay healthy.

"God is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine" Ephesians 3:20

A sneak peek of Baby Merrick

BUMP TRACKER

8 weeks

11 weeks, getting a little "thicker" most likely do to the decrease in workouts because of complete exhaustion
12 weeks-the joys of getting to wear scrubs to work on "feeling a bit thick" days

13 weeks

Today I arrived home to these beautiful flowers and balloons from Uncle Mitch and Carlyn! Thank you so much for thinking of us!

Yeah for the weekend!

There is nothing like a relaxing weekend with my two boyz! Last night Sean and I went to our favorite little "supper club" for their Friday night fish special. This is a little country restaurant about 2 miles from our house that we frequent quite a bit. It reminds me of the "Old Rossville Store" for all the Waukon natives, or the Wagon Wheel...do you remember the Wagon Wheel in Ossian?!?!? Wow, I almost forgot about that place!

This morning Gunner and I went for a walk while Sean caught up on work. It was a little chillier than I was expecting but felt so good to get out. This afternoon we are heading to Grand Rapids to do a little shopping...furniture shopping! So we will see what we find:)

Tomorrow evening I am volunteering at our church youth dinner, it's quite an event. Every Sunday during the school year, our parish holds an evening "teem life mass" and dinner to follow. Tomorrow night the theme for dinner is Mexican so we are setting up a taco bar...sounds yummy!

Our next several weekends are going to be quite busy with travels, visitors, Easter, and more travel...so we are enjoying a "low-key" weekend!

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday Sean!

Sean with his Andes mint ice cream birthday cake!!! (yum)

Today is the day to celebrate Sean! Unfortunately Gunner and I will be celebrating without him...we may just have to have a piece of mint ice cream birthday cake in his honor!!! We celebrated his birthday Monday night before he left for Chicago and tonight he gets to celebrate with at the Planetarium in Chicago where the Stryker Reception is being held, lucky him! If you want to send him a birthday message his email is sean.merrick@hotmail.com

Our Boy Gunner (taken with our new camera)

Sean and Gunner (another photography moment with the new camera)

Happy St. Patricks Day

Did you all get to drink some green beer today in celebration of St. Paddy's day??? I will have to say Kalamazoo doesn't kick their heels up too much with festivities for this holiday, not like Waukon does anyway!!! Ironically enough, Sean had to be in Chicago this week for a meeting, how convenient...perfect time to celebrate St. Paddy's day and his birthday in Chicago! If you have never been to Chicago to celebrate it is must do. They throw an amazing party the weekend before the actual holiday and dye the river bright green. While Sean is in Chicago celebrating, Gunner and I are enjoying the amazing Springlike weather. Tonight I actually went over to my friend Erin's for dinner and American Idol, we are both "stryker widows" on a weekly basis so we frequent eachothers company. Back to American Idol...PLEASE tell me you watched it!!!! I am so excited about our Kalamazoo boy, Matt Giraud! His performance tonight was absolutely amazing. My favs this week were once again Matt and Danny Boy, awesome performances. I will have to say Lil Rounds didn't impress me tonight, and sad to say I think "Mr. Oil Rig" Guy will be going home tomorrow night, that is just my guess...what do you think?

Lastly, our good neighbor friends, Mike and Deb Rozewicz welcomed their baby girl into the world today...a little St. Paddy's day Girl. Melina Caprise Rozewicz was born this morning!!! We are so excited to meet our new little neighbor!

March Madness...

Happy Sunday from the Merrick household. I hope you are having a fabulous weekend wherever you are. We have been enjoying an absolutely amazing weekend, weather wise. Gunner has gotten lots of exercise and tons of outdoor attention, which he loves. As I type he is laying by the patio door whining because Sean is outside cleaning the grill and didn't invite Gunner to join him:( We are firing up the grill tonight and I can't wait!!! I love the smell of grilling, it is one of my most favorite smells, along with all the neighbors burning leaves. We have realized that back in Iowa everyone rakes and burns their leaves in Fall, but not in West Michigan. It snows too soon...so today everyone is out and about raking and burning leaves...ahhhh, it smells so good!

We have had a great weekend...Friday evening we went bowling with some friends for Sean's birthday, and I must add that I was the highest bowler with a 148!!! Much different than my wii bowling scores. Saturday, Sean and I ventured out to run some errands and purchased our joint birthday present! We have been shopping for a camera for awhile now and decided it was going to be our gift to eachother for our birthdays in 2009. We were so happy to find a local camera shop downtown Kalamazoo, after spending 3 hours with a camera junkie...we decided on a Canon EOS 50D. Today Sean and I shot over 100 pictures testing out all the different settings and features...I may pick up photography as a side job! (anyone in need???) I will post some of our photography once I figure out how to download them to my computer.

Today is all about Basketball...what am I saying...this weekend has been all about basketball! Let the games begin...The Big 10 is representing quite well this year. Unfortunately my Hawks will not be dancing, however the other half of this household gets to cheer on the Illini.

who ate my english muffin???

So my usual breakfast is an english muffin loaded with peanut butter, I love peanut butter!!! This morning, it was just Gunner and I, so we were hanging out on the living room floor. He was laying all snuggled up next to me while I was on my laptop responding to email before I left for the day. I had my glass of OJ and english muffin on the coffee table and was savoring every last bite of my peanut butter, I mean english muffin with PB. In the meantime, my phone was ringing in our office so I got up and ran to the phone. I sat in the office for a good 10-15 minutes talking with one of my surgeons and came back to the living room to find...no english muffin!!! I walked back to the office, through the kitchen, I even went to the bedroom...wondering where the heck is my english muffin, and had I lost my mind! I walked back to the living room to find the paper towel laying on the floor next to Gunner and he was licking his chomps like crazy...I mean going to town! I busted out laughing...Gunner stole my peanut butter/english muffin!!! He has never ever done this before, but has become quite the scavenger in his old age. The next 20 minutes he kept licking and licking and licking...he was going to pay for it all day...you do not eat my peanut butter english muffin! I still laugh thinking about it...he probably thought he died and went to heaven. I can just see him slowly creeping towards the coffee table, sniffing away, and finally snatching up my breakfast!

traveling man...

So much for planning a birthday party for Sean...
Sean's birthday is next Wednesday, March 18th, unfortunately this will be the first year I don't get to celebrate with him on his actual birthday. Sean has to be in Chicago next week for a nurses convention, ironically over St. Paddy's day and his birthday! I decided to arrange a birthday dinner for him tomorrow night with a few friends. We planned to go out for dinner and bowling afterwards, sounds like fun, right?!?! Well things don't always go as planned, as I have learned...Sean found out today he had to fly to North Carolina tonight, yes he found out at 9 this morning he was catching a plane at 7 pm!!! Apparently there is a meeting scheduled tomorrow with the Anesthesia department at Duke University that Sean needs to attend. Needless to say my birthday party plans for him went down the tank:(
Our friends are such good sports they still want to go bowling...so at least we can celebrate a little bit.
How about you, any big plans for the weekend? I know lots of people are celebrating St. Paddy's day this weekend...sounds fun! The last two years we have celebrated in Chicago, what a place to be for St. Patrick's day...even if you aren't Irish!
I am hopeful that Spring will be springing soon enough. I am pretty positive I completely jinxed myself in a previous post...it has not felt the least bit like Spring! I woke up this morning to a nice white dusting all over our yard and driveway, not exactly what I was hoping for.

Have a great weekend!

American Idol & San Fransisco

Big night tonight on American Idol, if you aren't watching already...you should start! They are down to the top 13, Matt Giraud, Kalamazoo local is one of the finalists and is one of the best. I will have to add that I am also a big fan of Lil and Danny. Who is your favorite??? Did anyone see Dancing with the Stars last night? I am normally not a fan, but Iowa's Shawn Johnson is dancing, as well as Melissa from the Bachelor. How do I seem to get sucked into all these TV shows??? I am blaming the gloomy, dark, never ending rain and snow on my recent TV addiction:) Fair enough.



I am so excited...Sean and I just booked our trip to San Fran!!!! We are heading West May 14th- to visit Nate...I can hardly wait! Sean and I took a trip to Wine Country a few years ago but never had much time to spend in San Fransisco, so hopefully we can do a little of both while visiting Nate. Two months and counting...

rain, rain, go away...

I hope you are enjoying the sunshine somewhere! We were so blessed with a couple of really awesome days, sunny and in the 60s...of course during the week while we both have to work. The weekend brought plenty of rain (and even some thunder) to melt the last couple of piles of snow in our backyard...does this mean Spring is springing???? I sure hope so!
Today, I, NO we in this, I did a deep deep clean on the house, haven't gotten to the closets yet. I don't want to jinx myself by putting the sweaters away and calling out for the spring/summer clothes. We will save that for another rainy day. We are heading over to our neighbors this afternoon for a little visit. Tomorrow is her due date and she is impatiently waiting for Baby Roz to join the rest of the world. They just finished getting their nursery together so we are going to check it out and bring some warm chocolate chip cookies!!!
One last thing...Who is watching American Idol??? How about our Kalamazoo Boy representing?!?!?! Sean and I have actually heard him play and sing, he performs at a dueling piano bar downtown Kalamazoo, Monaco Bay! Not that I am biased or anything, but I think he might be the BEST!!!! If you aren't watching it now, you need to start!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and send the sunshine our way!

all about Gunner

Gunner has had quite a fun couple of days! Yesterday he got to play with the two little neighbor girls, Madison and Caitlyn. I watched the girls for my friend Carrie while she went and got her haircut yesterday. I offered to go to their house and when I arrived, the girls really wanted to go to "Gunner's house". I brought the girls over and we had a great deal of fun. They loved running with Gunner in the basement and playing hide and seek upstairs. Madison, who just turned 5, couldn't figure out why we had three beds upstairs and nobody to sleep in them, she asked if we have a lot of guests?!?! It amazes me what kids think...

The girls loved chasing Gunner in the basement

Today was a nice day in West Michigan...the sun was shining and it was a whopping 40 degrees!!! Gunner and I took full advantage of the warmer weather and went for a nice walk through the neighborhood and played some ball when I got home from work. He was so funny, he found one small pile of snow left in our front yard and decided it was more fun to lay in it and eat snow than play ball.

The Bachelor

Can you believe the Bachelor??? I was glued to the TV last night for the entire three hour duration and am all set for another eventful night. Not that my opinion matters, but I had planned to boycott the show after he let Jillian go, I was her biggest fan. I fell in love with Jillian for him on their first one on one date. I was so bummed when he let her go that I told myself I would boycott the show...that is until my US weekly showed up on the mail this weekend and gave a little insight on the "change of heart"! Let me just say I was really disappointed on how the whole thing played out. I think Jason was wrong for agreeing to announce the break-up and his feelings for Molly on National television. He did say in the Jimmy Kimmel Live show (which took place after the "After the Final Rose", and he said that their relationship was over before he and Melissa went on the show and he was tied to the contract to end it on the show. Which is where my problem stands. With all do respect he owed it to Melissa to have that conversation in private, off the air...what television will do to get the viewers. I never was a big fan of Melissa, but I did feel absolutely horrible for her last night. Can I just say, I am SO glad I NEVER have to go through the dating scene again!!!! I love going on dates with my husband!

Home Sweet Home

We are both back from a crazy busy week in Las Vegas. Sean managed to find time to enjoy one of his favorite extracurricular activities which includes cards, money, dealers, and more money! This activity is a sore subject in the Merrick household, however I am happy to say at least he came out ahead.
I was so happy to get home to Gunner, he was such a good boy for Erin. They took walks and played lots of frisbee...I forgot to warn Erin that Gunner doesn't like to "release" the frisbee, he tends to be quite the tease. The temperatures actually got into the 40s while we were gone and rained most of Thursday so the snow we received last weekend has almost all melted...Hooray!!!! Spring might be just around the corner. Can you believe it is March already??? We have lots of birthdays to celebrate this month, Carlyn on the 8th, Sean is the 18th, and Kate's is on the 27th. We are also getting an unexpected visit from Nate!!! He is flying into Chicago later in the month to go to a concert with Bryan, we are SO excited to see him!

We have had a very lazy weekend, one that included catching up on sleep, lounging with our furry child, and a dreaded trip to the grocery store...I will be dragging Sean along for this chore so I don't hear the complaining of "there is nothing in this house to eat"!

Happy Sunday to you all and have a great week!