St. Patty's day is my new favorite holiday!

I will be coming to Columbus on March 17th (St. Patty's Day) and staying the weekend.  I hope that works with people's schedules and I can feast my eyes upon all of you for at least a little while.

Love you guys!

Maria R

Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Hello ladies!

I am finding myself to be in a much improved mood lately due to the weather. It has been above freezing and sunny for the last couple of days. For at least part of the day, Nick read an article that said Syracuse hasn't had a precipitation free day since September. I felt like I was being a little dramatic by feeling so down about the weather until I was informed that we have gotten over 12 feet of snow this winter, the only place to come close in both the Mid-West and New England areas is a town bordering Canada in Norther Michigan, and we still have them beat by a foot or so. But what I have noticed as a really nice thing around here is that when it is nice outside, even if it's only for a few hours, everyone is really cheerful. Also, what I hear from the locals, is that they celebrate summer in style, festivals and concerts and fun things to do. One more reason to look forward to summer!

Kev and I went to the doctor on Monday. It was just a quick check up, but much anticipated. A month ago when we were at the doctors we had sort of a unpleasant experience. The PA tried to find the baby's heartbeat, but couldn't. And while that was disappointing to me the PA told us that it was really no big deal, sometimes you can't find the heartbeat at 13 weeks without an ultrasound. She then told us she didn't want us to worry for the next 4 weeks that something was wrong, so she squeezed us in for an ultrasound. While having the ultrasound the technician kept exclaiming things like "oh no" and "that's not right" and asked me if I had a double uterus. Basically she was just putting us on edge, when we could hear the baby's heartbeat and see it moving around frantically like a healthy little fetus on the screen. She ended the ultrasound by telling me I had a titled uterus and a folded cervix (I am really sorry if you feel like you could go the rest of your life without knowing the details of my anatomy like this). The titled uterus I had heard of, and found out shortly after that my Mom, and about 1 out of 5 women, have this condition. What I couldn't find any information on was a folded cervix. I told a few of you this but when you google folded cervix, you get scientific articles on the folded cervix of sheep and dolphins and also links to incestuous pornography. But after talking to many of the brilliant women in my life about this strange experience, I took their advice and tried not to worry. If something was wrong, someone other than a ultrasound technician would speak to me.

So when we went to see the PA my first two questions were about my titled uterus and my folded cervix. She told me the first is nothing to be concerned about, it's just the way my body is and it shouldn't have any affect on labor. But with the second abnormality she looked at me and said, " I have no idea what that is." After going and talking to the technician the PA let us know that the tech meant by her commentary is that my cervix looked folded from a certain angle. So yeah, there is more I want to say about that and the tech in particular, but it's done and now I know that there is nothing wrong with my lady parts.

This time when the PA looked for the heart beat, as soon as she put the little scope-thing (Sorry MJ, my medical terminology must be just as annoying as the ultrasound tech) to my stomach we heard it loud and clear. Our next appointment is in three weeks when I am 20 weeks (half way!) for the big ultrasound where we can see the sex. At first I thought I would want to know the baby's gender before it was born, but then Kev talked me into waiting. And now that it is right around the corner we are both tempted to just find out what it is. Like anything, there are pros and cons to finding out the gender or waiting. I think the thing that resinates the most with us is that we are most excited to see the baby, regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. And waiting until it's born, we won't have any preconceived notion of it at all. It won't have a pink or blue room, or tutus or trucks, before it has even taken a breath. I think it seems like the first step in letting our child just be itself. I recognize that actually isn't the most rational thought process, because as soon as it's born I will most likely buy it clothes and toys according to it's gender, but my gut feeling is that it would be best to wait. What do you guys think about the whole thing? Do you think you'll find out the gender when you choose to get pregnant?

Sorry that was baby-talk overload! I miss you guys and love hearing what you are all up to! Hope everyone is well and I will talk to you soon!

Maria R

New in 2011

Hello loves!

Hope the holidays treated everyone well. Also hope you're all well rested now. I've been up to Columbus a few times for work, and now I get to see Erin when I go! Working from home is still an adjustment, but now that the sun is shining here and the days are getting longer I have a feeling that might help a lot. Alex is studying to get his FE (first step in becoming a professional engineer) so that's been keeping him busy every night. The test is the first weekend in April so there will be a little more suffering for both of us... We play in a dodgeball league on Tuesday nights with our new friends. That's been super fun and a great way to get out of the house.

Speaking of new friends, it seems like we're starting to get a group of friends that would like to adopt us and call us their own. We're heading to Maryland this weekend to stay at one of their cabins and ski! I'm so excited to be included and just get away on an impromptu trip (Did I mention their dad is the VP of Sales for North America of Alex's company? Crazy...)

Once spring hits we might start looking for a house, but haven't decided for sure. Alex is drooling over the thought of buying a house, or a rental property (investment property). I see the real estate industry in our future. We've even been talking a little bit about starting our own business... it's definitely exciting to have someone like Alex to dream big with!

So at some point I decided I wasn't busy enough and I started another blog... and another one.. and another one. Here's how it all started... Mid-December I started officially working from home. My role was changing due to my promotion and also due to working remotely, and I found myself doing more research about human resources topics. I basically wanted to find out how you keep current on this particular subject (really it's hundreds of subjects). I'm still searching for the answer, and I find more and more resources all the time.

As I started finding these interesting articles and factoids I wanted to share them. However, now that I was no longer in the office I couldn't turn around and say "Hey Rachel, listen to this..." In my quest to feel heard and not over take my coworkers inboxes I created a blog as an outlet for this! It's called http://www.ponderinghc.blogspot.com/ (Human Capital is basically a newer term for Human Resources.. .)anyways... give it a read if you're ever feeling bored without a book or a magazine! (The posts don't necessarily relate to what I do on a day to day basis).

The second blog stemmed off of this. Somehow I became the person on our HR team that everyone asked the "technical questions." I'm not "technically" technical, but I went with it! So my second blog, http://www.lpjtidbits.blogspot.com/ is all about the little shortcuts and how-to's that I learn or am asked by others. This blog would probably REALLY bore you, so I wouldn't recommend reading it.. although I will be doing some blog posts about what's happening with Skype and LinkedIn, which most people have heard of! Mostly it's a place for me to dump info. Otherwise my brain gets crowded since I have no verbal release. I love to solve problems and figure out how to do things faster and more efficently. (I also love knowing how to do things that other people don't hahah).

The third blog is a blog about Alex and I. I'm hoping to use it to write about our food adventures, travel adventues and eventually life updates like buying a house, getting a dog or having a baby (how are you doing over there Maria?). I love facebook, but it's not really a place I would like to write personal details about our lives so here's the blog... http://www.alexandlauren.blogspot.com/  There's a good recipe for Swedish cheesecake if you need a simple dessert to throw together! I have lots more recipes to post about too.

Anyways, I'm not sure what prompted me to start all these but I've got lots of blog posts to do and lots of book to read as well! It turns out I love to read and write. (Actually I already knew this, it's just been a while since I didn't have mandatory reading and writing for school!).

I just read the second book by the author of Eat Pray Love, called Committed. I would definitely recommend that all of you read it. It's a narrative about her life, but it also talks about the history of relationships and marriage. I learned so many interesting things.

I'm about to start a book with Karleya about a little boy that saw heaven (I got chills just from reading the description, check out the link). Is anyone else reading any good books lately?

Maria R mentioned maybe coming to Columbus in March sometime. I just wondered if there were any more updates on potential dates so I can try to get a reunion on my calendar! I'll already be up there a couple days for work, so hopefully I can make that align. I've seen a couple of you recently, but I want updates from everyone! I just can't believe how time flies.. It feels like we graduated an eternity ago.

Sorry for the SUPER long blog. Apparently I was in a "chatty" mood : )

Love you all. I hope you enjoy your Valentine's Days! It might be a cheesy holiday, but it's a great reminder to tell our friends and family that we love them. Which reminds me, gotta get my grandparent's vday cards in the mail! If anyone likes to write letters (legit, handwritten ones in the mail) I would love to have a pen pal or two!

Lauren