Birthday Time!!!

I turn 32 on Saturday, and Eric turns 34 next Wednesday! Yay for birthday time!!! I'm off tomorrow, and spending the day with my boys. We are doing some shopping and hanging out, and I can't wait. On Saturday, we are going to a farm outside Charlotte for a hay ride, pumpkin picking, and an all around good time. I'm super excited for that. We are going with our life group from church. We got plugged in with a life group about one month ago. So far there are four couples, all with young kids. We've really enjoyed it so far.

Sunday is actually a celebration of my friend Jill's 30th birthday, which means brunch and the spa with my besties.

We don't have any plans yet for Eric's actual birthday, but I hope to make his favorite ribs in the crock pot.

Next Saturday, we are going to Asheville (ALONE) to celebrate our big days! My Mom is coming to Charlotte to watch the boys for the night while we get a night away. And on Sunday, we'll spend the day at the Grove Park Inn Spa. I'm beyond happy. I can't wait to sleep. And have an amazing massage with my hubby.

So, that's what's going on with us. Busy busy!

Charlotte Fun

Last weekend, we went to the Panthers vs Bills game for Eric's birthday. It was such a fun weekend. We got to stay with our close friends Jill and Tony, and go to dinner Saturday night with a big group of our friends. Can't wait to go back to Charlotte! Here are pics from the game.

Oh yeah baby, that is a BUFFALO wing on that guys head. That may have been the coolest hat ever.

We parked near our old neighborhood, and took the train uptown. It was packed, which is very normal for a game day. I love taking the train. You can see the skyline in the distance. Those strange orange things are "art" that taxpayers money paid for. Evidence that the politicians in Charlotte aren't very smart either.
The Bills side, right before the game got started.
We figured out why our seats were cheap. You see that concrete behind us? Yep, you guessed it. We were on the VERY top row. We were also in the visitors section, but that worked out *lovely* since we were there to cheer for the visiting team.
The three minutes of sunshine the entire day. I love the Charlotte skyline. Even if we don't ever move back, that city will always have such a special place in my heart!!!
This as we were walking down the ramp, leaving the stadium. The sky was hot pink and gorgeous.

A rainy Friday night

It started raining last night, and there isn't an end in sight. What a storm this is. I think they are calling it a noreaster. Not really sure what that means though. I worked til this evening, then came home for dinner and an early bedtime. However, first I had to watch ER and Grey's. They killed Pratt off of ER, and I just have to admit that I bawled like a baby. I'm not joking. Eric walked in the den, and I was almost crying hysterically, with big old crocodile tears running down my face. Dang preggo hormones. I was slightly disappointed with the season premeire of Grey's. It was okay, but didn't really keep my attention. That could be the hormones as well.

Eric got the chair rail up in the nursery today, and it looks really good. He's such a great husband- very handy! I bought some drawer liner, and may start putting that in the dresser and chest of drawers tomorrow. I'm on call from 6:30am Sat morning until 6:30am Sun morning, so my productivity level depends on how busy the hospital is. Hopefully the rain will keep people indoors. At the same time, I'd love to get called in at least once for some $$$.

We are running severely low on gas in Charlotte. Lines are over an hour long, IF you can find a station with gas. If morons with 3/4 tank weren't "topping off", it wouldn't be such an issue. My jeep is out almost- the light is on. Eric still has almost a full tank, so we'll be using his car for awhile. We're hoping the situation is resolved before his car gets low. We don't have any plans really this weekend, especially since I'm on call and it's raining for days. I do have a massage scheduled for Sunday, and I'm quite happy about that. My hips and back hurt. I hope I have the gas to get there:-)

Well, Eric is headed outside to get in the hot tub, and I may join him. It depends on how hard it's raining right now. Have a good weekend!

Bonjorno!

I caught Eric off guard with this once, b/c it's the only way he'll take a picture!
The above pic is the Roman Forum in the background.


Hello from Civitevicchia Italy! I am sure I’m not spelling this stuff right, and I can assure you I don’t pronounce it like the Italians! The Italian language is just beautiful. We are on board the ship, and set sail at 7pm tonight. I’ve heard the muster drill is a real bitch, since they do it in five different languages. I’m going to pull the pregnant and invalid card, and ask to sit during it. If they tell me no, I’ll just pretend to faint.....that’ll get me a chair!!! I scared Eric this morning b/c I slipped on the marble steps leaving our hotel. Fortunately all the weight I’ve gained padded my big butt, and I fell right on it. It scared us both, but once I realized I was fine, it became quite hilarious.

We were happy to have a long layover in Boston, b/c we had to leave the terminal and go through ticketing/security AGAIN for the international terminal. We weren’t expecting that, so we were SO thankful to have the long layover. The 8 hour flight wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. We both slept a couple of hours, so that was better than nothing. We got to Roma at 8am, met our driver, and headed to our hotel. We stayed at a place called Suite Dreams, near Termini station. Very nice hotel, would highly recommend it. Anyhow, they had our room ready by 10:15am, b/c I had sent an email ahead of time telling them I was knocked up, and would want to rest upon arrival. It’s a small family-owned hotel, and the girl checking us in immediately recognized our name, and jumped up to see my belly. I was the famous pregnant girl. Very nice people! We got our nap on, then went for our segway tour. We missed it b/c 1-I was starving, 2- I had to pee, and 3- the directions were HORRIBLE!!! Oh well, the place we thought it was supposed to start at was right at most of the ruins, so we just started walking. We saw the forum and colisseum, plus a bunch of stuff I don’t know the names of. We had lunch at a fabulous little diner across from the Colisseum, where I had the most amazing lemon sorbet of my life. Delish!!!

After all that walking, we went back to the hotel for another nap. ( Are you seeing a pattern here?)
Friday night we got up in search of dinner. We walked to Trevi Fountain, then over to the spanish steps. From there, we found a great little place a few streets back, and the food was amazing. Very authentic place. I could not believe the amount of food my husband consumed.....I thinks that he thinks he’s italian now!

Saturday morning we got up, and had reservations for the Vatican tour at 9:15. We met our guide named Max, then started at the Vatican Museums. That place goes on and on, and honestly I got a little bored. Plus, there is no AC, and you have to stand/walk the whole time. Eric could tell I was starting to feel a little crappy, so we ditched the tour group and went on our own. Much better! We flew through the rest of the Musuem and old pope quarters, and went to the Sistine Chapel. It is amazing and beautiful, but it felt a little anticlimactic. We did learn a lot though, so we understood alot of the paintings. Another nice lady felt sorry for preggo Nikki, and made room for me to sit in the chapel. We only stayed a bit, then headed out for St. Peters. I was the most impressed with that. It is huge; I can’t even begin to explain how big this cathedral is. I was kinda missing our guide then, b/c there was some stuff people were doing that I had questions about. What I really needed was my SIL Dianna, b/c she is my answer to all things Catholic. The big square was impressive in front of the Cathedral....it’s the one anyone would recognize as Vatican City. We sent one big postcard to all my little cousins from there, b/c our guide had informed us the Italian post office is corrupt. He said they throw away about 90% of postcards, once they make the money from the stamps. However, being that the Vatican has it’s own post office, and is holy and all....they actually send your postcards. Hope they get it!

Well, I gotta get going, but will continue on another time. Blogging is a great way to keep a travel journal!

BTW, can someone in my family comment and let me know how things are with all the hurricanes? I hope you are all safe!

Rome day 2

We are completely exhausted after spending hours at Vatican City this morning. It's after 3pm here, and we're going to take a nap. :-)

Tonight we have no plans other than finding a fabulous place to stuff ourselves at. Food is EXPENSIVE here!!! We are excited to get on the ship tomorrow!

Beach trip July 2008

Eric and I returned from a few days down at the beach on yesterday! It was quite relaxing (for me) and I finally don't look like Casper the ghost. Eric hates being away from work, so he can't really relax. He should really get a life! I remembered why I don't often make it down to the beach- it's a 4-5 hour drive! Really long time to be in a car. I took lots of pics my last few days there, a couple are below.

My angel on the beach....this is Linus; Lucy was sick and had to stay home with Aunt Emily. Linus is a "Groodle", and Goldendoodle. He's a cross b/t a Golden Retriever and a standard poodle. He is a mommies boy, and SO sweet. I love him!

My cousin put her two adorable little girls in white dresses for some cute pics on the beach. And since photography is my hobby, that was right up my alley to tag along. Here is a cute one...

I'm thinking maybe I should've turned this before downloading it on blogger. I've still got quite a bit to learn about blogging! These are my two cute cousins!
Again, not turned...but GEEZ....I look huge from the side. Thankfully, I haven't gained any weight. Peculiar since I'm ALOT bigger, but I'll take the no weight gain. I'm loving the scale right now!

Me and my DH on the beach...see, I don't look that big here!