Cinco de Mayo and telling our families

So, the day we found out we were preggers it was my friend Kelly's birthday, baby Liam was born, baby Tanner was born, Terry found out he pass the Bar and probably a million other things but Cinco de Mayo was special to us because we found out our family of 4 was going to expand to a family of 5 (you gotta count the dogs in that mix, I mean we do treat them like our children). I found out when I went to the doctor earlier in the day to have blood drawn for something different. They wanted me to take a pregnancy test beforehand, just in case. I told the nurse it is going to come out negative so we just stared at it and waited. I asked her what we were looking for and she said 2 lines, I took a peak, shoved her out of the way and I mean shoved, looked at her with wide eyes (and we all know my eyes can get wide) and she said "congratulations, you are pregnant". I stood there with my mouth open for what seemed like an eternity and just smiled, freaked out a little, hugged the nurse, hugged the PA next to me and high fived some random person checking out. I had it so set in my mind that it would take us a while to get pregnant from those details I am sparing you from but low and behold it didn't take long. Of course I could not go back to work that day so I raced home after telling the parking attendant and the cop I was prego and of course telling myself over and over again in my car. I wouldn't let myself call anyone on the way home because I would spill the beans. I rushed inside, told the dogs - they were so excited, and wrapped my prego test up and waited for Danny to get home. He walked in the door and I rushed to him which I am sure he thought was weird, handed him the present, which I am sure he thought was weird and just smiled, which I am sure he was like what is wrong with you. He opened the present looked at me not quite knowing what that thing was but knew 2 lines could only mean one thing so he just smiled, asked if I was serious! I started crying, he started crying, manly tears of course and we on our way to being excited and freaking out. He of course had been ready for babies for a couple years it was me giving the push back so you can imagine the excitement.

Moving on to how we told our parents. Mother's Day just happened to be the next weekend after we found out. We debated on whether we should tell anyone because we were so early, only 6 weeks. After we got my blood results back we found out my levels were not progressing the way they should which could mean my body was possibly getting ready for a miscarriage so as you can imagine we were on the fence(now my levels are completely fine by the way, it was only in the beginning). So, we debated and we debated some more and then said who are we kidding we can't keep this a secret from our families. It was HUGE news! So we told them. We wrote them cards talking about how great they are and then signed the cards: love, Lauren, Danny and baby on the way......I am sure you can imagine what went on from there. There is a short video in case you want to watch the reactions. :) Afterward I must have watched this over and over again because it made me so happy, especially when I was not feeling so hot in those first couple of weeks.

Untitled from Lauren Struzick on Vimeo.

Anything missing???

Yep, you would be right if you said 4 tires. It was so nice of someone to start our week off right. Danny woke me up this morning at 6:15am to say that he couldn't go to work because he had no tires. In my sleepy state I just kind of rolled over and reached my hand up to touch his face to make sure he was real and not in my dream, low and behold my husband was real and was really telling me that his tires were stolen last night. He said he was going to call the insurance agency and make a police report so I felt that was good enough so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. :) Not for long though, once I really realized this was really, really, real I woke up and went outside to document everything, texted a couple people and then got ready for work. Crazy morning! Danny worked from home this morning while getting everything straightened out with the insurance, the popo (police for you that don't speak gangster), and the neighborhood watch lady. Around noon the tow truck came to get his car and off it went. In the meantime Danny gets to drive around in this beast! Watch out people we've got a hottie in a box!



Let me point out that the thieves were nice enough to put rocks under the truck so it wouldn't completely ruin the truck. They were so nice to do that so when we buy the new tires they can just steal them all over again. They better guess again, you don't mess with a pregnant lady! Bring it!!!

In other news, the dogs are doing great, went to the beach for the first time this past weekend. That post will come later this week and the baby is just-a-growin. Baby S is the size of a lemon now, which I am not sure is larger than a peach but who am I do disagree with thebump.com. :)

Hope you all had a better Monday that we did.

In case you haven't heard....

Danny and I are expecting our first BABY! We are so excited and really can't believe it, I mean we can cause we are, but you know what I mean. It's crazy to have this little person moving around in my belly. I am currently 13 weeks along. We had a little scare last week but everything turned out ok. The good thing that came from it was that we got to see the little one. On all the earlier ultrasounds we saw a little bean at 4 weeks and then grew to what looked like a little lizard at 8 weeks and now it has formed into the shape of a baby at 12 weeks. It was moving around like crazy, kicking its feet and waiving its arms. We also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time which was so surreal. It was beating 173 beats per minute. Anyway, I am going to try and post at least once a week to show updates and pictures of my growing belly.

You can see that my belly has a slight bump. Let's be honest, when girls take pictures we automatically suck in, well, this little bump is only going to grow so I better get used to it. :) Also, please excuse my no make up and hair up, I was swimming all day.


Right now baby S is the size of a peach.


Here are some questions that I have seen on other blogs that will get updated each time I post a preggers entry.
how far along? 13 weeks 1 day
how are you measuring? Don't know, haven't measured the belly yet
size of baby? According to thebump.com our baby is 2.9 inches long and .81 oz, the size of a peach
heartbeat? 173 bpm (at our 12.5 week appointment)
total weight gain/loss? + 1 lb
maternity clothes? Not yet but I got a whole bunch from my friend Candace! Pants are getting tighter though so it is only a matter of time.
stretch marks? No, and I am praying they don't come
sleep? OMG can I just tell you that I pee ALL THE TIME! I get up about 2 times every night. That is supposed to subside in the second trimester so we will see.
best moment this week? Hearing the heartbeat and seeing it move!!!
movement? I think the little thing might have ADHD because it was moving like crazy in the ultrasound but I can't feel anything yet.
food cravings? I don't think so. If it is anything I crave fruit.
gender predictions? Don't know. The Chinese calendar thing says we are having a boy but the heart beat predicts a girl
what i miss? Sleeping through a whole night, Diet Dr. Pepper, COFFEE. I am a real big coffee drinker and it has been though not having it every morning. I could do decaf but what is the point.
what i'm looking forward to? Watching my belly grow
how are you feeling? I'm really feeling great now. There were a couple weeks in the first trimester that were a bit rough but now all is good.

Anthony Benedetto

That is who we saw in concert last night - TONY BENNETT! He was amazing. Let me back up a little and tell you why we went. Jenna became obsessed with him a couple years ago and we found out that my Grandma and Grandpa had their first date at a Tony Bennett concert. So my parents found out he was coming to Jones Hall and bought some tickets to surprise my Grandma with. She was so excited when she found out where she was going. It was perfect, minus the fact that Jenna couldn't come into town - we missed you J. OK so moving onto the concert. Tony has still got it! 85 years old and he was still doing turns, rockin some dance moves and of course he's still got his pipes. He sang a song with no instruments and it was phenomenal. Now, let me tell you his musicians were just as entertaining to watch. They had some amazing talent. We were all bouncing around in our seats and clapping our hands to the music. All in all we had a great night.

Playing catch up

So, I do realize that it has been forever since the last post but I say that every time so I will just move on. You know I am sorry – right?!? A lot has happened since November: Thanksgiving, Christmas, a fun family tailgate at the A&M and Baylor football game, New Year’s, our 4 year wedding anniversary, Valentine’s Day, my 27th birthday and so much more. The biggest thing though was our vacation! The last post I wrote said that we booked a trip to Germany and Prague well since then we have gone and come back. I did keep a journal while I was there for each day but I will spare you the specifics. I will tell you a little bit about each city we visited.

We started off in Munich. It started out with just 4 of us (Katie, Josh, Danny and myself). We arrive in Munich at 7am on a Thursday, found our way to the hotel where we hiked 5 floors to get to our room because the elevator was only meant for the skinniest person in the world and of course I needed to walk up stairs every night after walking all.day.long. All joking aside it was nice and I probably did need the extra walking with all the German food that we ate. Those people do not eat light, they are all about the potatoes, bread and meat. Anyway, let me get to what we did in Munich. When we first got there we went on Third Reich tour where we pretty much walked the entirety of Munich in two hours. This was interesting but I don’t remember very much because I was pretty much a zombie from the plane ride that I was unable to sleep on. That afternoon we discovered the Hofbrauhaus, which Danny was pee his pants excited about! They had an um-pa band and all, it was pretty great, food was good, beer was great but the people watching….oh the people watching was fantastic. The next day we rented a car and drove just outside of Munich to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Now that was an experience that I will never forget, gives me chills just thinking about it. After that we came back and just finished walking around Munich and taking in the town.




Next we drove a couple hours to Schwangau, home to the famous Neuschwanstein castle (aka Cinderella castle). This was by far the best hotel that we stayed in, it had a spa and everything. We were hoping for a bit more snow so we could go sledding but unfortunately, the snow was mostly gone. There was still one ski slope open but we just didn’t have time. The castle is only 1/3 of the way complete, King Ludwig dies before it was done and no one has ever finished it. It was by far the most ornate castle I have ever seen.


We left there and headed to Oberusol, home of the Frankfurt International School and our friend Kelsey who just so happens to teach there. This is where Erin and Justin joined us and now it is a trip of 7. Kelsey showed us around the town, her apt and the school. We had the most AMAZING meal that night, I still have dreams about it, it was that good! Don’t worry there is a picture of it below. I don’t remember what it was but man, yummy! From here the 6 of us took a couple day trips while Kelsey had to work. The first day we went to Rothenburg (aka the Christmas town). This was one of the few cities that did not get destroyed in WWII. Everything is so old and quaint there. I LOVE this town. We pretty much shopped til we dropped here for everything Christmas. We weren’t allowed to take any pics in the actual Christmas shop which was very sad because it was amazing. That night we went on the Nightwatchmen Tour which was informative and quite humorous.





Next we headed to Rudesheim where we were hoping to do a lot of wine tasting. Unfortunately, when we arrived we found out that we had to make reservations so were just able to go to one winery as well as a brandy distillery (??? Don’t know what you call those places). It was interesting and fun. But just a warning, if you ever go there they have town bells that pretty much ring constantly. They sound really pretty but they just keep going and going and going, kinda like the energizer bunny.



It was time to make the party of 6 into a party of 7 and head out to Prague. We woke up uber early, took a couple trains, saw a guy get arrested in our train car, sprinted to the bus that we almost missed (side note: don’t make Germans mad or get them off their bus schedule, it is bad news) and arrived in Prague, in the rain, with no idea how to get to our hotel. Once we found our hotel we ventured out into the romantic town. We headed to the town square to start off where there is all kinds of delicious food vendors, fun crafty vendors, etc. There was a crazy old, pointy church in the middle which was so pretty. We saw the astronomical clock which was pretty cool, crazy that people were able to create something like that hundreds of years ago. We tried to go to the Jewish Quarter but by the time we arrived everything was closing so we will have to do that next time. We did make it out to the Prague Castle where it snowed on us for about 15 minutes. It was huge! We decided to walk back over the Charles Bridge had such pretty views of the city. There were all kinds of bands and vendors lining the bridge which made it a lot of fun to walk around. We finished it off by having dinner at Hard Rock Café. I know, I know, you are thinking “why would have American food in Prague when you can have it anytime you want when you are home” I will tell you that we did try Czech food and we were not fans.





Before you knew it, it was time to part ways again and the party of 7 became a party of 2. Danny and I stayed while everyone else went back to the good old USofA. We flew to Frankfurt and stayed there. It was so nice because it was time for us to unwind and talk about everything that we had done and see thus far. We took the train to the shopping area and just walked around. The weather was great that day and everyone was out. After walking around the town and in the shops we ended up going to the roof of the “mall” where you can sit outside and drink coffee and just look out over the town. It was soooo nice. We then found this great place and ate dinner. You walk in, grab a card that looks like a credit card, stand in line and order your own pasta where they make it in front of you. They then swipe the card, give you your meal and you sit down and eat. There are different potted herbs where you just grab some and put it in our pasta or pizza. So fresh and so yummy!




Then it was over. It was a great trip. It was really nice to be able to visit with Kelsey and see where she lived and the places that she went all the time. Bad news for Danny though, now I totally have the travel bug. I am trying to convince him to go to Italy in the fall if anyone is interested let me know…..

October

Man oh man. So much has gone on since I last posted, which seems to be the case every time I post. Let me start with the beginning of October, which just so happened to be the hubs birthday. I had it all planned out. Danny was going to think he was going fishing with a buddy for the weekend and he would come home early Friday and open the door and surprise it wasn’t going to be Danny and a friend it was just going to be us. Well, that is pretty much how it went. He came home and I left a note on the door explaining the surprise and then he came in with this look of “wait, I am confused/I am way excited”. We went up to the hill country and stayed in a nice little B&B and then we had a guided fly fishing trip the next day on the Guadalupe River. It was a perfect weekend! Fly fishing is much harder than normal fishing or at least you have to constantly think you can’t just turn your brain off like you can with “normal” fishing. It was a successful trip, Danny caught 2 trout, some sunfish and a mino (let me tell you, it takes talent to catch a mino) and I caught 1 trout, some sunfish and a carpe. Both nights we went into Greune for dinner. The first night eating at the Greune River Grill which was delish!!! The second night going to
the Gristmill which Danny and I both thought was overrated. Sunday we woke up, fed the deer and went to the San Marcos outlet mall. All in all it was a fun, relaxing, never want to come home, kind of trip.





that totally doesn't look like the Guadalupe to me!
no this was not the biggest fish I caught, just the cutest!
yum, trout

Moving on to the next weekend where I honestly can’t remember what we did so fast forward to the 16th and 17th where we had a tailgate in College Station. We won’t talk about the actual game, which was a disaster, so we will talk about the tailgate. We had a perfect spot in Spence Park. Family and friends came; we grilled burgers, almost caught the tents on fire, had some frosty beverages and just hung out. It was a perfect day.
Bobby only has 2 more games to march on Kyle Field.
My dad workin as the one of the grill masters
my sister and cousins (somehow I look ginormous in this pic)
The Struzick's stopped by for a burger

Now, for October 23rd weekend. Friday night was nice and low key. We went to Fuzzy’s Pizza to plan and book a trip to

and

SO EXCITED! Moving on....Saturday, I played in an all day softball tournament benefiting the Periwinkle Foundation. It is a tournament made up of about 20 teams where every team was guaranteed to play 3 games, round robin style, and then from there it was 1 loss and you are out. So I am thinking we will play our 3 games and go home around 2pm. Boy was I wrong! My team was made up of a bunch of people from around the hospital. We were the only team to not have team shirts; we all just kind of wore whatever, so we were a “rag tag” bunch. But, we managed to pull out the championship! That is right 7 games later, in 1 day, we won the tournament! I have never been more sore in my life. I walked with a slight limp for about a week, lost 1 toenail so far, going on loosing 3 and Danny had to pull my legs out of bed in the mornings. It is pretty pathetic but totally worth it! It was so fun to be out there again on the field.



As for this past weekend we went back to Fuzzy's (we eat to much pizza, it is a problem, we know) Friday night and then Saturday headed up to College Station to watch A&M beat the hell outta Texas Tech. It was pretty fantastic. It was an all around great weekend for football because Baylor beat tu!


Oh yeah and in there somewhere we sat up close and personal at the Carrie Underwood concert. She was and is fantastic!


As for November....there is a lot going on but you will have to check back in about another month. ;)

Currently my favorite song

Turn up your speakers, get out some tissues and enjoy.



Definitely applies to my life ;)