ABC World News Tonight

I have shared the story of our friends Nate and Kim Stroh with you over the last few months and many of you have been so gracious to pray for them. The boys were born on July 3rd...both boys are doing very well and it looks like Owen will get to come home this week with Blake soon to follow. Last night they were featured on ABC World News Tonight....click HERE to read the story and see the video.

Nate and Kim are both thrilled that they were able to spread the message about Twin Twin Transfusion with over 8 million viewers last night. Early detection is key in order to treat this condition.

Hal and I are looking forward to our trip to Houston in August to meet Blake and Owen and spend time with Nate and Kim. Please continue to keep them all in your prayers.

21 Week Belly

My photographer a.k.a my neice Jessica took a picture for me to post today. Drew is starting to make his presence known not only by my expanding waistline but also by his little hands and feet. Have a good weekend!

Company's A Coming

Hal and I are so excited that our niece Jessica is coming to spend a week with us. I am picking her up in Tampa this afternoon and she will be here until Monday. We are going to do some shopping, probably go to the beach, head to Orlando on Saturday, and who knows what else we will get in to. The picture to the left is of us in Tennessee last summer....my belly is a little bigger this summer. :)

After she leaves on Monday, I head back to Tampa to pick my mom up on Tuesday. She will also be here for a week.

Really?

As I was watching Drew on the ultrasound screen, I couldn't help but think what I am pretty sure a lot of moms have thought before, I realize it isn't an original thought! I kept thinking...."how in the world can anyone look at that screen and not believe in God?" I just can't imagine not believing in the one and only creator God. I mean something like that can't just happen out of nowhere....and it doesn't evolve. It could only come about by the all knowing, all wise, creator God. He is the only one that can make something out of nothing....just as He did when He created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it.

I realize that I write this from a bias perspective because I do believe and I know God personally, and it breaks my heart to think about another mother lying there and looking at that screen and not seeing the workmanship of God as they look at their child. It gives me a new way to pray for those around me and more importantly, it drives me to my knees in thanksgiving that I do believe and that I do have a relationship with the creator God. Sometimes, I think I can take that for granted.....how HUGE that really is. Actually, it is everything.

Have a good weekend.

It's A Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and learned that we are having a boy! There wasn't any guessing with this one....he was proud to let us know. :) We are both so excited to welcome Andrew (Drew) Edward Ramsey and with nieces on both sides our families are excited as well! The doctor thought everything looked great as far as development and I am feeling great. Above is a side profile pic of Drew.

NYC

For some reason I couldn't get the pics at the bottom...so read the post at the bottom. It will better explain the pics. :) Magnolia Bakery- Greenwich Village
Cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery
Before "A Catered Affair"
I guess you can call that a baby bump. :)
Dessert after the show....yummy cheesecake! :)

We had a great time this weekend! I was quite able to keep up our usual NYC pace, but we were still able to do alot. We battled a little bit of rain, but that didn't stop us. We left Sarasota around noon on Thursday and with two on time flights we were in the city by 7:30. We headed out to dinner at The Eatery in the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen area and had a great meal. Hal had some super yummy mac and cheese. Friday we were in a cab headed for the Lower East side by 9:00 and had breakfast at Clinton Street Baking Co. This restaurant was in an interesting neighborhood that we had visited before. The breakfast was great! I had seen the owner on Martha Stewart and it didn't disappoint. We then headed for one of my favorite places in the city, Century 21. Century 21 is like TJ Maxx but 1000 times better. It is in a former bank building right across from the World Trade Center site. I managed to come away from there with some shoes. :) We then walked up Broadway to Greenwich Village. We love just walking the city...you never know what you will find. We loved Greenwich and managed to find Magnolia Bakery. There were people wrapped around the block to get cupcakes....they were great! We continued to on to one of our favorite areas, the Flatiron District/Madison Square Park. There is an interesting store Fishs Eddy there that we found last time. They have really interesting stuff. We were planning on watching the big fireworks show along the East River, but after walking all the way over there.....we ended up leaving! I wasn't feeling that great and we realized we hadn't eaten dinner and had only grabbed something quick for lunch so we headed for dinner and then watched the fireworks on TV! :) Saturday we dodged the rain by going in and out of the stores on 5th Ave and then heading up to Bloomingdale's. Saturday night we had a great dinner at Dervish Turkish and then we to see A Catered Affair. The show was different than expected but wonderful. Sunday we walked around a little in the morning and then headed for the airport! I am leaving out a ton I am sure...thanks for letting us share our trip with you! You can click on the restuarant/Store names to see a link to their website. :)

2:00 AM

Our flight landed in Sarasota at 2:00 AM this morning. After being delayed out of La Gaurdia we got to Atlanta to another 4 hour delay...we left Atlanta at 12:30. Gotta love it when bad weather shuts down the busiest airport in the country for a few hours on the end of a holiday weekend! At least we made it home and our flight wasn't cancelled!!! I will put up pics and more about our trip later....we had a great time!

Our patio

I like lots of things about our new house, but I think that my favorite thing is our patio. Our house backs up to a nature preserve so there will never be houses behind us. It seems like there is always a good breeze out there so you can often find me out there in the morning with my journal and my Bible. In the evening, we love to eat dinner out there. Last night, we watched the lightning of a storm as it approached. View of the patio
Another patio view Flowers mom helped me plant
The preserve view from my table on the patio
Our table and chairs......notice our mascot to the right. :)

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend...it just seems like they aren't long enough these days for Hal! We tried a new pizza restaurant on Friday night that we really enjoyed. Hal needed to go into to work on Saturday so I got up and went in with him around 8:00. We took breakfast to the the guys working at the plant and then I worked on getting his office cleaned up. He has been in the office almost 3 months, but hasn't had the time to unpack boxes. We were there until almost 2:00. I took the rest of the time to work on the study of James I am writing for HAFBC Student Ministry and work on some of our plans for our trip to NYC over the 4th of July. I found a place to buy discount Broadway tickets and we got 1/2 price tickets for A Catered Affair on Saturday night. We then spent the afternoon working on a few things around the house.

Yesterday we were lazy and didn't make it to Sunday School. We made pancakes and then got ready for church. After church we went to Moe's (kind of like Chipotle or Flying Burrito) to eat and we ran into a couple we have met at church. Their kids were out of town and they asked us to sit with them for lunch. We ended up talking to them for over an hour....it was a nice treat! We have meet a lot of really nice people, but we haven't had many "real conversations" with people. It was nice to feel like we were really getting to know someone! Last night 3 young trainees who work from Hal came over for dinner. It is fun to treat them to a home cooked meal while they are away from home.

Sonic

If someone wanted to make a few bucks, I think they should look into putting 15 Sonic franchises in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. After living in the land of Sonics a.k.a. Fayetteville, AR or Humble, TX, I am dying of thirst in Sarasota! My car said it was 99 degrees today while I was out and about.....and all I needed was a Large Diet Limeade from Sonic, but Sonics are few and far between around here so I had to settle for a bottle of water when I got home. Okay...I am done throwing a fit. All of you Fayetteville and Humble people think of me when you are enjoying your Sonic drinks. :)

Update

I have been getting in trouble for not being regular with my postings. So here is an update on a random assortment of things!

*We had our monthly checkup on Monday and had a great report. The heart beat sounded strong and my blood work was good. We go back on July 14th for an ultrasound and hopefully we will know whether Baby R is a boy or girl. I am not really "showing" yet...I just look like I have put on a few pounds. I am feeling really good and my current random craving is vinegar. Weird...I know, but I can't get enough of it. Everyday I have to have tomatoes and cucumbers cut up with vinegar and oil.

*Mom and Dad where here for a week earlier this month around my birthday. We were super busy while they were here. They helped with things around the house and in the yard. We showed them around Sarasota and took them to Orlando on Saturday. For my birthday we went to dinner at a restaurant in our favorite area of Sarasota, St. Armands Circle. Hal totally surprised me with a beautiful bracelet for my birthday. I say totally surprised me because I can usually figure out or at least come really close to what he is getting me, but I had no idea!

*Hal and I have been tossing around a few different ideas for what to do over the 4th of July weekend. We talked about Savannah and Washington DC, but I think we are going to end up with old faithful and head back to NYC. We love the city and wanted to make sure we went back before baby gets here. We are going to book the tickets tonight....my guess is we will end up with NYC.

*The house is coming along...all of the boxes are unpacked now. I am working on getting pictures hung and getting things organized.

*I still haven't seen a gator....I am pretty sure that they don't exist in Florida.

Request

A few weeks ago I posted about our friends Nate and Kim Stroh and their twin boys, Owen and Blake. (A picture of Kim on Mother's Day is to the left) The post is titled An Article to Read in case you didn't read it. Kim has made it 5 weeks from her surgery date! They have had a few ups and downs since the surgery date. Yesterday she was admitted to the hospital for an indefinite period. Owen, the larger twin, is now loosing fluid and they can't determine why. If he were to roll over on his umbilical cord, it could cut off his blood flow. Blake, the smaller twin, is almost 1 full pound smaller than Owen. They are going to be monitoring Kim as well as giving her a steroid injection to help with the boys lungs in case they have to take them. Please take a few minutes as you read this and pray for the following.

*Pray that the boys would make it to July 4th (32 weeks) or July 11th (33wks).

*Pray for peace for Kim as she spends time for the hospital.

*Pray for Nate as he trying to balance work, being with Kim, and concern for the boys.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Loooonnnnggg Weekend

We are looking forward to a long weekend! Hal is ready for the much needed break and I am ready to have him at home for a few days. Hal's parents will be here tomorrow and we are excited to show the house and around Sarasota. Have a good weekend!

Gators and Cravings

I have been obsessed with alligators since we moved here. Weird, I know. Every time we pass a retention pond or any body of water I am looking to see if there is a gator anywhere. No luck so far, but last night we came close. I had a long day of unpacking and didn't feel like cooking so we went for pizza and on the side of the road we saw several police cars and a wildlife truck. We could see them with a huge black tarp and then realized they were throwing it over a gator. It was close, but I didn't actually see the gator. Maybe next time.

I haven't had the cravings yet where you want to mix random things together and eat them, but I have definitely had cravings since the nausea has been getting better. The funny thing is that I have been craving things I can't necessarily get! I have been craving my mom's potato salad. I tried to make it but, it didn't turn out like hers. She will be here the first week of June...I am pretty sure I can get some then. :) I have also been craving JD China from Fayetteville. No body makes Chinese food like Mrs. Jennifer....I tried some here, but it just wasn't as good. The other major craving has been for a Canadian Bacon sandwich with Ranch dressing and mozzarella cheese like my Uncle David used to make at his pizza place. Yumm...my mouth is watering. Maybe it is good that I am craving things I can't get my hands on, but I sure wish I could!!!

Lots of Boxes

I think the boxes are growing....it feels like I am making progress and then I look around and see that I have a long way to go! I think I underestimated how tired you can get in your first trimester. I thought that I would have them all unpacked after a week or so...of course I was basing this on how quickly I unpacked the boxes in Houston, but after almost 10 days, there is still plenty to do. I work for a while and then decide it is time to rest. Another hold up has been waiting on the painters. They have down the house in stages and hopefully they will finish it up soon.

I was glad to have Sarah L here with me last week. She helped me unpack. It was fun to show her some of the fun and beautiful things we have found here in Sarasota.

An Article to Read

Hal and I wanted to share this article with all of you as well as ask you to stop after you read it and say a prayer for our friends Nate and Kim. They are precious friends of ours from Texas and have been through quite an emotional few weeks. As you can read from the article, their twins had twin-twin transfusion. The article explains this in pretty good detail. There is also a video you can watch. Kim and the boys all seem to be doing well after surgery. Please take a few minutes to pray for the boys continued growth and specifically that Kim will be able to carry the boys to mid-July. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to lift them up before God Almighty.

Click here for a link to the story in the Houston Chronicle.

Closing

Our closing is set for 4:00 today!!! We are praying everything that needs to happen today gets done. The movers will deliver our stuff tomorrow and we will spend our first night in the new house tomorrow as well.

Are we ever going to close?????

I don't remember much about buying our first house. I think I was in wedding lala land, but this one is going to be very memorable, but not in a good way! :) We signed the offer around the middle of March and were told we would close on our before April 30th. Well, as of right now, we still don't know if we are going to be able to close tomorrow! The moving truck will be here tonight with our stuff. We are trying to avoid having to put it into to storage as long as we close tomorrow. Hal and I are very ready to sleep in our bed as well as have two cars!!! Please pray that all the details will fall into place and we will be able to close tomorrow.

Many of you have asked how I am feeling. I am 9 weeks today and feeling pretty good. The nausea has been MUCH better the last week or so. I had an oh so fun sinus attack, but I am getting over it. Other than being tired, I am feeling pretty good!

Big News

Hal and I are so excited to share that we are expecting! I am about 7 weeks along which means we can expect Baby Ramsey in early December. I have been feeling pretty good this week after a rough week of nausea last week. We decided that we like to just do things all at once....we get married and move and now we are moving and having a baby! :) At least we have a little more time to prepare for baby, unlike our 6 week engagement.

We sold our house in Texas!! I am headed there tomorrow to help with a shower for my friend, Kim, who is having twin boys. Then the movers come on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I then fly back here on Wednesday. We hope to close on our new house sometime next week. We are anxious to get in the house and get out of this apartment.

HAFBC

I think that I have delayed in putting these pictures up because it meant we were really moving. :) These pictures are from our last Wednesday night at church...they show several of our friends as well as many of the students. Leaving this group of people was by far the hardest thing about leaving Texas!