21 Weeks!!

For those of you tracking my progress....here are new pictures of the belly! The Lord has really blessed me with a great pregnancy so far. I feel great and want to eat all the time! Scott has been really good about feeding me whatever and whenever. He made me brownies yesterday because I had a HUGE chocolate craving.
I am also feeling the baby move a lot more now. Scott got to feel for the first time last week...I cried when I saw how excited it made him to feel our baby. I am so excited about this time and I can't wait to be a mother. It's funny how the Lord prepares us for what we need at just the right time!

Christmas Candy

Scott and I decided to make candy this year for friends and co-workers. At first, I only wanted to make chocolate dipped pretzels, but Scott insisted that we make more. So, we decided on peanut brittle (which Scott made), and peppermint bark...along with the pretzels. We had a great time making all the goodies and ate soooo much chocolate during the process! Below are pictures of our masterpieces!

Baby Hubley - 19 weeks

This is the ultrasound on Dec 15. The doctor says everything looks normal. Jennifer is feeling great and growing every day. Thanks for the prayers. Click on the image to see it enlarged.

When's that baby due?

Lost Maples

We had a anniversary/birthday, romantic, hill country, get-away weekend a few weeks ago. We went to Austin, San Marcos, Boerne, and Kendalia. The purpose of the trip was to attend Kim and Ryan's wedding reception at Kendalia Halle. Max Stallings performed and we had a blast. While we were in the area, we took a day trip over to Lost Maples State Natural Area. Lost Maples is a real jewel of the State of Texas. The park gets its name from the stand of Bigtooth Maples that inhabit the area and attract thousands of visitors each year to view the fall foliage. If you are ever in the area, we highly recommend you make a visit. We've posted a few pics below.

Jennifer taking a break during our hike to check her pulse.

View from the top.

Preggers

For those who haven't heard, Jennifer is pregnant and we are SO excited! The ultrasound below was taken at 12 weeks. Jennifer is 14.5 weeks now and is due on May 9. We'll keep you updated.
(click on the image below to enlarge)

Job News

For those we haven't talked to in a while.......Jennifer works for a pharmaceutical company called Schering-Plough who is in the process of making major cutbacks to their workforce. Today was the day that all the field reps received a phone call informing them of whether or not they still had a job. Praise God, Jennifer still has her job. We are thankful!

Eggs a la Jennifer

So, I never blog because I either can't seem to find anything to blog about, I can't seem to find the time to actually write a blog, or I really just don't want to. Nonetheless, I have now found something to blog about and I have the time to do so......so here goes.
The other day I watched the Martha Stewart show and was quite intrigued by a meal that a chef cooked on her show. The chef was a mother of three boys and did not have anything planned for dinner one night, so she came up with something. It looked very simple to make (unlike most things on her show), so I decided to try it out myself....and it came out great!! Scott and I both enjoyed it and it will definitely go on our "things we make for dinner" list. Below is the recipe and pictures.

Ingredients:
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
pinch of red pepper
1 can whole tomatoes
6-8 eggs
bread of choice (we used sourdough)
Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Pour olive oil in saucepan. Pulse tomatoes and pour into saucepan. Add garlic and red pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes. Crack eggs and drop them in tomato mixture. Simmer COVERED for about 5 minutes (until eggs are white). Meanwhile toast bread. Scoop out eggs and place on bread. Serve with side of steamed fresh spinach.....YUM!




FYI...this is the only place you can get this recipe (besides Martha Stewart's website) because it is unpublished! I highly recommend that you try it.

A Biter

So we took Blue and Sarah to the vet yesterday to get their annual shots and to get their heartworm and flea preventative. Besides the vet bill coming in at $585 (ouch!), we also had a unique experience with Blue. For those who haven't met Blue, he is a 6-yr old Weimaraner and quite possible the biggest softy you'll ever meet. He is a tall, athletic dog (weighs 70 lbs) but has never had the capacity to hurt anything, even a flea. Which brings us to the episode at the vet.

While they were getting a fecal sample, one nurse was holding Blue down by the head while the other inserted a plastic swab into his anus. Not very enjoyable for Blue as you might guess, but he has endured such many times before. The nurse must have poked him because all of a sudden he was trying to get loose to see what was going on near his rear end. Because the nurse was holding him by the head, he growled/barked trying to get free. She immediately jumped up and said, "He bit me!" We of course apologized all over ourselves, but it was too late. She ran out of the room and alerted the whole office that a "biter" was on the premise. Even more, they stamped his chart in bright red in 4 places reading "Muzzle Needed/Bites." Our Blue, who would never hurt a flea, is now labeled as a biter. So, when the vet came in to do his exam, first he put Blue in a muzzle, and then he whisked him away to a "bigger table" in the back, which I'm sure was equipped with straps to restrain an uncooperative dog. I understand that the vet office probably has standard protocol for such situations, but I'm not so sure that Blue ever bit the nurse. I think that maybe his mouth came open while he was trying to get out of the headlock she had him in because I've literally never seem him bite anything except for our other dog Sarah while they are playing. The other complication to the situation is that we happen to be friends with the vet and go to church with him, so I hated to do anything to insult him. Either way, we couldn't do much about it, so I guess we'll just have to live with a "biter" from now on. The bottom line here, beware visitors to our home, a biter lives here (so says the vet).

Grand Teton National Park

A few weeks ago I got the chance to have a weekend in the mountains with my good friends Nate Clements and Jason Harp. We all went to high school and college together, so it was a nice reunion. It was a quick weekend trip, so we packed as much as possible into it. I took a flight from DFW to Jackson Hole on Friday morning, and we hit the trail pretty much right when I got off the plane. We were completelly exhausted by Sunday. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to be out in God's creation for a few days with some good friends. I've included some pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

Nashville

We had a great time in Nashville earlier this month. Anne got to meet several stars, and we got a full dose of country music. Some of the acts we saw include: Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, Dwight Yoakum, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, and more. I've included some pictures below.

Tracy Byrd

Will and "Abe"

Taylor Swift

Bad News

We found out today that my sister Anne's tumor is starting to grow again. For those of you who don't know the whole story, I'll summarize. Anne was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in the summer of 2005. She had brain surgery in August 2005 that partially removed the tumor. Since then, she has been receiving antineoplastin therapy from the Burzynski Clinic in Houston. It has successfully kept her tumor from growing for nearly 2.5 years. So, this definitely comes as a shock to our family, especially since I personally had become acclimated to receiving the results of the latest MRI to hear "no change." Although lately, Anne has been having some memory problems so we thought something could be going on. Anne had had some other health complications this spring that have kept her from receiving as much treatment as normal, so I'm hoping the new activity can be directly attributed to the increased time "off the pump" as we call it, referring to the pump she carries around 24-7 that sends the medicine into her body. Either way, it is definitely a point in time where several questions are being raised and your prayers are appreciated. Please pray both for Anne's healing and protection and for our family to trust that the situation is in God's hands. The good news is that we have a family vacation scheduled from June 4-9 when we can spend some quality time together.

Marathon Post

So, we've been neglecting our blog lately. If it were a child, CPS would probably have been taken it away by now just like the FLDS polygamists in Eldorado. In an effort to make good, we've compiled a marathon post to document the most exciting things that have happened to us in the last few weeks. We'll take a straw poll later to see if it was a good idea or not.

1. 04/26: Anne's Birthday Party
We traveled to Canyon the weekend of Anne's 27th Birthday. We had a great time seeing the family, and Anne partied like it was 1999. Before the party, Anne took care of all the normal party preparations: compiling CD's for the listening pleasure of the guests and arranging the chairs in the most efficient way possible. Then she blew out her candles. Afterwards, we played guitar hero. We even got to see a dog, a cat, and a guinea fowl eating from the same pile of dog food. What a great birthday. Pictures below.






2. 04/29: A&M-TCU Baseball Game
We were able to attend the A&M-TCU baseball game in Ft Worth. It was a beautiful evening, and we were just glad to be part of the record-setting 4,294 fans (mostly Aggies) watch A&M win in the 9th inning 3-2.

3. 05/07: Jennifer has 2 bulged discs in her back
As some of you may know, Jennifer had back surgery in high school to correct the effects of a cheerleading accident. We had basically a "check-up MRI" because her back had been bothering her more than normal only to find out that she has 2 more bulged discs. The doctor immediately referred us to a neurosurgeon, which we want to avoid if at all possible. So we are going to see Sally and Bill (Scott's aunt and uncle) in Colorado over the Memorial Day weekend so they can work on Jennifer's back. They specialize in neuromuscular therapy. In the short term, this basically means that Jennifer needs to stop running and rely on swimming, biking, and walking for exercise.

4. 05/08: Water Main Burst
We were driving home to find the main road in our area basically flooding, but it wasn't raining. Apparently, a 16" water main burst, and being a good civil engineer, I grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures to document our nation's aging infrastructure.


5. 05/10: Amber is engaged
We found out that Jennifer's sister Amber is getting hitched! We are not sure when the wedding is happening, but we are eager to meet Chris at our nephew's first birthday next weekend in Evadale.

The Latest

We don't really have anything interesting to share right now, but I just wanted to post something or else this blog would officially become "inactive" in my mind......

We haven't been up too much lately, just working and enjoying Fort Worth. We've been trying to get our house and yard in order before the busy summer season gets here. Jennifer has been training for her 1st triathlon (Iron Girl in Irving, July 20th), and I've been trying to help her along with her biking and running (I'm no help with the swimming). That has been fun running and biking together along the Trinity River, especially with the beautiful spring weather.

My sister bought us some outdoor speakers for our backyard, and we finally got those hooked up. Introducing Jennifer to the wonderland that is the attic crawl space made the whole experience worth it. If you've ever done it, you'll appreciate the image of crawling through a superheated space that is a maximum of 30 inches high, with nails pointed at your head from above, fiberglass insulation all around that is irritating your skin, eyes, and nasal passages while trying to balance on the narrow end of widely spaced 2"x6"s. Priceless.

We've also got some family birthdays coming up. My sister Anne is turning 27 on April 26, so we are making the trip to Canyon for her party. Our nephew Sam is turning 1 on May 31, so we will be heading down to Evadale for his party as well. Also, Christina Whitaker (May 7) and Christi Fling (May 31) are having birthdays soon.

It's Sunday afternoon now, and Jennifer is taking a nap. We went to church this morning, and then stopped by Central Market on the way home. We had a great lunch on the back porch. All things considered, life is pretty good right now for us. I hope you can say the same for you.

Softball

Jennifer is on a softball team with our small group, and I am an alternate by default. So far, I've played in both games. We won the first game by a run rule and lost the second by a run rule. Jennifer played in high school, so she has some experience. She was a little rusty the first game, but is really coming on strong now. On the other hand, I haven't played any kind of baseball since elementary school, and I wasn't any good then. Tonight was a pretty rough game......already losing big and about to get the game called by the ump, I led off in the 4th inning. I got on base and had in my mind that I was going to push for extra bases every time since we were so far down. Our next batter hit an infield grounder and was thrown out at first. I made it to 2nd by about the time the short stop was throwing to 1st, so I turned the corner thinking I could make it to 3rd. They had a girl on 1st and I figured there was no way she could get it to the 3rd baseman......well, she did. I was just about there and I heard the 3rd basemen catch the ball. All I could see was the base, and knowing I should have stopped at 2nd, I wanted to justify myself. So I dove.....

I actually made it to the base, but I went to fast and came off the base and got tagged. OUT!!! Double play. And now I have a scrape on my knee, a strawberry on my side, and beat up hand.

Let this be a lesson to you readers out there (if there are any left): don't slide in slow pitch softball. It's not worth it.

Satisfied?

Congrats Coach Lombard

This is pretty amazing. My high school won the Class 3A state championship (again). With the title game, our coach won his 1000th game (and 14th state championship)--and he is only 55 yrs old. He has a winning percentage is almost .920 You can't write a script better than that. You can read a whole article about him here, but for starters just consider these facts:

No team he has coached - two boys or 30 girls - won fewer than 25 games in a season.

His "losingest" season came in 1991-92, when the Lady Eagles lost eight games. That team won his first Class 3A championship.

There have been 17 girls teams in UIL Texas high school history that have recorded unbeaten seasons. Lombard has coached three of those (1984 and 1985 at Nazareth and 1996 at Canyon).

He has won titles in Class B, Class A, Class 3A and Class 4A.

He has a 61-9 record as a boys coach, leading Nazareth to back-to-back state runner-up finishes the two seasons before moving to Canyon High.

In his last two seasons at Naz, Lombard compiled a 129-9 record and coached in four state championship games.

His 2002-2003 Canyon team produced two Division I players and was declared USA Today's national champions.

1-800-555-8355

This is the best thing I've found out about in a while. A FREE number you can call to get all sorts of information. They have news, stocks, weather, but most importantly.....SPORTS! Want to know who won the game but you can't get a hold of your buddies? No problem, just call the info line. Apparently, this service is provided by subsidiary of Microsoft. You can read about it here. Try it out, you won't be disappointed. Did I mention it was free?

Update on Rebecca

At the request of Rebecca, we have decided to dedicate a post to the youngest sister. In honor of this momentous occasion, we created a slideshow to show some pictures of her apartment in Amarillo. After graduating from A&M, Rebecca moved back to Amarillo and got a job managing clinical trials. Being in Amarillo, Rebecca is able to help out with Anne and Will, which is a great situation. We are really proud of her and grateful for her commitment.

B&B in Granbury

We took a weekend trip to Granbury, Texas to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was a nice getaway because its only about 30 min from our house, but we still felt like we were on a vacation. It was a very laid-back trip....we didn't even take our camera. We just looked around in some of the shops on the square in Granbury, then we saw a movie, and went out to Line Camp Steakhouse. At Line Camp I got by far the best steak I've ever had (Line Camp was included in Texas Monthly's recent list of best steakhouses in the state). Even more, it was an interesting experience because the restaurant was 4.5 mi outside of Granbury and then another 2 mi down a county road. Literally in the middle of nowhere. We would not have known about it had our innkeepers not recommended it. If you are ever within 60 miles of Hood County, it is definitely worth the drive for some great food.
Iron Horse Inn was a special place to stay and we definitely enjoyed it. The hosts Bob and Judy do a great job of really giving the guests an authentic bed and breakfast experience. (Disclaimer: my expert opinion is based upon two (2) stays at B&B's). We stayed in the wine cellar room. It was cool.

Update on Amber

We talked to Amber last night, and she told us that she has decided not to move to Fort Worth. Instead, she has decided to stay in the Beaumont area near the rest of her family. While we were disappointed, we agreed that it would probably be the best situation to have the rest of her family nearby who would be able to help out with Sam more than we could. We also think it is a positive step for Amber to be patient in the decision making process and trust God to provide for her. We'll keep you posted if anything changes.

Busy

We haven't been posting, because we have been busy. The biggest thing on our radar right now is our sister Amber and her son Sam. They are considering moving to Ft Worth, so we've been trying to help out as needed with that. Amber has a job tentatively lined up at the Harris Methodist Hospital as a nurse. The main issues remaining to be worked out are childcare for Sam and living arrangements for Amber. Beyond that, Jennifer has been at an all-week meeting in Frisco for work. She returns on Thursday.

Also, we have a slew of home improvement projects that we are trying to get going on our home. At the top of the list is a new roof for our house. We have some hail damage and the recent high winds in the Metroplex have blown several shingles off. We are wading through the insurance process, trying to make progress. Next, we are getting estimates to get the exterior of our house painted. We have some parts of the eaves that are starting to peel, so we are moving quickly on that as well. Then, we are considering new countertops in the kitchen, which will likely happen in the next couple of months. The good news is that we have a weekend trip planned to a B&B in Granbury (Jennifer is uber-excited). To those who we haven't talked to lately, don't give up on us, we're still here, just busy!

Friends in the Hill Country

Last weekend we had the opportunity to meet up with friends in Gruene and hang out. We had a great time seeing everyone and the weather was perfect. Afterwards, we went to Kim's dad's house in Boerne and relaxed. It was a great weekend. If you have not had the opportunity to visit Gruene, we highly recommend it. We posted some pictures below.

The legendary Gruene Hall, which has been frequented by the likes of George Strait, Willie Nelson, & more!

Evidence that we actually visited Gruene hall....

We ate at the famous Gristmill, an open air restaurant overlooking the Guadalupe River

The crew

Making the Switch

We have officially made the switch to reusable grocery bags. That’s right. We purchased 15 reusable grocery bags on Amazon.com and used them for the first time today. Why did we make this switch? Consider these facts from Reusable Bags:

• Globally, over 500 billion plastic bags are consumed each year (~100 billion in the US alone), and about 4 billion of those end up as litter.
• Plastic bags are made from petroleum—it is estimated that 12 million barrels of oil is required to supply the annual US consumption of plastic bags.
• Only between 1% and 3% of plastic bags are recycled—the rest go to landfills or become litter.
• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

In the end, it was a simple decision because this was a very simple way to help the environment (i.e., better manage God's good earth and its resources) at a very small cost to us.

Christmas Vacation

It's been a while since we've posted, mainly because we were so busy during the holidays. We left Ft Worth on Dec 21 and went down to Evadale. We stayed in Evadale until Dec 26, except for the afternoon of Christmas Day when we went to Devers. We left Evadale the evening of the 26 along with Amber and Sam and we headed to Ft Worth. We arrived late that night, then got up the next morning and drove to Canyon. Once we arrived in Canyon, we had a rushed gift exchange before jumping in the car to head up to Angel Fire, NM. We had a nice vacation in the mountains and returned home on Jan 1, just in time for work on Jan 2. Needless to say, we were exhausted. We were so excited because Amber and Sam decided to stay until the end of that week. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Pictures below...

This is the toybox that Jennifer and I made for Sam for Christmas

Sambo checking out his gifts on Christmas morning

Christmas PJ's !

He's a cowboy (read: belt buckle and boots)

Amber and Sam in the truck waiting to leave

On the mountain in Angel Fire--can you tell who's who?

Jennifer and Scott in Angel Fire

Blue is always up for another opportunity to get people food, even if it is baby food!