My golden ;)

Yesterday was my Golden Birthday, 23 on the 23rd. It was a great one. John spoiled me like always and the ladies took me to lunch AND made John and I dinner. It was a great day and i'm super excited for this year and the crazy new things its going to bring! Wish me luck! (sorry, i have one picture of the day and its one that the waiter took at the mexican restuarant with me in a sombrero when he brought me out my birthday desert.....lets just say its not quite Blog-worthy :)

Fun with the fam!

This last week was great! John's family came to visit and we had so much fun! It was so good to see everyone. The first day they flew into Boston and i met them there to tour the city. Boston really is a cool city, we had fun seeing all the huge buildings, old buildings and historic sites. My camera died that day so i didn't get a whole lot of pictures but i did get one of a silver lady eating her lunch.... pretty crazy...Since my camera died i didn't get any more pictures of that day, or the next day (saturday) here in Middletown. We went to Lyman Orchards where they were having their Berry Festival. It was fun, we picked tons of blueberries and then enjoyed the live band.... We also explored downtown middletown which i hadn't done yet this summer. It was fun and good to see what is around. Sunday we went to church and then went to the beautiful waterfall by our house for a BBQ. After the BBQ we headed to Maine to visit Jordan, Bruce and Meagan. And Maine was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I loved it there! The camp was very cool and the State is awesome. Monday we went into Portland and walked along the seaport. John, Jason and Kristen ate "lobstah" and the rest of us had pizza... We saw some GORGEOUS lighthouses and just enjoyed the scenery, the weather and the company. It was a good day. Kristen and John both caught crabs in the tidpools, and the ocean breeze was a.m.a.z.i.n.g.e.

Thanks for the 0h so fun weekend Van Orman's! We love you guys!

our REAL baby

After that last post i wanted to make up for it by showing how cute our REAL baby is, here's a side profile of his face when he was 20 weeks

Adorable....can't wait to really see him :)

a nice day

Sunday Hike, view was beautfiul and the cliffs were.....scary but nobody fell off so we'll check the trip off as successful :)

The cute Mason clan :)


Here is a REAL picture of my belly AND me. Finally got around to taking one....

Also, this last week was great, the office had a little friendly competition going on and John won all sorts of things, he got a camelback, a leather binder thingy, a Lunch tote (his favoite ;), JK), a $15 itunes card (which John gave to me and I ALREADY used it UP), and the last day they won a $200 gift card to Best Buy! it was a pretty exciting week and i think they all had fun. Now John's just got to decide what he wants to get with his gift card!

You asked for it, you'll get it!

I've had numerous requests for a belly picture of me, so here i am, with seven weeks and 3 days to go.....

Ha, ha, ha, ha

Our Fourth!

Hey! Happy Fourth of July! Our was a blast, i love the fourth and was so happy to be able to spend some time with John for it. Us ladies started the day by going to a parade, it was fun, different from UT parades but awesome in its own way. They had tons of Picallo bands (i never knew what a picallo was til this parade, i only knew that the Dixie Chicks sing about one once) Anyway, so much of the parade was in this colonial style clothes

I don't know what is up with mini-size everything but we thought they were pretty cool and they had tons for these cars and mini motorcyles that were ridden by big old men....it was funny :)That night we met the boys in New Haven (you know, where Yale University is) and had a BBQ and watched the fireworks. It was a lot of fun and here's the cake Kara and I made

(Don't mind my chubby cheeks)

Me and my Hubby

The whole group, thanks guys it was a blast!

Did i mention that we watched the fireworks next to an nutcase? She was CRAZY! This is her talking to the fireworks, and basically crying because they were just "so beautiful". She was super..... i don't know.....entertaining.....ya thats a good word for it. Anyway, good times and of course John had to get a picture, she was so drunk....
And this is our 4th of July decorations :) Hey, it was better than nothing!
Happy Fourth Everyone! I hope you all had as good of one as we did, I love Red White and Blue!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I love love LOVE the 4th of July! It is one of my very favorite holidays. Just getting ready for today made me giddy....in my red white and blue and sparkles ;). I love the 4th, everything it stands for and for the way it brings communities and families together. I miss my family today! I miss my community today! But don't worry, we're going to a parade and we even get to spend a little time with our husbands because they are quitting at 6 tonight! Yay! Today will be a good day, and you know what? The suns even shinning.....its a good one. Happy Fourth!

Its official!

Natalie informed me today that its official, i'm a college graduate! My diploma came today.... so i graduated in Exercise Science.... i think its time i do something with my degree...

Food and Turtles....does life get any better?

So this was sunday dinner....can i just say that it was truly amazing. I don't know why i get so excited about yummy food but this was for sure awesome. And i thought it looked beautiful too so i took a picture :) John and i have had a sweet tooth lately and this is the one thing we had all of the ingredients for... we just didn't have the right size baking dish so i improvised (thanks mom) and they we delish.

And finally, the summer long goal of catching a turtle became a reality. Here is Mertle the Turtle, currently residing on the Mason's deck in an aquarium. He really is a cute little guy, don't you think?

My Trip to NEW YORK CITY!

Warning: Long story post ahead :) So i wasn't going to blog about this because i figured everybody had already heard about it, but when my dad sent me a picture of this service station i had to blog about it :)

It all started with a drive to visit my long lost aunt in Maryland. I'd never driven through New York City before and let me tell you---that was an experience! Just imagine, i'm stuck in traffic....if i'm not stopped then i'm going 3 miles per hour max. This has been going on for quite sometime, close to an hour and i'm just looking about like a fish out of water taking pictures of the road etc. The lanes seemed so small and a cop car actually drove down between two lanes with its lights flashing, just like in the movies :). Anyway, i'd been seeing signs that say Manhattan, and the Bronx when all of a sudden i start smelling something, i was all looking around wondering which car stunk so bad when i looked ahead of me and realized that smoke or steam (i wasn't sure which) was erupting from underneath my hood! I was in the middle lane and there really was no shoulder, i didn't know if i was on fire or what. Needless to say, I started freaking out, i didn't know what to do! I rolled down my window and tried to mouth to the guy next to me, "my car's smoking" he was kind enough to roll down his window and say "ya, it looks like your boiling over". I asked him what i should do and he said "PULL OVER!" Oh, okay, hadn't thought of that (JK) so i asked him if i could cut over in front of him, he said sure so moved to the half shoulder and turned off my car. He drove away (so helpful). I figured i should probably check under the hood but i was actually terrified to look, i didn't know if flames would come flying out so i just sat there, I knew John was out knocking doors and mostly likely in a house and wouldn't answer his phone but i tried calling anyway. I guess he figured i really needed to talk to him so after a few minutes he called me back. He tried to calm me down, and told me to go look under the hood. I did, i braved it and with his help we decided it was the antifreeze and my car was overheating. Well, John told me to just try to relax, let the car cool off and he was going to figure out what to do. I sat in my car...crying....and tried to read a book. John mentioned calling my Dad to see if he could somehow see where i was located and find me a service station, that thought just scared me even more, i knew where i was, i had seen movies and i knew that i NEVER wanted to drive the streets of NEW YORK CITY! Even if it was just to find a service station. Well after i thought i had my emotions under control, i called my dad, my lifesaver! He was so helpful and looked up exactly where i was and the nearest service station. I had actually just passed an exit by like 30 feet and the next one was a few mile away so i ended up backing up on the freeway, asking cars to get out of my way, so i could exit at that spot....well, i got off the freeway and somehow made it safely til my car overheated again. I pulled off in an illegal parking spot and filled the antifreeze with both water bottles i had in the car with me---in the heart of the Bronx! My dad was so so so good and stayed on the phone with me the whole time and lead me to the nearest service station. With the help of a cop, i got there just fine with only breaking minor traffic laws (i don't know how to drive in that craziness! I'm pretty sure the laws are different in New York City). The service station guy was so nice and helpful and fixed everything, i guess my fan quit working which is why i was overheating and he filled me up with antifreeze, he told me how to get back on the freeway heading toward Maryland and i was on my way! Anyway, honestly it was a miracle that i survived, my dad was a lifesaver, the cop was a lifesaver and the service stayed open past normal closing time just to help me out. It worked out and for that i was so so so grateful! All i can say after trip is that i NEVER am going to drive through New York City again. The 5 hour trip took 8 hours there with my 2 hourish hold-up and the trip home took 8 hours as well with the stupid Traffic! Boy was i glad when i made it.

Anyway, i think this is a great time to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my dad. Its times like these that i realize how lucky i am. I have the greatest father in the world that would drop everything he was doing to do absolutely ANYTHING for ANYONE. I'm so grateful for him and for all that he has taught me by his example. I love you dad!

oh john

Our BIG little boys...

John and I found this little pond by our house the other day when we went for a walk so of course we had to come back to catch all the turtles and frogs we saw.

John trying to catch the frogs the the NASTY water, don't worry, he only walked away with one leech...

The first frog he caught
The Cooler frog he caught....i think he's trying to turn it into a princess maybe....

I thought this wa sa pretty cool picture, it doesn't even look real, but it is, they were so bright! We didn't catch any turtles though, which was what John was so excited about so we'll have to go back with some nets sometime to see if we can catch a little one....

Fun times, and so good to be back with my husband! Today he's off to make the big bucks and me.... i'm looking for something to do... any ideas, let me know!

Maryland....

Amber did a great job of blogging about our trip! So head over there is see all the fun things we did (on my Blog list, amberjill :). It was so fun to go to Maryland for a few days and hang out with the Gunters, thanks guys! One thing i did learn though is NEVER NEVER NEVER drive through New York City again, traffic was a nightmare! Gratefully i made it through and i made it home to the sweetest husband in the world! I am very very blessed.