13 weeks

Well, we went to the dr. today. I will try to get the ultrasound scanned soon. (That is our 5th picture of our new baby who is not quite 13 weeks in womb!). We listened to the strong heart beat again, and we actually got to see it move!!! It was amazing it was like it knew the camera was on it. It squatted down and jumped up!! Haha, of course, I still didn't feel anything, but it was nice to see it moving around.

In other news, Eric had his wisdom teeth out yesterday. He is doing well. More swollen today then yesterday, but he basically feels fine and is enjoying sitting around watching tv, eating ice cream and pudding!

Eric and I have known about this next piece of news for awhile, but were waiting until after today's appointment to share. After numerous ultra sounds, we have found out that I have a 10 cm cyst on my left ovary. The doctors don't know how long it has been there (since I didn't have an ultrasound before I got pregnant). They were hoping it would go down on it's own, but it hasn't. In about 5 weeks (when I am 18 week along), I will have surgery to remove it. My doctor has done many of these and the baby is in a very VERY little harm. We will keep you updated, I have another appointment on January 10th to check on things and the baby. There is a chance I will lose my ovary, depending on how the cyst is attached to it, so please pray that I don't if at all possible. We are in good spirits, and after praying for weeks and meeting with the doctor again today, seem to be at peace with everything. Just keep us in your prayers!

The Big News

Sorry, I should have posted this weeks ago, but we were waiting to tell my mom's family over Thanksgiving. If you haven't figured it out by now, we're pregnant!!! I'm due 6/28/06.....I'm 11 weeks right now. I have some ultrasounds, but it's kinda hard to tell what anything is (I can tell, but Eric can't) :). We go back on 12/20, and we'll be 13 weeks, so I'll post that one when I get it. Pray for Eric, he's having his wisdom teeth out on 12/19 and he's not looking forward to it!

In other news, we have both been very busy. Eric just wrapped up marching season (after going 1 game into the playoffs) and had a great Christmas concert on 12/6. He's also started playing with me in our church orchestra. We had our BIG christmas concert on both 12/1 and 12/2 with the orchestra and choir, and then after intermission, AVALON performed. It was a great concert, Bailey and mom and some friends came up to see it.

In even different news I got a new job at ConocoPhillips. I'm now on the natural gas trade floor; I am scheduling natural gas flowing on El Paso, Socal and other pipelines. I am REALLY enjoying it, and I really like the people I work with.

We had a great time at Thanksgiving, I'll post some pictures soon of that. Congrats to everyone who has news lately.....the Millers for having their baby, the Duty's for expecting theirs, and one of my best friends, Adrienne Pinina's older sister Ali is pregnant with her second baby, due about 10 days after me!

It has been a busy couple of months, sorry I haven't kept this updated. 11/17-18/05 we went to College Station to remember the fallen bonfire at Texas A&M University. I still can't believe it has been 6 years since I lost my sweet friend Miranda. The Adams, her parents, gave me a Texas A&M onsie for the baby when we were there. I don't even have a Baylor one yet!! :

Bailey's Engaged!

Ok, I've been running behind, so I'm going to try to do a couple small posts to make up for all the news that I've missed announcing. On Saturday, October 22nd, 2005, Matt Walkup, Bailey's boyfriend of about 14 months, popped the question at one of their favorite restaurants in Galveston. They have both been looking forward to this. He has had the ring since JUNE but Bailey kept him too busy to propose!! haha. It is a gorgeous white gold band and round solitaire diamond that they had made. They are getting married in Deer Park on October 21, 2006, and are really enjoying planning their upcoming wedding (ok, Bailey is!) :) I will keep you updated of the details. So far they have the date, the church, the reception place (which includes the cake), the dress, and the bridesmaids dresses. They are looking at florists and photographers next.

Late October update

This is getting to be not a very common occurence, and I'm sorry. I'm on the computer all day at work, and the last thing I want to do is get on when I get home, however, the past 3 days, I've been out of the office at a class....7 habits for highly effective people, which was great, so I wasn't at a computer all day. Isn't it funny you miss the things you despise when you're not using them! :)

Onto even better news........ GO ASTROS!!



;) It's about time we finally made it to the World Series. Play starts on Saturday, so you know we'll be watching! It's been fun being in the chase again. There are a lot of birthdays coming up next week, Uncle Gerry and my step-sister Shawna are both on Oct 27th. Aunt Gail is the 31st. I hope everyone is well. I will try to post more often. Please keep in touch and let us know how you're doing!

Happenings

Well, Sorry I haven't posted lately, it's been super busy! Eric's HS football team has to make up the game they missed b/c of the hurricane, but UIL rules state they can't play a game more than every 5 days, SO they had one last Friday, then this past Wednesday, then they have one Monday, then again next Saturday!!! It's been crazy! We've been busy at church as well with the orchestra. We are recording a christmas CD and so we've been practicing a lot. Everything else is going pretty good, I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Email us when you have time!

We're back!

Sorry I didn't really keep this updated throughout the hurricane. First of all, Thank you God for missing most of the houston area. Our prayers will be with those east of us who are going to have to rebuild their homes and their lives. We ended up driving up to Georgetown around 5:45 Wednesday night (they closed Eric's school and ConocoPhillips offices for Thurs/Friday) and got there around 10 pm. We went back roads mostly and so we missed most of the traffic.

Thursday we went around getting new tires on my car. Jesus blessed us again by not letting my front tires blow out on the drive up! They were totally worn out, I'm glad I had them checked. Eric also got his oil changed. Friday we spent the day with my grandparents, rented movies and mostly hung around at home. They really enjoy the company now that Michael is gone. They are still taking it pretty bad I think, as we all are. Friday we went to bed praying Rita would keep going East.

Saturday we woke up to my mom saying "i think we're going home today," so we packed, ate a yummy breakfast pawpaw made, and were on our way by 10. We got home around 2:20. We also took the back roads coming home. Now, we don't have work Monday or Tuesday. We spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning and putting the house back in order (bringing everything downstairs we too up before the storm) and so now we have a clean, safe house. We went to an impromptu church service this morning and it was great. Now we came home, ate lunch, and have been flipping between NASCAR and NFL all day. It doesn't seem fair that we have missed the big storm twice, but as my pastor said today, God blesses us so that we will be blessings to others.

Jen/Dave--we got your voicemail yesterday, neither of our phones worked well at all this week with the storm. It was the first time Eric could check his voicemail since Tuesday. We thought about how close we were to you, sorry we didn't make it down!

Everyone else--please disregard any crude comment spam I get. I'm not a programmer, and i don't know how to make it stop, I usually turn the comments off. Sorry!

Hurricane Rita

All of my family and friends that I have talked to have an evacuation plan and a place to go. Eric and my plan is to leave Friday after work (if it's not shut down before then) and head to Georgetown to my grandparents house. My mom and sister are heading up there tomorrow morning, and Darrell is heading up Thursday night. Our cells have already started having problems, and since we don't have a home phone, here are numbers just in case:
Me 2817958417
eric 2817958416
We will be at 512-896-5771 thursday until sunday hoping the storm doesn't damage our house. We will keep you posted as to what we know.

Baylor is STILL undefeated

Go Bears! It's still exciting even if we only beat Samford. However, my logic is that we beat SMU last week. SMU beat TCU this week, and TCU beat OU last week. We'll see how we do against OU later in the season! :) My friends at work think I'm crazy!

Last weekend was busy! Friday night I rode the bus with the band to the Pearland game. Mom, Bailey and Matt, Trayce and Julianne came up to see us and watch Eric's band march. I also saw Jenny Davenport, a friend from high school there. She's the assistant drill team director for the Pearland Prancers. We got home really late and fell into bed. Eric had to get up at the crack of dawn to go back to the school. His band went to U of H for a marching clinic all day.

I got up and went with Adrienne to her dad's office. We are starting to do the bookkeeping. We did that for awhile, then went to Memorial City mall and spent my gift card I had there. Then, we came home and Eric and I got ready for Saturday night.

(Here is Deanna, Adrienne, Jan and Kimberly). Deanna and Chad Nesvadba picked us up and we headed to Kemah. Our work, ConocoPhillips, gave the group I worked in a dinner/dance cruise. We checked into South Shore Harbor Resort and headed to the boat. It was such a nice time! We had a nice Prime Rib and stuffed shrimp dinner with door prizes, then we went upstairs with the DJ and danced the night away.

Sunday we woke up late, went and had Gringo's with Deanna and Chad, and headed home. We hung around the house all day cleaning and watching football on and off.

My community Bunko group is starting next week, I am the first hostess, hopefully it'll be a lot of fun. My flute broke last week at church band practice, but one of Eric's flute players is letting me borrow her flute for practice. We are working the 12 am - 8 am shift at the red cross shelter set up at our church (the band). I am going to work this week and am taking Friday off since I have a dr. appt anyway. Pray for all of the people still living there. They need our prayers!

Baylor is Undefeated!!

That's what people were yelling as we left the BU vs. SMU football game where Baylor won 28-23. We had a great time in Dallas this weekend. We pretty much vegged out at the Wood's all day Saturday, and then went to the game. Sunday morning Shannon and Nathan spent the night, and we all woke up and drove to Canton at like 7 am. We shopped and shopped until we split up and noon and drove back home to Houston. I got some cute stuff for the house. Sunday night the puppies were happy to see us!

Monday Eric and I went to see the 40 yeard old virgin, it was quite vulgar, but pretty funny, as the stupid funny movies go (anchorman, dodgeball, wedding crashers). Then, we went to the Newsome's and watched Monster-in-Law, also funny. We headed home and Eric mowed the front yard and I vacuumed all of downstairs and cleaned the kitchen. Amanda came over and we watched some gilmore girls. All in all it was a pretty relaxing weekend, which we all needed!

Church band

I have decided that I do not play my flute enough (ok, ever since Jamie/Curtis' wedding in December 2000), so I joined the church band. Tonight is our second rehearsal, and I actually look forward to them; they're pretty fun and the people are great! We are playing a big Christmas musical this year, and Avalon is coming to play at the church December 1/2nd, so it should be exciting.

In other news, Eric's first football game is tomorrow night. It is a home game at Tully stadium (right down the road from my office), so we will be doing that tomorrow. Then Friday is my friend Daniel Lisk's 30th birthday party, which will be an event to remember!

Saturday Eric and I are driving up to Dallas to visit with friends and watch the BU vs. SMU game that night. We are staying with Justin and Ashley and will get to see Shannon and Nathan, and hopefully everyone else that makes it to the game.

Please keep everyone in coastal Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in your prayers as they are getting over the terror of Katrina. Our neighbors have their family members from New Orleans staying with them. 8 people in a 4 bedroom house. A co-worker is housing 4 families (14 people, ages 4-70). Please donate donate donate to the red cross if you have the funds, they are providing the housing and food that people need.

Weekend News 2

We had a fast weekend. Friday night we went down to Santa Fe to have dinner with everyone for Mom and Darrell's birthdays. Bailey and Matt, Shawna and Chris, Kristal and Tommy, Hailey and Chris, and Darrell's sister Carol were all there. We had a great dinner at Gus', and then headed home to mom's house to hang out. After, we went by the Adams' house to visit for a while. We made the mistake of trying to go home I-45, which was closed down, so it took us over 1.5 hours to get home (well, Eric since I slept). We got to bed after 12:30.

We woke up a little early for a Saturday and had to get ready to drive to Splendora with Eric's family for his uncle Tom's surprise 40th birthday party. We had a great time seeing everyone and eating cake and ice cream. We came home, took a nap, and hung out with the Newsome's until it was time to take Greg out to Chili's for his birthday. Thanks for the birthday dinner Mike and Clara!

Sunday we went to sunday school and then help watch the 4 year olds during church because they needed a sub. That was a lot of fun, that age is really cute. Then we headed home. I had a Southern Living party at 3 at a friend from work, Jackie Raabe's house. We had fun, and met some new people, and then I stayed around her house talking until almost 7! :) Now I'm back home not cooking dinner for Eric because I snacked at Jackie's! The weekends are going too fast. Next Saturday we are driving to Dallas to go to the BU vs. SMU game. Baylor has a chance of winning!! :)

Happy Birthday Greg

Today is Eric's brother Greg's 20th birthday. Hope you have a great day brother!
Love, Misty & Eric

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's 47th birthday! We love you mom, see you tonight. We hope you have a great Friday!!
Love, Misty & Eric

Happy Birthday Darrell

My step-dad turns 48 today....he's getting up there, pushing 50! I hope you have a great day!

Love, Misty & Eric

Update

Well, Time goes by. Last week was one of the hardest I've ever been through. I tried to be strong for my mom, my uncles/aunts and my grandparents. It was also the first funeral for a few of my cousins, so they were taking it really hard. It is really sad that I have buried 4 friends (from Baylor/Santa Fe) by the time I was 25. I know God only gives you what you can handle, but sometimes you just want to ask why me?

Please keep my Uncle Gerry, Aunt Patti, Julie and Doug (Michael's sister and her husband) and my grandparents in your prayers. They are a very close family and Michael will be missed for years to come. It was nice to be able to share funny stories about him. I am so thankful that our extended family is so close.

This weekend flew by. Eric had a region meeting in the morning (I mowed the yards while he was there!), and then"meet the mustangs" night Saturday night. I went up to the school with him for that, and we ended up staying until 10 talking to the head director. Sunday we went to Sunday School and Church, and went out to eat with our SS class. We had a lazy Sunday, but it was fun to sit around.

In Loving Memory

I just found out my cousin was killed this morning in a car accident near Giddings, TX. His name is Michael Gamble, from Salado, TX. He did his undergrad in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M, and was working on his Masters degree. I have little details, but our family is heading up there this evening. Please keep us all in your prayers, including his mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law.

Weekly News

Sorry for not posting lately. I had a busy week at work, as did Eric. He had summer band all day Monday-Wednesday, and then inservice Thursday and Friday. Friday night I had the ConocoPhillips summer intern farewell event. I was a 'mentor' this summer, and I had a great time. Then, after that, Eric, Adrienne, her sister, Ali and her brother Dominic went to eat at Jalapenos, and then met some friends at Downing Street. It was fun, but we were sleepy party poopers! :)

Satuday was a day of running around, trying to catch some sales at the mall. We did go by and see the Newsome's for a little bit in the morning. Then, we headed over to one of the band parents houses at about 5:30 for the band pool party. We hadn't planned on staying the whole time, but we had a lot of fun talking with some of the parents and David (the head director). The house was amazing! It had a third floor that was the theater room (I should have never let Eric see that!). It had secret passageways and it was just gorgeous. The parents were really nice and we had a great time.

Sunday started off with us visiting the New Grounds sunday school class at Kingsland Baptist Church again. We met some great new people and also found out a couple in the class is pregnant. We spent the rest of the day FINALLY finishing up the back yard landscaping that we started the weekend of 4th of July! I'll take pics tomorrow and post some. Hope everyone is doing well!

Fast weekend

For a slow week, it sure was a fast weekend. Well, it started off boring, me falling asleep on the couch at like 8:30 on Friday night! We slept in a little on Saturday, and then we got ready to go meet some of Eric's high schoolers. The 'band council' (officers) met at the Houston Yacht Club to get some things done before summer band gets underway tomorrow; they had the new directors come out so they could meet them. We all had lunch together, and all I can say is that I am glad I'm not in high school anymore. That, and I never remember being that immature, although I'm sure my parents can vouch for it! After that, Eric drove me to the school to show me the band hall at his school. It is still under contruction (well, they are in the cleaning phase now)--they had a HUGE new band hall/ensemble rooms/auditorium rebuilt during the summer. We stayed up late Saturday night finishing up our new 'home office' by finishing the furniture, putting the books on the shelves, and watching some TV.

Sunday we spent most of the day doing yard work (our yards look great!) and cleaning out the garage. We are so tired, a little sunburned, and glad that's over! We are trying to get to bed early tonight to be ready for this next week. Eric has to be at school tomorrow before 7:30, and I might as well make it to work on time anyway :) I will make Eric post this week to tell you all how his first week as an assistant high school band director goes. :) Later!

Slow week

This week couldn't go any slower! I will be happy when tomorrow gets here. Today was a big day for the intern that I'm mentoring at work. He had his final presentation and did great. Deanna (our supervisor and my friend) and I took him out to eat at Tan's Hunan (our fave chinese place near work) and I got the spicy chiken, YUM!

Tomorrow we are attending the Astros game with our friends Robert and Kendra Sterner. She got great prices for the tickets from work so we are going to go enjoy the Astros beating the Mets! And, it's $1 hot dog night :)

Friday we are driving up to Georgetown to visit Mawmaw and Pawpaw. We haven't been there in awhile so we are looking forward to the visit.

Weekend News

The weekend went by quickly. Mom and Bailey came up Friday night to get ready for the garage sale we had on Saturday. We didn't sell the big furniture that we had wanted to, but it is going to be stored in our garage until the community garage sale we are going to have in October.

Sunday morning Eric and I woke up and went to Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy. We have been visiting for a couple months, but we haven't tried a Bible Study class yet. So, we got up early and picked one. We met some really nice people, and I even ran into an old friend I was an accounting major with at old BU. Then, my friend Adrienne met us up there for the worship service. She had been wanting to go to church with us, so I was glad that she got to come. After, we all went to Chili's for a bite to eat. Eric and I spent the rest of the time around our house doing laundry, working in the yard, and getting ready for our front 'office/study' to be painted on Tuesday.

We couldn't make it down to Santa Fe for my friend Michael Christian's homecoming party. He was in the army reserves and has now been serving in Iraq for a good while. He is home on leave for a bit and they had a reception for him at home. Please keep him in your prayers, he has experienced many things abroad. He is a great christian. He keeps his heart and eyes open to the world and the things that God is letting him experience.

Happy Anniversary Eric!

Today is Eric and my 4th wedding anniversary. Eric--I love you and I can't wait to make you a dad. I'm so happy God led me to you to spend the rest of my life with.
Love, Stymi :)

Eric has a job

Eric just received news that he got the job he interviewed for yesterday. It is an assitant band director position at Memorial High School in Spring Branch ISD. It is in the Houston area (just east of my office) and he is VERY excited. This is contingent that he passed his music content exam that he took on July 9th. He finds out August 5th, so keep him in his prayers. He feels that he did well on it.

He will be assiting with the marching band and during concert season, conducting the second band. He will also be assisting with the middle school periodically and the jazz band. He is very nervous but extremely excited!

Happy Birthday James Michael Barnes!

Our friends Dave and Jen Barnes had their son, James Michael Barnes today at 5:58 am. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Congrats guys!

Happy Birthday Misty!

Today is my 25th birthday. I took a half day off this morning. I'm having lunch with my mom, sister, husband, and friends from work. I'll report back later!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Our good friend Nathan Wood's surprise 30th birthday party was today at Justin and Ashley Wood's house in Dallas. I will put more photo's on my snapfish account soon. Eric and I headed up to Dallas Thursday night to visit with everyone and help with the party. Friday we went to lunch and watched "Wedding Crashers" with Justin and Ashley. (Very funny movie, but too raunchy for little kids!). Shannon and Nathan came over for dinner Friday night and I got to hold Garrett a bunch :).

Then, Saturday morning, the boys got up and took Nate to play golf with his new clubs that he got for his birthday. Nathan came home to a pool party at Justin and Ashley's house. Shannon, Garrett, Ashley and I ran around all morning getting everything ready and picking up things. The cake in this picture is perfect because it was the biggest headache of the day! Justin grilled burgers and everyone swam. It was a great time and we're happy we could make it up to Dallas for the party. Garrett is SO sweet and cute and was such a good boy. We can't wait to see him again soon! We had a great time visiting everyone.

Tuesday News

Yesterday was a little busy at work, but nothing too bad. I had an allergist appointment at 4, so I got to leave a little early, WOO HOO! :) I mostly had questions about how allergy shots would affect pregnancy, if I would have to quit them, etc. Plus, I found out that I'll have to switch meds. I'm on Advair (for asthma) and Nasonex (nose spray) right now, and both of them are class C drugs for pregnancy (semi-bad). So I have to send off for a new prescription of new drugs for both to start using when I do get pregnant.

Once I left the doctor's office, I drove down to Santa Fe to my friend Kelly's house. She hosted a Southern Living at Home party for me (I'm a consultant). It was a lot of fun, we had a "Flip Flops and Frozen Treats" party. Yummm.... Since I was in Santa Fe, I stopped by and saw Darrell at home. (Mom and Bailey are in Georgetown visiting my grandparents--sometimes I wish I was a teacher and had summers off). He got Eric and I stocked up on these great paper towels and windex, and other cleaners. :) Thanks Darrell!

I got home late and Greg (Eric's little brother) was over. They have been working on yet another poker table. Last summer Eric and he built one for Eric. Now they are building one for Greg. They finished it last night, but I was too tired to go see it. Plus the house was a mess, so I just went upstairs and watched TV. I didn't get to bed until midnight, so I'm exhausted today. I have a TON of meetings at work today, which is never fun to look forward too.

We have finally succumbed!

I have enjoyed reading our many friends blogs for years now, and since I update our website about once a year, I have finally decided to join the blogging fun and have one of our own. Denise (my friend up in Michigan) will be so happy to get to read about us and have NEW info online. When my friend Kendra signed up this week, I made a decision that I too would join the bloggers, instead of the lurkers that just read everyone else's!

For a family update, here goes:
Eric is currently finishing up classes to get certified to teach 6-12th grade band in the state of Texas. He took his content exam on Saturday the 9th, and now we are praying for job interviews to start happening. He has been teaching trombone, baritone and tuba lessons over the past year in three school districts around our neighborhood. He really enjoys the kids, and I really enjoy his flexibility!

I am currently with ConocoPhillips, helping get their SOX documentation in order for our internal and external audits coming up. I help with settlements and A/R within the Natural Gas Marketing Accoutning group. I started there April 1st, 2004, and love it. I have met some GREAT friends there, and it is a great company to work for.

We have two dogs, Gweny and Riley, both mutts. Gweny we have had for....it will be 5 years in November. It will be 1 year of having Riley in November as well. Gweny will be 5 in September, and Riley will be 1 in September. Gweny is white with brown spots, and Riley is a pretty brindle color. We have been told that Gweny (short for Gwenyvere!) is part brittany spaniel, or collie. Riley is part australian shepherd. Pictures will come shortly.

Eric and I built a house in September of 2004, just west of Houston. It is in Lakemont Subdivision, which is considered Richmond. We are across the street from Katy. We have a 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, cul-de-sac lot and we LOVE it. Our most recent attemps at 'decorating' have been outside in the backyard. It's been 2 weeks coming, and we're still not through with the landscaping! We love our game room, and bedrooms, and on to the bigger news.....

We are trying to start turning that 3rd bedroom into a baby nursery! We are trying to start a family in the near future, and we couldn't be more excited about it! We have already started reading the books (ok, I've read 1.5 already and Eric has read about 2 pages in his!). I have some doctor appointments coming up so that I can figure out which one I'd like to go to.

Well, I guess that's enough for now. Feel free to comment and we will be writing more later! :)