HOLLA - ween

2009 Halloween Pumpkin Carving Par-tay

(click here for last years)

Party includes: Pumpkins, Soup, Charlie Brown, Beer, Carving, Candles, Pumpkin Seeds, Laughing, Candy, and Freeland always finishing my pumpkin for me.



















the finished product:


From left to right: mine, Camilles, Adams, & Freelands


with candle's placed inside:



We of course had a blast! And our pumpkins have already molded .. (but they are still on the front porch.)

Tonight we're headed to our Halloween Party .. stay tuned for pictures of our costume! Im excited about it!! And I think applejack is too - he/she's been fluttering around all day like crazy.

Telling our families the news (part 3)

Okay I will try to wrap it up in this post.

So after thinking about how to tell both our dads Freeland decided that it would mean the most to his dad to just call him and tell him himself. I was all up for doing something but I agreed .. his dad would appreciate hearing it from Freeland himself. So we called one afternoon and told him the news. He was thrilled for us and of course so supportive. (he always is!) He asked if he was allowed to tell anyone right away and then talked about how he is going to have so many grand kids now! It was a sweet moment and he encouraged Freeland by telling him he will be a great father. (I couldn't agree more)

And then there was my dad. By default, he was the last parent to find out. But its because I just happened to be going to Texas for work the next week and knew that he would prefer to be told in person. So my brother picked me up from the airport and we drove to meet my Dad & Tracy for lunch. I immediately blurted out the news in the car (because I just couldn't keep it in) to my brother that I was pregnant and told him I was about to tell Dad. He didn't believe me. Im not sure why? ha. But after telling him over and over that I was serious he finally believed me and was excited for us and Im pretty sure he was probably even more excited that he got to be there to witness me telling my dad.

I really had no idea how to tell my dad. Everything Freeland & I thought of that would be fun would take too long and I knew I couldn't wait all day and just act normal without telling them right away. So we decided that I would just tell him at lunch.

It actually worked out perfect because it happened to be his birthday later that month. So right after we sat down to eat I told him that I had his birthday gift for him since I wasn't going to be here on his actual birthday. He said okay and just kind of kept talking. So after we ordered our food I brought it up again and said "can I give you your gift now?" (I was a little eager)

So I gave him the card first. A card that said "Happy Birthday Grandpa" and inside said it was from "your grand kid" at first he just laughed and said "oh so you think Im that old huh?" and turned to show Tracy & my brother what the front of the card said. I laughed and just said "read whats in the card"

So on the inside of the card I started out by writing "no its not a joke on your age.. " and he just stopped and looked at me. SO I thought he got it but then he said "oooh so its not a joke on my age. I really am just that old?" and again he turned the card around to show everyone what it said (still oblivious to what it was ABOUT to say) and I laughed and said "keep reading"

The next line said "its not a joke on your age.. you actually are going to be a grandfather this April.."

and then he really just stopped. He looked at me (with tears in his eyes) and handed the card to Tracy so she could see what was going on. She immediately started crying and jumped up from the table to give me a hug and celebrate. It was sweet.

But I actually wrote a novel in the card so my dad had to pick the card back up and keep reading it. So 5 minutes later after the card was read by everyone we all celebrated again.

It was a lot of fun telling him. Especially since he kept laughing at what he thought was a joke the whole time.

BUT THE MOST HILARIOUS PART was actually when I went to meet him at the front of the restaurant though. Since my brother & I got there first we were already sitting down. So I saw them come in and went to get him. And can you guess what the first word out of his mouth were? I kid you not.. he literally said "you look pregnant. Let me touch your stomach to make sure you aren't"

WHAT?????? (I was only like 7 weeks or something so I was NOT showing.. okay maybe I was bloated but did I really look pregnant?)

I was dying! I couldn't believe he said that and had no idea I actually was pregnant! So fun!

And thats the story of how we told all our parents they were going to be Grandparents.

NaBloPoMo 2009

Its almost that time of year again .. November is National Blog Posting Month. (also known as NaBloPoMo)

What is NaBloPoMo? Aside from what I just mentioned.. its basically marathon blogging. Or it kind of feels that way. The little (and by little I mean HUGE) group of people who join all post every single day for a month. So that means everyone participating will be posting for 30 days in a row. To some people that is crazy - to others its normal. But I think its fun.

Ive done it the last 2 years. Really for no reason at all. I guess just for fun. But I used to post a lot more than I do now so I have a feeling this year might actually be a challenge for me. We'll see if I'm able to keep up! :)

Anyway, I just wanted to post about it in case any of you were interested in doing it also. PS - THEY HAVE PRIZES!!

PPS - Promise to post about telling the rest of our family asap.

telling our families the news (part 2)

So as soon as my family was on their way back to Texas we worked on how to tell Freeland's mom. We were a little sad because she had actually just come to visit us the week before my mom.. but at the time we had NO idea we had news to share! So sadly, we didn't share the news in person.

One of the really neat things though is that while she was here she pulled out something that she brought for us to have.

Looking back - I couldn't believe she just happened to find this and bring it with her!

Here it is:

Its Freeland's book from when he was a baby.

And not only was it Freeland's book when he was a baby - it was also his uncle Monte's book too.

AND it has a Great Dane in it!!

How random & fun is it that when she came to visit us none of us knew at the time I was pregnant and that we actually had use for this book so quickly!

The book is now applejack's official first baby book too!! I love it.

So back to telling Freeland's mom. We actually knew right away how we wanted to tell her. (Even though we were soo sad it wasn't going to be in person!) We thought of the perfect idea for her.

See, every time we go to visit her & Carl or they come to visit us we have a tradition of playing scrabble for hours on end together. Seriously, since the first time I met his family its what we have always done after dinner. So of course we decided to incorporate scrabble into the news. We thought it would be perfect .. and it would make it even more fun for her! (she is BRILLIANT at playing scrabble and LOVES finding every word possible!)

So we put together a little puzzle for her and mailed it to them with a little sheet of clues for her.

The clues read something along the lines of "we found this & wanted to send it to yall. We put together a little game since we aren't there to play with yall.." and the wrote out a few more clues so they could start to put all the words together.



She called us when she received the package and we told her to wait for Carl to open it. And then once Carl was home they started working on it together.

It was seriously hilarious the first few times she called us trying to guess what it said. We just told her to keep trying. We knew eventually she would get it. (like I said, she is a Pro at this game)

Then she called and said "all I can think of is the word grandparents.. does this mean yall are pregnant? Freeland is Brooke pregnant???!?!!?" with LOTS of excitement in her voice.

Freeland told her no so she would keep working to finish the entire puzzle. (and I think at that point she said something along the lines of "oh okay good I knew you would have probably already called and told me if that was the case" :)



Then we received another phone call that said "Freeland, this says we're going to be grandparents.. Brooke is Pregnant!!!" So we finally revealed the whole thing

We actually sent them the letters for "You are going to be Grandparents in April" but that entire thing isn't in the picture.

It was so much fun getting to share the news with them. I knew that his mom was going to be soo excited for us.

We stayed on the phone for a while and shared all the details we knew at that point. And we all celebrated. She said she had actually been praying for us.. which makes it even more exciting!

telling our families the news (part 1)

Im not sure if I already mentioned it but we found out that we were prego on a Friday.. and less than 24 hours later my mom & Mark came in town.

So obviously we knew we couldn't keep it a secret (especially since they were here for a week).

and Im pretty sure my mom would have killed us if she found out she was here and we didn't tell her.

(Bonus: This also helped because this way we didn't have to decide which parent to tell first. it was decided for us)

So literally on the way to the airport Saturday morning we decided how we would tell them and pulled over to get our supplies & try to throw something together. Im pretty sure my heart was racing the entire time driving to Cleveland. It felt unreal and was exciting to be able to share the news. Here are some pictures

First we got lots of balloons:


Then we made a sign:


We decided to let them figure it out and wrote "Welcome to the North Grandma & Grandpa"
(please remember it was made while we were driving 70mph on the highway)


then we wrote "Yes! We're Pregnant" on the back in case there was any confusion.

Then we sat down at the bottom of the escalator and waited for their plane to arrive. Freeland had the camera in his hands. I had the sign & balloons.

Then we saw them coming down.

and here is their reaction:




My mom said she saw Freeland first & didnt think anything of him having the camera. Then she saw our balloons and thought "man, they sure are happy to see us" .. then she read the sign and was just shocked.. I will let her tell you what the first words out of her mouth were.

She stood there in shock for a long time. And all I was thinking was "ummm there are like a gazillion people standing behind me who have also now read the sign and they are waiting to see your reaction so start reacting!"

Then there were lots of hugs and pictures and conversations. And a few people watching came to see too. It was a lot of fun. And it really did help Freeland & I to be able to talk about it with someone else too.





and then we went and celebrated over lunch in Cleveland. Finally we headed back to Erie. Here are some pictures of our little zoo playing with the balloons celebrating the news:


(note: eddie trying to read the poster)


eddie finding out


freeland telling maddie



and then this was Sam's reaction when we told her she was no longer the baby of the family:


(sadly our camera died before I got a picture of Oliver.. but he was just as cute)

up next .. telling Freeland's mom

the waiting game

Well, the doctor won. The sonogram wont be done this week.

Instead we are waiting until November 3rd. Which I guess isn't too long. Its been fun seeing what everyone is guessing on the little survey thing. Right now more people think its a girl. (56%) I guess we'll have to see. I will leave the survey up until we find out.

Oh and for those curious - we go back and forth. After we find out I will tell you what we tend to think it is though.

Our appointment went well yesterday. We got to hear the heart beat again. And everything looked fine.

He did confirm that the pain Ive been having the last 2 weeks (in my tush) is in fact my sciatic nerve. Yippee! Thankfully Freeland worked on it for me last weekend and it isn't hurting as bad anymore. (thank you Student Doctor Ackley)

Oh and biggest news - I think (think being the key word) I felt the baby yesterday. I know I felt something! So if it wasn't the baby - I'm not sure what it was. It felt like a bubble. I was able to push around and feel it 4 times. But I was too afraid to move to go get Freeland (not that he would have felt anything this early - and I was also in the shower sooo that kept me from running to get him too) I just wanted to sit there and see if it would happen again.. and I thought if I moved it would stop. It was a sweet moment & I just sat there in amazement because I never expected to feel anything for a while.

It was pretty exciting. But I haven't felt anything since so who knows? Keep ya posted.

Okay I promise to finally post pictures from us telling our families next.

question of the week .. is it a boy or girl?

Fingers crossed - we hopefully get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl this week!

I couldnt be more excited! Freeland thought for a second he would rather not find out and be surprised when the doctor holds it up during delivery. But we quickly realized these last 4 months have been enough of a wait so we're ready!

(I cant believe we are already this far along. It seems like just last week we found out we were prego)

And per your request I put up a poll on the blog..

so you could all join in on the fun.. share your opinions.. feel like your voice is being heard..

The little poll is over there on the right. (Its anonymous for those who are interested in knowing)

Now the burning question - do you think its a boy or girl???

(thanks for playing along!)

The first snow

Fall Colors, Winter Snow, originally uploaded by MattAdamsPhoto.com.

It snowed last night!

(it didnt stick)

but that officially makes October 15th the first day of snow in Erie this season.

(it was the 27th last year) at least according to what I wrote last year.. who knows if thats right or not.

Its exciting though.

And it really makes me want to go visit NYC. If only ..

pumpkins my heart adores

Photo Credit here by indierocket

is that not the most beautiful picture of pumpkins ever?

I want them in my house. now. kthx.

Darn you Dave Ramsey & your budget. Bless you... but darn at the same time.

On another note, I thought I would share what else has been going on in the Awesome.. I mean Ackley Household lately. Because it turns out there is in fact a lot of other things going on.

For examples, Sam almost caught a wasp yesterday. (thankfully I stepped in and killed it - while I was screaming in fear - before she was able to "catch" it and get stung.) How did a wasp get in our HOUSE?

Also, we picked out pumpkins yesterday and they are seriously larger than life. Freeland had to work to even get them out of the box they were sitting in.

Ive become productive again. (Freeland is probably so happy he wants to cry right now) I actually did laundry (still havent put it away but I washed some of it) Ive helped with the dishes. Ive cooked dinner again. Shoot, I even pulled out my sewing machine, practiced the piano, and organized my recipes. now THAT is being productive. (for me at least)

But probably the biggest thing going on is that Freeland finally received his rotation schedule for next year! Phew.. we're moving forward people!! It feels so nice to have that selection process out of the way. Im not sure how it is at every school - if its all the same or not.. but at his school everyone selects if they prefer the location of rotations or the schedule they are on. (Freeland chose location since it was obviously important that he is close to home.) Then they just hope they receive what they picked and go forward. Then once they get that they are put in groups and have to all work out who is going where and what hospital they want to be at etc. etc. etc. In summary - you never know if you are going to get what you want. but you just have to trust it will work out.

Thankfully Freeland was able to get all his rotations in Erie. And he was able to get a schedule that he likes too. He will have electives that we can do in other places but we arent exactly sure how that would work with 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a child to figure out too. We'll see. He starts them in June & couldnt be more excited & ready to start. (first he has to get those nasty boards out of the way though so one step at a time) Then he starts his internal rotations!

And thats just a few of the other things going on..

the proof

First of all I asked Freeland if we could put our Christmas tree up this weekend. He said no. So we compromised and watched Elf instead. soon enough. I think since it feels like fall so much earlier here .. Im even that much more ready for Christmas. But I promise not to rush these things.

Some of you asked about us finding out we were prego. I will share the story at some point. But to summarize it .. I guess crazy things happen after we have been separated for 2 weeks! :) Also, Freeland knew the entire time I was pregnant. He literally woke up one morning and said "you're pregnant. I just know it". So he knew 2 weeks before I knew.



And Kate said it best.. my response was pretty much the exact same as when Freeland proposed to me. (click there to read my response if you dont already know it)

ha.

Obviously you dont need to see these pictures as proof. (and btw, is it gross to show these? Im not exactly sure but part of me thinks it is)

This was the proof for me:


(on top of a few other symptoms that also proved something was going on)

I seriously carried them around with me for a week in my purse just to pull out and remind myself. I couldn't believe it. Freeland kept reminding me that I did in fact pee on them and it was gross to carry that around. But I couldn't help myself.

Finally I agreed and tucked them away.

There are still moments I have to remind myself this is happening.

On Wednesday I will be starting my 17th week. So far I feel a lot better. The only strange symptoms I can think of at the moment are my ears & my appetite. I don't know how to explain my ears.. but its like when there is water in your ears - how you can hear yourself breathe and talk and everything echo's? well thats what my ears do at least a few hours everyday. I read that it happens to some people so nothing to worry about. I just sit with my head tilted to the side.

Then there is my appetite. It seems I have an empty pit in my stomach but nothing ever hits the spot anymore. If something does sound good by the time I get it - its no longer sounds good. Don't get me wrong, i eat a lot still but I just dont enjoy it as much anymore.. or I dont crave things the same. (except chocolate milk. I still majorly crave that & have since before I actually knew I was pregnant)

My stomach is kind of showing. For a few days it looked huge to me. Then it went back to looking like I just ate too many pop tarts. I guess Im at that in between point. Which is fine. Im in no rush.

Thats all I can think of for the moment. Looking forward to our appointment on the 20th!

our painting made it!

Im not sure if you remember our story about our friend we met in Uganda, Mike, who painted us a picture (if not click here for the quick story)

well a couple weeks ago we finally got the painting in the mail

and OH.MY.GOSH. I .LOVE.IT!!!!

I was out of town when it arrived. But Freeland kept telling me "you wont believe how amazing it is. And how large it is.. it doesnt even fit on any of our walls"

so by the time I got home Freeland had built a frame for it and found the only spot in our house that it would fit.. right above our bed:

Thats Freeland & I in the middle of all the people outside a medical clinic.
(ignore my retainer sitting right there on the bed)

Here is another picture so you can see how large it is:



My favorite thing is that Im holding a child.. and he painted it before we knew we would be having a child.

It still melts my heart every time I see it & Im so thankful we have it in our house as a reminder of everything we experienced. And Im so thankful that Mike felt led to draw & paint it for us.

Dont Forget

In the chance you missed it on every other blog..

NieNie is on Oprah today!

In her own words "on the couch" with Oprah!

Make sure to watch it or go home during lunch and record it!

PS: if you aren't aware of who NieNie is click on her blog or here to read more

Zach & Vanessa's Pictures

(aka my first pretend photoshoot)

Okay first and foremost I was reminded of a lesson I learned today.

The lesson I learned and would now like to share with you so that you can learn it too is: When you are out of town for 7 days straight (also known as a week) change your voice mail to say "I am not available BUT I CAN BE REACHED at this phone number" and this especially applies when your home phone is your office phone .. meaning its the only number available besides your cell phone that you can be reached at.

AND if for some reason you dont change your voice mail (like me) then have your husband check the caller id for you or oh my goodness at least call in and check your messages daily.

A lot can happen in a week. mmmk?

There, lesson learned. It was nothing big. Just missed a phone call that I shouldnt have! Hopefully you all feel more educated now and wont make the same mistake I did. :)

Okay so back to Z & V's pictures. Remember like 5 months ago when they came to visit? And I somehow talked them & my husband into letting me practice taking pictures of them just for fun! Well I finally went through the pictures yesterday and thought I would share some of them.

It was fun pretending that I had any clue what I was doing. Trust me, I dont.





















and my personal favorite:



There are like a gazillion more if you want to see them click here
*note: you can select to view the slideshow faster if you want

I had a blast. I think we ran to as many places as possible around Erie that we could in 1.5 hours before we had to leave for the airport. It was crazy but fun. And I was so thankful Freeland was there. (little known secret - he is the better person to take pictures) Although, Im pretty sure it helps that they are one beautiful couple & they laugh a lot! :) Thanks for letting me practice on yall - going through these made me miss yall even more!