Dogs...

Kenny and I are HUGE dog lovers and we have been without our Duke boy for about 3 months now. Had the birth of Charlie not been in our near future, we probably would have had a sweet new dog in our house by now. After we put Duke down, we decided it was best to wait to get a dog until after Charlie's arrival so that the new dog will join our family of 3, rather than adjust to Kenny and I just in time to readjust to Charlie. Logically, this is what we SHOULD do. It's what everyone TELLS us to do. It's really the BEST thing for us, Charlie and the future dog. Right???

But....our HEARTS want another dog sooooo badddd!! We WANT to come home and be greeted by a jumping, furry friend whose is just happy to see us and makes all of the bad things that could have happened that day go away. Kenny and I seem to take turns going through this "needy" phase. So, we spend our time studying rescue websites, looking for our next furry companion that will be a great friend to us, that will look after our Charlie...a sweet loving dog that will fill the house with fur and give sweet, sloppy doggie kisses on command.

AND...then we "discuss" the BIG QUESTION...

Do we get a sweet, midsized, loving Brittany, like I grew up with???

OR...do we get a great, bigger Lab, like our Duke and the only kind of dog Kenny has ever had?

What do you think???

Water for Elephants

I recently finished reading Water for Elephants for my book group and it was FANTASTIC!!! Great pick, Pia! It was one of those books that I probably never would have read if not required for book group. Even though it was a best seller and one of the books proudly on display right when you walk in the door of the bookstore, I still probably would not have read it. But, I loved it! And this is the exact reason why I love book group so much because it gets me to read things I normally would not have and most times, I feel very committed to finishing it, even if I don't like it. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Next book group pick is mine, The Glass Castle. Since I've read it already, I've moved on to Jodi Picoult's new book, Change of Heart. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it and it's awesome. She is a great author!

Baby Charlie...at 24 weeks!

Here's another look at Mr. Charlie at 24 weeks. It's a profile shot of him lying on his back. His head is on the left, belly to the right and limbs in the air.

The reason we have another picture of him is because my doctors are being a little extra careful with me because I have had a few high blood pressure readings in the last few years and while I've been pregnant...to them a high blood pressure reading is 125/84 or 127/78. I have to love that they are being extra careful with me, but laugh a little because most doctors I know wouldn't look twice at that BP reading. Regardless, I'm thankful for them and I know that as this pregnancy continues, the chances of my BP going higher naturally, get better and better, so I appreciate the extra tests that they have put me through thus far. All tests and procedures have come back completely normal and if something were to get worse down the road, they now have "baseline" readings for me on everything possible, so they know better how my body is working.

With that, after our first pictures of Charlie at 20 weeks, they ordered another ultrasound for 24 weeks, to ensure that Charlie is growing at the proper pace. And, of course, he is. I can even see that from the pictures he looks bigger. Since Kenny and I were confident that everything was fine, Kenny opted not to go to the ultrasound. So at the last minute, I invited my mom to join me. Since she's retired, her schedule is ULTRA busy (HA! HA!) and she dropped everything to come and see her grandson for the first time and an ultrasound for the first time. As she pointed out to me, I'm too old to have had an ultrasound done when she was carrying me around!

She loved it and we even saw his little heart beating away! Ultrasounds are amazing!

Kid Funnies...

The first weekend in March, we had a graduation/18th birthday celebration at our house for my cousin Samantha! Now, first let me make my "I'm feeling old comment." I remember when Sam was born, I remember all of her life and I can't BELIEVE she is 18 and done with school already!!! We are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished in the last year and were so happy to host her party.



The party also means that we spent Sunday with 20 or so of my relatives. The youngest, Jack, is 3 and is my cousin's son. He's so cute and I love the innocence of a 3 year old's thoughts. Here's TWO sweet/funny Jack stories, that I can't resist not sharing...



Jack is a typical boy's boy and loves to play and was in the process of reinspecting our house to find new adventures. As he emerged from Kenny's "car room" and was telling his dad about ALL the cars and trucks in there, he spotted Duke's toy basket, that we cleaned out after he passed away, but left a few good toys in for any visting dogs or our next dog. Jack said "look at the toy basket." I said "Jack, that is Duke's old toy basket and those are doggie toys, not toys for you to play with." He looked at me, crossed the room to get closer to me and with the sweetest little look on his face asked "Where IS Duke?" Almost, like he was wondering where he was...but I'm not sure he remembered who Duke was. I explained to him that Duke was in heaven, like his dog Bear (who passed away last year) and now they are friends and can play together. He thought that was a great answer and went off to play with some of Kenny's cars. That just made me want the innocence of a 3 year old back!!!

Jack's second story is VERY funny...

Jack's mom, Amy is lovin' that Kenny and I are having a boy, since Jack is the 3rd of 3 boys in their house and she KNOWS how much fun (and trouble) boys are! I had shown Jack Charlie's room when he got to our house and invited him to play with his toys that we have received. Many I pointed out to him were hand me downs from a co-worker of Kenny's.

We were in the kitchen talking about boys and she pointed out, as Jack was eating his cake, how fun they are...Jack had a nice line of frosting and cake down his sleeve that he wiped there from his mouth! I made some sort of comment about Charlie and Jack looked over at us and said "Where IS Charlie?" Poor kid, we talk about Charlie and show him Charlie's room and toys, but he doesn't understand he's not here yet. So, I explained that he is in my belly and pointed to the growing bump and said that in the summer when it's warm all the time and Jack is wearing shorts alot, Charlie will be here for him to play with whenever he wants. He found that answer acceptable and went back to his cake. A minute later, he walked over to me and started to lift my shirt while explaining he was "looking for Charlie." :) I took out an ultrasound picture and showed it to him and said that's Charlie...and he must think Charlie is a strange looking kid. I assured him that when he was that big, his mommy has a picture of him that looks the same. Amy agreed they could look at it when they got home. At least we know that Jack is interested in meeting Charlie and I hope they will be great friends!

Packard Winter Weekend

Now...isn't this sporty sports car what you expected to see when reading a post called Packard Winter Weekend??!! Probably, not...

Kenny and I enjoyed a weekend in Dayton, Ohio at the Packard Winter Weekend that the Packard Museum there puts on. It was a great time...nice to get out of the house and away from Kenny's work that has kept him all too busy this winter and an event that I have never attended and Kenny hasn't been to in years. Good friends of the Friedrichs are in charge of the museum there and it was great to see them and other friends from around the country.

So, yes, the picture above was at the museum...Shaq's custom made Ferrari was there and Kenny sat in it, because it would actually kind of fit him.

This Packard sign Kenny remembers going somewhere with his friend Dom to pick this up and take it to the museum. Kind of cool to see the junky things you might find, cleaned up and on display now.

Kenny was involved with the La Carrera road race through Mexico for a couple of years with the museum and Bob Signom. The green Packard in the photo above was the car they raced one year.

Here's Kenny with the car.

Here's the side detail of the car.

And here's Kenny's name on the car as one of the mechanics.

Overall, it was a great, relaxing weekend...we always enjoy these things, have lots of laughs and new stories to tell. :)

So Proud to be a Huskie

One week ago, we shared our exciting news about Baby Charlie, but I couldn't bring myself until now to do a post about the bad news of the day...the shooting at NIU. I went to NIU for 4 years and without those 4 years at NIU, my life would be VERY different. I wouldn't have many of my closest friends and some of those close friends introduced me to Kenny...I LOVE going back to Northern to visit the places we used to hang out and I can't wait to bring little Charlie back there and get him NIU outfits. And maybe, if I'm lucky, he will want to go to school there too!

During my time there, I was involved with different organizations, but probably those that affected me the most were PSE and working for the school paper, the Northern Star. I feel like those organizations made me love NIU that much more and really made me feel apart of the family there. NIU is know for being so close to Chicago and it being a suitcase school, since so many packed up each weekend and went home to the burbs. It was NEVER that for me...granted when I started there, it was a nice perk, but I ended up getting so involved that I rarely went home.

The news of the shootings there broke my heart...I tried to put myself in the place of the current students and to have something that I love so much hurt by such a horrible crime...I just can't imagine. As an alum of the Star, we regularly get emails from the two advisors regarding upcoming activities and how the Star is doing. Those emails came several times a day for the last week. One of the killed students was a Star employee and the current staff has been so greatly hurt by that loss. Those emails also were so inspiring to read...they, along with many newspaper articles (many written by former NIU students and Star employees), described the great pull that has brought NIU together...and truly made them a stronger school than ever. THAT has been awesome to see, hear about and has never made me more proud to be part of the NIU family.

Finally...Pictures of the Baby!!!

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Kenny and I spent the afternoon at my doctor's office and we got to see the first pictures of Baby Friedrich. We both are healthy and doing great!! And the best part was we were able to find out the sex of the baby!! I can NOW stop saying "it" and "the baby" and start calling the baby a HIM!!!!!

That's right, it's a BOY!!! I've thought so all along, just a feeling I kept getting. Kenny and I are thrilled to have a son, but even more thrilled to have a healthy looking baby! The best part is, we have a boy's name picked out already...Charles Edward Friedrich...and we will call him Charlie. He was really moving around during the ultrasound and making it slightly difficult on the nurse to get a shot.

Here's the first picture of him...it's a profile shot. His head is sort of in the center of the picture and his body extends out to the left.

This picture is of his face and again, his head is in the middle and his body extends to the left of the picture. The black dots are the eyes.

And the proof that it's a boy! If you look at the center of the picture there is a white, computer made + sign...just to the left is the proof! :)

Welcome Baby Charlie!!! Now the surprise...who will he look like when he is born???!!