2 Wonderful Years . . . .

On Monday James and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary!  We (I should say ME, James was fine) were so wiped out from Christmas and all the fun in Amarillo, that our "celebration" was going to a late movie Monday night while my parents watched Grayson.  Sadly, I didn't even dress up - I wore my Pajamas and a Parka.  The theatre in Amarillo by my house is not exactly crowded, and it WAS late.  :) We saw "The Fighter" and it was really good!  


James and I both feel like we've only been married a few months, it's hard to believe we've been together 3 years.  It's been full of excitement so far!!  Love you Sweetie!!!


Here's a few pics from 2 years ago . . . 

 

While there are definitely more important things in life than a wedding, I don't think I'll ever forget the panic that came with seeing our Country Club burned to the ground exactly 2 weeks before our wedding date.  Ironically, the only thing left was the circular fire pit just off the back glass doors. . . .

  

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Block 3 is DUNZO!!!

Well James is finally finished with his Block 3 exams!!! One whole semester of Med School is complete!  I'm SO proud of the way he managed to get a study routine down just after moving cities (and all the painful stuff that comes with that - new Insurances, new Driver's License, etc), while jumping through all kinds of hoops to get our loan money, becoming a father, getting a concussion, and just dealing with a newborn baby and a sometimes very emotional, post-partum wife!!!  

James is such a calm, steady person - I'm SOO lucky to have him in my life.

So, with block 3 being over, it's time to celebrate Christmas!!  James and I exchanged gifts and I got some nice goodies!! One of which was this perfume by Victoria's Secret.  If you haven't smelled it - you should, or just wait for me to come around b/c I will definitely be wearing it along with my new beanie!!

I'll post some pics of our Christmas gift exchange in Houston because I got some really good ones of Little Gray. 

  

On Tuesday afternoon we packed up both doggies and Little Gray and hit the road!  We made a pit stop in College Station for a Knife River Christmas dinner at Sodalak's.  I was SO excited that my old workplace thought to invite me!!  When James and I drove into town, we both realized just how much we missed College Station.  I felt it again when I went to the restroom at the restaurant and heard Robert Earl Keen being played. . . . ah the memories!!

The dinner was awesome and the two hour pit stop went by way too fast! I could have stayed and talked all night.  I LOVE being at home with Grayson, and our Houston life is amazing. . . . but I do miss College Station and my job at Knife River a lot.  Maybe one day we can mesh the two together!

We then fed Grayson, let the doggies potty, and got back on the road - armed with 3 cans of 5 hour energy.  I will admit, James did every single bit of the driving!  He is more of a trooper than me.  Although, to my credit, I did only sleep about 3 hours total off and on.  We arrived at 4:30am in Amarillo.  When we brought Grayson in, he was ready to start his day - he was WIDE awake.  So I stayed up with him for a few hours, and then James took over and I went to bed.

The 2 days that we have been here have been jam packed with shopping, working out, and more shopping!  It's SO nice to be around my parents and my sister and brother in law in the nice cold weather.  Grayson just loves them all! He is having a blast too with the 9 labs that are here (that's not counting the 8 seven week old puppies that are still here from the litter) . . . . that's right I said 9, with 8 of them being INSIDE the house. . . no I didn't stutter, 8 labs inside!!  BUT, they are all super well behaved, and get along amazingly well!!

On a side note, we found out yesterday that poor Parker has at least a partially torn ACL (possibly a fully torn one) with meniscal damage.  So, we are currently hunting for Orthopedic Surgeon Vets.  If anyone knows of a good one, please let me know. . . right now our likely choice is in Oklahoma City, OK.

I can't believe CHRISTMAS EVE is TOMORROW!!!!! 

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Studying. . . Studying. . . Studying

This past week James has been studying even more than usual.  This week is his last week of Block 3, but it definitely ends with a bang.  A nice round of cumulative tests - covering everything they've learned in Med School so far!!  So James and his poor classmates have been studying 24/7.


But the good news is that NEXT WEEK James is all ours again!!!!! Casey, Parker, Grayson, and I couldn't be more excited!!!

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Thanksgiving in Palestine

This year for Thanksgiving we loaded up Grayson, Casey, and Parker - and all our stuff - and road tripped it to Palestine!  We had SO much stuff between the dogs and Grayson and ourselves, I felt like a traveling circus.  The doggies did great, as usual - they are seasoned travelers.  Grayson did pretty good too!

We got there before everyone else, so we got to spend some quality time with Bob and Sharon.  It was so nice to just get out of town and relax!  James got a nice break from his books.  Then when everyone else came it just felt so warm and festive to have a house full of people and yummy food. . . . and we had TONS of food!!! To make things even better, a cold front came through, so it really felt like the holidays!

Grayson and the doggies got a nice nap on the drive there....

Aunt Breana!

 After the feast James and I took the dogs for a walk in  the woods near his house.  I realize we look like some sort of Army Rebels but we didn't bring warm clothes and Bob was kind enough to let us borrow some that we found!  Good thing too because it starting raining on us.  The dogs were in Heaven!!

Lounging / watching football after eating waay too much food :)

Although he slept through it - we beat TU!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my favorite pic of the weekend - Aunt Breana and Grayson TOTALLY sacked out on the couch, arms above the head!!

Riding home in his Jungle of entertainment

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Amarillo Pics

Here are a few pictures that were taken this past weekend on our Amarillo trip :)

At the Houston airport waiting on our flight!!!

SOO happy and ready to fly

He's actually not a big fan of hats :( but he looks so cute in them! and this one keeps his ears warm, so I made him wear it.

He LOVED being in the Amarillo cold weather!

Granny and Grayson doing some early morning Computer business . . . 

Here he is sporting his TCU onesie to the mall! We saw this Cowboy hat and tried it on him - unfortunately it looks like it was run over or something, so we didn't get it.

Watching a little TV while mommy gets dressed :)

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Grayson gets his wings

This past weekend Grayson and I flew to Amarillo for a quick visit with my parents. James stayed behind in Houston with the doggies and studied. It started out with an 8:30am flight on Southwest Airlines. Grayson did AMAZING! He was awake and just sat on my lap and looked around the entire flight. One flight attendant gave him a little pair of plastic Wings at the end of our flight because he did so well!

Once we landed we went up to my mom's work and said hi to all of her co-workers - she is such a proud Granny! And Grayson is such a little flirt - he just smiles at new people. We then headed home to see how my dad was recovering from his shoulder surgery. Getting a rotator cuff fixed seems to be a painful endeavor! He was pretty out of it the whole weekend from his pain pills. I'm pretty sure Grayson and I wore my mom ragged running around at the mall all weekend - but I know she loved it. Grayson was a champ in our shopping marathon!

My parents' dogs - Beau and Sadie (2 yellow labs) absolutely LOVED Grayson! They kept standing in front of his swing stopping it with their bodies so they could stare and sniff.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with nice cold weather! Although I missed James and the doggies terribly, it went by so fast. I can't wait to go back in a few weeks for Christmas!!!

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New Ownership

Hello World!!!! Since James has started writing on his BCMAGG blog, I will be taking this one over! I'm hoping that this will be a great way for everyone to keep updated on the Happenings here at the Berg home. Grayson is growing so fast that it seems like there are constantly new pics and videos to share. Hope you guys enjoy!!!!

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Fast update

So I think I've done pretty good with my departure from cable tv.  Apart from the periodic clips here and there I catch when Shelby is watching a program or the news I feel that I've been able to do some really good things with my time.  Not to forget that I have missed a few shows that I was hoping to see (wipeout in particular)

Monday evening I made an Italian like soup with squash, zucchini, and venison sausage based off a recipe Serena gave us a while back.  It was delish. (and I made enough for multiple lunches on the go etc for the next few days so I can save time and money by eating better)

Tuesday night our softball team had a game and boy was it fun.  Although when we started we thought we might not even have enough players to start, but finishing the game 13-4 with time expiring proved to be a blast.  Hurricane Alex brought in some clouds to dampen the heat so it was good weather (at least for Texas).  I had an awesome game batting 4-4 with 7 rbi's and a home run (in park).  We came home and Shelby got a much needed body rub from me then we both read some books and dozed off.

Not focusing on tv has also helped me out in the mornings to actually get stuff done.  I'm 3 for 3 on taking the dogs for a morning jog (which helps them out so much to rid some energy for the day), and I've been able to focus on more things like making the bed and loading/unloading the dishwasher.

I know some ppl think I'm crazy, especially Joe, because I run barefoot or because I try to drive my car the least possible (with no a/c) but I think that mastering these kinds of self discipline set forth a more richer life experience.  I'm just saying. . .

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Cable fast

"Your crazy!" is what Shelby said when I told her last night that I was going to try a fast from cable tv this week.  It occurred to me over the weekend that I can easily watch tv for like 30 hours straight without a break.  How much other stuff could I have done during that time? workout, walk the dogs, clean the house, rearrange, wash/clean the cars, play with kid (in the future), post a blog, read a book, make a hearty meal, wash clothes, the list goes on forever.

So the rules:
-Watching dvd movies are okay (since they won't have pointless commercials) and because dvds generally are involved in quality time together with wife and dogs.
-No sportscenter (on internet )
-No news
-No favorite shows (with generally consist of 30% commercials)

Shelby asked, "What about Boston Med?" (a new medically oriented show on ABC I was dying to watch).  I responded, "I'll record it" - - It then occurred to me that in a world of no cable I would not be able to record it but instead I would probably just find better things to invest my time in .  

I'll try to post updates to fun/creative activities I come up with and post daily!

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Doggies

I love our doggies so much.  So today, it's all about them. (and their cousins)

This morning I had to take Parker to the vet because he has some sore come up on the top of his paw that looks just awful.  While at the vet, Parker insisted on sitting on the bench like a human then the whole time the vet was in the exam room he would turn around and put his nose in the corner of the wall (see pic below).  He would peek a few looks here and there, but for the most part he kept to himself having NOTHING to do with the doc.  She gave us some meds and hopefully we won't have to get him one of those cones so he doesn't lick his paw. (poor guy)

Parker and Ivy

Parker and Casey riding in the back of Uncle Joe's  truck.  This was their first time to ever do it and they did great.  We even saw two bucks.

This happened after Parker and Casey were playing a little too rough.  Needless to say he cried a little.  :(

Tater just sitting funny

Ivy trying to slowly creep off her bed when we told her not to.

Parker likes to act like a diva!

Enjoy the photos!

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World Cup 2010

I'll make it short and sweet.  GOOOO USA!!!

If you missed the 1-0 USA win over Algeria in the 90+1 minute you missed out.

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Inspired by my sis

So after reading Serena's blog this morning I realized that I too have been hiding in the dark from posting.

So for a few updates:

Shelby has been doing great with our baby.  She's finally gotten over the nausea that so many accompany with the 1st trimester, but with her it lasted straight through the 2nd too.  As of today she's in her 29th week. About a week ago during our last doctors visit we learned that our baby boy is a little small for his age and was placed in the 11th percentile.  (Sadly we also learned that he previous week he was only in the 3rd percentile, but weren't ever told!) We've since adjusted her diet to whatever she can put down so that baby will grow! Here's her latest glamour shots.

As for the move to Houston, I believe we're moving right along.  This past weekend, Pam (Shelby's mom) came through from Houston on her way back to Amarillo and loaded up a bedroom set and hauled it off.  One whole room has been dedicated to boxes, which is slowly filling up to the ceiling.  All the other rooms are starting to look really bare since no pictures, artwork, or colored paint is on any wall.  The official move date is set for Friday, July 23 where we'll load up the Uhaul in the morning, clean up and turn in our keys.  We'll then drive down to Tomball and stay with Meemaw since we don't want to overdue it and have a heat stroke in the middle of July.  Eaaarly Saturday morning we'll head down to the Promenade at Hermann Park (our new home) and start unloading.  What kind of stinks is that since everyone parks in a garage our Uhaul won't be able to drive right up to our apartment.  We'll have to park it near the opening of the garage and just haul everything in by hand (about a 30 meter walk across the garage).  

Parker and Casey I think are getting really excited about the move and the baby.  Parker just can't get enough of the toys, furniture, and accessories that the baby is accumulating.  You know at any point while packing up you can turn around and Parker will be right at your heels, sniffing away.  Casey is much more wiser and chooses simply not to be around while we pack (she prefers napping). 

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11 Inspiring Life Lessons from Bruce Lee

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Lists

So as I've been reading around on the internet today doing my normal catching up on my rss feeds, blogs, and favorite sites  - one thing has really stuck out to me, LISTS.   I see them everywhere nowadays.  10 ways to get this. . 5 steps to create ____. . . 15 easy points to make. .  etc. You get the point.  But my question is, "Do they really work?" and 'Do people actually do them?"  I mean, all of us havel clicked on the links and read a few if not all of the points, but do we ever really attempt to follow every step, in order? - I'm going to guess not, but what I do think is that they have good direction in their purpose.

Most of the lists I see are ways to improve upon our life or interaction with others.  One to mention that I've started (today) doing was waking up earlier.  I know some of us (Shelby) have a particular infatuation with the bed and that warm fuzzy feeling that lingers in the sheets every morning, but I think a little part of everyone has had one good experience with rising early.

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin


10 Benefits of Rising Early (shortened version, click title to see full version)


1. Greet the Day


2. Amazing Start


3. Quietude


4. Sunrise


5. Breakfast


6. Exercise


7. Productivity


8. Goal Time


9. Commute


10. Appointments








But if you're not down with the early morning stuff just remember what Twain said, "“Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin …” 

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Too Cool!

So seeing how I totally overlooked making a blog about us finding out the gender of the baby, I've decided to write about the first time I felt our boy kick. .  or punch. .or whatever he does that makes mommy feel not so good.  Just yesterday, while we were laying out at the pool Shelby leans over to me, grabs my hand and thrusts it onto her rock hard abs ;)  She says, "FEEL!", so I wait. . ..and wait. .. .then KABOOM! I felt it.  I'll have to admit, it was amazing.

For me, the baby experience has been very much lived through Shelby since I've never gotten sick, felt tired, had food cravings, potty breaks every 5 minutes, or anything of that sort - so it's been hard to 'connect' to our little guy in that mushy kind of way that every soon-to-be father would like.   Being able to feel him though was amazing yet personable.  It brought pictures of us playing together one day in a yard with the dogs jumping around while mom serves ice cold lemonade, hehe.   All in all it was 'too cool.'

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Google

I think everyday I ask myself - "Why hasn't everyone switched to using google?" I mean, everyone in the world uses their search engine, but what about their email (especially wave), calendar, docs, maps, books, earth, picassa, news, videos/youtube, health, and about 1 million other services.   Oh yeah and did I mention, it's all FREE!  Many universities are switching to a google based email system, and some are switching to even more services.  Think of it,  schools wouldn't have to install microsoft office on every computer in the labs, and students wouldn't get the fees passed on to them for all the licensure that it costs.  You would have unlimited web space for emails, practically a portable drive anywhere you go to work on your docs,  and streamlined calendar system for classes that are communicable with profs, instant messenger built-in, etc!

So it leads me to wonder, how much longer will it take people to realized this?

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Photoshop mobile

This weekend Shelby and I packed up the dogs and headed to Tomball, Tx.  Home of Meemaw.  Callie (Shelby's sister) is having a bridal shower thrown by all her aunt's/cousins/family/etc.   So while the girls were out I had the house all to myself.  We started the afternoon off with Casey, Parker, and Abby (Meemaw's lab) going for some nice running in their back pasture.  Sorry no pics, but my shorts didn't have pockets.

Anyways, when we got back the dogs were wasted and I wanted to try out the photoshop mobile app for my iphone.  I read about it and downloaded it to give it a try because I can't tell you how many times my photos are underexposed or where I just want to add another "umph" to the shot.  (Not that I'm a photographer of any sort).  So here's a pic I took of Abby cooling off under the swing (the original).

And now after using the photoshop mobile app.

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