Did You Hear the News?

Yes, it's true.  I'm due on June 7.  We're excited to have this new little addition to our family.

Does this explain a little bit of why our lives have been so crazy lately?  Pregnancy itself hasn't been too bad (minus some complications), but I've had a recurring infection that mimics food poisoning except it lasts a lot longer.  Combine that with morning sickness and I've been very, very sick.  As in going into the ER to get rehydrated sick.  We think that I am finally over it and I'm feeling much better.

The only upside to being so sick is that we've had lots of ultrasounds (I think about 6 or 7) and have been able to see baby a lot.  Baby is quite the squirmer!  It's quite exciting to see baby's heartbeat and growing strong.  We'll find out next month if it's a girl or boy, but we will be happy with either!

A Longwood Christmas

One side effect of our lives being so beyond crazy lately is that Brad and I haven't really had any time together, but a few weeks ago Brad got out of class a few hours earlier than usual.  We've been wanting go to see the Christmas displays at Longwood Gardens and this was our chance.

I know this may sound lame, but our favorite part of the night was Brad treating me to dinner in the park.  We haven't had a good solid hour to sit down and talk together in a while.  And more than just about our crazy lives right now.

They had these awesome water fountain displays put to Christmas music.

You really can't get a scale of how big this tree is.  Those silver ornaments on the tree were as large as bowling balls.

The conservatory was spectacular.  There were Christmas trees everywhere and they had lilies perfuming the air.  It was fun to see all the lights at Longwood since we can't go see the lights at Temple Square anymore.  I think it might become a new Christmas tradition.

Christmastime in the City

On Sunday at church we sang both Joy to the World and Go Tell It On the Mountain in the same meeting.  The ward gospel choir (yes, you read that right, gospel choir) did a number and was moving and a swaying.  There might have been some hallelujahs and amens in there too.  And there was a harp solo.  It was quite the eclectic mix, but it was actually one of my favorite Christmas sacrament meetings ever.  It definetly had a Philadelphian spin on it.

We also had some friends over to enjoy the Packer tradition of French Pancakes at Christmas.  Yes, they heard the story of the dying French solider and why we make ten times the recipe every year.  We also made some gingerbread houses.  Scott and Mikjan made the Eiffel Tower, Nettie the Nativity scene, and Holly the house from Up.  What did we make?  Brad wanted a dental office.  He's funny like that.

You Know You Married a Dental School Student

Brad has these awesome "Lunch and Learn" presentations at dental school.  Basically some dental company/professional provides lunch for the students and then tells them about their product or company.  The great thing is the Brad often gets free lunch 3 or more times a week.  I don't have to remember to pack him a lunch!

Brad gets all sorts of great dental products to try for free this way.  This includes more free tubes of toothpaste then we know what to do with, floss, mouthwash, and even a free professional grade electric toothbrush from Oral B.  Sometime Sonicare is supposed to come and Brad will get another free toothbrush.  Brad also won a $50 gift card to Target.  Thank you, thank you very much.

One day the presentation was by a company who make loupes (special dental magnification glasses.)   These are something you just have to buy even though they are ridiculously expensive.  We're talking about putting down a $1000 on glasses! During the presentation, the presenter showed the class the indestructible material that the loupes are made out of.  She asked Brad to come up to prove that the material was unbreakable.  She gave Brad a hammer and told him to hit it as hard as he could a few times.  She said with confidence that if Brad could get it to break she would give Brad a free pair of loupes.  With Brad's tennis serve prowess he came down on the magnifier and shattered the thing!  The class broke out in cheers while the presenter stood speechless.

Brad received an email from her later saying that in the twenty years she had been doing the presentation no one had been able to break the magnifier, nor had anyone in the testing lab.  She was good to her word though.  Brad only needed to stop by their booth on campus to get fitted and the loupes were his for free.

They came in the mail last week and Brad had to put them on right away.  Don't you love the bug eye look it gives?  I will admit they are pretty cool.  We are so grateful that we didn't have to pay for them!

*If you are feeling at all jealous of our freebies please remember we are paying a way ridiculous amount of tuition and the free perks are nothing in comparison with that.  Even after winning a free $1000 pair of loupes.  But it certainly doesn't hurt!

Thanksgiving 2011

Even though we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving, we still had a pretty good spread.  Yeah, that turkey, I made it.  This was the first time I've made turkey and I'm kind of proud that I made it all by myself.  I even brined it overnight.  I also made the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.  We had the Downs and the Jacks from from our ward come and they brought the green bean casserole, yams, and apple pie.  We were stuffed!

Nettie also brought one of her family traditions to share, a homemade piñata!  We had a lot of fun trying to break the thing open.  We loved having our friends over to enjoy food and games with us!

Family History Trip

My mom is doing a lot of genealogy right now.  When we told her we were going to University of Pennsylvania the first thing she said was, "Oh, I can visit you and do family history."  Yes that is right.  We just happen to live in a city where my mom goes on family history trips.  Actually, this works out great for us.  We get to see my mom more this way.  About a month ago my mom and my aunt Wendy came on one of these trips.

They did spend their first day with me.  I convinced them that they should buy a Living Social deal with me for 1/2 off tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (#2), i.e. the one with the stairs Rocky climbs.  They had a really cool exhibit called Rembrandt and the Face of Christ that I've been dying to go see.  The exhibit of Rembrandt's paintings was amazing!  And the rest of the museum was the coolest art museum I've ever been too.  They had entire rooms made to reflect rooms from around the world.  We visited China, Japan, India, England, France, and Spain, just to name a few, in a matter of hours.  It was a little breathtaking to see all the detail that went into these rooms.

And any trip to the Art Museum wouldn't be complete without seeing Rocky (#10).

The rest of the trip was mostly spent on family history, eating good food including two Iron Chef restaurants (Garces' Distrito and Bobby Flay's Bobby's Burger Palace), and hanging out.  We might let them back for another "family history" trip if they promise to have as much fun with us again.

Visit from a Friend

About a month ago, one of my high school friends, Holly, had an interview at Temple University for medical school.  She was lucky enough to fly in early enough to spend sometime with me and let me show her Philly.  We had quite the adventure.  Valley Forge, Independence Mall, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Reading Market, City Hall, and Love Park.  And there were cheesesteaks.  She got quite the quick tour of the best of Philadelphia.  I'm so glad Holly could come visit!

We had an extra special tour of Independence Hall.  We were able to see the second story of the building which they don't always let visitors do.  So, so cool!

See all the fun things I can show you in Philly if you come visit!  Our home is always welcome for friends and family!

Halloween Party

Disclaimer: I'm so sorry that it has been FOREVER since I have posted anything.  I know, I know.  To say that it has been crazy at our house for awhile is an understatement, but it's better late than never.

I made Brad get dressed up for Halloween this year.  Our awesome friends the Bartons were throwing an awesome shindig and we needed costumes.  After much discussion, we came up with these awesome costumes.    Let's see if you can figure out who we are.

If you don't know the show, we are Shawn and Juliet from the TV show Psych.  Complete with pineapple and fake badge.

While we thought our costumes were great, our friends, Rachel and Travis, took the cake with their costume.  We should have known when we all had to go downstairs to see it. Occupy the Bartons was sitting in a cardboard box and a megaphone demanding to give them candy.

We also saw a baby unicorn, Ron Wesley, and a storm trooper.  All ingenious ideas for costumes.

The Bartons went all out on this party.  The best being the homemade donuts and cider drink.  Thanks for a fabulous Halloween!

Harvest Hayride

On the plus side, Brad has been amazing at studying this last weekend.  He studied Friday night and all day Saturday.  After getting behind in school from needing to re-coup, Brad has been working so hard to get back on track.  Dental school is tough and I'm so proud of him for working doubly hard to get caught up.

The down side is no time with me.  But I played third wheel with some friends and went to the Autumn Moon Hayride at Linvilla Orchards while Brad was studying.  Linvilla had transformed into a fall carnival.  They had Pumpkinland which had more pumpkins than you've ever seen.  They had your carnival foods, including their apple cider donuts.  Our autumn moon hayride really did have the moon out as we rode though the orchards.  Pretty picturesque, but too dark for any actual photos.  The hayride ended with apple cider and bonfires to roast marshmallows.  A perfect autumn festival with some wonderful friends.

Brad got a little bit of the fun since I came home with some apple cider donuts, mini white pumpkins, and the smell of campfire.

Thanks Kenzie and Sam for planning this!  And for letting me tag along!

Medicine

Grandma Packer was very sweet to send us a care package.  The box was small, but very heavy.  We wondered what it could be inside.  And in typical Grandma Packer fashion there was a card.  Grandma said when she was having a hard time her brother Bill sent her some "medicine" to help her feel better.  Grandma thought we could use some "medicine" too.  Here's what was inside the box:

That's my kind of medicine.

Thank you Grandma!

Luck

We have not been very lucky lately.  I don't want to go into everything that has gone wrong, but the past few weeks have been horrible.  The worst of it started two weeks ago on Monday.  Brad was walking to his 8:00 am class and was assaulted and beat by a man on the street which sent Brad to the ER.  Brad is okay physically.  He was heavily bruised, mostly on his head.  No broken bones or serious head injuries.  He does have a nerve that was damaged, but hopefully it should heal itself within several months.  In the meantime, Brad cannot lower the right side of his lower lip.

It could have been so much worse.  If it hadn't been for an ER resident on his way to work who came to get this guy off Brad it would have gone on for much longer.  I cannot even begin to express my thanks to this man who put his own personal safety at risk to help Brad.  When other people were standing by, watching, this man came running to Brad's cries for help.

The police were able to catch the man who did this to Brad.  It is at least somewhat comforting to know that the man who did this is not on the streets anymore.

Emotionally, we are very shaken up.  We have a lot of anxiety and are trying our best to deal with it a day at a time.  And while I do not want to go into all of that, I did want to thank all of those people who have been praying, fasting, and thinking of us.  We really appreciate it. I cannot say thank you enough.  All the calls, emails, and love sent our way has meant so much to us.  We haven't wanted to be alone and having everyone keep in touch with us has helped immensely.  Please keep it up.  We still need it.

We were very lucky to have Brad's parents fly out last weekend to help us.  I could not have asked for better in-laws.  Brad's dad had just gotten back from Japan and hopped on another plane to come see us.  They are both such wonderful, caring people.

Last Sunday was a particularly hard day.  We're not quite sure why it was so hard, but it was.  We all went for a walk at the Heinz Wildlife Refuge to get our minds off things.  I've gone there before with some girlfriends, but this was the first time that I was able to go with Brad.  It was so nice to feel like we weren't in the city.  We are still traumatized by this event and having to go any where in the city has brought more of those feelings to the surface.  While traumatized may sound like a strong word, it is appropriate to what we have gone through.  It has been scary and stressful to be surrounded by ghetto.  We're having a hard time feeling safe in Philadelphia.  We haven't wanted to go outside or go anywhere minus to pick up take-out.  Being at the wildlife refuge was just so peaceful.  Beautiful trees, calm water, and graceful birds.  Just to take a deep breath for a second and be okay.

As we were walking around, I happened to glance down and something caught my eye.  I didn't believe it.  I couldn't have found one just by chance.  That was just too unusual.  But perhaps after a far out of the ordinary event maybe another one can happen, but for good.  Perhaps our luck had changed for a second, but I found a four-leaf clover when I wasn't even looking for one.

I have since framed my little four-leaf clover with an Irish saying that goes:

"A best friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have."

I do feel lucky that we have each other to help get us through this.  I wouldn't want to go it alone.

We do still have hard days and hard times.  We are going to trauma counseling to help us deal with what has happened to us.   We do feel very lucky that we have family and friends who have been so loving and supportive.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Hopefully, our luck will turn around.

LOVE

A few weeks ago we wanted to go for a date night in the city.  Both of our weeks had been a little crazy and so we wanted to have a great night together.  And our attempts at dinner and dessert didn't turn out any better than the rest of our day.  After all of this I started laughing because EVERYTHING had gone wrong that day.

We walked to Love Park (#11) since I've been wanting to go for awhile.  We were able to get a picture in front of the Love sign.  Did you know that the sign itself was designed as a Christmas card and that's why it is red and green?  I was impressed at the size of the fountain.  It doesn't look that big in pictures, but it's a lot bigger in real life.  The park itself has a cool setting.  It's right next to City Hall and a lot of other cool buildings.  At least it was a good end to a bad day.

Feeling Domestic

I've been feeling awfully domestic as of late.  I'm not exactly sure why.  It could possibly be from all the decorating of our new place.  Maybe its the fresh produce here inspiring me to cook.  I do have a lot of free time on my hands while Brad is at dental school and studying.  Or perhaps it is that my dental school friends are so crafty (as in the cutest felt ornaments and daring sewing projects you've ever seen kind of way.)

You know how we went to Linvilla Orchards and got lots of fruit?  Well what better to do than make jam out of it!  My sweet friends Kenzie and Rachel came over to help me can a few jars of strawberry peach jam. Kenzie is a canning expert.  She has all the stuff that makes canning a whole lot easier.  It also helped that she knew what we were doing.  It's been years since I've done boiled jam.  Still turned out delicious.

I also did a little painting project.  Can I say that I am so proud of myself?  If you know my family, you will know that all of the artistic ability went to my sister Malinda.  She can draw with amazing detail.  I love her drawings.  Me on the other hand, I have no artistic ability.   So, for me to do a painting and have it still be something I'm going to put up on the wall is downright unusual for me.  Inspiration from here.

I also finished a scarf and hat for me.  I worked on them on our drive out here and while we watched TV.  Not too bad for a use of my free time.  I can't wait for winter to wear them.

And lastly, a little fall table runner.  As far as quilting goes, it was very simple.  But I wanted something to bring fall inside.  I didn't really have fall scraps so I bought a bundle of fat quarters.  I'm thinking I might make some pumpkins out of the leftovers.  Directions for the table runner here.

Sometime I will get pictures up of our little apartment once I am done with the final decorating touches.  But that's for another day.

Valley Forge

Doug came for another visit awhile back.  This time we had a bit more time so we took a trip to Valley Forge.  The first time we went to Valley Forge it was raining on us.  It was nice to be able to get out and take some more pictures this time around.

I think the fields out here are just so pretty!  This is what I picture in my mind when I think of Pennsylvania.