Hangin' with the Veep

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being in the with national pool of media that followed Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Fort Myers. I've never been in the pool for a visit of the VP or President before, so it was pretty cool. I got to ride in one of the press vans that is a part of the official motorcade. We got a police escort through town - that's right, no red-light stops for us.

I was in a van with a reporter from the LA Times and a photographer from the NY Times. pretty cool. And I saved the NY Times photog's day by lending him my card reader after he lost his so he could transmit photos back to his editor.

We stopped at Mel's Diner on our way to where Joe Biden was set to speak. At Mel's, we were quickly escorted in a side entrance and in position when he came into the restaurant. He spoke to several groups of people, even sitting down with a couple of tables to chat. He was really down-to-earth even with the many secret service agents and photographers and reporters following him through the restaurant. The people that chose to go to Mel's Diner yesterday likely had a breakfast they will never forget.

Then we quickly got back into the vans and headed to the Wa-Ke Hatchee Park Recreation Center near Fort Myers Beach for his speech. Again, we made it in record time, since we didn't have to stop for any stoplights. Here's shot by our other photographer Sarah Coward of me down front taking some video footage.

And a few of my pics.....

Here's my video from the event. It's a little shaky, since I didn't have my tripod during his speech.



Check out the photo gallery if you want to check out all the shots from the event.

I'm pregnant!

Yes, as some have known and others have speculated, I'm pregnant. About 17 weeks, and we're really excited. We found out today that it's a boy. My best friends, Amanda and Kylie, were right from the start.

There was no doubt from the moment the technician placed the ultrasound wand on my stomach. This was the view we got. He wanted us to know immediately that he was a boy........

After a few kicks, he then turned over into a yoga pose with his butt in the air and went to sleep face down. So she didn't get a nice facial profile like last month. But all the measurements were right on, and she said we had a pretty good-looking baby in there.

This has been a pretty easy pregnancy. No real nausea, and I haven't been too emotional. Well -- until the other day when I broke down while cleaning out my closet and removing the many clothing items that don't quite fit right now. Everything is changing so fast, and I'm not used to watching the scale like this.

Because of the lack of nausea, I've had a hearty appetite and the slight weight gain that comes along with it. Don't get me wrong, I haven't gained too much weight, but it is hard to wake up each day slowly outgrowing all of your pants and shirts. Luckily Scott is being a great husband and walking a couple miles with me most nights so we can stay fit.

Thanks to the Be Band, some of my pants are still acceptable to wear. A few of my shirts are still acceptable too. I gave in a few weeks ago and bought some maternity jeans and shirts. They are much more comfortable.

Luckily I'm starting to look actually pregnant and not just like I had a huge dinner so that helps.

Here's a photo from last Friday, September 7th, when I was 15.5 weeks along. I plan on trying to do another photo of myself tomorrow for comparison.

And now I'm gonna be a proud momma and over-share more photos of my baby. Here's a few of the ultrasound pics from last month when I was 13 weeks along.

Living room progress

I thought I'd give an update on the living room. We still have to get the art up, but the rest is done. Let's not forget what it looked like before.

Here are a few iPhone pics, so excuse the quality. Notice our new Karlstad couch from Ikea. We moved some bookshelves from the spare room to use as the TV stand. We also rearranged the books by color for impact. We saw that recently on Home by Novogratz on HGTV.

And here's before again....

Stay tuned for a full update once we have some art up.