Good friends, good times!

So we had some visitors all the way from Pocatello, ID last weekend who were not my parents. First time ever. They didn't actually come to see us, but came on business and Chad I took full advantage of the situation. The night following their arrival we met them on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building for drinks (Sprite for me) and an amazing view. The next night we had the best pizza in Chicago and went to a Bulls game. After some seriously risky ticket scalping - which involved avoiding police and undercover cop surveillance, Chad and Dennis secured four tickets. Little did they know Misti and I were unexpectedly given two tickets (row 1 seat 1 & 2!) by some nice guys who had extra tickets as we waited for our hubbies at the main entrance. Finally we entered the arena with our six tickets in hand and sadly discovered that game was already half over! Oops! We thought the game started at 8pm not 7pm! O'well, it was lots of fun anyway and a close game that went into overtime.

I hate you Dunkin Donuts!!!

Yesterday I had the worst day ever!!!! I left the house at 8am to drive out to the suburbs to visit a training site for the university I work for. At the request of my supervisor, I stopped to get donuts and orange juice to take to the site as a friendly token of thanks for the training they provide to our students. I found a street with open parking...yeah! I went to feed the meter and saw that it would not accept payment until 9am...yeah! I head into the Merchandise Mart where there is a Dunkin' Donuts, no line....yeah! I place my order, pay, grab my donuts and juice out of the cooler and head back out to my car. To my unpleasant surprise, my car is GONE! What! I was only inside for about 10 minutes. Immediately I realize the car was either towed or stolen and I started bawling. I go straight to the meter and read 'No parking until 9am'! What! How could I have misread that? After a trip to the impound and fees totaling $344, I was off to my appointment for which I was 30 minutes late (with donuts in hand). Very bad morning!!! Thanks for your help and support, Chad. Thanks for your sympathies Mom and Trish - they helped tremendously!

Belly Pics

Photos taken at 24 weeks

It's a Boy!!!!

At our last doctor's visit we found out that we are having a boy! We are soooo excited. Earlier in my pregnancy, I thought I would be having a girl and Chad did too for awhile but when it came down to the time of the ultrasound, we both realized we had no idea one way or another. So, we felt a lot of anticipation at this appointment. We tricked our families by telling them that our appointment was one week later than it actually was because we wanted to send an announcement in the mail when they weren't expecting it. Most were pretty surprised. For fun, we kept the announcement very subtle, indicating the gender by just the color of paper it was on. A few family members we sent it to didn't quite get it, so it didn't work quite as well as we wanted. Also, it was really hard waiting for everyone to get their card via snail mail! But mostly, it was FUN surprising them!

Here is the announcement.

On the back we wrote 'Shhhh.....it's a secret'

so the word wouldn't spread before everybody got the card.

Megan's Graduation

So last weekend I had my graduation ceremony. It finally feels official and real that I am finally done. My parents and sister came all the way from Idaho to watch me cross the stage and receive my diploma. Too bad that my first name was mispronounced as I was introduced to the audience as Dr. Megan M. Gierhart for the first time. I think I will forever continue to be referred to as Mee-gan at various times in my life. O'well. It still felt surreal and I still felt unbelievable proud to be hooded, walk the stage, and receive my diploma. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Stephanie, and Chad for being there.

It meant the world to me!

Chad and me after the ceremony.

Dad, Mom and me.

Steph and me.

Just me.