Carry the Flag!!

Tonight, David and I went to a Bluejacket's Game. He got free tickets from his Office Manager and they were great seats! We were within 10-15 rows from the glass and literally right under the infamous Cannon! The BJ's won 2-1 against the Nashville Predators and it was a really great action-packed game. The BJ's are looking even better now for the playoffs!

Ally stayed with Grandma and Grandpa C. while we were at the game and she had a good time, depite the cold she has had for the past several days. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for watching her...she always has fun with you guys and Maddy!

It was a really nice time spending the evening with David and walking hand-in-hand through the Arena District on such a beautiful night! I always enjoy our time together, especially now when it doesn't happen near as often.

I only got one picture, with my phone, from this evening because I forgot my actual camera, but it is of David in front of the cannon. It's not a great shot, but the best I could do with limited resources. :-)

The "Tennessee Truitts" Visit Ohio

This evening we had a very nice visit at Dave and Lori's with some of David's extended Truitt family that I have never met before. Dale and Elaine (my apologies if I didn't spell names correctly) were in town visiting Grandma and Grandpa Truitt and the rest of the family and they spent some time visiting with us and having dinner. It is my understanding that Dale is Grandpa Truitt's brother's son. :-) It was so much fun to meet them, as I have heard a lot about the "Tennessee Truitts", but never had the chance to know them. They enjoyed getting to see/meet all the kids and grand kids and we did a lot of laughing and playing. We got some really nice pictures from the evening (Julie, Tonya and the kids had to leave early, so unfortunately, I didn't get them in the pictures) and I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!

Here's most of the group before the end of the evening:

Ally enjoying her dinner:
4 Generations of Truitts-Grandpa Truitt, Grandma Truitt, Ally, Dave and David:

Dale and Elaine from TN:
Some random pictures from the evening (too cute not to include):

Just for Fun

I found a fun little quiz today when I was checking out someone else's blog and the result of the quiz tells you what part of spring you are (I don't know, it was just fun). :-) Click on the link at the bottom of the post to take the quiz yourself (it's only 4 or 5 questions)! Here are my results (they are fairly accurate!)...

You Are Baseball Games

You like old fashioned things. You're one of those people who values tradition. You enjoy a slow pace of life. You believe that life is all about enjoying every moment. You love the changing of the seasons, and you look forward to what each season brings. You are smart and a bit obsessive. You become very immersed in your interests.

What Part of Spring Are You?

Spring! Spring! Spring!

Today is the first day of spring and although I would love to have a little warmer temperatures, so far it seems like a nice day. I can not begin to say how happy I am to finally see warmer days on the horizon. It has been a long, cold winter and I am not a fan!

HAPPY FIRST DAY of SPRING!!!

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

Today was my good friend Hannah's Birthday and I helped her celebrate by joining her and Emily and Libby for a Bluejacket's game! Originally, I was supposed to join them for dinner and drinks in the Arena District before the game, but guess whose husband's car decided to break down on her on her only night out by herself in FOREVER!!!!...uh, umm, yea...that would be...ME!

When I left work, excited to be heading downtown, I jumped in the car and...nothing. I couldn't get it to start. I finally got a hold of David and he came to get me and right as he pulled up, so did Uncle Rodney. While David and Rodney tinkered with the car, I patiently (or not so patiently...whatever) waited to be taken to my night out with my girls. They finally decided there was nothing they could do, so we ditched the car in my work parking lot for the night and zipped on over to Nationwide Arena, where I met up with Hannah, Lib and Em for the game.

Despite my car troubles, the evening was a lot of fun and the BJ's gave us a victory, so it was good night. It was great to see the girls, because I hadn't seen them in awhile. We talked about babies, the upcoming wedding, Hannah's bridal shower, boyfriends, etc. and it was so nice to catch up. I think Hannah enjoyed herself and after the game, I drove us back to Hannah's house (in her car), where she and I hung out and chatted for a little while longer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HANNAH!!! I hope you had a fun day!

We love ya!

(Good luck with the tattoo tomorrow!)

Here is a picture of us girls at the game:

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Hope you are wearing your Green today! (Ally's is under her pick jacket, if you couldn't tell).

Happy St. Patty's Day from The Truitts!

Lost: Me Time-If Found Please Call...

Please excuse me while I get my thoughts out for a minute...

I'm not completely lazy. Odd way to start out my blog entry today, I know, but it seems appropriate to clarify that. What am I talking about you ask? Working out. Yuck.

I used to be very active and therefore, physically fit, so I never really had to dedicate a specific time to "working out", because I was always practicing something, or going to some two-a-day or dance class or something. I was involved in about every sport you could imagine at some point in my early life, from softball and soccer to competitive dance and snow skiing. I love to be outdoors and I really get enjoyment out of going to sporting events. So what happened to me? Life happened. Don't get me wrong, I am not making excuses. I do need to get myself back into shape and be more healthy...I know that. It's just sometimes it's hard to fit that into the rest of my adult life duties and especially with the addition of motherhood and all of it's added responsibilities...where do people find the time?

It has been an ongoing "issue" (let's just keep it nice and neat) in our home about when I am going to be able to find time for myself, to take care of myself. David has a very demanding job (especially with today's market), one that requires him to often work long evening and weekend hours, and this usually leaves me to manage the other aspects of our life and work my "9-5" job at the same time. I really am not trying to get your sympathy, but I don't think some people really understand how much that really means and it is an on-going source of frustration for me. We know that all of David's time spent with his career is going to pay off and help our family in the long-run, so I am happy to assist him as much as possible and it is so exciting to be a part of the early stages of what I know will be a long a successful career for David, but it can be very tiring and demanding for me too.

When I went back to work after having Ally, I switched my hours to a 7:30-4:30 schedule, so I could get Ally picked up from the babysitter by 5:00 and avoid a lot of the traffic issues I had faced before. In order to make it to work by 7:30am, I have to leave my house NO LATER than 6:45am. That is pretty darn early folks (at least for me who has NEVER claimed, even for a minute, to be a morning person)! In order to leave my house by 6:45, I have to be up and out of the shower by 5:30 (and I probably should get up even earlier than this). I spend 45 minutes on myself (which is probably why I look the way I do some days, but another topic for another day) and then spend 1/2 hour to 45 minutes getting Ally ready, before waking David up to take over baby duty so I can head off to work. It's a pretty rushed hour to hour and a half most mornings and I feel bad for having to rush Ally, especially.

Why don't I take "me time" at night and work out then? Well, anyone who has ever had a child that never stops moving and takes very few naps, can answer that question. Between dinner and baths and bedtime routines and I don't know, maybe spending a few minutes of quality time with my child or trying to keep up with the house duties, the few hours I have at night before I need to get to bed, go by before I even know it and then it is time to start the same routine again. And, who wants to work out at 10:00 at night when they get up at 5:30?

I love my life, I have it VERY good...this I know, but if I could wish for something, I often think I would wish for more hours in the day. :-) I'm sure there are a ton of moms out there that often wish for the very same thing.

Well, to bring all of this back home...yesterday, David and I were once again having the "I don't have enough time to work out!" "discussion" and I mentioned that if David were to get up with Ally in the morning and get her started, I would workout when I got up at 5:30 and then finish getting ready during the time that I would have normally been getting Ally ready. Now, I should probably state that David is also not known for being "of the chipper morning variety" and it normally takes at least three rounds of me harassing him before he is actually out of the bed (not blaming him one bit, just saying). I didn't really think this whole "why don't you get up a half hour earlier so I can work out" thing would really go over very well with him, but to my surprise he agreed with pretty much no hesitation! We have two vacations planned this summer and we are both in a beach wedding for good friends of ours in October, so David knows how important it is to me to get in better shape before any of those events. It's important to him too, so he has been working out every morning with his dad, after he drops Ally off at the babysitter's, for the past couple months. I am so proud of him for his commitment to getting healthier, but I think David realizes I don't have the luxury of that kind of schedule or time, so maybe that's why he is so willing to get up extra early to help me out.
I don't know, but I hope he knows how much I really do appreciate it!
I started my new workout routine this morning and it was a little rough to go from nice cozy bed straight into lunges and crunches, but I feel really good about doing it. I have realized, once again, that I am no where near as young as I used to be and am not able to do what I used to be able to do, but I am hopeful that I will get there soon or at least closer. I am hopeful that this will help me to have more energy and feel better about myself and to set a good example for Allyson. OK, let's be honest, I am most hopeful that I will be able to continue to get my rear-tail moving that early in the morning and that my husband won't decide he was crazy for agreeing to this new routine...it has been only one day after all. :-)

To Bud, my wonderful hubby,
Thank you for helping me carve out some "me time"! It really does mean a lot to me and it has rejuvenated me more than you know!
I love you and your willingness to be so supportive!
Can't wait for our summer on the beach together!
-E

Wish me good luck and good use of my new 1/2 hour of "me time"!! I will keep you all posted on our quest to get in shape!

Let's Go for a Walk!

It was completely beautiful out today!! It is such a welcome change to be able to toss aside the heavy coats, drive with the windows down and...take walks around our neighborhood! Tonight after David got home from his model home, we got Ally all buckled into her stroller and we set out for a nice long walk. It was great! We chatted and said Hi to neighbors, some of whom we have never even seen before and some that we haven't seen since Fall. Everyone was out and in great moods. The neighborhood park was packed, so we decided to come back another day to let Ally try out the baby swing for the first time. Ally was really loving the breeze and all of the people and David and I enjoyed discussing what we liked about different houses and landscaping and getting ideas for our own home. It was a really great evening for a walk and I feel so much better after getting some fresh air.

Here are some pictures from our walk...

Happy Birthday Kayla!

Today is Kayla's actual birthday, so we wanted to be sure to wish her a great day. HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY, KAYLA! We love you!

We Have a Crawler, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Ally started crawling this past weekend, Friday night to be exact! She was chasing after a dumbbell that her daddy wouldn't let her play with and it turns out she wanted it badly enough that she decided to crawl for it. She moved forward just a few feet at first, but in no time at all she was cruising all over the place and hasn't slowed down since. Boy are we in trouble now!
Below is a video of our newly mobile baby going after Riley (poor cat, he has no idea what is in store for him)...

Lunch with the Birthday Girl

Today we had a nice family lunch at Max & Erma's to celebrate our niece, Kayla's, 15th birthday. It's hard to believe Kayla will be driving in a year! Boy I feel old! :-)

We had a big group for lunch and took up one big section of the restaurant. After we all ate and embarassed Kayla by having the entire serving staff sing Happy Birthday, we ate cake made by Lori...a cute yellow cake with sugar flowers and trick candles!

We hope Kayla had a good time and we certainly enjoyed seeing everyone! Ally loves any chance to hang out with her cousins.

Happy Birthday, Kayla!

Can you believe it has been 9 months?!?

Ally had her 9 month (she is 9 months today!) check-up with Dr. Dan today and everything went really well. Dr. Dan must have said about 10 times how cute she is (duh!) and he said her growth is fantastic! She weighed in at 19.8 lbs (50 percentile), she is 28 1/4 in. long (77th percentile) and her head measurement is 17 1/2 (75th percentile...lots of brains!). As usual, Ally put on quite a cute show for everyone at the doctor's office, smiling and jabbering the whole time. She even gave Dr. Dan her new head tilt and wave combo. She is quite the ham...not sure where she got that from (typing in my most sarcastic tone). :-)

Below are pictures of Ally being weighed (she looks much happier to be being weighed than mommy ever is) and messing up the sheet on the examining table (check out the belly!).