Oh the waiting...

I just hit 33 weeks pregnant yesterday, and the annoying phase of waiting has begun. Our little Baby Hunter moves around like crazy which I love to feel, but I am so ready to hold our little one in person. I wonder who it will look like, what its personality will be like...I just can't wait to meet our kiddo!

I know the next 7 weeks will probably fly by, especially after Matt gets home next week. There is a nursery to finish, classes to take, cleaning to do and lots of last minute purchases to prepare for the baby's arrival. In the meantime, I anxiously wait for what will most likely be the best thing to ever happen to the Hunters. :-)

And Another Addition to the Hunter Family

Downtown Austin from our hostel

Wow...it's been a LONG time since I've written anything here. So much has changed since December including the way to post blogs on this site...having to learn it all over again. Anyway, Matt and I went on vacation to Austin, TX in January (love it and would move there in a heartbeat if Matt's baseball team or our family/friends were there).

Last pic before heading home

A few weeks after our vacation, we discovered some great news!

It's been a REALLY easy pregnancy so far (almost too easy), which is lucky for me since Matt left for baseball season a few weeks after we found out about our little bambino. I started showing super early. See the transition from 9 weeks - 20 weeks here: 

9 weeks

10 weeks

14 weeks

17 weeks

20 weeks

Baby Hunter has had quite a few photo ops too!

Our little bean at 8 weeks

12 weeks

20 weeks...look at that little button nose!

Cutest picture of a foot I've ever seen

In the midst of this big family addition, I moved us into a new home, spent an amazing birthday week with Matt in Binghamton, and experienced the baby's first kicks at its first baseball game...I hope that's a sign that it likes baseball and instead doesn't hate the noise of screaming fans. Hazel is taking all this change very well so far. She even buries her head near my stomach first thing in the morning like she's saying good morning to her soon to be brother or sister. Want to know what we're having? We know, but you have to wait until the big birthday. Prepare for the big reveal somewhere around 10-15-12!

Meet Hazel Hunter

There's an addition to our little Hunter family...a dog who has stolen our hearts.

Matt found her when I was pouting over a blue-eyed American Bulldog our apartment complex wouldn't let us have. I don't know what made him visit the Dekalb County Animal Shelter that day, but I am so glad he did. He found this shy little Viszla/Pointer mix with a beautiful coat that reminds me of a deer the way the brown peeks through her tan fur. Because she was so shy, I was afraid she would just pee all over the house so I immediately dismissed her. A few days later, all I could think about was how this poor, scared little dog was going to die because no one would want her. She had been at the shelter for about 6 months, and she was not in the adoptable dogs section. I convinced Matt to go take a look at her again despite a recently broken foot which was making him reconsider getting a dog until his foot healed so he could actually walk it while I am at work. Well, we saw her and two others...it was love at first sight! She shook so much when she saw us and crawled along the ground but slowly warmed up. Being the logical person that he is, Matt thought we should sleep on it. The next available day, I was at that shelter with application in hand! After a few visits and getting to know us, she came home with a wagging tail! Well, before home she immediately went to the vet because of heartworms where she was signed in as "no name" Hunter and left as Hazel...the perfect name for our sweet girl. We're going on her 4th week with us, and we couldn't love her more! She's still a little shy but opens up more and more everyday. Nothing makes me happier than coming home to my sweet husband and my loving dog. It's funny how something as simple as a pet has made us feel even more like a family. We can't stop staring at her and laughing at her quirks. She's kind of clumsy, often times running into walls on our walks as she looks back to make sure we're still there (did I mention she's super attached to us?). The smallest bumps and noises make her jump, she has the worst gas I've ever smelled, and her whole body shakes when she sniffs new things; however, she's the sweetest girl and a great protector (she was tested one night when our Christmas tree fell over. We were so proud of her bark!). Welcome to your forever home, Hazel Hunter. 

Perception

So, I am reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. It's the Common Reading for Oglethorpe's new students, and some of the themes touch on counter-intuitive thinking and perception. This book is really sinking into my everyday thought. Yesterday, I was driving down Buford Highway in Atlanta. If you don't know Buford Hwy, it's this great stretch of road full of ethnic stores and restaurants. You'll see people of all backgrounds walking up and down the road. As I was driving, I was thinking about how some people are sketched out there as they only see it as a poor part of the city, and others hate that there are so many pedestrians on the road. It's similar in rural areas. If someone is walking to town, they're seen as odd. Then, I started thinking about seeing pedestrians in other neighborhoods like Decatur, Midtown, or Virgina-Highlands. People are attracted to these neighborhoods in part because a lot of people walk.

Why is it that in low socio-economic areas the general perception of pedestrians is either sympathy for their assumed lack vehicles or frustration because they are in the way, while the perception in a more trendy, "urban" area is "good for them!"? 

August...another Love-Hate Relationship

August is finally here, and my mind screams UGH and YAY all at once. This month is highly significant in the Higher Ed world. It means the end to the "slower" college pace, the end to thinking you can put things off just one more day, the beginning of the high speed of finalizing all the orientation details, and the feeling that I'll never get it all done: UGH. However, it means the excitement of new students beginning their lives away from home, being a part of their endless possibilities, and the satisfaction once orientation is over and no longer looming over my head. YAY!

August is important in our Hunter family baseball life as well. It means the beginning of the "will the season ever end" feeling, bad moods toward road trips, hating that I have to work away from my husband, and burn out because there is never a real day off from Matt's work. UGH. However, it means the end is only 1 1/2 months away, date nights, coming home to my best friend, taking special trips, and no longer being the 3rd wheel with friends. YAY! Now, I just hope instructional league or winter ball don't take our off-season away, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we reach it.

Until September, we'll push through the UGHs and cherish the YAYs one day at a time. 

Annual Birthday Tradition...Baseball!

Every year, I now happily spend my birthday visiting Matt in whatever small town the Mets have assigned him to for the season. This year: Binghamton, NY. My wonderful husband showered me with love and fun every second he had with me, which isn't much since I spend the majority of my day either waiting on his game to start, sitting at the game, and waiting for him to get out of the ballpark after the game. The second I see him, all that waiting leaves my mind, and I am just happy in the moments we get. For my actual birthday, he sped in his truck to a 91 yr old carousel before it stopped running for the day just so I could see it (we got to ride it too)! Then, he took me to a delicious dinner followed by a tied game of mini-golf that included the world's longest hole. Who knew? It was a day of feeling like a kid with my best friend. I'm so lucky!

Now...Binghamton. I have to admit, I was excited to see the place. It had to be better than Port St. Lucie, FL...land of strip malls and senior citizens. Ok, so B-ham was better, but not nearly as much as I thought. Let's just say that "country" is everywhere, not just down South. So stop making fun of us!

The airport was in the middle of nowhere. Literally, I think it was built in the middle of farms on top of a mountain. As Matt noted, they couldn't find any flat land closer to the city? You could tell that at some point in time, Binghamton was full of life. There is a fun yet odd mix of early and mid 20th century architecture. A lot of buildings are broken down and empty. There were a few nice coffee shops and restaurants but not too many. The life has literally been sucked out of downtown. Seems like most people are outside of the city along your average American state highway full of chains and the occasional mom 'n' pop. Where the streets are bustling, you have no idea what part of the country you are actually in until you see a license plate. What makes Binghamton unique seems to no longer exist. I would have loved to have seen it in its prime. There are some houses that have that old character, but few are being preserved in the best way. Matt is lucky to live in one 3 story home that has a thoughtful owner doing what he can to renovate and help maintain the charm of the place. It's sad to see a city so broken down. Apparently, it's the 5th most depressed city in the nation. I can see why. From 1980 to 2005, employment rose a whopping 0.9% with 56% of manufacturing jobs declined. Come on business world...bring the love back to Binghamton!

Despite the lack of life there, I'd rather be back in that boring town watching my husband live out most American sports fans' dreams than writing this blog from my cozy Atlanta home. Better yet, I can't wait until September when he is here with me. I am now a baseball wife and experiencing all the ups and downs in a different way than the previous 3 seasons. Oh baseball, this love-hate relationship goes on. See you next year for my 33rd birthday. 

Newlywed Adventures

Life has been more than interesting since we returned to the US. I have had several interviews and hope to hear back on a job very soon. In the meantime, Matt and I have been busy. Other than visiting friends and family, we went from looking for a rental house to putting an offer down on a steal in our favorite part of town. We were actually under contract, but the inspection saved us from all those hidden structural issues that would have drained our savings and most likely our sanity. No money pit for us! 

Matt has since left for Spring Training down in sunny FL, and I am still searching for that job and a place to live. Unemployment has done wonders for me, and 30 years from now Matt and I will be thanking ourselves for this experience for this reason: I am  improving my cooking skills with all this free time on my hands! There is a domestic queen inside of me who is slowly finding her way out over the years. I am finally confident enough in my culinary prowess to not follow the recipe exactly as written, and I even won a chili cook off with one of my tweaked creations. Here's some of the things on the list of recently discovered made from scratch deliciousness: Red Wine Poached Pears, Apple Crisp,  Pecan Pie, the BEST meatloaf, Spaghetti and Meatballs, the list goes on and on...I'm kind of impressed with myself. The domestic queen in my heart is also really interested in home care books...cleaning, cooking, home improvement. The 16 year old Kendra would be appalled by my thirty-something interests. She fought learning all of these things back in the day. Why would SHE ever need to know these things? SHE was going to have a career, and everyone knows if you have a career you don't need to know how to cook and clean! Yeah, right. 31 year old Kendra says "Embrace it ALL!"