Hello from Henry

Needless to say, we've been busy with getting to know our little Henry. I have taken about a million photos of Henry meeting all of his new friends and family, doing new things (like taking his first walk) and even his first "real" photo shoot.

It's hard to believe he's over a week old. I can see already that time is going to go too quickly.

I'm not going to post something from everyday tonight but will leave you with this, which is my current favorite photo of him:

Update: He's Here!

Well, seems my last photo of the day (with the baby countdown) was posted just in time....

August 15th: Just the two of us...

We took this picture in the house just before we headed to the hospital because my water had broken.



Monday, August 16th, 2010: Introducing...


Henry James Seavers
5:45pm
7 pounds 6 ounces
19 3/4 inches long


8/17/2010: First Day

We spent the day at the hospital and had lots of visitors to meet our little Henry. Here is a photo of him at the start of his day.



8/18/2010: Welcome Home, Henry!

8-14-2010

Counting down....



Yikes!

:-)

8-12 and 8-13

8-12-2010: DCI!

Drum Corps International, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is like major league marching band. Take everything you might know about your local high school marching a band and multiply it by a million. It's intense and an amazing testament of what young people can do when they commit to something greater than themselves. It's a pretty insane product they put out, especially by the end of the season, which is right now.

I went to the local movie theater that was hosting a simulcast of Quarterfinals. I went by myself, which I did not mind, but ended up sitting with a former professor/friend of mine who was also there by himself.

The shows were amazing and it was a great way to spend the evening.

I only had my handheld digital and the lighting was bad but here is the signage outside the theater:


If you aren't familiar with DCI, I recommend the following YouTube videos of shows to help you to better understand:

-The Cavaliers are always visually ridiculous. This show isn't my favorite but gives you a good visual idea of how complex and precise (and difficult!) their moves are.

-The Cadets 2002 show is probably a good one for the "DCI beginner" since it's some familiar music and a good theme. The show was "An American Revival" and the timing was perfect for the first season post-9/11. This isn't the whole show but it has my favorite part at the 6:30 mark. It still gets me all choked up to watch it, remembering how emotional everyone was because of what the country had gone through that year.

-For you band geeks, one of my very favorite shows is the 1997 Cadets show. I mean, you can't go wrong with a little Sparke.

-Like what you see? YouTube is full of show videos to amuse you for hours.



8-13-2010: Hail to the Redskins!

I'm not a huge NFL fan (college basketball is my sport of choice) but enjoy watching games and grew up watching the Redskins. They are playing their pre-season opener tonight so I took out my authentic/"vintage" Jay Schroeder jersey. My parents and I all had these jerseys since it is our last name and he even pronounces it the same way!

Sidenote: I was chatting with a student today about the Skins and, once again, enjoyed being able to talk sports. If I had to make a list of the top five things I like about myself, one of them is that I can talk knowledgably about many sports. It's helped me build relationships with people in different offices on campus, connect with some students and just generally brings enjoyment in interactions. So, a shoutout and thank you to my jock mom for raising me that way. (No offense to my dad...but mom's the jock in the family!)

8-10 and 8-11

8-10-2010: Artsy

We got new tissues for the house and I really like the pattern on the boxes. I played around in Photoshop with the photo I took to make it look a little more like art than the side of a tissue box.


8-11-2010: Ready for Company

I managed to get quite a bit done on the house this evening. I'm wondering if this is marking the start of nesting....yikes! Here is a shot from the hallway into the guest room. We get to welcome a guest next week....Eddie's sister Ellen!

8-9-10

I didn't do so well last week with updating the blog with house pictures so I snapped this of our stove so I could show some more of the house but also to say that Baby Seavers is still cooking. We had an appointment today and were told that he was still hanging in and doing some growing. The doctor told us to do some walking this week before our next appointment to see if we can get things moving towards getting started. Crazy!

8-8-2010: Lucky Baby

I got to spend a really fun afternoon with friends to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Seavers. Games, food, friends...can't beat that! Kathleen and Trici found the most adorable argyle onesie toothpicks for the cupcakes. Loved them!



I also wanted to share the artistic talents of Krystal, a CNU hall director. She and I "traded" skills earlier this year when I photographed her RA staff. She painted this in return and I just love it!!


(She's done some really cool stuff for other friends too and has just launched a website.)


I feel so thankful to have such generous and wonderful friends and coworkers. Baby Seavers is a lucky little boy and he's not even here yet. We can't wait to meet him and to have him meet all of you!

August 5, 6, 7

August 5: Movin' On Up

The cable guy came out today to move the input location of our cable in the living room so that we can use our new TV. It's so big and pretty!


August 6: Dukes!

Co-worker, friend and loyal blog reader Julie gave Baby Leroy his first JMU shirt and the most adorable teeny tiny JMU booties. I can't wait for him to wear them to show off his Dukes pride from an early age!


August 7: Progress

Eddie and I made some more progress in getting the house decorated. Here is a shot of some of the Devils things we put up in the living room:

Holy Cow!

Only four more weeks!

Love and Home

We spent the weekend in New Jersey/Connecticut celebrating the marriage of Eddie's sister Karen and her now-husband Mike. It was a really great weekend spent with family and friends.

7-30-2010: Imagination

For this entry you'll need to use your imagination to picture a photograph of the exterior of a restaurant with yellow stucco walls, a patio with umbrellas lit by lanterns. This is the photo I took of the rehearsal dinner location...the photo that I accidentally erased the next morning. LAME!

7-31-2010: Hitched!

Karen and Mike's wedding was an awesome event. It was a beautiful day that was enjoyed by all. I snapped this before the reception started. Congrats to the happy couple!



8-1-2010: With this ring...

Karen asked me to shoot some artsy wedding band shots the day after the wedding. I did these with her bouquet, which was beautiful. I kind of like the end result.



8-2-2010: Home Sweet Home

This week I'm going to feature photos of different parts of our new house. This is our piggy that lives in our kitchen!



8-3-2010: Nursery

Since I'm featuring home shots this week I wanted to continue with a photo from the nursery. Eddie put up the mobile last week and I love it. It's hard to believe that we're only (theoretically) 4 weeks and 1 day away from our due date!

Finally updating!

It's been a very busy week....as you saw from my short photo-less update, Eddie and I moved into a house last week. We were very thankful to have family that spent a lot of time and energy to help us out. I was especially thankful since I was feeling pretty useless since I can't lift or bend really.

Here's what we've been up to in the last week:

7-22-2010: Cleanin' Time!

The fridge at work is G-R-O-S-S! We usually do a giant cleaning when we finally reach the point when we are disgusted to the point of not wanting to use it anymore. (People don't understand the concept of being responsible fridge users in our offices.) Loyal blog reader Louise was the cleaner this time, complete with a plastic apron and gloves....and she needed them. YUCK!



7-23-2010: Movin' Out

Here is the living room of our apartment on Friday night during the process of moving out.




7-24-2010: Shower Time

We had everything moved into the house from the apartment by Saturday at lunchtime, thanks to our families helping out. That evening we enjoyed a GREAT evening spent at our baby shower, organized by Katie. It was a really fun event. We are truly lucky to have such wonderful family and friends. Here is a shot of the tasty (and adorable) cake from the shower:



7-25-2010: Getting there...

My parents came back up on Sunday afternoon to help us hang up our eighty million pictures. Here is a shot down our hallway of photos we have taken. I really like the grouping and the way it turned out.



7-26-2010: A piece of the happiest place on earth...

One of the areas in our guest/music/office room has three Disney photographs and our collection of Disney figurines. I love the way it turned out.



7-27-2010: Our Neighbors

We have empty lots on either side of the house but past one of those lots is a small cemetery. Eddie and I took a quick walk down to check it out. The graves look really old but they really aren't that old...just not well taken care of. I liked that someone planted a flowering plant in the rotting stump of a tree.



7-28-2010: Handyman Eddie

Eddie and I got a new TV to go in our new living room (flat screen plasma...we are finally upgrading) and so had to get a new TV stand. We found one we liked at Target and assembled it in the living room. Here is Eddie working on the stand.



7-29-2010: Flip!

Our Flip Camera came in the mail yesterday. I can't wait to start to use it, especially when the baby arrives!

Greetings from the New House

Don't worry...we're still alive and well here! It's been a whirlwind few days getting things packed and moved into the new house. I'll post the blog update tomorrow.

7-21-2010

In a really quick turn of a few different events, it turns out that Eddie and I will be moving into a University-owned house this weekend! We found out yesterday at lunch and are really excited. Eddie bought some graph paper, measured out the rooms in the new place and our furniture and then created a little scale version of our rooms to work on where we want to put everything. I think we've come up with a good plan for the rooms and it will help our "helping hands" as we make the move.

I would imagine that some of the next few photos will be of us making progress as we move into the house and get settled.

7-20-2010

Seems to be a baby themed week so far...

Tonight Eddie and I had a tour of the Maternity Floor at the hospital where we will deliver. We were surprised at how big the labor and delivery rooms are. Big enough for a party almost! I snapped this at the end of our tour of the nursery on the floor.

7-19-2010

Eddie and I had the first of four Childbirth Preparation Classes this evening. There are 7 other couples and all on their first child. 4 girls, 3 boys and one surprise baby. I would imagine the following three classes will be more useful...tonight's class was mainly introduction and pretty basic stuff.

Here is my future coach Eddie acting surprised by the book we got at class:

7-18-2010

More progress in the organization of our apartment was made this weekend. The shelf I put together earlier in the week was moved into the correct room and I moved the kid's books that we have to the cubby I have designated for books. I can't wait to read them to the little guy!

7-16 & 7-17

7-16-2010: Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

Eddie and I attended a conference at the University of Richmond during the day on Friday. Because Eddie was playing in a kickball tournament in DC starting at 8am the next morning we decided it wouldn't be worth driving back home only to have to get up at 4am to head back the same way. We ended up getting a pretty good deal on a hotel in Arlington for the night. I snapped this with my pocket camera after we returned from dinner. I played around on Photoshop to make it a little more interesting.




7-17-2010: Kickball!

The kickball tournament in DC was a lot of fun, even just as a spectator. The team Eddie played on won two out of their three morning games, which qualified them to move on to the next round. They ended up losing their next game, which meant they were done (single elimination format for the afternoon).




BONUS:
We were both sad to miss Hannah's second birthday yesterday so we drove down to have dinner and cake with Tim, Amanda and Hannah. It's hard to believe she's already two! She's getting to be quite the talker and, despite her Yankees outfit, is a super-cutie. Since she's been a subject in my photoblog a few times I figured she deserved her own Happy Birthday bonus entry!

7-15-2010: Progress

We have been trying to get our office/music/guest room converted over to a guest/music/baby room. We got a nice organizer/shelving unit earlier this week and I put it together tonight. I also managed to get a lot of the baby stuff organized along with it. The shelf won't live in the location where it appears in this photo but I was proud of my assembly skills so it's the photo of the day:

7-14-2010

I woke up feeling sick this morning and spent the day in bed and on the couch. I'm feeling mostly better now and am thankful that work is now calm enough for me to feel okay about missing a day.

I didn't take any photos today but wanted to post this:

I'm watching the ESPY awards (sports awards, put on by ESPN) tonight and was reminded of the amazing speech that Jimmy Valvano gave at the 1993 ESPY awards. If you have never watched this, or even if you have, it is worth taking a few minutes out of your day to watch. What an amazing man.


Jimmy Valvano ESPY Speech

Chino | MySpace Video

7-13-2010: Hi Ho Cherry-O

Cherries have been on sale at Harris Teeter this week and we have taken advantage. And by we, I mean me....Eddie doesn't care for cherries. They have been a delicious snack to have around the apartment.

They got me thinking about a game I used to play with my parents when I was little called "Hi Ho Cherry-O. It had these small plastic cherries that you had to collect in your basket by spinning a spinner or something like that. You had to get a certain amount of cherries before the other players. I was curious to see if they still made the game, thinking they might not considering the cherries were pretty blatant choking hazards. I wikipedia-ed the game and found out they still make it but it was updated in 2008 to make it a cooperative game (vs. competitive). LAME!

7/11 and 7/12

7/11/2010: Surprise!

The Seavers family threw a surprise baby shower for Eddie and I on Sunday. Well, it was a surprise to me. It was a really fun afternoon spent with family and friends. We are really lucky to have such great people in our lives.

7/12/2010: Toby the Turtle

Our friend Meredith attended the Baby Shower on Sunday and presented us with a wonderful handmade crocheted/knitted turtle. She said she watched a lot of West Wing while making him so we named him Toby after Toby Ziegler, one of the characters from the show. I have a feeling he will be a childhood favorite of Leroy. He's quite the cute little turtle!

Friday and Saturday Update

7-9-2010: Finally...The Infamous Chatham Fog!

Eddie and I have seen Chatham As games for six summers now and had never seen the infamous "Fifth Inning Fog" that sometimes rolls into Veterans Field and interrupts games. Well, we got to see it! It actually came in and out during most of the game, which was actually kind of cool (I guess not so cool for the outfielders).

7-10-2010: Softball

Eddie and I were back in New Jersey today and got to watch Ellen play in three softball games today. It's always so much fun to watch her play. I'm going to miss not being able to follow her college games anymore since she is graduating from college in December after she student teaches.

This photo is nothing special (other than the fact that Ellen is batting)...just a shot from my seat. I spent the day enjoying the games (vs. taking lots of photos).

If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air...

7-6-2010: Back In Chatham

This is the fifth summer that Eddie and I have travelled up to Cape Cod for a “summer holiday”. Each summer we have gone to Chatham to watch their baseball team play. (The Cape has a summer league for college students. The players live with families, work jobs in the towns where they play, and some get picked up by major league teams because of their summer performances on the Cape.) Here is an action shot from the game:

7-7-2010: Sunrise

Our bed and breakfast did not have air conditioning (something we didn’t think to ask about when we were booking it). Our room had no breeze even with multiple windows on multiple walls open. (It was right across the street from the beach and was facing the wrong way to catch that breeze.) Needless to say, we were miserable. The room was an oven. We resorted to sleeping with wet towels on us to make it possible to catch just a few hours of sleep.
Once the sun started coming up, we were both awake again and decided to escape the heat with a walk on the beach. It was about 5:30am and was empty and beautiful, just about the only “plus” to being awake that early. We went for a long walk and I snapped some nice pictures of the sunrise (below) and some of the many gorgeous hydrangea flowers that dotted the road as we walked back to the bed and breakfast.

Note: We ended up leaving the Bed and Breakfast to find lodging with AC. It was a bummer to lose some money but completely worth it to be able to actually relax, sleep and enjoy our well-earned vacation.


7-8-2010: Ca-Ching, Ca-Ching

Happy Fourth Anniversary to us!

We enjoyed a very laid back day that consisted of a trip to a flea market in the parking lot of the Drive-In theater, reading, pizza for lunch, and a trip to Brewster for a baseball game (not our usual location or teams but still enjoyable). We were planning on going to an acapella concert in Brewster for the evening but found out tickets weren’t free so we opted to head back towards our motel via the Orleans baseball game. We then grabbed some snacks from the local grocery store and headed back to watch the big Lebron announcement. All in all, it was a very nice and relaxing day, which we both needed and enjoyed.

The photo for today is from the Brewster General Store. It was a really neat old fashioned general store with all sorts of items as well as a lot of authentic old pieces, like this cash register.

7-5-2010: Ridgewood Fireworks

Today felt more like the Fourth of July with the big Ridgwood parade this morning and fireworks display tonight. The Seavers house faces both the parade route and the fireworks (literally across the street) so it was nice to be able to do both without having to go anywhere! The fireworks were awesome tonight:

7-4-2010: "I can't dance. I have to watch the pie."

One of the parks in Ridgewood hosted a Revoluntionary War encampment of reenactors for the 4th today. Ellen and I walked over at noon, which was the time that the paper listed for the musket demonstrations. However, we ended up seeing a pretty awkward demonstration of colonial dancing. We were amused and it was a fun way to spend a little bit of time. Our favorite part was when Ye Olde Dancing Announcer/Emcee was trying to gather all of the colonial dancers and one of Ye Old Dancing Reenactors said that he couldn't dance because he had to "watch the pie." (They were cooking some pie over a fire.)

I snapped this shot of two of the women tending to the food on the fire.

Ridgewood's parade and fireworks are tomorrow so we'll continue with some patriotism then. Happy Birthday, America!

7-3-2010: Baby Chris

Now that I have successfully survived freshman orientation I think it's time I start getting serious about my photo blog again.

Eddie and I are up in New Jersey for the Fourth of July weekend. We got to visit with some friends this afternoon, including Baby Chris who is just a month old. I snapped this of Chris and his dad right before he went into the pool for a little dip. He is a super-cutie!

Wednesday Update

As you probably have noticed, I haven't been posting daily. Work has been crazy busy with freshman orientation so between that and our normal active schedule....and oh yeah, being 7 month pregnant, taking a photo of the day has been put on the back burner.

I would, however, like to continue to share photographs as I take them and hopefully pick back up with a photo of the day once things have calmed down after orientation...especially once the baby gets here. It will be fun to watch him grow!

Over the weekend we went to see a Drum Corps International Show. I had been looking forward to it for months and really enjoyed it. Here are two shots that I enjoy from the evening: