Six Wonderful Years

Six years ago this past Saturday Jake and I were wedded in holy matrimony. I can't believe six years ago I woke up in the morning, my stomach all bubbly in anticipation, ready to become the new Mrs Baldwin. What a wonderful six years! We have had all kinds of experiences together and truly have seen each other grow as individuals. I'm so glad that God has blessed me with such a wonderful and supportive husband. I was talking with some people at work and they were saying how they weren't sure that they would have gotten married had they known how much work it would be. I'm so glad that I don't feel that way. I love being married to my best friend. Yes, sometimes our icky flesh gets in the way and we can say or do some things that are not especially nice but I still enjoy married life and I still am deeply in love with my Jake.
So what did we do on our anniversary? Well, I haven't updated "the blog" in ever and so I didn't get to post that Jake was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday by the radiologist (after going to the FNP on Tuesday, finally getting labs drawn on Wednesday, going to urgent care to get a flu swab done b/c the dr's office didn't do swabs, and getting a last minute chest x-ray that was immediately read and diagnosed with a little bit of bronchitis probably viral in nature) so he was not feeling well. We ended up lounging around the house and I picked up some take out. Jake surprised me and bought me some beautiful jewelry. He first gave me a malachite, gold, and uncut diamond bracelet...all exports of Africa...which was of course a very meaningful gift seeing as we had such a wonderful time visiting family there. Later on he gave me yet another beautiful gift...a Mikimoto pearl bracelet to match the pearl earrings and necklace that he gave me for Christmas '02 and a wedding present. What a thoughtful sweetie! I hope that we can share many more anniversaries together! I tried to post what my bracelets look like but it didn't work. I'll have to have Jake take a picture I guess.

A Little Belated

For all those nurses out there...Happy Nurses Day. I'm a little belated but, hey! I can't believe this incubator! Talk about dark ages!

I love thrift stores

Okay, I know..where's the pictures of Michigan and Chicago...they're coming...be patient.

I will be brief. I just wanted to comment yet again on how much I love thrift stores. I went to Savers and found some toys for Elijah. Have you bought toys in the store? They're expensive. At least I think they are. I really would like to get him the Little People (I love them..they're classic) car set. It's $40. I'm looking on craigslist. Seriously. $40. Okay...on to why I love thrift stores. I found the Fisher Price talking/musical doggie...of course that's not the true name of it but you catch my drift on what it does. A little sponge bath with oxyclean, new batteries and for $3 instead of $17 I have a toy that Elijah LOVES. He pushes the hands and feet and hears "if your happy and you know it" and "this little puppy went to market" and he just smiles and bounces his little butt up and down. It's too cute. And then there is the musical toolbox. Again, a little oxyclean wipedown, new batteries and for $3 Elijah is using a hammer and pounding in circles, squares and triangles to reveal little faces while doing a little jig to the ABC/123 song. When you aren't sure if your lil' one is going to like certain toys or not it's wonderful to spend $3 instead of $20. My only thing with finding the Little People is missing pieces AND the fact that people on craigslist know how much they paid for the sets. Darn. Well. I'm hopeful anyway.

All for now!

We're Home!

I'm a little sad to say that we are back home. We got back in LATE Wednesday night and I have had to work since then so I haven't had much time to update everyone. It's very hard to come home from a vacation when 1) you have spent (not nearly enough) time with your family that you love and miss dearly 2) you were able to see some great friends (again, for not nearly enough time) and missed out on seeing so many more 3) you had a lot of fun spending one on one time with the love of your life 4) you have to go back to reality and go back to work...ick.

Well, it may take a little time to give the rundown of our trip along with pictures as we have cancelled our internet. We decided that we needed to be better stewards of our money and have cut a few things out of our budget. Surfing the web was sucking a lot of quality time out of our lives so that's one of the things that went goodbye. I will be updating things as I can and am anxious to post some of the great pictures that we have.

P.S.  These pics are compliments of my Mom and Dad. I have more but need to put them on a flash drive (or whatever it's called) so that I can upload them to my blog. And BTW, isn't my brother Bryan handsome?

In Michigan

WE'RE HERE! Yeah! The flight went without a hitch too! We (of course) were stopped by security and patted down and all that jazz because of the liquids we were carrying. Apparently although you can bring milk and baby food the person that brings the items must be physically searched along with all of their gear. Kind of a pain when you have creatively packed all the misc. baby items that you may need if GASP your flight is delayed. They were really great about it though and we were on our way very shortly. Of course now that we are here my Mom and Dad think Elijah is just the greatest thing. Mom can't get over how cute Elijah is. She thought that he was cute before but in person it's just a million times better. He's done great with them and readily goes to them so that they can hold him. I'm SO glad. He's started the stranger anxiety thing so I'm very thankful that he does not cry for them. Anyway. I just wanted to do a quick post. We still need pictures so those will come later.