Funny....

When I worked at EarthTech, my boss "modified" this comic strip and gave it to me. It cracked me up then, but it's even funnier now.

Man terms

So, in a recent observation, a friend and I decided that our husbands definitely had a "man crush" on each other. Seemed every time we were together, they were all about each other and how fabulous each other was. This was highly entertaining to us.

Naturally, this lead us to noticing this type of behavior between other men. Thus, a new term was coined... "manpanionship". This is when any two or more guys hang out together. Usually, during this event, there is a great amount of "manversation". Manversation is conversation amongst men, which would bore the average woman to tears.

I am sure with time, there will be more "man terms" to be coined...however, for the time being, I felt these terms could be useful to others, so I would toss them out there.

:)

Buddah Bellah's Everywhere!

In the past few weeks, an astounding number of our friends have annouced that they too, are pregnant! Must have been some spring, because they are all due in December!!!!

Congrats to Chris and Mindi, Christine and Brian, and Heather and Andy!

Thanks for giving my kid some buddies! ha ha.

A little behind...

It dawned on me that I never put up pics from the weekend of the Dexter-Ann Arbor run...

As it turned out, Brian did not run the half marathon...but not because he didn't train - he was up to 13 miles the week before the run - however, a nasty slide into second base the Thursday before the run made him decide to pitch the idea - along with the fact, everyone else decided to run the 10 mile. So, 10 mile they ran. While I watched Samantha....off went Brian, Dawn, Jon, Mike, Renee (with Erica and Raquel in tow) to run their hearts out.

Below are some pics:
First: The whole gang - Jon, Dawn w/Sam, Renee, Raquel, Erica, Mike and Brian.
Second: The princess cousins - Samantha Moyle and Joy Cullen
Third: Post run fun - Abir Biswais and Brian
Fourth: Brian and Jon, post run.

Next challenge: The CRIM!

Hot, hot, hot...

Well, it's saturday morning, and I am sitting on the "new" deck enjoying the weather - and I can't believe how warm it is already. Here is a view of what I am looking down at - my surprisingly healthy and lush perinnial garden.

Today we have a long day of treking to Ann Arbor, via Flint to cousin Rob's graduation party. While we are there, Blue gets to spend the day at Father Frankie's Doggie Day Care. Today is supposed to be uber hot - I guess it's not a bad day to spend in an air conditioned car!

The great deck reformation

This past weekend, with the help of family and friends, we started the great deck remodel of 06. Our sad and pathetic deck was in a sad state of affairs, and we figured now was as good a time as any to tackle it.

With the guidance and instruction of brother Tim...(on HIS birthday no less)...we successfully redecked the whole thing. Now we are just waiting for the railing to be delivered!

A huge thanks go out to Missy and Tim, for coming down, letting us cuddle with lil monkey Will and sharing Tim's birthday with us. Leslie and Bill - for hard work, wood for the fire, and provision of cheap celebrity magazines. Mom, for making the drive over for dinner and staying the night. Jon for all his pain and suffering (has the tenus set in yet?), in addition to his constant good humor...and for Brian - who had to work for 2 since I am somewhat useless in these affairs these days!

Here are some pics:

Sarge inspects finished decking (trex decking, posts ready for railing when it arrives)

The guys working hard! Brian and Jon, Tim and Bill (in the shade).


Wee Will "on the go!" - isn't he just the cutest little monkey?

Kicks and bumps in the night.

Well, "Agent 10" has been an active little bugger! Since late last week, I have discovered that when I am still I can feel him moving around. First is was always bumps in the upper left side - near the ribcage...last night it was down below my belly button. I am certain he is a kickboxing fan for sure. Every time I feel it though, it makes me start laughing, and I am certain people around me think I am on the verge of insane. That will be my most memorable symptom of this pregnancy...a lot of laughing. :)

Week 22 pics

Here are a couple pics that Courtney took of me at Week 22. We were up at the cabin for memorial day weekend with friends Courtney, Sarah and a friend of hers. The weather was unbelievable - 90 in the shade on the deck! So, needless to say, we spent a lot of time at the beach with the sea doo, the kayaks and the doggies! :)

It's a boy!

Brian and I are going to be the parents to a boy!!! Whoo hoo!!!

I will post more later! I post ultrasound pics soon!

Boogety Boo

Saw this picture on CNN today. I couldn't help but burst out in a fit of laughter.

"Boogety -boo....you shall believe everything I say now... "

Charleston, SC!

We had a wonderful weekend in Charleston with Molly and Robert. Robert, as always, is a walking encylopedia of southern history, making his tales more interesting than the tours we paid for! The weather was wonderful....we walked, talked, ate, drank (not me!)...and the weekend went by too fast. When we get pics up, I will be sure to share them!

The picture is of a plantation that we visited. It wasn't open for tours, but it was still really cool to see.

Here is a really mini-picture of me at 19 Weeks. We were at the beach. The water felt as warm as our lakes were. (I can't figure out why it came in so small!)






Here is Brian and I, at the same beach.
















We miss you Molly and Robert!!!

Habitat, Friends, Cleaning and More!

Ok...here I go to rewrite this again...

On April 21st, Brian wrapped up the week of volunteering by spending the day framing a Habitat for Humanity house in Grand Rapids. I stopped by to visit, and was excited to see it was 2 doors down from a house I had designed the structure for!

That weekend, Sarah visited, and we had a great time of chatting, cooking and walking. She made me baby's first afghan. :)

Last weekend, Brian, Dad and I were at the cabin doing spring cleaning. We cleaned and reorganized the shed. The kayaks now have a new home there for the summer. We also did all sorts of misc. odd jobs like fixing water faucets, light fixtures, outlets, etc that have needed repair for a little while. I spent the majority of the weekend cleaning and washing a plethora of towels and sheets inherited from Grandpa Spratke. It was a very productive weekend! Blue got to play on the beach for a while, despite the cold, and we got to have a big campfire with Dad. I can't wait to go back, it was so hard to come home!!!

Here is a picture of me at 18 Weeks with wet hair!

Here is a pic of the cabin with a fresh new paint job (Oct 2005)

The biggest challenge - reorganizing the shed! See - our kayaks found a new home!

This upcoming weekend Brian and I are flying to Charleston, SC to visit our friends Molly and Robert for the weekend. We are very excited to see them!!!

WGVSU Auction....

Last night, Brian and I volunteered for the WGVSU auction, along with a bunch of other Dematic employees (formerly Siemens Dematic). Brian and I got to help calling the winning bidders, finalizing payment and shipping information, etc- so we weren't on TV (which was fine by us!) - but we had a lot of fun doing it. Everyone was great. We were there from about 6-10pm, and the time absolutely flew. We could not believe what great deals people were getting, which lead us to go home and watch the auction! Something which was formerly skipped over and boring has become intriguing and fun to us! Hopefully we will get to do it again next year!

WGVU's website
http://www.wgvu.org/

Brian has the best job in America!

How interesting!!!

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/?cnn=yes

Week 15

Not much new to report these days. The change in temperature has definitely been nice - and helpful, considering I am in this ackward stage of inbetween clothes. Too small to wear maternity clothes, too big for most of my other clothes! What a bizarre feeling!

I started cleaning out the room for the nursery. We have to pull some evil disco mirrors off the walls, so when Dad has some time he can come help me patch the walls and prime them. Then, when we find out what sex "the monkey" is....we can paint the walls. The most bizarre thought: we will probably know by June what we are having. :)

Heading home (Flint) this weekend for Easter - then to AA for a kiddy birthday shin-dig with friends on Sunday afternoon....another crazy drivin' weekend for the Spratke's!

Hide and Go Seek Monkey

We went to appointment #2 today. It was a rather uneventful appointment actually, but we did get to hear the heartbeat again.

Naturally, while she is moving the little unit around, I hold my breath until we hear it, and today, it took a few minutes to find it - naturally feeding into my normal worry wart paranoia. But alas, the monkey came out of hiding and we heard it's heart beating away. I would compare it to the sound of someone in a pair of corderoy pants walking fast; the sound of the cloth rubbing together. Does that make sense?

We have started getting gifts from people...how crazy aye? I suppose pretty soon we will have to start on the bedroom, although, I am semi-waiting for Dad to have some free time to come over and help us tear the hideous mirrors off the wall (left by a previous owner, naturally). The doc says that the next 12 weeks are our chance to get things done - we better get on it!

Oh - and another thing, baby will be heading to concert #3 - as we got tickets to go see Pearl Jam in May. Whoo hoo.

Week 14 and wedding congrats!

Here is a picture of myself at Week 14. We were attending the wedding of Mike and Stacey Wise on Saturday, April 1st - when we took a second to snap the first "side shot".




We had a great time at the wedding, and everything was beautiful! Congrats to the new couple who are on their way to honeymoon in Hawaii (oh envy!) This is my favorite shot from the wedding.

Ultrasound Picture

Here is a picture of the little "monkey" from last Friday (Week 12).

News from the House of Spratke

As of Sept 30, 2006, the Freeman-Spratke families will be one member larger. :) Yup, we are having a baby.

It's taken me a while to post because of course, one wants all their friends and family to find out in a non-webpage means of communication, so posting here is mostly just doing it for the fun of it...

Currently, I am 11.5 weeks along, due Sept 30th (just 11 days after nephew Will's first birthday!). This means, our summer plans of sitting up at the cabin every possible will include me sporting a collection of as non-matronly of maternity bathing suites as I can. :) Of course, it also means we will have to drag lots of friends up, so Brian can have someone to play on the new Sea Doo with (as I am pretty sure pregnancy and high speed water sports are a no-no).

March 7th, we had our first appointment, and were able to hear the crazy little heartbeat...it made me laugh, so it was hard to hear it for too long at a time....but heard it we did. :)

Friday, we get to have our first ultrasound. I am excited!!!

Well, nuff for now...that's our news!

Article about concert...

Great NIN show ends on sour note
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
By Troy ReiminkThe Grand Rapids Press

See what happens when you throw things at the stage?
Nine Inch Nails' show at the DeltaPlex Entertainment and Expo Center ended rather abruptly Monday night after a projectile thrown by someone in the audience struck frontman Trent Reznor in the face.
Reznor was alone on stage, playing the opening strains of "Hurt." The song was approaching its crescendo when the object hit him. Reznor pushed over his keyboard and stormed off stage, not to return. The house lights came on almost immediately.

And who could blame him? You play your guts out for almost two hours -- only to have some clown ruin it. We'll be lucky if NIN ever decides to come back. A show official said Reznor escaped serious injury but got a black eye from the tossed object. The band is scheduled to perform tonight in Toledo, Ohio.
Fortunately, all this happened 21 songs into the show, so it was presumably close to the end anyway, but now we have to speculate about what an encore might have included (I'm guessing "The Hand That Feeds," "Piggy" and "Head Like a Hole").
The end notwithstanding, this was an intense, almost perfectly executed concert. Reznor and company came out roaring with a one-two-three punch of NIN classics: "Mr. Self Destruct," "Sin," "Terrible Lie."
Hearing these songs, it's almost unfathomable how ahead of its time NIN was in the '90s. Can you believe it's been a dozen years since "The Downward Spiral" popularized industrial rock, and that "Pretty Hate Machine" will turn 17 later this year?
Obviously, much of the band's audience exists because of "Closer," whose famously crude lyrics supplied one of the least romantic choruses to ever appear in a top-40 single.
NIN got "Closer" out of the way relatively early, preferring to perform cuts from the overlooked 1999 opus "The Fragile," a few obscurities ("Suck," a song Reznor co-wrote for the industrial band Pigface), and several numbers from the 2005 album "With Teeth."
Backed by a solid, four-piece touring band Reznor, as always, was a compelling, menacing presence on stage, performing new and old songs with equal ferocity. And no, he hasn't gotten any happier over the years.
The older material has aged remarkably well. Maybe that's because so much of what's been on rock radio in the past decade has either been influenced by the NIN aesthetic or has stolen it wholesale.
That aesthetic -- pummeling percussion, searing guitars and keyboards, shout-along choruses and angst aplenty -- made for a thrilling show. Equal credit goes to the visual presentation, a dizzying spectacle of pulsating strobe lights, gloomy atmospherics and not very comforting video footage.
Mid-show, a scrim dropped to cover the stage and, as the band explored some melodic corners of its catalog, a projector showed juxtaposed images of war and creepy domestic serenity.
A projected clip of George W. and Laura Bush dancing at a black-tie event generated a big yell from the near-sellout crowd of about 5,000. Whether it was a cheer or a boo was unclear, but I'm assuming boo. Whatever your opinion of the president, it's worth noting he's provided an impetus for a lot of otherwise introspective artists to turn their intensity outward.
And Reznor's as introspective as they come. No one will ever accuse him of being a great lyricist, as he leans pretty heavily on nebulous, overwrought rhyming couplets, but it all somehow works as a package. The anger, the noise, the visuals, the catharsis, all melting into a seething stew of rage.
Obviously, I'd like to have seen how the show would've ended, but what we got was outstanding.