Welcome to our Blog

Welcome to our Blog!
We plan to use this Blog to update our friends and families of our new adventures in the Big Apple and New Jersey.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

20 Week Ultra-Sound! It's a ....

On Tuesday March 6th, we had our 20 week ultra-sound.  We were both really excited for this appointment because to us it was the "find out the gender" appointment, but Katie's doctor reminded us that they actually they take over 100 different measurements and pictures of the baby to determine if everything is growing on pace and correctly.  We were not really wishing for either boy or girl, but just want a healthy baby.  The doctor assured us that the baby is growing on pace and all measurements were within the proper range.  So with the serious business behind us, the ultra-sound technician asked us if we wanted to know the gender and we both chimed "yes".   It's a Boy!  
I think Charlie is already plotting when the first baseball game is that he will be able to take him too.  And I am really excited to meet our little boy.  So far our little boy has been doing great and not even giving his mom much problems.  I have been feeling quite well with only some tiredness and lately have begun to feel some kicking and moving around with some little fluttering feelings, which is really neat.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Ending Winter with Hoboken Green Beer Day

We've been a little sparse on the posts in recent months.  Since Charlie's parents came up in late January, we both got pretty busy at work: Katie's with the Toys-R-Us annual report, and Charlie with testing the 2012 version of KPMG's audit tool.  This is your typical winter for us bean counters!  But we've both, for the most part, enjoyed what we're doing at work - so we can't complain too much.

We have done some fun things.  We've visited our friends Brian and Adrienne - and their newest family member, baby Charlotte - a couple of times.  Adrienne gives Katie great advice on getting ready for our baby, and even lent Katie some maternity clothes.  Brian and Charlie, well... they still mostly talk about sports.

We watched a bunch of Michigan basketball games on TV - they had the program's best regular season in quite a while, winning a share of the Big Ten basketball title after splitting games with rivals OSU and MSU.  But they got bounced early from the NCAA tournament - by Miami's biggest rival, no less, the Ohio Bobcats.  Charlie didn't handle that loss very well.

As the very mild winter has started to drift away, though, we've had a bit more free time.  In the first Saturday of March, a couple of Charlie's buddies headed up to New Jersey for a tradition that he hadn't seen yet.  Charlie's fraternity brothers Jon and Greg took the train up from Baltimore and met with Charlie and Mike in Hoboken, New Jersey.  Greg is a doctor who is living in Baltimore for just a year before he heads back to Miami (FL) for a more permanent stay.  We've been trying to get the 4 of us together in NYC (or Hoboken) as he and I are newer transplants to the area.

Mike has lived in Hoboken since graduating college, and the first Saturday in March has always been a holiday in Hoboken.  They celebrate St. Patrick's Day a couple of weeks early - so this became the annual Hoboken Green Beer Day.  In 2012, the parade was cancelled but the party was not!  We met up a little before noon and picked up Fiore's famous "Beef and Mozz" sandwiches to serve as a "sponge" for the big day ahead.

The day was super nice for early March - sunny and temperature just under 60.  We found a bar we liked near the train stop called Texas Arizona - strange to go to a place named after the Southwest when you're in Hoboken for an Irish event, but it was fun nonetheless.

We met up with some of Mike's friends and, well, basically drank some green beer, watched some basketball, plotted our golf outing for the fall, and ... drank some more green beer.  At some point, North Carolina beat Duke, which was the joint bet we'd all made, so we took an advance on those winnings to ... drink more green beer!  It was a lot of fun to hang out with Greg, Jon and Mike - seeing friends is fewer and farther in between as we get older!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Homer J. Sue: 1996-2012

This past week my first dog died.  He wasn't eating and we found out he had kidney failure, so he had to be put down.  My dad said goodbye to him for all of us - I'm sure that was hard to do, as it was very sad to hear. Homer had just turned 16 in February - so he was an old guy who lived a long, happy life full of treats, excitement from all the comings and goings in the Mowry household, companionship with his sister Rose (who died a year and a half ago), and even on one occasion - an entire helping of frosting off of a 50th birthday cake!

Homer was a happy-go-lucky dog who loved everyone he met and would lick a stranger's face - particularly if the stranger was carrying a Beggin Bit!  This was an interesting contrast with his sister Rose - who was a bit touchy with anyone but her immediate family.  Many times we'd come downstairs to the basement that become their lair.  Rosey would be barking from the top of the couch while Homer was standing by the cabinet, wagging his tail expectantly with some serious puppy eyes - hoping for a biscuit.

We got them my sophomore year - Abby, Dad and Mom went to pick up one dog from a breeder.  They were going to get just Homer, but Rose fell asleep in Abby's lap and the ploy to get 2 worked!  It was good - because I think having the two of them was good for us and great for them.  Homer was named by my brother for his favorite Simpsons' character - and I named Rose after my favorite Michigan basketball player.  His in particular was an apt name - he was the dimmer bulb of the two, but simple things seemed to make him happy.  She lasted about as long as Jalen's NBA career, and he had the longevity that TV show has enjoyed.  Homer always seemed like PEM's dog and Rose seemed more like mine - but they were a joy for all of us!

Homer and Rose were around for all of high school for Peter, Abby and I.  If you ran a bad track race, Homer or Rose would be happy to lay next to you to make you feel better.  As the three of us went off to college and eventually the real world, one exciting thing about coming home was seeing our dogs - even though after each trip they'd be a little grayer in the face or a little slower to jump off the couch.  They both always had good energy even as they got old - Homer couldn't see or hear very well any more, but he was still excited when you saw him.  When Katie and I moved to New Jersey, I was sad that I'd see my dogs less, and it was pretty likely they'd pass away while we were here.  So each time we were home, I always knew it might be the last time I'd see them.  For me and Homer, that was this Christmas.  I'll always miss my 2 doggies, and it will be kind of sad going home and neither of them being there, but I'm glad we knew them for so many great years!

Here's a picture of the two of them with their little "nephew" - a very young Griffey, whom they felt inclined to remind that 129 Wyoming Ave. "was their house".  I'm not sure - there must have been something very exciting to the right of the photographer here!