Best excuse for lack of blogging....

....I've been busy creating life in my belly!!!!

Baby Marshall is due January 8, 2012


As I enter my 7th month and THIRD TRIMESTER (hip hip hooray!) I thought I would give some of the pregnancy statistics I have seen on other people's blogs:

How far along? 27-28 Weeks 

How are you measuring? At my last Doc appt they told me I was measuring maybe 4-5 days ahead.


Size of the baby? Tank.

Total Weight Gain/Loss  Right on track with the average weight gain for being this far along according to the Dr. and my books.  Although, people asking me if I'm having twins does not make me feel very secure about it. 

Heartbeat?  148 I think he said?

Wearing maternity clothes?  Yes, mixed in with my old tops streeeetched over my growing belly. Nothing sexier than jeans with an elastic waistband!
Any stretch marks? Not yet!!!! (fingers crossed!)

Sleep?  On average I get up about every 2 hours, toss and turn all night and miss sleeping on my stomach and back more than I miss Diet Dr. Peppers (which is a lot!) 

 

Best moment this week? I went on a girls trip to London (ok, well Baby Marshall was there too technically- so not ALL girls) and when I got home Jon had cleaned the whole house, finished months (yes, months! Stop judging me!) worth of laundry, washed the dog and put together the crib while I was on vacation.  **Sigh**  That my friend, is how you speak my love language

Movement?  The baby always starts his karate practice when I'm in important meetings it seems.  Just today a coworker caught me staring at my belly in a meeting right when the baby was giving me a swift kick that was visible from my belly. The coworker who saw my shirt poke in and out where he was kicking looked at me with big eyes and said "You've got an alien in your stomach!"  Yes, Sir. Yes, I do.   
 

Food cravings? Just living in Italy for over a year has made me crave all sorts of things from the States that we can't get here...but nothing new since pregnant.  You could say I have more of a sweet tooth than I used to- but it's probably less of a craving and more of me just using the baby as a fat girl excuse to go eat gelato all the time.

Food aversions?  In my first trimester I had major aversions to all things spearmint/ peppermint flavored.  Ugh. The smell of toothpaste/gum/ fresh breath sent me gagging to the restroom daily.  (Thankfully I got some cinnamon toothpaste to prevent me from completely avoiding all oral hygiene)  I still can't stomach chewing minty gum. Just typing it kinda makes me squirm.

Gender predictions   No prediction needed: BOY!

What I miss: Honestly? A glass of wine after a hard day of work.  Being pregnant all I can do now is whine after a hard day of work.  It just doesn't have the same satisfaction.   

What I'm looking forward to: Meeting our little man!

How are you feeling? Great! A little back pain and lack of sleep -- but I'm sure the worst has yet to come!

Here is a picture of me (and baby) in London last weekend:




In London:  Big Ben and an even Bigger Sara



Business As Usual

Jon is back in the States for the next 3 weeks for work.  As much as I miss him, I'm also consumed with jealousy because he is getting to see some of our old friends we haven't seen in years.  In DC he met up with his old college roommates:

Good to know they can always pick-up right where they left off.

I'm baaaack (again)

Look!! I didn't forget I had a blog!!

I just went on hiatus for a while during our whirlwind of summer travels and visitors.  So I thought I would give the ol' blog a quick update on what we have been up to for the past 2-3 months.  We have been so busy that the only down time I get to update this is at work (your tax dollars at work ladies and gentlemen...)

Jon, Me, Ben and BK (Sherman was there..just not pictured.)

At the end of March, Jon's sister Bonny Kate and her husband Ben came to visit.  In the picture above you can see us posing on the side of the road at Lake Garda- one of my favorite little spots.  We had such a blast catching up with them- my only complaint is that it was too short of a visit.  Hopefully this was the first of many visits to come in the future with them. They have to come back...we are storing some of the wine they bought here and holding it hostage until their return!

You can totally tell they are related in this pic!

 In April, my sweet Aunt Kathy, Uncle Randy and Randy's brother Walter came to visit on their first European Vacation!  We filled our days with wine tasting, food and more food!  Throw in getting lost  "touring the backstreets"  in Venice, impromptu jam sessions with wine-makers and trying to dodge the train employees as we illegally attempted to steal a train trip and we had an unforgettable time together!

Uncle Randy jammin' with the winemaker of Ca'Bruzzo Winery

Group Picture in the Colli Berici wine region at Ca'Bruzzo

Well, it's almost 5pm here...which means quitting time and time to go pick-up Jon's Uncle Buddy from the train station!

 More to come soon !

My Three Nans

Now that the month of April is almost over- it seems like a good time to update my blog on the happenings of March! Better late than never!

March was the month of my Nans! I had 3 visitors named Nan come see me in March:


Nanci....

Nanci and I in Bassano del Grappa

Nancy Beth....

Nancy Beth and I in Florence

and Nancy Pelosi

Representative Nancy Pelosi and I in Venice

Ok, so the last Nancy was strictly for work...but I'm sure she will stay in touch! Ha!

I miss my Nans so much (well, I miss 2 outta 3) and I hope they come visit again soon!!  You can figure out for yourself which Nan I don't miss.

Villas, Vineyards and Vino

There are many perks to living in Italy.  One example of said perks is when we casually mentioned to our neighbors at Jon's birthday party that we wanted to go wine tasting and they said "Come to our winery. Tomorrow? 2pm?" 

Flash forward to the next day at 2pm and we are enjoying our neighbor's winery that is located in their 16th century villa that has been passed from generation to generation. It was either do that or stay home and catch up on laundry.  Life is full of tough decisions. 



A very haunted view or our neighbor's Villa at their vinyard.



At their front gate waiting to do some tastings! Their wine is already our favorite in Italy.



The Piovene crest (our neighbor's name) is seen here engraved into the front of their 500 year old fountain.  Hmm....in Texas I'm pretty sure anything older than 150 years belongs in a museum.  This fountain is located in the neglected backyard of our neighbors vineyard.  It's all relative.



We were helping them find their keys to the cellar. Before he could grab them I insisted on a photo of the HUGE keys they use each day.  Ridiculous.

Something tells me none of his relatives were taller than 5'8.  And I'm in flats.

My neighbors!!! They were so amazing to give us a tour of their winery. The youngest daughter is studying agriclture to take over her family business someday.

Why hello.  I will be drinking you sometime in the next 5 years.  See you soon.  Love, Sara



The Villa at their Vineyard was built for their family in the 1500s.  Why can't we all have this as our weekend getaway house???



The aftermath of our day at the vineyard.

After we thanked them for a wonderful day of wine tasting they genuinely thanked me again for the American pancake and brownie mix I gave them for Christmas. *blush*  I've really got to step-up my game for our gift exchange next year.

Jon turns 30!

On Jon's actual birthday (I warned you in the last post that birthdays are a week-long Marshall event) we celebrated the end of his twenties with a big group of friends. 

Birthday boy patiently waiting for his friends to arrive...

...and they did!

After dinner we walked to one of our favorite little dive bars in Vicenza where I had the back room reserved for our festivities.

looking dashing at 30

Jon's cake unintentionally looks like a Tiffany & Co box

 

Some of our crew in our private room

In the end, Jon and I were some of the first people to leave after midnight.  Turns out Jon in his 30s just can't hang out late with all these kiddos in their 20s anymore : )  But it was a great birthday for a great guy.

Irish I was still in Dublin!

For Jon's 30th birthday week (yes, we celebrate the whole week) we headed to Dublin, Ireland for a long weekend with friends.  Nan met up with us from London too!

A traditional Irish pub.  There are almost 1000 pubs in Dublin and I'm convinced we visited at least 859 of them.  hiccup.

We flew to Ireland on Ryan Air for ridiculously cheap (You can get tickets to London for only 8 euro each way !)  The trick is that you can basically only pack a tiny backpack or else they charge you outrageous amounts for luggage.  I tell you this because it will explain why I don't have many pictures of myself to share on this blog.  When packing for 4 days in a tiny carry-on, sacrifices had to be made.  After looking through my pictures from this weekend, I noticed that the sacrifices I made in make-up/ hair products and clothing options resulted in horrible photographs. ugh. 

The Big Yellow Bus that is Ryan Air.  Notice the advertisements on the overhead storage? They make up their cheap seats by saturating you in advertisements.  The flight attendants literally have "commercials" in the middle of your flight.

At the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.  I have been to the motherland. 

A perfect end to an Irish weekend.  A rainbow over Dublin...yet, no leprechauns in sight.

Happy early birthday Johnny Boy!!!

24 hours in Florence

My Valentine...it seems I keep him on edge.

For Valentine's Day my husband whisked me away on a romantic trip to Florence, Italy.  Which sounds like he put a lot of effort, time and thought into an exotic Valentine's....until you understand that Florence is about as far away as Waco from Dallas .  But even though it was only a 24 hour vacation, we had an amazing time.  It was my first time back in Florence since 2005- and it's still one of my favorites in Italy.

No vacation is complete without Sherman. Doesn't he look beautiful?  Oh, yeah. And that's the Duomo in the background.

Hello Lover. 

 

 

 

 

 

We look tired.  Happy.  But tired.  

You can dress me up, but you can't take me out.   In public anyway.

Sara Marshall...Squared

As we are gearing up for lots of fun visitors in the upcoming months- I remembered I never posted about my sister-in-law Sarabeth's trip to see us! 

The weeks leading up to her visit I told my friends in Italy stories (or shall I say legends?) that make Sarabeth so great.  And after her visit with us my friend told me "You know how sometimes people just hype other people up and then it's a big let down when you actually meet them? Well, Jon's baby sister was the first person who has ever lived up to their hype!"  I told you! Aren't all people named Sara Marshall amazing??

Jon and Sarabeth right after she landed in Italy (that's our city in the background!)

Sarabeth and Jon riding VIP in a water taxi in Venice

Within the first 24 hours that Sarabeth arrived in Italy she had made more friends in this town than Jon and I in 6 months!  Proof? We invited her to a pub crawl in Venice on the day after she arrived- and there were already 6 people waiting at the train station to go with us who only knew Sarabeth!  These were people that she had met on the plane, airport, post and bar the night before.  Only Sarabeth.  But it made it so much more fun- one guy was actually an opera singer who serenaded us up and down the streets of Venice. Who needs a gondolier?

She met these locals on a bridge- then they followed her to a store just to bring her a drink from the bar next door!

 

During her visit we also went to Prague in the Czech Republic to celebrate New Years together.  Here are some random pics of our awesome trip:

Jon and SB exploring the Sedlec Bone Church. Yup, about 70,000 people's bones are artistically decorating this church. SEVENTY THOUSAND. That is a pyramid of skulls they are looking at in the cage.

How cold WAS it?? The holy water was frozen. You can insert your own walking on water joke here.

Turns out that this town IS big enough to handle 2 Sara Marshalls

Buon Natale!

Ok. I just realized I never posted this entry from last month.  But seeing as how I just took down my Christmas decorations this past week- I figure, better late than never!  So here is my old post:

Because Jon was unable to fly home after surgery we spent the holidays in Italy! Here are some of the highlights:

Run Santa Run!  was a charity race I participated in to raise money for all of the flood victims in Vicenza.  It was my kind of "run" because it was only a 2 kilometer (barely over a mile) course and when the starting gun went off everyone just started walking.  Some of the Italians around me even lit a cigarette as we started off on our "race."  Everyone wore a Santa Suit and many of the locals stopped in the middle of the "race" to get themselves an espresso at the cafes we passed. Instead of water and Gatorade at the finish line; we were handed hot chocolate and cake! My kinda "race"!

Yup, just strolling on this "race"

Downtown Vicenza was all lit up and filled with traditional Christmas markets throughout the holidays...

I love our piazza during the holidays

And for Christmas Eve we were invited to our neighbors house to experience a traditional Italian holiday with their family.  We had an amazing time...and it didn't hurt that our neighbor was a chef in Venice and owns a winery! Needless to say, the food was gourmet and the wine was amazing.  They even gave Jon a case of wine from their vineyard as a gift!  We gave them a bag of "American" food for Christmas! It was all food they can't (and maybe wouldn't ever want to) get in Italy! Pancake mix, syrup, Cheese Wiz, Ritz crackers, BBQ flavored chips, cheetos, peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies and brownie mix! They loved it!  The pancake mix and peanut butter was like gold to them.  I think the cheese wiz freaked them out: 
"Formaggio? In can??  Only America... hmph. "

Enjoying our Christmas Eve with our adopted family.  Even if we didn't understand anything they were saying.