Christmas in Milwaukee

Our first Christmas by ourselves was still filled with friends and family. It was much more relaxing to not have to deal with the airport and we still got to see family (thanks to good old webcam technology and Google chat). I was happy that I didn't have to miss my favorite family tradition, my dad reading the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve. Luckily too we had many friends around here that also were away from family and invited us to some yummy dinners. The weather was nice enough on Christmas Day that we went out hiking, I also had to take some pictures because I knew what my Christmas present was going to be, Adobe Lightroom, and I wanted some new pictures to use my present on.

Here is Brad getting ready Christmas morning to open presents.


Here are pictures from our hike.

36 Weeks

She could come any time now.

Here is my timeline so far, what scares me is it look like I am growing exponentially, and I still have 4 more weeks to go.

More fun with the Parents

The second day my parents were here we took a trip north. I figured they needed to see why half of my fantasy team is from the Green Bay Packers. Going to see the stadium and learning the history behind the team turns you into a real fan. We also stopped at this little family run cheese factory and they gave us a personal tour.

Here they are measuring out cheese that they will press into blocks.

Now that is a lot of cheese curds

They even gave us little hats when we finished out tour


The Famous Lambeau Field of the Green Bay Packers


Their three Lombardi trophies is one of my favorite parts of the Hall of Fame

My Great Great Great Grandfather George Sheard

A couple weekends ago my parents were able to fly out for a visit. My Mom has been wanting to visit this cemetery just outside Burlington WI ever since she found out we had ancestry buried there. So we took a day to journey down to Burlington to see if we could find the gravestone of my Great Great Great Grandfather George Sheard. George was born in England and traveled to America, ending up in Wisconsin as a farmer. He son moved to Kansas where 3 generations later my Dad was born. With my Mom's research on what two roads the cemetery was located on and my understanding of how Wisconsinites name their roads we actually found the cemetery with little difficulty. As we walked around my Mom began to get excited as each headstone we passed had names on it she recognized from her genealogy research. We soon found many headstones with the name Sheard on it, this was actually pretty cool to me. Sheard isn't a very common name, in fact I never have met anyone outside my immediate family with the last name, so seeing so many of our relatives in one place was exciting. Dad was the one to find his Great Great Grandfather first, his headstone being carved into the shape of a tree, with a book leaning on the trunk with engravings for his wife and two kids that died at a young age. Soon after our findings an older couple drove up to the cemetery to see if we needed help, of course my Mom got to talking with him about who we were looking for and we found out he was a decedent of our grandfathers brother. He also told us to go visit another couple down the road that took care of the cemetery. So we paid an unexpected visit to the cemetery caretaker and his wife. They welcomed us in and spent an hour with us pulling out all the records and photographs that they had and sharing stories that they had learned from growing up there. They also told us that the farm that used to be in our family was right down the road, what a cool trip to be able to visit the farmland that used to be farmed by my own Great Great Great Grandfather, who knew that it was so close to where I am living now. I am so grateful to my Mom's dedication to finding our family history. It was a really neat experience to be apart of and makes me especially grateful for family today.

The Great Great Grandson and Great Great Great Granddaughter


My Mom looked at every headstone in the cemetery (luckily it was a pretty small cemetery)


This was my favorite document, showing the Sheard family coming over from Liverpool to Boston.

30 Weeks

So another picture is overdue since I have been getting more and more comments about my belly size.

I also have to thank all those who have commented to me about my job, I wanted to let you know that we know know that we are at least working to the end of the year (which really relived our insurance concerns) and they are trying to place us in different departments right now (hopefully I know in the next week if I will be working in January).

End of the Ride

So my boss said to me the other day "This job has felt like a roller coaster ride," I thought about that statement and I totally agree. From sitting in anticipation at the beginning waiting for the ride to start, to being in the middle going so fast that you don't know where you are some days and when or if you can even stop. The last couple weeks we have been going up and down and up and down and even been through a couple loops. We didn't know how much longer the ride would last, and even lost most of the riders with us. Well on Friday we got the word from the man that runs the roller coasters that the new manager of the amusement park did not want our roller coaster to continue running. So it looks like the end of the ride. This next week I will be looking around for a new ride to ride, maybe the teacups or the ferris wheel.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/107396773.html

Flight of the Umbilical Chords Second Release

The singing duo has gotten back together again and this time with commentary. This time it was for a humanities credit for Jordan's the surgery rotation. Since Brad was actually doing his rounds during the performance time at the school they got together and taped the performance and provided the entertainment for the night after we carved our pumpkins. To Brad's credit on this he only practiced it with Jordan twice before we taped it since he was busy in his pediatrics rotation and some of the lyrics came out impromptu. So sit back and enjoy the second performance of Flight of the Umbilical Chords. Also Brad asks that you click the link to YouTube and watch the video there too so that you can up their view count.

Pumpkins and More!

We were lucky to even get our pumpkins carved before Halloween this year with our schedules so busy. We were able to pull some friends together last night and have a little pumpkin carving fun. Brad has been expanding the pumpkin carving tradition over the past couple years and trying out new fruits and vegetables that he can carve. He went for his biggest challenge yet this year, a pineapple. Cleaning the pineapple out was pretty juicy, but he actually did a pretty good job of carving it. You have to wait till next year to see what he comes up with next.


P.S. Nov 2nd is election day so don't forget to go out and vote! (This years vote could really affect me)

24 and 25 weeks

Okay I have promised some pictures so here they are below. So far I have felt pretty lucky to be feeling so good during the pregnancy. I feel this is a blessing because I have been working some long hours lately and sometimes will be out in the field all day. Needing to throw up in the middle of a meeting with a property or business owner would not work out well for me right now. There are just little annoyances that are starting to come out now as I progress through the pregnancy. First is the increasing number of times I have to use the restroom throughout the day. I am starting to memorize the gas station bathrooms between Watertown WI and Madison WI since I have to use them every opportunity I get. Second is the the pain in my upper back, whenever I sit for a prolonged period of time it kills. Brad tried to show me some exercise I could do to strengthen my abs (since they apparently help hold you up too) the only problem is I don't really feel like I have ab mussels in the front that I can strengthen. I hope this pain doesn't progressively get worse. I need some advice on how to sit property while you are pregnant apparently. Though besides that I really feel great.

This is 24 weeks.

This is 25 weeks.

Our New Crib

It has always been a dream of Brad's to build his first child's crib. At first when Brad told me that we wanted to build a crib I was wondering when he would ever have the time to actually do it. When he kept bringing it up I decided I would just peruse the internet to see if it was actually feasible. In this search of crib plans I stumbled across a blog showing a crib a husband made for his wife over one weekend, and I fell in love with the crib too (click here to see our inspiration.) So we decided to build this crib while Brad was on his easier month and had the weekend to dedicate to it. Little did we know how much effort really would go into it and finally a month and a half later it is completed and ready for our little girl.

From the pictures on the website and after looking up codes on cribs I drew up some simple plans.

Then project started with a late night at Lowe's buying wood.

This is the man who helped us for hours picking out wood and cutting it to size.

Then came sanding (we recruited Katie to help out with this)

and more sanding...

and more sanding...Brad was being a good example and wearing eye protection.

And then more power tools for assembly.

Can't forget the measuring.

This was a good excuse for Brad to get a new Jig Saw.

Assembly actually took place over a couple weeks and in different locations.

We were excited here to actually get something together.



Finally put together, teddy is testing it out for us.

The now comes the primer and painting.

The blue was fun to spray on but we found out harder to cover then we expected.

Three coats of white paint and a little bit more sanding to antique it.


The complete project! Now my mom can start her project, sewing the bedding.

Now that it is done I love it, but as a caution to anyone else thinking of building a crib, it takes more than one weekend.