The bump and catch up...

As usual, I'm behind. I ask myself and Dave on a regular basis how everyone else seems to be organized and always caught up. We've started the house hunting process and it seems to consume most of our time. Maybe we're over-analyzing each house we look at and maybe I'm expecting too much that the perfect house will appear before our eyes. Or maybe it's just because I'm in that "nesting phase" that I swore I'd never go through but Dave has brought it to my attention that I'm definitely there.

The "little guy's" current place of residence. Lately he's been quite active. At our doctor appointment on Thursday, she could barely catch him long enough to get his heartbeat for a second and then he'd move. She finally said that with how much he's moving she's not worried about him at all. We can now see my stomach move when he moves and Dave definitely hasn't had a problem feeling him move with how active he's been.

Back in February, Charleston had it's first snowfall in years. It was pretty unbelievable considering we thought we had left that weather behind for the sun and palm trees in the south. Mother Nature definitely had other ideas. Our friend Gemini was over that night cooking Indian. We stopped to take a picture during the history making moment. Where we lived, about 3 inches fell, further inland had even more. Unbelievable!!


That same night, February 12th my sister Sarah's son was born - Joshua Robert. What a beautiful boy! He's the spitting image of his father! Unbelievably, he was born on my sister Maria's birthday.
We finally started to get some fabulous weather and last weekend I capitalized on it! We went to a greenhouse and picked out some flowers for the patio. I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday morning cleaning up from the winter and getting ready for spring!! Dave enjoyed being a photographer and got some great shots of the blooms on our tree and the new flowers as well as a guest that's taken up residence...as long as it stays on the patio it's welcome...

Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week!!

Love,
Beth

Really good excuse..

I could come up with a million and one legitimate reasons why I haven't been blogging lately...work has been insane, not wanting to be on the computer when I get home from work, traveling for the holidays, my in-laws have been in town...or I could say that the real reason is that I'm pregnant!

Yep, it's true the Krieg's are going to be welcoming a little boy or girl on July 12th! Overall, I've been really lucky with my pregnancy. Completely exhausted throughout the first trimester (which is why I haven't been blogging) but unlike my sisters, I didn't have morning, noon and night sickness. I've gotten a lot of my energy back - which I think Dave is not used to having around. Hopefully I'll be much more current with the blogging :).

No pictures of a bump yet...really don't have much of one. Dave can tell but no one at work has noticed and his parents said that you couldn't tell either.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Love,
Beth

November and 70 degrees??? No WAY!

Yes, it is November here and 70 degrees outside. I so cannot believe this considering last year at this time is was maybe 40 and definitely rainy. What a change!! Totally enjoying it!

The weather also made for an AWESOME Halloween. We celebrated with our new friends on the Island - Carey, Sean and Isabella. What I found most amusing about Halloween (other than Dave's costume) was that all of the families take their golf carts out to go trick or treating. They load the kids up and drive them around the neighborhoods. It's a fantastic idea and seems quite fun. I think they found us just as amusing considering I had a pirate driving us around on our tandem bike.

The Pirate himself...

Our new friends, Carey Sean and Isabella in her adorable poodle costume!

In other random news...Dave is going to miss Movember this year in Chicago. Therefore in true melancholy fashion, the growing of the unsightly facial hair. Just be happy you didn't see just the "Mo". Movember raises money for men's health issues and those participating grow out "Mo's" (Aussie Moustache). Derek - these pictures are for you! Do us proud this year!!!

Mom & Dad - thanks for the awesome fall decoration! Sarah - talk about fabulous wrapping skills! Von Maur is definitely going to miss you.

Hope you all have an awesome rest of the week!

Love,
Beth

Daniel Island and more...

Well friends, I must say that the expectation that life was going to slow down once we moved south was completely and utterly incorrect. Seems as though from the day the moving van came to our place in Chicago we've been going non-stop!!

I really had hoped that 8-5 would become regular working hours for me, not so much...it seems to be 8-8 on a regular basis. I wish I could say that's why they pay me the big bucks, but alas I cannot. Dave seems to be settling into his new job well. His first week traveling for work was last week and it was definitely strange to say good-bye that Tuesday. I had become so used to having him at home that I had forgotten the whole tough shell no fear of the boogie man costume. We survived the first week and now it's back to old hat.

One good thing about his upcoming travel is that he's going to have to go to Chicago for work which means I'll be coming back for a couple of weekends too!! I definitely am missing our friends and the diverse amount of ethnic food. Don't get me wrong, the seafood here is great but if you're looking for fabulous Indian or Mediterranean cuisine you've come to the wrong city.

We've found a wonderful church here downtown, Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The neatest part about this church is it's old traditions. A lot of the prayers are still said in Latin which to me is really neat. The residents here in Charleston also get really dressed up for church, you'll even see women wearing fancy hats! In 2 weeks we're signed up to for the once a year "Crypt to Catwalk" tour. We get to go all the way up to the bell tower and down to the crypt (Bishop's Cemetery). Totally excited about this and will be sure to take lots of pictures and PROMPTLY update the blog!!

I've also joined a softball team here. It has been so much fun!! It's slow pitch which is different for me because I'm used to fast pitch but I'm thoroughly enjoying doing something outside of work and making friends outside of work! Dave hasn't been to a game yet - I'm too nervous to have him watch me play. It's like the piano, it took MONTHS for me to play in front of him. I'm to anxious about making a mistake!

Now for the fun part...picutres! I'm not going to lie, we haven't carried the camera around like Japanese tourists...though Dave wanted to...so we're missing some pictures of our exciting outing to the PGA Tour that took place on the island last weekend (should have because we got skybox seats on the 18th hole!) and pictures of me playing softball but I'm sure you'll enjoy!

Big move out - September 9th & 10th. Seriously...how did we amass so much stuff?!?!
Good by stuff...see you in South Carolina!!
Lucky for us, we were the last customer packed into the truck therefore the first customer unpacked!

Welcome to Daniel Island...hope you didn't bring the Chicago rats...this is the home of the cockroaches...aka Palmetto bugs!
Our apartment has 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a dining room which since conveniently enough we don't have a dining room table has now become my piano room!! View from our living room to the breakfast area and kitchen. Piano room is off to the right of the kitchen.
Based on this picture...the soon-to-be piano room...did I mention I hate unpacking boxes??
Seriously...a lot of stuff...Dave looks buried in our closet in boxes. I promise we have most of our stuff put away by now...
Look at all of this paper!?!? For us paper nerds, this is bleached paper. Those boxes are kraft paper (brown paper). The kraft paper is what the company we work for makes, we actually sell it to companies who turn it into container board for boxes.
Between the unpacking we managed to take a couple of detours...

Detour #1 - Atlanta
As Andrea would appreciate, we don't have any pictures of our fun evening with her. But we did get pictures with Jivas! He moved from Oak Park in July to get his Doctorate in Accounting at Emory. I miss my Indian cooking buddy!!!
Dave and Jivas with Dooley, the "mascot" of Emory.
Detour #2 - Fort Wayne

Dave's parents were in a bad car accident and we rushed home. Everyone is out of the hospital and doing good. It was definitely scary and quickly taught us what really matters in life. Not that I wasn't before, but I have become a HUGE advocate of seat-belts in the back seat. Though we had to rush home, we took advantage of some time with our nephew Oliver and our other nephew and niece Avery and Spencer.

We took Oliver to the pumpkin patch where he got to pick out his Halloween pumpkin. Man those things are heavy...

My latest project has been our terrace. For one, it's HUGE but secondly, I absolutely love gardening!

When we were in Fort Wayne, my dad sent us home with some of the plants that wouldn't make it through the winter there. After my softball game I spent a lot of time trying to make sure it climbed up the post alright. It looks AMAZING on the terrace! I can't wait to see how big it gets by next spring.

Me and my gardening area that Dave helped create. Unfortunately even though we have had fantastic weather I haven't been able to spend much time in the garden.

This is the hibiscus that Dave saved for me last weekend. The landscapers are coming through the neighborhood and ripping out all of the "unseasonal" flowers and putting in pansies. Dave saved this hibiscus from it's fate...personally, I appreciated the thought and the five finger discount.
Isn't the space just awesome??!!??

That's all for tonight folks...I'm off to help Maria with her senior comp...man do I miss the good ole days!!!

Love,

Beth

Long overdue...

Okay, so I know I’ve been horrible about keeping up the blog but seriously, we’ve been busy! There’s so much to catch up on.

Two weeks ago, Dave and I went with our friends Ben and Andrea to Lac La Belle in Wisconsin for the weekend. We had such a fabulous time! I definitely know that the thing I miss most about Chicago is our friends! The cottage we stayed at was perfect! Ben and Andrea, my vote is for this place again next year!

Super cute house that we stayed at.

What kind of weekend at the lake would it be without a bonfire and LOTS of S'mores!

Dave and Ben playing ladder ball. Check it out, Dave got all three white on one rung. Impressive!!

Also impressive...the one that Dave got stuck in the tree branches...nice work hon!

Last weekend, Dave and I got to visit with some of his family on Kiawah Island, SC. It was so nice to see Aunt Shirley and Uncle Bill. Dave has been going to Kiawah almost every year since he was a kid and the past two years we’ve missed because of my job. The beach on Kiawah is so pristine and secluded, we’re truly lucky to be able to go there.

This is the path from Aunt Joan's out to the beach...you can see why we love Kiawah.

Dave's parents take a picture of the family for the wall and since we haven't been there in a couple of years, we were hoping to get a new one.

I will fully admit though that the WORST night of sleep I’ve had since I’ve been in Charleston was the night we spent on Kiawah. We had just climbed in bed and it escapes me why I decided to get up and turn on the light but I did and the lovely cockroach that had started to crawl down the wall climbed right back up into hiding. At this point I freaked out; Dave didn’t see it but I SWEAR it was there! So I tortured Dave by forcing us to sleep with the light on that night. I couldn’t really get into a deep sleep because I was so scared that that nasty bug would come back out of hiding and wind up in my bed...soooo gross! Well at one point, Dave woke up and there was a bug in our bed! I seriously thought that the bug was the darn cockroach from earlier but Dave told me later that it was just a flying ant. I’m still not sure if I believe him that it was the ant…it was definitely wasn’t there the next morning…heck maybe it was an ant and that nasty roach ate it! AGH!!!! BUGS!!!

I so don’t mean to make Kiawah seem infested because those yucky bugs will not keep me from going back there…but seriously, that will be the one thing that forces me out of the south eventually!!!

The B IG news from that weekend is that we found a place to rent!!! YAY!!!! We’re going to be moving into a condo on Daniel Island for a year! It’s two bed two and a half bath with a dining room (which will be used as my piano room J ) and a HUGE terrace! I absolutely love the terrace!! Steph, this place is within walking distance of the stadium!!! You’d better be down here for at least one match!

Our new address…

200 River Landing Drive

Unit A203

Daniel Island, SC 29492

I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day!

Love,

Beth

Happy 50th Birthday Hawaii!!!

This past week, I was lucky enough to have my parents come into town to visit and "approve" of where we'll be living. I felt badly because I had to work during the day, but definitely had our share of fun in the evenings. The standing joke throughout their time here was that my mom (and dad you too) is older than Hawaii. This was figured out on the plane ride down here from reading a magazine. This joke lasted until a little boy in the hotel pool thought my mom was 365 years old. Apparently this is very traumatizing...but really, Hawaii is millions of years old...dang mom you look good for being over a million!!! :)

Bugs, spiders, peacocks, birds and alligators... I seriously never realized how petrified my mom was of anything that wasn't human. I did know though that my dad loved to tease the poor creatures...careful dad, one of these days the animal kingdom may strike back! I'm sitting here laughing out loud at how funny our excursion to Middleton Plantation was.

Strike one...While walking through the butterfly gardens my dad wanted to see how close he could get to these beautiful white herons. I decided to join in the fun, what kind of damage can a bird do to a person? Well we got pretty darn close and this heron didn't like the sound of the camera so he started squawking and proceeded to fly in the direction of my mom. My heart did jump when I saw it flying through the air towards where she was standing. I did manage to get some pretty good shots out of it!!

Strike two and snake two...This is snake number two that we saw while exploring the gardens. My dad wanted to see it move, so he decided that spitting at it would be a brilliant idea. At this point and time, my mom is walking as fast as her legs would take her away from the snake while yelling at my dad to stop..."Philip, would you please stop, it's going to come and bite you and Beth and I aren't strong enough to run from the snake and carry you at the same time!!!"...at which point my dad proceeded to spit at the snake again. Lucky for us it didn't move...maybe it was dead? I haven't been able to figure out if it was a copperhead...can anyone tell? Apparently they're plentiful around here.

This is the picture that we took after the snake episode when my mom stopped crying (okay, slight exaggeration) and forgave my dad. It was one of the most picturesque points at the plantation.

Strike three...After we left the snake infested area, my mom wanted to see the stables. Though I have no pictures of the stables, I do have a picture of my dad attempting to make a peacock spread its feathers. To which my mom commented that the male only does that when he's attracted to a female so he must not be all that attracted to my dad. Don't worry dad, all 5 of us girls think you're handsome!

So this is what I have learned is called a Banana Spider. Apparently it's not poisonous but its bite will hurt like heck! This picture does not do the size of that sucker justice, that thing is at least the size of a lemon. These spiders are EVERYWHERE!!!

I won't even POST a picture for you of a palmetto bug...these suckers are glorified cockroaches and are disgusting!

The only other valuable piece of information we learned related to critters was that "you only have to worry about alligators longer than 8 feet". Mom, this really isn't true...and don't worry, I'll be sure not to live near a pond.

Here are a few more pictures of me and my parents at Middleton Place. The gardens there were truly spectacular. In fact, the formal gardens reflect the style of the landscape architect from Versailles. French...now that's my cup of tea!

This Live Oak tree is over 85 feet tall, has a circumference of 37 feet, and a limb spread of 145 feet. Some of the branches have additional support to keep it from losing more limbs.

Aren't these lilly pads crazy huge?! I swear at any moment we all thought an alligator would climb out and eat us alive!

My most memorable moments though were in the pool at night. Dad and I would swim laps every night in the pool; we'd do 20 and then go sit in the hot tub with mom. One night, we convinced mom to join in the lap fun. She indicated that we were swimming too fast for her so my dad picked her up just like a football and ran her across the pool next to me. I only wish I had a camera, her expression was priceless!

Papa et maman, merci pour toute cette dernière semaine. C’était si amusant et je suis tellement heureuse que je pourrais vous montre où je vais vivre. Même que je suis quatorze heures loin de vous, je suis avec vous en esprit toujours. Je t'aime de tout mon cœur.

Have a great week!!

Love,
Beth

CHARLESTON!!

Stephanie & Cindy ... this blog is dedicated to you!! :)

Holy cow...all I have to say is time flies! I can't believe that I've been here for 2 weeks already and after 2 weeks I do have to say that I'm loving it here.

Last weekend, my first weekend in Charleston, I was able to spend with Dave. Our objective was to figure out a neighborhood where we wanted to buy a home. I didn't realize how many options we have. Objective is to be close to the beach, have a pool, and work on buying a boat! I expect you all to cast your votes on what's below!!

1. Mt. Pleasant - Otherwise known as "Mt. Plastic". I haven't gotten to the bottom of the naming reference yet. After staying in Mt. Plastic at the Marriott Renaissance for the past 2 weeks I have to say, I have not seen a lot of fake boobs or face lifts...or maybe the doctors around here are that good... :) So...what it really has to offer is a great suburban community (not sure if I'm ready for suburbia after living downtown Chicago), 5 minutes from the beach, and what I've been told are the best schools in the area. It is about 20-25 minutes to work, which I shouldn't complain after having an hour commute in Chicago.

2. Daniel Island - Referred to as the "Stepford Community". I like to refer to it as Mayberry, but it makes me want to see the movie. It's a newly developed island community that has great hiking trails, river/marsh access (when we get a boat), you could survive with only a golf cart for transportation, great schools, many community pools to choose from, and 10 minutes to work. We could walk to the restaurants and grocery store, but depending on where on the island we live it could be quite a hike. Bummer about it is that even though it's an island community, there is no beach so the beach is more like 15 minutes away.

3. Downtown Charleston - Haven't figured out what it's referred to yet, I'm sure that there's something! It's got wonderful old homes and a quaint feeling about it. Its got so much history!! We can walk everywhere, even to the grocery store like we did in Chicago. Access to awesome restaurants and bars. It's about 20-25 minutes from work but about 30 minutes to the beach and I haven't found a place with a public pool

4. Sullivan's Island/Isle of Palm - WAY TOO EXPENSIVE! Would love to win the lottery in order to buy house on beach. For now, I'll have to only be able to afford parking in the public lot.

So after figuring out the where we could live, we made the most important purchase of our lives in Charleston...our beach chairs!!! This process took quite a while, not by my choice. I wanted to grab a chair and go, but I'm thankful that he made me test them out before purchasing.

Guess which one's mine and which is Dave's?

The container ship in the background came from the port right next to the papermill where I work. Did you know Charleston has the 3rd largest international port in the United States??

Weekend #2's post is in the works...I hope y'all will have a wonderful weekend! (I'm working on my southern accent ;) )

Love,
Beth