It's been incredibly TOO long

I'm not even sure if anyone checks our blog anymore since I've taken way too long to post anything but here is my solemn vow that now that I've gotten the hang of being a mom a little bit better, I will post with more frequency and consistency. You can also check my Facebook page for more pictures.

Here's a little recap of the past few months...

WE HAD OUR BABY:

Penelope Aline Hauser was born on August 2, 2009 at 2:49 pm. I have to say I am very lucky how everything went (I don't anticipate labor and delivery will ever be that good again.) I started having contractions (ones that I noticed) about 1:00 am and did the whole timing them for an hour and half before calling the doctor. By the time I called her (which I hate doing in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT) I was having contractions every 3 or 4 minutes. She sent me to the hospital and then ensued a very boring and slightly (a relative term) painful 5 hours.

Since I was supposed to be induced that night anyway and my labor was pretty slow, my doctor broke my water and started pitocin at 8:30am and 10:00am respectively. I HATE PITOCIN. After PAIN, I got my epidural (sweet, sweet epidural) and slept for a couple of hours. Around 2:00 pm, I started pushing and she was born just a short time later. She was a HEALTHY 9 pounds, 10 ounces...something the doctors and I was not expecting. It was a happy day for us both and couldn't wait to welcome Penny's 3 other baby girl cousins into the world!! Lilah Capri Haymore came on August 10th, Annie-Mae Lois Swenson came September 21st, and Eliza Jeannette Neal came on October 31st.

WE MOVED:

A couple of weeks before I had Penny, we found out Josh got into medical school at University at Buffalo. We started packing immediately because I knew I would be no help later on. Five days after I had Penny we had to move across the state to Buffalo. Thank you to my mother and Josh's mother for being a huge help with Penny during that time. Thank you to Bryan, Dad, Jessy and Kelly for helping with moving ALL of our stuff in and getting it unpacked in a timely manner. There is NO way I would have been able to do it without them.

JOSH STARTED SCHOOL...AGAIN:

Josh had his white coat ceremony on August 10th (I think) and started school two days later. And yes, being a brand new mom and having your husband start an incredibly hard and time consuming program is hard. But Josh is really happy with this school and with his choice to become a doctor and you can't really ask for more as a wife. He's gone a lot his first semester because he has to take anatomy and it's a beast of a class. Memorization has never been my strong point, hence becoming an English teacher:) Josh seems to have a pretty good class, although he's one of about 3 people married and is the ONLY one with a child.

PENNY HAD HER BABY BLESSING:

There's not much to be said about this other than Josh is an awesome dad and a worthy priesthood holder and he gave Penny a wonderful blessing. It was a great day because afterward our house was FULL of family...just the way we like it.

PENNY IS GETTING BIGGER:

Penny has started grabbing things with her hand and is a talker (go figure when she spends all day with me). She's trying to roll over and gets up on her side, but that will be a little while. It's also fun to watch her try to sit up when she's laying down. This is the equivalent of a baby crunch. She's also just learning to laugh. It takes A LOT of effort to get her to do it, but it's worth it. She is an incredibly smilely baby, too. Some things to look for in the near future: trying baby food, getting her first pair of earrings, teething, crawling (or "scooting" rather), etc. I'll keep you updated...I promise.

Some of you may be wondering what's going on with me. Not much:) I'm just learning a lot as I go along. We make trips to my parents' house often and try to see Josh's whenever he has a long weekend. I'm enjoying being a mom and staying home. I need to reconnect with my social network, but all in good time! I may work one or two nights a week next semester when Josh has a more regular schedule. It'll be nice to tutor again and use my brain!

Here are some pictures:



Check out all the boxes in the background...







Josh and the moving truck




White Coat




Baby Blessing

Walking

Here are the pics from the BBQ Fest that Fran and I went to. I thought maybe the walking combined with a little BBQ heat might have sent Fran into labor...no joy!! Love you all.

p.s. I forgot the camera so I had to use the blackberry to get these. Not bad, but not great.

No Baby Yet

Just an update for everyone...there is nothing to update. No baby yet! We are hoping she comes soon!! Enjoy the clip I found. This kid is crazy!





This one is sweet too...it's when he is four.

Pics from our vacation in NC

As promised, here are the pics from our awesome vacation in NC.

Some good news!

Hello All!

Just a quick update on a fast-approaching due date...it's even sooner than we thought! My doctor moved my date back up to July 25th. This is great news for several reasons:

1. I'm to that "I'm sick of being pregnant" stage
2. Josh and I need to move to Buffalo somewhere in the first week of August so the chances of her coming late and it becoming a problem with moving are slimmer (not gone, though - eek!)
3. Josh will definitely still be working which means I don't have to worry about insurance...I know this seems like an odd thing to worry about or mention but these days it's a big deal...

We were really excited to hear the heartbeat again (it's always tons of fun). She clocked in at about 156 I think:) The last time we went to the doctor's she was sitting incredibly low and so it took the doctor a little longer to find the heartbeat - we were both quietly freaking out for about 15 seconds. This time the heartbeat was a little higher and easier to find.

According to the nurse at the office, I am 36 weeks tomorrow - almost full term! It's actually really interesting because there are about 3 or 4 other women who are all due late July early August in my ward. I go walking with one twice a week and I feel so bad for her. She's due the 14th and is so TINY and has two kids already so I'm SURE she's more sick of being pregnant than I am!

Last piece of good news - I finally gained NO weight between visits. This is a MILESTONE! My appetite has returned to normal (which I'm told won't last long once the baby is born) so I'm happy! What's more is that it's normal to stop gaining weight about this time so no need to be worried:)

One last thing...obviously we went on vacation with my family and still there are no pictures or posts about it - I apologize. It will happen soon! I'm done working full weeks after this week. With Josh and my work schedule combined we see each other from about 7:30 until 10 at night (when I can no longer keep my eyes open) so blogging in that 2 1/2 hours isn't top on my list:) Now that it won't just be 2 1/2 hours at night I promise we'll post something good soon! And by good I mean awesome since I'm pretty sure the facial hair and photo shoots from this vacation will beat all other pictures on this blog!

News

I am sure that Fran will be posting an entry soon about our escapades in NC a few weeks back. It was a ton of fun and we were so happy that Fran was doing well enough to travel in the car for 11 hours there and 11 back...it was easier going down than it was coming home.

So...three years, a lot of money, a ton of prayers, and an enormous amount of time spent waiting and wondering resulted in the following...

I got in to SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine!!!! I know a lot of you have kept us in your thoughts and prayers and I wish I had words to describe what that means to me. Much of my struggles in getting an acceptance were my own fault, (poor GPA), and it is humbling to realize that role that the Lord's hand played in our lives. I was privileged to get my MPH here at Albany, had a lot of good experiences, and met people like my boss/mentor Dr. ST who will be lifelong friends and allies of mine. So, in short, thank you. I'll keep you all posted as things progress, but it looks like we are going to be in Buffalo for a few years!!

Go Bulls!

Memorial Day!

Josh and I decided to drive over to Seneca Falls on Sunday to spend Monday with my family. It was a small gathering but tons of fun nonetheless. We got to hack the crab apple tree out of the middle of a lilac bush (I swear it starting growing last year and the trunk was about 3 1/2 inches in diameter already), help dad open the pool, eat some yummy food, hit a couple of balls (tennis, base and soft) and go out for some ice cream. Josh and I were even able to do a little shopping in the morning for some baby clothes (much more fun than buying for ourselves:) We'll be on vacation in the Outer Banks starting this Saturday (May 30th) so we should have more fun photos to post in about 2 weeks! Just a quick update for those of you who want to know: Baby Hauser is doing great and is growing "perfectly" (my doctor's words, not mine:) She is VERY active only settling down every 3 or 4 days. I feel her all day long, although now I can tell she's getting a little cramped in there. The count down is 2 months! Here's a look at our day in Seneca Falls:

Dad doing some pool work

The Spread

Dad right after the "angry" red raspberry soda literally exploded on him and his plate and surrounding food...

Livy showing us the skillz that pay the billz...

Dad is usually a great switch-hitter but it just wasn't working today.

Josh and one of his stunts...yes, I love my husband.

Josh at bat...he was very impressive. Although, the most impressive thing he did that day was catch a ball in his Dodger's hat...and it wasn't a pop fly either!

Mom in right field getting ready to catch a great hit.

Dad and his expert pitching skills.

Bryan and his great hitting stance...he likes to do it the one-legged way:) He actually was one of the best hitters that day despite his leggedy ways.

Graduation Pictures

This past weekend Josh graduated with his Master's in Public Health from SUNY Albany. Here are some pictures of the days events. Josh was a flag bearer for the ceremony so it was nice to be able to easily pick him out of the crowd...he also got to receive his diploma in the first group of Master's students. Congrats Josh! (PS - I'm not really sure why these pictures don't look very clear but if you click on them you'll get a better image.)

Flag Bearing

He's done...with this degree!

The boys

The Hauser Family

Josh and his parents

The Masino Family

So it's been a while...

I know I am probably the worst person when it comes to posting pictures and writing on our blog...I guess I still prefer paper and pencil:( Anyway...a quick little update on our lives. This weekend Josh is officially graduating from UAlbany even though he's been done with classes since December. I think it's going to be interesting going to a masters and doctorate ceremony for a lot of reasons, if not size alone! I'm really excited to see him get his diploma and we're lucky enough to have his parents and two brothers and my parents and little sister Livy come to Albany to be there for it. We haven't had any family to our house in almost two years so we're really pysched (translation: I spent the last two days cleaning like I was getting my dorm room checked for checkout). We're going to have our first watermelon of the year for our BBQ (yum) and hopefully have some fun if the weather holds. Having a BBQ this weekend made me have a nostalgic moment a couple of days ago - missing the days at BYU when all of our good friends were still there and we could BBQ on the weekend and play games and laugh.

Anyway - for me, it's also official...after spending a little more than $450 and taking three tests, I am now a certified high school English teacher in the state of New York. It just feels nice to finally have my paper license after being snubbed because I was certified "out of state". Sorry to break it to all of those who snubbed me but I still rocked the tests and I felt as if they showed nothing more about me than the fact that I could take a test.

Other than that it's been work work work for the both of us. Josh loves his job and his boss, which I think is pretty cool:) He also helps coach a traveling baseball team on Friday nights. I tutor at Sylvan a couple of nights a week and on Saturday so that gives me a reason to look my best each day even though that's getting harder and harder!

Little Hauser-yet-to-come is crazy active and still growing. I'm just shy of my 7th month (I'll put pictures up when I'm on our home computer) and I think I've hit that time when the baby has a "growth spurt". My stomach went from cute to pretty huge in a matter of about a week and now things are getting a little awkward - like driving and getting out of bed (or off the couch, for that matter). We're going on vacation to the beach with my family in about two weeks so even though we're both excited to meet her we're also glad she's not here yet:) My first baby shower is this weekend in Fayetteville so Josh and I are both excited about that as well. It's crazy how everything seems so calm and normal for the first 5 or so months and then you hit 6 months and on and things start to speed up and come a lot faster!

One last thing - isn't spring WONDERFUL?! I haven't seen this much green in way too long:)

Private

Welcome back everyone...I decided that I should be a little safer with my personal information and pictures of my family. Thus you are now only allowed to read the blog if you are an invited reader. Feel special? Don't. I have plenty of invites left and if any of our friends/relatives want to read it, but I neglected to add them, please send me an email or post a comment and I will add them as a reader.

Well...I guess I should update everyone as to our goings on the last month. April has really flown by. Things at work are good for me, and Fran is tutoring/subbing to help us make but more scrilla. She is at the end of her 28th week! Wow...her belly is getting bigger and I like this part because I get to feel baby a lot now. She loves to punch and kick mommy!!
We don't have too many recent pictures to add even though we drove to Ohio last week and saw my parents (I had an interview in Toledo as well) and we were in Seneca Falls for Easter with Fran's family. My birthday has come and gone..27, I know, don't rub it in, we celebrated with my family while we were in Cleveland and then it was just me yesterday with Fran on the actual day.

Things are going well for us, there really isn't anything to complain about. We miss all of our friends and family and wish that we lived closer to more of you so that we could see each other once in a while.

Oh yeah, before I go...after three attempts at applying to medical school I was finally accepted to one! Michigan State's DO program accepted me this morning and even though there is a good chance I'll defer until next year (tuition reasons, and other waitlists that I feel good about) it is a huge relief to be officially in somewhere. My other options are as follows:
--The Ohio State University (MD/PhD)--waitlist
--SUNY Buffalo (MD)--waitlist
--University of Toledo (MD, MD/PhD)--just interviewed 4/23
--Albany Medical College (MD, MD/PhD)--under consideration (sort of like a waitlist, but not official yet and it is pretty dynamic.)

So yeah, that is kind of where we are and what we are doing right now. I did find a few pictures from Easter, so enjoy!!


Easter Dinner


Isabel and Jane


Michael and Jon beating each other with sticks and an "Indiana Jones Whip"

Going Private

My Sister-in-law has scared me into taking my blog private.  I never meant for this to become anything more than a fun place to post pics and visit with family and friends.  If you want to be part of my "private community", please comment with your email address, or send me an email.  Thanks guys.  I'll be back with a real post soon.

Josh

Some more Basketball

Last weekend my brother-in-law (Jon) and I drove down to Philly to catch the second round games. We had high hopes that BYU would make it to Saturday, but it was not to be...typical BYU basketball. We did get to see UConn and Villanova destroy Texas A&M and UCLA though. Here are some pics.


This guy was probably the biggest dork I have met in a while. He came by himself, wore chinos, collared shirt, loafers and a sweathsirt over it all, cheered and high-fived random people, spouted off random stats to no one in particular and kept trying to lure us into conversations. At one point I swear he was bumping my leg so that I would ask him to stop.



Arena with people. This is the view from our seats.


Bilas and Ensberg before the game. We got there early enough to hang out down by the court before the ushers kicked us out.


Me and Jon.


Arena without people.

March Sadness

I'm not really sad, but I thought that I would include the snapshot of my family's annual March Madness contest to emphasize the fact that the number of college basketball games watched, amount of sportscenter seen, and the reams of bracketology articles read are not, in any way, directly correlated to performing well...at least for me. Dad and greg seem to be doing okay this year though. How is my wife up at the top? The world may never know.

Overall Standings

Group Standings
Rank	Team Name	Score	Correct	Best Score	Best Correct	Champion
1	Fran Hauser	39	31	179	52	North Carolina (167)
1	gregsgarrulousgroupers	39	31	169	51	North Carolina (158)
1	Michael Hauser	39	31	173	50	North Carolina (166)
4	Ben Hauser	38	31	178	52	Memphis (129)
5	caitlin hauser	37	30	179	52	Louisville (149)
5	Christiane Swenson	37	29	177	50	Louisville (156)
7	Jessica Hauser	36	29	178	51	Louisville (155)
7	Taylor Hauser	36	28	170	47	Louisville (152)
9	Josh Hauser	35	28	169	47	North Carolina (136)
10	Alice Hauser	31	25	171	46	Pittsburgh (130)

FRAN HATES BYU????!!!!!!! Hmmm, very interesting.

Casey: so what's up w/ Fran cheering against BYU?

i evicted my own sister for 3 years for that offense

her and Tiffany

tisk tisk tisk

me: i warned her multiple times

i wish she had been wrong though, I have tickets for saturday's games in philadelphia

Live Blogging while watching the Tourney

JD and I were chatting about how terrible BYU played and other tourney stuff...when it says "me" that is my post, "Josh" is Josh Dalton.

me: my chances to see BYU on sat are not looking good

Sent at 1:34 PM on Thursday

Josh: man, how were we down 26-7? thats pathetic

Sent at 1:36 PM on Thursday

me: frickin BYU

they better close gap a little bit

Sent at 1:57 PM on Thursday

Josh: cs-northridge is giving memphis fits, it seems

me: yeah that could kill a lot of people

Sent at 1:59 PM on Thursday

Josh: i have memphis in the final

those chumps better not choke like they did against kansas last year

Sent at 2:01 PM on Thursday

me: seriously...i would be dead in the water

Sent at 2:08 PM on Thursday

me: BYU looks the softest I have ever seen them

Sent at 2:12 PM on Thursday

me: A&M is shooting almost 60% from the field. 30 points in the paint...this sucks

Sent at 2:17 PM on Thursday

Josh: i never thought i'd say this..but the glory days of shawn bradley....

Sent at 2:18 PM on Thursday

me: haha, yeah when we didn't make marginal teams look like all-stars. at least memphis is opening it up a skosh

Sent at 2:20 PM on Thursday

Josh: we should live blog

i just posted one

me: haha, definitely

maybe I'll just cut and paste this

Sent at 2:29 PM on Thursday

It's Official...our baby is going to be awesome!

...Not that there was any doubt in the first place that our little girl was going to be awesome, but this morning before I left for work I was in bed, talking to Fran's belly (our bebe) and I decided I would play her some of my musical ringtones...you know, Airwolf, Hawaii 5-0, Foo Fighters, and a few others. Fran told me one day that when she was listening to Foo Fighters that the baby started kicking like crazy...I thought to myself, well, lets try the ultimate test of coolness...The BEASTIE BOYS!

So I quickly downloaded my favorite song onto my phone...can you guess what one it is? JD would know for sure! Sabotage of course . I played it for her, pressing it to Fran's belly...and lo and behold, she starts kicking!! I am telling you, my baby is going to be awesome!


It also made me wonder what the music would sound like underwater...does it sound like whale songs?

Fran hit 20 weeks yesterday so we are around the half-way mark...well, more appropriately, SHE is halfway done. I really don't have much to do with all the hard work. How easy do we have it? The hardest thing I have on my list is to keep the house stocked with cereal and pop-tarts, and satisfy the occasional Slurpee craving. We men really do have it much easier.

Some Recent Trips...

...and our baby is still a girl...as far as we can tell!!! Anyway, before I start posting some pictures of two recent trips we took, lemme just say that I am SO happy that we are having a little baby girl. It really is super-exciting and makes this whole trip so much more real. Fran is starting to really show for real, and every morning before I leave for work, I tell my little baby girl goodbye and I love her. Our next appointment is on the 20th of March and we are scheduled for a more detailed ultrasound. Hopefully we snag some good pictures and I'll scan one or two so you all can see our little one!

Just as a quick update I now work at a different place. Our group moved from the Ge*NY*sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics, to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering as part of their budding Nanobioscience Constellation (same university, different college). It is a great move for our group, (the college is rated as the #1 Nanotech School in the world. Pretty neat. Anyway, med school apps are still going, I am on waitlists at Ohio State, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany Med, Chicago COM and MSU with a guaranteed spot in 2010. We are still hoping to hear good news from some of these schools, but we are staying as positive as we can...well, Fran is very positive and I have my good days and bad days.

OK...back to the trips.

We just returned from a quick weekend in Washington DC to see our buddy Josh and also Jen and Amanda who are working in DC as well. We had a great time...it was too quick--all of 48 hours...but we saw two Smithsonians (air and space, and American History), took a lot of pictures at the different sites, ate at some really good restaurants, went to church, watched scrubs, lost my camera at the airport (got it back today, thank goodness), and now we are back in Albany.

Before our DC trip though we went down to Cleveland in February to see my family and celebrate my dad's birthday. We had a lot of fun and stopped on the way down and spent the night with Fran's family and then on the way back, stopped again to hang with Veronica and Jon for a few hours and let Fran go shopping for maternity clothes with someone who has been around the block a few (3...now 4) times.



I have always wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial...one of my Historical Heroes


Fran was goosing Josh in the butt...just kidding...no really...just kidding


We REALLY missed hanging out with Jen-Jen and it was good to see her again.


This picture makes Josh look like he has those nerdy tinted glasses...no offense Dan, and thanks for letting us use your bed, but they are kinda nerdy.


The Vietnam War Memorial. One of the more interestingly designed memorials I have ever seen. We also saw the memorial for the Korean Conflict.


The WWII Memorial. These places have such a sacred feel to them.


JD pondering why they removed the water and left the duck poo.


JD, Amanda Stanfill, and Fran.


I never realized space shuttles were so big.


wow


JD and Fran in the aerospace museum.


Me and JD under a German WWII fighter.


It blows my mind that this airplane dropped the Atomic Bomb.


Me and my co-pilot entering the simulator.


These planes (SR-71) are AWESOME.


CLEVELAND PICS

Dad and Mom (Ben and Taylor also) at Beni-hana for dad's birthday.


Dad HATES it when people make a big deal about his bday in public...mom took an extra-long bathroom break and tipped the waitress off...hence dad blowing out candles. I should also say that this came after a direct threat of pain if we had them sing.


And here is the singing...fa-ra-ra-ra-ra


Ben and Taylor are pretty cool guys...smelly, but cool.


I let Taylor drive me around...my body armour is not in the picture.


I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy, baby. haha.


Ben gettin up at his basketball game.


Taylor warming up...they have some seriously cool warm-ups and other team gear.



JD and Josh heading into the simulator...ala Goose and Maverick...only goose (JD) didn't die. Instead we sent 4 MiGs to fiery deaths. If you listen really closely you might be able to hear us yell...Fran said that all sorts of people were looking at us and they guy that was running the simulator came over and thought something was wrong...that's what happens when you enter the DANGER ZONE.

Well, thanks for reading and looking at all our pics. I didn't realize how many I had posted. There are more...if you're interested.