30 Weeks and Counting!

Here's what I'm looking like at 30 weeks pregnant:



(I was a bit nervous to put this photo out there. Not sure if you remember but during my last pregnancy I did something similar at 36 weeks...that night it was off to the hospital for the birth of Ella! Maybe no more photos after this...)

BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Chris, Sarah, and Haley Snyder on the birth of Amelia Jones Snyder! Welcome to the world, Amelia!

FLY BETWEEN PRAGUE AND NORTH AMERICA FOR LESS THAN $200

A One-Time Offer by ParkersinPrague

You read it right, Folks! ParkersinPrague is offering a round-trip flight between North America and Prague for free! (you pay only the taxes -estimated to be less than $200)

How do you apply? Simply email us or post a comment to the blog.

Restrictions:
1) Flight will only be awarded to a friend or family member of ParkersinPrague.

2) The Europe-to-US portion of the flight must occur on July 21, 2008. The route will be Prague, CZ to Munich, Germany to London (Heathrow), UK to Halifax, NS with an option to continue to Boston, MA on a later date. [See #3 for why.]

3) Flight will only be awarded to a person who is capable, patient and able-bodied. The awardee must be willing to accompany and assist a frazzled mother, a toddler, and an infant on the above described July 21, 2008 flight. A sense of humour is highly recommended.

The US-to-Europe portion of the flight is more flexible. It will include either a flight from Halifax (or Boston) to Prague some time before July 21, 2008 (for an awardee originating in North America) OR a flight from Halifax (or Boston) to Prague some time after July 21, 2008 (for an awardee originating in Europe). Of course, it depends on where you live, if you're vacationing in the US/Canada or Prague.

Although the flight date is 9 months away, we must purchase the ticket using air miles, so we want to reserve fairly soon. DO NOT DELAY! APPLY TODAY!

TIME FLIES WHEN YOU'RE HAVING FUN!

And that's definitely what we've been doing! Can't believe we haven't posted basically since Auntie Erin arrived...but I guess that goes to show that we are having one heck of a time over here! So...what have we been up to?

Well...Erin's seen ALOT of Prague. Not EVERYTHING we have to show off; we saved some for her next visit with Michael...but she's seen the big attractions and quite a few of the lesser-known ones, too.


Erin and I have toured Dresden. We went last weekend, leaving Saturday morning and returning Sunday evening. A remarkable city...so much history and yet so new. As you likely know, Dresden was completely obliterated during World War II and is STILL being rebuilt. They are reconstructing the buildings as the originals were constructed, often with the very stones they uncovered from the rubble. So, they are maintaining the historical integrity and beauty of the city but the buildings are, in fact, brand new!



We've spent time just being together and having fun! Ella has really enjoyed having her Auntie around. And so have Jeff and I....and my friends! Erin hosted a Mary Kay spa night for us moms that was a real treat. And she helped celebrate my friend, Judy's, 30th birthday with margaritas at a local Mexican restaurant. WOOHOO!



We've gone wedding dress shopping!...AND ERIN BOUGHT A DRESS!!!!! This has been a real thrill for me since I am too far away to feel much help with the wedding preparations. I'm not going to say anything else and definitely NO PHOTOS!

So very early Saturday morning we'll be saying our sad goodbyes to Auntie Erin...at least this time we know we'll be seeing her in 9 months versus 15. And of course, there's always another visitor to look forward to. We'll be welcoming Eric before we know it!

Maylia

Farecast

Normally we write in our blog only about Prague, visitors, Ella or Snickers, but this website is too good to pass up sharing: Farecast

Great site for searching for low airline fares, -even lets you compare against Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline.

But the real charm with Farecast is the lower right of the front page:

Click there to forecast when to buy (and when not to buy) an airline ticket you might be considering.

Farecast is brand now (just came out of private beta). For now, it looks like all source & destination cities are only domestic US. (So, no hidden agenda pressure from us... :) )

While Farecast isn't too useful outside the US (we have and use SkyScanner for the same thing), we're hoping you will find it handy.

Cheers,
-Jeff

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

October 8th means a Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian family and friends.
We had a double-celebration tonight (Sunday) with a thanksgiving feast and celebrated Erin's birthday.

I'll post some pictures...

Dinner was Duck a l'Orange, peas, carrots, field rice and some mystery pumpkin/cantaloupe vegetable we hadn't seen before.


Birthday celebration was fun and the cake was short-lived. Everyone (read: even Ella) had seconds.


Bath and bed for Ella soon followed, then the sisters went out for an evening walk downtown.

Erin's Arrived!!

Less than 2 hours ago, May & Erin returned from the airport - "Auntie Erin's here!"

No rest for the wicked, though. The sisters already left for downtown; they're on a mission. It's Saturday, just before noon now and the wedding boutiques close by 2 or 3 pm.

Me and Ella are heading out to the playground. Later- Jeff

Going into 3rd Trimester

In a recent email with a friend in Indy, I got reminded we haven't mentioned May's pregnancy in a while.
I guess good news = no news to us.

All is fine (knocking on wood) and there's really nothing to mention except we've still got 3 months to go. As my coworker says "You have 3 month to deployment date."

There, I mentioned it. Thanks for asking, Bill.
-Jeff

p.s. Nope, we don't want to know whether it's a boy or girl, but the doctor's office certainly asks if we'd like to know with every visit. Keeping it a surprise is even more an exception here than back in the US.

p.p.s. Haven't begun to think of names, but we should probably start...

BYE-BYE, GRAMMY AND GRAMPY!
HELLO AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTIE ERIN!

So sorry for our lack of postings. Things have seemed a little crazy lately. Grammy and Grampy left last Wednesday. Before leaving, they got to see Vyšehrad...and Marilyn even got to ride the metro! It was a wonderful day.


The best part of the visit was Ella being able to spend time with her grandparents.


As always, goodbyes were sad...


Auntie Erin celebrated a birthday yesterday...we'll be celebrating again after she arrives here Saturday. WOOHOO!

In between visitors we enjoyed a long weekend of R&R (Friday was a holiday in honour of Saint Wenceslas) . The weather was rainy Friday and Saturday, which made it easy to be lazy. Other than that we've been dealing with a broken washing machine (UGH!) and some heated negotiations regarding the purchase of our flat (DOUBLE UGH!). Looks like the moving date is pushed out yet another month to the end of November. The big question is starting to be, "What will come first? New flat or new baby?"

I can't say "new addition to the family" as that has already happened. Yep! Jeff and Ella came home with a pet the other night. SURPRISE! No, not a dog or a cat (those who know me know that would NOT have gone over well) but a budgie bird. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed at first (mildly stated). But I've warmed up to the idea and conceded that if I was to be the not-so-proud owner of one caged bird than I would prefer to have two caged birds so that at least I feel they are happy. And they do seem crazy about each other! Jeff has been true to his word and taken full responsibility for their care. Ella was pretty frustrated at first that she couldn't hold them...but now we've all settled in and they've become part of the family.


We've also been getting psyched up for Halloween. Here's one of the costume options.


In other news, we welcome the birth of Sophie Louise, born Friday 28/9/07. She's the little sister of Alice and the daughter of our friends Lucie and Jeremy. Welcome to the world, Sophie! We're sure we'll be meeting her as soon as they are up for visitors.

And, tomorrow, we look forward to seeing Annika, Victor, and LInnea, who are in town for a few days while Ingvar does some work in this neck of the woods. Very exciting to have a visit from them! (They moved to Greece about a month ago.)

Signing off and hitting the sack,
Maylia