For the last day of Joe's beard, and March, we went around the UTSW campus with Annabel and her awesome (and heavy) portrait lens for some couple pregnancy pictures. Some fun ones are below and the rest, and more normal looking photos, are on flickr- just click this link to the flicker set.

Happy Birthday, to me! My last birthday as a non-parental unit. Joe and I spent a nice dinner at Il Cane Rosso after work and then hung out at home because we were going to be busy the rest of the week- I had signed up for a photography class at the Arboretum that Tuesday and Thursday as a birthday present to myself. The weekend before my birthday, we spent Saturday driving to and from Tyler so that I could pick out my birthday present at an antique shop and on Sunday we went to the Grape for brunch and then signed our lease for our new two bedroom apartment (same building, but a top floor apartment- yeah, no pounders above us anymore!), and then Jill came over to watch the 2-hour season premiere of Mad Men.

Here's another picture from after dinner on my birthday.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For the 4th year in a row, we made it down to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Block Party for some shenanigans and people watching. This year, I even got to see boobies of girls flashing people on a balcony for beads..... who knows what will be in store for next year!

-Joe drinking green beer at the Libertine before heading to the block party.

-Feeling huge.

-Always something fun to spy at the block party. Guess she couldn't get a real date?
P.S. The crazy tall bike still exists.... it appears that impending fatherhood prevented Joe from riding it for a 3rd year in a row....

It rained all day on Saturday, but Sunday afternoon turned out to be lovely so Joe and I went on a walk around our neighborhood to take some pictures of my growing belly in the beautiful weather and blooming trees and flowers.




We stopped into the Moth for a break and asked one of the waiters to take a picture of us together.... here's Joe with a beard!

First stranger asks to touch my belly.....

We were at the grocery store and we bought 3 cartons of ice cream on sale- might as well buy it on sale as I will definitely eat it over the next 4 months! Of course, Joe decides to tell the checkout clerk and bagger at Kroger that I'm pregnant- hence the 3 cartons of ice cream. The bagger chick, like everyone else, says congratulations, but then asks to touch my belly. Seriously lady? I told her no, she couldn't and then she just looked dumbfounded, like I told her the easter bunny wasn't real. Oh well.

Joe said, "Next time a stranger asks, ask them if you can touch their butt!"

Look who's got a belly!

Joe and I went to the Arboretum to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and take some pictures of me and my growing belly. It's been about a month that my normal pants are not fitting whatsoever. It's also been about the same amount of time that the kicking/punching has been relatively consistant as well. Right before bed time is when it's the most active and feels like it's about to jump out of my stomach like a fish jumping out of a bowl.

Some more pictures from the Arboretum shoot:

It's a.......surprise!!!

Today was the 20 week ultrasound and Joe and I decided that we want to keep the gender a surprise. For some reason, we've ended up with the ugliest ultrasound photos (I refuse to post the one from 13 weeks-it looks like an alien). Nobody's given us that cute profile picture that everybody has up on their facebook posts. oh well. As long as I don't have any complications, this will be the last ultrasound, so we've got what we've got. From the measurements, the doctor conducting the ultrasound moved the due date up to June 27th....let the baby poll begin!

-here is fetus RutSac looking at you!! (I think....)

New car!!

What's more adult than purchasing your first brand new car? winning it on the Price is Right, of course, but since that's not going to happen without a trip to Burbank, CA, we bought our own! Joe really wanted to get a Mazda 3, which looked like a good idea when we were visiting our friend Pierre in Quebec City over the summer. He had a baby and fit a car seat in it, so we thought we'd be good with it, too. Upon second glance, the 'trunk' look microscopic. The Kia wasn't much better, so we settled on the Hyundai Elantra Touring... the sister car to the 2012 Car of the Year! It's great! it's not much bigger than the Prizm, but it has more head room, a bigger back seat and properly functioning shocks. And it's quiet.... sooooo quiet compared to the rattlings of the Prizm.

-At the dealership with our new car.

The last Christmas we'll ever have alone....

....that sounds so cryptic, but it's true!

-Our last Christmas alone together.

-Still no baby belly.

Guess who's waving at you?

I had my first ultrasound on December 6th and sure enough, there was a fetus bouncing around in there! It was really bizarre to see something moving around via the ultrasound yet not feel it at all. Our technician was a bit weird, but at least she told us there weren't twins! According the baby's size at this scan, my due date was moved from July 3rd to June 28th. I swear it just has a big Joe-sized head ;)

PA trip

We headed home the weekend after Thanksgiving to visit our families. We first stopped in Pittsburgh and got to celebrate my brother's birthday with him for the first time in a very long time. Joe and I got to cut down my family's Christmas tree for the first time in almost 10 years. We also got to have brunch with my grandma.

-At Hozak's farm with my parents.

-Me & grandma.

-Michael, me and grandma.

From Pittsburgh, we flew to Philadelphia to see Adrian. We ate like kings, eating one of the best roast pork sandwiches EVER! We also got to have dinner with Jason and Rhian while we were in town at a decent BYOB restaurant. I wish Dallas more like Philly! We then left Prof. A-dog and Philly via train for Harrisburg, where we were picked up by Joe's parents and headed up to Milton for Rutkowski and Bendle mania. We also got to hang out with Tyler and enjoy the winter weather. It even flurried!

-The extended Rutkowski clan.

New job!

On November 14, 2011, I, Carolyn, got a new 'real' job! Totally scary and the timing couldn't have been more confusing. Of course, I got my new job offer, quit my old job and then 2 weeks later found out I was pregnant. Splendid! Thankfully, I didn't show whatsoever and so was able to hide it at work for months (I'm now writing this in March). It was a stressful first month at work as I questioned if I had made the right decision. It was really hard going from a position where I was basically in charge of my daily activities to having to train in a position with a bunch of 20 somethings and abide by a supervisors decisions. I knew that I would eventually be in a position where once again I was able to dictate my daily activities once they got to know me and trust my capabilities, but that first month was difficult. Just ask Joe ;)
I was hired to eventually fill a position that wasn't yet created at the company, the Clinical Trial Liaison, and to make sure I could eventually handle the responsibilities of this position, they hired me as a Clinical Trial Specialist for my training phase. I'm working at a consulting firm that works with pharmaceutical companies on their challenging oncology research trials. It's a great step into the world of pharma research and I still get to interact with people on the phone and at site visits, though it has been hard leaving my schizophrenia patients behind.

Who's pregnant? Oh, I'm pregnant. What!?!

Back during Halloween 2011 weekend, I finally convinced Joe that it was time to take the pregnancy test. I'd had a hunch all week (aka pangs in my ovaries) that this wasn't a typical month. After conducting countless pregnancy tests at work to ensure that my female subjects were not pregnant and therefore eligible for an MRI scan in my studies, it was very strange to be hoping for 2 lines and not just 1 line. And sure enough, there were 2 lines!

Easter 2011

We headed to Milton for what turned out to be a very quick weekend trip home, not realizing how long the total travel time would take to get from the big city to wilds of the PA countryside. Got to see our nephew again, who's almost 8 months old... he's getting big! (and thankfully looking more like his mommy!)

-Tyler & Joe

-Joe & me in front of the forsythias

here are the rest of the pics!

St Patty's Day Greenville Block Party 2011

Good times; biggest crowd since moving to Dallas; lots of fun! lots of pics!

P.S. The crazy tall bike from last year lives.......

Salt Lake City!

No, I did not become Mormon.... I think I scared the missionary girls away when I was taking pictures in Temple Square. Anywho, Joe was in SLC for the AIChE conference for a week, so I joined him mid-week to take a mini-vacation from my crazy life in Dallas. It was great to not have any responsibilities for a few days!

On Thursday, I walked around SLC on an afternoon-long personal Photowalk... got a few okay pictures, but mostly it was great to be outside, wearing a winter coat, walking for exercise and not sweating my butt off! I was also sent on a mission by Joe to find 'something edible that is quintessentially Salt Lake City or Utah to bring back from the lab'. I asked at the Visitor's Center, and they sent me to the Hatch Family Chocolates, who are also local celebrities because of their TV show, The Little Chocolatiers. Why "Little" you may ask? Because they're little people of course, which, if you know Joe, would make his day.

-The Mormon Temple and Tabernacle in Temple Square

-Flower on my walk

On Friday, Joe and I rented a car and headed out to Antelope Island to check out the island and its wildlife and possibly go hiking if it wasn't too cold. We had a beautiful morning for our drive up there. It was the week of the annual bison round-up so there were some bison penned up for the auction the day after we were there and the rest of the bison were traveling across the island, having been released late on Thursday after the round-up. We ran into a couple bison as we were driving down to the ranch. It was super awesome to get out of the car and shoot such beautiful animals, but I of course left the car door open in case it charged and I had to run away to safety.... and yes, we got full coverage on the rental just in case ;)

-View of Antelope Island & its reflection from the causway

-2 of the bison we saw driving around the island

-Joe & I in front of Fray Peak...if you look closely, there are bison off in the distance

-Hello Mr. Bison with the scars on his back..you must be a tough guy

After our trip to Antelope Island, we drove to our B&B in Huntsville in the middle of nowhere, but it does have a Trappist Monastery and the oldest bar in Utah, the Shooting Star Saloon. The bar's famous burger, the Star Burger, consists of two beef patties and a polish sausage (that tasted more like a spicy hotdog). I had the mini-Star, which only had one patty... it was still pretty gross.

On Saturday, we took the scenic route to the airport, stopping by the Olympic Village where it was snowing! Then it was back to flat Dallas. For more pictures from the trip, you can check them out on flickr.

Texas State Fair 2010

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I have found a moment to write a blog entry, but here goes!

Friday night, Joe, Jill, Deb, Suzie and I went to the state fair to sample this year's fried food winners. There were some good ones and some not so good ones and some damn well disgusting ones.

-fried beer

-fried lemonade

-fried frito pie

-eating a corndog (no, I didn't eat all 3)

I'll try and post all the pictures to flickr at some point!

Weird Al Concert

As I wrote on Facebook, we were in the 15th row and looking around the audience I never felt or looked so normal. Even though Joe dragged me there, it was a pretty entertaining show. He had more costume changes than (I presume) Lady Gaga. I spent the night trying to score a few photos of the concert in the terrible lighting that is a concert venue with our point and shoot. And I actually got a bunch good ones!!

-Smells like Nirvana

-You're pitiful... the parody of "You're Beautiful"... he stripped off a bunch of Tshirts and then this was the big reveal when the pants came off.

-This was a song of terrible and cheesy pick-up lines. He actually came into the audience during this song and with our aisle seats, I can now proudly say that my husband was mere inches (while I was mere feet) from Weird Al

-Amish Paradise... his bandmates got dressed up, too.

-"Fat"... the parody of "Bad"

-The encore presentation of 'Yoda' and the parody of "American Pie" called 'the Saga Begins'... Joe's feeding me these titles as I'm typing...