A New Member of the Family

A BIG congrats to my little sister Abby & her new fiance Sean on their engagement today! We're so excited to have a new member of the family!

(NOTE: Not the most flattering picture, I know, but it was all I had to work with! :))

Celebrating an Inspiration and Rachel's 2nd Birthday

On Saturday night, Mike & I were lucky to attend a retirement party for my high school band director, Mr. Heidlebaugh. What a great event! It was so much fun to reminisce about my high school days in the Band of Gold with other former members; there seemed to be good representation from all 25 years that Mr. H was with the band. And as far as Mr. H goes, he is. The. Sh*t. Seriously. I've always pointed to him as one of the most influential people in my life, and based on last night, so do a whole lot of other folks! Abby & I, as former field commanders, were asked to say a few words. Normally I would turn this down flat (not a fan of speaking in front of crowds), but since it was for Mr. H, I accepted. I was pretty proud of the crowd's reaction, too, so maybe I should try this out more often...but probably not.

Today, Aiden & I had the honor of attending Miss Rachel's 2nd birthday party. Let me tell you, folks--it was a scorcher, but we wouldn't have missed it for the world! Rachel is such a cutie! :) Aiden & I had a lot of fun blowing bubbles, eating yummy picnic food & Angie's masterpiece cakes, and then watching Miss R open her gifts. Unfortunately, the humidity started to get a bit unbearable for this preggo, so we missed the breaking of the pinata. When we arrived home, Aiden actually asked for a nap, so I knew he had a great time. Looking forward to more birthdays!

You guessed it--MORE BASEBALL

Mike & I went to our first game at Huntington Park a few weeks ago; it's the home of the Columbus Clippers, the triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. We were so impressed with the park, and with good reason--it was voted the the best new ballpark when it opened last year, placing it AHEAD of the new Yankees stadium (take that, Yankees!). We only got to see half a game, but decided we would definitely need to come back and bring Aiden.

Since the weather was so nice last night, we decided to put our plan into action. Due to a traffic & parking nightmare since a community festival was also taking place last night, we nearly turned around, but Aiden was pretty keyed up to go to the game, so we pressed on. We're happy we did--we ended up finding a relatively close (and definitely cheap) parking space, and so we made it into the park. We feasted on hot dogs, cheesy pretzels, and Cracker Jacks, and sat in the grassy area of the outfield so that Aiden wouldn't be confined to a bench seat. Good decision on our part, since he got a bit surgared up on the Cracker Jacks and needed to blow off some steam by wrestling with Daddy. :) We made it all the way through the end of the sixth inning, and left the game with our Clippers leading 5-3, but Aiden was getting just a touch sleepy. We'd definitely call his first baseball game a success, and he woke up this morning asking when we could go to the next one!

Father's Day & More Baseball!

So Mike joined a baseball team. He generally plays on Sunday afternoons, but might get the occasional Wednesday or Thursday night game (depending on when he gets out of work and where the game is played). He had his first game last weekend, and considering he A) hadn't played in 17 years, and B) was playing third base for the first time, he was a little apprehensive about his performance. But after hitting the batting cages a few times this week, he was much more prepared for his second game today--which just happened to be Father's Day. Mimi, Aiden & I packed up the car, and despite the forecast (near 90 degrees and humid), we had a great time! We were lucky enough to see Mike make a nice catch in left field (his more natural position) for an out, as well as hit a shot of a double in his second at-bat! We were so proud! :)

I think my favorite part was actually taking Aiden out on the field to see his daddy once the game was over. It was so great to take pictures of the two of them together on such a special day, and I'm looking forward to when we have two boys to play baseball with their daddy. Happy Father's Day to all!!!

Play Ball

In December, I was lucky enough to win one of the prize baskets our Activities Committee at work raffles off for charity. My basket was the only one of ten that I entered to win; it was packed full of Cleveland sports stuff, including an Indians hat, blanket, autographed Fausto Carmona baseball, and then the grand prize--two box tickets to any game in the 2010 season. I told my dad at Christmas that I'd be taking him, and we picked Thursday night's game against the hated Boston Red Sox. How we picked such a perfect game, I'll never know!

When I ordered the tickets in January, I had no clue that the June evening would have perfect weather, that it would be Dollar Dog night, or that it would be Cleveland's best game of the season. After three errors by the first baseman in the first inning alone set us down 3-0, my dad and I were wondering if we'd made a bad choice. But our boys (who I might add have a $100-million-dollar smaller payroll than Boston), kept fighting back, eventually taking a 6-5 lead in the 6th inning. The score remained the same until with two outs in the top of the ninth, our "closer" gave a up a two-run homerun to give Boston a one-run lead. We were a bit crushed, but as I said, our boys had other plans; after loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth, then getting two outs, we were down to our last chance, and in dramatic fashion, Russell Branyon delivered a two-run bloop single to give us the win!

Due to the cheap hot dogs, there was a pretty good attendance, and unfortunately that meant A LOT of Boston fans. I tend to be a rather loud fan of all my teams, but I kept it in check--until those jerks started cheering "Let's Go Red Sox!" in MY stadium. It was SOOOOOOOOO sweet to shut them all up with the win! And there was other interesting stuff besides the game itself; there was a very heartwarming standing ovation for a purple heart winner, a silly hot dog race, and the flattening of one of the morons that ran across the field in the middle of the eighth inning by another fan. Also, Dad & I were constantly giggling at the silly things that would come across the scoreboard (see the photo for an example). All-in-all, it was the MOST exciting baseball game I have ever been to in my life, and I'm so glad I got to share it with my crazy fan of a dad.

20 Weeks!

I can't believe we're already at the halfway point in this pregnancy! I love the second trimester--I am feeling fantastic! And I'm feeling little Nolan kick more and more. I'm excited for the day I can put Aiden's hand on my belly so he can feel his brother move. Mike & I have already been talking to Aiden about how he needs to set a good example for his little brother; he seems totally on board! :) He smiles and repeats after us. Yesterday he cracked me up because he said, "I keep baby Nolan in my bed!" So sweet. We have plans in the near future to take Aiden to Build-A-Bear to make Nolan's first teddy bear, just like Mike & I did for him. I want to keep him as involved in the baby preparations as possible, even though I know we can't really predict the impact Nolan's arrival will have on him. I'm already sad about the three days I'll be in the hospital without Aiden--and that's still (HOPEFULLY) four months away! But in the words of Scarlet O'Hara, I won't think about that today; I'll think about that tomorrow. :) Enjoy your weekend!

Our Anniversary, and It's A...

BOY!!!

Surprise! Even though pretty much everyone (EXCEPT ME) had guessed girl (including six of the seven of you who took my blog poll), we are in fact blessed to be having another little boy. Truth be told, I'm THRILLED. Sure, it would have been nice to have a girl, but think of the money we'll save on clothes & toys. That and I envision these two being best buddies!

So without further ado, I introduce you to Baby Cotter #2: Nolan James, coming this October:


(As you can see, he's not too shy about showing the goods; our technician actually told us it's a good thing we wanted to know because the way he was presenting himself, she wouldn't have been able to hide it very well!)

What a great way to celebrate Mike's & my 4th wedding anniversary! I started my day at work with a wonderful surprise--a dozen red roses at my desk. PERFECT. We plan to go out to dinner sometime this weekend as well. Right now I'm just going to bask in the glory of knowing I'm going to be the mom to two awesome little boys :)