Progress

progress(n): (a) a journey or expedition; (b) a forward or onward movement; (c) gradual betterment

We've got a whole lot of that going on around here folks. Definition (a) probably best describes our little piece of earth. Every time Terry and I walk the mile and a half to our new little piece of earth where things are moving right along, I feel like it's 1492 and I am Columbus sailing the ocean blue! (Thanks mom for that rhyme!) From our loft when we first got married to our rodent-infested house [yes, still infested. on this week's wanted list: flowers out of the bathroom, steel wool that we stuffed in another hole near the dishwasher, a dish towel stuffed behind that steel wool with many holes in it (see picture), and two - yes two - more pairs of my underwear, but I digress] to this new plot of land and building a house. This has been a definite journey and will continue to be an expedition.

Here is the untouched land - it looks so small to me, I kept wondering how they would fit a house on this (granted, it's not big, but still)

Then, they cleared the land on Thursday - oh that's where the house will go!

Then, they dug the footings for the house today. Progress folks, progress.

But that little piece of earth is not our only unchartered territory. So is definition (b) "forward or onward movement." This is how this little pea feels - or at least how we feel about this little pea. Moving forward and onward in life to what comes next, and for us now, this is family. Remember the manatee you saw at week 7? Well at week 8 (and 3 days) we got to see this.

It's okay if you can't tell what everything/anything is, we couldn't either at first. Head on the left, turned to the side and looking down. The dark empty spot is the brain (takes after its daddy!) you can see one little eye lid. The white spot is the heart, and then you can see little arm and leg buds. And that little white spot was pounding. 171 beats per minute loud and clear and music to our ears. And now we are moving through week 9 and things keep growing and changing - including my waistline which has added 4 pounds which I'm feeling when I button my pants!

(c) gradual betterment. This would be because of each other and the 2 years of being married that we just celebrated on Tuesday. Our marriage has definitely been that so far - the gradual betterment of each of us, of each other, and of our marriage - already great and getting better every day.

Here we are 2 years ago; and here we are this weekend

That's a whole lot of love, and a whole lot of progress.

The Mr.

Hello World!!! (I say that with tongue in cheek) I think there about 5 people that read our blog on a regular basis. It kind of feels like we are Vertical Horizon in the late 90’s and we keep coming back to Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem to same crowd, but it’s ok because we play for the love of the music.

This is my inaugural entry to our Blog, so I will try to make sense and not say anything stupid or my wife won’t let me on again.

I am writing to update on our Rat/Small Creature drama that we have been experiencing recently. Some of you know that we have been dealing with this devil rat for almost 2 months now. We have had fun experiences of late night screaming and jumping on the bed (it likes to wake us up in our room at 3:30 for some reason) finding that half our kitchen has been devoured and finding little presents all over the house. This mouse is truly amazing and I think they should make a movie about it.

Just imagine the strength of Mighty Mouse,
the appetite of Ratatouille
and the smarts of Jerry.

It has successfully survived every kind of trap that we have set, been unfazed by the poison that an exterminator left in the crawl space and attic. It has eaten a whole host of food products:

A whole loaf of bread
A whole bag of marshmallows
Hershey’s candy bar

Bag of coconut
Bag of walnuts
Container of pine nuts (do you know how much pine nuts cost?!)

Can of breadcrumbs

Sleeve of graham crackers

Packs of Gum
Not to mention chewed through the water hose of the fridge and used our underwear as its bed.

The Exterminator said that it was at least a Rat based on the foot prints, well much to our surprise they have gotten bigger. We can tell because it goes into the fire place or comes in through the fire place so it gets ash on its paws and then walks on the black tile around our fire place. Yesterday we were driving through our neighborhood and we saw a sign that said Lost Ferret, holy snikeys I hope that is not the creature that have been enjoying late night romps in our house! Even worse what if we find it one day caught it our giant Rat trap that would be a tough call to the neighbor…

Anyway if anyone has any ideas how to catch/kill/maim a rat that has Wake Forest type test scores please due share. Apparently my Appalachian education has failed me on this one.

In the mean time this has been the Mr. over and out.

Terry Michael Jerome Bruce.

Oh yeah, into week 8, doing well - doctor's appointment Friday, get to hear the heartbeat!

Week 6

The other night I said to Terry while trying to decide what to get at the grocery for dinner that week..."Oh do you know what sounds good?" He quickly and excitedly responded with "What, what? Is it a craving, are you having a craving?!" "Well no," I said, "but just something that sounds good that we haven't made in awhile." "Oh," he said, sounding very disappointed then quickly getting excited again, "I can't wait until you have cravings and need me to go get something random for you at 10:00 at night!"

He's serious, I love my husband for reasons like this.

And this:

He came home from working out at the Y to find me just having woken up from a nap, snuggled in bed reading. I'm reading Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions" - a journal she kept during her son's first year. I love Anne Lamott. She is blunt and rude and inspiring and full of a hilarious but heart-wrenching faith. However, you should not read this book prior to getting pregnant. She kind of makes you not want a child. :) Anyway, Terry said he had brought home stuff to make me a treat. A homemade smoothie (yogurt, banana, strawberries and orange) - yum. It was delicious and...well, heart. He came home and made me a smoothie.

Mostly week 6 can be summed up by naps, morning sickness seems to be fading, and when I sent this 3D 6-week picture to Terry, he said, "Awesome! We are the proud parents of a manatee!" We love you little manatee!

The Reason

I know...I know...

Let's just skip all the stuff about us not blogging like we want to.

I guess I would say it's 50% because we are busy and have so much going on, and 50% because we don't really have anything going on. At least not a whole lot that is going to keep you (and us) coming back here for more to read every week. Mostly I started this so when we were pregnant or when we had kids we could keep up with all our big family all over the place all in one spot.

Well folks.

It's time.

Early, but time! That's right - baby Bruce is making an entrance on November 11th! We are 5 weeks and 3 days right now and so excited/totally overwhelmed at all the big changes coming up for the growing Bruce family as we break ground on our new house in 2 weeks and grow a baby for the next 35 weeks!

Pictures will start coming soon, for now I'm pushing through these rising hormone levels accompanied by some serious nausea. Can't really call it morning sickness since it lasts all day, what a misnomer! That and the fact that I'm already more clumsy - I know, as if that were possible...and it's only 5 weeks. I might need to start wearing some body armor or protective padding at all times!

Grow baby pea grow! We'll be back in a week with more news. Really this time.

Snow Day

Is there anything better than staying up late to watch the news in hopes of snow and waking up the next morning to find that it really did come? It's almost better than Christmas as a child. And that's what we got last Tuesday. A snow day.

Monday we stayed up watching the news (read: I fell asleep on the couch while Terry watched the Lakers game and talked to his brother on the phone) Monday night. He came and woke me up at 12:30 to tell me it was here! Not sticking yet, but here. So I got up, we bundled up and went on a midnight walk in the dark to watch the snow in the street lights. Salem even got to walk around off her leash to frolic in the snow with us! As we walked back towards the house, I told Terry, "I will remember this always." When we first walked out, with my sweatpants tucked into my socks, I was bummed that I hadn't brought my camera with me. As we kept walking, I was glad, because there are some things I am happy just keeping in my head.

[insert your own photo in your head of a favorite time in the snow]

When the alarm went off Tuesday morning, I rolled over and peeked out the blinds and was so excited to see snow covering the back yard. I called into work and found out we weren't opening until noon. With a little coaxing, I even talked Terry into just going in a few hours late so we could snuggle in. Here in Charlotte, NC, you have to take what you can get for a snow day since we don't get them often. So we snuck around outside before the street was awake and I made Terry be careful not to mess up the snow in the front yard (you know, because when that happens, the magic of the snow is instantly gone). But he did put on an ice skating show on the street.


Then Salem got to run around in the backyard. She hasn't been in the snow since 2007 and we lived in Durham; so it took her awhile to figure it out again and ran all around trying to figure out where to pee - hilarious.

(first photo is 2007; next one is 2009 - maybe plus a few pounds in 2 years!)

We came back in, made eggs and 'fausage' (Terry's word for 'fake' sausage) on English muffins, some yummy juice and tucked in on the sofa until it was time to get up and get back to the real world of work, watch the Inauguration and keep on going. WE LOVE SNOW DAYS.

Favorite Things

Here are a few of my favorite things in 2009:


This book that my brother gave us for Christmas. I was sure it would be cheesy even though he assured me it is not. He was right. Man... Anyway, it is FABULOUS. If you are married, you need to read this book. It makes me love being and becoming a Bruce more and more every day. And I already loved it.









This journal. Alli has had one for the past two years and keeps talking about it. Some of the rest of us from our Bible Study finally went in on a big group order of them because it sounded so great. Each page is the same day for 10 years; each day has 4-5 lines where you can write in whatever you want. I write prayers, praises, and any big events of the day. I am really looking forward to looking from year to year at what I had been praying for at that same time the year(s) before and how the Lord has answered those prayers! It sure will beat the hours I currently spend from time to time pouring over years worth of old journals where I can easily get lost. Though that is sometimes needed and cathartic.


This vacuum cleaner. We got it for Christmas. I must interject a disclaimer here. I would have never been allowed to spend this kind of money on a vacuum cleaner. This was not in the budget. I am financially wise and know we are trying to save money. We got an amazing deal on this! Over the holidays, Lowes gives employees an additional 10% off equaling out to a whopping 20% off. But then, they also do a coupon book with 10-12 items that are an additional additional percentage off. Dyson vacuums were in the coupon book this year and were an additional 20% off. 40% off folks, FORTY PERCENT. That's almost 50, that's almost half. That is a deal that is not coming around again any time soon. If you have met this dog (let's pretend she is still this small, calm, and snuggly) you know she sheds. And if you have met me, you know I don't deal well with that. So this vacuum is straight from heaven. I spent an hour using it the first night we got it. Sorry Laura, I am not as cool as you think I am, sometimes, I return to my nerdy roots!

This is why...

This is why I didn't tell anyone about this blog.

Pressure. And I cave under pressure. My mind screams "Abort! Abort! Abort!" I'd rather not write than write a pointless blog. When there are babies and things there will always be fun things to write about. But for now, it's just me and the Mr. And not to say that life isn't exciting - but all of you that read this blog are probably part of most of the exciting things we do!

Since I last wrote, we've....
Finished my girls' Bible study for 2008 and had a pot-luck dinner at our house to wrap up - YUM -

Let's look at how beautiful these girls all are again [I love and need and am beyond thankful for these girls - WHAT a blessing, I cannot imagine our life in Charlotte without them - you all are my sanity and saving grace on a daily basis]:

Had some hilarious times at mom's house on Christmas Eve with a family jumping contest - who do you think won? I really hope our kids get my hubs' athletic genes...CLEARLY they do not come from my side of the family!



Santa came to visit (his belly even shook like a bowl full of jelly!)
Went to Kenny & Holly's wedding and had an intern reunion at our house. You know how I feel about these people. Heart. (Clearly) I got to help take pictures for the wedding, good fun challenge , beautiful wedding. Look - they threw ping pong balls as they left their wedding! OUCH, but it looks cool in the pictures!
We threw a big New Years' party at Andrew Blair's with 360 of our closest friends [and made the news for being the best deal for NYE in Charlotte!!!] Don't be afraid of my crazed face (Kat, this one's for you!). We had a stinkin' blast at our own party - I was even the designated driver because I was driving to Knoxville early the next morning for a weekend with Molly (hi pea, love you!)

And speaking of our house, we close at the end of the month on our own little piece of the earth to start building a house. I guess if that isn't blog-worthy news, what is?!?! It is very fun to own a part of the earth. I think our piece of earth needs a name. Ideas?