Blog update coming soon...

I promise! I've been busy at work, Foo has been busy at work, we've both been traveling with work, and we managed to squeeze in a little weekend getaway last weekend. I've got lots to update, and I will soon!!!

PS ~ Emily (yes, that's her name in case you haven't already heard...) is already the size of an EGGPLANT! Way to go Em! Obviously, this means I also need to upload some baby bump pics. Coming soon!!!

Sugar and spice, and everything nice...

We're so excited about our little girl! We had our 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday, and little miss Jomaa was being very stubborn, but the tech finally confirmed that we were having a girl. Fouad and I couldn't be more thrilled. Poor Fouad is outnumbered (especially when you include our two girl dogs), but I don't think he'd have it any other way :-)

Baby girl is doing great, very healthy and growing just as she should. We have a busy couple of months coming up with lots of travel at work - let's hope she's up for it!

Valentine's Day / Wilton Cake Class

Mary and I are taking the Wilton Cake class at Michael's every weekend this month. This is course 1 - so we are learning about icing techniques. Here's the final product from this week's class:
Not too shabby, eh? While I was out at my cake class, my Valentine decided to leave me a little surprise inside and outside our house. When I pulled up, I saw this in the snow:

Then, note on the door said that 30 Valentines had been hidden around the house, each one with a special message on it. I did the scavenger hunt and found 26 of them, and finally found the rest on Monday. He did a good job of hiding them!

On Sunday, I woke up early and headed to our favorite doughnut place and picked up a little treat for Fouad:

He loved it! We had a low key Valentine's Day evening, and went to dinner on Monday night to avoid the hassle of the V-Day crowds. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Blizzard 2010

So, it was going to be a long week this week because I was in Orlando with work and Fouad was in Charlotte with work. Both of us were going to be out of town until Friday, and then were going to spend all weekend together after all that time apart. Hooray!

So, Thursday night I saw that snow was forecast for Atlanta. I suggested that Fouad switch his flight on Friday night to an earlier flight, but he couldn't. I wasn't worried when I boarded my flight, the snow wasn't supposed to start until the afternoon, way after I landed. I got to Atlanta and drove to my parents house to pick up the dogs. Still no sign of snow, so I was able to eat lunch and get some work done before the girls and I drove back to Suwanee. It started to snow a little, and before it stuck we left Marietta.

Apparently everyone else in Atlanta decided to leave at the same time. It took me around two hours to get home...with the dogs in the car. They were surprisingly well-behaved, but the snow started to really stick around the time I got off of 400. When I got into the neighborhood, the hill outside our house was covered in snowy slush, and I slid all the way down to our driveway and carefully turned in. I couldn't get into the garage because of the ice and snow making me skid, so I left the car in the driveway. Fouad's flight had been delayed but was still scheduled to land. After several more hours of delays, his flight finally landed late in the night, but it wasn't safe to drive home. The girls and I had to enjoy the winter wonderland all by ourselves. We managed to still have a good time! The snow was absolutely beautiful - and I managed to get a few pictures to show Fouad what he missed. Maybe next time Foo!

Gourmet doughnuts in our neighborhood? We're there!

A few months ago, a little doughnut shop opened up less than 10 minutes away from us near the Avenues of Forsyth. We didn't think much of it...I mean who needs doughnuts from a fancy shop when you have Krispy Kreme and Duncan Donuts everywhere?

I was so wrong. I need these doughnuts...

After doing a little google research and reading a few reviews a couple of weeks ago, I realized that this isn't any ordinary doughnut place. These are GOURMET doughnuts. They are the BEST doughnuts that I have ever had in my life, and they are 10 minutes away. This could be a disaster, especially since we realized on the way to get our delicious doughnuts yesterday that our gym has closed. Great...

They are so popular that the two times we have been they were almost sold out of doughnuts for the day, so we're making plans to get there early next time.

Anyway, this is a good reason to come up and visit us if you're up our way. No, I'm not kidding...these things are worth the visit. It's a little shop called Dutch Monkey Doughnuts just past the Avenues on Ronald Reagan. Hey, and since you'll be so close, bring me a few!

February 25th

That will be the date we will find out if Baby J is a boy or girl! Only three more weeks!

Boy or Girl?

So we still have a few weeks left until find out the gender of Baby J, and we're dying to know either way! We've been looking at lots of things online to predict the sex - and some of them are pretty funny!



Here are the old wives tales and other indicators we've seen so far:

• Cravings - I have been craving sour things (pickles, lemonade, etc) and many say that means it will be a boy. Some say that craving citrus (hello lemons!) means you're having a girl.


• Chinese Gender Predictor - According to this chart at TheBump.com, I will be having a boy.


• I've had two dreams so far that the baby is a girl, no boy dreams so far. Some of the old wives tales indicate that if you dream of one gender, you will have the opposite.


• My skin has started to break out (lovely) - which indicates a girl according to old wives tales.


• Extreme nausea means you're having a girl - I wouldn't say that it was extreme...so we'll go for boy on this one.


• If you're more clumsy than normal - expect a boy. What's normal? I'm pretty clumsy!


• Dangle a chain with a charm on the end over your palm (some say belly). If it swings side to side, it's a boy; in a circle it's a girl. It was sort of a side-to-side circle...girl?

So what do you think? Vote in the poll to the right - it will be fun to see what the consensus is!