TOM's shoes

I am in what is called the business core this semester for school. We have to operate businesses for 6 weeks. My group is selling TOM's shoes. A lot of people haven't heard of them, but they sell shoes obviously, and for each pair that is bought a pair is donated to children in impoverished companies such as Argentina, South Africa, Ethiopia, and parts of the US hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters. You should check them out at www.tomsshoes.com. If you would like to purchase some (which EVERYONE should) make sure you use the promo code HAWAII when checking out. This will get you $5 off as well as track the sale to our business group. You also get free shipping!

Our baby is a genius

Last week at my second doctor's appointment the doctor tried to hear the baby's heartbeat for the second time. At 9 weeks we weren't able to hear it, so I went back at 12 weeks specifically for that. Well the doctor got her little doppler out and tried to hear it...and we couldn't. So I got an ultrasound! I was so exicted that I was able to get one and see the baby. It was amazing. The baby was kicking it's legs and we could see its heart beating out of its chest. At the beginning though the doctor kept saying "hmmmm....hmmmmm..." and I was like why the heck are you saying that!?!? It scared me, but then we were able to actually see the baby on the screen and not just some blurry object like she was seeing at first. So after the ultrasound she said I really want to hear the heartbeat so let's just try one more time. After about 30 seconds we were able to hear it! So I was really proud of the baby for hiding the first time so that we could get an ultrasound and actually see that there is something inside me. Here is a picture of it:
It is sucking its thumb in this picture (you can see it better if you click on it).

So clean

Todd and I have been disgusted by our tile ever since we moved into TVA. We had been talking about trying to get new tile for awhile, but we didn't really do anything about it until last week. Todd asked my friend and co-worker Emma if she would do something about it because I wouldn't (I just felt awkward). So she had our supervisor go over and look at it, and he said yup they should get new tile! Our tile was A) disgustingly dirty/probably 20 years old, B) there were gaps between the tiles so we had many ants as friends who would live in these cracks, and C) the caulking on the outside of the tiles had lots of holes and other crevices which equals even more ants.
Here are the before pictures:
Here are the after pictures:
It's so nice walking on the tile without it turning your feet black even though I had cleaned it three times in a row. It would just NEVER get clean before. We are so happy and excited that it's clean and shiny now!!

Todd's Uncle Kirk in Hawaii

Todd's Uncle was in Hawaii teaching a class for Learning Tree for a week. We were able to meet up with him 2 Thursdays ago and we headed to the Cheesecake Factory (thanks again Kirk!!). It was really nice being able to spend some time with him and catch up on everything that's happening with that side of Todd's family. We also learned all about Kirk's classes that he teaches and about the weddings and babies and other events that have been going on. It always is nice to have family in town, even if we are only able to catch up for a couple hours over dinner. We are grateful that Kirk wanted to meet up with us, and that he treated us to dinner. It was delicious!!