33rd St Playground

We just wanted to share with you something that is important to us as a family. We live in Baltimore City, which is not necessarily a great place to easily take kids out and find something nearby to do. When we moved into our house and then discovered that Colin would be joining us, we were grateful to have a GREAT playground as well as YMCA literally just across the street (and field) from us...about a 3 minute walk! Once Colin got strong enough to hold his head up, he was able to sit in the swings at this lovely playground.

Unfortunately, in Sept. 2008, an unkind soul burned this playground to the ground. The arsonist has yet to be caught, but it did not deter the community. The original playground was the result of volunteer time and money, and soon after the fire, the community again regrouped and vowed to rebuild. In May 2009, the rebuild got underway. Jake and several of our friends were part of the volunteer team helping to assemble this masterpiece of a playground for our community kids to play!

The newly rebuilt 33rd St. Playground was reopened in the middle of this summer and we make pretty frequent use of it. Colin loves to go down the slides and just run around all over the place!

I'm posting this to the blog because it is a source of pride AND because MSNBC actually did a national news piece on it. Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32391098#32391098 to see the video clip and for more info on the playground itself, you can go to www.stadiumplayground.org. I'll get some pics of Colin utilizing this wonderful area and post them soon!

Next Chapter

As time and life goes on, change is inevitable...and sometimes it's amazing what a difference a few weeks can make! The Roche Family is about to embark on a new chapter in our lives, I will happily refer to as "Coach Roche, Back to School."

I had an entire post prepared to explain what was going on in our lives, but I think his own words are sufficient, so here you go:

Hello everyone,

I have decided after 4 + years to leave the mortgage business. I was notified August 1st that I am eligible for the POST 9/11 G.I BILL because of my service in the IRAQI FREEDON. CAMPAIGN. After lengthy discussion with my family I have decided to go back and finish college, majoring in teacher education and dabbling in Political science. I also will possibly be coaching Varsity Wrestling at a Baltimore County High School while attending college.

I want to thank all my family, friends, co-workers and past clients for all their support and help over the last 4 + years.

My new contact info.
Jake.roche@comcast.net
410-963-2926 Mobile
443-438-3456 Home
Alternative- jakeroche12@hotmail.com

16 weeks

I have decided to try to do a better job of documenting my pregnancy this time around. I didn't do a lot of "belly pics" with Colin, so I'm going to try to do more with #2. Not always flattering, but we'll see how my belly grows.

This pregnancy has been completely different than when I carried Colin. When I was pregnant with him, I had very few moments of nausea, didn't start showing until I was about 22-24 weeks and didn't feel him move until about that time as well. So far with this pregnancy, I was sick/nauseous 24/7 until about a week ago. Even without gaining any weight, I was in my maternity clothes at about 10 weeks and I have already felt the baby move. It really is amazing how different it can be...but still wonderful and worth it in the end.

I'm hoping that I'm over the all day sickness hump now and can start enjoying being pregnant for a little while. I am already having some physical discomfort at the end of my work days (12 hours on your feet in a busy Pediatric ER can do that), but am focused on coping. I've also decided to pamper myself this time around, so when my body really starts to ache, hello pregnancy massage!

Holla Atcha Boy...

This is the name of our adult rec sports franchise. Several years ago, Jake and I got our friends together to play football, softball and volleyball in the Baltimore Sports and Social Club (BSSC). The BSSC is one of the best things going on in Baltimore and has been a great outlet for young professionals to network, meet new people and, of course, enjoy the occasional beer. All of the sports are co-ed and have rules that allow for good sportsmanship, fair play and open containers at the park:) Of course, any organization that sponsors flip cup tournaments on a Saturday afternoon wouldn't generally be considered the most competitive organization in the world. Nonetheless, there are great athletes involved, many of them being on our team and it's just always fun!

We've had many successful seasons in the various sports and have a great time! The Roches have pretty much moved out of coaching positions and are now regular old team members, which has relieved some stress. I have pretty much been out of the league for a year and a half because of being pregnant and not having a steady babysitter. I do look forward to returning for football in Spring 2010, though!

That being said, summer softball playoffs were held this week...I'm sad to report Team Holla lost in the 1st round. However, with only 16 teams out of 70 making it to playoffs in their division, it was not too shabby of a showing. We finished the regular season 7-1 and are always glad to have gotten to spend time with friends.

Etc..

Well, there's so much to write about, I just couldn't choose a title. This post will just be catching you up on the last couple weeks, I guess!

So, we made our trip to WI and had a great time! Colin travelled well on the airplane rides, though the 4 hours we had to spend at O'hare on the way to WI were....challenging. On top of our 2 hour layover, which we were prepared for, our flight got delayed 2 hours. We finally boarded our final flight to WI at about 10pm central time, though we were still on eastern time...and Colin was AWAKE!! It was tough, but we made it through and got to Grandma and Grandpa Mancl's ok.

Our stay in WI was exactly what we needed...full of family, friends, fresh air, good food and relaxation. Colin met some of his extended family this trip and got to play with mommy's old friend's little boys...and he behaved and had a blast! This was the only trip to WI we'll be making this year, so we tried to soak it up. Normally, we would like to come for Christmas time but I'll be too pregnant to travel by then, so this was it! The next time we go, we'll be a family of 4.

We arrived back to Baltimore late Monday night (8/3) and had safe travels all the way around, so it was a success. Of course, we left the 60 and 70 degree weather and came home to 90s and humidity...we didn't miss having no AC requirement in WI. We are now settled back home and back into our real world routine, but are still enjoying the last bit of our squeaky cheese.

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, we had a couple big events. 1) Jake and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! We celebrated while we were away, but did reflect on the challenges of marriage and parenting and are grateful for the love we have for each other. 2) I had my regular OB appt. I am 16 weeks along now and everything still looks good. I have gained a total of 2 pounds, so we're delighted that I've started to go in the right direction. The baby's heart rate is in the 140s. We will be finding out the gender of the baby on Sept 1, but don't ask the name because we won't tell you! We do have names picked out either way, but will keep them to ourselves until he or she is born:) For anyone who believes in old wive's tales, all signs are leading toward it being a girl (terrible morning sickness, worse skin/appearance, my age and month of conception...). However, I dreamt 2 nights ago that it's a boy, so we'll see!

On a proud note, Jake has officially registered to go back to school and will be starting his Fall semester at Community College of Baltimore County Aug. 31. If anything good comes out of our government this year it'll be the post 9/11 GI Bill. Jake is a proud veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and we couldn't be more proud of his ambitions to finish school. YAY!!!!!!!