It's a boy!

Today was our 2nd ultrasound. We asked the ultrasound tec to put the sex of the baby on the DVD they made us. They did not tell us the results. We then invited our families over for dinner and we all watched the DVD together. It was a fun way for all of us to find out who is joining our family. I do not know how people go 9 months without knowing the sex of the baby. I struggled with waiting today to find out!

VICTORY!!

I am currently out in CA preparing for LPGA Q-School. Decided to play a couple of warm up events on the courses we play for Q-School. Good decision because I came out victorious! What a great feeling. My hard work is finally paying off. That winners check will be going to the purchase of a new sofa in our family room. Maybe this baby in my belly is a good luck charm?

Baby!?!

Well, the ultrasound today confirmed it. Brian and I are expecting our first child sometime in Feb!!! We are excited and overwhelmed. So much to do, so many life changes!!! Wish us luck.

Playoff birdie!

Today was my 1st stage of qualifying for the US Women's Open. My dad was on the bag today and I was a little concerned about him. It was a very warm day and a hilly golf course. He made it around just fine though. I played pretty steady. Got unlucky on my 8th hole and made a snowman. Didn't let that affect the rest of my round and grinded it out. My 78 got me into a playoff for the final spot. There were four of us competiting for one spot. I hit my drive in the fairway and was the short hitter:( However, in playoffs that is not the worst position to be in. I was able to go first. Sticking my 7 iron 15 feet from the hole allowed me to put some pressure on my competitors. Only two of the three girls hit the green and no one was in realistic birdie range. It was very sweet when I rolled in my birdie putt to grab the last spot! Every practice session I always end with a shot to win the US Open. I guess I'll start with making the putt to qualify.

Round 1 Eastwood

I am currently in Orlando, FL playing in a Suncoast Series tournament. Today was the first round of play. I fired an opening round of 77. Considering the game I brought to the golf course today, a 77 was a good round. That does not mean that I am content with shooting that score, but I did get the most out of my game today. I have been struggling with my ball striking, particularly my tee ball. Today was no exception. My dad has come with me this week and it is nice to have his help. He can see the things I cannot. He noticed that my swing gets a lot faster during the tournament. Tommorrow I am going to feel like I swing only 80% at the ball, especially in the beginning of my round. Hopefully this will help me feel the clubhead especially when my nerves kick in during the start of my round. I was very patient today and did not let my frustration get in my way. I was proud of the fact that I played better as the round progressed. My putting was much improved. This is my first tournament round this year that I had 0 three putts!!

Venice

By the time we reached Venice we were tired from our travels. It was a good relaxing place to end our vacation. When we got to the city we decided to take the water buses around the lagoon and down the grand canal. Venice is such a neat city and it was incredible just to see it. After we had our fill of riding around we decided to explore Venice by foot. It is simply charming and very confusing. Luckily the city is not very large and you always end up somewhere recongizable.

The following day we took the water bus out to the island of Murano. Murano is known for its glass making. We were able to see a glass factory and the sculptures being made. The city was filled with tons of store filled with the most beautiful glass objects. We fell in love and could have easily bought tons of sculptures. Brian limited me to just one and we found a heron sculpture to bring home.

On our last day we headed to Piazza San Marco. In the morning we visited the Doge's Palace and took a tour of the prison cells. In the afternoon we headed to St. Mark's Basilica. The line to get into the church was long. The church was okay. It is Byzintine style and not our favorite. However, we can appreciate the mosiacs and history of the church. Since our last day was Good Friday we decided to find a church and attend stations of the cross. Not sure how much we got out of the service because it was all in italian.

As a final treat to ourselves we got tickets to a concert for our final evening in Italy. It was a performance of Vidali's Four Seasons and Pachbel's Canon. The concert was wonderful and a great way to end our trip to Italy. It was a wonderful two weeks, but we were glad to be going home.

Milan and Leonardo's Last Supper

We took the train into Milan. We had prebooked tickets to see Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper painting. The painting was huge and in much better condition than we anticipated. The area of the church where the painting is housed had its roof torn off during WWII. The most disappointing part of the painting is that there is a doorway underneath the painting. Someone decided to enlarge the doorway and cut off Christ's feet in the painting.

The Duomo in Milan is also worth a visit. It is a very cool Gothic church. Brian and I rented an audioguide at this church and were glad we did. The guide told us that there is a bronze cross above the altar that contains a nail from Christ's crucifixion cross.

I am glad we saw the Duomo and Last Supper painting, but overall I strongly disliked Milan. It was extremely busy and lacking in any charm. I have absolutely no desire to ever return and could not wait to leave the madness behind.

After the headache of Milan, we decided to return to the pizzeria we found the night before. The staff at the restaurant remembered us from the previous night. They immediately brought us some free champagne. It was so good and I polished off both Brian's and my own glasses. The evening was great fun!

Lago Como

Today we took the ferry up the lake to Bellagio. It took two hours each way. The scenery was spectacular with the alps in the background. The ferry stops at all these charming little lakeside villages. We could have spent all day on the boat and have been perfectly content. Bellagio is a charming little town that sits in the heart of the lake. Brian and I immediately fell in love. We vowed that we would return some day. After our bad experience with dinner the previous night we made ourselves walk deep into Como. We found a great little pizza restaurant. We shared a spicy salami pizza. This was Brian's favorite meal while we were in Italy.

Hello Lake Como!

After the hordes of tourists in Rome and Florence, Como was a welcomed relief. It was by far our favorite stop on our 2 week trip and the only place we would like to return. The views were spectacular. When we arrived in Como we decided to take the tram up to the top of the mountain. It was a nice, sunny day so we decided to leave our umbrellas behind. When we got up to the top of the hill a huge thunderstorm rolled in. We were trapped up on the mountain and took refuge in a tiny cave with a statue of the Virgin Mary. About 45 minutes later we were able to wander around the top of the mountain and get some spectacular view of the lake and town below. We were starving by the time we got back down the mountain and decided to try a restaurant along the lake. It was a tourist restaurant, but we went against our better judgement and ate there anyways. We paid the price. . .literally. It was our most expensive meal and our worst meal. Neither of us could finish eating our meals and we headed to the McDonalds immediately afterward.

Pisa and Lucca

We scheduled a trip to climb the leaning tower of Pisa. The tower leans a lot and you can tell that it leans when you are climbing up to the top of the tower. It was a neat experience, but it is the only thing worth seeing in Pisa. From Pisa we took a train to Lucca. Lucca is the only city in Italy that has the walls around the city completely intact. We strolled along the top of the walls. It was a nice day, but probaly not the best choice for our weary, tired feet.

Florence Day 2

We started the day with a visit to the Accademia to visit Michelangelo's David. The statue is massive and amazing. The museum where it is held also has some unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo's. It was fascinating to see the figures coming to life in the large marble pieces and then the end product of the David. Museums are not our thing and we thought an afternoon outside enjoying the Boboli Gardens would be more our speed. We were not disappointed. These gardens are beautiful and enormous. The weather was fantastic and it was a great afternoon to stroll thru a true Italian garden. I had scheduled a cooking class for the evening and we had worked up an appetite. The cooking class was our favorite experience in Florence. We were in a room with 11 students and two chefs. Brian and I were joined by a couple from NYC at our cooking station. We made an artichoke flan, crispelle alla fiorentia (which we had enjoyed the night before), chicken caccitore, and panna cotta. All of them were delicious. Hopefully we will be able to recreate them at home. Overall, it was a great evening of good food, great wine, and even better company.

Goodbye Rome, Hello Florence!

Rome was wonderful, but we were ready to continue our travels to Florence. Florence is beautiful. The city itself is a site. Brian and I are not really into art, so that part of the city was completely lost on us. We were staying right next to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It is so beautiful that it was spared bombing in WWII & is thus the only medieval bridge left in Florence. Today it is lined with jewelry stores. At night when the stores are shut down their exteriors look like trunks. We hiked up to the Piazzale Michelangiolo & had some wonderful views of the city & Duomo. The famous Duomo of Florence was slightly disappointing after the grand churches in Rome.

Florence had the best food of all the cities we visited. The gelato in Florence is good, but the way they serve it makes it the best in Italy. They serve the gelato on warm waffles. The waffles are covered with a glaze and are so much better than our waffles in the US. It was my absolute favorite food in Italy. I don't even like waffles. Our first night we ate at a local restaurant & shared two local dishes. The first was crispelle alla fiorentia (crepes with spinach & riccotta cheese) & ossobuca di manza (beef w/ marrowbone). This was my favorite meal in Italy.

Day 4 (Papal Audience)

We were able to get tickets to attend a papal audience during our trip. The pope speaks to thousands in St. Peter's square most Wednesday mornings at 10:30. We arrived at 8 am in order to get a good seat and our early arisal was well worth it. We sat in the third row and had a great view of his holiness. The pope was very impressive. He spoke of his recent trip to Africa and addressed the crowd in 5 languages! We lucked out with the weather. It started pooring about 5 minutes after the end of the audience. It would have been a struggle being in St. Peter's square with thousands of people trying to pull out their umbrellas. Since it was raining out we decided to eat a large meal for lunch and headed to a trattoria near our hotel. Brian had his first piece of lasgna. It was creamier than american lasgna. No riccotta cheese and less tomato sauce. Very good, but different than what we were expecting.

Rome Day 3 (The Vatican)

Our next two days in Rome we spent at the Vatican. Being Roman Catholic this was a very moving experience for us. St. Peter's Basilica and square are so beautiful that no matter what your religious beliefs it would be difficult not to enjoy and appreciate them. The square outside the church is lined with 120 statues of Bernini's (who designed the square) favorite saints. How bad would you feel if you didn't make the top 120? lol. We arrrived at the Basilica when it first opened on Tuesday morning. It is the largest church in the world and is spectacular. I could go on and on about the interior of the church, but I will limit my blog to my favorite piece of artwork in the Basilica. Michelangelo's Pieta is incredible. It moved me to tears. Unfortunately it is set behind bulletproof glass because it was attacking by a hammer wielding madman. Such a travesty. The highlight of our trip to the Vatican was something called the Scavi tour. Scavi means excavations in italian. St. Peter's Basilica was built on top of an old pagan grave yard. The scavi tour allowed us to go underneath the basilica and see the graves below the church. The best part of the tour is that you get to see the original burial site of St. Peter where the church believed his body to be buried for years. The altar in St. Peter's Basilica was built over this site. However, in the early 1900's, during the excavations under the Basilica it was discovered that his body was not in the grave site. A monument had been ereceted over his gravesite and a niche on the side wall of the monument was discoverd. Above the niche was written "Peter is here". Inside that niche the bones of a 70 year old man was discovered. This is important because that is extremely old for that time and is recorded as the age of Peter when he was killed. The other interesting fact is that the feet were missing from the bones. Peter was crucified upside down and was buried in secret. It is thought the feet would be missing because they would have chopped his feet off in order to remove him from the cross. The church's official stance on the bones are that they are "most likely" St. Peter's. We actually got to see the niche, with the writing of "Peter is here" and the bones that are likely St. Peter. It was amazing.

After we got our fill of the Basilica we headed over to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. The museums are overwhelming. You walk from room to room that are filled completely (ceiling, walls, and floors) with priceless artwork. It is impossible to see and take in it all. After a very long journey thru the museums we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing, but sensory overload. Your neck gets tired from looking up at the ceiling!

Rome, Italy (Day 2)

After getting a good night's sleep we got started a little late on this day, but the rest was well worth it. We planned to see "ancient Rome" today. Our first stop was the Victor Emmanuel II Monument (a.k.a "The Wedding Cake"). Talk about impressive. Romans do big very well! From the top of the monument you get a great view of ancient Rome (the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Circus Maximus and Trajan's Markets). We then set out to explore all of these sites. They are all ruins, but it is still cool to imagine what Rome was like about 2,000 years ago!

Rome holds so much history. You are surrounded by these ruins from around A.D. 100 and intermixed amoung them are the most beautiful churches. Each splendily decorated and amazingly beautiful in their own way. We stopped by about 7 amazing churches while we were out exploring. Our first stop was Santa Maria in Cosmedin which is famous for a sewer drain that supposedly bites off the hands of liars. It is called the "Mouth of Truth" and my hand survived its powers. Our favorite church that we stopped at was San Giovianni in Laterno. It is Rome's Basilica and words cannot describe the grandness and beauty of this church. Besides all the artwork in Rome's churches many of the churches hold relics or artifacts from Christ and the saints. San Giovianni held a wood altar that Saint Peter celebrated the eucharist on. The heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are also believed to be contained below the present altar. Brian actually prefered this church over Saint Peter's Basilica. The last church I will mention from our exploring is San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter's in chains). This church holds the chains that were used on Peter when he was imprisioned.

By the time we were done exploring our feet were screaming at us. It was time to find some much deserved dinner. The food in Italy is extremely expensive, so we ate a lot of pizza. The pizza there is great. Very thin crust and not nearly as much sauce and cheese that we put on pizza in the US. Another difference in italian pizza is that they do not chop up the toppings. If you order olives on your pizza you get whole olives sitting on top of your pizza.

Rome, Italy (Day 1)

The first stop on our 2 week trip to Italy and it was the perfect place for us to start. Rome is amazing and there is just so much to see. We arrived in Rome after 21 hours of traveling, but since our time was limited we set straight out to see the city. Our hotel entrance was steps away from the Trevi Fountain so that was our first stop. Beautiful and massive which was true for just about everything in Rome. The little square in front of the fountain is constantly packed with tourists. From there we wandered over to the Piazza Navona. Rome is built with these tiny little streets that barely have room for cars. It can feel clausterphobic with the giant building surrounding you. But then the tiny streets all meet into a giant open square (which they call Piazzas). The experience of walking out of the tiny side streets into these beautiful, large squares was undescribable. The Piazzas are decorated with fountains and monuments. The Piazza Navona is one of the largest in Rome. There are 4 amazing fountains that stretch down the center of this square. Street vendors selling artwork setup here to try and entice the tourists (which Brian and I willingly fell victim to). The square is lined with restaurants and gelaterias! The gelato (Italian ice cream) is soooo good. It is a great spot to get some gelato and sit on the edge of one of the fountains and people watch. After leaving the Piazza Navona we headed to Trastevere which is across the Tiber river. It is less of a tourist area across the river. This is where we got our first taste of the amazing churches in Rome. We stopped by Santa Maria in Trastevere. The artwork in the church was spectacular. Everything guilded in gold and beautiful paintings depicting scenes from the bible or different saints. From there we head back over the river and went in search of the Spanish Steps. We were probably the most disappointed with the Spanish Steps. We found them very unimpressive. They were covered with people sitting on them which made it challenging to climb your way to the top. After climbing the steps we were ready to call it a day but we were very close to the Piazza del Popolo so we headed over there for our last stop of the day. This Piazza again was filled with fountains. Most cities in Italy, Rome included, are surrounded by large stone walls. This was part of the city's ancient defense system. There would then be a large entrance gate built. This is located in the Piazza del Popolo. Very cool. At this point we were exhausted and ready to head back to our hotel for some much needed sleep. The city was so amazing it was difficult to head back to the hotel but we knew we had 3 full days ahead of us in Rome.

Happy Birthday Brian!

We are ready to head off to Italy. 2 years of planning is finally coming together. Today is also Brian's 29th birthday. He is undecided if this trip counts as a birthday present. Excited about going to Italy, but not looking forward to the 21 hours of travel ahead of us. Will post pictures when we get the chance.

Its official, we sold our house!

As of 5 pm this afternoon we sold our house! What a relief to have sold our house so quickly. It was on the market since mid January and we sold it on our first showing. The timing could not have been better. Brian and I leave for Italy tommorrow and it is great to only have one house to worry about. We are very thankful.
The best part of today was seeing my best friend Tara and her husband, Jon. They were headed into Atlanta for the weekend and stopped by to visit us before we left for Italy. I have not seen her from their wedding in November and it is always good to see her.

FIRST BLOG!!

Welcome! This blog has been created to keep my family and friends up to date on my adventures both on and off the golf course. My golf coach suggested that blogging would be a great way to document my progress of achieving my lifelong dream of being an LPGA touring professional. I am looking forward to getting started on this site!