Steppin out ON the field...

Um, so yesterday? Was slightly amazing.

A few months ago, my friend Amy entered a raffle at our college during an event that they were holding and won... get this: 4 tickets to the Phillies game yesterday which included seats in the Hall of Fame Club, dinner in the Diamond Club, a tour of the stadium, and being on the field {!!!} during the Phillies batting practice.

We about had a heart attack.

Here are a few pictures...

Amy, Troy, Bob and I on the field.

I made sure to take a pic of us standing on the field. Bob wanted to steal some dirt. He didn't. But he wanted too.

Ya know, just a little batting practice.

That's us. And that's Ryan Howard.

J Roll. Love him.

Utley, Howard, Victo...

The Phillies head coach {Charlie Manuel} and GM {Ruben Amaro}

Utley & Victorino

Ryan Howard... just playing a little golf.

The Phillies were playing the St. Louis Cardinals.... and that right there? Is Mark McGwire. Yep.

We got to see some pretty amazing things on the tour, including standing right next to Charlie Manuel and walking right by Vance Worley in the press room... ya know, just a normal day.

I wanted to get on the stage. I thought they might tackle me though.

Off to the broadcast booth.

Look familiar, Phillies fans?

We then headed next door to the press box. What a view from there, I'll tell ya...

After the tour, we headed to dinner in the Diamond Club and then took our seats in the Hall of Fame Club just as the first pitch was thrown. We had quite the view...

One of my new favorite players... Hunter Pence!

Yeah, so not only was this day amazing enough, but the Phillies had a chance to clinch the NL East if they won the game.

They did.

What an amazing, amazing day! And I just want to send a shout out to my good friend Amy for inviting us to go with them. We had SUCH a great time with you guys! Thank you!!

How's that for Steppin Out? =)

Vote for amazing Saturday's with old friends!

Wordless Wednesday

This is a picture of Kacy and I a few years ago at a Phillies game. Today is Kacy's 29th birthday, so we're all celebrating by going to the afternoon Phillies game today {woo hoo, Cliff Lee!} and to Chickie's & Pete's for lunch. I can not wait!! {I kinda feel like it's my birthday because I'm so excited, ha!}

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world {who also just happens to be my little sister.} =) I can't wait to spend the day with you!

How about a birthday vote for Kacy? =)

Your Three Words

And I am soooooo ready. See:Yep, that's me. Right now. At work. In my Phillies shirt and jeans. {And yes, I know I'm a loser.}

Yesterday, the single game seats went on sale. Both Bob and I were ready and sitting in front of our office computers {in the ticket queue} well before the 8:30am start time. I entered the queue about 10 minutes before Bob and he still ended up beating me to the tickets. How does that work? Regardless, we got some great tickets including game 2 of the season {a.k.a Cliff Lee's first game back!} and Placido Polanco bobble head night in August {clearly, Bob's idea.} There are a few other games throughout the season that we will be attending as well. And it just makes me sooooo excited!

We pass the stadium twice a day everyday on our commute to and from work and it makes us so happy to see all the great things going on at the stadium to get ready for the season in a little over a month. This includes a brand new ginormous HD score board! Eeeekkk.

I think we're in for a great season, Phils!

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I hope everyone has the same lovely weather that we're enjoying here in Philly right now {well hello 71 degrees!} Carter and I are headed to the Please Touch Museum tomorrow as part of the Blog With Love campaign and I can not wait! Other than that, we plan on just hanging out and enjoying the weekend. {Poor Brynnie Girl has a bad cold... boooo!}

Oh, and I have a FABULOUS giveaway that I'll post about on Monday. I actually have about 3 fab giveaways lined up for you guys over the next few weeks, but I think you'll be extremely excited about this next one. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Can you spare 2 clicks for the blog on this gorgeous Friday? =)

Your Three Words

Well, I have 2 this week...
Despite their loss in the playoffs, the Phillies still had a great season this year. They had the best record in all of MLB, Halladay had a perfect game and a no hitter {in his first post-season game at that} and he will likely win the Cy Young Award. They made it through the season with nearly every player on their starting line-up getting hurt at one point or another...

The Phillies {and the Phillies fans} have nothing to hang their head about. Yes, it would have been nice to win the NL Pennant for the 3rd year in a row and go to the World Series, but oh well. The season really only ends well for 1 team a year, right? At least we made it to the top 4! :) Way to go Phils!

Yep... that's my Carter Man, who got stuck in his toy box earlier this week. Instead of helping him out of there, I ran and got my camera. That doesn't make me a bad mom, right?

Carter is saying so many funny things lately, so I wanted to make sure I blogged about them before I forget!

Lately, he's been big on the word "okay"... but the way he says it is just too funny. For example, a convo with him might go something like this:

Carter: "Bubba, Bubba" {Bubba is me, by the way}
Jenni: Yeah, bud?
Carter: "I want a cookie"
Jenni: You want a cookie?
Carter: "Okay"

He acts like it wasn't his idea in the first place.

When ever we go over railroad tracks, he likes to say "ut oh" but he makes sure to tell everyone in the car about it. "bubba, bubba, ut-oh" ... "daddy, daddy, ut-oh" ... "baby, baby, ut-oh" "Carter, Carter, ut-oh" ... yes, he even tells himself about it. Now, Bob and I find ourselves saying "ut-oh" even when Carter's not in the car.

And let's not forget about the fact that he is obsessed with tractor trailers. Whenever we drive on 295 {which is everyday to go to and from to my parents house} he yells "a cool truck!" every 3 seconds {give or take a second.} It goes something like this:

"A cool truck!"
"A cool truck!"
"Another cool truck!"
"LOTS of cool trucks!!"

And if it's not "a cool truck!" then it's a "SCHOOOOL BUSSSSS" =)

He likes to call Brynn "baby" "baby girl" or "Brynnie girl" and it's so cute. He just gets so happy when he wakes up in the morning and all he wants to do is kiss his baby. Oh, and he always rubs my arm and asks "are you okay?"... I guess I do that to him a little too often, huh? =)

There are so many more things that he is doing/saying that just crack us up everyday. He loves to make funny faces at the dinner table so he and I will sit there for like 20 minutes just making faces at each other and laughing. And the way he cuddles with me at night.... sigh. I could stay like that forever {except he's a crazy sleeper and ends up either punching me, kicking me in the face, or giving me a lovely head butt, so to his crib he will go...}

Carter Man... we just love you so much!

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Have a great weekend and have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!

Have you voted today? =)

It's the Halladay Season

Just want to quickly congratulate my team, the Philadelphia Phillies, who clinched the NL East Title last night. Even Carter stayed up to watch the game, while chanting "let's bo fall-ies!"

Here we go again... =)

Have you voted today? =)

I'm a winner. For once.

On Saturday night, Bob and I dropped Carter off at my in-laws house and then headed to a "beef and beer" to help support March of Dimes and Team EthanG.

My friend, Steph, ran this event and what an event it was. It was held at Kildare's Irish Pub just outside Philly by the King of Prussia Mall and it was a huge success! The food was fantastic {and I heard the beer was good too}...everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Overall the event raised almost $1000! Woo hoo!

One of the things that Steph worked really hard on, was getting donations from local restaurants and businesses for a Chinese Auction {you buy raffle tickets for a certain price and then can use said tickets to enter to win a prize if your ticket is selected.}

With free donations to make baskets, all of the ticket sales would go straight to the March of Dimes. Not to mention, that it makes the event even more fun since people have a chance to win some fantastic prizes.

There were over 25 baskets filled with dinner gift cards, movie gift cards, Home Depot gift cards, baby products, autographed Flyers hockey sticks and autographed 76ers hats/team pictures, etc. I mean, I'm not kidding when I say that there was a TON of GREAT prizes.

See, for yourself...One of the things I knew I was going to "bet" on was a chance to win 2 free Phillies tickets with free VIP parking. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, then you must know by now that I am a huge Phillies fan. I was determined to win these tickets.

Not surprisingly, 71 of the 83 Phillies home games were sold out in the first day of ticket sales for the 2010 season, so I knew our chances of getting to a game this season {especially with a new baby} were few and far between.

Before the event, my mom {who was also determined to win the tickets} and I came up with the perfect strategy for entering our raffle tickets. Yes, there is a strategy to these things, people.

We got there at 6pm and purchased our tickets right away. But did not enter them. We knew that they would be calling the baskets at 8:15, so we obviously had to enter before that time. But think about it... if you put your tickets in too early, then you risk them not fully shaking the bag. If you enter too late, you're tickets will be too close to the top. Both options gave you no chance to win, right? Right... that's what we thought too.

So, we decided to enter at 7:35pm.

I went up to the table with my 35 raffle tickets and selected which baskets I wanted to "bet" on. After considering my options, here's what I decided:

"Picture This" {gift certificate for 1 full photography session with s.g.photography, 2 picture frames, photo album, scrapbooking stuff} - 4 raffle tickets

"Dinner and a Movie" {Outback gift card, movie gift card, DVD's, popcorn, & candy} - 2 raffle tickets

"I'll Drink To That" {2 bottles of wine, wine glasses, wine stoppers/charms, 2 tickets to the theater} - 2 raffle tickets {yes, even though I'm pregnant, I still wanted to win this basket... I have about 10 weeks left, people, give me a break! I need to have a stash ready for after I deliver.}

"Soft as a Baby's Bottom" {full of J&J baby products} - 2 raffle tickets

"Phillies" {2 Phillies tickets in section 138, free VIP parking, Phillies hat & t-shirt} - 25 raffle tickets {hey, I told you I was determined to win.}

About 40 minutes later they started calling the winners by raffle ticket number. First up was the "Picture This" basket and I got my tickets ready.

And I won.

My crazy raffle ticket strategy had worked. I knew it would be a good night.

They went through the other 25 baskets, and I didn't win anything. I was rethinking my strategy... did it really work? Did I enter my tickets at the right time? I mean... I can't win everything right? I shouldn't be blaming the strategy just yet...

Then they came to the very last basket of the night: the Phillies tickets. I quickly planned my attack on the person who might win. I found the nearest exit's and I knew I could probably grab the tickets and run down the stairs. I mean, who would hit a pregnant girl? It had to work.

She started calling the numbers.

4-8-...

Hmm, this is a little like LOST.

...2-6...

I'm still in the running.

...1-0...

Okay, this is looking good considering that I had tickets 100-107, right?

...5.

It was me.

I won.

I immediately put my hands up in victory. For a second, I worried about someone pulling the same stunt that I had planned... grabbing the tickets and running... but then I knew my belly would play a role in this, now unlikely, situation. I mean, no one would steal from a pregnant girl, right? Right... that's what I thought too.

I looked over at Bob who also had his hands up in victory. {Hmm, I wonder where Carter gets this from?} The rest of our friends/family looked like they wanted to hurt me.

I didn't care. I won.

My winning ticket...
...and both my winning baskets...I certainly got my money's worth, huh? For Bob and I to attend the event, it cost us $40. Then I spent an additional $20 on raffle tickets. So, $60 total. We got dinner for 2 and beer for Bob at the event, we then won a free newborn session for Brynn {estimated to be in the $100-150 range} and free Phillies tickets with free parking {estimated to be in the $80-$100 range}.

I'd say that was one hell of a night. Hmmm... maybe I should play the lottery...

25w Belly + Philly Phanatic =

Hehe.

As an avid Phillies fan, you can only imagine how excited I was to find out that the Philly Phanatic was coming to a work event we were holding for our students on Monday. I even wore green for the occasion in hopes to catch a glimpse of the big guy and grab him for a picture.

Well as soon as he saw my belly, it was over. He loved me Brynn. Here are a few more pictures that were taken of the two of us...

Here, he was asking me if I was pregnant with twins. Nice.
Kisses for baby girl... {to my surprise!}

And me, my sister Kacy {who I work with!} and Ellen {who I also work with!} got a picture with the big guy...

I heart the Phanatic.

GO PHILLIES!!!