...I am starting a Blog!

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a few weeks now. I have been reading a few blogs for awhile and thought it might be fun to do one myself. I am not sure who will want to read it, but it might be fun to keep my family and friends up-to-date on my life.

Let's see, where to begin? I guess at the beginning...my name is Amanda and I am 29 years old. I have been married to my wonderful husband, David, for 5 years and 8 months. We have been together for over 9 years already - it is hard to believe. I am pregnant with our first child, who is due on August 24th. We are very excited about our new addition and you will probably read a lot about it in the coming posts.

My husband and I live in a townhouse in a quiet suburb. Right now the house if feeling a bit cramped and will continue to be until we settle in with the new little one. We have no pets, but I love my parents' dog and cat (and my brother's cat too) and see them often. We live about 5 miles from my parents' home and about 20 minutes from David's parents'. Dave and I both have one sibling; I have a younger brother named David and he has a younger sister named Vicki. My grandparents (on my dad's side) also live near us. My grandfather on my mom's side lives in Wisconsin and my grandmother on that side lives near Dave's parents.

I lost my job almost 2 years ago and with the support of my husband, decided to go back to school full time. I was attending University of Wisconsin - River Falls until the summer semester. After becoming pregnant, I decided that I needed to go to school closer to home (I was driving 2 hours round trip to get to school) and to get a degree that would take less time and guarantee me a job. I was studying Chemistry and hoping to become a high school teacher, but that was going to take forever; so now I am studying Medical Laboratory Technology. I always liked the lab part of Chemistry and think the medical field will always be a big employer. (At least I hope it will continue to be.)

Some of my hobbies include; reading, traveling and hanging out with friends and family. I LOVE traveling and try to do it as often as possible. My husband also has a travel bug...I would say that his is even bigger than mine is. So far this year, we have travelled to Las Vegas and northern MN. I am actually leaving on a trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles tomorrow night (more on that later). We have one more trip planned for this year...to Wisconsin Dells.

I love to read! My favorite author right now is Nora Roberts. My favorite series is Harry Potter - I am re-reading all of the books again for the like 10th time or something. I am on book 5 of the series, but thinking about a break to read "My Sister's Keeper." I want to finish book 5 of Harry Potter before the 6th movie comes out on July 15th. I enjoy watching the movies, but find them to be too different from the book and sometimes that makes them disappointing. I am NOT going to read the 6th book until after I see the movie for this reason...plus the 6th book is my favorite of the series.

Hanging out with friends and family is also a joy of my life. I LOVE my friends (who doesn't though)! Dave and I have a few very close friends who we spend most of our time with. You will probably read about them from time to time as you follow my blog.

Since this is a new thing for me (blogging), I am not sure where this blog is going to go or how often I will even write. I think that is more than enough for today. Have a great day!