In Honor of Barry Wilson

I wanted to take a minute to talk about my best friend's father, Barry Wilson. Mr. Wilson lost his fight to Pancreatic Cancer on Wednesday, May 20th. He fought his cancer hard all the way to the end. Every time I saw him before and certainly after he was diagnosed Mr. Wilson was in such good spirits and had such an amazing attitude about life. Mr. Wilson knew the importance of family and knew that friends were family and family were friends. He knew that it was an amazing feeling to be surrounded by your friends. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson raised two amazing children who have grown up into amazing people. I have been friends, best friends, with Katy it seems like all my life. I cannot imagine not having her in my life. We've been through so much together and seen each other grow over the years. Katy is the woman she is today because of her mother and father. I'm very thankful to have known Mr. Wilson!

Please go to this link and donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in Honor of Barry Wilson http://www.firstgiving.com/barrywilson Help Katy and her family go beyond their goal of $2,500.00

Here's a video I took of Katy and her father at the Wilson's 40th Anniversary Party on June 22, 2008. This just shows how full of life Mr. Wilson was. This was about 3 months after being diagnosed.

May 10, 2009: Mother's Day and Dad's Birthday

Sunday, the Corriher's celebrated Mother's Day and Dad's birthday at Mom and Dad's house. We had yummy food and as always a great time! I wanted to make Dad's birthday cake, his favorite cake - Carrot Cake. Needless to say it was quite an experience for me. This is what happened the first time I made the cake. Should have put it into two cake pans instead of one...

Thankfully the cleanup wasn't too bad and I started on the second try. This time I learned my lesson (with of course the help from Jamie) and split the batter into two cake pans and surprisingly everything turned out perfectly!!!!! It was so good, I'm most likely going to make it again this weekend!!!

Here's the most recent picture of the Corriher's. It was a wonderful gathering!

14 week check-up

Matt and I went this morning for my 14 week (and 1 day) check up. It was pretty uneventful - except of course for hearing the most amazing sound! The heartbeat!!!!!!! It's still so cool and awesome each time we hear it. Especially since I don't feel pregnant still. I got another clean bill of health this time. Although the doctor wasn't too happy to learn that I lost more weight (another 1.5 pounds), but I'm sure that will be changing soon enough. I'm still going to my personal trainer 2 times a week and trying to do cardio at least 2 times a week for 30 minutes. Although since the gym I go to is right next to my office, if I don't go to work (like today) then I don't work out, SO on average I'm going about 2 days a week to work out.

Now on to my diet. This might be why I'm losing weight, but once you see what I'm eating you might wonder why it's going the other way. I seem to only be able to eat food that is bad for me, i.e. Checkers Double Cheeseburgers - hold the mustard and onions please (and wings if I go on Wednesday), Chick-fil-a sandwiches, Willy's Burritos, Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas (or Nachos!!!) at Sabroso, Pizza, Noodle Cafe, Cheese Toast and Cinnamon Sugar Toast in the mornings, you get the point. BUT I usually only eat half of what I would normally eat at one sitting because I get full fast. My liquid intake isn't that great either. I do drink a lot of Milk in the mornings (when I say a lot, I mean I go through a gallon of milk every 3 days). I stopped drinking coffee in the mornings (but still have it every once in a while). I stopped drinking coke on a regular basis for about a year but since water wasn't tasting good too me, I started back up again. Now I try to only have one a day. Water is my enemy. I do not, do not, do not, like the way it tastes now. I still try to force myself to drink one to two Nalgene bottles a day (for some reason I can drink it if it's cold and out of a straw better).

The Nurse made me feel better (and it confirmed what a lot of people have been telling me) when she told me to eat what I can eat, don't force myself to eat something (like a boring ole' salads). She also told me that around 16 weeks is when food and water becomes your friend again. So, I only have about 2 more weeks - if it's going to be like that for me that is.

No morning sickness for me. The only problem I've really had is when I brush my teeth. I've changed tooth pastes and nothing really seems to help it. It's either going to happen or it's not. I do think it has to do with the amount of food I eat the night before. For instance when I work at Sabroso and I don't get home till 12:00 a.m. I only want to go to sleep, not eat. So the next morning isn't fun for me when I brush my teeth. FYI, surprisingly bananas and cantaloupe doesn't taste bad coming back up (EWE GROSS! Sorry about that). About 5 minutes after I'm finished brushing, breathing, brushing, breathing, brushing, rinsing, I'm all good. And thankfully it doesn't happen every morning.

Next doctors appointment. I go back in 3 weeks for my next regular check up - I'll be 17 weeks (well technically 16 weeks 6 days). I also go back in 5 weeks for our next Ultrasound - I'll be about 19 weeks then.

First Trimester Screening

We had the First Trimester Screening April 28th. For those of you who do not know what this screening is, it helps identify babies who may have down syndrome, trisomy 18 or trisomy 13. It's a combination of a detailed ultrasound and blood work. I had my reservations about doing this test. We felt that it would be important to know if our baby had down syndrome, trisomy 18, or trisomy 13, but we also felt that it wouldn't change the way we felt about the baby. Another reservation I had about the test was the cost of it. I know, I know, I shouldn't put cost in front of our baby's health. But I was a little concerned because I called my insurance to see if it would be covered and I was told that only one ultrasound would be covered per pregnancy. I had already had one at 7 weeks and 5 days to see how far along I was. When the lady at my insurance was telling me this she was really reading from a script and it was very confusing. I tried to talk to a couple different people at different places but no one could really give me an answer that either I wanted to hear or made sense to me. Thankfully a high school friend, Heather Ringer Martin, was able to answer my questions and put me at ease. So I decided to keep the appointment and keep my fingers crossed that it wasn't going to cost us and arm and a leg.

The day of the appointment. When I made the appointment, I didn't know that Matt had a midterm scheduled for that afternoon - oops. So, we drove separately so that he could go straight to school after the appointment. Matt is very, very, very good about being on time and leaving early for appointments. Me, not so much (wonder where I get that from?!). So, thankfully Matt gave us plenty of time to get there and took traffic into account. After passing the place twice, we finally pull in about 10 minutes early. We walk in and have no clue where we're going. We get directions from the sweet lady at the information desk and we finally find the place. I go to check in, sign my name and the guy tells me this paperwork is showing that you do not have a copay today. I said, What? I don't have a Copay? He says, Nope. SWEET! After checking in, we walk next door to the doctors office. Um this place is standing room only, it's packed! Slowly chairs open up and Matt and I are able to sit next to each other. My appointment time comes up, then passes. I'm getting hungry, I have to go to the bathroom, and Matt is getting ancy about his midterm. About 30 minutes later the nurse calls my name. I think Matt and I say at the same time, finally! (Mind you this is the day after I spent 2 hours at the eye doctor waiting to get my eyes checked!) The Ultrasound Technician is awesome! She super nice, pleasant to talk with, and is very calming. Next thing we know, we're looking at the monitor and seeing our little "apple" move around!!!!!!!!! Of course I start smiling and crying, Matt immediately grabs my hand and starts smiling. We were both in total awe over this little tiny baby moving around inside of me!! It was so awesome to see it move!!!! It was like it knew we were watching. It would crouch down and push off, then slide back down. Crouch down, push off, then slide back down. Over and over again. At one point we saw it put it's hands up like it was on a roller coaster! So cute!!!!! She said everything looked good so far and that the doctor was going to come in to do some measurements his self. She leaves and Matt and I look at each other. Matt says something like, that just made my day! The doctor comes and and shakes my hand then Matt's hand. I think to myself, maybe he shook my hand that way because I'm a girl? But he seems nice enough. We get to see the baby again. Same thing, couch down, push off, slide down. It never got old! He gets the same measurements as the Technician did and seems pleased with them. We thank him and he leaves. Finally! I can pee!! As we're about to walk out to get my blood work done, Matt asks me how I liked his handshake. I told him that I hoped he shook it that way because I was a girl, but apparently not! Thankfully he's not my regular doctor! (This is one of the reasons why we are going to Northside, because of my awesome doctor. She has the most confident and caring handshake. When I first went to her about 6 years ago, I knew then that she would be the one who delivered my baby) Anyway, I digress. I get my finger pricked, the nurse tells Matt that I can't cook or clean for a week because of the wound in my hand, ha ha ha...

We leave and can't stop talking about how amazing that was!!!!!! Unfortunately the baby was too busy having fun and we couldn't tell the sex.

The results. Like I said, the doctor said that everything looked normal on the ultrasound, but he wanted to wait till the results from my blood work came back. I got a call about a week later and they said that everything went well!

Why we're setting up this Blog

We wanted a central location for all our family and friends to come to, to see what's going on in our lives. So to catch some of you up on what's been going on in the Monroe household over the last couple years (don't worry, I'll be brief):


Matt and I got married on October 15, 2005 after dating for 3 1/2 years:

John and Jackie Corriher; Katie and Matt Monroe; Pat and Marty Monroe


After living in various neighborhoods surrounding Atlanta, Matt and I bought our first house in Decatur, GA in February 2008. We were lucky enough to find an older house that had been renovated so it was ready to move in and we didn't have to do any of the hard work!

Our 4 legged children:

Sam, (a.k.a. Samu Ljac Son) age 10 1/2

Lash, (a.k.a. LASH NO!!) age 4

Frank (a.k.a Frank the Tank), age 5

Meredith (a.k.a. Dr. Grey), age 2

What's going on with Matt:

Matt is currently working at Shorty's Pizza in Tucker. He won Pizza Maker of the Year in 2008! In addition to working Full Time, Matt is also enrolled in classes at Gwinnett Tech in Lawrenceville, going for a degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management. He began this chapter of his life in January and is loving every minute of it (well most minutes that is). We're all so incredibly proud of him!!!!!

What's going on with Katie:

I'm still working at the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender in Atlanta. I can't believe I'm going on 7 years this June, boy does time fly when you're having fun... My title now is Capital Case Manager. I also work a couple nights a week at Sabroso in Little 5 Points. Currently I'm waiting tables, but will soon go back to Hosting.

Our newest and most exciting news:

After a year and a half, I found out in March that I'm pregnant!! I'm due November 4th. We are completely blessed with the fact that we will be bringing a new life into this world!!! Needless to say our household will be even crazier come November! We're still not sure what we'll be having, but we will be finding out. Once we know, you will all know.

Here is a picture from our latest UltraSound, I was 12 weeks, 6 days:

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be good about posting news and events!

Thanks for taking the time to read it! Love you all!!

Katie and Matt