First Foods

In the past month, Kristin has started eating FOOD! So far, so good- she started off with cereal, and seemed to like that... and we're now to the point where she's actually swallowing most of it and not spitting it all out! (unlike the video below....) She loves fruit... not so much the peas (can't blame her!)... Check out the video of her first encounter with something besides breastmilk....

And we're back....

Alright... blogging... the restart... AGAIN...

So, I'm entering a new phase of life with this blog post- the is the phase where I figure out how to teach full-time, coach a college team part-time, be a mom and a wife AND maintain some reasonable frequency in my blog posts... here we go again!

Sweet Bo

These have been a rough past few days for the Geissinger Family. Our beloved puppy, Bo, died on Sunday morning after being bitten by a rattlesnake while we were hiking at the family cabin in Lycoming County this past weekend

Justin, Kristin, Bo and I were hiking up to the birch tree nearby Beaulaland. Bo was loving the mountains, as usual, romping through the creek and the open fields and scaring a flock of grouse as he went. We came around a turn and Bo was about 10 yards ahead of us and turned to run back towards us. He stopped between me and a giant rattle snake that none of us but Bo saw and before we could yell, before the snake even rattled, Bo had been bitten in the shoulder. We immediatley got him to lay down so that the venom wouldn't rush through his body any faster and Justin quickly picked him up and carried him up the trail. With the cabin in sight, Justin left me and Kristin with Bo while he ran to get the truck. He was really hurting and I just kept praying and petting him while he laid right next to me. After a minute, in true Bo fashion, he crawled into my lap while we waited. Justin and his uncle put him in the back of the truck and headed to the emergency veterinary clinic that was an hour and a half away. Kristin and I stayed behind- it was the longest afternoon ever.... Finally, after a couple of hours, they returned, but my sweet Bo had to stay behind for treatment. Initially, the prognosis was good- they were flushing his system to dilute the venom and were planning to do a blood transfusion to help his body to fight. We kept calling the vet throughout the night and they kept telling us that he was "stable, but in pain and heavily medicated". Sunday morning came and we spoke to the vet one last time before leaving the cabin and making the drive to pick up Bo and transfer him to another vet clinic in Lancaster. They gave us the same report, but apparently about an hour after we spoke with them the venom reached Bo's heart, causing him to have a massive heart attack.... we didn't find out until we were on our way to pick him when we called to tell the vet that we were about an hour away. Needless to say, I lost it.

So, these days have been really hard, particularly for me. Bo was absolutley my dog, and although some may scoff and being so emotional over a dog, those who have been there understand. He was everything that a dog should be: fiercly loyal, playful and drooly, blindly devoted, incredibly cuddly, protective and goofy all and the same time... and, despite his flaws, he was mine and I loved him... I still love him.

Sarah had to stop typing here so i'll pick up where she left off. I myself am not much of a dog person but I could handle living with Bo. I think what made living with Bo tolerable for me was his devotion to Sarah and now to Kristin. There were many days when Sarah was sick early in her pregnancy. Some of those days Sarah spent the entire day on the couch while I was at work. Sarah certainly wasn't alone however because Bo would always plop himself down with her just to keep her company. Bo was also very obedient... or at least for Sarah. I would get so frustrated by him not listening to my commands yet when Sarah asked him to do something, of course he would do it. Recently, now that we have a young daughter, Bo became very territorial. This was Bo's property and he decided to appoint himself as the sole protector. He is a very gentle and loving dog who would never hurt anyone (he would just pee on them) but he sure would growl and bark at strangers just to let them know that he's on duty. Bo will certainly be missed but I'm thankful for the good times that we were all able to share together.

Beijing 2008

Well, let me just say that the Olympics are my FAVORITE thing to watch- I've been looking forward to them all summer! I love to watch swimming, gymnastics, basketball, diving, track, cycling... oh, who am I kidding? I even like to watch the sports that I don't care about... today I actually watched water polo! And last night I thought that the archery looked pretty cool.... I even like to watch other countries- I don't care! I just love the Olympics! Wouldn't it just be amazing to be that good at something?


My favorite event thus far has been the Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay. For those of you who missed it, here is the short version: the French had been trash talking the American's in the media, saying that they were going to "smash them". And, it looked like they might... until the last few meters when the American anchor somehow amazingly came back and outtouched the French guy by something crazy like 2 100th's of a second! WOW.


Anyhow, these Olympics are going to be the death of me- I stay up way to late watching them, and then really have to work hard to get stuff done instead of watching them... and tonight- the Women's Team Gymnastics competition.... oh my, I'm going to be tired tomorrow!

Myrtle Beach

Like I said, we just got back from a week in Myrtle Beach where my parents rented a beach house and we all headed down to enjoy our first family vacation in about five years... it was a blast!

My brother Steven and I drove down through the night and then Justin flew down halfway through the week to meet us there (he's taking a summer chemistry course that he just can't miss...) We had so much fun- the house was two blocks from the beach and we spent our days beachin', bikin', golfin', playin' games and getting in some good time reading! Kristin was great- she napped on the beach, "swam" in the ocean and enjoyed playing with her uncles. My brothers just adore her, and that was really fun to watch them hang out with their neice.

Check out our pictures from the week on our Shutterfly site (link to the right)

password: Geissinger (capital "G")

Raspberries and rollin' over!

Well, we spent a week in Myrtle Beach last week with my family and it was wonderful! More on that later, BUT the big news from the Geissinger household is that Kristin can roll over! (I know, we're really proud...) I tried to get it on video, but of course, she wouldn't do it, so here is a little movie of Kristin blowing raspberries (one of her favorite things since the recent discovery of her tongue!) , doing a "half-rollover" and just chattin' up a storm.

Summer Lax... done!

Well, most of you know that I spend my summer's coaching a club lacrosse team called Lanco Elite Lacrosse club. Its for girls in Central Pennsylvania who are looking to improve their lacrosse skills and get recruited to play in college. I really do love running this club which has grown from 20 girls to about 90 in just three years... This summer we had five teams going, with girls ranging in age from rising 6th graders to rising seniors- it was a blast, but let me tell you, coaching with a new little baby puts a whole new spin on things! Kristin went to all of my practices with me, as well as all of my tournaments.... she was a trooper! Also, I must say that it would have been even more of a challenge if it hadn't been for my mom- or should I say "Gram" who came along to most of my tournaments and took care of my little girl so I could coach my other girls...

Anyhow, its been a great summer season, but I'm glad to have wrapped it up this past weekend at the All-Star Express tournament in Annapolis! Now, let the planning for winter lacrosse begin!

New Pictures

Oh, and one more thing... there are new pictures on our Shutterfly site, so check them out.

http://geissfamily.shutterfly.com/action
password: Geissinger (capital "G")

West is Best

Well, I wanted to give a "shout out" to my dear friend Catie, who lives way out west in Bend, Oregon. Catie faithfully checks my blog every morning, only to be dissapointed by my poor blogging skills (or lack of dedication to it). Catie came to visit for a few days at the end of June, and it was wonderful to catch up and introduce her to my newest little love. Here's a picture of us at Prince Street Cafe before she hopped on a train to continue her tour of the east coast.

Welcome to the world, little Freakley!

My dear roomie from college, Katie and her husband Stu just had a little boy on Wednesday! Kate was due on June 29, so she was happy to get that little boy out, and he is just perfect... and BIG!

Daniel Stuart Freakley weighed in at 8lb, 7oz and was 21 inches long!

Congrats, guys! Let the adventure of parenting begin!

You can check out Katie's blog via the link to the right... she's one of the funniest people I know! :)

First Friends...

Here are some pictures of Kristin and her first friends.... Bo the Dog loves to cuddle up to her whenever we let him!

And of course, her favorite "baby-sitter", Miss Danae...

Kristin Grace

We are proud to introduce the newest member of our family,

Kristin Grace Geissinger born on
Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 4:06AM
7lb, 9 oz
20.5 inches

Here are some pictures of Kristin's first hours and days:

Here's a link to some more pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActmTds5cNmLiQ

A Labor Story

So, I started to have contractions on Wednesday, March 26 at about 4 in the morning. They weren't that strong, but they were about every five minutes or so, so I started getting hopeful that it could be the day that we'd have a baby... I had plans to go to breakfast with my friend Liz, so after the contractions had started to slow, I decided to go (I mean, what else was I gonna do??) So, at breakfast, Liz was timing my contractions- which were much stronger, but 7 or 8 minutes apart- it was so funny to see Liz's face everytime that I would have a contraction... she kept saying "OH MY GOSH! We better call Justin!".... Anyhow, by lunch I decided to call my doctor who wanted me to come in for a labor check. So, I called Justin and told him to finish up stuff at work because we might be heading for the hospital after the doctor's office. At about 2:30, the doctor checked to see how far dialated I was, and she found that I was about 3 centimeters, which is enough to get admitted to the hospital. So, after making a quick run to the grocery store (at that point I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and I knew as soon as we checked into the hospital all I would be allowed to have was Jello and water... I needed to get some calories!) So, we got ourselves admitted by 4:00pm or so, and then the waiting began. Everytime the nurse would hook me up to the monitor that shows the babies' heartrate and my contractions, the contractions would all but stop! After a while, the nurse and the midwife just looked at me and said "What are you doing here??" My contractions were inconsistently 15 minutes apart! So, we walked and walked and walked- a few miles around Women's and Babies Hospital (Justin felt like a caged animal) and as we walked, I had contractions about 3-4 minutes apart! But still, everytime I would get hooked up to that monitor, the contractions would stop... so, they kept checking to see how dialated I was, and I kept progressing... so we kept walking! By 11:00pm, my water still hadn't broken, so the midwife broke my water, and then the contractions were coming one on top of the other! After a few more hours it was time to push- I pushed for 26 minutes, and then, at 4:06am on March 27, Kristin Grace was born! We were so surprised- we really thought that she was going to be a boy, and so many others thought so too.... but, she is a beautiful, healthy, baby girl! Praise God!

Not Kevin's Birthday anymore....

Ok, so after long last I'm going to try to take up this blogging thing again... now that I have friends and family members around the country giving me a hard time about Kevin having a four month birthday, I'm turning over a new blogging leaf... Particularly since we now have a new addition to our family to write about...

Brother Kevin's Birthday!

Today is my little brother Kevin's Birthday! He's 24 today- all grown. Kevin is an Assistant Golf Pro at Old Marsh Golf Club in Florida. (we're so proud...) Here's a picture of me and Kevin when we were little!

Birthday Girl!

So, I'm 26 now. Time sure does fly! It seems that birthday's just start becoming less important as I get older- I actually had to try to remember how old I was- that's sad! I had the day before my birthday off from school, so Liz and I went out to breakfast and then my mom came out and we had "high tea" at the English Tea Shoppe in Intercourse. It was really fun to have a little tea party! On my actual birthday I had class until 8pm, so that made celebrating on my birthday a bit challenging. Justin got me a little cake and sang happy birthday to me, and our friend Steve stopped by for some cake. AND- I got a whole new set of dishes for my birthday! WOOHOO!

Oh my applesauce....

Liz, Julie and Bess on the front porch turning the cooked apples into sauce- we felt like frontier women cooking outside!

Bess and Bobbi canning away....for the record, Bobbi is standing on a stool to be able to reach the bucket!

There's me with some of our mountains of apples!

So, 300 pounds of apples later, we currently have more applesauce than you could imagine- I only wish that I had gotten a picture of the mountains of apples at the beginning and the rows of jars at the end! We decided to have this great apple adventure- Julie, Beth, Liz, Bobbi and I, as well as other people that we recruited throughout the day (like Jen, Jenna, Steve, and Chris). It was a long day of mostly fun, and all in all, the apples were turned to sauce, so I'd say it was successful! Now its time to start gearing up for next year!

All the way from Mexico...

Justin's cousin, Mandy, and her husband, Ernesto recently moved back from Aguascalientes, Mexico where they have lived for the past two and a half years. (This was the cousin that Justin and I visited this summer when we went to Mexico...) So, they're back in the states and came out to visit us for the day- we took them to do all the "Lancaster" things.... when we were with them in Mexico, we joked that we just "ate our way through Mexico", so Justin and I figured that we could proably do the same sort of thing here (and, if you've ever been to Lancaster, you know that wouldn't be a stretch to make happen!) So, we went to Central Market, picked apples at Cherry Hill Orchards, stopped for a snack at Bird-In-Hand Bakc Shop- you know, whoopie pies, shoofly pie, sticky buns... we tried a bit of everything. Then, as if we were actually hungry, we had dinner at Dienner's. All in all a great day...

Here's a picture of Mandy being attacked by Bo while we were trying to digest...

Ricketts Glen: The Music Video

my other link didn't work, but try this!

Animoto.com

This is the coolest website! You can go on and create little "music videos" from pictures and music that you have! You just upload the pictures, pick a song and the website arranges a music video for you- its soooo cool! The "shorts" are FREE (includes 10 -15 pictures) and then you can make a "full length" with as many pictures as you want, but that you pay for.... so, try it out! Have fun!

Here's a video I made in class tonight from our weekend in at the mountains:
Ricketts Glenn: The Music Video