Happenings...

Well, first things first, Mark is another year older since I last wrote. He's 33 and he turned to that age on 9/9/09 which I think is pretty cool...3 * 3 = 9 on 9/9/2009. He's so lucky and yet, did we buy a lotto ticket that day? No. Oops.

We didn't really celebrate too terribly much. We still need to go to a new restaurant we have a gift certificate to and enjoy that. Lately it has been difficult to get out and do things, though, because I have been busying myself with rearranging the file room at the office. I am F-O-U-R boxes of files away from being done, done, done! Then, let the cataloging begin. The new filing structure will be such a blessing when it is time to rid ourselves of one or more years of files as everything will now be filed by the last patient visit or the last contact we had with the patient. We have to keep these puppies for 7 years. That means we have countless files for people that we've never met which we have to keep in storage for quite some time. Wow.

Other than that, I finally was able to "play" with my new candy making equipment and what fun I had! :) Last weekend, I made Chocolate Brownie Bombs. Trust me, you want some....they're yummy and well worth ignoring my wheat allergy for. I have to behave a little right now, though, because I went a bit overboard on ignoring the allergy and so the first part of this last week, I had some pretty nasty arthritis in my hands. Not fun, but the macaroni and cheese and spaghetti dishes (as well as those yummy brownies) were all at least fabulously tasty and so it was tolerable.

Back to Mark's birthday, though, I neglected to mention that I made him some brownies and grabbed some frosting and whipped cream from the store as well as some yummy Rocky Mountain Road and Almond Joy ice creams from Josh and Johns and made him a brownie sundae that evening for his birthday treat...topped with one of those yummy brownie balls! He was quite happy and more so because our friend Jewel made him a second set of cream cheese brownies (after we convinced her that they were yummy...she was a little leary at first - sheltered!). Naturally, because he's a sweetie, he brought them home to share. Unfortunatley, Charlotte ran the bag into a light pole and as a result, we had a batch of cream cheese and glass brownies. I salvaged them best as I could (you just don't waste food made by Jewel!!) and for the most part, I only bit into what I assume was a glass shard twice (two different brownies). Oops. At least they were so tasty I didn't care...and at least it didn't make me bleed.

Well, it is really late here and so I think that is about the only update you're going to get from me here, but you are welcome to go check out my blog for my business: www.coloradochocolatier.blogspot.com and learn about my scouting trip to a favorite chocolate store to see all the neat things I could make with my candy making supplies. You might even find a recipe you'll enjoy there!

Oh, wait, though, before I go, quick Nicholas update. He is a shape sorting king. He has two (soon to be three) different shape sorters and he loves playing with them. His favorite is the wooden one from Pottery Barn he received from his godparents, but he's also fond of the plastic Fisher Price one he has. It is really fun to watch him figure things out. He is also having a blast lately with my scent testers from scentsy. He likes to stack them, knock them over, smell them and take the lid on and off. If only adults could be so easily amused... Finally, his blocks seem to finally be of interest and he seems to have lost his fear of the vacuum which makes cleaning the house a lot easier!! He's still cute as a bug and approaching 3T in clothing so he's quite a tall little boy.

And, I just remembered, he went to his first MOPs meeting with me this week. He didn't attend last year...stayed home with Daddy. This year (at least for a while) he and Daddy are going to the Moppets rooms together. He's enjoying checking out all the new toys he hasn't see. Okay, now my brain is racing about things on Nicholas, but I really truly must go to bed! Night everyone!

Yep, We're Still Rockin'

I'll bet you thought we fell off the face of the planet, didn't you? Well, we didn't. Not completely at least. There's been a lot going on behind the scenes around here which we just really aren't at liberty to speak about at this time and as a result I, dear friends and family, have not been able to post even remotely regularly; however, I shall try to get back in the habit.

I have quite a few goals for myself in the next few months - I plan to get back into a regular blogging schedule. Not sure what that means right at this moment, but we'll figure it out. We're experiencing something of a new beginning in our family as a result of some of the stuff I can't talk about having transpired. I'll just apologize profusely now for my "teasing." I really don't mean it to be so, but vagueness at the moment is kind of expected and necessary. Should there ever be a time (which I am inclined to say there will not be) that I feel sharing is appropriate, I will, but don't hold your breath!

So, at any rate, I shall be making an effort to post more regularly. I also am quite determined to get myself back up-to-date (which is no small feat, unfortunately) with Nicholas' totsite. Wow, that is going to take some effort...so I may not get it done until Christmas unless I just happen to have some crazy luck. :)

I am, after all, just one big ball of activity. For those who like to keep up with my craziness, I am still helping with Mark's business though I am, thankfully, no longer playing a major role. Accounting-related tasks are mine...everything else has been passed off to a new office manager who I trust implicitly with the success of the business and keeping everyone else in line. Mark is also in a more prominent role with the departure of the previous owner of the business and we're enjoying watching the business grow into a thriving place of health and healing.

In addition to the clinic which has been renamed Springs Family Chiropractic, I am still doing the Scentsy thing. However, that has been moved, to a great extent, to the secondary business slot because at the beginning of May I began a sweet new business with Dove Chocolate Discoveries (tm). I LOVE my new job! Can there be anything better than getting paid to share chocolate (and more specifically, Dove Chocolate!) with the world? I can't think of many....maybe just getting paid to stay home and love on Nicholas. :)

I am still at home with Nicholas as well. He just turned 2 on May 26 if you can believe it. The little tyke is the size of a 4 year old! He is seriously one very tall little man...and he still has his red hair. He is absolutely adorable (not that I'm a little predjudiced, of course). As I write this, he is running through the hallway giggling with glee....so cute! Earlier this evening, he was practicing saying "hiiiiii" and I just really wanted to go get the video camera, but I didn't want to miss anything so no video. Just gotta live in the moment sometimes. :)

Nicholas had a fun birthday party on May 31 (this past Sunday) and did very well in the gift area. Have to admit that I had to be reminded that some of the toys are his and not mine! A popup "play tent" shaped like a school bus, an Elmo that is like a Mr. Potato Head, a Cool Fire Engine, fun puzzles and a weird tribble-like ball as well as always useful gift cards were some of the spoils. Because Nicholas isn't much for opening gifts yet, I have some thank you notes to write. Of course, my dear little boy has made off with the list of gifts and who gave them to him so I now get to prove that my mind is still sharp and can remember such things on its own! :)

To backtrack a little, the chocolate business is quite amusing for me. I now get to feel like someone on the food network everytime I have a party. I get to demonstrate how to make yummy treats and teach entertaining ideas while making people happy. It is way easier to get someone to book a chocolate tasting party, I've learned, than it is to get them to do a candle party. Way easier! I actually served some of our products at Nicholas' birthday party which I should mention we held at Nancy Lewis park here in C/S. A lot less exciting than the zoo for some, but perfect for Nicholas who ran all over the place, enjoyed the swings and managed to get his first mild sunburn. Oops. Thankfully, it was very mild and cooled down quickly.

He's quite a dare devil lately and is getting lots of scrapes and scratches. Kind of annerving for a Mommy, but I'm surviving. Yesterday afternoon was one of the best, he fell down in the kitchen and cut his chin open. Wow. Took Grandma Nina and I close to 10 minutes to calm him down just a little. Thank goodness for the puppy Grandma and Grandpa Allen gave to him!

Speaking of my parents they were able to attend the birthday celebration and also were able to stay with us for a couple of days. That was really nice. Nicholas and I will get to see them again next week when we go down to Lamar where I've scheduled a few little chocolate tasting parties (really need to get a set of invitations out for the party my mother and I are hosting!). I am looking forward to that.

Nicholas is currently seeing a music therapist to help encourage him to vocalize a little more. He isn't talking as much as a kid his age should be apparently, but he certainly is sharp as a tack. He knows what he wants, he knows what we want and when the two are not in congruence, he's pretty frustrated. :) He really seems to enjoy the music sessions whether they'll help him talk more or not. We tend to think he may just be more focused on physical-related stuff. He is certainly all boy and enjoys running, climbing and rough housing. :)

Well, that little boy needs to go to sleep (we're running a bit late tonight since we treated him to some ice cream) so I shall say good-bye and go tuck him in. Hopefully he will fall asleep before I do! Talk to you soon!

4 Years & Counting

Four years ago at this time, I was in Colorado and I was exhausted. I'd danced the day away, been in countless photos and had earned a new title and a new last name (which I was a slacker about changing, but I finally got it done!). Yep, it's our anniversary today and it is so nice to be back in Colorado to celebrate it.

We were actually here to celebrate last year as well...with our little two month old baby Nicholas. But it was a little less amusing (for me at least) than this year because last year, we spent most of our anniversary visiting the clinic we now operate instead of going to lunch at Marigolds. We at least were able to make up for it with some goodies from there tonight.

Our celebration was quite lovely for this first bit (for I was told at dinner that a second celebration is planned - brunch at the Broadmoor!) - dinner at the Craftwood Inn using a coupon we found in a magazine. We had a yummy 5 course dinner and for about what we'd have spent on two entrees without the coupon....sweet!

Mark also surprised me today with flowers and a lovely card that really is fitting for where we are in our marriage. I appreciate his thoughtfulness. I'm pretty lucky to have a thoughtful guy who tries very hard as my husband.

I am hopeful that the coming year will be one we will remember for many happy moments. If all goes well, we're hoping to host an anniversary celebration next year - my biggest hope is that my dress which I was supposed to wear to the first celebration will actually fit (which is likely since my hormones are behaving much better!). I have some other wish list items as well, but a girl has to have a few secrets...

I hope everyone has a great weekend. We have Dr. Chi in town to examine our patients' fingernails and tongues so we'll be busy! :)

A Little Bit...

of a post here. It will probably end up being a long one (as always), but I don't know how long Nicholas will allow me to participate here, so we'll shoot for a short snippet and see where we get.

So first things first - Independence Day. It was decent if not terribly exciting celebration for our family. I spent a good chunk of it at the office as I'm still working on catching up the practice accounting. I'm pleased to report that we are actually working on the month of June right now...furiously so that I can use our patient records to do our sales tax returns in the coming week.

We also had a visit from my papa who was coming home from his training for the wind farm where he now works in Albany, NY. It was nice to visit with him for a while.

We tried to get some fireworks in (even let Nicholas stay up late for them!), but other than a few illegal ones we were able to spot, we chose poorly. We thought we'd camp out near the ball park and watch the fireworks after the game. When 10:30 p.m. rolled around (we'd put Nicholas to sleep around 9ish...just for the record), and I could barely keep my eyes open, we decided we better head home. Apparently the ball field officials missed the memo that all of the families sitting in the Costco parking lot were counting on them.

Let's see, I also had my first grand opening for my business. It wasn't nearly what I had hoped for, but I have a second shot this weekend. Hopefully this weekend will go better. I believe some of my lackluster results were due to my not being able to call and remind a ton of people of the party's occurence since I needed to be mommy for Nicholas. The poor dear is cutting his molars....or they're cutting him is more appropriate phraseology.

Yep, he's getting more teeth. He has pushed through his first molar with the help of a lot of teething tablets. I keep raving to everyone I know about these things. The little tooth is pretty cute, but man did it make his life so unpleasant and we have three more lurking and threatening him (and us) with sleepless nights and discomfort. Keep the little guy in your prayers.

Earlier this week, my mother had her surgery for her hernia and cancer. She's currently in the hospital still recovering...with the help of a lot of drugs. I'm sad that I have not been able to go visit her, but our financial situation is not yet healthy due to the medicare billing troubles we've had since we took over. On the bright side, we finally got our first payment so this discomfort will hopefully be over soon (please!).

At any rate, she is doing well from what I've been told by her and by my dad. The doctors reaffirmed their belief that the cancer was in its earlier stages and they got it all. She also got a little help with her weight loss which I'm anxious to see. I've heard it's a pretty dramatic change.

Let's see, back to my business, I did have a very nice breakthrough this past week....two really. I took some closing gift baskets into a real estate office (on their request) and they were a big hit so I'll hopefully get some business from that. Then my banker asked me to bring stuff in so that she and her co-workers could check them out and order (they can't make it to the party on Saturday due to scheduling reasons) so that is looking like another promising avenue. So when do you want to have your party?

I am actually trying to hit a goal here, but am not likely to hit it as well as I'd like. The company rewards consultants who in their first 60 days of business can do things like make sales, get recruits, etc. My major stumbling block seems to be in the recruit area. If you know anybody who's looking for a little more income (and they can be anywhere in the U.S.) and who would enjoy having fun making said income, have them talk to me!

That, I believe, get you up-to-date with most of them important stuff around here. The only other thing I just thought to mention is that we're totally loving that we signed up for a community supported agriculture arrangement. We receive a share of the vegetables harvested from a farm near Pueblo every week. It's been pretty fun trying some new things...who would have guessed I'd like turnips so much?!

I wish you all a pleasant rest of your week. If you are in the Colorado Springs area, please be sure to stop by my grand opening on Saturday at the office's classroom.

It Was Wild!

We had Nicholas' birthday celebration this past weekend at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! The title above says it all - it was one WILD party! :) Nicholas and every one else in attendance thoroughly enjoyed it!

We began our adventure just inside the park where everyone was asked to sign their lives away lest any of the carnivorous animals escape and eat one or more children. Some parents signed while muttering such things as "there are days when I wish a lion would come and eat my child." They were joking...I think. Ha ha!

We then travelled up to the Moose lodge to drop off gifts and cake and ice cream. It was a little odd that they didn't just have someone run the things up I have to admit since, well, we had to turn around and come right back! In this process, we managed to lose my parents so they missed a good deal of the zoo portion of the day, but they got back in time for cake and ice cream...the important stuff you know!

Since I have mentioned the goodies twice now, I think I should give you the skinny on the cake and ice cream we served. They were sooo tasty and I say this not because I made all of them, but because they truly were just yummy, yummy, yummy. And, if you don't believe me, you can ask anyone who attended. ;) I made 3 cakes. One for Nicholas - a mini three-tiered cake with coconut cream frosting and blueberries and raspberries for decorations. And, two for everyone else. One was just like Nicholas' (only just two layers slapped together with frosting and decorated with berries and such) and one has a raspberry filling and a chocolate coating. All three cakes were wheat free (thankfully we do not have to deal with the egg allergy anymore because I tried at first to make them egg free as well...not good) and used coconut flour. I received a lot of compliments even from the zoo staff and that, of course, made me feel all good! The ice cream was also quite tasty - made out of the milk and cream from our little dairy farm we found and some fresh strawberries. We didn't have much left of any of the goodies...except Nicholas' cake, but we'll get there!

So, after dropping off the stuff, we went to enjoy a Meerkat demonstration. Very cool because they knew what was coming when their caretaker came. They were, for lack of a better word, hovering! And then, when they finally got the crickets they were sure were on the way, they were just happy little creatures eating their fill. It was a blast getting to see all of them so active!

After the Meerkats, we headed to the Giraffes where we fed them some crackers. Nicholas wasn't so thrilled with being licked by a big old giraffe tongue, but he had the experience because I made sure to help him hold the cracker so the giraffe could give him a little kiss. I figure after all the slobbery kisses he gives me, I owed him one, right? ;)

We then headed to see the Budgies (parakeets for you non-bird people out there) and on the way our fearless zoo leader, Joy discovered they had a baby Wallaby (a joey of course) out for the little kids to see. She made way for Nicholas and I to get a cute picture with the little guy. I haven't had a chance to review the camera yet (I will...just was working on some other things for his site today) but I'm sure it's adorable! What a special birthday treat! Then we went in to see the birdies. They weren't so keen on coming to say hello, but we enjoyed all the singing anyhow.

Once we were done there, we headed to meet our "animal ambassador" the African Millipede. Pede-y as we'll call him was sleepy. He was pretty much just rolled up and sleeping the whole time. But that's okay...I'm not so excited about bugs and Nicholas could have cared less since it was about that time that he decided he wanted something to drink. Now. So he drank, I touched the nasty bug and then was grateful our other fearless leader, Mallory, offered me some hand sanitizer. And, it was over.

But the party was just beginning...we ventured to the carousel and Nicholas enjoyed his first ride ever on one! At first, he wasn't so sure, I think, but then he decided he loved it! He was kicking and waving and making all sorts of happy noises. It was a blast to watch him so happy. I am so glad we took some video of it!

After the carousel, it was time for cake and ice cream. We got Nicholas set up in his new little attaches to the table hippo chair thingie (which I highly recommend after this experience) and put his cake in front of him, lit the candle, sang happy birthday and I attempted to blow it out. I had to do it three times...guess the lungs were a bit tired after traipsing all over the zoo. I finally succeeded and we waited for the first birthday cake melee that was sure to occur. My son, who apparently takes after his daddy in this area, picked up a blueberry and ate it. Then he picked up a raspberry and ate that. I had to pick a piece of cake off and talk him into trying it. He had a few pieces and played with the frosting, but for the most part, he wanted the fruit. I have to admit I am pretty pleased with this! :) He did get plenty messy (especially since I forgot to put a bib on and then everybody was telling me to just let it go) and I have a rather large raspberry juice stain on his cute "Safari Guide" outfit I bought him. With any luck, Oxyclean will be its match.

We didn't really have a chance to open gifts until we got home and had a BBQ with my parents and a few friends. The little guy really cleaned up in the present category. I have a ton of thank you notes to write for him! He has been having a blast with all of them for the past few days. So, it was, I think a great first birthday celebration overall and now we're already thinking about what we'll do next year. Given how much Nicholas enjoyed his trip to the park on his actual birthday, we're thinking we might just do a little party in the park next year, but we'll see how the year goes and what tickles his fancy!

So that is about it about the party and he and I need to get ready to go walking with his "rent-a-grandma" Nina so I will let you go. I will ask you before I depart to keep my mom in your prayers, though, for healing. She's having surgery in the near future and we're hoping for a speedy recovery.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

Nicholas, believe it or not, is a year old today. For me, it is both bittersweet and exciting that he's reached this milestone.

(By the way, I kind of jinxed myself with that whole ha ha two posts, thing...didn't I? I'll try to get back on the "wagon" after I manage to get the accounting which is proving to be quite unpleasant and time-consuming done for the business - bah!)

On the bittersweet side, there are, of course, several things I know now that I wish I knew last year at this time. You can probably guess that breastfeeding is one of my regrets to some extent, though I can now hold my head high as one of the mommies who made it to a year and is still going...if only for a few minutes of cuddle time in the morning and evening - it's still something and something many new mothers (and seasoned ones, probably) never get the joy of experiencing. If we have another child, I estimate that I may be a bit psycho about the whole feeding situation until I'm sure I don't need to be, but I do believe I can "do it" and I will give it another good go. At least I am more at peace with all that went on in that arena than I have been. I think that as we continue along with our current relationship, more healing will come for me.

Nicholas celebrated his first important day beginning on Saturday afternoon. We ventured to the great metropolis of Boone, Colorado to visit a dairy farm. If you've heard of me refer to my hometown, Lamar, as a great metropolis, I should tell you that Boone is even smaller...much.much.smaller. It's tiny. Don't blink...you'll miss it tiny. But, they have a dairy there that specializes in raw milk from cows who only eat grass. While there, we toured the facilities and saw some cows being milked and then signed up for a cow share. So we now are the proud owner of part of a Jersey cow and will be getting a gallon of fresh milk each week. This milk is soooo good. I have never had anything like it out of a carton, that is for sure...it reminded me of a lightly sweetened milk shake. Yummo. Of course, most of the milk will go to our dear little Nick, but I can get a little butter out of the deal and maybe so yogurt, too!

After our trip to the farm, we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Allen (my parents) who joined us for dinner at Red Lobster in Pueblo. Nicholas snoozed through most of dinner on Grandpa's shoulder, but he finally woke up and entertained all around with his antics and "uh-oh's". Did I ever get to mention that "Uh-oh" was his first "non-Mama" word? He loves to say it. I didn't realize I said it so much until he started saying it and I started paying attention. I'm thankful that this is one of the words I say often...

On Sunday, we had another adventure at Hillside Gardens here in Colorado Springs. We ventured there to take pictures! I finally found a photographer who was willing to take pictures, give me the rights to them and not charge me an arm and a leg. I think we found a winner, but of course, we do need to see the pictures.

Today, we celebrated by baking some cupcakes with coconut flour in them...they are SO good! Yummo! I'm in the process of baking his birthday party cake right now. The party is next weekend so I will put the layers in the freezer once they have cooled after baking. We also had a visit from Mr. Rick who gave Nicholas a fun little barnyard learning toy to complement his new Winnie the Pooh rock-n-ride vehicle that Mom and Dad gave him. What fun! Not surprisingly, he enjoyed playing with the boxes to both and then decided he wanted to play with Daddy's computer before warming up to the toys - looks like our kid is...normal! :)

For lunch, we ventured a bit north to see Nick's godparents, Buck and Lyndsay and his pal Ridge for a picnic lunch at Foxrun Regional Park where we introduced Nicholas to several nifty things. First, he had a couple of bites of cupcake which he seemed to enjoy...but he seemed to want the strawberries more! Then, we introduced him to swinging...on Daddy and Mommy's lap! He loved that and found the teeter totter amusing. His absolute most favorite thing ever though was going down the slide. That was WAY fun...so much so that when we tried to move him away from it (even if it was temporarily so that we could send him down it again), he threw a wee bit of a fit.

All in all, I think, if he could say a few more words he would tell you he had a rockin' birthday and that he's ready for his party. The bash is going to be at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (my favorite zoo of all time...even over San Diego...really!) and we have some neat activities planned...including, of course, Nicholas' first ever attempt at eating birthday cake unassisted. That should be a kick. I haven't completely decided what kind of filling and frosting I'm going to use in his cake, but I think it is safe to say it is going to be a stunner...and yummy, yummy, yummy! All the kiddies that are invited are sure to love it. To go along with the cake, I'm also going to make some very tasty strawberry ice cream using our new milk. With any luck, the guests will never forget the experience and will have lots of fun stories to tell Nicholas when he's old enough to understand it all! I promise to take lots of pictures to share on his website, too. 

And now, lets see if we can do a massive recap given that I haven’t posted anything for two months. I’m glad you all are an understanding lot! From the Nicholas side of things, we are crusing. We finally learned how to wave bye-bye and we can make the sign for “more” pretty well also. He loves bath time and is not at all pleased when someone (usually me) takes a shower because he thinks he should be getting to splash around in the bath. He’s become quite vocal at meals as far as voicing his approval (he just turns his head when he disapproves) for things that he likes. Mmmmmm! I should really try to get that on video.

Let’s see, what else….he has a lot more hair now….so super cute since it is still a nice red color. He seems to see very well also. He is sleeping through the night…sort of. He and I sleep on the floor (well on a bed of sorts made of blankets and a sleeping bag for him and a massage table for me) in his room now. It’s an odd arrangement, but we needed to try something else to get some sleep. So far, we’ve managed to end middle of the night feedings (unless he misses a feeding during the day) as well. He wakes up and usually snuggles up to me and falls right back to sleep. It isn’t optimal from some standpoints, but it is lovely getting to spend this special time with my boy. When the time seems right to me, I will work on transitioning him to sleeping in his crib through the night with me there and then I’ll move out slowly and return to my own bed…with any luck it won’t be too difficult.

Business-wise, we’re making headway. Mark did a business-to-business expo on Thursday which we believe will bring in a good number of new patients. We were showing them with before and after pictures taken on the spot what sort of a change Mark could make with just a couple of small adjustments. I’ve been working on the accounting and have taken over a miniscule amount of the office manager’s duties since she left this past month. In her place, we decided to hire another doctor to take x-rays and do diagnostic tests. Once he and Mark bring in a good number of new patients, we will be able to give him a raise…hopefully soon since he’s worth it but the budget won’t allow it.

On the home front, we have a new baby in our house thanks to an impulse splurge a couple of weeks ago. No, no…nothing that moves per se….rather we have a new baby grand piano. Thus a dream of mine is fulfilled…and one will be as Nicholas will get to have piano lessons when he gets to be a little older. We probably should have waited to buy it, but from a stress relief standpoint for me, it was worth every penny. Watching Nicholas “bang out” a song or two every day is quite amusing and just being able to play on a real piano after 10 years of trying to play on a keyboard that was missing the lowest octave has proven quite therapeutic for me. I consider it my belated Mother’s Day/You Put Up With The Chiropractic School, SBA Loan and Business Annoyance present….in my opinion, it was well-earned!!

Speaking of babies, now that Nicholas is one, I’m starting to get more and more people asking about whether we’re going to have more children. The truthful answer is I don’t know. My plate is pretty full with Nicholas, the business and what not and I’m not sure that another baby would be prudent. On the emotional side of things, I would love to have at least one more so that I could enjoy the learning curve that comes with the second child. We will weigh the decision carefully and maybe we’ll let you know if another pair of feet are in our future. Ultimately, we just want to do what is best for any and all children we have or may bring into the world.

And with that, I am going to sign off. I hope to be back here again soon….until then, if you haven’t visited Nicholas’ site recently, you may have missed out on several picture additions including those from when he was christened. Go enjoy!

10 Months...

Our dear little sprout is 10 months old today and to celebrate, he got up on all fours and crawled! How exciting, huh?

I figured we'd start with that instead of the usual "blah, blah, blah sorry I've not posted" mumbo jumbo you've come to expect with my almost monthly posts. It is my intention (as it always is) to get back into the habit of providing regular updates. Maybe that will happen soon...maybe not. Only the business gods know for sure.

I have been swamped with getting things going with the business. Fun times since I am doing it primarily after normal operating hours and on weekends with Nicholas in tow. Frequently Mark will watch him which is helpful. This week was especially productive since Mark's parents were here to visit for Nicholas' baptism this past weekend and kept watch over him.

The baptism, speaking of which, was so nice. Nicholas was looking quite dapper in his little white tuxedo (there will eventually be pictures to see on his website which I also fully intend to get back up to date - hee hee!). It was a lovely ceremony on Easter Vigil (Saturday night before Easter) at the same church where we were married and where we seem to fit in nicely again despite their split from the Episcopal Church. It's pretty nice to be back in a very conservative church again, I have to admit.

The Easter Vigil ceremony is quite a sight and so it was the perfect time for the baptism. Nicholas once again stole the show (there were two other candidates who hadn't a chance) by getting fussy right as his turn "on stage" came. He started being quite figety, whiny, etc. So, the priest suggested Mark hand him over. As he read the service, Nicholas intently looked at him and thought about how he would steal his glasses. When he wasn't able to find a way, he went for the program. We have video of most of the service (we'd have it all but I had my brother stop recording in the middle to ensure we wouldn't have a problem with battery power when the actual baptism time came!), I can't wait to see it.

Because the ceremony was in the evening, we decided to have the party to celebrate it at lunch that day. We took all the VIPs to Phantom Canyon Brewery for some tasty vittles. For favors, I'd bought some candies to put in some cutie pie bunny easter baskets I found at Williams Sonoma. I had a big basket with Nicholas' name monogrammed on it for him. These were a big hit even if they were quite obnoxious and kept falling over when we tried to set the table up!

Nicholas has 7 official and one honorary (because he couldn't come to the ceremony) godparents. Our friends Kristie and Mark (Kristie sang at our wedding if you were there), Jennifer and Brent, Lyndsay and Buck and Noheilani (who s a rather recent acquaintance but who ADORES her little "Makana" and was a perfect addition to the line up were able to make the ceremony. Keola, unfortunately didn't make it, but is quite thrilled to be "the Godfather." We have quite a line up godparents-wise for Nicholas and we know they will be great role models.

On Easter Sunday we attended church with Kristie, Mark and their daughter Hannah, then we all joined Mark's parents for brunch at MacKensie's Chop House downtown. It was pretty tasty with all sorts of delectables including shrimp, crab legs, prime rib, ham and lots of other goodies.

Business-wise we are doing pretty well. Mark held down the fort without the retiring doctor for an entire week. About a 1/3 of the normal volume of patients showed up, but we were pleased with that as we know people get very attached to their doctors! Since that week, he's been the only doctor in the office on Wednesday and seems to be doing pretty well at getting a few people in to see him. :) He's slowly building a new patient base and should see an explosion here soon since he's joined a business networking group, the chamber and has been courting several area businesses.

We finally also have a somewhat liveable upstairs. We just need mt parents to come get their couch. :)

Other than that, we have been keeping up with our cutie pie Nick. We've begun introducing him to finger foods and he's loving them. So far we've made a hit with oat cereal (not cheerios, but similar), raisins (today), peas and pear chunks. He's a good little eater and seems to chew well before swallowing!

Other tricks he's got up his sleeves now including clapping and sometimes making the sign for Milk. Sometimes, I think he is waving though! He's grown enought that he's starting to transition into 9/12 month clothing and he has a lot of it. I went a bit nuts at a Macy's sale on MLK, Jr. day and he's pretty much not hurting for clothes for a while!

Other than that, I am toying with the idea of getting into children's photography. I say toying because I'm not quite ready to commit to taking photos of anyone but Nicholas. Part of what's bring the idea to the forefront is my dear MIL who thinks I'd be awesome at it and part of it comes from the fact that I am not having much luck finding a photographer here who does what I want for the price I want. I'm finding it almost amazing that if I want something close to what the photographer I used in the Bay Area offers, I have to pay more than double her cost! I guess it must be a supply and demand thing since the supply of photographers out there is much higher than that here. Who knows, though. One thing is handy - if I decided to do it, I have a pretty nice logo and website graphics designed that could probably be modified ever so slightly to make it work. Of course, the trademark wouldn't be of much use...

And then, I toy every so often with the idea of wedding or event planning here. I've come across so many photographers that are lamenting the lack of good wedding planners they can refer to brides who book with them. I even met one couple who was planning to introduce discounts for brides who had one. I probably would like it out here better, I'm guessing, buuut, I'm not even going to THINK about doing anything of that sort (or if I did, of advertising or whathave you) until Mark's business is up and running fabulously...if for no other reason than I promised the SBA when we applied for our loan. :)

I guess that will do for today. Perhaps I will make it back here before another month has passed. Until then, have a great time!

Happy New Year!!!

In our little corner of the world, New Year's Day isn't quite yet over so Happy New Year to you! Sorry I didn't make it here to wish you all a Merry Christmas, but I'm sure you know I was thinking about you all that day, too!

There has been a flurry of activity around here since I last wrote. For one, the practice purchase is becoming more and more of a reality...despite a quick blip there where it looked like everything was going to h-e-double hockey sticks in a hand basket. We've received approval from the SBA for the loan, have an agreed upon price (this was where we had a problem for a bit there) and have received the good doctor's terms as far as the loan he'll give us for the remaining balance of the purchase price. Wow! We're hoping that Mark will be working by the beginning of February and making things happen!

By the way, I am typing this in Colorado...we're not here for good yet. We're just visiting for the holidays and to get things set up as far as the business and our housing situation. Speaking of the last one - we think we've found the perfect location to live. It is less than a mile from Mark's office and is right by a Safeway and a Target. It has 5 bedrooms, 2 baths and is very nice based upon our viewing today. The owners seem like very nice people and are looking to sell it sometime soon so we're hoping to maybe set up some sort of lease to buy situation. We figure if we later decided we wanted another home, we could conceivably rent this one and buy some other home for us. We're going to call and start the application and negotiation process tomorrow.

As for the holidays, today was not terribly exciting (nor was last night as we were in bed by around 10ish, I think - I'm not sure as I have a cold and am not quite 'with it') other than the house scoping and meeting up with a friend for dinner at Giuseppe's (yummo!). Nicholas, too, is under the weather with his very first cold...the poor dear. We're pretty sure he picked something up during our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He's really been quite a trooper, but I've had to deal with way too many loose stools and resulting diaper leaks and explosions for my liking. I think he's starting to feel better, as I am, but we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow!

Other than the cold, he's doing great. He's just about had his 5th tooth break through (uppper right next to front if that makes sense). I'm expecting it to be official in just a day or so more. He is up to about 17 pounds and 29 inches now...almost time for a new car seat! We scoped those out the other day at Babies R Us. We're leaning toward the Britax Boulevard...

As for Christmas, it was really nice getting to spend it with my parents. It was a good one for Nick's first as well. Santa was quite good to him and brought him a Christmas tree of his very own for when I finally realize my dream of having a Christmas tree in every room of the house at Christmas time. He gets to decorate his however he'd like with no OCD allowed from Mommy. hee hee. He received some ornaments to get him started as well. He also recieved a neat little doggie towel, some books, a blankie, clothes, ornaments for his tree and so much more. He, of course, wasn't completely aware of what was going on, but he thought the red shiny paper was pretty neat.

On Christmas Eve we took him to the church I attended while growing up for the service. It was so much fun getting to show him off to all the people there. They loved him and he definitely stole the show...especially when he was fake coughing and chatting during the sermon. It was too cute. He loved all the singing and the attention he was showered with...the little ham!

As far as future plans, we're currently thinking we'll return to the Bay Area on Jan. 7 and get things wrapped up as far as packing and what not. Then we'll head out around the 15th or so. We're contemplating maybe having my brother drive the car out and just flying here again...we're not sure. But at least things are looking up and good and we'll be getting to get our lives in order again soon.

Well, that is it for now. I suppose I've forgotten something, but hopefully not!

Graduation Weekend

We're heading into a very busy weekend here in the Rocco household. For that matter, it's likely to be a very busy couple of weeks what with finishing up packing, moving and the like.

Saturday is the big day that Mark walks across the stage and gets to be called "Doctor Rocco," though, technically he is already. They just only have two ceremonies per year and so he has had to wait a few months to do the ceremony thing. We have all sorts of visitors planned for that big day - Mark's Uncle Timmy just arrived tonight and of course his parents and brother will be along as well. It should be a pretty fun weekend.

Speaking of fun weekends, my birthday weekend was also quite nice. We thoroughly enjoyed our little B&B tour in Napa. I totally overindulged....way too much sugar and way too much wheat. I was not feeling so hot the next day at all, but it was worth the experience. Our inn that we stayed in was very nice as well...even if there was a mix up as far as which room we were supposed to be in. As luck would have it, I liked the Winter room which we ended up in better than the Autumn room anyhow! :) Here are a few pictures of the room:





Isn't it nice? It was quite a joy to stay in. I was really glad I'd taken a picture of the bed when we first went up...when we returned after a quick bite to eat the bed had already been turned down.

As for the little tour, it was so neat. It was almost like a little progressive dinner party except there were only appetizers and desserts. It's actually like a kind of party I've always sort of wanted to set up...maybe once we're back to Colorado Springs I'll see if a bunch of our friends would be interested in a fun little tour of our houses at Christmas or something. Anyhoo, probably my favorite house on the tour was the Cedar Gables, but then, that is because the innkeeper there was dressed up as Santa Claus and took a nice little picture with Nicholas. It's the cutest picture ever...and sooner or later, it will be in the 7th Month group of photos on his website. Of course, I have to get the 6th month photos up there first!

We had so many goodies and yummy appetizers. I really appreciated that one of the inns even gave us the recipes for what they served. This was the Old World Inn which is run by chefs. They had some wonderful croissants there that made me happy as a clam. Wine-wise, I had a sip or two here and there of wines Mark tried. Since we decided against using the limo/shuttle transportation provided to tour-goers so that we could ensure Nick's safety in his car seat and because I'm still nursing him, I went easy on the vino. We had a lot of really yummy ones. Mark's favorite typically hails from the area of France where I spent some time back in college, too. Isn't that spiffy?

Nicholas really enjoyed the tour himself. He had all sorts of people fawning over him. We even had the good fortune to have some people take some pictures of us. Following the no Nicholas pictures without a pass rule, here's one that was taken of us while some nice ladies cooed over him. :)


Other than that, Nicholas has been doing great, too. We finished up his formula treatments and we have really noticed a great change in how he's been doing (yea!). He actually is able to pass a lot of his own gas which is refreshing (well, you know what I mean). We still have to help him out sometimes, but not super often. We've tried to introduce some other foods as well, but we're not having much luck allergy-wise. It seems that Nicholas' body doesn't seem to like most foods as of yet. One of the strange parts is that we have tested him on every food we've tried at the grocery store and he'll test okay, but then after we feed him the stuff his body "changes" it's mind.

We get some pretty decent indicators when he's eaten something his body doesn't like - the most prevelant one is that the food doesn't stay down very well. This is quite frustrating for everyone. For me, it is on a few levels...not only do I want the little guy to be properly fed, but I also just really am not a fan of trying to get the stains of out his clothing.

And, that, I guess, is the update for tonight since Mark and his Uncle Timmy who joined us this evening are chatting and I'm going to be social!

Thanksgiving, etc.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. Nick's first Thanksgiving was quite pleasant...even if he didn't get any turkey! :) He dined on plums, pears and apples instead. I don't think he minded much....

At any rate, we spent our holiday at our friend Jeff's parents' house. It was so nice to actually be around a family again. Not since we've moved here have we been invited anywhere for Thanksgiving so this was a special treat!

It was actually quite interesting to be at another family's house for the holiday and see the differences between their celebration and my family's. I was surprised that there were no sweet potatoes or even mashed potatoes on the menu. Instead they served carrot souffle. The other thing that caught my eye was that they put sausage in their stuffing which I really liked. I may have to see if I can find a similar recipe (or here's an idea - ask them for theirs!).

We brought along a little gluten free dessert to share with everyone and it seemed to go over well. I made a maple pecan cake with coconut flour and then turned it into a trifle with caramel flavored pudding and pecans. It was really quite tasty after it had time to sit and meld...

Other than that, things have been going pretty well. We had someone come look at our house today (which wasn't so fun since it was messy, but oh well) and we also had an adventure in the "locking ourselves out" category which we so often venture into. This was one of the easier times since we just called the realtor and they came and let us in, but it was still frustrating that we missed grabbing keys or a gate opener or something.

We also had lunch at Red Robin today. That was fun especially since my burger was free. If you like Red Robin, you should sign yourself up for their email list because they send you a coupon for a free burger on your birthday. Mine technically isn't until Saturday, but a pre-birthday burger was just fine. :) Other restaurants do similar things (Sweet Tomatoes is one) so if you have a favorite, see if you might benefit from signing up.

So, yes my birthday is quickly approaching and I am really looking forward to it. I already know what my present is. :) We're going up to Napa to tour the historical bed and breakfasts up there and we're going to stay at one of them them, too. The place where we'll be laying our head is called The Inn on Randolph, I believe. We're going to be staying in the Autumn room. I just love staying in bed and breakfast rooms.

I can't possibly wrap this up without mentioning that Nicholas turned 6 months old on Monday. Hard to believe isn't it? He's such a big boy - a real little person now. :) We had pictures taken on Wednesday which hopefully will be done in time for our Christmas cards (which may not go out until January the way things are going!). We should have some really cute shots.

This evening, Nicholas and I tried out the sippy cup again. He really liked it....couldn't stop smiling. Naturally, he ended up with more liquid on his person than in his belly, but that is okay. Speaking of liquids, tonight we did what will hopefully be his last formula treatment allergy-wise. It seems to have really helped with his gas problems. He still has attacks but they are much better than before. If this one is all cleared, we'll be heading on to the rest of the basic fifteen treatments for him and then we'll start treating individual foods. He's creating quite a list of things his body isn't fond of (though he seems to like pretty much everything!).

Well, dinner is done (Mark was a sweetie and cooked tonight) and so I'm off for some sustenance. Enjoy your weekend!

A Berry Good Day

Nicholas and I had a great day today. While Daddy was at a seminar learning how to do the allergy technique that has helped me enjoy several foods I previously couldn't without rather unpleasant results, Nicholas and I had a nice visit with Snoopy and Peppermint Patty at Knott's Berry Farm. I will eventually post the cute picture we took with the two of them on his website.

It's safe to say that now poor little Nicholas is wiped out. So, we'll see if we're able to go back this evening with Daddy which was the plan. I surely hope we are since there was a cute outfit for Nick I couldn't decide upon, as well as a cute one for our neighbor Cassie (a cute little bundle that came a couple of months after Nicholas) and I suppose I should be honest and say there was a shirt I was eyeing for myself as well. ;) And, there were also the professional shots they took of Nick with Snoopy and Patty...which I'm not sure I want, but I'd at least like to have the option of checking them out!

We didn't actually ride any rides. At one point, we were going to go on the Carousel, but Nick needed his diaper changed and we never really made it back there. Perhaps if he'll allow us to go back tonight, we'll do so and we'll catch a couple of others, too. We did go to a cute little show where Charlie Brown was the captain of a pirate ship. Nicholas really liked the songs...and during the play, Snoopy came over and said hi to Nick. This is what ultimately prompted me to get his picture taken. It's his first visit and Snoopy came to see him...had to commemorate that!

Oh, and I started a little tradition for the little guy, too. I've always thought those little penny things you can make at various theme parks were pretty neat, but I've never gotten one...I decided though, that Nick might find them nifty when he gets older so I started him off with one there. In honor of his namesake, we went with the Christmas-themed one. :)

Other than that, we've been busy bees at home working on a business plan for Mark and such. We finally got the first draft done and we've done a lot of other things for the loan he's trying to get to buy the practice he's found in Colorado. Hopefully it will all come together soon. :)

Home-sale wise, we're still waiting. There was supposed to be an open house today. Our first since we dropped our price (gulp) $50K. We decided we'd just drop the price and take a small gain rather than have to keep making payments on a place we weren't living in any more. So, hopefully something will happen soon.

And then, of course, Halloween gave us some amusement! Nicholas, for those who are wondering, was a peacock for Halloween (pictures will be on his site when I have time to get them there). Feedback was AWESOME re the costume! So many people were just taken aback...as a first time Mommy that is just what I wanted - a huge wow factor. So, I'm happy. :) He was the cutest little peacock ever, too...except when he got really tired and started screaming. That wasn't so cute, but oh well. We showed him off at the college for their trick or treat street. :)

And, with that, we'll wrap this up. I need to take a walk (I put Nick down to sleep in his stroller so I wouldn't have to wake him) to go get Mark so we can discuss whether we want to go do more Knotty things. Ha ha. I'd really like to go if little man will cooperate. :) I hope you all are doing well!

And, don't forget to set your clocks back....

Walking in Memphis...

We did a lot of that. :) We didn't see the ghost of Elvis on Union Ave...but we did stay on Union. We didn't go to Graceland...being a bit too young to really appreciate Elvis and being with Mark's parents who'd already been, we decided to spend our time elsewhere.

Now what we did do while we were in Memphis was...eat a lot of ribs. I kid you not, we had them at least 4 times while we were there. If we'd had the time, we would have had more. We've even talked about having some FedEx'd to us from Rendevous whose ribs I believe both Mark and I liked the best...too bad we only got to have them once since we missed the little piece of info on the menu that said they were closed on Sunday and Monday...doh! What a bummer it was to find that out on Sunday night! We had Corky's and the Blues City Cafe for our other ribby ventures...both were tasty but with the exception of the cole slaw which we thought was weird, Rendevous is our top pick. :)

The flight to Memphis was interesting. I can now say that I have changed a diaper in an airplane bathroom. That was a challenge....especially since sweet little sprout decided to have a real whopper of a diaper for me! Then I tried pumping...don't if you don't have to. It's more trouble than it is worth. I can't say how many times I was panicking because the blankets I'd rigged up were trying to fall and expose me. I'll never try that again (I wouldn't have in the first place if Nicholas would have cooperated!).

Other things we enjoyed while in Tennessee included riding in a little horse drawn carriage. This was a treat since I'd wanted to have one for our wedding but couldn't due to where we decided to have our reception. So, since our anniversary was on Tuesday, the 31st, Mark, his parents, Nick and I all climbed in. We went for the Cinderella carriage with lights...and it was a neat ride. We learned a little about some of the historical sites in Memphis and enjoyed ourselves. We also made a stop in at the Hard Rock for a pin for my mom and at Hooters for a shirt for my Uncle. We even got Nicholas a little hooters outfit to make the uncle smile...I still think they should have had something that said "my mom's hooters are the best" or something like that, but no. By the way, just in case you don't know me well, getting the outfit for Nicholas was Mark's idea. I get embarassed going into the joint to get my uncle a t-shirt. Maybe it is because I am jealous of some of those girls.... hee hee

As promised, we made our stop in Colorado. Nicholas, not surprisingly, was a big hit. We were able to hang out with the two brothers and Lea, Doug's girlie, when we arrived on Monday night in Denver and then we got to spend time with my parents on Monday for a good part of the day. We had lunch at Monica's in Colorado Springs. It wasn't the plan - we were supposed to go to Marigolds for salad and some yummy dessert since it was our 3rd anniversary and we got our wedding cake from there. Alas, we didn't even make it over there for dessert. I'm glad we'll be able to go back there more often very soon!

We were able to go visit a chiropractor's office that Mark is interested in and that went pretty well. He has a couple of options now as far as where he will practice. He just needs to iron out details and decide which way he wants to go.

And, then it was time to come home....we went to church this morning and that was interesting since Nicholas had yet another gas attack. :( It was kind of nice, though, because I got a lot of ladies who were thrilled to give me support and pep talks and who showed me a few little tricks that I can hopefully use some other time to calm the little guy down.

In other Nick news, he has begun learning how to roll over from his back to his tummy. I thought I made a little note somewhere on the blog that he had done this so that I would be able to remember when this happened, but I'm not finding it anywhere. :( It's been a few days since he's done this so maybe it was a fluke. ;) He also has really gotten quite strong as far as his head goes. He can hold it up by himself for the most part now, though, he has his moments of being a floppy neck still, too.

One final bit of news is that the adventures in breastfeeding are going well. I have actually succeeded in increasing my supply thanks to an herbal preparation I started taking last week. Nicholas' consumption of formula has decreased by a few ounces and everything seems to still be working out. I still don't have a full supply but just to have some success is wonderful. I will see if the herbalist who recommended the nursing tincture to me has any other tricks up her sleeve to help me be even more of a cow.

Hope all of you are having a nice August so far. Mark's parents and his brother are supposed to visit us mid-week this week....not sure where they're going to sleep (I would have opted for a hotel if I were they), but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Happy Birthday to Nick!

I'm a day late here (which is funny since I had the realization on Monday that I was a day early), but things are just crazy with a baby in the house. Life is definitely more exciting (and in a good way for the most part since I so frequently cite that excitement is overrated) with little Nicholas around...and can you believe that yesterday marked his being on the outside for a whole month? Wow!

And, what a month it was with doctor appointments for him and I in the double digits. Thankfully, his weight is good and so we got to decrease our quota a little. Mine are still going since we're waiting for the last little drain hole to close up properly....that should be done by the end of the week. I honestly don't know what I'll do when I don't have a reason to visit my OB's office on a regular basis...they're pretty much family at this point.

Nicholas has been doing very well lately, but he's developed a nice little case of colic....poor little guy. It's all due to gas unfortunately. Where the gas is originating we're not sure - from formula type to things I eat (that are then transmitted through breast milk), we're trying to find the culprit. We seem to have had some success in at least calming him during the witching hours of 6 to midnight by instituting a little nighttime routine that gets him in bed by 7 p.m. which was suggested by my OB. We're still working on perfecting it...

Other than that, we're scheduled to go get some professional photos done of our little family and Nicholas by my friend and favorite photographer on Tuesday morning next week. I'm really excited to see what gorgeous shots she'll come up with. :)

We hope you're all doing well!

Yes, Saint Nick,,,

The Sprout has finally arrived! :) And, if we do say so ourselves (and we do...) he is one of the cutest sprouts we ever did see! So, without further a-do, we are happy to announce to you the birth of our precious little boy:

Nicholas Makana Rocco was born on Saturday, May 26, 2007, at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California, at 5:01 p.m. He weighed in at a perfectly pleasant 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 20.5 inches long - wow! He was named if you haven't already guessed after one of my favorite saints - good ol' St. Nicholas (which is appropriate because he's not only the patron saint of children but of scholars, but also because we found out he was a he on December 20!). His middle name was chosen by Mark (known to our little guy as Daddy of course!) and means "gift" in Hawaiian. We truly do feel blessed with this gift that the Lord has bestowed upon us so we really liked this name. It also holds special meaning for us because on our honeymoon, MeLissa swam with a dolphin named Makana.

And now, for those of you who are interested, the rest of the story:

As seems to be the case, Mark and I never do things low key and so you can probably classify our son's birth experience as an adventure! It all began on Friday evening. I went to the clinic for a last minute adjustment and then we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. After our yummy meal, it was a surety that we'd be late, but we figured we'd have to wait anyway so no big deal. As things turned out, we should have just waited until morning...

We got to the hospital and after finding a solution to the problem of too many bags and not enough coordination and talent to get all of those and the two of us to labor and delivery, we finally made it to check in. They showed us to our birthing suite and we began the process of getting me ready for the "marathon" that lay ahead. Once I was all dressed up with no place to go but a birthing bed (ha ha!), I crawled in and was hooked up to monitors that checked whether I was contracting and how the baby was reacting to it based upon his heartbeat. I was supposed to be in monitoring only state for about an hour...3 hours later after being in many uncomfortable positions and despite not getting a picture perfect grade on how we were doing (the sprout's heartbeat was being difficult to track often cuz being the little wiggle worm that he is he couldn't stay put), the doctor finally told the nurse to put in the Cervadil and get going. So, she did...

But, it came out before too long (by the way, I'm typing this one-handed with lots of drugs in my system so keep this in mind if there are lots of weird things) because the sprout (aka Nicholas), was again looking a little less than perfectly happy with the process. They decided to wait until morning and give me pitocin (yea! ha ha)..hence why I say we should have stayed home until morning. What I failed to mention is that the rest of the night was spent "enjoying" the periodic influx of numerous nurses when the baby's heart rate went off the monitors. So, I can't really tell you I had a pleasant night's sleep...

Morning finally came and a whole 'nother bit of exciting happenings...unfortunately, dinner is about ready and so you'll just have to tune in to the next installment to find out what transpired during the rest of the adventure...sorry for the additional suspense!

T-8: My First Mommy's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies and mommies-to-be today! I hope yours is as pleasant as mine has been so far.

Mark is a real sweetie (as you no doubt already know) and found a few little somethings to make my first Mother's Day a special one. Here' a little picture:


Each of these little butterflies is a magnet for our refrigerator. I love them! They're just so delicate and pretty. Apparently, Mark found them at his school's bookstore.

Unfortunately, I won't be seeing too much of Mark on this day since he is away studying for his big board exam which is next weekend! At least I have my little sprout to keep me company. :)

As for the little guy, no change from yesterday to report. My back is still really inflamed and so I am going to be taking it easy again today. I will probably need to make a trek to the grocery store, but otherwise, baby blankies, cooking, maybe some baking and reading will be the order of the day. I hope everyone else has a lovely day!

T-10 Days and Counting

Only 10 days to go!!! And, as I'm sure you can guess nothing new here in sprout-land. :)

My back is still killing me, my feet are still swelling, the sprout is still kicking up a storm and there's no sign that we'll have a baby in our arms by Mother's Day. I'm patient, really I am...and there's also this absolutely stunning bridge I'm selling. Perhaps you've heard of it - what an honor it would be to be known as the owner of the Golden Gate! Any takers? I do have a college education to pay for in a few years, you know...hee hee!

Mark tried this morning to tweak my back since I'm doing the hunched over (as best as I can) gorilla walk thing. I'm going to again say how thankful I am that my back problems waited until month 9 to start being problematic. I have always worried that they would relegate me to a life of bed rest early in my pregnancy experience...not so! This is something to celebrate!

Today is my next to last day in the office and I'm more and more pleased with myself for deciding to take some time off. I think it was a good move...

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and that all the mommies out there have a wonderful Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to enjoying both sides of the holiday this year!

9 Months!

Where has the time gone? Before I know it, little sprout is going to be a teenager (a well-behaved little angel of a teenager, of course - hee hee!) if time keeps going at this break neck speed.

As far as updates, nothing too new in the way of the pregnancy. I'm still having back issues, but the chiropractic care I'm receiving seems to be helping keep me in a state where I can at least tolerate things.

We didn't really do too much baby shopping this week either. For the most part, we have most of the really important stuff. There are a few "wants" that we may still invest in, but until we have some real life experience come our way, we figure we have a good start. Thus, most of the purchases this weekend were for yours truly. :) However, I did start a little blankie for the sprout which should be quite lovely when finished....

We picked up some slippers and a nightie and robe that I can wear in the hospital during/after delivery. The robe and slippers are for sure before. The nightie - well, we'll have to see if it still fits in a few more weeks (that belly of mine is g-r-o-w-i-n-g it seems - pictures will be forthcoming...) and we also have to take into account that I'm going to be hooked up to an IV. Either way, it should get some use. Finally, to save me a lot of time and trouble, we invested in a little MP3 player for me to put my favorite music on since music can really effect my mood. So, I now how a cute little pink MP3 player that holds plenty of music to keep me moving and grooving. I'm going to give it a bit of a trial run here at work today (if my right ear stops being stupid and feeling all stopped up).

Other than that, we packed my hospital bag and started brainstorming some ideas of food to bring to the hospital for me. Since I'm allergic to so many things, we figure we better have a pretty decent stash on hand to ensure that when I'm done helping sprout make his grand entrance I don't turn into an angry (and very hungry ogre - you may or may not know that I'm not the most pleasant individual to be around when I'm starving). So, I have to do a little preparatory baking/cooking over the next two weeks for that. I packed everything I should need and then some (including my favorite surgery buddy - a stuffed mouse whose been through all of my major surgeries with me!) and several movies to keep myself amused as well. I decided to go for cute and not too hard to follow so the doctors and nurses who get to come visit me will be amused by two Legally Blonde movies and Bring It On (I figure some cheerleading in the birthing room could be a good thing!).

Other than that, yesterday was my parents' 30th anniversary! Happy day mom and dad!

Christmas Recap...

It's almost been a week since Christmas (time flies when you're having fun!) so I guess I better get you all updated on how it went! :)

I think it is safe to say we had a very nice Christmas this year...filled with surprises and only the occasional snafu. I had the day off the Friday before and so I started preparing for guests on Christmas Day. Somehow, as is often the case, I forgot we were only having a few people over and prepared enough food for about 20 people. :)

Due to the stormy weather in Denver (which seems to be somewhat reincarnated), we had the pleasure of having Mark's parents come stay and celebrate the holiday with us beginning early Saturday morning. While they were here, we busied ourselves with home improvement projects such as replacing our kitchen sink. It is now quite nice and a big improvement over the original 20 year old faucet. I guess we won't get to enjoy a replay of my pulling the faucet handle off here...which is fine. I did that in Colorado once and it was about as much fun as pulling off the one in the bathroom. :) We also ordered closet doors for our hallway which hopefully will arrive soon. We've not had doors in our hall closet since we moved in and I am ready for that to be taken care of!

On Sunday evening, Mark's mom joined Mark and I for Christmas Eve services at church. We had a nice time watching the nativity pageant the children put on and celebrating the birth of Jesus. It was really neat having Mark's mom there with us...and we all were thinking that maybe next year our little on could be playing baby Jesus...though it is probably a long shot since we'll be relocating and such. :)

That evening, Mark and I opened one gift each...kind of a tradition we're carrying over from both of our families. He received a game called "Would You Rather..." that should probably amuse us when we have a chance to play it! As for me, I received a very nice fondue set from Williams Sonoma which will also provide plenty of amusement. In fact, it started early by providing amusement on Christmas day since Mark figured that since WS had displayed it with a candle as the fuel supply he didn't buy a sterno. :) It was quite a timely gift since we were planning on fondue for Christmas dinner!

On Christmas morning, we made oatmeal waffles and then went to see what other fun things were under the tree. Mark enjoyed his gifts which included another game, some clothing items and gift certificates for movie rentals and theater tickets (Rocky Balboa is the first movie we'll probably see with those!). Many of his gifts were centered around a theme of our getting to spend more time together and remembering to be husband and wife instead of just mom and dad when our little one comes along. The "superstar" gift that tied these all together was a date jar which has a bunch of different date ideas for us to draw on when we need some inspiration. Many are things we can do here at home for little $$ and with a baby or little child near by...Mark really loved this gift!

As for me, I received some CDs for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that we saw in concert, the Harry Potter book I need to read before the next one comes out and other nifty things. One of my favorite gifts was a choo choo train bundt pan that I had wanted but didn't get from Williams Sonoma. Since we have a little boy on the way, I think I know what his 1st birthday cake is going to be! :)

We also had some fun gifts for Mark's parents. Since we'd sent most of their gifts to Colorado, many of what they opened on Christmas were re-gifts that we thought they would enjoy....hopefully we were right. Their big "planned" surprise was the digital camera that we recently replaced. They were very happy with that once they figured out that we hadn't went out and spent a ton on a new one. :)

Christmas afternoon was a big party with the addition of our friends Kai and Tina from Sweden to our little family. They treated us to goodies from their homeland and we al enjoyed chatting and eating. Since I was pretty worn out by the time all the festivities were over, it was a good thing we had leftovers...which we're still working on. Hee hee!

As for the past week, there wasn't too much in the way of excitement. We did have a little visit with our Obstetrician and gave him a copy of the birth plan we've written up which he seemed to think would be okay even though it was very "chiropratic" oriented...I doubt he expected anything less! :)

Yesterday, since I was out at noon from work, we met up with a couple of friends - Lydia and Jeff and had a nice lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. Then we went to Target and set up a baby registry. We're planning to do one more at Babies R Us this weekend and then we should be finished with that process. We found lots of little things that we think will be quite helpful in making our little one's first year or so quite pleasant...and of course we found quite a few fun toys that we can't wait (oh, wait I mean, the baby - ha! ha!) can't wait to play with. :)

In just a bit I'll finally (with any luck) get the last ultrasound pictures up for you all...until then, we wish you a super Happy New Year! :) On New Year's Day, we'll be 1/2 way to the sprout's delivery day!

Popping in for a Recap...

Well, I've been absent for quite some time again. For some reason this working at a job where I actually have to work (whether it's my own business or someone else's), being pregnant and trying to keep up with all my normal activities and Christmas preparations is really cutting into my blogging time! ;)

So, first things first...I have made the switch. You'll probably notice some changes around here at the blog as time goes along. I have to say that I think I'm going to like this new format. I will admit that I was a wee bit scared to switch over, but several "buddies" of mine have done so and so I followed suit...if for no other reason than that I can't post any comments to their blogs. One of the features I'm definitely going to love is the label feature, though the thought of going back and labeling some 200 posts is a wee bit daunting, but then I need to go put all of them in 1st person anyhow, so maybe we'll just kill two birds with one stone there.

Anyhoo....on to what's been keeping me occupied for the last few days starting with Sunday the 10th. Wow! it really has been a long time since I've posted! This one post should make up for it - you may need to space your reading over a few days. ;)

At any rate (I'm tired, forgive me for my tangents), on Sunday of last week, we went to church and then I became a cookie-making monster. I made 11 dozen sugar cookies with peppermint glaze which I bagged and tagged (with holiday greetings) for all the sweeties at Mark's school who've helped him and are still helping him make his way to graduation (less than one year away my friends - woo hoo!). By the time I was finished with this task, I was beat. This pregnancy thing really does a number on you...

On Monday, we delivered the goodies to their recipients when I dropped Mark off at school since I needed to kill a little time prior to my dentist appointment. I find it rather amusing that right before visiting the teeth doc I was encouraging cavities in others....muwhahahaha! :) Everyone was so appreciative of the goodies...and apparently a few of Mark's classmates took the hint that buttering up teachers is never a bad thing since I've heard there've been other goodies floating around the school lately! :) As for my dental visit, I got a thumbs up. Everything is improving from the last couple of visits when the hormone therapy I was on was doing a number on my gums. So, I guess I'll keep flossin' and a-brushin'.

This, by the way, was the beginning of Mark's finals week which he wasn't too terribly nervous about, with the exception of one class which he pretty much just studied like a madman for. It appears to have paid off since he missed five on that test and garnered himself a much better grade than when he went in to the test (especially since the teacher threw out his 2nd exam after realizing that he probably only did poorly on it because a "lay" person was trying to read him the questions). All in all, the Mark passed everything to our knowledge so we're one step closer to being home. Yea!

Tuesday and Wednesday are a blur. I can't remember anything except for the fact that I was supposed to go to a Chamber of Commerce mixer on Wednesday for my biz but ended up just going home when I started feeling nauseous...no idea why, very glad it didn't amount to anything! I imagine everyone was happy that Mark and I didn't show up since they had a better chance at the door prizes...we Roccos are lucky you know! ;) Incidentally, I think Tuesday was the night that Mark was taking a case history on a former bodyguard for MC Hammer...kind of funny, huh?

On Thursday night I was in full pregnancy hormonal glory...much to Mark's dismay. Whoa nelly was I depressed, upset, etc., etc. I was just really feeling overwhelmed with life, Christmas, being a mom, etc. I guess we're all allowed our moments....mine is, thankfully, over for another spell. And, that's all there is to say about that! :)

On Friday at work, they had a little birthday celebration for me and one of my coworkers. We had sorbet for me and carrot cake for her. What is funny is that the mango sorbet (which they'd chosen after I mentioned that I'd really liked it at the Christmas party) had carrot juice in it. I think everyone was amazed that something like that would be hiding in sorbet...is it any wonder that I read labels religiously?

On my way home from work that night I picked up a few more gifts for Mark and also got some rice pasta at Whole Foods. I also bought myself a little treat since I found some fudge with walnuts that I'm not allergic to. It's really good stuff and is almost gone! :)

As for Saturday of this past weekend, we were again just crazy busy. I was making Christmas gifts (I could tell you what they are but then I'd have to kill you since some of the recipients read this blog). I'll just say it was a pretty fun process and toward the end I was getting pretty good at my technique. I can't wait to see what people think of my creations. If someone reminds me, I'll tell you all about these nifty gifties after January 5... I also mixed up another batch of cookie dough on this day and set it aside for baking later.

Mark occupied himself with shopping for my gifts. He's very efficient and finished all his shopping in one day...he even got everything wrapped. He rocks and I was impressed. He's even such a sweetheart that he got Pixie a present. I was shocked. I haven't even bought her anything (and I'm sure I'll pay for that later if I don't get it done soon - I'm going for culinary delights!) and I actually claim to like her. Methinks maybe she has a closet fan. ;)

We were supposed to go to the Carols and Lessons night at our church on Saturday night, but Mark's shopping trip didn't bring him home until it was too late to go. *sigh* I was really looking forward to it. I guess I'll just have to torture (?) him with two services on Sunday of this week - normal Sunday service and then the 5 p.m. Christmas mass. I dont' think I can make it to 11 o'clock for Midnight Mass.

Since we weren't going to make it, I tried a new cookie recipe and it flopped. It tasted great but looked, well, not so great. Luckily, men are rarely concerned with how things look and so the sweetheart that took Mark on his second shopping excursion of the day (Colby whose middle name is not Jack...yeah, he gets that a lot) was quite thrilled to go home with a nice bag of raspberry walnut floppers. I'm going to try these again sometime using the actual cookie dough that the recipe calls for rather than trying to substitute regular sugar cookie dough cuze they were actually quite tasty and I know people will like them, but that's for next year!

On Sunday because we'd stayed up really late and I was pretty much beat before even getting out of bed, we stayed home and slept in. Then we got up and made oatmeal waffles (these are the best!) and enjoyed a yummy breakfast. After that, I jumped into cookie-baker mode again and busted out 8 dozen (or so) more cookies...this time, though, I substituted jimmies (sprinkles, if you will) and colored sugar for the icing because it seemed like a good way to decrease my workload. It was, but I was still exhausted after I was all done. So, I did the smart thing and took a nap!

Then I arose, packed the gifts in boxes that needed to be shipped and put them and most of our Christmas cards (I'm a wee bit behind this year) in Mark's care for mailing on Monday. We went to the grocery store and then came home, ate dinner and I finally wrapped Mark's gifts. Our tree is looking quite cheery now. The hard part now is waiting a whole week to see how much he likes his goodies.

Oh, and the grocery store provided some annoyance since we discovered that Trader Joe's no longer carries the chicken broth that I could actually eat. This means that the one kind of canned chicken broth that I'm not allergic to isn't available soooo now I am forced to make my own. It's a good thing I didn't discard that chicken carcass from the chicken we ate this past week. *sigh*

Okay, so we're now almost caught up. Yesterday, Mark mailed the gifts and the cards. Today he went to Berkeley and hopefully made some contacts which will result in some clients. I worked.

We do have a wee bit of excitement coming up tomorrow, though. :) We'll be going in for our Level II Ultrasound which we're hopeful will give us comfort that our little baby is developing appropriately and maybe even let us in on the secret of whether or not we have a he or a she. I'm sooo looking forward to only using one pronoun. I have to admit, as awful as this may seem, that I'm pulling for a girl, though, of course, I'll still be thrilled with a little boy. :) I have to admit that part of my desire stems from the fact that we're not having a lot of luck coming up with boys names that we like...I'm sure we'll do just fine if we are informed that we better figure it out! :) Oh, and don't ask what name we're planning to give our bundle of joy. We'll share what gender we're having but the name is our little secret. :)

Other than that, the rest of the week will be spent readying ourselves for Christmas. We have at least one guest scheduled to join us for Christmas dinner which will include, as of this time, ham, cheese fondue, other dippy things and probably a caramel fondue treat for dessert...I may also do an apple crisp and ice cream. I'm pretty psyched that on Friday I don't have to go to work since the partners have decided to just give us the full day off, too...nothing like a four day weekend to make the season bright, eh?

In the unlikely event that I don't make it back to post before Christmas (I have every intention of at least telling you whether the verdict is boy, girl or still unknown), we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time Is Here

And, we're really caught up in the season it seems this year. We've been busy, busy, busy. It seems like there is never enough time in the day, the week, etc.

This week I had my 5 drops of blood taken for my AFP screening. I have to wait a bit longer for results since I'm in the middle of switching over to my employer's health plan (oh the joys of health insurance). They're holding the test for me (it's good for a year I guess - which would be a bit long to wait, I suppose) until I have some proof of insurance that they can send along to the lab so that I don't have to go through the annoyance of trying to get reimbursed since I'm now with an HMO which scares me a little, but it does seem to be quite nice for the pocket book since there isn't a deductible I have to meet this year as a result. *phew* That was Wednesday.

I really don't remember much about Thursday so it must have centered around work. I guess I did go in and get adjusted by Mark. I think we're finally on the same page so my back and leg pain seems to be decreasing. I think the missing link was that my leg bone needed to be pushed back into it's socket a bit and he and his partner in crime at the clinic thought that when I complained about my hip I was complaining about the front rather than the side. Tricky, tricky these patients can be I guess....

On Friday my office had their Christmas party. We had it at a place called Nibblers Eatery and it was fabulous...especially since the chef created a special menu just for me. Rock on. He even told me that if I wanted to come in to dine anytime just to give him a call about a week before and he'd create a menu again...just for me. Can you say this guy rocks? It really was a nice place for a light meal...though you could probably order a little more food if you were going off the menu. I am now thinking my parents-in-law may be treated to an experience at this restaurant when they come to visit...especially since I've now eaten at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club three times. It's getting a little old...even if they have been able to create three different meals for me. If you have a chance to go to this establishment, please go - it's wonderful. Tell Chef Daniel I sent you! :)

At the party, we had one of those "white elephant" gift exchanges. It was fun and thankfully, despite a bit of a scare, I was able to leave with a pretty nice gift. For quite some time there I was the proud owner of a door mat that said "Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit." Um, yeah...not exactly my style. I do have to admit that I probably would have gifted it to my grandmother if it had ended up being mine...I seriously think she would have been amused by it, but I'm glad I don't have to find out! I ended up with a nice little hanging candle lantern that I think once we have "real" house I may put in our back yard on a patio table or something....not sure. I' still need to think of it's possibilities.

Once the fun was over, I had a little extra time so I went shopping. I hit Target first where I picked up a few little odds and ends for Christmas gifts including an integral part of one of Mark's gifts. I am so thrilled with all the things I came up with for him this year. He's really going to have a fabulous Christmas...and I'm guessing the gift he'll like the best will be the one that costs me the least up front (it's also the most time-consuming of gifts, though). I am dying to tell you what it is, but loose lips take all the fun out of Christmas so just in case something might get back to the dear boy, my lips are sealed! You know you'll be the first to know what he got and how he liked it when Christmas has passed.

Once finished at Target, I made my way to the mall. I needed to pick up a belated wedding gift for our friends who got married in August and a couple of things for Mark. I was totally there on the right day. They had so many great sales going on that I ended up buying a lot more than I planned to for Mark, but most of what I got are things he needs for school and what not so I don't feel terribly guilty especially since most of the things I bought were deeply discounted. I can't wait to give them to him! Once the mall had yielded all its treasures, I headed home...exhausted and ready for some food.

Today, Mark and I attended graduation for some of his original classmates. It was a very nice ceremony. One of our favorite people, Diane, was actually valedictorian - go Diane! So that was awesome. She gave a fun speech. I'm thrilled that she's going to be practicing in Colorado Springs since I know that despite how anxious I am to move back it is going to be hard to leave all the friends we've made behind. At least we can hop a plane to visit them every-so-often (or they can visit us - I hope!).

Once we returned home, I jumped into some Christmas preparations. I made enough cookie dough for 8 dozen cookies. I need to do about one more batch of that size and I think I'll have the cookie quotient taken care of for all the people we want to bestow with gifties. Anybody who lives in the Bay Area who wants to lend a nice pregnant lady a hand with baking, please stand up...I know I'm going a bit nuts here, but I can't seem to help myself. :) I'm just all about spreading the love this year, I guess.

Then this evening, we made a little trip up to Oakland to attend a Christmas party for the Lion's Center for the Blind. We had a good time and met some people who may be helpfu to Mark not only in adjusting to his new lifestyle, but also in finding new patients for the clinic. Currently, he has 5 out patients which we're thrilled about, but we'd love it if he could get a few more so that he can make sure to get the numbers he needs. :) At any rate, the party was a great time and a nice little break from studying and baking...

And, there you have it - you're now up to date on what we've been up to the past few days! I hope you're having a nice holiday season so far...it seems to be flying by for me!