No Points for Consistency

Well, so much for my saying I was going to get back into the habit of blogging here for everyone. :) I guess I have improved somewhat...November to June vs. June to August...that's a little shorter time frame, eh? Of course, there are probably very few individuals who actually keep up with this fun little blog now-a-days because I am so utterly aweful at keeping it updated much like Nicholas' totsite...which come to think of it, I probably need to renew or it will go poof very soon. Add that to the to do list!

So what on Earth is keeping us so busy that we can't even find time to tell you?
Well, for me, the short list would be Nicholas, my Dove Chocolate business and Mark's practice in approximately that order. There are lots of fun play dates on my schedule for Nicholas as we try to get him socialized and learning at the right pace. Chocolate tasting parties are falling from the sky and, naturally, are about to multiply due to the impending holiday season. Let's hope it is very merry for us as it would be so nice to have some addiitonal cash flow. I do have some new team members joining me soon as well so that will, of course, provide another focus...I want to be sure those who start their business with me receive the training they need to hit the ground running and rock the chooclate world! As for the practice, I have decreased my involvement dramatically, but the bookkeeping and some other sundry tasks are still on my desk for now. I'm looking to pretty much wrap my involvement there since I've done what I needed to do and, in time, can step away.

For Mark, the practice and Nicholas (not necessarily in that order) seem to keep him hopping. He's been working very hard lately at devising ways to bring more patients to the clinic as well as working on some staffing solutions. Now it is just a matter of getting everyone up to speed and on the same page so that they can regrow the clinic by leaps and bounds. Whenever he's not working, Mark is very helpful at keeping Nicholas occupied so I can tackle some of the things on my plate.

As for that cute little red headed Nicholas boy (aka Mommy's little gingerbread man), he busies himself daily with just being cute and playing. His favorite activities of late have been hanging outside on the deck or down in the yard, venturing over to the park and going next door to play with various little children that come to visit. He is very tall and did I mention that he is just cute as can be? He certainly gets a lot of kisses and hugs from us....thankfully, he likes to give them as well and they've become much less sloppy, but I kind of liked the sloppy kisses, I do have to admit. They're fine as long as they involve my little guy and not a dog.

Speaking of the dog, Charlotte is doing okay. She and Mark are having a few disagreements lately over how she should behave and work, but that is to be expected from an animal that pretty much acts like a teenager and tests her limits every chance she gets. She and I tolerate each other. I have a difficult time having an animal that isn't a bird or a fish inside again (the kitties staying inside was pretty much pushed aside the first time I saw a cat hair in baby Nicholas' mouth).

Speaking of kitties, it looks like we are without. Pixie disappeared a ocuple of months ago. I was really hoping she would resurface, but so far not so. I do hope she is okay and just being loved on by someone else. It makes me very sad as she was such a sweet kitty and I was looking forward to having her back around whenever we are done with the renting stage, but I guess we'll either a) have to get another cat (I vote black or Siaamese!) or b) do without. I think if given the choice, I'd go for a parakeet. I miss the singing from Woodstock...not sure I'd go for a larger bird again. They seem a little dangerous now that I have a little boy running around and truth be told, I just am not in need of noise. I need quiet and parrots are certainly not in that category!

As far as specific events, we did celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary on July 31. That was fun...we began listening to a lecture on fingernail and tongue analysis and ended up at Emergicare where Nicholas experienced his first set of stiches. It took 4 of us to hold the little guy down. The reason for our trip? He ran into a glass table at the lecture venue and cut a spot below his eyebrow open. He is really a rough and tumble little kid. It took a little getting used to seeing all the scars and stuff on him. I guess he couldn't stay perfectly unblemished forever....but I certainly loved it when he didn't have any reminders of all the owies he's experienced.

Well, that is a brief update of where we are. Perhaps as I am working on streamlining my activities, I will continue to improve on my blogging here. Sadly, I think it will be more of the same if I do as I am not nearly as diligent at writing about the cute little thing Nicholas did from day to day. I just try to enjoy them and live life...it's not as good for blogging, but it certainly helps me stay in the present and that is probably worth it all! Blessing to you - have a sweet day!

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! :)

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!

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!

Way to Go Mark!

The results are in - Mark passed his Part IV Exams! Can we get a woo hoo? Doctor Rocco is one step closer to emerging! Our thanks to Nicholas for not coming during daddy's testing weekend. Your patience has been rewarded!

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!

And Now...

The rest of the story...

The next morning the day began with a pitocin drip and a wonderful process called breaking my water. All I can say is I will be wary of crochet hook looking things in the hands of others for a bit. And so, the real fun began...

Contractions. Fun? Not really. In this case, even less so because every time I had one, Nicholas' heart rate decelerated...not a good thing. I tolerated them by getting up and moving around with the help of Mark and a good friend of mine, Cassie (who was made an "honorary Auntie" due to her role in the birthing process). We made it to 13ml/hr. of pitocin (I may be off on my units here, but go with me) at which point the baby's heart rate was really decelerating and so they stopped the drip, ordered me back to bed and started monitoring again.

At this point, the doctor came in and discussed with us our options: 1) get an epidural and try the pitocin drip again to see if a normal delivery was possible or 2) get an epidural and go in for a C-Section. As I see it, going in for a C Section was pretty much a last resort sort of thing so I opted to try the pitocin again. Lemme just tell you how much I hate epidurals - it wasn't pleasant at all. The part I didn't care for the most was that I felt paralyzed from the waste down. I don't know if this is normal, but I did...though Mark and Cassie assured me that I could wiggle my toes when I tried despite not feeling them wiggling. Enough on that, though.

So, we began the drip again and this time I was forced to lay, yet again, on my right side so they could monitor the baby and I most effectively (is it any wonder that my right side was terribly sore the next day - my shoulder was totally the worst). This turned out to be a waste of time. They gradually increased the dose and we waited to see what would happen. In a word, nothing. At 10 ml/hour (3 away from where we'd ended the first round), I was having no contractions...none. Furthermore, I had not dialated any further...2 cm was still the call.

After some contemplation regarding the implications surrounding us, we decided to call the doctor in and discuss the C option. After learning that, given all factors present, we had a 5% chance of actually making it through a normal delivery, and after considering how long it was going to take to even get to the delivering part, we decided to go for the C-Section. Apparently, this was a good decision since, about two minutes later, little Nick's heart rate started decelerating rapidly with no contraction present.

What this meant for me, though, was that instead of being prepped and taken to surgery in a calm way, I was rushed with shouts and all manner of excitement (if I've said it once, I've said it a million times - excitement is WAY overrated). And, of course, as luck would have it, once they got me there, everything stabalized.

So, they got everything ready to go and Mark and Cassie came into the OR and away we went! Once baby Nicholas was taken out of my tummy (which I am so grateful Cassie actually took pictures of the event - a little bloody perhaps, but oh so magical!), Mark helped to cut the unbilical cord (which, by the way, we found out from the cord blood people, they like to get 100 million cells and Nick's had 190 million - go him!) and then he was bundled up and given to me to say hello. I held him, best as I could for a bit, and then let him go see daddy because I just didn't feel like he was very stable where he was and it made me nervous. Then Mark, Cassie and Nicholas went for bathing and screening and I "hung out" with my doctor and the rest of the staff to get stitches and such...

We all met up again in my recovery room where Nick and I made our first attempt at breast feeding. We did pretty well all things considered I think. Then we returned to our room for some much needed R&R and bonding time.

With that, I'll take another pause for a nap (I'm just absolutely exhausted at the moment) and try to get back here soon to give you some of the details of our time in the hospital as well as what's gone on since we left! 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!

Five Bits of Food Do Not a Meal Make

Unless you're pregnant apparently. Yes, I know, the statement defies all logic, but it is true. I haven't had a meal that I actually *ate* an adult-size portion in what seems like forever. It's actually only been a couple of weeks, but it is definitely already old...especially since we cook dinner every night and I can barely eat it. I'm not a big fan of leftovers but that's basically how I get to have dinner...as lunch the next day.

So that's one of the latest developments as far as our pregnancy goes. Otherwise, we hit 32 weeks on Monday of this week which means we're cruising in our 8th month now. Can you say wow? Time has really flown. And, despite the fact that it is still small compared to most of my pregnant friends' bellies at this stage, my belly has grown quite a bit as well. I need to get the latest picture up soon...

We've acquired more baby stuff over the past week or so including a mattress some additional cute outfits that I couldn't resist - my favorite is a little shorts set with a cute little crab and sheets and other bedding stuff. I also got a nursing video which was helpful. I'm just not sure how all that is going to work out...my "girls" are admittedly quite small still. I never even had to get a maternity bra (yes, I realize this is more info than you wanted - sorry, I'll stop). At any rate, I figure babies and breasts were pretty much made for each other so little sprout and I will figure it out.

Mark is on break this week though he still spends a lot of time at the clinic. He's going to be a very busy guy this next quarter as he's trying to get as many classes in as possible so that we can avoid daycare once I return to work after my maternity leave. It looks like I won't be leaving for that until about a week before my due date or our induction date (we're still contemplating whether to go this route or not) because I want us to not have to worry about our financial status while I'm away. I do receive some state benefits while on my leave, but they're not nearly as good as that salary I can earn when I'm at the office. At any rate, it looks like I'll probably be back at work by August 20...

Other than that, we have our next OB appointment tomorrow morning. I believe this is the beginning of the "less modest" visits that we moms-to-be enjoy. I can't say that I'm looking forward to that, but I guess it's just part of the deal...and so I'll deal. :) I don't really expect any real earth shattering news to come from this visit - it's still a bit early for anything "exciting" to be happening so there may not be an update afterwards. We shall see! What I can offer those of you who are privvy to the logon particulars for the sprout's special site is that there is a new poll up that is a little more on the light-hearted, fun side of things. The plan is that I'll be introducing a new poll each week (or two or three or whenever I get around to changing it!) to just see how well the masses can predict our little guy's movements as we get closer and closer to his joining us outside of the womb. This week's topic - what day of the week do you think he'll arrive? I can't wait to see the responses!

One Hundred Days?!?

Wow! That counter over there on the side bar says that it's only 100 more days until Baby Rocco, the Sprout, the Sweet Pea, Rocky, ********, will be here! (How you like them stars? I'm just sort of taunting you now, aren't I?). It's pretty hard to believe that we're so far along here...

That said it has been a somewhat eventful week here in Roccoland. We started our progress off last week with our usual trip to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. This has become tradition with us...and it's a good one on several levels. It's healthy (well, for the most part if you don't count the whole ice cream fest at the end of the meal), it isn't terribly expensive and it helps keep me feeling fine on several levels. During this particular lunch we actually accomplished something aside from feeding our faces, though. It is decided...the baby has a first name. Go us! :) Of course, I don't actually plan to tell you what it is until he is here with us, but at least you can rest easy that he won't be signing his checks as "The Sprout" when he's 30-something...and hating us every minute of every day. ;)

As for the middle name, we're still contemplating. We have four names that we like. Two of which seem to be the front runners since Mark technically gets more weight when it comes to choosing this one since it will be of Hawaiian origin. I like one of the names better than the other, buuuuuut I have a hang up with the one name we both kind of like...I don't particularly like writing the first letter of this name. Yep, you've contemplated it for some time and now you know it to be true...I'm a wee bit eccentric. :) I have a feeling that the favorite name will win out despite my "issues" since in all honesty the most frequent use of our little one's middle name will be the whole you are so in trouble first, middle and last name at once use. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...more to come on the name game when we have made more progress.

Another thing we accomplished this week was that we ordered the sprout's crib. We decided ultimately to go with an inexpensive but highly rated model (per our Baby Bargains book which is based upon parent reviews primarily). We ordered it from Sears because we figured that the extra money we'd spend to get it from there was worth the time and money we'd save if we needed to return it. since we could return it to the store. I have sent Sear's a little email to see if maybe we can get a little money back as a result of their price matching policy since we could have ordered it cheaper from Target (but no in store returns there). It's a simple crib in white which does, I believe, convert to a day bed. Now we just have to get a mattress and maybe some bedding...

Speaking of bedding, I do really like the set I found, but I am mulling whether we'll actually go that route. I go through stages. Sometimes it seems a little more logical and financially savvy to just buy separates in solid colors. I guess we'll see where we ultimately go.

We've hit another milestone with respect to my whole pregnancy experience as well....I have a cold. Thankfully, it seems to be rather mild and the ear ache that I was having yesterday seems to have been abated, but nevertheless, I have one. It seems that every pregnant woman I've know or know has had a cold at some point during their pregnancy so I guess it's just one of those rights of passage. I just hope mine stays manageable since most colds I've had result in my hacking and coughing the night away until the doctor dopes me up with codeine cough syrup...which isn't really an option right now.

The last development for the week in the world of baby madness is that my office threw a lovely baby shower for me. I was very appreciative since I wasn't sure I'd really have one otherwise. They gave us some great gifts including a nice china setting made especially for kids for special occasions. It has a luncheon sized plate, a bowl and a little cup with a barn yard animal theme...so terribly cute. We also were given the full set of Beatrix Potter books that came out recently and that I thought were so awesome when I saw them on Martha Stewart's show. I'm sure the sprout, daddy and I will all have a blast reading these cute stories. The two partners in my firm pitched in for a nice Babies R Us gift card and my supervisor and a co-worker picked up some great necessities at Target for us including an adorable layette set that I can't wait to put baby in. :) One final gift came from an intern at our office whom I've given a ride home to a couple of times. It is the cutest little outfit with a pair of pants and a zip-up cardigan. I love it. I definitely appreciate how sweet they were to me!

In non-baby news, tax season is going well for me and school seems to be going well for Mark. I've already worked about 20 hours worth of overtime. I have opted to bank my first 80 hours so that if I return to work I'll have some time off for if baby's sick or what have you. I, of course, would prefer not to return to work, but I don't want to close any doors so I'm keeping my options open on that one. I just may see if we can go down to 2 days per week...

And, that is about it for us. I hope you all enjoy a great week!

Buddah Shots

So to begin today's post, I have a little equation for you:

Tax Job + Pregnant = No Time/Energy to Post :)

This pretty much sums up why I've not made a sound for two weeks now and why you probably won't hear too much from me until after April 17...especially since this is my last Saturday when I am not required to be in the office. Not a lot has actually gone on during that time, but we'll give you an update on the high and perhaps low points anyhow. We'll start with the pregnancy-related stuff.

First thing's first, we have an extremely active little boy...or perhaps fish swimming around in that belly of mine. It's quite amusing when he really gets going which, from what I've noticed is about mid-morning, mid-afternoon and then shortly before I call it a night and head to bed. I'm sure he's active during the night time at some point, but since I'm sleeping and he's not yet quite big enough to wake me up with his baby gymnastics moves, I can't tell you for sure. I read somewhere that the baby's activity in the womb is an indicator of what you'll be dealing with when he's outside of it. If so, I'm going to be one busy little beaver of a mommy which is good since I can't think of any better way to pass the time. ;)

In addition to enjoying knowing there is a little being in there and that I'm not just indulging a bit too much in twinkies (which honestly I haven't had a one of, but man would I like to!), I have had the pleasure of experiencing two other pregnancy joys - the nose bleed and the soppy sneeze . They're both a little annerving. If you're a woman and you've been pregnant (or if you're not), I'll let you figur out the sneezing thing as I don't really feel like spelling it out for you. As for the nose bleed, it was a little annerving.

Thankfully, I've been doing my homework re this whole process and I didn't freak out about it, but that feeling of something trickling just isn't one I enjoy. We have since mitigated the problem for the most part by investing in a pretty decent humidifier which we run in the couple of hours before bedtime in the bedroom (I'd never get to sleep if we ran it all night) and which follows me out to the living area during the weekend. Since I haven't had an incidence since last weekend before we brought the humidifier out to the living room, I think we've nipped it in the bud! Oh, and I seemed to have nipped the other problem as well after some advice from some friends regarding how to manage it. :)

On Monday of this week, I had my last (because I passed!) test for this little pregnancy experience. I took my one hour glucose tolerance test to see if I had devleoped gestational diabetes. I'm happy to say that I am perfectly fine and that my doctor has let us know that since I passed all my tests, I'm cleared to have the baby. What a relief...I don't think he's going to want to stay in there forever (and I don't think I want him to either!). At any rate, the test was kind of amusing since I really am not much of a sugar junkie anymore (I still love sugary foods, but I try to go easy on them). I drank that syrupy orange otter pop tasting drink and within a few minutes felt like I could easily bounce off the walls. I wasn't the only one...you would have thought there was a pinball game going on down in my belly. It was pretty funny to feel the baby's first huge sugar rush...especially since he couldn't get into too much trouble given his location! ;)

I did have my monthly check up on Thursday and that went well. The little sprout made thing easy for the doctor to check his heart beat and we had a few questions answered...including one regarding cord blood. We've been planning on saving our baby's umbilical cord blood, but I just really wanted another perspective from someone who I figured actually knew about it. Now I am feeling that this is definitely something we should do.

In non-pregnancy news, I have started posting recipes to our recipe group again in response to the whole computer dying thing. I was fortunate to have a rather old backup of some Mastercook recipe books I had of our family recipes and such and I've printed out a lot of the recipes I enjoy as I go along. So, if you're looking for something to eat, or if you have something yummy you think others would enjoy eating, sign up using the button at the bottom of the lefthand side bar over there. We'd love to have you! :)

In other computing news, I'm happy to report that the geeks at Best Buy have had success with my computer's hard disk recovery. That means I didn't lose all my business files, my pictures, my financial data, etc. afterall. *PHEW* The whole thing scared me enough that I ponied up for an external hard drive for them to put all my stuff on, though...now I won't have an excuse to not backup my important things periodically. It's going to set me back about $600 for the whole process, but it is so worth it and given my next topic, I'm not out too much money in a net instance.

With regard to that I have solved an issue that was plaguing me a little bit - I finally got a hold of the bridal fair people and am getting at least part of my money back for the bridal faire I just don't really want to participate in...especially since I can't really do much as far as setting up wedding clients anyhow. I'm not even sure if I will continue with that business. We've actually been talking about me maybe (and for those of you who know me very well...especially those of you who've worked with me and have enjoyed one of my "diva" moments with regard to this subject!) taking up a little bookkeeping once the baby is here to earn a little extra money and still be able to stay home. From working at my current firm, I can totally see how my offering such a service at a reasonable rate (TBD but not less than my hourly rate at my current job) would benefit a lot of people and, in the long run, save them money. The overhead costs shouldn't be too much and finding clients should be somewhat simple given my contacts with other CPAs. So, we'll see what we do with that.

One last little tidbit that I'm excited about as far as this week goes is that I ordered a bunch of goodies that I found that I'm not allergic to! I found them at the gluten free mall online and I can't wait until they arrive. There's a cake mix, cookie mixes, boxed mac 'n cheese (don't laugh...if you can't have it starts sounding really good!), already baked cookies, snack bars and even cornbread and pizza crust mixes. It should be fun to try them all out and see which ones will become favorites in our house!

And now, as a little surprise for some of you and to fulfill requests made by others, the section of the post which was alluded to by the post's title. For those who know Mark and I in "real life," my belly and sometimes the belly/baby combo are referred to as "the Buddah" and I have been documenting its progress as time goes on. I have some 'issues' with putting pictures of one of the parts of my body I'm not usually comfortable with on the internet, but just this once (and maybe from this point on as we continue to grow and get closer to our due date) I thought I'd give you a peek at my belly and how it's developed.

I am actually kind of amazed looking back at these pictures just how big I've gotten. Here I was just yesterday telling a buddy of mine that I look like I've just indulged in a few too many twinkies (yes, it is one of my favorite lines), but um, after looking at these shots, I'm thinking maybe I've moved past the a few to an entire warehouse full. My goodness! At any rate, give me a little slack with these because I took them, in most cases either early in the morning when getting ready for work (yes, you get to see some of my cutie maternity clothes!) or after I'd gottne dressed on Saturday and Sunday mornings after showering. So my hair isn't gorgeous, I rarely have makeup on and I may look a little scary...maybe it's a good thing for once that you'll be focusing on my belly. ;)

Without further ado...my preggie-morphosis:

The first shot I currently have is from November 11 when I was 12 weeks along. I may have an earlier one, but it is currently with the Best Buy folks...

And, here's another from 11/12:



















Here's one from my birhday (12/1 - as you remember I was recovering from sickies and yet it's one of my better pictures):


















Here's one from 12/8:


















And, one from 12/15 (around week 17 I think):


















Here's the one opportunity the world will have to see my belly sans clothing (also from 12/15):


















Here's a pic from 12/26:



















And, one from January 4 (week 20 - the halfway point!):


















Another from 1/12 (week 21):


















Yet another from 1/24 (earlier this week - week 23):


















And last but not least...here's what I look like as of today! :)




















and a front view just because I don't have any others really.



















Hopefully I don't look too ghastly in those photos up ther but at least you can see that I'm defintiely pregnant. You can also see that I have a knack for dressing in the same clothing to take pictures and that for the most part, my maternity clothes (at least I hope) do not scream - I'M HAVING A BABY to the world which was rather important to me when I picked them out cuz I like a few of them enough that I probably will keep them in the wardrobe even after I'm not. But who knows, I still have several weeks to wear those and only those clothes and I may be just plain old sick and tired of them by the end of this adventure!

I hope you all have a nice week or two - I'll try to get back to post as soon as I am able. Until then, the little sprout sends a couple of kicks out to all of you (seriously...he just did!). :)

Nine Days...

As opposed to nine months of course. I'm actually, if you're counting about ready to move into week 22 of my little experience with pregnancy. The past couple of weeks haven't been too awful on that front. My biggest complaint is that I'm just so darn tired so often.

At any rate, this has been quite the whirlwind of a week plus to be sure. Lots and lots of things are going on....some wonderfully pleasant and others, well, not so much. I guess that's just life, though, huh?

So, first up, I don't think I mentioned in my last post that my dreams of an office to myself were crushed. It totally stunk finding out that I was going to be put in a cubicle while a younger person who was promoted to senior auditor shortly after I started but who's been with the company longer would be getting the office that I'd been told would probably be mine. It was a bummer especially since the audit staff is out of the office so much, but whatever. I was able, at least, to talk them into letting me stay where I am so I am still sharing an office with another lady who is nice but gets on my nerves often...at least it's only for a few more months.

Tax season is upon us and my work load has increased quite a bit which means I'll definitely not be posting super regularly, but I'm still shooting for once a week here if there is something worth posting about. We have an "issue" with doing our taxes currently which just isn't fun at all either (I'm trying to get all the "bad" news out first so we can dwell more on good news later!). That would be that my computer has died. My hard disk is fried and so now I have signed my life away - or at least up to $1600 (no, I didn't back it up....I was in the process believe it or not when the stupid thing finally said it gave up) to send said hard disk to a restoration company that will hopefully rescue countless pictures of importance (thankfully most of our pictures through 2005 are on a disk somewhere), family recipes (though this is suspect because I'm not sure exactly where I put these for storage and I have a funny feeling they're going to be missed - sigh - glad a lot of them got posted to our recipe exchange site), every business file I ever created for my wedding business and most importantly, our financial data (!) for the past couple/few years. This alone is worth that $1600 price tag...and more. The thought of having to recreate those records makes me shudder. I think maybe I'll back my computer up a little more often once I get it back. That is a bit of good news - we did have a service plan so the dead hard disk will be replaced free of charge.

So, I think that about covers all the not-so-pleasant items on the docket...let's move on shall we?

Mark's parents came for their "parting" visit on Friday, Jan. 5. It was nice to have them around again. His dad busied himself with various minor repairs around the house which seem to have been successful with the exception of the caulking which I redid yesterday since a good portion of it had come off...probably because we needed to use the shower prior to the 36 hour period you're supposed to wait was up. My "redo" isn't nearly as nice as his job was since I've never done it before, but it looks "good enough" as Mark would say and it's getting it's 36 hours of dry time since we had notice of it so it should be fine (though I'm cringing today that I can't get a shower in...grr!).

The rest of us did a lot of galavanting (per Mark's terminology) last weekend including visiting Babies R Us to finish up our registry which we're thrilled to have done because now we know what it is that we want for our little guy. The simple knowledge that we don't have to pour over strollers and car seats and what have you anymore makes me one happy camper. The tricky part now is that we just have to start buying the stuff....we figure we'll do a little at a time.

And, I've already started! I actually bought baby's first article of clothing this past week at Old Navy. They had the cutest little sleeper with owls and mushrooms (why these go together I'm not sure in case you wonder as Mark did) that I picked up for around $4. I also had another little whirl at baby clothes shopping at Babies R Us this past Friday where they had a lot on clearance with an additional 30% off. I found about 10 pieces (most are separate tops and bottoms since Pat (Mark's mom) clued me into the fact that separate tops and bottoms mean quicker diaper changes. I spent a little over $40 so I am feeling pretty psyched about the experience. Most of the clothes I bought are for when the sprout is a bit older (in 3/6 mo. and 6/9 mo.). We kind of have a feeling our little guy is going to waste no time growing and so we're not planning to invest in a lot of newborn clothing...

In addition to finishing up the registry, we also went to a store called Lullabye Lane and found a crib that we really like. It's made by a company called Munire who comes highly recommended and converts into a toddler bed and a full size bed when the time comes. We are still contemplating whether or not we want to wait to get it until after we move just so it doesn't get banged up in the process.

In other furniture news, we actually have purchased a dresser for baby! We found one at Ikea last night (after Mark's neurology class which was nearby) for $59...on sale from $150. It is pine (an easily dinged and damaged wood) so we may not keep it forever but we couldn't pass it up the great deal especially given the fact that this chest of drawers has a fold out changing table on top of it. It is basically perfect. We were glad we found it, but if not, there was a suitable $30 changing cart that we were going to get to make due with. So now I have something to put together....

And, let's see, it's sort of related to furniture so for those of you who know about the Consumer Reports car seat study, we have done our homework and will be getting a seat that passed the tests. We originally had chosen the Graco Safe Seat which we were going to combine with a little stroller attachment to use until the baby outgrew his infant car seat at which time we were planning on moving to a Peg Perrego stroller and a convertible car seat. Since the Peg Perrego car seat seems to have passed the tests as long as safety belts rather than the LATCH system are used to secure it (and we're not even sure our car has the LATCH system) we're just going to go for that seat with the Centro stroller and we'll be just fine.

And, finally, we hit another milestone on Friday with respect to our little one - I felt him move! Since then, I've picked up the weird little feelings of his synchronized swimming moves off and on. He was especially active this morning after my breakfast of oatmeal waffles with blueberry sauce (yum!) - apparently I wasn't the only one who really liked them. ;)

I hope you all have a nice week. I am now off to finish taking down what little bit of Christmas decor I haven't yet while Mark is at his second day of Neurology study stuff (I think I get the better deal here, but he actually enjoys this a lot). I also get to go for groceries, do laundry and try to relax since tomorrow is sure to be a taxing (ha ha ha - CPA humor rears its ugly head!) day. :)

Lunch with Joe Montana

Been there. Done that. :)

Yep, I chose the restaurant to have lunch with my recruiting team wonderfully yesterday as Mr. Joe Montana was there as well. He was the next table over from us. Pretty cool, huh? We didn't pester him so I have no pictures or wise quips to share, but nevertheless it was a highlight of my day....even though I care little for football. :)

One other quick update and then I have to run to work. I think we can say Mr. Skeeter did get one good punch in. The blood that was in the little bugger was probably mine. I have a huge bite on the right side of my face. It's quite obnoxious, but eventually it will be gone and I will have won the war.

Have a fabulous weekend!

It's Going...

Well, my first week at work was okay. I have to say that I like where I work, but I hate the commute and I'm pretty sure I was right about my tolerance for accounting being pretty much used up. C'est la vie...work I must so that I can provide for my family. I can't wait until Mark can take over.

Speaking of Mark, I may have already told you, but it bears repeating - he passed his second set of chiropractic board exams. Yea! Only two more sets to go until he's all done - he'll have Part III in March and Part IV in May. If all goes well, he'll be finished up by the end of December at which time we're still pretty sure we'll return to Colorado Springs...but things can always change. I sure hope they don't, though...I miss home.

As for other "stuff" to chat about, I made crackers today. They turned out pretty well and will allow me to enjoy some goodies I got today without having to resort to allergy foods. I do want to try one more recipe before I pronounce these "the ones," though. :) Also, I've broken a vow...I'm sorry and I won't make the mistake of making it again. Tonight for dinner we had spaghetti...with marinara sauce. I know, I know...I said I wouldn't give into allergy-food cravings. I'm weak. I admit it. I was hoping things would go a little better...

As luck would have it, they seem to be slightly better - I don't feel the need to toss my cookies...yet. It's an improvement. I do unfortunately have a bit of asthma and a very tingly tongue, though. I really gotta go find out more about those allergy curing techniques I've heard about....

Final bit of news - tonight we wandered around our community and talked to residents about Mark's school and receiving care. We met some great neighbors and a couple of them seem to be great contacts for Mark...our favorite is a guy who is president of a union. If you need some nice affordable chiropractic care, give Mark a call - he's anxious to help as many people as he can!

He Passed!

Yes, dear friends and family, it is official! Mr. Mark is one step closer to being Dr. Mark - how cool is that?! :)

We just saw his scores this morning and we are both on cloud nine. The only thing that tempers the joy is that some of Mark's classmates didn't fare as well...

Today's the big day for taping the Startup Nation elevator pitch segment. :) I'm doing my best to run through "my lines" so that I'm ready to wow Jeff, Rich and the rest of the gang.

And, today is countdown to bridal fair day, too. Lots of little things need to be wrapped up like buying some photo frames creating some signs and checking in on our web site prospects (unfortunately, there may be an issue with transferring the domain name....*sigh*) so it may not be up in time for the show participants, but I'm hopeful. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

A Tribute to Uncle Bob and Aunt Ruth...

Sad news in Roccoland today. We just learned that around 1ish Colorado-time, MeLissa Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob died in a fatal car accident. Rather than lament their passing, we're going to celebrate their lives with happy memories and stories. And, to do so, MeLissa's popping back into first person because it's just weird to write in the third about your beloved aunt and uncle.

These two people whom I spent more time with as a child than most children have a chance to spend time with are dear to me despite their flaws. I won't say that sometimes I was very frustrated over those flaws, but despite them, they loved me and they were people I could count on if ever in need. They were so good to my family, too. I don't remember ever feeling anything but acceptance and love from them and I appreciate that so much.

When I was young, I remember they lived in a house on a street which I can not remember (Parmenter maybe?), but I remember the house and would recognize it should I ever drive by. My aunt and uncle let me come stay and play with them. My aunt taught me how to macrame. I believe it was she who helped me finish my first plant hanger... I also remember baking cookies and even finding a snake (of which I was deathly afraid - just a garter snake, but still!) with her.

I remember that when my family fell on difficult times (when weren't times difficult actually?), they graciously accepted us as guests for Thanksgiving. I remember my aunt's pumpkin roll...a dream come true of a dessert that we could never get enogh of. And then, there was that mocha cinnamon cake. Can you say to die for? We never left hungry when we came to visit my aunt and uncle...

When I left for college, I remember the sweetness of my Aunt Ruth. She corresponded with me for a while to help me feel closer to home. I still have some of the letter, I think...

As I got older, I rarely saw them...only when I came home to visit if they happened to stop in at my father's appliance store to visit. We also were able to see them for a short time at our home-town reception for our wedding in Lamar the day after the wedding. That was the last time I saw them.

My heart is heavy knowing I'll have to wait until I go to heaven to see them again. The circumstances of their passing are not clear so I also feel sad that we have no guarantee that they died quickly and without suffering. All that we know is my uncle was thrown from the truck and it rolled. In their memory, I ask you to be cautious when driving, slow down and wear your seatbelt at all times. Do it not only for yourself, but your family.

Enjoy the fluffy clouds and sunshine and labor no more dear Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob - you will be missed by many. Thanks for your kindness and the fond memories you leave behind.

Haunted by a Dowl

A quote from Mark this morning: "Sometimes if you listen quietly, you can hear the sounds - the sounds of the dowl."

Yes, we dear friends and family, have a dowl at our house. Not familiar with the dowl are you? Pull up a chair and acquaint yourself....

The dowl is half dove and half owl. It came into existence many moons ago, but was only recently discovered by us. We originally thought we had an owl at our house. It said "hoo hoo" every morning and frequently in the evening also. We thought it was cool, but we never saw him. Then one day, while at work, MeLissa heard the familiar call, looked up and saw a dove in a tree...no owls in sight. She relayed this to Mark who wouldn't hear of it. He insisted we have an owl. Not really much fun to squabble about a bird (though in the days of Robin, we have done so) and so we just let it be...until one day, MeLissa heard the faint call of the "owl" outside the house, looked up and saw a dove...just like the one she saw at work. Mark still wouldn't hear of it and so we compromised as any happily married couple would and began referring to our little friend as the dowl. Perhaps if you visit us, you too will have the calming experience (or the frustration if our friend decides to coo or hoo at a much too early hour!).

In other news, today is MeLissa's last day at work and Mark's last day of finals! He's retaking his clinic entrance. They snipered him with a bunch of radiology questions he wasn't expecting and didn't study for. No worries, we're sure he'll ace it this time around! In preparation for his test, we did a bit of studying this morning and, in the process, made Pixie a little confused and a bit silly. MeLissa's watch happened to catch the sun and create a reflection on the ceiling that caught the eye of the dear Pixie cat. She was quite frustrated that she couldn't reach it. Throughout our short study session, as the light moved in response to MeLissa turning a page or whatever, Pixie chased and cavorted as best as she could. We think we need to find her laser light pen again...

This evening, rather than celebrating like we probably should (we will eventually, but there's bills to pay and less income to pay them with right at the moment!), we're going to visit the pet store. Pixie needs a new litter box (this is exciting isn't it - not everything can be as intriguing as the dowl, you know!) to prevent her from pottying outside of it. For some reason, she is having an issue understanding that she needs to get her little booty fully into the box, lately. We're very glad we have a plastic mat up next to her box to prevent her from ruining the carpet. At least she actually tries to use the box...

We hope you all have a great weekend if we don't make it back to post again. We're heading to Colorado this coming Tuesday so it will probably be a bit calm around here for a while... :)