Pictures-a-Plenty

As usual, blogger just wouldn't cooperate last night. I guess we'll see if it's feeling a little more amiable this morning - it looks like we have pictures! :) Without further a-do...

In our first little view here, you can see that baby has a cute little nose and mouth...I could look at these all day. If we have a girl, I hope she gets my nose. It's such a silly thing but it is one of my favorite features. :)









Here's one of my "hmmm, where did all the space go" shots. If you look you can see a little baby arm on the left side there going up to his/her little head. Too cute for more words except to say that this picture was taken as the roll of ultrasound tape was running out hence the crooked bottom edge!







Here's another good view from the side. Funny thing about all of these pictures except the first one was that they had the wrong patient name on them. If I hadn't been there (which obviously I had to be, I guess) or paying attention, I would have thought they were the wrong baby pictures. You can rest assured though they are of our little guy/gal!





Our final pictures is yet another head scratching view...from the side this time around. Still utterly adorable...I can't wait until I can cuddle this little baby in my arms. :)

Feeling Deprived?

I haven't posted in quite sometime have I? I have to admit that there just hasn't been much going on this week. I did have a visit for an ultrasound/finger prick blood test to screen the baby for Down Syndrome and other disorders. Based upon the ultrasound things seem to be looking fine, but definitive results won't be in until later. As I'm sure you can guess - ultrasound = pictures. They were pretty generous so I have five pics to share today.

Our little one is looking like a human now. :) He/she (still don't know yet what we're having!) was striking some cute poses as you'll soon see. My favorites are the ones where he/she's scratching his/her little head wondering where all the room went. This is because on the day of this lovely screen I was having mild (thankfully) contractions. The doctors and nurses told me it was perfectly normal and that my body is just practicing for the birth process. Fine by me...as long as I don't have to endure pain yet!

Let's see in other news, I'm finally sporting just a wee bit of a baby belly. If you know I'm pregnant you can barely tell, if you don't you think I'm hitting the twinkies a bit too hard (which proves you're totally out of the loop since I'm allergic to them...alas!). Yeah, twinkies are sounding good...yet another allergy-laden craving that I'm resisting. There have been so many I won't even bore you!

One thing that is sort of "exciting" with respect to the whole food situation is I actually found a cracker recipe I like. It's for oat crackers and if they're rolled thin enough and baked to just the right state, they taste like a cross between a triscuit and a wheathin. Yummy. I've been enjoying them all week long and I think I might just make some more! :)

Okay, okay...enough chattering (or Jibba Jabba as Mr. T would say - have you seen his new show on TV Land? It's quite a trip...we love it!) - let's get onto those baby pictures! :) I'm not sure these scans are quite as nice as previous ones, but we take what we can get, right? :)

So here's picture number 1 of our little girl or guy. You can see the head to the left, the arm toward the bottom, etc.

Well as is all too often the case, blogger is now not cooperating so I'll bring this post to a close and try to get pictures into another. *sigh*

Scouting for Furnishings...

We decided to make good use of our time today by visiting Babies R Us and having a good look at the options available for baby furniture. Our primary focus at this point was to see what options were out there as far as strollers, cribs, changing tables and dressers. We were pretty pleased with what is available.

Perhaps the thing we like best is that many cribs now can be converted (at the appropriate time and with the addition of some rails) into daybeds and/or toddler beds and then full-size beds. Perfectamundo! Spending a few hundred dollars on a piece of furniture that will maybe work for a couple of years - not so much fun. Spending a few hundred dollars on furniture that can last the little tyke for most of his/her formative years - very cool. :) So anyhow, we have a few that we like better than others as is typical and as time draws nearer we'll figure out what it is we ultimately want to do!

Other than that, Mark finally got all the equipment the Department of Rehab has been promising to help him with school. We're pretty excited about all of that. One of the niftiest things is a GPS system that will help him get around...isn't that neat?

Work continues to go okay. It's usually tolerable and sometimes quite annoying but at least I've tackled the commute problem which did improve my mood somewhat. Nevertheless, I'm still planning to find ways to get into full-time motherhood and out of the rat race (again!) as quickly as possible.

Final little tidbit - I'm going in this week for a Nuchal Translucency scan to check for Down's Syndrome. We're not too worried about this sort of thing, but since they do scan for other things, we figured it would be good to do just in case so we can plan appropriately. That's on Wednesday...otherwise, not too much baby excitement this week (well, other than the fact that we are starting to see just a wee bit of a "baby buddah belly" as Mark calls it).

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!

MeLissa vs. the Skeeter!

I've frequently said that excitement is very much over-rated. For those who've not yet heard my reasoning, take for example a car accident. It can be very exciting....and yet it's just not so good. Same thing about a swarm of bees chasing you - exciting indeed, but not good. Now, of course, there are plenty of things that are exciting and good, but well, just go with me on this!

So, when I tell you there was a wee bit of excitement in our household early this morning, please understand that we're speaking along the same lines. Also know, though, that we won't have similar excitement this next sleep cycle unless a) my nemesis is reincarnated or b) another takes his/her place.

Have you ever been sound asleep and were awakened to the sound of buzzing? You know that buzzing that a mosquito makes? Yeah, that. Well, last night I was peacefully slumbering (despite my seriously cranky attitude thanks to all the election stuff which we're just not going to talk about) on the couch and I awoke to said sound. I batted myself hoping that I'd killed whatever it was that had gotten a little too close for comfort. In a way the buzzer helped me out - it encouraged me to head into the bed room for a proper night's sleep. This all happened around 9:30 last night.

Around 4:00 this morning, I was sleeping peacefully in our bed and the evil buzzing came to shake me from slumber again. I batted and thrashed (waking Mark of course) and tried to kill the evil thing, but it was to no avail. In no time at all, the probable blood sucker (for I still had not seen it) came back for another fly-by and then proceded to torment poor Mark as well. After several batting attempts, we finally decided we'd go camping (i.e., we pulled the covers over our heads)...not that it mattered. The stupid little bugger continued on its quest for sustenance.

I finally was fed up with the whole ritual and got up to go to the bathroom (for like the 5th time last night...ay carumba) and drink some more water (because we wouldn't want to miss out on trip 6) and eat some food because I was, frankly, starving myself. Maybe the blood sucker was pregnant? Anyhow, I finally came back to bed and discovered that in my absence, Mark had arose and turned on lights in the hallway and the guest room to try to trick the skeeter out of our room. We didn't have a stupid skeeter...it didn't fall for it. We continued to be buzzed right up until the time that the alarm went off.

To say that I was miffed would be an understatement. For the past two nights before, I had not gotten a goodnight's sleep (the millions of trips to the bathroom are surprisingly not the problem - it's the hunger to some extent, but primarily just weird dreams...like about shaving or about telling friends whom I'm not very close to anymore that I'm kind of glad they're gone because they weren't terribly healthy for me anyhow...yeah, weird stuff like that). So, I was already sleep deprived and this little jerk was compounding my problem. I had told said jerk that it was in BIG trouble when I got up in the morning (now that I'm a bit more coherent it occurs to me that I should have just turned on the lights and found him when he was bugging us, but whatever).

Anyhow, to get to the point, I was on my way into the shower this morning when I noticed a speck on the wall over by my side of the bed. It turned out to be one VERY LARGE mosquito. I mean seriously...it was HUGE!! Now, before I continue on I would just like to say that this is one of those things that really bugs me about California. Are there mosquitos in Colorado right now? Um, no....not even remotely likely, but here we are in the beginning of November (November!!) and there is a big mamoth mosquito tormenting us - does this seem just a wee bit messed up to anyone else or is it just me?

At any rate, I popped that little bugger a good one and was pretty grossed out by the result - seriously. I had blood on my hand and all over the wall. It was uber disgusting! But, I vanquished the little tormenting jerk and hopefully tonight I'll manage to get a good night's sleep...woe be to any other creature that intrudes upon my slumber! :)

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Not Much to Speak Of...

Nevertheless I'm going to do a quick little post (yeah, sure....little) anyhow with just a few highlights.

First of all, the spaghetti episode seemed to go reasonably well. I did indeed have a bit of a reaction which is still sort of hanging on today; however, it has been pretty mild and tolerable...and therefore worth it because I'm over the spaghetti craving. I did buy stuff to make lasagna. I may make it and freeze it in case another one of these "must have real Italian food" episodes comes to haunt me.

Next up - I rode BART (rapid transit) to work today and it made going to work a much better experience. It was nice to be able to relax and just read a book. I contemplated sleeping a bit, but I fall asleep so easily lately (though I seem to not sleep terribly well despite this fact!) that I decided it would probably be a bad idea since I have transfers to make and such. I also was treated to lunch by my two supervisory people today. We went to the Yacht Club in Walnut Creek and when Mark's parents come next I'm thinking they might like to try it out. Lots of great seafood preparred in so many ways even I had a few choices as far as things to eat. :)

Speaking of Mark's parents, we've heard a rumor that they might pay us a visit either before or after the big family bash at Christmas and New Years. We were happy to hear that was a possibility since we're going to miss the party. We figure that with impending maternity leave and my planning to go down to a reduced schedule, we'll need to save as many pennies as we possibly can over the next few months...

We're thinking we may have some guests, if they'd like to come, over for Thanksgiving as well. Right now, we're kind of leaning toward inviting people from other countries to come join in the festivities. We'll keep you posted on where we actually go with it. We've also sort of decided to table the Christmas party. I am so worn out lately that the thought of adding responsibilities to my schedule isn't terribly appealing and again we're trying to save a little $$. Mark has asked if he could maybe throw a very informal birthday party for me instead (our party usually coincides with my birthday - it's my tricky way of having a party without too much of a hullabaloo) and I told him he's welcome to do so. It might be quite fun to get to sit back and enjoy something someone else has planned!

That is pretty much the extent of what is going on here...no baby pictures or news other than that my clothes seem to be fitting a little snugger this week. Since we're in week twelve (almost done with the first trimester!), I suppose it is to be expected. I've got a nice little wardrobe of clothes to step in to, but I've kind of been trying to really enjoy the last little bit of wearing my "normal" clothes. Once I actually have a baby belly to show off, maybe we'll treat you to a before picture I took a couple of weeks ago...I'm not sure most people could tell the difference if I took one at the moment. I think I just look like I have been overeating a bit! I assure you've that's not the case. I'm actually right on track as far as weight gain goes...

So here's to a great week for all of us! Time is just flying by....

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!

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Or could it simply be an oncoming train like the one that is parked outside of our house? I don't think I've ever mentioned that we are an official train stopping place. Whether it's Amtrak, Union Pacific or some other line, it seems that many trains find the tracks outside of our home quite cozy and, thus, they stop here regularly - at least one per day - and just idle. This is, at times, rather annoying. Today it isn't really bothering me (of course, it has only been there for a few minutes at this point - if it's still there in a half hour the verdict may change), but it did seem to fit with the post title I chose. I suppose I should get onto business, though.

I'm contemplating if maybe, just maybe, I'm breaking on through to the other side of morning sickness. This is the beginning of week 11 pregnancy-wise and I haven't really felt too bad...even the heartburn issue seems to be at least somewhat under control. I'll keep you posted on whether or not we're truly out of the woods.

I have been a lot hungrier (feeling) the past couple of days which is tricky because what I'm wanting can basically be summed up as "anything with sugar." And, yet, I am a savvy preggie princess (just came up with that one this minute - I'm sure someone else has thought of it before but whatever!) and know that gorging oneself on sugary goods during pregnancy serves to make one blow up like a balloon, causes one's baby to crave nutritional sustenance and puts one at risk for gestational diabetes. My answer to all three of these possibilities - a polite "no thank you."

So, I am doing my very best to steer myself toward "healthier" goodies like dried apples that we got at Costco that have this ascorbic acid stuff on them (since I love sour stuff I wish there was more of it!), popcorn made in the Alton Brown fashion with coconut oil and butter which is just heavenly, apples (I just discovered today that despite my protests to Mark last night about how I really could just do without apples in general that he was right - I do still like Granny Smiths...even without caramel dip), fruit juice and string cheese. So, I'm doing okay, if not perfectly, I guess...

In other news, we are having a Christmas party again this year. The invite list is going to be huge this time around because we're planning more of an Open House style party. Since I'm in charge of parties around here, I decided that this format would be a bit easier on me. I have some great goodies in store for our guests - all of which I am not allergic to because, well, there's no sense taunting me with food that I can't have anymore than I am by just turning on the TV or walking down the street (I hate that KFC is all over the news today - I could soooo go for a crispy strip with or without the transfats! This is actually pretty amazing because the thought of eating chicken as of late has been rather unpleasant...that and lettuce are definitely on my "I'd rather not eat it" list). Back to the party food, most of the items can be made in advance making things even less stressful and time consuming.

As for activities, I'm contemplating giving attendees the opportunity of a lifetime. You'll totally think I'm being Tom Sawyer here (well, maybe not if you know me well enough), but I'm actually contemplating letting them help decorate our Christmas tree. What on earth is so special about this? Well, let's just put it this way - last year I made myself (yes, made myself) let Mark help me with decorating the Christmas tree...and I made myself not move every ornament that he hung afterward (I'll admit...I did move a few). That sounds bad, I know, but I am *psycho* about decorating my Christmas tree. There is a right way and a wrong way to decorate and, naturally my very systematic and neurotic method is the right one. ;) I think it was good of me to take that leap last year...I'll admit that it did make the tree feel more like "our" tree and less like "my" tree...even if most of the ornaments are still mine. Speaking of ornaments, let me just say my mom rocks and bought each of her children at least one ornament every year of our lives so that by the time we moved out we would have enough to decorate a tree - I plan to carry on this tradition with the sweet pea! :)

So anyhow, that's kind of what's been happening in our little abode...just a couple more days until I start my new job. That should provide some interesting blogging material. I hope you are all having a fabulous week!

Week 10 Pictures

So, apparently, the pictures are willing to load now after a quick break from the Blogger site. Yea! I must work on my patience...

Anyhow, here is your first view of yesterday's photo session. The little pea looks a bit more like a peanut in this picture, doesn't he/she? You can see a little wave on top there and his/her head is on the left and bum is on the right. What a cutie, huh? Well, okay, I'm a bit partial.




And here is the totally cute second shot. You can catch a glimpse of a little footsie there on the left and you can see (can't you?) that the little one has rolled over onto his/her tummy. This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever...it's just so totally adorable. Again, I'm a bit partial and a little more than silly over our little one!

This is the shot where the doctor to the "crown to rump" measurement. As you can maybe see if you squint, the little sprout is 37mm in length now...almost two whole inches across which equates to 10 weeks and 4 days...which is right one with our little counter to the left that said yesterday - you guessed it! 10 weeks and 4 days. So, I think even though the doctor finally gave me my due date yesterday and it was a day later, I'm sticking with the one I originally calculated since we're right on the money and since these things are rarely right on the money anyhow! :)

I guess that is about it for this short post....as it should be since I blogged your eyes off earlier. Have a fabulous rest of your weekend!

Miscellaneous Topics of Interest - A Very Long Post!

So, I didn't get around to posting about the true after-effects of the doughnuts the other day. Let's just say that it wasn't so much of a victory. They made me pretty sick after all...I just can't win for losing, can I?

My theory is that the oil temperature on the recipe was a bit low and so instead of just frying in the oil, the lovely little doughnuts became saturated with the stuff. It was two days of pure unpleasantness as my stomach just didn't seem to want to give up on making me feel just wretched. In the end, I actually threw the whole batch in the trash, but that wasn't before I tried to wick some of the oil out of the little buggers...after I'd went through about 3 rounds of sopping paper towels, I decided it was a lost cause. C'est la vie.

I'm tempted to try this doughnut experiment again (with an oil temperature of about 25 degrees higher or so), but I have to admit I'm a wee bit scared about that! But, we can't let the doughnuts win, can we? If they work out maybe I'll feature some little donut puffs at our Christmas party this year...which I think we're going to have but I really need to work on plotting it out if so! :) I'm guessing that will be a task for today.

In other bittersweet news, Mark's grandmother has passed away. It happened a few days ago. We're sad that she won't be able to meet her great grandchild in person, but we know she will be here watching over all of us. She is already greatly missed - she was a very special lady who had a fabulous life. :)

For today, besides contemplating the Christmas party, other tasks will include looking through the book of Hawaiian names that Mark wants me to check out. I figure since he's pretty much told me that I can choose our little one's name (I do plan on bringing him into the process so that I'm not making a unilateral decision - I don't feel that's exactly right!) the least I can do is consider the names in Hawaiian that I like to add to the list of names that have been pulled out of a couple of online baby name sites. I have about 9 each of male and female names at this point which I really like. Mark thought most of them were good as well so we have a start.

As for using a Hawaiian name (probably as the middle name of our little one), I'm not sure I'm excited about it. There are sooo many names that have special meaning to me, but other than one particular Hawaiian name (okay two if you count Mark's middle name, but for the most part we've decided we're not going to name our children after ourselves), none of them really have special meaning for me so far. I also just have an issue with picking names that will be misprounounced, mispelled or butchered and since I can't pronounce most of the names, I have to admit I'm a bit worried! With a name like MeLissa, you can probably guess why...it's abnormal and pretty much everyone I come in contact with has to be gently told that the L is not a mis-spelling. Then we have to go through the whole "so how do you pronounce that?" game. Is is Me - Lissa, Melissa, Ma Lisa, what? I love my name, but the drama that comes with it is sometimes frustrating so I'm kind of trying to shield our little one. :) We'll see what transpires as I make my way through the book...

A related name game consideration at this time is whether or not we should be only considering names which start with an 'M.' Surprisingly, there are quite a few people who seem to think this is the way to go. I can understand the concept, but well, I'm not sold on it. That is not to say that there are no 'M' names in the lists of boys and girls names I'm considering. I have 3 girl's and 1 boy's name that do begin with the fabulous letter. But I'm not a fan of limiting myself and there are a ton of non-M names that I love. Besides that, I remember how silly I thought it was that one of the families I grew up with had everyone in their family with the same first letter in their name....and I don't want to have to roll my eyes at myself. ;) I'm sure we'll figure it all out in the end...

And, now for the part everybody really wants to read and see...the update about our latest visit to the doctor. Naturally, we have more pictures. :) I'm assuming that just like me you've not grown tired of seeing how much the little guy/gal is changing in even a short amount of time. If you are tired of it, please just keep that little fact to yourself! You'll get a bit of a break, I think, for a couple of weeks since our next appointment with the doctor isn't for another four weeks. In two weeks, I get to go get a nuchal translucency scan and a first trimester blood test (which, thankfully, involves a finger prick - yea!). These two tests are used to detect Down syndrome. They tell by measuring the fetus's neck length at week twelve and then checking the blood for certain qualities. It's pretty cool in general.

Speaking of screenings, we're probably not going to pre-screen for aniridia (the eye condition Mark has). A year or so ago, we did discuss the possibility with the genetic counselling department at Stanford. We also discussed the possibility of actually having eggs and sperm combined by the geneticists to ensure that our baby wouldn't have the condition (they can detect the gene when as few as 8 cells are present). We ultimately decided against both of these routes and are leaving matters in God's hands. If our child is born with aniridia, we will ensure that they have the best medical care possible and that they grow up in an environment where they learn that they can accomplish whatever it is they set their mind to. I figure that just having Mark as their daddy will make that pretty clear!

So, aside from all this screen stuff, we watched the little baby on the ultrasound. As you see from the pictures I've posted, he/she is looking more and more like a little human every day. The doctor said he/she looked like a little monkey yesterday - rightly so. He/she (have I mentioned lately that I'm anxious to know where we have a he or she coming so I can stop writing both genders?) was squirming and rolling around the whole time - it was pretty cute. The doctor did actually try to get a glimpse at the baby's sex, but it was still a bit too early to tell and our little sweet pea apparently also got mommy's modesty and just wasn't letting anybody have a look. ;)

Well, as usual, I can't seem to get the pictures to upload - curse you Blogger. I'll try again later....

Victory!!!!

Woo Hoo! I have conquered one of the "issues" that surrounds my pregnancy and allergies. Homer Simpson would be proud and a craving has been foiled without resorting to making myself ill!

I have made doughnuts!!! They're technically more like beignets which I am totally mispelling, but without eggs and without wheat (for those who aren't aware cuz I've had a couple of people ask this recently, regular all-purpose white flour is made of wheat). The only thing I didn't accomplish is making them good for you, but well...you can't everything!

So anyhow, this is today's major accomplishment and after having secured victory and nibbled on a few of the spoils, I'm exhausted and heading off for a nap with my little kitty, Pixie, who probably thinks I've lost my mind given the extreme display of happiness that I participated in after tasting my first doughnut and finding that it was very good! :)

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

Well, after giving everything a good amount of thought and after giving the larger firm I was interviewing with the opportunity to make me an offer, the offer from S&s ended up being the offer I couldn't refuse. I now am slated to start working in their office on November 1. How exciting!

Even better news is I did breech the pregnancy info with them and they are already coming up with viable alternatives so that I can still support us and be at home most of the week with our little one. What will probably happen after the sweet pea is born is that I'll work 3 days per week and have 4 days off total. This makes me feel sooo much better. I was just really upset the past few weeks over not being able to be a stay at home mom. It seriously was tearing me up. Although this is not the perfect situation, it is so much better than the alternative of working 5 days per week and having someone else raise our child. So, with that and all the other wonderful things that come with this firm, I am very pleased with my decision and they are also tickled pink that I'm coming aboard. :)

In other news, please keep Mark's grandmother in your prayers. She's currently in the hospital and not doing the best. She's lived a wonderful life and is tired, but we'd love for her to be here as long as possible. She is truly a special lady.

Finally, to end on a more upbeat note, I suppose I should tell you that our little soiree on Saturday night went beautifully. Mark even received a couple of offers for assistance as far as finding someone to work with once he graduates in Colorado Springs. We are thrilled about this. My dress earned me a few compliments and we made quite a handsome couple.

Shop Till You Drop...

Today was a pretty decent day. We attended a few lectures at Mark's school for their spa days first. With the exception of one recent graduate who is a complete idiot when it comes to accounting and taxes who basically insulted my profession (never guessing, of course, that there was a CPA in the room) by saying that all CPAs who do not have a degree in Tax Law - which frankly most CPAs do not...though we may have a Masters in Taxation are equivalent to H&R Block employees. I was furious to say the least...and had to do everything in my power to not go all postal on him and punch him after the session. I guess I'll just wait until he gets acosted by the IRS for some of the shady things he was suggesting the students do. Then we made our little trip down to San Jose for some shopping (as promised) at Japanese Weekend Maternity.

As I suspected, it was hard to not go a bit crazy in this store! When all was said and done, I left with 2 pairs of pants (both suitable for working), a cute brown (oh my goodness...yet another brown article of clothing in my closet - what is this world coming to? I'm sure my mother would like to know since I wouldn't wear it for years!) lace top with a cami, 2 awesome long skirts that double as strapless dresses. Since these two pieces are reversible, I actually ended up with 8 articles of clothing by buying two...not bad, eh? I also bought one other very lovely red top that will be awesome once I'm breast feeding because it has secret little breast feeding flaps...very very cool all in all. I won't tell you how much I spent, but it was much more than I spent at the Motherhood store the other day...and so terribly worth it! And, as with the Motherhood clothing items - most of what I purchased does not look like maternity wear so I shouldn't have to desert these adorable things once I'm back to my "normal" figure...

In other news, I was innundated with recruiter calls today. Sheesh...these guys really want their commissions. I don't blame them...we all like to get paid. I told the one who's working with the larger firm that I interviewed with yesterday that if they want to ensure that I go with them, give me a salary in the range I've specified and let me telecommute 3 days per week once the baby arrives. I hope they go for it. If so, I will give the other smaller firm the opportunity to match the telecommuting part of the offer and any other disparate features. They may not be able to, but since I really like them I feel it's the right thing to do. If I have to go back with a counter offer, I will be sure to tell them about my impending pregnancy to explain why it is that telecommuting is of utmost importance. If the larger firm doesn't go for the telecommuting, I think I may just go with the smaller firm because I am a little more familiar with their personnel... I may also ask to meet more of the people I'll be working with at the larger. We'll see what course I want to take once I get the second offer.

This weekend we're going to take things a little easy. I'm still having a bit of spotting and we want to make sure I don't overdo it - even thought the doctor said everything was okay, it seems that being cautious isn't a bad thing! So, rather than go to the expo tomorrow as planned, we're going to hang out here and then tomorrow night we'll go to our little dinner dance thing for the school. I'm going to wear one of the dresses I bought today - I can't wait to show them off. :) I still need to pick an outfit out for Mark. We may be a bit underdressed, but I think everyone will understand...and if they don't we'll just tell them that Mark picked out what we were going to wear! ;)

A Bit of a Scare...But All's Well That Ends Well

We had a bit of a scare this afternoon, but not to worry. I had some spotting and a few little mild cramps and so I called my mom (since I couldn't get a hold of Mark) who suggested, wisely, that I should give my doctor a call. I did so and was told I should make my way over to their office. Since it was almost closing time, I was a wee bit scared to say the least!

On the way, I stopped by the school to pick up Mark since I defintiely didn't want to go through something like this by myself. I think he has a lot of classmates that are going to be dying to get details tomorrow since I looked a bit panicked and even let out a few tears at one point.

Once the doctor was able to get in and do an ultrasound we were able to see that all was well. The little one's heart was a beating and he/she was even waving a little bit...especially when I chuckled because his/her little hand was so cute. :) Our cutie pie is still growing strong, too - today he/she is 28mm which equates to a bit over an inch long. The coolest part of the visit, though, is we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was pretty cool sounding and very special since daddy Mark could actually enjoy one of the parts of our visit! :)

And, of course, we have more pictures because, well, we just love sharing pictures even if a lot of our faithful readers can't figure out what they're looking at.

So here's picture number one. In this one you can see a little wave toward the top of the little baby blob. Cute isn't it? :)


Here's picture number 2 which also kind of shows off the a little arm or two. As you can maybe see, we're looking more and more human all the time!

So, yes...all's well that ends well! Baby and mommy are doing just fine. Baby's little home just happens to be right near mommy's cervix which is probably why there was a wee bit of bleeding. We may have a little more due to its placement but they're keeping a good watch on me. Our next visit is on the 27th of October...

In other news, I had a fabulous interview with the other accounting firm today. I should be receiving an offer from them soon, too. I'm kind of excited about maybe working the offer with this one so that I can telecommute several days out of the week which would allow me to work but also stay home with the little lovie that is on the way. I'll wait to see what they offer originally and then see if we can add it to a counter-offer. I'll keep you all updated!

Shopping

After putting on an outfit for my interview Tuesday and noticing that the pants fit perfectly at my waist (which they never should - one of the tricks of this tall woman is to buy pants that are a size too big so that I can push them down further on my hips to give me length without having to redo the hem!) and that my jacket was a wee bit tight, I decided to be proactive. Rather than wait until the last minute when I woke up and nothing in my closet fit, I decided to buy a few things to wear once I have that little baby bump look going on.

Today's shopping trip was pretty fun, frustrating at times (but then, when you're picky about what you'll wear and you're trying to keep from just screaming "I'm pregnant!" to the world with your outfits, it's bound to happen), but overall very satisfying. Since I didn't feel like driving to San Jose today, this was not so much of a splurge shopping trip. That we'll probably be having on Friday...when Mark will have the pleasure of accompanying me to Japanese Weekend's store on Santana Row. I figure every mom-to-be deserves to indulge a little and since I received a job offer yesterday (haven't decided to accept or decline yet, but I'll probably accept) I have double the reason to buy myself a couple of nice things, right? Maybe I even have triple the reason since I noticed they're having a sale right now! :o)

So, today's trip was to Motherhood Maternity at the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. I ended up having great luck - pretty much everything I liked was on sale. There was only one top that was not, but it was so cute that I had to get it. Now you can call me silly, but I was really looking for some cute clothes that would possibly make it as "normal" clothes as well. I have no issues with wearing maternity clothes if they don't scream "pregnant woman coming through!" and most of what I found counts, I think...though, post pregnancy one or two of them will need a little tweaking perhaps. We'll see if I still want them in my closet since my selection of clothing is going to probably be somewhat limited over the next few months.

At any rate, I ended up with 4 tops and 2 skirts. I didn't have any luck with slacks, but since when I was having hormonal issues a couple of years ago I purchased a few pairs of jersey maternity pants from Target (which I'm always getting compliments on...he he!) I'm not totally sunk in that area. I figure I'll see if I can find some at the JW store or at the expo I'm going to on Saturday where they're supposed to have a bunch of gently used clothes from places like the Gap, JW, etc.

In other job news, I have a second interview with the other, larger accounting firm today. I will see if they have anything that excites me greatly. So far, I've felt pretty lukewarm, but maybe since I'll be meeting some actual tax people rather than HR people, things will improve. This will probably be the deciding factor as far as whether I take the aforementioned job offer or not. I'll keep you posted, of course...

When Medications Make You Worse...

So, some good news and some bad news today...we'll start with the bad, of course! The doctor gave me that Rx for prevacid this past visit to help with heartburn issues, right? (As an aside, I haven't had heartburn for soooo long since I stopped eating all my allergy foods and it has been so pleasant!) Well, unfortunately, said medication comes with some side effects and yours truly, having the sensitive constitution that I have, is experiencing some of them - or was. The added nausea and "other" symptoms were so awful that I stopped taking it. I figured I'd clear it out of the old system and then start taking it every other day. Apparently, everything was cleared out yesterday...misery is back. So, today I took another dose of the meds and hopefully I'll be able to experience some relief.

Onto the good news - it's a two-parter since I just received an email that confirmed a "suspicion" I was having. So, the first is that I have a follow-up interview this afternoon with S&S (the firm I'm all into) to meet one of their managers and one of my peers. I'll also be spending a wee bit of time with one of the partners before I head out the door. The possibility that an offer will be tendered today is there...so maybe I'll have even better news than before. I'm really looking forward to this interview.

The second piece of good news is the other larger accounting firm I was interviewing with also let me know this morning (after I finally got a thank you note out to them - I was interviewed last Friday so it is within reasonable time limits, but I usually like to send them right away...just wasn't feeling so hot Friday due to the whole prevacide situation) that they want to do a second interview as well. This interview will be in their Walnut Creek office as well so it looks like I will be working in Walnut Creek regardless of where I plan to go. At least location is removed as one of the deciding factors! I don't mind too terribly...I really like Walnut Creek. If we could have lived in that area, I would have been thrilled, but it would have been such a pain for Mark and school. Hayward isn't that bad in all honesty, but Walnut Creek has more of the same feel as Colorado and we always like the familiar right?

November 1

May be the beginning of a beautiful partnership. I had a fabulous interview today with S&S and am pretty sure they will be the lucky employer that gets to make use of my talents. They are very generous with compensation and understand that I'm going to need a little time to get up to speed. As an added bonus, their least busy time (as is the case in most CPA firms) is from mid-May to the beginning of August which is very important given that a certain little someone is planning to arrive in late May.

I do have another interview tomorrow with a larger firm and will be hearing very soon about interviewing with the other corporation that I just had the phone interview with yesterday. This firm has set the bar high with their benefits of employment so these other two are going to have to really wow me to lure me away. Here's what this particular firm has to offer:

• a small, close-knit environment...just the kind of firm I've always felt most comfortable in
• generous compensation in the form of a standard salary, paid out tax season overtime, as well as a discretionary tax season bonus
• the ability to bank up to 80 hours of tax season overtime as added vacation
• 17 paid days off (for sick leave or vacation) after 6 months of employment
• the usual holidays (minus things like MLK Jr. day & President's Day) plus an extra day off to recover the day after tax season concludes
• Semi-flexible work hours (be in by 9 a.m. and they're happy campers)
• casual Fridays (including jeans!)
• Paid medical, dental and vision for me...Mark is a bit extra
• Oh, and did I mention I'd have an office with a door again because I got the sense that that is a possibility. Woo hoo!

So anyhow, there are lots of benefits to this firm and the two partners and I hit it off very well. They've indicated that they'll get back to me next week through the recruiter I'm dealing with and I would be shocked if an offer wasn't coming my way that is quite difficult to refuse. :)

I'll keep you all posted....

What a Lucky Duck!

They're going to ban us from Chamber of Commerce meetings. It's true.

The reason? Mark is too lucky! For those not familiar with his history, Mark has always been a lucky guy. My first experience with it was on our first trip to Las Vegas (which wasn't terribly lucky for me, but we'll just not go there) where Mark won $1,195 playing a Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Very cool. Since then, he's stayed true to form bringing me fun little moments of wonder!

At our first Chamber meeting which happened last month, Mark won me a little Bank of the West bear. I was thrilled! For those of you not familiar with our guest room, let me just let it be known that I have a slight "addiction" to stuffed animals. I had seen these cute little bears when we walked into the bank where that mixer was held and thought "oh I want one!" What a good hubby to bring one home, huh?

Well, tonight at this month's mixer which was fun as well, I had a look at the door prizes available just for kicks. I like looking at stuff because I am always looking for ideas for gifts we might need to get for others. There was only one basket that seemed of interest to me...it had a few movies and a bottle of wine in it. Wouldn't you know that when the basket came up to be won, Mark's business card was drawn again! Very very cool! So, we have a nice collection of movies to watch which is great since we are spending rather calm nights lately.

Now as far as this recent string of luck goes, Mark thinks maybe the little baby started it all. :)Sounds good to me!

Persistence

If nothing else, I am definitely persistent and it appears to have paid off. Here's a picture of the pea, the sprout or whatever you'd like to call it from yesterday's ultrasound. Since he/she is a bit bigger now (and since this picture has some good magnification going on), I'll try to direct you a bit better as far as where to look and what you're looking at.

So, in the middle of the picture you see this dark half circle thingie...right about it is the baby kind of looking like a little blob. His/her (man, I can't wait until we find out whether we're having a boy or a girl so I can use one pronoun!) little head is on the left side (look for the plus sign like I mentioned in the last post) and the little bum is on the left side. Use your imagination and you can kind of see that we do have a rather human-looking being here now. :) Still just not getting it? Well, there will be other ultrasounds....and as we go along here our little one will look more and more like a little baby and sooner or later, I have faith, you'll be able to make out all the major features. :)

Now finally, in case you're not up on your metric measurements (as I'm not), I have pulled out my handy dandy ruler that has both inches and centimeters so I can tell you that 2 weeks ago the baby was a bit shy of 1/4 inch in size...about the size of a little pea hence the nickname. :) Now it's just shy of about 3/4 of an inch (which is pretty impressive if you think about it!) or about the size, let's say, of a rather plump raspberry. I'm not sure I mentioned in my post yesterday that this is great news that we have a healthy little grower like this. It means it's about 90% sure that the pregnancy is viable. The only hurdle left is making it past trimester 1...which is only one month away (thank goodness - this morning, noon and night sickness is killer!).

Still Growing!

We had our follow-up appointment with the OB today for the sweet pea. We're happy to report that s/he is doing well and growing! And, we're happy to share the latest photo of the little tyke! Yeah, it's still hard to see anything (especially since blogger, wretched blogger, isn't letting me upload anything - WAH!!!), I know. Sorry. But, there is now a head and bum...the head is to the left (marked by the plus sign on the life) and the bum is on the right (marked by the other plus sign). As far as the actual increase in size - in a mere two weeks our little one has grown from 6 mm to 19mm! The doctor was quite pleased about this!

Other things we learned at the appointment are that we can travel up until February 1...then we're cut off and need to stay around here. That's pretty exciting since it means we can go home for Christmas. I also am free to travel to the seminar that is in Colorado in the middle of November, but because going home at Christmas time is more important to me, I think I may forego this jaunt to bargain for another couple of days during the holidays. Depending on where I am working, it won't be a big deal.

We also found out some things that should help with some of the unpleasantries of pregnancy that I've been experiencing. I'll spare you the details beyond that. We've also been given the go ahead to do up to 30 minutes of whatever kind of exercise I want to...which means I am going to start working on being a lean, mean, baby carrying machine! ;)

Other than that, on the job search front, I have three interviews this week. Two are with CPA firms and one is with a company that offers telecommuting for its employees (I would love this job since it would mean I could probably work my schedule so I could be home for most days after the baby arrives). I'm still waiting to hear back regarding Mervyn's to whom I'm being presented by another recruiter. I also have a few other companies out there that I've been introduced to and haven't heard back on. All in all, the hunt seems to be going well.

As for the wedding business, it is in a bit of a lull. I have a difficult time putting energy into things that I can't really do much with (don't we all?). I have a few clients I need to follow up with, but to be honest, I've kind of been slacking on this. I guess now that I have what I've been wanting for quite some time (a baby in the belly!), my need for excitement has waned a bit. Who knows. At least in a few short months I will have the pleasure of assuming the most important role (in my not so humble opinion) any woman can assume...that of mother!

On a final note, Mark has renamed the pea to the sprout. I'm sticking with pea for now...I like it. :)

Pixie's Ponderings...

Pixie here....

MeLissa, my loyal typing, food and most importantly, pet slave has, thanks to Meankitty's typing slave, realized that *I* am who this family revolves around and that you all are seriously feeling deprived and depressed about not having an update about or from me for months! The shame of it all. Let's hope she behaves better in the future...if not, maybe I'll just have to find out how one makes morning sickness, whatever that is, last for 9 months (perhaps Meankitty knows...).

So enough about all this...let's talk about me shall we? I have been having a fabulous year, my friends. It's been several months since the demon (aka Banshee) vacated the premises. I finally have mom and dad all to myself again...and mom's even been home a lot for the past few months so I've been getting pet and tended to throughout the day. I'm finally being treated like royalty. Life is perfect.

I have heard, though, talk of a couple of things which I'm not terribly thrilled about. Until they actually happen, I'll assume it's all talk. First, there has been talk of a DOG joining our household at some point. Hello?! What are you thinking? A Dog? Ewww. Should this happen, I refuse to come out from under the couch until said ruffian is banished to the garage or sent away...

And, then my humans have been all happy and buzzing about some other thing they say is coming to live with us. It's referred to as "the baby, the pea, the sweet pea" and other stupid names. I don't like the sound of it. MeLissa keeps making stupid comments about how she's always wanted to be the pregnant lady with a cat on her lap and keeps making comments to me about how I better enjoy all the room I have there to roll around in ecstacy while she pets me because it won't be there forever. She's crazy. That's my assessment. She doesn't strike me as the kind to go on an eating binge...especially since recently she doesn't seem to want to eat much of anything and when she does she whines about how her tummy is feeling. She probably just needs some catnip or some tuna. That seems to fix everything for me.

Speaking of tuna, I have been introduced to its yummy goodness by Mark, but after introducing me to this stuff, he's been quite a pill. I implore him to give me my share and what do I get in return? Water droplets. Sorry dude...I don't get the connection. Just give me the tuna and I'll stop whining. Which reminds me...it's sure been a long time since we've had tuna (MeLissa's note - because it stinks!!! I can't handle it!)...

I have other tales to tell, but this post is getting lengthy and, frankly, I don't wish to relive the experience I had the other evening. Let's just say I was tortured because I was scooting my bum across the floor. It's not myyyy fault that certain glands of mine don't work as they should. They seem to work fine now, though...thanks Mark for fixing my "issue" - you kitty molester you.

Hope everyone is doing well...I think I'll go make MeLissa pet me again. Or perhaps we'll play some more ball. We've had a grand day today while the Enforcer (Mark) has been away.

Update...

In terms of an update, first things first. I will be ignoring all future cravings that involve allergy foods. The chili tasted great but it was quite evil. C'est la vie!

As for the job search, things are coming along. I have an interview next week with a CPA firm in Walnut Creek and there are a couple of other interviews also possible. I'll keep you all posted on how things are going.

Other than that, we've been busy this week with various things. Mark is learning how to use the internet and seems to be enjoying his first week of the new quarter. I've met with a few different wedding-related vendors (despite the fact that I am not sure where I plan to go with my business now that we have a little one on the way). I'll probably keep things pretty low key until January when I have one final bridal show. I am thinking I will basically just start being very selective about who I "hire" as my clients. With a full-time job I will be able to serve as many or as few clients as I want. I do really like that aspect of returning to corporate life.

Not too much else is going on so this will be a very short post today. We will be going for our first official OB appointment on Monday so hopefully we'll have some new news to share about our little pea (who is probably closer to the size of a raspberry by now) and how he/she is doing.

My First Craving...

Which is, of course, something I shouldn't be eating has taken over my body. I MUST HAVE CHILI. Must, must, must!!! And lest I forget...said chili must be accompanied by real fritos (corn tortilla chips just aren't going to do it tonight my friends!) and by cheese...and lots of it.

Now what is the likelihood that the very first food that I absolutely *had* to have (to the point that I was actually considering how yummy eggs and chili would be if combine and hamburgers and french fries...oh yeah, I have it bad) is something that has oh, about 4 or 5 allergy foods in it? Chili powder, garlic, onions (these last three are coming purely from the chili powder...I didn't add any additional garlic and onions trying to at least behave a little) and, of course, tomatoes in two forms (tomato sauce and diced canned tomatoes).

Well, at least I'm approaching it from a semi-smart stance. As I mentioned, I removed all the extra onion and what not. I also diluted the tomato sauce (what good that will do who knows...but it sounded like a good idea at the time). But the really smart moves I made? I took a Claritin and I took a dose of my preventative asthma medicine (advair) because otherwise I will be basically in big trouble. I may be anyhow.

Note to Sweet Pea: Try to make future cravings things your mommy isn't allergic to...because breathing is good and when mommy can't breathe, you can't breathe!

Note to Chili: Please go easy on us, will ya? I mean, come on, I'm pregnant here....do you actually expect me to say no to one of my favorite foods when I crave it and I'm pregnant? Please! ;)

In other non-pregnancy news, I have two mini-interviews tomorrow with recruiters. I know one of them from a prior job search - he's a goodie. The other is a new one but seems like a nice guy. I'll be treking into the city and I might just make a little stop by good ol' PG&E to say howdy. If you're a PG&E-er and want a visit, put your request in prior to noon and I might just grant your wish! ;)

Happy October and The Pea's First Blessing...

We went to church today - the first time since we learned our little pea was with us. It's possible that the pea was with us on other church outings, but this was his/her introduction day and the first day she/he received a little blessing. Oh how it warmed my little heart!

We announced our "news" during the thanksgiving portion of the ceremony. I let Mark do the talking. Everyone was, of course, thrilled to hear (we even were applauded!). Then during communion, I went up for my typical blessing (since I'm allergic to wheat, communion bread or wafers are kind of off limits) and the priest made sure to extend the little blessing to the pea...very sweet and very worth remembering (hence, it's in the record now!).

Other than that, today is a rather nondescript day so far....the day is young!

Preggie Pops

I now have them within my possession. They're not bad. They actually even fit into my allergy profile (which is amazing in and of itself). As far as their ability to quell morning sickness (which, by the way, has calmed down ever so slightly), I'm not sure how effective they'll be. They do pretty well at meeting their claims of curing dry mouth...they definitely make you salivate. They're quite tasty, too (based soley on the one I've eaten which was actually a lemon flavored "Preggie Drop").

Now I do have to relay one concern should anyone else who's expecting decide to try these little goodies. My concern - one of the Preggie Pops is peppermint flavor and includes some amount of peppermint essential oil (all the flavorings seem to be essential oils...perhaps the reason they may calm the tummy?). For those who aren't "in the know," peppermint can increase the risk of miscarriage. So, I might just save that pop for post pregnancy (or the delivery room...if you're delivering, it seems like you're probably safe from miscarriage, right?). At any rate, just keep it in mind.

While on our Preggie Pop mission (which was at Babies R Us), we did have a look at some cribs and other implements so we can think about what it is we're going to want for our new little family member. Since there is some possibility that we'll move back to Colorado soon, we want to pick furniture that moves easily. Since we don't have a lot of space in our current living arrangement (the baby's room will probably be a corner in our room so that grandparents and others who want to visit the little one will have a place to stay), we're also looking for smart solutions that will allow us to make good use of our space rather than stub our toes regularly. :)

Other than that, we took a huge load of stuff to Goodwill today. The new little guy/girl is a great motivator to start clearing out some things that we've been on the fence about whether we want to keep or not. I alone got rid of probably 4 bags of clothing....and amazingly, we don't have much under our bed now. Hee hee!

Last little tidbit for today - strawberries. Frozen ones that have been thawed. We bought a big bag last week at Costco and we've (that means primarily me) have eaten almost half the bag. So, you can add frozen strawberries to my list of "can't get enough of them!" foods. On the other hand, bacon is on the "ewww" list. Also on this list is hamburger which hasn't been rinsed. The cow that we bought at the beginning of the summer is pretty lean so we usually just cook it and go from there...that is no longer allowed.

We hope you're all having a great weekend!

Morning, Noon & Night Sickness...

If only this took the place of the temper tantrums, the terrible twos and adolescent attitude...but alas, the challenges of parenting only begin with "morning" sickness which is more of a 24/7 ordeal it seems. At this very moment, I'm in one of the worst waves of the day so forgive me if poor grammar plagues this post.

Yes, I am definitely in full sickies mode...without, knock on wood, the need to pray to any porcelin idols in the bathroom. As is the case for many moms-to-be, I have been given many tips on how to help myself through this time. Because I know a few moms-to-be stop by here, I'll share!

First up - the things I'm plan to try or have tried but haven't yet decided on their effectiveness:

• Frozen red grapes sans skins - Supposedly you just nibble on them like a squirrel. I've had a couple and they're quite tasty, but I don't know about their effectiveness yet. This came from one of the doctors at Mark's school.
• Preggie Pops - a tip from Angela. These are available at Babies R Us and must work given who recommended them. I have nothing to complain about after hearing about Angela's morning sickness - 4 trips to the hospital and 14 lbs. lost - ay carumba!
• Ginger Tea - I tried this back in the "false" pregnancy days. It's vile to me since I'm not a fan of straight ginger, but I'll probably give it another chance anyhow. It can't hurt. This came from the doctor who is responsible for the false pregnancy problems (he's been fired, of course) and so it's lower on my list of options.
• Tortilla Chips - a substitute for saltines suggested by mom. Tried these with the false thing but haven't tried them really since we've been truly pregnant.

Second on the list - Things I Think I'll Pass On:

• Seaweed - Anyone who knows me knows this just isn't going to happen. The smell alone will ruin my record as far as "praying" goes.
• Flat Soda - We don't drink soda very often anyhow. The ginger ale I have been drinking isn't flat, but the bubbles seem to help ever so slightly.
• Saltines - This is always the first recommendation out of every person's mouth...but I'm allergic to wheat so they aren't a good choice. :)

Next Up - Things That Seem to Work for Me

• Ginger ale - I've not decided between cold or warm, but it seems to calm the angry stomach quite well.
• Oatmeal cookies - yep...believe it or not, one cookie has done wonders on several occasions...more than one usually cancels some of the benefit. We're out. I need to make more and plan to do so with a bit less sugar to try to up their healthy quotient.
• Fruit - strawberries and peaches seem to be the favorites right now.
• Eating small meals - this one isn't a food, but it has been very helpful. I eat a little somethihg about every 1 to 2 hours (not much at all!) and it seems to keep things a bit less grumpy...

And now, because it's rather amusing to me, the foods which I normally go gaga over that taste less than stellar:

• chocolate - say it isn't so!!!
• toast with cream cheese - even adding cherry jam made no difference
• dried apricots - vile to the highest degree
• pizza - which is not like the pizza most of you eat, but nonetheless it was a favorite and is not simply tolerated
• green olives - they taste like campho phenique. They are vile. And, they used to be snack food.
• sugar - amazingly anything with too much in it is less than appealing.

Finally, a list of foods I simply can't get enough of:

• cottage cheese - we bought some on Sunday and had to buy more yesterday which is unheard of.
• cucumber - I never grow tired of these - it's too bad they aren't more nutrient filled.
• chicken broth with chicken, rice and peas - of all the combinations, this is a favorite...soothing, soup-like (I miss the days when Campbell's was an option), easy on the tummy and very comforting

I'm sure there will be more revelations such as these as we go along....and now it's time for a nap while I can still take them.

I don't think I've mentioned that I'm probably going to be returning to the corporate world quite soon. The doctor wants me to take it easy and devote more time to things like accounting and what not rather than running all over for weddings and the like. The wedding and event business is still up and running, but it will be sort of "on hold" until probably September of next year. I'm ramping down a bit.

What is funny is Mark and I had decided prior to even going to the doctor or even suspecting that I was "with child" that I would try to rejoin Safeway since he's doing well and we believed it would be good fiscal policy for us. I even called my old boss on Sunday evening...so we'll see what happens, but hopefully they will let me return very soon! If not, I suppose I'll have to find another position that I can assume that will be low stress...but hopefully, everything will work out with this.

We're Expecting!!

We just received some terrific and exciting news today! It was a big (or maybe we should say little) surprise to us. Yeah, I had missed my monthly, but since I'd also made some changes to my medications, I figured that and the tiredness were all due to that. How wrong we were!

Here's our cute little sweetpea. I had the pleasure of seeing its little heartbeat flutter yesterday...it truly is the cutest little pea I've ever seen. Look in between the pluses to see the little tyke!

The doctor estimates we're about 6 1/2 weeks along and using that little (and rather inaccurate calculator thingie), our due date is approximately May 21, 2007. We look forward to bringing you many more updates as our little pea grows into a nice healthy little boy or girl!

It's Been a While, Hasn't It?

Wow - it's been more than 2 weeks since I've provided an update! Does that tell you how busy we've been here in the Rocco household?

At any rate, let's see if I can bring you back up to speed on all that's transpired over the past couple of weeks (the good stuff, of course!). But before I do, I think I owe you a few things like pictures. But, of course, the photo feature on blogger is giving me grief again so we'll resort to the easier to upload quickly (and so you'll get more pictures in the end anyhow!). Go here for pictures of my new hair do which are included in wedding pictures from Jackie and Jason's day, pictures of my lemons of which I am terribly proud (and they're way bigger than in that picture, a picture of Mark at his clinic entrance ceremony and pictures of my recent booths. Unfortunately, you don't get to see the final rose booth yet because I spaced bringing my camera with me to the show, but hopefully one of the people who took some for me will come through....

So - onto the recap. We left you with details that we were going to have a party for Mark after all. It was a fun time! I made a yummy (yes, I did eat a piece - and I paid for it for days!) spice cake with maple frosting. YUM. For such short notice we had a pretty decent turn out and everyone was so sweet and brought Mark a little card or gift. Very thoughtful indeed. This all happened on Friday night (Sept. 8).

Now earlier that day, I had a pretty thrilling experience (in the good kind of thrilling way). I now have a way to get flowers at wholesale for my clients. If you looked at the pictures from my shows, you've seen some of my work. That's about as good as it gets folks. I can do simple arrangements.

At any rate, earlier that day, I bought about 200 roses (which was thrilling in and of itself!). Unfortunately, as we well know, every rose has thorns (or at least they do when you buy them wholesale). So, I had the pleasure of dethorning all 200! It actually went pretty well once I figured out how to use the dethorning tool I bought. The roses were a big hit at the show, too...especially for the 7 people who signed up for appointments to discuss their event with me. Very cool! These 7 people actually represent 10 events. My first meeting with one is this coming Thursday and I'm very excited because the bride I'm meeting is a total sweetheart! Hopefully everything will work out better than they have with another bride I've been talking to.

She's in Germany right now (as is her fiance) with the AF, but is getting married in ND. Her budget, was, I thought enough to accommodate my services, but after doing some checking, it became clear that it simply wouldn't work out. I told her I would try to work something out with her, but I haven't heard back. I took about a week to play with numbers and see if I could make things go, but to no avail. C'est la vie. On another bummer note, the bride I was supposed to meet on Mark's birthday ended up being a no-show. I haven't heard from her either....I may follow up again, but I don't want to be too pesky.

On the night of Mark's birthday we went to a Talent and Treasure auction at our church. Last I heard, about $9000 was raised that night. We played our part with the gift certificates we offered. Mine was won by a dear lady whom I adore. She and her husband are contemplating what they'd like to do with their certificate - whether to use it to plan a party or a vow renewal. Either will be a blast! :) We're not sure who won Mark's certs yet.

We didn't end up winning anything in the auction, but we only bid on one thing and another lady really wanted it so that's cool. We truly didn't need to be spending $$ anyhow...but it was for a 2 night stay at the Embassy Suites in So. Tahoe and we thought it might be a nice little getaway during his break. As things are shaping up, we might not have been able to go then anyhow!

On Sunday was the first of three bridal shows in a row for me. I have 10 possible events from this show to discuss over the next few months with people. Very exciting stuff...especially since every one of these people actually wants to hear from me. It's nice to call and find someone receptive on the other end!

On Monday, Mark's dad and brother celebrated their birthdays (kind of a bummer to be born on 9-11, but hopefully they had good days despite the tragic things that happened a few years ago). I did a little tax work on this day to earn a little $$ and then later that evening had a nice little meeting with a pianist who is trying to increase his wedding and event business. We met at Red Lobster and had a great discussion and I'm now the proud owner of his newest CD. On our way out, I grabbed some dinner for Mark and I - belated birthday fare. He enjoyed his for lunch the next day since I was a little tardy in getting home.

On Tuesday, I attended the networking meeting I've been helping plan. It was a fun time meeting other bridal consultants in the area...even if I did get lost on the way there. The precious (the GPS system I use) sometimes takes you to old locations. *sigh*

Then, on Wednesday night, Mark and I attended both a new member reception and a mixer for the Chamber of Commerce. Mark's luck is always the best. They were having drawings and one was for a cute little Bank of the West bear...he won! I was so happy. Not two seconds before had I said "oh, I want one." So, I now have little Cali the bear in my possession. Some people said I should have wished bigger, but they obviously don't know about my obsession with stuffed animals...

The mixer was great otherwise, though, too. I met a photographer from here in town whom I'm actually meeting today to see if we can work together. It should be a great meeting, I think.

Then, of course Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent doing last minute preparations for my next bridal faire at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds. That one went very well also. Everyone adored the mum arrangements I did. In fact, one person told me she now has a new appreciation for just how stunning they can be. I'm glad it was such an outpouring because they took longer than the roses. The biggest compliments I got, though, were from brides who thought at first that I was a florist. Does it get any better? The final talley on this show was another 6 people to speak to about wedding services. It looks like a majority of people are looking for day-of coordination and some are looking for dates earlier next year so that is nice since I'll be able to continue marketing to brides who want summer weddings.

And, now we're finally to this week. Mark has been studying for finals (another quarter is just about done!) and I've been trying to send out a lot of emails to people who attended these past two fairs. We did go to a little function for teachers on Monday as well...

So, as you can see, we've been busy beavers here and that is why you haven't heard from us. I have one more show this weekend and then, hopefully, things will slow down enough that I can catch my breath, but not so much that I'm lacking in things to do. I don't see that every happening again with my little business venture...and since it doesn't feel like I'm actually working, that's just fine with me! :)

Hope everything is going well in your respective locations!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you're all enjoying your 3-day weekend. Mark and I aren't doing much that's out of the ordinary. He's at school laboring away on test reviews while I am at home doing "business stuff." We know you're all jealous. :)

Mark's second board exam is quickly approaching (as is his birthday (see the counter down below on the side bar). I guess we're going to have a little soiree for him (despite his telling me on countless occasions that he didn't want a party for his big 3-0 birthday). So, it's going to be very informal - we're inviting friends to join us on Friday of this week at the O'Hana grill down the street from our house for a dutch-treat birthday dinner. We'll supply the cake and ice cream...and, of course, the birthday boy!

Other than that, on Saturday of next week (Mark's actual birthday if you're doing the match), we plan to attend our church's Talent and Treasure auction. We've even donated a couple of items - 2 hour long massages from Mark and 3 hours of wedding and event consulting from me. Exciting stuff sure to garner at least a few dollars for the church!

On Sunday the 10th, I have my next bridal show. I'm approaching it from a different standpoint and hope it will be a bit more successful than shows past (which haven't been too bad, really). Speaking of shows past, I was supposed to meet with a client this weekend. It has been pushed back to Mark's birthday as well which is just fine. There's another potential prospect I need to get back to as well. At this next fair, my focus will be to schedule as many actual appointments as possible. I have something up my sleeve to at least get them interested in stopping by my booth. ;)

Other than that, I have just been sending out information about my company and it seems to be driving traffic to the website. I've also received a ton of traffic from a wedding planning article that has been published on Wed Plan.net which I've linked the post title to. :) What's super duper about this is that they actually chose my article to send out to brides in their monthly newsletter so now, brides and other vendors from all over the country are learning more about my business. How cool is that? I've even made a few new contacts from it. Pretty neat stuff!

Today it will be more of the same for me...emailing clients and entering more vendors' info into my wedding planning software. It seems that I'm meeting people faster than I can get them in my system, but sooner or later it should start to dwindle. I actually really enjoy the meeting process much more than the inputting so keep them coming! :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Congratulations Jackie and Jason!

We just returned last night from visiting Maui - another lighting fast weekend trip. We had a nice time as always and a lot of fun at our friends' wedding.

They were married Saturday evening at the beach by the Maui Sunset...it was lovely of course. I even helped out a little here and there.

We didn't really have time to go to the beach or to relax, to be honest, but it was nice to see all of our friends and to celebrate J&J's marriage which has been a long time coming! :)

I'll post pictures once I find time to do so...and then everyone can see my new hair do as well.

So, quick recap - Friday we arrived in the morning and to our surprise Mark's dad was waiting for us. There was apparently some confusion over whether we were going to rent a car or what not. I suppose we should have called when we made the reservation but I've been pretty busy lately and little things that aren't work-related seem to slip my mind easily (like forgetting that I'd given Mark's shoes to his dad...at the wedding - we spent a good amount of time calling around looking for those!).

We had lunch with his parents and then headed over to rent Mark's tux. I made a nice connection at the tux shop and will be referring my destination Maui clients there. They're also going to pass my info along to those who might wish to be married in SF. Once we had Mark's tux we rushed home for a quick shower and then really rushed to get out the door when we discovered (at about 4:30) that rehearsal was at 5...

Stayed at the rehearsal location for a good little bit conversing with various friends and the bride and groom's family members. Then went to visit our friend Keola who has, unfortunately, experienced the loss of his mother recently. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Saturday we spent running a few errands and then getting ready and attending the wedding. Fun was had by all and I have some new great contacts and a new tasty drink as well. :) New contacts include the president of the Maui Wedding Association who owns the catering company as well as a DJ services, table, linen and and tabletop company, etc. Also, I met a couple from the Bay Area (Sacramento and Manteca areas I believe) who just got engaged. They're looking to plan a nice luau reception which hopefully I'll be able to be a part of. As for the drink - when Shirley Temple isn't in the house, a nice mix of sprite and strawberry daiquiri mix does the trick! :)

Sunday we spent running around trying to find Mark's medications (which I'll have to refill today along with getting one of my own). Then we headed out for our flight...and oh what a fligh it was.

There was this little girl who screamed the entire time minus maybe 1/2 an hour. This was before we left the airport to after we landed. I was doing my best not to take Mark's can and whap her upside the head. Seriously. Sounds bad, I know, but I think it's safe to say 80% of the passengers on the plane agreed with me.

So, this week, I am going to keep up with my business stuff...especially calling people about my services (and sending email communications as well). I'm also going to look into maybe doing a little bit of tax prep services just to help us sustain ourselves a bit longer while I'm working on brining my business to life. We thank everyone for their prayers as we do our best to make everything work out! :)

Mark, on the other hand will be taking tests and working in the clinic...it's pretty much the same story every week for him. :)

And, finally, on the island of Maui there is much celebrating today as a very sweet lady turns another year older - Happy Birthday Mom Rocco! :)

Startin' It Up!

My thanks to all of you who voted for my elevator pitch - I'm pleased to say your efforts were worthwhile and I am now on to round 2! It was looking a bit scary yesterday...the window washing system guy from Quebec was closing the gap by leaps and bounds (I'd dropped to 3rd by that time)...but in the end, I'm in! :)

So, next show is supposed to be recorded in just a few minutes and will air this coming Saturday at 4 p.m. on KNEW here in the Bay Area or, of course, you'll have the opportunity to listen online and then vote for me again. :) Hopefully this free exposure will help me with my marketing efforts!

Thanks again!

The Home Stretch...

Well, we're still doing well in the polls...still in 3rd place (we were in 2nd for quite some time but were inched out); however, we have window washing guy from Quebec about to over-take us so we need your vote (if you don't mind!).

Please go to http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/registration.asp

and sign up for an account at SUN's community. Then go to http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/forum_posts.asp?TID=1266

and vote prior to midnight today (you can try later than that, but I figure it's a good safe margin)!

Thanks for your support! :)
Me

Imagine That - The Pitch Is Good!

Well, I apparently have impressed enough people with my pitch. Unless things go utterly crazy with the voting in the next few days, it looks like I will actually be moving on to round two in the "pitch-off." How exciting, huh? And, nerve wracking...I gotta get to practicing my new pitch. At least it is written.

So, yesterday I had a bit of a disappointment, but that whole elevator pitch thing mellowed it out. It turns out that the BNI group I wanted to join doesn't want me. Boo hoo hoo. Or perhaps the more appropriate response is "eh, whatever." It appears that they like me but that they prefer people who have at least a year's experience with their business. I don't have this, of course, but I'd think that with the rest of my background they might have made an exception. Ah well...you win some, you lose some (look at that closely and you might get what made me chuckle ever so slightly when I wrote it). ;)

They're trying to set me up with a few other groups to meet and see if they'd work for me. These groups are all composed of people who haven't been in business very long. I'm not sure what I think about that. It seems that if they aren't established, much like me, they may not be bringing the clients to my door that I'm looking for. So, I'm going to go, but I'm kind of sceptical about what I'm planning to do in the end.

In other business news, I am now caught up with my calls from the Santa Clara show. Dearest Mark put some of his 24 hour Fitness call skills to work and ripped through the list. Way to be! :) That leaves me free to start calling brides from Pleasanton tomorrow evening.

Finally, it looks like I will have an ad in print very soon. I have just signed on with The Wedding Guide to have my ad printed in a number of regional directories. It was pretty affordable and should give me good exposure. Beginning shortly, I will start receiving leads from this source as well. I am hopeful that it will be worth my while...we'll soon see! I did go ahead and pay extra for a preferred listing on the website as well so I'll be prominently displayed...

And, now, onto non-business news...

We had a nice little visit from Mark's brother this evening. He was down from Tahoe for training for his new job. He's working as a mortgage broker for BWC Mortgage. We ventured over to the Hawaiian restaurant for some tasty kalua pig and conversation. It was an enjoyable time...

Other than that, we went to church this past weekend. Mark dragged me, to be honest (isn't that a funny piece of imagery). He apparently knows that I need it in my life to function best. He's right. I do. I felt so much better after going, though, to be honest, I was just trying my best not to cry through the whole service. We're going through a pretty scary time here with all the changes that are taking place and I'm a wee bit fragile at times. I guess I'm allowed...

As much as I hate to relate going to church to business (I guess it's still part of God's plan, but it seems out of place to me), it was good to go for that too. Not only did the readings and the sermon give me renewed hope that the Lord will provide for us, our outing provided the opportunity for me to speak to our priest, Fr. Rob, about my services, especially the newlywed financial planning, and how I'd really like to meet with clergy members to tell them more about it and maybe even improve it. I'd also like to maybe see if they can direct me to a few of their newlywed parishoners because I'd love to have a couple of couples to go through the process with to work out any bugs. I'm actually thinking, too, that I may check about offering this as a series of group classes in addition to the couple + me format. I think it could make it more affordable for those just getting started (because I could reduce my fees) and also, I believe it would allow me to help more people than I might be able to now. I think it would also make this portion of the business a great franchising opportunity.

I can't really think of anything else. I need to start working on bath salt bundles or other goodies for my next bridal show which is in about a month. I also need to arrange for a booth sign for a couple of them. It's an exciting time here and hopefully all my hard work and effort will pay off very soon! Please keep us in your prayers - we need all that we can get! Oh, and if you're into crafty stuff and want to volunteer to help with the gifties for the show, just give me a call...I can always use a bit of help!

Here's the Pitch!

So I promised that I would post the link once the Elevator pitch contest was up at Startup Nation so that you can hear just how I did. I have to say that upon hearing myself yesterday I did much better than I originally thought. When on the phone with the show hosts, I felt like I had totally bit the dust, but no...no, I just faltered a bit here and there. My nerves were in full-on *aaaaarrrrggggghhhh* mode given all that was going on that day.

For this was the day, my friends, that I discovered my brochures had been folded backwards, that I was late (because of the contest) for an appointment with Mark's retinal doctor, that I had learned that my business cards and magnets and other items were not going to be there in time for the bridal show I was doing the next day. To say the least...it was the worst possible day and I still did just fine! :)

So, enjoy the pitch, forgive my slight stumbles and, oh, did I mention? Vote for me! Just hit the discuss this radio show button at the top and join the community to cast your vote.

Wow - I Must Have Been Busy!

I just realized I never posted anything about what we did for our anniversary. On July 31, I know you all remember. :)

For that matter, I noticed upon looking at pictures in my camera that I've just totally not been the best recapper lately. There are pictures I never even shared with the world like our walk in the "perfect for a horror movie" woods tha we like to walk through. So named, by the way, because one time when we went walking there I was feeling a little "scardy catish" and it was right at dusk and there were lots of shadows and stuff. Yeah, I'm a bit paranoid sometimes. At any rate, here's a little pic of that place. As you can see, it isn't terribly scary....in fact is has birdies. Of course because blogger is inherently evil, I have to post the pictures elsewhere. I think mark-n-melissa.com is the place. Go here. And yes, I do know that I shouldn't be taking pictures while driving...trust me, these were all lucky shots given that I wasn't really focusing on aiming or anything...

I've added a couple of bonus photos from Santana Row in San Jose as well. I figured you all might enjoy seeing them...especially the Grand Marnier vehicle and the license plate. How cool are they?

Then there was the "I'm bored again" day in San Franscisco. I had one of these a few weeks back and did a little picture tour for a few select friends (I know I'm playing favorites - sorry). :) To make it up to you, the most recent version of said tour with pictures is on the mark-n-melissa site of course. Maybe I'll even hunt down the old tour...

And now onto our Anniversary....

It was a pretty nice day on Sunday, July 30 (which is when we celebrated which was good because Mark came home around 8 on our actual anniversary). We didn't go too far away from home this time around since we are trying to watch our finances given that there's no $$ coming in at the moment. Still, though, it was a great day.

We started it off with a little jaunt to Santa Rosa. While here, we grabbed a ton of infomration on fun touristy things to do all over the Bay Area at the Visitor's Center. We also began our quest to see as many Woodstock statues as we possibly could. I think to avoid the annoyance that is blogger, I may just post these pictures to a little photo service and let you all take a peek because, well, Mark is a loon and made many of the pictures quite fun to look at. I especially like the one where he's trying to eat Woodstocks marshmallows...and am sort of giggling thinking about it since he kind of bent in a bit too far the first time (bad guide wife!) and bonked his nose. I was afraid we were going to break the statue or something, but no. The disco woodstock is pretty cool, too. Which are your favorites of the ones we've seen?

We enjoyed lunch at a little restaurant called Checkers. Highly recommended if you get the opportunity to go. We had salads that were very yummy (and allergy free!). :)

Then we headed back down toward San Francisco for a tour of Sausolito, but we took a detour. We thgouht it was a short one to Stinson beach, but no. We ended up going through a good chunk of the Muir Woods (including past the Pelican Inn where MeLissa had once attended an off-site meeting with the Capital Recovery group at PG&E (very cool place!). We took a little bit of a break half-way through to enjoy a scenic overlook. As you can see from the beautiful pictures (also in the yahoo folder), it was a great idea stopping! Once we'd traipsed around a bit, we kept on toward Stinson beach. We finally go there and man, it's definitely a nice (and busy!) beach. We took a little stroll and then jumped back in the car to go to Sausolito.

In Sausolito, we enjoyed wandering and taking photos (on the other site of course) and we even bought our yearly anniversary Christmas ornament. This year we bought a cute little lighthouse. Last year it was a cool little glass ball with sand and shells from Monterey.

Now, at the end of the Woodstock, Stinson, Sausalito slideshow, there's an added treat - a couple of pictures from when my friend Lucie and I went to the Brides Magazine launch party and pictures from my last bridal show. I didn't have time to get flowers this time around so I brought our big martini glass and flled it with lemon drops. It was a simple table decoration and people loved it. :)

I think that is pretty much the recap. Head on over to the pictures for the fun part of the post. :)

Another One Down - Three to Go

The bridal show this past weekend was great. I got a lot of great survey answers in exchange for bath salts. Good stuff that should be very helpful when I call the bridely types back. I have about 25 who I need to call from the looks of it.

And, I have one that I emailed today who is intersted in Day-Of Coordination so that's quite good. I'll be following up with her and the bride who's considering my full-service planning this evening. They both seem like great ladies - I hope I am able to work with them. I have a lot of follow-ups to do today...including finishing up with the San Jose crowd.

Yesterday I also signed myself up for 3 more bridal shows. Most Sundays in the month of September are now occupied with things to do. At least I'm finally getting this process down so it doesn't really take too much effort.

Mark is really going crazy with the clinic stuff at school. Some of his instructors are actually asking him if maybe he's going a bit too crazy. I'm sure he'll be fine, but I sure don't see much of him what with meeting clients and his weekend review courses. At least the latter should finish up once he takes his 2nd board exam in September.

Other than that, there hasnt' been too much to speak of around here. We're just plugging along and making due. :) Hope you're all having a great week.

Weekly Recap....

This was a busy week around here! Mark had tons of tests and I had lots of phone calls to make and even a couple of meetings!

My favorite "meeting," though was Thursday night. On that night, Brides Magazine/Brides.com had a launch party for their new Northern California magazine which I'm actually contemplating advertising in. My friend Lucie, a photographer who's work will be sprinkled on my website (www.winsomeevents.com) very soon, and I went to the city to see what it was all about. It was a great party with lots of goodies - alcohol (and Shirley Temples for me!), chocolate fountains, Sherri's Berries, and lots of vendors who LOVED me! :)

Not to brag, but networking with top notch vendors is easy when you have those six little letters behind your name (you know, MBA, CPA!). I even had one man who had heard about me from someone else apparently chase me down and ask "Are you the wedding consultant?" Turns out he owns a nice little establishment perfect for intimate weddings, receptions, rehearsal dinners and the like. And, then of course, there were all the photographers that I met through Lucie, etc., etc.

My favorite "hook up" of the evening, though, happened over the berries. I happened to go for a smackeral at the same time as one of the New York ad executives. She and I chatted for several minutes about my services, especially the newlywed financial planning services which were such a hit, and we also talked about maybe setting up a little something with the Association of Bridal Consultants networking group which I am a co-director of. I told her that I'd be more than happy to provide quotes or whatever they needed if they ever did have articles on budgeting or finances in their magazines (Brides, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride). Now we'll just see if they take me up on the offer. :)

My other activity this week was phoning all the brides who entered to win the bride's emergency kit at the last wedding faire I participated in. I have had some positive responses from a couple of people so I'm pretty happy about things over all. Tomorrow, I have another show and will add to the list of people I need to follow up with hopefully.

For that show, I am doing things a little different. I have made up some yummy jasmine bath salt favors which I plan to give to brides who kindly fill out a little survey I've created on wedding planning. I figure it is a great way to show them some *love* and get some help with marketing plans, etc. I'm still going to have a Bride's Emergency Kit to give away as well.

Final bit of excitement for my business - I finished my trademark application today. I need to call and make a couple of corrections and forward a copy of my mark to the filing firm as well as a brochure I use and possibly a screen shot of my website once we have it dressed and ready to go which should be very soon. Very exciting stuff.

As for Mark, as usual, he's studying like a madman. What is unusual is that he rarely comes home before 8 p.m. because he has to work in the clinic on his patients now. It's kind of a bummer. Since he's also in a review class for his next board exam (in November, I think), I hardly see him. I'm fortunate that I have lots to keep me busy with my business and what not. I can't imagine not seeing him very much and having nothing to occupy my time with!

Oh, we also got our tickets purchased for our friends' Jason and Jackie's wedding. It will be taking place on August 26 in Maui. Exciting stuff...and perhaps an opportunity if Jackie needs some help on the wedding day for me to get a little more experience. :) If not, at least I'll get to enjoy a beautiful wedding with two sweet people who are finally taking the plunge!

I think that is about it for now. I need to get back to finishing stuff up for the bridal show. I have to run to the store to finish up an Emergency kit and I need to go get some clipboards for the survey I'm going to have people fill out. I haven't decided if I really want to deal with printing it at Kinko's or not. I may just print it on our computer. It sure seems like it would be easier given the fiascos that run rampant in that place!

Until next time then!