OB Update...

So we had our first third trimester visit today. I still am in shock that we're in the third...why is it that time flies like crazy when you're an adult and crawls when you're a kid? Anyhoo...

Everything seems to be going well. We have "graduated" to every two weeks visits again so that should be fun to fit in with my increased hours at work. I've been pulling about 52 to 53 a week lately which is pretty good given that I wasn't sure I could even pull 50 off! The only problem is that I have a very bad habit of not stretching and going on my walks like I should, but given the fact that the whole labor process is looming before me, I am committing myself once more to not being a slug. I must get myself into better than good shape by the time my "marathon," as Mark calls it, comes. I want quick and speedy...or as quick and speedy as I can get!

So, the plan is that Mark and I will start getting ourselves up a bit earlier (like 15 minutes) to do some body weight bearing excercises in the morning and then I will go on at least a half hour (and preferably an hour) walk every day for the next however many days until it's time to greet our little sonshine. :)

I discussed my whole trepidation with Mark's test being right around when I'm supposed to deliver and the doctor said he would be fine with inducing me a few days to a week before our scheduled due date. We're going to talk about that one. It sounds like it isn't a bad process these days. They basically just give you a little something "up there" that dissolves your cervix and then nature takes over. If it doesn't do the trick, you aren't stuck at the hospital forever since they don't break your water and what have you.

And, in the spirit of labor and delivery, I am experiencing my first real bout of Braxton Hicks contractions today. To put it mildly, they aren't much fun...and I'm ready for them to be over after about 3 hours of this. I can honestly say that I've had worse cramps due to another natural process, but these, even though I know they're normal and just my body's way of practicing, have the added effect of making me nervous because, well, it's too early for the sprout to come out. I'm just trying to take it easy and wait for them to subside...feel free to subside anytime now...

Let's see, other than that, Mark has been looking into chiropractic practices to either join or purchase or something. He's found a few, but mainly in Denver. I have to admit that I'm just not a big fan of Denver as a place to live (no offense, Jenny). It's just waaaaaay too big for the small town girl in me (I know, I know...like Colorado Springs is small, but it feels small due to the way it's laid out, I guess). I could probably handle something in the "outskirts" toward the south like Highlands Ranch or Cenntenial or something, but anything much further in and I'm not so sure it wouldn't be something to make me growl. Of course, the alternative he came up with to go to a practice Burlington isn't much better...more for him than me. I lived on the Eastern Plains for the first 2/3 of my life...I'm cool with prairie and not much going on. My dear Mark, though, goes through torture every time we visit my home town and so I can definitively say that one isn't going to happen. I'm glad he's looking now...hopefully he'll find something that will work before we move back.

And, I guess that is it for tonight. I just wanted to let you all in on what we learned today. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

The Home Stretch...

Huh. Well, would you look at that...27 weeks gone by, 91 days to go...where has the time gone? It really seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was dealing with feeling awful and yet being so happy to feel awful. I think only pregnancy can make a person enjoy being sick. And, yet here I am in trimester #3 looking at a little more than 3 months until I will be holding a bouncing baby boy in my arms. Whoa. This is heavy...

I will admit I am a wee bit nervous about being a mom. I inherently know I'll do fine, but I do have those moments when I think about how I really don't feel old enough to be a mom. I'm not sure I can explain that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had that feeling. And, then, of course, there are the musings running through my mind about how I'm going to manage to get everything I already need to do with the increase in responsibility that comes with a new little baby and then a toddler and then a young child...you get the idea. No doubt I'll find a way...I always seem to manage somehow, but it is a little scary to think about. I think part of the pressure comes from knowing that I will be responsible for raising a responsible adult...a contributing member to society. That is the ultimate goal of child rearing as I see it and it's one heck of a responsibility to have and there are countless examples of how even the best of intentions can fail at producing a good end result. No pressure...

So now that you're in the know about the things running through my psyche with respect to baby, how about a little update on the past week? To be honest, there isn't much to relay that's exciting. First up - Mark is one step closer to graduating! He passed his clinic mids. One more test down. Now all he has to do is get enough adjustments to take his clinic exit exam. And, of course those two big board exams which are approaching...

Of course, there always has to be uncertainty to make things more interesting and we have some with respect to Mark's last board exam. Guess when it is? May 18, 19, and 20....the weekend before the sprout is due to join us. He assures me he'll not miss our son's birth, but we're both hoping that sprout will be patient and be maybe a bit late. :)

Otherwise, I had my second (though much shorter, thankfully) bout of stomach flu, bought more baby clothes at rock bottom prices and felt pretty spiffy. :) I also bought us a little s'mores making set when I returned the maternity clothes I didn't like from JC Penney. It was 75% off and I thought it would be a good alternative to our typical marshmallow roasting ritual which involves the fireplace...something I just don't really want to pass along as a good idea to the sprout. Fireplaces and little fingers are not a good match if you ask me!

And, that is about it. I pretty much spend most of my time doing taxes. I am actually enjoying it. I'm even contemplating ditching the wedding business to go back to my original plan in college of doing taxes out of our home or maybe doing bookkeeping....we shall see what transpires. If nothing else, it's going to be a heck of a lot easier to get business and make money with an accounting gig...and if I'm doing it on my schedule it might be quite enjoyable indeed.

So that's it for tonight. I'm finally feeling a bit hungry and am going to go partake of a little dinner that Mark made. I hope you all have a fabulous week!

One Hundred Days?!?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Week in Review

So this week's activities can be summed up in a few words/phrases - shopping, baby shopping, pizza eating and, of course, taxes. We'll even throw a little wedding in there for you just to spice things up. So, yeah, in general, not a very exciting week per se in the lives of "normal" people, but since when have Mark and I ever fit that category? Don't answer that. ;)





So, because all girls love shopping (well, okay, I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan unless I have something I'm trying to find), we'll begin there. I bought more maternity clothes this week. Because the whole tax thing pretty much saps all my time, I did it online at Penney's. I'm usually not a big fan of ordering things off the internet, but I've usually had good luck with Penney's catalog and online offerings and they make it easy to give things back if they don't work for you so I figured it was a good place to go to see if they had anything I'd like at a price that I'd like because afterall I'd rather spend more money on the sprout (or Rocky as my mother has recently taken to calling him since we're still not spilling the beans on the little tyke's name...which we technically can't because we haven't officially decided, but there is a front runner).





At any rate, all the name stuff aside, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did they have a pretty decent sale going on, they had some pretty cute looking stuff that was on sale. And, not only that, but I happened upon a page where I found a coupon for 25% off...and wouldn't you know a lot of things I ordered actually qualified for it. I think I figured out that I saved about $175 with the selections I made. Another reason I chose Penneys was my height. I wanted to invest in talls size clothing since as my little guy grows, my typical buy a size up and they'll ride lower and look longer method doesn't seem to work so well...my hips are somewhat altered. :) Oh, and lest I neglect to mention it, the impetus for my going shopping was that I've had two pairs of maternity pants sustain "injuries" which I simply do not have the time nor motivation to deal with and another pair has just become downright uncomofortable at this point because I'm not into even remotely "hugging" pants right now. So, I'm kind of down to about 3 pairs of pants that I actually can/will wear. Not so good...and a bit of a pain when it comes to doing laundry.





Anyhoo...I'm on a tangent roll today, but I bought 6 pairs of pants (2 each of 3 different types in my current size and a size larger in case I outgrow my current offerings which definitely isn't the plan, but you never know), 6 camisole tops (which I needed because my regular ones are starting to not fit so good at all), 2 cute sweater cardigans and some pantyhose that should, I hope, fit me even as I continue to grow so that I can wear some of the cute maternity skirts and dresses I bought. I've never been able to get out of the pantyhose wearing thing. I can't stand it when my shoes stick to my feet... So, that was the shopping for me.





As far as shopping for the sprout, I spent a good chunk of time yesterday (because at the last minute it was determined that there wasn't enough work for me to bother coming into the office - yea!) looking at bedding sets. I have finally found the one I think we'll go with. Here's a sneak peek:



It's called "Bubbles" and is made by Lambs and Ivy. We've both been going a bit gaga over sea-themed items and this bedding set is the cutest - not too girly, lots of colors to play upon and lots of neat little accessories to add to the mix. The only regret I have? That I don't really have a nursery to set up. Baby will be staying with us in our room. In a way, I guess it is a good thing since it will keep me from going to crazy buying stuff to decorate with...curbing the whole nesting thing is probably not a bad thing in its entirety. ;)

Other than this shopping, I have been checking out some clothing sites that a book we bought called Baby Bargains suggested. I found a couple that seem to have excellent merchandise at pretty affordable prices and I also found the cutest baby shoes that won't cause any problems with baby's feet since they're soft leather. Perhaps I'll post a picture of some of the ones I like at a later date.

And, then there's the pizza experience which I know has you all on the edge of your seats if you've been following my allergy journey at all. I think, my dear friends and family, my exile from the land of pizza is over. We tried the crust mix that I purchased from the Gluten Free Mall place and it worked fabulously...well, other than the fact that I didn't grease the pan enough and was sort of chiseling off the pieces last night. Hee hee...that amused Mark immensely and scared the cat to death! I'll be a little more careful next time I imagine! So, yes, I can have my pizza and eat it too without feeling like I have been hit by a mack truck afterward. This is defintiely a good thing...especially since pizza cravings have been running rampant as of late...I better go order some more crusts!

As for the other foods I purchased from the mall, we've had some great ones and we've had some duds. A caramel apple snack bar I got to try was in the pretty darn near a dud category...it's texture, it's flavor, etc...just not something I would get excited about. The worst so far has been the shortbread cookies I tried. I've decided that maybe if I crushed them up and made a pie crust out of them or something of the sort, they would be more palatable. The two winners so far have been the snickerdoodle cookies I bought which have a little weird texture but taste fabulous and the boxed macaroni and cheese stuff. I had that for lunch yesterday and was totally psyched that it only took 3 minutes to cook the pasta...well, I think it took 4 to get it to where I wanted it, but still...less than 5 minutes and you have mac 'n cheese. It was pretty tasty, too...all things considered (meaning you don't really expect gourmet mac 'n cheese out of a box, but then if I wanted gourmet, I would have made it from scratch!).

And, now, finally the wedding thing. I got a call at work on Friday about coordination. I seriously don't think the lady will email me as I suggested a location to meet on Tuesday. She could surprise me, but I just don't see it happening. I was so totally not in a customer service mindset...but that's because I was in the middle of a tax return and that tends to turn me into a drone. Whatever. At any rate, it was exciting since it was the first call I've received from someone based upon one of the print ads I paid for. So there you go. :)

And, with that,I think I will go jump in the shower (I've been taking it easy this morning) because my dear Mark and I are going to go to lunch, I think, this afternoon and then maybe we'll go see a movie...we'll see on this last one. Lunch will be our weekly Sweet Tomatoes run and I'm naturally looking quite forward to it. There's nothing like a big plate of salad followed by a big dish of ice cream with strawberry and caramel sauce to make you a happy pregnant lady. ;)

Hope you all have a great week!

Buddah Shots

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Without further ado...my preggie-morphosis:

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

And, here's another from 11/12:



















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


















Here's one from 12/8:


















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


















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


















Here's a pic from 12/26:



















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


















Another from 1/12 (week 21):


















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


















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




















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



















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

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

Nine Days...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures...Finally!

Yes, I've been a slacker. I admit it. Well, sort of. I have been kind of busy but I could have made time to do this before now. I just haven't - hence the slacker moniker. Maybe I'll tell you about what I've been up to (it's really not that exciting to be honest) once I get these pictures posted. :)

Wow...kind of liking the new picture uploading interface here...hopefully things will be a little less problematic. So just as a reminder, these pictures are from our visit to the ultrasound specialist doctor on December 20...they're probably the last ones we'll get until we have the little one to show off if I'm guessing correctly. We've been pretty fortunate with all the pictures we've had, though, so we can't really complain. :) Incidentally, I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do as far as posting pictures of the little guy once he's arrived. There are some pretty sick people out there and the thought of them oogling over my baby's pictures kind of creeps me out. I have plenty of time to think about it and let you all know! I'll probably just set up an album on York Photo or something and then have people contact me to get the login info...we shall see. All that aside though - pictures are here!

So, here's the first shot. Baby is right side up here with head to the left. You can sort of make out some facial features. He's cute don't you think?

The "alien shot where you get to see his little face from the front view. His eyes should have moved in closer to his nose by now so he probably looks a lot more normal. :)

Cute little baby feetsies...

And, finally, a face down shot...head is to the left.

So, like I said - not a lot of excitement here over the past week or so. We spent most of our New Years working on a registry at Babies R Us which we're sort of using to help keep track of what it we want to buy as time comes closer for the lovey...or, of course, to give family and friends who are so inclined ideas about what we need. We found a great book that is helping us make wise decisions on things like cribs, etc. so we're probably going to move most of our Target registry over there as well (we've heard they are just not the best if something needs to be returned and just would prefer to avoid that mess!). We'll probably have a few things left there since some of their items don't seem to be sold at BRU. Seriously, that is about all that we have really accomplished...and we only made it through a third of the store. :) I was pretty tired after that and we had to call it a day.

We hope you all had a nice New Years and we wish you many blessings in the coming year!

Christmas Recap...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pink or Blue and Maybe Some Pictures, too!

So I suppose everyone is just anxiously awaiting the announcement of what gender of baby we're having? I know I was! Thus, without further a-do, here's the verdict!

It's a boy!

Yes, my friends, we're having one of those little ones that is filled with snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Boy oh boy oh boy! :)

We do have pictures of him (yes, jus him instead of him/her!) to share, of course, but I am just a little tired and not in the mood to deal with them so please be patient and I will get them up in the next few days or so. :)

Until then, we'll sign off as proud members of team blue!

Popping in for a Recap...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Time Is Here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birthday Recap...

I wrote this post yesterday during a break by hand in the hopes that I could just type it out quickly this morning before heading to my appointment. Let's see if we can do it!

I had a great birthday and birthday weekend...and it started off with Thursday. This was the last day I was home sick last week. I should mention that I'm feeling much better and that Mark made a super speedy recovery (wishing the same for you LP!). The night after he was ill, he was eating normally while I could still barely manage to eat anything due to an almost non-existent appetite. Thankfully, it returned and I've recovered most of the pounds I lost during that ordeal.

All the sickies aside, though, we jump started my birthday weekend on Thursday night when a surprise package from Mark's parents arrived in the mail. I was going to wait to open it until my actual birthday (only had about 8 hours anyhow!), but Mark told me I should open them so I didn't argue. :)

Inside of the package (actually there were two) were many fun goodies but my most favorite was a cozy pair of fleecy fuzzy slipper socks. They are heavenly and will be put to good use now and in the future (I'm definitely thinking birthing room wear though maybe not when it's time for delivering...we'll see). Other goodies included a neat necklace, a dip and spreader set and a festive wreath pin that blinks.

On Friday, I returned to work - not feeling 100% but well enough to go and earn some money again. It was a pretty easy work day as things go with no real excitement to speak of.

Afterwork, I headed home to make it in time for a birthday party Mark arranged for me. Funny thing is I ran into my friend Lydia who was on her way there, too when I was on the train. :) We came together and enjoyed a fun party complete with sweet gifties and cards from our friends here. Another neat surprise was that Lydia had made some yummy brownies which were wheat free and so we had those and some ice cream. The brownie mix had come from Mark who bought what can be described as a "chocolate fest" for one of my gifts. It had tons of soy-free chocolate for me to try...and I've been trying it. Last night I had a fabulous dark chocolate with orange essential oil in it...yum!

Mark's other gifts to me were a heating pad to warm up my side of the bed before bed-time (I get really cold and have trouble getting to sleep) and tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra perform. This last one was a combo birthday/Christmas gift...and absolutely awesome.

On Saturday, we spent our day attending a seminar for chiropractors about business-type things. We gained some great knowledge that should help Mark make a good start when he opens his practice. Of course, I was close to yelling "stop!" at one point because the financial advice the speaker was giving was at times not the best, but well, I'm a financial professional and I guess I just "get" this type of stuff better than most people. Regardless, if you're paying down debt folks and want to give as little of your money away as possible, the interest rates you're paying dictate what debt balance you pay off first...enough said.

On Saturday night, we puttered around San Francisco's Union Square to see if there were any gifties we could find for those we love. I had briefly entertained the idea that buying gifts this year might bring less stress, hassle and frustration to the process. This is adventure reminded me why we ususally make most of our gifts and so we're back to plan A.

On Sunday, we went to church and then out to lunch with our neighbors. It was nice to finally get to sit and spend some time chatting with them about their careers, etc. After lunch, we ran errands...including one that was integral to our gift making. I'd tell you what it was, but then I'd have to kill you since some of our recipients read this blog! :)

That evening, we again flew the coopy to enjoy my birthday/Christmas concert. It was so awesome. If you ever have the opportunity to go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra - go! My only suggestion is that you bring sunglasses. After a whil, the light show (mainly the bright white ones) starts to wear on you...we nevertheless hope to see this ensemble again.

After the concert, we headed home (thankfully, via BART!) and crawled into bed to be at least somewhat rested for work and school the next day. Not too much in the way of excitement this week so far, but as I mentioned, I am going in for a blood test this morning. Other upcoming excitement includes my office Christmas party on Friday (which Mark will miss out on :( since they do it for lunch) and on Saturday, a graduation party for a friend who's on her way back to Colorado to be a chiropractor (we're right behind you Diane!) and a Christmas celebration at the Lion's Center for the Blind. Though I have no idea when, I am also hoping to finally get started on making Christmas gifts this weekend. I may need to call in reinforcements...

Enjoy your week. I'll try to get back to tell you about anything noteworthy soon!

Uh Oh...

Well, I guess that bug I caught was a good one. It looks like Mark may have it now. I took today off from work, too, since I still just wasn't quite back to normal. I've finally been able to at least get some food in and staying in the system. Assuming Mark isn't sick, I will probably be find to go back to work tomorrow though I have no idea what I'm going to take to eat because as of yet I really can't handle much food at all.

I just feel really awful though that my Mark is now probably coming down with the bug....especially since it usually takes a pretty decent bug to bring him down.

I wonder where on earth we picked this little gem up...I sure hope it goes away completely by the time my birthday rolls around.

Take your vities people, the bugs are upon us!

Sickie Quickie

Today has been a pretty wretched day. I actually stayed home from work because I can't keep anything down. I must have caught a bug some where, I guess. It's been so long since I had a virus of this sort and this is definitely making up for the lapse of time.

The silver lining - my wonderful husband stayed home to take care of me. Another - it looks like maybe, just maybe, the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen...I hope so, I am so thirsty and a drop of water here and a drop of water there just isn't cutting it. :(

Hopefully things will be bright and pleasant tomorrow.

Picture Famine

Well, it's been real and its been fun...and at times it was even real fun, but the picture fest seems to be over kids. Can you hear the cries of despair and disappointment?

So, yeah, we did go to the doctor today, but no ultrasound pictures. I did, however, get to catch a glimpse of our little one on the ultrasound machine. She/he wanted to be sure that mommy got a short glimpse so he/she maneuvered so that the little heart beat was hard to find. What a good little one we have. :) Nevertheless, I have nothing to show for the short ultrasound experience. I can tell you though that we look like we're growing quite nicely and we have a very nice looking spinal column and some very cute feetsies!

On the bright side, along with this decrease in ultrasounds comes a decrease in appointment frequency which is nice since I have to make up time whenever I'm away from the office. So, our next appointment with the doctor is one month from now. Prior to this, I get to go visit the screening people a couple more times. Once next week to get an AFP blood test (which involves 5 whole drops of blood...yea! I've avoided a needle again!) and then we get to have more pictures...or at least I assume they'll not be greedy! So, in 3 to 4 weeks from now we'll have our Level II Ultrasound screen which will finish up our screening for various issues that will impact the baby's nervous system, organs, etc. With any luck, friends, we'll have some show and tell after this visit.

Oh, and just cuz it was pretty neat to learn, we did find out that our risk for Down's Syndrome based upon that first scan we did is 1 in 8000. Yeah, I think we're good. The doctor was thrilled with the results since someone of my age should be around a 1/200 risk I think he said. Let's hope the rest of the screens go just as well. :)

Let's see the only other stuff we really discussed that was of interest was where the doctor delivers. I have to go do some checking since I'm switching health plans in a few days and will be with an HMO (I've never been on one of these before so I'm a bit scared of what will transpire to be honest). Since it's with blue cross, I imagine we won't have an issue, but still it would be horrible to find that the hospital I'd prefer (which based upon current info is one that works with Stanford but actually has birthing rooms that you get to yourself) was not on the provider list. In general, I think all three of us agree that me being in a room by myself is going to be much better...the idea of listening to other women give birth just doesn't sound like a good thing for me given how empathetic I can be toward others.

Otherwise, everything looks good and so we're just moving along...here's to trimester 2!

Christmastime Is Here!

We've been busy bees here at our house...and it shows!

Our weekend was great...especially since I got to leave work at noon on Wednesday. This gave me the opportunity to go to the Cingular Wireless store and switch us over to a Cingular plan (we are some of those hold out "former ATT Wireless" customers) so that Mark can use his new fangled contraption of a phone. I got that taken care of and, in the process, got myself a newer phone, too...with, I'm happy to say, a few less bells and whistles than dear Mr. Mark's phone. It seems that they would try to keep things simple for people with visual impairments, but whatever. At any rate, despite a few "issues" with converting our accounts, everything was up and running by Wednesday night.

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving and we enjoyed a nice quiet day at home. I fixed us a nice allergy free (with the exception of yams which I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole if I weren't allergic to them!) meal of turkey, mashed turnips and gravy, grape salad (which I may have to make again soon), spinach and artichoke dip, broccoli with cheese sauce and a couple of desserts to enjoy. We're still eating some of the leftovers, of course. Everything was really good, but man was I tired after all that slaving in the kitchen. I was almost too pooped to even want to eat the spoils of my hard work. I guess I never really realized how much energy I expend when I cook a holiday feast. Point noted and we may be having grilled cheese sandwiches on Christmas (I'm kidding!). I'm not sure what we'll have, but it may be significantly less time intensive than a full holiday spread...we shall see.

So, anyhow, after we finished eating and cleaning up after "hurricane MeLissa" (a category 5 storm in the kitchen this time around per Mark), I decided the time to move our living room around was at hand. Um, yeah, I did say I was tired, but for some reason the mere unsightly look of two separate work areas finally took its toll and I just couldn't stand it any longer...not to mention that I am just not one of those people who does well doing nothing. This drove my parents crazy I'm sure when I was home sick as a child...

When all was said and done, Mark and my work stations are in the same area of the front room...behind the couch and, for the most part, they are organized...the parts that aren't are hidden by the couch. :) I am loving the new layout!

On Friday, we jumped right into holiday preparations which is normal for us. I have a little rule that the house needs to be Christmas-i-fied by my birthday and as you can see from that little counter on the side bar, we are quickly approaching said day! We got most of the stuff up and out yesterday and finished up the rest of it today minus the greeting card display that I usually do in the entry way. I am just not sure I'm ready to expend the amount of energy that usually takes to make it look lovely...so we may just let it go this year.

Last night, we had a little visit from some new friends, Sara and Dan. Sara and I met in a rather odd way...she called to sell me some advertising in a bridal publication. We just seemed to really hit things off over the phone and we've been trying to get together ever since. She and her husband were great company for a nice Hawaiian dinner and then a little game of Disney Trivial Pursuit which we chose after discovering that, for the most part, our selection of games isn't exactly the best now that Mark can't see what's going on. I think we might make a trip to buy a couple of games soon...any suggestions on things we might be able to enjoy together?

So, as I mentioned today, it was still go, go, go as I finished up decorating our Christmas tree (which we really must upgrade either next year or the year after - it's getting very difficult to find empty branches for ornaments!) and the banister for the entry way. When Mark came home from the clinic, we tackled the guest room which had become a "catch all" and just really needed some TLC. Thankfully, I'd started that project last week and so there was plenty to do but it wasn't impossible to finish by the end of the day. As part of the process, I went through and cleared out a lot of wedding-business related stuff. I've kind of decided that if I do continue on here in California with my business I really prefer to just do a very minimalist day-of package. I have one more bridal show to do in February and this will be the slant I take. I plan to revise my website to reflect this as well at some point, but as of yet, the motivation to do so hasn't quite hit me! :)

We hope you all had a lovely holiday and have a wonderful Chirstmas season (or other holiday) ahead of you! Perhaps I'll try to get some pictures of our house as decorated up sooner or later. Until then, let us be the first to wish you a very
Merry Christmas!

Just a heads up that tomorrow we may have more pictures to show...I have an appointment with my regular OB/GYN. I'm sure you can guess that if I have anything to show and tell, you'll be the first to know!

First Screen Results

I am happy to report that our Nuchal Translucency and First Trimester screen came out A-OK! This means that our little one has a smaller risk of having chromosomal issues. Pretty neat, eh?

We also finally got our wireless service set up so that Mark can now make his own phone calls and such...very cool! I got a new little cell phone myself which can take pictures and such. I needed one to get on our new plan.

Other than that, we're just preparing for Thanksgiving. We're not doing anything too exciting...just hanging out and having some turkey. We hope you all have a lovely holiday filled with blessings.

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).