Decision '08

And no, I am so not talking about the election this year. Politics is something I really couldn't care less, and I think they're all crooks. Have I ever mentioned that Brent always writes me in for elections? Although I don't care for politicians, I do think it's important to vote, and if you don't vote you have no right to complain....and we all like to complain, right? So I always make Brent vote, and if he doesn't use his vote to offset mine and prove that voting is pointless (something he enjoys doing) then he writes me in! It's nice to know that in most elections I have at least one person who thinks I would do a good job at "fillintheblank".

AND, I did get a call for a political survey earlier this week. They asked me a billion questions about issues and who I would vote for, etc so at least this week when I saw poll numbers on the news I could say "they DID ask me!".

BUT, what I'm really talking about is we finally have a babymoon destination! And the winner is..... San Diego! Yay! My top two choices were San Diego and San Juan (my 3rd choice was San Antonio - I seriously don't get my San obsession). Brent sent me a link to the great deals Southwest posted for this week, and the savings to San Diego were massive, and much cheaper than San Juan - so I booked ASAP. We're going in mid-October, right towards the end of my 2nd trimester. I already talked about it with Doc earlier this month at my appointment and he was fine with an October trip, so it should all be good! Now I just have the massive decision of where to stay and what to do. Any suggestions are massively welcome! I'm all about going to the Zoo and probably SeaWorld. I've requested a bunch of books from the library, so this weekend I'll prob know more which side of town we'll want to stay on. And of course their should be meetups!

This trip will give us state #41, leaving us with only 9 more to see together (Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas & North Dakota). We've both been to Cali before, just not together. I've only been on business and saw very little of LA and San Diego, other than some various warehouse and office facilities of a former employer. But I did see LL Cool J, who was on our flight! This will be baby's 5th state (TN, WI, MI, & IA down), so ittybitty is already an experienced traveler! Depending on how much vacay time maternity leave takes maybe we can knock out a trip to WV and VA next year, and of course kiddo will be getting IL when we go to a certain wedding next summer . Personally I think Phog and Pippin would be adorable ring bearers, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they're formally asked.

And, I was able to time our trip where I can still "run" in Oktoberfest, one of my fave 5Ks of the year, and prob the last race I'll do preggers. It's the weekend before the trip, so I'm glad we'll be here to enjoy the festival and the race. It's large enough that if I do end up having to walk a lot that I shouldn't be embarrassingly last.

Ok, that's it.

Missing Ingrediants

Hey everyone! I hope you all had great weekends and what not. And isn't it about time the Olympics are over? Not that anything new is really on TV from what I can see, but it will be nice to see the Office in a few weeks and of course the new Christian Slater show since it's been WAY too long since he's been in anything! (I had my room PLASTERED with pics of him growing up. I don't care if the show is dumb, I'll be watching! Most likely alone!)

So what did you think of the men's marathon? It's not that I am disappointed in the Americans, but they seriously didn't even look tired at the end. They just looked to be cruising. And it's not that they finished low in the stats, but I would've liked to see them a little more stressed at the finished. I loved the article about Ryan Hall in RW, so I just really wanted to see him in the top 3.

I had a nice little slow run, or "jaunt" as I refer to them, Thursday. This kid thinks pressing on my bladder at all times of the day and night is a blast, so sometimes I have to walk for a sec or slow down even more until kid finds a new spot, but I've learned it usually passes pretty quickly. I've also entered the cotton phase of running shorts, which is a new low for me. I can't really justify in spending $40 a pair for maternity running pants, so my cotton elastic "work in the yard" shorts will have to do. And I'm down to two larger running tops before I start raiding Brent's drawers and (serious gasp) start wearing large cotton Tshirts to work out in. The things we will do for our kids..... Thank God running socks and shoes will always fit!

I'm also entering that stage where confusion is a constant companion. The other day I was looking in the fridge for Kleenex and I've found my stamps and address book in the WRONG drawer lately. And there's the car tag renewal I threw away the other day, instead of the trash. Twice this weekend I FINALLY figured out what I was hungry for - only to be missing one ingredient from each recipe!!! I LOVES me some fruit tea, and instead of shelling out $6 a gallon from the cafe in our neighborhood I finally decided to try the recipe my SIL uses. Only to discover I had no frozen lemonade, and apparently there is no substitute I could find on the 'net (which is goofy since I have powdered lemonade, lemon juice and REAL lemons in my kitchen!!!!). On some other recipe calling for frozen lemonade someone said they substituted limeade for a slightly different flavor, and for some BIZARRE reason I did have that, so I gave it a whirl. It did give it a slightly different kick, but it's still really good (I also only used 12 ounces pineapple juice and a slightly larger can of orange juice.) Then I wanted to make chicken enchilada soup (like Chili's) only to discover that recipe calls for a type of corn flour I never even knew existed. I have flour, wheat flour, rye flour, bread flour, baking flour, cornmeal, polenta, corn starch and grits but apparently nothing can sub for this elusive Mexican corn flour. So that kind of sums me up right now, just missing a thing or two.

And WOW my stomach looks enormous right now. I'm thinking before long I won't even be able to see the screen. We did order Chinese delivery tonight, so maybe it's just that my stomach is puffed up with fried rice! We got rain today for literally the first time all month - and we SO needed it (thanks Hurricane thing!) My garden has been awesome all summer, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears and we dug our first sweet potatoes this weekend, but it is starting to suffer. Anyway, this was the first time we've tried delivery from this place and it was SO good! Their crab rangoons were to DIE for! They were fast and the food was good, and it was nice not to have to go pick up food.

Ok, time to end the ramble. There's really not a lot to say about last weekend. We had family work day Saturday during which my dad fell through one of the plywood temp steps and then nearly fainted, so that was exciting! We also ran into some peeps from college we hadn't seen in a year, and I figured I would "test" them and see if I looked pregnant or not by not saying anything, and seeing if they noticed. In all fairness, this was after church yesterday and the shirt I was wearing is so "poofy" that it's hard to tell, but my buggy was FULL of cute baby clothes on clearance at Target, so that gave it away almost more than looking at me. I'm still in that "fun" stage where people wonder and just ask other people instead of embarrassing themselves. (That happened last week at work - a coworker wasn't sure so she asked someone else, HA!).

Alrighty, three weeks from today we find out Brent Jr or Rachel Jr, woo hoo! And we'll be past the half way point, the first half marathon of baby growing will be over!

OH, just one last thing (seriously - note the lack of organization here!). When my parents were here last weekend they were talking about the Olympics and said they had seen the women's marathon the weekend before. Then my mom asked me if that's how far I had run - that she and dad had talked about it and decided that surely I would never run 26 miles because that is just WAY too far. I pretty much had to convince her that YES, I had run that far - four times in fact (I didn't even go into all the training runs of nearly that distance). I explained I don't run it nearly as fast as those women, but that yup, that's what I've done before.

Ok, good night for real!

The Dog ate my Library Book

Things in life that are a little embarrassing:

Getting a letter in the mail from the library saying you owe them $19 for a book you've returned with pages that have chew marks and tear on them. Going down to the library and admitting that you do have a dog, but he's never shown any interest in reading. Asking them if they could check the previous owner, because you're not entirely convinced you damaged the book. Hearing them say you're the only person who has ever checked the book out, and then hearing yourself ask who to make the check out to. Sigh.

But really, now that I bought this book (and they returned to me) it really doesn't look like a Pippin activity. When he gets into something he demolishes it. This was delicate chews and some sharp scratches. When Brent looked at it he thought hamster/mouse, which is really much more how it looks. And considering I return books via the drop, and they're not checked in until the following morning - an industrious mouse could've really had a good night with MY book.

The contractor got all finished with the projects we had for him yesterday, so now all the major remodel type stuff in the nursery is done! There's still some painting for us, and we have an outdoor water faucet in there to be removed (seriously, you could plug a hose up INSIDE the house, in the nursery - it makes NO sense!), but that's all pretty minor (for us). All the new baseboard is already painted and we just have to put it in. Everything seems to be coming along in good time!

OH, and I did forget to note that Brent and I are the only two losers left in the world who don't have passports. I rarely plan our vacations that far in advance, so it's never conducive to getting one, and I never remember unless I'm shopping for a getaway! So, wherever we go will have to be a US type place (or cruise where you leave from the US). The more I look at cruises the more I think it's just not us, and now I'm leaning towards 3 San's : San Diego, San Antonio, and San Juan, and I may be leaning more towards San Juan. I can't wait for a vacation!!!

For the love of God, how much more gymnastics can there possibly be in the Olympics?????

P.S. The pic of Pippin from above is from a couple of weeks ago right after he ripped his dew claw. I like his look of "Why would you want to bandage my leg up like this? Don't you know I'm going to have this off in 15 minutes?"

P.S.S. I've had two good workouts this week, Mon and Tues. I had too much work today to leave and go to the gym at lunch. Of course I did have one person tell me (nicely) on my way back in from the gym yesterday that my body is just not going to be the same after. How many times have I already heard THAT one! I always say, Nope, it's just going to be better because I have NEVER had that much time off work to workout. =) People.

The FAQs

Hey!! So I guess I decided my last post would be more than a little hard to follow and just wasn't sure what to say! Thanks for all the well wishes regarding our upcoming family addition! It's been quite exciting for us, to say the least!

It's truly odd the things that people say to you when they find out you're expecting! The news has been spreading around for the last month. I would've preferred to hold off longer, but it was becoming rather....obvious. When I had only put on FOUR pounds people at work were starting to speculate! Now the weight gain is around 6-7 depending on the day, and depending on what I'm wearing I either look like I'm Krispy Kreme's greatest fan or pregnant.

And once people found out, out comes various things spewing from their mouths! Sometimes I wonder if they even THINK about what they're saying.

Was this planned? HUH??? Seriously, we'll both be 31 soon, we've been married for nearly 10 years, we both have good jobs, a roof over our head (new, in fact!)!!!! For YEARS people have wanted to know when we would have kids, and now they are wondering why! And how is that even any of their business!

Do you even know how much your life is going to change? If I had a dollar, even a QUARTER for how many times I've heard that! It sort of goes along with Q#1. It's like they want to rub in how our "quiet little existence" is over and we'll be all Cheerios and poop like they are now.

How is Pippin going to handle this? Well, I guess he'll still steal food off plates, lick his rear end at 2 in the morning, and most likely go ape anytime people come over. Life will somehow manage to go on for Pippin! On some weird level he seems to already get it, and will not leave my side, at all. We've had a contractor in the house all weekend, all he literally JUST noticed him about twenty minutes ago for the first time.

Surely you don't run anymore! Oh, but I do. My obgyn is very laid back and I can run as long as it's comfy and I keep it conversational. I run less, no long runs, and no running outside in the heat. I'm content with 11 min miles and walk breaks when I feel like I need it. I still run about 3 times per week, and then do other things on the other days. So many people have told me that I now "Have a license to eat" which is SO not true! Everything you gain you've got to lose, so I try to eat sensibly and not eat just for the sake of it!

And then come all the labor and new baby horror stories. What's up with that??? I've been told anything from my body will never be the same to be prepared to pee yourself every time you laugh for the rest of your life. Sure, THEIR body was never the same, but considering the sources I doubt their body was much to write home from before hand!

Let's see, in other news lots of progress is being made on our projects here. Our "deadline" is Oct 1 (my b-day) and having all this messy construction over with would be the best bday gift EVER. And basically ALL of it falls on Brent now that I can't paint, sand, etc. This weekend we have a guy in working on the nursery drywalling around the new skylights and drywalling the outside of the new closet. Both of these projects are about 15-18 feet in the air, things we were interested in tackling! On the actual new stairs Brent has most of the new drywall up, mudded, sanded, primed and painted. Our families are coming back next Saturday for more "family fun work day"!

Once these projects are doing we are going on a babymoon! The trouble is I just can't decide where! Much like I absolutely never know what I want to eat now, I can't decide where I want to go. I've shopped cruises, resorts, places we've been and places we haven't. I just want to stay somewhere nice and relaxing, and not do much of anything for a week. Feet up, nice warm spot. Since it'll be late October that does rule out quite a few places! Right now I'm looking Caribbean, San Diego, or South Texas. Any ideas of fab resorts you've been to?

Alrighty, that's it for now! Baby is getting hungry! And the other FAQ - are you finding out what you're having? YOU BET! Sept 15th, for all you inquiring minds!

Jan 31, 2009.

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
I don't wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all too soon the clock will strike midnight

Is there ever a post you've written over and over in your head? Not just once, but for days and weeks, maybe even months. Something so big you don't even know how to start it, how to even verbalize everything you want to say, or the tone you want to say it in. Something just SO much bigger than words.

We're having a baby!!! Jan 31, 2009.

For you fellow mathematicians that puts me at a secret we've held for 15.5 weeks now. And a lot of you have known for a few weeks now, and thanks for not publicly spilling the beans while we make sure we get a chance to tell people ourselves.

I can't even put into words everything we're feeling right now! Excitement, pure joy, and scared witless. Hearing that little heartbeat (159 bpm at yesterday's appt) is like nothing else in the world, it's just unfathomable. It just seems like so many other things just don't even matter anymore, it's all about incubating this little person to the best of my ability, a task we're ALL taking seriously. I swear on some level Pippin knows-he basically does not let me out of his sight anymore, period.

I have so many hopes and dreams and a whole new host of things to be scared of and worry about, none of which have anything to do with me. I could care less if I never run another mile, but I can't wait to run the streets of our great city with our little bumblebee pimped out in a jogging stroller. I can't wait to show this new person all the wonderful places Brent and I have been to - the serene coast of Maine, the beauty of Oregon, the insanity of Mt Rushmore, the unfathomable beauty of Bryce Canyon. There are so many things to see again from a new pair of eyes. I can't wait to swing on the porch after next year's Tomato Festival with a giggling baby. I can't wait to hear one more person complain about the quantity of Christmas trees I like to decorate, and the sheer madness of putting out the Halloween decorations on October 1st every year. One more person to tell me I honk way too much in traffic. There will be a new person to tell the story of how Brent and I met all those years ago, and how I knew right away he was the one, and what a great dad I knew he'd be. A new person to love on Pippin, and become the new object of his affection.

I think my little 7 year old nephew said it best last week when he IM'd me and asked me for the hundreth time when "we would be getting the baby". He said "I wonder who my new cousin will be" and I admit I wonder the same thing, just about every minute of every day. It's just more exciting than any words can do justice.

'08 Tomato Festival

Here's a few pics from this year's Tomato Festival. We really didn't take that many, I don't know how that happened!

I've got no pics from that morning's 5K run. We ate some pretty raunchy Chinese food Fri night (that had Brent puking around 1 am) so I decided to sleep in and not run. The race comes up our block and turns around about 3 houses before ours. Since it's organized by the supremely craptacular East Y there's a) no notice to those who live on our street of said race and road closures and b) pretty terrible street volunteers. We waited for the first runners, and the 3 teenage volunteers who could not have POSSIBLY cared less didn't explain to him where to turn back around (or acknowledge the runners whatsoever). Clearly if you think you're going to be first look up the race map BEFORE - it's been posted for weeks. I'm not sure his final time, but we didn't think he looked all that swift anyway, and the big race in tow (aka the competitive race) was in Smyrna - a great race I've done several times. Anyway, the guy kept going all the way to our house, the cop tried to set him straight but he was mouthing off so much he didn't listen, then another cop tried to keep him from going around another wrong way before he finally got headed the right direction. He kept mouthing off and yelling for about as far as we could see, and after the first 7 or 8 runners were totally rude to us - the only people out cheering WHAT-SO-EVER we said screw it and walked up to the new coffee joint for breakfast instead.

Our friends S&N came around 11 to head down to the Tomato Fest. Woo hoo!!! We had a great time and were down there until around 4 or so. I was SO glad I put sunscreen on! Here's a few pics from the fun-ness that is the festival:

S & I with "Melba Toast", to me the unofficial icon of the Festival.












Brent's submissions for the art show this year:








The artist with his section:












The festival was CROWDED! Pretty much all the activities take place between 10-3. There's lots of contests, music, activities, etc. We had various tomato samples & tastings, shopped the booths, enjoyed some of the music & contests (like ugliest tomato, haiku contest, etc), of course visited the gallery & kids art show, had I Dream of Weenie dogs for lunch, Las Paletas Popsicles for dessert, and then snow cones to top it off! Good times!!!








This homeless guy lives in our neighborhood. He's a very nice guy and I always feel bad for him with whatever is wrong with his foot. I like this pic because he's just stretched out and enjoying the day like everyone else. (We actually have a better pic where people are completely crowded around him but it's SO full of people that you would never even be able to pick him out.) The theme of the Festival is the Tomato: a Uniter not a Divider and I think this one pretty much sums it up.









Neighbors sharing their bounty:








All in all, it was another great year at the Tomato Festival. I can't wait until next year!!!!

Happy Birthday Boo!

Today is Pippin's 5th birthday! And with it being a Saturday we can spoil him ALL WEEKEND LONG! We had peeps over last night and today, so he's happy with the quantity of people he's gotten to jump on, plus the nice long walk we took this morning. Of course what makes him happiest: doggie birthday cake!

For his 2nd b-day we shipped in a gorgeous cake, for his 3rd we had a smaller cake shipped in, and last year I made his cake for the first time (which I apparently never posted pics of!) He absolutely loved his carrot cake last year (and it's gotten INSANE to order dog cakes online), so this year I made him a peanut butter carrot cake, with peanut butter "icing", sprinkled with dog food. I'll let you decide whether or not he liked it, but right now he is curled up as close to me as he could possibly be!!

The cake:








Presentation:








Pippin is ALL TONGUE:








You can see his brain exploding in excitement:








Going to town:

















We do NOT let him eat the whole cake. We let him lick on it for a couple of minutes and the cut him a small piece!

We had a great time at Tomato Fest today, and Brent's neck is the color of a tomato since he didn't wear sunscreen! We were there from around 11-4, and then back for a little while this evening for the artists reception. It was a great day and we had loads of fun. Pics of that to come later, but Pippin's birthday was #1 important!

Happy Birthday Boo!!! The last 5 years have been a blast, and I can't wait to see all the crazy, new adventures you're going to supply us with in this upcoming year. It's going to be a BLAST! You're the best dog eva and you will forever be our first baby boo!

The Endless Battle......

Actual convo I'm having over AIM with my 7yr old nephew:

Him: It's 8:47!
Me: No, it's 7:47
Him: At MY house it's 8:49!
Me: That's because you live in Eastern Stupid Time and I live in Central Smart Time.

So the Pippin update: We decided to wait one week and keep him coneheaded and crated while we're gone to work so he'll leave it alone. She was happy with how it was healing, so next Tues we'll go back and see if it's still continuing to heal well. Of course keeping the cone on is a little difficult with McGyver Pup here. The last two days he's managed to pull it off. Saturday is his 5th birthday so I've got some baking to do this weekend!

Also this weekend - the Tomato Festival!!! I had thought about doing the 5K but some stomach "issues" today have me thinking I should skip this one if I don't feel better tomorrow, ugh! We plan on spending a lot of time there Saturday, and Brent has 3 pieces in the gallery again this yr so I'll have pics of those later. Last year he did GREAT - sold all 3 pieces and one of them got 2 additional orders!!! That's going to be hard to top but he has some fun and creative stuff this year, too.

Ok, that's all for now! It's too hard to concentrate with SYTYCD finale going on! Come on Katee!!!

Work Days Lead to Rest Days!

Hey everyone!! How's it going????

The Pippin update: Tomorrow we've got an afternoon vet appointment. He just won't leave his ripped dew claw alone. I got some gauze Thursday but of course he wasn't a big fan of it and made pretty short order figuring out how to get it off. I'm sure he had the latest round off about 10 minutes after I left for work on Friday! And Saturday morning after he had the bandage off in about 15 minutes I decided it wasn't worth it. It's not bleeding or bothering him, the tear just won't show any signs off repair, and he's CONSTANTLY licking it. If he bumps it on something (aka jumping on people) he squeals, but other than that he's in no pain and not limping. It seems like he'll probably just have to have it removed, which means I'll most likely be taking care of a dog who has to wear the dreaded conehead again so he'll leave the sore alone. Just in time for his 5th birthday this Saturday!!!!

Saturday our parents came up to help us work on our house, woo hoo for free labor! We got a ton of stuff done - the ladies got GOBS of new casing, baseboards, custom frames Brent has built for some art, etc painted. It was about a million degrees outside (upper 90's before you even factor in the humidity) and just plain miserable so they don't owe us a thing for Christmas! The guys did some framing at the top of the new staircase, hung some drywall, planed a few doors, reattached the fireplace mantel in the front room, did some floor work, cut the skirts for the new staircase and even fixed our weedeater! I can't even explain what a huge help everyone was, well worth the big lunch I fixed and the pizza ordered for dinner! They were like parents possessed with the get'r'done bug!

So.....with all that help we decided to have an actual rest day on Sunday!!! That is the day we're supposed to rest, right??? We had a nice leisurely lunch at La Paz after church, took a nap, headed to the pool for a little while, and even did a little tax-free clothes shopping. It was SO nice to just have a day with no projects!

Our self-imposed deadline for getting the stairs done is October 1st (my birthday). It'll be nice to have it all done well before Christmas so we can just enjoy fall and prop our feet up for a while. Brent's been hard at work all night hanging more drywall and doing some wiring while I manage the bills and dishes and keeping our very dry gardens watered. And playing a little ball with Pippin. =)

I had a pretty decent run today at lunch. I swear the gym is about 500 degrees inside, and I know I'm not the only one feeling that. It's getting a little crazy - I don't know if the insane heat outside makes it hard to cool inside, or if this is somehow related to the construction or what. I think I may have to start taking a water bottle with me to stay a little cooler!

Ok, that's all for now! Thank goodness tonight is the Nashville Star finale, these people suck and I am ready for it to be over!!!! Maybe next year it'll be somewhere else because I've heard much better people singing outside on 2nd than these people. Ugh.