Baby Shower

Here is a post I had written shortly after my baby shower last year that I never hit publish on.  Better late than never, right?

Sis and Jill hosted a baby shower for me in Austin last month. I was able to catch up with old friends and visit with the family I still have in the area. It was certainly a nice way to spend probably the only paid vacation time I'll get this year on account of taking medical leave.

Jill came out to Phoenix first, since she had yet to see the house. She got an official tour the night she arived and the next day we took a road trip down to the Bioshpere and did a tour of the area, learning way more than we ever expected to about that ongoing experiment. The humidity in one of the "climates" did quite the number on my hair but otherwise it was a fun getaway and we spent lots of time catching up and comparing pregnancy experiences.

The day after we flew out to Austin along with Keck. My friend Sue and her daughters all came out from Phoenix as well so we spent that first day showing them around and getting settled into our hotel. The following day was the shower so while everyone was running errands and setting things up I was able to take some time for myself and get a pedicure and shop. That night I got to the shower location and was blown away by how nice everything was. It was really wonderful to be with loved ones that are so clearly happy and excited for us. Thanks to all that helped make the party happen.

The Office

We're getting so much done these last weeks before the baby comes. While we haven't yet gotten to the baby's room itself (yikes!), we did finally finish up the office a few weeks back. Much time is spent in here by my music loving, family CFO husband, so it was important to me that it become a nice, masculine space for him to be in. I have no before images, which is just as well since it was nothing but piles of files and boxes of supplies spread everywhere.

Also, we took some week 35 pictures yesterday:

Zoolights

It was our annual trip to Zoolights last night. We decided there were definately less lights this year, which was a bummer considering ticket costs are so high now. However, tradition is tradition and so we took our usual stroll through the lights, taking pictures along the way.

Some favorite images:

Some fun with long exposure:

My husband looking ever so handsome in his new coat:

Baby and I at 33 weeks:

And Baby Makes Three

Where have I been???? Oh yeah, well as it happens, for the last 6 months I've been busy trying to prepare to become a mom. Ha! As if anyone can actually learn all they need to learn to be a good parent from 9 months worth of library books. However, I've got to start somewhere. Yes, we are expecting!

So to recap the pregnancy so far, the first 3 months were terrible. I felt nauseous, irritable and totally exhausted all the time, although, thankfully I never actually got sick (maybe because I avoided food and drink?). Anyway, once I climbed on into the second trimester I got to feeling much better and got some of my energy back. Well, certainly enough energy to enjoy a vacation overseas (more on that another time) and make it through almost all of my usual work schedule without killing any coworkers. Now I'm starting to enter the last trimester and other than the backaches and the fatigue I can't complain much. I've started to get a baby bump too, making things start to feel a bit more real.

We do know it's a boy but we haven't yet started to get his room ready or anything. We're just enjoying the anticipation and the excitement for now and taking it day by day until we meet him. Reading books, starting our childbirth classes and making a dent in our honey-do list takes up most of our free time now and we're pretty happy about that.

End of 2009/So Far 2010

The wedding in Las Vegas at the end of last year was such fun. I think being a best man is easier than being the maid of honor. Lots less was expected of me. In fact, other than the speech and keeping Roy's nerves in check I barely had to do anything but have a good time, and that's not much of a challenge for me.

Also in December, we got to spend Christmas and New Years with my sister. We enjoyed fondue together and the road trip to Vegas and back. We also made her join us on our traditional trip to Zoolights, where we took our usual abstracted and long exposure pictures.

Roy and Nichole are back in Austin happily enjoying the newlywed life. They had a reception there at the end of January for all the friends and family that weren't able to make it out to Las Vegas. I was able to attend that with my sister, too.

Then we had a series of rain storms with high winds that led to a small roof leak in the kitchen. In the end, we learned it was time for a whole new roof. Oh, we also learned we don't like Allstate, but we had already suspected that and this just sealed the deal.

I also had a chance to do a girls' trip to Kingston, mon. Welllllll, actually no "mon" with this Kingston. It was Kingston, Ontario. A great time was had, of course, as is the standard with Jill and I, albeit it was much much colder than what I was accustomed to. Brrrrrrrrrrr! Many of the things we had wanted to see or do weren't open during the winter season but it was picturesque none the less and together we enjoyed walks through the snowy streets, cups of hot chocolate and great company.

Sprinkle in about 200 shifts at work and 50 boot camp sessions and that's about all I've had going on these past few months. Nothing exciting but pictures are always fun to share.

Awwwwww

He looks so cute I totally forget he spilled Apple Jacks all over the carpet in the living room.

:)

Spring Break

Sis had knee surgery again last week and timed it so she would recover during spring break. Spring break is also when South By Southwest hits Austin and now that I don’t live there anymore, this is one of my favorite times to go there. The energy is high and there’s lots of people coming out and getting to experience first hand what a great place it really is. Mom and Dad were out to help with her recovery too, which was really rather minimal after the first few days. We spent time talking, shopping and relaxing. I even also managed to squeeze in 3 workouts at her top of the line gym (thanks to Mom's early wake up calls and excellent workout partnering skills) so I was pleased as punch. Of course coming back was not so nice. The return flight is always the hardest part. We take off and I'm looking out the window, watching as we leave this lush, green rolling hill country and two hours later, we land in the dusty, dry desert. Not exactly a terrific trade off but certainly we had a great time as usual and our appreciation for “home” grew just a bit more with each tasty bite of Tex-Mex.


...and that one naughty but nice, deliciously decadent cupcake.

Post Holiday Wrap-Up

We had a great time over Christmas and New Years with the family out from Florida and Texas.  We even had the actual Christmas Day and New Years Day off - a first in many years.  We gathered around the Christmas enlarger on Christmas morning and I finally got to open the knives I had gotten the sisterly telepathy about weeks earlier.  The thing about working with good knives is that you realize you've got some bad habits from working with those bad/dull ones for years and you cut your thumb again and again.  Then your husband does it too and you end up at the urgent care clinic with the doctor gluing the flap shut on his thumb to avoid having to use stitches.

Anyway, after the gifts we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and got started on a fairly early dinner, that turned out to be fabulous and and later watched The Dark Night.  We did some shopping and took a drive up to Flagstaff a few days later.  We welcomed 2009 in the apartment where we can see the various fireworks shows from our balcony.  

The best part of their visit was how our place looked after they left.  If you recall I had been wanting to clear the clutter in our place and really downsize the amount of stuff we have.  Well with 5 people working on it we really put a huge dent in things.  Our place seems nearly twice as big now and the carpets are shampooed and look almost like they did on day one.  There's space for all the necessary things and those things are now all put away in said place and all the unnecessary things were either tossed, donated or packed away for now.

One last note - over the last weeks I've also come to accept that we will be staying in Phoenix after all, at least for a while.  So it seems there will be more Zoolights to wander through and cacti wrapped in Christmas lights yet to photograph. We've started looked for a house to buy and trying to familiarize ourselves with that most overwhelming process.  We're also working very hard to come up with a sizable down payment over the coming months.  With the way things are right now making a big move will not be the best decision for us at this time.  I know lots of people will be disappointed by this (us too) but we sincerely feel we're in the right place for right now and appreciate everyone's support throughout this fairly difficult decision.

Don't Surprise Me

I really, really, really don't like surprises.  Actually, what I should say is that I hate knowing a surprise is forthcoming but will not be revealed for some time. Because at our wedding, during the first dance when Keck whispered "surprise" and I opened my eyes to see this:

I thought it was completely amazing in every way.  It was something I had no idea about, so I didn't have to agonize over what it might be.  Simply stated, telling me you have a surprise for me and then not sharing it immediately is total torture to me.  So, if you do happen to want to surprise me, then please, just do it and don't tell me about.  It won't fill me with excitement like a normal person, only anxiety.

Likewise, don't plan a surprise for me and then start acting weird or doing things out of character because I'll catch on quickly.  You've gotta run a pretty good covert operation around me because I've watched enough CSI New York, Miami, Oslo, Reykjavik, and the like to gather the evidence and come to a conclusion that a surprise is in the works.

So when Sissy sent Keck a text the other night, I was immediately on alert.

"Why would sis send you a text?"

"Maybe she's getting you something for Christmas and it's going to be a surprise."

"UGH!!  I hate surprises.  You know that.  She knows that.  Just tell me, what is it?"

"I can't tell you."

Wrong answer but I let it slide for the time being since I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open and certainly didn't have the energy to launch into a full inquisition.  

Then I went out to visit mom and dad earlier this week and mom gets a call from sis.  When I asked what sis had said, mom tells me she can't say.  So now she had turned mom against me too?  I was furious but eventually mom talked me down and I forgot about it until yesterday.  I was laying on the new futon where sis will sleep when we're at mom's together.  I was totally relaxed and nearly half asleep when it just came to me.  Out of the blue, I knew just what sissy was getting me.  You see, we have a special telepathic way of communicating and she must've been thinking about it at the time and I got mental wind of it.

On the one hand, I was glad to have solved the mystery since Christmas is so far away, once the gift arrived I would've gone insane looking at it in all its gift wrapped glory but not opening it for weeks.  However, everyone else seemed really disappointed about the whole thing, almost as if I had purposely ruined the surprise.  Sheesh, when did sisterly telepathy become a crime?

Anyway, the moral of the story is if you want to surprise me, please don't tell me about it in advance.  Also, if we share the special gift of telepathic communication, or you've ever had to dress like me for the early part of your childhood, you may want to skip the whole surprise thing, as you really can't hide anything from me and you know it.

Trip Report - Austin

As expected we had a great time in Austin. We helped Sissy move into a great new apartment and there really was very little manual labor involved. Let me tell you that hiring movers is the way to go. Of course when I first saw one of the two movers I thought we were in trouble. The guy was about 5'6" and 160 lbs and fresh as a daisy considering he's just come off another move earlier that morning and it was triple digit weather. I didn't think he'd be able to lift a box much less a mattress. As if to settle any doubt up front, he picked up the queen size mattress first thing and hauled it down the three flights of stairs with ease. Once the raccoon apartment was cleared out, which didn't take long, we saw the little guy change his sweat soaked t-shirt which explained his earlier fresh-as-a-daisy appearance.

I really am impressed with how little things Angie had. Other than these boxes she just had a living room set, TV and bedroom set. It certainly makes for easy moving and has inspired Keck and I to start tossing things out now in order to avoid packing and unpacking them later.

We got our Tex-Mex fix while we were out there, although I have no picture proof of it since I was rather starved and scarfed everything down without a thought of digital evidence. We also had a nice dinner at Shady Grove one night and didn't even have to wait an hour for a table - that was a bonus.

Side note on the Shady Grove experience - there was a little poodle tied up outside on the lawn and this grandfather took his tiny little grandson out there to see the dog. As we're getting into our car we get front row seats for a very unexpected show. We watch as grandpa sets the baby down face to face with the dog, leaving about 6 inches between them. At this point, I figured trouble was brewing since it was clear the dog and the baby didn't know each other and the dog looked like it was spooked by the baby. Sure enough the baby's big head and lack of center of gravity get the best of him and he starts to topple forward onto the dog. Feeling attacked, the dog strikes out and kicks the baby's face, cutting his nose. After that we left so we weren't able to see how it turned out once grandpa returned the baby to mom but I have a feeling it didn't go over too well. As we're pulling out of the parking lot we take one last look at the grandpa and find him holding the crying baby and trying to initiate some sort of reconciliation between him and the dog. Yikes!

Here's a sign that was adjacent to the scene of the crime. Perhaps it should read "violators will be mauled by a miniature poodle" instead.

Some shots of Sissy's great new place. Notice, the awesome kitchen with all it's cabinets and counter space, a girl could get used to this. It's pretty far south, in fact we tease her that she's living in Buda now and not Austin, but it's a nice property and it's close enough to be convienient to everything (Super Target, Central Market and Amy's Ice Cream, you know, the essentials) but far enough away to feel like a little retreat. We also spent time at the pool and played board games, what more could you want in a long weekend?