Week 9

Ahh, already received my first belly pat. I suppose I should get used to that, but still struck me as weird. I guess it depends on who is doing the patting, right?

We celebrated Christmas with our families. Only immediate families and a handful of my friends knew at this point. We decided to keep quiet about our little Babeski until after our first doctor appointment in Week 11.

Still feeling pretty well. Some downs, but mostly up's. Mom is in good spirits. Oh, and did I mention we decided to gut our bathroom and do a renovation project? Yep, that whole thing started in the middle of Week 8. It's been going alright though.

The new resident is nearly an inch long, and about the size of a grape. The essential body parts are accounted for, though they still have plenty of fine-tuning to come in the following months. The baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form - so do the teeth. The embryonic tail is completely gone. Organs, muscles and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there, but indistinguishable for another few weeks. We've got private parts, people! This seems so crazy to me!! The embryo is an inch long!!! How is this possible??? The body does amazing things.

December 25: Week 9

Denver Part II

The Labor Day trip continues. On Friday we got up, and had lunch at Steubens. A Denver staple. I can still picture the Philly Cheese steak we had, which seems to be a really popular sandwich in this city. Strange, huh?

After lunch we headed out into the mountains to do some light hiking and sightseeing.

After playing around in the mountains, we went into Boulder and walked around in the downtown area, which was really neat. We grabbed dinner in Boulder, and then went to see a band called Vinyl (described as old-school funk, Latin percussion, reggae, and R&B into signature California grooves) that night in Denver.

I have to say, a good day.

Labor Day In Denver

For Labor Day 2009, Brett and I traveled to Denver to visit our really good friends, Mike and Carrie who moved there from L.A. in April. It was my first trip to Colorado.

We flew out of Midway in Chicago, and found traveling out of that airport to be incredibly easy, and just as far as driving to Detroit from Grand Rapids. The airfare was the best deal we could find between Detroit, Grand Rapids and Chicago. I would definitely fly out of Chicago again.

Carrie picked us up in Denver in the early afternoon when we arrived. Our first mission was to find a liquor store to pick up some Fat Tire beer. So very tasty on that incredibly hot day. I have to remind myself to ask Mike to bring some home with him the next time he visits. It's that good.

After a beer and settling in, we decided to hit Happy Hour at Trios Enoteca Wine Bar. I loved this place. It was so posh, but yet, so laid back at the same time. Apparently happy hours are big in Denver. They have them everywhere. And some places have them twice a day; one in the afternoon and one again late in the evening. Half off wine by the glass and half off pizza. Yes please. I got a Pancetta, Caramelized Onion, Mozzarella, Mushroom and Chevre Cheese pizza with a glass of Pinot. Pure bliss.

Mike and Carrie have this urban apartment in the Lodo district of Denver (lower downtown district of Denver), so it made walking to all of these places pretty easy.

After chilling at the wine bar, we hopped in the car and drove out to Boulder. We went up into the mountains a bit, parked the car, climbed some rocks and threw back a couple more beers while enjoying the sites.

A great start to a fun filled trip.

Much To Be Thankful For

On Thanksgiving Day the Husband and I found out we’re going to be parents!

I had a that feeling. It was just there. Something felt different. For a couple of weeks, at night after dinner I was feeling “off” and not very well. I had what I thought were menstrual cramps, with no period to show for it. I had also starting waking up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom, which was unusual for me. And let’s not forget the swollen, painful breasts. Painful is not an exaggeration. All of these signs had me clued in before the missed period.

I missed my period on the Monday before Thanksgiving, but was just kind of rolling with it. It had shown up a few days late before. On Thanksgiving morning, after I was all ready and packed to go to Detroit overnight, I was sitting around waiting for the Husband to finish up, and he told me “Just take the test. Don’t you want to know?” I can’t remember for sure, but I assume I was talking about all of the symptoms and the fact that I was now three days late, which led him to urge me to test.

I had taken a couple of pregnancy tests before, but re-read the instructions just in case. OK, here we go. I did my business, put the cap back over the test strip, and set it on the end of the counter. Got myself decent again, flushed the toilet, and had a moment where I thought “I better move that stick to the center of the counter, just so I don’t knock it off.” I picked it up, and before I could even set it back down, the word “PREGNANT” was clear as day! I think it took less than 30 seconds to show up.

Let me start off by saying, I’ve taken these tests before, and when they aren’t positive, they take the full three minutes to process and give you the “Not Pregnant” results. I’ve set the timer and waited. I couldn’t believe it popped up that fast! I didn’t even have time to wash my hands. And in the excitement of the moment I don’t think I ever did, now that I think about it. Oops, don't judge me. It was a big, exciting, distracting moment.

As soon as I saw the “PREGNANT” come up, I called for Brett to come into the bathroom, and held it up for him to read. Oh my god, we’re pregnant! Eeeee! We’re having a Babeski!

Thursday, November 26: 4 weeks and 6 days pregnant.

Getting Ready For Father's Day

As reported by my sister:

I was in Kohls the other day and I half heard a conversation between a mom and a kid. "Because every day is kids' day." It wasn't just our dad who used that one.

This makes me laugh. Really hard. I can still remember the day my dad got home from work and my sister and I asking him "How come there is no kids' day?"

The response has never been forgotten.

Falling In Love...Or Maybe Just Falling

In lieu of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd share one of my proud moments from dating that happened on this such holiday.

About eight years ago, I had started hanging out and seeing someone.  This is probably the second time we had gone out, and we decided to meet up a little later on Valentine's Day at one of the bars in town.  My roommate and I drove up there, had a few drinks, and then he showed up a while later.  My roommate decided to call it a night, and after a few more drinks, socializing, and the bar kicking us out, we did too.

Since it was one of our first dates, I was dressed to impressed.  Black pants, heels, the works. He had parked probably eight blocks away, hey it was free parking.  So we trudged out into the cold night on the snowy sidewalks.  You can't really expect college students to shovel the walks, you know.  We were having some laughs, and even ran into some people we knew walking home too.  After a long walk, his SUV was finally in site.  I made it all the way to the car walking on snow covered sidewalks, and then...

He walked to the passenger door to unlock it and let me in.  As I stepped into the grass area between the sidewalk and the road, the snow was kind of sloped, and I lost my footing.  As he stood there with the door open waiting for me, my feet slid out from underneath me.  It happened so fast.  I bit it hard, and ended up sliding underneath his vehicle!  He asked if I was OK, and after a slight pause I got out a weak "yeessss?".  My head and shoulders were sticking out from underneath the car, so he was able to help me up to my feet.  In addition to my pride being injured, I had jerked my left shin up as a reaction to falling, and ended up kicking the frame of the car on my way under.  If you've ever hit your shin bone (tibia for the medical folk), you know it hurts. However, through the pain, I laughed the whole way home. I mean if you don't laugh, you'll cry right?

So in addition to falling on a second date, bruising my shin, and injuring my ego, I learned an important lesson:  shoes that make you fall go into the garbage.

Ahh, married life; where you can fall, and not leave your dignity under the car.  Thanks to the Husband for saving me from those awkward moments for the rest of my life. 

O Christmas Tree

Our Christmas trees and fireplace mantel for 2008.

It's All About Present-ation

I love wrapping presents. I love pretty paper, ribbon, and bows. So this year I bought some ornament embellishments from Michaels to spruce up the gifts.

A shot of my little nubbins.


And a close-up of the red ornament nubbin. I thought they were so cute. They are 50% off already too, so a bag of ten of these guys was like $0.59!


I tried to sneak up on Nico snoozing under the tree and snag a photo, but he caught me.


Sasha just loves sitting on the big present under the tree.

I like the simple, festive look of ornaments in a glass bowl. I think it's a nice touch for the house. Nothing too over the top, but still along the lines of holiday spirit.

Christmas Cards

Check.

The Christmas cards have been designed, printed, and mailed. I finished them up this morning while enjoying the jazzy sounds of A Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack, my latest addition to the holiday music collection.

The trees are up, the house is decorated; I just have to finish up my shopping, which is close to being done. Now if we could do something about this snow....



Photos were taken by my friend, Christina!

Thankful For

Last weekend was Thanksgiving. It was pretty ho hum for me this year. By Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, I could tell I was getting sick. I didn't feel good. Just blah. Something. The last few weeks have been hard on me emotionally, and I think it caught up to me.

I woke up on Thanksgiving with a sore throat. Just as I suspected, sickness was setting in. Again. I thought I'd snap out of it once I got up and moving around. The Husband and I headed out to my parents' house outside of Lansing for our first Thanksgiving meal of the day at 1:00 p.m. I started to feel better once I was at there and catching up with my family. So we ate, and I stuffed myself on my mom's awesome cooking, and we had to leave at 2:30 to go to Macomb to my mother-in-law's house for another Thanksgiving celebration. After spending more time in the car than at my parents' house, we arrived. I was feeling like crap again. Nothing a few glasses of wine couldn't cure though. I was able to hit the hay around 10:00, and totally stuffed up, unable to sleep.

We finally got back home to our own house on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. By then I was sick. I mean blowing multiple tissues full of snot out at a time, and have more to go (I'm picturing the clown who pulls handkerchief after handkerchief out of his pocket. Yeah, my snot was like that. Never ending.). Sinus headache, body aches, and drowsiness. So the remainder of my Friday and all of my Saturday were spent lying on the couch. One of my favorite weekends of the year was ruined. Saturday was gorgeous too. We really should have gotten our Christmas decorations for outside put up, but we didn't. Now I don't know if we'll even get to it at all this season, because since Sunday on, it's been snowing pretty good. And that pesky day job I have, seems to get away as well.

Onto the day job...about four weeks ago now I interviewed for another job. I was looking for a promotion since I was unable to get one here. I ended up getting the job offer and accepting. Ever since accepting, something just didn't feel right about it. I had a pit in my stomach about leaving my current job. Yeah, the money...we're talking in the next two years about working my way into a five-digit raise. The office is rigid though. Firm on the rules and anal. For someone like me, who commutes an hour into work, I like a little leeway when I need it, and especially when the kids come, I'm going to want that flexibility. None to be had there. So is the extra money worth anything if I can't even be with my family? And they were cold. In the interview, when we were going over the offer, when I had questions. Every time. They weren't exactly a welcoming committee, if you know what I mean.

I have some connections, so I called the person that used to have the job. She found it hard to have one positive thing to say about the place. Ut oh. Then again, it could be a personality issue on her part. Who knows.

In the meantime, I have told my boss that I got an offer to leave. She said she was sad to see my go, and wondered had I gotten a promotion here, had I even been looking elsewhere? I was honest and told her "No, I wouldn't have been looking if they had promoted me here". Truth be told, this is a pretty cush place to work. It's flexible, my boss is totally family oriented and believes in "family first", and most important, I'm in my comfort zone, but I need a raise.

I ran into the director here before Thanksgiving and we had a nice little chat. He told me that I needed to be careful at my new job, that the management there was awful, and that they can't keep their staff around because of it. He said that I would've been perfect for my boss's job when she moves up, that's its too bad I'm leaving, blah, blah.

That was the final thing that pushed me. I hadn't been feeling good about this change from the start, but that just confirmed it. The following day I marched into his office and asked him to do something to get me to stay. That in turn resulted in my boss submitting paperwork to HR immediately for me to be promoted (I just have to hope the HR committee agrees to it, because they have final say). ALSO, are you ready for this? There was talk about letting me work out of a Grand Rapids office when the weather is bad. Supposedly they are working on this for me now.

Pretty cool, huh? So I guess everything has worked out for me. On paper at least. Only time will tell. Big sigh of relief.

I don't say this often, if at all, but "thanks". He knows I'm talking to Him.

Christmas Groove

We're getting into the spirit of the holidays...Check out our slamming moves...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Spooky Little Girl Like Me

Halloween 2008 at the Crumpets:

The Weather Lady, Edward Scissorhands, A Pirate, and an Undecided Voter.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for you.

I want the news AND the weather.

That's one heck of a crash if your steering wheel ends up on your insides!

And your 2008 winners of Best Overall Costume and 2nd Worst Costume: Edward and Joe the Plumber!

Glass Bottom Boat Ride, Cabo

We took a glass bottom boat ride out to see the arch, Lover's Beach and Divorce Beach. Very beautiful. We left from Medano Beach, which is the only swimmable beach in Cabo. On the trip we were able to see all sorts of tropical fish (hence the glass bottom), and we even saw string ray jumping out of the water! That was pretty cool.

Sushi and Sunsets

The evening that the husband and I went on the sunset cruise, we stopped for sushi first. We went to Tsuki Sushi and Tepan Grill in the marina. What makes this place unique is that the chef uses local fish for traditional Japanese specialties and adds a flare of Mexico to the dish. So heavenly!

We ordered the Sashimi Tuna, which is fine slices of tuna and avocado with a cilantro, avocado, wasabi, and sesame seed sauce. Nom, nom, nom.

Our second dish was tempura shrimp (tempura means that either the seafood or vegetable is battered and deep fried - so if you're afraid of raw fish, give this one a go!), crab and salmon rolls. This was served with the same cilantro sauce. I can not rave about the sauce enough. I'm not much of a soy sauce girl. I feel like soy masks the flavor of what you're eating, and if I'm eating sushi, I want to taste all of the wonderful flavors! This cilantro sauce was a great pairing. You'll notice the neon colored wraps. They are soy bean wraps instead of the traditional seaweed. It was a nice alternative to the sticky seaweed wraps. I thought that was cool, since I've never had that before.

I think Tsuki Sushi was one of the best places I've gone for sushi in my life, followed second by a place in San Luis Obispo, California. Of course, being from Michigan, we really miss out on the freshness of being able to catch fish in the morning and serve it up that evening.

Here we are on the sunset cruise. We had to cruise around to the other side of Cabo, the Pacific side, to see it. The cruise ended up being a lot of fun. My parents got it for us.

Back in the marina after the cruise.


Here are some sunset shots from the resort later in the week. We were on the Sea of Cortez side, so we didn't get to see the sun disappear into the water like on the cruise. It was still pretty though.

Mama and me during one of our dinners at Tomatoes.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

The Husband and I went with my parents to beautiful Cabo San Lucas, Mexico over the Labor Day holiday. Needless to say, it was amazing. We stayed at the fabulous five star Hacienda del Mar. It's outside of downtown Cabo, only a ten to fifteen minute cab ride away. The grounds were breathtaking, and it was like it was its own little village. I would highly recommend this resort to anyone thinking of traveling to Cabo. The photos speak for themselves.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Gorgeous views of the Sea of Cortez from the infinity pool.

The saying goes "Don't drink the water in Mexico", also equally important, don't swim in it! The undertow is like nothing I have ever experienced. Once those waves crashed and hit my shins, I'd have to fight to keep standing. The force drawing me back with it was frightening. Cabo is on a peninsula surrounded by the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. The Sea of Cortez is not swimmable. We were told that three people drowned the week we were in Cabo. The undertow pulled them out to sea. A force to be reckoned with. It's like nothing else to sit with a cocktail and watch the waves coming crashing in, one after another though.

The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli...


Stay tuned. More to come.

Father's Day Celebration

It was a great day for a BBQ and Whitecaps game!

Nese and Team...


Jeff teaching Anders a few things about baseball...

Hey, check out that lovely couple!

Three generations of dudes (and a bewb)...

The End.