Dear Rocky...

Dear Rocky,

Kindly stop kicking the crap out of my ribs. I know you're in there. No need to remind me. I know you are head down inside me, ready to work your way out. Which leaves your feet in prime spots for kicking my guts out. Your Dad is entertained, though - it's pretty easy for him to find a foot and try to tickle it through my skin. Aunt Jeanne was entertained, too, the other day when you were kicking her in the car. Good work. You can keep kicking Aunt Jeanne all you want to.

Also, if there's any chance you could make the cramps in my belly stop for another few days, I'd be appreciative. You're technically not fully cooked til Friday. So how about you just hang out in there til then. OK? Tell those belly cramps to just go away. They suck, and we're not ready for them.

We've got a few more things to do around the house before you decide to pop out, too. Grandpa brought down a bunch more stuff from your baby shower that still needs to be sorted and washed. And there is currently a Christmas tree in the spot where your glider will go, and a dog bed in the spot where your Pack-N-Play will go. Although if we don't get that set up in time, no worries. I am sure your sister CoCo will share her bed. She's cool like that. She shared it with Nana the other day.


Lots of friends and family are excited about your arrival. So come on out to see them all. Just not this week, ok? Glad we've had this little chat - I'm positive the rib kicking will diminish now, as I am sure you don't want your mom's organs to suffer any more damage.

See you soon, little boy.

Love, Mom

Girl Power, Part 2

After a Sunday morning of beating my head against the computer trying to get a project done, I decided that a little more fun was needed in the day. So I put up the blinds in the living room that I bought at Home Depot on Friday. Hope John likes them!

Boys? We don't need no stinkin boys around here. CoCo and I do just fine on our own. Not that CoCo helped with this project at all. I think I heard her snoring down in the basement...

So John's on his way home from Vegas. CoCo is still snoring in the basement. Rocky is kicking the snot out of my ribs. And while there's still much to be done around here (shower, laundry, continue to put stuff away upstairs) I think I've had enough for the day. I'm heading to the basement to join CoCo in her nap.

PS - thanks, Dad, for raising good, self-sufficient girls who know how to use cordless drills!

Girl Power

Two nights of work, with lots of fabulous help from Christie, plus an entire day of doing laundry, has turned this:
oodles of crap...

In to THIS:
Oodles of crap miraculously gone, crib set up with sheets and bumpers, pile of clean baby clothes waiting for Christie to come fold them. :-)

We did some good work. Unpacked all gifts, sorted clothing sizes, made a pile of a few things to return, put books on the shelves, set up the pack and play.
Pack and Play all ready to go. It'll have to come down for Christmas (it's sitting in Christmas tree's spot right now) but we thought we'd leave it up for John to see it (and try to take it down...)
Books on the shelf all ready to read, and Diaper Geenie ready for some poopy diapers.
Those drawers have actual BABY CLOTHES in them. Changing pad is ready to roll, and supplies are on the shelf above.

PLUS, because two girls can do anything, we put together the toy chest (cute!), and decided to try swinging the bed around the other direction. Not sure John's going to like it that way, but it really opens the room up a lot.
Bed swung around, toy chest at the foot of the bed, and now CoCo has a place to sleep that is RIGHT next to the window - can put her little paws on the window sill if she wants!
So where'd all the stuff go that was in the baby's room? Well, the hallway and OUR bedroom, of course! It's all waiting for John to come home and lug it down to the basement. I'd have gotten yelled at if I moved it - super preggo girls not allowed to move boxes...

Thanks, Christie, for all your help!! Christie says Rocky is allowed to be born now, as he finally has an actual place to live. Can't wait for John to come home to see what we've been doing all weekend!

Christmas Carols

I have been happily listening to the Christmas music channels on XM Radio all week. Holiday Traditions (affectionately known as the HoliTard Channel by Adam) is the best one to sing along to - a little Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, etc. The Holiday Pops channel is relaxing - it's all the stuff I grew up listening to in the Cowan house. Sometimes it gets a little too obscure for me. And the Holly channel is mostly just annoying - who really wants to listen to Boyz 2 Men's version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"?

So I tend to stick to the HoliTard channel, so I can sing along. Growing up with Dad, we of course learned ALL the proper words to every single song. Some of the favorites:

"You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout or I'll punch you in the snout" (coincidentally, playing on XM as I type this)

"Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sled..." There's more to this one, but some people who read this blog still think I am a nice, sweet girl and I'd like to keep up that facade for as long as I can...

"Noel, noel, noel, noel. We have no water cause we have no well" (I'm just waiting for Dad to sing it that way at Christmas Eve mass some time. I shall laugh until I pee my pants)

"Chet's nuts roasting on an open fire"

"Later on, we prespire, as we sit by the fire" (By the way, who is this Parson Brown dude they sing about in that song? Why would you pretend a snowman is that guy? I don't get it)

"Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane. Bringing toys to girls and boys who don't even know his name" (John gets SO MAD when I sing this song. Dude - it's not my fault he doesn't know the words! He also doesn't know the proper words to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I mean, c'mon. You'll go down in history - like COLUMBUS! Silly boy says like George Washington. He says Columbus never did anything. HELLO?? Only discovered this continent and stuff! What did Washington do, besides cut down a cherry tree? And besides, Columbus FITS in the song. Start tossing George Washington in there and there's just too many syllabals. Sorry, babe, but you're shoe-horning it in there. It just doesn't work).

My favorite, favorite song has nothing to do with my crazy family, though. I heard it last year for the first time on the incredibly awesome "Special Christmas" channel they had on XM (sadly, no longer exists this year). It's Cartman, from South Park, singing "Oh Holy Night" Goes something like this:
"Oh holy night, oh night when I get presents..." and then continues. I heard it while driving and almost had to pull over as I was laughing so hard. Google it some time - look for the version that does NOT have him getting poked with the cattle prod - it's funnier without it. Actually - here's a link to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHatEb1ccus&feature=related

And who can talk Christmas carols without mention of the "Ding, Fries are Done" song? A holiday classic. You'll have to Google that one yourself, though. Again, I have some semblance of an image I have to hold up here. Yes, I hear a whole lot of you laughing...

I shall have to pull out my "Charlie Brown Christmas" cd when I decorate the tree, because there's nothing better to decorate to. Even John likes that one. We had a dance-off after Thanksgiving to see who would get the cool Peanuts advent calendar. John won - he's got a better Snoopy dance than I do. Darn him! Jeanne's got a good one, too. I might have a video of it somewhere. Or at least pictures of her Snoopy dance. I'll have to look on the big computer.

Anyway - if you have satellite radio check out the HoliTard channel. It's a good one! And if you don't - well just run in to your favorite local Super Wal-Mart for a while. They're sure to be blasting Christmas music. AND (bonus!) you get to do some ghetto-fabulous people watching while you're there! Can't get any better! ;-)

Random Photos

From our surprise baby shower on Saturday night:

Gore friends have an excellent sense of humor, and easily embraced Dad's nickname for Rocky. Although they tend to favor the "Rocky Balboa" boxer idea, as opposed to the Norman Rockwell idea.
Rocky poses for the camera. Although he has a bit of an eerie glow. Christie thinks he's an alien.
Look at that good multi-tasking Dad. Absolutely, I can hold a kid and eat a cookie at the same time!
Already a ladies man, Rocky poses with Larysa, Christin, and Maria
Resting happily in his infant carrier, in a prime spot next to the most fabulous cake EVER!
I also am learning the fine art of multi-tasking. A mom can definitely eat cake and hold infant carrier. No problem. This parenting thing is a breeze!

From the complete disaster area, AKA Rocky's bedroom:
New pretty crib (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!), plus random assortment of computer and office supplies that shall soon be unceremoniously dumped in the basement, plus dog's steps that I broke (no worries - she hated them, anyway), plus pile of baby diapers (yay, diapers!!) that nice people brought to our baby shower on Saturday.
Ummmmm. Yeah. Enormous pile of baby goodies that are just begging for Christie Zukor to come up, unpack them, and put them some place in this mess of a room. Help!

And that doesn't even show "the rest of the story", meaning the two closets in this room that are packed full to overflowing with assortments of baby gear and Christmas gifts. Crap! Christmas gifts! Must wrap them and remove from this room, before I go nuts!

Showered

Having a cold while 8 months pregnant is not a lot of fun. I mean, sure, the snotty nose and the chapped lips and red nose and the hacking cough are attractive and all. And the daily doses of Benadryl helps one sleep. But, seriously. Coughing HURTS right now. On Saturday I was driving home from the race track wondering how I was going to keep breathing, because I had coughed enough to pull something (muscle? ligament that attaches to ribs and keeps entire belly from spilling to the floor? who knows...) and make it painful not only to cough more, but also to breathe. Fortunately, the breathing part got less painful, and John was nice enough to swing by the drug store to get me some Tussin. Which really works, incredibly. I am impressed. And even more impressed by the fact that the midwife told me I could take it. AND sudafed, or Zyrtec, or Claratin. Score! I can be a druggie! This was the icky midwife who I hate (for no other reason than that she was half an hour late for my appointment the first time I saw her), so her giving me permission to be a druggie scored her some mild brownie points. She's still not cool, but I might not as actively hate her guts any more.

Anyway, Rocky's room is in full disaster mode right now. I should take a picture. It's impressive. COVERED, wall to wall, with baby shower gifts. Because last week was officially "week of a gazillion baby showers." Which was way fun, but is leaving enormous expectant mom with way lots of work to do. Might be time to call in reinforcements to help me sort - Christie Zukor, come on down!!

Thanksgiving in the Arctic Circle was nice, by the way. Saw John's family on Thursday in Geneva, spent Friday in Lansing doing a little shopping and a lot of eating (Dad made Thanksgiving dinner again - yum!), and then Saturday we went to Baker's Acres in Lansing for my New York baby shower. It was fun to see family and friends who I only tend to see at weddings. Suppose that means I should get home more. Plus three of my high school girl friends were able to come, so it was great to eat lunch with them (and they only scared me a little bit with their birthing stories!). Two of the girls are expecting babies again - Gretchen in March, and Michelle in June, I think. So we were officially the preggo table.

Family and friends in Lansing were WAY too good to Rocky. We jammed as much as we could in to our car, while still leaving CoCo a miniscule space to sleep, and had to leave about half the stuff in Dad's garage for him to bring down at Christmas. We'll just hope Rocky stays inside me til then. Hmmm. Although for insurance purposes, it's SURE be nice if you'd pop out before December 31, Rock. Maybe we can cut a deal - born December 29, maybe? Or 30?

Shower gifts already covered the bed in Rocky's room, so I had to shift gift stashing to the floor when I brought home all the cute stuff from a baby shower that the ladies at work had for me. It was great - ate WAY too much food at the restaurant across the street, and got some great gifts for Rocky.

Saturday while I was at the race track (working, not gambling away Rocky's college fund) John went to Babies R Us to pick up our new crib, and then moved his computer desk and a book case down to the basement and set up the crib. So we now have a real, honest-to-goodness place for a kid to sleep. Along with a kick-ass Pack-n-play that will eventually live in the living room (after Christmas), and a bassinet that our awesome friends are letting us borrow, that is going to go... somewhere. Perhaps in the attic? On the roof? We're fast running out of room here, folks. Were it not winter and a little bit chilly I'd stash the bassinet (with kid included) on the deck... What? I'd maybe put some mosquito netting over it.

And THEN, we went to a Christmas party at our friend Gianna's house on Saturday night that turned out to be... a surprise baby shower for us! How fun is that?? Our friends are awesome. It was a fun baby shower - guys and girls, so basically it was a fun party with plenty of booze and food, and some baby gifts and packs of diapers thrown in for good measure. Along with a fun baby quiz developed by Ms. Zukor, and a raw egg with a face that John and I had to care for, without breaking, for the evening. John, smart engineer that he is, promptly converted a candle holder in to an instant infant carrier, making life much easier on both of us. Christie was a bit horrified, but DUDE - I am NOT carrying this child everywhere, all day long! If I were to do that, then why would I need such things as strollers, car seats, pack-n-plays, and cribs? He survived in his candle holder all night - as parents we already ROCK! :-) Soon as Christie sends some pictures I'll download a few to post here for you. Maria already sent some fun ones, but they're on Shutterfly, which doesn't allow you to download for free, thus limiting my access and ability to post here on Blogger. Seriously - if you are researching photo sharing programs, pick PICASA - free from Google, if you sign up for a google account (which you should do, anyway - Gmail rocks). Then you can share pictures with everyone, they can download them entirely for free (unlike SnapFish, which charges you, or Shutterfuly, which just doesn't seem to allow downloads unless I am too much of a moron to find that option), print them to a myriad of different photo printing places, AND they don't have to sign in to some silly website (ah-hem, SnapFish, grrrrrrrr) every time they get an email from you saying "cool, I have photos to share with you." Picasa rocks.

So this week's plan? Go to baby class tonight and HOPE and PRAY they don't show us a video of a C-Section (ick!), babysit for the Red Army tomorrow night so Santa can do some good buying of presents, pack up John to go to Vegas, enjoy sleeping in the middle of the bed for four days while he is gone (although I may have to kick the dog off to do so), and seriously TRY to organize at least some of the stuff in Rocky's room. Oh, yeah. Plus buy Christmas gifts, wrap them, write a Christmas letter, and write a billion thank-you notes to all the generous people who have filled my house to overflowing with fabulous baby stuff. Piece of cake!!

BRRRRRR and EEEEEWWW

I'm sure that our past weekend at Virginia Tech did plenty to support Rocky's growth and development. I mean, how could it not? I stayed up til 2AM on Friday night (I KNOW!! I didn't know I could still do that, either!). I got Rocky groovin to a loud rendition of "Who Let the Dogs Out" on Saturday morning - I never realized that outside stimuli had such an effect on the boy til then - he was seriously wiggling around when all that bass was booming up through the floor. I squished him in long underwear, turtleneck, wool sweater, fleece jacket, and windbreaker, none of which were cut to fit over a giant pregnant belly. John's poor windbreaker was thisclose to not zipping at all. What am I going to do when I run out of jackets that fit? My belly was EXTREMELY grateful to be released from all its bondage on Saturday night. And I am positive that a day spent eating 17 tons of cheese dip, chili, seven layer dip, and brownies, along with consistant shivering by the fire pit, was completely good for the growing boy. If not good for him, it at least makes him tough!

Tailgating, even in the cold, was good fun. The game itself was pretty lame. But Tech managed to pull out a victory against a really bad Duke football team, and somehow has managed to put themselves in a spot to win their division and go to the ACC Championship game, if they beat UVA this weekend. GO HOKIES!! It's a noon game on Saturday on ESPN. I'll miss it - baby shower this weekend. But the boys will have something good to watch while we are off showering.

Monday night was "watch how babies are born" night in baby class. An hour long video showing different comfort techniques, showing a birth story, and actually showing a birth. Tastefully. But still. Eeeewww. And, really - OWWWW! Poor John. As we were heading to the car he asked if it was ok if he stayed at the bar while I was giving birth. :-) I asked him if it was the blood and ickiness that bothered him. Nope. He said he wasn't sure if he could deal with seeing me be in that much pain for that long. I KNOW! Awwwwww. He's a sweet boy. His momma did some good child raising. But still - the answer is no, babe. You get to come right in and help me out with the pain. If you'd like, I'd happily hit you a few times to let you experience a bit of pain, yourself...

We're off to New York this weekend for Thanksgiving. It's been eons since I was in NY for Turkey Day. We've tended to stay here in Maryland. Or I've had to work at Sweet Briar. Regardless, it will be weird being home in the Arctic Circle in November. But fun, as we'll get to see John's family and my family both, plus lots of friends and relatives at my baby shower on Saturday.

We're thinking of our good friends the Telescos this weekend, as they move from Louisiana to Florida. We are SO psyched for them, as they both got awesome new jobs with the State of Florida's wildlife division. Which is HUGE!!! Having a secure state job, with benefits, full time, is such a relief for any wildlife person. The fact they landed TWO of these awesome jobs? Miraculous. But they do, of course, kick ass. So it's not at all surprising they were hired for the jobs. Anyway - good luck to the Telesco family in their move!

Have a happy Turkey Day!

Paint. Lots of paint.

Mom and Dad came down this weekend to help John paint (Dad) and to go shopping (Mom). We had a pretty productive weekend - I got some new fat, pregnant clothes so I don't have to wear the same shirt to work twice in a week. We got a crib mattress for Rocky, and his crib is on order. We got plenty of Bomboy's chocolate and ice cream. And most of the house got painted. Thanks, Mom and Dad! You guys rock!

John paints while we watch the Penn State football game
Maggie got some paint on her today. I think she was trying to be the next Norman Rockwell...
Check it out! The walls are painted ALL THE WAY up to the ceiling! Hasn't been like that since we moved in here!
Who needs a ladder when you have a big long stick?
What's CoCo looking at, way up there?
Ah, she's gazing adoringly at her dad. Or wondering why his crazy butt is up there SO HIGH.

Changes you can actually SEE

So after a couple months of detail work, we're getting down to some big projects at the house that you can actually SEE. Darn Dad came down a few weeks ago to help John do a few things, and I asked him if he could tell any difference in the kitchen that we painted. Nope, he said. Can't tell at all. Thanks, Dad. Thanks a lot! :-)

Difference #1:

Removed the wallpaper in the hallway upstairs. We were sick of it, and a visiting kitten had already ripped holes in part of it. So, off it came. We'll paint the hallway the same color as the living room.

Hallway with wallpaper
And hallway without wallpaper

Difference #2:

The old dog is doing MUCH better these days. She has been on Cosequin's joint supplement for dogs, called Dasuquin. Never before have I been a believer in oral joint supplements. Now, seeing the old girl hop up in the mornings and trot right down the stairs... I am definitely a convert. It's great stuff!

CoCo and John on Halloween night

Difference #3

My gigantic belly. John shall soon be without clothes, as I keep stealing his sweaters, and will soon be stealing his winter coat. I can still zip mine, if I suck in my baby... But that won't last for long.

Difference #4

It's finally fall! The weather has been great, the leaves are changing, and some time next month we might actually have to rake the yard.

Difference #5

Lots of crap in the storage unit. No, you can't tell one bit of difference at the house. But the storage unit is filling up fast! John thought at first that he got too big a unit, but after seeing me pull tons and tons of boxes out of the closets, he's reconsidering and thinking he chose wisely. It's not ALL my crap - John's bike is in there for the winter, too!

Storage? We don't need no stinkin storage...
Fortunately Rocky is small and won't really need a lot of space in his bedroom. Right?

My parents are coming down this weekend to help paint, buy a crib, etc. There's no room in Rocky's room right now for a crib - some time John needs to move his computer, but that might not happen til next month. But we'll make the quick trip up to tax-free Delaware to buy the crib now, while Mom's down here.

I think the difference in the living room, after it's painted, will be noticeable as well. But who knows. When it's done I'll post some photos and you can decide. Here's some quick shots of the edges with the new paint. Look different?

Rocky, in spectacular, vivid black and white!

OK, so I forgot that John scanned these in, and then I never have time to pull them off the big computer to post them for you. So, finally, 2 months after the fact, here's some ultrasound pictures of Rocky!

Here's the Rock-ster sucking his thumb
And a full profile view of Rocky. Cute, eh?

Why We Walk

It's a chilly Saturday morning, the sun is shining, the sky is crystal clear blue, and at least 700 people are outside, braving the cold, and knowing they are participating in something special. It's the first annual CureSearch walk for childhood cancer in Wilmington, DE. And we're walking, only a mile but that's not the point, to raise awareness and to raise funds for childhood cancer research. Why? For the families, like our friends, who lost a child way too early in life and don't want to have to see other families go through what they did. And for the children who are surviving cancer, or getting treatments now - surely there's got to be better options out there for them. Somewhere, there must be a CURE.

It is a most impressive sight, all these people on the Riverwalk in Wilmington, sporting their bandanas that show their relationship to a child with cancer. And it's a moving opening ceremony, with familes of children who are no longer with us, going up to the stage to say their child's name, and then releasing a gold balloon for each child lost. And a happier sight to see children who are currently in treatment, or in recovery, coming up to the stage to be recognized, and then leading the group, 700 strong, on a walk to raise awareness.

Whether we are raising awareness to the greater Wilminton area this morning or not, I am not sure. Someone is seeing the billions of people out here and wondering what they are doing, right? I do know that we have raised over $75,000 this day to go toward research for childhood cancer. And that's a good start.

Christie and part of the Red Army contingency, ready to walk

Papa and Anatoly out for a stroll
3/4 of the Red Army, and Papa
Surely you can't go to a walk without playing on the playground after!

Troublesome

My dog is old. I am well aware of that. She's 17 this month, and the fact that she looks as good as she does is really remarkable. But she's had a rough ten days or so - off and on super gimp. She went to the fabulous Dr. Moffa last week, who thinks she might have a torn rotator cuff in her shoulder. Nothing that can be done - even in a younger dog there's not a lot to do for it. So we went home with some drugs, that she doesn't seem to need every day. Some mornings she looks great first thing, then must jump off the couch weird and tweak something, and will come out of the house gimpy (she goes to work with me every day). This morning she trotted out of the house fine, so I didn't give her drugs. But we got to work and she was decidedly not ok - gimpy on her front leg, and weak on her diagonal hind leg, which is a new thing. Troublesome. And I have no dog drugs with me. I ought to carry them in my bag, just in case she needs something.

SO - I'll do a little wait and see approach for now and see if she can walk her way out of this hind end stiffness. Otherwise, we're calling Dr. Moffa and going in again. And putting her butt on some Cosequin joint supplement, too.

Poor old pup. She's making me worried. We have a pact - I feed her dog food and carrots, and she lives forever. I think it's reasonable...

Details

Details are a real pain in the butt. Painting walls, instant gratification. Trim work? We could do it all or not do it all, and you'd probably never notice. Kind of irritating, really.

So John spent all weekend busting his butt, painting all the doors downstairs. If you walked in the house now you'd likely never notice they were painted (really - if you walk in the house now, please say something nice about the crisp white doors - it'll make John feel better). But it took all weekend to do it. And they actually are still not done - John has to cut in some holes for the hinges, for the new door in to the basement.

And if you looked around you'd think that all I did all weekend was make more messes, as all you'd see are horse blankets draped across the deck railing, and more blankets in the laundry room waiting to be sent out for cleaning and waterproofing, and a couple containers filled with horse stuff, waiting to be cleaned. So you wouldn't notice all the buckets and other horse stuff that was already scrubbed clean and taken to storage (yay! We finally have a storage unit!). Or know about all the laundry that was done on Sunday, then dried and packed in to those cool vacuum storage bags things so they'd fit in to one container, where before they took up two.

Se WE know we worked our butts off all weekend (except for Saturday afternoon when we went to a wedding). But nobody else will ever know. Damn details...

Girls Rule

I've been blessed with some fabulous girlfriends over the course of - well, my whole life, really. Don't get me wrong - I've got a couple great guy friends, too. But nothing compares to a good group of girlfriends. And from my high school girlfriends who still keep in touch on line and try to get together once or twice a year, to my Movie Night girls here in the Maryland/Delaware/Pennsylvania area... I can't go wrong!

Last night was Girlie Movie Night at Christie's house. John always snorts in laughter when he hears this. His typical comment when I get home is "So what movie did you NOT watch this time?" Because it seems, of late, that we're more excited to actually see each other and have a chance to catch up than we are to shut up and watch a movie. I'm not sure what movie we didn't watch last night - Christie didn't have a definite favorite picked out yet to watch. So we'll say we either didn't watch Practical Magic, or we didn't watch Fever Pitch. But, we still had a great time!

Fortunately, we had a doctors appointment this morning at 8:45, so we got to sleep in til 7:30 or so. Fortunate, because I didn't get home til midnight, and John was still awake when I got home - playing video games. We got to see the cool midwife this morning. We'll hope that Karen is on call when I go in to labor! All seems to be fine. I asked Karen about my pulled stomach muscle thing from a few weeks ago. It apparently is a ligament that runs from my pelvis to somewhere up above my uterus, that can very easily be strained when I cough, twist sideways, or - in my case - throw up. It still twinges with pain every now and then, but Karen said that some day it will give up hope of ever being a normal sized ligament again, and will just stop hurting.

Not much else to report on the doctor and baby front. I go in for a gestational diabetes blood test in a few weeks. I have another appointment in four weeks. We start a childbirth preparedness class in a couple weeks. That's SURE to freak us right out! But everything is going well with little Rocky!

Movie Night October Birthday Girls - Jenn, Christin, and Maria
Opened the new door to let the dog out the other morning and this is what greeted me. Way too pretty not to capture on film!
My (way too cute for his own good) husband cleans up his tools last Sunday after a day of cutting trim for the kitchen.

WHEW!

So, two months of solid work (the boys I go to lunch with every week have been shocked, SHOCKED, that I've been working so hard...), two weeks of working overtime, and two days of solid running around and mass insanity - and I'm not sure I have anything concrete to show for it. Our golf tournament on Sept 22 was fun, and we had a gorgeous day, but I don't think we made any money. I haven't seen the financials yet, but if we made a profit I'll be surprised. Our Gala event on Friday night was fun, and the Maryland Club did an awesome job as always (I saved up my seafood allowance for two weeks to be able to splurge on their crab cakes!), but people didn't open up their purse strings as much as we wanted for the auction, so I know we didn't make as much money as we had hoped. And Maryland Million Day yesterday went much smoother than anticipated, we had great weather, no horse accidents. All in all a good day. But the attendance was about 24,500 - less than we had hoped. I haven't seen the figures on the handle yet (how much money was brought in from betting) but based on poor economic times, we're guessing that the handle will not be as high as last year, either. So - nothing terrible to show for all our hard work. But nothing great, either. On a good note - the concert we had at "half time" during the races was really well received, an interesting concept, and something the track thinks they want to do again on their own. The singer we had, Andy Griggs, was super nice - a really sweet Louisiana boy - and the rest of the band had a good time drinking and placing bets for the rest of the day. So that part was cool. And it was the part that was giving me the most heartburn, as we just signed him up for this event about three weeks ago, after TWO other people turned us down. I got a picture with him - I'll post it some time after I have it.

So now, as Maryland Million Day was a week early this year, I actually have a week and a half before Fair Hill starts. A week and a half to unpack the car, clean out the office, put stuff away, write a billion thank you notes to sponsors, send trophies to winners, get plates made for all the trophy bases, and somewhere in there do some advertising for the slots referendum, host a two day farm tour, and in general push the slots issue so that people will vote YES for the slots bill on November 4 so that the racing industry can stay alive in this state. And then it's off to Fair Hill! Which actually will be fairly low-key for me this year. I'll be there for all four days, but I'll be manning a booth for work, pushing the slots bill, instead of digging holes for fence posts or living in an RV for 6 days, working as the stable manager. Much easier! :-)

John is outside painting trim. I told him I'd help, but I have apparently been forbidden from touching paint for the next four months. I guess John's office mate was shocked when John told him I was paiting last weekend, so John decided to look up "painting when pregnant" and decided that the risks were too great for his wife and son. I think the supposed risks are a bunch of hog wash. But, who knows. This whole "you can't do this when you're pregnant" thing is beginning to make me nuts. Although I am also forbidden from lifting anything heavier than a pencil at work (imposed by my office mates) and that actually is kind of entertaining and cute.

So - I think I am going to finally finish up editing my friend Gianna's wedding pictures (it's only been since May 31...), and maybe clean the house a little bit. Why can't cleaning the house be on the list of "you can't do this when you're pregnant?" Surely toilet cleaner is bad for pregnant chicks!

Here's one of the feel-good stories of the day from Maryland Million - a nice horse who was claimed for $18,000 earlier this year and has since then gone on to win $400,000. Also gives a little recap of the day, and a photo of cute Andy Griggs. :-)

http://www.laurelpark.com/NewsEvents/FeatureStories/Details/Laurel100408MMClassic.htm

Painting the Kitchen

Lots to do in this house before a baby makes its appearance. It'd be great to do it all now, while I am still agile, mobile, and hostile. However, busy schedules for both of us makes house projects difficult.

I was supposed to work on Saturday at Shawan Downs steeplechase, manning a booth to promote Maryland Million Day and to encourage people to vote for slots on November 4. But I got to Shawan and was told by the parking guy that vendors were canceled for the day - too much rain had flooded the vendor tent. So - no work for me! I drove the hour back home and helped John get things in the kitchen taken apart and cleaned, so we could begin painting.

The kitchen used to be this random color of rose/grey stuff

With wall paper and maroon wainescoating, which we decided would be lots easier to keep and paint than to try to remove...

John works on taking old wall paper off the wall behind the fridge. The previous painters did a less than stellar job painting the kitchen...
John works on cutting in the paint by the crown molding. Really he's just showing off his cool new work platform to Dad. New house project = new toy... So the new wall color is a wheat-ish kind of color, that picks up some of the background from the wall paper. We kept the maroon for the crown molding and the wainescoating. We didn't mind that color scheme. We did paint it again. John just has to paint the crown molding, and we need to buy new trim and paint and install it, and then we'll be done! One third of the downstairs done, two thirds to go.
CoCo, helping.
Zoe, helping (this actually is TREMENDOUSLY helpful, for Zoe...)
CoCo snuggles with Mom after a long day of painting.

The good part of this project, besides that the new paint looks much nicer than the old, is that the kitchen has never been so clean. I was cleaning the back of the fridge this morning, while it was pulled out. John says "Why? It's the BACK of the fridge. Who's ever going to see it?" A valid point, for sure. But I figure as long as it's out, it may as well be cleaned. I also did the front of the cabinets and all of the walls. That'd be the first time that's been done in, oh, four years...

My other project for the weekend was to find a dress in my closet that I could wear to my big Gala party for work on Friday. So I came down to the living room wearing a dress that still fit, and pouting. I told John "I don't look pregnant enough to look pregnant. I just look fat." And John just laughed at me. But I did manage to find a dress that would fit. It's not the most flattering, and I look like a big fat-ass. But it'll do. And I don't have to go shopping! :-)