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! :-)

Not My Best Week

This is the time of year when I don't have time to be sick. This is the time of year when I try to make weekend plans and have to go at least a month forward in the calendar to find a free day. This is the time of year when the horse doesn't get ridden, girly movie nights are often unattended, and friends wonder if I still exist. It's the time of year when I have golf tournaments to run, Maryland Million Days to organize, Gala parties to attend, and Fair Hill volunteer work to take up any spare time.

So the past seven days haven't helped me out much. Last Saturday, while volunteering at Fair Hill, I had a stomach ache and was SO happy when someone finally came to take over my job so I could go home to take a nap. I stayed awake long enough to watch the VT football game (go Hokies!) and to take my temperature (99.6) before I fell asleep on the couch for the rest of the night. Sunday I managed to eat some toast and feel a little bit better - better enough to go to Babies R Us with my girl friends to figure out what kind of stuff needed to go on a baby registry. I'm such a moron. Down each aisle I'd say "OK, so what IS this stuff? Do I really need it?" Fortunately I was with two voices of experience who could say "You HAVE to have this" or "Nah, that's just hyped up crap."

All this week my stomach just wasn't totally right. I thought perhaps I was experiencing heartburn - annoying, but livable. Thursday I ate lunch, felt really bad after lunch, and decided I really needed to investigate the heartburn theory more. So I wandered out for some heartburn medicine, then to Sam's Club to buy some goodies for my golf tournament. While in Sam's Club I frequented the bathroom - one stall and I were good friends. Throwing up in Sam's Club is a new experience - not one I'd like to repeat. Figured this was maybe more than heartburn, so I walked in to my doctor's office. Seemed that nothing was majorly wrong - appendix seemed fine, pancreas seemed fine. Doctor said go home, rest, drink fluids. So I promptly left the exam room, entered their bathroom, threw up. Went across the road to my office, gathered my stuff and a trash can for the road, just in case. It takes me an hour to drive home. I made it half way, found a quiet parking lot, pulled over, made good use of my trash can. I was a hurtin pup.

John took care of me Thursday night, and Friday morning I was kind of ok, but with serious pain in my lower right belly. Like someone is stabbing you with a knife kind of pain. Not terrible if I didn't move. Pretty terrible if I moved. Or breathed. So I hopped on down to the OBGYN's office on Friday morning. Rocky's doing fine - still in me, heart still beating, still doing somersaults. Good work, Rocky. Sorry I bothered you yesterday with my heaving. So the going theory as to why I cannot stand up straight, or lift my right leg, is that I pulled my ab muscles while throwing up four times on Thursday. Welcome to pregnancy... Who in the world says that? What's wrong, Alissa? Why are you walking all hunched over? Well, yesterday when I was throwing up, I pulled my ab muscles...

Anyway, my goal for today is to not move. At all. Although I do feel better than I did yesterday, which is fabulous. After I showered, I could almost walk normally. Yay! It's a bummer, though, this whole not moving thing. It's a gorgeous fall weekend. We were supposed to go visit John's sister in New York City. And now I am stuck in the recliner in the basement, watching college football. But - has to be done. I need to get better now - I have a golf tournament to run on Monday, and about 28 billion things to do in the 10 days following that. No time to be sick this time of year...

Consignment

As I was looking for a halfway decent consignment shop around work, so I could find a full body pillow for less than $60 and perhaps be able to sleep through the night without searing pains in both hips, I stumbled across an awesome twice a year consignment sale in Bel Air. For last night. Got lucky on that one! Last night was actually a "new mom preview sale" and then the sale is open to the public all weekend. Sunday is 50% off day - I might have to go back!

Anyway, John came with me, so if we saw something big and important (like we really know what that is...) for a decent price we could just buy it. I think we hit the jackpot! I was having some stress on the whole infant car carrier and car seat thing - way too much money for something I can use for such a short period of time. But at the sale - car seat, 2 bases, AND the awesome car seat carrier stroller thingy that I had read such good reviews about. Total cost? Maybe $50 for the whole package. Most excellent! One less thing to worry about.

Had people actually heard our conversations, they may well have laughed at us. They went something like this: "Do we need this?" "I don't know. What is it?" "I don't know." OR "We don't need those things, right? Larysa is giving us like seven of them." "Larysa kicks ass!" OR "Can we get this Pooh outfit for the kid?" (me rolling my eyes - it's godawful ugly) "Sure, it's only 5 bucks. But it's not my fault when he looks back at his baby pictures and is horrified at what he is wearing." OR "What kind of baby carrier thingy do we need?" "I don't know. How will we know if we will like it? Or if he will like it?" "I don't know, but they're only 12 bucks - lets get a few."

So we dragged home a nice stash - car seat, stroller thing, clothing - all kinds of excellent sleep sacks and warm footie pajama things, and a kick butt snow suit, and a car seat cover - another "Hmmm, what's this for?" moment that we decided would come in handy when Rocky and I stroll down the road in February to visit with the Red Army. And like three different slings, baby carriers, etc. Total cost? $142. Killer!

I, of course, completely forgot to look for fat lady pregnant clothes, or full body pillows. SO - I might have to go back! :-)

Irritated

It's my busy time of year at work. I'm organizing a golf tournament that happens in 10 days. Less than two weeks after that is the Gala I organize, and the following day is the Big Kahuna - Maryland Million Day (October 4 at Laurel Park - excellent day of horse racing if you want to come!). Between all that there's slots promotions, an open house for Maryland horse farms, and a desk that never seems to be able to get cleared off.

So I had a check-up today at the OBGYN, with a new midwife (we just see them all, because who knows who will be on call when Rocky actually decides to make an appearance). Appointment was at 8:30. We showed up early. And the damned midwife showed up, running through the door with her purse and her jacket, at 9. 9!!! I was less than impressed, which I am sure she gathered when she asked me how I was feeling and I told her that I was feeling pissed off because she was making me late to work. She tried getting the sympathy vote - but I live in Baltimore and have to drive all the way here. Not going to work on me, sweetie. I work in Baltimore. I know the drill.

Anyway, I was so irritated that I got nothing out of this visit, and I instantly hated this midwife. Let's please hope SHE is not on call when I give birth! The down and dirty - my uterus measures the right length for how far along I am, Rocky still has a heart beat, our blood work is all cool, and the ultrasound was good. Great. Thanks for nothing, lady...

Hopefully the night will end on a good note - we're off to baby consignment sale tonight to see if we can find some cheap stuff for Rocky.

GOOOOOOOO HOKIES GO!

While everyone in Maryland was getting rained on by Tropical Storm Hannah, we were in nice, hot, sunny Blacksburg Virginia for a Virginia Tech football game. First home game of the year, so they of course played a nothing team. Where's Furman College? We have no idea. Apparently, we were told, they're a good 1-AA team. And in the first half it looked like the 1-AA team would cut up the Hokies and have them for dinner. Hokies finally redeemed themselves in the second half, and there was actually some scoring happening.

Breakfast with a guy my dad used to teach in high school, football game in the hot sun, and dinner with my cousin who goes to school at Radford - and that was it for me! I fell asleep at 8pm in the hotel. Nice relaxing weekend. And I was psyched that my friends Katie and Brian got scared off by the storm, so they stayed home in Blacksburg instead of going away for the weekend. We met them for lunch on Sunday.

I miss the Burg. Wish we could find John and I both jobs down there. I'd move back in a heartbeat!

Corps of Cadets color guard displays the colors

Mom, Dad, and John in all their Hokie gear. John's eating lunch - kettle corn!

The Highty Tighties (I swear, that's what they are called) march and play on the football field.

Cheerleaders lead the football team out of the locker room, with their big Hokie flags

I love these seats... When we buy these seats from Kevin and Carla we sit on the 20 yard line, and actually have to walk DOWN the steps to our seats, in Row R. Nice! Hokies are in all white this game.
The Marching Virginians play during half time

John and I, and a couple thousand of our closest Hokie Friends, getting a nice sunburn!