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...