65 degrees and sunny

I don't know why Matt complains about Houston weather. It's just perfect today! Duchess is sitting outside with her eyes closed just soaking up the sun. ahhhhh...
Lest you forget how loooong Duchess is - here's a good picture of her. Unfortunately, her back leg is still not back to normal. She's putting more weight on it, but still hops around. Quite honestly, she hasn't slowed down a bit. She still tugs on the leash when we go on walks. She seems unaware that her leg is even hurt! Dare I say that ignorance is bliss? I'm not sure if that corresponds to dog language...maybe dogs just take everything in stride. We should all learn from her.
See that lovely hallo effect around Duchess? It's her new home-made dog food! I got a recipe from my mom. It extended Pebbles life by at least 3 years so we'll see how Dutcher does with it. She loves the food and ate it all! On the other hand, Penny picked out all the green and yellow beans...which was very annoying. I added them to ice cream and she still refused to eat the beans, so no more home-made food for her!
We hope you have a great New Year's celebration! I'm fixing a black-eyed pea dip to bring us all good luck in 2009!

Christmas Day

We saw 'Marley & Me' with my parents are Christmas Day. It's a good movie!

For dinner we went to our friends' house for a savory beef tenderloin. We had some fun after dinner too!


It's a bright, red, round Christmas ornament!


Molly loves licking Matt's head...and I think Matt likes it a lot too!

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve...and so did the dogs! We all met for soup before church then had a feast when we returned. Next, we opened gifts and ate dessert! Great food and great company!

assisted living

Duchess needs assisted living. Since her flying incident on Saturday, her leg has not fully recovered. She can go down the stairs, but can't (or won't) go up the stairs...so we carry her. Other than that, she seems ok - still walking (hobbling) around in circles, going inside and outside (she seems to do fine on single stairs going both up and down) and whining for food. Generally, she sleeps more than she used to, but that's not recent. It's been going on for about a month. We need a Christmas wish that Duchess' leg gets better so she's ready for the baby.

another doctor's visit

Everything's still ok, in fact, I was his best patient today! My weight is great! My ankles are still skinny. The horrible pain in my side is normal for the amount of sneezing and coughing that I have been doing since being sick. I think if I were 2 inches taller that the baby wouldn't push so much against my ribs! We're squishing each other!

sniffers

We hung the stocking. Penny and Duchess have been very curious. They smell something good. Only another day...

stuck

Dutchess is going to be just fine with a new baby...and later a toddler. She let me put stickers all over her! Cute, huh? (Don't mind the mess in the dining room. Matt wore a tie for the first time in a year and had to search in storage for one. ...And the other boxes? I don't even know what they are - they're just Matt's)

We have attempted training the dogs to stay upstairs (or on the stairs) when visitors come to the house. We put a baby gate on the stairs, half way up, to allow the dogs to see what's going on, but not to jump around and act crazy. We were waiting for my friend to ring the doorbell when Duchess decided to leap over the gate. Of course, she fell, screamed and hurt her leg. The poor thing is walking around using just 3 legs now, but jumps up and down from the car and isn't whining so I don't think it's that hurt. The lesson learned: We need a taller gate! Duchess learned that she can't fly!

John and Ashley

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting too. Ashley's a month more pregnant than me and is definitely having a boy! (Please ignore the strange shadows in the above picture.) It's been so fun to share experiences and situations with John and Ashley! It'll be so fun to have cousins so close in age! Please check out their blog - it's listed on the sidebar.

showered

Matt and I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, family and colleagues! Everyone was so generous! I was showered at work on Wednesday, then again by friends on Saturday. We have so many baby essentials that we're set! Thank you! Thank you!

Kimberly, the hostess with the mostess, admiring the cute, little outfit given by Carol.
The pregnant people! Alissa and Ashley (my sister-in-law) are due in January.
Me and Paola - she's the proud mom of twin girls!
A yummy cake to celebrate the new baby!

sick as dogs

Matt and I are sick! He has the stomach flu and I have a head cold with cough. It's not fun at all!

Thank you to Anna and Hollie in London!

Thank you Anna and Hollie! There's nothing more fun than coming home and finding a mysterious package on your doorstep. We opened them and were thrilled. The storage bins will be so useful. Anna, you know how I like to be over-organized! Hollie, The mobile is adorable! We love it (including Penny). I played it twice last night when I couldn't sleep, so I know if it worked on me then it'll work on the baby.

Thank You!

The baby's room is painted and the carpets are cleaned. We still need to put everything where it's supposed to be. Imagine some floating shelves by the dresser and pictures hung on the walls.

it snowed!

It snowed in Houston! Can you believe it! The dogs spent about an hour romping around in the backyard, Penny especially. She ran around like a spaz (again)! There were really big (inch big) flakes but the camera/lighting/my mood didn't capture them. It's just a short video from inside the house. I was hungry and tired and we were on our way to dinner.

28

That's our new ranking at the Child Care Center! Wahoo! We're moving up the list! ...but still no availability for summer.

there was a chance...

...to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.

I went to another doctor's visit today - just a normal check-up. I told Dr. Papa that I can feel the baby kick a lot and wondered which way he/she is situated or if he/she is flopped in half or what?! I want to start visualizing what's going on inside so he showed me! Yes, I got a bonus ultrasound! I called Matt quickly to ask if we could find out the sex and he said, "Why would we want to spoil all the fun now?" so I didn't see any private parts. I did see that he/she was head down, spine toward my left and kicking on my right side - just what I felt!

the beach

Dutcher is running away from her shadow!

Penny is just a complete spaz in the sand. She's flying.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day in Houston so we drove to Galveston with the dogs to see the Ike aftermath and to walk on the beach. There's still lots of debris and boats not where they should be. There's a lot less beach to be found to walk on but we found some. The dogs just loved running all around! We didn't find anything interesting on the beach except a large lump of coal, literally!

a dream

I had a dream last night that we had a girl! That part was really wonderful and surprising. It all started with me not being able to feel my legs and hearing the birth of my child while I waited paralyzed in the hallway outside the OR. (I know it doesn't make sense - it's a dream so I can't really explain.) I heard the water break and splash all over the floor and then the announcement that it our baby was a perfect little girl! After that I was invited into the OR and put 'under' by anesthesia. I remember not being able to breathe and feeling a warm, hot, then burning pain through my veins and then promptly woke up (for real) from my dream.

Friday night we went to Kimberly and Marc's annual Glue Vine Party, a Christmas Party with mulled or spiced red wine. It was a great party and lots of friends from Poe Elementary. If majority rules, then I'm having a boy. Apparently, my tummy is like a bullet (boy-like), not rounded (girl-like). Kimberly and Marc throw great parties! Next year they'll be living in Australia so I lost my last chance to have Glue Vine!

Penny learns to counter surf

So much for Grandma's cookies....  How good they were, I will never know.

I think Penny was hinting to something as she pointed her nose to the peanut brittle sitting on my desk next to my laptop.  She has taken a liking to zip lock bags lately, first eating the bag holding the instructions for the TV back when I was setting it up, and then again last week when she ate a bag holding a small electronic kit that I was about to assemble.  Both of these were on the coffee table.

I thought Penny had learned her lesson back a couple of months ago when I put her back in her "Room" after swiping the ingredients for my dinner off of the counter while I turned to put a few items in a pan.  My first indication there was her burp before I noticed that half of the sliced steak was missing.  She has been very good for the last few months; not eating tubes of caulk, shoes, or furniture prompting Laura to hold a graduation ceremony for Penny back in the end of June signifying the end of the Room for good.

This evening, it was another subtle hint of guilt.  I hear Laura say "What's this?" as she was working on her laptop while sitting on the couch: it is part of a torn zip lock bag.  At first I think that she has swiped that bag of half-eaten electronic parts from the dining room table, but I find that intact.  However, looking just under the table is another half of the torn bag that was left at Laura's feet; this left me wondering where it came from.  After a quick look through the kitchen, I notice that the bag of Grandma's Christmas cookies is missing from the counter just above the dishwasher, and then glance to a guilty-looking dog sitting sheepishly at Laura's feet by the couch.  

a year

As of Sunday, I have known Matt for a whole year! Time sure flies!

We met at The Empire Cafe on the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2007. I arrived early and found him outside texting his brother while waiting for me at the front door. We had a couple of glasses of wine and talked about all kinds of things, but mostly about computers (I had just bought one on Black Friday). Matt was strongly opinionated, as you can imagine, about computers.

We're celebrating Christmas, not with gifts, but with the 12 Dates of Christmas. Yep, we're going to have dates and celebrate the season with each other! Actually, I thought 12 dates in 31 days was a bit much, so I reduced it to 6 (3 for him to plan and 3 for me to plan). Start sending Matt ideas! He needs them! :)

Grandma's Cookies

My mom brought some of my grandma's Christmas cookies back from their trip to Missouri. They are so yummy! Thank you Grandma!