Lauren Elyse

Here she is! We went in last Friday morning and well, only 3 1/2 hours of labor and 3 pushes later, Little Lauren joined us at 7 lbs, 8 oz, and almost 19 inches. Thanks to the pre-planned epidural I didn't feel any of this quick and easy process so I'm certainly not going to have anything to hold over her head when she's a teenager! She has blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and is just the sweetest baby girl!
.
Proud parents

.
Bright eyes and chubby cheeks!

.
Sweet naptimes

.
Noah inspecting his new "beebee."



Thanks to Rachel for hijacking my blog and posting her arrival a few days ago, and thanks to all of you for the sweet comments! That's it for now though; I'm tired and have only 2 more hours before yet another feeding. I'll keep you posted!

Announcing Baby Lauren!

Rachel here, hijacking my sister's blog to let you know that Jackie and Greg are the proud parents of a baby girl! Lauren Elyse was born today at 1:09 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Mom and baby are doing great. I will post a photo as soon as they're sent out!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Knowing that we'd have a little baby around on Noah's 2nd birthday (which is actually November 2), we wanted to give him a birthday party early so he'd be fully celebrated. We chose the Little Einsteins' theme since it is his absolute favorite thing in all the world at this point; he can sing parts of the theme song, say Vrooom! with Rocket, and shout "Blast Off" at all the right moments. We wanted to remember this phase and give him one last birthday party of his own before he has to share them with his sister for the rest of his life!

So last Saturday we had several friends and family over to the neighborhood park (because at 10 months pregnant I wasn't about to clean my house and host it there--I'm a nice mom, but not a crazy one). We had food from Chick-fil-A, brought a basket of sports equipment and bouncy balls, we had 4 dozen Little Einstein cupcakes, handed out treat cups, played on the playgrounds, and of course opened presents. A great time was had by all, especially by the grown men who played football and pretended to allow the small children to play with them. A big thanks to my sister Rachel who was in town with Jared, and got up early to help me get everything set up!

Here are some highlights:

This was officially the final "scheduled" function that I really wanted to get through before the baby comes. Happy early birthday, Noah--we love you!

Last Day of School, er, Work!

Remember the last day of school? I'll pretend I'm not too old to remember that feeling I always got those last hours of the last day of school before a break. I have that feeling today as it is officially my last day of work before 3 glorious months of maternity leave! My schedule is very light today, I've already gotten 2 baby gifts from patients this morning, and another patient brought in cheesecake bars! If all goes according to plan, I'll have the rest of the week to try to relax, get a mani/pedi, do some last minute cleaning and preparing, and then head on up to the hospital Friday to have a baby. Sounds intense when I put it in writing, so today I think I'll just sit and savor my "last day of school" feeling...

Hairdos and Baby Showers and such

Well this weekend was a whirlwind, but a great one! On Friday my friend Stacey came over with her son, Carson (Noah's best friend). She had arranged for a professional hairstylist (very cool woman we both know) to come to my house and set up a 'salon' in my master bathroom! We both got haircuts, full foil color, and styles -- all without having to maneuver our pregnant bellies around town and try to find weekday babysitters for our boys! It was such a treat.

On Saturday, four of my dearest friends threw me a baby girl shower. It was gorgeous and so much fun; we ended up with so many adorable things that I can wait to use! I felt very blessed as several of my friends and family drove anywhere from 1 to 5 hours to be there -- this little girl already has many great ladies she'll be able to look up to!

Finally, tonight, whilst grimmacing at the Cowboys' tragic first loss of the season, I was able to sort th rough ALL baby gifts and items we've gotten thus far; this includes packing the baby's bag for the hospital as well as my own, washing all 0-3 month clothes and arranging them neatly in drawers, hanging everything else up by size, and sanitizing bottles/nipples/pacifiers/etc. and putting them away in her very own cupboard.

I'm exhausted, large, and tired, but finally feel like we are "set up" to have this baby. Now if she can just hold off until after Noah's birthday party next Saturday...

A few pictures:

Tracy's beautiful house, gorgeous display of food, and homemade Vanilla-Raspberry "Diva" cupcakes (in the back) from her cupcake business.

-

The hostesses (and me): Stacey, Rebekah, me, Kaci, and Tracy.

-

My two sweet cousins, Leslie and Alli. Great to catch up with you both! And yes, there's my new 'do which is not too terribly different except there are a lot more layers and quite a bit of auburn/red/dark blonde color. Apparently she said this is closer to my natural color since my hair has darkened; figures since I'm turning 30 this year.

That's it! Have a nice week. I'm going to bed.

Holy Crap

Sorry for the title, folks. I went to the doctor today and found out that although I am not yet dilated, I am almost 90% effaced and according to him, the baby's head is so low that it is "somewhere between my knees." I'll go in for another sonogram next week, and assuming things continue as they have, we tentatively scheduled to have the baby on October 26th. Yes, that's right, that's two weeks away--well, 17 days to be precise. So I'll say it again...Holy Crap.

I Have A Dream

I have a dream that it is Fall, and then I wake to realize it is never really Fall in Texas. I was going to wait until October to decorate my house for one of my favorite times of year, but I just couldn't help it. Call it nesting, call it obsession, call it whatever you like. It is 91 degrees outside, I'm wearing shorts and a tanktop and am sweating, there are only a few wisps of clouds in the sky... but darn it if my dining room and front entry don't look like Thanksgiving is next Thursday!

To Sleep or Not To Sleep?

Someone help me! For the past several days I have suffered from I can only term "Pregnancy Insomnia." Basically my bladder wakes me up in the middle of the night (no surprise there), but I can't get back to sleep! My mind races and wanders, and I lie awake tossing and turning for the better part of 2 hours. Last night I woke up initially at 2am, and it was 3:45am when I last looked at the clock before finally drifting off again. Have any of you had this?? What can I do? I'm exhausted and it's all I can do to not fall asleep on my patients at work at this point...

Posh or Poo?

My sister Rachel was in town over Labor Day weekend and we went to the outlet mall nearby with Greg and Jared. Our preppy husbands were like giddy schoolboys walking through all the shops and even bought the matching pairs of shoes... In any case, they just about doubled what Rachel and I spent, thus justifying the above purchase from the Fossil Outlet store. I've needed a new handbag: something bigger but not gynormous, something that can hold a diaper but doesn't look like a diaper bag, yada yada, you know how it goes.

Anyway, I picked this one out. I received two comments about the purchase that day: Rachel said that "green is the new black" and she loves it. Greg said that he really likes the style, but the color reminds him a little of Noah's diarrhea when he was a baby.

Who to believe?

InterNOT

I was all ready to post a new entry last night after loading and editing some pictures on my computer and everything. Suddenly and for no reason at all, the internet shut down. It wouldn't open again. I went to the control panel and repaired the connection, I turned off the computer and restarted it, I spoke nicely to it and then finally resorted to yelling. Nothing. This is not the first time this has happened, no, it's been going on consistently for the past 2 weeks! And this isn't dial-up we're talking about either; we pay a stinkin' lot of dinero every month for instantaneous, do-what-I-say, high-speed internet. Furthermore, it's with AT&T! We're not talking Joe's Hubcaps and Internet here, people.

I hate all electronics that don't listen to the commands I give. Aside from slow drivers on the road, nothing can get me stringing words together that I haven't used since the ole farm days in Iowa like crappy internet or cable service. Thus endeth my ranting. Hopefully by the time I get home tonight I'll be able to turn on my lovely computer, post a worth-while blog entry complete with a picture or two, and be done with the yelling for one day.

I'll let you know. :)

Weighty Issues

I'm venting a frustration today, so bear with me and if you like, agree with me and make me feel better about it. :)

I haven't gained much weight with this pregnancy so far; I'm almost 30 weeks along and am apparently measuring a little small but my doctor is keeping the due date the same because he thinks the baby is just little. Little but healthy, that is! Furthermore, since I'm tall and long-waisted, I carry babies vertically so they don't stick out very much.

The comments I've received thus far include
(the first one was from today, prompting this blog):
"There's no way you're in your third trimester! Are you eating anything?"
"You don't really look pregnant, just like you ate a lot for lunch."
"Are you sure that baby is growing properly?"
"I hope you're at least taking vitamins so the baby will be healthy!"
"I hate people like you. Just eat some cookies or something."
-and finally, my personal favorite...
"You look like you just have a really good beer belly."

Are you kidding me? If it's not politically correct to tell someone they need to lose a few pounds, why is it okay to tell them they need to gain a few? And for crying out loud, is it ever okay to say someone's UNBORN CHILD is NOT HEALTHY? I didn't think so. And just for clarification, I'm not like a skinny girl who gets skinny comments on a regular basis. And I do eat cookies. I'm just a mom who happens to hide babies pretty well because of the biomechanical makeup of my uterus for crying out loud, so I wish everyone would just keep their mouths shut!

Thanks for listening. I feel better.

Farewell, Glorious Summer!

I've been out of the loop for the past two weeks because we've been in fabulous South Carolina relaxing and taking advantage of all the lake life has to offer. We originally went to the east coast for my cousin's wedding, but decided to leave a week early and spend some time with my immediate family at a lakehouse owned by a couple of our aunts and uncles. Here are a few of the highlights...


The Lakehouse viewed from the dock. This humble abode was our home for 7 wondrous days of eating, boating, sleeping, taking drives through the mountains, enjoying family, and much more. The house itself sleeps more than 20 people comfortably in 7 bedrooms including 2 master suites, it also has 2 kitchens, gorgeous views of the lake and moutains, a private dock, and all the toys necessary for a water vacation such as a boat, jet skis, and ample swimming gear.


Greg wakeboarded every day (okay, let's be serious, he needed one day of rest after his first day of wakeboarding. He is 30, after all). Okay people, my husband did backflips, 360s, 180s, and got really tan in the process. He was hot the whole time. :)


My 6 1/2 - month pregnant self couldn't do water sports, but did enjoy myself on the boat every day with my boys...

...and my sister, Rachel, who came down with Jared a couple days after we got there.

There was cliff jumping...

and jet skiing...

Noah had a blast on the boat and discovered a pair of un-claimed girly sunglasses.

And of course, there was tubing. All the men (Greg, Jared, and my dad) took turns tubing with our nephews, Skye and Trey. I've never seen such boyish delight on the faces of grown men!

Noah and Wally were especially concerned each time someone jumped from the boat into the lake. Wally was our official "babysitter" the whole time because Noah never got tired of playing with him!

We climbed up this waterfall,

...and swam in the swimming hole (I'll spare you the picture of me in the water in my maternity suit that floated up over my belly and almost to my boobs).

-

At week's end, we sadly bid farewell to the lake and headed up north to Charlotte to attend my cousin's wedding.

The Ladies: Carol (my stepmom), me, Rachel, and Andrea (my sister-in-law).


The Men: Rich (my brother), Greg, and Jared in the back with Noah, and my two nephews in the front.

Aside from having to stand in the back of the church during the wedding because Noah noticed that his PawPaw was up front and kept trying to get his attention (my dad officiated the ceremony), we had a great time. :) It was a gorgeous multicultural wedding; the bride is from here, the groom is from Spain, and the vows were in both languages. We did have a babysitter during the reception however, and were able to dance the night away!

-

Well that's the scoop, and such a memorable way to cap off our summer! No more vacations to look forward to for a while now, because I'll officially be in my 3rd trimester next week. All hail the coming maternity leave...

A Few Good Photos

Why don't any of my pictures look like this? This gallery is a big thanks to my friend, Laura, and my mother-in-law... May you both find jobs at photography studios, and give me discounts...

Girls' Weekend 2007!

As you may know, every year since college a group of 7 of us get together for a relaxing weekend sans responsibility of husbands and children. We've been doing this for 7 years now, so we realized we've known each other when we were dating idiots in college, when we were making wise and sometimes less-than-wise decisions, and when we started dating "the one." We were there through makeups, breakups, engagements, and have been to each others' weddings. We seen the skinny, sexy stages as well as the fat pregnant stages, and our kids have played together. We've shared traveling experiences throughout the years and have been there through illnesses and deaths of family members. We've always committed to reuniting one weekend each year to reconnect, reminisce, and of course, eat a whole lot.

Here are a few highlights from this year:

Lounging by the pool takes up most of our Saturday every year (this is the only swimsuit photo that was approved publishing material due to 5/7ths of the group being pregnant...)


Lunch picnic by the pool: Summer salad, homemade chicken salad croissants, fruit, veggies and dip, and other such girlish sundries are usually on the menu.

Me and my other half, Sara (and apparently my bra) -- go check out Sara's brand new blog at http://queen-of-the-house.blogspot.com !

Grand tradition states that we get sassy and go out to dinner on Saturday night. Usually sushi is the menu of choice, but with so many pregnant ladies, we opted for meals a little less fleshy... We topped off the night with New Orleans Beignets paired with raspberry, white chocolate, and Jack Daniels dipping sauces. Mmmm.

The whole group: Christy, me, Sara, Jenny, Kelly, Ruth Lee, and Emily. Farewell until next year! Alright, fewer dramatics. I'll see most of you at Homecoming in October. :)

Old Friend, New Blog

Okay, so I'm currently on my college girls' retreat weekend (if you remember from this post last year; it's the second group of girls). Anyway, one of my very best friends, Sara, told me she just started a blog. Go there, right this minute: http://queen-of-the-house.blogspot.com/

She has yet to dedicate a post to me (though, ahem, it's how she got started blogging in the first place), but I'm working on it. Have a great weekend, and I'll write more about the retreat when I'm back.

One more thing, one of the other girls would like to start a blog but is stumped on a creative name for it. Any and all ideas are welcome!

Dog Tired

...or maybe I should just say tired of the dog.

She's sweet in the house, though she doesn't ever cuddle. If we so much as reach out to her in a manner that might suggest petting, she jumps up, wags the ole tail, and thinks it must be time for a 5 mile run. If we do not oblige, she sulks and takes to the ground once again, acting as though she might pass away from boredom. Similarly, anytime we're changing clothes, she thinks we must be getting ready to take her for that 5 mile run so she pants loudly, nips at our heels, whines, etc. and if she doesn't see us putting on running shoes, well, again with the sulking. The worst part is that as soon as we do leave the house to go for a walk, she is uncontrollable. She squeals and whines and pulls (even on a choke collar!) and refuses to actually do any walking. She doesn't listen to any commands when outside, and has made it impossible for me to take her for a walk and handle Noah in the stroller. Oh, and if she so much as sees another dog, she turns into this maniacal thing that starts humping the air at random. If our friends' dogs come over, she can't relax or sleep at night, but continues the humping and licking and sniffing and body gyrations. She also must be man-handled every time the front door is opened just to make sure she doesn't sneak out and chase neighborhood rabbits for hours on end. She doesn't know how to fetch anything, so all she does in the back yard is run in circles without regard to landscaping; she actually uprooted an entire crepe myrtle bush because she ran into it at full speed.

Aren't most dogs just happy to cuddle and be rubbed down and have their tummy scratched?

Yesterday she went to work with me because she had to go to the vet next door for a bath and a shot. She pooped on the floor in our clinic entryway! She hasn't done anything like this since she was a tiny puppy! I had 3 patients there, my boss, and 2 coworkers. I'm totally the girl with the dog who poops on the floor. Sweet.

Our plan is as follows: Get her spayed this month, then get her into a round of obedience classes. If she doesn't calm down and start listening, we might have to find her a home on a couple of acres where she can herd other dogs and children all day. She is part border collie, after all. Am I cruel to consider this?

Big brother and little...

We found out Friday and are thrilled! Greg and I got to celebrate our anniversary the next day (7 years!) by getting massages and going to a fabulous steak restaurant. Coming up with girl names was the topic of conversation for most of the night! Any ideas?

Sour Cream and Chive Creamed Corn

Okay, a few of you asked for this recipe after I mentioned it in my last post. I have to admit that I made it up on the spot when I was cooking it a couple of weeks ago, so here's my attempt at recall. Please add/subtract ingredients to your taste!

Sour Cream and Chive Creamed Corn

1 can sweet whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
2 TBLS butter, seperated (I used light)
2 TBLS sour cream (I used light)
6 oz Whipped cream cheese, chive or sour cream and chive flavor
2-3 chopped green onions
Salt, garlic, and pepper to taste
Shredded cheese
1 cup crushed croutons, seasoned

Put corn into a soup-sized pot and heat on medium on the stove. Stir in 1 TBLS butter, sour cream, and cream cheese until melted. Stir in onion and seasonings, then gradually add shredded cheese until consistency is not to runny. :) Heat a couple of minutes until melted through. Transfer to a baking dish, cover with crused seasoned croutons, and drizzle with 1 TBLS butter. Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes or until croutons are browned.

It was really good and really easy, and basically was born out of my desire to serve a vegetable with our meal that was "gourmet" enough to go with steak! Also, I wasn't in the mood for beans... Let me know how your rendition tastes if you get around to making this!

True Holiday

Today has been pretty perfect, definitely the perfect end to a great holiday weekend. Here's a recap:

I woke up really early so I went ahead and got up with Noah at 6:30am so Greg could sleep in a bit. But at 7:20am, Greg took Noah and let me go back to bed. He fed him and kept him busy until I woke up at 9am, when I went out into the living room to find two generations of vaccuuming men:

Then I took a long shower and shaved my legs (I am having a mole cut out of my lower leg tomorrow so I didn't want nasty hairiness to distract my cute dermatologist). Noah was asleep when I got out, so Greg and I relaxed and had breakfast; I made homemade blueberry belgian waffles. I read 6 chapters in my new book, and then we all got ready for the day. Like Noah's new outfit? Sweater vests are totally in for baby boys.

Another added bonus for the day I noticed while getting ready today... Not to draw attention to my cleavage, but seriously, I have my boobs back. When I stopped nursing Noah, I dropped a whole size. Check me out now; all it took was 15 weeks of pregnancy to pump those babies back up!

We all left and Greg and Noah dropped me off to get a manicure/pedicure. I read a little more of my book before finally surrendering to the chair massage, paraffin wax bath, and salt scrub with hot towels. I've been doing pretty well with not biting my nails lately, and sice we're going out of town this weekend I decided to splurge. Greg took Noah to Sam's and bought some steaks for dinner, and when they picked me up there was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers in the car for me that he swears Noah picked out. There were enough for me to divide them into several vases for various rooms in the house:

After we left the nail salon, we went to Central Market and walked around and ate samples. :) Then we picked up some homemade tamales and fresh salsa (and of course a grilled cheese for the kid) and we ate lunch in their deli. Central Market is always a good idea, but even better on a rainy holiday.

When we got home, Noah and I took a nap for 2 hours! By the time we woke up, Greg had washed the dog, started the laundry, and was Resolve-ing various spots on the carpet. So as not to make him sound too domestic, I should mention that he's also been watching a marathon of The Deadliest Catch all day... Noah and I got dinner ready and we all sat down to a feast of steaks, baked potatoes, sour-cream-and-chive-creamed-corn, and garlic rolls:

I put Noah to bed after several games and stories, layed down on the couch for a bit, and felt the new baby moving around for the first time! Well, that about brings us up to the present. Now I'm going to go read a bit more, then we're going to watch Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller (and hot fudge brownies and cool whip).

Sometimes you just need a day like this, but the really cool thing is that I wasn't expecting or planning it. I have the sweetest husband and son imaginable, and wanted to devote a little post to them!

Events at Random

So I've been worthless, and I'm sorry. I have been reading up on your blogs, but have been to tired/busy/lazy to update my own so I thought I would tell you a little of what's been going on.

First of all, I don't know ho the weather has been for the rest of you, but Dallas has been slammed with thunderstorm after thunderstorm for the past several weeks. A couple of weeks ago, Greg and I were glued to the TV watching the "severe weather warnings" in our area when we heard a loud noise right outside the window. We opened the back door to find this:



Basically the umbrella caught a gust of wind, flew out, and shattered the glass top of the patio table. The specks you can see are a mixture of glass, rain, and nickel-sized hail. We, aka: Greg, got it all cleaned up but we still have no patio table on which to usher in Memorial Day and grilling season.

In other news, we went to an FC Dallas pro soccer game this past weekend. Noah is their youngest and yet their biggest fan:

We went with some friends, so after the game we let the kids run around the deck of the stadium. They started running around by this other cute little boy, and I glanced over at the boy's dad (I assume). It was Martin Grammatica - the starting kicker for the Dallas Cowboys! For us Cowboys fans, this was huge. I had to walk over and shake his hand, congratulate him on a good season, and wish him luck next year.

Well, that's all folks. Sorry nothing else fabulous or exciting has happened but I'll keep you posted...