When Momma C comes to visit...

Things get done! In a hurry!

Mom came to visit last Thursday, our first visit since she game in Dec '06. It was the first time she got the see the house and first time she'd seen us since Christmas. Needless to say, there were some slight changes in my figure and other fun things.
Mom got here Thursday night when we joined miss Molly on her 25th birthday. We had an excellent dinner of yummy Japanese food followed by chill time for Mom and me and then some emptying of the nursery, which more closely resembled a room struck by a tornado. Friday, the three of us (or four, if you count BabyD) went for my doctor's visit and then went out to lunch. When we got home, our changing table had arrived (woohoo!) and then a trip to Lowe's to pick out paint and all the necessities. When we got home from Lowe's, the crib and mattress had arrived, making it a wonderful present day. That created even more urgency for me to have the nursery set up. The taping and painting began, which resulted in my prompt removal from the room. At the end of day one (Friday), it looked like this:

Saturday morning, we went to the Oto baby shower. Mom got to meet the great ladies I work with, which was a wonderful time for both of us. I got wonderful gifts from my coworkers and friends. Mom displayed yet another talent and excitement about the new BabyD with another display of her knitting prowess. It was too cute.

After the shower, it was back to work. I grabbed a blade and started taking the extra paint off the baseboards; Mom grabbed a paint brush. After dinner, it was crib assembly time, then off to bed.

Sunday we took Mom out for breakfast and then came home to give the room it's finishing touches. By Sunday afternoon, the nursery was finished, at least as much as we have right now.

As Matt put it when talking to one of our friends, she "cracked the whip." I love it when she does that. :-)

Can't believe there's only 80 days (or so) to go until BabyD gets here! I feel like I have so much more to write, but the cold I caught has decreased my verbal skills, at least for now.

peace, love, happiness!

Holy Halloween, Batman!

Batman's probably the only character that didn't knock on our door tonight (except I live with him so no problem), but I did have Nemo, Squirt, Jeff Gordon and Dog the Bounty Hunter. There's something to be said for the creativity in this neighborhood. :-) Poor Syd-dog did not get a good costume this year like 2 years ago, but I don't think she minded too much.
And I am definitely glad that the day is winding down. I went through a roller coaster ride of cortisol today. I had a presentation to give to at The Nest to prenatal and postnatal mothers (and fathers) and was given the age range of 15-30 for the parents. Yesterday, LJ was really helpful as I pulled the curtains away from my eyes and talked to people I knew were moms, including my own mom (duh! Why didn't I do that a month ago?!). Work also had a few additional stresses, with the deadline for the call for papers looming over our heads (it's tomorrow). We have 5 studies to submit and don't have all of our analyses completed, including mine, and no time to collaborate to make sure my submission is coherent. But, hey, as long as my p-values are less than .0001, I'm golden. We also have fewer patients right now and amazingly all of our current projects are up to date with a few new ones started. The databases have been scoured for inaccuracies and corrected and I am literally creating tasks and asking team members for questions they have in search of new projects.
Matt & Syd-dog's bdays are Friday, his parents are coming into town Friday night and his recital is Monday night. While I realize that sounds stressing, I'm actually excited for it and I think I represented Music Therapy pretty well today, which also relaxed the heck out of me.
On the NC Homefront, my sweet Sis-in-law (i.e. Preggers) is now in her 37th week and 1-1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Something tells me I might not have to drive home while in Louisville (week before Turkey-day) because Maddox will already be here. Otherwise, I will be making a trip during conference to home to meet my nephew.
Lots of excitement, lots of fun.

Nothing special

The last week hasn't been very remarkable. Work was busy and, while there was a point where a coworker told the Big Boss that he owed me a six-pack, very little else was as challenging.
This weekend was fun and productive, though. Friday night, Matt took me to dinner at a new restaurant. It was pretty good, but I felt guilty about cheating on Devotay--my favorite tappas place in town. The food was good, not as good as Devotay, but Verde (the new place) had a blood orange cheesecake that was delicious and would compete with my tappas love. Another exciting bit (plus a large reason for my productivity) one of my wonderful friends, and former coworkers, came into town and we got a chance to visit for a little while. She had both of her adorable daughters with her. I'd only met one of them when they moved and had a newborn picture of the second, who just turned 1. They were definitely a handful, but it was still a good time and Sydne was a very good puppy. As a result, our house got a thorough cleaning, boxes put away, things thrown out and pictures hung on the wall. Finally, ornamental objects hanging from the walls!!

"Papa Bear" scares me

We have an ice cream truck that travels daily through our neighborhood. Like all ice cream trucks I've ever known, it has various musical selections playing over a loudspeaker that sound very much like a calliope. This truck is different from any other truck I've ever heard in the repertoire that is chosen to call children like the Pied Piper. Actually, the music is pretty scary sometimes, especially in terms of flowing from one song to the next.

Allow me to illustrate with a sample of songs played (sometimes in this particular order):

Old MacDonald (not sure how many animals are on the farm)
Jingle Bells (in June, July or August--I guess they keep Christmas year round)
The Yellow Rose of Texas
A Time for Us (from "Romeo and Juliet")--not what I would call a particularly happy song
Happy Birthday (it's someone's birthday every day)
Oh Suzanna

If you catch the flow of it, you'll notice there is no flow and not all of the songs are what I would call "appropriate." There are actually times that I miss the repetitive music of "The Entertainer" without the bridge or ending, brace yourself, that used to play in the 'hood. (Yes, I said it, but only that. And even then that made me crazy because I'd have to sing the next part in my head so I wouldn't go insane.) At least that made a little more sense than random songs played in no specific fashion. I'm waiting for "Laura's Song" from Dr. Zhivago or maybe "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story to be followed by something like "The March to the Gallows." Then the scary music circle would be complete. For now, I'm just perplexed and a little amused by the randomness of music that is believed to attract the small ones like moths to a flame...Oh and the name of the ice cream truck is "Papa Bear."

I've got a peaceful, easy feeling...

Yesterday morning, I starting loving the new neighborhood even more. We woke up, looked out the bedroom window and there, walking down the street, was a doe. She was just walking very nonchalantly on the other side of the street. Of course, once Sydne saw her, she started growling and ran downstairs, which resulted in the pretty little deer jogging back in the direction from which she came.

If that wasn't cool enough, a few hours later, I looked out our back window and, sitting at the edge of my neighbor's driveway, was a beautiful redheaded hawk. Of course, the robins and chickadees weren't as happy to see them as I was, though it was fun to watch them dive-bomb him to chase him off. Of course, my compulsion to take a picture resulted in the hawk taking off to the light post across the street. He stayed there a little longer then decided to head west, with a trail of birds attacking him as he flew. Apparently, robins can be bullies.

Monday, Monday

...do you hear the Mama's and the Papa's in the background?...Well, it's the first of the week. Nothing spectacular to report, except, oh yeah, I don't live in the ghetto anymore. Yippee! I managed to leave for work at the same time I used to leave the old place and I got to work earlier. That's right, earlier. What a happy problem to have.
Coming home this aftenroon was equally "horrible": straight shot home; no problems with traffic; neighbors politely waving as I pulled in. I think this new neighborhood may help improve my exercise regime. Since Sydne doesn't have her fence yet, I took her for a walk around the neighborhood. It was only the short route but I'm sure we'll do the larger version after dinner. Maybe we shouldn't put the fence up. Then again, I don't know how much Matt would like walking her at 6 a.m. when it's below freezing.
peace

GO ME!

I don't mean to toot my own horn. Okay, maybe I do (toot! toot!)but I just assembled my bed all by myself. I realize that may not mean much, but it's a queen-sized, (heavy) metal, sleigh bed. Matt told me I should wait until he gets home, but he was supposed to be home an hour ago and still isn't so, not to be redundant, Go Me! Girl Power rules!!!!
I picked the matress and box springs off the floor, which wasn't easy to start with. Who knew those things were so frickin' heavy? I put my frame together (no easy feat), put the box springs into the bed--they sit in the frame, added the matress and made it up so it looks nice and pretty. I probably gained between 5 and 10 bruises, but hey, I did it all by myself. Now I'm eating some deliciously chocolate, Cold Stone ice cream in celebration (but just a little bit). There's a thunderstorm rolling in. What a great night for blustery wind, some thunder and rain.
peace and girl power!