This is for the Northerners

Here is what our street and all secondary roads look like the day after it snowed and sleeted 5 inches.


Don't worry... I stopped the car before I took the picture. Yup, the road is untreated, it won't be treated. You just wait until it melts. Welcome to winter in North Carolina.

Time for a snack

What's the best snack after a good romp in the snow? Why a tomato of course!



-- Post From My iPhone

She's out...

We held her off as long as we could. She's playing in her "clubhouse".



-- Post From My iPhone

I think we're in for a biggie

I opened the back door at 8pm to let cat in and saw this:



There's just a coating right now but it's starting to come down...I didn't even know it had started yet! I immediately called Katherine over who exclaimed "SNOW!" and announced her plans to go outside tomorrow. If it snows all night, which is what the forecast is, she'll have plenty to play in! This is such a rarity in NC. Full update with pics tomorrow!

A Morning at Marbles

-- Post From My iPhone

The casualties of running...

Ted fell while running on Saturday morning...really fell, knock his feet right out from under him and landed on a step. The bruise seems to get bigger and darker every day. He claims it doesn't hurt anymore but wanted to post it cause he felt it was "noteworthy". All I gotta say is OUCH.



-- Post From My iPhone

Pregnancy Update

I'm popping my head up from behind the 44 proposals I've been reviewing to say hello. Things have been crazy on the workfront lately which means no time for posts during lunch breaks. Today I can start to see a bit of a clearing in the fog so I'm taking an actual lunch break for the first time in a while.

I realized that it had been quite some time since I've given any type of updates on how I'm doing, pregnancy wise, mostly because I've been doing great. Katherine's pregnancy was smoother but this one seems to be going even smoother for me (knock on...uh...particle board and laminate desk). While I can't say that you ever forget you are pregnant, for obvious reasons, there are many days where I'm just flying around in my normal routine and it doesn't seem to cross my mind that there's a baby with me (or rather in me). Our little guy is quite busy though, I get a few kicks every day that just about take my breath away. And just like his older sister, he likes to get particularly busy just as I'm going to bed and right when I'm about to wake up. This does not bode well for future sleep patterns. And I'm sure the aches and pains will increase in the coming weeks but they are minimal right now and extremely manageable.

Probably the biggest thing this time around is just how fast the time is going. I'll be 30 weeks this Saturday. Wow. And while my official due date is April 10th the pregnancy apps on my phone are telling me that I will be considered full term as of March 20th. This caused a bit of a moment last week when I looked at the calendar and realized it was January 20th. That means in two months its all systems go at any moment. Thankfully on the homefront we are pretty much ready. The nursery is all set up (I decided not to repaint after all), clothes are washed, there's really just a small list of little things that need to be done in there. I should finish those up in the next few weeks. I keep saying that really the baby could arrive tomorrow and while we'd have to make a Target run (Ok, Ted would be making that Target run) on the whole we'd be just fine. I did remember last weekend that sometime in the next month I need to get the hospital registration form, leave and health insurance forms taken care of at work and a hospital bag put together. But even that is not stressing me all that much.

However, on the work front, yeah I've got plenty to do between now and then. I know full well work will NOT be on mind once I go out on leave (as my co-workers keep reminding me) but until then I feel obligated to tie up as many loose ends as possible to make their lives easier and mine easier too once it's time to return. That's when I look at the calendar and go Yikes! Two months!?! Really? WOW.

Katherine seems to be doing great with the upcoming arrival of her baby brother. I'm not sure how much she really grasps the full concept at this point. We talk about it and she will mention "my baby brother in Mommy's tummy" but I think her mind this little boy will arrive magically one day all ready to play with her. I will say that I am an object of complete fascination in her daycare class, which some days she likes, some days she does not. Everyday when I walk in at pick up time the kids ask me "where's your baby?" and some of them will come and rub my tummy. They ask when the baby is going to get here and Katherine will very matter of factly inform them that "we need to be patient." I've fielded quite a few questions which thankfully have been nice, safe ones like "What's his name going to be?" (answer the last time it was asked was we're still working on it) and NOT "How did he get in your tummy?" I'd think I'd reroute them to their parents for the answer to THAT question.

I have a doctor's appointment on Friday which should be a very quick one and I'm toying with the idea of having Miss K come with me instead of dropping her off at daycare. She'd get to hear the baby's heartbeat and see the building where she was and he will be born. Then maybe we'll head over to Marbles for an hour or two of playing. A little day of just us girls.

Now here's a dilemma...

The picture above is the result of the visit to Babies R Us last weekend. We were greeted at the door by a rack of sports themed outfits for infants. Now I'm not much of a huge sports person myself but being a native New Englander, well, I feel it is my obligation to at least show a passing interest in the home teams, especially now that I no longer live in New England. Us Southern Yankees (and there are quite a bunch of us around these parts) need to show our hometown pride! So naturally that meant picking up a little Red Sox outfit for the baby. Won't it look cute with the little Red Sox baseball hat that Aunt Colleen bought K when she was younger. Well, my dad may be a native New Englander but when it comes to baseball, his heart rests with the Yankees. Therefore you see the little Yankee outfit up above, which he just couldn't resist.

Hmmmm...what's a newborn to do?

Long weekend in Mass

We're safely back from our long weekend away. I returned home to a very busy work week, which is why this post has taken so long to write. My usual lunch time updates have been taken over by proposal reading while I eat. There's lots more pictures that what I have hear, I'll start putting together the January album soon.

The snow on Sunday was pretty much a non-event but it did allow Katherine to get in an hour playing in the wet snow Monday morning while Papa and Gram shoveled. She even helped with the shoveling:

I had to include this picture too. We asked her to smile for the camera. She got on one leg and said "cheese!".Most of the weekend was spent relaxing and visiting with family. On Saturday we thought we would head down to the Buckland Hills Mall so that K. could ride the carousel. She had such a great time doing it in August that we thought it would be a great activity. I tagged along with plans to stop at the Babies R Us that was right near the mall. Fun times until what should have been a 30 minute drive turned into an over 2 and a half hour drive. Seems there was a big accident on I-91 earlier in the morning. Traffic was royaly backed up and I mean royaly. It took us two hours to go two miles. Thank GOD for the portable DVD player, K was none the wiser for most of the trip that something was amiss, thanks to Cinderella. For the most part the adults held their cool, after all we didn't have anywhere we needed to be by a certain time. That is until our stomachs started growling for lunch and this preggo had to go, then tempers got short. But we were quickly reminded that it could always be worse as we passed a guy who's car had over heated. He had been trying to nurse it down the breakdown lane but finally could nurse it no longer. Poor guy. Still by the time we reached the mall (after a much need Wendy's stop) we told Katherine she could ride that carousel as many times as she wanted. Which means she rode it four times. Check out these videos...ok, neither of which are working right now so I'll need to reload them. Grrr...expect those later tonight (honestly I have had more technical trouble putting together this post).

Among the big moments of the weekend was hanging with her favorite dogs, Maggie and Masie and the new addition to the brood, Bill and Bryn's new puppy Quincy. Unfortunately, any training work that Bill and Bryn have done was probably ruined by Miss K who let that little puppy basically slobber all over her. Honestly it was adorable watching the two them (but not adorable enough to make me consider getting a dog right now so no one better be getting any ideas).

Evening Snack

I love the feet sticking out.


At Papa and Gram's house having a snack. Surprise! K and and I took an impromtu trip up in hopes that she would be able to play in the snow. It melted but we still had a great time! Of course it's supposed to snow tonight and we're flying out tomorrow (hopefully). She might get a quick romp in before we have to leave for the airport. More updates once we return home.

Katherine, Self-portrait, 2010

According to her teachers she's most proud of the ears.


-- Post From My iPhone

A Very Important Message

Happy Birthday Papa Coberly!!!!!

The letter of the day is...

Pardon me while I brag on my kid a little bit...but hey, isn't that what this blog is for??? This past week was Katherine's first full week in the "big kid room" and it was a great success. We even had tears at a few pick ups because she was busy with an activity and was not ready to leave yet. When I picked her up on Friday she was very contently coloring a picture of a frog with a purple crayon. I mentioned before how she now colors in the lines and this was no exception. She was very carefully and methodically working her way around the picture. The teacher informed me that she was the only three year old that was doing this and she pointed to some colored dinosaur egg (theme of the month) pictures on the wall, done by all the kids in the room. If her name wasn't on it, I would have sworn it was done by one of the older kids. She also said that Katherine was doing very well with practicing her letters. Huh? Letters? She's three, aren't we a little too early to expect her to be practicing letters? Lo and behold, the teacher pulled out:The two A's with the pointy tops about 3/4 of the way down the page were done by the teacher, along with the first one at the top. She said she showed her those two and let Katherine go to town. I was in awe, you have to admit, for a three year old, it's pretty impressive. This weekend, I've asked her a few times to draw me the letter A and each time she's done a pretty good job. Wow. That's my whole reaction whenever I look at that piece of paper hanging on the fridge...my baby is already learning to write letters.

New Year's Goals 2010

We'll take break from my obession of posting photos of the landscapers demolishing that island. They obviously are all done and long gone by now. The yard looks great, very nicely graded and all ready for grass seed this spring. I tell you I was like a little kid, there I was working quietly at the dining room table one second and then all of sudden...what's that noise? Oh my God there's a bulldozer being driven across my backyard! Of course, I was doing my best to get work done and not watch but when said bulldozer is ripping out something that has been the thorn in your side (literally) when it came to yardwork, how can you not get a little giddy??

So, let me turn your attention to my goals for 2010. I think it's important to review last years goals and see what needs to be updated (I would not be a good Program Evaluator if I didn't!). So here are last year's goals (for those interested in the full post, here you go) and how I feel I did with each of them.

1. Katherine's baby scrapbook. Did great on this one. Is it done yet? Nope. But it's almost there, I need to finish up Baby's First Christmas and one other page. Then I need to do some labeling throughout the book. I should finish well before number 2 arrives. Of course, I had to lose the craft closet in the process to make way for K's big girl room and baby #2's nursery but that's ok. I've got one of those "cool" rolling carts instead.
2. Learn to use Ted's ipod. Considering I now own an iPhone, I think I accomplished this one with flying colors. Ok, ok, I still have a huge list of music to get and I need to do some more app searching and organizing but considering that last year at this time I was afraid to hold Ted's iPod for fear of breaking it and my cell phone did no more than store phone numbers, I've come a long way baby!
3. Keep in better contact with family and friends. Definitely have done better in this area but I do think it needs to be cranked up a notch in the new year. How that is going to happen as we entered into the Newborn Zone this Spring, I'm not exactly sure. Case in point, one of my roommates from graduate school, Kim, and I have been trying to schedule a get together for the past couple of months...we'll get there eventually.
4. Get involved with something around here beside work that allows me to meet a few people. This is somewhat related to number 3. I've done better in this area, thanks to Adrienne and her scrapbooking get togethers but again, I need to work on this some more this year. But then again, the Newborn Zone. I may even need to take a break from the book club at the local library that I go to once a month...I don't think I'll have the time (or brain power) to read whole book.

Not too shabby. So what's on tap for 2010. I'm keeping it simple.

1. Do even need to put a goal of having a healthy baby up here? That's pretty much understood. But let's add to that, survive the first month or two of infanthood in one piece. It makes me want to cry remembering what it was like with Katherine. Ok, ok, I loved Katherine to pieces, she was beautiful and was wonderful to have a new baby girl yadda yadda yadda... But let's be honest, I was so tired and sleep deprived that my sanity could probably have been questioned occasionally. I'm told that it is easier with the second, you know that period is temporary and you're comfortable on what needs to be done to tend to a newborn's needs. Here's hoping that's correct.

2. After the arrival of baby getting back in shape. I'm realistic here, I don't plan on cutting any type of svelt figure any time soon. But I'd like to be in somewhat of a decent shape. My time will be extremely limited in this area, I'm thinking my lunchtime at work will be key to accomplishing this goals. This means I need to get back into those pilates classes when I return to work. I should probably say here that Ted has a goal for me that I will run a 10K with him in Wilmington this October. Right now, I'm in udder disbelief that that could happen. We'll see, baby steps.

Not as ambitious as the previous year but hey, we all know things are going to be crazy in our house. Anything else we accomplish is just icing on the cake.

Done?

They took a break for lunch and said they would be back to "fine tune" the grading. I have no idea what they need to fine tune, it looks great to me. Much better than what we could have done ourselves!


-- Post From My iPhone

Almost done

Just working on leveling out the dirt.



-- Post From My iPhone

Their here!

Time to get down to business. More pictures later.



-- Post From My iPhone

Bye Bye Island

I've posted here before about the rather large garden in the middle of our backyard, also known as "the island" around our house. It's been a love/hate relationship with that piece of dirt ever since we've moved into the house. I can't lie, the landscaping that came with the house was one of it's selling points. And properly weeded and mulched (see above taken a couple of years ago in early spring and pre-drought of 2007 I might add), that island is gorgeous. Mid summer in 90 degree heat full of thorny pickers and vines that need to be pulled out, it is a pain your you know what. In terms of yard work, it is by far what we spend 90% of our time working on. We could spend hours on it every weekend and still not be done. Last spring I had it clean and looking pretty. I vowed that this past year would be different, we would finally conquer the weeds! That is until a little vine (kudzu?) that was just a small patch the year before decided to take over the ENTIRE back half of the island. Ha ha!, it laughed at me. Just try to get rid of me. That #*$&% weed buried its roots deep and spread them out wide. You could pull until your arms were screaming at you in pain, that sucker wasn't going anywhere.

No more.

Tomorrow a landscaper shows up to do one thing...bulldoze that island to oblivion and flatten out the dirt in preparation for grass planting this spring. The only thing left will be the cherry tree in the middle and the bench, which will move to be near the swingset. I hesitated on keeping the tree as I think it may look weird in the middle of the yard. However, Ted brought me to reason that it is a beautiful tree and it would be a shame to cut it down. We'll see how it comes back this spring, give it some TLC and take it from there. Cause once it's gone, it's gone. We also thought about just getting rid of the back half of the island and keep the front half and then we decide to just go ahead and get rid of the whole thing. Because even the front half takes up a good deal of our time to stay ahead of the weeds. It's only a matter of time before that vine shows up there too.

Originally we had no plans of hiring someone to do this for us. Ted felt it was something he could handle little by little over time. Then he realized how much work it is for one person to do (I haven't been much help at all in my current state). So we called someone just to see how much it would be. Turns its pretty darn cheap just to have someone clear something for you. There's no replanting or even haul away for them to do since all of the plants, etc. will be dumped in the woods in back of our yard. They said they'd have it done in a couple of hours.

Ha HA! Take that you stupid vine!

Happy New Year!

This has been a wonderful long weekend of doing...pretty much as little as possible. I didn't realize how much I needed a weekend like this. Ted and I rang in the New Year sound asleep thanks to two nights in a row of multiple wake ups by Miss K. By New Year's Even I was exhausted (small taste of this April??) and we were in bed quite early. We figured out that the cause of the wake ups was because Katherine was kicking the covers off of her bed and getting cold. On top of that the vents in her room were blowing directly on her. So some cover adjustment and two vent deflectors later we are once again sleeping soundly.

The highlight of our weekend has to be: Yup our brand spanking new La-Z-Boy arrived on Saturday. Ted has spent most of his time there ever since. However, this purchase was my insistence and not his...surprised? A few years ago we wandered into the store, mainly looking for a sleeper sofa for the former TV room (which we never bought) and along the way we test drove a few recliners. Well, my first thought after one sit down was to wonder why we didn't have one of these when Katherine was a baby. Wow, 2am would have been that much easier with a comfy recliner to rock and feed and sleep in. So as soon as we found out we were pregnant again I was insistent on one thing...we were getting a La-Z-Boy (yeah, I know what you're thinking, Ted just protested left and right over that one!). Last weekend Ted and I snuck out for a bit to look. I think we gave every chair in the place the tush test until we settled on one that made both of us happy. We were all ready to take it home that day but unfortunately we found out that La-Z-Boy doesn't do that anymore...you have to pay for delivery. I could go on about what I am sure is a huge money maker for them now but I won't, wasn't much I could do about it anyway. So a week later our new rocker recliner arrived.

Right now it's sitting in the living room in front of the fireplace. We need to do a bit of furniture rearranging before it's in its final home and there's also the possibility that it may move upstairs for those newborn months. But right now, well, we're tickled with it.

Here's to 2010!!! I'm working on an update to last year's New Year's Goals post, time to revisit and revise! But in the meantime, I don't know about you, but it feels great to be in a new year!

Watching Cinderella

First time using the DVD player in the car...she loves it. Thanks Papa and Gram! The craisins are tasty too!



-- Post From My iPhone