Introducing Cooper Johnson Michael

Hi this is Rachel Kirkley, Gabe's sister, and I just wanted to share the exciting news with you. Baby Cooper has arrived!!!

Gabe and Mandy assured me that they would log on soon and post pictures and stories but for now I thought you would want the stats.

Cooper Johnson Michael was born at 6:12 pm on October 22, 2008. He weighed in at 6lbs, 15oz and measured 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great and Dad is very proud. Auntie Rach is in love with her nephew and thinks he is fabulous... from the dark black hair on top of his sweet little head down to his size huge little toes... he is absolutely a miracle. Praise God for this little one. :)

tick...tock...tick...tock

Hello. This is Gabe and this is the sound inside my head (please refer to the title of this entry). The closer we get to the "due date" the longer it takes. This reminds me of the first time I went to Disneyland...each day seems like a week. I'm sure for Mandy it seems like a month. Anyway...Mandy is hanging in there. I am impressed with her patience and discomfort tolerance. She's tough! Cooper will have a great role model...he will not be a complainer. Mandy now is officially on maternity leave and she is keeping busy with small projects and rest. Lately, we have been around many babies. In September: Brandon and Nicole had a little girl named Ella, Wade and Heather gave birth to Devan, and our nephew Jackson turned one. Lots of little voices, diaper changes, screaming, laughing, and holding. I equate all these experiences to hitting a bucket of balls before tee time. Practice. "Practice!-Allen Iverson

Oh, speaking of sports. If the six degrees of seperation theory is true, then can someone please pass a few comments on to Al Davis. (1) Just Retire BABY! (2) Please review a new Commitment to a new wardrobe, comb, and lotion.

See Ya!

belly pics

since i haven't been able to upload any pics lately, you can all check out my belly at eikonphotography.blogspot.com. gabe and i had some maternity pics done and stella, the very talented photographer, put a few up on her blog. they were just done a week ago too, so they are quite recent.

35 1/2 weeks

yep...that's right! can't hardly believe it myself. the crazy thing is that according to our ultrasounds, cooper is due one month from today!
last week was a little rough. for the first time in 8 1/2 months, i was ready to be done. these last couple of days have been better though. let me just fill you in on a few crazy things:
* forget about sleeping through the night. in fact, forget about sleeping for more than a 3 hour stretch! i am so happy when i get up to rotate and it's been more than an hour!
* you think that you pee a lot early on...hah! that's nothing compared to what your bladder starts going through this late. i think he might be using mine as a punching bag.
* i've gotten VERY familiar with every public restroom in every store in what seems like the entire sacramento area.
* you can no longer be picky when selecting a restroom or you will have a mess to clean up...not a pretty sight!
* if you were regular before pregnancy and had no idea what it felt like to not go to the bathroom for numerous days on end...get pregnant. you will learn that you had it so good at one time (and you will wonder if it will ever go back to normal).
* to find yourself crying because your husband asks you a perfectly normal question, but you don't like the tone of his voice...normal! scary, but normal.
* up until this last month, i was doing pretty well with the number of pillows that i slept with. not anymore...there are now 4 on my side. 3 to prop me up and keep me on my side and one between my legs. i can't tell you how glad i am that we got a california king bed...there would have been no room for gabe!
* i thought i was tired in the first trimester; well that is nothing compared to what i feel now (and i am sure, what i will feel in the near future).
* i officially have a difficult time standing up and putting pants on. and i am not sure that i could put tennis shoes on. i think gabe would have to tie them for me ;)
all of these things and i wouldn't trade it for the world! it is a pretty amazing experience to grow a person. and i really have been pretty lucky.

the peanut shell

so, this contraption is called the peanut shell. i got it at my shower and am really excited to use it. it should come in handy when i need both hands and still have him close to me. so, coco and i decided to try it out while i was doing laundry one night. as you can see...she loved it!

32 weeks & a baby shower to boot!

i had my first baby shower on the 24th of august and it was great! my sister and denise threw it for me and it was beautiful. so many cute decorations and clever baby games...and great food! i had a great time and got so much great stuff! who knew you needed all of this for one little tiny person. it was so exciting to take it all home and start putting it away. he will be all ready when he decides to head south and make his appearance into the world.

i will post more pics of the event when i get them off of my sisters camera.

Dairy Queen Madness

one of my first real cravings hit a couple of weeks ago...a dairy queen blizzard. and for those of you who know me, this is pretty big. i don't like ice cream and not a big fan of chocolate, but this particular night i had to have a butterfinger blizzard. we were over at the leonelli's and she usually has some sort of candy around and was hoping that was going to satisfy the craving. however, she didn't have any, so i made the suggestion we find the closest dairy queen. thankfully, she was in and of we went. little did we realize, until we were there, that this was a pretty stereotypical scene...2 pregnant ladies in line at the d.q. and it's not like this was a drive thru...it was an old drive in style. so, we had a cute little man take a picture of us! and the blizzard was worth the drive and the comments from the crowd.

what the...

can we talk about how scary labor and delivery classes are! what the hell....

i mean, i really did know what i was getting myself into; i watched my best friend deliver her beautiful daughter. these people just want to scare the crap out of you. it's not like this is high school health class anymore...we aren't trying to discourage pregnancy at this point...we're a little past that. shouldn't we be trying to reassure the mother that yes, she can get through this and you will want to do it again, most likely. nope, not in this class. we are seeing mutant babies being born, watching women deliver at home(who the hell does that anyway), and letting you know anything and everything that could possibly go wrong! maybe i'm just a little extra sensitive to these things right now, since there really isn't that much time left in this pregnancy.

gabe and i just had our second class last night, so it is all a little fresh in the memory. the lady that teaches it is nice enough, a little long winded and looses her train of thought pretty easily, but nice. and i understand that you can't sugar-coat this, but just give me the real version. i'm not looking for the story of the lady that coughed and had her baby, but i am also not looking to hear about the lady that was in labor for 36 hours and her husband stopped talking to her towards the end, or the woman that delivers her own baby in the living room of her home. i want the drugs, just show me the video of the ladies that are doing this in the same fashion that i would like, and then we can talk.

gabe, on the other hand doesn't seem to be worried about the labor so much (why would he be), but more of how the process goes. he wants the video on what to do when the water breaks or i tell him it's time to go. he wants to see where exactly he goes when we get to the hospital, who we talk to, how long it takes to check in, how long before i get some pain relief and become nice again ;) so, i guess between the two of us, we have all of the worrying down that we will ever need.

i'll let you know how next week goes.

30 down, 10 to go!

gabe's uncle mike and aunt michele's houseboat
this is what 30 weeks looks like!
enjoying the last of our freedom...
with our great hosts!

gabe and i took off last weekend after i got off work and trekked it up to bullards bar for a bit of sun and water. we also figured it was a short trip and it would probably be the last time that i would want to spend the night somewhere else before cooper's arrival. mike and michele were gracious enough to invite us a while ago and we are so glad that we got to get out of town, even if it was for only one night.

oops!

sorry everyone! i have been a total slacker and have some catching up to do.
since posting last i will try and update you week by week.
silver lake was the first mini trip that we took on july 26 &27th. for those of you that don't know, silver lake is up on the back side of kirkwood ski resort by tahoe. gabe's family has a cabin up there that they have been going to forever! thinking about it this year, it was my 9th year up there! the last seven in a row. it's very relaxing and calming and you literally are removed from everything. no cell service, no tv, no electricity in fact. lots of time on the rocks by the lake, games in the cabin and swinging in the hammock out back. it was a very quick trip for us this year, but always enjoyable!

us with grandma karen and grandpa tim on their 28th anniversary.

earlier that week was busy for us as well. it was karen's birthday on the 21st and alexi's on the 22nd. alexi turned 15, which as most of you know was the age that i was when she was born. so, i feel a little old! very strange to think that she could possibly be driving in a year!

one more exciting thing to share. my boss, barb, and her husband left for china sometime around there to pick up their little girl that they have been waiting to adopt for 2 years! you can all check out their exciting adventures at journeytomilly.com

they have since come home and have a beautiful little one! such a personality.

Cooper's room

week 26 also was the week that the major work on Cooper's room was done, with many thanks to brennon, brian, and gabe!

gabe had done the painting...the walls and the ceiling. no, everything is not the same color. it took him some time, but it looks better than i imagined it would. he had done that a couple of weeks ago and we were just waiting for my brother to get some time to fit us into his busy schedule. he was doing the crown moulding. well, the time came and it looks great! i had no idea how intricate it was to do. i thought it was just some 45 degree angles and a few nails. i was corrected. he had a saw that he used once the angle was cut to cut out the edges so everything would fit just perfect. he said that if my dad were to look at it and it wasn't done right, there would be hell to pay. he's probably right.

so now, my mom has some trick up her sleeve for one of the walls that we are waiting on and then we can clean the carpets and start putting furniture in.

it is all waiting in the garage for it's home. the crib, dresser, changing table, ottoman, ceiling fan and a few handmade toys that were mine when i was little. we are waiting on the glider to come in and the fabric for the sheers over the windows. i am also back on the hunt for bedding...yuck! i had it all done until i went into pottery barn baby last night and the sales lady told me that the bedding that looks white online is really a cream color- so annoying!

26 weeks down

this was from a couple of weeks ago...man time is flying!

25 weeks down and another wedding

gabe's cousin david got married this last weekend in pleasanton. it was pretty hot out there, but so beautiful! we got to spend some pretty great time with the michael side of the family and let me tell you, they can party! there are a few things that i know about the michaels as a whole:

1. they have strong opinions (not a bad thing)

2. they don't like it when you "peek" a.k.a find out the sex

3. they love an open dance floor!

they booed the dj at the end of the reception! i have never in all of the weddings i have been to, heard a crowd boo the dj...it was hillarious! they just wanted to keep on dancing, and when he wouldn't/couldn't keep going, some of them even tried to start singing to keep the party going! i loved it. that was probably the last time for a while that gabe and i will be able to close down a dance floor, and i was glad to be able to do it with people who were so enthusiastic about it! so, thank you michael family!

our WT 4th of July :)

yes, that is my sister in a bikini with a shotgun and i will get to that in just a minute.

gabe and i went with my parents and sister up to some family friends house for some good old fashioned fun. shawn and dana have been friends with my parents for quite some time and they even hopped on a plane to come and celebrate when gabe and i got married in cabo. anyway, they recently built a beautiful home on 20 acres up in lincoln and since then, the parties are at their house! we aren't even there for 20 minutes and the boys start getting out their toys. first, it was the bows. and no, not the kind that go in your hair. as most of you know, my dad has been hunting with a bow and arrow for my entire life and i am sure before that. he goes elk hunting with his buddies in idaho every september and would go more if my mom would let him, i'm sure. so shawn and his son cole have taken up the sport also. so they all get out their bows and head out into the field where they have a target set up. of course, my husband is close on their heels. not because he knows anything about the sport, but he just want to play too! so, they play for a little while until the rest of the party starts showing up with their shotguns in tow. that's right, i said shotguns.
let the skeet shooting commence!
by this time, i was so hot that i was in the pool and there wasn't much that you could do to get me out. i did have a good view of the action, mostly to make sure that gabe didn't blow off his finger or anything else that would require a trip to the emergency room. about 30 minutes into the guys shooting, and missing quite a bit i might add, alexi decides that she wants to try. now my brother and i grew up around guns and hunting and trap shooting. we both learned at a young age how to shoot, but alexi hasn't had that exposure. so, she goes down and gets her lesson from my dad who hands her a 410 and starts teaching her the safety of the gun first. he then proceeds to start throwing clay pigeons in the air for her to shoot. she misses the first few, but then starts getting the hang of it and moves onto the machine that actually throws them out. typically, the shooter says 'pull' when they are ready to shoot. not my sister, who says a girly 'okay' and then proceeds to blast them out of the air. she misses the first few, but after that, the girl could not miss! it was amazing! and then she ran out of shells. so, my dad asks her if she wants to try a 12 gauge. sure she says as she picks up the gun that is almost bigger than her! a 12 gauge has a lot more power than what she was shooting which means a lot more kick, but that didn't stop her. she proceeded to make grown men look like rookies...it was great!
we stayed up there and watched the fireworks over the valley. there were about 5 shows that we could see at once. it was beautiful. a great way to spend the 4th. a little known fact, gabe and i actually met on the 4th, 12 years ago!

middle name help

alright, those of you who don't want to know the sex...DO NOT KEEP READING!

we have narrowed the middle name down to a few and would like your input. now, that doesn't mean that we will listen to any of you in particular, but would appreciate your input.

so, as most of you know if you read gabe's most recent post, we are having a little boy and his name is Cooper ? Michael. so, here are the names that you can vote on:

1. Cooper Johnson Michael (my maiden name)

2. Cooper J. Michael

3. Cooper Bradley Michael (my dad and brother's middle name)

4. Cooper Gabriel Michael

5. Cooper Nicholas Michael

So, there you have it...let us know (mandylynnmichael@yahoo.com)

24 weeks down...

baby is 24 weeks cooked! you know, i look at myself everyday in the mirror, but somehow fail to see the emerging ball on the front-side of me... until i see it in pictures! holy crap! it's a completely surreal experience that i am not sure that i will get used to. and what amazes me even more is when everyone tells me that with time and some work, the body eventually looks recognizable again. i think they all might be nuts.

big week this last week:

* the registries were started(more on that later)

* the room was cleared out and the paint process has begun

* gabe's new job is in full swing

* my grandparents came out from oregon

* we got registered at the hospital!

* signed up for the labor and delivery class-yikes!

so, i didn't really expect to be completely overwhelmed by the registering process. i mean, i've registered before and everyone knows that i can shop, so this should be easy, right? WRONG!!! there is so much crap out there, who knows what you need. needless to say, i was a little overwhelmed. between the bottles, pacifiers, crib bedding, swings, bouncers, pack-n-plays, etc...this is a real science. i even went prepared with lists from books and websites and notes from girlfriends about what worked for them and what to stay away from. after, a few hours of what felt like aimless wandering, we finally returned our "gun" and went home to take a nap! my mom, sister and grandma came down while we were there just to get a good laugh in, i am sure, and what an experience that turned in to. gabe and alexi were off and scanning anything in sight...needless to say i had some editing to do once i got online! all are started and will need to be added to i'm sure. if anyone wants to check them out, they are at goores.com, babiesrus.com, and potterybarnbaby.com. feel free to let me know if there is something that you feel we won't be able to live without that isn't on there.

22 weeks and Molly graduates!

Gabe and I on #2 Rodeo in Beverly Hills
Full on belly bikini shot! hee hee!
Molly's graduation from UCLA
Waiting around for the festivities to begin.

So, week 22 has come and is almost gone. I could have gotten these up sooner, but Gabe had a major update to post before I could do that. Gabe and I got to get out of town last weekend, which was needed. His little sister, Molly, graduated from UCLA with an econ degree(yuck to the rest of the human race)! We are very proud of her. She is the only person that I know that was still stressing out about her last set of finals. I mean, the girl already has a job for crying out loud! She will start at the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche(sorry Molls, I might not have spelled that right) in August. So, this is her last summer on her parents payroll and then she is off on her own and will do great!

Tim and Karen were kind enough to put us up in The Beverly Hilton for the weekend and it was a great hotel. Right in the heart of Beverly Hills and close to everything. I got some shopping and pool time in. Although I may have scarred my father-in-law for life by wearing a bikini and not covering up my belly. Oh well, he'll get over it. I wish you all could have seen his face though...it was priceless!

MAJOR UPDATE!

As most of you know by now, Mandy and I have recently been informed by the doctor of our offsprings gender. We know that some of you don't want to know yet and prefer to be surprised in October. No problem...in the final sentence of this posting, we will reveal what we know (gender and name), and we will give fair warning. Here are a few other updates before we release the info. I (Gabe) finally started my new career at WM (Waste Management). I am now "connected" so if you need anyone "whacked" please let me know at gmichael@sappronos.com and I will be sure to have "Vinny" take care of it... CAPECHE!!! Just kidding...but I do have a new phone number 9162050272 if anyone needs it. Mandy is doing great. Mandy is growing before my eyes. She is the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen. She tells me the baby is moving all the time. When I'm in the same room she will put my hand on her tummy and let me feel (WARNING!!!! I AM GOING TO RELEASE THE GENDER INFO, PLEASE LOG OFF NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW)...my son Cooper "Coop" Michael. That's right y'all...we are going to have a boy and we are frickin' thrilled. I will now start accepting all bouncy balls. That's all for now. Take care!!!!!!

gabe's world

sorry, i forgot to put this in the other post. most of you are probably wondering what i meant with that comment about gabe and his world changing. well...he got a new J-O-B! and most of you know that this couldn't have come at a better time...he was definitely getting bored. so, he will be working for waste management. yep, that's right...trash ;) he will be doing account management and sales for them. he starts his new position on june 16th. i will have him chime in here and tell you more of the details. he is very excited and i know he will do great things for this company, as he does for anyone; i am so proud of him.

Pics that I promised

this was me as the pirate hooker for our fashion show at The Park. (not yet in full costume) i will put up more of those pics when we get them from the professional photog. me, with mom and larissa who came to represent! look at all of that ridiculous hair!!! 42 bobbi pins, 8 strands of extensions...yowza!gabe and i this last weekend, 5/31, at his aunt theresa's wedding. gabe's birthday dinner with his favorite cookies and cream ice cream cake.

the group at teppan-yaki, karen's taking the pic. smaller group than usual, everyone else was sick...yuck! and here's the belly! i told you all it was there...

we are at the half way point, 20 weeks! and only 14 more days until we find out what it is. gabe and i went out to dinner last night for his birthday. we went to hawk's in granite bay, the patio was beautiful, the food was okay, but the company was great! as most of you have either read or heard from me, i have started to feel the baby moving around in there. well, last night, it must have known it was daddy's birthday, because it decided to kick, or elbow hard enough that gabe could feel it too! it was pretty neat to watch his eyes light up and this look of shock come over his face.

19 1/2 weeks

These last few weeks have been full of new developments:







* i now have a belly and people actually ask me if i am pregnant (progress)



* gabe's world is getting ready for a big change. (and not just with a pregnant wife and child on the way)



* i had my 18 week appt last week. everything is good. no gender news yet, but i made the appt for "the ultrasound"!



* june 18th is the big day and we will let everyone know.



* last thursday i was in a fashion show! i can't wait to put those pics up on the web; i looked like i stepped off the set of Pirates of the Carribean(and was cast as the pirate hooker)! it was a great time and i loved it.



* the baby made it's first trip to fresno this last weekend. gabe played in the fresno city golf tournie and alexi has a softball tournament there every year. so, we just make a weekend out of it. had a great time, and for the first time in as long as i can remember, it rained every day that we were there! crazy weather, but always good to see friends.


* last but certainly not least, i started feeling the baby move! and when it moves, it's not just once or twice...it goes and doesn't stop. women describe the feeling so many different ways, but to me it feels like when i used to get stim therapy in the training room in college. for those of you who have no idea what i am talking about, stim is when they hook a certain body body part up to a machine that runs low doses of electrical current to that body part. the effect is that it makes your muscles feel like they are jumping. basically, this is what the baby feels like to me right now...lots of little spasms. such a great feeling!

Have a great weekend everyone and I promise I will get pics up early next week!

30!!!

Yep, it's official, I'm 30! It was much easier than turning 25 and I had a great day! or few days rather. Gabe and my parents, my mom really, threw an amazing little shindig for me which was perfect. Mexican themed, of course, complete with a pinata full of candy!
Here are a couple of pics of Gabe and I. I thought you could see my belly better in the one of the three of us, but it's not really there.

first baby pics!

last week i had started feeling some wierd pains in my lower abdomen. thinking that they would go away, i didn't call the doctor. well, by friday i finally called. the nurse reassured me that they were probably ligament pains and they were completely normal, but scheduled an appt for me on monday anyway, just to put my mind at ease.

thankfully nothing got worse over the weekend and i went in monday afternoon. marsha, the nurse practitioner, didn't seem very worried about the whole thing, but was great at calming my nerves. i have seen her twice and both times she is just like the calm grandma that makes you feel totally comfortable. she found the heartbeat, after what i thought seemed like forever, but my mom and gabe both reassured me that it was quick. she then told us that she would check to see if the ultrasound tech had an opening and could get us in! I couldn't believe it...i was going to get an ultrasound before 20 weeks! so the gang all went next door and waited to see the first pictures of the baby.

so, here are a few of the pics from the first ultrasound. do you all see the size of that foot up there! those are going to be in my ribs in about 4 months and that might hurt. and this baby is a mover and a shaker. i think we might have a partier in there. the baby wouldn't stop moving the whole time that she was looking at it and she even kept commenting on how much trouble i was in for the coming months. yikes! we were her last appointment so she was just playing around and getting us different views. she also pointed out all of the major organs for us and we could count all of the fingers and toes. then, when i thought that she was done, she flipped a switch and put the ultrasound into 3-D and that is what the other picture is down on the bottom. that was when we could really see it move around. i know that the baby borders on an alien in these kind of pictures and i will try not to put another one on here, but i just had to show you the first one. she also told us the baby was measuring a few days more than we thought, about 14 1/2 weeks at that point.

14 1/2 weeks

i know that most of you think that i am crazy, but there is a belly there! gabe likes to show it off to anyone who will look at it. personally, i think that i just look bloated or like i have eaten too much. which could be the case considering that my appetite is through the roof right now. rumor has it that's not going away any time soon either!

Breaking News

Great News! Mandy and I just got back from our 12 week doctor visit and we have a confirmed-healthy heartbeat! What a relief. I still have a smile on my face. Also, the doctor picked up the babies first word-"Daddy!" What a day...I'm feeling like I'm on top of the world. Feeling so good that I'm going to make a Masters prediction...Tiger is going to win (really sticking my neck out there). If my prediction comes true, Mandy has agreed to let me name the kid Eldrick or Tiger...what a great mother-to-be. Take care, be strong, and always remember to never skinny dip with snapping turtles....Gabe

11 weeks

11 weeks in already! here are the lastest pics. i know it doesn't look like much, but i will take one at night. there really is more of a tummy then. i will explain the one of gabe in a minute.

so i drug gabe into goore's for the first time on sunday. as first time parents, this was overwhelming! luckily i had gone with my mom a couple of weeks ago and knew what i was in for, but to go with gabe was a totally different experience. now, anyone that knows him knows that you can't overload him or his brain just shuts off. so, i just wanted to go in and look at strollers and have him push around the two or three that i had narrowed it down to. we pull in to the parking lot and the poor guy thought the whole mega-store was full of strollers. i just lost it laughing and that started our experience.

the doors open and i immediately head to the restroom and gabe hits up the gliders that are conveniently postioned outside of the restrooms, for the dads i'm sure! we head over to the stroller section and gabe's eyes are getting bigger and bigger as we go through. (for those of you who are out of state and have no idea what i am talking about, goore's is kind of like babie's r us with different brands and more furniture. if you go online to goores.com you kind of get the idea.) not to mention the place was crawling with women who were very visibly pregnant, their husbands and children in tow. i felt like the least pregnant woman in the joint, which i probably was! so we get to the strollers and i show gabe the first one that i like and he immediately starts playing with it; trying to collapse it, fold the seat, push it and fold it up all at once. anything he can possibly do to break the thing, he's trying it. i am just standing on the sidelines giggling and he is practically running down small children trying to do one handed 360's with this stroller. now, i show him that the infant car seat will just snap on when the stroller seat is down and i show him which seat goes with it. here is where the picture comes in. this is after about 5 mintues of trying to get the dumb thing out of the base! and he won't let me near it to try and help him, not that i could have helped on this one...i had no clue. he had every possible latch unhooked and was convinced that the whole thing, base and all, just sat right on the stroller. (i can't tell you how hard i was laughing.) finally, he asked one of the sales people the trick and she came over and lifted one little flap and had the whoe thing off and swinging in her hand. she had to be thinking "rookies", but was nice enough not to say anything.

jog strollers were next, but the lane was full so we'll have to save that one for next time. i took that opportunity to take him over to the cribs while he still had a working cortex and show him the couple of cribs that i had liked. we didn't take too long and then we were out of there! granted we both had to go home and take a nap after, but we made it through without any bickering, and a whole lot of laughs!

G. Diddy Makes His 1st Statement

Let me start with this question...How is there a teen pregnancy problem? Seriously...conception is NOT that easy. Anyway, I learned three things from this experience; (1) persistence pays off (2) science works (3) and science is expensive...

Now that we are expecting I am VERY excited! I cannot wait until late October when I get to become a dad. I've already experienced massive change since witnessing the "+" sign across the wand. There is a sense of responsibility and anxiety that is much greater than before. Memo to Mandy: the best way for me to deal with this new stress is to play MANY rounds of golf and preferably 3-5x/week. Just kidding (unless you weren't). I know everything will be fine, and in a weird way I like the new stresses.

OK...let's discuss this ballet thing. First of all, I have to say ask...who the hell thinks men dancing, twirling and stretching while showing their junk is art? WOW! The next ballet will involve Johnny Walker, a flask, $250 in $1 bills and an ipod. And yes...Mandy did give me the out, but I know how to translate "the out"...it means suit up and take me to the ballet. I did enjoy spending time with Mandy and I'll do it again, only next time I will review the male dancers wardrobe prior to going.

I must tell you all that I love how excited Mandy is about this. I've known her for 11 years and have never seen her this happy...and that is my favorite part. Oh yeah...please do not send any books relating to pregnancy topics. Mandy already has 16 of them...and has read them all...twice!
That's all for now. I will pipe in again some other time. Maybe around Masters week. Hey, that reminds me, what do you all think about the name Tiger, Hogan, or Arnie?

10 1/2 weeks!

This is flying by! The nausea has found a home in my stomach in the last couple of weeks, and I would have to say that it is more of an all day affair now. I still haven't thrown up so I consider myself lucky and will take this any day over being permanently posted up by the toilet! The belly is beginning to show. It seems like it just showed up on Tuesday morning... unexpectedly. More of a bloated look than a baby, but belly all the same. I will get a picture up and you can let me know.

we ALL went to the ballet!

Hard to believe, but I managed to drag Gabe (and baby) to the ballet on Friday night! We saw Sleeping Beauty, and before any of you say it, I even offered him an out! I told him back in November when I got the tickets that I would just see if one of my girlfriends wanted to go, but he was down for it. So, as the days grew closer, I think he was starting to regret his decision being as he would have rather been drinking beer with my brother! He was a very good sport, put his suit on and took his tired, pregnant wife out for the night. Everything started great. We had a great meal at Maosn's and then walked over to the theater and that was when the first of the bad blows started...cash only at the bar! He was bummed! Not only was he going to have to watch men in tights, but he was going to have to do it sober. We found our seats, the lights went down and the show started. Thankfully the music was lound and it was dark because as soon as those guys came out, my husband was visibly laughing. Not just a little chuckle, but laughing like when you're in church as a kid and you aren't supposed to be laughing! I hate to speak for him, but I would have to say that the highlight for him was when the company took their final bow and we could stand up to leave. Such a good sport for going though! I can also say that if this child is a boy, I'm not sure Gabe will let me take him to the ballet. Maybe a musical...

8 weeks and counting

Okay all, here is your first look at the "tummy". Not much to look at yet, but just you wait...
We had our first doctor appointment this week. Talk about the biggest waste of 2 hours! We did paperwork the first hour and then met with a nurse practitioner, who was very nice, for part of the second. Yep, that's right, didn't see the doctor, didn't see the baby, didn't even get to hear the heartbeat! Now, you just don't do that to an expecting mom! I wanted reassurance that something was growing in there still! It was a good thing that we got a look at the little blob two weeks ago when we went to the fertility doctor. And the only reason he looked was to see how many sacks were in there (only one for those of you who were still wondering). Thank you Dr. Boyers! To top off the visit, we learned that the only ultrasound they are probably going to do is at 20 weeks!!! Needless to say, when I see Dr. Ho at the next appointment, I will be talking to her about that.

new to this blogging business

I am totally new to this blogging business, so please bear with me for the first few weeks!
As most of you know, Gabe and I are expecting our new addition in late October. It is October 21, but as I learned the other day, the first time expectant mom will go over her due date by 8 days, on average!!!! Holy crap! Maybe we should have thought about these things a little harder during those 2 1/2 years of trying. Just kidding!
So, to let you know what this blog is going to contain, I will try and lay it all out now. I will put up some ranting and raving, some thoughts, questions to everyone out there who has ever had a mom or dad, and of course, what everyone is waiting for, pictures of me getting fat! And I know that everyone reading this is nodding their head saying 'we can't wait for those'!
I do want to thank all of you in advance for all of your thoughts and prayers for this little one! Love to you all and by the end of this, you probably won't want to hear from me.