30 weeks and COUNTING

So today we went for our 30 week check-up and all is well. The doctor said that I've gain 1 pound since my last visit (he cleared me for lots of chocolate, sweets, etc.). The baby is doing great. He's approximately 3 pounds (well, 1.388 kilos) and 15 inches long. The baby's head is so large that it took up the entire ultrasound screen. His belly is fat and he has a cool looking femar bone (yay!).

Well from here on out it's doc visit every 2 weeks (all through Dec.) and then I upgrade to weekly visits in Jan. Estimated due date is still Valentine's Day so be ready for the latest heartbreaker to debut on the most romantic day of 2007.

Maybe I'm not pregnant?

Hmmm, let's see, the last time I checked I was at least 28 weeks pregnant. This translate into me being 7 months pregnant. 7 MONTHS.

Negative 2 1/2 months in counting before little Bam Bam arrives. I don't think my husband knows this or understands because:

1) Wednesday at 7am I wake up to prepare an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Followed by at 8pm beginning to bake dessert for the next day's activities. I fall asleep at 12am.

2) Thanksgiving Day I wake up at 7am to cook breakfast for my family before heading out to San Diego (normally a 1 1/2 hour drive) which took 4.

Thanksgiving night, at around 11pm, we drive back to LA and get to bed after 1am.

3) Friday morning I wake up at 8:30am to get dressed to drive out Temecula to visit Grandpa Jones' house, a 1+ hour drive.

We leave Temecula at 6p to head to Santa Monica to hook up with Teddy KGB before he goes to Vegas. Of course by 8P he's not available, so we head to Woodland Hills to hang out with some other friends who will be moving to San Diego to start grad school next semester.

By 10:30p we're leaving Woodland Hills to go back to Santa Monica (Hooters) to finally hang out with KGB. We get home after 1am.

4) Saturday morning we get up at 8am to drive to Long Beach, to pick up a friend and then head to Hollywood to have breakfast at The Griddle Cafe.

From Hollywood we head back to Torrance so that we can wash the dog, clean up the house a bit before heading over to Redondo Beach to have an early dinner with my mom (and watch The Jerk).

At 6:30p we leave the South Bay to head to Beverly Hills to have another lite dinner with friends in LA from out of town at The Stinking Rose at 7p. According to Chris Rock married people tend to close down restaurants, which is exactly what we did. So at 10:30p we leave BH to go home... maybe I'm not pregnant because DAMN I feel like I'm training for a marathon.

Post Thanksgiving schedule

Well this morning we will be venturing off to the city of Temecula (Menifee to be more specific). Off to Grandpa's for another day of family time. Hopefully the 91fwy (along with our Fast Trak pass) will be a little more gentle to us than the 405 was yesterday. After hanging with g-pa we're suppose to head 200 miles in the opposite direction to hang out with some friends in Woodland Hills. Our buddy "D" has been accepted to UCSD's master's program so we want to hang out with him and Yassi before they become a 2 hour ride away.

I'm sure at some point we'll get a reasonable amount of sleep, but for now we're chalking it up to it being 'the holidays.'

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2006!

Well, I hope that all that will read this post has a wonderful, safe and filling Thanksgiving 2006. We will be having breakfast with our kiddies and then heading out to San Diego to have dinner and also to take an entire family photo (Clif is calling it his family photo 'the remix'). The family hasn't taken a photo in almost 20 years so you can imagine how hard this is going to be. The start time is SUPPOSE to be 1:00pm.... but I tend to think that it's going to take place sometime around 3P (I'll provide an update later).

It's just after 8:00am and I have successfully completed an entire Thanksgiving dinner/breakfast. Dinner: turkey, mac-n-cheese, dressing, yams, greens, cabbage, deviled eggs, honeybaked ham, and homemade biscuits. Breakfast: pancakes, eggs, bacon, homemade blueberry muffins and orange juice.

I'm so proud of myself.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day to all!

After Thanksgiving update:
First of all, I hate the beast that is known as the 405fwy. What normally takes 1 1/2 hours took almost 4. We ultimately missed the family picture (the remix) which really bummed us out. When we finally arrived in San Diego the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees and everyone who was once hanging eating/drinking/talking out in the backyard at Grandpa's house was now sitting inside trying to stay warm from the cold air.

We offloaded the car, made our way up the driveway, gave out our normal hugs and kisses and then made our way to the food table. I was starving. Everything looked great and the dinner conversation made it even better. I mean imagine having a conversation about BREASTFEEDING with Patty, Garett, Jaime and Clif. It's funny because we started off talking about how the house was going to change come this time next Thanksgiving. There's going to be so many new babies, and soon-t0-be babies (Garett keep drinking that wine.... you'll remember that you gave in) that we're going to have to serve dinner on a tarp in the driveway to prevent all the kids from breaking dishes.

After the "G-man" blurted out the word 'nipple' we went inside to partake in some of the many desserts. (3) pumpkin pies, (1) whipped pumpkin pie, (1) apple pie, 2 doz of chocolate w/ white chocolate chips cookies, lemon and chocolate cupcakes, (1) cream cheese pound cake and some tangerines :)..... (I had to through that in). We sat, nibbled, chatted, drank and just had a great time with the family.

Thanks Patty for always understanding my (ahem) frustration with 'female friends'.... you're the bestestest!

Yay... a new blogger!

My pal Wan has started blogging. Check out her site and give her
some nice feedback. You may recognize her... she gave Bam-Bam his first ever Mickey Mouse hat. Oh, and did I mention she's a fellow knottie? I <3 her.

Family Pictures Taken

So today we went to the Picture People, in the South Bay Galleria, and took our first ever 'family Christmas pictures.' I know this may not sound exciting to you, but it was really nice and enojoyable. A few days prior I went out and picked up some red sweaters for the kids to wear. I knew that Clif would want to have some say in what he was wearing so I left what 'we' would be wearing to his decision. Friday night, while the kids were over to grandmas, we hit up the mall to look for some sweaters. Although JC Penney's was having an awesome sale, it proved to not be good enough for Clif's tastes. We decided to just pick me up a white, button down blouse and he would wear one of his work shirts (all white, button down).

Today arrived and we were just a little bit late for our 5P appointment. After a few minutes handling paperwor we were off to our studio room where the picture posing, decision making began. We ended up taking only 3 poses, and we ultimately only like 2 of those (mainly because now that my nose is starting to spread across my face like butter on breakfast toast, I'm very picking about pictures we'll be handing out). 30 minutes later we walked out of the store with new pictures and a new 8x10 frame for our first family photo.

Today was a Good Day.

SIL/BIL bought a house!

(if you do not know what 'sil/bil' means (because you're not a knottie) sil= sister in law, and bil = brother in law)

So today we are off to help our sister/brother move into their new house. They closed escrow and received the keys to their Bellflower home this past Tuesday. Aside from the normal moving of furniture, we will be pulling up carpet, tearing down cabinets and pretty much destroying all that they thought was beautiful to begin with... ...funny how that is. I'll try to post some pics of the new place (address not included) so you can all celebrate with us. ;)

UPDATE: We did not move any furniture today. We (well I didn't do anything) helped to rip up carpet, tear down cabinets, remove all kitchen appliances and partially tear up the flooring. There was some old linoleum left under the carpet in the livingroom and 2 layers of a different vinyl left under the marble tiles on the kitchen floor. After a while: backs were hurting, stomachs were growling and feet were aching. Enough was enough... I had to get some food :) Clif stayed another hour or so. I've been completing this blog update during his time away.

ALL BABY weekend!

This weekend we took care of some serious "baby" business. On Sunday we took our hospital tour at Little Company of Mary Hospital, in Torrance, CA. This is the hospital we've chosen to have our baby delivered. They provided mountains of paperwork and brochures for us to 'read in our leisure' and lite snacks. We were also one of 5 couples to win a pair of baby booties (Clifton picked out the 'hunter' green and white pair). After a 45 min discussion we watched a 15 minute movie and then it was off on the hospital tour. We saw the different rooms that are provided, the newborn nursery, the NICU, C-section room, emergency room entrance, labor + delivery check-in counter, pharmacy and 3 sets of elevators - YAY! We were also able to pre-register to get some of that day's madness out of the way. We're all set to go to the hospital (when the time is right).

After visiting the hospital we stopped off at El Burrito Jr. (I'll save you the trouble, DON'T BOTHER). From the restaurant we headed straight to Babies-R-Us to complete our one and only baby registry. You would have thought Clif was "Neo" with that stupid scanner gun. He kept trying to figure out how far he could stand back and actually scan the item's barcode (I guess you had to be there to get the full effect). Anyhoot, the proud papa was able to pick out his own choice of stroller and carseat, all while I sat down and shook my head (I didn't know it would take so long :)

Two hours later we were exiting the store with a discounted baby bouncer and two hampers for our current set of rugrats. We were tired but happy to get all of that over with - woo hoo.

Now if we can only pick a location for the baby shower.
Stay tuned...

Volunteer day part DEUX

Because I didn't get enough on the first day I returned for another day of volunteering at the Brides Against Breast Cancer event in West Hollywood, CA. Today was the first day of the actual sale of gowns and let me just say it was very 'interesting' to put it mildly. God Bless all the many volunteers (young and old) that stuck it out through all of the hard times. A very special thanks to the poor UPS man (1 single driver/delivery man) that had to deliver 20+, 25 pound boxes of donated dresses during the middle of the show. This poor guy was blocking a lane on Sunset Blvd. (which severly pissed off many motorists) while single handedly offloading and delivering the gowns to the second floor (all while the valet guys and hotel personnel watched)... you are truly a saint. I even got the chance to see one of my SFAM family members Amber :).

Thank you (Making Memories Foundation) again for all of the wonderful memories that I've taken away from everyone involved in making the event a success. For once the extensive media coverage was a good thing!

Yay for PINK!

Today I helped set up the Brides Against Breast Cancer event that will be taking place from Friday, November 10th through Saturday, November 11th at the Hyatt West Hollywood. Former, current and future brides are able to either donate gowns, or their time, to the sale of wedding, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. Everything is donated for this event right down to the table, chairs and clothing racks. All of the money that is made from the event goes towards the fight against breast cancer. The Making Memories Foundation's goal is to grant wishes to people who have been diagnosed with terminal brest cancer. This year the Los Angeles show was almost cancelled when some idiots stole the trailers that were carrying over $3 million dollars worth of dresses, and all of the supplies needed to produce the event. The clock has been ticking for brides, organizations, bridal salons/studios to donate dresses and anything else so that this show could happen. I am so happy to report that not only were there enough dresses but the response was truly a blessing. Thank you to everyone that donated anything for this cause.

My day started off with a doctor's apponitment. My glucose levels are fine and I do not have gestational diabetes. I then headed to West Hollywood and began stuffing the Nordie goodie bags for the brides/people that will be at the event (note: love the "pink" lipgloss). I also helped with unwrapping, tagging, hanging and organizing the bridal gowns and their racks into the destination ball room (I even assembled plastic champagne glasses for a celebration at the end of the day - I didn't have any of course). I loved every minute of it and can't wait to help out again really soon.

Lions and Tigers and Smog, oh my!!!

So today we headed out to the LA Zoo for some fun with the animals. We started out pretty late in the day because the kids were with their grandmother hanging out. When we finally arrived, it was a mad rush to see as many animals as we could before the park closed. I think we did pretty good. Dealing with 90+ degree weather, mostly all up-hill trails and a 6+ month pregnant woman proved to be no match for us. We did see tigers (no lions though), hippos, giraffs, ibex, koala, elephants kangaroos and more.

With admission being only $10 (adults) $5 (children) I think it's safe to say we'll be visiting that wonderful place again real soon.

Here are some pictures below...