We’re Back from California

Ahh, glad to be back home in Seattle but sad to leave California. We had a fun time the last two weeks but living off of nothing has to end sometime. Why do they call vacations “vacations?” Why don’t they call is “time to be as busy as possible before we have to go back to work and work for a living?”

Man, we were so busy that the most relaxing times was when we were driving to our next destination. Check out this itinerary:

Friday, 11pm Decide that this is the perfect time to leave for Auburn, CA. Drive 15 hours, rest for an hour, and get into Auburn at 3pm the next afternoon.

Sunday Drive 10 hours from Auburn to Newport Beach

Monday Hit Huntington Beach and hang at the ocean with Bree, Lucky’s sister

Tuesday Drive 2 hours from Newport Beach to San Diego

Wednesday Drive to La Jolla and hang at the beach

Thursday Lucky drive back to Huntington Beach for tattoos and come back to San Diego at 6am the next morning

Friday, 9am Leave for Newport Beach with Kyle, say goodbye to Lucky’s grandparents, pick up Anthony in Huntington Beach and drive another 10 hours to Auburn

Saturday Orchestrate massive reunion in Grass Valley for Lucky’s friends Sunday Hit up church, Nevada County Fair

Monday Go to the South Fork of the Yuba River with the kids

Tuesday-Friday Hang out in Auburn/Grass Valley while Lucky tattoos and watch the kids

Saturday, 9am Leave for Seattle and get to Renton in 12 hours

How can it take us 15 hours to get from Renton to Auburn in the middle of the night yet only 12 hours to get back in the middle of the day?? I have no idea. You’ll have to make your own decisions about that one. I do have to say that Kate was amazing on our trip and whined only about 10 minutes the whole time in the car. The whining was actually more of a sad face with big fat tears coming down because she was tired of being in the car. It was really sad to watch because we knew what she was going through and couldn’t do anything about it. For all those getting ready to go on a massive road trip with kids, a portable DVD player is a Godsend. Without the player we would have never stayed awake all night driving to Auburn and Kate wouldn’t have been as good as she was. That and Lucky and I would have never finished season 3 of Lost. We have had that season for a good month or more and never had time to watch it together. Now we only have one more season before we are caught up completely….

In Auburn we stayed with Will and Amanda and their twin boys. They boys are about a month younger than Kate and hard to tell apart when they are running around always getting into things. My mom was right when she said two kids were fine to watch but throw that third kid into the mix and all hell breaks loose. It was crazy when all three kids were together. Braen and Holden are used to fighting each other to get what they want and Kate, being an only child, is used to not having to share with anyone and only fighting with her parents. Not this time. She was beat up and had toys taken away for the first 5 or 6 days until she learned (sort of) to fight back. It wasn’t pretty. There were many times when all of us wanted to backhand her for whining and crying when one of the boys would touch her leg or something and don’t get us started about what she would do when they would take something away from her. Braen and Holden are the cutest, sweetest boys but when the three of them got together they were terrors.

At the Grass Valley Reunion on Saturday I met so many people it was mind blowing. It was quite amusing to put faces to the names and stories that I have been hearing about for years and then hear the same story told by someone I just met. Everyone was really nice, I had previously met more people than I realized, but I felt really comfortable with a select few. The hard part was keeping my eye on Kate and she always wanted to take her shoes off and go into the stream with the other boys. She was so dirty by the time we left that we immediately took a shower when we got back to the house. It was fun for the 7 hours we were at the park but tiring all the same and we all passed out the instant we sat down on the couch.

I definitely need a vacation from my vacation. Oh well, we had fun and that was what we set out to do.

Here are some pics of our trip:

Kate for most of the trip in the car.

Aunt Peggy with Kate and Caden

Daddy and Kate playing at Huntington Beach.

Bree and Daddy burying Kate.
Kate at the Yuba River.

I'll put up some more pics later but my computer is being a pain right now.

Ahhhh, A Responsible Parent....or P.O'd Movie Watcher

Finally! Someone speaks up about all those stupid people who bring their kids to the late and inappropriate movies. Lucky and I had a same experience at the 9:45pm showing of 30 Days of Night but it makes me mad every time I think of it so I won't say anything....

Blog taken from CNN.com

What are those kids doing at ‘Dark Knight’?
Posted: 11:33 AM ET
Today’s buzz revolves around two questions: Have you seen “The Dark Knight” and when do you plan to see it?

So consider this. You’ve paid $9 (or more) for the ticket, $4 for the popcorn and you’ve threaded your way to the seat your friends have been fighting to save for you. You get settled to enjoy the movie, one you’ve been dying to see. Then it happens — the crying baby, the kid asking their parents questions, the foot kicking your chair.

Isn’t this a PG-13 rated movie? Isn’t it past their bedtime? It seems like no curfew is necessary when parents are bringing their kids to adult movies. It’s as if the children are their friends.
Where are the boundaries? There are adults’ films and kids’ films. I never consider having a drink and going to see “Hannah Montana” with a theater full of tween girls because that would be inappropriate. It is equally inappropriate to bring a small child and expect that they will understand or appreciate the film they are seeing.

So what does a parent do when they want to see “The Dark Knight”? You consider that not every moviegoer is interested in being your babysitter. Leave the kids at home — and, for that matter, think before you let your preteens go on their own.

– Audrey Irvine, CNN National Desk

Man, did this really happen?

I wanted to do a follow up to my post the other day about going to the ER. I went in for an ultrasound this morning and not only was I surprised that the baby is fine, but according to the size of the baby, I am almost a month farther along than what I had originally thought! The size of the baby puts me to deliver on January 19th – not February 13th as I had calculated. Looking back at my calendar now, it kind of makes sense…but I won’t go into detail as how I have that figured.

I can’t begin to tell everyone how much stress has been relieved from both Lucky and I. The first day and a half after this whole thing started I had no hope whatsoever but as I slowly got my pregnancy symptoms back (nausea, heartburn, constant trips to the bathroom) I slowly started to regain optimism. Today has been such a good day! I can’t stop thinking about it!

I have to show pictures of our little parasite – he was flipping and kicking around, I’m sure it’s a boy! It will be a while but he already wants to beat up Mommy…..


Here is the first picture. Can you see the small black opening on the outside of the left side of the baby sac? (Yes, I said sac...) That's what caused all the blood last Thursday. The ultrasound tech said that the sac (yes, I know) came away from the side and although said it is quite common, it still might cause me problems (with me, not the baby) if I'm not careful. I just have to make sure I don't lift heavy things and rest often. Unfortunately that means I can no long pick up Kate. :(


Here are a few more, it is discerning to know, even after already going through this once, that although my baby is roughly the size of a prune you can still see his facial features.

Things have taken a turn for the worst

Last Thursday started out fine and I went through the whole day without a hitch. I fell asleep at the shop until 7:30 or so and after a while of figuring out what we wanted to eat, I scooped up Kate to put her in the car and off we were to get Lucky some dinner. I come back to the shop and the instant I get out of the car there is a gush (TMI) and all of a sudden my pants, shoes and half the pavement is covered in blood. I didn’t want to move and I certainly wasn’t going to go into the shop that way, I grabbed my phone and called Lucky to come outside right away. I was handling the situation fine until I saw Lucky’s panicked expression on his face. That made me start shaking and crying and he was saying that he would drop everything to drive me home. For some reason he thought I couldn’t drive myself home. Yes, it was like I took a bloodbath with my clothes on from the waist down but I didn’t feel any differently so Lucky grabbed me some paper towels for my seat, I got back in the car and drove Kate and I to the house. It was hard because I wanted to cry but Kate was watching me in the rearview mirror the whole time and she was starting to tear up and kept repeating “Don’t cry Mommy.” It was all I could do not to cry to that.

We got back to the house, I rushed Kate inside and got her set up with some food, I went to take a shower before I went to the ER. I thought I would gradually work my way to the hospital during this pregnancy but that didn’t work out so we were trying to find our way to the ER amidst the construction and confusion in the panic. We finally find it and then hurry up and wait for four hours. Luckily they got me checked in quickly and let me lie down on a bed (albeit on the side of the triage hallway because they didn’t have rooms available). Dan graciously came and picked up Kate and took her home for the evening. Kate had a blast playing with all of Danica’s toys and wasn’t upset at all!

Around 1:00am or so the nurses finally let us into a room and gave me morphine (morphine!) for the cramp pain along with saline solution. I finally got two ultrasounds around 1:45am, I was totally defeated and tired and didn’t watch the ultrasounds at all. Lucky was at the cafeteria eating during the one hour they were open. My report came back around 3:30am saying that there is a fetal heartbeat. Lucky and I just looked at this nurse flabbergasted that he would say there was anything left in my stomach. He then proceeded to tell me that he couldn’t give me any further details and I have to go back to my practitioner in a week for a follow-up ultrasound. So, all that time, energy, stress and money wasted for a follow-up. Aargh!

Things are about as well as they can be, I’m not holding out too much hope that anything will survive because I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. I’m trying to make a doctor’s appointment but of course this is the week that our minutes are used and we have to wait for the next cycle to begin making things extremely difficult… Another aargh! Right now I’m supposed to take it easy, (the person I spoke with on the phone today said to make sure my pelvis is relaxed….) and we’ll see how it goes. Well, here goes….

It's Even More Official

So the nurse practitioner from my dr's office called and left a message before Lucky and I went to Vegas. I never called her back until yesterday. She had nothing really to tell me aside from the news that yes, I am indeed pregnant, and I should make another appointment. Well, that's freakin' great because I've been sick up a storm and had to get up to pee in the middle of the night for the last week. I better be pregnant or something would really be wrong with me!

I love being pregnant but could go without the sickness, having to get up in the middle of the night to pee or back pain. That and I want to get round so I have something to lay my hands on. Besides my tummy of course. :)

Doctor Doctor

So I went to the doctor last Thursday and he confirmed exactly what I have been telling people: I was pregnant and about five weeks along. I was kind of nervous because the conversation the night before and the morning of was all about miscarriages, in utero tumors, false positives, etc. Everything went off without a hitch however and this doctor made me feel relieved. He has probably the best bedside manner I have ever come in contact with aside from my doctor in Post Falls. The crappy part is this new guy doesn't deliver babies. Sucky! This is exactly why I went to him in the first place. He told me that no one in the office delivers anymore and I'm going to have to go elsewhere. My excitement went down a bit when he told me that because I have no idea where to go. Dr. gave me some suggestions but I hate that whole not-knowing thing. The cool thing is our new intern at work told me that her mom is a pediatrician at Valley (where I will be giving birth) and she had some suggestions for delivery doctors as well. All this put me at ease because I will potentially go to her for the new baby checkups.

As for the rest of me, I have morning sickness all day and all night. I've been waking up in the middle of the night sick to my stomach. No vomiting but really close to that. I have to have something in my stomach all the time which is hard for me because I don't eat very often. Worse now that during my first pregnancy. I'm going to have to change a lot this time, more than last because I feel that things have changed so much between now and then that it is harder this time around. I'm sure it will be fine. We are all really excited but I'm counting down the days until the first trimester is over and this sickness will be gone. 10 weeks.....9 weeks.....8 weeks.....

Yep, it's Official

Funny thing about knowing: you're right half the time. After a false alarm about a month ago, I am now officially knocked up. Although I wasn’t feeling well the previous couple of days, I knew something extra was in my tummy when I was lying on my stomach in the pillow meeting room and it felt like there was a hard mound in my uterus. After speaking with Lucky during lunch last Thursday, June 5th, he said I should check so before I went to Kaz’s house for a BBQ I stopped over at Rite Aid and picked up a pregnancy test. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know how I was going to take this test with tons of people in the house but I had to try.

After picking up Kate and finding our way up to the house, Kate became distracted with Kaz’s son and his toys and allowed me to make my way to the bathroom. Of course it had to be on the other side of the wall from the party. There were maybe 10-15 people having a good time while I’m peeing on a stick. The test said to wait three minutes for a result but I had to wait no more than one before I had my answer: pregnant. I actually laughed out loud for a second before trying to figure out what to do. Being pregnant was not actually a surprise as Lucky and I have been trying for some time, but being pregnant was a surprise. It’s one of those things that you think you’re prepared for but it doesn’t hit you until it actually happens.

I knew that I had to tell Lucky first but I didn’t want to tell him over the phone and I wanted him to know before all of my coworkers. I figured I would tell him after the Erykah Badu concert when we were alone because I knew if even one of my coworkers overheard us everyone would know before the next morning. My brother Scott was at our house when I got home so I didn’t have a chance to tell Lucky before I passed out in bed-crap. I didn’t know what to do as I didn’t want to tell him while he was sleeping the next morning so I decided to put the pregnancy stick on the dashboard of the rodeo. A few hours later he calls and we talk for a few moments before I can hear him get into the car asking “What’s this?” before going “OH MY GOD!” Then silence. I wait for a few seconds before he asks if I’m pregnant and then of course we go into the whole “how far along?” schpeel. I kind of had to talk in code because everyone at work could hear my phone call and everyone listens to phone calls but I didn’t want everyone to know yet so I’m sure my convo sounded weird to everyone at the office with “don’t tell anyone….yes….no…..I’ll talk to you later about it.”

Friday night I called my entire family to make sure they heard about it from us instead of MySpace or some random person and of course Lucky had to tell everyone at the shop first. I changed my MySpace name to Mommy x2 and Lucky changed his status to announce a new baby and it has snowballed from there. I have a dr appointment Thursday so until then I think I’m about four weeks along but that can change at any time. We’ll see how it goes….

At least Kate and Lucky are as excited as I am….