Welcome Baby Lauren!

Our friends Tim and Kim had their little girl last week. Brian and I decided to go over to the hospital to get a little bit of a reality check. Kimmy was very nice and left out all of the horrible details of childbirth for fear that I would go running and screaming away! Tim told Brian all the details that he will need to know while I'm in labor. His best suggestion: Do whatever Michelle wants and make sure she gets the epidural on time! (I knew I liked Tim!!)

We went to check-up on the happy family again yesterday and they are doing great. Everyone is at home and adjusting to this new life fantastically. Tim and Kim are now our role models, if they can do this and survive...so can we!!

Ski Weekend 2008

Well, another ski weekend has passed. We all made it up to Tahoe safely and back home again. Ryan was the only one who didn't manage to make it because he thought the storm was too scary! This year's crew consisted of myself, Brian, Paige, Greg, Michelle, Scott, Michelle, Karla and Pricsilla. (No, I didn't include myself 3 times, there were really 3 Michelle's) 1/2 of the crew went skiing on Saturday while the rest of us went up to the village to check things out. The best part of the whole weekend was that Michelle and Greg brought up their Nintendo Wii. According to Greg's calculations, we played the Qii for close to 9 hours on Saturday! What did people do to entertain themselves before video games!! All of the games were multiple people and interactive so it was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy....

Brian and I trying to stay warm!

The Skiers

The Village Crew

Playing the Bongo's on the Wii

There was just a little snow around!

1/2 way there....

I'm officially 20 weeks pregnant this week and have 20 more to go! The baby is doing great. He's moving around quite a bit and Brian even got to feel him kick the other day. He is going to have his first trip up to the snow this weekend!

Here are the things I've learned in 20 short weeks:

1. Every lady who has ever given birth is an expert on pregnancy
2. Every lady who had never given birth is also an expert on pregnancy because she knows someone who was pregnant once.
3. Just about anything I consume has the potential to harm my child accoding to some website or study.
4. There is no such thing as "normal" when it comes to pregnancies.
5. Your body is capable of drastic changes over night. I can go to bed looking one way and wake up looking completely different.
6. There is no need to suck in your stomach anymore to try to look thin, it's ok to have a round belly. In fact, the bigger and rounder it is the happier people are!
7. Don't mess with pregnant ladies. I have no patience for ANYTHING and get overwhelmed very easy. If I say I've had enough, I really have and pushing me farther may result in me crying.
8. I can go from wide awake to completely tired in 2.5 seconds.

That is just the tip of the iceberg of things I have learned and I know that the next 20 weeks will bring about a lot more lessons.

Crap for sale...

I decided to check on craigslist.com today to see what kind of baby stuff people are selling. I started this task at 10:00 this morning and now I can't stop looking at the various stuff people are selling and I've checked every category. I even checked out farm equipment! Anything you could ever want is on there. Some people want crazy prices while others are willing to give things away for free.

Now I want to go an take pictures of everything in our house and sell it on craigslist! Brian says I can sell anything that is mine but stay away from his stuff. I'm a little dissapointed, I'm sure I could get $50 for the deer head that is now mounted in our garage!

I would like some chemicals and preservatives please....

One of my co-workers and I just got back from lunch at Whole Foods. We normally go to Sonoma Market to get soup or a sandwich but we decided to try something new today. BIG MISTAKE.

I needed to get two things at the store today 1) lunch and 2) TUMS (yippee for heartburn when you are pregnant!). First we go to the health and wellness section. As I expected, they mostly had herbal remedies and such. Our "natural" store by home has the same stuff but they also have the good old fashioned chemical drugs as well, you just pay 3 times the price. I ask the lady where the TUMS are and she looks at me like I just asked where I would buy a bomb. She goes on to tell me that they don't have any. OK, well can you tell me where the heartburn medication is, I should be able to make something work. She tells me that the only thing they have for heartburn is Aloe Juice. HELLO! I don't have a sunburn inside my body! I have heartburn! She swears by the stuff and says it is safe to take while you are pregnant. My coworker thinks this is the funniest thing he has ever seen because he knows me well enough to know I am not going to do this. I tell the lady thanks for the help but I'll go ahead and pass.

Lunch wasn't too much better. We paid twice the price for 1/2 of the flavor. However, it was all natual, chemical free, pestiside free, organic, etc. That's what I get for trying something new. Clearly I need my daily dose of food with chemicals in them!

My Life as a Wedding Sales Manager

Selling weddings and corporate events should be easy, right? I have three clients right now that I am about to fire and tell them to take their money somewhere else. The best part is...2 of them have already called this morning. Here is what I am dealing with:

Client #1: They are Orthodix Jew. We are a Catholic Italian Winery. That should sum up the whole story right there. We have a statue of Mary in front of the winery and the groom asked if we could move it. (This statue is about 6 feet tall and in the middle of a rose garden). I told him no. This morning, he called and said since we could not move it, can he hire someone to move it and put it back when the ceremony is over. NO! Get over it, Mary is staying. (Brian thinks I should tell him that Mary was Jewish so there shouldn't be a problem!)

Client #2: These people are trying to squeeze 150 people into a room that really only holds 120. There is a spot at the winery that we don't like to put any tables because it just doesn't look nice. We tell people that since it is in front of a door, we can't because that door is a fire exit. Lucky me, this guy happens to be the Fire Chief in another county and not only does he tell me I'm full of it, he looks up our building and what the fire codes really are! This morning they called because now there are complaining that the catering it getting too expensive. My suggestion...invite less people! By the way, they picked this catering company themselves so it is their fault it is getting too expensive.

It is only 9:04am right now and I really don't want to answer my phone anymore today.

Boy or Girl?

As I'm sure you can figure out by the color of my blog....we are having a boy. Brian and I went for an ultrasound this monring and we are happy to report the baby is developing right on schedule. Here are the details....

• 2 arms and legs
• 2 kidneys
• 1 bladder
• brain development is normal for this stage
• a diaphram
• 4 parts to the heart
• leg bones
• 1 boy part

The doctor said the baby currently weighs 7 ounces. As soon as I get Brian to scan in today's pictures, I will post them for everyone to see.