Halloween 2009

After spending most of the week worrying about a cold and snowy Halloween, we were once again blessed with a beautiful, albeit windy, day. Maggie's Halloween celebrating actually began on Thursday with a party at preschool and she came home with a bag full of goodies. Grandma Bonnie & Grandpa Mike came for the weekend and arrived Thursday evening, so Maggie was able to spend all day Friday with them. This also afforded Rocky and I the opportunity to attend a Guitar Hero party at some friends from church's home. We dressed as punk rockers and had loads of fun and stayed out way past our bedtime! One of the benefits of having a free babysitter!! We had forgotten our camera (actually brought it but left it in the car and forgot we brought it) so will have to pilfer more photos from those who were there that had cameras.

Maggie decided several weeks ago that she wanted to be a nice witch for Halloween and Rocky helped her find a costume at Toys R Us. She has enjoyed playing with the costume since then!! We went to Boo at the Zoo. We got there right as it was starting and missed the massive line. We got candy from a few tents and then walked over to see what Bruno was up to. We got there just as the keeper was going to start an "enrichment" so we hung around to check it out. She put out some fruit and meat and then let Bruno out to check it out. Maggie really enjoyed it when Bruno came right up to the window and she got a personal encounter with him, watching him eat some cherries.

We had lunch and then headed home to relax a little before heading out trick or treating in the neighborhood. Maggie was very excited to go, but once we got out there, she decided she didn't want to go very long. We hit 5 houses when she said she wanted to go back to her house. And now, she is playing with Grandpa Mike, we are watching the Oregon football game (current score 3-3) and waiting for trick or treaters to come to our house.

Happy Halloween!

Love Love Me Do

A Beatles Fan in the making.

Not ready for a real announcement

The real announcement will come later. This is just for me. I'll post it after the real announcement, but by that time, it will probably be a little hidden, unless someone comes looking for it.

I'm pregnant. I tested 2 weeks ago during the Vikings/Packers Monday Night Football game -- 2 days before I was "late" -- because, and I do have to admit this, Rocky brought home some really good beer and I wanted to know if I could have one. And I couldn't. And I told Rocky with "well, your boys can still swim." I wasn't really worried about becoming pregnant again. The last pregnancy, a surprise, showed me that we are still fertile. I've been worried since the miscarriage about being able to carry the pregnancy through.


And here I am at 6 weeks and still pregnant. Our first OB appointment is November 10 and we will have an ultrasound right before. My OB has already put my on progesterone, which is extremely interesting in itself. Used one way, it brings a woman's cycles on track. Used the way I'm using it, helps keep a viable pregnancy moving forward. The prescription is much more expensive than I expected: $60/30 pills. And I will need to get it filled one more time. At first I rather balked at the thought of paying $120 for this prescription. But then what is a healthy pregnancy worth?


And now here I am with the worries: will this pregnancy continue? if it does, how will Maggie react? And then the guilt. Guilt for moving on after the miscarriage. Guilt for changing our family dynamic.

New Fall Fashions

Maggie is the fashionista in our house. For the most part, she picks out her own clothes each morning. Every once in a while, she'll let me pick out something for her to wear, but 9 times out of 10, she picks her own outfit. So, I thought I'd share some of my favorites:

One must look her best when going to the movies. Even if mom and dad make you wear something "warm" you can still dress it up. Add a tiara.

For those times that you don't want to look like you care, a hoodie always makes a great statement.

This fall, boots are definitely in!

Looking for something new to wear for Halloween? Super heros are always good! If only Spider-man wore pink.
A fun new hair-do is always a must!

Lazy Lazy Sunday

Just another lazy Sunday. I've been fighting a cold, which is a fight I seem to be winning (hooray) despite the lack of drugs, so we stayed home from church. Rocky and I watched football in the downstairs and even got Maggie cheering for the Vikings (or the Bikings as she calls them). It's snowed most of the day and Maggie and the dogs enjoyed playing out in it. Well, Maggie did. The dogs spent most of their time outside begging to come inside.

But, I think my favorite part of today was listening to Maggie when she was upstairs, while we were downstairs, playing on the ottoman. She was rocking back and forth, practicing her counting "Yee haw! Giddy up cowboy! One!"

Six Years and Counting

Today is our 6th anniversary.  Unfortunately, I am nursing a rather nasty cold and it is bitter cold, so our celebration will be at a minimum.  Between my cousin’s daughter and the church, we do have a couple of options for babysitters so at least that is no longer an issue for us getting a date night.

I looked through some pictures to see if I could find a recent picture of Rocky & I to share.  Unfortunately, living with a photographer who doesn’t enjoy having his own picture taken means I had to go back to my cousin’s wedding in 2008 to find a picture that had both of us in it.  There is a family photo from the reunion this summer that might have worked, but in trying to crop out the rest of the family, the quality of the picture went down and it ended up as a not so good picture.  Perhaps when I’m feeling better or maybe if the Gazette does holiday family photos again, I’ll be able to talk Rocky into a photo of just the two of us.

Happy Anniversary!  I love you.

Neighborhood visitors

I have posted before about watching deer in our backyard. See here and here. We finally have the photos of the mule doe and her fawn downloaded from the camera and here's a taste:

Why I no longer watch TV crime dramas

So I was walking the dogs this morning -- it seems to be my duty on Sunday mornings.  I don't mind it as the sun has already risen and I can take them on a longer walk as I'm not in a hurry to get back home.  The past 2 walks, I've taken them to the ditch behind Lake Elmo.  There is a path that I assume the parks department uses to turn on and off the water flow to the ditch.  The ditch runs through our area of the Heights and right past our backyard.  The path, however, does not.

So, Otis, Wiconi and I were walking this morning and my mind started to wander.  As I walk along the water, I started thinking about TV crime dramas and thought about how this is usually where someone finds "the body."  Then I wondered how long I would have to be gone before Rocky started getting worried about me, if something happened to me (this is NOT a dangerous area by any means, but TV crime dramas on the brain and you can see where I'm going).  Then I realized I have 2 large dogs with me.  No one would bother even a single woman with 2 large, vicious dogs right?  But, Otis and Wiconi aren't vicious.  They probably wouldn't even bark if someone came up to us.  Maybe if I was attacked.  And if I was, would they go right home?  Or would they wander the neighborhood a little bit with their new found freedom, thus increasing the amount of time it would take for anyone to realize there was something amiss.

Then I realized I'm walking the dogs in Billings MT where it is very unlikely that something would happen.  And I just have an overactive imagination sometimes.  And that's why I no longer watch TV crime dramas.