Kreacher is huge! I cant believe i have a 5 inch kreacher growing inside me!

Pele loves his baby food so much that while we weren't looking he got the spoon we used out of the sink and took it into the livingroom.

We decided to separate our laundry and it has been so long since our boys have had access to a full laundry basket that they wasted no time climbing right in. Pele was such a good boy and ate all his chicken (secretly mixed with his antibiotics) that we let them stay in there. It needs to be washed anyway.

Atty want a cracker?

13 weeks and 3 days

A weird day

Yesterday was a weird/busy day. First off it was my brother's birthday, Happy 25th Birthday Derek! Also, it was my 3 year anniversary at work! Also... (yes there are a lot of alsos) One of the top people from Progressive was visiting our office so we were in meetings and training sessions all day so that threw me off.
After work we had to take Pele to the vet. It turns out he only weighs 7 lbs!!!!! Anyway, the doctor said a whole list of stuff that could be the problem but we decided to start with the cheapest solution and work our way up, so we are treating it as a food allergy or a virus and giving him antibiotics and only feeding him chicken baby food for the next couple of days. Poor guy. Of course a cat of mine would have a food allergy! Then we went to the Petaluma Outlets and I got a couple of skirts and stuff from Motherhood. After that we went to the Mann's house to record the Office on their DVR in case Richard didn't get back from his meeting in time to watch it but he did so we all watched it together. While I was over there I got a call from my friend/ex boyfriend Kyle telling me he is engaged! Congrats Kyle!!!!! So I talked to him for a little while and that was pretty much the end to a very odd day. Hopefully today will be a little more normal considering on our schedule for tonight is cleaning... Bleh.

Side note: Sorry Jeff but your brother says if you get Jaden we get Carter!

Pele loves laying with baby brother or sister!

What's in a name?

A lot of people have been asking us if we have names picked out. As a matter of fact we do! It's actually a funny story... We've had our names picked out for a LONG time and everyone said how great they were blah blah. Well once we actually got pregnant and people started asking us our names the boy's name got quite a different reaction from most people than it had previously. We had originally planned on Clark Pierce. After several winces and not so lovely comments we have changed our boy's name to Carter Pierce which has received a much better response (even from Daddy...)
So that makes our names Carter Pierce or Daphne Roma
That's it! We aren't changing them if you don't like them. I don't care anymore.

We should find out around Thanksgiving which name we will be using.

Wow, you're really good at this game!

It seems like every time I try to convince Dave of something he ends up convincing me even more! I called him to tell him that I wanted him to go to Arizona state and this was the conversation to follow:
Dave- "Why? Because Lolly and Chris live there?"
Me- "OH! I hadn't thought about that!"
Dave- "Is it because it doesn't snow there?"
Me- "Oh! That sounds even better!"
Dave- "Because it's close to Disneyland?"
Me- "IT IS??? WE HAVE TO GO THERE!!!!"

Luckily he convinced himself in the process so I think that is one of his #1 choices. (It helps that the Giants and the A's have spring training there!) We talked it over last night and the schools he is applying to are Arizona State, University of Arizona, University of Utah, Idaho State, Kent State and possibly Cal Poly. He's resisting the Cal Poly thing because he says the program takes too long and he doesn't want to go there so I'm not going to push it. If he decides to apply there that's fine if not he still has other choices. We both decided that the Ohio thing may not feel "right" anymore. Things have changed.

Oh, Oh it's magic, You know...

This is crazy! My back has been killing me for days to the point where I couldn't get out of bed by myself this morning and after one walk this morning my back felt great. I am definitely going to walk EVERYDAY!

In other news: I'm a little nervous about Dave only applying to 3 schools and about 2 of them being SO far away, so I decided to do a little research. With absolutely zero effort I was able to find a list of all of the schools with architecture programs and whether it is an accredited bachelors or masters. We will have to talk it over and probably ask my Architect step dad about it, but I'd say right now I'm leaning towards Arizona State University. It's close, there are beautiful cheap houses, it's an accredited bachelor's program and I prefer heat to snow. Hopefully Dave will apply to a bunch of schools and get into all of them so we have our choice. Wishful thinking I know but he is a genius. Harvard here we come!

If it's not one thing it's another.

Well my cold is pretty much gone, which is great, but this weekend I threw out my back! I wasn't doing anything exciting, but we were house sitting and sleeping in a bed that wasn't ours and I sat on a hard chair for a good portion of the weekend. I have a heat wrap on it right now which is helping, but it needs to get better soon or I will go crazy. This always seems to happen when I gain a few pounds and I should have expected it. I guess I will just have to take more walks and maybe start swimming again. Exercise seems to help. Until then I will just put heat on it and take plenty of baths! Any other suggestions are welcome.

I must be dreaming!

Last night, Brook and I attended a Santa Rosa High football game with the Pierce family and Skabeland girls. For those that have not known the "greatness" of Santa Rosa's football program, their average record in the past 80 years is probably in the neighborhood of 3-10. Thanks to the crazy legs of SR's running back Therman McGowan, they are a force in the North Bay! He already has over 1000 yards rushing and has helped SR start the season 5-0 for the first time since 1988. He put on a show last night with 243 yards rushing and 3 TD. The highlight was when he dropped a punt, ran back 5 yards to pick it up, then ran past every defender for an 83 yard punt return for a touchdown!! Craziness!!

My battle with Hasselhoff

I forgot to mention in my previous post about my crazy dream last night. Now I know that pregnant women have crazy dreams, but I normally have crazy dreams so I don't think this is solely Kreacher's fault.

Here goes:

So somehow I am doing this celebrity death match thing and it is supposed to be teams of 2. Well, for some reason David Hasselhoff was my opponent and his partner didn't show and there were 2 other people on my team. So it should have been a quick fight 3 of us on 1 lonely David Hasselhoff... That was not the case! The 2 GUYS on my team left little old me to fend for myself with the "Hoff" and just watched and hoped I would tire him out. I got in the first shot and for some reason I decided to punch his hand. Of course, this did nothing as the Hoff is incredibly buff and manly and he proceeded to punch my hand and break some bones. After that all I could really do was tap his head softly with my broken fist. Needless to say I got thoroughly thrashed by Mr. Hasselhoff while these 2 guys were standing by watching the whole thing happen. Later in the dream I was on a bus with some random people and I was showing them all of battle wounds. My hands we all scratched up and I had a hand shaped scab on my hip. Why? I don't know.

And that my friends is what I did last night.

I've gained how much?????

As I mentioned in the previous post we had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I was pretty nervous because I've been sick and I was feeling some weird pains in my stomach the other day. Needless to say my blood pressure was a little high and my heart beat was a little fast... which I expected. What I didn't expect was that I would only have gained 3 lbs!! That's 3 lbs total not just since my last visit, which makes it 1 lb since my last visit... a month ago. I know it is good not to gain a bunch of weight at the beginning, but I heard a pound a week was healthy, not a pound a month. Oh well, I'm sure I will be grateful later especially when I am trying to lose said pounds after Kreacher is here. The good news is we did hear the heartbeat again this time through my stomach and the coolest thing was that it was all staticy which at first annoyed me but then she told me it was the baby moving. It's good to know that Kreacher gets something from mommy and can't sit still!
Other than that last night was filled with up dos and homework. I think Dave and I make a good team he was helping Kirsten with her essay and I got to be Aladdin so that Kari could practice "A Whole New World" for her school play. She actually asked me if I knew the words... HAHA silly girl! I grew up with Aladdin. What person my age (male or female) does not know every single word to "A Whole New World?" I laughed and said "I think so." It all worked out in the end.

Side note: Yes Megan... we did nickname our unborn fetus Kreacher... I know we're nuts but you would do it too. Plus it sounds much better to say "Kreacher wants orange juice" than "the baby wants OJ."

Getting better but still not perfect.

Shortly after my last post I gave in to the nasty bug that was invading my systems and went home. That night I woke up every hour on the hour and couldn't get back to sleep with out taking a bath. I think I had 5 baths total that evening. When I was in the bath at 2:30 AM I knew that I would not be going to work the next day so I decided to take it easy and try to recoup. It was a day full of couch potatoing, baths, naps and surprisingly an actual shower but I guess it was what I needed. I made it to work today and have been feeling better. I'm not 100% but I'm getting there and I have a doctor's appointment today so I can find out if there is anything else I can be doing to stay healthy and take care of Kreacher.
After the appointment we will start our first house/kid sitting job of the many we have in the next couple of months. We will be watching the Skabelund girls which is always fun and the best part is they have a big tub! More baths!!! I think Dave would say the best part is the pool table, but I disagree. Any way you look at it we should have a fantastic weekend!

This blows... quite literally!

Well, I woke up early this morning with a cold. Normally a cold isn't really that bad, you pop some dayquill and all is well, but not anymore! Being sick and being pregnant drains the life out of you faster that any analogy I can even think of. I'm boogery, I'm tired and I was forced my my darling husband to go to work today. Well ok, maybe not forced but he did say I could either stay home and be miserable or go to work and get paid to be miserable. When you put it that way laying on the couch watching the Little Mermaid for the second time this week kind of loses it luster. I plan on going home, taking a bath and going to bed, so if you read this message after 5 please don't call because I'm hoping to be out like a light!

And that ends my complaint for the day. Thank you for letting me vent.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

As requested I am replacing the dead fish picture. Hope you have a good 50th! We love you!

To top the day off nicely we had this little beauty waiting for us right outside our car at the mall AND when i got my rings cleaned the place lost one of my diamonds. Luckily i noticed before we left the mall and when we went back they said they would replace it for free.

I've been tagged!!!!

Lolly tagged me a while ago... oops.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Just moved to Santa Rosa
2. Watching Days of our lives EVERYDAY!
3. watching my brothers play video games
4. Eating at Quinley's which is now gone!
5. A lot of things I shouldn't have been doing!

5 things on my "to-do" list today:
1. GET MY MOM A B-DAY PRESENT!!!
2. Buy clothes that fit
3. Clean my house (including and especially the office)
4. Watch "Thunderpants" with my husband
5. Find out if the hot dog on a stick batter contains gluten

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Fruit snacks
2. popcorn
3. cheetos
4. air heads
5. nachos (but I can't eat them right now because they make me hurl)

5 songs I know the lyrics to: (I memorize really quickly so I know a lot more than 5 songs!)
1. Shoop (I know, I'm embarrassed for me too!)
2. Any song from High school musical
3. Bicycle and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
4. Tim Mcgraw by Taylor swift
5. Any and EVERY *Nsync song ever recorded

5 things I would do if I was a millionaire:
1. Put Dave through school
2. Pay off our debt
3. Buy a house
4. Get a new car
5. Save money for my kids

5 bad habits:
1. I'm impatient
2. I'm lazy
3. I eat too much (even before I was pregnant)
4. Shopping
5. Letting people do things for me too often

5 things I'd never wear again:
1. Slouch socks (Sorry mom, but they aren't cool any more...)
2. Brown hair
3. Daisy dukes (I've come to realize they didn't look good even back when...)
4. The Hot Dog On A Stick uniform
5. Anything else hoochie

5 things I like to do:
1. Sleep
2. watch movies with David
3. Eat yummy food
4. sing in the car
5. cook with David

5 favorite toys:
1. remote control
2. Blue tooth
3. I pod and alarm clock
4. Barn yard animal ice cream sandwich makers
5. my sparkly spatula

5 people i tag:
1. Emily Mann
2. Rachelle Mann
3. Joy Mann
4. Noelle Philpott (can't remember if you already did it!)
5. Raphelle (Come on blog already!)

Brook's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

I went home from work early yesterday because I was feeling cruddy and had my friend take me so Dave wouldn't have to leave work early. When I got to the door I couldn't find my keys anywhere in my purse. I even took everything out of it and they weren't there. I looked where we normally keep our spare and it wasn't there. I went to the landlord's house to see if they could let me in, but they weren't there. Then, my neighbor tried to break open our screen door but it wouldn't open. So I had to call David and wait in the hot sun until he got there. I should have just stayed at work.
This morning I still couldn't find my keys and we looked everywhere. When I was trying to get ready for work I tried on 6 different shirts and not one of them fit me. My old clothes are too small and most maternity clothes are still too big. I cried. This is turning out to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Maybe I'll move to Australia.

Kids say the darndest things... then again so do adults!

Since we've started telling people we've gotten some great reactions from people we thought we would share a couple of our favorites:

Aden Pierce:

Karen-"Aden, Brook has something to tell you."
Me- "I'm gonna be a mommy."
Aden- "Weird."

Matt Rutter (our home teacher):

Dave- "So, Brook's pregnant..."
Matt- "On purpose or by accident?"
Dave- "On purpose."
Matt- "Oh, Congratulations!"

Kaisa:

(Through text message)
Me- "It was positive."
Kaisa- "Holy 'crap'!"

My brother Derek:

(after we had the initial conversation)
Derek- "You can't move."
Me- "We have to."
Derek- "You can't take my nephew far away!"
Me- "...Or niece?!"
Derek- "You can't take my nephew far away!"

Richard (Dad) Mann:

David- "We've decided not to go to school until fall semester so all three of us will be able to go to the family reunion."
Mom- "Hopefully!"
Me- "No, all three of us will be there."
Mom- "What!? Are you pregnant?"
Me- "Yes."
(lots of screaming and hugging and talking...)
(5 minutes later) Dad- "All three of you?"

And my all time favorite, David Mann:

6:00 AM
Me-"It's positive."
Dave- "Are you serious?"
Me- "Yes."
Dave- "Are you serious?"
Me- (starting to cry) "YES!"
Dave- "Are you serious?!"
Me- "Would I make this up?!"
Dave- "Are you serious?"
Me- "Go check for yourself if you don't believe me!"

Utah, The land where babies are made!

After taking a vacation to the reproduction capitol of the US, we are excited to announce that we are expecting!!!! I am 10 1/2 weeks along which puts my due date at April 17th. We had our first sonogram September 6th and everything looked great. We heard the heartbeat (169 beats per minute) and got a picture which we will hopefully add to this post tonight. We are very surprised and excited and feel very blessed that this happened when the doctors said it wouldn't. It's amazing what a little relaxation and a lot of clomid can do!

The things pets do when they think you arent watching! We caught pele and atticus sharing a tender moment and were able to snap a picture just before they moved.

Totally bummed and a little disgusted

Our favorite restaurant got closed due to a rat infestation. We went there so often they knew exactly what we wanted when we walked in and if we ordered over the phone they knew it was us. The saddest part is we actually called this past Monday to place an order and when they said they were closed we thought it must be a Thai holiday... I guess we were very wrong! See the article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat below:

Rats force restaurant closures
By DEREK J. MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Sonoma County Department of Health has temporarily closed three Santa Rosa restaurants because of rat infestation in areas where food is stored and prepared, officials said Wednesday.
Such closures are rare, especially when they involve so many restaurants at once, and health officials said their action reflected concerns about the infestation possibly exposing the public to food-borne illness. However, they stressed that they found no evidence of that potential threat with any of the restaurants in question."We haven't found any kind of contamination in the food," said David Mesagno, supervising environmental health specialist for the county's Department of Health Services. The three restaurants — Annapurna, California Thai and Sapporo — are in the Brickyard Center at Mendocino Avenue and B Street in downtown Santa Rosa.A fourth Brickyard establishment — the Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Arts Academy — also closed over the weekend because of the infestation but was open again for classes and lunch Wednesday. Mesagno said the academy dealt with the problems, which he said were less severe than at the other three restaurants.The academy voluntarily closed last Thursday after notifying the health department that rat droppings had been discovered in two storage rooms. Health inspectors subsequently discovered rats and rat droppings throughout the entire building. Mesagno said the rodents in question were roof rats, typically two to three times larger than a common mouse."They were all over — in food storage areas, in food prep areas. That's what an active infestation means," Mesagno said.The discovery led the health department to temporarily suspend licenses for the three restaurants, in effect closing them. Mesagno said the restaurants will not be allowed to re-open until they have proven they have eradicated the rodent problem. As part of that the department expects a pest control report, he said.Outside Sapporo, owner Shorshen Wu said he was working quickly to correct the problems. He noted the restaurant received the health department's highest five-star rating this year based on cleanliness and other factors. The rating is based on inspections for the previous year."I take care of my restaurant very well," he said.

This past weekend

Well, not quite the fun exciting weekend we had expected. Saturday I ended up having to work to get stuff done after the computer problems last week. I came in at 7:30 am and only had to stay until 9 to get stuff done. I was happy that I was the only person there for most of it and the only person who showed up was Dad and that was 15 minutes before I took off. When I got home I decided I would do my chores for the week so I started cleaning the bathroom. I was so beat by the end of it I took a break and watched a couple episodes of the Office. After that I finished by mopping the bathroom and then I cleaned the kitchen floor which was a bigger task than I had thought. I did discover that the cats are afraid of the swiffer so I had a little fun with that. Anyway, I was so tired after all of this that we did not go to bull riding. Instead I went to bed at about 8. It was lovely.

Someone had too much catnip!!

Bad kitties! Well it does not pay to have athletic cats. I came home from working late today and found everything that was on top of the fridge strewn accross the kitchen floor surrounded by a pool of catnip. They are both in big trouble!

Dave is a new man. He had a doctors appointment today to get the mole on his face checked out and the doctor just decided to chop it off right then. Dave has been complaining about the smell of burnt hair all night but at least now he doesnt have to be so careful while shaving!

Happy Office Day!!!!!!

Today is the day we've been waiting for... the 3rd season of The Office came out on DVD today! Dave bought it at lunch (luckily I only had a half hour lunch because I almost bought it but thought I wouldn't have enough time to do that and get food) and we are going to spend all evening watching it! Dave even got a call from his BFF in New York yesterday wishing him a happy office day so apparently it is a national holiday! Woohoo!
Other than that today has not been the most fabulous day... Most of the systems at work are down and pretty much the only things I can do are email, go on the Internet, answer phones and play MASH with my coworkers. It is a completely wasted day and they aren't sure the computers are going to be working correctly tomorrow either but they won't let us go home. Luckily, I have something to look forward to tonight and get to spend the evening watching the greatest show on earth (no... we're not going to the circus.)
Oh, on the agenda for this week: On Saturday night we will not be able to attend the family dinner as one of my coworkers won us tickets to go see professional bull riding at the fairgrounds. Why bull riding you ask? A few weeks ago we were at Dave's parent's house doing laundry and watching T.V. and as we were flipping through the channels we came across a show called "Celebrity Bull Riding." (http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/ty-murrays-celebrity-bull-riding-challenge/series.jhtml) It was fantastic. I don't know how I ever lived before seeing Vanilla Ice riding a bull. On every episode someone got sent to the hospital and had to go home due to broken bones (among the injured was Stephen Baldwin with a broken shoulder, and Leif Garrett quit after riding the mechanical bull before even sitting on a real bull.) Anyway, we got hooked and as I was driving by the fairgrounds I saw that it was there and was talking at work about how I wanted to go. The cheapest tickets I could find we about $20 a piece so we decided not to go but then my coworker won them for us on the radio. I'm sure we will be posting pics from the event and y'all will hear all about it. It should be a good time.

Hey ladies how you doin'?