Pumpkin Carving Contest @ Work

At my work today there is a pumpkin carving contest going on. I work at a hotel, so the pumpkins are all displayed in the lobby for the hotel guests to vote on. The categories are for: Most Scariest, Most Unusual, Most Traditional, and Most Creative!

Being pregnant it has been an ongoing guess among coworkers as to what I am having; either a boy or girl. Most people are guessing that I am having a GIRL! We don't officially find out the sex of the baby until November 5th on Wednesday. So for my pumpkin, I carved out the phrase, "It's a girl." At home when I was carving the pumpkin, I thought it was pretty cleaver, and funny. Now that it is out on display with all the other pumpkins, it doesn't really make sense...unless I stand by it all day, for the guests to understand while they are voting, that the carver of that pumpkin is PREGNANT! Ugh! Oh well. I thought it was funny.

There are some really cool and creative pumpkins on display. The guy from security carved a skull face leaving half of it carved back on the skin layer. The gal from accounting cut the pumpkin in half to have a flat surface and painted it black sticking pipe cleaners in the sides to make the pumpkin look like a Spider!

The lady from upstairs in the concierge lounge decorated hers to look like Kieth Ledgers character from Batman as the Joker! So cool!!! One of the gals in Banquets transformed her pumpkin into a Starbucks coffee maker and had props displayed around it to look like a coffee station set up.

All the pumpkins turned out so well and I am so impressed by the creativity everyone has. I wish now that I stuck to carving out a peace sign to keep it simple and unusual/creative.

It's 4:51 in the MORNING!

I am so excited! I can't sleep and am wide awake, at 4:30 am, trying to go back to sleep, now it's 4:51 am. This sort of feeling of "can't sleep, too excited...where is the fast forward button?" only happens to me here and there. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait till Christmas Morning and would be wide awake, antsy to open presents or look in my stocking to see what Santa brought me. Then my dad would wake up first and start to make breakfast in the kitchen. It was the sizzling bacon, buttery pancakes, and the sound of his coffee pot whistling, that would be the sign to get up... it is Christmas morning, rise and shine! I would also get this cannot sleep feeling of excitement when my Daddy Kenny would come into town to visit. I would wait for my mom to take us into San Luis to pick him up at the train station or wait on the front porch, for his car to come driving up my street. We would have so much fun while he was in town visiting. Another occasion like this can't sleep feeling would always be the First Day of School, no matter what grade it was, it would be the excitement of wearing my new school clothes, seeing my friends after a long summer break, etc.



So this morning I have that same feeling of Can't sleep, I am too excited! My older brother Jeff is in town on a business trip and we (Andrew and I) are meeting up with him tonight to have dinner! I have to wait ALL day to see him though. All of these other events are morning related and not drawn out with anticipation. This morning I will go to my Doctors appointment, then in the afternoon have lunch with some friends, go home carve a pumpkin for the pumpkin caring contest at my work, take Duke on a 1/2 hour walk, watch some TV to kill the time, and THEN it will be evening time to see Jeff! The excitement of sizzling bacon, sitting on the front porch, and wearing my new school clothes will be finally here!



I haven't seen my brother in 6 years!?!!? Can you believe it? Since our Wedding in Westlake, CA. 2002! This is a big gap in time, but so happy to see him. I just wish my little Nephew and Sister-in-law were with him, to be able to see them too! Andrew and I will have to make a trip out to NY next year after the baby is born to visit them all. We also have to make a trip out to Oregon to see all my cousins, and my Aunt & Uncle, whom I have not visited in a long while either! My family is spread out everywhere, we just need to make a reunion somewhere to see everyone all at once! How about here in MO, we can do a meet the new baby reunion in 2009/10.

It all started with a light up pumpkin!

I woke up Friday morning, it was 8am, and rushed outside to put out the trash and recycling before the trucks came by. While I was outside I decided to set up my halloween decorations. Getting out the light up pumpkin I needed an extention cord to go from the porch to the garage, only to find the plug is on the ceiling!!! It is still not plugged in, because I cant reach the outlet, I will have to have Andrew fiddle with plugging it in. Then on the porch I was looking at my doorway thinking about putting up fake cobwebs, only to find actual cobwebs on my doorframe! ICK! I got a broom out and swept it off, then looked at my porch and started sweeping the leaves off of there, then the leaves were on the steps, swept the steps...leading to me sweeping the whole driveway into a pile of leaves! THEN! I figured that I might as well rake the front lawn too. I ended up with 3 piles of leaves raked up.

While I was raking the leaves, a dog was hanging out with a lost, wondering look on her face. I checked her collar for an address. Grabbed Dukes leash to walk the dog back to her home. I thought the street was a few blocks by my house, and could run her over there. Then I couldn't find the street. I asked a neighbor if she knew where the street was? She didn't, so she called the number on the collar to contact Dakottas owner. The owner stopped by shortly after to pick the dog up.

Then Andrew asks me at the end of the day, "Did you walk Duke at all?" I reply, "No, but walked someone elses dog..."

Coming around full circle, it is now Sunday morning and I ask Andrew, as I am getting ready for work for him to plug the extention cord into the garage ceiling. He is half asleep still, and replies, "No I am sleeping." I then say, "I meant after you get up can you do this sometime this afternoon?" He replies back with a yawn, "No I'm going to sleep ALLLL day." Andrew was so cute talking while half asleep. I wish I got it on camera, he was too funny!

Happy Fall!

I am 18 wks preggy now, almost 5 months! In two more weeks we will be able to find out if we have a boy or girl!

I have a big enough belly now that I made a pumpkin tee for Halloween to wear while giving out candy at the house. (photo below, later I colored in the face to stand out more).

Pregnancy frustrations

Stop telling me to watch my wieght, people! I am getting tired of all the preggy comments!

This is my bitchfest blog post...

I am at 17 weeks (4 months and 1 wk). Most of my coworkers are looking at the size of my preg. belly and saying how big it is getting so soon...(Hello!? I am 4 months prego!) Of course I will have a belly now, there is a baby inside me taking up all that space, growing!

My supervisor came into work and the first thing she says to me, "Hun you may be gaining weight too fast? your belly has gotten big" So I got currious, AM I GAINING TO QUICKLY?

So I looked online to see the wieght gain rate I should be at and I am right on target with suggested time line of wieght gain.

This site: http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramidmoms/pregnancy_weight_gain_print.html

suggests: the first 2-3 months is to gain 2-4 lbs. THEN 3 to 4 lbs EACH month from 4 months to 9 months!!! SO THERE! I have gained 9 lbs thus far and am at the 4 month mark...it all checks out. I am also eating healthy and snacking often to keep feeding the baby, and I also drink plenty of water.

So stop with the comments, my prego belly is right at the size it needs to be at!!!!!! ARG!

Fun Times in Chicago

Iwas hanging out as one of the guys last weekend. We took a road trip to Chicago in a rental car. It was Andrew, his two buddies: Jay and Clint and then me as the only gal in the group. The "odd man out." Fun times though, talking guy talk, being silly, and doing touristy stuff in Chicago. Starting off at the Navy Peir.
We didn't ride the faris wheel, because it looked to slow, and it was at the end of the day, when we were wrapping up our time at the Navy Pier.

Pic of Andrew and Clint Chillin at the Peir.

Party Yacht one of 3 docked at the Pier for tours around the lake. We opted for the Sea Dog!



Look closely there is a light house behind us.
We went to the Navy Pier, and road the Sea Dog boat ride around the lake. The boat goes fast and makes sharp turns getting us soaked! A lot of fun; we road in the boat out past the light house and around back to the pier. The following pictures I took while on the Sea Dog boat. Coming up to the light house, right up close to it...then over by the city skyline and back to the Pier.

The pic of the sail boat is another one of many different boat rides people can take. We think that the sails are fixed on there in it's perfect position, the sails are not functional and just for show.

Authentic Navy guys walking around the Navy Pier, there were some Navy Women there too.
It was such a beautiful day and the weather was perfect. We had a blast.