Snap Happy

I'm not feeling the urge to type,
but posting pictures takes little effort.

I promise a real update as soon as I have mine
and my daughter's routine figured out.

Thank you again for all the well-wishes and words of encouragement!

Have you ever seen a more beautiful smile?

Kellie Allison

Hello friends and family! I'd like to give you a mini-rundown of our new arrival. Details will be later when I've had a nap (or three!).

Kellie was born on Saturday night at 11:41. She weighed 6 pounds 1.8 ounces. She is 18 inches long and she is absolutely everything we hoped for and more! Despite being early, she passed every test with flying colors. According to her due date, she was born at 35 weeks. According to her development, the doctor said she was probably 37 weeks. So she's not too early and she's thriving. She's a hungry girl!

Until I have more spare time, I put all the photos we have in our camera here. We have more in our video camera (Thanks Jim and Carol!) and as soon as we figure out the software, I'll put those up too.

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

'Tis the Season

It's Black Friday, and I can finally employ my Christmas spirit.
No one will give me a second glance if I decide to belt out "Jingle Bells" as I peruse the produce section of the commissary. Hold that...I may get a few glances. Only because I'm serenading the bananas, not because of my song choice. Brian and I hired Terra to take our pictures. Her payment? She got to witness our picture-fighting ways. We always quarrel when it's picture time. I think that's payment enough. It really is quite entertaining.

This one is my favorites. The pictures we took serve two purposes; documentation of Kellie before she's born, and Christmas gifts for everyone because my lack of working has caused us to be... well, not strapped. But we certainly can't live the high life any longer.

We're having a Charlie Brown Christmas this year.

Happy Holidays!!

In Other Words

I feel I should clarify the point I was attempting to make in my previous post. I do not think that holidays are terribly difficult or that they might not be worth the trouble. I was simply voicing that, as Heather commented, everyone forgets that last minute item at the same time and then you wait in line for what seems like an eternity.

I enjoy holidays, I just don't recall ever having been the one to stand in line and think about which items I can discreetly ditch near the checkout stand so that I might slip quietly into the express lane. I can't say that I'm fond of crowds. I have even less affection for waiting in line. I avoid The Day After Thanksgiving as though my life depended on it. I don't even like to leave my house. I make sure my milk won't expire on or before the Friday following Thanksgiving so I can avoid an unnecessary trip into the crazed community.

Ultimately, I was attempting to share my distaste for seasonal crowds.
No more. No less.

Cynic? Maybe.

I found myself pondering the upcoming holiday as Terra and I made our way in the line at the commissary.
This line wrapped around three walls of the store.
The management had every lane open, so we were only in line for twenty minutes.
But had the non-holiday number of registers been open, I would guess that we would have stood in line for well over forty-five minutes.

What is it about this season that makes us rush to the store and buy them out of every last can of olives?
Why must we have jellied cranberry sauce, stuffing, and sweet pickles?
Does it seem to you that the holidays have become more of a chore than a celebration?
Or has it always been like this and I'm only now seeing the adult-side of the merrymaking?

Baby Shower

I had such an awesome time at Kellie's baby shower! My baby girl is spankin' spoiled. She's so lucky to have so many people who care about her before she's even born.
I'm mad at my photo editor. Most all of my photos have red eye. I can't seem to get my editor to remove red eye without shutting down and giving me an error. So pretend that we're not demons. Here's a few of my favorite pictures.

A big THANK YOU to Sarah and Meaghan for throwing a fantastic party!
These ladies put so much hard work and love into this party. I'm terrible at expressing how I feel in the moment. I'll have to make sure they know how much it meant to me. They made fantastic food and put up the cutest decorations. I felt completely at ease and I'm not usually comfortable with being the center of attention. So, thank you again girls. I can't thank you enough.



If you'd like to see all the pictures click here.
(This saves me time because Yahoo uploads faster than Blogger.)

Thirty-Three Weeks

I've been having contractions off and on since 10:00 yesterday morning. When I got to work, I threw up almost immediately. I had terrible pain in my abdomen when I went to the hospital. The contractions weren't strong enough to make me scream, but some were strong enough to make me catch my breath. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions. The side effects were a racing heart and shaky hands. I felt like I'd overdosed on diet pills. I cried because, even though the pain was gone, I didn't feel like I had control over my own actions. Apparently, I bit Brian's hand. Not hard enough to draw blood. But hard enough for him to comment on it once I'd stopped flipping out. I don't remember biting his hand. After the shot wore off, I felt good for about twenty minutes before the contractions started again. They checked my cervix. I was 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. They gave me another shot. Same thing; scary shakies for an hour and then the contractions came back. Before they sent me home, they checked again. She said "You're not quite at 2 cm." So I was still at 1 cm and still 50% effaced. They sent me home with some anti-anxiety pills that are supposed to help you calm down enough to sleep. I was wary about taking the pills. I don't know why. But Tora (my midwife) said I should take them. I took them and my contractions stopped for half an hour. When they started up again, I didn't feel so stressed about them. Actually, the contractions made me laugh. Those were some good pills. I went to sleep, still contracting, and only woke up for the really bad ones. I woke up at 9:30 this morning with no contractions. I've been thinking long and hard about the decision to go back to work or not. I still hadn't decided when Brian came home for his lunch. I went in to work to talk to Meaghan and Sarah about it. In the first fifteen minutes of my being there, my contractions started again. Whether or not they started because I was up and out of the house or just because they were going to start again no matter what I did, it was a sign for me. I made my final decision while I was sitting in the tiny-sized chair in room 151. I decided that having an early baby was not worth having my credit card paid off a few months early. I felt terrible as I walked out of room 151. I hate to leave my friends without a pot to piss in. But what help am I to them if I can't even bend down to wipe a kid's nose without contracting? Especially since the contractions are obviously doing something, however slowly. I can only hope that they find someone quick to fill my spot so that Meaghan and Sarah don't have to suffer for very long. I'm still contracting even as I type this. I'm hoping this is all just Braxton-Hicks and not a prelude to active labor.

I'm only thirty-three weeks, afterall.

A Perfect 10

This picture captures the very essence of why I love my husband.
He remembers the smallest (but most important!) things.

My water bottle is never far from reach and I don't function well if it is. As Brian was leaving for work, he saw my water bottle in the car. He knows I'd freak out - searching the house for it - if I didn't have it for babysitting tonight. So he took the time to open the garage door and set it on the floor of our mud room. I didn't find it until just now and he's been gone for a half hour.

This moment rates a 10 on my happy scale.

I Kid You Not

I bought a bag of Halloween candy.
Nix that.

I bought three bags of Halloween candy in early October.

Come Halloween night, I have five fun-size twix in my trick-or-treat bowl. I'd like to blame my lack of treats on some hole in the universe that sucked in my well-intended candy... but we all know I ate it.

I don't like to leave my house. (Yep, I'm a hermit.) So I had to think fast.

What did those poor kids who came calling at my house on Halloween night get?

100 Calorie Packs

Indeed. A healthy snack for kids of all ages! I threw in the last of what I had in the cupboard. See, I buy a box, and get bored of the flavor. Then I buy a new box the next time I go shopping and the old flavor gets pushed to back of the cabinet. This adds up over the course of six months. I had a nearly-full box of 100 calorie popcorn!

Brian mocked and teased. But one kid exclaimed "Popcorn!!" She then grabbed two bags and ran, which is altogether the most dangerous thing you can do in a state that is basically an ice rink. I'm thinking she thought the crazy pregnant lady would chase her down and demand that she return a bag of her reduced-calorie popcorn. Why else would she risk her life?

When I went grocery shopping, I bought two bags of clearance Halloween candy.

Yes, I'm eating them.