It’s official as you can get in an ultrasound.  Our baby decided to give us a glimpse this time and she is definitely a girl.  I couldn’t help myself and right after the appointment we went and bought some baby girl things.  Not too many as I still need to take inventory.  We had a summer baby before so I will have to make and buy a few warmer things for our winter baby.  We are glad to know finally so we can start gearing up.  Other baby news.  The last ultrasound, 6 weeks ago, showed the baby in the 50th %tile.  The doctor apparently likes that because when he noticed that this little girl is now in the 90th %tile he got all concerned and “suggested” I see a nutritionist to help keep the baby’s weight down.  I am NOT going to pay someone to tell me what I already know and am doing.  I am very conscious of what I eat.  I very rarely indulge in anything and my weight gain has been very low.  Take a look at my husband and and you will realize I am going to have large babies.  The doctor noted as much but I was a little miffed that he spent so much time talking about it.  She is 2 weeks gestationaly larger which sounds about right for a two week early delivery.  Sounds great to me. 

We are still coughing a bit but are feeling much better.  We heard quite a few reports even outside of our family that people have had this nasty bug, even whooping cough.  So we weren’t the only ones.  This year had been tough for us with more episodes than ever.  Let’s hope the holiday season doesn’t knock us flat.

Remember this hairdo?  I got to the point at about 8 that I wouldn’t let Mom do it on me anymore because I was called Mickey Mouse at school.  I couldn’t take the ridicule any longer and I remember throwing a huge tantrum one morning until she took them out.

Man’o'man!  It has been a rough couple of weeks.  I didn’t know one could get so sick in the summer.  As a usually healthy person this illness has been a bit of a trial for me. (Before children I went an entire year and a half with out so much as a sniffle)  I have been up most every night coughing up a lung for the past two weeks.  It makes for very low energy days.  Brian asks if I am ever going to lick this thing and Serra asks me to please take her somewhere.  The highlight of most of her days is when Daddy gets home and takes her for a short walk.  She runs the whole time.  She has been very good and plays well on her own all day.  She has been sick too but it doesn’t seem to be very bad.  It hasn’t kept her up nights except for a few times at the beginning.  I know others of you are having the same plight and believe me, I feel for you.  I hope everyone kicks it to the curb soon. 

So let me catch up before I forget August completely. 

When Jeff arrived a few weeks ago, we hung out with him for a few hours before heading home.  As we were leaving Serra was handing out hugs to a few.  She started to leave without acknowledging Jeff.  He asked her if she was going to give him a kiss too or just walk away.  She barely glanced over her shoulder and said, “walk away.”  What can I say to Jeff but, you gave her the choice.

Last week happened to be my birthday and we celebrated early with the family and combined it with Georgianna’s birthday.  Liesl was kind enough to hostess and cook and brought tritip, chicken and a plethora of garden delights to the table.  Age appropriate gifts were given and received and it was a nice evening.  Thank you to the family for the Motherhood gift certificate.  I am going to wait a few weeks as I know there will be some things I will need as my size increases exponentially toward the end.  Mom and Dad kicked in a few extra things that were very thoughtful as well including a little box that will work well for putting my rings in while I do dishes, and a stylish key rack.  Katrina created a little angel finger puppet from paper and tape.  I am always amazed at her little creations.  She is very inventive and on a very miniature level.

Brian’s family sent me a card with a gift certificate to JoAnns.  It has become tradition to use that for Serra’s Halloween costume.  We have decided that this year she will be a butterfly.  It will be very cute. 

Brian surprised me on my birthday with the whole day.  He arranged to take the day off and spend it with me.  We got up early and he gave me a battery pack that attaches to my camera holding two batteries.  This will allow me to not have to change batteries during a session.  It also makes the camera easier to hold when shooting vertically with an extra  trigger button.  We headed to Santa Barbara for breakfast and then to an amazing camera store for the rest of his gift.  I needed a new bag that would fit all the equipment I have collected over the years.  I found a nice one that will work well and also a small one that holds just my camera for occasions when I don’t want to carry a huge bag.   My husband knows me well.

We headed back to Ventura where we met up with Gary and family and Serra A at the fair.  One of the best parts of the fair for me is to go around to the various exhibits and see if any of our stuff placed.  I took a 1st for Serra’s halloween costume, a second for a Christmas stocking, and a 3rd for one of the photo’s I entered.  Not to shabby.  We hit the pig races and  checked out all the animals and then decided we were done.  I was pretty beat.  Serra crashed in the car before we left the parking lot so instead of taking her directly to cousins for the remainder of the evening we headed home to feed the dog and let him out of his confinement for a few minutes.  She was able to get in a decent nap this way. 

We then dropped her off with the cousins and Brian took me to a movie and dinner.  Our time alone is little these days and rarer are the days when I have Brian for an entire day and so it was a fantastic birthday. 

On the garden front.  The tomatoes are finally on and we get several a day.  They are beautiful.  No burn marks or splitting at all this year.  Perfect.  And they taste good too.  The peppers are doing well and Brian asked for one of his habaneros to be added to some salsa.  I made a separate bowl for him and he has had a little difficulty with it.  HOT!

I was a little worried about the bambino with all the violent coughing going on but I am still feeling  a lot of movement so I guess it is unaffected.  I have an appointment next Tuesday where I am having an ultrasound for some things that need to be followed up on from the last one.  We are HOPING for a glimpse of what we are having. If it doesn’t happen this go around we will be surprised at birth. 

Happy Birthday.     We did have a day at the beach as well.  Aunt Serra and Uncle Jeff played hard with the kids.  They had a blast.

Watch out for flying chunks of sand.

YMCA…

A first place…and pig races…GO HAMIONE!!!

Red snow cones.

SPOKE TO SOON…SICK AS A DOG AND NO END IN SIGHT…

I shot a wedding with the help of Serra~A~ last Friday and I must say she is invaluable as a light disc holder/equipment wrangler.  I let family members take care of the bride so I didn’t have to bend down a lot and could just concentrate on the pictures.  It turned out to be a much better day for me than the previous wedding where I did too much.  The pictures came out really well and that is always a relief. 

Vee’s little sniffle has turned into a full blown cold and I am on my second round with it.  It isn’t as horrible as it could be so I am thankful for that since I can’t take anything for it.  Early this morning I was awake with Vee for a couple of reasons when I we heard the sonic boom as the space shuttle came in to land.  It has been since I was in the 6th grade that I have heard that.  Brian didn’t seem all that interested in it when I asked him if he heard it.  “Is that what that was, it was really loud.” as he rolled over and went back to sleep.

I think I may have mentioned last week that Mo had been sick for nearly 2 weeks.  He was throwing up every night and during the day sometimes.  We were sort of waiting it our until it got really bad on Thursday last week.  Not only was he throwing up but he was lethargic, not eating, and not himself at all.  So I bit the bullet and took him to a vet.  We were faced with some tough choices as the tests were inconclusive and all we had to go by were the opinions of the vet.  We leaned heavily on Holly’s expertise and kept in contact with other family as we weighed out options.  Everyone figured he had a blockage in his digestive tract somewhere, most likely from ingesting something that isn’t digestible.  With a little further testing the vet was relatively sure it looked like a ball.  So we decided after a few tears were shed that rather than putting down a perfectly healthy dog we would agree to surgery to remove the problem.  It turned out to be one of Serra~V~’s 25 cent vending machine balls that Mo just couldn’t stay away from.  I remember the day it disappeared.  He wouldn’t leave it alone and Brian had expressed concern the night before that he might swallow it so SV had been putting it up high so Mo couldn’t get to it.  She put it on my sewing table where it soon disappeared from.  He is a pretty smart dog and has learned to climb on things to get what he wants.  The day he ate it I remember him coughing and gagging a lot and I figured he had eaten something that didn’t agree with him.  I didn’t put the two together at the time though.  I figured he had hidden or buried the ball somewhere else.

The ball had been blocking his intestines at the stomach level and was keeping him from getting much food or water.  He was severely dehydrated and would have gone down hill fast as the ball would never have digested or passed.  Brian rearranged his schedule the following day to run him to another facility to be watched while he was at work and I was doing the wedding.  He is recovering well with  6 inches of staples holding him together.  He can only eat a few tablespoons at a time every few hours for a few weeks and has to take antibiotics like a baby. Yesterday he had his morphine catheter removed and hasn’t experience any discomfort that I have noticed.  In fact I am having a battle keeping him from chewing on any little thing he comes in contact with.  He can find a screw or a tiny piece of plastic faster than the vacuum.  We are contemplating getting some training help to kick the habit that could kill him.  It would be cheaper in the long run.  Thank you  to family members that helped us out during this little trial.  A great deal of stress was lessened especially for me.

I feel like my birthday has already come with all the nice things that have come in the mail and the little party last night.  Thankyou everyone who has made it a great week for me already. 

Alright, per Dad’s request.  For those of you with weaker stomachs than Mo.  You may want to cruise past the first 3 images. 

Here we have the second round of x-rays with barium added for a view of were the blockage potentially is.  As you can see there is an unnaturally round object in the stomach.  Next we have the finished product.  Mo all stapled up.

Please rub my unattractive shaved tummy. …Mo ate WHAT!  Is he a bad boy?

The rest of these are some of my favorite shots of the wedding.

We went to the beach today and met up with Mom, Serra A, Jeff, and the cousins with their mom.  Jeff and Serra entertained the masses while the three of us sat under the umbrellas and enjoyed watching.  I even coaxed Serra A into taking some pictures.  I will save those for another day since I feel I have done my posting duty today and it’s time to put my feet up for an hour before starting on dinner.  It’s the Ventura County Fair tomorrow to see how all our entries did, and for some rides and fireworks.  We may even squeeze in some piglet races too.  Actually, I may have to sit out on the rides this year.

So much for posting pictures right away.  I have spent the last four days in Calabasas hanging out with the crew there.  The cousins stayed a few nights and so we let Serra~V stay too.  She declared to Brian that she wasn’t coming home that Grandma’s house was her new home.  And as I got ready to leave her she told me she didn’t need me to stay.  She was fine.  I’m glad she is gaining some independence and confidence.  She played so hard the past few days that she literally collapsed with fatigue last night before we came home and was out the rest of the night.  She got a little sniffle but is not too bothered by it. 

Jeff got in yesterday and as the other boys (Dallas, Brian, and even Matt) showed up they decided to go to the driving range.  Serra A has been here for several days and we have been enjoying her company.

Brian finished up his summer semester on Tuesday and is glad to see it pass.  Two left.  We aren’t sure what the next few months hold as far as whether we stay here or get a head start in Vegas.  The only thing we do know is that we will be having a baby in November.

I enjoy frequent bumps and kicks from our critter.  We are going to try one more time to find out if it’s a girl critter or a boy critter on the 23rd and if it doesn’t work then…we will be surprised on delivery day. 

At the park playing in the water with the cousins.  Katrina = one Grecian urn

Nice legs Serra~V~                                               Hurrah for goggles!

@ the beach with the kids……..miniature golf for the family…Serra goes for the shot….nice shades Brian.

@ the castle…Serra takes a siesta with her amigo.