Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, near and far. I hope you enjoyed your turkey or non-turkey (lucky ducks!). The fact is, I'm just not a huge fan of turkey. When I'm the matriarch, our traditional Thanksgiving dinner is going to be a nice filet mignon for everyone, or maybe a tri-tip. Or hell, a Honeybaked ham. Something. Anything. Tonight we went over to Kevin's grandparents and the turkey was actually quite moist and good, for a turkey . No fault of Grandma's!

I'm thankful for so much this year: for my wonderful husband, for the miracle of modern medicine, for my heart (I've been off of the one medication for over a year now, with no change in my heart function!), for my puppies, for continued employment in these uncertain times, for loving and generous family and friends, and most of all, for the little life growing inside me. What a year this has been!

It's raining!

I think our summer may finally be over! We'll see...

What is Romance?

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

ro·mance (rō-māns', rō'māns') Pronunciation Key
n.

1.
1. A love affair.
2. Ardent emotional attachment or involvement between people; love: They kept the romance alive in their marriage for 35 years.
3. A strong, sometimes short-lived attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something: a childhood romance with the sea.
4. A long medieval narrative in prose or verse that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes: an Arthurian romance.
5. A long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place.
6. The class of literature constituted by such tales.
7. An artistic work, such as a novel, story, or film, that deals with sexual love, especially in an idealized form.
8. The class or style of such works.

I've fond that my own definition of romance has changed dramatically from year to year.

8 years ago, romance was a man I loved getting down on one knee, diamond ring in hand, asking me to be his wife.

7 years ago today, romance was the man of my dreams swinging me around the dance floor on our wedding night.

6 years ago today, romance was a man who never missed a day by my hospital bed, never once complaining when "in sickness and in health" turned out to be very, very much "in sickness."

5 years ago today, romance was finally getting to the "...and in health" part, planning our adventures in Germany.

4 years ago today, romance was enjoying our Anniversary dinner at the Blue Bayou Restaurant--the one inside the Pirates of the Carribbean ride at Disneyland--and going home to our very own house.

3 years ago today, romance was packing our bags for a cruise to Mexico.

2 years ago today, romance was filling out mountains of paperwork to build our family through adoption.

1 year ago today, romance was all about travel--a just-completed cruise to Alaska and an up-coming trip to see Christmastime in New York City.

This year, romance is counting down the days to the birth of our son.

I can't wait to see what romance looks like next year!

Happy Anniversary Kevin. I love you.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

I made a few minor changes to this blog--mainly I updated links (some of the other blog links were outdated or I don't read them anymore), removed some misc. stuff, and so on. However, on my screen (laptop) I don't have a sidebar on my blog. Instead everything is in one giant line--the entries, and then if you keep scrolling you finally get to the links, archives, etc. This happens to me in both Firefox and IE, and at this point I wonder if it's because my screen is small rather than a problem with the template. Is anyone else seeing my blog the way I am--as one big line, or are you getting two columns, one with entries and the other with information?

Baby Updates

We had our size ultrasound yesterday. Ever fearful of the Giganto Baby, we were very interested in the results. Unfortunately the ultrasound tech was exceedingly vague, with conversations like:

"Is he big?"
"He's within normal range."
"But is he going to be really big?"
"Well, he's not going to be a small baby..."

It was difficult to decipher the ultrasound screen as we were watching it, but we did walk away with one piece of information--he's currently estimated at 6 pounds, 9 ounces. Which as best we can tell is big but not alarmingly huge. It looks like he's measuring about 2 weeks ahead (ultrasound was at 35 weeks, 3 days, and he's measuring about 37 and a half weeks).

No scheduled c-section, yet.

I should be seeing the doctor weekly at this point, but she's only in the Orange office on Thursday mornings and next Thursday is Thanksgiving. She felt I was doing well enough that I could wait another week to see her (instead of seeing another doctor in the practice).

Today we headed out for some last-minute shopping. Now that we know his approximate size, we got some additional onesies and sleepers and another outfit. We still haven't gotten the "My First Christmas" outfit but I have one picked out that I liked at Babies R Us, they just didn't have the right size. There are a few more things we need to pick up from BRU too, so hopefully they'll have it.

We also hit Crate and Barrel to check out their super, super, super cool TV stand that I'm now drooling over. They also have matching bookshelves, so again with the drooling. We decided to wait and think about it, as it's a very big purchase (but they're GORGEOUS!). We did get a 15% off coupon in the mail so that will be a nice savings. I think we may invest in the TV stand (Kevin has permission to buy a new TV this year) and then decide later about the bookshelves. We actually got 2 Crate and Barrel coupons, so I got to go to Border's next door while Santa shopped used his second coupon. I can't wait to see what Santa saved so much money on!

After Crate and Barrel we headed across the street to The Container Store to check out their "closet solutions." The baby's room has a long, skinny closet with a single bar that we need to organize into a kid's-type closet. We're also looking at shelves for the laundry room to organize in there. The thing about The Container Store is that they have a huge 30% off sale in January, so we decided that's probably the best shelving system for our needs, but we're going to wait until it's on sale to buy it. In the meantime we bought a double hang closet rod so we can have baby clothes that are easy to see and reach.

We then swung by Red Robin to eat, Kevin ran into Cost Plus for some goodies, and we stopped by Staples to get some storage boxes as Kevin moves out of his room (which he's doing right now). Then we hit the motherlode at Ikea. We did indeed get our Leksvik collection--a dresser/changing table (the changing table conveniently comes off and it's a low dresser, perfect for kids, a high cabinet, a wall shelf, and a narrow dresser. We picked up some other odds and ends, and by the time we were done, we realized that our son will be sleeping in the Satan Room, as the purchases added up to $666. Heh.

Now I'm resting my aching back and Kevin is busy packing books. We're still trying to get rid of sell some old furniture taking up a lot of space in the garage, and then Kevin's office stuff will move there until we can get the real office built. Hard to believe this is actually all happening! I need to create my iPod playlist of soothing music to play during labor. That should be interesting.

We're okay :)

So sorry-- I thought that I'd posted an "all clear" on the fire situation and as I scrolled down my own blog I realized I never hit save or something. Guess I should check to make sure my posts actually post, right?

Anyway yes, we are in the all clear. The fire blew North and took the smoke with it. Our air is now clear and the sky is blue--it's been very refreshing. My heart goes out to all those who lost homes and to the brave firefighters who worked tirelessly to get the flames under control. These things are always so scary. Let's pray we're done for the year!

(Just checked, this one posted)

Here's something that would NEVER happen in our house...

Crazy

The community center down the street from our house has been turned into an evacuation center. Looks like the fires are spreading very rapidly, jumping two freeways (the Yorba Linda fire jumped the 91 into Anaheim Hills, so our city is officially on fire now) (but by "our city" I mean the posh outskirt region on the hills with lots of land to spare, not the urban part where we are). We're still in no danger aside from abyssmal air quality. Even the dogs can't stand to be outside. I imagine the smoke is just an assault on their sniffers. We've got all the windows shut and the ac on and are doing well.

It's Southern California, which means it's never too late for...

Fire Season! Ugh. With the heat we've had lately (it's 85 degrees out now--I am beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to wear any of those long-sleeved maternity shirts I bought), the Santa Ana winds (near hurricane-force in some areas), and the dry summer (not to be confused with the previous dry winter, which was not to be confused with last year's dry summer...and winter), the entire half of the state is a powder keg just waiting to blow. Everything expect for the areas that blew last year.

We were lucky enough to be far away from the Tea Fire in Santa Barbara to not get any of the ill-effects. Thanks to my blogger friend Suzanne for asking about us, by the way. Suzanne has a niece at Westmont College--latest report is that her niece is fine, was able to leave the area with some friends after being holed up in the gym, and her dorm is still intact--thank goodness.

But the Tea Fire notwithstanding, it was just a matter of time before it hit closer to home. Enter this morning. When I woke up the light coming in the window was extremely hazy--it looks like dusk outside--and the smell of smoke is so strong I really thought our neighborhood itself was on fire. Turns out we're getting smoke and ashes from a nearby fire in Corona/Yorba Linda, about 10-15 miles away and headed our direction. There are also reports of a fire in Brea (about 8 miles away). The good news is that our home is solidly in the middle of the city, so there would have to be a whole lot of urban burning before we find ourselves in danger. The bad news is that the smoke is thick, it smells awful, ash is raining down from the sky, and my breathing is feeling heavy. I have mild asthma--fortunately haven't needed my inhaler, but I can definitely feel a change in my lungs. Hopefully they'll get this fire under control soon, although they're also fighting a huge blaze in the valley--again not close enough to pose a threat, but enough to likely send some smoke our way.

A couple of minutes ago I took a couple of pictures off of our back porch.

The sun is almost totally occluded and the lighting is so weird. Kevin just described it accurately--it looks like someone turned on a flourescent light in our neighborhood.

Taking a look at the palm trees, you can see how windy it is. News reports say the gusts are 35 mph in our area, and we're in a relatively calm zone.

General chatter

So about 2 weeks ago Scout had some minor surgery. She'd been having problem with one of her eyes--it was constantly red and irritated. We got it cleared up with antibiotics and eyedrops, but the vet noticed a mole on her eyelid and thought that was probably causing constant irritation. Well, Scout's at that age where doggies start getting weird moles and growths (she's 12) so we decided to have the vet remove the mole on her cheek under her eye as well as the fatty growth (under the skin) on her tummy. Oh, and while she's out, let's get her teeth cleaned too. So we took our doggie to the vet and picked her up later that day.

Oh my god, the poor thing! She looked like she was on the losing end of a boxing match.

Of course they had to shave each area where they removed something, so she was shaved around her eye including her eyebrow, then shaved on the cheek, then of course the leg that had the iv was shaved, as was most of her tummy for the fatty growth that turned out to be golf-ball sized (yikes!) and then the vet also found another fatty growth on her side behind her arm, so she was shaved there. She had some stitches in her eye, 4 stitches on her cheek, and 5 or 6 on each of the tummy areas. Of course since it was right after surgery, she still had Betadine on the areas, which made it look even worse. Her poor eye looked terrible. Just looking at her I felt horrible.

Kevin went out and bought a Comfy Cone, which is like the best invention ever for a dog who needs to wear a cone post-surgery. The Comfy Cone is an elizabethan collar but it's made of vinyl over foam padding so that it's flexible instead of rigid like the plastic ones. It bends and is much easier for her to sleep in. It also velcroes on the side so you just have to wrap it around her neck instead of trying to force her head through it.

We've been calling her "The World Famous Conehound"

Our other problem was medication delivery. Scout will spit out ANY pill and her snout is too long to just shove it in, plus she had stitches on her cheek so we couldn't hold her snout shut. It doesn't matter what you wrap the pill in, she will eat off the food around it and spit out the pill. We finally figured out to crush the pill (or open the capsule) and get a small amount (like a spoonful) of regular wet dog food (the kind without chunks). We mixed the food plus crushed pill together, and then took a fingerful and smear it on the roof of her mouth. This was Mommy's method, but after a couple of days Kevin figured out that Scout was playing Mommy like a fiddle (surprise, surprise) and she would just eat the laced soft food directly without having to smear it on the roof of her mouth. Anyway, it's been wonderful to have such an effective and struggle-free solution.

Tomorrow she goes back for her second checkup and will probably not be a Conehound anymore. She looks much better, but is still shaved, which is kind of pathetic. Hopefully her fur will grow back quickly!

Your joke for the day...

Q: What's the problem with Barack Obama jokes?

A: His supporters don't think they're funny and other people don't think they're jokes.

My election commentary

What an election! Obviously I'm pleased with many of the results, but I'm most pleased--although not at all surprised--by this result:

Yeah, like fries ever had a chance against BACON!

Today's thought

Oh my