You gotta give a lil' push sometimes...

The girls have been asking about getting involved in some new activities. I think its fantastic and was so excited to see their enthusiasm. Specifically with Mackenzie - who is so shy. Kali usually can be swayed into trying anything once. During the last summer Olympics the girls were obsessed with the gymnastics. So it wasn't a huge surprise that they both asked if we could check that out.

I was immediately thrown back into my childhood when all of us girls went to California Cartwheel Center. It's mainly glimpses into memories that I have left, but I just remember we had so much fun, and we'd come home and practice in the front yard seeing who could do hand stands the longest. And then of course, there is the Nadia movie. A heavily abused, recorded from TV VHS of the Nadia Comaneci story. You know the Russian gymnast who was amazing. We all wanted to be her.

Anyway, we looked into it turns out CCC is still up and running and just as popular. So we signed them up for an intro class this past weekend. In getting them geared up I told them about the things I could remember. Hands down my favorite part was the giant trampoline next to the HUGE pool of foam. You could jump as high as you could and go flying into what felt like clouds. It was the neatest thing ever.

So Saturday we head on over, and I admittedly question to myself.. did they move? Downsize? Gosh it seems so small now. There is the "giant" trampoline and "giant" pool of foam as promised, but it sure doesn't seem as giant. Ahhh the joys of growing up I guess. Anyway, Kenzie's class was first, which admittedly wasn't optimal as she was getting the jitters and would have much preferred to watch Kali go first. By the time her class was called she had a death grip around my leg and was near tears. The teacher let me carry her in and sit with them while they started class. For the first 5 minutes she flat out refused and begged me to let her leave. My heart broke in so many ways. I never, ever want to do something to cause her to cry, ever! But at the same moment, I know in my gut this is something she will love, she just needed to give it a chance. So I just kept repeating it to her that she has to at least try. After the kids finished the first exercise the teacher asked them to come stand by her, I took this opportunity to kind of shove Kenzie in the mix and duck behind a wall. She could still see me but I wasn't in the area with her anymore. Man, if looks could kill - she was well aware of the maneuver I just pulled. So once I felt like she wasn't going to have a complete melt down, I went back into the room where Josh was, lined with windows so we could watch. It took all of 5 minutes before she was running around with the best of them, doing summer salts and... well, attempting cartwheels. It was the cutest thing ever.

We were thrilled to see her skipping to us after the class was over, followed by one of the teachers to come give her a high 5 and tell us how great she did. So Kenzie was beaming, the teacher was all excited and said "did you have fun?!" and Kenzie said "YEP!" and she said "OH GREAT! So you'll come back next weekend?!" ... "NOPE!" Oh for peet's sake Kenz.

So I think we are going to sign her up for another week and not give her the option LOL. Because Kali was about to pop out of her seat having to watch Mackenzie get to do it for an hour first, and the second the called her class she was barreling thru the door to go do it, and LOVED it. So I think Kenzie will regret backing out when we sit week after week watching Kali do it!

The first thing Kali said? "Can I get one of those pretty leotards like the other girls have?"... thats Kali for ya!!

I see rain

And Fritz said I wouldn't. Just sayin.

Me and Fritz, we are about to have a problem

Fritz is the "weatherman" if you want to call him that on the Channel 4 11 o'clock news. I usually can hold one eye open long enough to hear his weather report before blissfully passing out asleep every night. (Sometimes I'm woken up on the couch at 11, just to move to bed when Josh is ready lol) With California weather you have to kind of figure it's not rocket science. So usually good ole Fritz with his tiny glasses and beady eyes is not far off. Unless we have real weather. Well, are supposed to have real weather. Example: this week. Monday night he says, and I QUOTE! "The rain will hit Ventura County some time Tuesday evening, and then you will have showers on and off thru Thursday." K, sounds great thanks Fritz, nighty night.

Now I must pause to explain that finding out rain is coming was once a happy occasion. Until you have dogs. Rain for us now equals either muddy dogs when you get home, or having to pull them into the backyard on the leash before work, wait for them to do their business, then lock them in the kitchen all day while we are at work. It's a pain, and I hate doing that to them.

Tuesday morning I wake up and it's a bit dreary outside, but I figure fair enough a storm is a brewing! So, rather than locking the dogs up in the kitchen for 3 whole days, and deal with Chance having an accident, I happily send them outside figuring the rain will not come till we are home anyway. Well Fritz was WRONG! We are literally driving to work as I see rain drops hitting the windshield. Sigh. Fritz's only saving grace was that it never rained that hard, so we thankfully did not have muddy dogs when we came home!

Last night while watching The Biggest Loser, I hear the preview for the news, and its Fritz, his beady eyes now taunting me saying "If you hated the weather today, you are gonna hate tomorrow!" Sure enough come 11pm he's claiming full on rain for today. So, imagine my surprise today, when my alarm goes off, I throw open the curtains to be BLINDED BY THE MORNING SUN!!!! Fritz, YOU ARE A LIAR!!!

Thats all I have to say about that!!

Where Assumptions Will Get You

I look as though I have a basketball under my shirt. There is no turning back now, no way to conceal my secret and protect Jack from the world. Not that I didn't want people to know about him, but I liked that it was my decision whether or not people knew at first. Don't get me wrong, I ham it up, running into someone I haven't seen in a while and squealing with delight about whats to come. However, there is always some Eeyore, some dark rain cloud lurking somewhere. This week, it was at the grocery store.

Josh has taken care of the grocery shopping for what seems like the last month so I volunteered to tackle it by myself this week and let him stay comfy on the couch. (he was minutes from dozing under his B, too cute!) So off I went, filling my cart with the usual suspects for the week. Our splurge dinner happens to be bratworst, which we boil in beer and onions before throwing on the grill. So I grabbed a 6 pack of beer and threw it in the cart. I eventually made my way to check out, unloading my cart while the cashier got started. I should say, this cashier actually lives in my neighborhood and stopped at the house JUST to ask about Rufus because she sees him at the fence during the day and can't get over how adorable he is. We've since exchanged stories and while going through her line in the past she's whipped out her cell phone to show me pictures of Bowzer, her bully. So it caught me off guard when she scanned the 6 pack across and with a horribly judgemental eye on my stomach, asked for ID in a tone that was obvious she did not approve. As I bit my tongue, I thought of a few things I wanted to say, I wanted to give her a piece of my hormonal mind, and let her know that only in my dreams would I be able to go home and crack one of these bad boys open right now... or ask for a pack of cigarettes too, just for kicks, or lastly.. point out that she should open her eyes to the gallon jug of chocolate milk she's about to scan and realize theres a much bigger chance THATS for me to pig out on. Really lady? We swapped doggy pictures and you have to ruin all that by assuming I'm a knocked up alcoholic. Well, see if I stand in your line ever again! Meany!!!

On a happy note, today marks 100 days left!! That still feels like an eternity, but I'm happy to move into double digits tomorrow!

Mr. Doggy

I am not ashamed to admit that I sleep with a stuffed animal. It's something that has comforted me since I was a small child. When I lived alone having my bunny I got for my 11th birthday tucked under my arm against my side provided comfort. Tease me all you want, I don't care! When Josh moved in, out of fear of embarrassment I tucked my dear bunny up into the girl's stuffed animal net, hopefully hiding him from the elements. So, a few months later when I was having a tough day and stalked down the hall to change out of my work clothes, I immediately smiled when I saw the cutest doggy stuffed animal sitting against my pillow with a card in his lap. It was from Josh, telling me to cheer up and that tomorrow would be a new day. That night, the stuffed animal was firmly wedged in my side bringing me back to that childhood comfort and all was right in the world.

Well, that lasted about a week before Josh started teasing me. First, he thought it was ridiculous that he didn't have a name. Now, I never named my previous stuffed animals so the extent of my creativity went to Mr. Doggy. Well this just sent Josh over the edge, you can't name a stuffed dog Mr. Doggy. Oh really? I think I just did! Well, ever since then, Josh has just had it out for the poor guy. If he gets into bed before me, I'll occasionally see Mr. Doggy go flying against the wall in the hallway while I stand there brushing my teeth. Sometimes I crawl into bed and realize he's not there and look around... here are some of the places I've found him:

- In the laundry basket

- Wedged between the top of the door and the door jam

- "Hung" by the neck in a small wreath near the bedroom door

If I put Mr. Doggy on the same side as Josh I can count on him grabbing him at some point in the night and throwing him across the room. Josh claims it's because Mr. Doggy "makes me sweaty". Hmmm, I'm beginning to think Josh is jealous of Mr. Doggy! What do you think? ;0)

And yes, I know I sound crazy, but it's a kooky kind of day - ride it out with me!

Meet Chance!

Just because things were getting a little to easy and predictable around the house, we thought we'd add something to the mix - or rather, someone to our family! I introduce to you, our new puppy, Chance!

Chance would be a perfect poster child to help change the stigma that surrounds pitbulls. I have never (sorry Rufus) met a sweeter dog. He is 5 months old, and so well behaved it's almost uncanny. We keep wondering if something is wrong with him because it has been such a smooth transition. The only "puppy" issue we are still working on is potty training at night, but by housing him in the kitchen, it's pretty easy clean up. He's already learning to stand at the door to signal it's time to go potty. (At his old house, they had free run to come and go whenever.) All he wants to do is get love from you... and hands down the best part, he'll even take love from Rufus. We have been contemplating getting a playmate for Rufus for some time now. He does seem so bored during the day when we are at work. We've even done a handful of meet and greets with dogs at the local shelter trying to find a good match. There has just never been a gut feeling of this is the one, there was always some doubt. So, we agreed to take Chance on a trial basis, with the caveat that he and Rufus meshed well. So we headed home and upon tons of google research, the first thing we did straight off the bat was go for a walk. Which... had an unsuspecting challenge. Chance had never been on a leash before. So it took Josh going ahead with Rufus and giving us a few minutes for Chance to start to get the hint. Rufus really had to focus (thats my boy) on walking and not turning around to sniff butts, but by the time we got the park down the street they were galloping around each other like baby horses and Josh and I were hopeful. Over the next few days their bond only increased as Chance started to become familiar with us. Rufus still likes his alone time when it's time to go to sleep but will begrudgingly allow Chance to spoon once in a while. The best part hands down is their budding friendship. Rufus is easily double the size of Chance, and yet, when they play, you see Rufus going belly up and letting Chance get plenty of opportunities to take over and get a few playful jabs in. It truly warms my heart to watch!

Sorry for the awful picture, their noses get the window dirty in 2 seconds flat! But they are definitely buds!!

On a quick side note... Teddy's tracker says 111 more days to go, can't wait to break 100!!!

Finally, feel like we are making progress!

July 28th is my due date and it is a number ingrained in my head. I'm not obsessed with the idea of that being THE day. I get it, Teddy may already be with us at that point, or we may watch that day come and go on the calendar. But for now, this far away, its all I have to hang on to. It seems like light years away. Everyone says "oh coming up soon!" ya not really. At least, when for the last 5 and a half months my life consists of counting the weeks pain stakingly monitoring small milestones... I feel like Ive watched every hour of every day of each week slowly meander by.

However today, I got a little bit of excitement as I looked through the calendar. Next week we have a monthly check up. So I counted ahead 4 weeks to see when our next appt would be and how far along I'd be. That will be the last "monthly" appointment! After that, we will need to start seeing the doctor every 2 weeks as I'll be in my third trimester! YAY!!!! Something about that connection just really makes me feel like we are finally getting somewhere with this!!

Some other out of the ordinary events in the next two months: our 4D ultrasound, glucose test (Bleh, but I'm actually anxious to have it just to get it over with) and my shower!!! This will surely help build some of the realization that it is FINALLY getting near!