Pregnancy Week

It’s Pregnancy Week at Scottsdale Moms Blog! There’s something in the writing around here as 5 of the contributors are expecting! This week is filled with fun and funny pregnancy related posts including today’s by Kristin that is a total crack up (and sooo true about the coffee). And Friday is the big reveal of Baylor and Mr.Man’s room – get excited.

In the mean time, I’ve got a million pictures from our annual pilgrimage to Coronado this past weekend to share and stories to tell. It was an amazing trip…it’s hard to be back to reality this morning.

Mini Horse Hands

A few months ago I got a flyer from the Zoo about their equestrian programs. They have a class called Mini Horse Hands and it’s designed for 3-5 year olds. The stables at the zoo are really nice and the price was right so Peter and Bay ventured to the zoo every Saturday morning in July to the class.

The good news is that she LOVED IT. She was an amazing listener, brave and had a great time. The bad news is that most of the kids (and their parents oddly) were terrified of horses (please let me know if you understand why someone would sign their kids up for horse class if the kids and they are terrified of horses – because I cannot for the life of me figure out why). So there was a lot of standing around waiting for the other kiddos to warm up to take their turn. Needless to say, we won’t be signing up for another round of classes, but we will definitely be looking for a stable for her to take some more lessons!

Grooming “Rolly” Neapolitan

Feeding Midnight

Ready to ride!

Ridding Penny

First Day of School

Last week marked Baylor’s second year at preschool. I can’t believe how much bigger she is this year than last year!  She landed in a great classroom with several of her buddies including the infamous Ms. Morgan. She has three teachers, two who have been been teaching since forever and one who is only a few years out of college – it’s the perfect mix!

August 9th, 2012

Baylorisms – Part 5

I keep saying that I need to keep a list of the funny things B says – because by the time I get to my computer, I forget half of them! She is now at the point where she knows she’s not saying something right and has begun to say “Do you know what I’m talking bout? Does that make sense??” trying to convey her thoughts. Such a crack up and getting smarter by the minute.

Zanya – The name she gives a lot of her stuffed animals. I have no idea where it came from or what it means.

Nayday – Her horse’s name, the only one not named Zanya.

Hanitizer – The combination of Hand Sanitizer

Rondry room – Laundry room. She can say L’s, but for some reason that doesn’t translate to the laundry room.

Loyal-ler – Lawyer. As in “you don’t look like a loyal-ler when you where cowboy boots to work, Daddy”. Jury is still out on whether this is a good or bad thing.

Scoops – the arm motion that goes along with freestyle swim stroke. While watching the Olympics, she announce “oooh, look at her scoops!!”.

Big Girls Don’t Cry

We have been on a mission to turn Bay’s room into a shared room for her and her soon to be brother. It has been quite the process. What should have been just moving some furniture, a new bed and some bedding, has turned into a multiple weekend project.

First, the garage needed to be cleaned out and reorganized to be able to hold the extra desk from the office and other odds and ends. Next the kitchen set and table and chairs from B’s room moved to the office. Finally the changing table and bookshelf had to be emptied and moved around in the bedroom so that the crib could be moved and then the big girl bed assembled.  Then the furniture didn’t fit in the room so there was another rearrangement. Then there was a discrepancy in the color of a few items so there was spray paint involved. Countless trips to Lowes, Home Depot and Target….And trust me, this is the short and sweet version. There were many arguments, coercion of friends to help move furniture, a few tears, a lot of cleaning and the realization that we have far too many hobbies and crap in general.

In the midst of all the chaos, Bay was transitioning to her new bed. Part of the reason this is all going on now was that I wanted her to have lots of time to move into her bed when she was comfortable. It turns out, she not only was ok with sleeping in her new bed, she insisted on it. She loves her new bed. As we were putting the sheets on it, PW began giving me puppy dog sad eyes. When I asked what was wrong, he responded that she’s a big girl who doesn’t need her crib anymore. I laughed a little because he gave me the business when I got upset about deconstructing her room a few weeks ago in preparation of the furniture move. It wasn’t until I reached into the crib to take the sheets off that I realized that the soft pink sheets are never going back on.

We stood outside her door that night looking at her room and fighting off the urge to snuggle her and cry “you’re our BABY!! You can’t grow up yet!!”. We checked on her a few hours later and were happy to see that she was tiny in her giant twin bed – it made my heart happy to see that at least for now, she’s still little.

Here’s a sneak peek of the room – the final results will be up on Scottsdale Moms Blog for Pregnancy Week (5 contributing writers are currently pregnant!) at the end of August.

 

 

Random Acts of Kindness

Scottsdale Moms Blog participates in a Twitter Tasting thing (that’s the best explanation I can do) with Fresh and Easy. It’s a really fun idea – basically Fresh and Easy contacts the SMB group and invites us to participate. Those that are in receive a F&E gift card and the names of three wines. You take your gift card and pick up the designated bottles. Then sign onto a Twitter room (?? I don’t twit so I don’t fully understand what I participate in) and follow the instructions as to which wine we’re tasting first. Then all you have to do is drink and tweet about if you love or hate. Does it sound like a fun and free way to drink? Then I’ve done a good job explaining.

I was contacted by Erin at F&E a few months ago about participating in a tasting but sadly had to decline as Mr.Man was on his way.

While on the phone screaming at Kodak Gallery about where the hell my archive DVD and  where the hell my pictures are on Shutterfly, FedEx arrived with a very heavy package. I began to open and pull out Fresh and Easy brand baby item after item. Perplexed, but still yelling on the phone, I opened the card. It was from Erin and her Fresh and Easy team congratulating us on our upcoming baby! I was so shocked by the sweet gesture, I gave a momentary reprieve to Kodak Gallery. It was like the best and worst customer service all happened in the same 30 seconds.

I was completely struck by how thoughtful someone I have only ever exchanged emails with could be. It’s good inspiration to do random kind acts.

There was also a GIANT chocolate bar in the box…it didn’t make it to the photo….

We’re Alive :)

Phew. I think I’m safe saying that we are all healed! What I thought was a sinus infection (and in my defense, the doctor agreed with me) turned out to be a nasty virus. Which, of course, B got too just about the time I started thinking I might not die after all. Our air conditioning went out the same weekend (thank goodness for parents who live close, pay their utility bill and weren’t home!) and there was a severe drought of sleep due to the constant coughing and sleeping in someone else’s house (Bear was thoroughly confused and literally paced allll night). It was, in a word, ugly. I don’t think PW has ever been to excited to go to work on a Monday morning.

Bay was out of school last week (this one I had planned for) so we had a week of swim lessons and play dates lined up. Every day started out with breakfast, get dressed and suddenly it was 1pm. I really have no idea where each day went. But it flew by and this week is a blur of doctor’s appointments (for me) and back to school fun late this week (for her). We spent all weekend making her room into their room so get excited for some sneak peek pics. The big reveal comes later in August on Scottsdale Mom’s Blog pregnancy week – there are 5 contributing writers all pregnant!

And thank you to those that checked in after seeing the blog was not updated – it’s nice to be loved 🙂

Veni Vidi Vici

Phew. I’m exhausted.

I don’t write about it often because The Goon Room is my happy, work free space, but once in a while work creeps in. For those that don’t know, my mom and I own and run a small water company in southern Arizona. Why? Well, that’s a really  long story so let’s just leave it at we have this investment and we are working our tails off to get it on the track to functioning in the black and within all of the governing agency’s guidelines.
That said, we started out on a journey to get a rate increase last year. It took a year of data and document collection to get to the point of filling out the 50 page application – which turned out to be over 200 pages once we added all of our supporting documents. Many months, many hours of auditing by the corporation commission, many inspections, many meetings, many nasty letters from customers, many problems and roadblocks, many tears and many “if we don’t laugh we’re going to cry” moments later, we got it. After waiting nearly 6 hours to be heard in an open meeting before the commission, the final vote was 4 yeses and 1 no – a win for us.
I was sick with nerves all day waiting for our turn to be heard – so when the decision was made, the relief of the moment felt more like a hang over and less like victory. Today, it’s sinking in that we did it. We have taken a failing company and in just over 2 years have brought back into the black (even if it’s just barely in the black, it’s black by God). We’re not done yet, we still need a loan and then start a massive construction project which are daunting all on their own. But damn it if we’re not one big step closer to the finish line. And yet another reason to celebrate with a large bottle of wine in October. Until then, Ben and Jerry’s will have to do!

Millions of Peaches

Peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free.

Look out!

Anyone? Anyone? Presidents of the United States of America – or the theme song of eighth grade.

I have been craving peaches this entire pregnancy. Canned don’t cut it. Frozen either. And the little ones from the grocery are either too hard, too soft, no flavor or too far gone. But finally, finally! Costco had the big box of big peaches last weekend. There are a dozen softball sized fruit and after one day sitting in the fruit tower in the kitchen, they are perfect! I’ve eaten all but 2…back to Costco I go!

I’ve been eating them as is, but I have big plans for the next box. Peach and blueberry cake. Sugared peaches. Grilled peaches with amaretto cookies, peach pancakes…my mouth is watering just typing this!