Crazy 3 Days, But Good News All Around

This weekend was a "long" weekend in more than one sense at our house. Aside from waiting for Tuesday to come around to find out Baby D's status, my 2 1/2 day weekend got extended by two days thanks to a nasty flu that provided a trial run to the hospital.

Sunday, we were supposed to do Christmas with Mom and Larry but we ended up in the ER - assuming I'd just get some fluids and do a quick BD check to make sure her fluids were good to go as well. But after replenishing fluids and running a few tests, I was checked in until Tuesday morning. Everything was looking good with BD, but my platelets dropped dramatically and they found protein in my urine (lovely, I know). With those two issues, the doctor felt I needed observation and BD may be making an immediate arrival should things not improve.

Fortunately, on Monday afternoon the platelet level was higher - to the point where I could get an epidural and/or other drugs should we need to deliver. After a 24-hour urine collection, the proteins had dimishised as well. Things are not totally "normal" per se at this point, but after a week's worth of steroids we will re-test and hope for better numbers. Either way, the doctor is considering inducing the first week of January since the platelets have been in such flux.

After having the baby monitored by several different people for the time I was hanging at at the hospital, I was feeling pretty confident that everything would go well at today's ultrasound. And I was right!!!! The perinatal lab determined that even though her stomach is a bit on the small side, her fluid levels are good and she is getting enough blood thourgh the cord and to her brain.

Basically, everything looks good from their perspective. She'll just be a little on the small side when she makes her arrival... the best news we'd heard in days!! Thank you everyone for praying for us and thinking of us over the weekend!

The only bad news is that in the spirit of Christmas and giving, I shared the wealth of the flu with my Mom, who spent Monday night in the ER in Springfield. Watch out for this stuff - it's nasty!

Update on Our Little Girl

We had our 36-week appointment earlier in the week, and subsequently Baby D's third ultrasound. Our doctor was on vacation so we met with one of the nurse practitioners, who noticed that BD's measurement hadn't changed like it should have since our last appointment a few weeks ago. Speculating that this was likely due to her being lower than last time, the nurse requested we get an ultrasound to be sure that everything was still on track.

Until this point, BD had been right on target to one cm smaller than what is considered "normal." I was a small baby and born early and Rog was an average-size baby and isn't the biggest guy in the world so the prospect of having a smallish baby isn't totally surprising. The ultrasound tech told us what she was measuring and the numbers, but didn't indicate that anything seemed out of the ordinary - and even estimated that BD is weighing in at 4 - 14 this week. Should anything need attention, our doctor would give us a call when she came back on Thursday.

This morning I got a phone call from the doc, who is concerned about the size of BD's stomach and scheduled us to see a perinatal specialist on Tuesday to get a better look and to check her blood pressure. She (the doc) seemed to think everything looked OK size-wise, but would feel better if the specialist checked it out to be sure. I asked what I should/should not be doing between now and Tuesday - which seems so far away. Since they really don't know what's going on, if anything, they've told me to continue what I'm doing but maybe eat more...difficult when I feel like I've been eating non-stop.

Everyone please keep your fingers crossed for us on Tuesday that she's just on the small side and nothing else.

Harry for the Holidays

Last weekend my mom paid us a visit for what in her mind was going to be a fairly low-key shower put on by my co-workers. Little did she know that after the shower, she would be about 20 rows back at the Harry Connick, Jr. holiday show at the Fox.

She absolutely LOVES Harry, so when we found out that he would be in town the day before her birthday it made coming up with a gift pretty simple! She was completely surprised when she opened her card with the tickets 20 rows back inside. And I must admit, it was a fantastic show - a good mix of Christmas music and some great jazz, including one of my favorite Mardi Gras songs that we actually played at our wedding reception.

We also got our pictures back that were taken with Rescued Racers. Even without the antlers, it was pretty obvious that Dream was less than pleased with Christmas card photos this year. If we could only read her mind in this one...

The Home Stretch

With one month to go prior to the big arrival, things are falling into place. With the exception of having a few issues locating the dresser that matches the crib, we've yet to run into any real problems. That's on the to do list for this weekend ... dresser shopping.

Once we get that and have a guy we know run some wiring for her ceiling fan, Baby D's nursery will pretty much finished. I'm still working on some artwork, my mom's working on window treatments and there should probably be some additonal decorating done. BUT it's just about good to go.

The crib and glider finishes don't match, but when you save 60% on the chair at 5 a.m. on Black Friday does it really matter??

The painting done in this room took much longer than either of us anticipated, but we're happy with the end result. Note to self - next come up with an idea that would use a stencil or something easier than free hand!

Shower

A few weeks ago, Heidi hosted the first and biggest of the baby showers. Baby D got lots of great loot, and miraculously we managed to squeeze it all into the Pathfinder. If there was one more pair of socks I don't think they would have fit!

Thank you to everyone, especially the ISU girls who hooked us up with our travel system. Rog and Dream had it put together by the time it took me to take a shower ... piece of cake!

Rather than posting a bunch of pictures of me opening stuff, I had to post this one of Heidi, Mom and I. When I saw it, that song from Sesame Street or whatever about one of the things not being like the others popped into my mind. Maybe I was wrong all along telling Heidi she was adopted :).

Baby D's nursery will hopefully earn its seal of substantial completion this weekend. After he put together the travel system, Rog headed to work on her crib. And this is the only picture I got because my batteries died - of course!

Whoa, Baby!

I thought with five days off over the holiday weekend that I'd get a few blog posts knocked out. Wrong again!

BUT today is deserving of a post - much more important than getting more done on Baby D's room or showers or the BS first round of "snow" we had last night.

In the midst of that snow non-event, Heather M., who a few of you may remember from my sneaky post announcing BD's arrival was due five days before us (on Jan. 6), was en route to the hospital thinking she had some bad Taco Bell and a bit of a belly ache.

Less than three hours later, Addison Blair Corum was born. Albeit a bit early, baby and mom are both doing well. As soon as we have pictures I'll post. This one is from my shower last weekend - more on that later as well.

Needless to say, with all of these babies coming early the pace of things has escalated at the DeHart house substantially.

Who'll Give Me 1,000?

Needless to say, the DeHarts didn't raise the paddle once on the initial call for bids at last weekend's auction.

We did bid on several items in a few of the side sections and a trip to San Francisco in the live auction (after the price dropped to a managable number) that we thought we had a pretty good shot of winning.

Of all of the vacations that were up for bid, the only one in the states that went for over $1,000 was of course the San Fran package ... unbelievable. Our other "good chance of winning" item turned out to be a similar deal as well.

It was kind of funny, people that I see on a fairly regular basis - every few weeks or so - kept coming saying "Wow, we had no idea you were pregnant." Or "Where have I been that I haven't known. As director of communications you could have/should have done a better job spreading the word!"

Now that this event is in the books, it's time to focus on some of my projects at work and at home that have taken a back seat recently. And that started Sunday when we painted our circu-type stripes in Baby D's room. The look pretty good - we took pictures but I'm downstairs and the camera is upstairs. Guess that means I'll have to do another post this weekend.

Shopping Trauma and Doc Update

For the record, I'm not a big fan of shopping for maternity clothes. Shopping for a maternity dress for a semi-formal event is traumatic at an entirely new level. I've never in my life felt more like Fat Bastard in my life than I did when I was trying on different options last weekend.

Three hours in to this horrific experience, I finally found a nice top and a skirt to wear to the auction tomorrow night. I can't wait to be back to the normal clothes again, shopping is so much easier with so many more options!!

We had another doctor's appointment on Tuesday and started our parenting/childbirth class on Wednesday. All looks good with Baby D and there wasn't a massive weight gain this time :).

I did get a recommendation from the doctor that we saw (not our usual one) that Rog agreed with, but slightly annoyed me. Basically she told me it would be in my best interest to "not burn the candle at both ends." She was less than impressed with my scheduling and activities to say the least. Not that lounging on the couch a bit more will be excrutiating or anything, but I'm pretty disappointed that we have elected to skip the Saints vs. KC game on Sunday to avoid 2 long days in a row.

Hopefully we'll get a great deal on something at the auction to make up for it or at least get Baby D's room painted this weekend.

Milstead's Shower

Last Saturday I headed home for Heather M's baby shower and spent a little time with Mom, Larry and Will. My trip was pretty quick, left home at 10 and returned about 8 so that I wouldn't have to get up early to make it back for our school's open house for potential students.

I hadn't been home for a while, the last time we were there was for Rog's reunion and my mom and Larry were busy that weekend so it was nice to see them for a little bit. Also caught up with my friends Jackie and Stephanie who both live in Colorado and were in town, as were Amber and Janell. Good to see all of them and Heather, Fanchon and Tahney again.

Since I was busy talking, I really didn't take too many pictures. Thank you Amber for taking the ones of Heather opening the gifts from mom and I :).

Heather and Jim, who are conincidently due 5 days before we are, elected for the surprise and did not find out Baby C's sex ... therefore mom and I hooked them up with several neutral bath items, tub, baby wash, etc.

We took a few pictures after the shower, since Janell and Amber and I strolled in a bit late. I had no idea I looked like such a giant next to this crowd!!!

Trading Zippers and Buttons for Elasticity

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'd failed my one-hour glucose test and had to take the ever-so-popular three-hour version. Prior to the test, my doctor put me on a special "diet" that upped my carb intake by 175-200g each of the four days I was on it. This diet of 4-6 slices of bread, 2 c of cooked pasta and other items like these were in ADDITION to what I would typically eat. Needless to say, the typical food took a back seat so that I could get all of this other stuff in each day.

I passed the test with flying colors, with numbers so normal the nurse questioned how I'd failed the first one. My thoughts exactly.

At our doctor visit the next day, just about 3 weeks since our last trip, they noticed what they termed as a "significant weight gain" of 7 pounds. Really ..... is that what four straight days of carbs can do for you?? Granted some of it was baby weight, I was annoyed that they seemed surprised that I'd bulked up after they'd put me on my special diet. And I've definitely noticed that I've gotten thicker since that point in time.

Other than almost doubling my weight gain in a span of about 3 weeks, all looks good. Baby D's heart rate is about 140, and she appears to be doing just fine.

She's also started to make her appearance over the last week and a half. With the exception of one pair of khaki pants and a few tops (like the one in the photo), I officially made the transition into maternity wear last week. It still baffles me how excited some of the people I work with get when I come in each morning to see if I have new clothes. But then agin they're also the ones who can't wait to touch my belly ... can't wait for that part of this whole thing.

These 29 week pics were taken last night at about 12:30, so my apologies for not looking fabulous.

New Cousin

Since our last post several weeks ago, my cousin Rich and his wife, Val, had their first daughter, Isabelle Paige.

She was due on my birthday but was born on Oct. 16, right in the middle of Larry and Heidi's birthdays. Izzy's a pretty good-sized girl, checking in at just under 9 pounds on day one, and definitely took her time getting here with an arrival time of 5:40 a.m. after Val went into labor at 1:45ish the previous afternoon. Baby D better not be taking notes on either of those two items!!

Congrats to Rich, Val, Izzy and of course Molly and Maxwell.

In case you haven't guessed by now Isabelle, Isabella or any variation thereof is not on our list of potential names.

The Quick Project That's Still Unfinished

Our Columbus Day weekend project that "won't be too bad" and "shouldn't take too long" lasted all day. And that was just for what I'm calling Phase I of the project. My phase, Phase II, the priming and painting of the new pillar and rails - was done in just over a day.

Rather than matching the paint with the color that is on the rest of the pillars, we decided to re-paint everything in the white that we used around the front door. Nice idea at the time. Key phrase being at the time.

Turns out there are 8 coats of paint (no joke) on the old railings and pillars. Even the paint stripper Rog is using isn't doing the trick. It's quite a slow, monotenous process that I hope we can knock out before winter!

And of course I've failed to take a picture of the new railings and reconstructed pillars, but I'm sure you get the jest of it.

Wow... It's Mid-October!!!!

Happy Columbus Day, hard to believe it's mid-October. Today was a great day in some respects. Our porch project, which I'll write about tomorrow, is one step cloer to done and I filled the Pathfinder for $41!!! Missouri's fuel tax is wondeful, yet why do I think that gas at this price is worth taking a picture of ... so sad.

Highlight and lowlight of the day, beginning with the lowlight - I spent 3 1/2 hours of my morning hanging out at a lab taking a glucose test since I somehow managed to fail my one-hour test. And they were thinking my blood sugar was low? Keep your fingers crossed on this deal...


BUT the highlight of the entire weekend was not getting any protestors or major issues at the three performances of The Laramie Project at school. This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the crime, and the group that protests this play along with military funerals and other things was in the area twice this week. You can see why I had all bases covered right down plans with the police department and additional security. Fortunately, aside from a call or two from parents, no issues.



More later, it's been a long weekend.

Catching Up

The last two weeks have blown by! It's been incredibly busy with work, volunteering with the rescue group, a visit from the parents and even a minor outpatient surgery.

Two of my projects, our alumni magazine and a huge capital campaign promotion, got wrapped up this week FINALLY! Now its time to move on to the annual report and a few other publicity items during prime recruiting time.

My mom and Larry spent a week in Florida with some of their friends week before last. While they were away, their newly adopted hound Will crashed with us. He and Dream got along well, and aside from a leg lift and some puke in the house and Dream playing fearless hunter in our yard one night everything went very smoothly. He's such as good boy! I'd tried all week to get a pic of both of them staring out the window, I love it!


When Mom and Larry returned, they spent the weekend with us checking out some of the stuff we'd registered for and learning about travel systems and play yards, etc. Mom also felt it necessary to hook me up with some maternity clothes, which I'll probably need to start wearing in the next week or so (picture at 24 wks). We also picked up some bedding from PBK, in addition to some that I'd won on Ebay. Not sure that either one will be what we ultimately go with, but it's nice to have options.

The last two weeks had two doctor visits, one to have a small cyst removed from my head and the other our 24-week appointment. My big concern was that I'd have a big bald spot where the cyst was, but the doc worked his magic with out taking much, if any, hair at all. All that's left are several stitches that come out on Monday. All continues to look good with Baby D, her heart rate checked in at a solid 140. I told the Dr. about a day a few weeks ago when I felt less than stellar. She checked out my weight and asked a few questions and that eating MORE might be a good idea. I feel like I eat all the time!!

Dinner With the Stellings

I am behind ... which is pretty much par for the course these days!

Last Thursday, Jackies Adamec and Billet and I took dinnner to the Ill side for Erica and her mom. Jon was out of town for work, so Erica's mom came to help manage Lane and Caroline.

Since the twins were so small, their doctor suggested not having visitors except for immediate family over until they hit their actual due date. They have definitely grown over the last month, both weigh over 6 pounds now. Here's a picture of JA and I with Erica and Caroline. In the other shot we took I didn't look as thick but everyone else had their eyes shut!

After talking with Erica several times prior to our visit and then and visiting, I'm so glad I dodged the twin bullet this time around!

Thought I'd also include a picture from this week to stay current - the first time I've ever had to take the alter at my school's chapel. Had to pull it together after using several profanity-laced conversations that took place earlier in the morning. Kind of strange I must say, especially since I my talk was to about 115 moms on their lunch breaks. This was after I'd served as parking lot attendant (limited space due to construction). So many things must be written in that fine print!

A Few Weekends of Stuff

Looking over my last few posts, it looks like I skipped over a few things that we did over the weekends within the last month or so.

We actually did manage a trip home for Rog's 10-year high school reunion. I was a little concerned that I would only know a few people there, but knew a lot more than I thought I would, and even ran into a guy that was in my class in high school. We met up with Brian, Lindsay & Mason at the state fair, and I can honestly say that after a five-year haitus of attending the fair that (sadly) nothing has changed.

Mason's 1st birthday was the weekend of my cousin's wedding, but he got to open some gifts while we were there at a mini-birthday party. Apparently someone else thought he needed this really cool baseball thing as well ... good thing we had a gift receipt.

In addition to storm tracking last weekend, we decided to tackle one of the big cosmetic projects in the house. Our second spare bedroom had a mural of a jungle on the walls and ceiling - with all of the trees, mountains, grasses and animals painted in acrylic. With wear and tear, the arcylic has broken down a bit and we either needed to touch it up or re-paint everything. Anticipating that this will be our office in a few months, we decided to bring out the sander and get moving. What a job. So far we've sanded and spackled the entire room and replace the sky and palm leaves on the ceiling with a couple of coats of paint. Now we have to prime and figure out what color...

This week we also celebrated our second anniversary. It's strange how it seems like it wasn't that long ago, but when you think of everything that's gone on in that time frame maybe it has.

No news on Baby D other than we need to get moving our registry....

I Applaud This But....

Bring on the soapbox, it's time for a bit of a rant.

Let's go back to Thursday, when Gustav's track has yet to be clearly defined, but without a turn westward, things are not looking good for New Orleans. I'm watching the local news and see a story about local air evac and ambulance teams being deployed the next morning to help evacuate the hospitals and nursing homes.

This is followed by another story about charter busses and Amtrak working deals to evacuate those who don't have their own means out of the city. Then the National Guard arrives in droves, c-17s are more common on the tarmack at Louis Armstrong Airport than commercial flights to help evacuate.

And Mayor Nagin orders a mandatory evacuation. This was a shocker. When we were preparing to evacuate for Katrina, I distinctly remember him saying on a live news interview "legally I cannot to you that you have to leave." Meaning that by doing so, hospitals would close and emergency personnel would be scarce. That's when the head of the hurricane center (also on the interview) jumped in and said something to the effect of "he may not be able to, but I've seen countless hurricanes and you MUST get out .... now!"

Don't get me wrong, I think all of these proactive measures to prepare for the now eminent arrival of Gustav are great - and having 90-95% of the coast evacuated is excellent. BUT my question is, why now? Why did we not have the foresight to do this three years ago?

Granted the storm surge and flooding associated with being on the eastern side of the eye are much worse than the ones you get on the western front (as with Katrina), we were expected a direct hit in 2005. The AP took this picture of Tulane's athletic facilities after the levee breech. The squareish looking building was my office on the side overlooking the baseball field; my parking spot next to the tennis courts at the bottom of the photo. And this is on the "good side."

It's extremely disheartening to think what things will be like come Monday evening. One of our most unique cities, and now one of my favorite places to visit, could once again be submerged. Hopefully this time, the levees have been shored up, people took the warnings seriously and things will not be as catastrophic.

As I did a little more than three years ago to the day, I ask all of you to pray for all of our friends and former co-workers who still call NOLA home. From what we understand, they've all evacuated and are now playing the waiting game until they are allowed back...hopefully to unflooded homes that are still standing.

Baby D Is A....

Immediately upon entering the ultrasound room today, our technician asked if we wanted to know our baby's gender. Since we have a plethora of paint colors in our basement and would prefer to stay away from the rainbow scheme, we told her yes.

After locating the heart, legs, arms, nose, lips, kidneys and down the rest of the extensive list, our techinician came to a conclusion. There was one part missing... Looks like Rog will be grossly outnumbered come January!

Cast Your Votes...

In anticipation for Tuesday, we're taking a non-scientific poll as to the gender of Baby D.

Here's what we have so far ...
Heather - girl
Rog - girl but fingers crossed for a boy
Mom - boy
Larry - girl
Sperlo - girl
Terri S. - boy
The 3 school secretarys - boy

Bizarre Randomness

So I'm sorting through some of the unfiled photos on our computer today, Aug. 23 (welcome Bella), and ran across one that I totally forogot even existed.

This was taken exactly three years ago, 8/23/05, at Salman Scout Camp - located just north of Waveland and Kiln, MS. A few days before the season-opening tournament, the soccer team and staff went to the camp for a day of team building on the ropes course. This was, by far, the hottest day I've experienced in my life. The high was in the upper 90s with 700% humidity ... and we were in the middle of the woods with zero air circulation. Plus there was a small storm brewing in the Gulf.

Despite everyone dropping about 10 pounds due to the heat, this was an awesome trip and a great way to really get to know some of the players. Too bad I only actually got to see them play one official game that season ... damn storm!

The camp we were at took a pretty good shot from the storm five days after we were there, but thanks to the hard work of guys like Mr. Weaver and Crawfish, opened up again the next summer.

Last Ride in Old Blue

While we were at my cousin's wedding a few weekends ago, we (Larry) noticed a huge sale going on at a Nissan dealer down the street from our hotel - huge as in five figures off the MSRP huge. Since my lease is up on my Pathfinder roughly 2 weeks after Baby D's scheduled arrival, we'd already talked with our Nissasn guy about the "right" time to break the lease.

That time was apparently last Tuesday when I took Old Blue out for my last ride, trading up to a newer version. Basically it's the same thing in charcoal gray with running boards, and buying instead of leasing. Deals were so good that Rog traded the truck he bought last year for the same color and model, but a year newer and 4x4 ... for only $20 more a month. Not bad!

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend we took advantage of Rog's schedule, tacking on an extra day to a long weekend to visit some of our family and friends during our trip to Arlington Heights for my cousin's wedding.

I had a conference on Thursday and Friday, which at the time sounded like a great idea to be out of the office for three days (that was until I came back on Tuesday). After skipping out a bit early on Friday afternoon, Rog and I dropped off Dream at the sitter and swung by the hospital to meet the twins. We also had another stop to make down the hall to see our friends Lori and Paul who had their son Liam on Friday morning. Liam was gettting a lung treatment while we were there so still no official meeting or pics of him. After a quick visit with the proud sets of parents it was off to the airport ...

Saturday's wedding was nice, but I have to admit that you get an entirely different perspective on things when you're one of the few people not drinking. Judging by the way Rog was tearing it up at the reception and how he was feeling the next morning, I think he had enough for both of us :).

We were lucky enough to be in town on the same weekend Kristy and Graham were having a barbeque to celebrate Graham's graduation. With everyone's kids running around, it really made us wonder if we're ready for what lies ahead - can't really turn back now! All joking aside, it was great to see the Brown, Morales and Graske clans again.

When we left late Monday afternoon, a bank sign on the way to Midway said 77. As we were approaching St. Louis, the pilot announced that we had eclipsed the century mark - 100 degrees and some unbelievable humidity. How is that much of a swing possible?!?!

Jon, Caroline, Lane and Erica (she probably won't like this one, but oh well!)

Kristen and Mike's wedding

Mr. & Mrs. Lupa

Mom and Rog bust a move

Payton, Becky, Cole, Kristy and Graham at the non-graduation party

Mia gives Rog some practice in entertaining a little girl

Two New Arrivals

Just making the cut-off date for starting school, the Stelling twins entered the world late Tuesday night, July 29.

Erica had the c-section scheduled for Thursday, but the doctor elected to take them a few days earlier than planned - which was still ahead of their initial due date of Aug. 31.

We're glad to report that Lane Michael and Caroline Justine and Jon and Erica are all doing well. Both babies are in the regular nursery, with Lane weighing in at four pounds and six ounces and measuring 17 3/4 long; and Caroline weighing in at five pounds and 13 ounces and measuring 18 1/2 long.

Our plan is to stop by on our way to the airport after dropping off Dream. Hopefully we can snap a few more pics... and to meet Baby Liam, who's arrival is scheduled for tomorrow morning at the same hospital.

Baby D Update

We had our 16-week appointment on Tuesday and everything continues to look great! According to the nurse trying to get a good read on the heartbeat, Baby D's quite the cruiser. She finally good a few seconds of resting out of BD to determine the hearbeat is in the 150s.

We find out Aug. 26 if we'll be shopping and decorating for pinks or blues - even though Roger is pretty much convinced it's a girl.

A Few Tidbits

First of all, I feel like a scumbag for not even realizing that July has pretty much come and goneand that I had forgotten to acknowledge Heather and Jim's first anniversary.

We'll re-toast to that, hard to belive this ass-slappin, dumb waiter-diving good time was a year ago :).

On Wednesday, Rog slaved for countless hours in the kitchen to make his famous homemade lasagna for us to take across the river to Erica and Jon's for dinner ... or the last supper with just the four of us. The twins are scheduled to make their appearances on Thursday. While they're ready for the babies to arrive, the thought of going from zero to two in less than a week is really hitting home.

Back on the MO side, we're pleased to report that it appears we're winning the war in our yard against the Japanese beetles. Rog noticed them about a month ago when he was picking our peach tree. Crazy little green beetles all over it and eating the really big peaches! Then we checked another tree and the leaves on the top part with nothing but skeletons. Amazing the damage these things can do in about a week! We've sprayed and set up traps and the damaged has stopped, but we're still having to empty the traps pretty regularily.

Not that anyone really cares about the yard as much as I do, but controlling these guys was a big issue for a few days here. My guess is that most of you are interested in Baby D ... Nothing new to report, but we do have an appointment mid-next week. The pants are getting a little snug, but that's about it.

Marvelous Manhattan and Fabulous Fordham

In my lifetime I've (thankfully) had very few run-ins with the law. I may have broken some sort of record last weekend when after a mere 40 minutes in New York, the NYPD was grilling me as I sat in my cab in the Bronx. Nothing serious, but I thought it was kind of funny. My driver had no clue where he was going and pulled off the highway into a neighborhood to try to figure out where we were exactly and where we needed to be. Who knew Fordham University, located acorss the street from the Bronx Zoo would be so difficult to find. We must have been there a while ... I saw a police car pass us, and then it came back and 2 police officers got out and asked me about 100 questions - all basically making sure I was OK. After assuring them for the umpteenth time that I was, we got directions and headed out. Must have been a pretty sketchy neighborhood.

I was in town for a publications conference, and picked up some awesome ideas. We took a few field trips in Manhattan, one to the Museum of Modern Art, which was really cool. One of my favorite paintings looked like a man's face from the distance, but up close it was really created by using stick figures! There was aslo a pregnant woman sculture that everyone had rubbed the belly - felt compelled to take her picture. I was a little disappointed that we didn't make it to Rolling Stone, but I probably picked up a lot more useful information meeting with photographers and graphic artists along the way.

I met up with Melissa, Heather's step-sister, for dinner. She showed me a few sites, including the Strawberry Fields tribute to John Lennon in Central Park ... which was awesome. Also took a trip to Ground Zero, which was quite moving. It's incredible that it's been nearly seven years ago. Pictures of those two are at the bottom.

Our group held the bulk of its sessions and stayed at Fordham (in the dorms). The dorm we stayed in was by far the nicest I've ever been in. Totally made Haynie and Wright look like the hood! The entire campus was beautiful, lots of great gothic architectural features. Part of the campus was used to film portions of A Beautiful Mind. Still haven't seen all of that movie...

While staying in a dorm for 4 days doesn't make too many people jealous, when I tell them I hung out outside of Yankee Stadium before the start of the All-Star Game - that's another story. The atmosphere was pretty cool, and I picked up some souvenir gameday programs, but for the stadium as a whole I was a little disappointed. Kind of reminded me of Wrigley, but a bit more rundown. Nothing much to look at from the street (at least on the side I was on), but the new place looks pretty cool.

Next year's conference is in Rome. Let's hope there's room in the budget for me to go :).

Belated Welcome

For those who read this blog and may not check out the other links to my friends' blogs, thought I'd extend a belated welcome to Cole Anthony Graske.Cole joined us on Wednesday, July 16, while most of us were probably just getting out of bed or hitting the snooze one last time (7 am). Let's hope Baby D feels 4 in the afternoon is a good arrival time!

Congratulations to Cort and Becky and to big sister Mia!

The 100th Post

Glad that when I logged in I saw that I'd had 99 posts since I created my site, since I really had no good title for this post ... the 100th post. Looks like I haven't posted this month, which is really sad since we're almost half-way to August!

Work has been super busy, summer is a completely different animal for me without the boys in school. I'm right in the middle of two publications, working on a direct mail piece and getting ready to get moving on some materials for a capital campaign .... and I'm going to be out of the office for a few days next week at a conference in NYC :). Timing truly is everything.

The 4th of July was pretty low key. Fireworks are legal in our county so it seemed like the 4th for about 2 1/2 weeks straight. Rog had to work so I headed to Lake STL to watch fireworks from Jackie B.'s parents boat. We took some pictures, but she's been travelling all week for work so I've yet to get them.

One thing I've noticed, now that the word is out about Baby D, is that people must deep down feel that I've got a slightly irresponsible side to me. This may be a normal thing for rookie parents to experience, but I've been amazed at how many times some peole ask "Are you getting enough sleep," "Are you eating right," "Are you taking your vitamins..." Guess I was pretty reckless before, staying up all night eating nothing but junk food and tossing my (regular)vitamins and supplements out the window!

Hopefully after my trip I'll have some cool pictures to post of New York!

Breaking the News

We took a quick trip home on Wednesday to celebrate Father's Day with Larry and Big Rog and to break the good news to our unsuspecting parents.

Since it's been a while for Rog's parents and Larry and since Mom's a rookie grandma, we decided to get them all grandparent books to break the news. Larry's was more of a "how to" guide to share with Mom while the other ones were more story books.

At first, I think they were a little confused until Larry read the title of his book out loud ...and then the light bulbs all went off at the same time. Needless to say they were pretty excited. And starngely enough, after we established the due date and shared ultrasound pictures, they all read their books.

Everyone but me then downed a bottle of wine before dinner to celebrate, then we had to invite the aunts over and call Grandpa to share the news.

Five million questions and equally as many horrendous name suggestions later, everyone was amazed that I hadn't been sick once... Especially considering that the baby was with us during our tequila-soaked week in Mexico, the Memphis trip, a visit to The Pub and a Jimmy Buffett concert!

For those truly keeping track at home, we're 12 weeks and due Jan. 11. Keep your fingers crossed that this January isn't as snowy as last year!

Still a little perplexed at this point...

Excitement, and a few tears from all four

Reading their new books