El Nino, Part 2!

My next news is big news ....

IT'S A BOY!

Yes, we had the ultrasound yesterday, and the doctor said it's 100% a boy.

I admit, I was kind of shocked at first, because I really thought it would be a girl, but we are of course happy with a healthy baby of any gender. To celebrate, Sam and I went to Babies-R-Us and bought him his "home from the hospital" outfit.

El Nino!

I live in Southern California; every so often we get what's called the El Nino, torrential rains that are brought on by some strange and predictable weather pattern- and I think it makes the ocean warm up a bit too. In any case, Los Angeles is one of the least rainiest cities in the USA (our average is less than 15 inches/year) and while it must look silly to the rest of the country that we panic over "a bit of rain", you have to keep in mind one fundamental problem: DRAINAGE! We don't get rain, so when we DO get it, there is no where for the water to go. We flood. We have accidents. Our roads are not designed for heavy rain. Try to imagine resurfacing the 405 fwy- which has more daily traffic than any other freeway in the US ... impossible. They've been doing construction near my off-ramp for THREE YEARS and still haven't finished because of the sheer number of cars on the road. We also have ridiculous wild fires that burn up hundreds of acres of land, which are now extremely dangerous places to be with crazy rain like this. Mudslides. Flooding. It sucks.

As I was driving home Monday along PCH (beautiful road!), the ocean was amazing! It was between storms, the clouds had temporarily parted, and it looked as if the sea was boiling. Then earlier today, as I was coming home from a lunch date, I saw this egret in the new pond that had formed under my favorite oak trees. Enjoy!

After the Storm

El Nino Panorama

Rainbird

Pluses and Minuses

Things I love about being Pregnant:

~ My baby belly. It's still small, but it's obviously not just chicken nuggets anymore!
~ Super smell! For the most part, this has been a good thing.
~ My family consistently telling me I look beautiful and glowing.
~ Freedom to nap without guilt!
~ Being repulsed by food I used to love, mostly fried food. This is a good thing. I have been eating much more healthily.
~ Experiencing the awesomeness of my body growing another human. It's really, really cool.

Things I dislike about being Pregnant:
~ Having to pee way more than I used to (which was already a lot)!
~ Not being able to lie on my stomach, mostly as it pertains to getting a massage.
~ Weird sinus headaches and pressure a lot of the time.
~ Transient nausea.
~ Crying at the littlest things (and the big things).
~ Missing out on half of my Techniques class- I have to do all the techniques, but am not able to get most of them done to me. Too much stimulation.

Still, the good outweighs the bad by far! I'm almost at the point where I should be able to feel it moving soon; sometimes, when I'm at rest and concentrating on that area of my body I feel something but I'm not sure if it's Baby or not.

We're finding out the gender in two weeks! What do you think it is? (I think it's a girl. I have a very strong inclination to feel that way.)

Solstice Musings

Today is the first day of winter, traditionally a time of death. Not death in the sense of an end for all eternity, but the death of the old, making way for the birth of the new. Look at nature- the leaves have faded their crimson and gold, fallen to preserve the life of the tree, only to be born again in spring. So it is with us- we experience little deaths and changes throughout our lives only to make way for the new experiences and opportunities that await us.

I've had a busy season of change these past few months. My relationship with Sam changed, my long term "boyfriend" is now (finally!) my husband. I have gotten my kitten (and apologies to all the dog people out there, but nothing is quite as satisfying as a wee feline beasty to keep your lap warm while you type out your musings), and it's a nice change to have something living to keep you company during the lonely daytime hours. I have left my job, for many reasons, not the least of which are new scheduling procedures that would render me as an "on call" therapist and therefore not really a master of my own schedule. My body is rejoicing, as it was hard work, but part of my soul will miss doing massage on a regular basis. Still, I know that this was the right decision. We are moving soon, and while it is a relief to think about it, it's always stressful to move anywhere, even if it means Sam and I will officially have a home together again. And finally, the biggest change of all, is really yet to come, when we have our baby in June. I'm content to focus on growing a good one, and I can't wait to meet him or her!!

It's a lot to process! I think we're doing admirably well, even if we are kind of stressed out at times.

I for one am happy with what's happeneing. I know in my heart that this is all right- I feel it. I'm excited. I'm ready to face my new challanges.

First comes Love, then comes Marriage ... then comes a BABY!

Whew, Sam and I are really rushing through these adult milestones.

We fell in love (that was a while ago)

We got married (that was in November!)

And now we're gonna have a baby! That will be happening in June! Well, it's technically happening right now, but you won't see the end result until June (EDD: June 19, 2010).

We wanted to wait until I was past the 13 week mark, and I finally am- 13wks and 6days.

Apologies to any who we didn't get to tell in person, we have a lot of lovely people in our lives and I just couldn't wait any longer to make this big announcement!! :)

And we couldn't be happier!

November - What a Month!

I'm going to take a virtual page from Jennifer's blog, and just do a quick recap of November. 'Tis the month of Thanks, and there were many things going on to be thankful for!

November 3rd ~ Big Event ~ Sam and I got married!
Yes, it's true. We've been discussing it for a while, and we got to the point where we decided to just do it, and save the party for next summer sometime. We drove down to the courthouse in Ventura and had a nice intimate ceremony; our witness was an office worker named Jackie, and it was a surprise to everyone! Later that night we showed up for dinner at my mom's house with a cake and made our announcement! We then went to my dads, and then told Sam's parents. Everyone was surprised, but very excited.

Mr. and Mrs. Cohen

B'nai Mitzvah
I started the adult B'nai Mitzvah program through our synagouge. What is that, you may be asking? Well, an adult B'nai Mitzvah is for those who did not get Bar or Bat Mitzvah'd when they were younger. It's a two year thing, and we learn to read Hebrew (which is my favorite part so far!) and take other classes to get a better in depth understanding of Judaism. I really like everyone in the class, and I've already taken the Basic Judaism class they have, so that's part of my requirment finished already.

Thanksgiving
My mom's family came with us to Sam's parents house for Thanksgiving. This was the first real meeting of our families (well, half of my family). Our parents had met briefly in the hospital after my gallbladder surgery, but my Nannie and Papa were also there, and my youngest brother and sister (they're twins, age 15).

Kitten!
The day after Thanksgiving, my roommate Lena came home with three kittens, and I miraculously convinced Sam to keep one. I say miraculous because he is a bona fide dog person, but I am totally a cat person (not that I don't love dogs too, and we will also get a dog one day, but I love kitties! And they're really the better choice if you live in an apartment, since they kind of entertain themselves). Lena's aunt Carol is a tender heart who feeds strays and always see's kittens around, so they're kind of half-wild. On Saturday they saw the vet, and then I took one, Lena took one, and two of her friends took the other. They've had baths, and shots, and they're nice and clean now. We named ours Van Helsing, even though we're not sure if it's a girl or boy, but I have a feeling it's a boy. The vet said they have 'ragdoll' charactersitics, and I can already tell Van Helsing loves people! He wants to play most of the time, and if he's lonely he runs around your ankles meowing at you to take notice! Of course, my arms are all scratched, because he hasn't yet caught on that fingers and toes are not toys. But we're working on that.

Wee kitty Van Helsing

I'm also going to tack on a few photos from Halloween, since I didn't post them yet, enjoy!

Preparing to carve my first pumpkin in 4 years!

Sam looks like he's going to take some frustration out on that poor pumpkin!

I carved three all together. Not bad!

I like this, it's got character.

All Lit Up

We were housesitting for Sam's parents, so we decorated a bit!

Happy Halloween!

A very old photo from my Halloween archives! Wishing you all a fun and safe Halloween!

Oh, and please check out the Halloween episode (#101) of the Anything Ghost Podcast, by Lex Wahl! I've got a story on there this time! :)