Rocky Mountain High

Working for a high school has many perks...the best of these being the insane number of holidays we get. Although we didn't get the entire "ski week" that some schools had last week, we did have a lovely four-day weekend. My cousin Jennifer had been encouraging us to visit Denver for the past couple of years and I finally decided to leave Steve at home and take her up on the offer while I am still in a good state to travel. Of course, a trip to Denver would not be the same without our long time family friend and adopted big sis Sandy who "met me from St. Louis!"

Sandy and I imposed ourselves on my Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim's home in Greenwood Village, a lovely suburb of Denver.

Sandy and I thought we were so clever by pre-paying for our rental car gas because gas stations around Denver airport are few and far between. Then we promptly went out to the parking lot and picked a Prius. We later realized that it probably would have cost us about $2.50 to fill up the tank. I won't mention that it took us 10 minutes to figure out how to START the Prius. The manual was consulted.

Girls night out! Amy, Sandy and Jennifer on our way out to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and have a lovely sushi dinner to celebrate Jennifer's birthday.

On Sunday night the Quin's hosted all of the Denver family for Family Fondue night. It was great to see all of the family who has immigrated to the Denver area! The Griffiths, Bacons, Henningers and Quins all gathered to celebrate Jennifer's 29th birthday (again!) and to introduce the foreigners to all of the children (JD & Kara Bacon) and fiancees (Nicole) that have arrived since we last visited.

Kara (age 6 months) is destined to be a Texas Longhorn.

Tad & Nicole - getting married in Hawaii in August!

Elisabeth (age 5) shows off her new bling, direct from Sandy's wrists.

Cousins J.D. (age 3) and my flower girl Abigail (nearly 9) who is all grown up!

No trip with Sandy is complete without scouting out the nearest coffee joint...a few times.
The "Xdry Cappuccino" is definitely not mine.

Thanks Quins and Henningers for a great trip! We can't wait to return!

The Halfway Point

In theory, I love the idea of documenting the growth of my belly. I enjoy seeing the pictures when my friends do it. I know I will enjoy looking back in a few months and gawking at how "small" my belly looks. But when it came down to it, I just didn't really want to see myself on film (film? what's that?) in something even remotely snug. I'm giving into peer pressure since no less than 20 people have asked me if I'm taking these photos and some far away friends I don't see very often have been curious. So, without further ado and without additional self-pity, here I am at 20 weeks. Halfway to baby!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

...that's what little GIRLS are made of! Yes, we've just returned from my 18 week ultrasound and were thrilled to find out it's a girl! Not that we would have been any less thrilled if it were made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails, but it's so nice to know!

Robert, ultrasound tech extraordinaire, poked around and showed us the brain, the thigh bone, the stomach, kidneys, thoracic spine (?) and FINALLY got to the genitalia at the end. He said "we're looking between the legs...and it looks pretty 'girlish' to me. I'm 98% sure it's a girl." Dr. Imig confirmed that that would have been her guess as well. So girl it is!

Steve said it perfectly: "It's time to shop!"

I Love LA

The weekend of January 9-11th I headed down for an LA fix. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate Vicki's baby shower with her and some of the Delta Zeta girls from LMU. Jill Puffer threw a lovely shower at her parent's house in San Marino and it was so great catching up with everyone, seeing Claudine's shiny new rock and of course, getting to pet Vicki's growing belly!

Baby bellies getting to know each other. Vicki's little boy is due March 17th. Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm definitely the old lady in the group...
L to R: Marianna, Theresa, Cindy, Vicki, Amy H., Jill, Patty, me and Claudine.

The trip to LA wouldn't be complete if I didn't make 5 zillion stops. First stop was to spend some gabbing time with mother extraordinaire, Kate Brown. She gave me so many tips that I actually had to write some stuff down. Her kids, Mary Kate and Jimmy are adorable and so friendly!

Mary Kate introduces me to her brother Jimmy's expansive Thomas the Train collection. I was especially impressed with Kate's Thomas knowledge.

After the shower, I was able to sneak in a couple of hours catching up with the Klaus family. It was great to hang out with Bridgette and Kevin. Jonathan smiled and coo'd for me while Carissa gave me a wonderfully detailed run-down of her trip to Disneyland the day before. Apparently, Mickey Mouse was sleeping, so he couldn't come out and chat. And Winnie the Pooh spilled honey on the tracks, so his ride was closed. I've vowed to not go back to Disneyland until I'm taking a child. This reminded me why!

Jonathan (6 months) smiling at me (or at something more interesting above my head) while Carissa hid from the camera.

I killed two birds with one stone by meeting the Luna's for lunch at Island's. I got my Yaki taco fix and more importantly got to spend time with the huggable Enzo Luna (8 months). Amy-Jo and Jeff are doing great and it was so wonderful to catch up with them and gain some parenting advice, along with some good stroller advice (for photos of me test driving the Bugaboo, check out their blog).

Other highlights of the trip included dinner with Marie and Stacy at R+D Cafe in Santa Monica and dinner with Susie at Granville in Burbank. I don't seem to remember to break out the camera if there are no shorties around. Whoops.

A trip south just isn't complete for me if I don't get at least a short stroll on the Manhattan/Hermosa strand. As I strolled along in my tank top, rental car keys in hand, I kept thinking "It's January!" I love California.

Opa! Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve found us surrounded once again by good friends and good food. I'd also include the good drink, but since three of us are expecting, I can't speak to that. The boys, even those with non-pregnant wives, picked up the slack for us.

The group that has celebrated with us for the past five years, includes (but has not been limited to) the Italians (Vaccaro, Imelli, Caputo, Giachetti) and a couple token Irish (Milligan and Donahue) that Steve has known for many, many years. Most of the boys attended St. Christopher's and Bellarmine together, with the exception of Paul and Jake, who saw the light and went the way of the Monarch. I feel very lucky that all of the wives get along so well, since I think we'd be stuck with each other even if we didn't.
Steve's jobs are food and drink and my jobs are decor, table setting and clean-up. I think it's a very fair distribution of labor. Each year we do a different theme...one year it was all soups, last year was "French Bistro." This year's theme was "Greek," inspired last summer by a suggestion (and an offer to bake) from Steve's Greek godmother that we have the traditional Vassilopita, a bread that has a coin baked into it. Whoever gets the slice with the coin has good luck for the year.

Robin has already informed me that she's hoping her luck will be real estate related.

Heading into '09 we've got a few shorties on the way! From right to left: Claire is due in April, Arlene is due early May and I'm due the end of June. They are both old pros at this, both pregnant with their second. It's going to be a busy and fun 2009!

It's Been a Long December...

The holidays are over and I'm not sure I can get away with blaming pregnancy for this season's weight gain. For some reason I have it in my head that "fat-free" is somehow bad for the baby. Today at the store, for example, I had a hankering for tapioca pudding (Harry's Hofbrau, anyone?). I tried to avoid eye contact with the cookie dough chillin' innocently below the hanging puddings while I perused the Jell-0 Fat-Free Tapioca. I ultimately decided the fat-free kind had aspartame (aka nutrasweet) in it, which can't be good for the baby. or me. or the environment. So I passed and went for the more expensive, 3 grams of fat "designer" tapioca. I have a sneaking suspicion my logic is just a bit off.

Due to a relapse into all-day "morning" sickness, December seemed like the longest month EVER. Usually the holidays whiz by, but this year the clocked ticked very slowly. Each night I go to bed wondering, "Will tomorrow be the day I feel that great second trimester high?" So far, the answer from the nausea gods has been a resounding "NO! Not today chick. And how about we throw in some backaches and strange shooting pains throughout your body for good measure?"

Thankfully, the holidays weren't all gloom and gas, there were some good times with friends and family to help distract me:

December 19th
A long overdue Mitty reunion with the girls to gab and gossip and welcome home our long lost Seattle-based friend Leslie. Kelli joined us from Westchester (LA, not NY) and we allowed Lancer Shelly into the party because she's old school St. Martin's. Good times were had over pizza, drinks, old photo albums and an Esprit shoe box full of notes passed at St. Martin's (courtesy of Dalane's secret packrat).

Jaime, Dalane, Kelli, Amy, Annamarie & Shelly

According to the photo album, we look much hotter now. And certainly better dressed.

Leslie, her fun hair, Anna & her cute bangs

Molly was there in spirit and 7th grade handwriting

December 27th
Marie, Jackson and Gigi drove up from LA (well, Gigi lives in SJ, so she flew down, then drove up. What a good friend.) and made a quick stop at our house on the way to SF. Jackson (age 3) asked Marie and Gigi when they got in the car in LA "Are we at the roadtrip yet?" He was actually only headed north to retrieve his "Ticago Tubs Baseball" that he hit into our neighbor's yard during his visit last summer. Below "Schring" helps him look for it. Jackson really has no use for me whatsoever, he'll placate me with a hello on the phone or a hug in person but then it's "Hi Amy. How's/where's Schring?" I guess I need to get better at playing catch outside before I'm of any interest.

Searching high and low for the baseball.

I love a man who's secure in his manhood.

Back in Time

Ok, not that far back, but the early morning of Tuesday, October 21, 2008 brought THE news! After a weekend of trying the cheapy tests, I finally splurged and bought the "expensive" digital one at Target. I put "expensive" in quotes because Steve thought that expensive meant it was like $200. When I told him it was only like $20, he said "Shit, why didn't you buy it sooner?? Screw those cheap sticks."