vow renewal

my wedding ring fits again.

video? does this work?

nothing too amazing. just the lil lizard getting the hiccups. she gets them at least twice a day, and i must say she tolerates them pretty well. they're violent! oh, and if you're wondering, i'm trying to drug those hiccups out of her with her vitamin D drops. it didn't work.

ahem

in case you were needing a photo-update of what she's doing at this very moment....

we made this

she's heeeere! raaaah!

elizabeth ann doud
born september 30
11:14am
7lbs 9oz
19 3/4 in

and now, on to the details! not too many details, but be warned....i may or may not use the word "cervix" in the next paragraph. continue reading at your own risk.

okay so tuesday, september 29, 7pm: i went to a church shindig to teach the young ladies the fundamentals of leading music. all went well.

8:30pm: walking out to the car. my water breaks, but i wasn't really SURE that's really what happened. i always pictured it being some kind of bucket-of-water situation. it was more like a little trickle....that kept trickling....and trickling....

10:30pm: after calling my doctor and taking a shower, gregs and i arrived at hoag hospital.

11pm: the nurses started IV pitocin, which is a synthetic hormone used to induce and regulate strong, steady contractions. after your water breaks, the medical peeps want you to start contracting right away due to an increased risk of infection. the bad news: pitocin induced contractions are known for being especially painful. i can and do affirm these data.

12am-6am: OUCH! make it stop! the anesthesiologist is doing an emergency c-section when it's time for me to have my epidural. this is most unfortunate. i swore i would not be that laboring lady who like....groaned and made weird noises and stuff. i mean, how painful could labor be?? i admit it. groaning noises were made. i settle for a couple narcotic injections until the epidural arrives.

6am: yay, the epidural! you couldn't get that needle into my back fast enough. at this point i'd dilated to six centimeters.

6am-10am: the most comfortable four hours of my life. the epidural worked perfectly. it was super bizarre. i could feel and move my legs, but i couldn't feel ANY pain. really it was amazing. i'm a fan

10am: the nurse came in to check on me and i was ready to push. i pushed for an hour. then the nurse stopped me so we could wait for the doctor to arrive. she said if i continued, she'd have to deal with "a lot of paperwork". i guess it's pretty important that the doctor arrive BEFORE the baby:)

11:05am: my doctor arrived. after two pushes, the baby's head is out. another push and the doctor says, "shoulder dystocia". i guess this is a super rare occurrence where one of the kiddo's shoulders gets stuck under the pubic bone. luckily, the doc was able to get the wee one out without breaking the baby's collarbone, which is the alternative. yikes!

11:14am: baby's officially born! i admit it. she's the most attractive baby i've ever seen/made. i'm pretty sure she has greg's eyes and mouth, and i think she got my dimples. thus far, she has been a REALLY good baby. she only cries when she needs something, and she spends lots of time awake during the day with her eyes wide open.

this was long! here's the summary: we're all doing really well. greg's a proud new dad, i've become a real live girl and grew some feelings along the way, elizabeth is a happy girl and is gaining weight, lucky could care less that there's another entity in the house, and my mom is taking great care of us all...good meals, moral support, and the laundry's never been cleaner.

attention blogospere!!

i had a docs appointment today, and get this: i've LOST two pounds in the past two weeks! i've attached photo-proof as documentation that i am clearly wasting away to nothing. five more weeks!

checkit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo&feature=player_embedded

lucky

waiting for dad to come home from surfing on his birthday. lucky insisted on tying the balloons to his collar and waited patiently for almost an hour. the big balloon in back is a giant piece of pizza. mmm.

quote

greg: "i feel like we're total white trash and i'm like taking you to the sizzler for your birthday".

what can i say....i just love souplantation...

holla

this one's a shout-0ut to greg for informing me that tonight, to kick off my birthday weekend, we will be eating at souplantation and going to see 500 days of summer. i'm to be ready by 7pm. note: souplantation does NOT serve bean and cheese burritos. he's a real giver.

been awhile

my new favorite summer treat: crystal light peach-mango fusion slurpee. mmm.

produce

look very very closely...next to that girl and that canada dry ginger ale (purchased in celebration of canada day...duh..) between the bread slices, under the cheese, atop the turkey. there, you will find two pristine tomato slices from taken from one pristine tomato grown on a very sad little tomato plant found in my very own backyard. yeah, i grow my own produce now.

and now....

for the facebook status update of the day! drumroll please.........

John Doe It turns out that it's probably just run-of-the-mill lower back pain, and not a kidney stone, after all.

about an hour ago · Comment · Like

thanks john. though we haven't spoken in years, and even then the talks were perfunctory at best, it's great to know your kidneys are stone-free.

my new thing

magazines. i just subscribed to these ones. what others do i need to get in the mail every month?? i KNOW you know, so just tell me. please.

probably unwise...

....to post this after zoey.

i make it a practice to withhold judgment on any and all haircuts for at least two days post-op....but i'm pretty sure there's a cowlick lurking under those bangs....

hair: mine.

so i've been feeling pretty ugly lately. i've lost all sense of style because i don't know how to dress my new hips...and then there's the belly. anyways, i think it's time for a haircut. i made an appointment for tuesday afternoon. here's what i'm thinking:



maybe zoey can inspire me to be pretty.i had this sinister plan to grow out my bangs, but i'm ready to abort. opinions?

sometimes...

sometimes i come to my blog just so i can look over there and see how close that baby is to the nest. it's never close enough.

SYTYCD

my favorite from last night.

ahem

this is NOT an illusion.

and no i have not taken a shower today.

attention attention

cafe rio's coming to orange county! i want it now: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/things-to-look-forward-to/-cafe-rio/

yoohooo

i found a new show! it's totally a not-as-good-as-project-runway ripoff, but still worth a viewing. it's on bravo thursday nights. you've already missed a couple episodes, but you know how they do it on bravo....all the previous episodes air before the current episode....so just hunker down in front of the tele at like 7pm tomorrow and you'll be up to speed in no time.

book update

i finished the time traveler's wife. i give it a thumbs up. nothing life changing or anything, but it was definitely a page-turner and it made my mind work for sure. i'm now 30 or so pages into eat pray love....and i'm kind of enjoying this one as well. a favorite moment thus far was when the author, describing herself in relationships, said she was something akin to the combination of a golden retriever and a barnacle.

useless knowledge

i pulled this from the "useless knowledge" thingy on the sidebar of this very blog. it deserves a re-post:

The female Adelie penguin, desperate to obtain the stones she uses to build her nest, visits the nest of a bachelor Adelie, goes through the entire courtship routine, and mates with him. But once the two have had sex, the female collects the stones she came for as a sort of payment, and waddles back home to her actual mate, who’s been keeping the nest nice and warm for her return! She then stays with him for the rest of her life. Sometimes, especially cunning females engage in the courtship ritual, minus the mating part, grab the rocks, and dash home. Luckily, the males of this species, unlike humans, do not seem to bear a grudge.

i made this

like, with my hands...and a sewing machine. i guess one could even say i "sewed" it. i had these really ugly pillows from urban outfitters that leak prickly bird feathers, so....i decided to do a little sewing project and recover them. i went to joanne's and got cheap fabric because i don't know what i'm doing. i just kinda looked at the pillows and figured it out, and i'm actually really surprised that the end product even looks so remotely pillow-like,as i'm not generally a "finisher". anyways, i'm happy with the lil guy considering the wee effort i put into it. two more pillows to go.

poop trek

do not be fooled. this is NOT dexter. it is actually the lead guy from star trek, which greg and i just saw and well, it blows. i was so bored i was ready to leave halfway through. if you've seen pearl harbor, fast and the furious, transformers, armageddon, saraha......if you've seen ANY of these, you've seen all of them.....and you've seen star trek. so don't bother. snore. i'm out. i've got some rock band to play.

brilliant

ok, i want this. and it's only $13.99! you can get it here. (note: i learned how to hyper-link. i am a machine.)

chinese food

church makes me starved.

do i have the giblets?

to wallpaper the wall behind doudette's crib? yes, i believe i do.

baby room despairation

this is the part of my life where i get super obsessed with decorating for the new baby-doudette's room. i spend hours and hours pouring over cribs, sheets, wallpaper, etc. in the end, i've looked at about a zillion different things online and, out of desperation, end up choosing something i really don't like that much based on price or convenience...or maybe something someone said that i can't get out of my mind. i tried starting with picking out a crib, but that got too complicated, so i moved on to crib sheet-sets, thinking maybe if i chose some sheets, it would help direct the purchase of a crib. i need a method. help.

eh?

i've always loved frozen peas. it started early when i'd sneak some out of the bowl before they'd hit the microwave. anyone?

huh?

as per suggestion, i started reading this book a couple days ago. i'm 40 pages in and, thus far, i'm feeling a bit confused. hopefully, this is how i'm supposed to feel and will be able to work through it.

it's a GIRL!

yep. and she's got my feet. the ultrasound lady person was like, "who has the feet with the long second toe..." and of course it's me. we're so excited! it was pretty funny, after we found out it's a girl, the lady was trying to get a profile shot of the baby, but it was turned away so she started jabbing my belly to get the baby to turn so she could get the shot. after like 40 seconds of jabbing and thumping greg says, "she's stubborn just like her mom". it begins.

nope

when you pour the soda into the cup with the ice in it, do you hate it when the ice cubes get frozen into one giant iceberg? just tell me. i spend a good portion of my life trying to figure out whether or not i'm "normal".

i'm an idiot.

this is the tree to which i tied lucky whilst i removed the screen and climbed through the window of our house after locking myself out. i grabbed the keys and ran back out expecting to find him tizzying out in the front yard. nope, just relaxing. whata good guy!

honestly

is there anything better than nilla wafers? the taste? the SMELL!? need i say more?

things i want to learn how to do:

sew - like simple dresses
take pictures - like with a real camera...the kind i don't have with a lens that you turn and stuff
reupholster - like old chairs that i find at the thrift store

--stay tuned. more to come.

ellipticalers high

i haven't been to the gym in at least 3 years. i used to be a gymaholic until i figured out my body actually looked better when i DIDN'T work out. exercise make s me eat too much i think...yes i'm shallow. anyways, we all know i recently caught a mean case of the pregnancy and, in light of the fact that i've gained 20 pounds in the past four months, i went to the gym today. and here's the point: i cried! not because i was sad. i cried some kind of weird, joyful, pregnant, runners-high cry...except i was on an elliptical. i'm pretty sure the emotion was closely associated to this song piping through my headphones. it wasn't the words or anything. i think it was the baseline.

the latest - i decdicate this posting to me.

cravings:
apples of course
panda express orange chicken
taco bell (bean burrito and nacho supreme)
frosted mini wheats

hobbies:
eating
planning what i'm going to eat next
reality tv (another heading will be devoted to this listee. see below.)
looking forward to impending road-trips
wearing mumus
instant netflix on the xbox
scramble ("boggle" type application on greg's iphone)
tending to my 3 backyard plants
wednesdays at carnitas (can't help it, i just love greg)

tv:
idol, but only for simon
golden girls - 3 new episodes dvr'd daily
the hills - love to loathe them all
30rock - duh
celebrity apprentice - i don't care what you say, i love it....and jesse james
ax men - history channel hd gem
make me a supermodel - tiding me over until project runway and/or SYTYCD return

mrs. greenthumbs

don't be alarmed or anything....

i just ate the big red one at the top......
flowers = tomatoes

these titles are getting tedious

i pretty much can't stand it when blogs have music. i mean, does anyone enjoy it? why haven't the music posters figured this out yet?

ps

that apple picture inspired me to change the color schema of my blog FOREVER! or until i get bored.

apples!

for the past couple months i've been pretty obsessed with apples. i eat one a day at the very least, and i have been known to gnaw one down to a mere nubbin in three minutes or less. the gala's and fuji's are my iron chefs of course, but i always get a few challenger varieties to fill out the fruit bowl: pink lady, pacific rose, golden delicous.... even an occassional braeburn. oh, and i used to be obssessed with those fancy apple cutters that slice the lil guys into perfect symetrical slices, but i've matured, and now i just scarf them right off the core. maybe you should try starting up on apples again...just saying....

for the past couple months now, i look into my closet and think to myself, "what did i USED to wear?" waa.

just got back from palm springs......it was niiiiice.

foiled again.

i was just sitting here thinking about how awful brad pitt's accent is in seven years in tibet...and i had the most brilliant idea!! roller-skating party for my birthday in july! then i remembered i'm pregnant. this baby better appreciate.

important update: snack

dinner's at 6.

snack

thanks K.C. from boston

some people are just good. you know it before you even meet them. i knew this girl was a good one long before she even knew i existed. and now....a concrete detail:

a mysterious manila envelope arrived in the mail a couple days ago. i didn't recognize the return address. here's what was in the package..

(front)

(back)

(greg's playing call of duty)

yeah, it was a cd filled to the brim with the cutest collection of "baby" songs on the planet. i promptly put it in my computer and made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to it's contents. made for a most lovely friday evening. looking forward to eating a burrito with you, K.C.

it's official

i bought the big jar of pickles at costco today. it just felt right.

breaking news!!

so we just got back from carnitas (duh, it's wednesday), and look who was wandering around on our doorstep!! no way. now i'm all worried. is he gonna find a warm spot tonight?

dude

i just went into the laundry room to.......well.....to do some laundry, and in the sink...crawling around...there was a little white mouse!! scared the bajeezers out of me! anyways, i used my superior intellect to lure fival into an empty cranberry juice bottle laid on its side, with a bit of swiss cheese from the fridge in the bottom. when he crawled in, i stuck the cap on real quick-like, carried mousee outside and re-released him into the bushes in front of our house. i know i know. i'm sure he's gonna tunnel through the wall and into our bed to inflict me with mouse-fever or something...but i just couldn't hurt the lil guy. oh and i gave him the cheese too. he earned it.

ps- if i were a true blogger, i'd have photo-documented this, but seriously..who has the energy for pictures. i was IN the MOMENT man.

and now......

a tribute to peggy's lasagne. thanks mom. the baby liked it.

"nesting"....does this count?

i remember every once in awhile, as a pre-teen, instead of waking up saturday mornings to my dad's voice yelling at me to help carry in the costo groceries, looking out the back window to find what looked to me like a zillion plants of every variety sitting on the back porch. this meant i'd be spending the day in the backyard with the parents and the dog, and while i think i remember pretending to hate it, i secretly liked it......especially the watering part. anyways, greg and i are living in an apartment whilst we wait patiently for the market to totally tank so we can buy a house. but we have a back patio we never use, so i decided to plant today. here's the outcome:


yeah, there're two tomato plants and some strawberries. please pay no attention to both the puddle of brown manure residue center-screen and to the fact that i didn't bother to open the screen door to take the picture. bah. it's a start at least.

dear zachary: a letter to a son about his father

i'm pretty into documentaries, but i thought this one was gonna be lame. i mean, the title is cheesy and the summary on netflix sounded sorta like another episode of dateline or something. i am telling you....this movie.....breathe....i cried for at least a half an hour straight. i laughed, i was angry, scared, excited, disgusted, irate, proud, moved even....seriously. i went into it knowing next to nothing about the story. i'd suggest anyone planning to watch it to do the same. but beware, it's a heart wrencher....even for a stale, cynical, wry old gal like myself.

baby stuff

a sweet bouncer: $199
favorite crib: $1450

i'm sitting here at home waiting for a couple terriers to show up for their hair appointments, and i'm getting a little carried away with all the baby furniture online. of course the stuff i like is WAY more than i'm willing to pay....i mean...it's not like this is my firstborn or anything.


my favorite rocker. it's $1100.

ten reasons i love kari; a birthday tribute

1. she didn't make a sour face when i told her she's known around my house as bff.
2. her outfits. the shapes and colors she puts together really make my eyes happy.
3. she gave a talk in church once and i listened the entire time.
4. i feel like she's a lot like me, and i totally like her....which makes me feel good about myself.
5. she has a calm demeanor.
6. she has snacks during church.
7. she's harbors little to no resentment toward me for stealing her couch.
8. she appreciates a padded chair.
9. she married a guy who makes cupcakes.
10. as i'm writing this, i'm almost positive she's studying for trivial pursuit.

this book

i've been having kinda bad luck with books lately, which means i've read a hundred pages of about 10 different works of prose and then quit. i think i'm being punished for NOT quitting twilight at page 100. oh, but there's the good news! i breezed through this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. i even shed a tear or two. now we'll see if i can find another book worthy of finishing.

the initiation

i'm in transition. i'm married. i'm pregnant. three months ago i was neither of these. back then, i also had the option to wear any piece of clothing in my closet. now, not the case. i'm bored, and i'm lazy. i'm in transition. i'm going to develop creative hobbies: photography, needlework, painting. i'm going to take walks. i'm going to spend more time outside. i'm starting today. i want fresh flowers. i'm turning off the tv, and i'm forsaking facebook. i'm reading more. i'm making lists. i'm starting now.