Category Archive: Mars

A baby story: Week 33

Week 33: Baby’s the size of a honeydew melon!

Things are starting to heat up a little bit around here and I’m not just talking about the weather!  It seems that my body temperature has skyrocketed this week and I find myself getting really hot very quickly…something that is so not typical for me (I’m usually freezing).  We’ve been keeping the window open in our bedroom and I haven’t even been using a blanket at night which, again, is really unheard of.  But I guess having to maintain the temperature of two humans is cause for anyone’s temperature to rise.

This week was a bit of an extension of last week in terms of my mental/emotional/physical limits being tested with my student teaching + work + school schedule.  I also learned an extremely important lesson in an awful way this week–back-up all computer docs in multiple places–I left my flash drive at the school site I’m student teaching at and it’s nowhere to be found.  All of the work I had been preparing for my last two weeks for both student teaching and for school was on there and I was, in a word, devastated.  After a meltdown yesterday I sucked it up and am figuring out how to get these two weeks done and under my belt in the least stressful way possible.  Thank goodness I genuinely enjoy the time I spend in the classroom with those 7th graders, it makes it that much more worthwhile for me!

Today was our 34 week prenatal appointment (if you haven’t noticed, I always post these at the completion of the week I’m talking about, so although this post is for Week 33, I’m 34 weeks now) and things are still looking good!  Her heartbeat is juuuust fine (and cute!), my belly’s measuring 35 weeks (just a wee bit ahead of schedule), my doctor was happy to see some good weight gain since our last appointment, and she thinks Sirena’s in the heads-down position which is fantastic news!  We’ll have more of a confirmation of her positioning in there at our 36 week appointment in two weeks where we’ll get to see the little munchkin one last time via ultrasound…can’t wait!

We’ve made some good progress on the baby’s room this week–namely, we don’t have the crib and the changing table in our living room anymore, hallelujah!  They finally fixed the leak in our second bedroom (yeah, the one that started on Jan 21) and so things are slowly-but-surely coming together…

The dresser/changing table we scored from craigslist with a few items up top

The crib we got from craigslist as well! No mattress to speak of yet and there’s a bunch of junk stored underneath for the next couple of weeks so I only wanted to take a close-up photo of it.  This knitted blanket was given to us by a co-worker, I love the colors!

The crib’s only occupants so far…her stuffed friends collection!  Seahorse from work, 60s-era elephant pillow from antique store, super soft bear on left from Brianne, super cute bear in center from my mom’s boyfriend Steve, and stuffed pup from work…sitting all comfy on the crocheted blanket from Sirena’s late great-grandma Margie.

The baby room’s latest occupant…my sister’s cat Mars!

And last but not least, we have been looking forward to this upcoming weekend for months now…the wonderful ladies in our family are throwing us a baby shower at Kevin’s parent’s house in Long Beach and we are so looking forward to spending time with family and friends and celebrating the bigger-than-life personality that is going to be joining us soon!  In addition to the shower this weekend we are also going to have a maternity photo session with our good friend Beka who went to Redlands with us–I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Belly shots!

After seeing these photos it became apparent that I am missing out on some serious sleep!  😉

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained so far:  12 pounds
  • Fun baby developments this week:  She weighs around 4.5 pounds and measures approximately 17 inches, she’s keeping her eyes open while awake, and her bones are hardening.
  • Number of days until Long Beach: One!  We’ll be arriving early morning on Friday and staying through Sunday midday…can’t wait!

Holiday visit to Long Beach 2011

Kevin, Lola and I were lucky enough to spend 9 full days in Long Beach visiting with family and friends over the holidays.  Here’s a recap of our visit!

Christmas Eve with the Delmars

We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year so that Christmas Day wouldn’t be so stressful going back and forth between the two families and I think it worked out great!

Jess and Kevin trying to get Mars and Lola acquainted. I’m sure they’ll be best buds before you know it!

We had a non-traditional Chinese buffet for dinner that filled us up just right and a delicious assortment of See’s candies and brownies for dessert.  Some photos from our evening…

Jess and Auntie Tina

Jess, Auntie Tina, and Uncle Joey

Me and Tina

Most of the group: Jess, Tina, Steve and his daughter Lacey and his grandson Christian, Uncle Joey, and Derek

Santas Jessie and Derek

Derek and his new ukulele

One of the highlights of the night was when the Delmar kids presented my mom with the gift of a song.  Every year she tells us that all she wants from us is a song, no gifts, so this year we took her up on it.  We decided to sing the theme song of the old cartoon “David the Gnome” that used to show on Nickelodeon and that we used to love as kids.  After a couple days of rehearsing we were ready for our big debut!  Here’s the link to the video of us singing on YouTube!

Christmas Day with the Edmonds

We woke up bright and early to accompany Thomas for a drive up the 91 freeway to pick up our adorable niece Sophie to spend Christmas Day with the family!

The little lady ready to celebrate with the Edmonds!

She loved taking photos with my camera, here’s a self-portrait and a photo of her dad Thomas in the rear view mirror (can you see her?)

Goofy picture of me, thanks to Sophie the photographer

Silly photo!

Say “Cheese!”

After making it home it was all fun and games until the feast was ready.  Lola sure got a workout with Sophie and Katelyn around…

Sophie with Aunt Sarah and Rob

Me and my adopted kiddos, Joshua and Katelyn

We spent a good hour or so opening tons of gifts…

Kevin with his gift card to Best Buy…such a creative way to give a gift card (from our brother-in-law Luke)!

A few last photos outside before Sophie had to go back home…

Me ‘n Sarah with Sophie and Lola

Sophie showing off her Cinderella toy

Last goofy photo of the day!

Hike in Whittier Hills

Brianne, Brian, Brian’s sister Lisa, Kevin, Lola and I went on a nice long hike in the Whittier Hills the day after Christmas to burn off some of that holiday feasting we all took part of.

B & B overlooking the amazing skyline with Palos Verdes at one end (and Catalina even further off, out of frame) and downtown LA at the other end

Big hills and winding trails made for a very fun (and tiring) hike

A beautiful Buddhist temple in the Rose Hills Memorial Park

A quick little detour we took to visit a huge water tower…

…covered in graffiti.

The “slide” Kevin and Brian took down the hill (just kidding)

More fun with the Delmar family

On Tuesday night we made it to our annual Chinese massage with my mom, this time accompanied with Jessie, Derek, and my mom’s boyfriend Steve too.  I didn’t get the full treatment this time around, though, because of the little bebe in utero but the masseuse did a mighty fine job of working out the kinks in my shoulders, arms, legs, and feet.  Kevin got beyond the full treatment from a little lady who was working on him (NOT what you’re thinking…he was in the massage bed right beside mine of course).  Here’s what I’m talking about…

Linda (yes, her name was Linda) walking all over Kevin

Then we went across the parking lot to chow down on some Vietnamese food (which, unfortunately, was not as good as we had had in years past.  I ordered a crab soup and the pieces of meat were anything but crab and Kevin actually got food poisoning from it!  Blech.)

On Wednesday I spent the entire day with my mom and Jessie.  We spent the morning in LA exploring Grand Central Market–a really neat, open market with tons of food stalls.

Jess enjoying the market!

A really neat chalk drawing at MF Gourmet (where I had lunch)

Can you tell we’re related??

That night we met up with Derek, Steve and his grandson Christian at At Last Cafe in Long Beach for some grub.

The Delmar kids: Derek’s beer, Jessie’s wine, and my lemonade (can’t wait to partake in some yummy, non-pregnant drinks in the near-ish future)

Christian goofing off (encouraged by Jessie and Derek, of course)

Me, Derek, and mama (notice Christian’s photo bomb? Haha!)

Piggy back ride!

After dinner we dropped Derek off at his new place and took a quick tour through the house.  We then took a gander at his motorcycle (he’s had it for a while but I had yet to see it for myself)…

Jess, Derek, and Vanna White checking out the bike

My mom: “Jesus, I have a big head” (hahaha!)

Fast-forward a few days…we met up with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Clay (my dad’s sister) on Saturday morning for a nice visit.  We always enjoy spending time with them and we were so happy we were able to squeeze in a quick visit with them.  We talked lots about teaching (since they’re both teachers) and also about family history (since Kevin’s really interested in genealogy and my Aunt Kathy is a wealth of information).  Afterwards we met up with my mom, Tina, Steve, and Derek for lunch down the street.

Kev, mama, Tina and me

Miniature golfing date with Joshua and Katelyn

Part of our Christmas gift for our nephew and niece was to take them out for a morning of getting their butts whooped in miniature golf (or at least that’s what I told them in the beginning).  We used to spend a lot of time with those knuckleheads but since we moved up to the Bay Area we don’t get to spend as much one-on-one time with them as before and I miss ’em a bunch so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with them during our visit.

Mini golf courses crack me up

The creepiest metal monkey you will ever see

Pancho’s Fish Tacos, anyone?

Joshua taking his turn, Kevin looking dapper

My beautiful niece…she’s getting so big!

Nerding it up…me and Katelyn pretending to look out at the pirate using our golf clubs (although it looks more like Katelyn is playing the flute, but I’ll forgive her this time)

Working on my form

Me taking an awesome shot

Kevin and Joshua were obviously impressed by Katelyn’s amazing form

Our group’s rainbow assortment of golf balls

Proof that Joshua’s butt didn’t get whooped too bad (at least by me, anyways). Katelyn, on the other hand…

I love that these three always go along with my crazy suggestions

After a round of golf we met up with almost the rest of the Edmonds family at Lucille’s for a lunchtime feast at one of me and Kevin’s favorite places.  Dorothy, George, Judith and Luke met us to enjoy each other’s company at the end of our week’s visit.

Ringing in the new year

We spent a fairly quiet evening at Kevin’s parent’s house with the folks and our good friend Alison as well.  We enjoyed some dinner then got started on some board games that kept us entertained (and awake!) until midnight.  On the game menu for the evening: Bananagrams and Sequence.

About as exciting as our evening got!

Lola, reluctantly waking up for the countdown

Clinking our glasses of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider as the clock hit midnight (photo taken by Alison)

After a delicious breakfast of homemade waffles and pancakes (care of George), we packed up the car and made our way up Interstate 5 back home to Oakland.  Lola sure seemed to enjoy her new ride…

Snoozing all the way back home

Kevin, Lola and I are very excited to begin a new year and we know that 2012 will bring some very exciting changes our way.  Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas/New Year’s at the end of this year with the newest addition to our family!

Day hike in Saratoga

On Monday 1/17 I had the day off in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day so I took the opportunity to make a trip down to San Jose for a visit with my favorite sister Jessie! 🙂

After some mandatory cuddling with Marzipan (her kitty and my furry nephew)…

We ran off for a day hike at the Sanborn County Park in Saratoga.  The park was almost completely empty so except for a couple of park rangers we had the park almost exclusively to ourselves.  It was pretty chilly and the park itself is really shady so not much sun came in but it was a gorgeously lush park with green everywhere you looked.

Jessie took this lying on the ground looking up at the canopy of trees

Can you spot Jessie in this photo??


We then did some window shopping in the super cute town of Saratoga and enjoyed some Middle Eastern eats at Rose International Market which is a huge market with deli counter.

It’s always so nice to get to spend some seester time with my Jessie!

Pre-Christmas festivities

We had lots of pre-Christmas festivities leading up to the big day–here are some of the highlights!

Cookie Exchange party
I was invited to my boss’ Cookie Exchange party. I had to bring 6 dozen cookies (or the equivalent–I brought 6 pounds of Mexican Chocolate Fudge!)–I shared 1 dozen at the party and then got to take home 5 dozen cookies! Yowzas. There was a taste contest too and my fudge won Most Delicious! Not bad for my first time trying to make fudge. It really did turn out amazing–the recipe is at this link if you’re interested (super easy!)

I made one version with sea salt…mmm!!!

Decorating Carleigh & Scott’s Christmas tree
This year Carleigh got her first Christmas tree ever! Since we don’t have the room in our apartment to put up a tree, I let them borrow some of our ornaments and we enjoyed decorating the tree, eating dinner and baking cookies together–and you know we had to include a doggie photo shoot (with doggie costumes and everything!)

The final product
Lola gave Bailey a pair of antlers for Christmas and they enjoyed modeling them for us
The antlers didn’t last long, as you can imagine…

Christmas card photo shoot
This year we decided to join the club and send out Christmas cards and I knew I had to take a cute photo of Lola to include. I wore her out at the park playing fetch so that she would wear her (homemade, bootleg) antlers and not fuss with them. I posed her on a red blanket on our bed with a little “Reindeer Food” bag I’ve had a few years and -voila!- adorable Christmas card. 😉

Dinner with the Dobsons
Jessie came into town for dinner with the Dobson family–the family she used to nanny for and that we had gotten close to in the process. They’ve got four boys under the age of 10 so any family gathering is entertaining when the Delmar girls join the mix! 😉 Lots of laughs (and lots of wine) made for a wonderful evening.

Dog pile Jessie!

Lola’s special delivery
Among all of the wonderful Christmas cards we received in the mail, there was one that was just addressed to “Lola Edmonds” and we were delighted to find an edible Christmas card for her made out of rawhide! She LOVED the card and thoroughly enjoyed tearing it to pieces. 😉
Thanks Judith and Dorothy!


Christmas in San Jose
Jessie invited us and our friend Lisa to enjoy some Christmas spirit San Jose style.

Mars getting some well-deserved attention…


Festive wear was donned…

First, a hooping show by Jess…


Then a drive downtown…


Nothing says “Christmas cheer” quite like a frightening 8 foot rat

Ice skating…

Not only do I suck at ice skating, I can never lace up my own shoes! Thanks Kev for tying my shoes for me. 🙂

Jess showing off her moves
The only time I wasn’t hugging the wall was when Kevin took my hand. Reminder to self: Save the $20 ticket and shoe rental and just watch from the sidelines next time! haha

Action shot! This picture cracks me up!





Christmas in the Park…




And to end the night? A bottle of champagne at Jessie’s wine bar, Enoteca la Storia in Los Gatos…


All it takes to get Kevin to smile in photos is a little bubbly, apparently. 😉


If our pre-Christmas festivities were any indication of how Christmas itself would actually be, we were in for a good time! 🙂

TDay 2010

This year Kevin had to work the days before and after Thanksgiving so we couldn’t make a trip down south–Jessie had to work the day of so we decided to host a small Thanksgiving dinner at her place in San Jose!

In the afternoon we were busy cooking and Skyping with Kevin’s family who were gathered at his parent’s house for the feast.

Dorothy and George
Kevin chatting away
Our beautiful nieces Katelyn and Sophie!
Thomas, Katelyn and Sophie posing for a photo

Even though it was only me, Kev and Jessie for the meal itself we ended up having one of the most delicious and entertaining Thanksgivings in recent memory!

The mansion Jessie lives in (literally! Check out the post I wrote about her building on move-in day here)

Started out with some Skyping with my family–this photo is of my mom and my Auntie Tina, but there also was my brother Derek, my Uncle Joey and my mom’s boyfriend Steve.

Jess got a free cooked crab from her boss so she proceeded to pound away at it.

Hahaha, that girl cracks me up!


So…dinner was amazing. Started out with some spanakopita, fried cheese balls, and dates stuffed with dark chocolate and walnuts.

And the main event! Mushroom stuffing, apple cranberry quinoa, collard greens, roasted cauliflower (and some tri-tip [not pictured] for the meat-eatin’ Kevin).

And three bottles of wine later…we started getting a little goofy.

The lipstick went on.
The feathers were donned.

So how do I look with bangs?? (No really, I want to know…I’m gonna get a haircut soon and want to know what you think! haha)
Socks were mismatched.
Kitties were cuddled.

And then the Delmar girls got into typical Delmar fashion and started posing for random photos…







But the highlight of the evening was by far this Christmas video. ENJOY and HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the Delmar sisters! 🙂

Jessie’s big move to San Jose!

Jessie decided to shake things up a bit and move from San Jose Avenue in San Francisco to the city of San Jose and Kevin and I helped during her big day. On 9/4 we packed up a Budget rental truck (Kevin was a pro at fitting all her antique furniture, the only thing left over was her kitty Mars and a vacuum cleaner, pretty damn good!) and made our way about 40 minutes down the freeway to her new place.

Jessie’s now-ex-roommate Jessie in her old room saying goodbye to Mars

The apartment Jessie now lives in is a studio in an old historic mansion…so cool!




After the big move Jessie treated us to lunch at Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant–soooo good!


Jessie landed a job at Enoteca La Storia, a wine bar in Los Gatos, and needed to make the physical move down to San Jose to be close to her new gig. Kevin and I visited her at work and I’ll post pictures of that visit soon. I am so so so happy for Jess and so proud of her for taking chances and making such a big change in her life.

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