THE Project...Week 2

By first look at the picture, you can't really see much difference than the first week of cleaning the office, right? Well, trust me, there's a big difference. I have sorted all the bills from the past...ahem, nine months; and am ready to disassemble the table formerly known as my scrapbooking table.I am going to try to have Matt do it, but we'll see how lucky I get with that. Once that's down, I can start to put together the new Ikea bookshelf that's still in a flat box in the back of my car. (Matt just mentioned that he would like to get in the office to do the taxes on Sunday so yipee! I have a goal of trying to get all this done by Sunday).
I am typing this on my knees because the chair has some scrapbooking supplies on it. I have one minor purchase to make from Amazon for some of my scrapbooking supplies (Crop in Style PSB Binder--unless someone has one they want to part with for less than $20) and then I can start to put the desk together and reorganize this office.

Wish me luck.

On to Soccer

Diana started Just for Kicks soccer class today. It's an eight-week class for a half hour each that teaches the fundamentals. They do some kicking drills and just work on kicking. They did a lot of that. It was great. Diana was awesome. I was most proud of Diana during ballet on the days when she really listened to her teacher and followed instruction and didn't get influenced by the other girls who were off running around and doing her own thing. She's in a soccer class now with 3-4 year olds, boys and girls. While it is a Mommy, Daddy and Me class, Matt and I stayed behind for the most part and just let her do her soccer thing. She listened, she kicked the heck out of the soccer ball, she got a great workout and most important, she had fun! She had a huge smile on her face after we left...and that was even when she realized that she had some fans there - Grandpa D recorded the whole thing on video (in addition to my standard picture taking), and Gramma V and her friend Linda stopped by on a covert mission to spy on the little one in her class. It was a great way to start the morning!
Here's some photos from the class...Enjoy!

This is Matt putting her cleats on.


This is Matt and Diana warming up.


More warming up.


Diana scoring on an open-netter. :)


I think I need one more barrette next time, Mommy.


Is there anything better than seeing your kid smile so big?

Gramma V, the rock star

I have preached over and over how awesome my mom (aka Gramma V) is. She helps us out with Diana at the drop of a hat and supports my sister and I and our families 100 percent. She's just awesome. I could go on and on, but she truly is the best lady in the world.
Today, I am not the only one to believe that. My mom was named California Adult Education Adminstrator of the Year today. I don't know the name of the organization that named her that because when her secretary called me this afternoon, I was in tears and didn't hear. I will update this when I find out for sure.
The Fairfield-Suisun Adult School is such a special place to my mom. She's been there for a very long time and it's a very dear place in her heart. She works extremely hard and this award comes as no surprise to me. She's the bomb! It's nice to know that someone gets rewarded for working hard and truly caring and being passionate about something.
I hope my mom gets recognized by the school district, the local community and other organizations for this honor because it's truly deserving. The number of people she's touched in her time at the adult school is humongous and the list will keep growing!

Congrats, Gramma V! We are so proud of you!

THE project

The baby that's cooking in the oven has inspired me to get down to work and do some home improvements. No. 1 task is the office, which the baby will share after it's grown out of the bassinet which will be in our room for the first couple months of its life. Eventually, we would like Diana and the baby to share a room, but that's not going to happen until the baby is sleeping through the night. There's no need to deprive Miss D of a good night's sleep.
Anyway, I am going to shame myself by posting a picture after day one of work in the office. This was taken Monday night, but it was mostly after work that was done Sunday night (for all of 1 hour and a half). I know, it's not a lot. But this task is monumental. I am a) a pack rat; b) a slob; c) suck at putting stuff (i.e. paid bills) away. Go ahead, judge me! I pay for it later...like now.
I have months of bills to sort through and file away not to mention all the scrapbooking stuff that has to be organized. I have to disassemble the big table that used to be my scrapbooking table and bring that into the garage (OK, Matt will bring it into the garage). But this is my project. Until I am done, he's not allowed in here. Mostly because I know he would have a heart attack if he sees the mess I am making in here.
I also have to clean out the closet and make room for stuff that matters. For instance, we have team photos from when Matt coached at Hartnell and DeAnza in the early 1990s. Do the math. They have been in some type of storage space since 2001 when we moved in to this house. They have never been put up on the walls. When I asked Matt what he wanted to do with them tonight...he actually suggested we keep them in the frames because he would like to hang them up eventually.
"Uh, sorry, hon...no." This is the baby's room now. Team photos from the 1990s with the scary hair-dos are not going to give my kids nightmares for the rest of their lives. That's what yearbooks are for!
So, here I go. About an hour to an hour and a half every night and I hope to have this project done in two weeks. I will post pics on the progress.

In the meantime, I have to find time to run. I want to do the Run For Good 5K in Fairfield on April 18 with some girls from work so I have to make sure I can still run 3.1 miles without having a heart attack.

Leprechauns Attack!

The leprechauns invaded our house on Monday night...well, I think it was Tuesday morning because the house was perfectly fine when we all went to bed on Monday night. The rascals, one of which was named Angus, left the house in shambles.
They got into Diana's cookies and Cheerios, tore all the blankets and pillows off the couches and played with her dolls and turned the toilet water in all three toilets green.
I have a feeling this is just the start of it all and we are going to be seeing a lot more of Angus and his little friends every year. We will have to be prepared....

Pay it Forward

How it works:The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive a free photo session from me to be used by the end of this year as a gift from me. UPDATE: Please keep in mind that this gift covers the sitting fee only. I will offer all the photos from our shoot to you on a CD for a small fee.
The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO! Before you leave your comment here, write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions).
Then come back and let me know that you are going to play. Then sit back and wait to see if you are one of the lucky winners. I can't wait to see who I am going to be taking photos of!
It's THAT easy!
Remember, only the FIRST THREE comments will qualify.

Good luck!

Chef Pregnant Lady

It's not a news flash that Matt is the chef in the family. He's older than me, grew up in a family where the dad did the cooking, Mom did the baking and just has a knack for it, I guess.
He does the cooking, I clean up afterwards. No biggie.
Well, in the last year, I have been experimenting more with recipes and cooking. Tonight was the big one...a recipe I got off the San Francisco Chronicle Website last week...Penne pasta with meat and sausage. No biggie, right? Wrong. The recipe called for something I think was called cremini mushrooms (I was lucky to find them at Raley's), Brandy (though I didn't use it), marjoram and other spices that I had either never heard of or never used in cooking before and Gruyere cheese (which Raley's also had, luckily).
Preparation took forever and mostly because I grated the fresh parmesean and Gruyere. It took about an hour and a half from start to finish, including 15 minutes in the oven to bake. It was delicious.
I found some plain noodles in the dish to give to Diana for dinner and though she just had a couple, she told me that it was very good. Huge compliment.
This is only a dish I will be making on the weekend, because it was way too involved. And now, being pregnant, I can't see myself standing on my two feet for that long period of time in the kitchen. It made a large dish though so we have enough probably for the rest of the week. Yummy! Yay Angela...you goo girl! :)

What's that smell?

I know what happens to my body when I am pregnant..funny things. I ate and ate and ate some more today. I just never lost that hungry feeling...it was horrible and good at the same time. I ran out of snacks and had to resort to eating the Saltines that my boss gave me a couple weeks ago when I told her that I was pregnant (super nice gesture by the way).
The smell thing started soon after I found out I was pregnant. I was walking over to get tea with a co-worker and as we walked into the common area, there were a ton of people getting coffee, etc. Right as we walked in, I stopped and said "someone has eggs." I am not a big fan of the smell of hard boiled eggs anyway, but this was the strongest hard-boiled egg smell I had ever smelled.
I looked around and sure enough on the counter was a tiny thing of Tupperware with hard-boiled eggs in it. It was closed up so it wasn't like the smell was lurking all over the place. Now, that's some pregnancy nose for ya!
It happened again tonight when I picked Diana up from preschool. KinderCare just has this smell to it. My mom has always noticed it more than I have...though I have noticed it and just grown accustomed to it. I noticed it immediately today when I picked her up this afternoon. There were some other kids in the way so I couldn't really bend down and hug her right away, but I got close enough to get a whiff of the KinderCare smell. I wish I could've rushed her home and tossed her in the bath tub and scrubbed her clean right there and then, but we had dance class. It wasn't until 2 hours later that I had the chance to get that stench off her. And trust me...when she got done, I smelled the clean smell for a while.

Playoffs

Breaking News: Solano plays at Chabot of Hayward on Wednesday at 7 p.m. We lost to Chabot in the semifinals of the Solano Showdown back in December so hopefully we have better luck this time.

Wish good things for Matt and his players!

Conference champs

It's always nice to end the regular season with a win, especially when it's of the 53-point variety. We really didn't know if Matt's team would qualify for the playoffs so to possibly end the season on with a win is something that's never happened in Matt's time at Solano. Sophomore Night was awesome as usual...very classy and professional and the three sophomores had a great time.
About 20 minutes after the win, the girls got the message that Yuba beat Contra Costa, giving us a share of the conference title. Back-to-back champs for the first time since 1998. Awesome! It was a little surreal and bittersweet because there was a very subdued celebration but champs are champs! Matt has done a great job with this team and we can't wait to hear what the playoffs hold for us next week.

Feeling Pregnant

When I was pregnant with Diana, I was really lucky. I didn't have to be to work until 2:30 at the latest so I just sat in bed all morning until the last possible minute when I had to get in the shower and start getting ready for work...which was about noon. I munched on crackers and swore I was going to die from nausea.
I am a lot tougher now (mentally that is)..being a mom will do that to you. I don't have nausea when I get up in the morning, but once I get up and get going it starts. Then, when my eyes see food, it's over. From the time I force down some breakfast until about 10 a.m., it's all nausea all the time. I found a solution this morning...I went to Safeway on my way into work and bought some caffeine free Ginger tea. There must have been 500 boxes of tea and only three of them were Ginger flavored. Of those three, just one was caffeine free. I had two cups of Ginger tea this morning and a couple handfuls of pretzels. By 10 a.m., I was feeling much better. Let's hope this remedy works every day. At least I am feeling pregnant now. I also found out this week that Matt's aunt's birthday is on my due date. That's kinda cool. She's hoping for an on-time baby of course. What are the odds of that, about 1 in 365, right?
In other news: Matt's season gets over on Friday. Well, that is, if they don't share the conference title. It's been a fun season. This team has grown so much and made so much improvement that I am a little sad to see it end. What a great group this has been. I covered two of the three sophomores in high school for several years so it's gonna be sad to see them leave, but happy to see them move on. It's been great to have them as a part of our family for the past two years.
We have been introducing more and more the idea of Diana being a big sister. I bought her a "I'm a Big Sister" book which we read every day. She loves it. I asked her if she wants to have a girl or a boy. She said a girl because "Me and you are girls, Mommy." I said "But if we have a boy, then Daddy will have someone to play tackle football with." She got really quiet. That was not a good thing to say because tackle football is Diana's favorite thing to play with Matt right now. I quickly, and I do mean quickly, changed the subject. I really don't want to find out what sex the baby is, but Matt, Au Bob and just about everyone I know says that I have to find out. Why? I love surprises. We have names ready for both...but I'll never tell. Not for seven more months! :)

Miss Diana lately

Here's our wonderful Diana in pictures...

This is in her pre-ballet class through city of Vacaville...


And this is her running at the Davis Stampede last weekend...

One of 'those' girls

There was a girl in my freshman biology class in high school whose sister got pregnant. I think she was a senior.
She claims that she didn't know she was pregnant because her periods were always irregular. Me being the naive 14-year-old that I was I thought that was crazy.
How do you not know you are pregnant? Doesn't your body go through all kinds of changes when you get pregnant? There's a person inside you for crying out loud.
Well, over the next dozen or so years, I heard many of these tales of this so-called "I didn't know I was pregnant" crap-ola.
I recently became one of these girls. Yes, I am pregnant and didn't know it.
Ever since going off birth control in October (after my half marathon) my periods were irregular...OK, you know what, let's skip the details.
That pregnancy test I took in January after I missed my December period was wrong. I was, in fact, pregnant. Today, I am 10 weeks.
Our baby is due Sept. 8, 2009.
It's all a little surreal right now and we're very focused on this very thrilling basketball season.
When I can start shopping for maternity clothes, I think that's when it will sink in. Right now, the baby is making me hungry all the time. I haven't had any nausea so far...which is great. And I am really trying to stick to eating healthy for the next 7 months.
We have a lot of work to do around the house. The new baby is going to share this very office so we have to convert my scrapbook table into a scrapbooking "area" that won't take up a lot of space. It's going to require some trip to Lowe's and some big time help from Grandpa D and Grandma V.
Diana doesn't fully understand that she's gonna be a big sister, but when we asked her tonight what was in Mommy's tummy she said "a baby." That was pretty cool.
I mentioned to her that getting a little brother or sister would mean she would have someone to share her toys with and play with...she wasn't too thrilled of the idea of sharing her toys. I gotta remember to steer clear of that in the next 7 months.

:)

Good times around here

OK...As I sit here watching a rerun of Friends and waiting for American Idol to come on, Diana is upstairs screaming "I don't want to go to bed!" just 10 minutes after she begged me to put her to bed without brushing her teeth. We did brush the teeth, but this is what happens when she doesn't take a nap at school. Utter chaos and tiredness.
On to our lives. Diana is doing really well other than the occasional tantrum. She's having a blast in ballet class, playing games is one of her favorite after school activities and I am trying to teach her how to read. Tonight while I was drying her hair, I was spelling out some common words for her and she would tell me what they spell: Cat, Dog, Chris, Bob, Mom, Dad, Hat, Bat, Sat, Rat. I was struggling to think of more as she was putting the pressure on "Mommy, more!" I just kept repeating the same ones. (My brain is fried too at 7:15 p.m. Remember, I don't take naps during the day either).
Matt's team is doing well. They won their ninth straight game tonight, up at Mendocino. So exciting. The early reports are that they didn't play well, even though they were up by 19 at half. My contact in Ukiah (my dad) said Mendo cut it to four but we pulled out a 17-point win. Glad we don't have to play them again. Five more games to go. They are still hoping to at least tie for the conference championship but will have to win the rest of their games and get some help. His team has improved so much and they are so much fun to watch that all that doesn't really matter to me. The improvement has been amazing.
Work is going well for me. I am constantly making improvements to our intranet site and getting lots of positive feedback about it. I got called into the Senior Vice President's office the other day and I was really nervous that he was going to lay me off. He started asking me about Matt's job and if he was planning on staying there for a while. I don't think I was sweating on the exterior, but I was preparing myself for the worst. Especially since the SVP was rocking back and forth in his chair and very uncomfortable. He said that he just wanted to check in and see how things were going with me because he doesn't often get the chance to see how I am doing. I thought that was really nice of him...especially since he didn't fire me. I am pretty confident that I am not going to become a casuality of the economy as far as my job goes but you just never know and I have to mentally prepare myself for that.
I got back on the treadmill two days in a row this week and am hoping to make it three tonight. Matt, Michelle, Dad and I are running in the Davis Stampede on Sunday...just the 5K. I am really excited for all of us to run together (well, not literally together, but you know what I mean). Michelle and I are planning on doing the Bay to Breakers as well...myself, very reluctantly. That's a blog for after the race.

Honest Scrap

My sister put me down for this Honest Scrap award so I guess I will amuse her and play along. I am supposed to list 10 honest things about myself. Well, it said at least 10 honest things. I am also supposed to link to 7 other blogs. Not gonna do that because I have a list over to the left of my favorite blogs (which I need to clean up by the way because it was for my reference only and I don't even visit those photographer's blogs anymore).

Here are at least 10 honest things about me:
1. I used to have a belly ring. I took it out when I was a couple months pregnant with Miss D.
2. I did my first half-marathon this October with my sister and sister-in-law. It kicked my butt!
3. I have a huge love for college basketball but am starting to develop a little respect for the NBA.
4. I don't think that the Golden State Warriors will ever be good again.
5. I truly think that Miss D will go to Stanford in 14 years.
6. I am grateful every day that I have a job and it's a job that I love.
7. I am going to keep a watchful eye on our new president and read every article that I can on his daily happenings.
8. I think I am a really good mom.
9. For the first time in years and years, I made some New Year's Resolutions. Though they are not very daring, they are goals that I would like to keep.
10. I can't think of No. 10 so I will mention that my favorite movie is the Back to the Future trilogy. :)

Been a while

As if I didn't already know that I haven't blogged in a long time, Matt actually pointed it out the other night when he opened the laptop to the internet and our blog came up. He said, "You haven't blogged in a lot of years." ('Years' being an expression we have for 'A very long time.') I said 'I know, I know.'
Life has been busy. With Matt's basketball season in full swing, I just get tired and lazy. I haven't been running that much which has probably contributed to my tiredness. I am planning on doing a 5K in Davis on Feb. 8 with Michelle and my dad so hopefully I will be ready. I have a new workout plan on the refridgerator but haven't stuck to it very well.
As for Miss D, she started ballet class two weeks ago. I will post pictures on my SmugMug when I get a chance. She absolutely loves it! And she does so well. She's the oldest in her class, which is mostly made up of 2-year-olds. Because Diana is in a class setting all day, she's used to listening to the teacher and paying attention so she makes us so proud with her attentiveness. We don't get to see how she behaves in preschool so it brought a tear to our eyes the first week of class when she just marched out there and was dancing around. She helps the teacher clean up after each exercise (that's not really surprising at all because she's done that since before she could walk).
Diana is also into the Annie movie and any little girl who was born in the late 70s, early 80s knows the addiction that comes with that movie. Diana is so into it. She loves the singing and the dancing. She thinks Miss Hannigan is silly. Matt is a little worried about the sexual innuendo, but I told him not to worry... she's three, she has no idea what's going on.
Diana loves the music in the movie so much that she sings "Tomorrow" as she's trying to fall asleep and her teacher at school said that she was singing it in school all week.
Diana is just the sweetest little thing. She's really developing into a wonderful little girl!
And curious to boot. The "Why?" phase has begun and the "What song is this, Mommy?" phase is in full swing. I'm surprised neither of us has lost our minds yet, but I'm sure it's not far off.

Matt's team won again tonight. That makes six wins in a row. We have a big week next week. Two more road games, starting the second round of conference and play the two teams that we lost to the first time around. Hopefully we can get some redemption, win the rest of our games and at least tie for the conference title. That would be remarkable!
The team is playing better and really starting to click on the court. Some players have really stepped it up and it's been fun for me to watch.

A Letter from Diana

Dear Daddy,
Thanks for taking me to preschool in the morning. I have fun with you in the morning, getting ready for school and driving in the car with you. I love that you play the music loud on the radio so we rock out. It really wakes me up and gets me going for the rest of the day.
Thanks for being persistent and teaching me how to shoot the basketball in the basket. Even though I would rather play with my easel or anything else in my playroom, I know that someday, I might change my mind and hit the hardwood and the lessons you are teaching me now are extremely valuable.
Thanks for making me awesome breakfasts, especially on the weekends. Those BIG pancakes are awesome and I don't really think it's necessary for you guys to feed me the rest of the day.
Thanks for tackling me because it's going to make me one tough cookie when I grow up...even though I am pretty tough already.
Thanks for worrying about every scrape, scratch, sniffle and cough that I have. It's good to know that you care.
Thanks so very much for letting Mommy do my hair. Enough said.
Thanks for playing computer games with me. I am getting really good at the memory game and I really enjoy the variety in my play time.
Most of all, thanks for working hard in your job because it teaches me good values. And thanks for giving me big hugs and kisses even after your team loses a tough game. It's nice to know that I can always put a smile on your face and that I am still No. 1.

I love you, Dadddy!

On the DL

I had a little accident on Saturday night while getting ready for Matt's game. I was cutting up some meat and grapes for dinner for Diana and me to eat before Matt's game and I cut my middle finger with the serrated knife. OUCH! I had to call my Mommy who took one look at it and insisted we go to the minor injury clinic at Vacaville Kaiser. It was bleeding pretty good and I was really pale and lightheaded from the sight of all that blood. Long story short, I ended up getting two stitches in my finger and updated my much overdue tetnus shot while I was there. I am getting the hang of typing without my middle left finger. I get the stitches removed next Monday hopefully but until then I have to wear this splint for extra protection. Totally annoying. I haven't tried to hold my camera yet but I am pretty sure I should just take a breather from taking photos of Matt's team for the week. So pissed!
Oh well. I hate knives.

Post-Christmas Shopping

So, I haven't posted in a while and I will post some photos from our awesome Christmas but I wanted to get a couple things off my mind before they vanished.
First, did you know that you can do a Google search for coupons online? I might be the last person that knew this, but I just saved a ton of money the other day by getting coupons for Borders and New York and Company. My sister in law (Debbie rocks!) got me a gift card to New York and Company and I stretched it out even further by getting a coupon code for 30 percent off. I got so much more than I would've had I not gotten the coupon. And they are having a fat (or is it phat?) sale right now so I am a very happy shopper right now.
I got a couple bucks off a book at Borders online the other day as well for just typing in "Borders coupon" into Google. There are coupons all over the place. Do it! It takes a couple seconds and it's so worth your time.

The other thing. My mom (Gramma V rocks!) got us "The Cat in the Hat I can do that!" game for Christmas and we played it last night for the first time. So funny! Anyone out there who loves a good laugh and a quick game for the short-attention spanned...get this game! Diana loved it, Matt loved it and I loved it. We will play it all the time.
Diana got another game called Zingo, which is Bingo with a zing! Another awesome game that Diana just loves. It's really fun to be in the game phase with Diana. We have been playing a lot of games lately. I know Matt has been getting a little tired of playing Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and Hi-ho Cherry-O all the time so it's nice to have some different games to play. Diana has even been trying to play Connect 4 lately. It's pretty funny!

Merry Christmas

I don't believe in saying Merry Christmas to people I don't know well so on my e-mail signature at work, it says Happy Holidays. I don't want to offend anyone and I don't want to hear "Oh, I don't celebrate Christmas because of my religion." But on my blog, I can do whatever I want. And I don't think there is anyone who reads this who doesn't celebrate Christmas.
Here are a few pictures leading up to a Very Borchert Christmas...Enjoy and Happy Holidays! :)
Diana helped Matt make gingerbread men...


Then helped him finish off the leftover dough when there wasn't enough to make a complete gingerbread man...



Matt made plenty of goodies for the holidays. Yes, those are Oreo Balls. All good, all the time. Want the recipe? E-mail me.



Uncle Chris and Au Bob helped decorate cookies. If you read Michelle's blog, you saw that she called it "slave labor"...that was not the case at all.



And finally, there's the annual trip to Candy Cane Lane to see all the awesome lights!



The holidays are off to a great start!