THE project...no pic though

I have been working diligently on the office/baby room. I have thrown stuff away, re-organized spaces and made a very large garage sale pile. I am motivating myself by remembering the show "Clean Sweep" on TLC which I watched religiously while I was on maternity leave with Diana. I love that show! I don't have any pictures to share tonight because I have been working on taking over the Solano blog for Matt and exercising. My brother in law and father in law (no relation) are pressuring me to put a photo of the room on the blog because I don't think they believe I have been working on it. Trust me, I have. I sucked it up and put all my purses in a storage bin. It's just waiting to be moved down to the garage (which Matt has to do because it's too heavy).
A few Christmases ago my dad gave me a series of four black and white pictures of him and my mom at a masters swim meet three years before I was born. I have always been in love with those photos and I had Matt put it up in the house this weekend. Now, I can see it every day and it's not sitting in the closet collecting dust anymore. There's just a couple more things to get out of the closet and we (I) will be close to done. Diana's new bed has been ordered by Gramma V so the pressure is really on now. Diana reminded me tonight that we have to bring the changing table up from the garage. You think she's excited? yeah!
I will get a picture up soon. I promise!

Hey kiddo!

I have been looking forward to today's ultrasound for quite a while. The only other one I had was when I first found out I was pregnant at 9 weeks and that came as a shock because the baby wasn't so much of a pea as it is when most people find out they are pregnant.
So, Diana and Gramma V came with me to Sacramento today for the Baby Show. I had to go to Sacramento because I requested genetics counseling because of the medication I take for epilepsy. I did that with Diana too but went to Oakland for the ultrasound. Nothing against Oak-town, but Sacramento is much more convenient.
Anyway, the Baby Show went well and we got lots of pictures to take home. Diana was a little freaked out I think because she wasn't too conversational (she was also very tired from being up the previous night with a little sicky tummy). But she told Au Bob later that "we got to see the baby on the TVs" so that was encouraging.
The doctor said the baby looked really good and we don't have anything to worry about as far as genetic defects. Not that it mattered and not that I was worried, but it's good to hear.
The best part of the appointment was the ultrasound tech, the doctor and the genetics counselor saying that it was easy to get great images because I am so thin! OMG! If I am glowing for the next 20 weeks, that's why! THIN? I have never been called that in my life. So awesome.
Here are a couple pics of Baby Borchert...Enjoy!
Here's the baby "blowing a bubble." It's the embilical cord, but they were going to take a copy of the picture and put it in their wall of fame. Cool, huh?


Here's the baby looking at its big feet saying "Whoa!"

Valuable Reading

When I went to pick up a copy of a book that I ordered earlier this week at Borders, I noticed a Newsweek magazine that I just HAD to have. The cover story was about finding a cure for epilepsy. I picked it up and as I waited in line, read a few paragraphs. Very interesting reading. Later in the afternoon, after Diana went down for a nap, I read the entire thing - an editorial, an article about a neurologist in New York and some of his patients and a senior advisor for President Obama whose daughter had suffered with epilepsy for more than 20 years.
All enlightening. If you don't know much about epilepsy, I highly recommend picking up this week's copy of Newsweek magazine and taking the 10 minutes to read the three articles in it. It's got some very staggering figures about the number of Americans who struggle with this disease, and the many people who even die from it. I was especially encouraged by the editorial which stated that while many people know someone with cancer and jump out to help that cause (which is great) by donating money, walking in a walk, etc., the signs of an average person with epilepsy aren't as apparent so we don't run out to donate money to find a cure for epilepsy because we don't think it's that common of a disease.
If you don't think you know someone with epilepsy and are thinking that this is a random post...it's not. You DO know someone with epilepsy...me!
I am not asking you to donate money or log on to one of the many "find a cure for epilepsy websites." I just want to make sure everyone is informed about epilepsy and understand what it's all about. 10 minutes, read the articles. I promise it will open your eyes!

THE project

It's coming along. This picture is not indicative of how the room is coming along. It's a mess I know. This was about a week ago and I didn't want to leave out any steps because I promised to give a blow-by-blow. Plus, I saw my brother-in-law for the first time in forever last weekend and he politely reminded me that I hadn't put up a recent picture of THE project. He walked into the room and said, "Whoa! What happened in here?" He was expecting a disaster and it wasn't that bad.
The photo below is the room as of today. Mostly, I just have some cleaning up to do and then we can start bringing in the changing table and moving some other things around. You can't see the closet from these pictures, but I did some work on that as well. We, er, I am going to have quite a garage sale in June.

Easter Weekend 2009

What a great weekend! It was a time to remember a loved one who is no longer with us, spend some valuable time with those we may not see every day and celebrate a fun holiday.
The weekend started on Saturday morning with Matt and Diana coloring Easter eggs. Matt may not be the craftiest guy but he sure does take a lot of pride in being the one in our family that colors Easter eggs with Diana, decorates and bakes cookies, carves the pumpkins, etc. I love it and I definitely don't mind being behind the camera to capture all the father-daughter moments!
After the Easter eggs, we headed up to the local Dream Street park to take part in the annual Easter egg hunt. The community leaders put thousands of goodie-filled eggs all around the park for the kiddos to grab. Diana was a star this year. She was ready to go and did a fantastic job looking in every nook and cranny for the eggs. After that, Gramma V, Grandpa D, Diana and I headed into Sausalito to catch the ferry boat into the city. It's an Easter tradition for three years now to take the ferry to San Francisco, have lunch and remember Nanny. It was a great time. I must say that I had the best hamburger I have ever had at Neptune's at Pier 39. I know I am pregnant and all, and that may sway my decision-making a bit, but holy cow (pun intended) it was great!
We got home late Saturday and recovered from the busy day with a quiet rest of the evening. (for those wondering where Matt was...The Masters was on this weekend and he didn't remove himself from the couch).
On Sunday, Diana woke up to find the Easter bunny left her quite a few goodies in her Easter basket. She was most excited about all the plastic eggs he left her and about the candy (that she can't eat). It's very colorful though. She later discovered her love for jelly beans. :)
The family came over for a great breakfast cooked by Matt, Diana hunted eggs in the backyard and we played around the house the rest of the day. We had quite a lot of fun playing with Diana's new bubble collection that we used up in all of an hour. It was awesome weather, but we came back inside and did some projects around the house.
We were most excited to get a visit from Uncle Chris, who stopped by when he got off work early. We haven't seen Uncle Chris in a really long time and it was great to have him around again. Things haven't changed...he still cracked jokes, turned Diana upside down and hung her from her ankles and made himself right at home. We wouldn't want it any other way.
In the baby world: The baby has been having parties in my belly over the last week. It's been a lot of fun. The baby definitely likes its space because it moves around the most when I bend over at my belly when I am on the computer at work or something. I have an ultrasound next week (where I will NOT be finding out the sex of the baby) and have a regular checkup tomorrow. I have been really tired so not working out as much, but when I do have energy I try to hop on and do a run-walk for at least 30 minutes. It's not easy, but I know it'll be worth it in the end.
Check out pictures from the weekend here.

Leader of the Pack

It's been interesting to observe Diana at KinderCare lately. There are definitely girl groups and boy groups. I don't see a whole lot of girls playing with the boys and vice versa. The girls play in the home living area and the boys are usually doing their own thing off somewhere else in class. This is definitely not something set up by the teacher, but very interesting to me.
Diana has developed friendships with all the girls in her class. Where it used to be just one girl has now turned in to a friendship with about three or four other girls. One day when I went to pick her up, all the girls yelled out to Diana that her mommy was here. "Thanks, girls," I said. Sometimes they go get her jacket for her and another day they gathered up her Cabbage Patch doll which she brought for Share Day and all the clothes that were strewn across the room. Very helpful, I thought.
Over the last week, the friendships seem to have grown and blossomed a bit more. The other day, every girl in Diana's class gave her a HUGE hug before we left and some even kissed her (so gross, I know). Diana, normally shy before and unwilling to say goodbye to any of her friends, returned the hug and even waved through the door when we left.
Matt and I talked a couple nights later and he said that he watched her for about five minutes the next day (not knowing about the departure hugs that occurred). He was amazed at how much of a social butterfly Diana is in her class with the other girls. She showed them her homework and they talked about their outfits, he said, to one another.
He thinks she's the leader of the group, but I think that she plays with everyone fairly and treats everyone the same instead of getting into clicks and the sort. At least I hope so.
It's very fun though to see her open up and socialize and have these little friends. We have no idea who these girls are, where they live, who their parents are, but Matt thinks it would be a good idea to invite them to Diana's birthday party in June.
I see where he's coming from, and Diana has said that she wants to invite them all, but again...I have never met their parents. Who am I to invite strangers into the house? I don't expect them to bring a present for my kid who they don't even know. Diana talks about her friends at home, but do the other girls talk about Diana? Do the other parents know of this "Diana"?

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.