O Christmas Tree

I love putting up the Christmas tree. Even more than that, I love sitting and looking at it. The lights are so bright and reassuring. The ornaments all hold special memories. When living in Austin, Dave and I always headed out to Elgin to a Christmas Tree Farm where we walked around, chose and cut our own tree. Since moving to DFW, we've had to settle for trees purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot. There are tree farms in East Texas, but that would be quite a drive. Maybe when Baby Mac is bigger and can appreciate walking around in search of the perfect tree, we'll make the drive. (In my opinion, all trees are perfect. Even those bare spots can be filled in with some of the larger ornaments I possess.)

Our first Christmas, 2001, we headed out to Elgin in a four-door Honda sleigh and strapped the tree to the top of the car to come home. In a stroke of genius, we let the windows down to tie the tree to the top of the car. Having the doors tied closed makes so much more sense than opening the doors to run the rope through to secure the tree to the top of the car. So, we then entered the car Duke's of Hazard style, through open windows--only our doors weren't welded shut and the Honda certainly wasn't a race car. When we got back to the house, I quickly surveyed whether or not neighbors were out to see my exit from the car. I went into the garage and found scissors to cut Dave out, but not before taking a picture.




Here you can see the finished result of our decorations.
The next year, we went out to Elgin with our friends Eric and Kathy. This year we came home with a super-huge tree. Look at how tiny I am next ot this tree. (Please ignore our scanty furnishings and the awful ceiling fan, which hadn't yet been replaced.)
In 2003, I know we went back out to Elgin. I've got to find a picture.

This is 2004; Dave's family was in town for Thanksgiving and went with us to pick out a tree. Here we are in the field with the tree.
Christmas 2005 found us in DFW. This is our first store bought tree.
I imagine there are pictures of our 2006 and 2007 trees somewhere, but I can't seem to find them, either. So we'll flash forward to our 2008 tree.


As we decorated the tree this year, we discussed that we would have to start an ornament collection for Baby Mac. Dave has several ornaments from his childhood that we put on the tree each year, and I have a couple of special ones. Baby Mac's ornament collection was started this year by my Secret Santa, co-worker. She found the perfect ornament for me. First, you have to know that two of the assistants at work call me "Mama Bear." Who knew you could find a pregnant bear ornament?
We look forward to decorating our tree each year; there are lots of memories held on its boughs.

Merry Christmas!

Baby Mac at 27 Weeks

****Baby Mac is now getting into the Christmas spirit*****

We got another glimpse at little baby Mac yesterday. Here are his ultrasound pictures from the doctor's visit. He was opening and closing his mouth while we were watching. We were also very glad to know that he is still a boy....For those that need a little guidance, he is looking straight at you in the first picture, and he has his mouth open in the second picture.



Evidently baby Mac likes his privacy because he was kicking Miranda like crazy after the ultrasound. Between the time we had the ultrasound pictures taken and then checked his heartbeat, he managed to turn himself all the way around. The little guy was on the move.

But, we also had some other news. With the placenta not moving up to where it should, we can't travel for the holidays. Normally it moves up and out of the way the closer you get toward your due date. But it isn't doing that....so, the doctor said it was best if we didn't travel too far from home until the baby is born. After talking about it last night, we are looking forward to having some down time over the holidays. It won't be the same, but we are optimistic that we can both get some much needed rest over Christmas this year.

A New Era has Begun

After three coaches and seven years, Georgia Tech has finally gotten back on track and beaten UGA in football. It wasn't even looking too good at halftime of the game this year. But a 26-0 scoring run by Tech in the third quarter turned the game around. Tech ended up running out the clock and winning 45-42 in Athens.

I'm not ashamed to admit it....I have a man crush on Coach Paul Johnson. He took a preseason team ranked #81 in the country and beat the preseason #1 team in the country. The guy can flat out coach. Hopefully he will be calling Tech home for a long, long time. I think the bullpups are more than a bit worried about what the future might bring for Georgia Tech. Go Jackets!

Fishy Friday not Black Friday

Last year I had so much fun on my Black Friday fishing trip that I just had to share the fun with my Dad and brother. So, I decided to book a guided striper trip on Lake Texoma with Scott Bridgess. I have fished with Scott several times and always caught fish and had a great time. For some reason though it always seems to be cold and rainy when we fish together. This day was to be no different.

We awoke at 4:00am in order to make the two hour drive and meet Scott at his boat slip at 6:30am. Some members of the party weren't too crazy about this aspect of the trip, but all were up and out the door just after 4:30. On cue, the rain started as we were driving up Interstate 35. We didn't let the rain didn't dampen our spirits too much. It was cold too - but it's amazing how you forget about the cold when you are catching fish.

The crew complete with 3 GT hats, 2 GT sweatshirts, and a pair of bright yellow rain pants.The action heats up. Scott is unhooking a striper that Dad caught.

Mike's hero shot. Yes, he did catch bigger fish than this one. But this is the only picture I had of Mike with a fish.

My hero shot, and the biggest fish of the trip - a 26" striper (7lbs).

A nice striper for Dad, and some of the only sun that we saw all day.

Headed home at just before sunset, if you could only see the sun.

I can't speak for everyone, but I had a great time despite the cold and rain. Fish were caught, memories were made, and maybe a new McLaren tradition was born...I can only hope.

Bathroom ReDo

After working on and off since March, we are finished giving a fresh face to the two upstairs guest bathrooms. As I've mentioned before, there were some very questionable decorating choices in this house. While the house was built in 1999 by a couple in their 30s, some of the decorations look like the 80s--both the 1980s and chosen by an 80 year-old grandma who wants to live by the beach. Now that we've finished these, we're itching to obliterate the blue from our bathroom, but that will have to wait until after Baby Mac's arrival--and then some since we'll have to save the money.


The hall bathroom before. Look at the lovely pastel checkerboard wall paper.



Note the pink and white marble vanity top.



And after. (Ignore the mirror reflections.)

I started stripping wall paper in a leisurely manner in March. By June 90% was pulled off. In July, Dave took over finishing the stubborn parts. We had the walls textured in early August. Dave painted, put up new light fixtures, new bath hardware, and new mirrors. In September, we started working on the granite. It took two flakey granite guys and almost 3 months to get granite installed. Then, Dave had to work on the plumbing.


Sadly, I don't have a before picture of the second smaller bathroom. The wall paper in there had a yellow background with big 4x12-inch boxes that framed single stemmed flowers in shades of purple and blue. Some days I felt the wallpaper was OK; other days I hated it. The ceiling was painted pale yellow. The same pink and white marble vanity top was the icing on the cake.

The new bathroom is a lovely shade of pale green. We can't wait to paint the guest room the same color.

Baby Mac is Growing

. . . and Mama is, too. I've gained about 20 pounds at this point. I don't want to think about what the next 4 months will bring. Thankfully most of the weight is contained in my belly and pesky double chin. Dave and I keep trying to get a good photo of the soccer ball I'm carrying under my shirt, but to no avail. I think the problem is we're photographing indoors--maybe outside with some good natural light would be a better location. My tummy fades into my arm in this picture, so I still don't feel you can really see the tummy. But I can certainly feel it. It's difficult to tie my shoes. Last night I even had to sit down to take my pants off. Oi. This is only going to get worse. I'll just keep my stool handy. And Dave is a great help with the shoes. I'm also looking into slip on shoes. I have a brown pair that I wear all the time; I'm in the market for some black ones--in all my free time.

But enough about me. Baby Mac is an active little guy. His movements are increasing in frequency and intensity. When he's really moving around, I'll call Dave over. Dave will put his hand on my belly to feel Baby Mac, which tends to give him performance anxiety. Every now and again, Dave will actually feel something. I feel sorry for Baby Mac all cramped up in there. But before we all know it, he'll be out here kicking and screaming--hopefully more kicking that screaming.

According to What to Expect When You're Expecting, Baby Mac is 9 inches long from crown to rump (see his little legs are all squished up--poor guy) and weighs 1.5 pounds. During week 25, his lungs are developing.

Oopsie

I keep reading that clumsiness accompanies pregnancy. My friend Ted shared that he always knew when his wife was pregnant because she started dropping things. I had escaped this clumsy fate, until today. While having lunch in a restaurant with Ted and another male coworker, I spilled an entire glass of ice water. The waitress handed my plate over the cup. I didn't correctly gauge how quickly I was lowering the plate as I brought it down and across the table. My reaction time is completely gone. Actually, I don't even think I had a reaction other than to laugh to cover my embarrassment. Thankfully both Ted and Lorimer are understanding men. They laughed with me as we cleaned up the mess. Luckily neither Lorimer nor I were soaked by the water. And fortunately, it was water--not tea or Dr. Pepper.

Baby Mac: Week 23 Update

Baby Mac is moving more and more these days, and it's more apparent that I am pregnant and not fat. The movements are actually becoming pronounced enough that Dave has been able to feel a small movement on the outside. Thursday I was in a workshop and Baby Mac was moving so much that I could watch my stomach twitch. I know this is just the beginning of things to come. Of course, I (hopefully unnecessarily) worry that he's going to move so much that he'll get the umbilical cord around his neck. Just the beginning of years of worry, huh?

We had a check up on Monday. It was a quick appointment with a listen to Baby Mac's heartbeat--which still sounds strong--especially when he's moving around. Next month, I'll have a longer appointment, with a sonogram to check the status of my case of placenta previa, an update on whether or not I'll be able to travel over the Christmas holidays, and the gestational diabetes test--which will take an hour.


We've picked out our crib bedding, but have had to order it. Who knew that you couldn't just go in to the store and buy it. We're hopeful that we'll get it before Thanksgiving. I suppose if we don't then we'll survive. Our next hurdle is to pick out a crib. We do have the field narrowed to four. I need to make my list of desirable features, go back and look one more time, and then hopefully choose one. I've heard that it can take 8-12 weeks for nursery furniture to come in. We plan to buy a dresser and a crib; we're still debating whether we want a convertible crib or just a standard one. I've picked out a rocker-recliner from a furniture store. I might do a bit more looking before we buy it.

We're undecided as to which room we'll use for the nursery. All along we planned to use the blue room, but the vibrant colors in the bedding might necessitate a paint change. We don't mind painting, but Dave says we can't have another earth toned room upstairs. We then thought about using the green room. My mom mentioned that the green room is quieter than the blue room. So then we thought that the office might be a good choice because it is a quiet room. So, who knows where Baby Mac will be sleeping. We've got time to make up our minds.

Plumbing - How I Hate Thee

There are two types of home improvement that I absolutely hate. One is wiring (anything other than simple wiring), and the other is plumbing. You wouldn't think that keeping pipes watertight is all that hard, but for me it is equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest.

After getting our new vanity granite counter tops installed I had to re plumb the faucets and drains. Easy - right? Nope, not at all. Here is a list of the "issues" I have run into:

-Had to call the granite guy back out to drill a hole that they forgot to drill for one faucet and enlarge another hole for a drain for the other vanity.
- Neither drain hole is at the same location as the previous one. So I had to redo all the drain pipes.
-The AC drain pipe connects to the drain in one bathroom. This has to be cut out and rebuilt since it is all glued together.
-The hole pattern for one faucet to too close to the backsplash. So the sink stopper rod (for a lack of a better term) hits the back splash and won't go down all the way. To fix this I had to buy another extension arm and bolt two together so that it would be long enough to reach the stopper lever.
-The drain pipe for one sink is 1 1/8" diameter pipe. Standard drain pipe sizes are 1 1/2" or 1 1/4". I have 1 1/2" piping. Guess what? They don't make an adapter that goes from 1 1/8" to 1 1/2". Looks like I am going to have to get a new drain and reinstall.
-The drain for the other sink (bowl type) doesn't have holes for an overflow. This bowl sink has an overflow..... I now have to carefully drill holes in the (threaded) drain pipe so that the overflow will drain. I could just buy a new one, but that is another $40.
-And perhaps the biggest pain in the neck is that both cabinets have a stile divider board on the cabinet doors. So I can only get my head in the doorway to reach the plumbing.

The good news:

- Flexible supply hoses are very easy to install.
- That is all...

Birthday Conspiracy

In August, my school district announced that it would be piloting the ipod touch with administrators. My principal, Becky, immediately put in the request for all six of us to be in the pilot group. In September, I got an email that instead of 35, the district was only getting 20 to pilot, so I wouldn't be getting one. I was a bit bummed. I wanted to try the WiFi in various places in the building and see what kind of functionality it would have for doing classroom walk throughs. Plus, it would be fun to have one to play with for myself.
A few weeks later, I received an email that we got in a second shipment so I would get one after all. Yippee!!!! Then two or three days later, I got an email that one of the itouch's in the second shipment was damaged, that a name had been drawn out of a hat, and that I was the unlucky person who wouldn't get one immediately, but that when it was replaced I would get one. I graciously emailed the director of technology back telling him thank you for letting me know what was happening and that I would be patient.
Monday when I opened birthday gifts, Dave had bought an itouch for me. I was excited. Then, the confession of the conspiracy came.
Evidently Dave had ordered my itouch the same day I learned that I would get one to pilot for 30 days after all. He emailed my boss asking her not to let me get one since he'd bought one for me. (Now what would it have hurt for me to play with one for 30 days?) Becky contacted the director of technology and the plan was hatched. (In retrospect, I can't believe I bought the "name out of a hat" line.)
Poor Becky had to be gracious when I whined that I wouldn't get a district itouch after all. She was as anxious for me to open my birthday gifts as Dave was.
At least I know Dave put a lot of thought into this gift. Now, maybe I'll get some time to play with it. (I've had about 45 minutes the past two nights; maybe I'll get another 45 minutes tonight.)