Week 35/36: One Month Today!

Alright folks, today marks ONE MONTH until Baby H's arrival!  They should have Advent Calendars for one month before, not starting on December 1.

Weekend was nice; but let's start with Friday and how frustrated I was at work.  Every time I have had to complete a schedule for the music department's classes, I have now had to use a different form every time.  No biggie, just transferring the same information into a different Excel file every time.  But every time I submit these forms, they ALWAYS come back riddled with errors as someone else enters the same data into a different form.  I swear our school is behind the times...but anyway, so I'm now having to enter in data into drop-boxes, so instead of just typing, I have to click on EVERY single box in this file, which means clicking "MUS" for every class (which is the only option they give me anyway), click each class number, click how many credits, click what type of class it is, click the name, click the teacher, click the time, etc. etc.  Well, let's say there are classes missing.  And class numbers missing.  And rooms.

So I tell the registrar's office this, and they correct it.  I start over because they want me to use the updated form.  But then something else is missing.

I do the same thing, and lo and behold, 10 CLASSES ARE MISSING.  So then I start over a NEW form.  Again.

I've been filling/refilling this form over the course of a few days.  I'm taking a break from it now because I'm so frustrated-I'm going to submit what I have with notes on the side of everything that is missing.  Just know I'm thankful that I will be on maternity leave when these proofs come back, because I know the form will be riddled with more errors, just like usual.  Not my problem soon...

Sorry, that was a long work tangent, but that was me Friday (and today).  The nice thing was my chair was on vacation and my old chair took off early and said if the other faculty members don't have anything for me to do that I could take off early as well.  Yippee!

Friday night was uneventful, but hubby and I were baffled on how the weekend snuck up on us so quickly.  We celebrated with a trip to El Toritos, a restaurant we ate at when we went down to Disneyland (of course this was a lot closer).  Delicious dinner.  Afterwards hubby graciously accompanied me to Michael's to pick up materials to make our Christmas wreath, then we headed over to Babies R Us since we forgot to get a changing table pad.  Babies R Us/Toys R Us is one of the smartest stores.  They must rake in so much money, because a changing pad costs you $30, and you use it for only so much time.  Yes, it will help if you have multiple kids, but the life span is still pretty short.  Then the changing pad covers-holy smokes-$15-$17!  Seriously, a sheet that fits over the pad that your baby will most likely pee/poop on?  Nonsense.  I need to really learn how to sew/get a sewing machine.

Saturday we took Miles to the dog park which wasn't as exciting as it usually is.  Then we took a walk around Lake Balboa, close to the dog park.  I used to take Coltrane there all the time since it's about 20 minutes away from our old place.  Lots of birds flock there, and strange enough, weird people, but what can you do.

I wasn't sure what type of birds these were, but they kept their wings open and flashing as if it was a mating thing.  Or a gang thing.

Later that afternoon I worked on our wreath, and voila!

Simple yet holiday-ish.  :)

Hubby got tired early, which made me sleepy, so we turned in early.  Might as well catch up on sleep as much as possible now, right?

Sunday after watching a little bit of football, we took Miles to the closer dog park which was boring since he really didn't find a special dog friend to play with.  After an hour or so I went and got groceries at TJs while hubby took Miles to Petco next door.  TJs was a mad house filled with surprisingly a lot of old people.  But I survived.  : )

Sunday afternoon/evening consisted of taking Miles for a walk around the block, Target run, laundry and dinner.  Not super exciting but got a lot accomplished.  Mr. Miles was a very sleepy pup though.

He briefly fell asleep on hubby while standing on him.  It was precious.

Today towards the end of work I have another rehearsal with the choir for the Christmas concerts, but the composer will be there which makes me a little nervous seeing how I'm a classical musician trying to play a "gospel" tune.  Wish me luck!

Week 35: Yay Friday

Woo, made it to Friday!  Now to get through the short work week next week and then it's Happy Thanksgiving!  : )

This week has had its ups and downs.  Let me recap.

Wednesday's Staff Connect Lunch was okay...a lot of my friend co-workers dropped out last minute, but the food was good.  I didn't win any of the raffles, but it's probably a good thing since most the prizes revolved around See's Candies (my FAVORITE).  I sat next to a lady who asked me some pretty intense questions about pregnancy and the baby, then I found out from my friend she's the lady that everyone avoids in the office because of how nosy she is.  People like her make me glad I'm the only staff member in the music department.

When I got home, hubby was working on Baby H's crib that was delivered!  Glad I got home then though because he needed some assembly help, which I was able to provide.  Before we went to training, hubby snapped some photos of my 35 week progress.

There's the crib being put together behind me!  And look at Miles behave while taking the photo.  : )

So here's a downer of my week...I forgot to mention that Monday after work my check engine light turned on along with the "AT" light, or transmission.  I couldn't see what gear I was in and my car was a little jerky.  I had my sensor replaced a few months ago so I thought that's what it was.  I took it over to where I had it replaced, they reset my electrical board, and the lights went away.  He said bring it back if it happens again...

Well, right before Miles's training those lights went off AGAIN.  UGHGHGH.  We took hubby's car and I stressed about my car throughout Miles's training (which consisted of tricks.  Kind of a pointless class).

When we got back, hubby tested my car and it drove fine with the lights, so I planned on driving slowly to work the next day and taking it straight to the mechanic.  That night I was so grumpy with my car, my foot cramped, dinner took a long time to cook and that caused a minor meltdown.  I went to bed early in hopes of shaking off the bad juju I was feeling.

Thursday my check engine light turned on but the AT light didn't, so there was a little progress.  Drove over to the mechanic and dropped my poor car off...then got the call about a few hours later.  It's not the sensor-it's my whole computer system (according to the mechanic, who had called a Mazda dealer).  He said it can cost about $1,200, and even then it could be faulty wiring so it could cost upwards of $2,000 and that I have to take it to the dealer.  BUMMER.  He reset the electrical panel and I picked it up during my lunch break.

What do I do when I have car problems?  Call my pa.

His recommendation: take it to the dealer to really have it diagnosed and cough up the $ to do so, that way I'll have a more accurate take on it.  Of course my car acts up before Baby H comes.  So I made an appointment with the one Mazda dealer closest to us for next Friday, which will cost me $150.  Yippee.

After a tedious work day (locating band/choir/orchestra directors on California high school websites and entering all the information into an excel file for a mailing list...blech), I left early for another two-week checkup.  Everything seems fine and the doc said I wasn't dilated (not surprised), but now I have to come back for weekly appointments.  Home stretch!

I found a Coffee & Tea Leaf shop near Simi Valley Hospital after my appointment since I was done so early and had an hour to kill before the Infant CPR class; chatted with my pa for a while, then made my way over.  The class was kind of a joke for $30; simple enough that I could have just You Tubed it.  We basically watched a video most the time, practiced on our doll for a few minutes here and there, and ended class half an hour early.  Hubby had to work late so he couldn't make it, but I'm glad since we saved some money.  Here's a stupid downer...as we were walking out of the class, someone asked me when I was due and she proceeded to say, "Any minute now, huh?!"  Um, no lady...I answered "Christmas".  This other pregnant girl and her mom were close behind and she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm due New Year's!"  and folks, she was half the size of me.  So...that made me feel like a whale.  Thanks people.  Needless to say I smiled politely and took off as fast as I could away from them.

Missy sent us a really cute Baby H box Wednesday night, but I didn't have a chance to take any photos since I was in a bad mood, so I did that when I got home last night:

More super cute hats, an Ernie sweater and burp cloths in Baby H's put together crib!

I'm so glad it's Friday.  Bad news is that my check engine light turned on while driving to work this morning.  I'm crossing my fingers the AT light stays off until I take it in next Friday.  Stupid cars.

This weekend we have no real plans which is nice-I want to see the new Hunger Games movie since it's probably going to be the last movie I see before Baby H, but I'm not sure if we will save that for next week.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Week 35: Doing fine

Not too much to report other than today marks Week 35 in my pregnancy...which leaves only five more weeks to go.  I was trying to find a decent photo of what Baby H looks like now, but I warn you, do not google "35 weeks pregnant" in images.  You end up getting a lot of random mamas, some are kind of funny where they impose a photo of a baby on their tummy; but some are kind of provocative...I guess some people don't have filters.  I think I'll have hubby take a photo of me when I get home so you can see my progress!

Instead, I will shower you with cute sleepy Miles photos.

I took Miles over to our friend Susie's place since hubby worked all day yesterday-they took him for a hike and to the dog park.  He slept the entire time he was home (besides eating dinner).  

My morning ritual is to take Miles out to potty then he gets to sleep in with Matthew until he gets up.  He normally gets situated under the covers, but this morning I caught him sleeping on my pillow.  Love this pup.

Today our campus has their annual Staff Connect Thanksgiving Lunch where we pay $5 and get all you can eat "Thanksgiving" food and rub elbows with other staff members.  You can also bring items of food for the student pantry (for students who are low income), so I went and grabbed a few things yesterday.  This enters me into some fun raffles as well.  I'm excited to go because for Thanksgiving next week we're going out-kind of our new tradition since last year Thanksgiving was two days before we moved (and hubby isn't a fan of turkey!).  Then tonight is Miles's fifth week of training, which I'm sure he'll do just fine.

Sorry for so many photos of our pup and not much of this pregnant mama!  I think he's more photogenic than I am ; ).

Week 34/35: Weekend Update

Monday just comes too fast, right?

I had a pretty decent weekend.  Friday after work I met hubby at our potential pediatrician's office and really liked him.  The only question I didn't ask was how do we "book" him as our official pediatrician when I go into labor.  Whoops!  I'll call them today and figure that out.

After the visit we did some essential baby shopping at Babies R Us and Target.  I think we're almost set!  Saturday while Matt went to work, I took Miles to a nearby dog park which wasn't really a great trip-we went into the common dog area where he normally goes and was immediately hounded by a huge pitbull.  After the owner pulled it away scolding the dog, " Okay, you want to go now huh?", she still didn't take the dog out of the park.  Miles started playing and running with other dogs but then the pitbull, another pitbull and a german shepherd started picking on Miles and he was whining so loud I had to take him out.  I hate bad dog owners.  We ended up going to the small dog area where Miles found a friend and I listened to the weird small-dog owners bitch about the pitbull owners.  That was...interesting.

Afterwards I ended up doing a quick grocery run and then vegged out in front of the television, in and out of consciousness.  Third trimester is definitely making me more tired!  After a brief nap with Miles, I headed over to Burbank to meet up with hubby to do a quick IKEA run.  We bought a changing table and small hamper-and I think we're pretty much set on our baby items!  The only thing we can't agree on is a glider/rocking chair.  I almost settled with the IKEA "rocking chair", since it was so cheap and comfy enough, but Matt hated it.  So back to the drawing board.  Hopefully we'll find something sooner than later.

Sunday morning we headed out early to the better dog park a little more south of us.  Miles had such a good time, and he made a girlfriend:

We loved this Frenchie-his name was Porky

This was Miles's girlfriend-they ended up playing almost the whole time we were there

Miles super passed out when we got home

And he was passed out for almost the entire day

My nesting urges kicked in when we got home and ended up doing laundry, moving some furniture, getting the crockpot set up (I made yummy Crockpot Beef Stew), cleaned up my closet, got most of my hospital bag together and washing dishes after dinner.  As we were getting ready to take Miles to his make-up training class at 5pm, I realized I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes.  NOOOO!  Hubby brought over a chair to see if I could try propping up my foot and tying them that way, but I was struggling.  He had to tie my shoes.  Alas.

Miles's training went quickly and then he was able to play with a couple puppies owned by our trainer and another worker there.  Needless to say our whole family was exhausted last night.

Today I'm feeling super huge...and I know that will just get worse here on out.  I did have a dream last night that Baby H finally arrived and he was 7 pounds 3 ounces (amazing I can remember those details, huh?!).  If I'm close to psychic and that's what he's going to weigh, then I'm one happy mama-I don't want him to be any bigger!

After work today I'm meeting up with a few gals for our last Happy Hour girl time.  That'll be nice considering I will be holed up with Baby H in a little over a month.  Still can't believe that's around the corner-I keep hearing all these countdowns for Christmas, which also is my countdown for Baby H.  SNL hit it on the head this weekend with the sketch "Mr. Senior" in their Weekend Update.  Check it out, it's hilarious.  But it's exactly how I feel...

Week 34: Happy Friday

Made it to Friday, pheeew.

Recap of week so far: Wednesday work was fine, and then the performance forum turned out really well.  I still get really nervous before I play, I don't think I'll ever grow out of that, but my DA Kiersten performed beautifully.  I put us first so that I could just take off right after, but students would hurry up to the front of the hall and I had no chance to sneak out where I was sitting...so I sat and listened to the rest of the students.  It wasn't bad at all, and I'm glad I stayed until the end because the Percussion Ensemble came up and did a few works and they were awesome.

When I got home I noticed we received a package...

Lovely quilt for Baby H made by Sara-thank you!  And the card, if you can't read it, says "Babies are filled with Love...and Poop So Much Poop"

Thursday was weird...I felt fine in the morning but then around 10:30am I started getting real clammy and sick feeling.  Hubby complained earlier that he was feeling off too.  We weren't sure if dinner the night before was not agreeing with us, but I was suffering.  I took off to get the promised pizzas for my DAs for their help in Halloween decorating and once I returned I felt a little better.  But that clamminess/off-feeling happened on and off all day.  I forgot to mention that the hospital called and said the Infant CPR class we signed up for filled up but we have a spot for next Thursday.

When I returned home I wasn't feeling much better.  Managed a run to PetSmart to set up a make-up lesson for Miles since we missed this week's, grabbed him food and then made dinner.  Still wasn't feeling too well afterwards so headed to bed early.

Today I feel a lot better, but my lower back has been having shooting pains since yesterday; that comes sporadically too, and I have a feeling Baby H is settling back there sometimes.  I have to shift him off and then I feel a lot better.  He's definitely getting bigger.  So far, third trimester has been on and off for me; I think it's because I got off scott-free from my first and second trimesters.  I'm just crossing my fingers Baby H doesn't want to come out early like his dad did!

Week 34: Carry A Bag of Sugar...

Week 34 marks Baby H to be about FIVE pounds now, which is equivalent to a bag of sugar.  Do that around your waist all day and that's me!  I can still get around pretty well (I managed to squeeze in a workout when I got home yesterday), but sometimes getting out of bed in the middle of the night or getting off the couch is a big deal.  But here's your weekly pregnantchicken.com fun photo:

What's crazy is that Monday night I had a dream where I was at the eye doctor's office and my contacts weren't as strong-my vision was getting blurry.  Then Tuesday morning I get an email from whattoexpect.com saying in Week 34 "Many women discover that their vision seems less sharp during pregnancy, or that their contact lenses are less comfortable."  So my dream-self is definitely pregnant...hahaha.

After my workout last night I attempted to make a recipe from Pinterest - Spicy Chicken Spinach Stuffed Avocados.  As I was trying to plate them, I dropped one on the kitchen floor and it was a mess.  : (  Wah waaaah.  Hubby was nice enough to let me take the other one (after I made him try a couple bites!) and he ended up making turkey corndogs.  So sad because it was realllly good (and for all you gluten/grain free people, there's none of that in it!).

Yes, those are tater tots on the side.  :)

Later on we finally went on Amazon and purchased a LOT of the necessities we have left to get for Baby H (thank you to all who pitched in for Amazon gift cards!).  We have a few things left to purchase, but we have a couple Babies R Us gift cards and regular gift cards that we'll be definitely using.  Babies are EXPENSIVE.  We can't believe that with all the generous contributions to our growing family, we still have/had so much more to get.  And we still need to buy a ton of diapers!  But it's all worth it.

Tonight I have to stick around work to play for performance forum with my department assistant, tomorrow is Infant CPR and Friday is our meet and greet with the pediatrician.  I'm going to be in Simi Valley a lot this week!

Week 33/34: Baby Shower #2

I almost thought I wouldn't have much time to update my blog today-busy day at work-but I have just a small amount of free time to do a quick update on my weekend.

Friday night consisted of the Target run we forgot to do Thursday night, fatty food and movies at home.  Well, my fatty food was a deconstructed avocado-chicken sandwich, greek salad and half my zucchini fries; so not too fatty.  : )

Saturday we took Miles to the dog park and at first when we saw only five or six dogs being inactive we got a little bummed...but Miles totally sparked the energy again and got all the dogs going!  It was so fun to watch.  He is really a breath of fresh air at the dog park-independent, playful, inserts himself into the pack immediately, and I think he even made a girlfriend.  It was super cute.

After the park we got ready for my second baby shower thrown by my co-workers.  I was a little nervous at first, putting together music co-workers, admin. assistants from other departments, some people who don't work at CLU anymore, and my bestie Jen...but it actually was really fun!  Here are photo highlights, courtesy of my awesome hubby photographer:

Decorations on the tables-little socks!

Me chowing down w/my co-worker Randy, admin. assistant to the main college of arts & sciences.  She's a surfer and super in shape!

Cute kiddos

The piano faculty member co-hosted the event; he's the music director at this church in Thousand Oaks.  The view is amazing!

While Jen went to get food, I got to hold Weston, her 10 month old.  He wasn't too sure about me...

Someone made that "diaper cake" on the left-so creative!

FYI...Albertsons makes DELICIOUS cakes

A few people had to leave before this was taken, but way to go hubby for being able to get a group photo!

After the baby shower, we headed over to where we bought Miles and gave them a current photo of him to put up on their wall.  They loved it, and we loved being able to see cute puppies.  We also got a cute onesie and hat for Baby H while we strolled through the mall-I should have taken a photo of them.  Maybe tonight.  :)

Saturday night I put away all the awesome items we got for Baby H and washed and dried the multitude of clothing for Baby H (I swear he now has more clothing than Matt and I combined), and Sunday morning I put them all away.  I then booked it back to Thousand Oaks to return something to Old Navy then went straight to work to help with a concert.  No worries, I get time and a half for this-so with all these two week appointments I have to have, I won't have to dip into my sick leave.  Yay!

I did my grocery shopping after the concert and made delicious Lasagna Stuffed Spaghetti Squash (one of our new favorites of course) after a quick walk in the dark.

Week 34 is around the corner now, which leaves only SIX more weeks until Baby H's arrival.  We just need to get a few more essentials for him, complete an Infant CPR class this week, have a meet and greet with a potential pediatrician, a few more OB appointments, and that's about it.

Okay, back to work!  See you all for an update real soon.  ; )

Week 33: Puppy Training & Nana Boxes galore!

Can I say how proud I am of our puppy?!  He's so smart!  We had our third training last night at PetSmart, and I was able to capture a few photos of the class:

This is our favorite puppy (besides Miles) in the class...his name is Baron and they don't know what he is, but he looks half-dachsund half-golden retriever.  He's a barker!

The older pups of the class, not sure what they are but they were rescued from a shelter

This is Miles's girlfriend Candy, a chocolate lab puppy

Look how good he is for a treat!

Krystal, our trainer, working the "drop it" command.  Last dog in the class is the chihuahua in the middle

Miles did a really good job with leave it, drop it, lay down (although he'd pop up right after) and brief socializing.  Good boy!

After dinner last night I opened another lovely Nana Box.  Can I say how wonderfully crafty and thoughtful my mother-in-law is???  Because, wow, when we opened the box, we found some extraordinary craftiness...

Home-made dino diaper bag!!!

Brush and comb in a compartment on the right

And...what's a diaper bag without a homemade changing pad, bib, burp cloth, wipe bag and nursing pillow?!  Holy cow Ann, why aren't you selling these on Etsy?!

In the Nana Box, there was also a homemade Santa sleepsack (more incentive for Baby H to come out on time!), Newborn clothes, a lovey, FAIR SCONE MIX (she knows me oh so well) and... 

We can't figure out if she made this or not, but how adorable is this Christmas ornament?!

I can't stress enough how much Baby H is loved by his family.  I'm so happy he will be surrounded by such great people!  Now that my folks are both retired (congrats Ma & Pa!), they'll be driving down the first weekend of December and staying until right before New Year's.  Now that's a vacation/dedication!  Then the In-Laws and sister will be traveling down closer to Christmas.  It's going to be so nice to have most of the family in California for the holidays, hooray!  First item on our agenda: taking everyone to Salsa & Beer, our faaavorite Mexican restaurant.  : )

On the docket today: another two week check-up with the OB/GYN, which I think this is my favorite doctor out of the group of them.  I'm crossing my fingers she will be the one to deliver Baby H!  Then quick Target run, then practicing my saxophone while dinner cooks...yup, still at it.  One of our department assistants has to sing for a performance forum and her horn player quit being a music major all together-so she asked me to fill in for a chamber piece.  That's next Wednesday.  Sure, I still can play (thankfully!), so why not!  I've also agreed to perform in the Christmas Festival Concerts at the beginning of December-it's just one piece and I'll probably sit instead of stand.  Cross your fingers Baby H doesn't decide to come out early!

Week 33: Woohoo!

Got my test results back today-I do NOT have Gestation Diabetes!  Woohoo!  : )  I am definitely relieved by this news.  Still, with that brief scare, I'll still be careful with what I eat and really think about Baby H's health as well.  Last night was a yummy dinner of salmon, sweet potato tater tots (I know, not super healthy but at least they were sweet potato and I didn't have that many) and a large salad with yogurt-based ranch dressing.  Hubby had steak since he's not a fan of salmon...since I did a good job on cooking it, I had to nibble a few pieces of his food.  : )

Today marks Week 33-holy cow time is flying by much quicker now!  Apparently here is Baby H now:

courtesy of babycenter.com

I would put up pregnantchicken.com's photo for the week, but it's a little racier than a picture of a baby (talks a lot about breast feeding vs. formula feeding!).  But it is hilarious:  "Many sites compare your baby to a pineapple now, which sounds like the most uncomfortable thing to be carrying in your body aside from maybe a ball of barbed wire and broken glass..."  And yes, it is correct-two pregnancy emails today both said he is the size of a pineapple.  Too fun.  Baby H is now more than 17 inches long and 4.5 pounds.  Again, like I said, time is flying by so fast!

Yesterday hubby, Miles and I took a long walk after work (2.88 miles to be exact)-we couldn't believe how dark it was already at 5:45pm, darn you Daylight Savings.  And after dinner we re-watched Event Horizon; I don't remember that movie being as scary as it was!

Today is week 3 of Miles's training.  He's coming along nicely, although since hubby took him off-leash on a few long hikes this week, his walking is barely improving.  That will take some time, but at least he's jumping up on us a lot less.  Today we're working on "leave it", "drop it", and "down".  I'm already growing fond of the crazy pups in our class!  I'll try to sneak some photos of his class tonight.

Week 32/33: Dia de los Muertos weekend celebration

Happy Monday!

Weekend recap, here we go...

Friday I was able to leave work just a little bit early and as soon as I got home worked out.  I did my late 80s aerobics video which, at 32 weeks pregnant, has gotten a little harder-especially the leg and arm workouts.  At the end of it you lay down and it walks you through a relaxation part...and I briefly fell asleep on the floor.  Whoops.

After a healthy dinner and no dessert, I fell asleep early and woke up super early for my long G.D. testing.  Even though I arrived at the lab five minutes after it opened, there were still four people ahead of me.  Argh.  They were able to draw my first batch of blood at 7:40am, gave me the flat orange-soda drink to chug in five minutes (at least it was cold this time), and proceeded to have my blood drawn every hour for three hours after that.  Around 8am I asked if I could walk around outside, but they said that would alter the tests, so I had to just sit in the waiting room the entire time.  Wah waaaah.  I started getting numb to needles until the last one-when I clenched my fist, something popped in my wrist and the needle hurt more.  It was really weird.  I was super happy to be finished with that but I won't find out the results until tomorrow or Wednesday...keep your fingers crossed.

When I got home, I ate a quick snack of an apple and some peanut butter, but then immediately got super sweaty and woozy.  I had to lay down and proceeded to sweat through my clothes, but felt normal temperature-wise-almost flu like.  After falling asleep for an hour and a half I felt better, but I don't know what that was about-it was really scary.

I managed to get ready really quickly for the Dia de los Muertos celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but I wasn't able to paint my face.  It would have been weird though anyway since we went to our favorite Mexican place for lunch before we hit Hollywood.  After a yummy lunch (and I chose a much healthier option than I normally do!) we desperately drove around and around looking for parking near the cemetery.  We lucked out and found someone leaving only a few blocks away, phew!

We had soooo much fun at the cemetery-I took lots and lots of photos (and hubby of course did too on a much nicer camera).  I didn't know what to expect, but mainly people had alters for their deceased loved ones, even pets.  There was also a small stage for musicians, a large stage, face painting, statues/monuments, and food and drinks.

Had to get our faces painted!  He did a good job, but for the amount of $ we spent, I'm totally doing it myself next year!  Also, I had many compliments and stares at my shirt.  Way to go Ann-I got a lot of use out of this shirt!

The announcers on stage were speaking in Spanish.  Too bad, they sounded like they were having fun.

These dancers would come out at various parts of the cemetery-very cool feather costumes.

By the time we left it was around 7pm and super dark out.  We were glad we got there in the afternoon because it was a madhouse in the evening and hard to see all the details of everyone's "shrines" and faces painted.  We are already planning on coming out next year with Baby H!

It took us longer to get out of Hollywood than it took us to get in, but we finally got home roughly 45 minutes later.  Watched a scary movie, ate some thai food and in bed by midnight...the latest we've stayed up since-Disneyland?

Sunday's day-light savings threw us off and we were up super early.  Sunday consisted of the usual football for hubby, grocery shopping for me, but we also took Miles to the big dog park in Van Nuys which was fun.  I have to admit, it's so relaxing to have such an independent dog be able to roam and play with other dogs instead of having to worry if our dog is going to growl and attack the first puppy to come along.  We still miss and think about Coltrane all the time, but Miles is the complete opposite of her.  And his training is coming along very nicely-he doesn't jump up on us about 90% of the time now, and he's not pulling as much on our walks.  Success!

After I made a large batch of vegetable soup for my weekday lunches, I sat on the couch with a blanket and Miles came and laid on my feet under the blanket too.

I don't know if you can see it well since he's camouflaged with the rug, but there is Miles's little head poking out.  It was too cute.

All in all we had a good weekend (besides my G.D. testing).  I just wish it could have lasted longer.  Going to work this morning was a drag-there was an accident on the freeway closest to our town home, which caused backup on the freeways as well as the side streets.  Took me a good hour and a half to get to work, about 15 minutes late.  Argh.  But I'm here, the weather is cooler this week, my sister-in-law's birthday is tomorrow (SHOUT OUT TO MISSY-HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!), and my work baby shower is this Saturday.  Looking forward to the weekend already!