Michele's Bachelorette Festivities 2016

Ash and I went to Richmond to see Michele and celebrate her bachelorette/sort-of-wedding-shower! We had SO much fun I decided to count how many fun things we did (like the birthday fun things game). I reserve the right to edit this post to add more fun things I forgot at the time of writing the post. Also because we had so much fun, I had to break this down into multiple posts! The fun started weeks in advance with Ash has been sending text pictures with signs since we bought our tickets (#1).

FRIDAY
Friday I finally got in on the action sending pictures of James, Miranda, and me wearing Mexican hats (#2) because Michele and Brandon will get married in Mexico in April! Ash and I had drinks at JFK with our hats (#3), and struck up a conversation with some people who offered to take our picture. It turned out that they're moving to Richmond soon so we tried to encourage them to join the Richmond Food Co-op. (#4)

Ash and I bought drinks on the plane and the attendant carded us in all seriousness. (#5) We greeted Michele and Brandon in RIC still wearing the hats.

Me, Michele, and Ash in our Meximond sombreros! (#6)

We went back to Michele and Brandon's and had some wine and cheese while catching up. (#7) Brandon also made us these amazing turmeric drinks. Yum. (#8) They showed us their awesome wedding rings! (#9)

Michi + Brando = Love

Because apparently turmeric is a happiness-inducing spice

SATURDAY
Saturday morning I slept in! (#10) Actually I still woke up first somehow, so I went to the store to buy wine and Girl Scout Cookies. Ash came with me, the walk was pleasant, and the tiny girl scout entrepreneur actually assured us that the thin mints go great with wine. (#11)

Brandon made us fresh scones! (#12) We ate them with honey made by Buddhist monks and wow- you could taste the delicious nirvana in them. Seriously. (#13)

So good this is a picture from my out-of-body scone experience

Michele went to Yoga, Ash went to see her cousin and I met up with Candice, Tim, and Cora. (More on my visit with them later.) (Separate but simultaneous #14)

I arrived at the spa, still super happy from my visit with Candice and as I walked in I remembered that I was scheduled for a couples massage with Ash. Let me just break that down for you a minute, I was already so happy, well-rested, and well-fed only to discover I was scheduled for MORE HAPPINESS. The massage was only my third ever (first was my prenatal one, second one was also with Ash) but it was the best ever. I tried to stay very focused on it and not let my mind wander during it. (#15) Michele and Angela met us there and we all had a group pedi together. (#16) And they gave us wine to sip! (#17)

At the spa getting pedicures

While we got our nails done, Michele had her massage. (#18) (She came back for her manicure Sunday, so she didn't miss out on anything.) There was so much unintentional comedy during the manicure that I laughed so hard I think I pulled some abs. (#19)

Then we met Brandon, Paul, Chris at Amour, the restaurant where Michele and Brandon first met! It's called Amour! Paul gave us very personalized wine recommendations so we loved what we were drinking. (#20) Then the boys headed out for part 1 of a very civilized bachelor celebration. (#21) We spotted them later eating dinner at a restaurant. I really wanted to take cute paparazzi photos of them but I restrained myself.

Ash, Michele, Brandon, Paul, Chris at Amour

KISS KISS- Michele and Brandon

Me and Angela had a lot of bonding time on this trip

We went to visit Emily and Avery at Michele's mom's house. Avery is Michele's niece and she's a little mini-Emily and is the cutest. The cutest. (#22) Michele not only showed us her wedding dress but put it on to model it. So gorgeous!! (#23)

Then we back to the house for out girls' night of pizza and wine! (#24) We also had our Girl Scout Cookies. They deserve their own number. (#25) Ash got us Bachelorette tattoos that said "Bride to Be" for Michele and "Bride's Tribe" for the rest of us, and she helped us apply them because she's the best. (#26) We wore the Mexican hats in honor of Meximond and their upcoming wedding in Mexico and took lots of fun pictures. (#27)

We played Dixit - a very pretty game- and we successfully battled the tricky Susan and Kate team. (#28) Michele also had a dress for some official document signing and she modeled that dress for us as well. (#29)

Cheers to Michi and Brandon's love!

Michele, Karen, and Susan showing their hats and tats

Kate, Angela, and me - more hats and tats

The original three amigas

Me and Michi

Dixit!

Things got really fancy on Sunday...

Ash's 33rd Birthday 2012

As previously discussed, Ash's parents and the Clous invaded her home because of Superstorm Sandy. So when her birthday rolled around on Friday, we had a built-in party. After work on Friday night, her parents took her to dinner, and when she got back we had two birthday cakes (I failed to coordinate with her mom) and two previously purchased ice creams. She also had multiple flowers and a balloon. Yay!

Ash and her parents

There was some difficulty operating the candle lighter and hilarity ensued.

Having a little trouble here.

We got it! I bet she's wishing the Clous never leave. Ha!

Ash's dad is secretly still mesmerized by the lighter.

Ash gives him a little tutorial.

After a gluttonous evening, Ash and I decided we need to spoil ourselves even more and spent the afternoon at a local spa, and then picked up enormous amounts of sushi for dinner.

At the spa, pre-massage. We don't look stressed at all though.

Fun! Let's celebrate Ash's birthday again next week? Yes, please.

Full Term 2011!

37 Weeks, March 27-April 2, 2011

Milestones: At 37 weeks, the baby is considered full term!  No preemies here. We finished the nursery except for wall art, I put away all the washed baby clothing, and I packed the hospital bags.  Yes, plural, because on our hospital tour they told us to leave the going home clothes in the car until the last day so baby has his own little duffel suitcase for his outfit and blankets. Kevin got the car seat inspected at the maximum security Bronx station. Seriously, it had a locked gate around the facility. And right now I'm cursing the car seat straps and instruction manual as I try to figure out how to adjust it for a small teddy bear or large teddy bear playing the role of the baby.  (Don't listen in the womb, baby!) I feel like we're ready for the baby in the most superficial sense.  I'm hoping that Week 38 is all about getting REALLY ready in terms of full apartment spring cleaning and mental preparation.

37 weeks+ 4 days

We had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and the doctor seemed like she no longer thought a c-section was the way to go and suggested canceling our appointment. Here's the issue. We go to an ob/gyn practice with four doctors.  Dr. N is off lecturing somewhere and for all I know doesn't actually exist. Dr. K is an equally senior doctor with a wacky sense of humor to say the least.  He was the first doctor we saw but we've only had about three appointments with him.  Then there's Dr. C who we've had most our appointments with, and and Dr. A who we saw only last week.

So back when the baby was breach, Dr. C said to schedule a c-section. We ignored her because I was confident the baby would turn around.  Then the baby stopped being breach and Dr. K said to schedule a c-section anyway because the baby was so big. So we did. Thursday when we saw Dr. C she was wondering why we hadn't canceled the c-section appointment now that the baby was no longer breech.  She seemed enthusiastic about delivering babies as big as 12 pounds, whereas, the older Dr. K seemed decidedly unenthusiastic about delivering babies that reach 10 pounds.

Weekly Wisdom: After the doctor's appointment on Thursday, Kevin took me to get  prenatal massage. (Have I mentioned before that he is the best husband ever?) I have never had a massage before in my life (despite some gift certificates that sadly went to waste) so I don't have a point of comparison, but totally worth it. If you're pregnant, and you can at all swing it, get one.

At this point I am so heavy that I'm not sure the physical benefits lasted for very long, but two things about it were amazing. One, for the hour that I was being massaged I had a break from some of the physical discomfort of pregnancy that's been going on for at least 17 weeks. The whole massage is done on your side (I imagined a big hole for my belly so I could have my back up but it was not so) and they have the most amazing pregnancy pillow set up ever with soft L-shaped pillow on top and a super firm high square pillow for my top leg. If you haven't been pregnant then you probably can't even begin to relate to why this is awesome. Secondly, it was mood-enhancing. Afterward, I felt like I had taken happy drugs to counteract the pregnancy blues and "grumpies." Kevin benefited in intangible ways and tangible ways such as getting the remote for the rest of the evening without comment or complaint.

What I miss the most: My ankles. Some days I have some, some days, I don't.
Craving: Strawberry juice, strawberry sorbet, cherry and strawberry yogurt, burgers, (hotdogs), peanut butter and strawberry jam, tuna fish, cheese, tomatoes, and orange juice, acid-reflux be damned.
Anti-craving: None at all.

Symptoms: I am a water balloon. My little water ballon fingers ache from the swelling. I sometimes sleep on our bedroom couch now because it provides back support while I sleep and it has made my sleep so much better. When I do, Kevin says he feels like we're at camp.

Baby has his own inertia or lack thereof. This means that when I try to roll from one side to another it is a multi-step process. Say I am on my right side, I first roll on to my back and sit up a little, while I try not yell from the pressure on my lower back. My belly slowly follows. Then I roll onto my left. Finally the belly goes left. I don't even want to get into how many steps getting up involves.

Baby-size: Fat baby size.
Weight gain: Dinosaur.

Tomorrow I am 38 weeks! We are down to the final countdown! The official due date is April 17th. We have a 38-week doctor's appointment on Friday, and a 39-week appointment the following Thursday but we don't have confidence that we're going to make it to that last appointment. Kevin and I are guessing April 9th now. Let's see if we're right.