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Yesterday was my first baby shower thrown by my family and friends. I had nine hostesses with Mim leading the pack of Mom, Joyce, Jan, Caroline, Laura, Jeni, Jamie and Donna. They threw me the most lovely party and I feel so blessed and loved.

It was held out at Matt's parents' house and was decorated by Jan and Caroline with a frog theme. There were little froggies everywhere. Frog balloons:Frog napkins found by Laura:Frogs. Frogs. Frogs. :)

Mom got Mad Hatter's black and white cakes done up as black and pink for widdle old me:Donna and Jeni provided the food and Joyce brought punch and other food items. Jamie was in charge of invitations. Laura came down from Boston especially for the occasion. And Mim wrangled it all together and came up with fun activities (shower games suck) like make-a-custom-onesie-for-Tad:and write-Cristin-a-card-to-read-in-the-hospital:I made up bags of baby bottles filled with M&Msand a bottle of "Shorts Story" nail polish (Tad's shade) for each of my hostesses. And I made Mim a special shirt, which she promptly put on:)And I made marshmallow pops as favors for my guests (Sabrina's most excellent idea):It was so much fun and Tad got so many beautiful things. Like I said: blessed and loved. Here I am with my wonderful, wonderful hostesses:All pics here.

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This morning I awoke to the smell of Matt's pork roast from last night still lingering in the air. And mind you, with a hood over our range in the kitchen now it smelled pleasant and not like day-old, stale, nasty food. It reminded me of a lovely Thanksgiving morning and it put me in the mood to cook. So I made blueberry muffins (from a bag), before:After:After eating two and since I am TERRIBLE about eating bananas in a timely manner, banana bread (from scratch), before:After:OM NOM NOM!

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The kitchen is officially finished. Everything has been installed, painted, cleaned and, as of last night, entertained in. To refresh your memories, it originally looked like this:And now it looks like this:this:and this:I am soooooooo proud of Matt for doing all the work himself and doing it while also doing his job. There are several pictures of his progress along the way (he did SO much work) so go check them out here.

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Last night Matt and I were sitting around enjoying the hard rainstorm because we have a snug, new roof. We said it a couple times how glad and thankful we are to have it.

So imagine our shock when he went out to his car this morning to find a tree branch had smashed through the back windshield. He called me and (*face-palm*) I remembered someone sent a message to the neighborhood listserv about someone's broken car window. But since I never pay attention to those emails, of course it turned out to be ours. Farrrrrrrrts!The nice people in our neighborhood banded together and pulled out the limb and put a tarp over the window for us. Thankfully, it smashed right through the middle of the window and did no body damage and, from what we can tell, the rainwater is minimal. So off we went to the glass shop to have it repaired. They're holding it in their garage, out of the elements, for us until the glass comes in 2-3 days. Lexus glass is expensive but thankfully, we have a small (by comparison) deductible. I can't help feeling a little better about those big checks I make out to our insurance company.

However, can I just say that during the two years we parked Le Scoot (you know, the cheaper car) on the street NOTHING like this happened. Then I get pregnant and too big to comfortably get out of the car on the incline so I make Matt park in the street. That's been going on for a couple weeks. And then this happens. By this measly stick!

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Week before last there was a very nice fall rainstorm. I was sitting at my computer in the living room and I heard a noise that, at first, just sounded like one of the cats in the litter box. But it continued for too long and I realized it was the sound of water dripping on a plastic bag... Our roof that we decided didn't have a leak back when Matt patched the dining room ceiling? Was totally leaking like a bastard!! Right through all his hard work. Popped the seam and everything:(

We decided we were tired of screwing around with this problem, esp since we thought it was fixed, so Matt called a roofer the next day. We were quoted a great price and Matt even talked him down a bit and we were told, weather pending, they would be there Monday morning to complete the job in a day and a half.

The forecast called for rain ALL day. But true to NC fashion, the forecast was the opposite. When I left for work that morning the roof looked like this:They started on the back side and completed it. The next morning was the infamous Archie fiasco/nothing and when we got home they were going to town scraping the old shingles off the front side:When I got home that night, it looked like this:Check the nice, new black look and purdy flashing! And they installed a vent for our bathroom fan so that no longer empties into a bucket. We're livin' large! Tad's going to be nice and dry:)

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This morning, I Tweeted that we were at the emergency vet with Archie. Allow me to explain...

Last night when Matt came to bed he said he hadn't seen Archie in a few hours. I said he was probably in the garage and to let him in but he didn't right away and we both forgot about it and fell asleep.

A little before 7 this morning I had literally stepped into the shower when I heard Matt call for my help. He said he remembered Archie was outside and went to get him. He was in the laundry basket with a blanket. Matt called for him and he stumbled out of the basket and collapsed on the floor, arched his back and appeared to have a seizure. Matt scooped him up and brought him inside and called me.

When I came back in the bedroom Matt had him on the bed pinning him down a bit to console him but he skittered right away when I came in which made us scratch our heads about his sudden loss of motor skills. I called our vet and got the emergency vet's number and called them that we were on the way.

We got there at 7:15. They took his vitals and found nothing out of the ordinary, just called him "cranky" which he always is at the vet. They offered to draw blood to run tests to rule out poison, an infection or something like that. Those came back completely normal and they checked him externally for broken bones and found nothing there either. Said they could do x-rays but since he wasn't favoring anything and his motor skills were a-ok, they didn't think it was necessary.

So we paid $290 ($110 to see us before 8am and $180 for the blood-work) and stopped at Hardee's for a $10 breakfast just to make it an even $300 before 9am. *rolls eyes* We drove home making up dumb things that he could have done, hence, my other Tweet about eating tenpenny nails.

When we got home he ran right out of the crate for the food dish and ate it right up. We think maybe he was just cold and hungry and thus, weary. Not sure really but he's fine now.

They did shave a big patch off his neck (totally crooked and fug) to find a vein. It's much bigger than this picture shows. Boo.

We were worried about our little idiot. Daddy can't live without him Kitty Boy;)

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Happy Halloween!! I think it's a minor wish of all pregnant women that during her term she have a good, current pregnant joke to go as for Halloween. It just so happens that Matt and I had the perrrrrfect inspiration:

(Except replace "Perfect" with "Jackpot" in this clip as it was in the live version.) And of course, if you're going to go as white trash, it's best to ham it up, so we added things like blue eye shadow and Matt wrote "love" and "hate" on his knuckles. hahaha!And look! His costume doubles as a Village Person!We attended a delightful party at Sarah's. I really heart her parties. Molly and Annie made cupcake people with waffle cone hats, M&Ms for eyes, candy corn noses, and Twizzler hair. They were delish!:Matt played bartender, as usual:), and made sure everyone was satisfied with kamikaze shots. I so wish I could have partaken:Then we went to Kroger on a beer run (and to show off our costumes and act our parts for the public) and Annie took this incredibly awesome shot. I love friends that are in my head--she included all the hill-jack Icehouse in the shot! It is the greatest photo alive:This was our second Halloween going in costume together and I highly, highly enjoy. Matt always owns every impression he ever does (reason #821398598793269 why I love him so) and is it wrong that I found him really hott all night? Probably so. Probably so. :)

A couple more photos here.

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Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce my new iPhone, Boober Fraggle:Gone are the days of my bare-bones Nokia flip-phone. With its cracked hinge. No more three-tap texting for yours truly. I've been waiting for this since my birthday when we were told I wasn't eligible for renewal on our phone plan until October 24. (Hrmphf.) I'm excited especially for all the Tad-video-ing possibilities... And of course, doing the laundry with sweet jams:)

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I have been thinking a thought for several months and didn't really consider turning it into a blog entry but Jeni wrote a post yesterday that is of a(n indirectly) similar vein so I feel inspired to shoot.

I have been feeling very blessed. I'm healthy and pregnant and have a great new job, true, but my predominant feeling is how blessed I am to be matched with my husband. Tied to this are a couple other blessings about which I will explain.

I know I very recently expressed my love for Matt in my anniversary post, but it's true. Matt is beyond great. He's just an awesome, talented, fun, all-of-the-above person to be around. I recognized that right away but I see other people, both men and women, notice it as well which makes me very pleased. The first moment I saw him gave me a shuddering, burning sensation of, you guessed it: love at first sight. And I still feel that way. He can still reduce me to tears without even being in the room because I love him so much. We each have our flaws, of course, but my flaws compliment his and vice versa. We work it out. This is the case because we are best friends. We enjoy the other people in our lives, but if stranded on a desert island, we would be completely content because we would be there together. I truly believe that is the way it should be, wish it for everyone and thank the good Lord for my experience.

I think back on my past relationships and am revolted at how much I thought I knew. How early in life I considered myself equipped to do that forever. I have always approached my close relationships with friends as forever, so naturally, for me, I did the same with my boyfriends. It was just a waste of time to be involved with someone I couldn't see myself marrying. And with seeing myself married to them, of course, came seeing myself sharing a child with them. At the time, I knew nothing better. And a couple of those fellows were sorta swell, sure, but now I thank God heartily that I'm not married to and don't share a child with any of them. They just didn't cut the mustard. They still don't. I hope they're happy or whatever but just... Ew. No. So grateful. I'm honored and proud to be having Matt's baby and to be sharing our lives together. It just won't work for me any other way.

And I really can't say all that without expressing my gratitude to my wonderful, wonderful parents for exhibiting SUCH a perfect example of best friends in love and making a marriage not only work well, but be a fun time. They expressed and still express affection to each other and to me. They made and make me feel worthy of love. I remember fishing with my Dadd when I was probably five. He looked at me and said "You're such a pretty girl, Cristin. One day a man is going to think the same thing and want to marry you." I have always recalled that memory as a very special and touching one but, unbeknownst to me until now, it instilled in me a goal. A goal I am positive I achieved on October 2, 2004.

I feel empowered. I feel like I have won the lottery. I feel like Matt and I are perfect partners and are going to be perfect parents because of it. I'm excited for our future and I'm excited for Tad.

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Matt and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and "babymoon" with our third annual trip to Topsail Beach. We went down Sunday and enjoyed a lot of quality time together and on the beach (the latter part of which is not typical of our palenesses). We went out to the shore every day except for Monday which was rainy. We sat on the beach and waded in little tide pools and took short walks talking and reminiscing about the wonderful time we have spent together and how excited we are for Tad to arrive.We had lovely, lovely weather. It was sometimes too hot, even, but lovely just the same:Tad either really enjoyed the beach or found it too bright because she did lots of dances inside my tummy.Jamie and Jason came down Wednesday night and stayed until Saturday:Archie and Jason fell in love:Dadd and Mim came down on Friday and stayed for several hours. Dadd napped and Mim beached:We feasted on awesome seafood all week. Everything we ate was local except for the crab. I forgot my Fish Oil/Omega 3 capsules at home, but if that was ever to happen, I picked the best week, hehehe. We had boiled shrimp every night and mixed in fried flounder:Crabcakes:Shrimp and linguine:and Alaskan King Crab legs:Jamie and Jason headed out around noon on Saturday and Matt and I hit the beach around 1 since it was threatening storms for the late afternoon. We decided to head home a day early since Sunday was also calling for rain and we were heat-beat. We had an excellent time and look forward to going next year with our wee one.All pics here.

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