Baby Girl

It's a GIRL!!!

pictures & video coming...

Happy Holidays from the Pound!

Good News

Garrett's new cell # (206) 455-5797

Rhonda is doing fine in Berlin and just fell out of touch - like she does. I'm still trying to convince Garrett that we need a real Christmas tree, and I can't find the menorah I got last year so we've missed the first half of Hanukkah. Today I'm hard at work (clearly) and Garrett is home ripping up the carpets and padding in the basement that were ruined from the flooding. I really don't have anything interesting to post about, unless you'd like to know how fat I've gotten now that I'm getting closer to five months. This isn't even a big belly, this is like my body knew it was going to be a cold winter, and figured I wouldn't have any warm clothes to wear. Even my cheeks, neck and upper arms are preparing themselves for the worst.

Also, I have an appointment on the 20th for my ultrasound. I literally can't wait for this: I work in the Radiology department, and I have been harrassing my co-workers about getting me in on a cancellation or working me in earlier somehow. Unfortunately, this appointment is going to take 75 minutes due to all the measuring they are doing, and also they will be inspecting a growth in my left ovary that they incidentally found during my first ultrasound at 6 weeks. They told me not to worry about this, since it's probably just a dermoid cyst. This, in itself, is both disgusting and worrysome. Perhaps this hairy tooth will keep the baby company for the next few months.

We'll let everyone know as soon as we know. Also, if it's a girl, Garrett and I both have come up with Maya Clementine. Word?

We're Engaged!

I knew that "accidentally" getting pregnant and trapping Garrett for life would eventually lead to some sort of proposal, whether performed begrudgingly or under duress... and guess what? It worked!
Yesterday our basement flooded and the bathroom was full of water from the roof leaking, so Garrett stayed home to patch up the bathroom fan vent and the two roof leaks, and he and Scott picked up a subpump to clear out the basement. This is REALLY bad, because we are moving ourselves down into the basement for more room and privacy with the baby. Last November there was a lot of flooding in the Seattle area, but we were spared, so we weren't expecting the downstairs to flood this time around. Scott and Garrett are going to be sealing all the cracks in the basement soon, so this probably won't happen again.

Anyway, back to ME. I came home last night and Garrett was sitting by the fireplace playing his guitar, hooked to an amp that he bought yesterday as his Christmas present from me. I went into the bedroom which was dark with lit candles all around the room and there was the ring propped open in the middle of the bed. I didn't see until I turned around a second time after Garrett had jumped up to follow me into the room.
I'm so happy with him and I feel so lucky to have him in my life. Everything has been so much better now that he is part of it.

Also, Aunt Linda & Jay are getting married!
Also, Rhonda is unreachable in Germany and everyone thinks she is being held hostage by John!
Since yesterday, my mom has been in contact with the American embassy and my Aunt has called the Berlin police, Bürgertelefon, to try to get somebody to check on their last known address, which was apparently incorrect. However, the Berlin police charge 200 euros to do this, and will break down a door if nobody answers. Probably what will happen is the US military will be busting down their apartment door while Rhonda looks up with shock while sitting on the couch with chocolate all around her mouth. I think everyone forgot that Rhonda doesn't "do" phone calls or emails. It's just her way. Like when she was in Austrian prison a few years ago and never called us or tried to get out, leaving it up to Amnesty International to help her. Maybe she pretends to be an orphan when she travels.

This reminds me of the story of my dad, when he was in Vietnam, my grandparents hadn't heard from him in months and months, and were so worried about him they continually called all their known resources, including the Red Cross, to try to find out what had happened to him. My dad told me that while he was in "the bush" out in the middle of nowhere, a helicopter lowered and they shouted out for "Forrester." My dad identified himself, to which they replied, "Call your parents!" and took off.
HAHAHA. Rhonda's story may end up being much more interesting.

Thanksgiving Day

I woke up early yesterday, and got bored, so I decided Garrett ought to get up as well. He didn't feel the same way, but he still woke up early and took a walk with me and Eva down at Seward Park, which is a few blocks from our house. It's a tiny peninsula that jets out in south Lake Washington with a paved path around the perimeter that is 2.4 miles around. Toward the end of our walk, we passed a man going the opposite direction with one of those distance measuring wheels (I don't know what they are called) who needed to know for himself whether or not the signs are true. It's always beautiful at this place, so we took pictures with the new camera:


Garrett: it was so cold outside. all i did the whole time was complain. "oh, my face is freezing" "why did you wake me up at 6:30" "my hands are so cold" "eva, you need to stop pulling" and so on. but in the end it was a nice walk.

the end

Later, we went to two Thanksgivings - first at my dad's side and last at my mom's side. One major bonus to having kids means I'm going to start having my OWN holidays, and THEY can split their holidays up with 2 hours of driving.

We ate really great food yesterday, and at Thanksgiving #2, we ate dessert and played cards for a few hours. You can see in both Danny's and Mindy's pictures just how thrilling that was. We brought Eva because my Aunt has a dog, and the dogs started fighting about something toward the end of the night which was immediately broken up, and this lady named Candy who is somehow related started telling everyone "it was the pitbull, it was the pitbull" That sort of ended the night for us and we went home talking about how much we hated her.

I am thankful that we won't have to do this for another month.

On a more positive note, according to the pencil, needle, string test done by my grandpa yesterday, I am having a boy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

i'm blogging

apparently people have been asking "how come garrett never writes anything on the blog?" or maybe it was just jill but, either way i'm putting my first post on the blog. i dont really have much to say though. i've been working a lot. i'm essentially running a job site and my new title in the company is "lead technical builder". my truck is running really well. the other day i sharpened one of my chisels so well that it cut through the leather and nylon of my glove and then the skin on my pointer finger. i was very proud of myself.

thats all i got.

I felt it move!

...at least I think I felt it move. Two days ago I had some strange feelings in my lower abdominal area, and then yesterday I definitely felt something that felt like a worm squirming around my mid-pelvic area on and off for a couple hours. Maybe I have worms, or maybe the baby was enjoying the splash of regular coffee that I added to my decaf that morning.

We're going to find out the sex of this baby in a month, and I can't wait. Garrett and I just bought our first nursery item off of craigslist - a glider and ottoman for $35. It was originally posted on craigslist for $25, and wrote a very compelling plea to be the lucky winner of the item, since I knew the craigslist vultures would be all over it, adding in bits about my pregnancy, being on a tight budget and getting off the streets. He wrote back and told me that he was holding the item for me, but that he had incorrectly posted it for $25, it was supposed to be $35. I'm just kidding about the "getting off the streets" part.

Garrett and I went to pick it up, and lucky us, they lived in an extremely nice house - so we knew the item would be in good condition. Rich people always take care of their things; it's a rule. The guy was so friendly and nice, but his wife was silent and glaring at us the whole time with her arms crossed standing at the door. I'm thinking she was wanting to make a few dollars off of this or didn't want to sell it at all, and her husband was just trying to get rid of it. I was tempted to thank her for the opportunity for us to resell her item on craigslist for the going price of $120. But I'm going to be a mom now, and mom's are supposed to be nice.

Over and out.

ANIMALS IS CUTE

I never thought I would be one of those people who takes pictures of their pets, but it turns out that I am. This child is going to be lucky if it ends up in any pictures at all.
Enjoy my self-indulgent pet slide show, signifying the destruction of my last shred of dignity.

AWWWWW. THEY ARE SOOOOO CUTE!

2nd Trimester!!

Starts next week!

We had our second appointment today with our mid-wife, Jana Swett, finishing off the first trimester. We heard the heartbeat, which was 150 bpm, and we got to hear the baby kick a couple times! I'm still unable to feel it - although I keep thinking that I do, it's probably wishful thinking. So far, so good. Now that we've made it through the first trimester, I'm at low risk for miscarriage, and we'll get to find out the sex of the baby in 6 weeks!

We're getting ready for moving to the downstairs of the house, into the larger bedroom. It's an unfinished basement room with a concrete floor and horrible textured wallpaper on the walls. We bought 200 square feet of laminate hardwood flooring and Garrett and I (mostly Garrett) will be installing it after we get all the wallpaper off. Or after Garrett gets all the wallpaper off. This is going to be ours & the baby's bedroom until we save up for a down payment to move into our own house, which is something we plan to do within a year.

Also, we've adopted a little rescued kitty to add to the animal family. His name is Owen and he was abandoned at a Vet clinic after some trauma to his left eye. He's 12 weeks old and we're going to pick him up in the next couple of days from his kitty foster home.

Baby Names

Any ideas? So far, we both agree on Hunter for a boy's name, but can't decide on a middle name. Garrett does NOT want a normal middle name, like Hunter John or Hunter Harry, because it sounds more like a title (e.g. Builder Bob, Contractor Corky, Denver Dave, etc.).
So help. I like Solomon, which in Hebrew is Schlomo, which happens to be Garrett's other name.

Any input is helpful - there are no bad ideas, just ones that we will rip apart in a scathing review.

Progress

So, Garrett really has quit smoking, and he's nearly out of the extremely irratible phase. To show him my gratitude, I set him up with a professional massage today with a really great girl who does massage at Group Health for the employees. It's true - I'm the best.

Mindy asked that I update my blog, but there's really no new baby news. I'm sick a lot - but it's not morning sickness - I'm sick in the afternoon usually. All these baby books say different things, but I'm under the impression that all pills are bad, with the exception of prenatal vitamins, so it's been hard to avoid the NSAIDS I usually take for tooth pain and headaches, etc.

Right now Miss Eva Petunia (our adopted dog) is really acting out. On Saturday we had breakfast with some friends and spent the day driving around town, and when we came home, Eva had emptied the contents of anything within her reach and dragged it around the living room. She tried to eat a huge bag of tealight candles and ate a chunk out of our roommate's armchair. She also used the runner in the hallway as her toilet and ate a whole coscto bag full of trail mix.
She's SO adorable!

Grandpa Tommy and Aunt Moomers have blogs!

My dad has just started his own blog, Mount Peak! If you check it out, you can see what 25% of our kid will look like.

Mindy has also started a blog, youdonetoldharpotobeatme, and since she'll be the closest Aunt, she'll be the one who's going to teach our baby all the bad words.

Love you both!!

stuff

Garrett's brother, Zach, is staying with us for a week. So far, we haven't done anything but watch movies and eat, so I'm not sure he's getting the whole Seattle experience - just OUR version of the Seattle experience. Yesterday, Garrett & Zach & Scott (our roommate) drove down to Tacoma and Garrett bought himself a little yellow Chevy Luv pickup truck.

This truck is perfect for his job, and now I'm driving his Honda since my little station wagon has decided that it no longer wants to run and everything possible has gone wrong with it no matter how nicely I have asked it to work for me.

On Friday, I had my first appointment with a Certified Nurse Midwife, Jana Swett, who will be following me throughout the pregnancy. I really like her, and I'm glad that she's also a vegetarian and can help make sure that I get all the proper nutrients with a meat-free diet. I'm really confident in the care that I have received so far - the Family Beginnings program at my work (Group Health) is so far ahead of me, that I really can't mess up at all on care & preparation.

In even better news, Garrett has quit smoking. I asked him for support while I cut all the bad things out of my lifestyle,diet & environment, and he hasn't smoked for nearly a week. He's cranky & miserable and I love him SO much.

Due MAY 13th, 2008

animal & people pictures

Marley & Garrett's cowlick.

Miss Eva Petunia in her doggie bed. Even though she loves to sleep on a people bed, she SNORES and has some digestive problems that keep the window open at night.

Garrett feeding little Wilder Harris, who happens to have his own blog. This was taken while babysitting last month, also while I unknowingly was housing a uterine parasite of my own.

Marley snuggling up to Garrett's warm cell phone while being shunned by her cold-hearted human caretakers.

Maverick.

We're pregnant!

I had my ultrasound today!

For those of you just finding out, Garrett and I had an 'oops' sometime recently, and now we've been thrown into the fast-track toward family life. Since we only found out a week from today, I haven't yet allowed it all to sink in. I was able to tell most of my family members, and then just left it up to Rhonda, Danny & Mindy to tell the rest (thanks guys). Since my upbringing was very strictly religious, and most of my family has adhered to the values I was brought up with, I haven't been shouting from the mountaintops that I'm a fornicating adulteress about to bring a bastard child into the world. Rhonda did it for me!

Anyway, I was not able to give an accurate date of my LMP to the nurse midwife, so I went in for an U/S to accurately date the pregnancy and Garrett took off work to be there with me. We saw the heart beating! I couldn't make out anything else - It just looks like a glob with a large pulsing glob inside of it. I will post a picture and announce the due date as soon as I here back from the doctor's office.

Love,
Tanya

Garrett Lubow, Business Owner

As of yesterday, Garrett became a partner with Lastingnest, Inc. - green general contracting. I suppose this is his promotion from Vice President of Logistics & Operations. He may also get a new t-shirt.

Our new puppy!

introducing: Miss E.P. Lubowski

Ain't she sweet? It's Eva (formerly Petunia) Petunia Lubowski. She doesn't know her name given to her by shelter staff, so we thought we'd start her out with something easy to say and for her to recognize (we'll start with Eva, and later add the gratuitous surnames and inevitable nicknames.)

As told to us by shelter staff, she may have been a stray, but she had been in a no-kill shelter for months where I think most of her history had been lost. In May she was transferred to the Clatsop County shelter where she was running out of time. Since Garrett only likes boxers, and I only like animals, we lucked out that Miss Petunia was featured on the lovely petfinder.org which I can't rave enough about. This website is a great example of using the internet & current technology for the greater good. Kind of like myspace.


Every aspect of this adoption was an obstacle and subsequently, a blessing. We found her while doing a search for female boxers on Friday. I sent an e-mail Friday night to the shelter inquiring about whether or not she had yet found a home. Saturday morning at 8am I received a reply - the shelter was open between 12 - 4 Mon - Sat in Warrenton, Oregon. They do not normally do same-day adoptions, but if we could bring photos of the house & yard along with the application & adoption fee, then they would consider it.

Did I mention we were burgled on Thursday morning of last week? All of our illusions of perfection within Columbia City were shattered. Suffice to say that we did not have access to any digital pictures of the home or yard, and I had to run around that morning shooting pictures with a camera phone, formatting, printing and we ended up leaving the house just before noon. It's a 3.5 hour drive according to google maps, and unfortunately, that doesn't account for speed limits, traffic, or getting lost.

The staff stayed late and met us with Petunia at 4:30pm, where we watched her leap and run around and maul Tino, who cowered in the corner. We weren't sure whether or not we could handle her, and I had to call Scott (a homosexual, also our landlord and Tino's owner) to inform him of her apparent lack of training and behavioral issues. I tried to gauge his reaction to figure out whether or not bringing her back would give us an early eviction notice, but he left it pretty vague and so I told Garrett to choose.

He chose her! We drove back to Seattle and Garrett sat in the back with Petunia for almost four hours where they alternately slept, cuddled and played, and he secured his spot as favorite. Aside from her noxious farts, she was a dream in the car! It turns out that these shelter dogs are left in their pens all day, and only taken out if walked, and only walked if volunteers show up, and volunteers only show up when the weather is nice. The poor girl was crated since we don't know when, and so she was justifiably wild.

Anyway, today is day one with our new Eva. Since I'm stuck at work on a Sunday and wanted to tell everyone about her, I figured I would jump on the blog bandwagon a few years too late and save myself a set of mass emails. Also, I have no children.

Garrett says 'hi'

-tanya