Halloween 2008

Can you tell what we dressed up as this year?

A pregnant cowgirl and a Jabawocky, of course!
(For those of you not in the know, the Jabawockeez won MTV's America's Best Dance Crew.)


The party goers:

As usual, Katie and Robert did a great job decorating. It gets more and more elaborate every year. What you are not seeing in this picture in the guy hanging from a noose from the ceiling...spooky! I don't think anyone else owns enough Halloween decorations to even come close to ever qualifying to host this annual bash!

Latest belly pic:

At 5 months (21 weeks) and off to work!

October + Southern CA = Fire Season

The Santa Ana winds that howl through Southern CA each fall never fail to make me nervous and for good reason. You know by the sound and type of wind that there is a fire somewhere in So Cal -- not there may be one, there IS one. I woke up last Monday morning to that exact wind, turned on the news, and what do you know...

It did not start out as anything of concern to us until later that afternoon when the Sesnon fire kicked up in Porter Ranch. First they closed the 118 freeway and it took me 2 hours to get home from work because everyone and their mom was on the 101. Shortly after I finally arrived, the city of Calabasas' emergency alert system called to notify us that if and when the fire reached Bell Canyon (approx 15 miles NE of us) there would be mandatory evacuations north of the 101 freeway. That meant me. Not cool. Allen was in Nashville all week for a conference and I was home alone. The panic of what to take and how soon should I pack and where should I go was too much to handle alone. So I made my sister spend the night at my house for reinforcements. There were times later that evening when we were just sitting on the couch watching TV and would get this intense waft of smoke smell inside the house. It didn't linger, thank goodness, that could have been awful to clean out. I woke up several times during the night and flipped on the TV in my bedroom to a Calabasas city channel that offered updates every couple hours regarding evacuation possibility. Praise God that the fire did not move our direction nor were we called to evacuate. However, I do recongize that there were several others who were not so lucky.

While there is much about October I love -- the beginning of Fall, what I consider to be the official "start" of the holiday season, leaves changing, etc -- if you live in So Cal, there is also much to dread!

!Pobrecita!

I am an invalid! And although I look like goofy, I am SO glad to have some kind of relief. Last Saturday the pain that I have had in the back of my right shoulder and down my right arm for about six months really went through the roof. I called my OB on Monday to ask what to do because I was in so much pain and he called in some Darvocet for me and told me to see a Neurologist. Unfortunately there were no appts for about 2 weeks. I decided on Wednesday morning that I couldn't survive on the Darvocet and just wait because the pain was constant and, although I was assured that women on bottles of Darvocet have delivered perfectly normal, healthy babies, I just didn't feel good about taking it constantly. So I made an appt with a chiropractor. I left work early to head to the chiroproactor but, at the suggestion of a co-worker, called my OB to make sure that there was nothing the chiropractor absolutely should not do when treating me. When my OB told me not to see a chiropractor at all, that I really needed to see a Neurologist, I totally lost it on the phone, which is completely outside of character for me, but I could not imagine living on the Darvocet until I could get in. She could obviously tell I was in pain and so got on the phone for me to talk directly to a couple different neurologists she works with to get one of them to see me ASAP. I finally was able to get in Thursday late afternoon. The neurologist diagnosed me right away with a pinched nerve at my C-6 vertebrae. The unfortunate part is that, because I am pregnant, they could not treat it with a cortizone shot or steroids for more immediate relief as they normally would, but rather put me in a soft neck collar for immobilization to try and keep the nerve from being aggravated. He said 3 weeks would offer a speedy recovery, 9 weeks was slow. Is that not awful?!

So as I mentioned earlier, dumb as I look, it does feel better because I cannot move it in ways that bother the nerve. I don't sleep in it and can take it off to drive (for safety) and when it just plains drives me crazy, but the rest of the time I leave it on. It is slowly feeling better, but what an escapade! Not to mention I am in my busy time at work and this is very inconvenient. !Pobrecita!


On a completely separate and fun note -- I felt the baby kick my hand last night! It was this little tiny thump. I could feel him/her moving so put my hand on my belly and little thumps followed. SO exciting! We will know by Monday if we are having a son or daughter! Look for the update!