The Witching Hour Draws Near!

In other words, Happy Halloween! How do you like Captain Jeff Sparrow's new work uniform? Yes, that's right, Captain Jeff is bartending tonight as a pirate. Hopefully he'll give a healthy "Arghhhh!" with every drink he serves. We even beaded up his goatee and put eyeliner on him.

Did I mention that I went to every store in Christiansburg to find his costume? Seriously--I found one piece at each store. Boots at Walmart, hat at K-mart (yes, i ventured into K-mart and was very afraid), jacket at Joann's, sword at Walgreen's, beads at Michael's... Are you tired yet? Because I certainly was. I had to stop at Starbuck's and Taco Bell to fuel up in-between stores. And I am extremely disappointed in my beloved Target, they were cleaned out. But, they did have a pirate costume for Ari Lynn.

My costume was quite easy to find... I'm using Nickie's idea, and I will be "Under Construction". So I'll be dressed like a cute construction worker with a toolbelt full of baby stuff (bottles, baby powder, stuffed animals, etc.) complete with a hardhat and a sign over my belly that says, of course, Under Construction. So along my search for all things piratey, Home Depot was yet another stop.

I tried dressing up the dogs--but they weren't very good subjects. Especially Luci--she sucks. Totally uncooperative! She took her costume off within a minute.

So, my pet pics suck. Oh well, I guess I should leave it to the photography master, Bri.
Okay, time to go finish up Scarface XV! He'll be evil as ever! Jeff is going to lame out and make a happy pumpkin, what's up with that? It's Halloween damnit!

The alien parasite is a BOY!

Yup, M&M is a boy :) Now what to name him!? I have like 30 girl names, and 1 boy name... Oops!! So obviously I'm starting a new spreadsheet--and so far have 2 names on it. We need ideas people! And then, I think I'll either post the spreadsheet on google--or take votes over the blog... So far, we've come up with Caden (or Cadiem, haha) Rey Mangold. Which would be my initials and middle name :)
Now I can peruse Target and drool over the cute baby boy stuff. We went straight there after our ultrasound appointment yesterday and got M&M a Classic Pooh "Pram Bag". What the hell is a Pram Bag? We just thought it looked cozy and liked the ears on the little hoodie, but were very confused about the slits on the front and back... Jeff asked a "Target Team Member"--she laughed at us, and said it was for the seatbelt to go through... Ohhhhhh, that makes sense! I'm clueless!
So even though I was hoping for a girl--I'm happy about having a boy--there's pros and cons to both :) And now I can put dinosaur crap everywhere which would have been a little weird for a girl, even though I've always loved them!
In other news... Jeff got a promotion--which will be more responsibility of course, and dealing with stupid employee drama/crap--but in the next month or so should hopefully develop into more bar shifts, and less overall time at work. Yay! He was making spreadsheets this morning to prepare for his meeting today to get training records organized. I keep telling him he's the industrial engineer for bars/restaurants! Yesterday he was talking about cutting down on process steps and walk times... So many parallels!
Anyway--even though he has a meeting which cuts about 4 hours out of the day (i'm not complaining!), it's his day off... We wanted to go hiking today--but it's flurrying outside! Brrr!
If you haven't seen pics of M&M's latest ultrasound, check out the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cassie.monteverde/MMTheBOY#

21 Weeks! Halfway to seeing mini-me/Jeff!

(Mike, Jeff, duh, Jeff, Ian)

Ah, the days before we were in the know about M&M. That's right--M&M is in this picture too! And I'm looking pissy because it was hotter than hell outside. PA sucks! (Sorry Nate!) Why exactly did I post this picture? Because this week M&M is being compared to a carrot--and I'm tired of posting pics of fruits and veggies damnit! And tomorrow is the big day!! Hopefully I'll be able to post a picture of our ultrasound--and also the big news!! Everyone cross your fingers!! And then, we'll be able to start the name game. I've already got a google spreadsheet started, so I figure we can all pass that around :) I can also pick out a color to paint M&M's room--but I promised Jeff's friend Jason that I would steer clear of pink (not that I would pick it anyway ;)

Jeff took me shopping at the Greenhouse the other night, after they were closed :) It was awesome--the owner, Lee, locked us in while he went to have a beer--and we got to shop. I tried on about everything in there! I think Jeff knew I was feeling like an ugly cow, and we found some really cute shirts and a couple of sweaters with room for the belly to grow :) So now I'm a stylin' cow... Hahaha.

Tuesday was Jeff's day off, and we perused at Target (but we just didn't have time for Bed Bath & Beyond... I know, I'm lame) like normal people. We also got to have dinner with the other Jeff and his girlfriend Laurie--plus her mom and aunt. We went to Poor Billy's which was tasty tasty as usual. Laurie's family owns the Carol Lee Doughnut Shop--so we got to hear some funny doughnut stories. They also ordered every appetizer on the menu--and I recommend a new one that has a baked pastry stuffed with Brie cheese served with candied pecans, apricots and crunchy things--yum! I stuck with the classic melt-in-your-mouth filet mignon. Soooo good.

"Cheddar isn't better when Bri's in the cheese!!" Hahahaha. Bri heard that all through junior high and high school. They either recited that fun little phrase to her, or just called her "cheese". Poor kid. ;) How's that for random!?

19 weeks and M&M is on the move!

That's right! We're at nineteen weeks! And, if you haven't guessed, M&M is now the size of a large heirloom tomato and weighs about half a pound. Where do they come up with these crazy size comparisons? So this week, M&M's senses are developing and he/she is sprouting hair! Anyone want to bet that it will be wild brown curly hair? (If you haven't met Jeff--he has hair pretty similar to mine :) But there are exceptions of course, Jeff's son Jeffrey has straight white blond hair. Jeff calls him a toe head? I really don't get that expression... Anyway, I've also been feeling the baby move! Mom says I should be feeling little kicks soon as well. Here's the weird part--I got on the scale this morning--and it hasn't moved. Weird!

I have a maternity clothes rant:
Do the people that design maternity clothing think that people having babies are 75 years old? What's up with the baggy legs and shapeless-baggy ass? Maybe they need an anatomy lesson. And what's up with the ugly-plain-high-necked-school-marm shirts? I have new boobs and I want to show them off damnit! Do they think pregnant women are giving up on looking attractive? That we want to look like a shapeless tent? What gives? I searched Ann Taylor, Gap, Motherhood, even by beloved Nordstrom (all online, no shopping around here). And they all SUCK. Ugly ug ug. But, to my great surprise, Old Navy rocks! They were the only store I found that carried cute jeans that weren't $200. I got a pair that has an elastic band built in to the waistband that you can't see, and they actually fit in the butt and legs :) I also got some cute trouser jeans that have an adjustable elastic band on the inside so they can expand with the growing belly. Plus, a denim pencil skirt that also has an adjustable elastic band inside. AND--they were the cheapest! Win win! I also found some cute empire style shirts at TJ Maxx on clearance :)

In other news... Ian and I went to the cellar last night for dinner and blues music. I love the blues! Sunday I had dinner with Nickie & Gene--which was tastylicious as usual :) We also watched some crazy yet entertaining vampire show on HBO, "True Blood". I have two words, "SOOKI SOOKI!" (in an extreme southern accent) Jeff has tomorrow off, because he's getting more work done on his tree tattoo. I'll have to post a picture of it. Okay, I'm done rambling/ranting!