I love you Grandaddy

Nevermore! Nevermore!

It is a dreary, dreary gray day. This morning (or noon... whatever!) when I took the dogs outside, it was freezing cold (still is) and flurrying. The outside of our building was devoid of people or movement except for one lone raven, chillin in a leafless tree. So, it's easy to see why it reminded of me of good old Edgar Allen Poe. Bri was pretty obsessed with him for awhile when she was a kid. I think it's a bit dark, even for me!

We really seem to be stuck on Cadiem Rey for M&M. But we're going to call him Cade. We're not completely sure on the spelling yet, I guess it's a made up name so it doesn't matter? haha. His kicks are getting strong, I can actually see my belly move at times.

Jeff was in DC all weekend, and gave his son Jeffery the big news about M&M. He's excited to have yet another new sibling (his mom just had a boy, "Ian"). I had dinner with Gene and Nickie on Friday night at Carrabba's, which I hadn't been to in years, and it was tasty :) Saturday I met up with my friend Wade for lunch and a little mall wandering--isn't my life the epitomy of excitement?! Yesterday I had this huge plan to deep clean the apartment, and I got as far as dusting and doing seven loads of laundry before Jeff got home. Oh well, hopefully today!

Jeff and I both are counting down the days until our Arizona trip--I know he's going to love it :) I can't wait to show him all of my favorite spots--and I think we're also making a trip up to the cabin--which will probably be covered in snow. And Ari will be excited to see her cousin Cleo :)

I AM hirable! YAY!

I finally found a job! YAY! And they said I can work from home when I have M&M! Double YAY! Where is this magical place? Moog :) They make motors--it's all so familiar! I'll be doing basically the same work I did at Danaher--so it should be a pretty easy transition... Teaching 5S, working on layouts, inventory, blah blah blah. YAY!

In other news... :)
Jeff and I got to go hiking yesterday, and it was a beautiful and even warm fall day. We actually didn't end up finding the trailhead we were looking for, "War Spur", but walked around "Wind Rock", which had a fantastic view of the mountains stretching out for miles and miles. There were still some pretty leaves left on the trees too--but enough on the ground for the dogs to have fun running through them :) Ari was scaring me, I thought she was going to leap off of the cliffs!
We also made a kick-ass dinner last night: garlic mashed potatoes, maple dijon pork chops and asparagus :) yum!

23 Weeks = Tropical Fruit

M&M is 23 weeks old, and the size of a large mango.
Sidenote: Did you know mangoes are the most popular fruit in the world! They are full of vitamins C, A and E--plus niacin, potassium and iron. That's one awesome piece of fruit!
Back to M&M: He weighs a little bit over a pound, and apparently he's turning my uterus into a crazy nightclub. He moves mostly at night, Jeff can feel his kicks now too :)
I definitely have a protruding belly now--but I'm still feeling pretty normal. Although, I'm a little retarded at times, which I'm attributing to my shrinking brain. Yeah, pregnancy causes your brain to shrink! Seriously! And once you pop out the kid, it expands again. Weird. Pregnancy also causes shrinking eyeballs (thank god i don't wear contacts) and gingivitis! I could go on--but the gingivitis scares the crap out of me. I've been a flossing fool! I also started using Jeff's high powered toothbrush--it gets a smiley face on it when you brush for long enough. Haha.

Jeff and I both voted yesterday evening and then headed downtown to Rivermill to hang out with friends and watch the polls on the big screen (we're TV-less losers!). It was pretty exciting because most people in the bar were Obama supporters (go figure) as well, and everyone went nuts when Virginia went democrat. Yay! Now we don't have to leave the country! (We were planning to escape to an warm island or small European country if McCain won)

Tomorrow is Jeff's day off, a real day off! No four hour meetings in the middle of the day--yay! We're going to go hiking with the evil mutts and then do some REALLY late pumpkin carving. Haha. Three pumpkins still await their fate. Scarface XV will live again!!

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!?