The Biggest Little Adventures of

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T05:49:00.000-08:00

with love,

Pumpkin & Scoop

February Photo a Day

2012-02-03T15:21:00.001-08:00

The other day, I happened on this February Photo Challenge and on a whim decided to participate. I won't be posting all of them here, but if you'd like to follow along, I'm tamgab on Instagram and @tmkg on Twitter.

Day 1: Your view today

Day 2: Words

Day 3: Hands

A long overdue congratulations

2012-01-31T21:33:00.000-08:00

My sister Mena met her boyfriend Miguel when she was going to Berkeley and they worked together at Ned's Bookstore. They became friends, and then began dating. That was in 2001. They have spent most of their adult lives together, shared some of their biggest moments both happy and sad, and lived together in Beirut while my sister pursued her master's degree. It's hard to imagine one without the other, and I think of Miguel like a brother. In the fall, as they celebrated 10 years together, Miguel proposed and Mena accepted. We are so happy for them, and can't wait for the wedding!

At the Plumas County Fair, 2002

Beirut, Christmas Eve, 2005

The Bay, summer 2006

Our wedding rehearsal, 2008

Lake Tahoe, 2009

Six months!

2012-01-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

Our little Pumpkin turned six months old while we were in Michigan! At her six-month check up on Monday, she weighed in at 15 lbs., 6 oz. (50th percentile) and measured 27 inches (97th percentile). Her doctor said she moves as much as most 9-month-olds.

She is getting to be so big and is even sitting up! She can't get there on her own yet, but if we sit her down she stays for quite a while.
Just before Christmas she started eating solid foods, and seems to enjoy everything. So far she's had carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli and spinach.

It is so much fun (and a little sad as the time seems to fly by so fast) to watch her grow from a baby into a little girl. She is so happy and such a joy.

The Mitten

2012-01-24T20:52:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, Team Gabel headed to Michigan for a wedding and Pumpkin's first (six) flight(s)! Chris's cousin Brad, who lives in our 'hood, was marrying Linda, who hails from Michigan, and so off we went!

Pumpkin was great on all of our flights. We changed planes in Oakland and thought we were flying straight to Detroit until the pilot informed us we would be stopping in Phoenix. This wasn't on our itinerary as it wasn't a plane change, but the even bigger surprise was that Rita was getting on the plane with us! It was fun to have Grandma on the flight to help keep Pumpkin entertained. We discovered the best toys are empty plastic cups and cardboard coffee cup sleeves.

This is maybe my favorite picture from the trip. Pumpkin enjoys looking at the mirror, but usually we have to hold her up on the sink - in the hotel, the mirror came all the way down to the floor - what fun!

The little charmer was pretty adorable (as she always is) in her little dress and bonnet for the rehearsal dinner. She met all kinds of new aunts, uncles and cousins over the weekend.

The wedding was in the evening and the ceremony and reception were beautiful. Here are the official new Mr. and Mrs!

Here we are with Alison and Rita at the wedding reception. We had lots of fun during our trip, and even found time to have some Middle Eastern food in Dearborn - a delicious excursion! It was really great to see the extended family and share in a beautiful wedding.

Buddies

2012-01-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, we enjoyed a visit from Jeremy and Andrea who came from D.C. for a late holiday visit with family and friends. We were pretty excited that they brought Pumpkin's little prom date with them - their new addition was born in September but is is quickly catching up to Pumpkin, he's such a cutie and very strong!

This is their first meeting, at Jeremy's mom's house.

The next morning, we hosted brunch at our house and Kat and Matt, college friends of Andrea who have now become friends of ours, joined with their little one, who is already 14 months!

The adults had a great time visiting and catching up, and the kiddos had fun getting to play together. We look forward to many more of these gatherings.

Goals for 2012

2012-01-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

So, 2011 was pretty great for us. Chris, Scoop and I were a happy little family before our little Pumpkin arrived, but since then our world has become sweeter, more fulfilling, more joyful and, well, more pink.

I'm looking forward to what 2012 will bring. Here are some of my goals for the year (in no particular order):

Dress nicer (especially at work, but not only at work). Buy new makeup (and wear it sometimes). Make nearly all of Pumpkin's food from scratch, buy organic, try a variety of new vegetables (us and her). Get back to my wedding weight by Pumpkin's first birthday. Get outside, go walking, go hiking, bring Pumpkin. Tell Chris more often how much I appreciate all that he does for our family every day. Cross some more items off my 2010 Nevada Resolutions list I never completed. Be better about filling out out Pumpkin's baby book and work on her scrapbook. Don't let filling out Pumpkin's baby book and scrapbook get in the way of good, quality Pumpkin time. Read to Pumpkin every day. Sing to her. Engage with her. Get down on the floor and play with her. Bring healthy snacks to work and lay off the ever-present peanut M&Ms. Be a better news consumer. Read a book for fun. Decorate our bare walls. Finish some of the projects taking over the guest room. Find some time to make jewelry again. Don't wear a ponytail every day. Be on time more. Be in the moment.

Five months!

2011-12-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

Our little Pumpkin is five months already! She rolls tummy to back, back to tummy, and she just doesn't stop. She loves toys now and rolls to get to them. She puts everything in her mouth - toys, fingers, wrapping paper. She wants to pet Scoop now, but Scoop is a little unsure having caught a foot or two in the face on accident. She laughs and smiles all the time. She is such a joy!

Pumpkin meets Santa

2011-12-27T20:05:00.000-08:00

Our office does a cool thing where Santa comes and meets all the kiddos and brings them gifts, so Pumpkin got to come and meet Santa for the first time during the first week of December. As luck would have it, Santa was also making an appearance at her daycare on the same evening, so she actually met Santa twice on the same day! She'd had a bit of a meltdown at my office Halloween party, so I wasn't quite sure to expect, but she handled it like a champ and was all smiles! After a nap, she was even happy to see Santa No. 2. I'm wondering how this reaction will evolve over the years ...

Four Months!

2011-12-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

Since our little Pumpkin will be five months in a few days, I figured it was about time to post her four month picture! As you know, this was a big month as she laughed and rolled (back to tummy) for the first time. At her four-month doctor's appointment, she weighed in at 13 pounds, 10 oz. (50th percentile), measured 25 inches (75th percentile), and her head circumference was 15 3/4 inches (50th percentile). The doctor was pleased with her development, and impressed that she has already rolled and at how well she sits up (while being held) and holds up her head. I think this has been the fastest month since her arrival. I can't believe she's almost five months! Since hitting four months, she has had her first haircut (sort of, I trimmed her bangs), changed daycares, rolled tummy to back, and met Santa. We're so excited for her first Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T11:00:00.001-08:00

I realize we're a day late, but no one was reading blogs yesterday anyway, right? We had a great early Thanksgiving dinner at our house with friends before Chris headed to work and then Pumpkin and I stopped by cousins Brad and Linda's for seconds. Pumpkin can't wait until next year when she can eat some turkey! Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Baby's big week

2011-11-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

In the span of about a week, Pumpkin had her first Halloween, laughed for the first time and rolled over for the first time!

Here she is trying on her costume. What a cute elephant!

Trick-or-Treating at momma's office Halloween party.

My office party was on the Thursday before Halloween. Two days later, Pumpkin laughed - really laughed - for the first time. We were sitting on the porch swing in the backyard and Scoop started running all over the place and she was just cracking up. It was great. On Halloween Monday, there was more trick-or-treating, but only to two houses - our friends Chris and Carlie down the street and cousins Brad and Linda who recently moved into our 'hood. Then, on Wednesday Lila started rolling over! She first did it at daycare, but rolled again as soon as we got home. Check out video here. What a week!

Nursery additions

2011-11-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

I never really wanted a theme for the baby's room, and I'm glad we didn't do one because I can now add things at random without worrying about whether or not they match the theme. Recently we added a couple "new" things that I think are fun ....

First, we took one of each color of paper lantern from our shower (after leaving them hanging over the back porch all summer) and hung them over the window. Pumpkin likes to look at them from her crib.

The next one was a little more work. I had seen on a blog one time an idea of buying used children's books and tearing out and framing some of the pages as decoration. I was going to go shopping at Goodwill for books, but then I remembered this favorite poem from when I was a kid.

I found the book used on Amazon for about $5. I then realized the poem was on three pages, so instead of tearing it out, I made color copies. (Which is nice, actually, because now the book is still intact.)

I bought frames on sale for $5 each at Michael's, and had mats cut in the color I wanted for about $10.

The entire project cost about $30 and I think it looks really cute, plus it has a personal touch. I like to read the poem to Pumpkin and show her the pictures.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Three months!

2011-10-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin turned three months on Saturday! She is smiling (and drooling) all the time. She grabs at her toys. She rolled onto her side, once. She's starting to notice things more, like Scoop and the other babies at daycare, and recognizing our voices and turning when she hears us talk. She loves to be sung to. She likes Moon River and Close to You a lot, but sometimes her mama's song selections are quite the random mix of Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin, Elvis, Motown, show tunes, Britney Spears, Vanilla Ice and theme songs from '80s sitcoms. She doesn't quite laugh yet, but she'll smile and coo at the same time which seems like a laugh, and sometimes she times it so that you wonder if she understands what you just said. She loves the patio swing and I think we might have to move it inside for the winter. She goes to sleep facing east, and she wakes up facing south from wiggling so much. She is basically the best thing ever. It's so amazing watching her learn so much every day.

Tailgating

2011-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the rivalry UNR-UNLV game and so we thought it would be fun to go hang out with our friends and take Pumpkin tailgating. We didn't stay for the game, which probably would have been a little too much for the little one, but the cannon did stay blue!

Here's Pumpkin all dressed and ready to root for the Pack!

Pumpkin and Momma

It was nice to see our friends Vickie and Kyle who have been living in Maryland and New Zealand, respectively, for the last two years. Kyle just returned stateside with a job in Colorado.

The girls

The fam

Seven

2011-10-08T20:36:00.001-07:00

Seven years ago this weekend I moved to Yuma, Ariz., to start my first job as a reporter. Best decision I ever made.

Winner, winner. Chicken dinner.

2011-09-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

Many of you interested in the results of our baby pool probably went and checked, oh, about 10 weeks ago to find out that our cousin Kristy is the winner. Congratulations, Kristy! Finally this weekend I had a few extra minutes to make the prize. I decided to go with onesie and football cookies. I still need some practice with the icing, but they tasted pretty good! They're on their way to Illinios now - hope you enjoy them!

Pumpkin decided to dress on Sunday to match the cookies. Silly girl.

Two Months!

2011-09-23T20:47:00.001-07:00

Our little munchkin turned two months last week and this week had her two-month appointment at the pediatrician. She weighed in at 10 pounds, 15 ounces and is 24.25 inches, which puts our tall monkey in the 50th percentile for weight and the 97th percentile for height! She also got her first shots, which upset her a little at first, but she was asleep by the time we got to the parking lot and spent most of the rest of the afternoon snoozing on momma's desk. Now she is back to her smiling, drooling happy self!

Everything Changes

2011-09-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. I miss being a reporter. Before Pumpkin was born, when there was breaking news, it felt wrong to be sitting at a desk watching from the sidelines instead of jumping in my car and rushing to the scene. And then a few weeks ago, a gunman opened fire at an IHOP in Carson City. A year ago, I probably would have been covering the story, but on this day I sat at my desk, reading about it online, fighting back tears and wanting to go home and hold my sweet little girl in my arms. Having a baby is an amazing and wonderful and beautiful thing. But it can also be terrifying when you think about how many things in this world are out of your control.

Last week I was given passes to the air races through work. A local hospital is my client, and I went to the races twice to do social media related to its sponsorship of the event. The races are also a client of the agency I work for. I thought it would be fun to go walk around and see the planes on the weekend, but we ultimately decided it probably wasn't a good idea to take Pumpkin just yet, because of the noise and the heat. We could never have imagined the tragedy that would occur on Friday. To say it hit close to home is an understatement, but it was a much more personal and emotional event for many of my colleagues. On my way to pick up Pumpkin from daycare that evening, I wondered what it would still be like to be a reporter. I wondered what I would do on those days that turned into late nights, if I would still be able to do my job. And would I want to. I shudder to think of what I might have seen had I been sent to cover the story. I read the stories and I cry for the people affected. I am thankful not to have been there, thankful my coworkers were unharmed, thankful for friends and family from across the country who knew I'd been there the day before and reached out to make sure I was safe.

Thankful, especially, that Pumpkin was miles away from the accident, blissfully unaware of anything that happened, and that the only thing I had to do that night was bring her home and hold her in my arms.

Baby Boom

2011-09-11T16:57:00.001-07:00

I had no idea when I was pregnant that little Pumpkin would be a part of a little Baby Boom for the QHS Class of '97, but there have been six other babies born to my classmates since December and two more who are expecting - and those are just the ones I know of. I guess nine babies maybe doesn't make a 'boom' - but considering that my graduating class had less than 90 people in it, it sure seems like it!

On her first trip to Quincy, Pumpkin got to meet the daughter of my friend Kasey, during lunch at the Polka Dot ...

And later that afternoon, she met the son of our friends Jed and Nicole. He has already asked Pumpkin to the prom ...

And last weekend, she met her new BFF, daughter of friends Chad and Theresa, at the Rib Cookoff ...
Hopefully she will get to meet some of the other Class of '97 offspring soon! Not to mention, the babies recently/soon-to-be born to several of our Yuma buddies! Pumpkin is in great company.

There in Spirit

2011-09-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

I like it when the people that I love like each other. Like, when Chris can hang out with my friends from high school and college, even when I'm not there. So even though it's kind of a bummer that our good Yuma buddies the Nevins and the Volkmanns get to live just an hour and a half away from each other on the east coast while we are still out in the wild west, it is nice to know that they get along quite famously with my sister and Miguel and they can all hang out. It's always fun to get picture texts or phone calls or have Skype dates when they are together ...

It's kind of hard to tell in this photo, but Michelle and Olivia joined my sister Marina, Dad and Deb for lunch and a day of sightseeing while Dad and Deb were visiting D.C. in May. Later that night, Benny and Miguel joined the group for dinner.

Marina and Olivia share the same birthday. This was the first time they met!
Sisters! Chris's sister Alison met up with Marina while she was in D.C. for work in July.

Marina and Miguel met up with Jeremy and Andrea in August to help welcome Jeremy into the 30 club.

We hope to take Pumpkin to visit all of these faces soon!

Laboring

2011-09-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, for Labor Day, the LA Times had a story on Angelinos' first jobs. I've been working since I was 13 or 14, so after reading the article I thought it might be fun to compile a list of all the jobs I've had. It might be confusing as some of these overlapped with each other, but trust me, I really did have all of these jobs.

Office Assistant: When I was in junior high I started helping out in the office of the tax consultant my mom worked for, mostly when they had big monthly mailings. I would copy, sort, stuff envelopes, run the postage machine and occasionally answer the phone.
Busser: In high school I bussed tables at a restaurant called The Airport Steakhouse, and sometimes waited tables, and later - very briefly - at another restaurant called Mt. Tomba.
Movie theater cashier: Every summer we would visit my Dad in LA for a few weeks. One summer when I was 16 I worked at one of my uncle's theaters selling tickets and working at the concession stand.
Operator: My junior and senior years in high school I worked for the school district, answering the telephones and as an assistant to the administrative assistant to the curriculum department. The "D.O." (district office) was in the old county school house with a bell. The rope to ring the bell was in the curriculum director's office and I liked to ring it any chance I got.
Barista: A friend of a friend from Quincy owned a coffee shop in Monterey, so when I moved there for junior college, she hired me to work at the shop.
Barista again: From the first Monterey coffee shop, I moved to another on Cannery Row where I was getting more hours, but I hated it.
Hotel PBX Operator: The owner of coffee shop #1 also worked The Monterey Plaza Hotel on Cannery Row. When they had an opening, she suggested I work there where I would make more money and be eligible for benefits. I worked as a PBX Operator at first, then front desk agent, then spa receptionist. I loved the free spa treatments but after the hustle and bustle of the front desk, I was bored.
Toy Store Manager: There was a toy store in the same building as coffee shop #2. The owners asked if I'd like to come work for them. They later said they thought they could trust me because I didn't give away things for free like the young employees at other Cannery Row businesses did. I worked there for five years, eventually becoming manager of three stores by the same owner.
Hotel Reservations Agent: When I left the Plaza, I took a job in reservations at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. Once Bill Murray called to make his own reservation and I answered the phone.
Sales Assistant: When I moved to San Jose, many of my former coworkers from Quail Lodge were working at a hotel/conference center called the Hayes Mansion and so they hired me to work as the sales assistant in the morning and I had classes in the afternoon.
Waitress: I wasn't making quite enough money part time at the Hayes Mansion so I started waitressing at The Old Spaghetti Factory.
Newspaper Intern: After a year in San Jose, I returned to Monterey for the summer to intern at the Monterey County Herald in the sports section.
Spartan Daily Editor: Back at San Jose State in the fall I was managing editor for the campus newspaper, and executive editor in the spring semester.
Newspaper Intern: After graduation I did a Chips Quinn Internship in the news section at the Wenatchee World in Wenatchee, Wash. - the buckle of the power belt of the great northwest. I learned a lot about apples.
Assistant Theater Manager: After my internship and before I found a real newspaper job, I again worked at one of my uncle's theaters - this one in San Diego. This job only lasted three or four weeks before I was offered a job as ...
Reporter: I applied to papers all over the country and my first offer came from The Sun in Yuma, Ariz. I accepted on the spot. This, of course, is the decision that changed my life since that is where Chris and I met. I at first was a features writer and then became the education reporter.
Bath and Body Works: I got a job here as a seasonal employee to make some extra money in Yuma, and continued on for a few months when they needed extra help rearranging the store for new product and displays.
Waitress: On nights when I wasn't covering school board meetings, I was waiting tables at Julieanna's Patio Cafe, one of Yuma's nicer restaurants. I miss the tortilla soup.
Education Reporter: From Yuma I moved to the East Valley Tribune outside of Phoenix where I also covered education.
Breaking News/Multimedia Reporter: After Chris got a job at the Reno Gazette-Journal, I applied and was also offered a job. I started in features, but was quickly moved to the breaking news team, later laid off and then rehired again part time.
Graduate Assistant: In grad school at UNR, I helped produce content for the journalism school's website.
Social Media Coordinator: And now, of course, I do social media for a firm in Reno.

So, that's more than 20 jobs! Wow, that doesn't even include odd jobs like modeling for a slot machine, working for a vendor during races at Laguna Seca, or helping out with the high school journalism institute.

What was the oddest or funnest job you've had?

We like our birthdays (and our desserts) in twos

2011-08-31T18:21:00.001-07:00

Chris's birthday wasn't the only one we celebrated this weekend ... Scoop turned 2 on Tuesday! We decided she needed her own dessert, so we stopped at the dog bakery Sunday and got her two pupcakes - one to eat Sunday while we celebrated Chris's day and another for her to eat on her actual birthday.

It says "yappy birthday." Hehe.

She was very interested ... right up until I lit the candle. Then I think she was afraid of the flame.

It was pretty adorable - we gave her the pupcake outside assuming she'd make a big mess, but instead she licked off all the frosting and then came and whined at me to cut it up for her to eat. Tuesday she had eggs for breakfast, a walk with Chris and Lila, and another pupcake for dinner. Pretty good birthday for a Scooper Dog if you ask me!

The Family Man

2011-08-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

I asked Chris several times what he wanted to do for his birthday, and finally he said he just wanted to have dinner at home with me and Pumpkin. And then he added that he still wanted a dessert bar, so I agreed to make two desserts (I thought more than that for just the two of us would just be out of control).

So, Saturday night we started the celebrations early with some Mud Pie.

On Sunday, Pumpkin modeled the present she got Chris - football leggings to wear while they watch games together on Sundays :-) Since he really liked some blueberry beer he tried at a homebrew fest we went to, I found some blueberry lager to surprise him with. For Scoop's part, she said she would like to take Chris for a walk as her gift.

Chris wanted steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, and since I am only good at burning things on the grill, he had to make the filets himself. Everything was delicious!

Finally, we finished the celebration off with cherry cheese bars, which I make for him every year.

It was a nice, quiet family weekend and just what Chris wanted. Happy Birthday to the best husband and father we could ask for!

Big Sister?

2011-08-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

We had to have a little photo shoot this morning with Scoop in her "Big Sister" T-shirt while it's still true ... Pumpkin weighed in at 10 pounds yesterday, and Scoop only outweighs her by a couple of ounces now!

Well Loved

2011-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Before Pumpkin turned one month, she had already met all of her grandparents and her two aunties who all came to visit!

First Grandmama came from Quincy

Then Grandma and Grandpa from Phoenix

And Auntie Alison

Then Grandma Deb and Grandpa from LA

And then Auntie Mena from D.C.

There has been no shortage of hugs and kisses and cuddles for this little one!

One month!

2011-08-18T20:44:00.001-07:00

Look who turned one month on Monday! And today she weighed in at 9 lbs, 6 oz. She is getting so big! I'm so excited for all the things she will be learning and doing, but at the same time I wish time would slow down a little :-)

Babyness

2011-08-14T10:41:00.001-07:00

It's hard to do much blogging with little miss Pumpkin capturing most of my attention and we have had many visitors in the form of grandparents and aunties. But now that I have a minute, here is a random collection of thoughts from a new mommy ...

Pumpkin is the cutest thing ever and I don't think the pictures even do her justice (I know, I know, every mom thinks this about their own child). I love her so much and lay in bed watching her to make sure she's okay and Chris comes in to tell me I need to get some sleep. (What's that?)

We were home from the hospital probably three days before I realized I could lay on my stomach and play on the floor with Scoop again. Hooray! Also exciting:

Turkey sandwiches. I realize not everyone gives up deli meat during pregnancy, but I did (with the exception of one microwaved-to-steaming sandwich at work) and after Pumpkin was born I sent Chris to Deli Towne with an order to bring back to the hospital and it was so great. We've been eating turkey sandwiches a lot ever since. I still have not had caffeine. Baby steps.
Sleeping on my back. I'm a natural back sleeper and I (like all pregnant ladies I'm sure) did not sleep comfortably for weeks at the end of my pregnancy so it's nice now to sleep comfortably in any position I choose, even if it is lightly and in small chunks.
Clothes without elastic waistbands. I fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans! Also my wedding and engagement rings, which I hadn't worn in a while. I should note that only one pair of jeans really fits - the rest are snug and I have a ways to go to get back to my old self. Also, I'm pretty sure my maternity wardrobe was more extensive than my pre-maternity wardrobe so I'll need to be finding some new things for work. But I didn't expect to get back into my jeans so soon so that was a happy moment.
Walking. One day when Chris was working and company was gone I got out the stroller and took Scoop and Pumpkin for a walk around the block without running the dog over. This felt like a pretty big accomplishment.

Can you believe that Pumpkin will be one month tomorrow? It seems like it's gone by so fast, and yet it also seems like we've had her forever. She is growing fast - she put on a pound in just the last week! And seems to be learning and doing more things all the time. One night I was holding her while she slept and she actually giggled in her sleep - it was so adorable. She has a really strong grip and seems like she can see things better all the time. It took three weeks for her umbilical cord to fall out, and that was exciting because now she can wear more of her clothes and take baths - she was not a fan of the sponge baths but loves being in the warm water. This week I trimmed her nails for the first time without incident which felt like kind of a big deal (getting her dress on yesterday was a more traumatic event) but she can still scratch with them so, like everything else, I will be needing more practice to do it right.

Pumpkin is not on any kind of a schedule yet so we will be attempting that during the next two weeks before I go back to work. (Going back to work is kind of a touchy subject. I cry every time I think about it. Luckily my job is understanding and I can bring Pumpkin in with me if I need to. Also Chris will be home with her two days a week. Also I can go to the daycare as much as I want and nurse her while I'm there. Still, I am quite emotional at the idea of being away from her all day.) She has, however, over the past few nights, slept for four hours at a time so that has been nice.

So, I guess that's it for now! Coming soon (or, eventually) we'll post about our visitors and Pumpkin's first trip to Quincy ... stay tuned!

Pumpkin & Scoop

2011-07-26T15:56:00.001-07:00

Inquiring minds want to know: How is Scoop doing with Pumpkin?

We tried to make the transition as smooth as possible, setting up furniture and making changes - like moving her bed and stopping letting her in our bed in the mornings - way ahead of time so she wouldn't blame the baby for all of the changes. Chris brought home some clothes Pumpkin had worn in the hospital the night before we came home for Scoop to smell, and when we came home I came inside first and let Scoop in the house and played with her for a couple minutes. Then I took Scoop outside to meet Pumpkin. She smelled her and her carseat, and then we brought her inside and Chris laid her down and Scoop sniffed her some more.

At first she was confused and maybe a little jealous - although we've been trying to keep her routine and give her attention she knows it's not quite the same. But overall, she's handling it really well. I think now she's more curious, wanting to look inside the pack and play or crib when Pumpkin's sleeping and see what she's doing. And she's very gentle with her - just mostly wants to smell her.

Here she is helping Pumpkin with tummy time. I keep telling her when Pumpkin gets bigger they'll be best buddies. Scoop's not convinced yet, but she was pretty excited when we got out the stroller so all four of us could go for a walk together.

Welcome Baby

2011-07-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Our little Pumpkin officially joined Team Gabel on Friday morning - the best birthday present her momma could have ever hoped for! Official stats: 7 pounds, 20.75 inches.

For those interested in the birth story, the whole thing happened very quickly. I went into labor around 5 a.m., although at the time I wasn't sure if it was labor or not. Around 7:30 I woke up Chris, and a little after 8 talked to my doctor's office. They said to come in and they'd check me to see if I was in labor and save us a trip to the hospital in case I wasn't. By the time we left the house I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart. When we got to the doctor's about 45 minutes later (we stopped to drop off Scoop) they were right on top of each other and I was dilated 7-8 centimeters. They wheeled me across the street to the hospital. We checked in just before 10 a.m. and our sweet little Pumpkin was born before 10:30. She had some fluid in her lungs and tummy and they sent her to the NICU. She was on oxygen for a little bit, but improved very quickly. They kept her there for 24 hours. The hardest part for me was not being able to see her for five hours, but Chris was able to go see her right away and took my mom over when she got there.

By the time I got to go see her, she had been off of oxygen, and we were able to hold her. It was the best feeling in the world.
Chris was amazing throughout the whole process. He was a great coach, keeping me focused and breathing the whole drive to the hospital and up until Pumpkin was born.

The one comment we've heard the most since she's been born is "Look at all that hair!"

Here is Miss Pumpkin on the ride home from the hospital.

And here she is today after she got washed up. So fresh and so clean!

We are just so blessed and so happy and so thankful to have this beautiful little girl.

39 weeks

2011-07-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

"I really want her to have an epic kind of childhood. I want her to run along streams and know how to work a canoe, be able to entertain herself outside. I want her childhood to be Huck Finn-y. You know?" -Away We Go

Dear Baby,
You are due one week from today. I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone, but I assure you, we are ready for you. Before I was pregnant I kind of thought it was funny when pregnant ladies would get anxious for their babies' arrival before they even got to their due date, but now I get it. I might not have learned to play the guitar over these last nine months to play along while I sing you lullabies like I'd secretly hoped I would. I might not have read as many books as I wanted to, or stuck with prenatal yoga during the whole pregnancy as I'd planned, or taken the water exercise classes I filled out all the paperwork for. But we've taken the prepared childbirth classes, a breastfeeding class and infant CPR. On Saturday we had the car seats inspected and we stocked up on groceries. Your dad picked out some frozen dinners, and I also made a lasagna to freeze for some night after you arrive and I'm too tired to cook. We made two dinners last night so there are lots of leftovers for this week should you choose to arrive early. Your dad also put together your pack-n-play yesterday, so now there's a place downstairs for you to nap and be changed. The video monitor is in place. There really isn't a whole lot more we can do before you get here, so feel free to show up at any time. Whenever you're ready. We can't wait to meet you and see what you look like and how you take after each of us, and in what ways you are uniquely you.
See you soon!
Love,
Mom

38 Weeks

2011-07-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

I'm now 38 weeks as of the Fourth of July. (This picture is from Sunday, when I got home from a wedding shower). Miss G could arrive at any day, and I think we're as ready as we can be. Over the weekend I cleared out a drawer and cabinet in the kitchen for her things, and the rest of her clothes and blankets are now washed and put away in her room. The hospital bag is near-ready to go (the missing items are things that are in use) and so now it's basically just wait until she decides she's ready. By popular demand (okay, per Michelle's request), below are some pictures of the nursery. It seems a little bare, but we have a couple of decorative items on the way, and I'm sure we'll be adding more things after she arrives.

As for me, I am feeling pretty good, although it's in the 90s here which makes me want to not move off the couch because it seems to be the coolest spot in the house. At this point lots of random people want to talk to me about the baby, which is usually very nice, but last weekend I had the first stranger touch my belly (without asking) and another belly bump me (yes, you read that right) and that part makes me uncomfortable. (But both women were very nice and said that I was beautiful and glowing. And also this was at a homebrew fest so I guess that should be taken into consideration.) And now I feel as though I'm sort of rambling, so I guess I will sign off now. Don't forget to fill out the baby pool if you haven't already - we are enjoying reading everyone's guesses!

Flash Mob

2011-07-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

The Nevada Immunization Coalition organized a flash mob in front of Aces ballpark last Friday to promote the Text4Baby program and invited pregnant women and women with babies younger than 1 to participate. For two game tickets and a gift card to the mall I figured why not. Here's the video:

Photo courtesy Calvert Photography

Take Scoop to Work Day

2011-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was national Take Your Dog to Work Day and you know I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Scoop to the office. A couple of my coworkers bring their dogs in from time-to-time and I've been waiting for a good day to bring Scoop. She was mostly good, but she wanted to run all around the building and into people's offices and check things out. And if I got her to relax and lay down and chew on her stick, she'd hear one of the other dogs move and go running in their direction.

At the computer

Teasing Yogi with her chew stick

She got antsy sitting my lap so I set her on the desk and she enjoyed looking out the window for a while

Messing with Bear

Scooper Dog lasted about half the day at work, and then spent the rest of the day playing with Sierra and Warren. Not a bad dog day!

Baby Pool

2011-06-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems as though Chris and I have finally settled on a name for Miss G, and just in time, too! At 37 weeks, I am considered full term and she could arrive at any time! But, it could also be another four weeks ... what do you think? We created a baby pool for you to weigh in, and there just may be a prize for the person who comes the closest.

Go here to cast your vote!

This and That

2011-06-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

After all of our shower company left, we got some more company for a few days ... Scoop's best buddies Sierra and Warren came to stay while Erin and Sandor went to a wedding. Scoop thought it was pretty great. Even though there were enough beds for all the dogs to have their own, she couldn't bear to sleep that far away from Sierra.

On Saturday, Chris and I took what is most likely our last little trip before the baby arrives and spent the day in Quincy. I went to a baby shower for my friend Julia while he hit some golf balls with some of the other husbands. Julia, another friend Jenny who co-hosted the shower and me are due in back-to-back-to-back months. I haven't seen the picture of the three of us yet, but I did get a picture of a deer as we left the shower. After that we had dinner with Mom and John and John's sister and brother-in-law who were visiting. The day before was my Mom's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom! The trip was too short to see everyone I wanted to see in Q-town, but hopefully we can go back with Miss G later in the summer.

We were also treated this week to a quick visit from Andrea on her way to D.C. by way of Elko. We had girls night on Monday and it was great to visit. Chris also got to see her before she left at lunch on Tuesday. It's always a good time hanging out with my old roomie and it makes me a little sad we won't see her and Jeremy as often now that they'll be on the other side of the country. Especially since our little ones will be so close in age (in the picture, I'm 36 weeks and Dre is 22). I am happy that she will get to be so close to the V-Team and my sister, though!
I guess that just about sums up our last week or so. Chris and I have spent this evening out on our patio, where I'm writing this now. It's been really hot this week but the evenings are cooler and right now we can see all kinds of stars and hear crickets chirping. It's really nice and I'm looking forward to many more nights out here.

Time

2011-06-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, my cousin Lindy and Scott were married, and Mena and I were lucky to be there as a part of their day (and, of course, Niana, Lindy's twin sister).

As it happened, Chris and I were married one week after Lindy and Scott celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary. Their son David, then 7, was our ring bearer.

And now, Chris and I are expecting a baby of our own and, wouldn't you know it? David's 10th birthday fell on the day of our shower! Can you believe the timing? (Also, I can't believe he's 10 already!)

He celebrated the weekend before at home, but we wanted to make sure his birthday wasn't forgotten in the chaos of the shower, so we got him an Xbox 360 cake, which was a hit! David's a great kid and it was really nice to have him stay with us for a couple days.

Showered with love

2011-06-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

We had our Reno shower last weekend, and it was amazing. My Mom came, and my Dad and Deb, and my cousins ... and best of all, my sister surprised me by flying in from DC! Everyone kept it a secret from me, and I got a little suspicious on Thursday but I really truly thought Chris was going to play basketball when he left the house Thursday night and had no idea he was going to the airport to pick Mena up.

Saturday was the day of the shower, and Scoop greeted everyone in her new T-shirt.

Mom, Deb, Mena and Dad did a really great job with food and decorations and I didn't have to do a thing. My cousins helped set everything up, too, while I was getting ready, and I came downstairs to a room full of 100 balloons! It was great. Lots of friends came over from the shower, from here and from Quincy, and I know I've said it before but it's just overwhelming how much support Chris and I have had and how much love there is for Miss G already. She is going to be one lucky baby.

Isn't the welcome sign cool? It matches the invitation!

Cousins! Niana, me, Mena, Lindy and Tanya

Mom, me and Mena

Chris, me, Dad and Deb

We had such a great time seeing everyone and are so thankful for everyone who came to celebrate with us! We are now less than 5 weeks away from the due date - can you believe it! So exciting!

34 weeks

2011-06-08T21:59:00.001-07:00

Hello friends. This week I am 34 weeks, and, thankfully everything is still going well. I'm a little more tired and have a little more heartburn, but otherwise feeling good. I'm now very obviously pregnant and strangers like to stop me and ask me when I'm due (among other things). It's hard to believe we're getting so close! We feel very blessed at all the love everyone has already shown for Baby Gabel - earlier this week my coworkers surprised me with a little shower, and this weekend my family is throwing us a shower. We are so excited to see friends and family members and prepare to welcome Miss G! Oh, and on Friday our friend Julie took some beautiful maternity pictures for us. If you haven't seen them yet, you can find some here.

The trip that wasn't

2011-06-02T20:49:00.001-07:00

I was supposed to spend today in Sacramento for training for work. My doctor, somewhat hesitantly, gave me the green light to make the 2.5-hour trip when I told her Chris would be going with me. But she did mention I wouldn't want to get stuck in a storm or something on the pass and not be able to get to a hospital if I started having early contractions or anything. But we were leaving June 1. JUNE. Weather wouldn't be a problem, right? We had plans to meet Miguel for dinner, who coincidentally was visiting friends in Sacramento during his trip to Cali. And thought we might hit up PBKids and Ikea on our way home. Even though it was a work trip, we were looking forward to it.

This is what it looked like from my desk just before I left work at 3. That's sunshine and blue skies between those trees. I checked road conditions: all clear.
On the way it was raining-snowing, but roads were clear. At first.

The closer we got to Truckee, the harder it was snowing, and sticking. Chains were required. We pulled over. And I was too nervous to keep going ... although we could probably have chained up and gotten through the pass okay, it was supposed to continue snowing and I was worried about how much worse it wold have been to come home tonight. So I checked with work, and we turned around and came home. We were really bummed to miss Miguel, but I'm glad we came back - I would have been a nervous wreck the whole drive.

The whole ordeal wore Chris and Scoop out.

Dear spring: please come back soon, and stick around a while.

Birthday Cupcake Cookies

2011-05-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

I have been reading the Bake at 350 blog for some time now and got it in my head that I needed to make some pretty cookies. Since I received some cupcake-shaped cookie cutters as a gift, I decided Na's birthday was the perfect excuse to try them out. I used this recipe for the cookies, and followed these and these tips for decorating, however I cheated and bought a royal icing mix at a local baking supply shop. All I had to do was add water and extract (I chose almond) - easy peasy.

The hard part was the decorating. I definitely need more patience and practice outlining the cookies, but I thought flooding would have been much harder than it was.

The best part was, they were delicious! And they tasted good throughout the whole week.

Na planned a girls night for her birthday, so I brought cookies to share with everyone. We first went out to dinner, and then to the Eldorado to see Illuminaire. The show was really cool - it was amazing what the performers could do and I would definitely go see it again. (Shout out to Tyler who hooked us up with great tickets!)

Here is the birthday girl with a couple of the performers following the show.

And, all of the girls :-)

Happy Birthday, Na!

So fresh and so clean clean

2011-05-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty mellow around here, hence the lack of posts. Maybe next week will be more exciting? In the meantime, please enjoy this video of Scoop after her bath.

Mama in the Making

2011-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

For someone who is a mom-in-the-making (and not quite actually a mom yet) I was pretty overwhelmed with Mother's Day love - there were cards, calls, text messages and gifts. Scoop even seemed to know something was up because she let me sleep in until 8:45 (very rare these days). Chris took me out for a delicious brunch. It was really a great day. I get the feeling Mother's Day isn't always quite so relaxing after the little ones arrive, so I'm thankful to have been so spoiled this year.

Our little fam - soon to be four

29 weeks + 6 days

I hope all the other moms, grandmas, sisters and aunts had a wonderful day, too!

P.S. Doesn't the yard look great? Chris has been working really hard on it. We hope to have people over to enjoy it real soon!

Scoop's Big Weekend

2011-05-02T19:28:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, Scoop and I got up early and headed to the Marina where we met Julie, my co-worker Angela and her dog Yogi for the March of Dimes March for Babies. There were lots of people there to do the two-mile walk and it was a great, sunshiny day with good company.

Scoop got a little nap in, and then we headed off to Bully's Sports Bar for the annual Chihuahua Races, a fundraiser for the SPCA (you may recall I shot video of the races last year). Chris and Erin joined - Chris to help send Scoop down the track and Erin to shoot some video. The track was set up with two lanes, side by side, and each race was the best two out of three. Scoop easily won her first race, but the next one was really close. Everyone actually thought the other dog was going to win. So, no joke, they did a slow-mo replay and Scoop won - by a nose. It was hilarious. In the next round, she also won both races.

She was four-for-four and advanced to the championships on Sunday. Unfortunately, we misunderstood the instructions. Told to come back at 11 Sunday, we thought she could race before we had to leave at noon (Chris for work, me to volunteer at Earth Day) but it turned out sign-ins were at 11 and races at noon. So poor Scoop had to forfeit. But at least she is still undefeated! Maybe next year she will go all the way ... in the meantime, please enjoy this video.

The day wasn't a total loss for Scoop. On my way to Earth Day I dropped her off at Erin and Sandor's so she could play with Sierra and Warren. She must have had a fun time, because we were barely out of the driveway before she fell asleep in the car.

It was quite a big weekend for such a little Scoop.

28 Weeks

2011-04-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

This week I am 28 weeks, which officially puts me in the third trimester. Luckily, I am still feeling good and Scoop and I are still enjoying getting out for walks three or four times a week. Thanks to the generosity of the very-excited grandparents, the baby's room now has a changing table and a crib. The room is not entirely put together, but maybe we'll have some pictures for the next update! The co-sleeper has also been acquired and set up in our room, which has forced Scoop's bed to the exact opposite side of the room and she has adjusted very well, which was a relief. Chris has been really great about touching up paint and putting things together and even taking care of the yard on top of everything else. We still have a lot to do before Miss G arrives, but it's so nice to see everything coming together. This week we started our childbirth classes, and at the end of class last night we toured the hospital and picked up our registration paperwork. It's all becoming so much more real and exciting (and, after watching a childbirth video, a little frightening, too). At my doctor's appointment today I found out my total weight gain (from my first appointment at 8 weeks) has been 20 pounds, which they tell me is good. And in other good news, after a three-hour lab appointment and four blood draws yesterday, I found out today I do not have gestational diabetes and can enjoy a one of the leftover Easter cupcakes that has been taunting me all week without guilt or worry. Hooray! Baby has been kicking even more and the kicks are getting stronger, but not yet in an uncomfortable way and I love feeling her move around. We are just so grateful at how great this experience has been so far and thankful for all the love you all have shown us!

P.S. Scoop and I are doing the March of Dimes March for Babies on Saturday. We're super close to our fundraising goal, and every dollar helps!

Easter

2011-04-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Did everyone have a lovely Easter? Chris, Scoop and I headed over to Erin & Sandor's for Easter brunch with friends. (This is the first Easter Chris and I have spent together since we've been married because of baseball, so that was a treat).

After seeing them online somewhere, I made Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes for the occasion. Pretty easy - mini Cadbury eggs + yellow cake batter. They tasted pretty good, I thought.

There was quite the spread of yummy food - egg strata and coffee cake and fruit and muffins and all kinds of deliciousness. The dogs all got to come, too, so Scoop had fun playing with six of her best buddies.

I neglected to take any pictures of people. Whoopsie. We had a fun time eating and visiting. I hope you had a nice Easter, too!

Yuma friends, Reno friends

2011-04-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

We were very excited this week that Andrea and Jeremy came to visit Nevada during Andrea's spring break. Our Yuma buddies (who now live in SoCal) are going to be moving to D.C. soon, so this was likely our last visit with them before their big move. We are lucky to be living in their home state so that we got to see them on their trip home, and it was great to see them three afternoons in a row before they headed to Elko. (Jeremy's family is in Reno, Dre's is in Elko). Highlights included lunch at J.J.'s Pie Co (a tradition when Andrea is here), and spending some time shopping at Target with Dre, just like when we were roomies :-)

On their last day here, we went to the Aces game. Chris took the afternoon off from covering the game so that he could hang out with the rest of us in the stands.

After we left the game, we Skyped with the V-Team - something that has become a tradition every time we see the Nevins since Benny and Michelle moved to Okinawa.

Now, Benny, Michelle and Olivia are in Maryland, so I have a feeling the next time we have one of these Skype conferences it will be Chris and I on one end and the Volkmanns and Nevins on the other. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous that they will be living so close to each other and my sister. I think a visit to the East Coast will be in our future once little miss is big enough!

Frosting can fix anything

2011-04-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Erin's birthday, and I wanted to make her a Rainbow Cake, which I had seen on many a blog and thought it looked pretty. She threw a barbecue on Sunday for pretty much everyone she knows who has an April birthday, so I made the cake for the occasion.

Because I thought it might be a little time intensive (especially since I only have two round cake pans) I decided to go with a boxed lemon cake mix instead of from scratch (one less layer to color!) I mixed one box, measured it to a little more than four cups and decided to use one cup per layer, making cupcakes with the remaining batter from the second box.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple batter.

The yellow layer was the first one I tried to take out of the pan, and this is what happened. I was a little worried, but a little frosting and all was right again. (I did a much better job getting the other layers out of the pan.)

Cooling cake

Frosting, frosting, frosting

Done!

And, the reveal!

Pretty and yummy!

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Aceball is Back

2011-04-18T18:15:00.001-07:00

On Friday, the Reno Aces had their home opener. Of course, Chris was there to cover the game, so I went with our friends Chris and Tyler and we ran into many other friends throughout the evening.
One of the new menu items this year is The Big Cheese. It's a garlic cheese focaccia, and it's huge. And delicious. (Don't worry, even though I'm eating for two, I split this with Chris and Tyler.)
It was a little cold and windy, but it's great for baseball to be back in season in Reno. The Aces won the game, and fireworks followed! I'm looking forward to many more games before baby arrives.

Housaversary

2011-04-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it's been a year this week since we moved into our house? What a year it's been! Our guest room has seen a variety of friends and family members, we celebrated Chris' 30th birthday and my graduation. We saw our first trick-or-treaters and hosted our first Christmas. We've put personal touches on the house (although there's still a ways to go). We found out our family is expanding. Most recently ...

We've added patio furniture to our backyard, and look forward to enjoying summer evenings sitting around the fire pit.

We've seen the tree that we planted in the backyard last fall begin to bloom.

And we've been moving things out of what was the craft room to transform it into the baby's room. (Last weekend, Chris installed the fan/light for the baby).

We already have made some wonderful memories in this house that over the last year has become our home, and we look forward to the many more memories we will make as our family grows.

Mellow

2011-04-11T18:36:00.001-07:00

For Friday night, I won Chris a ticket to Beer Fest, a fundraiser for the Nevada Young Alumni Association, and I joined him and some of our friends out for the evening. I could be spotted as the only one drinking ginger ale ...

The rest of our weekend was really quite mellow. After snowing on Thursday and Friday, it warmed up into the 50s (heat wave!) on Saturday and the sun came out so we went for a family walk.

Chris and I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands to places all married couples are familiar with, like Home Depot. And, we stopped at a new, self-serve fro-yo place which was awesome. We have to go back at least 15 more times so I can try all the creations I've invented in my head.
Sunday was spent just doing things around the house. We really are a boring old married couple! But it was a nice weekend being home together. The Aces have their home opener this weekend and will be home the next three, so these kinds of weekends will be rare in the coming months.

P.S. How cute are Chris and Scoop? This picture makes me think how amazing it will be to see Chris with our daughter. I could cry just thinking about it.

Little things

2011-04-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Kat visited home in North Carolina and blogged that she brought back some of her old baby clothes for her own baby. This made me a little jealous, because I don't think anyone has any of my old clothes around, and me and Mena had some pretty rad outfits. But I do have a couple of my favorite things that I am excited to share with little Miss G, so that makes up for it I think ...

The Littlest Angel was my favorite book when I was little. It was a gift from my Dad, and I've kept it with me ever since I moved away from home. I still like to read it every now and then and look forward to having someone to read it to. I don't remember how old I was when I got Goofy here, but it's safe to say he was my favorite stuffed animal (because he's also my favorite Disney character) and obviously he's still with me. I hope the baby loves him, too!

This weekend when I was going through boxes (I'm in purge mode, trying to clear up some space) I found this little silver bracelet, as well as a tiny little gold ring, that were given to me when I was a baby. My mom gave them to me a couple years ago, and I'm not sure who they are originally from, but I could just cry at how tiny and adorable they are. I am so excited to have some of my things to share with the baby!

This week I am 25 weeks. My doctor's appointment went well last week, and we are just so grateful :-)

Springtime

2011-03-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Last week, it felt like spring might never come to Reno, so it was a good time for us to take a trip to Arizona. The timing was also nice because Gabels wanted to throw us a shower, and Chris was going to be there for work already. We left Thursday night during a snowstorm, and arrived to temperatures in the mid-70s. It was great! Grammie and Grandpa came down from Illinois for the weekend, too, and it was great to see them. While Chris worked on Friday Alison and I got pedicures and then all of us spent Friday afternoon walking around the Tempe Arts Festival before Chris joined us out for dinner.

Saturday was the shower. It is overwhelming (in a good way, of course!) how much Baby Gabel is already loved by so many people. We are so blessed!

It was so nice to be able to spend time with Chris' parents, sister and grandparents during our trip.

So many of our friends made it for the shower, and stayed late into the evening hanging out and visiting. We wish we could see everyone more often, and we're glad we were able to spend some time with everyone, and finally meet Kaitlin (Marc & Kristin's daughter) and Ben (Kelli & Kyle's son).
It seems that ever since I've been pregnant, so many people I know are also pregnant, but it's kind of a bummer that only one of my expecting friends lives in Reno. Kat and Jeffrey, who we met working at the paper in Yuma but are currently living in Phoenix, are also expecting a girl and are due five weeks before we are. It was great talking pregnancy and babies with Kat!

On Sunday, Alison and I headed to Camelback Ranch to catch the last Dodger spring training game of the season before the team headed off to L.A. I think the baby is going to be a baseball fan, because as soon as we sat down she was just kicking and kicking!

It was really a great trip. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I'm saving up all my PTO for when the baby arrives. Chris stayed a little longer to work, and gets home in the morning. Luckily, it's been mostly sunny with temperatures in the 60s since I got home, and 70s expected at the end of the week. Let's hope winter is over!

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-19T18:45:00.001-07:00

I'm sure it comes as a surprise to no-one that I love celebrations and holidays of all kinds. St. Patrick's Day was always a fun day for us growing up, wearing green, my mom always made corned beef and cabbage for dinner, we'd watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and we would get treats (cards, stickers, See's Irish Potatoes) in the mail from my dad. I celebrate St. Patrick's Day in one way or another every year, and just because I couldn't have green beer this year, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

First, Chris, Na and I met at Coney Island for lunch because everyone said they had the best corned beef and cabbage. It was yummy.

Then after work we met up with a bunch of friends at a bar/restaurant that was having a St. Paddy's Day celebration. G drinks were consumed - green beer, Guiness, and ginger ale (the last one for the pregnant lady) - and I enjoyed the company and a Guiness beef stew for dinner.

John & Julie

Me & Julie

Erin, Zmoe and TJ

When I checked the mail on Friday, I was surprised with an Irish Potato from my Dad - what a treat!

Did you celebrate on Thursday?

Scoop's Visitor

2011-03-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago my friend Carlie from school (who lives down the street) and her boyfriend Chris were headed for vacation and their roommate was also gone during part of their trip, so their dog Amara came to stay with us for a few days.

You would think (if you were judging only on size) that Scoop and Amara would be the best of friends. But Amara isn't super excited about playing with other dogs and Scoop is overexcited about playing with other dogs. So, at first, they got on each other's nerves.

Despite Scoop's pillows being quite oversized, they wouldn't lay down next to each other, and Scoop would get jealous if I tried to pet Amara or let her sit on my lap. (She's never acted like that with other dogs).
But finally, after a couple days, they started playing together and actually seemed like maybe they were having fun.
They chased each other up and down the stairs and all around the house and fought over toys, and even played dress up ;-)

And, eventually, they even got close enough to share the same pillow.

- - -

In other news ...

-Next month, I'll be doing the March of Dimes March for Babies

-Through the end of March, I'll donate 25 percent of the proceeds from my Etsy shop to the Red Cross for Japan relief efforts

-Chris felt the baby move this week for the first time! And, we received our first baby gift in the mail! Such excitement!

21 weeks

2011-03-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

So, this week I am 21 weeks along, a little more than halfway. The photo at right was taken last week and after it was taken my tummy seemed to grow overnight! Now that we know we're having a girl, it's been fun to try to imagine what she will be like. What will her interests be? Will she bake and watch musicals with me, will she watch football and shoot hoops with Chris? Will she take up hobbies neither of us ever did? Will her eyes be blue or green or brown? Will her hair be dark like mine, or lighter like when Chris was little? Will it be curly, like her Aunty Mena's, or straight like her Aunty Alison's, or somewhere in between like her momma's? We read that by this week she has eyebrows, and the one thing we're fairly certain of is that those will really be quite the eyebrows! This week, according to the experts, she is about the length of a carrot, and has been able to hear what we say for the past couple weeks. (This makes me wonder if I should stop listening to music with swear words?) Although the movements are soft right now, I can feel her moving much more the last couple of days, which has been really amazing. We have been working on turning the craft room into the baby's room, and discussing names (Scoop has heard them all, but we're confident she'll keep them secret). Also, since we announced thepregnancy some people have asked us what the first baby thing was we went out and bought, so for those who wanted to know, over the weekend we got her a cute little outfit (left) that's now hanging in her closet. (And for those still curious about cravings, on the way home from making said purchase I had a serious lemonade craving, made Chris stop to buy lemons, made a pitcher as soon as we got home and drank it all in less than 24 hours.)

I realize this has been a long and rambling (and perhaps boring to those of you who aren't me) update, but baby is top of mind these days. It is all very exciting and sometimes a little frightening as we prepare to meet this little one, knowing how very dependent she will be on us. But mostly it's exciting, and we're so grateful for all the love and support of our family and friends.

It's a ... Gabel!

2011-03-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

Before our big ultrasound this week, we tested out a few theories and old wives tales online to see how accurate they are in predicting gender.

A couple of ancient Chinese gender calculators both predicted a girl.
One theory says that craving sweets indicate a girl while salty or sour cravings indicate a boy. I mostly have been wanting plain things, like bread and pasta and cheese. So we'll call this one a wash.
Another one said ancient Mayans believed if the mother's age at conception and year of conception were both odd or both even years, it's a girl, and if one was even and one odd it's a boy. In this case, we would be having a boy.
Girls supposedly steal their mother's beauty, so if you're breaking out (yep!), it's a girl.
Tie a ring to a string and hang it over your belly. If it goes back and forth it's a boy, if it goes in a circle it's a girl. The first two attempts the ring didn't move. The second two times it seemed like maybe it was going in a circle. Girl.
If you're sick during the first trimester (yep!) this is also supposed to indicate a girl.

Chris from the beginning thought we were having a girl. I thought girl at first, then boy for a while, then back to girl. I had dreams about a boy and a girl, Chris had a dream about a boy. Either way, of course, we would be thrilled. Most important is having a healthy baby, and everything looked good on the ultrasound so we are very thankful.

And it appears most of these theories were right, for us anyway.

We're having a Girl!

I'd like to thank the Academy ...

2011-02-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our Oscar Party! I've been wanting to have one for several years, but for various reasons this was the first time we were able to do it.

We rolled out the red carpet ...

Prepared prizes for Oscar Ballots and Oscar Bingo, popped some popcorn ...

And hung posters of some Best Picture nominees.

Of course all the A-list celebrities turned out, but apparently the stylists weren't communicating very well because all the ladies wore the same dress.

(Clockwise from top left, Tammy and Chris, John and Julie, Erin and Sandor, Erin and Na, Scoop and Amara)

The games definitely made watching the Oscars more fun, and John ended up winning Oscar Bingo and picking the the most winners (15!), but he was kind enough to let the second-place Bingo winner Chris share in the winnings.

Did you watch the Oscars? What did you think?

Party Like it's 1981

2011-02-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Our friend John turns 30 today, so his wife Julie invited us to celebrate on Sunday and "Party Like it's 1981." She got a room at the Fun Quest at Grand Sierra, where we had pizza and cake and everyone played Laser Tag (except the pregnant lady, who played skee ball.)

Julie prepares the candles

Happy Birthday!

Chris was disappointed in the lack of balloons. So he found some.

It was a fun night with friends, capped off with drinks in one of the casino's bars.

Fun in the Snow

2011-02-20T07:48:00.001-08:00

We've had a lot of snow here this week. Not as much as in Tahoe or Quincy, but a lot for Reno. On Friday morning, the schools had a snow day and the district held a snowman contest on Facebook, so I made a snowman at work to enter the contest for a client, with some help from a co-worker's son who was spending his snow day at the office.

I realized it had probably been 15 years at least since I'd made a snowman. And Friday night we had more snow, so I thought I should spend Saturday morning playing outside with Scoop and making our own snowman.

This is the yard undisturbed before Scoop and I got to it.

Scoop loves the snow. She ran all around in it, and we would throw her snowballs and she'd dig all through the snow looking for them. It was pretty funny.

Here is our creation (click on the picture if you want to see it bigger). She tried to knock it over a few times, and then mostly left it alone. Luckily the sun came out for most of the day yesterday, so it was felt warm while we were outside and the roads were pretty clear by the time we had to go anywhere. Even though we had fun, I am definitely ready for spring.

Vacation Elevated

2011-02-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Back in the fall, I thought it would be fun to surprise Chris for Christmas with a trip somewhere just the two of us, since we haven't taken a trip together that didn't involve visiting someone since our first anniversary. The combination of $30 plane tickets, skiing (for Chris) and the Suns being in town led me to booking a few days in Salt Lake this week. Then we found out we're having a baby, and it may be a while since the two of us get away alone together, so I decided to call it our "Babymoon" (although Chris was on furlough last week, so you could also call it a "furcation" if you like!)

We arrived on Wednesday and spent some time walking around, having lunch at Old Spaghetti Factory (I worked at one in San Jose and was having a craving) and dinner at a local brewpub. The following day, we rented a car and went to Park City, where Chris went skiing and I enjoyed a massage. Later, we saw a movie and had dinner in the adorable downtown.

Park City was cold!

The next day, back in Salt Lake, we walked around Temple Square seeing historic sights, and checking out downtown. We had lunch in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which had a view of the Temple.

Later that night, we went to the Suns vs. Jazz game. The first half was rough and didn't look good for the Suns, but they came back in the second half for the win!

In front of Energy Solutions Arena

It was a really fun trip and nice to get away for a few days and have some time alone, although we did miss our little Scoopers while we were gone. Oh, and I still had my camera from school for one last weekend so we made this little video so I could play with the imovie on my new laptop. Can you spot the special effects? I've never been able to use them for journalism videos so it's kind of exciting ;-)

First comes love, then comes marriage ...

2011-02-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Then comes Scoop, then comes a house, then comes a master's degree, and

THEN comes a baby in a baby carriage!

That's right, Team Gabel is expanding (some of us more than others) and Baby Gabel is due in July (scheduled to arrive during the three days that fall between my birthday and our anniversary)!

Of course, we are very excited! (And a little nervous, too.)

So, here is a rundown of the FAQ:

Q: How are you feeling?

A: Now that I'm further along, I'm feeling pretty good. The first trimester was rough, though, and I was thankful to be working part-time so I could come home and lay on the couch all afternoon.

Q: Are you going to find out if it's a boy or a girl?

A: Probably, if the baby cooperates during the ultrasound, which is about a month away.

Q: Are you having cravings?

A: Sometimes. More aversions than cravings, and usually if I want something, after I have it I don't want it anymore. This happened with egg salad in the very beginning. I also sent Chris to fetch me a tuna sandwich one day. Most days I have no idea what I want to eat.

Q: Are you showing?

A: Yes and no. I am bigger, but right now it's more "baby bloat" than "baby bump." I switched to maternity pants when we went to LA and I was able to shop at a decent maternity store. In the picture (taken this morning, at 16 weeks) I'm wearing a top and jeans from Gap Maternity - the first maternity clothes I bought, along with some black pants. My cousin Jen also loaned me a bag full of tops and dresses for the warmer months, which will be a big help! (It's hard spending money on clothes you know you'll only wear for a short time - especially when there are so many adorable baby things to buy!)

Q: Have you picked names?

A: No. We don't always agree on names, so it will take a while to land on something we're both happy with, I think. Even then, we're keeping it a secret until baby's debut.

In other miscellaneous pregnancy news, I started prenatal yoga last week where I learned "I'm steady, I'm natural and I'm strong." Actually, it was pretty great to be in a room full of other pregnant women and I think I'll really enjoy the class.

So, I guess that's all for now!

Celebrity Sightings

2011-01-29T08:13:00.001-08:00

This blogger I sometimes read posted a few weeks ago about all the celebrities she's seen, so I decided to do the same. Except I'm leaving out the ones who I saw perform in concert or interviewed for work, etc., because that's not really just a chance encounter, is it? I don't know if I will remember them all, but here goes ...

Reggie Jackson: Would you believe it if I told you he owned a car dealership in Quincy for a while when I was a kid? My stepdad worked there, and we met Reggie Jackson one time when he came to the dealership for some sort of promotional event. He told me he'd buy me a horse. He never did. I hate Reggie Jackson.

Neil Patrick Harris and Max Casella: At the Ports O' Call in San Pedro, we stumbled upon an episode of Doogie Howser being filmed.

Sarah Chalke: My sister and I spotted Sarah Chalke when we were at the Universal City Walk with my Dad and Deb one time, eating frozen yogurt or something. This was way back when she was on Roseanne.

Ted Danson: When I was about 19 and had just started working at the Monterey Plaza Hotel, I passed Ted Danson on the sidewalk in front of the hotel as he was on his way to speak at an event on whales or some such save-the-earth event. He nodded at me.

Niki Taylor: Working at the same hotel, Niki Taylor was staying there one time for a Liz Claiborne shoot, if I remember correctly. I was at the front desk when she stopped by to pick up a fax. (If that was today, she probably would've gotten an e-mail on her smart phone and I'd never have seen her.)

Leonardo DiCaprio: Working at a toy store on Cannery Row in Monterey, Leo came in and bought a disposable camera from me. He was wearing a hat and trying to look incognito. Later, I also saw him and Gisele walking down the hall, but I only saw her from behind.

Clint Howard: Ron Howard's brother came into the toy store in Monterey one time when I was working.

Melissa Joan Hart: The owner of the toy store I worked at owned three stores on Cannery Row, and I managed them. One time, a co-worker from one of the stores down the street called me at the toy store and was speaking so muffled, I thought perhaps she was getting robbed. I ran down the street to make sure everything was okay, and it turned out she was just trying to let me know that Sabrina the Teenage Witch was in the store.

Danny Glover: In 1998 I went with friends to see a Boyz II Men concert (opening acts were Next and Destiny's Child) and Danny Glover was at the concession stand.

Bill Murray: I didn't actually meet Bill Murray, but when I worked at the Quail Lodge, he called to make a reservation and I took the call. I thought from his voice it was the Bill Murray, and it was confirmed the following day when all the front desk agents were buzzing about when he checked in.

Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds: Living in Monterey for five years, you'd think I'd have seen Clint Eastwood around town sometime, but that wasn't the case. I actually saw these two together having dinner at a restaurant in Bel Air where my friend Lindsey worked. The paparazzi was outside when we left, and restaurant staff were making plans to sneak the two out the back to avoid the cameras.

John Stamos: Chris and I saw Uncle Jesse at a bar at LAX while waiting to catch our flight home.

Don King, Annie Leibovitz, Angela Bassett, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson: Spotted at Obama's Inauguration.

Tyra Banks and Ron Howard: Spotted at the Inaugural Ball.

Dennis Farina, Dustin Hoffman, Bo Derek and Mike Smith: Spotted at Santa Anita last year during Spring Break.

George Newbern: Spotted at lunch with Deb last year during Spring Break.

Rod Stewart: Spotted at breakfast with Lindsey last year during Spring Break.

What celebs have you spotted? Did you attempt to talk to them?

Sketchbook Update

2011-01-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't get quite as far in my sketchbook as I had hoped, but I filled it more than halfway and earlier this month shipped it off to Brooklyn. Here are a few of the sketches. I also did some in pencil, charcoal and chalk, and even a couple using stamps, but for some reason all of the ones I chose to post were done with a ballpoint pen.

This is one of my favorites. It was doodled during my geography and film class.

Another in-class doodle.

Detail shot of another sketch, which turned out very similar to the one pictured at the top.

I call this one "Breakfast at Dad's." I drew it when we were in L.A. earlier this month.

This one I drew when we returned home, inspired by SoCal.

There are a lot of things I had hoped to do with this project - I wanted to stay with a theme, and fill every page, and come up with a clever decoration for the cover, but things just didn't turn out that way. There's always next year!

Life

2011-01-19T16:51:00.001-08:00

Chris and I took advantage of the long weekend to visit family in Southern California. The trip, as it turned out, started off differently than we had first envisioned it. After our flight landed, we headed to San Diego for my great Aunt Roz's funeral. Aunty Roz was my grandmother's sister, and we had spent a lot of time with her as kids. She owned a boutique, and when she closed it she gave my sister and I all kinds of costume jewelry that we loved to play dress-up with. Years later she discovered a box of brand-new scarves from the store, and she gave us those as well. I still have them. She took us shopping, and sometimes she, my grandmother, sister and I would play Yahtzee together. I will miss her, but I am glad that she no longer suffers. I wish I had seen her more often in the last few years. And though we didn't plan it this way, I am glad we were there for the service, to say goodbye, and to see family members we otherwise might not have seen, and share memories together.

Back in L.A. the next day the weather was quite toasty for January - 80 degrees! - so a visit to the beach was in order.

That night Dad, Deb, Chris and I went out for a nice dinner to celebrate my Dad's birthday.

And on the final day of the trip, we spent the afternoon and evening with at my cousin Jen's house, where we met the newest addition to the family, her daughter Josephine, who is too precious for words, and played with Juliette, who is getting so big and talking up a storm and kept Chris busy playing all night.

It was a nice trip, and we wish we could visit everyone more often.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2011-01-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

2011-01-11T06:55:00.001-08:00

My friend Lindsey and I have been friends since the 9th grade, when she moved to Quincy (even though she insists I have her dirty looks on her first day of school, which was not the case!) For the past 12 years or so she has lived in LA, which has been nice because I got to see her several times a year when I went to visit my Dad. But this fall, she moved back to Quincy, which is even better because now she's only an hour and a half away and we can see each other a lot more (weather permitting!)

Lindsey and I during our senior trip in Santa Cruz

One thing Lindsey and I have in common is that we are both big Elvis fans. Since snow had gotten in the way of seeing each other up until now, we decided to get together this past weekend for an Elvis-Birthday-Movie-Marathon. It was really fun to hang out and talk and watch corny Elvis movies together. And, our friend Hannah happened to be in town for the weekend, too, so we got together with her and Nikki for breakfast on Sunday.

Lindsey, Nikki, Hannah and Me (photo borrowed from Hannah's Facebook)

It was a fun and relaxing weekend in Quincy and I got to spend some time with my Mom, too. Hope I get to see all these friends again soon!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T18:41:00.001-08:00

Chris and I welcomed 2011 like a boring, old married couple. We went out for a nice, Italian dinner, followed by a movie.

We thought we'd timed it just right to get out of the movie in time to watch the fireworks in downtown Reno. But we forgot to include time for previews, so the movie got out at 11:59, and we were in downtown Sparks. At least we had our midnight kiss, and could see the fireworks a few miles away in the distance. It was cold, so we watched what little we could see from the car.
Over dinner we discussed our resolutions. Turns out those are pretty boring, too. Pay off the credit card, eat healthier, exercise more. Hopefully the results will be better than my resolution for 2010 (maybe I'll keep working on those this year).

I hope you all had fun, however you rang in the New Year!

What are your resolutions?

Christmas with the Gabels

2010-12-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas with Chris' parents and Alison here for a few days. It was very relaxing, we mostly hung out at home and visited and watched movies. It was great to have everyone here for our first Christmas at home. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures. Except of Scoop. Here she is on Christmas morning, about one minute before Chris came downstairs and about one minute and 15 seconds before she was no longer wearing her Christmas outfit.

We were all spoiled with fun presents and good company, and enjoyed an evening visiting with Bill, Louise, Brad and Linda before the Gabels headed back to Arizona.

I hope you all had a great Christmas, too!

Denim & Leather

2010-12-19T20:13:00.001-08:00

A couple years ago, Erin & Sandor threw an ugly sweater party. And then lots of other people did, too. And this year Erin decided she wanted something more original, and somehow the idea of a denim and leather holiday party was born.

Since Scoop came with us to the party, I decided she should fit the theme, so I found her a jean skirt on sale. For myself, I found a leather vest and borrowed a mullet wig to complete the look.
I wasn't the only one in a wig! Chris opted for a more "classy" denim and leather look. (Read: bo-ring.)

So did Zmoe.

I'm surprised Chris smiled for this photo. He could barely look at me while I was wearing that wig.

Sandor, Julie and Erin

The party was lots of fun with hilarious costumes, good food and good company. I don't know how they'll top it next year ;-)

Dear Santa: We're ready for you

2010-12-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

Scoop and I got the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. (After I went out to cover the Black Friday story at 4 a.m. and we took a long nap.) But what's more exciting is that, this year, for the first time, Chris put up Christmas lights! Since he was in junior high he's been in charge of hanging the lights at his parents' house. But we haven't been able to hang lights since we moved to Reno because our apartment didn't have any outlets out on the balcony. We had to wait a couple weeks to hang lights this year until we could borrow a ladder high enough to reach the top of our house.
Finally, we got it on Sunday, and I supervised while Chris climbed the ladder.
Here's the front of the house. I think next year we'll add more above the garage, too.

And here are the lights over the back patio.

And a late addition to the decorations last night, Scoop helped with the garland for the banister.

We're having fun decorating the new house and we're excited for our Christmas visitors to arrive next week!

Feel free to call me Master

2010-12-07T16:35:00.001-08:00

It's been a whirlwind few days here with my parents and sister visiting and graduation festivities. We were so spoiled to have them here helping us cook and clean for the party, and it was such a nice treat to all be together.

Friday afternoon the journalism school had a reception for undergrad and graduate students who were graduating. Here are the girls in my cohort with our graduate adviser.

The Family - Mena, Chris, Me, Dad, Deb, Mom

Since Chris had to go to Vegas for work on Saturday, we had a party on Friday night. Here again are the girls in my cohort - Whitney, Ana, Me, Carlie, Heather and Megan

Na, Me, Julie and Erin

Graduation was on Saturday morning. Julie was shooting the ceremony for the paper, so she got some pictures for me - thank goodness because everyone else was sitting pretty far away.

The Cohort

It really was a fun weekend and I just have one assignment left to finish and I'm all done! My Dad and Deb left yesterday and my sister left this morning. We had such a nice time visiting with them and wish we could all be together more often.

Tomorrow morning I start a new job doing social media. I'm really excited about a new challenge, but a little nervous, too, for my first non-newspaper job in many years. Wish me luck!

A little of this, a little of that

2010-11-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, we had our first snow. Not quite the "epic" storm that was forecasted, thank goodness, but enough for Scoop to sniff around in for a little bit Sunday morning. Most of it melted by the end of Sunday, which I was glad for because I had to drive to school bright and early Monday morning to prepare for my defense. (Unfortunately, Quincy was hit way harder than Reno was and my Mom wasn't able to make the drive to come to the defense). Chris came for my defense, and it was easier than I imagined (I tend to get really nervous speaking in front of people - especially people who decide whether or not I've earned my master's) and my committee all thought I'd done a good job and signed all the necessary paperwork. What a relief! Chris took me out to a big Mediterranean lunch to celebrate. Now, I just have to write one more paper and take a final and I'm all done! It snowed some more yesterday, and overnight our low was 5 degrees, but it warmed to about 11 by the time Scoop and I got up. Time to get out the boots and gloves!

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Indie Reno

2010-11-21T08:27:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, my craft group held our first craft fair, Indie Reno. I had never done a real craft fair before and wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't have as much inventory as some of the other tables (I've been a little busy preparing for my master's defense) but I still exceeded my sales goals, and it was fun. A lot of my people I knew came by, and Na stayed to help me all day, and she and Erin both helped out with giftwrapping (we offered giftwrapping and hot cocoa for free). I'm pretty sure I have the best friends ever.

Here is my table. The light in the window behind made it hard to get a good picture.

We also gave swag bags to the first 25 people who walked in the door.
People actually were lined up outside before we opened!

I'm looking forward to our next show, sometime in the spring!

Fantasies in Chocolate

2010-11-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Last year, I volunteered at the annual fundraiser for the RGJ Foundation, Fantasies in Chocolate, and thought it would be fun to go, uh, for fun. Then Julie told us she and John were going to go for her birthday, so that was the perfect excuse for all of us to go.

Erin, Na, Me and Julie

John, Chris and Sandor

Team Gabel

We had lots of chocolate, wine and some savory food as well, even barbecued pulled pork with chocolate sauce and chocolate-covered bacon! It's always fun (for the girls at least) to get dressed up, and we all had a good time.

Movember

2010-11-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Chris shaved! He's growing a mustache for Movember, to raise money for prostate cancer research and to raise awareness. He's actually also growing a beard, despite my attempts to persuade him to just do the mustache. I mean, it's only for one month, right? I'm still holding out hope he'll shave down to just a mustache on the last day - at least long enough to let me take a picture. In the meantime, I'll be taking a picture of the progress daily. Here are days 1, 3, 4 and 5. (Day two was election day and Chris was asleep when I left and came home that day, so I missed the picture.)

If you want to donate to the cause, find Chris' profile here.

I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam

2010-11-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went out with some friends to celebrate Halloween. Chris and I earlier in the week were trying to find simple matching costumes and Andrea came up with a great idea - Popeye and Olive Oyl.

We went out downtown during the Zombie Crawl, though only some of us were zombies. Zombie pirates, that is.

John and Julie went as Fred and Wilma.

These guys joined us after the Wolf Pack/World Series games were over.

Good times.

Sketchy

2010-10-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've always enjoyed drawing. I've never had any formal training, and I wouldn't claim to be an artist or anything, I just like to do it. When I was a kid, I drew things all the time and once or twice entered my drawings in the fair. I still doodle, especially while I'm in class, as you can see by taking a peek inside any of my notebooks.
My mom and stepdad always encouraged me to draw, and once invited a friend's daughter who was a trained artist to give us a lesson in drawing faces. Stony kept things I had drawn hanging in his office at our house, and for my 20th birthday, he sent me a sketchpad and a drawing kit with pencils, charcoals and chalk to remind me that I hadn't been drawing enough.

When I read that my cousins Mandy and Denise and their mom Jane were participating in The Sketchbook Project, I knew I also wanted to do it. I signed up a couple weeks ago and received my sketchbook in the mail last weekend. My theme is "... you'd be home now" and I imagine that I will interpret that quite loosely. I decided that I will dedicate my sketchbook in Stony's memory, since I know he would be just delighted by this project.

I still have the drawing kit Stony gave me. (I still haven't been drawing enough.) So that is what I used for the the first drawing.
I'll post some more updates on the progress of the sketchbook before I have to send it in. I hope Chris and I will be able to go to San Francisco in June to see the Sketchbook tour.

Laurnesto does Vegas

2010-10-21T20:11:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, our friends Ernesto and Laura were both going to be in Phoenix and we really wanted to be there, but we couldn't make it happen. Luckily, Chris was able to join them in Vegas a couple days later ... but since Chris never writes blogs anymore, Laura agreed to write a guest blog. Enjoy!

So Ernesto, my cousin Eddie and my friend Nikki made a short but very sweet trip to Vegas to feed our (or mine mostly) Vegas itch. Short is an understatement as we were there for just about 24 hours. So the question was how much trouble could we get into in such a short amount of time. After a long car ride that consisted of a lot of “ would you rather” (in which we all learned a little bit more about each other) and lots of pictures of the new Hoover Dam bridge we arrived.

So we had a crazy fun night of boozing and gambling.When we woke up the next morning Ernesto was missing, there was a tiger in the bathroom, Chris was missing a tooth......oh wait I am thinking of a different trip to Vegas.

Ours was not as crazy as the Hangover, the highlight of the night was when I sat next to a fun old lady who helped me play Pai Gow Poker. After I was up $100 dollars, she said to me, “raise your bet el cheapo.”

The rest of the night consisted of some dancing in a bar, me outlasting everyone, then everyone thinking I got lost when I was just out gambling still, taking a short nap, getting breakfast at noon at Denny’s,a little bit more gambling and a very long car ride home.

In other news Ernesto and I got engaged 2 days earlier, if you know who we are or just want to see something that might make you cry in a good way, check out this video.

Go Team

2010-10-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Homecoming and since I average about one game a season and since Nevada was hosting San Jose State, we decided to go. My original plan was to create a hybrid Nevada-SJSU T-shirt, but I couldn't find a Wolf Pack shirt at the thrift store, so I went with this instead.

Before the game, we joined our friends for some tailgating festivities.
They were anxious for Chris to arrive with the Baggo, of course.
Did you know Chris was such a multi-tasker?
As for the game, the Wolf Pack won, as was expected, but the Spartans scored in the double digits, which nobody really expected, so that was a victory-of-sorts in itself. (Of course, yesterday was a bad day for both teams.)
Good times. See you next year, Mackay stadium.

Miguel's Meat Cake!

2010-10-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Guest blog brought to you by Tammy's sister Marina:

I love to bake. As you can tell by Tammy's posts, it's somewhat of a family trait. But the problem is Miguel has more of a savory tooth than a sweet tooth. So this year for his birthday I thought I would try to make something that he would enjoy eating as much as I would enjoy baking it. A friend of mine had the solution - a meat cake! It was perfect, I found a good recipe online, and got started.

6 lbs of meet, prepped and ready to bake

cooked and cooling, tops cut off

filled with gravy made from the drippings

(the recipe called for ketchup glaze but I thought gravy would look and taste better)

some boxed mashed potatoes and a little food coloring...

and ta-da - it's a cake!

Happy Birthday Miguel!

Guess what!? It's meat!

I knew it was a smashing success when Miguel tasted it and said, "this is the best cake I've ever eaten."

Rain Shower

2010-10-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Remember when I told you it rained last weekend? Well it started during Kat's baby shower. Showers at a shower must be some kind of good luck, right? Lluckily we were inside at a cute little bakery that used to be a tea cottage.
Kat and Matt are due in a month or so, and their baby's gender has remained a mystery despite two attempts to find out, so now it will be a surprise. The decorations are in a bee theme and everything was so cute.

Kat is so cute as a momma-to-be and it was fun to see the girls for a few hours and visit and catch up! I only wish Dre could have been there, too!

Fall!

2010-10-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last week it was hot. Like, record-breaking hot. For five days straight. Friday's high temperature wasn't just the hottest day on record for Oct. 1, but for the entire month of October. Still, the leaves started turning. It appeared fall was here - cool temps or not.

Saturday it started to cool. And rain. Seemed like a good day to pick up some pumpkins on my way home.
Butternut squash soup for dinner seemed like a good idea, too.

And since we were having a few friends over for dinner on Sunday, I thought it was a good idea to make some of the little white pumpkins I picked up sparkle, ala Jaimee Rose. Spray glue + glitter and voila!
Glittered pumpkins, friends, chili, cornbread and apple pie. What could be better?

And now, back to the homework ...

Fall Harvest

2010-09-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

So, this is my fall harvest.

I had such hopes in the spring to actually grow something this year. Last year in the apartment I succeeded in growing about three tomatoes, which prior to picking fell off the patio in a windstorm. Three uneaten tomatoes and one jalapeño. I was sure this year would be better. But there was a snowstorm late in May, a hail storm after that, and even though I moved them under cover as soon as I could, just three of my plants survived. And then I totally neglected them for nearly a month in the summer while I worked long days at a conference and then went to Japan. At least, these are the excuses I've been telling myself. My mom is successful at growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and more. My grandpa always had a huge garden. Surely with gardeners on both sides, they must have passed it onto me, no? Well, next year will be the real test since I'll be able to devote more time to my garden and we have set aside space in the yard for planting. Thank goodness in the meantime I can shop at the co-op for fresh, local, organic produce.
P.S. In case you were wondering, Chris and I each ate one tiny tomato. And they were yummy.

Evolution of the Yard

2010-09-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, there was dirt:

And then, dirt + retaining wall

Later, dirt + retaining wall + extended patio

(Apologies for the horrible phone picture)

And finally ... Grass!

(We'll wait until Spring to plant behind the retaining wall)

Come over for a game of Baggo, won't you?

Flashback

2010-09-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

I took a camera from school with me on our Christmas/New Year's trip to Arizona to practice using it. I shot a little bit of video but never did anything with it, and then found it today while cleaning out files. So, here's a little footage of the doggies, and fireworks on New Year's. In the second one, you'll see why I'm hoping Chris and I have daughters ...

Facing my fears

2010-09-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

For the third year in a row, I was invited to ride in a balloon for media day at the start of the Great Reno Balloon Race. The past two years I declined because of my fear of heights. But this year I decided, what the heck? I climbed a mountain this year. Surely I can ride in a balloon, right? So, I signed up to go on Thursday. Everyone assured me it's such a calm ride that you don't even notice you're in the air until you look down. I wouldn't say that's 100 percent accurate, but it wasn't nearly as scary as I'd imagined. The only time I was really uneasy was when the other two people in my balloon would move and the weight distribution shifted. The ride was fairly short, but I enjoyed it. It was smooth and peaceful.

This is the balloon I rode in as it was being inflated.

Here I am, on the way up!

This is another balloon we saw while in the air. You can see my video here.

Pink waffles, and other fun things

2010-09-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday last week, Chris and I each received a text message that said "Guess who's in Reno?" It was from Jeremy, and we were pretty excited since he'd only been home from his deployment for a couple weeks - we didn't think we'd get a chance to see him so soon!

We were able to meet J for a quick lunch the next day. I, unfortunately, had to run to class but I'm glad he and Chris got to spend a few hours together and had time to come out to the house.

Then on Thursday night, Chad (a friend of mine from high school who now lives in Vegas) and his wife Theresa and daughter Maddie came to stay with us for a night during their long weekend in Reno.

For breakfast, I made waffles ... and since Maddie's favorite color is pink, we thought it would be a good idea if the waffles were that color, too.

Chad's family has a tradition of coming to the rib cook-off in Sparks every year with a group of friends from Quincy. We joined them on Saturday night, as we did last year, on their corner balcony room that overlooks the cook-off. It's insane how many people were there!

As this now was our second year and we're old pros at this cook-off business, Chris and I requested to get in on the T-shirts. They say "Da Browns and Da Friends" on the front and nicknames on the back.
We had a lot of fun hanging out, eating great food, and playing some games at the bar later where we were joined by more friends old and new.

. . .

In other news, I was excited to find out my tomato fight video was picked up by the AP and can now be seen on Yahoo! and other sites. And in a roller coaster of a week at work, my hours were first cut and now increased and in the meantime I began volunteering at the local NPR station, KUNR, to get some experience doing broadcast. Now I just need to find an extra day in the week to get everything done!

Scoop's Big Day

2010-09-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

Remember how little Scoop was when we brought her home last October? So cute! Well, on Monday she turned 1. I guess she's not much bigger now and she's still pretty cute, but she's definitely not that little puppy anymore! I tried to give her a good birthday, but she decided to try to tear up the new lawn, so she spent part of the day in big trouble.

Scoop had her favorite meal, eggs, for breakfast.

In the afternoon, I took her to the dog park at the Sparks Marina.

At first she was the only dog, but then a few more showed up and she had fun chasing after them. She even got into the water a little bit!

On the way home, we stopped at the store and got a new dog toy. I was hoping she would pick the little cupcake, but she preferred this squeaky dog bone.

She got dressed up in a new bandana that I cut out of some fabric I bought in Okinawa.

And for dessert, some homemade dog treats.

No, she's not spoiled. Not spoiled at all. And I haven't totally lost my mind. It's just that she only turns 1 once, and just because she has no idea what a birthday is, well, I do. And I think birthdays should be fun :-)

La Tomatina

2010-08-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the La Tomatina tomato fight downtown to raise money for cancer research, so again I went to shoot video of it.

This time, I started shooting from up in the adjacent parking lot to get an overhead view before moving closer to the action.
These people are totally nuts.
I certainly didn't come home spotless, but I wasn't nearly covered like most of the people who participated. I did get hit in the back of the head with a whole tomato, and I can tell you it does not feel good. Then I became a target when people noticed I was both fairly clean and holding a camera.

I think next year I'll wear a helmet. And goggles.

Chris' big 3-0

2010-08-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

Chris' birthday was on Saturday, so we had a little party with a little poker, a little Baggo and more than a little dessert.

After Erin and Sandor's wedding, Chris had requested a dessert bar for his party, so I obliged. (For those wondering, I made sugar cookies, brownies, carrot cake, stout cupcakes [made with Guinness], banana chocolate chip cookies and raspberry cheesecake cupcakes. Na brought pumpkin pie and Erin brought more cookies. We have plenty leftover, so feel free to drop by!)

Chris' birthday present was a new poker table. A friend also brought one so that we could have a tournament.

The Birthday Boy

Julie, Na, Erin and Me

As you can see, Scoop and Chris were both very excited about the party hats I made them ;-)
The cards didn't fall Chris' way in poker, but he had better luck at Baggo. We had a really good time and are so thankful for everyone who came and helped make Chris' party a fun one!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

2010-08-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy 30th Birthday to my best friend, and the most wonderful husband I could have ever hoped for. Here's to the next 30 years!

This and That

2010-08-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

This week, I am back in school. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I am looking forward to my classes, they all seem like they will be fun as well as educational. But it's my last semester, which also means focusing on my project and preparing to defend it. And at the end of the tunnel ... well, I just don't know what's there and it's freaking me out a little bit. Come January I'll need a job, and I'm hoping to find one that let's me apply what I've learned in grad school. It's made me very introspective lately, trying to figure out what exactly it is I want to do.

A couple other things that have made me introspective: I was having a conversation the other day with someone born in 1990 and came to the realization that I've been legally driving for 15 years. 15! Which of course means I've been legally able to drink for a decade. Good grief, where does the time go? We spent our Sunday shopping for trees for the backyard, so I feel oddly ... grown up? When did all this happen? Sometime in the last 15 years, I suppose ...

I realize this morning I missed a couple of blog milestones: My last post was the 300th, and last month I missed our second Blogaversary. Seems like I could have commemorated the occasions with some sort of special post, but instead you get me today babbling on about the nonsense rattling around inside my brain. Lucky you. Well, don't worry. I will make up for it this weekend with tales from Chris' birthday festivities!

Dog Days

2010-08-24T22:24:00.001-07:00

On Monday, the Aces had a Dog Days of Summer promotion where you could, you guessed it, bring your dog to the ballgame. Of course, that was a deal that Scoop and I couldn't pass up, so we tagged along with our friends John and Julie and their dog Abby. The dogs got special Aces leashes and got to "parade" around the field before the game. Scoop was well behaved despite her excitement at all the other dogs and we had a fun time. Here are some pictures:

A Beautiful Wedding

2010-08-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Erin & Sandor's wedding at Lake Tahoe. The celebrating began with a barbecue at the lake on Friday night, and the wedding on Saturday. Everything was beautiful and the reception was so much fun!

The Bride & Groom

They had a dessert bar instead of a cake, which was a hit!

Yours truly made the cupcakes :-)

It began to rain just after the ceremony, which was kind of cool because the lighting made for good photos and there was a double rainbow! It has to be a good sign to have a double rainbow on your wedding, don't you think?

Team Gabel & Duran-Duran

The Bride and Me

Other fun touches at the wedding included a photo booth for the guest book (one copy for you, one for the guest book) and sparklers! It was truly a memorable day and we are so happy for Erin and Sandor!

Layover

2010-08-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here's how well my family knows me: On the long plane ride from Tokyo to L.A., I told Andrea that maybe I should have specified that I'd want a burger when we grabbed a bite to eat during my long layover before my flight to Reno. Not only did they choose a burger place without my having to request it, but they picked a place that lets you build your own.

Gruyere Cheese, roasted red peppers, grilled onions and garlic aioli? Yes, please!
As a bonus, some people outside the restaurant were working on an Elvis sand sculpture.
Dre and her friend Kim joined me, Dad, Deb and Mena (who happened to be visiting from D.C.!) for lunch, and then headed home to Oxnard.
And the four of us headed over to Jen's, where we joined Juliette for a tea party. Uncle George and Jim came by, too.
Even though I was tired from traveling, it was so nice to see everyone, even just for a short time!

Okinawa

2010-08-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

The V-Team welcomed Andrea and I to Okinawa with this sign. They were excellent hosts and it was so great to visit them! On our first full day on the island, we went to the Okinawa cultural park.
There were all kinds of photo ops for us at the park, where we also learned a lot about Okinawa's culture and history.

After our kimono photo shoot, we caught a traditional Okinawa performance.

Olivia was not too excited about getting an up close view of the performance, as you may see in this video:

Later in the evening, we had dinner to celebrate Benny's 30th birthday and then went out for karaoke in a private room.

The following day, we went to an Asa drumming festival. We saw many groups of various ages performing all down the street, which was really cool.

But the best part about being in Okinawa was spending time with Benny, Michelle and Olivia and getting a taste of what life in Japan is like for them. Olivia is just too cute, and running around all over the place. It's a bummer we don't get to see them more often, but what a great experience they've had living in Japan the last couple of years.

Thanks V-Team for being awesome hosts, and Andrea for joining me on this trip! I will always treasure the memories from this adventure!

Food in Japan

2010-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a sampling of some of the food we ate in Japan (what is not pictured are ramen noodles and rice with curry, which are two popular items):

This was my first meal outside of the hotel. Prawns and noodles and, you'll notice, a dollop of mayonnaise. It was really surprising how much the Japanese like their mayo. It comes with on or in almost everything.
Many of the restaurants have plastic food displays of their menu in their windows.
This food was grilled elsewhere, but then placed on our hot grill for us to serve ourselves. I forget what it was called (maybe Michelle can help fill in the blanks on this blog?) but it was good!

This was my pre-Fuji meal at the fifth station. Notice the pink stuff? Pickled ginger. I was not a fan. (Also discovered on the trip - Dre does not like mayonnaise or wasabi, Michelle does not like ketchup, I do not like seaweed.)

After the hike, when we returned to the fifth station, I enjoyed a melon soda. Really sweet, but I liked it.
This was almost like fondue, except instead of dipping the food in hot oil to cook it, we cooked it over a grill.

Sushi, of course.

Crazy crepes! They had these everywhere and they were really good with a whole bunch of options from savory to sweet, including custard, ice cream, fruit and cheesecake.

Plum wine. I loved it and considered bringing some home. That thing in the bottom that looks like an olive is a plum.
Taco rice. This is a dish you can find in different variations all over Okinawa and it was good. We had it at a brewery called Helios, where I also had a Mango-Weizen (Hefeweizen with mango juice) and it was really good.

We enjoyed ice cream in untraditional flavors while in Japan such as grape or Okinawa Salt Cookie. Here I am having Okinawa Brown Sugar and Beni-imo (sweet potato) swirled. Sweet potatoes are big in Okinawa, and brown sugar and salt are made on the island.

Before the trip I told Michelle I preferred to not eat food with a face. On the last night, however, I was served whole prawns, which were raw so that I could grill them myself. On the right is a scallop on the shell.

Our meals on our last night included dessert so we ordered shaved ice. Michelle got it the traditional Okinawan way so we could try it ... it has sweet beans on the bottom. But they weren't actually sweet - it tasted like baked beans with ice on top. Apparently it's an acquired taste.

Sightseeing in Tokyo, Part 2

2010-08-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Tokyo, we visited the Tsujiki Fish Market, the largest fish market in the world. As it was the day after our Fuji hike, we didn't arrive early enough to see the auction in the morning, but the wholesale market was still impressive to see.

There were endless vendors with all kinds of seafood for sale, and although the activity from the early morning had slowed, it still bustled with deliveries being picked up on bicycle, on foot and machines whizzing by - you had to pay attention not to get run over!

After the fish market, we headed to the Electronics District to look around.
And in the evening, we went to Shibuya, where the busiest intersection in the world (for foot traffic) is located. It's a busy area for nightlife and shopping as well.
Here are a couple videos of the intersection - watching people cross from above, and when we crossed: