Updated Baby M Video

I am laughing so hard that I uploaded the wrong video earlier to the blog...sorry if I confused anyone. Here is the real video:

Hahaha!

Update on Baby M

Press play below to view the gender reveal video we shared with our families this evening

(and, yes, I was able to successfully videotape their reactions this time!)

Edited to add: Published wrong video...here is a quick picture, new video loading soon!

We are so looking forward to welcoming Baby Girl Morelli into the world...xoxo

Numbers 52, 53 and 73 Completed

It has been awhile since I updated the 101 goals in 1,001 days list and, due to this little one I am 'building a house for' (as Damon likes to say), I needed to revise some of the goals for safety reasons :)

Number 53: Reread the Count of Monte Cristo one of my favorite books in 5th grade. Completed 08.19.10

This was a loooong goal to complete, the book is 1461 pages and was written in the early 1800's with all the fancy English, grammar and spelling. I am still shocked at how much I loved this book when I was 10 years old. But, I was a crazy reader when I was little - it was my favorite thing. I read during dinner, during bathtime, during the middle of the night with a flashlight. It was my 'thing' and, to this day, I am so happy that I was obsessed with reading, it helped with my writing skills and my imagination. My other favorite series was the Anne of Green Gables series (that was the reason I unoffically added the 'e' onto my middle name). I also purchased that series and plan on reading it next.

This book centers on a young sailor, Edmond Dantes, in 1815 who is wrongfully accused of a crime from three men who he believed were his friends. After spending years at a prison, he meets (through digging tunnels to one anothers cell's) another prisoner who teaches him how to read, write, duel, and, most importantly, tells him of a lost treasure and begins the framework for Edmond's revenge. Edmond was able to escape from the prison (by placing himself in the body bag of his friend and pretending to be the dead body, and is thrown into the ocean. After discovering the treasure his prison friend informed him about, Edmond reinvents himself and spends years studying his former friends to plot his perfect revenge, finding his former fiance (who happened to marry the man behind the wrongfully accused crime against Edmond), and creating a majestic life as the Count of Monte Cristo. In the end, he is successful on all accounts.

To show how confusing this book is, check out this chart of characters from wikipedia...

One of the good guys in the story has the last name Morell. Hmmm, pretty close to my married last name, huh?

The foreword for the edition that I have talks about how the foreword author read the book in school, and loved it. Then he reread it as a young adult, and loved it more. Then he reread it again as a grown adult, and loved it even more. He discussed how the themes; wrong vs right, love, dignity and respect are themes that can be applied differently at different times in life. And, I completely agree.

There is also a movie, which happened to be ondemand with Comcast and I watched it on Saturday night. The movie was pretty good, but obviously was only a small portion of the ground covered in the book, as I expected. Plus, they totally changed the ending to be more 'hollywood' and the romantic in me liked the ending much better :)

Number 73: Shop at a consignment store. Completed 06.30.10

This goal replaced the original 73, which was to go horseback riding. I figured that I should revise that one for safety purposes! I am really trying to make an effort to shop at second hand or consignment stores more, especially for our little one. Babies grow out of everything so quickly, and when I think of all the resources that go into all the new baby items, I get a little uncomfortable. So, I decided to buy as much second hand items as possible. And, I made quite a few clothing purchases at the Sweet Pea children's store in downtown Cotati. I have also been quite the craigslist stalker and have purchased a great bassinet/moses basket to use next year.

Number 52: Give someone the perfect gift. Completed 06.27.10

What could be more perfect than a photo album announcing that Damon and I are expanding our family?

Telling Our Family

On June 27, Damon and I arrived home from Lisa and Scott's Tahoe wedding and had our families over for dinner. I was nervous. I almost felt like postponing our 'announcement.' Damon said I was crazy, and he was right.

Before we came inside for birthday cake, Ryanne and I discovered that we had very similar cowboy hats. She got hers at the Petaluma Fair and I got mine from the Red Bluff Round-Up Rodeo in college. She was beyond excited that her Auntie was her hat twin for the moment.

We came inside for birthday cake and Ryanne was such a good helper, she just loves her desserts.

She helped sing and blow out the candles...at this point Geoff grabbed my camera (good thinking Geoff!) I thought that I had pressed record on my video camera, but I didn't press the right button in my nervousness...I am so bummed that I missed out on videotaping everyone's reactions, but was so happy that Geoff picked up my camera for these photos.

After blowing our the candles I went to stand next to Damon, who proceeded to thank everyone for coming over for dinner and for being such an awesome family. I then said that I had a little photography related gift for everyone, even though we were celebrating my birthday. At this point, my mom and Kris looked at each other with the 'oh my, is it a baby!' look and I quickly told them, 'no it's not what you are thinking' (haha - little white lies all over the place!)

We gave every couple an album with 5 photos on the front and 4 photos on the back, the last one the ultrasound. My sister was the first to figure it out and made a complete bee-line to me. Then everyone else kinda caught on...and all of these pictures are horribly unattractive, we were all crying sweating messes (especially Damon and I). Oh well - they are great memories!

The biggest question was when? When we said that we were almost 12 weeks, they all about fell over. We had two sets of ultrasound pictures to share with everyone...

I don't have a copy of the album with me...but you can see it in my dad's hands showing Ryanne.

Do you think Avery is excited for a cousin only 10 months younger than she is?

One week from now, we will know if our little one will be a girl cousin for Ryanne and Avery or a boy cousin...crazy, crazy, crazy.

Weekend in Chico - Part Two

Damon, Shasta and I drove up to Chico on Friday night after work, but first we stopped by the pheasant club in Colusa where we will be spending all of our weekends in November and part of December (I told him that I won't go in December and that he better have his cell phone on - and check it - while hunting in case something baby related happens - haha!) We didn't arrive to our hotel until late, so we didn't get to experience anything fun out on the town that night. On Saturday morning we woke up, got some free breakfast at the hotel and went for a walk around Bidwell to scout out locations for the evening photo session.

Bidwell Park is really beautiful and it is huge...I never really took advantage of it while I was in school. Unfortunately Shasta was really into swimming and just kept on jumping in the creek/water in front of everyone while on her leash. Crazy girl!

After Bidwell, Damon and I headed to Hula's for lunch (yum!) and then took a nap back in the room while we waited for Randy and Michelle. Well, Damon slept while I read an entire book :) After the photo session, the four of us had dinner at La Hacienda (double yum!) and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night. We started out at the Crazy Horse, which is a bar I only went to once when I lived in Chico. It was like an escalated version of Kodiak's in Petaluma. There was great people watching and they served the boys Long Island Iced Teas in mason jars. We could have stayed there all night, but there were lots of bars to visit. And to show what great people watching, check out the two sisters/twins who actually dressed liked twins. They were a little scandalous on the dance floor and loved getting attention. There were also about 3 bachelorette parties, lots and lots of good people watching!


After the Crazy Horse we headed to the Madison Bear Garden...it was packed. I was shocked at how many people were out and about when school didn't start for another two weeks. Again, there was lots of great people watching here too. We headed to the back bar and I immediately saw a guy I went to high school with, and of course, Damon walks right behind him in the line (mind you the bar is about 40 feet long). Thankfully, I avoid that situation. We get our drinks and head to a hopefully non-smoking area of the patio and this guy looks at me and says 'Melissa, right?' Mind you, I have not lived in Chico for 6 years and I couldn't place the guy for the life of me until he tells me that he was my biology teacher my Sophomore year (2001.) I start laughing...this 'teacher' Dillon was a grad student and we were his first class. Unfortunately for him, Dana, Lisa, Lindsay and I were all taking the class together and had a little too much fun. But, apparantely, me and my 'good questions that I would ask' made an impression on him, enough so that he remembered my name. Haha!

After the Bear we headed to Normal Street bar and then over to my favorite, Joe's. Time for some individual portraits :)

They completely remodeled the bar, I couldn't believe it. They still had the sawdust on the floor and the great music, but it is all fancy now and the bathrooms are so much better :)

We played dice, well the boys played dice. Michelle and I attempted to play and were really happy that we weren't following the drinking rules of the game, otherwise we might not have been able to walk out the door. :)

After Joe's, we headed to Franky's for a little late night take-out pizza. Ahhh...perfect ending to a fun bar crawl.

The first stop on our tour of the town in the morning was at my second place of residence in town, 943 Normal. It totally looked like the house was empty, so I took Michelle into the backyard and showed her around the outside. Then we walked up on the porch and I was telling her more about the layout inside and how excited I was to still see the phone booth and my mom's kitchen curtains that she made still up in the window and then Michelle saw a shadow and someone walking towards us. Oh, my gosh, I was mortified! But, the new renter was super nice after I explained who the heck I was. What a great house (although the surfboard bench and the swing in the front yard were gone). The following picture was taken from my blackberry, so it is super small.

In my shadow you can kinda see our cement handprints...

Here is a close up of mine 'MAC'

Weekend in Chico - Part One

My love for Chico is not a secret. It is a special place in my past that has led me to everything that I have and everything that I have become today. My college experience was nothing short of amazing.

I was pleased when a former co-worker of mine asked if I could take her family portraits and was so excited when Damon was just as excited as I was. We eagerly planned the weekend and all of the activities we would accomplish. You can see more about the photo session, and a little more about my love for Chico on the photography blog.

Damon and I were even more excited when Randy and Michelle decided to join us for the weekend too. Michelle grew up about 30 minutes from Chico and has fond memories of the area as well. It is always fun to have a night out with the two of them without the kiddos. Although, one of the first things that Michelle said after she found out I was pregnant, was 'oh no, now you cannot drink in Chico!' And, yes, I was bummed about this, but the little one and I survived, plus I got to be the designated driver (which is something I probably didn't do too often during college - haha!)

On Sunday we took a walk around the beautiful campus. I tried desperately to remember talking points from my campus tour days, but couldn't recall the details. Isn't it a great looking campus?

Both Damon and I forgot how the creek runs through the middle of campus...

Of course, Shasta loved exploring and swimming in the creek :)

A quick family portrait in front of Kendall Hall, the administration building.

My graduation year time capsule...I think I helped organize/contribute to the items, but I forget now!

We visited both of my 'homes'...here are some pictures of Mechoopda Hall. This is where Dana and I were dorm roommates Freshman year and Howli was a few doors down at the end of the hall and Lindsay and Lisa (randomly paired roommates) were right above Howli.

We ended our town tour with a yummy lunch at the Graduate, a huge sports bar with a fabulous chicken salad, that still tasted just like I remember :)

Six Flags - Part Two

Miss Michelle transferred her photos from Six Flags to me (if you ever want/need to transfer files, use http://www.dropbox.com/, it is a super easy and free online ftp site.) Look at how cute these boys are!

And this adorable family!

This one is my favorite minus my quasi-hand-on-the-hit pose that makes my baby belly look big - what was I thinking? (Note: in these pictures I was 16 weeks pregnant.)

Waiting in line for the swings...

A kiddo ride that I got to go on with Trenton...it went a little faster than I thought and my sunglasses flew out of being clipped on my shirt. Thankfully they were easily retrieved and there were not any scratches...I would have been a sad sad gal.

Everyone but Michelle went on the water ride and she waited at one of the water gun spots...loaded up all the machines and got some helpers to soak us even more :)

Damon and Trenton went on the crazy cool roller coaster together, they were so excited :)

And very triumphant afterwards!

As always, another fun filled day with the Straub family!