Fun in TEXAS, y'all!

Some more fun PA pics

2009-06-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

Dada was a hit reading to Maddie and Nora

we took a nature walk with Grandma Mag and found this turtle

M has a slight obsession with hats at the moment... it is her favorite word

PA and Maddie's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!

2009-06-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

For Maddie's 1st Birthday, Jeff parents (Nana and Pap Pap) flew us out to stay with them in beautiful Reedsville, PA for a week. We had a nice party on Memorial Day with my mom, Maddie's great grandma, Uncle Luke and Aunt Kim and cousin Nora. It was practically the only day we had nice weather and it was much appreciated!

The Zoo

2009-06-03T09:18:00.001-07:00

We spent last week in PA, but the week before we left we had some lovely, lovely weather. I decided to get out of The Woodlands and drive into Houston to visit the Zoo. Maddie was teething and slightly miserable. Her favorite experience was playing in the mulch. (ugh) I did manage to get her to make some animal noises and I think she enjoyed the experience overall.

yay for meerkats!!

the petting zoo was really quite nice

rrrraaaaaarrrrr

...and I leave you with Maddie's favorite part of the zoo

Landry's Update

2009-06-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

It pays to complain! After writing Landry's a nasty note, we received a $50 gift certificate to any Landry's Inc. restaurant! Luckily that encompasses a steak house. I'm just not sure I want to go to their seafood place again. Too greasy. But kudos to them for taking me seriously!

Pictures from the Landry's disaster

2009-05-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

Family pictures before we left... clearly we're very excited to be going out to a nice restaurant! I even fit back into a pre-pregnancy dress for the occasion!

doesn't it look like we stole some blonde-haired blue-eyed child for a mother's day prank?

Here we are waiting to be seated... and waiting... and waiting...

..and this is what "the lion says"! RAAAAARRRRR!!!

And we end with a very tired bebe... resting on the table. Note lack of food.

By the way, I don't know how long I can maintain this level of blogging lavishness, so enjoy it while it's here.

UPDATE to Blah blah blah

2009-05-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

My mom was equally intrigued by what's pooping in my back yard and decided to write a note to the people at the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Posing as me, she wrote a note simply stating that something was defecating in my back yard and it's dog sized poo and she (I) was wondering what it could be. The director, Ms Roslyn Even, promptly wrote me back to inform me that it's raccoon poo. Apparently healthy raccoons have some really healthy poo. Good to know! Our suspicions were confirmed when I noticed yesterday morning that a raccoon(s) had drug a 5lb bag of bird seed about 10 feet across my deck, ripped it open, and consumed part of its contents.

Since Ms Even was so helpful in the raccoon debacle, I decided to ask about the things in my trees. I described it as a chirping (although it's not really a chirping, per se, more like a squeaking) and said they're in my trees and it sounds like bats. She responds: "Bats don't live in trees and they don't chirp." I'm quite sure she thinks I'm a complete idiot and I'm partly inclined to write her back and ask her where this 'tude came from. She also suggested that I try to look for the chirpers with binoculars. Maybe she thinks I have night vision goggles? Anyway, in her brief and terse response she also said that tree frogs make a peculiar sound. So maybe it's tree frogs. Anyone have any night vision goggles I can borrow??

I just checked out the site: http://www.twrc-houston.org/staff.html Ms Even looks like Cruella DeVille. She's probably not rehabilitating the animals, she's breeding them to make coats! Mom, next time email the sweet looking woman from the Education department! :)

Blah blah blah

2009-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

I have a few things on my mind. First, we went to Landry's tonight as an early mother's day dinner thing (plus we had a $25 gift card, thanks ExxonMobil!). We waited for over an hour for our food, finally had to get it to go because Maddie was wiped, and when we got it home it was greasy and disgusting. Good times. I'm hoping we can cure all ills tomorrow with some banana sour cream pancakes for breakfast.

OK, next. We were weeding today and found some very large, strange poop in our back yard. It's the part of the yard we have fenced off from the dogs. Hmmmm... what could possibly be making dog-sized poop in a totally fenced dog-free zone?? Can any Texans offer any light into this?? Whatever it is, it must be able to climb fences.

Lastly, I have more questions for you Texans. What is relentlessly chirping in my trees at all hours of the night? It sounds like bats. It's definitely NOT birds. But I haven't seen anything flitting around the way bats do, gobbling up insects. (And we have plenty to be gobbled!) Help. So. Confused. I've heard that tree frogs chirp, but I'm not sure I'd buy that either...

Ahh, the south.

Mandi!

2009-05-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Maddie and I took a little trip to see our dear friend Mandi (who is pregnant again!) and her daughter Abby. Abby is 2 weeks older than Maddie. They had a fabulous time playing together, which left Mandi and I time to hang out and relax. And paint. :) Thank You Mandi for taking care of us while Maddie ate you out of house and home!!!

Tara In Training

2009-05-06T19:21:00.001-07:00

Please check out my newest blog: http://taraintraining.blogspot.com/
You can also get to it through my profile on this blog. It's going to be all about my running and training so that I can have a separate page for that. The one provided to me from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is nice, but it doesn't allow me to be creative and loquacious. I'm still keeping that one because that's my fundraising page, but the new one will have pictures and ramblings about rashes and blowing snot rockets while running... You know, stuff you really want to hear about!

Team In Training

2009-04-29T09:21:00.001-07:00

You'll be hearing more about this from me as time goes on. I'm training for a marathon through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of my aunt Mary (Sig) who passed away last fall. The deal is that the branch of the LLS called Team In Training trains me and sends me to the marathon in return for me raising a set amount of money for them. The Society uses the money for research and a good portion goes to families in need, an aspect that I really like.

I'm going to be running the Dublin marathon in, yes, Dublin. I'm really excited about it, but I have to raise $6700, which kind of makes me want to puke. Could I have picked a worse economic climate to do fundraising in? Oh, well. People don't get to pick when they get sick...

Anyway, the LLS has given me my own fundraising page. So here it is:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/dublin09/troth4sig

Official training begins May 9th, but I've been huffing around Texas for the last few weeks to get a jump start. Ugh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

2009-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

She wouldn't really hold still, stop crumpling the paper, etc. I did my best. :)

Drew

2009-04-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, long time since I posted anything on here. In part it's been because I've been busy. In part it's because I've wanted to post about my nephew Drew before anything else. I guess it's hard to write about something so tragic because it makes it palpable again.

Andrew Arden Roth, 3 years old, passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on February 25th, 2009 - Ash Wednesday. He was just the most beautiful boy, so joyful and sweet. He loved everyone, particularly his twin sister Nora. I don't even know how to write about the sadness of losing a child. I don't really think that I can. So I'm going to post these pictures of him so that we can remember him and keep his memory alive.

Rubber Duckie You're The One...

2009-02-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some cute bathtime photos. And one of her pulling up on the fridge. She's so great.

The Puppy That Lost Her Way

2009-02-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, on my weekly trek to my Weight Watchers meeting (stupid baby weight!), I got out of the car and was greeted by a beautiful black lab/pit mix who jumped up gave me lots of kisses. She had a bright purple collar on and no tags. This shopping center is on a very busy road next to the main artery into Houston and her owner was nowhere to be found. A landscaper said "sheee followed me all deee way from deee other side of deee highway". Being my mother's daughter, I decided I was going to find this dog's owner. I threw the lab in the back of the 4Runner, grabbed Maddie, weighed in (up 1.6 lbs! ugh! must have been that Blue Bell cookies and cream ice cream), weighed Maddie (she's at 17lbs now, up 3.5 from the last dr. visit! yay!), skipped the meeting, and went off to find this lovely dog's owners.

I drove around deee other side of deee highway to see if anyone was looking for her, but I saw no one. So I drove towards home. I called our vet to see if they could scan her for a microchip and they said they could. My dogs have microchips and many dogs do, but I figured if this gal didn't even have tags, the likelyhood of her having a microchip was slim to none. The vet tech reiterated this to me as well. But lo and behold, she had one!! The vet told me that she had never seen this happen before. I had to take the pup home, so I left her in the garage and she and Kona and Chula "talked" to one another through the door. Ugh.

After nearly an hour on the phone to various agencies trying to find the address and phone number associated with her microchip, I finally got a call from a nice pizza delivery man named Lee who was missing his dog, Chloe. In the end, Lee and Chloe were reunited and I got even more kisses from a very happy dog, but not from the pizza guy. That would have been weird.

The moral of this story is MICROCHIP YOUR PETS!!!!!

Have You Seen Me?

2009-02-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

I am about 2' long and thin, with mottled brown and copper skin and small scales. I love hiding in leaves and underneath porches and I love to be near water. My friends and family are abundant in the South and we love living The Woodlands lifestyle!

I was last seen in The Roth's backyard biting a small, tricolor Cattle Dog. Unfortunately, her owners got her to the vet in time to get the necessary shots. All that venom wasted...

new bathroom pictures

2009-02-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

The other bathroom picture that we put up was kind of yellowish (although taken with a super cool fisheye lens), so I'm putting up some more that are true to the color.

And here's Chula being adorable.

In other news, Maddie cut her first tooth this weekend! It's about time! Not looking forward to the biting though... nope, not one bit.

Finally finding friends!

2009-02-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Maddie and I went to a playgroup today that I found through a group called Mothers of the Woodlands. They were all very nice and we were invited to a family (including husbands) BBQ on Saturday. Phew! We didn't screw up our first impressions! As it turns out, it's a group full of geologists' wives. Ha!

In other news, Maddie is really starting to show more of the mailman's features. Just look at these eyes!!!

Finished bathroom!

2009-02-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

A Cure for What Ails Ya

2009-01-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

Oh, this is just priceless!!

Sign Language etc.

2009-01-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

I feel like we've been really, really busy lately, but we haven't done that much at all. It seems like endless work trying to get the house together. We JUST started getting pictures on the walls this week! We've been teaching Maddie sign language and she knows quite a few signs. She can recognize and will respond to kitty, ball, milk, more, water and hungry and she even makes the sign for 'more', which she uses for both 'hungry' and 'give me more cheerios'. 'More' also looks a little like clapping, which she is doing readily when she's excited and when she hears music, so you really have to use context clues to decipher what she wants. So fun!

She's moving between pieces of furniture (I think that's called 'cruising'?) and is really crawling like a maniac! She discovered outlets the other day and today she discovered the doggie door. I'm exhausted.

I've been doing Weight Watchers for the last few months (slowly, as to not affect milk supply) and I recently purchased one of their cookbooks. It's PHENOMENAL! Tonight I'm making one of my favorite recipes, called Pork Marrakesh. All of you foodies out there must try it. You'd never know it's good for you!

Ingredients
2 t olive oil
4 pork chops
3/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
3 small red onions, thinly sliced
12 dried apricots, sliced
3/4 c apple juice
2 t minced ginger
1/2 t thyme
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 c chopped cilantro

1. Heat 1 t. oil, sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper, add chops to skillet and brown on each side (about 2 min per side), transfer to a plate

2. reduce heat to med and add onions and 1 t. oil, sautee until the onions are golden

3. place half of the apricots and half of the onions at the bottom of a slow cooker, top with pork chops and the remaining onions and apricots. add apple juice, ginger, thyme, and a cinnamon stick. cover and cook until the pork is fork tender. The book says 3-4 hrs on high or 6-8 hours on low. I did 4 hours on high last time and I felt that everything was a little 'too' done, so this time I'm going to lean towards the 3 hour mark, if not less.

I served this over couscous and it was fantastic!!!

The last few weeks or so...

2009-01-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

Here we are trying out the backpack we got with our REI dividends last year. (Yay REI!) She seems to like it, but gets frustrated without interaction, so we brought along a compact mirror to use to look back and smile at her.

She used to lay under this thing and gaze up at it adoringly. Now she uses it to teethe and to climb on. It's not very sturdy, so it works on her balance quite a bit when she's trying to stand. Pretty cute! I took a video of this and will post shortly.

These were taken last Saturday night at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. ExxonMobil rented the museum for the night as a celebration for an, um, extraordinary 2008. Fine by me! We got free food and drinks and got to see Body Worlds 2! Luckily Maddie isn't old enough to be scarred by injection molded bodies.

Videos of my girl

2009-01-07T06:39:00.000-08:00

If you're wondering about the bruise on her forehead its because she has a tendency to 'test' things with her head, most commonly the coffee table and the glass shower doors. Which reminds me of the Parenthood scene where Steve Martin's kid is banging into the wall and SM says "He likes to butt things with his head..." and Rick Moranis says "You must be so proud..." That's my girl!

The Evolution of the Bathroom

2009-01-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

This is the earliest picture I can find of the bathroom. I guess we were so excited to get the shag carpet out and the wallpaper off of the walls that we went in with wild abandon. Please note the very dated cabinet with the beautiful granite on top. That kind of thing is all over the house. Gorgeous granite on top of ugly cabinetry. Clearly someone did a half hearted renovation. Ah, well. We'll do it right I guess...

this light fixture was actually painted gold metallic!!

Jeff taught me to solder pipes

almost there!!!

Christmas and all that jazz

2009-01-06T12:38:00.001-08:00

Soooo... it's been a while. Things have been crazy! There was Thanksgiving, followed by a lovely visit with Elise and Justin Stubbe. Then we took a trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival, which is a mere 20 minutes from our house. (I did not dress up in period clothing as Jeff urged me to do to be "one with my people". They are hardly my people and haven't been since high school!)

Then we started The Bathroom Renovation. How much trouble can 25 sq ft be?? Let me tell you. Inordinate amounts. We began with shag carpet, a dated oak vanity with an oversized (albiet granite counter) sink, wallpapered and painted on walls, a painted gold metallic light fixture and a broken toilet. The plan was simple: gut it, take down wallpaper, repaint and install a toilet and pedestal sink on slate tile. It started with a combined 40 hours of picking off wallpaper from unprimed drywall in bits the size of quarters. Granted things have gone downhill from there, but it's more of a gentle slope rather than a nice steep hill.

We had the pleasure of my brother Alec's company for Christmas. Maddie warmed up to him right away and really seemed to love playing with him. Unfortunately Grandma Mag couldn't make it, but we're looking forward to seeing her in the upcoming months. N'est pas??

Anyway, we didn't shower Maddie with gifts. She was more than happy to play with the bows and the wrapping paper (sure hope they're non toxic!). But we had a wonderful day and a great meal and a good time was had by all. Thank you Alec for my black Santa. He's lovely.

So, without further ado, here are the pictures..

Miscellaneous and Christmas

..the living room now that the metallic red is gone

mmm! avocado!

she sits in a runners' stretch

At the Houston Aquarium

Check out Chula

2008-11-29T20:52:00.001-08:00

Back in AZ we didn't have a nice backyard, but we had a big park in front of the house where we played frisbee with Chula every day. Check these out:

I don't even know where to start

2008-11-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since I posted! We've been busy, busy, busy working on the house. Maddie and I went back to Baltimore last weekend for a Celebration of Life for my Aunt Sig. This week Maddie started to crawl!!! Then there was Thanksgiving. Since we had nowhere to go and no family to be with in Houston, I decided to make the whole shebang here in our new house. That included a 12lb turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, REAL cranberry sauce (found a recipe with Grand Marnier in it! Yum!), sausage and apple stuffing (no oyster stuffing this year), and an apple pie. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was delicious.

I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures from the last few weeks because that's what you're really here for, isn't it?

These were taken in AZ. Note the clear blue sky.

whose Aryan child is this???

"Umm, I think I like this color swatch..."

Nana Roth's hat

Grandma Mag's hat :) AKA the Joe Dirt Baby wig.

Halloween as a Little Monster

At the local BBQ place

another Nutcracker for Jeff!

After 3 hours on a plane...

crawlin'

It's flooding down in Texas...

2008-11-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

It has rained non stop since the middle of last night. I'm sure it's surpassed 4 inches today. There was a stream in my back yard (which I've dubbed Roth Creek). The lakes are overflowing their banks and spilling out onto the main artery into my development. Now we're under a Tornado Warning! Agh!

I hope this is a freak occurrence, but I have a feeling I'd better get used to this.

Mary Louise King

2008-11-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

This morning a wonderful mother, daughter, sister and aunt passed away after a year long battle with Leukemia. For me, she was the highlight of every family function. An oasis in a sea of chaos that was 9 siblings and umpteen cousins. She could be as tender as she was raunchy. She was tough as nails. She could answer every question you threw at her, like a walking Google. She loved country music, the Ravens and the color purple. She taught me that "you're never fully dressed without your earrings". If you stayed with her while your parents were out of town she'd make you 2,000 calorie lunches with sandwiches on huge onion rolls with fruit and cookies, even if you're only 12 years old. 20 years later I can still remember how full those brown bags were... and how jealous everyone else was at the lunch table. She was a kick ass gardener. She was the picture of health - never smoking or drinking and always eating right. She was unendingly generous with her time and resources. She was the sort of person that lives should be modeled from. I can not say enough about how wonderful she was or how she touched my life.

Sig, you are deeply loved and missed.

Election Day in Houston

2008-11-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well, it's 10:48pm Eastern time and I'm watching blue spread west across the map of the U.S. I must say that I'm a little emotional. I never, ever thought I'd see a day when our country would put race aside and vote a black man into office. I'm so overwhelmed with happiness and excitement for the future I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

We officially voted in Arizona by absentee ballot, so we weren't able to go to a polling place today and thus I don't have my coveted "I Voted Today" sticker. It's a little sad, but I'm glad that I was able to cast a vote in AZ. I think I'm going to treat myself with this t-shirt in lieu of my sticker:
http://www.tshirthell.com/funny-shirts/honky-moms-for-obama/

In other news, Vanessa left today and went back to AZ after helping us immensely for the last 5 days - particularly with translating the movers, who liked to comment that we were lazy whenever we sat down and wondered if Mr. Burns was pregnant. She assured them that no, SHE is not pregnant, HE is fat. I suppose his lion cut isn't necessarily flattering...

The Roths are coming tomorrow to visit for a week and I'm going to put them to work! I'm hoping Gary can give me some advice on what to plant in this "soil" out here. I can tell by all the holes that Chula has dug in the back yard that it's at least 90% sand. Besides pine trees, what grows in that? Are there really nutrients to be had??

Once I dig out the cables to my camera and download my pictures, I'll post some of the house. Maybe I'll even include one of the metallic and rose colored paint that is smeared all over the wallpapered diningroom. (eeeek!)

Off to bed....

Friday morning...

2008-10-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well, Jeff made it here at 9pm Central time after 3 hours stuck in Houston traffic. The four of us then decided to go rustle up some grub at the local steak house. Everything seemed to be winding down... until we came back to the hotel. I knew something was amiss when I walked in the building and saw doors open, people standing in their doorways, the rent-a-cop security guard with his flashlight out and on (?) and the hotel manager standing there looking around. Oh, and dogs barking and howling at the top of their lungs. The manager says to me "are you in room 109?". Yes, unfortunately we were. Turns out Kona and Chula had flipped out at some point and starting barking and barking, waking up the entire hotel at 11pm.

I was informed that it was a $100.00 per pet fee and that we were in the poor house. Luckily they hadn't learned about the cat or the 4 fish. That would have run our bill up around 1K! Ah! In the end, I convinced them to only charge us $75.00, as is stated on the web site. Phew.

Fun In.... Houston!

2008-10-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we have arrived!

Vanessa, Maddie and I are here in the hotel. (MUCH better experience this time than last time!!! Always choose Hilton over Ramada.) Jeff, the poor thing, is experiencing Houston traffic for the first time. Last I heard he had moved 3/10 of a mile in 20 minutes trying to get to a main artery out of the city. Yikes. He's stuck in NW Houston and we're up here waiting for him. I think I'm going to have to pump some milk and go get a drink. This moving experience has been a bit chaotic.

Our loan has gone through and we're approved to close tomorrow morning. Thank goodness! The house will be ours by noon on Friday. YAY!!!!!

More later. Off to find a margarita...

The Maiden Voyage of The Scout

2008-10-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Well, the Camry and The Scout are being taken away today! I snapped some shots of Jeff getting it ready to be loaded. He also took it for a joy ride around the park. She purrs like a kitten!!

first foods

2008-10-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Last night I gave Maddie some pearsauce that I made from Organic pears bought at Whole Foods. Wanna see how long that good intention lasts?? Ha! Anyway, we decided to start her a little early on solids because we honestly can't keep her out of our food (or Jeff's beer) anymore. Plus, she's sitting up unsupported for about 10 seconds at a time and sits perfectly with just a little help. She loved it!

nice, Jeff...

...and another one

2008-10-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

Some Videos

2008-10-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

I took this the other day just after she woke up from a (rare and infrequent) nap. I love the way she kicks her legs and moves her arms when she's excited... so cute!

still bald as a cue ball

2008-10-22T14:00:00.001-07:00

Nice weather... just a taste of it

2008-10-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

We had a cold front come through this weekend, so we took the opportunity to get out of the house and hike. Here we are at South Mountain with the off-road stroller. It has shocks. Fantastic.

How Big Is Maddie??

2008-10-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

Is this advanced? This is my first go-round, but it seems pretty impressive to me. Particularly because she picked this up in about 5 seconds. I only had to do it once. After we made such a big deal of it, she spent the rest of the night with her arms up just slightly above her head, looking more like Richard Nixon. Pretty cute.

(note: I apologize for my shrill voice. I was really excited.)

Holy Crap! Feet! I found feet!

2008-10-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

You think anyone wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys?

2008-10-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

forget about it...

Oh, Big Day!!!

2008-10-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a great day today. First we went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, AZ with our friends Leon and Julia Manfredi. (As a bonus, our mechanic Carl gave us two free rotors!) When we got home, Spicy Latina Vanessa had planned a surprise party for us to say goodbye!!! I don't have pictures from the party (will get later) but I do from the arboretum...

see the hummingbird?

Grandma Roth made this little hat for her. I just love it!

Sedona

2008-10-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

We're systematically saying goodbye to Arizona for now by revisiting some of our favorite places. We went to Sedona yesterday to hike with Maddie and get her a onesie at the Harley store that says "My Grandpa Rides a Harley"!

Weekend Update

2008-10-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

Where to start?? Well, we've had a tumultuous weekend. Last Thursday, Jeff noticed something interesting on a document related to our "new house". It was a lawsuit filed by the current owner, suing the previous owner for nondisclosure of flooding problems... for the entire cost of the home! Thanks to some sleuthing work by my dear friend Elise, we recovered a document in the lawsuit that had the words "if I had known how bad the flooding was, I never would have purchased the house". Yikes! We got the hell out of there. And because Mr. Sue-happy didn't disclose anything to US, he's giving us our money back for the inspections we paid for.

Then we put an offer on another lovely house. The same day someone else put a "considerably better" offer on it. Apparently it's 2005 and no one told me because we offered full price. Huh.

So yesterday we put an offer on a third house. I guess the third time is the charm! (I sure hope so anyway!!) It's just gorgeous. It feels like a lodge with big open windows and tons of trees. There is even a screened-in porch off of the master bedroom. It needs to be updated (shag carpet in the bathroom! ahh!) and painted, but it's all small stuff. And for you geologists, it has gorgeous labradorite-rich granite everywhere! Mmmmm....

NEW HOUSE!!!

2008-09-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

After looking at more than 20 houses in 3 days, we finally found our new home!! This one had been one of our favorites from the beginning, but the owner didn't want to show us the house because they still didn't have power from Ike. (I can't imagine!) Our wonderful, amazing agent Carol talked them into letting us in today. We knew immediately that it was the best house we had seen bar none. Here is the link to the listing as well as some pictures:

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?MLNUM=3876203

Live from Houston, It's Monday Night!

2008-09-22T22:43:00.001-07:00

It's 12:30 am central time, and we're finally in our hotel room.

We arrived here on time, around 8pm, to a very efficient baggage handling crew. In fact, we are so used to Phoenix Sky Harbor's inefficiency/dawdling/general slowness that we took our sweet time getting to the Baggage Claim area and found that our bags had already been taken off of the conveyor and put aside with the unclaimed bags! Perhaps there is one thing with Dubya's name on it that works like a well oiled machine. I digress.

We got our car and headed out to The Ramada, Maddie cooing from the back as we sang her nursery rhymes and silly songs the whole way. Jeff goes in to the Ramada, fighting through swarms of mosquitoes thanks to Ike. Jeff comes out of the Ramada with "we're screwed". Seems they overbooked. Also seems that no one in the greater Houston area had a free hotel room for the night. No one could help us, not even Carol our Real Estate agent who was simultaneously calling the hotels we weren't. Crying, I called Vanessa (see aforementioned Spicy Latina in August blog) for moral support, who just said "what hotel was this?" and hung up. 10 minutes later... "Hi Tara, talk to Sarah at the front desk. She has a room for you." I don't know what magic this woman worked, but I know that we're sitting comfortably in our king sized bed in the Suite that we were originally supposed to have. I also know that Ramada is getting a nasty letter from me. And Vanessa is getting a fruit basket.

Once we got out hotel room, we went looking for food at 11pm. We got nasty, soggy fries and stale bread with cold meat from Jack In The Box. Oh, Jack...

I must say that Maddie has been absolutely incredible so far on this trip. She has been smiling and laughing and interacting with everyone. She barely made a sound on the plane (phew) and has just rolled with the punches, even when I bumped her poor little head on the car door. When we got up to our room we put her on the bed and raspberried her little belly, like we always do. And she tried to do it back!! We got lots of video of her imitating us, pursing her little lips and going "Mmmmmmm!!". Once we get home I'll put them up on here.

Tomorrow we go house hunting. Now I'm going to bed!!

how bout now?

2008-09-18T16:08:00.001-07:00

More pics

2008-09-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures Jeff took during tummy time yesterday. She actually rolled over from her back to front yesterday too! Physically, she's at a 5-6 month level (according to The Book - not the Bible, What to Expect). She even brings her legs underneath her and tries to push herself up and crawl. We're in trouble. Cognitively, she appears to be right on track. She discovered that she can clasp her hands together, which only means that now she can attempt to shove both fists in her mouth at the same time. Her grabbing has become more focused (especially on my hair). She also smiles constantly and laughs and laughs when we give her raspberries and when the dogs bark (all the time). I've never seen such a happy baby!!

Catching up

2008-09-14T00:20:00.000-07:00

We've been awfully busy the last few weeks looking for houses, getting over colds and making plans to head to Houston for our house hunting trip... and then canceling our plans due to Ike. Ah, well. Now we're planning on heading out next week and we're thrilled!

Not much else has been going on here, really. This is our photodocumentation of everyday stuff...

Best. Day. Ever.

2008-08-26T01:34:00.001-07:00

Today is the greatest day of my life. Mr. Burns got the Lion Cut. I've wanted to do this for years and now my dreams have come true! We knew we had to do something when we caught him climbing in and out of the storm sewer and coming back in the house with dreadlocks crusted with twigs and berries. He was a mess. Now he's beautiful and enjoying the attention that he's been deprived of for the last 3 months! :)

proud kitty

do you like my pouffy tail??

on the prowl

Here are some recent pictures of my Maddie girl...

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright...

2008-08-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Deep in the heart of Texas!!

Well, it's official. The cat is out of the bag: we're headed to Houston. Jeff got a great offer from ExxonMobil on Tuesday and has accepted. He doesn't have a start date yet, but it will likely be some time in October. We're very excited to start a new phase of our lives. Once the details get hammered out, we'll be taking a trip out there to find our first house!!! I'm so excited! I can't wait to have a yard for the doggies and Maddie girl, a big kitchen and a workshop for Jeff (and me). The great thing about this move is that it's paid for, which means the Scout is coming with us! whoop whoop!

More details to come...

The Bimbo... or Bumbo... or something

2008-08-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

We went to Kid 2 Kid and got this little seat called the Bumbo that allows babies to sit up on their own. She was able to sit for about a minute before she started slumping over, but she seemed to like it nonetheless.

Please note the monkey toes (I call them her tingers) with the odd pinky toe at a 90 degree angle to the rest. They are identical to Jeff's feet and my assurance that, even though she has light hair and eyes, the milkman did not come by while Jeff was in Oregon last summer!

outtakes

2008-08-09T19:44:00.001-07:00

An afternoon at Vanessa's house

2008-08-09T19:24:00.001-07:00

Maddie and I hung out at Vanessa's house yesterday afternoon after she got back from San Fran. Maddie needs her daily dose of spicy Latina!

Her eyes are just getting bluer... weird!

she's pushing herself up really well now

Growin' up...

2008-08-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

On her 10wk birthday Maddie started rolling over! We think she's going to be an athlete.

A Jones? A Roth?

2008-07-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

I had been wondering if she was beginning to look like me...

Tara circa 1976

maybe the nose a little bit...

But in reality, I think she's REALLY starting to look like her cousin Nora!

Cousin Nora circa 2006

I guess these are Roth genes??

Just Hangin'

2008-07-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

Maddie has been working on pulling herself up on our laps using our thumbs. We looove making her do this because we looove the face she makes... and I guess it's good for her development too.

I also played a little bit of dressup again and put on the socks that Nana Roth made her. And for an added bonus, I turned her into a hippie baby and put on her Crocs. Love it!

Whoa Kona! No more licking!!

And I finally got the laugh on camera!!! YAY!!

saturday happenings

2008-07-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we sold our red truck to a guy in Flagstaff today. (yay! we can eat this month!) While we were up there we drove out to Lake Mary to let the dogs swim and enjoy the beautiful weather. The only thing that could have made it better would have been sharing it with the Perkinses! We miss you Mandi, Steve, Abby and Sadie!

Maddie slept through the whole thing... even when the dogs shook on us.

Chula was born to swim.

Kona is amazingly awkward in the water, but that doesn't stop him.

Summer monsoons are so beautiful!

Keep the sun out of her eyes!

almost a smile

2008-07-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

I was so close! I just caught the end of this smile.

Pictures from a happy day on daddy's lap

2008-07-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

Maddie was in such a sweet mood yesterday, so I took a bunch of pictures of her hanging out on Jeff's lap, sitting up, playing airplane (working on those neck muscles!) and getting kisses from Chula...

I know this is blurry, but she's so mesmerized it's cute.

She's really smiling a lot now and I keep trying to catch it on camera, but I haven't been able to yet. Soon, I'm sure.

And here's a gratuitous picture of the Scout, Jeff's other baby. I mean, this is supposed to be a family blog, not just a Maddie blog... so here it is in all it's glory... sitting in front of our house, having momentarily emerged from its hiding place in the garage. Thankfully it's back now! For those of you who aren't familiar with the 1979 International Scout II, we rescued it from certain death in the Sonoran Desert two years ago. It was infested with black widows. Since then Jeff has been dedicated to 1. making it run (which he accomplished on his birthday this June!) and 2. ridding it of dangerous spiders.

My babydoll

2008-07-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

sometimes I play dress up...

if Maddie could talk she would say...

Fun walk

2008-07-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the temperature uncharacteristically dropped below 100 degrees last week so we decided to take a walk around the hood...

Out we go in the fancy schmancy running stroller (thank you REI Visa dividends!)

For extra "fun" we brought the beasties...

Maddie & daddy

Maddie's first rock climbing experience. We showed her some of the moves we knew when we had time to climb.

why her nickname is Li'l Turtle

2008-07-03T12:07:00.001-07:00

Tongue Tied no more

2008-07-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took poor little Maddie to the pediatrician to have her frenulum (the skin under her tongue) evaluated. We thought she might be tongue-tied, which creates lots of breastfeeding problems. We HAVE lots of breastfeeding problems. The doctor decided to do a frenotomy, which is just a quick snip of the frenulum, allowing the tongue to extend. It took less than a minute, there was some blood, and she cried less than she did when she got the HepB shot. I may or may not have had a mild panic attack while they were holding her down, coming at her mouth with scissors.

It's supposed to take about a week for her to get in the groove of using her new tongue, so we should expect to see some improvements of her latch in the days to come. I'm very excited!

Here you can see how the frenulum is attached to the tip of her tongue. I don't have an "after" picture yet. She hasn't been crying much now that she can stick her tongue out at me! :)

Of Blankets and Birthdays

2008-06-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

First, HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY TO PAP PAP!!!!! We wish we could be there to celebrate!!! And we can't wait to cruise on your new Harley. :)

OK, we're still working on neck muscles...

You're HOW old??? (look, it made her cry...)

We have so far received some absolutely gorgeous blankets and quilts from some very talented Aunties and Nana. We took a bunch of pictures this morning of Maddie enjoying them all (until she got impatient and started to cry). Unfortunately, she had a meltdown before we got to Auntie Mandi's crocheted blankie, so it will have to wait.

In case you're wondering, we went to the pediatrician on Friday and she's now 9lbs exactly and 21.75 inches long. Almost as big as Jeff when he was born! Fatty! She's doing really well and is proudly showing her baby acne, which should be gone in a few weeks. In the mean time she kind of looks like Morgan Freeman, but tiny and white.

These pictures are of the beautiful quilt Elise Stubbe sewed for us. Hopefully you can see the intricate stitching; it shows up best on the back (red) side. This was when M lost it.

This gorgeous orange blankie was knit by Auntie Barbara, Elise's mom. I actually captured one of Maddie's elusive smiles! Also, she's doing her best turtle impression. Pretty good, eh?

Last but not least, these quilts were made by Nana Roth. Aren't they great? They're so soft!!

Just the three of us... er, six of us...

2008-06-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Nana and Pap Pap left early this morning after 6 lovely albeit HOT days here. Now we're all alone! Left to our own devices. Hoping we don't majorly screw up. Maddie is so far unscathed, relatively well fed and not crying. Success! Plus, we've discovered that if we put her in the vibrating chair she'll do 'quiet aware' for a while and we can eat our lunch.

The animals have taken their stations: Mr.Burns is sleeping under the crib, Kona is wedged between the papasan chair and the wall and Chula is sitting vigil at my feet, protecting Maddie from possible intruders (any big brown dogs) and occasionally getting up to lick her ears.

Jeff is working on his paper in the other room. I'm stationed in the Feeding Chair. This is the foreseeable future.

little darling

Nana, Pap Pap & the girl

Mama Duck and Maddie

Jeff's 29th birthday!!!

Splish splash...

2008-06-13T00:19:00.001-07:00

Maddie had a wee accident in Le Target that involved overfilling her diaper, a disgruntled new father and a Baby Bjorn. We will never forget to bring our diaper bag again... even on a quick errand! Anyway, here are some more gratuitous pictures of her after her bath.

MADELEINE LOUISE IS HERE!!!

2008-06-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Madeleine Louise was born on Tuesday, May 27th at 1:30 pm!! We had a wonderful, natural birth and she arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed after about 14 hours of labor.

We have been getting settled in and getting into a routine. When people say nothing can prepare you for this, they weren't kidding! I'll post more as I get time. Right now it seems as though she's breastfeeding non stop. Luckily Grandma Mag came out and is saving our butts! We're really looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa Roth coming on the 11th too!!

Mindi, she loves this mobile!! Thank you!

Disco?

My sweets!

Uncle Alec came by from San Diego.

Animals react to changing house

2008-05-18T01:17:00.001-07:00

Well, it seems the dogs don't care much about what's going on in the house. Kona likes to play with my birth ball and sniff the new baby clothes. Chula is still oblivious as long as she gets to catch her frisbee every night. Here's Kona and the first shot of our new crib. It's far prettier than anything I've ever slept in! I'll have more pics of the nursery up as we do the finishing touches.

Mr. Burns is thoroughly enjoying the new changes. I stacked the Boppy on top of the changing pad and that has become his *new* bed... since he was kicked off of the co-sleeper.

I'm feeling good and will put a picture up as soon as I find a wide angle lens that is wide enough to capture the belly! I started week 39 today, so we're getting close! I have an appointment with the midwives on Monday and maybe they'll have exciting news for me then? I don't think my skin can stretch any farther!!!

Jeff is being wonderful and I think he's nesting more than I am. (I am sleeping. Constantly.) He cleaned the house from top to bottom yesterday and washed both vehicles today. I would kill for an ounce of this energy! I also hope that there are things to be done when and if I get to this alleged nesting phase.

Co-sleeping with Mr. Burns

2008-05-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we set up our baby bedside sleeper to make sure that everything fit well. When we came back upstairs after dinner we found this:

You know you're getting large when...

2008-05-06T11:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday one of the grocery store attendants offered me an electric cart as soon as I walked through the door. I told her I was quite fine, thank you, to walk around and gather my salad ingredients. And then she told me I looked like I was going to give birth at any moment and made me promise that I wouldn't because she didn't want to call 911. Huh?? I guess I really look THAT big! Some one else said "when are you due? like yesterday?". I've had numerous people ask me if I'm having twins.

I still have 3 weeks.... ugh. Let's hope this chick isn't as big as my belly!

Weekend Update

2008-03-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

We had the pleasure of having Miss Kate Stewart, artist extraordinaire, visit with us this past weekend all the way from Phillie. She did an AMAZING job painting the soon-to-be nursery with her patented trees. Now all we need is any kind of baby furniture whatsoever and, possibly, a baby.

Early stages of the tree evolution

post-balls, pre-foliage

VOILA!

We also took a trip to Jerome, AZ. It's like the Ellicott City of the west... one of the cooler, more eccentric places I've been to in the last 4 years. Then again, we've become impressed by anything that's not located in a strip mall.

And for fun, here is a picture of me at 29 weeks attempting to go for a hike through the desert. This was about 10 minutes before I proved that weebles wobble and they CAN fall down. Luckily there has been a lot of rain this winter and the desert floor was surprisingly lush.

FUN STUFF!

2008-03-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

We had a 3D Ultrasound done yesterday and the pictures are INCREDIBLE!!! She absolutely has my nose and makes the same bird lips that Jeff did as a baby. I still can't get over how chubby those cheeks are, either! Enjoy!

Visit Back East

2008-03-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

I just entered my last trimester and I feel great! My only complaint is sciatica, which comes and goes. I'm looking forward to getting the nursery set up soon. It's been VERY hard to focus on my thesis because I can't stop reading about birth and babies, watching videos and asking questions. In between sleeping and teaching, of course. I'm so excited to meet our little girl!! She's been super wiggly lately and has been alternating between dancing on my bladder and curling up under my ribs. I think Jeff is a little freaked out by watching the bulge in my stomach move around. (He typically has a look of horror on his face!) I think the whole scenario is hysterical. We're thinking about getting the 3D ultrasound done soon. They recommend doing it in the 28th (this) week for best results. Should be cool!!

Jeff and I had a great time back at home the other week! It was a whirlwind tour, but we enjoyed seeing everyone!! We'll both be back again, although separately, before we officially become parents.

Here's Drew being cute in the dining room.

Nora playing the trumpet!

Grandma Huber, myself and Eleanore getting toasty by the fire.

Mmmm... snow...

Family Photo!

Made a poll for potential baby names

2008-02-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

We made a poll for some of our favorite names so far. Please click on this link and choose your favorite!

http://www.babycenter.com/403_names-for-the-baby-girl_1742995_165353170955.bc

Hi Everyone!

2008-02-03T09:57:00.001-08:00

Jeff and I thought it would be nice to have a site to keep everyone updated on, well, everything going on in Arizona. So here it is!

It's Superbowl Sunday and it's looking like Jeff is taking the day off from studying/writing his paper. Woohoo! I hear Jack Johnson coming from the 1st floor and lots of pounding and power drilling. This can only mean one thing: he's installing the surround sound in our new 'entertainment room', which happens to be our old bedroom. As of last night he was calculating the optimum angles of installation for the speakers based on the focal point of the listener. I am fascinated by this kind of patience.

Anyone who dare come visit the Wild Kingdom that is our house is welcome to stay in this room and enjoy THX in all its glory.

I'm feeling great. I just entered my 6th month today. Four more to go! The baby is kicking me a lot and my belly is getting bigger. It's starting to become difficult to bend over and I'm getting nervous about mobility during my 3rd trimester. But we're really excited!

Here are some recent ultrasound pictures: