*FINALLY* I'M AN AUNT
After 27 hours of pushing (yes, that's a correct number), my sister finally had enough. Can you blame her? At about 4AM this morning, she told her DH and the midwife that she had enough and that she wanted to go to the hospital. The midwife gave in but was still determined to birth this kid so Alli attempted another 2 hours of pushing to get the kid out. By 7:30A, David called my parents saying that they were at the hospital and that Alli was going to have a c-section. After so many hours of futile pushing, it was time to get that kid out. She did all that she could and Alli was exhausted. So at 9:44AM this morning, my NIECE made her debut into this world.
Here are her vital stats:
Ever Ticey (not publishing the last name)
born 7/30/06
6 pounds 15 ounces
18 3/4 inches.
We finally got to see Alli around noon. As insane as it was for Alli and David, my parents were going crazy with the lack of updates. That was really hard. We kept getting phone calls that "any minute now" the baby would be born and 4 hours later nothing. This went on 36+ hours. Maddening. Anyway, Alli's doing great although sore and tired. David's a little punchy too. Ever is doing great. She's adorable and sleeping the whole time we were all in the room. We saw her in the nursery window and she was kicking, active, crying when poked by the nurses. Right on track. When we left around 3PM Alli was going to try the first feeding. I hope it went well and I assume everyone is now sleeping. I'll go for another visit tomorrow.
Between David and his cameras (he's a TV cameraman after all), me with mine and then taking photos on Alli's camera, this kid already has had 500 pictures taken of her. Personally, I took 135! Yes, I'm a proud aunt. (imagine how many pictures I have of Carly on my computer and external harddrive). That being said, the one sound this kid will learn to ignore is the sound of a camera shutter going off on her face.
Carly is VERY excited to have a girl cousin too. She'll see her in a few days when she comes home from the hospital.
So here are 4 photos of my perfect niece. Is she gorgeous or what??
First family photo. Alli took our first one as well.
Hi Uncle Gregg!
Yes, I'm a very proud Auntie.
Fearless
My child is fearless. Tonight we went over to the Dugan's house for a little swimming/Shabbat celebration. It was us, the Dugans and the Blocks. For fun, Gregg asked Carly if she wanted to jump off the diving board. You have to understand that this pool has a higher diving board with probably a 5 foot drop into the deep end. Guess who climbed up there without batting an eyelash? Yup, my kid. Jade then followed and the two of them must've jumped off the diving board 10 times each and loved every jump of it. Fearless I tell ya.
BEFORE... (note the concentration before the "big" dive)
THE EXECUTION... (what form... yeah, what form?)
Do a kind deed
Since many of you have been so kind in offering prayers and good thoughts to my friend Rick. He came through his surgery and while the extent of any possible damage is unknown, he was sitting up yesterday so that was a good sign. I just got this email with the latest update and while you don't know Rick, there's a very kind thought from his wife Debbie. We should remember this occasionally and do a random act of kindness. You never know when it will come back to help you.
Although there are many unanswered questions regarding Rick's skateboarding accident, a Park Ranger from El Dorado Park where the accident occurred called Debbie to check on Rick last night. The Park Ranger explained to Debbie that a motorist driving on the freeway adjacent to the Park observed Rick walking aimlessly and bleeding from the head in a remote area of the Park. The motorist exited the freeway, drove through the Park and called 911. When the Paramedics arrived they were able to find Debbie's phone number in Rick's cellular phone by looking up Home in the contacts. Rick continues to progress as his Brain's swelling decreases. To quote Debbie "buy a homeless person a hamburger" it was this random act of concern by a motorist on the freeway which may be credited for saving Rick's life. For those asking what they can do to help, Debbie's reply was tell them to "do a good deed and help someone out, a random act of kindness."
Japan was robbed
Miss Japan that is. Yeah, sure Puerto Rico had an amazing dress but Japan was SO much prettier, had a personality and just wow'd the audience. By the end of the pageant, they were cheering for her more than they cheered for Mexico. Everyone in the truck was annoyed too. THEN, the new Miss Universe faints during all the post show photos and press? She probably hadn't eaten more than an ice chip all day. I was speaking with one of the choreographers after the show and I asked her if she was pleased with the winner. She said that PR is self-absorbed, never paid attention and was really high maintenance. The girl is only 18 years old. The MUO will probably have their hands full with this one this year. I still say Japan should've won.
Other than that, still recovering. I'm still tired. The show was stupid beyond belief in terms of getting the information. There are things I can't publish in terms of how the show is actually run but suffice it to say that at one point, those of us in editing were working with a "Top 53" in terms of personal videos. It was insane but it's now over so all is good. Two weeks from now? Palm Springs and a bunch of perky teen contestants.
I'd appreciate a few positive prayers and positive thoughts from those loyal readers of my little corner of blogdom. My friend Elizabeth is recovering from Thyroid cancer and is currently taking her iodine treatment which means she's in isolation for 6 days. Carly and I put together a huge care package of magazines and chocolate products to keep her happy but she has to spend that many days away from her family and small kids. I know she'll be fine and probably more bored than anything but still good thoughts for a proper recovery are always appreciated.
And my friend Rick, (co-worker who I've know for I can't remember how long) fell off a skateboard yesterday and was found by a passerby unconscious. No one knows for how long. He cracked his head open, was taken to the hospital where after wigging out on medical staff and not recognizing hie wife, the put him in a drug induced coma. Then this afternoon, they couldn't find the source of the bleeding so he went in for surgery around noon. He came through the surgery, and tomorrow they'll do some CAT scans to see what's going on. He's still in a drug induced coma. Needless to say, we're all hoping for a complete recovery. We'll find out more tomorrow. Ricky's around 50, has grown up kids (20's at least) and he's a great guy. This is just shocking and sent everyone in our circle in a complete tiz today. So he's been on our minds today and any little extra prayers, even though a stranger I realize, would be appreciated. Stuff like this shouldn't happen to anyone much less people we know.
Oh, and for those inquiring minds out there. I'm not an aunt or an uncle yet. My sister *still* hasn't dilated much less had the kid. She's dying with this atrocious heat. She's swollen like an oompa loompa (sorry Al) and pretty much, that thing on the turkey that pops when it's cooked, has pretty much popped up. Alli's thinking one more week on August 1st. I'll let you all know. Might be time to start ordering that salad from Bistro Gardens.
Life of a Pageant Queen
So here we are, 2 days before Miss Universe 2006 will be crowned and we're editing. But in some downtime (all 2 minutes on this show) we started perusing the new beauty advice book that recently came out published by the Miss Universe Organization. It's called
"Universal Beauty: The Miss Universe Guide to Beauty" There are features and advice from many of the past Miss Universe titleholders but one quote sticks out. I had to share.
"Wearing a crown hardly makes anyone immune to mascara clumps."
Bad Blogger am I
Well, life has been pretty quiet this past week. Working on BB7 which everyone seems to be following closer than I am so I can't even tease you with any info. I guess that's the beauty of the 24/7 internet feeds and the people that watch/log/blog about it 24/7. There are few surprises once it actually hits the air. I guess I know who's getting evicted before everyone else so you'll all have to be really nice to me if you think I'm giving up that info. LOL.
We're working on the
Miss Universe Pageant this week. I haven't worked on the show since 2002 and Gregg since 2001. Interesting to get back into the swing of this one. I mean, it was different producers the last time we worked on the show and this regime of folks seems to think that we've never done it before. My first pageant with these folks was Universe in 1995 in Namibia. If I wasn't still on maternity leave in 2003, I would've done that one too but I didn't and then lost my squatters place. Now, I'm back, for one year anyway.
The only other excitement is the anticipated arrival of my niece or nephew. Alli is beyond ready to pop although there's no dilating movement down there so it'll be probably another week until I can tell everyone if I'm an aunt or an uncle. Alli knows what it's going to be and so does one of her friends but no one else. I'm definitely thinking it's a boy. She's carrying a basketball in her belly. Here's one of those 4D ultrasound pictures of my future niece or nephew. If you can determine the sex, please share. Alli refers to it as "The Alien". You be the judge.
Carly's excited to be a cousin. I'm excited to be an aunt. It won't be long now...
Is this my kid??
When I was in San Jose for CKU 2 weeks ago, Carly had her usual Friday playdate with Camryn, Matt and Michelle. One of the activities on these Fridays is to straighten hair but Carly has never been interested. Apparently this particular day, she was. If you know Carly and her crazy, out of control curly hair, this definitely doesn’t look like the same kid. And you may also notice how thin her hair really is. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t had her hair cut yet. As long as it may be, when it’s wet and then dries, the curls just go “doink” an d it’s short. I mean, yeah, it does get in her eyes a little bit (but she’s doing okay with ponytails) but if we cut it, it’ll only be shorter and curlier. There’s not much to style yet. And as it’s getting a little longer, it’s sort of flattening down. Have I justified the over 3 and not had a haircut yet? Here are some photos that Michelle took.
On another topic, thank you all so much for the cool comments on our groovy kitchen table. It took us months to find someone who would build it from scratch becausewe had this idea to use the show credentials from the beginning. We’ve had the table for about 6 months and it just took us that long to get off our you-know-whats to finally do it. We’ve been collecting our show badges for over 15 years and they’ve been piling in a box. Believe it or not, there are still plenty more in the box that weren’t used but most of them were redundant shows like the many years of telethon and American Idol. we’ll continue to add to the collection.
Our Kitchen Table
Happy 4th of July everyone and Happy 230th Birthday America!
We had Carly's classmates over for a BBQ and swim day. We had been trying to get everyone together because we have such a nice class with great families and kids and weekends just weren't working so we tried today. Everyone but one family was able to be there so that was great. We had a great time. Kids were in the pool for hours, ate plenty and plenty of ice cream AND cupcakes. Hey, it's a holiday. Carly was in the pool for the better part of 3 hours. She loved every minutes of it.
Okay the real reason for the post. About 6 or 8 months ago, we finally got our kitchen table. It took many months of research to find someone who would build it for us. We wanted a steel based table with glass on top so we could display our many years of show credentials under the class. Finally, it was made, looks fabulous but we never got around to doing the credentials thing. Until today. Here are some photos and it looks really cool, in our opinion anyway. It was fun/interesting to reminisce about all the old shows we worked on. I found badges from the last 80's like the American Music Awards and all the pageants, telethons and wacky specials I've done since then. Gregg's got some cool ones too from the Super Bowl, American Idol, Tony Awards. Carly is even represented with 4 credentials from shows. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure. I'm thinking one of these might end up in my home style from my CKU album.
Big Brother All-Stars Move in Day
Today's the big move in day. It's exciting over here at the BB7 house and we've got a lot on our plate to make sure the move in and first game competitions goes smoothely. I could tell you who's moving into the house but I'd have to kill you or they'd fire and kill me too. One small clue, more men than women.
I'm hoping to be able to get into the house before the move in to take some picture but no promises. We were able to do that last year and I have some great pictures. This year's house is beautiful so I'd love to have a photo with me in certain rooms. The bedrooms are so cool and I've never seen the HOH room. And there are some special twists going to happen there this season. It's going to be fun.
My favorite quote from last year remains
"Rachel, you're so beautiful. Maggie, you're such a bitch" - Janelle
p.s. Did you hear that 2 guys were removed from BB Australia for sexually molesting another of the women houseguests? Saw it on CNN. They were all playing and the girl is really upset because it was nothing but the government got involved and removed them. No charges to be filed but it's causing a big deal about what are the government's vs. producer's rights on television. Interesting. Hey, what was it BB2 where someone pulled a knife "in play" on someone. It's one thing IMO to rub up against someone but a knife, I see nothing funny there. It'll be an interesting summer. Here we go!!
More Random Things About Me
Saw this on Ambers's blog and thought it was a little different from the usual.
I AM: a wife and a mom
I WANT: good health and happiness for family and friends and to be pregnant again
I HAVE: a great husband, adorable daughter and two wacky dogs
I WISH: I were younger so it would be easier to get pregnant. Speak a language fluently
I HATE: people who smoke
I MISS: Caz in Australia
I HEAR: mostly quiet. TV is on but everyone else is sleeping.
I WONDER: if I’ll ever be lucky enough to be pregnant again (yes, it’s on my mind)
I REGRET: not going to a college with a major sports program. I would really love to root for my alma mater.
I AM NOT: easy on myself. I get down on myself all the time when I can’t do something to my satisfaction.
I DANCE: not often enough.
I SING: in the car and yes, I can actually sing.
I CRY: at TV commercials
I AM NOT ALWAYS: pro-active. It’s very hard for me to stand up for myself.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: scrapbook layouts. Not often enough but I that’s what I can make. Oh and cookies too.
I WRITE: long winded. I’m not one of few words.
I CONFUSE: where I put things. If my head wasn’t attached sometimes, I wouldn’t know where anything was.
I NEED: to work out more; scrap more.
I SHOULD: be putting away laundry and cleaning up my scraproom.
I START: to clean up the above and then get distracted
I FINISH: projects when I really have to and it’s usually late at night.
