Before I was a mom...

Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom -
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom -
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom -
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.

Thank you

So I was at Lucky (formerly Albertson's) yesterday shopping. I was in the checkout line which as usual had some very rude customers in it that were taking forever. So to pass time, I was smiling and talking to Chloe. When I finally got to the checker, he asked how I was doing, and I replied with an "I'm doing great how about you?" with a smile like I always do. He proceeded to ring me up but kept looking at me with a look of somewhat amazement and curiosity. Nothing really all that odd to me since whenever I go anywhere with Chloe people seem to look like that at her. And so I proceeded to smile and make faces at Chloe. When He handed me my receipt, he said "Thank you for smiling. You are the first person who has done that today. It is nice to see it once in a while." I was shocked. Was this area of town really that grumpy or did he just start his shift? I responded with "Well I know how your job is, I worked at Albertson's in Washington and I know how grumpy customers can be and I will never be one of those! So you're welcome. And I hope you have a great rest of your day." I smiled to him and he smiled back and I left the store. When I left, he looked just a little happier than when I first met him.


It is amazing the little things that you do every day that can effect someone else so much.

Random Stuff

How do I know that my child is Brett's some might ask??? (OK no one has ever asked that or even questioned that)

Well here are some things only they share:

Same facial expressions

same hair style
they both sleep in the same position

They have much more in common, but these are the only pictures that I could find.

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So today I got out of the house again! This time I took Chloe on a walk along the waterfront. It was really nice out today, 73 degrees. Since I am always talking to Tracy on the phone (that is me talking to her in the picture) we were having a conversation about all the pigeons and seagulls that were around. I noticed something strange. There was a brown pigeon! I had never seen one before. Tracy asked what a normal one look liked, so I took a picture of both. Have you ever seen a brown one? Click on the pictures to make them bigger. Anyways it was a really nice walk.

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I just found out:

On Friday Brett is volunteering his time to give out flu shots to the homeless. He is doing it through the family practice club . He is such a good person!

Last night with emergency medicine and surgery club he learned how to suture up people, well cadavers, but still he learned how to sew them up. He is getting that much closer to being doctor.

Dinner ideas

So I was talking to Tracy today and she was describing how Phil made an awesome dinner for them the other night. A stuffed burrito with seasoned meat, beans, and a bunch of really really great fixings in it. Wow was I jealous. I then proceeded to tell her what Brett had planned to make for us the other night when I felt like not cooking.

Set up to the story:Brett and I were going to a poker party on Friday night with a bunch of people from his school. It was a nice way for me to get out of the house and for me to meed some more of his classmates. We were unsure if there would be food...more than chips and various snack foods... so I thought that we should have dinner before we went just in case! Well everything we had was frozen and soup just didn't sound good to me. So I suggested that we go out to McDonald's and get something off the dollar menu, cheap and filling! Well Brett had other ideas.
Here is our (mine and Brett's) conversation:

me: "Can't we just go to McDonald's tonight? I really don't feel like cooking AGAIN."
Brett: "That's just silly, here I'll make something"
me: "But we have nothing to make, otherwise I would make it."
Brett: "How about spaghetti?"
me: "We don't have any spaghetti sauce!"
Brett: "We have ranch right?"
me: "You are NOT making spaghetti with ranch! If you do I will just puke!!!"
Brett: "Come on it is soooo good. "
me: "Never will I ever eat ranch dressing on Spaghetti noodles...sick!"
Brett: "But ranch is great on everything" (here he proceeds to take down a pan and fill it with water.)
Me: (begging) "can we please please please just get some McDonald's? It is on the way to the party and we are going to be late if you make the spaghetti"
Brett: "OK fine, you win...this time"


So I have a wonderful husband who is very willing to cook for us, I just need to always have something in a can ready to heat up or else I get wonderful meals like spaghetti with ranch sauce.

San Francisco

On Sunday we went to San Francisco with our friends Marie, Dallas, and Cadence who is one month older than Chloe. We took the 10:00 ferry over which is so much better than driving!











It took about an hour to get there but if we drove it would have been like an hour and a half. So Chloe and Cadence really liked each other. They smiled and talked to each other the whole way over, when they weren't both eating. It is amazing to see what one month can make in the alertness and social behaviors of babies. Now I thought that Chloe was a talker and was active, well not compared to Cadence! Chloe looked like a lump almost the entire time compared to Cadence. But I have to remind myself "she is a month younger and her parents are more laid back". Did I mention that Marie is a med student with Brett, has a baby one month older than Chloe, AND is training for a triathlon???? So compared to her parents, we are WAY laid back.

It was a very nice and sunny day, so nice that we all started out wearing warm jackets thinking it was going to be cold and windy, but the sun made us warm enough that we didn't need our jackets for the majority of the day.










When we got to "The City" ( I guess if you live anywhere in the bay are the "city" refers to San Francisco. The same as if we in Washington would refer to Seattle as the "city" although we all live in a city around it....odd I think but that is the way it is around here) we headed over to the docks to see the sea lions. Thinking that it would be fun to show them off to the kids. Well our little bundle of joy had fallen asleep as soon as we got off the ferry. Too bad, maybe she will see them next time. Cadence enjoyed them however.

To sum up our trip, we got to the city at 11:15, ate lunch at noon (at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co...yes from Forrest Gump), walked around Fisherman's Wharf for a bit, went to Ghirardelli Square to eat brownie and chocolate sundaes, walked around a park and along the water front (closed because of the oil spill), went back through Fisherman's Wharf, and went to get in line for the 4:15 ferry.....AND CHLOE SLEPT THE ENTIRE TRIP!!! She woke up to eat right before we got on the ferry. It was nice not having to "deal" with an awake baby, but it would have been nice for her to be awake to see things. Oh well, we will try the trip again when my parents come down for Thanksgiving.










Over all it was a great trip and we (I) needed to get out of the house.










Click on pictures to enlarge them if you want a better look.

tests are done

So Brett finished up both tests. He is very confident that he aced his OMM test, but is really skeptical about the other test. He said that everyone in his class (roughly 145 students) felt really bad about the second test. We will find out how he did in the next few days. 2 students dropped out on Monday.

So far this year, 5 classmates of Brett's have dropped out of school. At first that doesn't seem too bad of a number, but the school counts on every student's tuition money and budgets it all for the entire 4 years. So they are looking at $120,000 per student (150 students) over 4 years...nice budget to work with. Well take away 5 students and that is a fairly good chunk of change. Scary for the school since it is only 3 months into the school year.

The only good thing about this is we don't think the school will be kicking out any students for poor test grades. Not that Brett has any problems with that. It will be interesting to see what happens over the rest of the year.

On a different note...sort of... Brett got to give shots to his classmates today. He gave a couple of flu shots and a lot of saline shots. The first guy he was partnered with received the worst of it from Brett. Brett had to stick the guy 5 times in the arm muscle before he got it correct. Poor guy!But Brett got his fair share of pokes. He now wants to give Chloe her 4 month immunization shots! I am still debating this one. I have until December 20Th to make the decision if I want to ask her doctor if Brett can do it.

Well Chloe is finally asleep so I am off to bed as well.

Purple and new play toys

So Brett made an interesting comment the other day. He said that "Chloe seems to have a lot of purple stuff". I have no idea what he is talking about. (me being sarcastic)

I see nothing wrong with having a few things purple. Purple is a great color and I think that my Aunt Elaine would agree with me on this one.

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So I got out the exersaucer or whatever they are called for Chloe the other day. She absolutely loves it. Right now all she can do is chew on the flower and stand there, but she enjoys the new angle of sitting. It was really cute, I put her in it while I was wiping it down and she fell asleep in it, I love this toy!