A Few Notes

Well, I need to be quick since I have about 3 minutes to get to bed, but I'll just post a few updates.

• We made it to WA in one piece. Lucy was a complete angel on the plane and I couldn't have picked a better traveling companion. She played for an hour, slept for three hours and ate for 45 minutes, and we landed! Easy peasy.
  
• We're having fun out here, but we miss AndrewDaddy very much! It's almost painful. ::sad, sad, sad face::
• Lucy is adjusting to the time change pretty well and I hope to have her on a good schedule by the weekend.
  
• I am feeling well and baby is coming up on 15 weeks! He/She is moving around here and there and enjoying Washington very much.
  
• Andrew is surviving at home and finished our most recent renovation this week! He trimmed the kitchen and it looks AMAZING! I can't wait to post pics!!
• Andrew also had a major accomplishment at work this week and deserves lots of major love for all of his hard work. I'm so proud of him!

And now it's definitely bedtime. Night all!

Puzzle Piece Pancakes

A Doofus Drives This Car

Reading With Uncle John...

Good News/Bad News

Good News: Cindy was right - Febby was just hiding! We heard a very healthy little heartbeat of 160 bpm last night and baby is doing well.
Bad News: Mama, however, is less than stellar right now. While hearing Febby's heartbeat was exciting, we only heard it because the stomach flu landed me in the hospital with dehydration and very low blood pressure. Ick. They gave me 4 liters of fluid and some Zofran and sent me home after a night of medical excitement. It wasn't pretty, but I'm feeling a little better today and hope to be 100% for our flight on Tuesday. Ugh. I never get sick!

My Happiest Week

This 3rd week of August is always special for me.

• 5 years ago this week, I met Andrew at RA training at FSU. I think we fell in love that week, maybe our third encounter, and life has never been the same.
• 2 years ago this week, I met Lucy when she made her presence known on a home pregnancy test. She wasn't planned but was our biggest and happiest surprise. I'll never forget Andrew as I ran to meet him, waving my test and crying. He said, "This is the proudest day of my life." And life has never been the same.
• Today I met Febby via some good morning movement. Those little flutters and rolls are unmistakable.

I am in Newark, DE waiting for Andrew to come back to the hotel and take me down to Havre de Grace. Lucy stayed at Grandma's last night and we had a great time up here. We saw "Step Brothers" and had dinner at Friday's. It was so nice to have a little time to ourselves! This morning we had breakfast together before he left and it was really nice to eat my waffle and not have to pull the wipes out at the end of the meal.

As it happens, I need to head back upstairs and take a shower, and then pack our bags and get ready for checkout. I just sent Andrew a text to see if I can charge a snack to the room. I am STARVING and it's only 10 am. Maybe I can convince him to do Laurrapin Grille for lunch on the way back to the house...

Big Prayers Needed!

We went in today for our 12-week visit and the doctor wasn't able to hear the heartbeat with the doppler. :-( This isn't necessarily a bad thing at all - it's still very early to pick it up with the doppler, and since I had an anterior placenta with Lucy, it's likely that the baby is just hiding. Dr. H didn't seem too concerned, but I'm still going to sneak in to an OB downstate next week to try to hear the heartbeat before we get traveling. I'm just sick with worry, even though this is pretty standard, and I'd like to make sure Baby is ok. I really don't want to wait an entire month!

So, in the meantime we'd appreciate some prayers for Baby C, that he or she is continuing to grow big and strong. I'll update as soon as we know something! In the meantime, Dr. H said the ultrasound we had at 8 weeks should be fine and we should assume Baby is just ducky.

Lucy Says (edited)

Suz
Woof
Sit Down

My Quest...

...has begun. I am desperately in need of the Palm Centro Black and have begun to petition my husband. I'll keep you updated. It turns out that prepaid phones are costing a lot more than a contract and I really miss some of the contract features, and since we're obviously going to be in the area for quite awhile, I'd like a new contract with a more local server.
Andrew, if you're reading this, I would be so very happy to receive a new phone as a token of your love and devotion and undying commitment to my happiness. I will even make you a big batch of sugar cookies before I leave town!

Urg.

I have SO many cute pictures I want to upload and Blogger isn't letting me upload them. I could just cry.

What's Up With Lucy?

Well, Lucy is just growing like a weed! We went in for her 15 month appointment today and it was all good news. Her height and weight are perfect, even though she's itty bitty. We skipped her immunizations for now, since Batgirl is currently receiving all sorts of rabies shots and her immunizations are live viruses. We have the MMR coming up and we have some decisions to make about whether or not we'll be delaying it or not. I hate these decisions.
She's really starting to talk up a storm, and mostly all she talks about is Josiah. Today I said something about him and Lucy said "Jo? Jo?" She ran around the house calling for him for about 5 minutes before she realized we were just TALKING about him. It's got to be tough when there's no future or past.
Lucy is really into kissing right now and has just learned how to make a kissing noise. It's incredibly cute. She also has two animal sounds now, which has got to be the cutest thing ever. She loves to "WOOF!" when she sees a dog. We walked to the bookstore today and there was a big stuffed dog inside the door. She went nuts barking and crawling around, trying to get the dog to play with her.

What Does Lucy Say?

Up
Down
Hi
Bye
Daddy
Mama
Yes
No
Out
Brendan
John
Nina
Josiah
Dog
Roar
Cat
Kitty
Jump
Shoe
Tales (Veggietales)
Juice

Please say a prayer...

...for sweet little Life, who is fighting a big fight right now!

VOICEMAIL FIXED!!!

For those of you who are now beyond annoyed at our voicemail being on the fritz for...4 months, I have fixed it and it's working beautifully!! You may now leave messages!

Baby Update

Well, we've made it to 12 weeks without any sort of big event or issue! I think I'm starting to feel small movements and flutters, but I can't quite tell yet. Baby is the size of a plum this week and all of the "critical formation" is done.
I've lost 5 or 6 pounds, something like that. I was just looking at pictures of me in week 13 from my pregnancy with Lucy. Surprisingly, I look almost exactly the same. Hm.

What a crazy, crazy 4 days.

• A bat got in our house on Thursday night. It may or may not have bitten Lucy, who is now in the middle of a fantastic rabies series. We now call her Batgirl. She has 5 more shots to do. Ugh.
  
• We had a fantastic 2 days of camping! It was beyond fun and I'm very glad we went.
  
• We came home to a very messy house and Lucy and I are going to spend today cleaning. It's horrendous. My plan of attack is to carry a laundry basket from room to room and collect everything that doesn't belong in that room, and put stuff away carefully. Once THAT is done, we have some scrubbing to do.
  
• Today we're supposed to do another rabies shot, pick Maple up and go grocery shopping. So it would stand to reason that my keys are locked in my car and we're stranded. Of course, today is Andrew's busiest day of the week and he cannot possibly leave the office.
  

Shocked and Appalled

This story just gets crazier and crazier.

Here is a short video from today's meeting that you can check out. Not only was the meeting totally nuts, but Sheriff Goad was actually served after the chaos that was the commissioner's meeting. He will now be appearing in court to discuss his reasons for withholding police cars from non-certified officers. (No-brainer, anyone???) Additionally, the new police officers have sat down with our fine leaders and apparently they're still afraid to reveal their names for fear they'll be harmed.

Keep Goad on the Road!

Today Lucy and I packed the diaper bag full of snacks and crayons and trucked over to the Commissioner's Meeting in Cumberland. THAT was well worth the gas.

In short, David Goad is our sheriff. He's a fine sheriff and is doing his job well. However, a few of the county commissioners have decided to huff and puff and blow his office down. They have decided that the sheriff should just become part of a new "county police force" they've dreamed up and put into action. It's insane.

• He's the elected big bad wolf of Allegany County. The three little pigs can't just give him a new job and call it good.
  
• There is a LOT of mud being slung in these parts and it's getting very dirty. The commissioners have been saying some very nasty things about a lot of people and well, good old boys don't take kindly to the law insultin' their own.
• This was an idea that was being "researched" a few weeks ago, and suddenly it's been put into action without so much as a backward glance or ANY input from the citizens of this county.
  
• They've forced Sheriff Goad to collect all of the equipment from his men in preparation for the new "force." Apparently Goad's men are heartbroken.
  
• There are now 14 officers in limbo and NOT on the streets because they resigned from their positions anticipating a move and now the commissioner's requests to the State for "exemption" from re-certification are pretty much being ignored and the new officers can't do a thing.
  

Needless to say, this meeting was HUGE. They moved it from their little meeting room to a high school auditorium due to the rumored attendance, and the auditorium was PACKED. Lucy was very good and ate about a billion graham crackers. Our county is less than well-educated and the people brought a very good fight. I was so impressed and proud of my fellow Western Marylanders. They came prepared, they spoke well and they really gave the commissioners a run for their money. Their desire to stand by Sheriff Goad is admirable and incredibly caring and considerate. He has been the focus of a lot of controversy in recent years, but because of his hard work and dedication to this county, every person in the auditorium stood behind him 100%. Today I am very, very proud to live among the people of Allegany County.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Today is my Andrew's birthday! Lucy and I are going to think of a special way to celebrate that today. It has to be good! We had a little party for him on Sunday, but I want to celebrate today, too...

Today is also Grandma Susie's birthday!! What an excellent day for celebrating the people I love!!

Happy Birthday to both of you!!!

Catching Up

I will try to catch up, but Lucy can only eat so much Mac-N-Cheese, so I'm on borrowed time, here.

I have not posted in quite awhile. Andrew actually had the nerve to tell me last night that he now thinks he's a better blogger than I am, so I knew it was time to get back on the horse. I'd like to see him spend hours on end watching Wonder Pets and sorting Marshmallow Mateys and still have the sanity to relay the events of the day to a non-speaking audience. Wow, Lucy is going to TOWN on that mac-n-cheese...

Events happening in Cookeland.

• Tim and Andrew tore out a large wall between the kitchen and the office. We now have better lighting, a stronger cross-breeze and no wall to hide our junk behind. Eventually there will be an eating bar there for me to teach the Cookelings their school lessons.
  
• Lucy now says "coming!" It sounds very much like "Coshish!"
  
• I am craving chocolate milk, turkey and cheese and SALT. This is because Dr. H specifically told me to cut way back on my salt intake. Sigh.
  
• Andrew and Brian went on a canoe trip over the weekend and Andrew is incredibly sun burned.
  
• Suz was here for 4 days of fun!! It was a giant Laura/Suz Lovefest.
  
• Maple now knows the command "Go to bed!" She's a pretty good little doggie! She also needs a babysitter for this weekend, if anyone's looking to help us out...
• I'm doing some mock packing for the upcoming trip - I'm really trying to avoid checking luggage, but that's incredibly difficult.
  

I will post more later. Lucy is tearing the house apart and Drumline just came on!

Coming Clean...

I was going to wait a few more weeks, but I'm tired of not posting about everything!


WE'RE EXPECTING!!!

Baby Cooke #2 is expected to arrive in the middle of February and we're very, very excited. I'm 11 weeks pregnant now and everything looks great. I have been feeling great and am very happy to be heading into my second trimester with so little yuckiness behind me. We had an ultrasound at 8 weeks or so and we have a very active little person on our hands. We'll be going in again just before our trip to double check everything before we hop on the plane.
Anyway, Miss Lucy is up from her nap and she's wanting lunch! Just wanted to share our happy news!