Valley Park flooding

So, the Meramec river is flooding near us, and so far, it hasn't affected any homes, though the mayor says "The City of Valley Park is expecting flooding by the Meramec River. We expect flooding to occur within the city outside of the levee protected area." Here's a picture of it overflowing into some quarry south of our house, courtesy of ksdk:
<>
Currently the river is supposed to set a record level of 40 feet, which basically puts anything outside the levy several feet underwater. Much of valley park is inside the levee, and we actually live along the big giant ridgeline that rises just north of the river, so our house is fine. (terrain map below courtesy of google shows where we live, as compared to where the flooding in the picture above is).
<>
Anyway, that's all for now... my lunch break is over.
-Josh

Fun with pictures!

Bunch of pictures now, since I've just spent the evening updating this server... :)

One for the baby book...

Me working on the nursery.


And at last, the thing you're really reading this for...

Pictures of the nursery!

Don't skip the post below, it's new too :)

-Josh

Things are underway & a name has been chosen…..

We have decided to name our little one Gideon Clayton Dalton.   I never knew deciding a name could be so time consuming,  it was rather a funny process, one of us would come up with a name and then the other would decide if it was "worthy-enough" to be added to the list with the following criteria.

1) Could not be on the top ten name list from Social Security for 2007.

2) We both had to actually like the name.

3) and it could not have a cruel nickname.  

  One of my favorite names was Lucas until someone mentioned Lucus Mucus, so the name was taken off the list and we moved on.   Then one night we were bored and started looking people up on MySpace and Josh mentioned that he would like to get in touch with a guy from college named Gideon and that is when I fell in love with the name.   The name means " A Great Warrior" so it looks like we have a little fighter on her hands and as much as he has been moving I firmly believe this. 

Well we have been working on the nursery trying to get things ready for the little guy's arrival.     Josh's project has been to paint the nursery and the letters and as you can tell by the pictures he has been hard at work and definitely doing an awesome job. 

And it snows…

I have been so ready for spring lately and of course it snows this week.   One great thing about St. Louis is that you never know what to expect when it comes to the weather.   It could be sunny one day and building a fire the next.

Things are going well with "the Daltons" .   We made two trips so far this month, one to Memphis for Tom and Deanna's wedding and the second to Mississippi for a family members funeral ( Sue Kairit Taylor).   This weekend we only have one event we need to be at, so it's Saturday morning and we are trying to decide what to do.. so I am rambling on the blog :-)

I wasn't really a "pet" person until I met Josh and his two cats so I have been reading up on all the articles regarding pets and babies.  My favorite article is where they recommend putting aluminum foil in the baby bed prior to the babiy's arrival since cats are scared of it, so the baby bed should be set up by Tuesday and I am going to put this method to a test.     It has worked so far with the couch. 

I can say that the pregnancy so far has been an adventure, the baby is starting to move a lot which is the coolest feeling ever.   People have slowed down on the horror stories about their deliveries :-)  Nesting fever has not hit yet, although I think Josh is looking forward to that so we can have a spotless house.   The cravings have started and for some reason it has been ice cream and bbq chips, it's not out of control, yet.

Well I am going to go do something and not let this day go to waste ...

Love to all.

Tammy

And the waiting has begun….

Baby Furniture ordered - CHECK

Baby Bedding/pictures for the nursery - CHECK

Finding out the sex of the baby - CHECK

Deciding the name of the baby (we're not telling anyone) - CHECK

Waiting for the little guy to arrive .............................................................................................................

I used to prize myself on being a patient person, but I can tell you sometime in the past couple of months my patience level has gone out the window.   Looking back at our wedding I realized that it was the perfect sitituation, he proposed, I planned and bam we were married... we didn't have a lot of time,  engaged in December and married in March.  

I can say that I have been lucky enough in life to be able to have several friends to share the same "time" in life with,  when I was single I had tons of single girl friends, the year I got married 5 of our friends were married the same year and now that we are expecting several friends & two of my sister-in-laws are expecting.   So we are waiting together...

Christmas is over and "year-end" is almost over at work,  so we have officially started getting things ready for our new arrival.   We have semi-registered, ordered the baby furniture, moved completely into maternity clothes, and gotten very anxious.   Josh has earned the "husband" of the year award.   My mom made a statement that she doesn't have to worry about me since I have Josh, and it's very true, as I am writing this blog he is sitting next to me reading " What to expect, when you are expecting."   He has been great, a little too concerned at times, but I wouldn't change him for anything.  It's really nice having someone to take care of me while waiting :-) ...

This blog is me rambling...good night everyone.  

-Tammy

It’s going to be a boy!

So, tonight Tammy and I are emotionally worn out, having spent the whole day being excited about getting to see the baby via the ultrasound this morning.  They took a ton of pictures.  Here's a good one of the whole baby:





So, there's our bouncing, stretching, swimming baby boy!  I have to admit, I'm wonderfully proud, and also thrilled to know that we have been mostly buying for the right gender so far.  Tammy was thinking that it was a boy, whereas I've been really unsure, but still happy to buy cool stuff for whenever we were to have a boy.  We were much further along in coming up with the boy theme and decor for the nursery, so basically we have the bedding and some paintings already.  We're doing the nursery in space rockets (so cool).

     The cool solar system painting we picked up a month or two ago does still have Pluto on it... for those of you that voted to grandfather it in as still being a planet *cough* Brad *cough*  Actually, it looks like much of the space themed stuff hasn't been adjusted to remove Pluto which was demoted to "dwarf planet" status in 2007.

Tammy's having all the fun adding space stuff to our online Target Registry for the eventual baby shower while I'm working on this post, so I'm going to go shoulder shop with her.

First Snow, Vegas, etc…

Vegas was fun, hectic, and weird as usual.  Terry and I met a ton of people at the convention, took a bunch of really interesting classes, and had some very fancy meals.  Tammy joined us there mid-week, and we went to see a comedy/broadway show called Spamalot on Friday evening, which was lots of fun, even if it stretched a bit far from the storyline of the movie it's based on... :)

Frighteningly, while we were gone, one of our power outlets nearly caught fire... 


That would explain the weird smell in the extra bedroom...  we thought maybe one of the cats had misbehaved...  what with all the boxes of stuff we put in that room during the recarpeting of the rest of the upstairs, we couldn't figure out what the smell was.  Apparently it was the smell of a melting outlet cover.

The carpeting was the last major change to the house before we begin work on the nursery.  Come spring we plan to move our office stuff into the spare bedroom, and begin work on making the office into the nursery.  The home improvements never seems to end around here.  Ah well.

In baby news, Tammy has officially felt the baby move!!!  Everything seems to be right on schedule, and we will be learning what we're having right after Christmas.

 That's about all I've got for now... watch for news of what we're having by New Years!

-Josh

Boycotting Christmas

My biggest complaints with the holidays is that people don't appreciate the current one, Thanksgiving is not even here and tons of people are getting ready for Christmas. I wonder if we are the only culture that does this, always jumping ahead. I told Josh that our Christmas tree or decorations will not be up until after Thanksgiving. The mums (even though half dead) will be proudly placed on our front porch till at least Nov. 25th. It's one thing to shop early but another thing to decorate early. The Thanksgiving Holiday should be called " the mistreated holiday".

So in honor of Thanksgiving -

I feel this year has been the best and saddest year of my life. I married my best friend in the world, He is a person that truly brings the best out of me. I am so excited to be having a baby and starting "our" family.

We lost a person very dear to us and as sad as it was in losing Josh's mom, I am so thankful that I was allowed to spend numerous days and nights with her. She was a person that was very special to me. I am also thankful for a great family both mine and the "in laws".

So…...

For Those of you that celebrate the upcoming holiday, Happy Thanksgiving, from our home to yours, and for those that do not, please enjoy the day off!

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump, may your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump, may your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize, may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!

Gobble till you wobble….and above all, give thanks

Thump, thump, thump

WE HEARD THE HEARTBEAT TODAY!!  Our appointment wasnt till Wednesday but I got a little anxious and called the doctor to see if he could move my appointment till today.   I cannot explain the feeling when we heard it on the monitor.... a little surreal knowing a little person is growing inside of you.   Josh was smiling from ear to ear.  I think Daddy-to-be is just a little excited.  The countdown is on, six more months to go!!

The apple of our eyes

So, Tammy has one major pregnancy food craving... apples.  So much so that she apparently consumed five or six of those bags of pre-sliced apples in a week, not counting her McDonalds visits for apple slices sans caramel dip...  Oddly she hasn't craved apple juice... just apples.  One of our friends asked us the today whether we had a nickname for the baby yet, theirs having acquired the nickname of "2.0" early on... and I'm thinking we might have to go with "the Apple."

     We had a normal doctor appointment the other week, and tried to see if we could hear the heartbeat early (30% chance at 9 weeks according to the doctor) but no luck.  Guess the baby was hiding under Tammy's veins?  Anyway, we will hopefully get to hear it at our next appointment, the day before Thanksgiving.  (I'm secretly hoping we get to be doubly thankful... don't tell Tammy I said that).

     In other news, we are getting new carpet, and we'll be doing the nursery in wood laminate for cleaning and allergen reasons... (okay, and cost savings).

     Also, I'd like to mention that while they do turn the trees nice colors in the fall, I really hate the leaves.  I filled 14 bags of leaves today from our small suburban yard.  In two more weeks, I'm probably going to fill another 14 bags with what's still on the trees right now.  Darned leaf dropping deciduous trees.  Maybe I should plant an apple tree though, eh?

 -Josh