Inevitably Keely

I am entertaining the idea of committing to Blog 365 . Entertaining. The concept interests me and I'm thinking I enjoyed NaBloPoMo so much, why the heck not? But I dunno. It's just a thought. I'm still not feeling up to par. Daniel is feeling much better. Yesterday was horrible - his mom and my parents got the stomach flu and they were all feeling miserable. Daniel and I left his dad with the baby (at his urging) to go see the new National Treasure movie. It was so-so, but we enjoyed it. My parents left with their parrot (an African Grey) and their dog, Buffy today. We spent today giving Daniel's parents an exciting tour of Bakersfield and now we're resting back at the house. If all goes well, we're making a day trip over to Ojai just to get some fresh air and get the heck out of here. Our good friends got married in Ojai and Daniel and I fell in love with the small community when we were there the weekend of the wedding. I think it will look like paradise to Da...

From Keely & Zoe

Hey, baby girl. Today you are seven months old and oh, my goodness! that is sort of hard to believe. It's funny how time went by so slowly when I was pregnant with you, but now that you are here it seems to go at warp speed. This has been a wonderful month despite me being in poor health. I want to tell you all about it, but for the time being I'm going to put it off. I'm still not feeling fabulous (and either is your daddy) and I've got presents to wrap. In just two days you'll be celebrating your first Christmas with us. I am very excited for this. Your Nana & Grandpa are here now and your Grammy & Grandpa arrive tomorrow. You will be smothered in kisses and hugs and I know you're going to love every minute of it. I promise to take lots of pictures. I love you, monkey. I'll write more after Christmas. Love, Mama

Rant: I'm still sick. And that sucks. Zoe has been at Cheryl's all week so I can try to get better. I've missed a full weeks of rehearsal, for which I feel very guilty about. I'm thinking this is the last time I will do a show because my immune system sucks ass and it's just not fair for me to even try anymore. Goodbye, passion for acting. I feel miserable and am lacking in the holiday spirit. And I look like crap: grey hair, roots, etc. I had to cancel a hair appointment because I was too sick to drive myself and in no condition to sit at a salon for two hours. And really, if I can't go to rehearsal - I can't get my hair done. I called and made a doctor's appointment, and realized later that I didn't know where my car keys were. So I tore the living room apart looking for them. And I called Daniel but he was busy at work in meetings. And I called Cheryl but she didn't answer her phone because she accidentally dropped it in the toilet this mornin...

We were going to relax today. Instead, we bought new tires, Christmas shopped (but bought nothing*), had lunch, exchanged a highchair for the one we ordered, got Daniel a haircut, ordered & ate pizza, gave the kiddo a bath, splished, splashed, played. Currently, we're watching Live Free, Die Hard and trying to mellow out while I feed Zoe before she's put to bed. Tomorrow is another day and I'm hoping it will be restful. But there are things to be done.... * - OK, we did find a new hat for the monkey. It's a panda hat, and it's adorable:

Tonight was our fifth rehearsal for Imaginary Friends. We have sixteen more before we open. OMG! Sixteen, that's it. There are parts of me that are enjoying this process immensely. Getting to work with these talented people in a theatre that I have wanted to work in since I first saw a show there almost five years ago is very cool. Having to do research on the amazing Mary McCarthy and trying to understand how she worked and why she had this feud with Lillian Hellman has been very enriching and interesting. Both women were forces to be reckoned in the literary community. I admire them both, but would have liked Mary more, I think: possibly because she is who I am playing. This play is pushing me in different ways than shows I've done in the past. No, I do not have to do the Cha Cha while dealing with my first trimester of pregnancy and the singing shouldn't be too difficult (no harder than any of the opera's I've been in, I'm sure). I will have to smoke on stage...

4:30 am - Get stirred from sleep when husband gets up to get ready for work. Fall back asleep, but not before saying a little prayer that husband doesn't wake Zoe with the noise of getting ready so darn freaking early. 6-ish - Say "goodbye, have a nice day, I love you, be careful, goodbye, I love you." spiel while half asleep. 7-ish - Hear Zoe waking up. Get her, dress her, feed her, relax with her in bed, sing to her and plead with her to please take her morning nap early so I can get some more rest. This process takes about a little over an hour. 8:30-10:30 - Have the most peaceful nap I've had in ages with Zoe curled up next to me and a large chunk of my hair in her little hand - she fell asleep petting me. I wake up first and watch her sleep for a few minutes longer. She looks just like her Daddy when she sleeps. 10:30-10:40 - Pry hair from baby's grasp and go take a quick shower while Zoe still sleeps on bed with a wall of pillows surrounding her. I shower ...

I have an appointment this Friday for my annual check up. I've been seriously considering canceling the appointment because I really feel like I've had my fair share of pelvic exams over the past two plus years. Between trying to get pregnant, being pregnant and the follow up exam to make sure everything healed correctly, I'm feeling done with my OB/GYN for a bit. I'd say I'm breaking up with him, but he broke up with me... and every other patient he had. Apparently, my doc has retired or quit practicing or something. A close friend (practically family) had been seeing him and when she went for her 15 (15?) week check up the front desk person asked her who her new doc was. What the heck? That sucks. Luckily, the office has lots of docs in it and my friend found a new doc that comes highly recommended, but still. We brought Zoe into his office three months ago so he could meet and hold her. It was when we were getting all those tests done on her to find out why she w...

We've been slowly starting to introduce various foods to Zoe. We started off with some organic canned stuff but really, the idea of my baby going from breast milk, to formula and breast milk, to stuff in a jar with a shelf life of two years sort of grossed me out. I know there are good foods out there, and Zoe doesn't seem to have any issue with eating these foods. If you offer my kid food, she'll take it and quite possibly bite your index finger off with it. Our little monkey likes the food and is not what I would call a picky eater. BUT! I like the idea of her trying new tasty food that her dad and I make for her. I like the idea of fresh ingredients. I'm liking the color of fresh fruits and veggies versus the canned stuff. So we bought a book. And then we bought a steamer. And we're going to make our baby fresh food. Daniel's mom did it for him. Lots of mom's out there do it. I'm excited to do it for Zoe. According to the cookbook, we may even decide ...

So today is another one of those busy days. My friend is here until this evening. I have my first rehearsal tonight and I'm a little nervous. On one hand, it's been a while since I've been in a show and OMG! do I have a lot of lines to memorize! Also, being away from Zoe and Daniel five nights a week for three hours a night is going to feel strange. I'm excited and a little sad all at once and I have this feeling I'm going to miss Zoe crawling for the first time. But I know there will eventually be so much crawling I'll wish she'd just sit still and there will be lots more "firsts". Speaking of firsts: I'm about to post the first interior shots of the new house. I have taken pics of all the rooms, but I thought I would start with these. Looking in Dining room from cute little cut out by front door: Dining Room: Fresh roses from front & back yards: Close up of Dining room bookcase: View into Kitchen from Dining Room: More to come soon... and...

I think my favorite part of this season is all the "goodwill toward men". While we were out today we saw people just full of it. Like the lady who told her grandson to squeeze past me and Zoe in her stroller to nab the table we were waiting for. THAT was touching. Also touching was the man who questioned another guys manhood and character (rather loudly) when he felt HIS table was wrongly stolen out from under him. My heart practically melted when I watched a lady try to pick a fight in the parking lot. Oh, and the sales associate who just dropped my friends shopping bag to the floor and turned away instead of handing it to her. This truly is the most happiest time of the year, isn't it? Of course, this is all tongue in cheek because getting to share this season with my husband and our child makes my season bright. Be safe and jolly out there folks!

With my friend here, I didn't get a chance to take the pictures I promised. I did pick up Daniel's and my Christmas present to each other early: a larger television. We'd been using a 23 inch that I purchased pre-Daniel and decided it was time to upgrade to a 40 inch LCD. I'm not sure if the larger living room was to blame (the couch sits back further) or just my eyesight faltering with age and the birth of a child, but with the old t.v. I was squinting to make out subtitles and people. It was ridiculous and frustrating. And now? It's glorious. I mean, it's just a television but I grew up with a small screen and this is like having our own mini theater. And Daniel? He's pretty excited to experience the Wii and PS3 with this new purchase. We also picked up a highchair for Zoe today. I'm looking forward to us feeding her many meals in it and it will be nice to have her sitting up at the table for us - especially when both sets of her grandparents are here ...

Today has been a day, a busy but good day. We invited Cheryl and Chuck (Zoe's babysitter and owners of our house) to dinner tonight. Originally, they were going to come yesterday but we postponed because of how sick I was Monday and my need to recuperate. Also, I just didn't feel like the house was ready. We spent a large part of last night hanging more stuff on our walls and straightening here and there, but the real work was done today. I was able to actually take a shower this morning while Zoe entertained herself in her crib. This has only happened once before - I either take a shower while she's sleeping or I do it when Daniel is here. It was refreshing to start my day clean. The next couple hours were devoted to changing, feeding and playing with the baby. I got some laundry and dishes done while she took her morning nap. Later, she occupied herself in her crib while I scrubbed kitchen counters and finally put the finishing decorating touches on the kitchen. Oh, and I...

Almost ten years ago I entered some online contest through US Weekly and I actually won. They sent me a copy of Chocolat on DVD and a box of Godiva chocolates. Ever since then, if I get an email about a contest (or if I come across one while surfing) I feel like I have to enter. If it's one of those sweepstakes where you can enter every day for an entire month or longer, I will either set up a file in gmail or I will add it to my bookmark bar for quick reference. I'm thinking it makes me a little nuts. I have not won a contest like this ever besides the US Weekly one, but a part of me thinks that someday I might win again and it will be something amazing like a trip to Italy or Scotland or something. Do you have an odd quirk like this? This is Bailey and Max in their embarrassing secrets*: * Special thanks to the talented and beautiful Tracy for working her Photoshop magic on this photo. *hugsnorgle*

First off, thank you for the proposal-versary wishes! I've never heard that term before and I'm liking it. Daniel and I had the makings for a wonderful night. We picked up some Chipotle (my favorite fast food) and brought it home. We watched Terry Prachett's: The Hogfather on DVD while we ate and cuddled on the couch. The living room was illuminated by the television and the Christmas lights on our tree so it was nice and comfy and romantic. When we got chilly, Daniel grabbed a big blanket and the cuddlefest continued until we took a brief intermission to run to the store to buy cinnamon rolls to heat up and eat with coffee (for him) and chai (for me). It was all lovely and I was glad to be cozy in our home instead of sitting at Mama Tosca's spending a lot of money on a meal. And then my stomach started burning... and cramping; I was feeling jabbing pain and nausea. I don't know if it was food poisoning or the 12 hour stomach flu, or what but it sucked. The pain w...

Three years ago this evening, Daniel proposed to me. I'd actually proposed to him almost a year prior, at his parents house on his birthday... but we were both a little tipsy and he says he didn't realize I was actually proposing . I had given him a pocket watch with an engraved message on it and had asked him to marry me and he said yes, but apparently I was not clear that I wanted to become engaged right that moment. He said later that he thought I just meant I wanted to marry him someday . Oh, dear. Daniel wanted to plan something elaborate. We would have talks about when this elaborate plan would unfold and I was told the official proposal was coming soon, so I waited and waited. And waited. So I waited and waited for almost a year for it to be official. We had some close calls: Valentines Day at home, my birthday at a nice restaurant, (where he gave me a book to start planning our honeymoon) Thanksgiving day at the beach. We joked about it and laughed and basically, I spe...

Well, this weekend has been somewhat productive. Things are actually hanging on the walls in our living room, dining room, kitchen and Zoe's room. We recycled, yay! We did our budget, boo! The chili I planned on making did not happen, we lacked the motivation to find a good recipe and get it done. We did not get to host our pals because their youngest one has the creeping crud and his mom thought it best to not risk getting Zoe and us sick. We appreciate that immensely because we three have a knack for catching stuff. I took a lot of pictures of the monkey and the dog kids. We laughed a lot. We relaxed. You know what? This weekend was just the right amount of productive. OH! Look at what my best gal pal, Alison did for us: Cute and sort of creepy all at once!

So I'm not committing to posting every single day indefinitely, but I sure am going to give it my best because I've really enjoyed this challenge. It helps me feel like I'm having adult interactions and conversations instead of just watching Baby Einstein and The Backyardigans and making funny noises and faces at Zoe all day. A gal can only sing her ABC's and nursery rhymes so many times a day before she starts feeling like a baby instead of a twenty-eight fine, THIRTY-ONE! year old. So yeah, we'll see how long this lasts before I start taking days off again. Rehearsal for 'Imaginary Friends' starts a week fro tomorrow and Zoe's going to be crawling any day now, I just know it. Life is about to get a whole lot more hectic, as if it's not hectic already. Somedays, I wish I could just chill and watch tv all day: But I'd be missing out on so much and I would have nothing to blog about.