So if anyone even remembers us, this is Dave and Ellie in New York. We just had a kid, and he seems to be taking up most of our time. Not complaining or making excuses, just explaining.

He does, however, find time to post pictures of himself on his own blog. This is what you can do when you don't have a job or a little baby to look after, I guess. So if you'd like to keep up with his growth, which is pretty much what we do these days you can go to http://micahclev.blogspot.com

There are even more pictures of him on my (Ellie's) facebook page.

Eventually I'll learn how to take care of a kid, clean the house, AND blog. But for now, I think this one's going on hiatus.

(This picture serves as an explanation for my lack of time. I'm entranced. I can't look away.)

We are uploading all the pictures are camera can take to a Windows Live Space. We are not sure if we like the Windows Live Space yet but it is free and Flickr isn't.

TheDellie's Windows Live Space

So check it out. Eventually Ellie will start blogging again and put "choice pictures here on blogspot but until we get the time for that feel free to dig through the vault.

-Dave

We reached a monumental place in our relationship a few days ago: David allowed me to cut his hair! He has always gone to this barber named Mike, who does a great job and is (apparently) super cool and hip and friendly and nice and charges way too much.

I didn't realize how much he was overcharging until I tried to do what he does and was fairly successful on my first try. What do you think? Did I do all right? Despite what it looks like, it's not all the same length. There was blending and combs and scissors involved. Seriously.

Dave really brings out the girl in me. I've never been much for flowers, but on my birthday he came home from work with a beautiful bouquet, and my heart melted.

Let's talk about irony. This post refers you back to my last post about the fabulous birthday gift I received from my parents and parents-in-law.

Remember how at the beginning of that post I told you I had been looking for a piano for a really long time? Well, during that time I had never called anyone on craiglist about their pianos, and never EVER bid on any piano on eBay.

Also, please reread the last sentence of the first paragraph of that post. I will repeat it here for emphasis, "I made a few bids and promptly forgot about them.

Well, turns out they didn't forget about me. I won them both with flying colors. How absurd. I was the only one that bid on either in the three days that they were up for auction. So I bought a regular little piano for $49.99 and an upright piano for a whopping $0.99 -- yes, you read that right. Ninety-nine cents.

And of course, I'm now locked in, which is great, except that one is in New Jersey (2.5 hours away) and the other is in Rhode Island (3 hours away). I got in touch with the people and said we could cancel the whole transaction and they could re-post their auctions, because I'm sure they wanted more than they got for them, but no. Both ladies just wanted the pianos gone.

So where is my devoted husband on this beautiful sunny Saturday? His first Saturday off in three weeks? With his fantastic father driving in a huge 9-hour triangle to Rhode Island, to New Jersey, and back to Schenectady, pulling a flippin' U-Haul trailer, to pick up these pianos. Cleaning up after my mess. And I couldn't even go with them because I'm not supposed to sit for more than like an hour. Or lift anything -- especially a piano.

So there's my story of irony. I have wanted a piano for so long. I've never bid on a piano. I bid on two and won them both, and now I own three pianos.

The good news is that we will give one to the Hopkins family. I used to teach their kids piano on this ghetto little electric keyboard, but it melted when their house burned. And we have wanted to get them a gift for counseling/marrying us but couldn't afford it. And the other will go to Dave's parents house, so that I can play when we go over there, and maybe Josh will teach himself a thing or two.

Yes, good has been done here (aside from the fact that we'll pay about $200 in gas to go get the dingety-dang pianos).

When I see them, I'll post pictures, just so you get the full effect.

I spent yesterday morning looking on craigslist and eBay for a piano. I've wanted one for so long, and I've looked on craigslist every single day for the past few weeks. Yesterday, I found a few on eBay that are in the area, so I decided to bid on them. I texted David and asked for his eBay log-on information, and told him what I was doing. He told me the info and wished me good luck. I made a few bids and promptly forgot about them.



Last night I was at a meeting. When I got home, David's little brother and parents were there, as well as one of Dave's old high school friends, and they all had out their cameras and there were balloons and a beautiful blue bow tied to a piano, sitting in our living room. WHAT?!?



So it turns out that Dave's parents and my parents had gotten together and bought me this piano. They were waiting to give it to me until my parents came out in a few weeks, but when I started looking online, Dave freaked out and told them they couldn't wait that long because I was about to buy one. So they surprised me! And on the piano were two sweet notes from both sets of parents. Here's the one from my parents. I don't have a picture of the other. It was just wonderful.



I LOVE IT! I'm so excited . . . couldn't be happier! Props to David, who is SO good at surprising me. And HUGE thanks, M&D and Jim and Beth!!! It's already been a happy birthday, and it hasn't even happened yet.

People keep asking me if I'm nervous about childbirth. And I can confidently say no...I'm actually pretty excited! We finished our childbirth class last night, so I now feel very empowered and prepared. I mean, yes, it's going to hurt. Duh. It's a seven pound human being coming out of your...you know. But our bodies were made for this!

So I look at it more like a challenge. I'm really excited to see how well I can do. And anyone who knows me knows that I HATE losing. I HATE IT! So I'm excited to see how it goes, and David's prepared now (thanks to our class) to help me win! And so far in life (all two and a half years that we've known each other), we've made a pretty kick-butt team.

I do have a few fears. I'm afraid the baby won't be healthy. I think that's a natural fear, and there's obviously nothing I can do about it. I'm afraid that I'll stop breathing or my heart will stop or something. Weird and kind of irrational, but I have this breathing thing. I'm so scared of suffocating, all the time. So the practice breathing part of the childbirth class? Actually not that good for me. Made me feel like I was hyperventilating. And I'm afraid that interventions will be necessary. I don't want that. I want to do it myself, and I plan to. But there are times when interventions are medically indicated, and I will be disappointed if that's the case.

But then, of course, it's win-win. Because I still get to be a mama in the end, and that's what I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to!

The other day I went to meet David on his lunch break at the bank downtown so we could take care of some stuff for our construction business. So I drove the dinky little gray truck down the crowded main drag, and of course at lunch time it's wicked busy and there are very few parking spots. Except wait...bingo! There was one right across the street from the bank. A little tight, yes, and I definitely do NOT know proper parallel parking technique, but I figured I'd nose in and jimmy it like 95 times until I got close enough to the curb.

I pulled in, so excited to find a spot so close. Just a little bit further in, and BOOM! I hit the car in front of me. It was a huge fancy luxury SUV. And it was tricked out and shiny and blingy. Fortunately, I didn't hit it hard at all. UNfortunately, the driver was sitting in it. And he got out. And again UNfortunately, he was a very frightening, expensively-dressed thug. Literally a thug. Maybe a gang-member too.



He got out and looked at his bumper, rubbed his shiny license plate, grunted a little, kept rubbing and inspecting...

A lady walking down the street must have said something accusatory to him, because he looked at her and got huffy and said, "Nawww, man, she crashed me."

All the while, I was sitting with the tail end of the truck poking way out into traffic, and not really knowing what to do.

Gangsta looked at me and said, "You gotta get out."

I looked at Gangsta with a big lump in my throat and said meekly, "I need to find a place to park where I'm not blocking traffic."

He said, "You gotta pull up nexta me and back it in."

I looked at him and said, "I don't think I can do that without hitting anything." (Nothing shuts someone up like a good dose of honesty)

He kind of looked at me and then said, "I'll pull forward. Don't crash me again."

"I'll try not to." I really did say that.

So he pulled forward and then stayed in his car. I jimmyed into the spot and was scared out of my pants so I called Dave and said, "Ummmmm, I'm here but I crashed into the guy in front of me while I was parking and he's very scary. If you're here you should come defend me."

But Dave wasn't there yet.

So now Gangsta and I are both sitting in our cars. I didn't know what to do. Was I done? Should I get out and go to the bank? But if he didn't agree that I was done, then I might get popped, you know? Was I supposed to call the cops and report an accident or something? Or should I hold up a sign with my insurance card?

It was very strange, and I was very scared.

After sitting a few minutes, I finally got up the gumption to go up to his open window and say, with my voice cracking (yes, it's true), "Do you want my insurance or anything?" As he looked my very pregnant self up and down, I looked past him at the two or three additional gangstas sharing his ride. His posse. Eeeeeeeek!

"Naaaawwwh..." he said.

"Ummmm...so we're good?" I said, backing away. "I'm really sorry about that. We're good?"

He nodded a little bit.

I walked over to the bank, shaking the whole way, and didn't look back. I was sure that if I looked I would see our truck being smashed or slashed or picked up and carried away.

After sitting in the bank for a half our waiting for Loretta the banker to take care of all our paperwork, I realized that in my terror I had forgotten to pay the meter.

I've seen better days.

I have resolved to keep this blog more up-to-date.

Why, you ask?

Thanks for your interest.

Because I realized how much has changed since my last, and only, post.

We moved. From sweet, beautiful, quaint, unique Round Lake to dirty, crowded, stinky, unbeautiful Schenectady. It's like switching from Wegman's to Price Chopper (for the New Yorkers in the crowd), or homemade strawberry crepes to Eggos, for the rest of you. Really a downgrade, in our book. We love space and country and quiet and unused air. Our windows are literally nine feet from our neighbors' windows, and we share our porch, basement, attic, garage, and driveway with our landlord, whose floor is our ceiling. Not ideal. Some people love Schenectday. City people. People who like the sirens and the fact that you don't need a porch light (good thing -- ours doesn't work) because the streetlight illuminates not only your porch, but your entire living room all night. Some people like the 3x5 foot patch of grass they call a front lawn. Much less maintenance required. Not us. If you look at our profile, you'll understand why.



Last weekend we strapped on our packs and bushwhacked to a rocky peak (a very short hike, and a very small peak...I'm very pregnant). We figure it will be the last camping trip before the kid comes to join us, and it was phenomenal. Off-trail hiking means you don't see anyone else. And there's not evidence of anyone -- no fire pits, no garbage, no footprints, no voices. It was really a fantastic time together. Dave has been working his pants off...at his regular job during the day, and running our own little business at night. Almost every evening has been booked for him lately, and in fact, right now (on a Saturday...vomit) he is out working all day. So it was really a treat to spend two full days with him out in the middle of nowhere!

The other big change is that I'm now 35 weeks pregnant. For those who don't know, a typical pregnancy is actually 40 weeks (not the commonly-heard 9 months). So that means in about five weeks my gigantic, unsightly belly (stretch marks are NOT photogenic) will become a crying, pooping, eating machine. We are SOOOO excited!



I'm going to try to post some pictures now, taken by Becky, who is the most terrific oldest sister ever and who flew out here to hang out with us and throw me a baby shower. Wish me luck with this. I'm still new.

We are inexperienced, ignorant, and otherwise probably unqualified, but we'll do our best. Most of the motivation here is to keep in better touch with all of our loved ones wherever they might be (amen), and to keep said loved ones updated on the ever-changing life of The Dellie. We are inexperienced, ignorant, and otherwise probably unqualified, but we'll do our best. Most of the motivation here is to keep in better touch with all of our loved ones wherever they might be (amen), and to keep said loved ones updated on the ever-changing life of The Dellie.

So for posting number one, we have entered a picture of 'ellie's growing belly. Everything continues to go unbelievably smoothly throughout this whole ordeal, for which we are very thankful.



If you have any funny quips, advice, clever wittisisms, or other various and sundry opinions about pregnancy, we are certainly open to those. Whether or not we heed is an entirely different issue, but we promise to listen. We're very new and depending on the "wise" cousel of others.

It's still undetermined how frequently this will be updated. If we told you daily, or at least tri-weekly, as is the plan, we might be lying. Or not. It's kinda hard to say. Please check back regularly though, because things change very fast around here.

The long-term agenda is to achieve blogging proficiency over the subsequent months so that when the enormous bulge in the photograph miraculously becomes an independent (in some ways) entity, we will possess the ability to post daily pictures for those who care to track the growth of said entity.

To the lay person, we're going to post baby pictures!