Random Weekend Thought ...

Scott:  "Do you think that giving your little girl an unattractive nickname gives her a complex later in life?"
Me:  "Well, my dad called me "Moose" my whole childhood. Do you think I have a complex?"
Scott:  "Nuff said!"

*It must be noted that no more than 6 hours after this conversation took place my daddy told me, "Wow, you're really getting big!" Still there with the compliments, thanks pops!*

How many pairs of shoes does one girl need?!

... Apparently 72. Yes, that was the count today when I finally started the "clean out my closets and make room for baby stuff" project (I'm pretty sure the crazy weather showed up just to make sure I stayed home and started the project instead of going out shopping).  Now, I know that 72 sounds like a lot, but I know a lot of shoe-aholics and I'm sure it's measley compared to them! :) My wonderful and dear husband helped me group them all by styles.

(All shoes minus rain boots, snow boots, tall brown uggs, and 2 pairs of gym shoes)

The good news is ... I have ditched THIRTEEN pairs!! Bringing me down to a much more respectable 59 pairs! (though in all fairness I may be buying one more pair tomorrow, but they're a pregnancy necessity I swear!)  That is a huge purge for me! 13 is a lot! Whoo, I'm so proud!!  The thing with shoes is even when you're feeling super fat and unpretty and all that ... you can still buy shoes and you don't have to feel bad about yourself!  In fact, buying shoes always turns my mood around! I mean, I know that's kinda crazy, but let's face it, a pair (or two) of new shoes a month (or every couple weeks) is still cheaper than regular therapy so it's an all around win win situation! And even though you always buy new shoes, you never know when you're going to need those old shoes you bought years ago that would so go with the outfit you're wearing tonight, so it's always incredibly difficult to get rid of shoes (for me anyways).  But today, I decided if they're hard to walk in, if I haven't even noticed them in years, if I have 3 other pairs that serve the same purpose ... it's time to ditch them! Done and done.

Then I started on some of my clothes (though seriously, no matter how many bags of clothes I fill, it still looks like I made no progress on my closets! ugh!).  I thought it would be easier to get rid of the ridiculous things I've been holding on to for years for no reason when I didn't fit into them because I always resort to trying things on and being like "well they still fit so I should totally keep them."  Then another year goes by without me wearing them and it becomes silly.  So, today I couldn't try things on (cuz I'm so freaking fat!) so I am happy to report I filled a whole garbage bag full of old dresses and sweaters that I know, deep down, I will never miss. Now, with a little manly help from Scott to move a couple of heavy things around, the closet in the baby's room will officially have room to hang his little clothes and store his many baby accessories that have accumulated.

Another check off the list!

Shoes and bag of clothes to give away! SUCCESS.

Showered Full of Love. And baby clothes. Lots and lots of baby clothes :)

Yikes. Where do the weeks go?? I meant to write this last Sunday night! Well, better late than never right? Last Sunday, my mother threw us a very beautiful baby shower and we are so so thankful for it! I can't believe it was last Sunday already because I remember three months ago when we discussing dates and now it's here and gone! It was a beautiful day (ok no it wasn't -- it started hot, got hotter and more humid, and of course, rained all afternoon, oh Chicago weather, you are killing us!) BUT it was a beautiful shower and everything was perfect.  As I stood at Murhpy's Irish Bistro I couldn't help but think "holy crap, its like we were just here for our wedding shower and that was almost exactly four years ago!"  It's insane how fast time is flying and we don't even have our speedily growing babe in front of us yet! :(


Anywho, I want to thank everyone that came, everyone for all the wonderful gifts (our little guy is so lucky already!), and everyone who made the day so special for Scott and I.  We got oodles of awesome gifts -- carseat, highchair, swings, toys, bath gear, and tons of *adorable* baby clothes.  Seriously, the boy's dresser is so full already -- but this is a good thing because I like to play dress up and I'm sure I'll want to (and probably will!) change his clothes multiple times a day just so he gets to wear all his cute cute little clothes!! Thank you everyone so much! Here are a few pix from the day!

 Delicious and beautiful Sweet Mandy B treats .. thanks Mom and Elyse!!!

 Baby's elephant chair!! A necessity for sure!! Thanks Auntie Gina! ;)

 Littlest Cubs fan is allll ready!!

 I do :)

 Double fisting ... because I'm pregnant and I CAN!! Sweet Mandy B's cupcake and red velvet cake! YUM!

 Aunt Karen baked and flew her special cookies in all the way from Arizona!! Thanks Auntie!! :)

 Baby cake!

 The kid is so ready to play ball!

 Could Scott love this giraffe anymore?? (I think not)

 From Uncle Scottie -- "My uncle is hot .. and single" Bib! Thanks scott scott! xo

 Thank you girls for being awesome aunts ... and for helping out! :)

 Scott and I with our baby's Fairy Godmothers :)

Auntie Meg practicing her "catching"

 Mommy and Daddy to be!

 Mommy and Gramma to be!! Thanks for the wonderful shower Momma!!

Now what!? Good thing we have a couple of weeks before our glider arrives/next shower to get things under control again in this room! Eek.

Wish us luck!!! (10 more weeks holy cow!)

Baby's 1st Photo Shoot!!

And he did awesomely!! Well he wouldn't sit still, but he was very cooperative in facing the right way to get some shots! And we reconfirmed ... still a boy. whew. :)

And there he is!!! Our little man! Such a handsome little devil already!!

We got video of him just moving around in the womb (which I'll try and upload a clip later!) but we just spent about 20 minutes tonight hanging out with our little man on the big screen.  It was awesome to see his little hands and feet moving around.  At one point (you can see on the video) he started waving at us!! And, the technician even caught him sticking out his itty bitty tongue at us! What a devil :)

Some of the pictures are kinda fuzzy around the right side of his face because he was curling up so close to the wall of my uterus (aww he loves his mommy!) but we poked by stomach around and shook him enough to get some good shots. (Literally) (The techinican said he was one of the most cooperative babies of the day! Do we have a new baby model on our hands!?) And near the end, my favorite part, he started smiling and laughing at us :)

Mommy and Daddy can't wait to meet you in a couple more months little guy!!! Stay warm and cozy till then!! :)

3rd Trimester baby!!

We are now 28 weeks through this pregnancy!! Whoo-hoo!! 12 weeks to go!! I've done double that since I found out I was pregnant so this should be easy! ;)

I'm thrilled to say that we are in a good place.  All big purchases that need to be purchased (because they take a whopping 8 weeks to show up!) are ordered, nursery is coming along, and classes are scheduled.

Weight check: up ... gulp ... 18 pounds. oh dear Lord.
Belly width: 40 inches (up 12 inches, cripes!)

2nd trimester wrap up!!
So everyone told me "The 2nd trimester is the best! You're not nauseated anymore, you're not uncomfortable yet, the baby starts lightly kicking you"  ... well um not quite. for me anyways. haha. I started to feel "better" on a more regular basis maybe around 21 weeks. But, "better" sadly didn't equate to great and each day still has some tough times in it. (And not to sound like a sour Sally but if you're not constantly throwing up everyone thinks you're awesome ... I would argue it's even harder getting through the day when you're still feeling icky but everyone thinks that because you're walking and talking you're perfectly fine and shouldn't be complaining. Living with constant nausea and choking back puke in your mouth everday is hard people! Be nice to pregnant people!) Thank gosh my doctors keep refilling my zofran prescription ;)! I still gotta take a pill, almost daily, but I have more better hours than bad ones and (as you can tell!) am eating so heeey success!! As far as comfortability, I heard you weren't supposed to be uncomfortable until well into your third trimester. Not so much. I've been pretty uncomfortable  for a while now.  haha. The little man likes to crawl up into my the tops of my ribs and hang out there and I can constantly feel this stretching of my belly, like the baby's trying to get out but has no room so is pushing my skin out.  Also makes its extremely difficult to find a position to sleep in.  I'm exhausted. Boo. And those little kicks? Man, this kid is an animal! He kicks all over my stomach all day long. I love knowing that's he ok in there but my God child, sometimes you are so not helping my nausea.  Though all this kicking makes me soo anxious to see him lying in his crib kicking his little feetie in the air :)

So all in all, not the ideal 2nd trimester, but hey! it's over and wer're that much closer to getting to hold the little sweetheart! A small price to pay for such a great gift :)

On the productivity side, the 2nd trimester left us in an awesome place. I actually just look at my to do list and sigh. Nothing I can cross off soon because nothing that has to be done yet! Just playing the waiting game! The furniture is built and the glider is ordered, but until the glider arrives we can't put up shelving or decor because we're not quite sure where the chair is going to end up going and Scott doesn't think it's amusing to move shelves around the room once he puts them up on the wall :) So we have to wait for that. I put a whole lot of baby clothes (ohmygosh he has a lot already and we have 2 showers still!) in the crib, but didnt take off any tags or wash any yet because I have no idea what is going to fit him yet :) But don't worry, just because they're in the dresser doesn't mean that I don't go in there everyday and go through them, just to look at them and smile :).  I want to put the stroller together, but then I'll just want to take it for walks and I'll look kinda silly. (And, it may never stop raining!) so that's still in the box. Sigh.  We start birthing classes and cpr classes next month. (Yes then I may actually have to start facing the fact that the baby has to get out of me somehow, a fact I've chosen to ignore for the time being!) I'm currently on the hunt for a little white lamp with a green shade (pottery barn has the perfect one on sale but stupid pottery barn is stuck up and their white does not match real white and I'm not sure how I feel about things not matching correctly, we'll see how desperate I get) but if you've seen a cute one, give me a heads up people! I'll post pictures of the nursery once its done but here's some sneak peeks till then!

This is his bassinet!! It's soo beautiful! (It's in the nursery for the time being but it's going to be living in our bedroom soon!) Complete with Scottybear ... the teddy bear that Scott gave me for my first communion exactly 20 years ago! Scottybear has traveled all over the world with me and now our little guy gets to snuggle with him too! (You can also check out Scott's paint job and the white crib next to it)

The only picture hanging on his wall so far (and the most important!) ... the Cubs greats! Some people have crucifix's overlooking their baby's room, we have the Cubs legends :) Compliments of my Auntie Karen (before she left us for AZ :() we're sure this is going to become one of the little guy's favorite room decorations :)

Stay tuned for more pictures of a finished nursery to come!! :) And celebrate with me, tomorrow = 80 days till due date!! Piece of cake!! (mmm that sounds good ...) 

Proud Big Sister :)

The question I get asked as much as "How are you feeling?" is "How is your little doggie going to be with the baby?"  Anyone that has spent time with Scott, Maizy and me knows that she is our little baby. We pick her up a lot and cuddle her (so do most of you!), sometimes we carry her when she's whiny, she sleeps in between our pillows most nights. We transferred all of our parental instincts onto our dog many years ago.  But now, she doesn't get to be the baby anymore. And she knows it! She sniffs and licks my belly frequently and then looks up at me with a "there's someone in there, isnt there?" look.

We're not worried about her being violent with the baby. She loooves kids. Even kids that are too small to play with her. She's a super playful little pup (people are always surprised when I tell them she's 3 years old and not 12 weeks old ;)).  But, she likes her attention, after all, she's been the center of it for the last 3 years.  I personally think she's going to take up barking (she's a generally quiet dog, besides her whining) in order to get attention, but I don't think she's going to hate the baby. I think they are going to be the best of buds. (I mean, we don't feed her any people food, and toddlers, well they do. Insta besties!)

Since we've been getting baby stuff, she's been very interested in it.  I've read you shouldn't "hide" the baby stuff from the dog because then they think "oh its off limits I must get to it!" (like those dogs that eat your expensive heels!) so when we come in with a big bag of stuff we sit her down on the couch and show her each piece and let her sniff it.  I'm sure ya'll think we're crazy, but her tail wags the whole time and she smells each piece excitedly and when we're done she gets off the couch and goes and chews her bone. It's pretty awesome.  Doesn't mean she hasn't stolen a baby toy already and I'm sure we will have quite the fun time teaching the baby that bones are not baby toys and Maizy that baby socks are not doggie toys!

Over the weekend, Scott built the baby furniture! I was sitting on the nursery floor holding things up for him when Maizy came wandering in.  And then she plopped herself down right next to the crib that Scott was building and stayed there the entire time! Like right under the crib. It was the sweetest thing ever! It was like she was already protecting her little buddie! Then, later on in the weekend, Scott and his dad moved our big comfy chair from the living room into the babies room (we were checking on size and fit before I ordered the glider I wanted) and put it right next to the crib. Within a second, Maizy has jumped on the chair, stood up, and looked over into the crib tail wagging! It's like she was hoping her brother was already in there. Once she figured out he was not quite there yet and the only thing in the crib was his waiting hippo stuffed animal, she layed down on the chair and, instantly, fell asleep.  Scott, me, her grandma and grandpa Moran were all standing in the room talking and she, who normally would be jumping from person to person trying to get petted, was peacefully sleeping in the chair next to the crib. It melted my hormonal little heart.

They are going to be the best of friends. A boy and his dog. I can't wait until they get to meet!! :)

Those Pregnancy Dreams just got Scary!

Last night, as I drifted off to sleep at the beginning of my 3rd trimester (progress report to come!), my pregnancy dreams officially changed from weird, to frightening! During the week, when Scott is already gone for work, I have a tendency to let my alarm go off for about an hour, hitting the snooze every 9 minutes.  (another problem I would blame on my momma haha).  Which means I only have about 8.5 minutes at a time to drift into a dream -- and that is when I dream the crazy dreams! When I finally turned my alarm off this morning and got out of bed, it was not because I was late for work (I mean I was but that's another point), it's because my last dream was too scary to chance going back to sleep!

I woke up with clear memories of three of my crazy dreams last night.  Join me will you?

Dream #1 -- setting:  Buy Buy Baby (though it looked more like a JC Penney inside). cast:  Me, Scott, Mom and Dad Minneci, Mom and Dad Moran.  time:  Present Day.

Scott and I were trying to order baby furniture.  I was stressed -- white or brown? Matching set or pieces from different collections? What do you means it takes 8 weeks to get here, I'm due in 12 weeks, what if it's late? How will I get everything else done in the nursery in only 4 weeks if it's on time? What chair will I order? I can't do that until I see the furniture in the room! Naturally, Scott took the lead and said "let's get this crib and this dresser."  To which I responded, "No, wait you have to measure the dresser and make sure it's not bigger than the one we already have because that's the biggest dresser that will fit properly in the room."  WHAT? That's when Dad stepped in (and omg I could totally hear his voice as if he was standing next to me saying it) with that half laughing/half whining "You already did this! We already bought you guys furniture. This exact same set! It's already set up in your baby's room!"  Then dream Kelley became real life Kelley and realized "Oh yea. Wait. I don't have to stress about this. We DID buy the furniture already. It IS set up already. The chair is on order and expected in 7 weeks or so. The decor has been planned out. Why am I standing in Buy Buy Baby trying to buy more furniture, omgosh I'm so stressed out I dontevenknowwhatimdoinganymore-- BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Alarm went off and saved me from being stressed in a dream. I then reassured myself there was nothing that had to be done that isn't already in motion, Maizy cuddled by my head, and I drifted back to sleep, trying to slow my heart rate down from the "I don't have any time left!" stress rate.

Dream #2 -- setting: Disneyland, CA (note: when I dream of Disney World in FL, it's quite literally like I'm there. The entire park is plotted out exactly to the tee like it is in Florida and I wake up feeling like I just took an actual vacation. when I dream of Disneyland in CA (a park I have visited far less than FL) it is this dream park that I find myself in A LOT when I dream.  It's a cross between the actual setup of Kings Island, Sesame Street Land, Universal Studios FL, and Disneyland CA and its out in a desert. It's weird, but its ALWAYS the same setup. Crazy) cast:  Gina and I. time: Immediately following my freak out at Buy Buy Baby.

I decided that since I was reordering cribs without any knowledge that I already done so, I needed a stress-free break. Naturally, I ended up in my dream Disneyland Park and Gina was with me! (Sorry Scott, I don't know where you went to, but you're usually with me in DisneyWorld if that makes you feel better!) We walked down Main Street (which is the part of the park that looks like Kings Island and Sesame Street Land) and turned right to go to FantasyLand (this is a fact, if you're in a Disney park, turning right is the quickest way sans going through the crowded castle to get to fantasy land!) and then we entered the Disneyland part of the park. We saw the little bitty Disneyland castle (always tinier in my dream than in real life, I think because the first time I saw it, I was so disillusioned with how much smaller it really is than Cinderellas castle in FL) and saw some characters! What a lovely stress free trip to get my mind off of other stuff! But then Gina wanted to go see the Muppets in 3D show (not sure if disneyland actually has this show but in DW it's in MGM studios, and its one of Scotts favorites ... interesting that it's here). Oh, also Gina and I decided it would be fun to ride around in wheelchairs and do dances, kinda like Artie on Glee! It was fun until we saw these two teenage boys in wheelchairs and we felt bad because we thought they thought we were perfect for them.  Oopsie. So we got out of the chairs and tried to hide in the Muppet theater, but naturally, there was a line. When the boys caught up to us they looked just like the geeky teenage boys that Brenda and Kelly once got set up with on an early episode of 90210.  We felt bad, but then the doors opened and it was our turn to see the show.  But omgosh, it started to get scary. Why do we have to walk down these scary creaky steps to get into the theater. I dont remember this. Why are there only 15 seats in the theater, this is Disneyland! Why do those geeky boys have glowing red eyes! Run!! We took off running. Back through fantasyland, back down main street, fasterfaster -- BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Alarm! Thank gosh. Saved. (You'd think that now I'd get out of bed, nope, decided to try again). This is where it got sccarrry.

Dream #3-- setting: my condo. cast: Me, Maizy ... and Sasparilla. time: present time, but my memory enters mid dream.

I'm lying in my bed thinking about how excited I am that I bought another dog! Her name is Sasparilla and she was really expensive (over $1000) but everyone says this dog is so worth it and I'm so excited to have her. She's sleeping in her doggie bed in the babys new room (which looked, in my dream, exactly as it does at this moment in reality. It's painted blue and the built baby furniture is in there, but not decorated).  I get out of bed to go take her and Maizy for a walk, but as I enter the room I notice that there is dog poop all over the floor and her doggie bed. Oh yea, I forgot, new doggie means I have to potty train a dog again! Then I look down at Sasparilla and oh my! Why didn't I notice this before!? This dog is not cute and cuddly, it looks like a mesh between an anteater, an eel, a snake, and a sloth!! It's slimy and slithery and black with red eyes and big claws and gnarly teeth! It slithers around like a snake,sloth, eel, cat hissing meanly.  I tell myself, no, this is your dog you will love it no matter what!! Then, as I try to get Maizy and Sasparilla on their leashes for their walks, (ill! I don't even want to touch Sasparilla!!) Sasparilla starts pooping all over my living room and then climbing pipes up the wall, slithering up the wall, all the while staring it me with its spooky red eyes! Then all of a sudden it's flying across the room. Right at me!! It literally leaps and flys all over the place, over my head, around Maizy, claws and teeth on full display. Its the spawn of Satan dog! I'm terrified of it! Like in the same way I would be if a giant flying sewer rat was leaping all around my living room at me! And all I can think is "Ohmygosh I can't even get rid of this because Scott is going to be so mad that I paid over a grand for this Satan creature and I have to love it no matter what but I'm so incredibly scared of it how am I going to live --- BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Oh Thank God. This time I did not hit snooze. I hit alarm off. I felt out for my snuggly little Maizy all curled up near my neck. Ah, no slimy eel dog here. But then I thought, Oh dear, What if this dream is trying to tell me something about the baby??? I mean Sasparilla lived in the babys room! What if my baby is the spawn of Satan and I have to learn to love it anyways because I wanted it and it's my baby and even if it has red eyes and claws and climbs walls and poops all over my house and flies across the room to attack me I'm going to have to love it anyways!!

Its 1pm (yes I was late for work and I'm blogging instead of working! geez people off my back!) and I've still got scary butterflies in my tummy from my dream. And when I was sitting on the edge of my bed putting my boots on (yes, it is also May and I'm wearing Uggs UGH!) I stared nervously at the closed door of the babys room across the hall praying that Sasparilla was, in fact, a dream. (And I may have ran out of the condo quickly just in case she wasn't!) EEK!

Paint Nursery ... Check!

You'd think that owning a hardware store, I'd have no problem picking a paint color.  My favorite thing to do when I was a kid when I visited dad at work was to go look at the paint samples and pick out colors.  This -- coupled with the fact that we knew we wanted to use a baby bluish color for the room -- should have made picking out a color fairly simple.  I mean, how many different shades of baby blue can I find?

Well a lot apparently.

See, I'm not happy unless I exhaust all of my options.  Which means, in addition to all the baby blue swatches I could collect from True Value, I needed to collect the different shades of blue from Benjamin Moore, and then all the different shades of light blue Valspar makes at Lowes.  Scott, knowing it is easier than fighting me, (he's becoming wiser as the days go on) humored me and drove me all over the city collecting my little swatches.  I then laid them all out and surprise, surprise ... could not decide.  We decided which ones looked too grayish, which ones looked too purplish, which ones looked too "off" and landed on about 3-4 swatches to which Scott says "seriously, they all look the same, just pick one." (No they dont all look the same!)  Sooo...I took our top choices shopping with me on Sunday.  I walked my parents through Pottery Barn holding the swatch next to the bedding we want, the glider we're looking at, the rug we've chosen (they learned yeeaars ago its easier to just humor me), but I was still not convinced.  Ahh! Sky blue or clear blue sky!? (They are different, I swear!)

Monday night, Scott was like "Ok, decision time." I was like "But i dont know!" Scott was like "Any color we choose, we'll like." I was like "Um, do you not know me at all! If I don't like it I'll end up crying till we repaint it." So we decided on the only logical solution.  Leave it up to Maizy!

I am happy to report our doggie is awesome! We laid the swatches out on the couch and Scott said "Maizy, go pick the color for your little brothers room"  I kid you not, she climbed on the couch, went to each swatch, smelled it, moved on, and then upon deciding, licked the "sky blue" swatch and looked up at Scott with a "now do I get a treat" face! 

Soooo ... the little man's room is now painted with "Sky Blue" Valspar paint. And hey! I'm happy with it! It's bright and babyish and beautiful, but still boyish! (And while Scott and I were assessing mid paint job, Maize wandered in unnoticed to check out her choice and narrowly missed becoming a litte sky blue doggie herself!)

Now tomorrow we get to move the furniture in and build the crib! Yippee!

(Thanks for your hard work Scott!)

Everything happens for a reason ...

(This post was originally written at around midnight the night of May 1, 2011, though posted later)

Flashback ... 7 months ago.
Scott and I were deciding between booking a spring blowout trip to Italy or trying for a baby right now.  We wanted both. We listed pros and cons of each, we talked about it with doctors and travel agents, we counted our dollars. But it was time to make a decision. Playing into our decision -- my frequent anxiety attacks.  We were both kinda terrified to book an expensive trip, with very long hours in the air, crossing oceans and countries with my inability to control my anxiety about all of those things.  After hmming and hawwing, we decided the only way to make the decision was to leave it up to God.  If he thought we were better off not traveling now, he would give us a reason to stay put. .... (Well, as you know, he did give us a pretty wonderful reason and made our decision for us.) ... One of the first things we said to each other after finding out about the baby was "So God really didn't want us to travel to Italy in May eh? I hope that doesn't mean that something bad is going to happen then!"

Flashback ... 24 hours ago.
I was in the car with my parents driving to Buy Buy Baby to buy a baby mattress and I said "Ugh, Scott and I were supposed to be in Venice right now!" (In my defense of this crabby comment, I don't have my beautiful baby yet and I've been sick for 6 months so it's sometimes hard for me to remember how happy and blessed I am.)

Present time.
Obama reports Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the US.  So happy for America. Happy for the justice, for the little bit of closure that comes after such a vicious attack on Americans and American soil.  But the war against terror is not over.  Let's not be naive. Our enemies, who have no problem destroying us or our country, will not be pleased to see us celebrating the death of their leader and they will, at least try, to retaliate.  I try to have faith that America, and the rest of the world, have learned enough in the last ten years to be prepared for another attack(s).  But as I sit in bed listening to the news and feeling my little boy kick away at my tummy, one of the first thoughts in my head is "Oh, I'm so glad we're not flying anywhere soon!"  I then counted through my family members making sure they were all staying put as well. (They are.)  It was then, that the lightbulb went off.

Oh my gosh, Scott and I were planning to be across the ocean right now!! While there is no doubt in my mind that this death is a good thing for the world (and for the unity of America), it is also very scary.  Retaliation is inevitable.  And, personally, my anxiety would be out of possible human control if  I had to travel by plane now (or anytime soon).  Call me crazy and overdramatic if you must, but I watched the planes crash into the twin towers, before I watched them come down, from a mile away and I cannot ever erase that image, or the feelings and reprecussions that experience has had on me.  So tonight, I am grateful that I am not in Venice or on my way there, am glad that we received some "reassurance" that we are, in fact, in the exact right place for us to be in our lives right now, and glad that this was shown to me through an American victory, rather than an American or European tragedy.  I thank God for my new little family, for leading us down the best path for us, and for the unity (at least tonight) of the American people.  May God bless us, our country, and may He keep us all safe as, unfortunately, this is not the end of the war on terror.