itunes mix

our itunes has EVERYTHING on it...including my preschool music. I love it when I hear Nick up in the construction zone, drilling away listening to the doors "people are strange" and then the next song is something by susan salidor like "come and make a circle" and now we have some country playing.

...our wacky world...

bad mama

Today we did NOT have a snow day. It began to snow a little too late but it still made travel treacherous. I fish tailed my way to work. About half way through I started to think how I would never put Zoey in the car on a day like this... then it dawned on me that I had! Minutes later my car went careening (okay, I was going 15 mph but still) towards the underside of a bridge where those big concrete pillars are. Luckily the car, me and my belly all went unscathed but as I continued to fishtail every time I pulled away from a stop sign or red light I was bawling uncontrollably. What a bad mama I was to be driving my stupid little car to work in such bad weather with a not even fully developed babykins in my uterus. I should have just left 40 minutes earlier with Nick. I was sobbing when I got to work, totally puffy, red clown face. Just the beginning of the guilt-ridden feelings of parenthood... *sigh*

BCC FINALLY closed early and I made it back safe but I'm not going out again until Monday, at the earliest. The Honda was a beast when it was just me in a snowstorm but now it's us.

us and a snurricane or snonado. both terms which annoy me. sensationalized weather terminology, just something more to piss off an english major. how about blizzard? or snow storm? something accurate. karli said it best when she said (paraphrased) "am i going to be flooded with snow or sucked up in a snowy tunnel of wind?" exactly. i get the Baltimore/DC Metro area proclaiming "SNOWMAGEDDON" or whatever. That was cute and those poor suckers never get 4 feet of snow! But we're upstate New Yorkers. We can handle lots of snow. Unless we're pregnant and in a honda civic on clinton street... then our hormones kick in and we cry like babies.

Finally, to commemorate this crazy snow storm, the emotions that i'm feeling and what others around me are going through I made a groovy mocktail. I even put it in a margarita glass and am using a small little straw. it's delicious and beats a mug of hot chocolate today...

30 week update

75% of this pregnancy is over. As someone wrote on one of the message boards I read "in 7-10 weeks i get to meet my child" which of course made me cry.

3 things...

1) Her last name will also be Miller-Corcoran. Her middle name will be revealed at a later date.

2) Here is the painting I made for her room:
3) Here is what I look like now:

take me out to the ballgame

Everyone keeps asking me "are you having any cravings?" I know people are dying to hear some weird standard like pickles or ice cream. Chocolate, more specifically Hershey Kisses, are a necessity in my life, currently. If I'm getting low, I'm like an addict, wondering when we'll be out again so I can refill my stash, get my fix.

There are 2 serious cravings I have been having. The first one I've had from about the 3rd day I knew I was pregnant -- wine. A good glass of Gnarley Head Red Zinfandel would be amazing. I can taste it on my lips right now. I know, I know, people say you can have A GLASS in your third trimester. Those people definitely aren't insane like me. If I have a glass of wine every time Z sneezes I will be like "great, it's cuz i HAD to have that freaking wine" -- so i'll just bide my time...drinking my non-alcoholic pinot that Karli found for me and the occasional O'Douls. I can handle it. It's not making me too crazy.

What is making me a little crazy is my craving for BASEBALL. With the SuperBowl only 2 weeks behind us... there is just so much more time to wait. It's not even March yet and opening day is April 4 (at BOSTON by the way...woohooo!!!) I know that the first spring training game is only 13 days away, but I don't care. It's too long.

Nothing can be put in place of this. The Olympics, while interesting to watch, don't fire me up like Yankee baseball. It's not the same. You can't yell at figure skaters. I don't have 30 years of life invested in the latest version of Nancy Kerrigan. I watched a speed skating relay last night and didn't even know what the hell was going on, who was winning...there were like 20 people on the ice pushing each other...whatever. (serious eye rolling here)

Basketball helps. That is, college basketball. The Corcoran's take us to BU games where I can cheer and jeer. I enjoy them immensely and am looking forward to March Madness...but what I really need is some green grass, some mitts, some bats and balls and "ENTER SANDMAN" by Metallica playing when Mariano Rivera takes the field...

be mine.

It's going to be a romantic Valentine's in the M-C Lite casa.

Nick, with the help of his dad, is going to be renovating my large closet located in our room, so that it can become our closet. We have never shared a closet.

You read that right. We have been together for 11 years, 8 of which we have resided together and we have never, ever shared a closet. We just recently began packing in the same suitcase when we go on trips.

We've always used the closet in the spare room of our residences for one of our closets. Now the spare room is Z's room. Or my office... but that closet is jam packed with paints and crafts and my other creative supplies.

So, my beloved big closet with 6 feet of space and one tiny door will become our closet with my space being 3 feet and a big door.

Also, since Nick is doing a construction project I'll be avoiding this joint like the plague. Gettin' my hair did (for the first time since halloween!) and then some QT with the Karlton. Which may very well be time logged on her couch in front of her TV. This is good because after Z is born TV time will be long gone...

Speaking of which, I know kids aren't supposed to watch TV until they're 2 but do Yankee games count?

Winter Break...craft central

My office was finally utilized for one of its intended purposes over this break. I finally whipped out the paints, buttons, glue, ribbons, sewing machine, etc. and made some cute items for Z's room.

The list for AC Moore looked something like this:
Ribbon (purple, green, pink, red)
Paint
Large canvas
Small square canvases (4)
Embroidery hoop (10in)
Double-sided tape

Here's what it made:

Letter blocks for her name. (Using 8x8 canvases, buttons, glue, paints)

I didn't know I was going to use buttons. I thought I would paint the letters on but as I perused the internet for fun fonts I came across Jan Brett's alphabet which had a "J" in buttons. I knew I had used buttons for a preschool lesson a couple years ago. After sorting and deliberating over the assortment of buttons I came up with what I think is a pretty cool design.



Then we have the ribbon mobile. I wanted it to have more ribbons but oh well.

For this I used a 10 inch embroidery hoop with double sided tape on the inner loop. I attached 18" ribbons put the other hoop over it and hot glued another ribbon on the outside. voila!

Finally, curtains. I searched JoAnn Fabrics but could not find anything I both liked and didn't cost $11/yd. I ended up using old twin sheets that Audrey and I had on our bed when we were little (i love that). I love how they look with the purple and I love love love that they still smelled a little bit like our old linen closet when I got them out.




(i totally stole this idea from sweetfern, by the way. only i had to take 31'' off and they were twin sheets so there's a lot of curtain up there.)

Now I'm on to making cloth napkins. I'm on these crunchy hippie mama message boards where people talk about using cloth cloth cloth. Although I will never be able to use family cloth (strips of cloth for TP, sorry I'm out) or mama cloth (cloth sanitary napkins and tampons. just not for me) I think I can do my part by making Nick's old shirts into some cool napkins for us. Easy peasy.


domestiKate in the hibby-ouse yo!

Winter Break ...part 2

Other than reading tremendous amounts of literature and bidding on E-bay auctions my Winter Break consisted of lots of catching up. Catching up with friends from high school (2 of my favorites) and friends from Nick's high school (a mini CF reunion took place one interesting sunday night) and catching up with family family family.

I also started catching up on my Winter To-Do List. Cleaning the fridge out, framing the remaining diplomas I earned and hanging them up. I started laminating reindeer and making a book of retired reindeer.

I finished M-C Tiny's registries and started truly designing her room. I'll post extra blog on the creativity going into that. It's fun. Currently, I'm debating on a red, green or purple lava lamp for her room.

We have decided to expand our garden this year. Last year we had cherry tomatoes, green and red peppers. With M-C Tiny on her way we've decided to plant more veggies that we can freeze and use for baby food. Yes, we are planning on making some of our own. I'm starting to plan out the garden and do research which is not as fun as planning trips but still satisfies both my need to research and my need to plan.

Speaking of trips, for New Year's Corky and I trekked down to Washington, DC. We spent our first afternoon in Baltimore. Eating at my favorite Hampden eatery, Holy Frijoles. I miss our old neighborhood sometimes but my, the changes! We used to do our laundry at the laundromat where scenes for the John Water's film, Pecker, were filmed. The ladies would sit, constantly smoking and keeping an eye on the joint and happenings in the neighborhood. The laundromat has been replaced with some kind of swanky salon called Padma. HUH? The quirkiness is being replaced by hipness in that neighborhood. I think a lot of Baltimore is but what do I know. The grilled veggie taco salad remains the best I've ever eaten.

We then headed to the American Visionary Arts Museum. The latest exhibition "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" proved to be mind boggling. I love the AVAM because they always mix quotes in with their art. So very Kate friendly of them. The museum always brings me to tears at some point, this was no exception. With quotes like:

"You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you." (Mary Tyler Moore)

"All paths are the same, leading nowhere. Therefore, pick a path with heart!” (Carlos Castaneda)

and one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES: "To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." (e. e. cummings)

We left the AVAM and drove on to DC where we stayed at the Capital Hilton, 2 blocks from the White House. We took the Metro to see the Christmas lights at the Zoo that night. We also ordered room service which neither of us had ever done. I have to say, it was the most delicious cheeseburger ever.


The next day we toured the Hirschorn museum which houses contemporary art. The trip became perfect when I walked around a corner to find a Picasso statue. One quite relevant to my current station in life Woman with Baby Carriage.

We ate lunch that day at the Old Post Office Pavilion. We took a ride up to the clock tower and peered down at the lovely nation's capital.

We walked back to our hotel via the White House where we saw the National Christmas (holiday?) tree with all of the state trees surrounding it. We knocked on the Obama's door but were sad to hear they had stolen away to Hawaii for the Winter Break. It was nice to see the White House when a President I actually have respect for is residing in it. (see how touristy happy i am!?)

That was New Year's Eve. We ate a tasty dinner out complete with delicious lobster bisque. After this we walked back around the White House and back to our hotel where we donned PJs and sipped non-alcoholic wine spritzers and watched J-Lo gyrate in a sparkly leotard to ring in 2010.



Someone once told me that however you ring in the year is a premonition of how it will be. If 2010 has me giggling at the TV with Corky while relaxing... then this year is gonna rock! And, HP, if you could help me to look 1/8 that good after M-C Tiny is born I'd be totally happy with that. :)