Sixtuplets!!!

With only ten weeks to go until the life inside me become a separate entity I have been reading a lot about what to eat to help the things that are growing now, like brains and muscles. It suggests eating fruit as a good source of carbohydrates so this morning when I woke up I grabbed my mixed fruit bought already sliced and ready to eat and proceeded to the computer to check my email.
As I was reading and replying and sifting through the junk I enjoyed some grapes, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple and cherries from what seemed to be a normal bowl of fruit. Munching along I thought, "oh how cool, twins!!"

when I came across a cherry that looked

like boobies or a really round butt.

Two full round cherries, one stem.

Quite the rarity, or so I thought. Upon taking a closer look I came upon another...

And another...

It was at this point that I realized I had to share my special mutant fruit find with the rest of the world. At first I wasn't going to eat them because, quite frankly, I was scared. What could have caused this multi growth pattern in one little arrangement of fruit? But they looked really good and I was curious to know if both cherries on the single stem contained pits. They did, and they tasted just as good as any other cherry. I am glad I conquered my fear so I can say I ate twin cherries three times in one sitting. Maybe it's supposed to be good luck or something. One can only hope.

Home Sweet Home

After searching the web and the paper, making a countless number of phone calls and seeing some pretty disgusting places people pretend are livable, I finally found the perfect new dwellings for my little family on the way. It is truely perfect and definately the best for our money (which is not a lot)! It's located within the one mile radius I've lived in for the past two years ( I think I may be getting rooted) on Argonne Circle. It is a 1005 square foot duplex tucked nicely in between two other duplexes at the end of a col-de-sac. It's positioned in a way that the front of the house cannot be seen until you get down the street a little ways and with New Circle Rd. running behind the house the backyard is extremely private. It has a kitchen complete with a new fridge and stove, a very nice sized livingroom, two bedrooms that are the same size (big) with walk-in closets, one bathroom that is more than twice the size of my bathroom now with tons of cabinet and counter space, an attic, and last but not least a carport complete with a work bench and additional storage. It is gas and electric but the only thing gas is the heat and the landlord informed me that on the budget plan it should not exceed $40 per month. It has washer/dryer hook-ups and is getting all new carpet throughout (great for when baby starts to crawl) and new vinyl in the kitchen and bathroom. I almost forgot to mention all the great shade trees and the nice chunk of backyard we have. The front yard is huge and there is a porch spanning the entire front of the house that is shared by both sides. I think that pretty much sums it up...now for the pictures. Keep in mind that the pictures show it as a work in progress without the new carpet and vinyl and such. It is getting those things and any final touches this week and we should be getting the keys hopefully at the end of the week.

Front-ours is left side. Backyard from driveway.

carport from yard. view from backdoor.

Kitchen (enter from backdoor).

Laundry closet in kitchen.

Bathroom in hallway.

Livingroom.

Back Bedroom (Baby's).

Front Bedroom (ours).

Mr. & Mrs. Brandon Benke

My middle weekends in May were filled with fun to say the least. The former Brooke Butler, my friend (and former roommate) became the first of my closest friends to take that life changing walk down the isle. Brooke met Brandon Benke about three years ago or so, and they proved that even the most extreme obstacles couldn't keep them apart. Brandon, for as long as I've known him has been an extremely hard worker , a lot of times working night shift while Brooke has found her place in the 9-5 banking business. Their conflicting schedules has always been something to contend with however they've made it work all this time. After about a year of dating, Brooke and Brandon were separated by distance when he moved to Northern Kentucky and Brooke headed off to Tennessee for a year. Despite the miles, they would often reunite at mine and Heidi's house on Heron Ln. and every time they saw each other they went right back to being disgustingly cute, inseperable and in love. After a year in Tennessee Brooke decided it was time to come home to Kentucky and moved in with Heidi and I at our house on Alpine Ct. Brandon quickly became part of the family although he still lived in N. KY. He was there every weekend and whenever he could be through the week to be with the lady of his dreams. It didn't take long before they decided it was time to combine their lives and in February, just six months after returnig to Lexington, Brooke and Brandon were finally where they always should have been, together without any distance at all. It wasn't long after combining living quarters that Brandon got on one knee and asked Brooke to be his for life. Of course she said yes and another year flew by. Before we knew it we were having bridal showers and bachelorette parties and rehearsal dinners and weddings and receptions. Pure successful craziness uniting these two for life.
Brooke and Brandon were my first friends to get married. So Brooke's was my first bridal shower and bachelorette party. We had a wild time and I was glad to get to take part in the fun despite being 5 1/2 months pregnant. I was the D.D. (of course) and partied way too hard with shots of cranberry juice and too many glasses of water to count. We started out at a clubhouse in some neighborhood where Brooke got a lot of hilarioud gag gifts. My favorite had to be the Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia penis Heidi and I got her. We all got "lei'd", pink light up rings and made up new identies for ourselves for the evening. Brooke became Naughty-a, I was Trixie, and Heidi became Bizzi after we corrected the spelling error that first had her being named Buzzi. We were also galavanting around with a Kandi, Lola, & Bambi to name a few. After the present unwrapping, we all received our scavenger hunt list and were off for a night on the town. The scavenger hunt was fun and ironically it was Brooke's future mother in law that ended up winning with an obscene amount of points...like 400 or 500.

Our first stop after grabbing a bite to eat at TGI Fridays was to Survivors (the karoke bar). We all got on stage to sing a variety of songs from Salt-n-Pepa's Shoop to Dixie Chicks Wide Open Spaces. It was a blast. (Brooke is the blonde with the white lei and garder on her leg-far right.)

Quite a few scavenger hunt points were racked up here. Items checked off the list include a lap dance, kissing a male, kissing a guy twice your age, and having someone buy you a drink. The good sport pictured below is named Dino. He bought the girls drinks and posed for many pictures to fulfill the foolish requests on the scavenger hunt.

After survivors we very unsuccessfully attempted to get into Blue Moon with 19 year old Summer-then Brooke's soon to be sister-in-law. We then found ourselved at CCI-Chevy Chase Inn- where again we had a great time. CCI is a little hole in the wall bar. It is the oldest bar in Lexington and is frequented mostly by regulars. It's an older crowd however they were quick to buy Brooke a "blow job" shot, myslef a shot of cranberry juice, and the rest of the girls a shot of love. It was a great place where we danced to the man on stage playing guitar. Summer fit right in and she actually ordered her first beer in a bar all by herself. She was so proud!

After CCI we ventured to Trumps where once again we couldn't stay cause of our youngin' but it was already pretty late so we decided to go eat at Waffle House and call it a night. It was three in the morning before I got home and I was beat. Brooke had a great last night out with her girls and the next weekend, she became Mrs. Brooke Benke. The wedding was also tons of fun. There were friends that had moved away that no one has really seen in a while. It was like a huge reunion and we danced and ate cake and partied like we know how. Brooke and Brandon were sent off in a limo with fireworks and all the love in the world from everyone they know. Congratulations Brandon and Brooke. I love you.

Run for the Roses

May 6, 2006. It was a beautiful spring day in Kentucky. The morning dew was just beginning to lift, the sun was shining bright, and the air was refreshingly crisp as we headed to Winstar Farm in our finest Saturday attire. Matt and I were looking good as we awaited our departure to Louisville, KY to experience our first ever Kentucky Derby.

After about an hour of waiting around we were off. Matt and I, and 3 of his co-workers (Brian, Jamie and Belinda) piled into Brian's honda accord and took off on a death defying hour and a half journey to Churchill downs. Brian's driving was nothing short of exhilerating. The closest thing to a roller coaster I think I will experienced during my pregnancy. Needless to say we made it to Louisville in good time. We then wasted about an hour trying to figure how to get to our VIP parking lot since the road you have to take to get there was closed off. Come to find out that the VIP parking pass was our ticket onto roads forbidden to commoners. Finally we made it. Had no troubles parking the car and only had to walk a few feet to our special VIP entrance. We walked right in as others stared with jealousy that we were allowed to enter through the barricaded doors. As we moved toward our trackside box seats we saw all the famous attractions of the track including the Twin Spires and the paddock. Our seats were truely unbeatable. We were under the shade and had a great view of the track right by the finish line.

The first few races were fun to watch. Matt spent most of his time learning how to read all that jibberish they print in the program so he could know what he was doing when he placed bets. I stuck with my method of reading all the names first and then checking out how many races the horse had been in its life and how many times it had come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. My method is easy and sometimes reliable, but that was not the case on Derby Day. The first few races I placed bets only in my head. For at least three or four consecutive races the horse I had pretend money on came in dead last. If it was a game of picking who was going to loose I would be a rich woman.

The hours passed by rather quickly. We decided to get some over priced chicken strips and fries for lunch and then Matt spent his time taking in as much information as he could to become a better gambler and discovering he has a taste for mint juleps while I took in the scene. It was fascinating. The people, the horses, and the hats...all the extravagant hats. There was everything from Baseball Caps with select horses names to 3 ft. diameter renditions of the track itself. I'd have to say the one I got the biggest kick out of was worn by a lady sitting fairly close to us. To me it looked like she had wrapped toilet paper around her head and had someone pee on it.

My favorite part of the day without a doubt was the actual Derby race. A bit of history here...Matt works at Winstar Farm which is why we got to go to Derby at all and why we had such VIP status. Winstar had two horses running in the Derby...Bluegrass Cat, who actually stands on their farm, and Sharp Humor, who I think is the offspring of Distorted Humor, another horse that stands at Winstar...Don't quote me on that Sharp Humor info though, I don't know if that info is entirely accurate. So I was partial to Bluegrass Cat from the beginning because I like his name and he had come in the money in 3 out of 4 races he'd recently run. I ventured to the neverending betting line where I stood for 45 minutes waiting to bet soley on Bluegrass Cat. While I was standing there a guy asked me when my baby was due. I told him September and he suggested I bet on the #9 horse. I didn't have a program with me so I had no idea who the nine was or what it's running history was like. I decided to wing it. I bet $10 on Bluegrass Cat to show and $10 on #9 to show. Both horses had 30-1 odds so if they both came in the money I would have made a little. I bought some nachos and ventured back to my seat in time to watch the horses enter the track before being loaded into the starting gate. I discovered then that the #9 horse was infact Sharp Humor. I accidently bet in favor for both Winstar horses. Just as soon as the reached the starting gate they were off running, with all their might, for the roses. Sharp Humor lagged behind early and Bluegrass Cat did show up until about the final turn, but when he came around that corner the anxiety turned into excitement as he pulled into second place and pushed hard for first. Although he didn't make it into the desired number 1 spot I was thrilled with second because not only was it great for Matt's farm, I had just won quite a bit of money at my first Kentucky Derby. And my trend of picking the loser wasn't harmed too badly...Sharp humor came into second to last.

I must say it was a great day at the track. We made it safely home despite Brian's lack of consideration for passengers in his vehicle and reckless tendencies. When we got back to Lexington, we went to Matt's brother's for a Derby party they were having and as sort of a pre-birthday celebration for Matt. His birthday was May 7th, the day after Derby. It turned out to be a fun weekend and I am thankful to have experienced the Derby in the high class style that we did and have so many pictures to share (Thanks again Shan and Charles).