And I would drive 500 miles...

We almost pulled off a milestone this week. Almost. Fox had depositions to take in Pooler, Georgia on Friday (it's by Savannah), so he did a lot of driving. On the way to the game yesterday, he realized that we were very close to making it 500 miles on one tank of gas -- one tiny Prius tank of gas. I think we would have made it too, but at 494 miles, the gas light started flashing, and we were right at an exit. So in an abundance of caution, we gave up on the milestone and pulled over to get some gas. I know it hurt Fox's pride a little bit, but I appreciated that our safety came first. Plus, if we ran out of gas, we would be late to the game.

The game. Ugh. The Vols won, but it was not pretty. We went into double overtime versus the UAB Blazers (fyi... a "blazer" is apparently a cute green dragon, not a navy sport coat, sport utility vehicle, or whatever else you might be thinking). I'm afraid the rest of the season is going to be a long, hard road. But on the bright side, that long, hard road won't include me sitting on bleachers for numerous consecutive weeks, as it has thus far. I will miss my weekly Petro.

The best part of the game this week was halftime. October is Native American heritage month, so the Vols invited a singing/dancing group of Cherokee from Cherokee, North Carolina to entertain the crowd. They were decked out in elaborate costumes and did some fantastic dances. I did however, cry a single tear when they introduced "Miss Cherokee" and "Lil' Miss Cherokee," who appeared to be 10 and 5 year old girls, respectively. I was sad these proud people had given in to the ridiculous white man tradition of child beauty pageants.

Baby Fox has had a big week. We went to pilates Monday night, to see Bobby Bare Jr. perform at the Earl on Tuesday night, the doctor on Wednesday, and the ballgame on Saturday. We also started our 24th week of pregnancy on Saturday. She has been moving and kicking a lot. We got a great report from the midwife -- she has a very strong heartbeat and growth is measuring right on schedule. This week, we will be busy making taste buds and sweat glands.

The best thing about this week is that Baby Fox is now considered to be viable, meaning that if she was born right now, she would have a chance of surviving. It wouldn't be certain or easy, but it is still a reassuring milestone to me. I am starting to think about her eventually being an actual baby instead of just a feeling inside me more and more, and realizing how much we need and need to do to prepare for her.

My mom gave me the dress that they brought me home from the hospital in, still in the box in which dad brought it to the hospital. He wrote mom's name and room number on the box. Fox has promised to write my name and room number below where dad wrote mom's and bring it to the hospital. Hopefully Baby Fox will be about the size I was at birth.

Mom is incredible at taking care of things and keeping them like new. She is also an amazing smocker and sew-er (that can't be the right word, but seamstress doesn't seem right for what I'm trying to say either). I can't wait to go through the cedar chest where she has preserved all of the dresses she sewed and smocked for me as a baby and little girl.

Have a great week, everybody. Be sure to check in on us next week, when Baby Fox will weigh as much as an average rutabaga (that's a pound and a half, for those of you unfamiliar with the mystery vegetable that is the rutabaga)!

p.s. I've noticed that Blogger deletes my two spaces between sentences and replaces them with one space every time I upload a picture. I don't know how to fix this, and it drives me crazy. If anyone knows, please fill me in. I get tired of going back and putting all the extra spaces in.

These go to eleven

On Friday, my dear, sweet Kerouac and Owen turned eleven. I really can't believe it has been that long. On one hand, it seems like they've been with me my entire life -- on the other hand, it seems like yesterday I was reading an email from my good friend Page telling me about the "muddy-looking litter of kittens" born in a spare tire in her backyard in Lascassas, Tennessee.

Little did I know that eleven years later, I would have spent over a third of my life with those muddy buddies and soon they will be meeting my daughter. It might be a parenting red flag that I feel a little more confident in our parenting abilities when I think about how good Owen and Kerouac are. Afterall, I raised them for eleven years and Fox has assisted me in raising them for seven of those years. But seriously, if you spent some time with them, you would not think that's such a crazy notion (I think). They are really awesome cats. They love to snuggle, play with toys, and wrestle.

We headed up to Knoxville Saturday morning for UT's first SEC match-up against our dreaded opponent the Florida Gators. We attempted our first mini-tailgate with the Prius. We were extra brave and had both Vols and Gators in attendance at the event. I know what you're thinking-- a bipartisan tailgate is pretty ambitious. Don't worry. I was fueled by my weekly Petro. There was minimal heckling and a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately, the Vols could not quite pull out the W this week, though there were several times we thought it was going to happen. The team didn't look bad, they just made some mistakes that we will chalk up to being a very young team. Next week we should be able to break the two-game losing streak. However, it was a fun game to watch, and Baby Fox seemed to enjoy herself (if that is what kicking and moving around means).

Speaking of Baby Fox, we've started week 23 of pregnancy. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for our monthly check-up, which should be very routine with no big events scheduled. I'm sad we won't get to peek in on her, but we did get to see her a month ago. I really like reading about all the amazing things that happen during pregnancy (it is a nice consolation when you look down and think about how alien your body is and how you weigh more than ever in your entire life). Something that really amazes me is that as of ten weeks ago (when we were 13 weeks pregnant and didn't even know she was a girl yet), Baby Fox already had all of the eggs she will ever have. So one-half of all of our grandchildren for Baby Fox are already in existence inside Baby Fox, inside me. That's pretty incredible if you ask me. And since you are reading my blog, you kinda did.

**Warning - this paragraph contains a baby rant** I have also started looking at baby things, most of which completely baffle me. Babies require a lot of research. One strange thing I have noticed is there is a compulsion on the part of people to try to somehow make the baby about them. It apparently isn't important that there is a totally new human trying to figure out the world, it is really an opportunity to advertise something about someone else. There is a huge amount of baby apparel with slogans like "I get my looks from my mom" or "Go ahead and push me around but you ought to know my grandma's the biggest, baddest, meanest lady in town" or "My uncle kicks butt" or my favorite "My aunt Jen is single" (I did not make these up -- they are all real). Really? You are now using the baby to try to set up a relative on dates? What sort of guy would even respond to that? Whew - sorry. All the baby stuff still seems really new, and I get a little worked up about aspects of it sometimes. Also, I found out what pilates are this week, and man, they are hard! It is amazing that such small movements can make you feel like you got such a workout.

I hope everyone has a great week. Be sure to check in with us next week when Baby Fox is as long as an ear of corn!

Petro's, pancreases, and pilates

I love a good holiday week. Something about not having a Monday makes a week go by so much faster. On Labor Day, Fox's band, Bellwether Station (check them out on Facebook or at http://www.bellwetherstationatl.com/), started the recording process for their first album in our basement. They record each song one instrument, or "track," at a time on an eight track recorder, then merge all the tracks together to make the finished song. The process yields much better quality recordings than the live recordings the band currently has, but is very slow going. Hopefully the album will be finished in the next two months.

On Thursday, we went to see Fox's old friend Billy Wayne Davis perform at the Laughing Skull Lounge. Billy Wayne is a stand-up comedian (no, seriously -- it is his real job, and he's very good at it) who was in town from Seattle for four days of performances. After the show, we spent some time catching up with him, which is always a pleasure. If you have the chance to be good friends with a stand-up comedian, I highly recommend it. The conversation is outstanding.

Saturday we headed up to Knoxville again, this time to take on the Ducks of Oregon (not us personally, but the Vols). I was especially excited about this game because several of my friends from high school were coming up for the game. Living in Atlanta, I rarely get the pleasure of seeing my old homies. And of course, they did not disappoint. I miss y'all!

I almost forgot to take pictures this weekend. Luckily right before we left the tailgate, I remembered to get this gem of the Gobbles, Drew, and me. To the rest of you who escaped my camera -- I'm sorry or you're welcome... whichever you prefer. The blog has made me realize how little of my life I photographically document (unless I'm on vacation). Hopefully this will be remedied, but I did backslide this week and take even less photos than last week.

We then headed to the University Center (or UC in collegespeak) to feed my addiction to Petro's (http://www.petros.com/). For those of you unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the Petro, it was invented at the 1982 World's Fair, which took place in fair Knoxville. It consists of a layer of corn chips, covered in chili (or in my case, vegetarian chili), topped with shredded cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and sour cream, with optional black olives and jalapenos -- which I highly recommend adding. It is served in a cup and eaten with a fork, though my understanding of Petro's history is that at the World's Fair, it was served in the corn chip bag. Some people claim it has been in existence long before 1982 and call it "Frito pie" or "chili pie," but it's always a Petro to me, and I stick with the original story. Fox and I often ponder the success of opening a franchise in Atlanta.

The game got off to a great start, even through a light drizzle. The Vols were clearly fired up to be playing the number 7 team in the country, and finished their opening drive with a field goal. Then we forced a fumble and scored another field goal to make it 6-0. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side and reports of a heavy thunderstorm caused the officials to delay the game. We got out of our seats to seek shelter in a covered part of the stadium and saw a spectacular thunderstorm, though honestly I was pretty scared. The lightning was so close, you could practically feel the electricity. After about a 70-minute delay, football resumed. I won't go over the rest of the game, because we lost.

On the Baby Fox front, we're cruising along in our 22 week. This week, I'm making a pancreas! I know, I know -- pretty exciting stuff. Sorta makes you feel like you are much less busy than I am, right? I also assembled the Pack n' Play, which was really exciting. I took a couple of pictures for y'all just now to make this a little more interesting.



This is from the Little Hoot collection, of which I'm a big fan. We picked it out long ago, and Baby Fox was getting it whether she was a boy or girl. I hope she likes it as much as we do. When I next check in with you, she will be the size of a mango and likely just as sweet (fingers crossed -- if I say it enough, I'm sure it will be true).

I begin our pregnancy pilates class tomorrow, about which I'm very excited. I've been taking a combo class for pregnancy fitness, toning, and yoga, and I enjoyed it very much. I'm hoping pilates will give me as much of a workout as the combo class -- I really don't have a good sense of exactly what pilates are. However, Oh Baby! Fitness claims they make labor easier, and I'm all for that.

I will leave you with these lovely mini-irises. Sweet Fox just got back from the grocery store and surprised me with them, though I have suspicions that they are really for Baby Fox. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

The length of a carrot

On Saturday, I started my 21st week of pregnancy. With Baby Fox the length of a carrot, it was appropriately time for us to don head-to-toe orange for opening weekend of University of Tennessee football. Fox and I actually met during freshman orientation at UT over twelve years ago. Last year, I gave in and we became proud season ticket holders. Making seven trips from Atlanta to Knoxville and effectively taking up my entire fall is a small price to pay for Fox to fulfill his life-long dream of seasonticketdom.

Though I love the old alma mater, orange isn't my favorite color. I realized how little I liked it last year when I discovered I had nothing orange to wear to games. I made an effort to get some orange items, and my dear friend Sarah Gilliam actually gave me a great vintage orange dress when she came to visit for the Peach Bowl over New Years. I was excited to wear it to games this year, then I realized that it might not fit over Baby Fox. Luckily, it did. However, I did notice several double takes of "is she pregnant, or gaining weight in an unfortunate manner?" I did try to puff out Baby Fox for photographic evidence of her attendance at her first UT game.

Before the game, we met up with some old friends for tailgating and learned a new game called "washers." It is similar to cornhole, only you throw large washers at a box with a pipe in it (like skee-ball). Three points are awarded for landing in the pipe and one point for landing in the box. On the tailgating front, I have traded in beer for cookies.

I'm pleased to report that for Baby Fox's first game we beat UT Martin handily (50-0), with our first shut-out since 2003. It was Derek Dooley's first game as head coach and also the first meeting of UT and UT Martin, so the game was monumental for several reasons. Baby Fox kicked a lot, which I want to believe means she had fun. Fox even got to feel a series of kicks -- she seems pretty strong.

To the right is Coach Dooley running through his first Power T. The weather was just wonderful, but even still it isn't great to sit in direct sunlight for several hours. You may also notice that our season tickets were in the shade! This was an unexpected and very welcome discovery. I know we won't be so lucky for 3:30 games, but it's good to know that at least at 6:00 and later games, we won't fry. We stayed until the fourth quarter, then headed back to Atlanta and listened to the call-in show for as long as we got the station. It was glorious. As usual, most callers had "a comment, not a question" with some very astute observations, mostly involving the classiness of Coach Dooley and the difficulty of beating Oregon next week.

I hope all of you out there in blogland had a great Labor Day. Check in next week when Baby Fox is the size of a spaghetti squash!

Venturing into the world of blogs

Inspired by several of my fabulous blogging friends, I have decided to start a blog. I hope it will be a place for far-away friends and family to keep up with us and a great way for us to remember this very exciting time in our lives. Why is this time so exciting and blog-worthy? Because we are having a baby. That's right, come January 2011, it will no longer just be the two of us on this adventure. We will be the Foxes Three. Sounds a little like a fairy tale or fable, no?

We are excited, terrified, anxious, confused, and elated. If that doesn't make for a nice entertaining read, well, I'm not sure what does. We hope you'll check in on us every now and then, and we'll try to make you smile. We also hope that one day we can show this to Baby Fox, and she'll see how excited we are about her and how many fun times we had when she was too little (or not quite born) to remember.