thanks for the clarification

Today I had a meeting with a lady I work with.  I went to her office and sat down; she started talking.  She talks a lot.

Anyway, mid-thought, she looks at me and says, "How pregnant are you?  You're four months along, right?"

I laughed and told her I was almost 8 months.

She said, "You're hardly bigger than a minute.  Is everything okay?"

I assured her everything was fine.  I told her I saw the OB this morning and he said I was right on target.

She didn't believe me.

So I stood up and gave her the profile view.

And she said, "Oh, yeah!  You're really showing.  You're HUGE!"

I thanked her for her backwards comment.

And then she went on, "See, the way you're sitting you just look like you could be on one of those commercials for the miracle jeans that hold everything in or the magic girdles."

"Are you saying that I look fat?", I asked.

"Well, yes," she answered, "but fat like you should be in a commercial."

land of 1000 blankets

We have been very productive today.  All of the baby clothes have been washed, organized by size, and put away.  Baby bedding and towels - same.  We really do have about 1000 baby blankets - I doubt we'll ever use them all - but they're clean and put away, too.  We even went ahead and wrestled the mattress pads and sheets onto the crib mattress, over the dust ruffle, next to the crib bumper.  We're definitely moving in the right direction.

We're nowhere close to ready though.  We still have quite a bit of things to put together, organize, clean and store.  I've got a list of baby things that we're going to need started, and one of these days we're going to have a big trip to the grocery store ahead of us.  (But we still have one baby shower next month, and we'd like to wait to see what we get before we go buy stuff.)

We have two more classes ahead of us - one Wednesday week, and the other a week or so after that.  Then all we'll lack is the kid.

...  and the other 1000 things we didn't realize we'd need...

promise and change

This is an important day, and we're excited that Obama is officially the President.  

I called Nana this afternoon to see how she was doing, and she was so excited to tell me about watching the Inauguration activities all day long.  She told me all about being in Washington, DC, for FDR's 4th Inauguration.  She talked about how many people were there today, much more than for FDR.  She told me about how cold it was when FDR was inaugurated, too.  She said it had been so cold that they (she and 3 of her brothers) decided to watch the parade from the hotel room.  Of course that was before WWII, she said, so the parade was more of a military parade with tanks and machinery, not bands and people dancing.  

But she said in a lot of ways they were similar because FDR was elected after the Depression, and there was lots of promise for change and things getting better.  And they did get better, and many jobs were created, and it was a major turning point in American history.  I asked Nana what she thought about seeing the first black President elected, and she said she was very excited about all the hope in the air (not unlike the hope that surrounded FDR).  

Then she told me her brothers decided to talk her into staying in DC for another month to go to the President's Ball.  She stayed and told me about visiting family and seeing all of the important DC sites...  and then going to the ball.

We really didn't get into the details of the President's Ball.  She went straight into talking about how she hopes Obama will be able to fix all of the problems going on right now.  She hopes he'll be able to create jobs so people can go back to work (like FDR did), which will help the economy.  She talked about all of the good things that can happen.

I believe her.  I want them to happen, too.  And I believe it's possible.

So does Squirmy, as we've been extra active today.  We want to make sure we get a welcome-to-America letter from the White House to include in the baby book, but that part of the site hasn't been updated yet.  

Go Team.

(at the least you've got 3 generations of excitement behind you on this front)

medium: skin and acrylic

Pregnancy week 30...  It's all on the downhill now.

The Hater and I went to an all-day childbirth class yesterday.  It was painful, and I'm not just referring to the awful chairs we sat in for 8 hours.  It was one of those things that we knew we really needed to do, but that didn't make it any less tolerable.  The highlight of the day was the grilled cheese sandwiches we had for lunch.

And as if playing pregnancy games all day long yesterday wasn't enough, The Hater really stepped up today and helped me with some creative belly shots this afternoon.  He earned a whole page of gold stars in my book, especially since we were playing painting and photography games while we were cheering for the Cardinals to beat the Eagles.

This belly theme is one of my favorites, and I think we got some good shots out of it.  The idea is ripped from one of my favorite hymns, but I'm very doubtful that God's going to get knotted-up over plagiarism.  More plagiarist photos to follow...

The Hater has gone to play poker tonight, and I've already started mourning the fact that I have to get up and work tomorrow and he gets to stay in bed.  I'm pretty sure I'm not going to hold it against him personally.

Meanwhile, this baby is putting on weight like a little heifer.  The movement in my belly really surprises me sometimes.  It's moved from consistent jabbing in my lowest right ribs to more of an attempt to cuddle with Mommy's lung, which isn't nearly as painful.  A few days ago I played some music through earphones to my belly, and this kid has never wiggled so much.  

Laundry calls.

perks

Since last summer when we realized that we were pregnant, we've been eyeing the pregnant-only parking places at the grocery store and the one place at the mall.  Even early on, when we wouldn't have parked there if we wanted to because we would have felt guilty about other people needing the places worse than us, these parking places were always full.  

As my pregnancy has progressed the idea of closer parking has really appealed to me.  This is especially true now as baby is smashing upwards on my diaphragm, making me feel short of breath to do just about anything.  I know this will just get worse until the baby drops because I'm not an idiot.  This must be the reason why they invented close pregnancy parking.

Except that they're NEVER open.

Until this morning when we decided to go to the mall after church to see the new horror flick, "The Unborn".  Granted, at 10am most of the parking lot was open...  and so was the coveted parking place.  The Hater pointed out that there was plenty of close parking, that we didn't have to park there.  But to me it was an opportunity we just couldn't pass up - after all, who knows when we'll have the chance to park there again?  Slim to none, my friend.  

So we struck while the iron was hot, and we parked in the one pregnant parking place, located nicely between a handicap place and the sheriff's parking places.  Nevermind there was an open place 10 feet further away.  This was a conquest, and we took full advantage of it.

Meanwhile, the movie was really fun.  I think the baby liked it, too, because there were lots of kicks during the scary parts.  (And I'd like to add this could possibly be the first scary movie where The Hater jumped more than I did while watching it.)  

And then we went to the grocery store and had to park out in the back 40 because those were the only choices for parking places...

This reminds me that I need to fill out the paperwork at work to see if they still have pregnancy places open in the parking lot.  The hike into the buildings from the parking lot where I park is getting longer and longer and longer.

my Titans and Squirmy

I'm a little bit miffed that most of the sports announcers are not supporting my Titans to beat the Ravens this afternoon.  They're just not thinking straight...  that must be it.

Squirmy, who has yet to have an official name, is still perking along.  The kicks have gotten much stronger, and this baby seems intent on only beating on my lowest right rib... over and over.  The Hater has conceeded that we can have a few names to pick from when baby makes their entrance instead of picking one name for when they come.  So it'll be "Baby Vol" for a while until we look at it and decide which is the best fit.

It wouldn't seem right if I didn't at least mention the outcome of the Orange Bowl.  I was tickled with Florida's victory, and The Hater said he was secretly looking forward to going back to work to hear sad OU fans in mourning.  I was really good at work yesterday - only laughing out loud once with a LSU fan who was also pulling for an SEC victory.  Although I'd be lying if I said that the tired, forlorn look on most of my coworkers faces did bring a little extra joy to my heart.  Squirmy liked it, too, because that was a great reason to attack my ribcage.

Speaking of bruised ribs, I finished the Twilight series last week.  To be more specific, I read it all in just less than a week.  Sister talked me into bringing them back with me when we were home for Xmas, and I'm glad that I did.  The books were not very well written, but the story was fun.  It was an easy read, and I'd recommend them to anyone who can suspend reality to enjoy a story about vampires.  

Yesterday the high in OKC was 75 degrees...  during the night it dropped below freezing, and they say today's high will be in the 50s.  This is the best recipe for another head cold for me, which tickles me snotty.  It's come just in time because I'm almost over the last head cold that hit me right before Xmas.  I will not miss pregnancy congestion.

We'll be cheering for our Titans today...  complete with wardrobe.  Go team...  show all those announcers why they're wrong.

happy 2009

The only thing we've resolved so far is that we're not leaving the house today.  We're having leftovers for lunch and a leftover combo-switcho for supper.  Should be super fancy...  we'll be spending the evening cheering on our buddy, Peyton.

In the interim my plan is to do as little as possible.

I went to work on the 1st to put some time in on a end-of-the-year-inventory-type-project that turned out to be as gaggy and painful as I thought it would be.  It was 4 hours of awful...  but it's 99.6% done now, and I'm glad for that.  Unfortunately, all the counting and organizing really put a bad taste in my mouth, and although I had been motivated to work on the nursery stuff and get onesies separated by sizes into drawers, now the idea of counting anything really makes me want to throw up and eat my own vomit.

So I'm going to not work on baby stuff today; most likely I won't do it tomorrow either.  This isn't a sign for things to come in 2009.  It's a much-needed reprieve.