Bored

Trying to amuse myself right now and not having a lot of luck. Ed's been in bed since 8, trying to get some sleep before his alarm goes off at 2:15. Good times. I'm pretty sure he's not sleeping because it didn't sound like his "sleeping breathing" coming out of the bedroom when I passed it earlier. Hopefully he'll be able to get at least a little bit of sleep. Sucks to be him tomorrow.

So I was downstairs watching television when I decided there was nothing that I felt like watching. So now I'm all the way upstairs on the computer. Nobody's updated their blog and I don't feel like playing POGO. I guess I could check my Babies R Us registry for the millionth time to see that nobody's purchased anything off of it in the past 6 hours. ;) The invitations for the shower were delivered yesterday, so they should be out soon. Then we'll see some action. I'm so obsessive-compulsive about the registry thing...it was the same when we got married. It was actually worse then because I could check while I was at work too, which I can't anymore because we're now on a company system so they know if I'm on an "inappropriate" site. Blah.

At least it's not just mine, I also love when I have friends that are registered places. I enjoy checking their registries on a daily basis as well to see what's been purchased. Perhaps I should just go to work at BRU and play at the registry desk all day. That would be fun.

Everything's Good

Had yet another doctor's appointment today. All's good with the world. Blood sugar's fine (which we already knew), I'm not anemic (didn't really think I would be), and the heartbeat's strong. I start the every other week thing now...and he's giving me a referral for another ultrasound after my next appointment. The only thing that pissed me off was when the chickie weighed me and didn't bother to do it precisely and just put down that I was at the same weight as last time. I should have been two pounds lighter, dammit! :P To make up the difference, I went to the new Chick-fil-a in Parkville and got a chocolate shake (which I've been craving for a week now). It made me happy. ;)

Hot!

This heat is killing me!!! I'm usually not too bad with the heat, but it's definitely true about pregnancy making the heat worse than it would be otherwise. I wonder why...couldn't be the tiny human growing inside of me extracting her own body heat which gets added to mine...could it? ;) Thank goodness for air conditioning. Too bad we're going to go broke trying to pay the BGE bill. Blah.

Went to Becky's again after work today. She has to be all packed up and ready to go by Saturday morning when the movers get there. Sucks to be her. She's got a lot done, but they have a long way to go before then. I was hoping to be helpful, but not so much. I did play with Claire and took Becky to pick her car up from the dealership, so that was helpful. Then mom and I had a quick dinner and I got the heck home because I'm hot and tired.

Not that I'm going to get to sleep anytime soon. Ed's still not home from work and I told him I'd help him put some stuff together for the enrollment he has tomorrow. Last night I put together 100 folders for the D.C. stuff he has this week and then highlighted 100 enrollment forms. Fun stuff. But if I didn't do it, he would have been up until 2 in the morning trying to get it done. Especially since he had to umpire last night. It's all about the teamwork in my house. ;)

Oh...and check it out...I'm 30 weeks today! Woohoo!!!

Don't Wanna Go Back!

The only sucky thing about living so close to work that I can go home for lunch is having to go back to work again. Blah. But at least the day hasn't been too bad so far. It's a Monday. There wasn't anybody fun around to have lunch with, so I opted to go home today. We even have yummy stuff that I can eat here...hooray! I'm typically not a fan of microwave meals, but I've found that the Lean Cuisine pizzas and paninis are quite yummy. Plus they're on sale at Giant this week for $2 each, so bonus!

Ed called me after his weekly meeting today. His boss gave him three groups to work on this week, which is awesome (good $$) but he has to be in D.C. at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday. Yup, I said 4:00 a.m...as in "4 in the morning." He's not going to be a happy camper that night, but hopefully he'll be bringing in the dough.

After work today I get to make a Target stop. I love Target. :) I have to pick up Ed's prescriptions and get some baby laundry detergent so I can start washing all of the clothes that have been coming in. Hopefully we'll be able to pick up the bureau/changing table from my mom's soon, but we can't do that until we get somebody to help Ed with it. It's too heavy for him to do by himself and obviously I can't help...and I don't want my mom lifting it either. Anyone want to volunteer a husband? ;)

Lovely Saturday

Poor Ed had to travel to the D.C. suburbs early this morning for a work meeting, so I had a lovely late morning/afternoon with my mom. She took me out for lunch at By the Docks, which is apparently owned by the same people who own G&M in Linthicum. Yummy, yummy crabcakes...I highly recommend both restaurants to all my fellow crabcake fans. We then went to Toys R Us to look for a birthday present for Claire. Then it was off to BRU, where she bought us a crib mattress. Woohoo...one more thing to mark off my registry. :) Of course, every time I get to take something off, I find something else to add, so it's a never-ending process.

Ed finally got home around 3 and ate the leftover crabcake that I brought home for him. Then he was trapped upstairs for the next several hours working on work stuff and stupid fantasy baseball stuff. I, on the other hand, took a nap and read. Good times. We had a lovely dinner and then floated around the pool for an hour and a half listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Maybe we'll actually finish it before the baby's born. I'm not holding my breath on that one though. We'll probably be listening to it in the labor room. Unless, of course, she decided to come during a Ravens game. That would just be funny. ;)

Go See Hairspray!

I finally got to see it and I loved, loved, loved it! Once you got past how creepy John Travolta looked in drag, it was terrific! The music was great, all the actors were perfect and I smiled through the whole thing. If anyone wants to see it, I'll go again in a heartbeat! :)

Other than that, today was just another day. Work was boring, but at least tomorrow is Friday. Although I'm bummed because Ed now has to go to a work meeting on Saturday morning. The only good thing about that is he's going to go to the softball field afterward to do some work on that which he was going to do on Sunday. The stupid tournament is next week, so they want the field to be in decent shape. So I'll get all day Sunday with him...yay!

Tired

My Claire Bear just keeps getting cuter and cuter, but good lord is she exhausting! Especially now that she's mobile. It's hysterical to watch her just speed crawl from one place to another and back again. Stopping, of course, to torture the cat or to pound on a toy. Fun, but tiring!

Got even more baby stuff from Becky today. Now I have plenty of little socks. :) Little socks are so cute...except when you're trying to keep them on little feet. Plus I got a piece of stoneware that she decided she didn't want. I'll take what I can get...I can always use stoneware. She was trying to pawn more stuff off on me, but I was strong and resisted the urge to take her "Sewing for Dummies" or "The Bible for Dummies." I have plenty of books that I don't read already, thank you. If anyone would like them, just let her know. ;)

Random Stuff

For anyone who loves the Pampered Chef cookware (I'm looking at you, Meg!), you might want to think about at least doing a catalog show for September. The cookware is our host special so you can get any one piece or set for 60% off. What a deal, what a steal. ;)

Right now I'm waiting for my mom to come over. She's been dying to see the nursery-in-progress, so I invited her over for dinner. I made a lasagna last night and it's in the oven now. Yum! I have to admit, I make a pretty good lasagna. Of course, now my house is going to be hot because of the oven, but oh well.

Tomorrow I'm going over Becky's after work to play with Claire while Becky tries to get some packing done. They're moving in about two weeks! Yikes! Hopefully I'll remember to try to pilfer some boxes and packing materials for her from work before I leave. I'm slightly scatter-brained (even when I'm not sharing my brain with a baby), so I can never promise to remember anything.

In baby news, she's been practicing her gymnastics routines in there for the past few days. Even when I'm at work, which is when she's usually quiet, she's been going non-stop. She kicked me in a really weird spot this afternoon when I was talking to Carrie in our office. It was low and to the side and made me jump. Carrie was like, "What the heck was that?" It was pretty funny...uncomfortable, but funny. Pregnancy is just weird.

I'm Normal!

Finally got my results from the glucose tolerance test and believe it or not, it came back normal! Hooray! That was one of the things that I was most worried about. Now I'm just worried about my blood pressure and actually having to give birth. I'm trying not to thing too much about that though. ;)

I guess I'll have to start thinking about it since I should start looking into signing up for a class or two soon. What classes did you all take and were they helpful? I'm thinking of the hospital tour/childbirth one and the breastfeeding one. Any helpful advice? How soon before my due date should we take them? My inquiring mind wants to know.

Moving Right Along

So we actually got done everything we wanted to in the nursery today. Woohoo! The windows are clean, the floor is clean, the carpet is laid down, the shades are up, the one valance we have is up, the closet is cleaned out, the armourer is put together and placed, the glider is in the room and we picked up the crib from my mom's and Ed put it together. I even managed to go through a lot of the stuff we've gotten from other people and stored it in the closet until we get a better system going. I feel so accomplished. ;)

Other than that, not much happening. Baby's still kicking, I still can't sleep past 8:30 on my days off, and I'm tired and sore. Good times.

Busy in Nursery Land

Sorry for the gap in posts...I've been busy, busy, busy. Monday, Sandi (my MIL) spent the day here painting the nursery. The color is definitely a little more yellow than I had anticipated, but I think it will turn out okay once everything is in the room. I like the yellow, just wasn't expecting it to be quite that....ummmmmmmmm...yellow. ;) The ceiling and trim are white. I even spray-painted the ceiling fan blades white as well (instead of the ugly fake wood they were). It's purty. ;)

Then Tuesday Ed and I ran some errands and then I spent the rest of the day painting my old armourer white. Let me tell you what a pain in the dupa that was. I sanded it, primed it, and painted it...five times. I really hate painting too. It took forever. :( Yesterday, we found a rug (boring beige...we had a found a green that would have been perfect, but it only came in huge sizes...we weren't about to pay twice as much as we needed to darnnit!). I found a pretty throw rug at BRU.com that I'm going to order to give it a little color.

Today I've been working more on the armourer. I had to paint the outside of the doors and I'm trimming the doors and drawers in yellow. Hopefully it will look nice when I'm done. Then I can put on the drawer pulls I had made to match the bedding and it will finally be complete. Yay! Saturday we'll wash the floor, lay down the carpet and hopefully get the crib from my mom's house and put it together. We're trying to get as much done now as possible because Ed is going to get really busy at work soon and won't have as much time to work on it. Plus, I want it ready to go by the time my showers roll around so I can concentrate on dealing with all the new stuff I'll be getting. Fun! :)

Harry Rules!!!

I broke my streak of reading the Harry Potter books in one day each. :( Sadly, it took my mom and me five hours to get to Atlantic City yesterday. It normally takes about two and a half, but the traffic was horrible...especially in Delaware. From the time we crossed over the Maryland line until we reached New Jersey, traffic just moved at a crawl. Delaware sucks.

I still read like a crazy woman though and finished by about 11 this morning. It was awesome. I won't go into details here because half of you don't care and the other half might not have finished it yet, but I loved it. I've already started to re-read it. My mom totally ruined the end for me though because she was making fun of me for crying. How rude.

As sad as I am that the series is over, I am just as happy that I never have to deal with another release party. What a nightmare. I thought we had a lot of people at the last party, but there were even more this time. It was insane. Most of the people were cool and just happy to be there and getting their book. But then there were the people who didn't understand why THEY had to wait "in that line." Oh so sorry...we weren't aware that we were going to be hosting royalty. We would have made special arrangements for you had we known. Plus I was starting to get cranky because every bone in my body was aching by the end. Oh well...we got out of there by about 2:45 and then went to breakfast at the diner. I got home around 4 and then had to read a couple of chapters to wind down before I went and got my three hours of sleep. ;)

Today, once we got back from AC, Ed and I went to Becky's to pick up some more baby stuff that Scott's cousin gave us and the glider that she sold us (or rather the she sold my mom since she's paying for it). It's a really nice Pottery Barn glider...extremely comfy and large enough to fit my big old butt. Woohoo! ;) We also got a stroller, some clothes, a pack-&-play for my mom's house, and a bunch of other stuff...including some more from my sister. At least I'll have a few more things to take off my registry so I can just have the stuff I really need left.

Tomorrow my mother-in-law is coming over to paint the nursery. Yay! It's supposed to be really cool and nice out tomorrow, so we'll be able to have the windows open to help with the fumes. Hopefully she can get it all done tomorrow because Carrie and I have a date to go see Hairspray on Tuesday. Then I have to go back to work on Wednesday. I thought ahead and made sure I gave myself a few days to recover from the HP madness!

Things That Make You Go "Ew!"

Pregnancy is so much fun! I woke up at 1 am to discover that the part of the sheet by my hand was soaked. I thought, "What the heck did that? Did I try to drink some of my water in my sleep and spill it? Did the cat puke next to me? Did my water break?" Then I felt around and noticed that the area of my nightgown all around my right boob was soaked as well. That's when I realized that I had leaked.

Gross! It was the side that I was lying on and I guess my breast was a little bit under me. Is it normal for that to happen at this point in the pregnancy? Either way, it totally freaked me out. And I had to change nightgowns because the first one was soaked. I mostly stuck to the other side for the rest of the night, but at one point I had rolled back over and noticed a little wetness again. Weird.

Now I'm here trying to conserve energy for my big party tonight. I'm pretty sure I have everything done that I needed to do. I'm excited, it will be crazy fun. Sometime before I leave I have to make the sauce for the meatballs I'm bringing for our bookseller potluck. I also made my ice cream dessert and a shrimp ball. Hopefully the rest of the slackers remember to bring stuff too so we'll have a nice spread. My manager did promise that he'd order pizza if we didn't have enough food, so at least I know we'll be covered. It's just something to make the night a little more enjoyable for us poor fools who have to work it.

Then tomorrow I'm off to Atlantic City with my momma. I managed to scrape together a little bit of gambling money, even though I'll be spending most of my time reading. I can't fathom going there without gambling at least a little! I can't help myself, I come from a long line of gamblers. The gene seemed to have missed my sister, but I definitely inherited it. At least I know how to just bring the money I can lose and I stop once that's gone. But it's fun to play and even more fun when I win (although I wish that happened a little more often!).

Come on Blood Sugar...

Had another doctor's appointment today. The fun one where I got to drink the orange stuff beforehand. I wasn't looking forward to drinking that stuff because I had heard that it was nasty, but I didn't think it was too bad. It reminded me of something I couldn't quite place until Becky came up with it for me. Remember those little barrel drinks you used to get as a kid? That's what it tasted like...an orange barrel drink. Not something I would choose to drink, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

So he took that blood and I can call on Friday for the results. Everything else was normal, so hooray. :) I even gained three pounds since the last appointment, much to my sister's delight. Although I'm pretty sure that it was only 2 1/2, the arrow wasn't centered dammit! :P Keep your fingers crossed for me that the test comes back okay...I really don't want to have to do the three hour test.

Other than that, it's all about Harry Potter. I have to be extra careful when I'm online now since the book has been leaked all over the place. I don't want to know what happens!!!

Waiting to Go to Work

Ed and I are supposed to leave at the same time today, but he's holding me up as usual. I need to walk out the door in six minutes, but he's still in the shower and his car is blocking mine in the driveway. We agreed that we'd park my car in the driveway every night, but sometimes it's rather inconvenient (like now). He had better get a move on...that's all I'm saying.

Other than that things are same old around here. Gearing up for my big party Friday night at work. It will be crazy, but fun. My big, pregnant butt will be sitting behind a table all night giving out wristbands. I told my boss a long time ago that I couldn't be running around like a crazy woman and he agreed. Yay for sympathetic bosses! :) Then Saturday my mom is taking me to Atlantic City. I'm just going to lay around the hotel room all day, reading my book. But I guess it will be nice to be away, however briefly.

Sunday was Kaylee's baptism (Ed's niece). No offense to those of you who aren't Catholic, but non-Catholic services always seem so strange to me. This one was no exception. I guess it's all about what you're used to, but I just don't get the same feeling that I do from a Catholic mass. I'm not the most devout Catholic, but I do like my faith.

I think I finally hear Ed...gotta go to work. :*(

Good Morning

As usual, I had the opportunity to sleep as late as I wanted today and couldn't snooze past 8:30. Oh well, at least I feel rested. Today we get to go to the grocery store, then I get to make a couple of things for Ed's niece's baptism tomorrow and then we're going to the Orioles game tonight. Good times. I really don't feel like going to the game, but we got these tickets with friends of ours way back before I was even knocked up. So I'll just suck it up and go. Blah.

Sleeping

We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter on Tuesday. It was awesome! :P I know most of you don't care, but I love all things Harry Potter and the movie made me happy. Some parts were a little mishmashed (they were trying to fit an 800+ page book into just over 2 hours), but the ending was so good it totally made up for it. I can't wait to see it again!

The only downside to going to the midnight show was that I was exhausted all day yesterday. Luckily, I had some meaningless tasks to complete in preparation for my big HP Party next Friday, so I just sat at the breakroom table most of the day and got the busywork done. When I got home, I went on the computer for about 20 minutes then I was literally in bed the rest of the day dozing off and on until bedtime. Then I actually slept through the night (except for a 3:00 am trip to the potty). I feel much better now though. :)

I work late tonight, so right now I'm waiting for Ed to get home from an appointment so we can go to the insurance company's office to drop off the title to the Taurus and pick up our check. Hooray! Then tomorrow he'll drop me off at work and take my car to the dealership to drop off our down payment. We want them to take a look at the radio because the CD player doesn't seem to work. I've waited forever to have a car with a CD player...they will fix it!

100 Days!

We're getting down to the home stretch now! Only 100 days left until my due date. Hooray! It almost feels like there's an end in sight. :)

In bad news, today is the last day of my vacation and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I don't wanna! :(

At least things are really starting to look up with Ed's job right now. His boss keeps getting some big groups, which really benefits us. Ed's going to be pretty busy from the middle of this month through the middle of November. Yay! He just had to apply for his D.C. insurance license because his boss was just handed the D.C. Police and Fire Departments and the D.C. Metro. Keep your fingers crossed that the money will start to roll in soon. His boss seems to think it definitely will...Ed told him he didn't want to get his hopes up about some of the things they have coming up and his boss told him to go ahead and get them up. Here's hoping...

I Got a Car!

Hooray! Now I don't have to beg rides all week like I thought I was going to have to do. :) We went searching this morning. Struck out at 3 places and then went to Jerry's. They had a pretty good used car selection and we had found two online that we wanted to look at, both Chevy's. One was our "absolute last resort, nobody will give us any credit" car and one was what we thought we could afford. When we were looking around though, we saw a 2005 Honda Accord (my top car choice) that was marked down from $16000 to just under $13000 as part of their 4th of July sale. Granted, it has a crapload of miles, but it's a Honda.

The salesguy came out and asked what we were interested in and we told him our situation. So we decided to go in and start the financing process to see what we could afford. Turns out that we were worried about getting a loan for nothing and we could afford the Honda and keep the payments where we wanted them. We're even keeping $2000 from the settlement to make sure we're covered with the payments for awhile. They worked with us and got us the car today knowing that we wouldn't have the check until later this week. So all in all, we're happy.

My mom and his mom were a little worried about the number of miles on the car, but we're only looking at it as a temporary car anyway. I shouldn't be in it for any more than two years. But it's very safe, it runs much better than my old car and it's the make we wanted. So yay! :)

Insurance Companies Suck

Yesterday we got a call from the adjuster saying that we could pick up our check anytime starting today. So as we were getting ready to leave this morning to go to the office, we got a call from the Total Loss department of the insurance company asking where our paperwork was. I told the guy that we never received any paperwork and that I had even called yesterday to check up on it since it had been over a week. He said that they had sent it the day after I made my claim and that he couldn't authorize a check until he got the paperwork...and it had to be notarized. Luckily he said he could e-mail it to me.

Let me tell you what a pain it was to fill that out. A lot was information that you know they already had and some was just stupid stuff that we didn't know (what was the name of the salesperson that sold you the car?). I mean, come on. Ed and I both got extremely frustrated and upset with the whole thing this morning. I even broke down while on the phone with my mom. We finally got it filled out as best we could. Luckily my mom is a notary public, so we took it to her and she finished it up for us and we faxed it over to start the process. We still have to mail the originals too, but hopefully this will get us our check a little faster.

We were hoping to go car shopping tomorrow since a lot of places are running 4th of July specials through Monday. We're still going to go and just take the insurance paperwork with us to show that a check is coming and to hopefully start the process. The problem is we don't know what kind of financing we're going to qualify for, so it's hard to know what sort of price range we're looking at. I guess we'll just have to find something decent and try to get the process started. Blah.

Hola

It's been a long week so far. The shore was nice...fairly relaxing despite the chaos with all the people in the house. The only crazy day was Tuesday when we went to the ocean for the day. Making an out-of-shape pregnant woman walk for about 3 miles in the sun isn't very nice. I was very tired and sore afterwards, that's for sure. Since I don't do the beach, my MIL and I sat on the boardwalk and fed the baby while everyone else went to play in the ocean for a little while. Then we walked the boardwalk (the afore-mentioned 3 miles), had dinner, and did some outlet shopping. I got a very pretty top and a pair of work pants from Motherhood Maternity with my gift card (thanks Meg, Val and Kathy!), so that was productive. Then we had to drive back and the poor baby cried almost the whole way because she was exhausted and her tummy hurt. I'm still trying to recover myself.

We got home around 1:30 yesterday at which time I promptly took a nap. Then I had a few things to prepare for the party and did a quick straighten of the house. Everyone started showing up around 5 and we had a lovely time, despite the rain. They started the fireworks about 20 minutes early and it was a good thing they did because the second the grand finale was over, it started to pour. Of course, we were happily safe and dry in my sunroom. Everyone was gone by about 9:30 and Ed and I crashed.

Today we slept in and then I had an early Rita's date with Meg and Conner. Nothing like Italian Ice for breakfast! Yum! Ed and I are now getting ready to go run some errands. Home Depot has a special on their Behr paint this week, you get an $8 mail-in-rebate for every gallon you buy through the 7th. So I'm taking the fleece blanket I got that goes with my bedding and finding a pretty yellow to match. Yay! :)

Buh-Bye

You gotta love my husband...he wanted to leave by 11. It's now 10:40 and he has yet to shower or pack. But that's pretty much par for the course for all our cartrips. At least on the rare occasions when we fly, he HAS to leave on time. The best one was when we were going to Atlantic City with my mom and instead of packing, he decided to reorganize our snack cabinet. Oy.

I, on the other hand, am packed, showered and ready to go. It's pretty sad that I'm so desperate to get away that I'm actually considering a few days with my in-laws to be a vacation. Especially when you consider that it will be us, his parents, his 3-month-old niece, his aunt, his 12-year old cousin and his sister's 9-year-old stepson, all in one little house:

At least we have our own room there and a travel DVD player, so we can hide from the masses when we need to. Other than that, I plan on reading and relaxing.

See you on the 4th! :)

Something Besides the Car

I've been so preoccupied with the whole exploding-car thing, I haven't written about anything else. Despite everything, I did get to see my Claire-Bear the other day. My mom picked me up from work and we went together. Just because, here's some cuteness for all:

I can't believe she's already pulling herself up. And that she'll be a year old in less than two months. Sheesh!

Ed and I spent today getting ready to go to his parent's other house for a few days. We had to go to the library to get Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on CD for the trip. Luckily when I checked the library website yesterday, one of the local ones had gotten a copy back, so we went early to make sure we got it. Then we had to go to Target to get his allergy prescription filled and to the grocery store because we were out of food. Good times.

I baked a couple things to take with us and made a yummy dinner and now I'm getting ready to relax for the rest of the night. Although I really should fill the dishwasher before bed. I have more cooking to do the day we get home (the 4th of July) since we have some friends coming over to watch fireworks. Which are definitely happening, by the way. It will be fun.

That's all for now. I'll try to post tomorrow morning before we leave, but I make no promises!

Yup, It's Totaled

The insurance chick called yesterday to officially proclaim the car totaled. She called the house just as Ed was getting ready to walk out the door to pick me up from work. We had to go to the garage to release the car and to see if there was anything else we could get from the inside. Unfortunately, since he was in a hurry, Ed forgot to grab the camera on his way out, so the world will never see what a mess it was. Let me tell ya, it wasn't pretty. The front looked fine, but the back was totally burned out, the tires were melted, the trunk was totally smashed in. Good times. As promised, here's the lame picture of the mess in the street:

Notice the gas-cap towards the top that got blown off. Ed cleaned the glass up yesterday. He said that he found it all the way up to the stairs to our front door. Scary.

They were supposed to call us today to give us a payoff total, but we haven't heard from them. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We're going to his parents' house on the Eastern Shore on Sunday and the cell phone reception is next to nothing out there. We won't be back until either late Tuesday or early Wednesday. I had wanted to get this taken care of before then, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. For those who were wondering, when Ed and I refinanced our house a few years ago, we paid off the car with some of the equity, so we will get the check. That will definitely help with a down payment, but I have no idea how we're going to finance the rest for a new car. We'll have to be creative, I guess. It will work itself out.

Exploding Cars at 2am

Fun story. Last night, around 2:00 am, Ed and I are rudely awakened by a frantic knock at our door. Being sensible people, we froze and wondered, "Who the hell is knocking on our door at this time of night and should we open it?" Then we hear voices outside, one of whom sounds like our next-door neighbor, Mike. So Ed lifts the blind and peeks out the bedroom window and then says, "Holy shit, your car's on fire!"

Oh yes, the car was on fire. He ran outside where Mike was trying to see if there was anything he could do. The back passenger side was in flames and sparks and flames were pouring out of the gas tank. Mike had already called 9-1-1, so the firetruck and a police car showed up a few minutes later. They put the fire out in about 15 minutes and then called the arson inspector.

Apparently, a couple of our neighbors were woken up by an explosion, which both Ed and I totally slept through. One neighbor told the police officer that he saw a group of kids running down the street when he looked out his window. I guess they felt like wrecking some havoc and randomly choose my car to wreck it on. Bastards. The arson inspector said it looked like they either lit a fire under the car or threw something that was on fire under there and the flames reached the gas tank which caused the explosion.

So, my car will most likely be totaled. The police, firemen and tow truck driver all proclaimed it to be so. There's fire damage, smoke damage, water damage from when they put it out and they totally tore up my trunk to make sure the fire was completely out. Too bad it was dark and I wasn't thinking straight or else I would have taken some pictures to post. I do have one of the mess that was left on the street this morning, but I think Ed took the camera with him to work today, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

What really makes me mad is that the timing couldn't be worse. We REALLY can't afford a car right now. We're going to wait to see what we get for the old one assuming they do, in fact, total it. We'll deal with it as it comes.

So that was my exciting night. Top that story!

How Far Along am I?

Do I go by my new ticker with my new due date or do I just keep counting like I've been doing? I'm a little confused about that. If we're going by new time, I'm 24 weeks today. If we're going by old time, I'm 23 weeks today. Either way, we're finally making some progress!

Last night Abby was amusing us by playing hide-and-seek. She was kicking like crazy all night long. Ed finally came to bed around 11 and she was still going. I would put his hand on the right spot and she would kick a few times and then I'd feel her on the total opposite side. So I would put his hand there and she would kick a few times and then I'd feel her on the first side again. This went on for about half-an-hour. She was still dancing around as I was trying to fall asleep. It was pretty funny.

My only other news is that I'm going to see my Claire-Bear tomorrow (hopefully). I haven't seen her in forever. Since I last got to play with her, she has learned how to pull herself up to standing, she speed crawls and she now says "mamamamamamamama." She was cracking me up when I was talking to Becky on the phone the other day. Hopefully I'll have a cute picture or two to post tomorrow. :)

Woohoo!

I have my tickets for the midnight showing of Harry Potter. You can be jealous now. ;)

Drowning in a Bottle of Water

I'll say one thing about being pregnant...since I found out, I've consumed more water than I have previously in my whole life combined. And I don't even particularly like water. Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola company has yet to come out with a Caffeine-Free Diet Coke with Splenda. So I either have to have it with the caffeine or with the Nutra-sweet. So I'm forced to only have one a day, which kills me. I'm such a diet soda junkie. At least I get my juice in the morning which makes me happy too. Pretty much anything I can drink that's NOT water makes me happy right now.

As for today, it was lovely. We slept in and did a lot of nothing. I did get one productive thing done though...I finally went through my dresser and closet and got rid of three trash bags worth of clothes that don't fit or that I don't wear. I didn't have any room for my maternity clothes, not that I have a whole lot. But at least I can now hang them up in the closet. Woohoo.

A New Post!

Sorry I've been such a posting slacker this week. I've actually been busy the past couple nights. I decided to play the role of The Supportive Wife and accompanied my husband to softball on Wednesday night and to volleyball last night. Softball was lame (as usual), but they won both games. Volleyball I actually enjoyed. It looked like so much fun that I would even consider joining the team if it wasn't for the whole pregnancy-thing. ;) I'll have to go with him to that one again while I can.

Other that that, it's been work and sleep. My life is so exciting. :) The baby has discovered that kicking my bladder is fun and as such I've been spending a lot of time peeing. Good times. I really noticed it today, but I think she's been doing it noticeably for about a week...I just couldn't figure out what the weird feeling was. Then today at work I really had to pee and she started and I figured it out real quick. Gotta love it. :)

Tomorrow is our nothing day. I love nothing days! Don't have to go anywhere, don't have to work, just get to relax and enjoy each other's company. I'm looking forward to it. I'm even going to make a yummy steak dinner to celebrate. Of course, I don't really need an excuse to make a steak dinner...I just have to control myself enough to do it no more that once a week. Sometimes it's difficult.

Check Out the Ticker

Yup...had my monthly doctor's appointment today and the due date has officially been moved up to October 16th. Apparently, although I'm not getting much in the way of calories myself (down another 3 pounds since the last appointment), my baby is getting plenty. ;) After he came in and we listened to the heartbeat (very, very loud and strong), he had his receptionist call the dumb radiology place because they still hadn't sent the results of my sonogram. Once they finally faxed it over, I went back to his office and he showed me the wonderful report that said everything is normal. Yay! :)

Then he told me about the due date being moved up by the sonogram tech. He thought I would be happy, but then I told him about my early birth = having to go back to work earlier in the Christmas season. At least my manager is actually considering letting me tack my extra week's vacation onto the end of my leave now. He thought that we got ten weeks automatically. I laughed hysterically and then explained how things work in our company. We'll see how that goes. ;)

I'm just happy that she's healthy and normal. She'll get here when she gets here...I'm not going to stress about it. Next appointment is the fun glucose test. Woohoo! He gave me a bottle of the orange stuff that I have to drink an hour before I go in next. Then he'll just draw my blood himself. I'm hoping it's normal, but I won't be surprised if it's not. Again, that's just something I'll have to worry about when the time comes. Next appointment is July 18th.

Baby-Clothes-a-Palooza

Yesterday was a semi-productive day, despite the weird puffy, hurty eye thing (which still hasn't completely gone away, but it's much better than it was yesterday). My mom and I went to Target and bought six large storage bins and then went back to her house and went through all the baby clothes that Claire (and Kaylee) has donated to Abby. I've already said it about a hundred times, but if there's one thing my baby will not be needing for awhile, it's clothes!

As of right now, I have two large trashbags full of 0-3 month stuff. Three large bins of 3-6 month stuff, 2 bins of 6-9 (with more on the way) and even some 9+ stuff in there. There are plenty of Christmas outfits (including a reindeer costume), Ravens stuff (a really cute cheerleader outfit and two sleepers), jackets and even a Halloween costume (an elephant). The only thing I seem to be lacking are tights and socks. Gotta love having a niece who's seasons match up pretty well with my baby's and whose mommy (and various relatives and friends) loves to buy baby clothes. :)

Most of the stuff mom and I went through we've never even seen Claire in. So it will be new to us. ;) Actually, since several things still had tags, they're still new period! Even a couple of the things that my sister-in-law gave me still had tags, either because Kaylee was too big for it or because they were cool-weather outfits that she would only fit in during hot-weather months. There were some really cute things too. Score for me, I guess. ;)

As for today, we're having dinner at Ed's parents' house at 3. Gotta love it...his mom is making his dad cook. He makes pasta that Ed and Wendi just love. At least it's not a chunky sauce, so I can handle it as well. And the homemade meatballs are really good, so that's worth it to me. :) We bought him a large crabtrap for the other house...as did Wendi. Apparently they were using a neighbor's traps for the past couple years, but the neighbor needs them this year. Gotta make sure we get our crabs when we go over there in a couple weeks. Anyone know the rules about steamed crabs and pregnancy? Is it like any other seafood where you can eat it, just in moderation? Oh well, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, hopefully I'll remember to ask him about it (although I won't hold my breath).

Bored...

How sad am I that I'm sitting here playing on the computer and watching The Price is Right on prime time? Especially since I never watch The Price is Right since my dad died (he used to watch it every morning, so it's just one of those things). But it's slightly interesting since it's Bob Barker's last show...not that I'm even that crazy about Bob Barker. Whatever...I'm just bored, as usual.

In other news, my eye hurts and I don't know why. It's only the outside corner of my right eye. Hopefully it's just a random thing and I'm not going to wake up in the morning with something growing there. Gross.

****UPDATED****
Well, there's nothing growing there, but I woke up this morning and the eye still hurts and it's now very swollen. I look like Rocky after a fight. Not very attractive. I seem to remember this happening to me a year or so ago...the swelling went down by the next morning. Hopefully that's the case this time too or else I'll be heading to Patient First tomorrow morning. Good times.

Working Late

Had an event tonight, so I just got home (it's 9:45). Tonight was fun because my friend Carrie was the only closing manager. Woohoo! And Ed had to umpire (as usual) anyway, so I would have been bored at home by myself. This is the last time I have to work late for awhile though. Bookfair season is pretty much over until October and I don't have a lot of author signings planned (I've been going for quality, not quantity). I'm pretty sure the next time I work late is for Harry Potter (can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!). Of course, that just means that I have to wake up early a lot. Boo!

Wiggle Worm

I'm starting to feel the baby more and more nowadays. It's definitely a strange feeling, like having a alien inside of you. I've been feeling the "flutters" for awhile now, but now it's definitely stronger then just a "flutter." It's still not hard, but much more noticeable than it was. She does get a good one in every once in awhile though. Ed actually felt a kick a few nights ago. I was lying on my back so he could feel better and she did a decent kick. Right away he asked if that was the baby or me, so I know he felt it. Now he keeps putting his hand on my stomach whenever we're lying down together, but he hasn't felt anything since. I told him to wait a couple of months, then he'll feel all kinds of kicks.

And speaking of kicks, I don't know if it's her or if I'm just having a weird day, but I swear I've had to pee more today than I ever have in my life. It felt like every 20 minutes I was running to the bathroom, which isn't fun at work since two of our four stalls are currently "out of order." That doesn't leave much hope for the remaining two to be very clean. I wasn't drinking any more than usual, so it was very weird. I thought the peeing thing wasn't supposed to start until the third trimester. I still have 5 or so weeks to go before I reach that milestone. Dangit!

Blah

So I guess my crazy busy weekend finally caught up with me. Today I was just exhausted. I was lucky I made it through the work day without falling asleep at my desk. I got plenty of sleep too...I was in bed and dozing off by 9:30 last night, which is pretty darned early for me. I took a short nap after I got home and I'm feeling much better now. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Other than that, nothing much is going on. Work is work. Ed has been umpiring, so I've been bored. Although the second season of Big Love started last night, so I just watched the new episode On Demand. I love On Demand. And I love that show. It sounds creepy, but it's really good and interesting. Some of our other "summer nonsense" shows have started too (hello, America's Got Talent), but we haven't had a lot of time for television recently. I don't think we're doing too much this weekend, so we'll be able to catch up a little then. We're going to his parents' house for Father's Day but that's about it. Thank goodness...I need some rest!

Long Weekend

As predicted, there was not much rest and relaxation to be had this weekend. It was a good couple days, just busy. Yesterday we went to Dover, DE for Ed's cousin's high school graduation party. It was at a pretty winery in an outdoor pavilion. We met Ed's mom, grandmother and niece there. We didn't tell his aunt or cousin that we were coming so we could surprise them. And it worked...they were very happy to see us all there. The weather was nice and the food was good. It was just the hour and 45 minutes drive each way that was a little annoying. Actually, it was longer to come home because we stopped at Kohl's in DE so Ed could get some clothes (no sales tax...woohoo!) and then we found a Rita's for me. :)

Today Becky and I took mom out for her Mother's Day gift. We went to the Walters Art Museum, which my mom and I enjoyed. Becky prefers more contemporary art. Then we went to the harbor and visited the Power Plant B&N, where I saw my friend Jen who is now the cafe manager there. So that made me happy. $80 worth of books later (discounted price), we went to Flemings for dinner. It was as yummy as I remembered from the last time I went with the girls...even if I couldn't get the Coconut Kiss drink that I loved, loved, loved the last time. I got fillet, my mom got scallops and Becky got chicken. Everything was good and my mom really enjoyed it once she got past the prices. So today was a good day.

Now I'm pretty tired and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Suck. I keep reminding myself that I'm on vacation in three more weeks. Not that we're doing anything exciting (we're going to his parents' vacation home on the Eastern Shore for a few days), but at least it's not work. Of course, I'll have a much longer "vacation" coming up in the fall, but I still have a little ways to go before that. :)

Registering is Fun!

Had a lovely day at the BRU with Becky, Claire, my mom and Ed. Despite the fact that Becky and Claire are giving us a lot of their stuff, my registry still wound up being pretty darned big. It was fun to pick out baby stuff...and then come home and switch out some of the things I had originally registered for. If the reviews were 99% horrible, it's probably a good idea to avoid the product. But I think I have it finalized now. Yay! :) Ed was exceptionally easy to get along with (unlike when we were registering for the wedding). He just let me get what I wanted...gotta like that. And my mom bought us our crib (which is currently being stored at her house until we paint the nursery). So all-in-all a good day.

After we finished at BRU Ed and I had lunch then went to my mom's house so we could drop off the crib and so Ed could do some furniture moving that my mom wanted done. She has my younger cousins' old crib in her family room for Claire and Abby and wanted it against a wall. So Ed had to move her couch, love seat and chairs to accommodate that request. Then he talked to her about an insurance plan that she wants (long-term care...so she doesn't spend our inheritance on her care in case she ever winds up in a nursing home...she's very concerned about that). I had fun playing with Claire, who my mom was babysitting. Then we finally went home (after a quick stop at Rita's) and I've been resting ever since.

The rest of the weekend isn't shaping up to be much more relaxing than today was. Tomorrow we have to go to Delaware for Ed's cousin's graduation party and then Sunday Becky and I are taking mom out for her mother's day excursion. We're going to the Walter's and then for dinner at Flemings. Yum!

Lovely Day (except, of course, for work)

I had my pre-registry BRU day with Val, Erin and (surprise!) my sister today. That was fun. Erin, I know you were getting very frustrated with Ben, but I kind of found him amusing (sorry...I know I don't have to deal with him on a daily basis). I was trying to distract him by asking him questions, but they only seemed to work for the time it took him to answer me. Oh well. Simon is a cutie...I'm glad I got to meet him before his third birthday! ;) Val's newborn, Jordan, was cute as could be too. Her eyes were open almost the whole time and she was just staring around checking things out. She only started to cry at the end because she was hungry (really, really hungry). Becky and Claire joined us unexpectedly because the lady who put a contract in on her house wanted to stop by to look at her stove. So she had to leave the house and had nothing better to do than to join us. But it was nice to see her and the Bear. :) I'll get double the fun tomorrow when we register for real. Hooray!

Work was work, but I'm now on a three-day weekend! I love extended weekends. :)
Yay for me.

Halfway There!

I am twenty weeks along today! Technically, I'm halfway through my pregnancy! Hooray for me (and Abby)! :) It seems like it's dragging, but I know that once she's born it will feel like time just flew by. At least now I feel ready to really start getting into the babyness. I can't wait to register on Friday...and then to start the nursery.

We saw Knocked Up tonight. I loved it (just like I thought I would). It wasn't as riotously funny as 40-Year-Old Virgin, but I definitely laughed through the whole thing. And cried at the end when the baby was born like the pregnant sap I am. But I will definitely see it again...tomorrow as the case may be. Kathy, it's a date! :)

Working on a Sunday

I'm so spoiled to have a retail job that hardly ever involves having to work on the weekend. Today, however, not only did I have to work during the weekend, but I had to work on a Sunday. Double suck! I had a semi-important event today that C-SPAN came in to record for BookTV. I was scared to death that nobody was going to show up for the thing, but we wound up with over 20 people in the audience, so I was quite relieved.

The only good thing about having to work today is that I now have Friday off. Three day weekend, plus we're going to go register with my mom and Becky during the day. Hooray! It was then or never because that's my only weekday off for the whole month. Since my mom's going to try to go, we'll even get to order our crib and glider. Exciting stuff. I'm available Thursday morning if anyway wants to meet me at BRU for a preliminary shop and/or lunch. I have to be at work by 12:30, so it would have to be a late-morning lunch. Just let me know. :)

Mmmmmmmm...

We had steak for dinner. It made me happy...and apparently made Abby happy too. I actually felt her wiggling around a little while I was eating. That is all.

I Love Summer Movies

It's a good thing that I've received a fair amount of movie gift cards since Christmas, because there are a lot of movies out that I want to see. As I said, Ed and I might as well take advantage of our last months of freedom to do what we want when we want. Today we went and saw a matinee of Pirates of the Carribbean 3. If you liked the other two Pirates movies, you'll like this one. I liked it better than the second, but neither could quite recapture the magic of the first. Overall, very enjoyable though (although I found the end quite depressing). I'll have to get the DVD when it comes out.

Tuesday we're going to go see Knocked Up, which I've been dying to see since I first read about it in Entertainment Weekly. If it's as good as I've heard, I'll have to go see it again with Kathy. As she pointed out to me, I seem to enjoy going on the same dates with her as I do with my husband. They're both fun, but in different ways. ;)

Then next week, Ocean's 13 comes out. That one may not be everyone's cup of tea, but we're looking forward to it. The previews have been hysterical. And it has some hot men, so I win no matter what. ;) There are some other ones coming out that I want to see too, but not as urgently. At least not until Harry Potter comes out in July. :) That one I will definitely see twice...especially if I can't talk Ed into going to the midnight show with Carrie and my work friends and me. I know I'm a geek...but you love me anyway! :P

Cleaning Out the Nursery

Ever since we bought our house almost six years ago, our second bedroom has been a sort of "catch-all" room for the stuff we didn't have anywhere else to put. Most recently, it's been home to my Pampered Chef goodies. Ed got a lot of the junk cleared out a couple months ago, but there's still plenty to get rid of in there. I actually did something productive tonight while Ed was umpiring and got my P.C. stuff cleared out of there. Hooray me! Since (very sadly) I have no scheduled shows coming up, I put everything I could in the kitchen, stored most of my stoneware under the couch in the living room and everything else is going downstairs in the utility room.

At least I feel like I've started on the nursery. I have no idea what we're going to do with some of the other crap-ola in there, but we'll figure it out. I'd like to start with the painting and stuff around July...when hopefully we'll have a little more money coming in to pay for the redecorating. In the meantime, at least I have Ed's sander so if I feel the need to start a project, I can begin on the armour. I got the e-mail today that my pretty drawer pulls are on their way to me. Woohoo! I can't wait to see them...even if I can't do anything with them for awhile. It will all get done before October though, if it kills me (and Ed).

Maternity Clothes

I still don't need them, but I got the stuff I ordered from Penny's today. Yay! The only problem is that I think I'm going to have to exchange the pants. They fit, but they don't feel like there's a lot of extra room for the yet-to-arrive baby belly. I was guessing with the size, but I guess I need the next one up. The shirts should be fine though.

I do feel like I'm finally starting to show. It's hard to tell with me since I'm big to begin with...and then with the weight loss. But my usual work pants are definitely not as loose as they were a month or so ago. Hooray! I'm actually excited about looking pregnant. I am pregnant and I feel pregnant, I might as well look pregnant too. Of course, I'll be cursing the maternity clothes in about five months, but I'll deal with that then.

And to add to the fun, I also got my shipment from Amazon. The valence and blanket are so cute! I can't wait to get started on the nursery. At least I now have something to use to pick out a paint color. Fun!

Boo!

Mini-vacation is officially over. I had to go back to work today. Boo! It was fine though...I went through the many e-mails that were waiting for me and ran some errands. Then I met Becky, my mom and Claire at the mall to watch Claire have her 9-month portraits done. Too cute! :) The photographer got some really great shots. Just think, next year we'll be trying to get Claire and Abby to both smile (and coordinate). I can't wait!

For the few of you who care, they apparently moved up the date of the new Harry Potter movie from Friday, July 13th to Wednesday, July 11th. I'm still going to the midnight show though. They are the only movies in my mind worth staying up and battling the crowds for. It's really fun when people dress up and get way too into the movie. Good times.

Moment of Cuteness

Claire in my pool yesterday. Just bask in the cuteness. :)

Taking it Easy

It's nice to have a day to just relax. And today is that day. It's 3:00 in the afternoon and I just changed out of my nightgown. Good times. I'm off tomorrow too and I'm not planning on doing anything then either. Tomorrow was the day I originally wanted to schedule my ultrasound (it's the 11th anniversary of the day my dad died, so I wanted to have something happy for my mom to do), but we decided to do it before our party. I had already taken off and just never adjusted my schedule. So a five-day weekend it is. :)

I already picked out the bedding set for Abby's nursery. I've actually had it picked out since I found out I was pregnant. I had my favorite for a girl and my favorite for a boy. This is the winner for the girl. I love it because it's girly without being totally pink (although, judging from my current blog design, I have no problem with pink). Plus, I love purple. :) I want to paint the nursery walls bright yellow...which my mother-in-law actually volunteered to do for us yesterday. She doesn't want me painting and she knows how my husband paints. I'm not going to argue!

I was on e-bay today checking out some of the matching switch plate and outlet covers that Becky found in the bedding design (which she is now including in my shower gift). I guess these home crafters buy licencing rights to the design and create all these different things to match. I even found a ceiling fan that someone painted to go with the theme. I also found these drawer pulls that I bought to put on the old armour that's currently in the room. I was going to get rid of it, but we need more storage space since the closets in my house are tiny. It's an ugly wood laminate right now which I'm going to sand off (yay for Ed's electric sander) and repaint white with purple detailing to match the bedding. Then I'll use the new drawer pulls and voila, a pretty new piece for the nursery. I'll just have to get a tension rod for the top part and then we'll have a little more space to hang clothes.

It's so exciting to know what I'm having. I can't wait to get started on everything. Hopefully we'll get to BRU soon to register. Becky's definitely going with us (since she's giving us a lot of stuff that Claire's outgrown and knows what we'll still need) and Meg would like to go to. Anyone's welcome, as long as Ed gets to play with the scanner. ;) I guess it all depends on when we decide to go. I would definitely prefer to do it during the week to avoid the weekend crowds. I already started the registry online so I could put the bedding accessories on there, since they're not available in-store. D'oh. Oh well, if nobody else gets them for me, my mom already offered to buy them. That's in addition to the crib and glider that she's already told us she's getting. But, that's my mom.

Baby-Palooza 07!

We had our annual Memorial Day Weekend BBQ today. Sooooooooooo many babies (even without poor sickie-poo Simon). I finally got to meet Jordan. Val, she is just too cute for words! I can't even tell you how happy I am for you! :) Claire got to go swimming in our pool for the first time and she absolutely loved it. She was kicking around like a pro...she definitely takes after her Aunt Mandy in that aspect. And my other niece Kaylee was eating, eating, eating. Pretty soon Meg and I will add our own babies to the mix and then everyone's really in trouble. These parties have definitely changed a bit in the past few years!

I'm exhausted now though. Spent the past few days cooking and cleaning and spent today entertaining. Tomorrow I'm not doing anything productive (except put the last load or two of dishes in the dishwasher). It was fun though...I hope everyone else had a good time too. :)

It's a...

Erin...stop reading now! ;)

So it seems that the Barnes & Noble curse is finally broken. Yup...it's a girl! :) We're very happy and excited. And the best part is that I'll never have to buy the kid clothes! Of course (as the tech made sure to tell us), it's not 100%, but she saw the three lines. I don't see anything, but I'm not a trained professional.

And just for fun, here's her profile.

Yay Abby! :) I'm so not going to be the one to tell my grandmother that she's getting yet another granddaughter. I'll leave that to my mom! ;)

Other than being a girl, she looks great and is measuring right on for 18 weeks. Which is good because the later into October I go, the further into Christmas I can go with my maternity leave. When you work retail, that's a very good thing. :)

We almost didn't get to find out the sex because she didn't want to move. Apparently my very full bladder was quite comfortable for her. So the tech had me go to the bathroom to see if that would get her moving. Apparently it did the trick because she was kicking up a storm after that. My question is, if they can see without the full bladder, why did I have to suffer in the first place? Oh well...it was worth it. :)

I Hate Being Sick

Well, the good news is that Ed just slept downstairs from the start last night. The bad news is that I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat (which is how Ed's sickness started). The sore throat is now gone, but my nose has been leaking like a faucet all day. It already hurts from me blowing it constantly. Not fun. I'm hoping that all the Vitamin C I've been getting from the prenatals will keep it from getting too bad...especially since I have to do a lot of cooking and cleaning for my party over the next few days. And I was going to go visit Val and Jordan tomorrow, but now I don't want to risk getting them sick. Boo. At least I will be over the contagious period by Sunday, so it will be safe to come over.

Maybe it was from being sick or maybe it's pregnancy weirdness, but I had the strangest dream last night. It involved me and my mom going to a Def Leppard concert. Can anyone tell me the meaning of that one?

I Thought This Was When I Was Supposed to Sleep....

But unfortunately, my sick husband has other plans for me. He has some horrible congestion thing going on right now and kept me up half the night blowing his nose, coughing, hacking, and spitting out flem. Gross. At 5:30 this morning he asked me, "Do you just want me to go downstairs?"

Ummmmm...that would have been nice about five hours ago! At that point I was just like, "It's almost morning now, what's the point?" But he knew I was annoyed. I feel bad that he's sick, but when I'm sick like that, I automatically go downstairs so that I don't disturb his sleep. Men.

So now I'm going to be sleepy and cranky all day. Good times. I have a decent-sized event tonight too, so I'm going to be running around like mad. Just like last night. I can't wait till Friday. Not only do I get my ultrasound (yay!), but it's my first of five days off in a row! Woohoo!

Congratulations Val and Don!

Jordan Hallie was finally born at 4:32 this morning! She weighs in at 7 lbs and 3 oz and is doing great. Plus she's cute as can be judging from the picture on Val's blog. Congratulations! :) I can't wait to see her...although I'm not sure if it's going to be at the hospital at this point. I have to work late today and tomorrow. I guess it depends on the visiting hours at that "other" hospital that you chose and on how early is okay for me to drop by for you.

Check it Out...

My counter totally moved up another picture! Yay, Baby!

Happy Thoughts for Val

Val is having some super-painful contractions over in her neck of the woods. Apparently she made a middle-of-the-night trip to the hospital only to be sent home. Suck! Hope the active labor starts soon so you can go back to stay!

In other news, I'm exhausted. I've been sleeping like crap. I think the forcing myself to sleep on my side has caused me to do something rather painful to the ligament between my hip and thigh on my left side. It's usually fine when I'm sitting or standing, but if I'm lying down and I move the wrong way, it hurts like hell. I tried using the big-ass pillow that Becky gave me last night. It helped with the pain, but I was very uncomfortable with using it as my head pillow too. I think I'm just going to get a regular body pillow so I can still get the support between my legs and under my soon-to-be baby belly, but also so I can use my regular pillows too.

Work was work...it's Monday. The only interesting part was learning that one of our Department Managers has been promoted to ASM, but in a different store. I liked him, but I didn't want him promoted in our store. He doesn't have the greatest people-skills in the world. I hope it works out for him though.

I had an early dinner tonight because I didn't have time for lunch at work. I know, I know...bad preggo! I've been dying for some tacos, so I stopped at the store and got the fixin's and made myself some yummy tacos. I didn't put enough seasoning in the meat though...that was the only bummer. I didn't buy a packet of seasoning since I have the huge BJ's container of it that I use for Taco Dip...I just didn't sprinkle enough on. Oh well...it was still yummy and satisfying. :)

Okay, I'm going to try to take a nap now before I clean the living room. Fun!

It's a Tie

Not that it really matters, but my baby poll seems to have resulted in a tie (so far). Interesting. There are a couple schools of thought:
1. Everyone is having a boy, so I probably am too
2. Everyone is having a boy, so someone has to have a girl

There is also the two "curse" consideration. At my store, ever since my evil ex-manager had a girl many years ago, everyone who's been pregnant while working there or who's wife has been pregnant while they were working there has had a boy. Working against that "curse" however, is the fact that my grandmother (on my mom's side) now has five granddaughters and one great-granddaughter. No boys in sight. Which "curse" will win out? That will be interesting.

I'll be happy either way, as long as the baby is healthy (blah, blah, blah), but I am slightly rooting for a boy. I want a little mama's boy...plus there is the fact that he'd be the only little boy in the family. Ed, however, is slightly rooting for a girl. I want a mama's boy and he wants a daddy's girl. But, really, it doesn't really matter. At least if I have a girl, I'll never have to worry about buying her clothes...especially with my sister's love of shopping for Claire. I guess we'll see on Friday. :) I can't wait!

To My Fellow Office Fans

I was just checking out the NBC website in hopes that they decided to be awesome and put a downloadable "Schrute Buck" online. No such luck, but they did post "Creed Thoughts." Funny stuff. Just wanted to share. :)

Poor Val

40 weeks today and still no end in sight. :( I feel for ya! I guess you won't be making it to my cookout, huh? I'm sending you all kinds of baby-evicting thoughts.

Other than that, it's been a blah day. Work was blah and now I'm home and blah. Blah. The bright spot of my day was Ed meeting me at work for lunch. Then we went to the movies to buy tickets to see Shrek on Sunday morning. That's the best part of the Loews switching over to AMC...all shows before noon on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are only $5. Woohoo! And I still have plenty of gift card money to get me through the next couple months and the plethora of movies they're promising. I love the movies...better get my fill now while I can still get out of the house whenever I want.

Just Curious

In honor of my sonogram appointment being officially set, it's time for the gender poll. Just wondering what the general consensus is. :)

http://www.polldaddy.com/p.asp?p=40766

Argh!

Damn you, Lost!!! That is all.

Yet Another Doctor's Appointment

I'm starting to get used to this whole going to the doctor's office every month thing. It hasn't been too bad...yet. Today was the usual....got weighed (down 2 1/2 pounds), blood pressure taken (no problems this time...holding steady), listened to the heartbeat (still strong and easy to find). He took blood for some test and found a vein again with no problem. AND (most exciting of all) he gave me my referral slip for my big ultrasound. Hooray! I called the place as soon as I got back to work and my appointment is for next Friday at 11:15. I'm off, Ed's not working and my mom's off that day, plus we'll know the gender (if baby cooperates) in time for our cookout. All is good with the world. :)

The birthday evening was very nice, thank you. I re-used the last date I had with Kathy. We went to the Outback in Canton (they're never busy) and then walked to the yummy Italian pastry place in Canton Square and got gelatto. Yum all around!!! All in all, it was a pretty good birthday. :)

30

It's still weird, but it is what it is. I feel the same as yesterday, so there you go. The only bummer is I can't drink in the new decade. Oh well...I'll make up for it when Val and Kathy turn the big 3-0. :)

I had a lovely day at work. Carrie bought me a cake and gave me a way cool present (a movie gift card to help pay for all those summer blockbusters I must see). She also took me out to the Chinese Buffet yesterday, so that was awesome too. :) Today my mom took me to Red Brick for lunch then bought me some maternity tops from Old Navy. They looked big enough when I held them against me, but I'll have to try them on to make sure. Most of them are stretchy material, so they should be okay.

Ed and I are going to dinner tonight. It's time for another edition of "Mandy Needs a Steak NOW!!!" Just waiting for him to get home so we can leave. Thanks to everyone for their birthday thoughts and well wishes (and even those who made fun of me). Love you all! :)

33 Minutes

until my 20's are over. Weird.

Happy Early Birthday to Me!

Last night turned out to be very fun. Our random trip to Becky's house turned out to be a surprise get-together for my 30th birthday. Nothing big, nothing fancy, but the kind of evening I most enjoy. Val even bought me a birthday cake! And I didn't have to make it myself! You have no idea how exciting that is to me. I'm sorry Kathy couldn't make it, but I'm sure we'll see you soon (after Val pushes out that kid...hehehe). Ed even thought of it all by himself...he was very proud. Thanks for having it at your house, Becky. You rock too.

I even got presents. Becky and Scott (and Claire) gave me a gift card to J.C. Penny's to go towards maternity clothes and the girls (Kathy, Meg and Val) gave me one to Motherhood Maternity. I asked my in-laws for the same thing, so I should have a decent amount of $$ to go towards preggo clothes once I finally need them. Right now I'm still fitting in my old clothes fine, but you never know when I'll finally pop.

Today we're doing the two-family thing. First to my grandma number one, then to my grandma number two, then to Ed's mom's house. Good times. It's always a triple celebration at Ed's family's...Mother's Day, my birthday and his sister's anniversary. And more bad food for me to eat so I look like I gained too much weight when I go to the doctor's on Wednesday. Between last night (taco dip and pizza), today (more pizza at his mom's house...don't ask, I don't know why), tomorrow (Carrie and I are doing the Chinese Buffet for my birthday) and Tuesday (my birthday complete with yummy steak dinner), I might just be up a few pounds from last time. We'll see.

Happy Mother's Day (again)! :)

Geez, People!

You get so testy when I'm too lazy to update! ;) Not much going on today. Yesterday, however, was exciting. Erin had her baby!!! And it was a boy!!! I was shocked by that one, I tell you. I had poor Simon pegged as a girl all the way. But he's cute as can be and I'm very happy for Erin. It won't be too much longer, Val!

Last night I actually went to a party that a friend from work was throwing. I know, I was shocked too! But Ed was umpiring (again) and I'm tired of being bored by myself at night. So I went and had a lot of fun. I left around 10:30...because I told Ed I'd be home by then and because I was exhausted. So exhausted that I almost felt like I was drunk driving home. I made it alive though and went right to sleep.

Today we braved the world of the Home Depot to get some flowers and tomato plants. We also picked up his mom's Mother's Day present. Now I'm thinking about making dinner, but I really don't feel like it. And apparently we're going over my sister's at 7 to do something involving Ed and Scott loading stuff into the SUV. Whatever...at least I'll get to see Claire for the third time this week. Yay!

That's it for now. Happy Mother's Day to all! :)

I Hate Mondays

I'm always about 300x more tired tired when I get home on Monday then any other night of the week. I just took a 3 hour nap and I still feel like I want to be sleeping. I have to be at work at 7:00 on Monday mornings for our manager meeting, so I have to wake up at 6. Anybody who knows me is aware that I am not exactly a morning person, so when my alarm goes off that early, I practically start to cry. At least tonight is my good television night.

Here is your unsolicited (except by Val) movie review for Spiderman 3. I thought it was entertaining enough and I would watch it again, but it can't touch the first two. There is just way too much going on...3 villains, 1 "other girl," 1 annoying girlfriend, "black Spidey," etc. They did tie it together in the end, but unless you're a huge comic book fanboy, it wasn't necessary to jam so much into it. The previews were excellent though. Harry Potter (looks oh so awesome), Shrek 3, Pirates 3...we're going to go broke going to the movies this summer. And Knocked Up comes out June 1st...I'm really looking forward to that one!

Happy Snowball Day

Val and I had our Preggo Snowball Day today. It was lovely. She met me at the softball field and then we went off in search of a snowball stand. There's one not too far from the field, but it wasn't yet open at 11:40 when we got there. So we went to Babies R Us for an hour and browsed (which is oddly extremely exciting...how sad is that?). By then the stand was finally open and we got our snowball on. Val kept to her Egg Custard with marshmallow and I got Dreamsickle with marshmallow. Very yummy...although it was a little too chilly with the wind for a cold treat. We sucked it up and ate them anyway.

We went back and watched the rest of the second softball game. Ed's team was rocking and the slaughter rule went into effect after the 5th, so it didn't last too long. They had lost the first game, but hit well so they were all in good moods.

Now I'm resting up before making dinner and then heading out to the movies to see Spiderman. Looking forward to it.

The Orioles Tried to Kill Me

The baseball game was really good tonight. We won 8-2! Woohoo! The only poopy part came in the 1st when Hernandez hit that 3-run homerun off of the foul pole. What you didn't see on television, was the the ball came within a foot of hitting me after it ricocheted off the pole. I didn't even see it coming. Luckily, it missed, but I told Ed I'm never sitting that close to the field again. I like the seats under the overhang where it's safe (and I don't get wet if it rains)!

Oh, and we had some really annoying Cleveland fans sitting directly behind us. The one girl kept talking about how she knew one of the Indians players. I'm fairly certain that she considers herself his best friend. If I had a completely different personality, I would have turned around and smacked her. That's how irritating I found her.

Other than that, it was a pleasant evening. Work was fine too. My event I was running in the morning was a bust, but I was expecting that. Carrie and I had fun, so it was all good. Except for my lunch. We ordered carryout from Red Brick. I asked for a Portabello Sandwich and told him to hold everything but the cheese. When I got the order back to the store, I bite into my sandwich to find nothing but cheese. Seriously. No mushroom. The old guy who took my order took it a little too literally. I had to call and walk back to get a replacement sandwich. That annoyed me, but at least it was a nice day for a walk.

Grocery Shopping is Dangerous

But at least I now have a pro-craving kitchen. I made Ed buy me whole pickles (and pickle spears for that matter), hummus, marshmallows, watermelon, 2% cheddar cheese snacks, Right Bites Grasshoppers, pistachio nuts, canned asparagus, low-fat ice cream treats, and V-8 juice (with calcium). Yes, I know exactly how strange some of those items make me look but I don't care. Yum! Now to decide what to eat first...

Productive Day

Today was a good day off. Despite sleeping in until almost 11, I still managed to get some stuff done. Ed and I dropped my car off at the shop last night and they called around 11:30 to say that the part they put on last time went bad, which is why my engine light came back on. They fixed it for free. Woohoo!

On our way to pick my car up, we stopped at Lab Corp to get Ed's blood test done. That took less than ten minutes from the time we walked in to the time we left. Can't complain about that! Then we had lunch, stopped at the theater and bought our tickets to see Spiderman on Sunday night and then picked up my car.

We figured since we had a free afternoon, we might as well get the emissions test done and out of the way, so we left his car at the Toys R Us parking lot and drove to the stupid emissions place. As usual, it was busy, but I actually picked a quick lane for once. The car passed (again I say: Woohoo!), we got Ed's car and went home where I've been doing nothing ever since.

Ed's now on his way to go play softball so I have another lovely evening alone. At least I felt like we accomplished something today. I think I'll go watch the three episodes of Little People, Big World that are driving Ed crazy sitting in our DVR. Becky got me hooked on that show...darn her!

Round Ligament Pain

That is the technical term for the uterus pain I've been experiencing for the past week or so. It's just my uterus stretching and thickening (ew...) to accommodate the baby. Good times. Remember, it's not a uter-you, it's a uter-us! It's especially painful when you first stand up. It dulls to a mild ache while I'm walking and it disappears when I'm sitting or lying down. So I try to stay on my dupa as much as possible. ;)

Other than that (and my current headache), everything's pretty much a-okay. I've been rather sleepy today, but that's Ed's fault for deciding to wake up at 6 today. At least I'm off tomorrow, so I get to sleep as late as I darned well please. Unfortunately, my happiness tomorrow means I have to work on Saturday. Blah. But we get to go to the Orioles game on Saturday night, so that will be fun. Friends of ours got tickets they couldn't use, so they gave them to us. Yay us!