Kimba

Ready and waiting

5 straight hours of scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, laundry, bed-making, mopping, grocery shopping, and pretty much every other verb you can think of, we're done. The house, she is clean. We're ready and completely exhausted. Even the dog can't manage to lift his head.

We're starting the weekend off by heading to the city tomorrow. The city on Labor Day weekend. Are we crazy? Of course we are. But we're going to have a lot of fun.

Hope everyone has a lovely Labor Day weekend! Anyone have any fabulous plans?

The Freak Out

As I mentioned a few days ago, (I did mention, right?) my family is coming to visit this weekend. My dad called on Sunday to confirm that yes, there would be 6 people and a mutt sharing our house this weekend. With one bathroom. One really small, one-butt bathroom. This will be the first time my parents have been able to come out and see us, and so I immediately went into a frenzy, first with the jumping up and down excitement, and then sort of freaking out, (please see bathroom statement above...) then began a mental list of things to get done before they got here.

We went to bed that night and I lay there, bugging Caleb every few minutes by whispering,  "....Caleb! My family! They're coming!" After the eighty bazillionth time Caleb sighed and asked if I wanted to make a list. So that I (read: he) could get some sleep.

Ah! Permission!

I immediately threw off the covers, 3 point turned out of bed (3 points! Pretty good these days!) switched on the lamp ignoring Caleb's screams of protest about his retinas being burned (not that he actually said "retinas", I think it was more along the lines of ojos) and ran to grab a pad and pen.

My list, next to my grocery list (and that's not even the REAL grocery list) and my oh-so-lovely kick count card.

After I was finished Caleb had A Talk with me. Something along the lines of, please don't freak out this week, please don't go all crazy perfectionist A-Type Red Personality on me, we'll get it done. I promise. Just...don't freak out.

We've been working our butts off, Caleb especially because a lot of the items on the list were officially deemed "Man Jobs" by Caleb. I think I've done fairly well on the Freak Out Front, considering that they come in tomorrow and we still have several items left to be done. Like cleaning the entire house and tackling a massive laundry pile. And there's still the issue of the one-butt-bathroom. Oh, and I do work tomorrow. There's that, too. But really? I'd consider the entire weekend a success if the temperature stays below 103. The house was unbearably hot today, even with our little window air conditioner working over time, and between the heat and the cankles...I'm just trying to make sure they'll want to come back again. They may see my swollen sausage toes and run back to the hills. I wouldn't blame them.

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 29

I found out today that two of my friends had their babies today and yesterday. Both of them were early, one by a few days and one by a few weeks, and aside from the happiness and excitement of it all, one thing kept running through my mind: I have no control about when this baby will arrive. Having a baby will be the biggest thing to ever happen to us, and we have absolutely no control. Weddings, moving, school, studying abroad, all large and life changing events that can be planned (for the most part) down to the most minute detail. Babies? Not at all. You can THINK you have a plan, you can try to have it all figured out, but in the end? This baby has his own agenda and he won't bother to check with me to see if it's alright to make his debut. How about today? Is today good? Do you have everything ready? No plans? Great! Today it is! 

Unfortunately we won't be that lucky.

On the getting-ready-vein, we purchased a dresser and armoire this weekend from Ikea, having decided to go cheaper on that furniture so that we could...splurge a bit...on the crib. Which I also just ordered tonight, holy crap, I just bought a crib. For myself. Or the baby. My baby. From an online website, having never seen it in person. I can't dwell on it any longer, or I might freak out. We set up the dresser last night (or, Caleb did) mostly because I wanted to get an idea of what this room will look like. Start the mental picture. Also? I wanted a place to set my first baby purchase.

Can you imagine trying to explain to your husband that you're about to buy glass measuring cups to display in your son's room? Thankfully Caleb is fabulous and trusts me (I think) enough to agree and go along with my wild ideas. I like them.

This week the baby is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 lbs. Each site quoted something different, so that's what I'm going with. Somewhere in that vicinity. Each site talked about the crazy rapid weight gain that would take place from here on out, so that should be fun. I have noticed a...heaviness that's crept in, especially when I stand up after sitting down for a while, suddenly my stomach feels like a huge sandbag. I can only imagine how much worse it will get toward the end. Maybe I'll invest in one of those bump holder-uppers. (That's their technical name, I'm sure of it.) Where was I? Oh yeah. Measurements. Somewhere around 3 lbs. and nearly 17 inches. The official food comparison is a butternut squash, which I love. For some reason I'm super excited for Fall this year, and will post my favorite Butternut Squash soup recipe for ya'll. It's delicious. (Seriously, what is up with the odd tangents?) Other than growing, mah baby's brain is developing all sorts of neurons and myelin sheaths. He'll come out ready to challenge anyone to a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, I'm sure of it. Also? Peeing a good half liter a day, which is slightly frightening. What is that? Like, 10 diapers?! I better start stocking up.

I'm continuing with the kick count stuff, which isn't taking long these days, he seems to be quite the active baby. Besides the nice strong kicks, I've started noticing bigger movements, and it's the strangest thing to watch your skin move and stretch. Honestly, I'm half expecting some alien to rip it's way through like some horror movie scene. Made possible by all that delicious calcium he is sucking from my body to strengthen his bones. I'm quite happy to help him with that, except that truth be told, I probably don't have that much to spare. I'm not a milk drinker at all, and I'm thinking that my occasional little cup of Ciao Bella gelatto isn't going to cut it. I've got to get some sort of supplement and add it to my daily regimen of prenatal and iron pills. Maybe I'll get one of those fancy pill separators. Maybe my grandma has an extra.

I was all set to be done with the swimsuit, I brought in some regular old pajama pants and shirt, and Caleb made me turn around and grab the suit. I tried to argue, I really did, but I was still half asleep. I only argued for a few minutes, talking about how I'm getting bigger and it's not going to fit soon...but he marched me back to the bedroom to change. Something about being able to put them all together at the end, I don't know, like I said I was still half asleep. I've never been a morning person, but these days Caleb is having to nearly drag me out.

Speaking of which. It's late. Again. And I have cankles. Again. So I'm heading to bed, and dangit, this baby better be as well. It's getting more and more difficult to ignore the jabs and punches all night long.

Reminding me how awful moving is

So. About that fridge.

Last week I got the idea that it would be really nice to have a normal size fridge, one that holds more than three items at one time, one that's maybe just a little bit taller than my 5 foot 4 inch frame. The freezer, a shout out to the "freezer box" days, was literally that, a tiny box, and I decided a proper side-by-side fridge wasn't too much to ask for. I started looking around and found, much to my dismay, that the cheapest fridge I could find was $800. Not exactly a prudent thing to spend our money on when we've got nine billion baby items to buy, and currently had a perfectly functioning (albeit small) fridge. So I decided to consult the almighty Craigslist and lo! A white side-by-side fridge that looked fairly decent for $200. That, we could cough up. That was Sunday, and by Monday morning we'd scheduled a time to pick it up that night.

We started the madness by borrowing a hideous 13 passenger van from my work, and then begging Mark to come help us move it (and by "us" I mean Caleb). We arrived in a fancy neighborhood in a fancy town near by, known for it's lovely and oh-so-expensive homes, with this old green, smells of dirt and gasoline van, and I immediately wondered what these people must think of us. Buying their old fridge and showing up in this van that looks like it's spent it's life down by a river. I know they were wary, we always are when we sell things on Craigslist, and I sort of went into nervous embarrassment mode, trying to slyly explain that this van was not ours, ha ha, need more room to accommodate this baby right here, see this belly of mine? We're just renting, oh please just look at us! We're normal people! With jobs and stuff!  Thankfully it was over soon, I held Owen (Bridgette has been out of town) and together with the husband (on crutches) and the wife (equally large with child) we watched the boys maneuver this huge (oh wait...sorry...normal size) fridge into the back of the van. Then the real fun began.

My job when we got to the house, was to entertain Owen while simultaneously clearing out the old fridge, cleaning the new one, and then engaging in my favorite activity, organizing the new fridge.

Oh, also? This was all occurring dangerously close to the little guy's bedtime. Poor thing.

(Forgive the graininess, for some reason Typepad is throwing a fit and won't let me upload this particular photo as a JPEG. Because it hates me.)

This is what happens when you're trying to do a zillion things at once. And as quickly as possible, because you have boys waiting on you as they hold a billion pound fridge.

Meanwhile the boys were moving furniture, taking off the doors of the new fridge so that it would fit through our doorways, moving the old fridge to the cellar underneath the house (so glad that job wasn't mine...) and then installing the new fridge.

Also? Hooking up the water line to the fridge so that we could have ICE and WATER flowing from our FRIDGE, HOLYCRAPIT'SSOAMAZING. The first time we've had that option. Oh, AND?! There's a crushed ice feature. People. I LOVE crushed ice, want to marry it and have it's babies.

By the time we'd done all of this, and made Mark leave so that he could put Owen down (Mark, seriously, we owe you like, a zillion Fudgesicles), and then put everything away and cleaned the house up (you wouldn't believe how dirty moving two fridges can be!) and showered, it was 11 pm. I turned to Caleb and said, "So....what do you want for dinner?"

Insert two turkey sandwiches and a gallon of water. 10 minutes after finishing, we were in bed moaning our exhaustion. My ankles were officially cankles, and Caleb had no doubt further squeezed the already squished disks in his back.

But it was so worth it.

(Excuse my terribly dark picture, Caleb will die when he sees this, and chide me for once again not yet figuring out the manual mode on the camera despite his multiple explanation attempts.)

We've been marveling all day, had our very first glass of ice water via our fridge, and Caleb has decided this is the best purchase we've ever made. His favorite part? That half shelf, perfect for holding his Diet Mountain Dew.

My favorite part? Space. Loads of beautiful space. Bless you, Craigslist.

Craigslist strikes again

A quick note to say.......holy crap I'm exhausted. It's 11:21 and I just sat down for the first time since getting home from work, and even worse, just ate a turkey sandwich. For dinner. I feel like I'm in college, eating at nearly midnight. Don't ask me how I made it until now, sheer will is all I can think of.

We bought a fridge on Craigslist. Details and pictures (and an explanation, we already had a perfectly functioning fridge...) to follow tomorrow, because the only thing I can think about right now is my aching feet and my bed. And the fact that I haven't gone to sleep earlier than midnight for the past two weeks (curse you, Olympics! Your power is irresistible!), and it's catching up to me.

Good night.

Fun for the whole family!

Caleb was switching all my files to my new laptop tonight and I've spent the last hour organizing it all and loving every minute. There is something so satisfying about starting from scratch and making everything pretty and lined up and alphabetized...you should see my spice cabinet. OCD at its finest.

I'm still fiddling with it, but found a movie we took on our old Kodak camera while we were still living in Oregon. We'd been married for a year or so, and I'd read somewhere about putting a dollop of peanut butter on your dog's nose. For fun.

Enjoy. We sure did.

Please forgive the ridiculous giggle. I can't help it.

Revamping his resume

On Tuesday night Caleb came home from work and went to check on the mutt. He walked in from the backyard, the slobbering slap-happy dog in tow, and grimly announced that Bear had ripped out the last two of his four stitches.

Yes, meaning he had previously ripped out two others. In fact, that morning Caleb woke me up by announcing that during the night the mutt had ripped out two of them. "You'd better get that E collar out so he doesn't rip out the rest", I said. You know what happened though. (I'll give you a hint - the E collar was in a box underneath the house...)

I stubbornly told Caleb as I was cooking dinner that I was not about to spend another $200 to re-stitch the mutt, he could just deal with the hole. Lick it clean. But after looking at it I knew that wasn't an option. It looked much deeper and worse than the first time. The call was made and Caleb agreed, it was time to pull out the infamous E Collar to keep the wound clean until morning.  

The mutt, he was not happy about it. And he still isn't, he gets to wear it for the next four days.

I dropped him off the next morning with a plea to the vet to do what they could to keep costs down, you know, local anesthetics or whatever. The sad fact is, I knew it was in vain. My mutt is the most neurotic, nervous, freak-the-heck-out dog on the planet. Last time they tried local anesthetics. A shot. And then a full on IV drip.

The plan was that Caleb was going to come home around 10 to pick up the mutt and then work from home. By noon they hadn't called him. He called to check in and they told him something to the effect that Bear might have been a little...difficult...and they had to bump him back. He wouldn't be done until 4 pm.

Oh. And that'll be $200 please...

So I've decided the mutt needs to get a day job. Pay off his medical bills. Maybe we can find some sort of ranch around here...in the uh, tech valley...that will take him. I'd love to see him hoppin' the light rail to work, lunch pail hanging from his mouth. He'd be the annoyingly loud passenger always trying to strike up a conversation with anyone who will listen. Did you see that sky today?! Talk about blue....

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 28

I don't even know what to say these days. There's not much time left, but still enough to get a lot of good freaking out in. It's been quite the week, lots to tell everyone about, and I'm still in that I can't believe this is happening and I feel like I've been pregnant all my life, but holy crap, I've still got months to go stage. And I don't think I need to repeat the whole we've got so much to do routine. I don't know if that feeling will ever go away. Do you ever feel totally prepared and ready? I doubt it.

This week the baby is a good 2.5 lbs, though some sites quoted more, and a good 15 - 16 inches long. Meaning he's almost there in the length category, but has a lot of fattening up to do in the coming weeks. Which leaves me with the deep concern: where the heck is all that fattening going to go? How in the world can my skin stretch any more? My belly button is currently hanging on for dear life and I'm expecting it to pop any day now. Too bad it's not going to time right with the birth, I think I could handle a little "turkey timer" warning. Ooh! There goes the belly button! Honey! We've got exactly 24 hours, let's get ready! Other than fattening, he's started to dream this week, apparently, though I can't imagine what his dreams would consist of. Continuous amounts of chocolate through the cord? Some sort of sucking device that doesn't require the use of his hand? (Just you wait, baby!) His eyes have color and if we were to shine a light on my stomach he would blink from the brightness. Sweet! I can already bother him! This is for that swift kick to the bladder yesterday....If I had the heart. The food comparison of the week? A Chinese cabbage, or the length of a churro. My baby is so culturally diverse!

As I mentioned last week I had to take the glucose test and luckily for me it came back normal. The blood work showed I am a little anemic, which is very common in pregnancy. The baby is sucking up all my iron stores, and it can make you feel tired and weak. Sounds familiar. My doctor said a little iron supplement should take care of it, and hopefully not add to the fun that was the weeks of the Lake Powell Bowel disease. Good times, to be sure. I also recieved a Rhogam shot this week because I have RH- blood. It will prevent my body from attacking my future children's blood if I were to have an RH+ baby. Here, read about it. They'll explain it better than I can at, oh, way past my bedtime. Once again. It's these Olympics, man! I can't help myself!

Also during my visit, I was given a Kick Count Card. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Oh, it is! They ask you to sit down once a day from here on out and count how many minutes it takes for the baby to move 10 different times. If the baby hasn't moved 10 times before two hours, you're to call the hospital and head on over.

As if we needed anything else to freak out about.

It's not terrible, the baby moves so much these days it hasn't taken longer than thirty minutes so far (and I'm on my third day), but still. Next they'll be asking me to identify specific body parts poking out, and I'll spend hours wondering if that little bump is an elbow or a foot....I NEED TO KNOW. THEY SAY I NEED TO KNOW. I certainly understand where they're going, a decrease in movement from the baby can signal danger, but come on...between the raging hormones and decrease in sleep these days, well, it just doesn't add to the calm, stress-free state I'm supposed to be in. Because you know, stress can hurt the baby too...you just can't win.

Last night we started our first registry. Not that I expect any type of large shower, it's hard when you don't really know anyone in the area. I liked the idea of having a list of items to buy if we didn't recieve them. I'm a big fan of the lists. I love me a good list. We went to the store late, arriving only an hour before closing time, but weren't prepared for the 15 minute Introduction to Baby Registering, Everything You Never Knew You Didn't Want To Know routine given by the woman at the registry desk. Halfway through I wanted to stop her and say please, it was difficult enough to pull my husband away from his car to get here, just hand over the scanner gun. Or I will lose him.

They give you all sorts of incentives to scan as many items as humanly possible, promising a 10% off coupon for everything in your registry that hasn't been purchased by the time the baby comes, and offering all sorts of "presents" if you scan 100 items the first time. Their idea of a present includes advertisements and sample diapers. I know, because they given everyone a "special present" JUST FOR REGISTERING. HOW LUCKY. THREE WIPES AND A COUPON FOR MORE! WEE!!

The experience wasn't all that bad, though Caleb really bought into the whole 10% off coupon thing, and wanted to scan everything we decided on at least 10 times. If we like it, we'll want more! And then we can buy it with the coupon!  Which is true, I agree, who doesn't love a sale, but I always feel greedy registering. Like, what if people print it out and it's like, several pages long? I felt the same way about registering when we got married and was super conscious of how many pages ours was compared to others. You know everyone raises an eyebrow when they hit the Target wedding registry print button and ten minutes later they're still standing there waiting for it to finish printing. Good heavens, they registered for door stoppers...can't they buy their own 99 cent door stoppers?! 

One isle I had a hard time with was the baby carrier isle. You know, the Baby Bjorns, the slings, the whatevers. I haven't decided if I'd really use one, and if so, what kind. The Bjorn-type things seems bulky and awkward (we recently went to a couples house that has a baby and were both weirded out when the husband walked around the house with his little girl strapped to his chest. Between her reaching arms and his seemingly puffed out chest...it was just odd looking...) but the slings seem unsafe. Like the baby could just flip around and out like a hammock. (I've done that way too many times...) Anyone have any thoughts? Opinions? Experience? The options are endless and I have no clue. Still trying to decide on a crib here. I haven't even got to the carrier options yet.

This might have to be the last of the swimsuit. It's time.

Home away from home

Oh, yeah, I was going to post about the second part of our most recent trip, Lake Powell. Must have slipped my mind. Like so many other things these days, like the laundry that will sit in my washer for days. And days.

Despite having a fabulous time at Lake Powell, we have few pictures to show for it. It happens every year, I have all sorts of good intentions to take pictures of everyone and everything, but somethings happens when we get on the boat. Suddenly everything is forgotten and complete relaxation takes over. Life consists not of work and bills and chores, but sleeping and lounging and swimming. It's a wonderful thing, the reason we all love it so much.

Here we have my little sister Emily, rockin' her pink life jacket.

And my sister Liz and cousin Michelle, chillin' on the back of the boat, beloved noodle in hand.

Here we have most of the youngin's on the boat getting ready for the infamous Tube Wars. We take these very seriously in my family, everyone fighting to stay on while simultaneously pushing each other off. I was very sad to not be able to participate this year, but skidding across the water on my bump sounded like a bad idea. For some reason.

The Disc and The Taco, vehicles for war, each holding two people, at least at first. It's anyone's game after that. 

Our temporary "backyard". Gorgeous.

Beautiful sunset, one of the best parts of the day.

I think this might have been the boys favorite part of the trip, golfing. My dad and uncles are avid golfers, if by avid you mean golfing once a week at the very least, and couldn't bear to spend an entire 6 days without it.

The only storm that threatened us, but proved to be nothing more than a great photo opportunity.

During a ride down Forgotten Canyon I snapped a few shots.

 

We tried to strand Emily on a rock. She didn't seem too concerned.

My "job" for the trip. Flag Girl. Here I am, looking my best, the wind blowing through Caleb's shirt. I am so hot.

 

This is Caleb's favorite part of the trip, the air chair. He picked it up last time on his first try, and had no problem again this year.

Except...oh...that's gonna leave a mark.

And this will send about a gallon of water up his nose.

The best (worst) crash by my uncle Art. The water, she isn't forgiving.

Last but not least, my favorite of Caleb's many mustache faces, taken the night we got home. This face looks so familiar to me, and I can't place it. Some celebrity, his name totally slips my mind. It will come to me.

In your prayers

I've been reading her blog for over a year now, and found out about her accident yesterday morning. If you've read her blog, or even if you haven't, prayers are welcome for a quick recovery. There isn't a more deserving family, I can promise you that. It's time like this that I am so grateful for my beliefs.

Visitors

This weekend our lovely friends, Adam & Tara, came to visit us. Caleb and I had a great time with them, despite many of our endeavors being a total bust. Like these famous Japanese gardens, which turned out to be, uh, less than fabulous. We hit up the Santa Cruz boardwalk, but ran out of things to do because we hadn't brought our swimming suits. Sort of a must on the beach. We took them up to San Francisco since Adam had never been, but Caleb's Blackberry was having issues, and we couldn't find half the things we wanted to see.

We did get a bit of shopping in, though. Always a winning choice.

Adam, describing the flowers that would be hanging during the right season. As it was, there were just a bunch of pea-pod looking things.

Adam pondering in the garden. Hopefully planning the grounds to my future home, he's insanely talented.

Tara and I resting from the heat.

Enjoying the farmer's market on the Embarcadero. I introduced Tara to Ciao Bella gelatto, and Caleb bought the world's largest peach. It was delicious.

I love this picture. Maybe enjoying the last remnants of some orange flavored almonds?

In front of some odd barnacle fountain thing. Adam loved it.

Caleb decided to take some pictures while I wasn't aware, I don't know, so that we could forever have my lack of butt documented. It looks a little deflated back there, especially with the bulge in front as contrast.

My favorite moment of the trip? When Adam, groggy from the long day, thought I'd asked him if he was going to rent out his body. The best part was that he didn't even sound surprised. Tara and I laughed until we couldn't breathe. And that is why I love those guys.

Four, to be exact

Caleb shaved the mutt on Wednesday for the ninety gabillionth time. Usually what happens after is I bring the dog in and bathe him in the shower, because by the time Caleb is done shaving him his back is so cramped up he can barely stand up straight.  This time was different though, as I was using the shower head to get him wet I noticed the water coming away a little bloody. Ah, he's been nicked, I thought, it's happened before and not been a big deal at all. Except for this time, it was. I pulled back the skin in his hind leg and found a shallow but very wide hole. It looked like it had started out as a small nick, but after Caleb was done shaving him he'd run around the yard celebrating his new 'do. (He loves being shaved.) We tried to see if we could come up with a way to keep it clean while it healed, but quickly realized it wasn't going to work. It needed stitches. Of course.

We'd already slipped him a sedative we had from a previous injury so that we could fiddle with it without him wigging out (oh, and let me tell you, it was oh-so-necessary) so we waited until the next day to take him in. When Caleb brought him home from the vet's office we let him out of the car and I don't know whether he's ever been so completely out of it. I told him to go to the bathroom, and he wandered around the front yard like he might have an idea of what he was supposed to do...but couldn't quite figure it out. He'd stand in front of a tree and start to squat and then...forget and keep walking. I gave up, and we went inside to get him some food, as it was several hours past the time he normally eats. He walked up to his bowl and stood over it, his snout mere inches from the food, and then walked away. That's when I knew he was totally and completely out of it. That dog wouldn't pass up food if it was covered in his own feces.

I have to admit though, I love the mutt doped up. He's so calm.

He sat like this for hours, his eyes so red and droopy he looked like a Basset Hound. Sadly, for me, it wore off before the end of the night. And now he's back to himself.

Sigh.

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 27

Guess who's in their third trimester! Me! Wee! It's all happening so fast! Cue the insanity! I was just telling someone the other day how quickly the last month and a half has gone, probably because the majority of it was spent getting ready for and being on vacation, but seriously. It's the middle of August people, WHERE DID JULY GO? I swear I was just sitting on the sidewalk watching the tiny 4th of July parade go by. But apparently not. Apparently that was, uh, a month and a half ago. Odd.

The baby this week is two pounds. Two entire pounds! You mean to tell me that in the huge bump that seems to have formed in front, that the baby is only two pounds of that?! It's crazy, I tell you. 2 pounds and 14.5 inches. The head of a cauliflower. I find this one of the strangest comparisons, because that doesn't seem that big. Maybe a really LARGE head of cauliflower. Genetically engineered cauliflower. Hoo boy, doesn't that sound good?! Steam me up somma that!

The baby's eyes opened this week! Odd timing, since just this weekend Caleb was asking when that would happen, and realizing that um, everything is going to be dark in there for him. Like, no wonder they come out screaming. They go from dark, warm, cramped quarters to a cold, very brightly lit and loud room where doctors spank your bum (do they still do that?) and poke and prod you. I'd be screaming too. Other than exercising his eyelid muscles, he's developed a waking / sleeping schedule and sucking on whatever body part he can get his little lips on.

A few of the websites mentioned that my energy could start dropping now, and yeah, I've noticed that actually. While I'm not spending every moment possible tucked in bed like I was during those first few weeks, I have noticed a little decline in my energy. Yesterday after work I did the usual chores, vacuuming the house, tidying up, feeding the mutt and putting away the various items that Caleb leaves around on a daily basis (you know it's true, Cabe), I laid on the couch to rest my back and nearly fell asleep as I flipped from one Olympic station to the next. Caleb got home and tried to hurry me along so that we could meet up with our friends for dinner and a little bocce, and I couldn't be bothered to move from the couch. We ended up meeting them at the park instead and eating on the picnic benches, which was lovely, but still. Normally I'm the one prodding Caleb along so we can get out of the door. The way things are going, I'll soon be leaving my wet towel on the bed and wondering what is so wrong with my clean clothes lying on the floor.

(For the record, the towel was hung up today, thank you Caleb! That buys me three more seconds on the couch!)

I've also started to wake up again in the middle of the night to pee, which is no surprise since hello, the baby is large and in charge, and I'm already peeing every hour AT LEAST during the day. The annoying part is that it ends up being such a small amount, but it feels like there's a gallon in there. When we were at the store checking out my laptop this weekend I had to use their bathroom, despite just barely going at the last store, and had to quickly dash because it came on so sudden and the baby had decided that this large balloon called my bladder made a very nice punching bag. A punching bag filled with an ounce of liquid. I actually sat there for a good 10 seconds after because I didn't believe that was it. There had to be more. But there wasn't. And then 10 minutes later I had to pee again. It was awesome.

Today I had to go take the glucose tolerance test, a test to determine if I have gestational diabetes or not. They require everyone to do it around 28 weeks, and my doctor asked me to have it done before my appointment on Monday. Basically you go in and drink an insanely sugary drink, wait an hour, and then they draw your blood and test it to see how it reacted to all the sugar. I've heard from a lot of people that you experience a major sugar crash after, so I decided to do it at the end of the workday so I could go home and "crash" there. No one wants to see me with my head on my desk, drooling.

I walked in and got my paperwork and went to the lab to collect my lovely drink. As I stood in line a frantic nurse ran out asking for a blanket, and then they announced over the intercom that there was a team emergency or something, bla bla bla, everyone get in here. That sort of thing. Within two minutes there were three nurses and four police / EMT guys. Apparently some girl had her blood drawn and then started hyperventilating afterward and shaking. It was a very big to-do, they had her breathing in a bag and kept checking her blood pressure and the like. They said she hadn't passed out though, and I was like, PSH. GIRL. GET A GRIP. CALL ME WHEN YOU'VE PASSED OUT.

So I get my lovely little orange drink, and the woman tells me I need to drink it in 5 minutes. It's like, half the size of a Coke can or something, so there was no problem there. The flavor wasn't too bad actually, I was expecting worse. Sort of a mix between flat orange soda and that orange drink they used to give you at McDonalds when you were little. Definitely not something I'd willingly request, but managable. When I finished I asked the woman if I could use the restroom during the hour I had to wait, and she said sure, just as long as I didn't throw up. At first I thought she meant throw up as in like, bulemic throw up, and I was a little offended. And then I realized she meant throwing up because the drink is so freakin' sugary. So I started to worry a bit.

I'd brought a book with me to pass the time, but quickly decided I didn't have the attention to actually read, so I walked around the waiting room grabbing every magazine that looked semi-interesting and plopped myself down to wait. 15 minutes later the baby started moving like I'd jolted him with, well, a whole lot of sugar. Cause I had. Couple this with two little boys who thought it appropriate to run around the room pretending to set each other on fire, and it was quite the hour wait. The blood draw went well, though as soon as I sat in the comfy chair I felt myself drooping. Cue the sugar crash. And the nausea. I've felt funny on and off the rest of the night, despite eating dinner and drinking. Hopefully a good night of sleep will cure that.

That's a bump. Last night we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a roll of pre-made cookie dough and chocolate syrup to make a pizookie* with Mark and Bridgette after our bocce game. As Caleb and I stood in the line the checker looked at me and then asked Caleb if the chocolate syrup was to pour over the cookie dough. I didn't hear that part, but did hear him also ask if the cookie dough was even going to make it to the car. Like I was some crazed animal that couldn't control myself enough to not rip the cookie dough out of his grubby hands and eat it, wrapper and all, right there in the isle. Slightly miffed, I told him that no, we were making a pizookie, but that didn't deter him. He made several other jokes before we left, and it was all I could do to not give him a piece of my mind. Maybe I should have, but I didn't feel like spoiling the fun we'd just had, and besides, he wasn't worth it. Some people are just ridiculous.

*a pizookie is basically a huge flat chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and whatever else you can think of, on top. Enough for several people to enjoy.

All your questions answered here

(My internet was being wonky last night, so this is for yesterday...cheating? Who cares! It's my blog! Hahahah!)

On Sunday Caleb and I were asked to speak to the primary in our church (all the kids age 3 - 12) about how important families are, getting married and having kids and how special that is, etc. I think mostly because of my large and in charge baby bump that has popped out in the last few weeks. Anyway, we're in the middle of talking and it's all very spiritual and stuff, and one of my Sunbeams (age 4) raises his hand.

"Um....uuuhhhhh.....weeelllllll...." (He's a super fabulous little boy, always asking very intuitive questions, but he's a hummer and hawwer if I ever saw one) "But how do you GET a baby?"

Cue the deer in the headlights frozen smile.

And the frantic glancing around at the other leaders, a silent plea for help. HELP! I DON'T WANT TO GO THERE! DON'T MAKE ME GO THERE!

I saw nothing but very amused faces. This should be fun, faces.

"Well," I said, stalling, "you get married and after a little while you decide to have babies. Anyway..."

Thankfully the leader who was temporarily sitting with my class distracted him before he could question any further. I don't think my insanely vague answer satisfied him. I can only imagine the conversations that ensued later that day at his house.

So there you have it folks, that's where babies come from. You get married and then decide to have kids and POOF! Baby! In your arms! NO STRETCH MARKS REQUIRED.

Gather round! It's slideshow time!

 This weekend we took advantage of a fabulous deal and bought a new laptop - for me. My very first all-to-myself, laptop. Er, notebook, whatever it is the kids are calling them these days. (At least I didn't go the way of "portable computer" or something...) I'm very excited to immerse myself in it, set it up the way I want and such, but for now I'm on the old one, because I have nine million pictures to post of our recent trip home and they are all on here. So while Caleb is playing with the built in webcam (you should see the faces this boy can make) I'm uploading here for your viewing pleasure.

Or something like that.

This is the first portion of our trip, spent in Heber with his family. His parents live on a gorgeous lot and have really made fabulous use of the land. It's a lot of pictures, but I couldn't help myself. It's just so beautiful.

First though, we started off our morning with Caleb making a fabulously large brunch.

It was oh so delicious. I ate every single berry.

Then we met their newest addition, a kitten. Now people, I am not a cat person. I'm just not. But there was something about this kitten, the fact that she'd been taken away from her mom so young (I think Caleb's mom got her at 5 weeks!), but I just couldn't get enough of her. I wanted to tuck her in my arm and keep her there all day.

And then she crawled up over my shoulder and sat her little cat butt on my head. And I was done with the kitty. For a good twenty minutes or so.

Then we went to visit Caleb's dad's project, a 1930's Chevrolet truck he's restoring. Apparently it runs in the family, this need to pour money into old cars.

The next day he had it running and we went on a little drive down the country roads, an oldies station playing in the background. As we drove past fields of cows you could almost imagine what it would have been like to live back then, and everything seemed slower. Calmer. It was lovely.

Then we went to sit in one of my favorite spots in their yard.

And yes, it's that serene.

I tried to take a shot of the stream coming in, but Caleb jumped in my shot.

Such a clown.

Caleb then decided it was time to test out the four wheeler, and we drove down their long driveway while I snapped away.

I think this is my favorite part of their property, this view. The night before we sat here on a bench watching the Pioneer Day fireworks at Deer Creek Reservoir while the local mosquitoes decided to make me their dinner. I came away with no less than 9 bites, one on my elbow that later ballooned up so large it looked like I had two elbows. And my, was it itchy.

Same area, different shot. I miss the mountains.

When we got to the end of their driveway Caleb got off to take a shot of me on the four wheeler. I decided to try and see if I could figure out how to make it go - I've never driven one before. I did, and couldn't stop laughing. Caleb took a bazillion shots of this, with me getting closer and closer, this same look of glee on my face. Weeee! I made it go! Look at me, mommy!

Having had my fun, we went to sit and relax in Caleb's favorite spot in the back yard.

I sat in the rocker, and he fished. He actually caught one (they fish in the river right next to their property and then, uh, transport the fish into their ponds for their grandsons and sons to catch)! Only significant because in the seven plus years I've known him he's loved to fish and for some odd reason, he's never caught one when I've been present. It was the end of a lovely teasing era.

Then he went to go check out a large fire that was burning in the nearby canyon and I spotted my next activity:

 

Caleb returned and informed me I was sitting the wrong way. I thought it felt a bit funny.

We ended the day by meeting up with friends. We had a fabulous time, we've got lovely friends.

The next day Caleb's family threw me a baby shower, which was fun.

Caleb wanted the classic hands-on-my-back-woe-is-me shot. So cute.

Here are my beautiful sisters in law (sister in laws?) and mother in law.

I want her to give me make up application lessons. She always looks flawless.

It was a fabulous extended weekend. Exhausting, but fabulous.

Dirty Caleb

Caleb decided to let his hair grow while in Lake Powell.

It lasted until we got home, when he tried to convince me that he should keep it. I told him he wouldn't be getting any kisses from me, no suh, but he made me "just try it". He said he saw my face after and knew - it had to go.

Also? I think he was getting sick of trying to pull this face all the time, because apparently you can't have a mustache without this face.

Caleb, you looked like Dirty Hairy just then...

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 26

This is the last week of the second trimester, a week we have officially decided that woah, holy crap, we need to get MOVING with the buying and preparing and getting ready for the baby stuff. Like, pronto. We just got our crib bedding in the mail (Thanks Bridge, for being my surrogate house while we were gone!) and it's starting to feel real. Which is exciting and frightening all at once.

The baby is now about 14 inches and a pound and two thirds. This week's food comparison? An English Hothouse Cucumber. Whatever that is. He's putting on more fat, the uh, family jewels are heading on down, and he's practicing "breathing" by sucking in a little amniotic fluid. Some sites said that we might even be able to hear his heartbeat with a stethoscope, if we had one.

I am still in bed, perfecting the art of laying on my left side, with occasional bouts of walking around and peeing. It's slow going, it's nearly 11 pm and I haven't decided if I'm going to work tomorrow, Thursday, but am leaning to the "no" side. Today I was able to sit up / walk around for a good thirty minutes, but then spent the next hour or so breathing through the pain. It feels ridiculous staying home when I'm not sick, I've never been hurt this way, practically bedridden. I've joked a bit with a few people about how lovely bedrest sounds sometimes, being forced to sit in bed and do nothing (read: not be at work) but two days of this and I'm done. There's only so much reading and channel surfing I can handle. Poor me, wah, next time? Do not attempt things you know you shouldn't do. I'm filing it away, that's for sure.

Most of this past week was spent at Lake Powell, and we had a fabulous time. My family and I have been going to Lake Powell every year for at least the last 15 years, and this was the first time that I literally did nothing. I am very used to helping out with every facet of the trip, loading and unloading, helping dock the houseboat, gasing up the boat and waverunners, etc. etc. etc. and this year I did next to nothing. I think the only thing they let me carry were the foam noodles we use for floating in the water, which weigh about as much as a feather. I pretty much sat, swam, and tried to stay cool, which was difficult this year, as it was insanely hot. Even the water was unseasonably warm, the temperature closer to what it's like in September rather than late July. The nights were especially uncomfortable as the temperature stayed close to 80 degrees, but wet towels and water bottles helped us all get through. Mostly. It was fun to be with my family, and my two sisters spent a large amount of the time cooing, talking, and touching my belly in hopes for a kick or two.

Speaking of which, the kicking has gone from little butterflies and barely there kicks to full on jabs and punches that can be seen now, quite clearly. He seems to have kicked it into high gear in the last few days, maybe because I'm doing a lot of lying around instead of lulling him to sleep by walking around. I'll be reading and suddenly stop because he's moving so much, dancing it seems, and sit and watch my belly for a good five minutes, and laugh. I can't help it, it's so strange to see my stomach jump from side to side and up and down, and have it be completely out of my control. It's definitely the strangest thing I've ever felt.

On our way to the airport on Monday my family and I stopped to see my cousin's new little boy, born while we were in Lake Powell, and I can't even begin to describe how it felt to sit and hold him and look at him. I've held a bazillion newborn babies, but this was different because it really hit me that soon, very soon, I would have my own little boy to sit and hold and admire and enjoy. I couldn't stop staring at him and all his perfect tiny little features, and kept thinking about how there was a little boy like that inside me, with little ears and fingers and toes just like his. It made me excited and nervous and freaked out and totally and completely happy. I can't wait to meet him.

The best shot I have, lovely bruise and all, since my belly is still uh...larger than it should be. I'm still waiting for things to go back to normal, and enjoying a lot of cherries and fiber supplements in the mean time. Yeah for me! You are so jealous! I am so hot right now! Also, the swim suit may have to go soon. It's getting a little too tight. As you can see.

Getting in lots of reading time

We are back from our vacation, have been since Sunday night, though I am a little incapacitated. A few days ago I moved a cooler of drinks from on top of another cooler (dropped it, is really what it was) and pulled a muscle in my side. It wasn't a big deal at first, just a little bit of pain that didn't stop me from enjoying my lovely vacation, and then the night before we left for home I dove into the water to wash my hair (that's the Lake Powell way, washing in the lake) and it cramped up for some reason. I was barely able to pull myself out of the water onto the back of the boat, and have since spent nearly every moment lying on my left side, the only semi-comfortable position. I was utterly useless in helping to load up and clean the houseboat, unload everything once we got home, clean the boats, put away supplies, etc. etc. etc. I had all sorts of grand plans to visit people I hadn't yet seen on Monday before we left, cousins, new babies, grandparents, friends, but again spent the day on my parents couch with InStyle Magazine and a heating pad. Caleb has been insanely helpful as always, doing more than his fair share of helping out in my place and packing our bags and getting us ready to fly back home. I'm not at work today because I still can't sit or stand up for longer than 10 or 15 minutes without it tensing up in pain, leaving him to pick up the dog, and check on the house. He even made me a little breakfast this morning before he left for work. He should get a medal or something.

Couple this with the dreaded Lake Powell disease (lots of lovely food goes in and nothing comes out...seems to effect nearly everyone for some reason) and I am one hot ball of fun. Posting may be lighter these next few days, I hope that's as long as it takes to return to at least some functionality, but who knows.

Trust me, I will never move another heavy object while pregnant. I am learning my lesson well. Very well.