Week 28

Here I am in all my after yoga splendor. Boy am I getting big. I'm so ready to be done with the pregnancy part. I'm starting to get awkward and I'm having weird stretchy pains around my belly. Kinda like cramps but they are very light and take place just under my boobs and slide down the sides of my belly. They are nowhere near where normal cramps would be. I'll have to ask the Dr. about it when I see him on Friday.

I've got 2 more Christmas presents to make, then I'm done. Yay. Not that I've taken pictures of anything I've done so far.....

November's update

Ok, so I've been procrastinating on writing about the latest events in my life. Mostly due to depression and Christmas present rush. Now that I am done with most of the presents that need to be finished by Saturday and I've caught up with my blog role (yes, I'd rather read about everyone else than post my own stuff) I'm going to sit here and write.

Lets start off in the middle of November. One of my best friends from college flew down from Ohio for a long weekend. She came to see me and to help me organize Bean's room, which is currently the guest bedroom. It was so great to see her, J is a mother of 2 boys that she home schools. I have the utmost respect for her and for all that she and I are the same age, I want to be her when I grow up. I've always thought of her as my "Anne of Green Gables" kindred spirit. She helped me move my bookshelves out of Bean's room and into the formal living room (they actually match the dining room table) where they look great. The she lugged all the baby crap that was in the formal living room upstairs to Bean's room and hid it in the closet that we emptied of all the camping gear and sporting crap (moved to shelves in the garage-Zalebaby wasn't happy about having his golfing stuff in the garage)

We also went shopping. I registered for baby stuff at Target (Target gave me a $20 gift card for registering, thank you Target) She steered me thru the stuff you must have and the stuff that is a waste of money. It was soo much fun and much too short of a visit.

For the Thanksgiving Holiday, Zalebaby and I went to my Mother's house. We left Wednesday morning after dropping the pooches off with Zalebaby's cousin Chel. Thank you so much for watching them, it made the drive so much easier. The drive up went really well. It took us about 10 hours, even with all the pee-breaks. The ride home was so bad Zalebaby is refusing to go north for the Holidays ever again. It took us 13 hours on Sunday to get back and we even left my Mom's a 4 am. We'll go north for the Holidays again, but we're going to a extra day off of work rather than try to travel on peak days.

We went up to my Uncle Ron's for Thanksgiving day. That's been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. Not that I've made it there for Thanksgiving in years....the last time I made that trip was in 2003 I believe. My sister Jill was preggers with Ty, who is the first grandbaby.

That's the only problem with living in Georgia. Pennsylvania is so far away.

Ty and Ronald's new baby Sophia.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I got to see the new baby (my cousin Ronald's first) and see how much the other kids have grown since last Christmas, eat more food that I should (Jill made these awesome pumpkin chocolate chip cookies) and visit with everyone. Uncle Ron introduced Dale to Skype (we talked to my sister Katie in Germany) I'd been trying to get him on it since Katie moved to Germany in August, but he couldn't be persuaded to try it. Well, it got him all fired up about it. On black Friday, Mom and I went to Babies-R-Us and we picked out a crib and dresser for Bean and she bought it for me (thanks Mom!) They just called me today and let me know I can pick them up, here in Atlanta. Yay! Now to find a friend with a truck.

Brady, Mom and Ty

After we picked out the nursery furniture, mom and I wandered down to Circuit City to see if they still had any of the web cams that were on sale. We lucked out and found the last 1. It was a HD web cam on sale for $9.95. Woot! Mom paid $59.95 for it and got a $50.00 mail-in-rebate. Thanks Mom! I was planing on getting it for myself, but she wouldn't let me, so as soon as we got home, I went on line and submitted the rebate for her, so she should be getting her rebate check any day now. Friday night was spent at Jill's eating Stromboli and playing with the kids.

Mom, Mom's sister-Aunt Gerry and me (Week 26)

On Saturday, I thought I was going to brunch with one of my cousins, it turned out that Mom and Jill threw me a surprise baby shower. I was truly surprised. It was so great to see my aunts and older cousin (and some of the younger ones!) I usually see them and their families Christmas day at our family Church dinner, but its so chaotic and I don't get to spend anytime with them. The shower was great, I got to visit with everyone, play some games (which I lost, badly) and I enjoyed myself to no end. The shower had a great theme. Instead of giving a card with their name on it to identify the gift giver, they were asked to give a favorite children's book and write a note to Bean. I came back with a large stack of fun baby books and a lot of gift cards, since everyone wanted to make sure they didn't over pack my car.

I'm alive.....

Truly I am! I've been waiting on the hubby to fix some pictures so I can tell you all about our Thanksgiving trip. So I'll get to that on Monday.

Good News----I past my glucose test on the first try. No gestational diabetes's for me. I did get a lecture from the Doc about portion control.....I've put on 21 pounds so far. Sigh. I thought I was doing well, I'm at the end of week 27. Oh well. It is nothing I'm going to stress over.

2008 Chomp and Stomp

The Cabbage Town Chili Festival was huge this year. Lots of chili was consumed, as well as Sweetwater Beer (yes, over the course of the day I consumed 2/3 a glass of beer......you've got to wash all those chili samples down with beer)

The kids had fun dancing to the bluegrass music and the must have been 50 different craft vendors. If I would have had any extra money, I would have come home with the best onesies for the bean.

Zalebaby is in the blue and he is incapable of letting anyone get a nice picture of him.

Bonus Pictures: 24 Weeks......Please notice the chili stains around my belly-button. The shirt was a present from my friend Heat.

22 weeks

22 Weeks and counting. I'm getting bigger and bigger. That blur at the bottom of the picture is Tata, or Mr. Potato Head, Zalebaby is responsible for that name. Not me.

GA Apple Festival

We, Zalebaby, myself and his cousin Chele and her family went to the GA Apple Festival in Ellijay last Saturday. It was about an hour and a half drive to get there. It was a beautiful day for a drive in the mountains.

The kids had a blast. They climbed the rockwall and jumped on the trampolieens. Neither one was brave enough to ride the mechanical bull. Watching everyone else ride it was a hoot.

We walked around and looked at all the crafts and nibbled on faire food....it being the apple festival, we had apple dumplings with ice cream and apple fritters. I bought a peck of apples and on Sunday I made crock-pot applesause. It was super easy. Peal, slice and core apples, toss them in the crock-pot with 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar and what ever spices you'd like in applesaue. I used cinninman, clove and allspice. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, mash if nessary, taste for sweetness, chill. Yummy!

Sorry for the blurry picture!

Must learn photoshop

Here I am at 21 weeks, 2 days. I really must learn how to photo shop.....I've never seen that under-arm waddle before. Bean is moving all the time now and I'm starting to pinch when I reach for something below me while I'm sitting. I usually feel a movement after I do that, so I'm sure she giving a kick for squishing her.

Zalebaby is being so cute, he's started blowing raspberries on my belly every chance he gets. Makes me teary-eyed. He's also starting making plans for her, like teaching her to play golf, so he has a golf partner.

I got a present this weekend!

Too Cute! Thank you so much Mary Ann! Not only did I get these pretty washcloths, I felt the baby move. It felt like a goldfish bumping on the glass of the bowl looking for food. weird image, I know, but thats the best way I can describe it. So very weird and exciting.

growing...

Boy do I need to clean that mirror!...... but I'm growing, I had to take out my belly ring! I can still wear a few of my normal clothes, but I'm finding maternity wear much more comfortable, even if I have to roll all the waistbands. I've been assured I'll grow into into them.

At the doc's yesterday and I weighed in at 153lbs. Last month I was 145. I need to cut back on the Reese's peanut butter cups.

Vacation pictures

Zalebaby and I went on a little Anniversary/Babymoon Vacation last weekend. We left Thursday and came back Sunday. Not nearly long enough, but I'm saving vacation days for Thanksgiving. I'll be a little too pregnant to travel the 13 hours home for Christmas, so I promised Mom I'd come home for Thanksgiving instead.

We took a trip to Orlando to go to SeaWorld. I really liked the hotel we stayed in. The International Plaza Resort. It was very nice for the price, plus I mentioned it was our Anniversary and we were surprised our 2nd night there with a fruit plate and chocolates.

We walked to SeaWorld, about a 10 minute walk and we walked to Aquatica, which is SeaWorld's new water park. That was more of a hike, 15-20 minutes, mostly because you had to walk a long wind-y entrance road, with no sidewalks, which sucked, but how many people stay in hotels that are that close? I think ours was the only one you could do that from.

My favorite picture:

Don't you want to eat him up?

On Friday, we did SeaWorld. Neither Zalebaby nor I had been there since we were little, so we were really looking forward to it. It didn't disappoint. I thought SeaWorld would be great to go see, since it isn't about rides (I love roller coasters!) The shows were a lot of fun, but I was dissapointed with the Shamu- I believe show. It was a little cheesey and the animals didn't do much. There was more hoop-la than action.

Friday night we went to Universal Studio's Halloween Horror's Opening night. I was exhausted from all the walking durning the day, so I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Zalebaby did, but it was worth going to. It's too bad I'm preggers, 'cause they had the new Simpson's roller coaster open. Sigh. At lease Zalebaby didn't leave me to go for a spin, although it would have been nice to sit down while he was on it. My hips were killing me from all the walking and standing.

Saturday at Aquatica was a lot of fun. We slept in and got there around noon. There was only 1 ride I couldn't ride on, which was a stomach down racing ride. Normally, I would have loved that ride, but with Bean it wasn't do-able. My favorite attraction was Roa's Rapids, which is based on the lazy river idea, but with life vest instead of inner tubes and it has a faster current. It was lots of fun to drift around. I really over did it on Friday, so floating around on Saturday was the best.

Sunday, we went back to SeaWorld and saw the shows and exhibits we missed on Friday. I loved the dolphin and whale show, it made up for the Shamu show. We also spent almost an hour watching the seals play. Then we walked back to the hotel and drove home.

Mom Came to Visit

Mom came to visit on Friday, she flew in around 4:30 and I dropped her off at the airport at 8am Monday morning. It was a quick but lovely visit.

When she came, she checked a bag and brought a carry on. She filled her suitcase with 48lbs of maternity clothes for me from my sisters. She's got more winter clothes waiting for me when I go up to see her for Thanksgiving. She was too funny with the weighing of the suitcase to make sure she didn't go over the 50 lbs limit.

I've settled on what we are going to do for the baby's room while she was here. I've been racking my brains, trying to figure out how to combine my sewing room and the guest room to free up the sewing room for the baby. Mom talked me into putting the baby into the guest room and leaving my sewing room as-is. She assured me that I'll want to have a bed in the room with the baby. Then we went to a daycare consignment sale with my friend A, who is a month ahead of me with her 2nd child. I found a comforter, bumper, diaper hanger and lamp shade that complement the bedspread on the guest bed, for $15. Sold! I have some wonderful fabric that goes with the set to make a dust ruffle for the crib. Here is the set:

I've also decided to go with a "Once Upon A Time" theme for Bean, leaning more toward Mother Goose than Disney.

What Year Do You Belong In?

You Belong in 1954

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Pink it is!

Woot! I'm having a little girl baby. Now I get to make all kinds of fun girly clothes. At least while she's small enough to let me dress her. She'll probably turn out to be a tomboy and never want to wear dresses. Still, I'm going to have fun while she'll let me.

The first shot of Bean at the Dr's was bottom up. The teck no sooner put the wand on my belly then we got to see she's a girl. I saw butt cheeks and 2 thighs, the teck said look, it's a girl! and she highlighted the in-between parts to show us her girly bits. The exam was the coolest. We got to see all of her, all the bones, her heart beating-all four chambers of it, her kidneys and stomach. She even looked at the wand, which made her look like an alien. It was the neatest thing.

Pink or Blue?

I've got my 2nd trimester genetic screening today....which means they will do another sonogram. The doc told me at the last appointment that we'll be able to see the gender, if the bean cooperates. I'm so fricken excited. I hope Bean will pose for us.

Book review:Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4)

Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series, Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer. Since I have trouble with these reviews, I thought I'd steal a page from Tripping Toward Lucidity's book and review the story by answering questions.
What led you to pick up this book?
I picked up this book because it is part 4 in a series where I enjoyed the first 3. I enjoyed this book and eagerly waited until it was my turn to read. When I signed up for it at the library, I was 365th on the wait list for it.
Summarize the plot but don't give away the ending.
For me, this book wraps up the other 3 books. Bella's journey to conquer her fears and grow into herself and to gain her happy ever after. It had a couple of twist and turns that I didn't anticipate. Overall, it think it was far less intense then the others.
What did you like most about the book?
That the ending conflict was settled without a big brawl.
Share a favorite scene from the book:
I loved the description of the cottage that was built for Bella and Edward.

bump-de-bump

Something happened between Monday and Tuesday night...........I got a bump! The picture is a little exaggerated, I'm twisted a little bit to get the picture, but I no longer look like I have a beer belly. Yay! --Please ignore my droopy pants, my butt isn't deformed that way ;-)

R.I.P. III is here!

It's that time again. Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings has issued his fall Challenge and I again am taking him up on his offer. I just love to torure myself. It's not the scarey stories, which I like to read in the fall, its writing the reviews. But, to grow we must be challenged, so write them I will.

I'm going with:

Which is: Read Four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.

The Gothic/Horror/Suspense genre isn't something I normally read, although I do like the ghosty fansty/sci-fi. So I've been looking at the other blogger's lists and I've come up with a list of my own. The first two Carl pointed out and they intrigued me. I love the title of the 2nd one.

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• The Ghost In Love by Jonathan Carroll
• Underground by Kat Richardson
• The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson-- not sure if this one fits in the genre, but it looks good
• Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
• Glass Houses - Rachel Caine

And what ever else I find. One of the best things about the challenge is all the new books the other blogger's bring to my attention.

Little Bean's Screen Debut

Woot! I went for my first trimester screen today and I made this video for Zalebaby since he couldn't make it to the appointment with me. Don't listen to me babble please, I was just chitchatting with the Dr. while he was checking out the little bean. Overall, everything looks good, which makes me very happy. I go back on September 16th for a 2nd trimester screening and I'll find out Bean's gender then.

Let Me Out!!!

I'm dying. It's 2:15 and I'm stuck here until 5. Somebody shoot me and put me out of my misery. I'm the only one in my department today. The only window I can see leads to the hallway not outside and it's cold in here. I've done all my work and am just waiting on the phone to ring, just so I can take a message for the salesmen who are not here. If I had nail polish, I'd be doing my nails just to complete the bad secretary image.

I bet no-one would notice if I sneaked out....

I've got nothing

I've got nothing to say, but when are my ta-ta's going to stop growing?!?

I did have something funny happen to me last week, but I wanted to wait until I had a picture to post with the story, but the picture thing doesn't seem to be happening yet, so I'll just tell the story.

So, I went to Kroger after work and a guy asked me how many months am I. If it wasn't for his very pregnant wife standing beside of him, I would have clocked him. As it was, I gave him a completely shocked look. After all, I was barely 11 weeks! Now I was wearing a bias cut dress that outlined my belly, but when I looked in the mirror that morning I didn't think I looked preggers, just a little chunky. Needless to say, I've retired that dress until after baby. Not that I mind the idea of looking pregnant, but it was soo weird to have him ask me that.

Zalebaby, sweet as he is, insists I look preggers, not fat. He gets a gold star for that. Now, if he'd only do the dishes.