It's Just One of Those Days

What kind of day would that be?  Oh, a spill your urine sample on yourself kind of a day.  Yes.  I did that.  Morgan was right, he did marry an oaf.  At least I did it in the bathroom where I could clean myself up in private and there was just enough left in the cup for them to test with.  It's possible the nurse doesn't even know what happened in the bathroom.  Unless she heard my "Mother F!" from the other side of the door.

Things are looking good here at week 35.  I'm still doing good with my weight gain.  Everything looks and sounds normal.  Great news is that I will get a bonus ultrasound at next weeks appointment!  They want to see how big he is getting considering how large he was at 32 weeks.  Gotta make sure he's not so big I can't birth his ass.  But this is super exciting to me as it's another chance to maybe get ultrasound photos since we couldn't get any from the 32 week scan.

Baby Shower! Not Mine!

My friend Beth is also pregnant.  3 weeks behind me in gestation and also having a boy!  This weekend the shower for her and baby Gage happened.  And the cute was pretty extreme.

Like the hand made giant crab pillow that our friend Jessica made!  Or the amazing quilt that Audrey made.

It was several hours of fun, food, and cute gifts.  Beth was truly surprised.  And she got so much cool stuff.  Which in turn gave me more ideas for things to put on our registry.  Muhahah!

As an added bonus for the weekend, Audrey and Delilah were here all weekend long.  Ahhh, friend time.  And cute toddler time.  And cute friend and upside down toddler time.  etc.  Happy.

The master of entertaining kids while in public.

Kids always look cute in little hats.

Too Much Fun

Today was our "Where's The Instruction Manual?" class.  This is the class I was looking forward to more than any of the others.  The class where they teach you how to change a diaper, bathe baby, swaddle, dress, etc.  Cause I am hella clueless when it comes to what to do with a baby.  You would think I would know all this stuff considering how baby crazy I was and how long it took for us to get preggo.  But no.  Big no.  I have basically zero infant experience.

So a class that offered hands on practice with a life size doll was super exciting to me.  Especially when we discovered the newborn dolls are anatomically correct!

Baby has a weenis!

There was much fumbling and laughing as we tried to undress and manipulate the doll.  And I was so happy to see the other couples also failing and pulling awkwardly at the tiny clothes.  At one point Morgan had me laughing so hard while giving me pointers on how to wash a taint that I was crying in the middle of class.  The instructor kept giving me strange looks as I quietly wiped the tears away from my eyes and tried to behave.  You can't tell me I'm the only one who has done that in her class.  I refuse to believe that.

Daddy & the Snot Sucker

We had so much fun.  We learned a lot.  And I know it will be a confusing and completely different situation when the baby is crying and squirming, but I really do think this class is the best thing ever.  

The above photo we sent to my mother to see if she would think I gave birth and didn't tell her I was going to the hospital.  No reply yet.  She likely can't figure out how to read her text messages on her new phone.  

IKEA. One Love.

Today was a good day.  Today was a pretty spontaneous day.  Today was a "me" day.

Yesterday I got a random text from my friend Nikole asking what I was up to on Friday.  Which, obviously, nothing.  So her and Erin took Friday off work, met me in Frederick, and then chauffeured my ass around the metro area shopping!  IKEA, my one true store love.  Khol's, in an attempt to find shoes.  Red Robin, for the yum.

It's been a long time since I have had a chance to hang out with them.  Life, work, and weather always seemed to get in the way.  Literally, the weather.  The last 2 times we tried to get together we got unexpected snow storms.  Today was such a great surprise and I really appreciate it!

Tomorrow is Tuesday

My husband only has a few hours remaining of his 4 day holiday weekend.  We have spent every minute of the past 4 days together.  I can tell you one thing for definite - that's too much when I am bitchy hormonal.  I'm glad that he's returning to work tomorrow 'cause I can't bite my tongue for much longer and he has managed to make filthy every surface I spent this past week cleaning.  Don't get me wrong, I love the man.  And I'm pretty sure he has just about had it with my loud sighing and shooting glances that I can't hold back.  Some day these hormones will be gone.  And that day will be a happy day.

What have we done over our special time together? 

Friday:  Not a damn thing other than going to the comic book store so he could get his "stories".

Saturday:  Not a damn thing till we decided that night to go grocery shopping.  We rock so hard.

Sunday:  Childbirth class!  I enjoyed it.  Highlight of class was trying to practice my breathing while facing Morgan who is making me laugh too hard to be able to breathe.  It also scared me a bit.  Didn't have a fear in my little head at all about the birth process until about half way thru that class.  But I'm looking forward to the rest of our classes.  I like the woman who teaches them and that helps.

Monday:  Our birthday.  He is now 33 and I am now 32.  We spent some time at his Grandma's house visiting with her, and my mother made stuffed cabbage rolls and had the family over for dinner.  We didn't get to spend time with MIL because she fell in the morning and was too stiff and sore to want visitors.  It was a good day.  :)

So yeah.  Another year older.  Another year wiser?  Another week closer to having this baby.

My Absurd Belly

Absurd.  Absurd, I tell you.  In the past few weeks my belly has dramatically increased in size and I swear it feels like it gets just a little bigger every day!

8 months looking down

I took this poorly lit shot last night as I was sitting sideways on the couch talking to my husband.  I looked down and was shocked.  When did this happen?  When did I loose my crotch?  When did the belly surpass my major boobage?  And how did it sneak up on me like this if I'm attached to this belly every day?

I then stood up to do the toe check.  You know, where you look down and see if the pregnancy has made your toes disappear.  Sure 'nough.  Toes gone.  What is 9 months going to look like?  Hold me, I'm scared.

Baby & Bean Stew

Part One:  Baby
This morning was our 32 week/8 month Dr appointment with growth ultrasound.  Baby, as yet unnamed,  is measuring 2 weeks ahead (5 pounds 3 ounces) and is in the 73%.  I don't quite understand the % thing, gonna have to look that one up.  They explained it as he is big, but not THAT big.  So yay?

I was surprised to find out that in the past 2 weeks I have lost 3 pounds.  Making my grand total for weight gained so far 11 pounds, 5 of which is pure baby.  Once I thought about it the weight loss kinda made sense.  I just spent a few days packing up 58 boxes of computer parts and merchandise.  That ain't the easiest thing to do when you are quite pregnant.

I wish I had ultrasound photos to share!  Baby is head down and tucked way down low, so they couldn't get any profile shots.  So they didn't print out any photos from the ultrasound for us.  Sadness.

Part Two:  White Bean Stew
Since I am going to be home and cooking dinners - I started looking up recipes I have been wanting to try.  I figure I'll slip one new recipe a week into the mix to see if I can find some new things we both like.  I'm also making it my goal that twice a week we have a meat-free dinner.  Morgan does not like the idea at all, but he certainly tore into this stew last night.  So win for team veggie!

The cutest little mini bottle of wine ever!

One thing required for this stew that I was a little iffy on is the chard.  This is our second attempt at making something with chard.  The first one failed miserably.  But this was a perfect addition to the stew.  And the white wine adds such a wonderful fragrance and flavor.  It was amazing.

Finished product was very tasty, even better when drizzled with a little red wine vinegar.  The recipe calls for sherry vinegar, but we couldn't find any and the red wine vinegar was delicious with it.  This recipe was a WIN all around.  Easy to make, fairly simple and cheap ingredients, and just plain wonderful.

That Was Nice

It's official.  I am a home bound person of the unemployed persuasion.

My last day of work was a good one.  CABL for the most part left me alone and stopped going thru the trash in my office to figure out if I was throwing away stuff they "might need someday".  You know, in case they decide to reverse their decision and the same property group keeps the mall and reopens the customer service department.

Packing up/throwing away everything you have worked on for 4 years is an oddly therapeutic process.  Everything that needed to be returned to the company fit into 58 boxes.  Those 58 boxes left on Thursday afternoon and I spent the rest of my day wandering around the mall and saying goodbye to people.

My coworkers surprised me and had a Going Away/Baby Shower just before the end of the day.  Cake, cards, and lots of laughs.  And Candace, using her skills, made some quick decorations.

The Welfare Mother Theme Shower

We had come up with this inappropriate idea earlier in the week that my baby shower in February should be "Welfare Mother" themed.  I know a lot of people would take offense to this, but with my wicked and sarcastic sense of humor I laughed my head off while coming up with ideas.  Candace ran with it.  So awesome!  I don't know if you can tell in this photo, but each letter has a different welfare image depicted on it.  WIC logos, Newport cigarettes, Old English malt liquor, food stamps, a trailer park, and government cheese!  This will so be hanging above the crib when we finish the nursery!

And now I get to focus on stuff I am really looking forward to.  Things I have been putting off because I just simply didn't have the time or energy to do them before.  Cleaning the house, reorganizing the pantry, preparing the nursery, and maybe even putting together some photo albums.  If you wanna hang out, just let me know!

The Plot Thickens

So I was laid off on Friday and have had several days now to get used to the idea.  Family and friends have been amazing in their support and trying to help me find the silver lining to this storm cloud.  The husband is freaking out over the situation a lot more than I am, but he'll get over it once the shock has worn off for him.

Now we get to the interesting part.  I'm still working till Thursday packing up everything that was part of my department and shipping it off to various locations.  Computers, manuals, stock and supplies, etc. So I am still there and hearing all the gossip and watching everyone who still has a job panic.  This is a very unique position to be in.  Awkward, yes.  But unique.  And things don't look good.

As previously posted - the company I work for defaulted on their loan for the mall.  Meaning the mall is for sale, but as far as we know there is no buyer at this time.  However, my company is completely abandoning the property.  Over the weekend anything on mall that had the property group name on it has disappeared.  No signs, door clings, floor clings, or anything else identifying the mall as being owned by them.  Soon we will no longer have our social media (facebook, twitter, foursquare) pages since they are linked thru this company.  Soon we will no longer have the website provided by the company.  Meaning that the marketing department has to build all of this from scratch on their own.

None of that is giving the still employed that warm and fuzzy safe feeling.  My work friend, Candace, is the marketing assistant and will be responsible for creating the new website, mall signs, everything.  She is job hunting.  She's pretty sure the writing on the wall is spelling the end of days for current employees.  Especially for her once she finishes creating these things since half of her job was backing up MY staff.  Therefore half of her job is gone and she really doesn't have much of anything to do all day long.

It will be fun watching from afar as things unfold.  Now I'm kinda thankful that I was the first to be let go as the panic of not knowing when/if my job is next has to be more stressful than what I'm going thru.