Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

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32 Weeks Pregnant!

OK, so I am posting this photo about 5 days late... better late than never! I am now almost 33 weeks pregnant. I have less than 2 months left until this little guy is estimated to arrive. My OB appointments are every 2 weeks... which makes things feel like they are going faster. I can't believe he'll be here so soon. That makes me a very happy mommy!

Sometimes I Really Like Math!

I was filling out my time card at work yesterday and I realized something... I have 54 sick hours accumulated. I have 60 hours left to work before my quit date of 12/19/08. If I do the math correctly, I only really HAVE to work 6 more hours before I quit.

Of course I won't do that, I would feel too horrible for our project coordinator. As far as I know the office has not hired another full time employee to replace me, therefore leaving our coordinator with 3 undergraduate students, 1 graduate student, 1 post-doc, and our boss. EEK!

I will, however, be using SOME of my sick time. It would be too stupid not to!

Speaking up for Myself

Before Dave left in August, many people told me they were here to support me and if I ever felt down or lonely they would come over and keep me company. People offered to watch Jordan so I could go out and have some alone time. In the 3 months since Dave has been gone I went out 3 times... once with my sister, once with a friend for my birthday, and once (for only an hour) for a close friend's going away get-together. 3 times in 3 months... Now, let me tell you how many times I've hung out with a friend when I was lonely... 7 times. 3 times with 1 friend, 3 times when my best friend and her family were in town, and 1 time with another. That makes 10 times total I saw people other than Jordan, my parents, or while I was at work. No... make that 11, someone stopped by once to help me take the a/c's out of the window (THANK YOU, btw =) )

Now, let me tell you how many times I have sat at home lonely... 73 days. 1 month of that I kept my mouth shut (except for a blog post here or there, and a few emails to close friends) while I sat at home crying myself to sleep or wondering if my husband was ok. I wondered when a friend was going to call to see how I was doing, or to say, hey, find a babysitter and we'll go out this weekend. Eventually I got over the crying stage and into a good routine with Jordan, found things to keep me occupied after she had gone to bed (nothing very productive, unfortunately). The past month has been a bit easier since I can talk to Dave every night, but those calls don't last too long and I eventually find myself alone, in a quiet apartment.

I have come to terms recently that this is my fault. How are people to know what I am feeling if I never talk about it? How are they to know I want to hang out if I don't ask them to? I have an amazing group of friends whom I talk to on a daily basis via internet, but 2 of them are out of the country, one lives in another state, and the last has 3 children (and a husband, need I say more... no, we do get together, today was fun!!!). My best friend has moved even farther away and has a very busy life. Another close friend just moved to Florida. It seems my number of available to hang out friends has dwindled. And how the heck is a pregnant mother of one supposed to make new friends? Its not going to happen. So if I want to stop sitting at home sulking every day, I need to let my needs be voiced. Only I can do this. But how?? I have tried to hint but maybe they are too subtle because I still don't get invites. In fact, one day I actually said "I NEED to hang out with people" and nothing... nada... was that not clear enough?

No wonder I've gained as much as I have with this pregnancy, food seems to be my only friend these lonely nights.

Excess Paper

One project I continually put off, because its a little tedious, is organizing our files. Dave and I bought a black bin to keep hanging folders in to organize our bill statements, documents we want to keep, manuals, etc etc. I knew I had not filed anything for about 5 months so I finally cleared out the bin and went through it a couple of weeks ago... Oh my God... I had statements all the way back to 2004! That is every month, for 4 whole years: bank statements (checking and savings), house phone, cell phone, cable for 2 years, electric, gas, water/sewage, multiple credit cards, car insurance, health insurance, paperwork from the vet, other household expenses, and so on. Now I have a shopping bag FULL of papers that need to be shredded. Did you know that in about 45 minutes of shredding you can fill a tall kitchen trash bag and STILL have barely made a dent in all that paper?!

I asked my mom the other day how long she keeps statements for. She responded "Just the previous month, unless I made a purchase on the credit card that I might have to refer back to, a big purchase, then I keep that statement as well". Right now I have every statement for 2008 filed. Maybe by 2012 I will have shredded them?

Some Photo Updates!!

Mommy put pigtails in Jordan's hair. SOOOOOO cute... though she was less than impressed. I might try a few more times to see if she gets used to them. These only stayed in about 3 minutes. I'd much rather do this than cut her hair, but she might leave me no choice.



My parents came over for dinner the other day and while my dad worked on my computer, Jordan and Grandma read books together.



When we were visiting Dave in Norfolk we went to the Aquarium and Marine Science Center. This neurotic squirrel was the highlight for Jordan... so glad I drove 9 hours for her to see something she could see at home!



With daddy at the Aquarium. It was difficult to get them both to look at the camera at the same time.



Jordan and mommy at the Aquarium. She did not want to be held!



Here is my little helper! I finally got around to vacuuming and swiffering the floors. Jordan LOVES to help and gets mad if I don't let her. Who am I to complain if my child wants to clean??


So that's about it around here. We're just back into our routines and life goes on. I have started thinking about Thanksgiving (pretty much daily) and am excited. I am in charge of dessert... thinking apple pies, mini pumpkin pies, mini raspberry/cherry pies, chocolate cake... mmmmmm!

Mean Blue Screen

I have been a blogging slacker again, and it is all my fault. My computer died on me last week... more accurately, I killed it. For some reason, starting Wednesday, I continually got blue screen of death and my computer shutting itself down. The error messages were short stories, and never made any sense to a computer-illiterate person such as myself. After many freak-outs, my dad (god bless him!) brought my computer to his office where he and his students have been working on it for days. And wouldn't you know it, the computer has not shut itself down ONCE for them. It has not given them blue screen of death, nor has it done some weird beeping thing that it did to me.

So, hopefully my computer gets returned to me this week and decides to behave for me. *Fingers crossed*. I promise to be a better computer momma. I will make sure virus software is updated. I will make sure to safely remove hardware (no, I have not done this for months and am always plugging in and out my camera and ipod. bad bad me!), I promise to not let the cat walk across the keyboard while I am eating my cereal in the morning.

On a random note, I just found my new girl scout cookie supplier. Oh boy do I wish it was cookie season!!

A Severely Damaged Ego

Yesterday Royboy had his yearly appointment at the vet. He is about 7 or 8 years old now, and a good ole boy. Following a tradition of "hearty" and "big boned" male cats in my family household, he weighed in yesterday at 18.5 pounds. Poor kitty gained a pound in a year. (Alice, whose appointment was last month, only gained 13 ounces and is now weighing in around 13 pounds). Well, as much as this vet loves healthy kitties, such as her own, 18.5 pounds puts Royboy at too much of a risk for heart disease or diabetes. I was guilted into buying him the prescription Purina OM food... OM stands for obesity Management. Oh his poor frail ego when he heard that. Royboy was so depressed yesterday all he could do was sleep on my bed.

God help me, I love a fat cat!!

30 Weeks Pregnant

Pregnant with Jordan Pregnant with Ben

Can you see the difference that I see???
I'm proving the old wives tale correct, girl higher and boy lower.