#90

The 10th was Alex's 31st birthday. I made him a marble cake and we went to Miyabi's with my family where he was forced to do the chicken dance. I love it when Alex does embarrassing things. He's so silly and it makes me laugh.

One of my favorite memories was our first trip to the ren faire together. Alex yelled and really got into the jousting match. I was happy that he was having fun and he didn't care about what people around him thought. He was different from the guys that I was used to and I loved it! Now, we have fun when we go places and make the best of our time together. I really wanted to go out of town the weekend before his birthday, since we probably won't have the opportunity again before the baby comes and we were both off of work on Monday, but it didn't work out. Mom and Dad Said went to Alaska and we stayed with Michael, Jasmine, and Jovanni since they are so bad and can't be trusted to be alone. Well, not Jasmine, just the boys. We made up for it by taking a day trip to Riverbanks Zoo last Saturday. It was fun and hot. I'm getting more and more uncomfortable and I have to pee all the time so the zoo in August may not have been the best idea. I was reminded of our very first trip to the ren faire, we made the best of our trip and had a great day! I'm not sure how I feel about zoos now, though. I can see where they do wonderful things with protecting endangered species but I couldn't help but feel sorry for the penguins. They had their backs to us and they were facing a fake horizon like they thought they could wander off into the sunset. The penguins made me sad.

I got Alex some new shirts and a board game for his birthday. I'm going to read the directions now so that I can teach him how to play when he gets home.

Tomorrow, my Mom and I are going shopping for my little sisters wedding shower gift. Her shower is this weekend! I can't believe that we have less than two months until she's married and we have a new Said in the house. Yikes!

#89

Wow, I didn't post in July at all. I would like to say that I was sunning myself at some oceanside resort or traveling to some new far away place but I wasn't. I was here, just not blogging. *EDIT* I just remembered I went to Tn and Va with my Mom and my sister for the 4th. We ate and shopped too much. It was fun!
We did manage to paint the baby's room. I (Alex) used benjamin moore's brookside moss, inspired by this nursery photo from flickr.

I'm having some major trouble with all of this baby gear. That crap is expensive. Much of it seems excessive and most products are made of plastic, very expensive plastic. I ordered a Irmi-like caboose lamp and an vintage Irmi nursery rhyme mobile from ebay. Both made from actual wood. I feel so much better about that seven dollar purchase than I would have felt if I had bought any of the themed mobiles and lamps from Babies R Us. I had an Irmi lamp, it had a couple of clowns on it with a yellow gingham shade, I think, that's been quite a long time ago.

Why do baby rooms need a theme? I don't like theme rooms, maybe theme colors, but Pooh, safari animals, sports, and bugs all make me gag.
I did find one bedding set at BrU that I didn't hate but I just couldn't buy or register for it. I really only wanted the bed skirt and the bumper anyway. Another thing that's bothering me is the cost of breast pumps and all of the scary stuff online about not buying a used one. I did find a used Pump in Style at a consignment sale today. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use it but it was only $25 bucks and it had some un-used breast pads and storage bags that I will use. Currently, the pump is in a bunch of pieces on the dining room table. I just couldn't understand how milk could get into the motor and I wanted to find out. The inside of the pump motor is as clean as a whistle. I'm not convinced that the warnings aren't just scare tactics used to sell more $280 breast pumps.

Still don't have any names. Alex likes Amir, I like Lukas. Well, I like a bunch of names but Lukas is the only one that Alex cared for. He will probably still end up being a Jr. We'll see.

I'm using the laptop to post this. We lost a hard drive a few weeks ago along with all the photos and some music. It was a major bummer. I even started a facebook but I can't add a pic so it hasn't been used much. I guess we need to have a Amy/Alex/Puppy/Kitty photo shoot soon but I haven't really been feeling the camera lately.

I don't know if I'll have a job after the baby comes, but more on that later. We go to a Caring for Baby class on Monday evening, my in-laws are in Alaska for the next eight days so we will be staying at their house with the out of control boys till they get back, the last scheduled ultrasound is on Friday and my wonderful husband turns 31 next Monday. It will be a busy week, aren't they all?

coming soon. . .

This made me very happy.

#87

I can spend hours on the apartment therapy sites. I've made a list of some of my favorite things from the last few weeks. Too bad I'm broke.

1. Tauntaun sleeping bag- I don't know if an adult can fit in this, especially an expanding pregnant lady, but I would love to give it a shot.

2. Oliver's Room- I'd already spotted this cute nursery on Flickr and got the paint approval from Alex. I can't believe he liked it too, that's a first. Too bad we can't agree on a name that easily. I love to watch cute stuff travel around the net. Makes me feel like I'm on the inside. It probably should make me feel like I spend too much time online.

3. Recipes- I've already made our menu out for the rest of the month. It didn't include these soft pretzels or cucumber water, but the second draft will. The menu does feature MS's Gnocchi with summer veggies and slow-cooker chicken tacos. Yum, I hope.

4. Cookware- This post just made me want to give my cast iron skillet more love.

5. unPaper Towels- I've tried to limit myself to one or two rolls of paper towels a month. Not because I am "green" (I really hate the green movement btw) but because I get really pissed off about paying a bunch of cash for paper that I am going to get dirty and throw away. I like the idea of keeping these in a basket by the sink.

I'm sure there are many more that I am forgetting right now. I haven't even mentioned my favorite flickr and etsy finds. I'll save those for future post content.

I had a killer thrifting day last Saturday. Tons of baby gear, clothing, books, I even picked up some vintage pyrex for my tiny collection and this baby sling. Yay.

Oh, yeah. I started a facebook after my little sister and numerous others convinced me. I expect to treat it about the same as the myspace attempt that I made several years ago. Meaning I'll probably never log on or reply to anyone and they'll get pissed off and go away. We'll see, I may dig it.

It's a. . .

Boy! At first, I thought we were having a boy and then after a bunch of strange dreams involving forgetting to feed my little girl until she was eight years old and then she hated me and kicked me every time I tried to get near her, I decided that we must be having a girl. I was wrong. The little dream girl was blonde anyway. I should have know she wasn't ours. I'll probably just forget to feed someone else's little blonde girl one day.

It's a little baby boy and he is super cute, at least he seemed cute on the scratchy little ultrasound pic. I will post one later. His lips are huge, maybe he'll grow into them.

Alex is happy. He didn't say anything before but I think he really wanted a boy. Something about making more Said's, I guess.

Oh, the doctor said no traveling more than an hour away after 34 weeks so there goes DragonCon *sniff*. No biggie, I have lots to keep me busy and take my money. I'll get there in 2010.

aww man!

The doc's office called this afternoon and rescheduled the BIG U/S to the 27th! Ugh, I can't wait two more weeks. I'm trying to remember that there are tons of people that don't want to know the sex of their baby until it's born. I'll just try to think like one of those people.

I think I've also decided that I don't need to go to DragonCon this year. I'm still going to ask the doctor if she thinks it's a good idea, just in case she says-sure, why not. I checked out the calendar last night and I will be 36 weeks at that time. I got scared after googling "travel at 36 weeks". I'll wait till I ask the doc before I give my hotel reservations away to some lucky con-goer. sigh.

#84

Okay, I've been seriously busy. I'm so busy that I can only list the things that I've been doing, in no particular order, and hope that one day I will be able to form my agenda into some sort of entertaining narrative.

1. Crying-Jennifer's Mother passed away last Monday. It was very sad, and I don't feel like there is anything that I can do to help her feel better. I am also extremely hormonal so I can't really get in the car or take a shower without finding some reason to shed tears.

2. Sweeping- My sweet husband pulled up our old carpet and put down a new wood-ish floor with Shaylan's help a couple of weeks ago. I haven't really got everything back in order yet. I decided to move every piece of furniture from its original location and purge a few hundred items. So far these things haven't made it out of the door but they are in nice little stacks in the middle of the room. I'm sweeping because my dogs are shedding and apparently the carpet just absorbed the dog hair or something, the new floor doesn't. The floor is beautiful and I can't wait till everything finds a home so that I can truly enjoy it.

3. Watching the Doctor- I've spent a ridiculous amount of time watching Dr. Who. I can't get enough except I've seen all that is available and now I have to start watching Torchwood.

4. Shopping- I got a new floor and Alex got a new TV. This is a nice flat one that fits above the fireplace. One day, all of the components will be hooked up and I will actually be able to watch it.
I took a trip to Ikea Charlotte with my mom, Julie, and Amber. I was disgustingly frugal, I only purchased some spoons, a napkin holder, some cheap rag rugs, a little bib/bowl set, and a rabbit driving a carrot rattle. I couldn't resist the rattle. Who's ever seen a rabbit driving a carrot? I have, that's who. My Mom bought us a highchair. I told her that we weren't going to have a highchair because I didn't see the point and she kind of freaked. She said something confusing about the kid hanging on the side of the table having it's butt sniffed by one of my dogs. When I said that I thought this one was cute, she recognized the opportunity and snatched it up.
I bought some maternity clothes online. I was pretty disappointed because they are huge! They should have cost a million dollars for all the fabric that was used. I hope I don't grow into them.
I also spent $5 at a yard sale a couple of weekends ago. It was an anything-you-can-fit-in-a-box-for-five-bucks sale. I filled my box with a bunch of children's books (little golden books are my favorite), a Nirvana unplugged CD, some bibs, a board game, and one of these. Alex and I couldn't stop playing with it, I finally had to put it away so that we could get some work done.

5. Eating- I've been eating several Wendy's sour cream and chive baked potatoes a week. They are about the only thing that doesn't give me gastroesophageal reflux disease and they're super cheap. We made a low country crab boil to celebrate Mother's Day last Sunday. It was delicious. I'm going to figure out how to scale it down and make a less expensive version of it for dinner instead of waiting for special occasions to enjoy it. I'll probably have to substitute the crab for more shrimp in the non-special occasion version. We are definitely going to have to invest in some seafood crackers if we keep doing this. I knew that my family was on the edge of being full-blown S.C. rednecks but I didn't realize the extent of it until I saw my sister trying to break open her crab legs with a pair of pliers! Hehe, it was a good day.

6. Making lists- I keep finding to-do lists in my pockets. People to call, websites to check out, chores, groceries, baby names, goals, I've even made a list of random facts about myself just so I will be prepared when I get one of those memes. The baby name thing is really a stumper. We can't agree on any boy names and only a few girl names. We are considering a raffle, just for family and friends, they can pay a dollar for a chance to name our child and we will make some money and won't have to make a decision. I figure family and close friends won't try to ruin the child's life with some crazy name like Han Solo, oh wait Alex has already tried that one. Maybe this isn't a good idea. Anyway, we have the BIG ULTRASOUND next week, maybe well see something and we'll both agree on a name. Peter? hehe.

7. Waking up- I've never had trouble sleeping, until now. It's really taking a toll on me. I'm grumpy and I want to sleep at all the wrong times, like during the new Star Trek film that I had to beg Alex to take me to last Thursday or during an unusually boring phone call at work. I think I am going to stop drinking anything after 8:00 and see if that helps.

8. Saving- I'm trying to save money for DragonCon. Alex and I decided to pass on DC this year when we found out about the baby and that my company is no longer required to offer FMLA but now I am super depressed about it and I have to find a way to go. I booked a room at the Hyatt last October before all of the host hotel rooms were taken. We should have been using the last few months to stash away cash for DC, but we didn't so I have some catching up to do. I have a few ideas. I will have to add ebaying and counting change to my list. Going to DC while eight months pregnant shouldn't be too bad, right?

I'm sure I am forgetting something. I will post about it and pretend like it's something exciting and new if I remember it later. I have lots of photos to upload to Flickr. The Greek Festival is this weekend, so everyone should come downtown and have pastitsio and grape leaves or a gyro and beer. Beer reminds me of the margarita that I missed out on Cinco de Mayo. Dang, I really want a margarita.