99 Days!!

Look at my ticker to the right, I am finally in double digits.

26 Weeks

So here it is my 26 week photo. Yes, I am dressed up today because I went to my friends bridal shower. Thankfully I didn't get a lot of questions I was worried I would spend the whole time answering the same questions I've been asked at least a hundred times this week.
When are you due? Do you know what it is? Is it your first? Yeah, I guess people no longer wonder if I am pregnant or just fat. I seriously have been asked that same group of questions by strangers and people I see often at work, but don't usually talk to. It's going to be a long 14 weeks =)

Superfeet

I had my monthly midwife appointment yesterday. It was nice because the girls got to come along for the first time. I did have my one complaint, and that was that my feet are really, really hurting from my long days at work. Of course I thought she would tell me of some kind of magic vitamin that would cure this problem for me, but no she actually recommended an insole for my shoes. The insoles are called superfeet and you can buy them at REI. So I came home last night and did some research and gave Dare a list so he could get some today. I really hope that they work I guess I will find out on Saturday. Other than that it was the usual stuff. Everything is still good with me and the baby. The girls got to hear the heartbeat Gabby said it sounds like people marching. We go back again in 4 weeks.

Tuesday Night Confessions

• I hate being pregnant. I mean I really, really hate it. I think women who say they love it, have never felt better, or more beautiful are either lying or crazy. I don't like them.
  
• We have a name picked out for the baby, but we aren't telling anyone what it is. I find people are way too willing to offer their opinions on a name for an unborn child.
  
• I told the girls we would be working on some "projects" this summer I made it seem exciting. These "projects" are things like cleaning closets and organizing cupboards. They think it will be fun. I feel kind of guilty about this.
• I gained 10 lbs during the first trimester. I never gained any weight in the first tri with my other pregnancies. I know it is not at all baby related. That 10 lbs is going to be a bitch to lose
• I can't wait for Mckayla to leave. It's been 6 days now. Nothing at all against her. I'm just tired of all of the extra people in the house all the time. I am also irritated that neither my x or his girlfriend ever even asked if it was ok. I thought she would be here one night.
• Sometimes I wish B would stop talking just for a few minutes. I love him to death, but the kid can go on forever like no one else.
  

25 Weeks

So I decided my belly pictures were getting too boring so I decided to try something different this week. If I lean over I can just barely still see my toes. I'm sure this won't last much longer. In other baby related news we made some more big purchases this week. I ordered our glider, swing, and pack n play from target. We also have a midwife appointment on Wednesday I will take Gabby and Lindsey with me since they haven't been yet. I'm still doing okay not great, but okay. I'm trying to hold off miserable for as long as possible because I know once it hits it's over.

Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten

So I am kind of disappointed in myself for not keeping up on my blog this week I really want to try and write at least 5 times a week. This week was just really hectic towards the end here is an example of one of my days.

Thursday 1:30 AM

Alarm goes off. I have to be to work early because I have a hair appointment at 11 it was the only time I could get in and I'm desperate. Work is super hectic because it always is when I have myself on a tight schedule and because we are supposed to have visitors in and my boss is freaking out. After finishing all of the extra work he put on me I barely get out in time to make my appointment.

10:50 AM

Arrive to get my hair done. This is the most relaxing part of my day. My stylist and I have actually become really good friends in the four years she has been doing my hair we are even going to her wedding in August. My hair takes 3 hours I start to get really restless and tired of sitting. I'm also nervous I have to be home by 2:30 to pick up Kailyn from school.

2:00pm

Pay for my hair (wow that was expensive) realize I have 3 missed calls check voice mail it's Gabby saying they will arrive today instead of tomorrow.

2:15pm

Get call from salon they overcharged my by $70 I need to call with my card number to get a credit

2:40pm

Pick up Kailyn and her almost stepsister Mckayla here from Spokane give stepsister and her friend ride somewhere come home to franticly try and get some cleaning done before everyone gets here (this was supposed to be my nap time)

4:00pm

Go to the store to pick up hair stuff for Kailyn her 8th grade dance is tonight. Get to checkout realize I forgot my debit card come back home.

4:15pm

Come in to find my card I think I left it on the table from calling the salon. I make a quick trip to the bathroom and realize the card is in my back pocket. Get back in the car I don't tell Kailyn I had the card all along she is already mad. Go back to store again to buy hair stuff.

4:30pm

Pick up B from daycare. Pick up Mckayla and her friend come back to house so Kailyn can get her hair done and ready for the dance.

5:00pm

Get a call from the girls they want to spent the night at their friends because tomorrow the friends are leaving for the whole summer they need my to drop off some clothes.

6:00pm

Gather clothes for the girls. Start bugging Kailyn we need to be ready to go soon.

6:30pm

Do Kailyn's makeup for the dance we are now late.

6:45pm

Get everyone in the car drop them off at dance. Go drop off clothes to the girls.

7:00pm

Me and B finally get dinner. This is my first real meal of the day.

8:00pm

Leave to pick up Kailyn from the dance. Pick up Kailyn, Mckayla, and 2 other kids they don't want to go home they want me to take them to Red Robin. At this point I have a realization. My baby will be in high school next year. I will have a high schooler and a newborn. I also realize if I have to listen to one more Soulja Boy song blasting from my speakers on this drive someone may seriously get hurt.

8:30pm

Drop kids off at Red Robin.

9:00pm

Arrive home finally. Tell Dare he has to go pick the kids up later. I'm going to bed I've been up since 1:30AM I am tired!!

Txt Much?

Recently I was thinking about how it's been forever since I actually looked at my cell phone bill. A couple of years ago after I added my daughter to my plan my phone bill stopped coming in a regular envelope and started coming in a large 8 1/2 x 11 envelope. Why? Because they list every single sent and received text message on your bill, and when you are in middle school and have a phone you text. A lot. After about my 2nd 70 page phone bill I decide to opt for the paperless billing option after all I don't need all of those dead trees on my conscience. So imagine my surprise when I actually looked at the detailed bill for last month and she had 10,439 text messages!! That number is only slightly surprising I guess. She sleeps with her phone on her pillow. She texts from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed. Even more impressive she can text at lightning speed, without looking, and while having a phone conversation with a friend. She also uses her text lingo in regular conversation such as "OMG mom I told you IDK". I actually text quite a bit myself and find it a great way to communicate with people. I even got a text message wedding invite last year. I have to say I do worry about the affects of text messaging on her grammar and spelling. The concern about the affects on society in general has even prompted several save the vowels campaigns online. Ops I gtg got a txt.

24 Weeks

So here it is my lovely 24 week photo. Not much to say in the pregnancy department these days I am trying to save all of my complaining for the last month so I don't run off my 2 loyal readers :) We have however made some small baby related progress. We purchased our travel system (stroller car seat combo) from Amazon this weekend. We have decided on our furniture, and I also purchased some nursery decor from ebay.

Happy Fathers Day!!

So this week I have thought a lot about something I could post for Father's Day. I decided to write about my Grandpa or as we called him Papa. He passed away a couple years ago and I think about him often always in a good way. I spent a ton of time with my grandparents growing up mostly because I honestly enjoyed being around them. I learned a lot from them and they both had a huge influence on my life. Here are just a few things I learned from my Papa.

There is no shame in getting passed by a house
He was a notoriously slow driver. When we were kids twice we drove to Disneyland in the motor home. This was at least a 3 day trip for us and we would get kind of bored so we would occupy ourselves by counting the number of cars that would pass us on the road some days we would get to 200 before we would become bored with this. One day we even got passed by a house. Yes, a house. A semi truck pulling a house passed us on the freeway maybe that gives you some idea of how slow he actually drove. We would always give him our daily count, and it didn't bother him at all neither did any of the honking horns. Fast forward a few years Papa is the one who taught me how to drive he was very patient with me as I mastered the skill, but one thing he was adamant about was that I always drive 5 miles under the speed limit. He insisted that this was safer and would always bug me about it when I was driving. About 5 years ago I was driving both of my grandparents down for my sisters graduation just after leaving my house and driving down the main road our conversation goes like this.
Him "How fast are you going Jen?"
Me "About 50"
Him "What is the speed limit?"
Me "40"
Him "If a cop sees you he will give you a ticket"
Me "Well I guess I would deserve it"
That was the last comment he made about my driving the whole 3 hour trip.

Never pay full price for something you can get for a quarter
He was a bargain hunter to the core. I doubt he ever payed full price for anything in his life. One of his favorite questions to ask me growing up "Hey Jen guess how much I payed for this?" His answer often was a quarter. He loved going to garage sales and frequented the Boeing surplus store. He was also a huge fan of Stupid Prices I never had the chance to go there with him, but I heard everyone who worked there knew him by name.

Coffee can never be too strong and if you can rhyme make up a song (and a dance)
I once spent an entire summer in Florida with them. In the morning I would always attempt to make coffee for us. Papa would always ask me did you make it strong enough? Of course I did. Well it turns our I never could make it strong enough for him even when I would double the 3 scoops we would use at my house. Papa was also a big fan of making up songs. I still remember the words to many of his made up songs to this day. He would make up a song for almost any occasion and if you were lucky he would combine it with the famous "Papa Shuffle".

An ordinary man can have a big influence on peoples lives
I think this is one of the most important things I learned from him. The thing is anyone in the family could write the same kind of thing I just did. His life impacted all of us that much. Everyone who knew him or considered him a friend could tell you a funny story or a way he had an influence on their life, and you would just laugh and say yep that was him.

Yes! We Have No Tomatoes

So there has recently been a salmonella scare with raw tomatoes. There were nine states wh ere cases were reported, but I do not live in any of them. The scare also is linked only to roma and large round tomatoes not tomatoes on the vine. You can still walk into any grocery store around here and buy any kind of tomatoes your heart desires. For some reason the last week and a half it has been imposable to get fresh tomatoes of any kind in a restaurant. Last week sometime we went to Red Robin for dinner and were informed that all burgers would be served sans tomatoes, then at the Mexican place down the street they had a sign when you walk in saying "no tomatoes for your safety". Today as I am running around and decide I am hungry I decide to stop at Quiznos for a nice toasty sub. Guess what? No tomatoes. At this point I am really fed up. Why can't they go to the grocery store 2 doors down and buy some tomatoes? Now I am forced to eat my sub sandwich with no tomatoes? I love tomatoes I would eat a tomato only sandwich. So that's it until they give up this no tomato BS I will not eat at another restaurant. So there!!

Kids And Advertising, Money Well Spent?

So I have recently discovered that my son pays a lot of attention to commercials. Not the ones you may think though. He has never come to me about a commercial for some kind of toy or game, and asked for the product, or felt he had to have it. For that reason I have found some of our recent conversations interesting. A few days ago I am in the kitchen getting some onions for my hot dog that have been stored in a plastic container. Our conversation goes like this.
B- Who put those in there?
Me- Dare did. Why?
B- He shouldn't do that it makes gases and your food goes bad. Then you have to throw it away, and it wastes money.
Me- Really? Where did you here that?
B- On TV. You should get the green bags it keeps your food fresh and you won't waste it
Me- Hmm that's interesting B. I will think about it
B- When I grow up I'm getting the green bags because I don't want to waste my money.

There is a new commercial out for Sylvan Learning Center
a tutoring center for kids struggling in school. The ad shows a kid in a swimming pool and when they get out they tilt their head and a bunch of math equations fall out of the kids ear. Brandons interpretation of the ad he describes Sylvan as "a place to help you when you need to concentrate because there is water in your ear." So I guess all of the advertising dollars aimed at kids are wasted on my son. He pays more attention to the adult commercial even if he doesn't always "get" it. At least it has provided me with some entertainment lately.

23 Weeks

So here is a quick lazy 23 week belly picture. We have a house guest coming later this afternoon and I have spent the entire day cleaning and haven't showered yet so this is the best I could do today. More on the house guest later as I'm sure I'll be too tired to post again today.

First Baby Gift

We received our first baby gift a couple of weeks ago. One of my husbands coworkers made us this adorable hat.

Obviously The People Who Make These Rules Have Never Been Pregnant!

One of the things on my to do list for June is to turn my leave of absence form in at work. My boss really hasn't asked me much about my plans just when I was leaving, and was satisfied with my vague late September answer. The last person at work who had a baby came back after four weeks so I don't want him to get the wrong idea and think I may do the same. So I made a few phone calls so I could make a decision and get my paperwork in. So I called to get the details of my leave and our short term disability policy. The lady I spoke to (who was not too friendly) told me that I could get payed for 6 weeks after the birth at what amounts to a pathetic 30% of my regular pay. I asked her how long I could get paid for before the birth and she said none. WTF? Seriously my job is very physically demanding. First of all I am on my feet for the entire 8 hour workday except for my lunch break, second it demands almost constant lifting and bending. My feet are already killing me by the end of the day and I'm sure my back isn't far behind. So she says I can work up until the birth, and then starts saying something about when you register at the hospital they should have a good idea of the date then. Huh? I know there are always new advances and changes when it comes to childbirth, but this is news to me. Granted the last time I gave birth in a hospital was over 9 years ago, but back then you registered about 2 months before. The purpose of this was to save you paperwork when you arrived in labor, and funny thing there was still paperwork!! They were not actually able to tell me when I would give birth that must be new (ha ha). I was very frustrated after getting off the phone with this lady. I made my second phone call, and more importantly I have decided on dates for my leave I will be taking a total of 15 weeks off of work I will miss Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all very busy times in my department. My boss is going to be sooo happy. I feel much better now that I have this worked out.

Lifes A Beach

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my sons kindergarten class to the beach. B was really excited that I came with him it was a great day for the beach. I have been on many a field trip in my time. It always starts out the same way. You are herded into the classroom with the students, and are asked to sit in the very small chairs while they go over the plan for the day. On every trip I have ever been on at this point one student always decides to distinguish themselves from the rest. This trip is no exception the kid (we will call him Zack) is talking out of turn and then wanders off while the teacher is talking. I am thinking please don't let him be in my group. After about 20 minutes of going over the schedule and rules the teacher hands out the group assignments f*#k he's in my group. At least the other kid I got isn't at school so I just have two kids to watch. So the fun begins on the bus ride I must have asked Zack 20 times on the 20 minute ride to please sit down, to please turn around, to please turn around and sit down. We arrive at the beach and the nice volunteer lady starts telling us about all of the creatures we may see on the beach that day. As she is talking Zack starts grabbing himself and saying "I have to pee, I have to pee" the teacher says wait a few minutes he continues she finally takes him. After they get back and continue to listen I realize I don't see Zack with out group anymore at the same time the teacher notices also she walks away and starts calling for him a few minutes later she returns with Zack in tow. She tells me "I will watch him today" and gives me a look like she understands he is being extremely difficult and doesn't expect me to deal with him. I am off the hook. So at this point the whole group goes down to the beach to search for sea life Zack is momentarily distracted by all of the cool things we saw. Starfish, hermit crabs, crabs, limpets, and fish. It is then time to break into our small groups I guess the teacher forgot she was watching Zack because here he comes with us. First we go to eat lunch pretty uneventful. I then decide I should pee one last time before we head back to school. The beach only had honey buckets so I gave the boys strict instructions to wait for me right outside the door they were not to move!! I went in and peed as fast as humanly possible and came out to see Zack right where I left him. Wow I seriously praised him for listening so well and we went off to explore the rest of the beach. It seems my praise came too soon as Zack took off running down the beach I yell after him he ignores me I can't run I'm 6 months pregnant I can barely walk. I finally catch up and lecture him again about wandering off and getting lost etc. This kind of stuff goes on for the next 40 minutes as we wait for the designated time to return to school (it can't go fast enough) at one point I actually question Zacks ability to hear "can you hear me Zack? I said don't do that" he nods. Okay well they didn't forget to tell me he was hearing impaired. I've never been so happy to get on a school bus in all of my life. By the time I got home I was completely exhausted. Here are a couple of pictures of our trip.

22 Weeks

So here it is my 22 week photo. The first half of my pregnancy seemed to go by at warp speed and I now feel like it's slowed down to a very slow crawl. I feel like I have been at the halfway point forever. I thought the second half would go by at least as fast. Well things should be pretty hectic around here this summer so hopefully that will help things pick up.

Just For Fun

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): Dare
C - Cake or Pie: Pie
D - Day of Choice: Friday
E - Essential Item: Lip Gloss
F - Favorite Color(s): Purple and Brown
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy Bears
H - Hometown: Seattle
I - Indulgence(s): Really good chocolate
J - January or July: July
K - Kids: Umm yes
L - Life is incomplete without: Family
M - Marriage Date: Sept 22, 2007
N - Number of Siblings: 1 sister
O - Oranges or Apples: Apples especially fuji and my new favorite pink lady
P- Phobias or Fears: Elevators
Q - Quote: "Anything a man can do, a woman can do better, except for something stupid." Kimora Lee Simmons
R- Ring size: I don't remember
S - Season: Fall
T- Tag 3 Friends: Nobody reads this
U - Unknown fact about me: I LOVE sour grapes. I mean actual sour grapes purple or green the more sour the better.
V - Very favorite stores: Guess and Target
W - Worst Habit: Procrastination
X-ray or Ultrasound: X-ray. Ultrasounds
Y - Your Favorite Food(s): Mexican
Z - Zodiac: Taurus