1. I've reached an all-time high of needing to get up 4 times during a single night to pee. Thinking of investing in a bed pan. 2. Bought a birthing ball.
3. People have stopped looking nervous when they ask when I'm due (it's pretty obvious it's getting close and I really am pregnant). Also, after I've told them, have started letting me know how close that is, as if I was unaware...
4. Convinced my sister to give me the parking pass she paid for so I didn't have to walk. 5. Nate has been relieved of all late-night/over night Scout duties just in case I go into labor in the middle of the night- he has to be there!
6. Set up my tour of the hospital.
7. Tried to get by a man talking, to get to the restroom in a restaurant. He ignored my several polite "excuse me's". Finally I just pushed past and when he looked down and saw my pregnant belly was touching him he jumped back horrified. Not sure if he felt guilty or has a fear of pregnant women but it was awesome! 8. That's what my belly button looks like (ps do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your own belly button??? also I'm counting this as a requested 'belly picture').
9. Had my first Braxton Hicks contractions. About 4 in an hour at the end of work and while I was getting to my car. The next day, while walking to my car not experiencing contractions, I was amazed at what a short, easy walk it was.
10. Got my first tiny stretch marks on my belly. I knew I was going to get some (they're hereditary and I already had some from getting boobs in 8th grade). It was a relief to just get them showing up over with (ps they're on the bottom of my belly so I can't actually see them but Nate can). 11. Asked Nate to sweep under the kitchen table for me since I was having trouble reaching under there and it's too heavy to move. He chose to finish the chore he was working on first. He returned to find under the table already swept out and me in tears. Possibly nesting...
12. Also, Nate is one of those people who likes the alarm to go off 6 times before he actually gets out of bed. A couple days ago as soon as the first alarm went off it seemed completely necessary and rational for my to get up and do the dishes at 5 am. 13. People are actually buying plane tickets to come out and see Peanut!
PS While filling up my tank of gas this morning Nate got me pink grapefruit juice to drink. Nothing has happened so far but we'll wait and see if the curse continues...
Here goes- prepare to judge me... I don't know which part of my baby is which. There is a hard/large part on the upper right side of my abdomen. I assume it's either a head, back or bum. The limb-type things that are constantly hitting the mid left side of my body are most likely arms/fists/elbows/knees/feet. I just don't know. I am not sure if my baby is upside down or not. If I let you feel my baby and you ask what it is I will most likely tell you something I made up in my head that very minute. "Oh that's his right elbow. I'm a good mom so I can tell". I expect this is not the last time I will experience a slight feeling of inadequacy.
Other notes: 1. Already posted on facebook but for those of you who don't subscribe...I think my cat is an assassin hired to kill me and make it look like an accident. She has been crazy about winding around my legs while I'm walking lately. Considering I can barely see my feet while walking and have a little bit of a balance problem at the moment, this has become a serious issue.
2. Found this blog. Have almost started crying at work while reading it. Start here. 3. Tired of hearing about health care stuff and town meeting drama. Willing to vote for anything that results in a death panel I can be on to rid the nation of dead weight people I personally don't like or care about.
4. Realizing I still haven't legally changed my name to Mitchell since it means I have to order a birth certificate from California and last time we tried to order anything from the DMV there we lost over $300 in a cashier's check they never found and no one would let us cancel. Wonder if Peanut will ever notice or care that his birth certificate reads like that of your average bastard (ps haven't all of you wanted an excuse to use the word bastard on your blog???). 5. Had my last normal meeting with my cub scouts for this year. Next week is the big combined pack meeting and then they move up to become Bears. We played Ticket to Ride. Sad but excited for them.
6. How many of you can still do this math? Just wondering...
Why is it since the minute I found out I was having a boy that all little boys I've encountered have been much more annoying? Seriously I'm usually pretty easy going about most things little boys do- I like bugs and snakes spiders and slimy animals, I don't care if they get dirty as long as they don't mind me spraying them with a hose, doesn't matter to me where they wipe their buggers as long as it's not on my person, complaining about hunger leads me to tell them things like 'eating grass is totally healthy for 7 year olds', I think sticking out your tongue is funny etc. This lack of care has helped me deal with Cub Scouts when I really have no idea what I'm doing. However, since I found out I'm pregnant with a boy, every little boy has gone out of his way to annoy me. I have 2 things I still have very little patience with- whining and rude comments (especially to me). Look I lived through Jr. High; I shouldn't have to hear any brat kids say rude things to me. Last night it was as if every boy I ran into exemplified these two characteristics. They were all whiny and rude. One little boy literally asked dumb people to raise their hands and then came over to me and raised my hand. Is it natural that it was only pregnancy laziness that kept me from smacking him while standing in the church kitchen? I remember once a kid at our house was being quite a jerk to everyone. At one point he came up behind me and put me in a choke hold. I leaned forward and pulled on his body and he ended up on the ground on his back. He didn't give me much sass after that. What age difference makes that unacceptable? Can I do it now? I really think little boys would be nicer to me once I got to pound them a time or two- after all it worked on my sisters when they were younger...
even though yesterday I woke up, vomited in the toilet, flushed the toilet and it overflowed.
Then later while buying food for the cub scouts to learn to "cook outside" I vomited in the Walmart parking lot. The lady getting her kid into the car next to me was not impressed.
Also vomited this morning...I thought morning sickness was supposed to get better not worse at this point.
Ok so Nate and I each just got the other one big present this year. And because we were so excited about the presents (and since we're not really decorating this year or getting a tree because we're going to be in California) we just opened them as soon as they came in the mail.
Here's what I got Nate:
You see he's the Scout Master and 2nd Counselor in the YM's Presidency. That means he goes on camp outs A LOT (yes it does make me sad and lonely which longer married people have told me will fade significantly in coming years). And, well, we didn't have a tent. We got some nice big cots to sleep on but the tent we bought off his folks was too small to fit them. Also, since Nate is freakishly tall he always has to bend over in a tent so I found one 7 feet high. Way fun! PS it has hinge dors. I'm not sure exactly how that workd but it sounds cool.
And now for what you've all been waiting for...
I know...She's beautiful! I've wanted one of these for quite a while and was hoping to get one for my wedding but that didn't work out. So my super great husband got her for me.
Come on, you know you think she's sexy. Don't be fooled by her sleek silouette and coy glances- she's a work horse. Margarite (yes I named my mixer! why do you think that's weird?) can out preform anyone around. Look at these stats:
Yea, she's a professional. 14 cups flour power!!! 8 loaves of bread at a time, 8 lbs of mashed potatoes or 13 dozen cookies! She's no wimpy artisan mixer. This girl elludes confidence and power. I can attach grinders, pasta rollers, ice cream makes shredders etc.
I used her Sunday night to make two batchers of pumpkin chocolate chip bread and she wasn't even winded. She laughed at my tiny job. I love her.
Other than Nate and my presents we're doing really well on the Christmas list front. I have one order to place with a specific place and we're done. I'm looking forward to getting it all wrapped up and distributed. Yea Christmas!
Ok so before I share 2 slightly random things I wanted to tell you about my new obsession: http://thepioneerwoman.com/. I found her through looking for recipes and I read her 'love story' and now I love her. She cracks me up. So if you get a chance look her up. Way Funny!!!
Anyway so it's partly because of her that I'm writing this. My blog writing has started to bore me and I was wondering to myself why I love reading PW's blog so much if I find writing mine so boring. One thing I noticed was that she had memories posted intermixed with her daily activities. It gives you a feeling of knowing her better than you do and everyone enjoys laughing at embarrassing moments freely shared. So here you go...two things about me:
1. I love inclement weather 2. I have the bladder control of a 90 year old pregnant woman
Last week at scouts there was a huge storm blowing in (the other ward even canceled their scouts but we're way more hardcore than that). It started out with beautiful clouds, then heavy rain and eventually hail. Before scouts started I got several pictures (please don't judge me on picture quality, tons of people I know are better photographers and it is a goal of mine but I'm still far far away).
The boys got scared at several points but I loved it! It was so beautiful and just made me want to get some hot cocoa and sit with a blanket watching the fun. Now since there's not much else to say about a big storm, other than it's cool and no one got hurt, I'll share a story about my bladder interspersed with my storm pics. If you draw any parallels they are only in your gutter-minded brain; I would never think like that.
So here we go...I have almost no bladder control. I go from 0 to 'going to pee my pants' in the blink of an eye. Here are instances in which I might (and have)wet myself:
- laughing - sneezing - walking too fast - getting nervous - laughing - trying to get a little more work done and waiting too long - driving - cuddling - sleeping - playing - laughing - listening to water - swimming in the ocean (come on you know you've done it too) - thinking I can hold it and then breathing...at all - laughing etc.
I have many childhood memories of my family holding me down and tickling me until I screamed, "I'm gonna pee!!!". They would then let me go but it was usually too late. This was not reserved to childhood, by the way, the same thing happened days after I got off my mission when I was 23.
I once peed on Nate when we were engaged. He was playing "How do the Ladies/Gentlemen/Hunters/Farmers Ride?". I was on his knee and laughing like crazy. All of a sudden I felt it. The tiny release of bladder control. I thought, "that didn't feel like much, maybe he didn't notice". I got up and there was a wet spot on his knee. I almost broke off the engagement right then and there.
One plus to this problem is that I can pee anywhere when I need to- the side of the road, gas station bathrooms, truck stops, the woods, our backyard etc. I can even pee into a fast food cup while on the freeway driving a stickshift. It's true. It happened as recently as last week.
I have peed at friends houses, in their beds, on them, in guest bedrooms. In their cars, on their couches, at their kitchen tables. My life is covered in urine.
But the main story I want to share is of when I was 15. I was taking the lecture class part of drivers ed. In our area you took a 3 day, 5 hours each, class one week and then you could take your written exam to get your permit. I took this class with 3 of my friends: Kim, Kelee, and Rebecca. There was a 15 min break in the middle where you could walk outside, get a drink or snack, and use the restroom.
During that break we were standing outside talking and I decided to use the restroom. The thing is I didn't have to go (I have learned that doesn't really matter and pretty much go whenever a restroom is available) and the line was really long. Plus I was having a good time and didn't want to miss any funny stories my friends were telling so I decided I would be fine and just stayed with my friends. Not 5 minutes later, while laughing hysterically, I felt the release of my control over my bladder. Often there is still hope after this point. I can give my bladder and area muscles a stern talking to and end up with some dampness that no one but me will ever know about. This wasn't one of those times. I tried to stop. I tried to even be discreet but there is no way to keep your friends from notices pee running down your leg and making a puddle at your feet. They all stared with amazement at me standing there wetting myself. There was silence. Now some of you might be asking why I didn't run to the bathroom at the first sign of trouble. #1- It was occupied, #2- I would have had to run by and entire crowd of teenagers who would then ALL have known my problem, #3- once you start moving there's nothing to stop the flood of liquid, meaning it wouldn't have made a difference.
At this point the smart thing would have been to call my parents to pick me up and go home, hoping to still have people who would talk to me on Monday. However, this was before every high school student had a cell phone so I would have had to talk to the instructor about my drenched lower half and, more importantly, I would have had to retake the class. In a 3 day class absence is not tolerated. They probably would have let me attend with a different class another week but at that moment it all seemed impossible.
So what did I do??? Rebecca loaned me a sweatshirt for my backside and Kelee loaned me one for my front side. We walked back into class with them guarding me all around and I sat for another 2 hours covered in urine. I spent most of it wondering how to give back a sweater to a friend they know has been soaked in your urine.
So there it is. One of many stories of my pride level being brought down exponentially by losing control of my bladder. And some storm pictures to keep you from getting too uncomfortable, I hope. If none of you speak to me the next time you see me or you stop reading my blog I won't blame you. And if my sister-in-laws fight over who gets to sleep in the other bed at our sleepover tonight I won't blame them. I wouldn't want to sleep with a bed-wetter either.
Ok so honestly I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. I meant to post on Friday but...Well we'll get to that later. I have tons of totally random things to tell you. I guess I'll start with this weekend and move backwards:
Let me begin my tale of Friday's craziness by listing several facts:
1. Twice last week I left my interior light on in my car all day while I was at work. I have a really good battery so it's started fine afterward but...
2. Thursday night I remembered I needed to charge my cell phone but was too lazy to get out of bed to plug it in
3. My back has been hurting on and off all week, progressively getting worse
So here goes...
Friday my boss (really now, not just co-worker since she got promoted - yea her!!!), Chris, left at noon. The new girl, Sharon, was working on her own stuff and I was getting through back logged stuff since we were pretty slow. Nate and I had plans to have dinner and do the walk around (more on this later) with Carlin and Aubrey and Baby Sam.
I decide to call Aubrey to set an exact time for us to come over and realize my phone is completely dead (It won't even turn on). I ask Nate to call her but he doesn't have her number. So Aubrey has no idea what time we're coming over.
My back starts to really hurt. It begins by hurting when I stand. Then progresses to slight discomfort even when I sit and finally arrives at severe pain no matter what position I'm in (I'm assuming I've had something misaligned all week and that's causing pain which is causing my muscle to tighten, further pulling my back out of alignment). By 2 o'clock I can barely move and NO position is comfortable. I've already taken some aspirin and it didn't help at all and I have no other drugs. I decide something must be done, especially since we have plans for that evening and I can't even call Aubrey to cancel on her and I don't remember her exact apt number to stop by.
So I talk to my next boss up and convince her I need to leave and the poor new girl can probably handle both Chris' phone and my phone. I drive to Walgreen's, buy Tylenol, back heat pads, water and a smutty novel. I move my car to the shade, put the heat pads on, take a couple Tylenol, read for a few minutes and then fall asleep in my car.
I awake a few minutes after 5 and go back and forth between revelry that I can move without screaming pain and severe fuzziness probably cause by mixing drugs. It takes me several minutes to start thinking. I decide I can drive and try to turn on my car. It doesn't start. I try again. It still doesn't start. At this point I honestly can't make the points connect in my head and am very confused by everything. I finally realize I left my headlights on while I slept. My battery is dead.
I have a dead battery, no cell phone, a slight back ache and the mental capacity of a yam. It honestly took me 10 minutes to think of what to do. Finally I stalk some girl in the parking lot and ask to use her cell phone. I call Nate but he doesn't answer. I have no choice but to leave him instructions for picking me at Walgreen's and hope he checks his voice mail. The girl looks slightly scare of me. I go back to my car to read.
Nate shows up a little after 6 and picks me up. We go to Carlin & Aubrey's, have great chili, play with baby Sam and do the walk around. Everything goes well. Afterward we go back to Walgreen's to get my car and without jumping it, it starts right away. Seriously.
So walk-around. If you're not from the Stillwater area you probably don't know what this is so I will explain. For homecoming all the Frats and sororities team up and do huge displays in front of their houses. Then everyone in town 'walks around' to look at them. It's actually pretty fun. There's plenty of fair food if you don't mind $8 hot dogs and it's overall a pretty enjoyable experience. Both Aubrey and I forgot our cameras so the above picture is all we got. PS Afterward we went to Marble Slab to get ice cream and they were out of my favorite flavor, Sweet Cream. I know! After my hard day they hadn't even saved me some sweet cream. Tragic.
***Found more pics from Homecoming on my camera taken by...oh you know.***
Let's skip around from here...
Wednesday I had Cub Scouts. I'm having my boys work on getting their World Conservation Award this year. A couple weeks ago we went to the OSU Botanical Garden and this past Wednesday we made terrariums out of soda bottles. It went great. The boys are really doing so well on listening and working hard on things. Here's a pic of them after they got to mix the soil up. I think they had fun. :)
Thursday...back to Homecoming. I need to mention that offices all over campus compete in a decoration contest. Last year we (the Registrar's Office) won and we wanted to win again so we possibly went over board.
Yes we won again! We're that amazing. PS Pete's hand strummed the guitar and there were loops of Who songs playing in the background and a slide show going on. Seriously awesome. PS Yes I am groping Pete.
Thursday night we had a Relief Society activity where everyone made a favorite soup and brought it and the recipe. We all tried the different kinds and chatted. Way nice. I brought Harvest Bisque. Nate actually made it since I was so busy Wed night. Here's the recipe:
Harvest Bisque
1 – 1 lb butternut squash
5 cups chicken broth
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp curry powder
¾ cup half and half
1 Tbsp lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Peel, seed and cut squash into ½ inch cubes.Place in 4 qt pot with chicken broth.Cook over med heat for about 15 minutes.Using a slotted spoon put the squash in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.Stir in broth to squash puree and put aside.In the same pot, melt butter stir in the flour and curry.Stir over medium heat until smooth.Add pureed squash back to pot.Increase heat to med-high and stir until soup thickens.Reduce heat and add half and half.Do not allow soup to boil after this point.Add lime juice, salt and pepper.Garnish with lime.
So Good!!!
Saturday we went to the OSU/Baylor game. I sign the National Anthem (Wendy does now too) and Nate does the Player Guest List. It's really fun and after half time we can just go watch the game. OSU won again. That makes us 7 and 0. Whoo hoo!!!
Then we went to the Deans to play games. Ahhh wasting time in the funnest way possible (ok there are others but this was pretty fun).
There were other little things this week but I think we've covered enough. Overall a great, but busy, week.
#1- Britney Spears won VMA Best Video for "Piece of Me" #2- I am losing my mind (and possibly my husband)
Here's my train of thought (don't be worried if you get lost- it doesn't make much sense).
I never liked Britney Spears. I didn't like the Back Street Boys or N'Sync or 98 Degrees etc. I pretended slight enthusiasm about N'Sync at one point cause my friends were so into them but I think even they realized I was feigning minimal interest.
Anyway so while I've been familiar with Britney Spear's 'music' for quite a while I've never been that interested in her until the hailstorm of bad press started. It was ridiculous! People were saying and doing the most horrible things to that girl. I'm making no judgement calls on her behavior but I can imagine few things she could have done to be eligible for the anger directed at her. Just awful.
So when "Piece of Me" came out it was the first Britney song I had ever liked. It was probably the first she actually meant when she sang it. I just love the underlying anger and attitude.
So how that relates to my life is this...I have had one of those weeks. Not just the odd bad day or grumpy meeting or irrational emotional ridiculousness but everything for a full week. It started innocently with a slightly grumpy Sunday morning last week. Nothing earth-shatteing but overall unhappiness. It wasn't fun but I didn't worry too much since those days happen and sometimes there's just not much you can do about it.
But then Monday sucked too. I was angry I was sad I was grumpy and I was likely to kill the next person who expected me to do ANYTHING. Seriously crazy.Tuesday was just as bad.
and then came Wednesday...
Wednesday I had Cub Scouts. I love my Cub Scouts. They're cute and nice and mostly listen to what I say and don't cause trouble etc. However, early on Wednesday I got a call saying the YM/YW huge 2 ward combined activity had to be moved inside because of weather. The Cub Scouts have the gym reserved from 6 to 7 and the YM/YW wanted to know if they could use it. I told my person they could have all but one sliver of the gym by the stage (I needed it for my activity). As far as I knew the matter was closed.
So I get to the church and start my activity with my boys. They're doing great. They listen and help and have fun. It was awesome. But about 630 someone comes in to ask when we'll be done so they can have this part of the gym also. I tell them I'll be here til 7 then they can have it. 5 mins later another person. Now, lest anyone think these people haven't been told I'm in there, I have SIGNS the say "Cub Scouts meeting- Do Not Enter", posted on both doors. I'm starting to get frustrated (please also remember these are 7 year old boys- every distraction results in 5 minutes of getting them back on task).
At 745 a leader from the other ward (whom I completely confess to having previous issues with due to some events a year ago with my sister) opens the partition and asks when we'll be done. I say we'll be done at 7. At 750 she asks if we're done yet (at this point she's starting to kill my Cub Scout buzz). At 755 she asks if we're done yet- when I answer her this time, trying to keep my temper, she says "what???" because aparently she can't hear me. I repeat myself she again doesn't hear me. At this point I tell her (rather loudly) that we'll be done at 7 and CLOSE THE DOOR!!! It's possible I could have been calmer but unlikely.
At 7 I leave the room, letting them know I'm done. If they had stopped bugging me to begin with I would probably have been done at 645 or so.
So I breathe deeply talk to some parents and get ready to leave. The person in my organiztion stops me and wants to talk about changing room usage and times for scouts. She says, "I was told by ___ that we need to be out of the rooms by 645 so the YM/YW can set up for their activities that start at 7". I am not kidding- I almost threw down right then and there (do you see how on a normal week Wednesday this might have been amusing). Seriously, I barely restrained myself from finding ___ and telling her my very strong opinions on the subject. I told the lady in my organiztion we couldn't move our time and I would continue to use the gym we had reserved until 7. I said "YM/YW is not more important than Cub Scouts. I have no problem if there is a special event and they tell me in advance, adjusting my schedule to help them out."
So I'll skip the rest of the week. Let me assure you it did not get better. Work sucked, classes sucked, people sucked, errands sucked, my house sucked. Overall there were several annoying things that happened but nothing worthy of the anger or distress they produced in me. I feel as though I'm starting the day one step before 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. One thing happens and my day is shot. It's crazy. And of course if anyone suffers for my bad mood it is my husband. He's probably asking to be tranfered to Russia without me.
So the moral of this story is...I'm losing my mind...and be nicer to Britney Spears.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I work with the Cub Scouts (in the Wolf Den). They're so cute! I just finished my first year with them (I actually came in part way through this last year). I had 5 boys this last year, a couple of them with some extra needs. It's nice to have gotten to a comfortable point with them. At first I was really nervous; I am the oldest of 4 girls and NO boys. And honestly, 7 year old boys are a little gross. But overall they were great and I'm really grateful for the time I got to work with them. Here's some pics of me and 4 of the boys from last year.
Here's the scenery they made for our skit we did. They did awesome!
PS This year we just started I have 6 boys...oh the fun!
Next...
We'll most of you probably know I've been working at the same job since January of '07. Just this August they made my position permanent (I had been full-time temporary the whole time before). I now get benefits and leave time etc. Really nice!!! However it did mean I had to slow down my schooling again. It's crazy- I'm starting to feel like I'll never be done.
Anyway, even after all this time working here I still had to go to orientation. Luckily a co-worker, Kendall, also had to go- and he's worked here even longer than me but just got hired back as full-time permanent. Anyway it was pretty amazing I can tell you. Here's a pic of us before our brains melted from inactivity.
Last but not least, this is what happens when Nate gets a hold of my camera...
They keep coming...
2. Bought a birthing ball.
5. Nate has been relieved of all late-night/over night Scout duties just in case I go into labor in the middle of the night- he has to be there!
8. That's what my belly button looks like (ps do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your own belly button??? also I'm counting this as a requested 'belly picture').
11. Asked Nate to sweep under the kitchen table for me since I was having trouble reaching under there and it's too heavy to move. He chose to finish the chore he was working on first. He returned to find under the table already swept out and me in tears. Possibly nesting...
13. People are actually buying plane tickets to come out and see Peanut!
