11.30.2010

30 Days of Me: Day 30 - Whatever tickles your fancy

Since Christmas is in 25 days, I've been working on getting things ready around here.

I got some fun new Christmas-y candles that hubby and I both love - Iced Snowberries from PartyLite and this seasonal one from Yankee Candle called Christmas Eve. While out at Yankee hubby and I also bought a Blueberry Scone votive for the kitchen that smells REALLY good! We haven't even burned it yet but the scent is so strong it already makes the kitchen smell like blueberry muffins when you walk into it - I LOVE it!

We put up the tree this past weekend although it took longer than expected. Our tree is a 6.5" fake Colorado Pine I bought at Walmart for $30 back when I was in college as I decided our apartment needed a tree. It came pre-lit and last year I had to switch some of the bulbs out. This year we set the tree up, I fluffed it out and went to plug it in and learned that a good portion of the lights were burned out and they didn't give us that many replacements. Note to all of you - DON'T buy a pre-lit Christmas tree. While it might seem like an easy idea, taking them off when they need to be replaced is a HUGE pain in the ass! Hubby helped a little bit but had to go to bed so I spent several hours pulling the pre-lit lights off which were tangled and wrapped around all the branches, held in place by little clips and zip ties! So annoying! I stopped at Walmart yesterday and bought some new strands of lights for the tree.

I finished up the tree last night but not before acquiring plenty of Christmas music to listen to while I decorated!

Hubby still needs to help me decorate the window valance in our living room here though as I can't easily reach it - we have lights and garland to dress on it.

I also bought some snowflake window clings to put on the window and I put our big plastic candy canes between our storm windows there.

You'd think Tiger had never been around for Christmas before, the way she's acting - Sunday when we put the tree out at first she kept climbing up in it and even knocked it over at one point when she sprung out of it! And she kept pawing at some of the ornaments when I was putting them on and I woke up this morning and found a few on the ground (All the special, fragile and breakable ones are near the top so she can't easily knock them off). She was also going nuts at the window when I first put the window clings on there - pawing and attacking them on the window, lol...

We've both been enjoying our "Christmas present to ourselves" the past few days (our new 40" flat screen HDTV) and hubby likes his Samsung Galaxy tablet and I'm liking my new laptop! What I like the most though is that we're spending more time in the living room and out of the bedroom. Until recently we spent the majority of our freetime in the bedroom, as the computer is in there as is a smaller TV, and it would kinda bum me out as I'd spent a good amount of the day watching TV in bed and that gets depressing. But now, hubby prefers to watch TV on the new bigger one, I'm keeping the new laptop out here as well (which is networked to our desktop so I can access all our music and other stuff from the other room), and he can bring his tablet out here and do whatever on it while we watch TV or movies. It's pretty nice!

All our Christmas presents (minus the one that's on pre-order) have arrived too, which is exciting as I wasn't expecting them to be here until later this week! I'm planning on wrapping them up tonight as I just can't wait!

I am a little bummed though as I don't think I'll be baking cookies this year - it appears I may have developed gestational diabetes, as I had my 1 hour glucose screening test yesterday and they want me to come back and do the 3 hour test on Friday. I think it's a bit genetic as my mom pointed out that once her, my aunt and my grandma all hit a certain weight in their pregnancies the GD showed up - I've already passed that weight. Also, they said yesterday that Jay is measuring a bit big too, which if I do have the gestational diabetes, that would possibly explain why he's big. I won't know for sure til I get the results of the 3 hour test, but odds are I have it which means I'll have to stick to a strict diet and won't be able to eat that many Christmas cookies let alone sweets! Boooo

Have you started getting ready for Christmas yet?

Got my results already

So I got my results back already from my 1hr glucose test yesterday...

They want me to come in Friday at 8am to do the 3hr version as I "failed" the 1hr version. They said the cutoff is 130 and I was at like 150.

So not looking forward to it!

They gave me an outline of what to eat, meal-wise on Thursday which is pretty much all just protein (eggs and sausage for breakfast, hamburger patties and veggies for lunch, grilled chicken and a salad for dinner) and I can't eat anything after midnight. I'm going to feel like crap when I go in, I just know it.

Honestly though, I'd be surprised at this point if I didn't have the gestational diabetes, as I previously mentioned my mom was borderline with it while pregnant with my sis, my aunt had it and their mom had it too. The GD would also most likely explain why Jay is measuring big too.

Oh well, wish me luck!

28 week photo

People who view my Facebook have been telling me lately I need to take and post more belly shots, so since this week is our first week of the 3rd trimester I figured it was probably time for an updated photo anyway - last one I took/posted was at 20 weeks!

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28 weeks, 1 day
Since the news from the doctor today is that Jay is measuring a bit on the "big" side for his gestation age, hubby is jokingly referring to him as "Ginormo Baby" lol...

Fortunately most the weight I gain in these last 9-12 weeks will be mostly him and not me, so if I do get any bigger it's all him!

Honestly though, despite what people have said and told me and the average pregnant first timer is about 8 days late, I've always had this gut instinct that he's going to be early by maybe a few weeks. I guess we'll see, but right now he's only 28 weeks in there and his fundal length is measuring about 32cm - "normal" would be 28-30cm.

11.29.2010

3rd Trimester and Glucose Testing

Well everyone, we've made it this far - as of yesturday we are 28 weeks along and according to most pregnancy sites and books, that marks the beginning of the third trimester! Yay!!

Size you're considered being full term at 37 weeks, this means only 9-12 more weeks and Jay should be here in the flesh!

Today I had the Glucose Challenge Test.

They had told me last time I was there not to eat anything sugary or sweet today prior to taking the test and recommended I stick to eggs and sausage for breakfast. We don't have sausage but I did make myself some eggs when I woke up. Gotta say though, for having low blood sugar, not being able to eat or drink anything sweet or sugary prior to my 145pm test really sucked! Fortunately I didn't feel my blood sugar levels begin to drop until we were almost there. I could feel my face start to get flushed and I was starting to get a little lightheaded with the feeling in my stomach that the worst was coming soon if I didn't get sugar in my system ASAP.

They took my weight and got me set up with the drink right away. They had orange and fruit punch available and of course I opted for the fruit punch as I like that flavor better and I've heard the orange version is just gross. I had 5 minutes to finish it finished it with about a minute and a half left - as soon as I started drinking it I felt A LOT better, it had a A LOT of sugar in it. It didn't taste horrible, but wasn't all that great and had a strange after taste while drinking it.

Since I had to wait an hour before they could draw blood I had my check up with the doctor.

Turns out, according to their scale, I lost a pound in the past 2 weeks - take that, Thanksgiving!

The doctor commented though that it seems the odds of me having the gestational diabetes is stacked against me, as my mom and her sister as well as their mom all had it while pregnant once they reached a certain weight (which I've already passed).

Also, she checked Jay's fundal height and... she said he's measuring big! Eeep! She said if he's still measuring big next time I come in they'll send me over to have an ultrasound to make sure he has enough room and get more exact measurements.

Other than that she said everything seems great - his heartbeat was in the 140s, a little lower than what it's been, but usually he's more active at the doctor too and since I hadn't eat much and didn't have any sugar this morning prior to the glucose drink, it doesn't surprise me.

They sent me to wait out in the waiting room until my hour was up (I had about 30 minutes left), and then drew some blood, which wasn't too bad this time. They said to consider no news to be good news, and that my results should be back by the end of the week. They said if I "fail" this version of the test then I have to come back next week for a 3 hour version. Hopefully I don't though, as I did the best I knew to prepare. They said if it comes back and I do have the gestational diabetes then they'll put me in touch with some women's center or whatever that can go over how to watch my diet and prick my finger, etc.

11.28.2010

Monday is Hug a Gamer Day!

http://zaxy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/hug-a-gamer.jpgI saw on Facebook the last that several of my friends are "attending" the event called "Hug a Gamer Day" which takes place nationwide, tomorrow - November 29th.

Curious, I clicked the event and decided that I'll be attending too!

Here's the details, taken from the official Facebook event page:
"We've got days to wear towels, days to talk like pirates, but (according to a web search) this is the first planned Hug A Gamer day. So give your nearest geek a cuddle! They probably need it after all those pixels, but watch out for the Counter Strike reflexes. The date of this event is November 29th (the day Pong was released). Let us celebrate. Join in the hugs.(And invite as many people as you can so this can grow)."

Sounds like a pretty neat concept!

At the time I'm typing this post, 167,881 people are "attending" with thousands "maybe attending" or "waiting for response."

Whether you join the event/group on Facebook or not, do a gamer a favor and on Monday give them a hug!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days - hope you guys didn't forget about me, just been a tad busy these past few days with Thanksgiving and the kick-off to the Christmas season!

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Our Thanksgiving was spent sleeping in, since hubby didn't have to work, and then we drove the hour and 15 minutes out to his parents house later that afternoon. It was a nice car ride, as we listened to the traditional Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game and chatted as well - true, spend time together at home, but a lot of the time one of us is busy doing something online or we're watching TV or a movie together, so we didn't get to really chat all that much about random stuff.

We got out to my in-laws house by 430 and hubby showed off his new expensive "toy" (a new Samsung Galaxy Android operated tablet, aka the Droid version of the iPad) to his family. We weren't able to watch the game on their TV, so hubby found a feed on his tablet and we watched the last half on there while we waited for dinner to be ready and his other brother to show up (we were all told dinner was at 6pm and to be there by then, but of course he was at least a half hour late like he usually when we're all out there for a holiday meal).

Dinner was delicious and we sat around and chatted and joked with the family for a few hours before everyone started heading off - one of my brother in-law's had to get to bed as he had to open his Verizon store 30 minutes away at 6am, another (who's a DM) had to be at the Sterling mall location to help open it at 3am when the mall down there opened, and hubby and I had to head back into town as we were going to stand out in line at Target to try and get that $298 40" flat screen LCD HDTV.

We stopped at a gas station on our way back into town to grab bottled water, use the restroom, I got a hot chocolate and changed out of my heels and nice top into sneakers and a hoodie.

We got back into town just after midnight and noticed on the drive over that some people outside Best Buy had tents up, although the line there wasn't too bad yet. The Old Navy parking lot (which is shared with Target) was packed though as they opened at midnight. We were a little scared pulling in (hubby said if the line was already around the building then we'd just forget it), but we saw that the line outside Target was only between both sets of entrances so hubby dropped me off while he parked the car and brought the folding chairs and blankets. It was just barely 20 degrees out and there was roughly 50-60 people ahead of us in line.

By 130am, Jay woke up and parked himself on my bladder, which was full again due to me drinking a large hot chocolate. Hubby held our spot while I got warmed up in the car and drove to a nearby gas station to use the restroom and bring us back more hot drinks. When I got back hubby hopped in the car and drove home to put more layers on as he wasn't quite prepared enough for the cold. He came back with layers on and his heavy thermal socks on his hands as he claimed they were warmer than his work gloves. I waited with him a bit until about 230am when I went to go warm up in the car again. I stayed for a good 20 minutes or so and shortly after hubby took his turn.

That's when things got a little nuts.

Hubby's tall so you can see him, I'm just next to him
About 5 minutes after he went to the car, the Target manager and employees showed up and for some reason, the line we were in started moving up in a rush while half of us were sitting. Trying to keep up, I grabbed our chairs, blankets and other stuff (we were planning on putting them away at about 345am and here it was just after 3am) and attempted to call hubby 1-handed, telling him to get his butt over here as the line just moved up and we got put about 50 people further back. He came running up, took my spot in line and I threw the rest of our stuff in the car and rejoined him. By 345am everyone was in a big clump rather than an actual, but fortunately we were in the front portion of the clump. Hubby had a bit of an advantage as he's tall and could see over most of the people ahead of us and has long legs so he could take bigger strides (as the staff had warned that anyone caught running or sprinting would be kicked out). A guy behind him got his attention, asking if we were going for the TV which we said we were. He pointed out hubby's advantage and said he'd give us $20 if hubby grabbed an extra TV for him and held it til he got there. $20 bucks is $20 so hubby said he would try to do that.

At 4am they let us shuffle in (literally as we were all corralled between a line of cars and the doors near the entrance). Hubby went on ahead (they had passed out store maps with locations of key items on it) while I veered off to the right to get a shopping cart and out of the way of the rush to the TVs. It was a bit of a mess as they had sections roped off to keep a flow going for checkouts so I had to take an alternative path to meet hubby at our meet up spot, all while getting my ankles smacked by people with shopping carts behind me.

Hubby got 2 TVs though - 1 for us and one for the guy that was behind us! He said they had maybe 50 of the 40" ones and 60 of a 32" and both were nearly half gone by the time he got there, but he was able to get to them and just pull 2 out and off to the side with no problem. He said a bunch of people missed out as they stopped to get a shopping cart rather than go straight for the item first.

There's hubby, near the front of the pack, bypassing the shopping carts, which is where I veered off to in order to get out of the way.
We waited a good 15 minutes or so for that guy though but we never saw him again! My guess is he got one on his own, but who knows. Debating what to do and standing near where the pile of TVs were, a woman asked us if they were all taken. Hubby confirmed it and she commented that that was all she really came for and was looking a little bummed. Hubby asked her what it was worth to it, which she was a little confused and asked what he meant. He told her for $20 he'd just conveniently walk away from the one that wasn't in our shopping cart and it'd be hers for the taking. Her face lit up and she was all "Really??" He nodded, she pulled out a $20 and we went about our way. We hung out a bit more around the store before hubby jumped in one of the monstrous check out lines (in which the one we were in took us past the baby gear and clothing section, which was torture for me as everything looked so darn cute!) and got plenty of people who ended up with the 32" and a 60" offering to trade us which was kind of amusing.

http://i.bfads.net/a/644/i_Target_2010_Womens-Fashion-Scarf_1289354692.jpgThe only other items I was really wanting to get where these fashion scarves for $5 each (50% off) as they had in the ad several different colors that would look cute with some of my outfits. While hubby waited around for the other guy to show up, I went off to look for the scarves. My first stop was the obvious accessories department, but a lady over there said they were on the other side of the fitting rooms. Myself and another girl who was looking for them went there, but no go. We walked around the clothing department and asked an employee over there who told us they should be near the cleaning supplies, but again, no luck. We went back and told the guy they weren't there, so he left his partner to help assist us. He ended up asking the girl working the fitting rooms and the general consensus of all the employees we spoke to were "I don't know, I don't think we got any of them." Way to fail, Target - advertise something in your Black Friday ad that you don't actually have.

We did get a few movies for cheap - Elf for $3.99 and Alvin and the Chipmunks for $5.99 (we both enjoyed it in the theater and I'm pretty sure Jay will like watching it too) and I took a look to see what Wii games were on special sale, but nothing we really wanted. I also checked the price on Xbox's and PS3's at hubby's request, but they were all out of Xbox's by that point and the only PS3 I could find wasn't on sale. I did get myself a large fitness/labor ball to use for $10 though, as it was something the hospital said we could bring for labor and recommended we as pregnant ladies get - I was sitting on my mother-in-law's for a bit when we were at their house and it was actually really comfortable to sit on, keeping my back straight! We also picked up a gift for one our nephews.

We got home by 6am (we literally spent at least an hour in the checkout line), hubby went straight to bed as he had to open his Verizon store by 830am and needed a bit of a nap prior to working, and I soon joined him, however I didn't have to be at work until 5pm.

I slept til about 130pm and took my time before heading out to the mall at 4pm, as I anticipated it to be crazy busy with parking all chaotic. To my surprise, by then it wasn't so bad! Seems the crowds had died down as the afternoon and evening went on.

I had gotten our 2nd $25 Gamestop giftcard so I stopped in there to pick up one present, waiting in line for about 15 minutes as they had all 3 registers open, but all 3 guys that were cashiering were literally taking several minutes per transaction when each person was only buying like 1 game. The line had no real organization to it and oh my gosh! They needed at least 1 fan in there, as it seriously felt about 100 degrees in the store at least. Being that it's in the mall, it's a smaller, more compact store and I wasn't the only one using the video game box as a fan! I was amused that I got carded for the game we were purchasing though.

I next headed over to Barnes and Noble to pick up the other gift I needed to get out there that we weren't ordering. It took me a few minutes to find it, as the moved it's location, however once I found it I was in and out, as their checkout had no lines!

I hurried upstairs, even though I had 20 minutes til I had to be at work. One of that guys working at one of the 2 Verizon kiosk's that hubby's store is connected to it tried to sell me a car charger. I kinda laughed and was like "but my husband works at the [store location] store." He was like "Oh? Who's that?" And I told him and he was like "Oh!" and laughed (the manager of that kiosk, who was just a few feet away, used to work with hubby so he knows me, as do the rest of the store managers in town). I asked how they had been doing and he said it was pretty busy. I went off to work my 3rd shift and snacked on some of the food that had been brought in for us to munch on in the backroom before I clocked in (I had like 15 minutes to kill).

It was an easy shift - I was on register for half of it, which again, I was fine when it came to normal transactions but needed help with returns and giftcard purchases as I haven't done those enough to get the process down on my own yet (I feel more comfortable for now having some walk me through it or at least watch as I do it to make sure I don't forget something). I also had someone sign up for a Place Card (the charge card for The Children's Place) so I got to see how that process goes. The rest of my shift was spent putting stuff away in the newborn area and straightening up other areas. I was scheduled til close (which was 10-11pm) but they let me go at about 930pm as we had no transactions after 9pm and we were overstaffed.

Today was a fun day at work though. I went in at noon and got to be the greeter at the door, passing out our upcoming holiday shopping pass (which is a reusable coupon where you scratch off the box to see what percent off you get and you can use it in store and online as many times as you want during the valid time period, which these were for Dec 9-24). I was also directing people to the tables at the front where we had $5 fleece tops and pants for both boys and girls. I helped a few customers who were looking for items as well and checked bags that set off the store alarm. It was a pretty easy job, kinda fun and during the downtime I straightened up the fleece tables and some of the other racks near the front there. We also realized that people weren't paying attention when I handed them the holiday shopping passes and said it didn't start until the 9th as I guess they were trying to use them at the checkout, claiming I didn't say that (even though it also says it on the card, and everyone that worked there heard me say it, lol...) they did however hear me say $5 fleece as the fleece was going fast and people would flock the tables after I mentioned they were all $5! The sale on them started Wednesday and by the time I left today what we had out was all we had left - we were down to 1 color in the boys tops and the girls had no size XL left! It was a pretty easy shift, although it went by kinda slow. My feet were killing me by the end of it too, having been on my feet for long stretches of time 2 days in a row. I spent my break in the backroom munching on a granola bar and chitchatted with one of the managers who was finishing up her break too, so that was kinda nice.

Hubby thinks I need to start carrying a card with all my pregnancy info on it that I can just hand out to people, as between employees and customers I keep getting asked the same questions on a daily basis when I work ("How far along are you?" "Is this your first?" "What are you having?" "Have you decided on a name?" "What is it?" "Oh that's pretty/neat/different/etc." One girl asked if I was married and then, surprised, asked how old I was which surprised her even more as she didn't think I looked 26 at all - she thought I was a lot younger! lol...). I don't mind it too much, but I think it is pretty amusing!

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Our new Westinghouse 40" LCD HDTV that we got at Target for $298 during Black Friday opening madness. Yeah, we have a bit of clutter going on there too... there's my new laptop on the coffee table in front, as well as our entertainment setup, various gaming items and a pile of stuff for Jay.
Tonight when I got home I sorta helped hubby take out our busted TV to the dumpster (ie: I held the doors open for him and carried the smaller stuff out like the remote and power cord) and we (ie: him) put together our new TV. The thing is, we don't subscribe to the HD channels as it's more money, so we noticed flipping channels that some shows on it kinda look like crap as it's an HDTV. Oh well!

http://cdn-0.nflximg.com/en_US/boxshots/gsd/70126840.jpgWe warmed up some leftovers for dinner and then sat down to watch the terrible, terrible movie ThanksKilling on Netflix's Instant Watch on our new TV. We've been hearing about this movie for over a month now, as several friends on Facebook have posted about it and when we visited my college roomie down in Texas, she showed us the first 5 minutes of it (as that was all she could get through, it was that bad). The premise is 5 college students are traveling home together for Thanksgiving break when they encounter a talking psychotic demon turkey who was necromanced by a powerful Indian back in "the olden days" to kill all white men for what they did to the Indians. It's a low budget indie film and the acting in it is horrible, as is the plot - at one point, the turkey, after killing this one girl's sheriff father, disguises himself as her dad and when they go to her house none of them seem to notice that her father is a 3 foot turkey! lol... The talking psychotic demon turkey did have some pretty funny 1-liners though, but that was about it. Thank God it was only just over an hour long, as we could feel our brains melting at how bad this one was (which we knew going into it it was going to bad, but still...)

And that's been our busy weekend thus far.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to call-in at work and see if they need me (which considering how things were today and Friday evening, I doubt they will) and then hubby and I are stopping out at Best Buy to recycle his broken monitors, pick up a few things at Walmart, move some things to storage and pull out the Christmas decorations so we can put up the tree and decorate a bit around here - I'm looking forward to that!

11.24.2010

Oh happy day!

I must say, I love this time of year (despite the cold weather)!

Today the first of our packages from Amazon.com arrived AND my friend who had the PartyLite party a few weeks ago dropped off the stuff I ordered from there.

This year for Christmas I had a pretty nice gift card balance in my Amazon account so we decided to help save money on gifts this year we would order a good chunk of it online.

Our stuff from Amazon is in 3 shipments.

The Original Christmas Classics (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town/Frosty the Snowman/Frosty Returns/Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol/Little Drummer Boy/Cricket on the Hearth)The first shipment arrived today, 2 days early, so that was exciting as this shipment had something I ordered for us - on Saturday they had a 1 day sale where you could get the DVD set of 7 Classic Christmas specials for just $12.99 and since I already had it in our cart, I just added a few other items to that order to get the free shipping on order of $25 or more. I'm really excited to have this DVD set and look forward to watching the specials on it with Jay in the years to come. It has the 4 major classic - Frosty the Snowman, Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, as well as Frosty Returns, Cricket on the Hearth and the Mr. Magoo Christmas special. I've been wanting to get it ever since they released it a few years ago as they don't show these ones on TV nearly as much as they did when I was growing up (Frosty was always my favorite!), but it was always at least $30 which we never really had the extra money to spend on it. Amazon had it for $16.99 so I thought that wasn't bad, but when I got the email about it being on sale for $12.99 one day only at 3am I jumped on that!

Our 2nd Amazon order just got shipped out today (I was waiting for the price on an item to drop back down as it went up over the weekend) and should arrive sometime next week, while the 3rd order won't ship til mid-December as it was an item that we pre-ordered and hasn't been released yet. We will have it by Christmas though! We got some really good deals on stuff though - if you're on a budget for Christmas gifts, I really recommend checking out Amazon as they got tons of great deals going on and if you order $25 or more you get free shipping too!

Other than that, we got 2 gifts through PartyLite, another I'm getting with giftcards from Gamestop as soon as the 2nd giftcard arrives in the mail (I was hoping it comes today so I can use it Friday as the items we're getting are $20 cheaper that day), then I need to pick up a gift at Barnes and Noble on Friday and a few things at Walmart and we are all done and I can wrap em up and put em under our tree which we're setting up this weekend! Yay!

I enjoy shopping - whether it's for myself or others and I love when the gifts we ordered start arriving!

Now I need to finish getting ready as I'm running out to the mall to pick up a Pewter candle snuffer for $2.99 that my friend who works at Yankee Candle is holding for me (she said it's the last one they have in the store and isn't sure when more will be in as they sell out pretty fast!) and then pick up my sister and meet hubby at the movie theater across town as we're seeing Harry Potter and the Really Long Camping Trip, er Deathly Hallows part 1 tonight!

Our AWESOME WoW Thanksgiving desktop background

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utpn85k5ndo/S6kDD58AjvI/AAAAAAAAAKg/al0aeux5keA/s1600/warcraftwednesdays-logo.gif
In lieu of Thanksgiving tomorrow, I thought I would show off our awesome desktop background that I set for this month.

Hubby likes to put up some more artsy, game-themed (like WoW and Starcraft) backgrounds while I prefer ones that are appealing to look at (such as the time I put up a really hot True Blood background featuring Sookie, Bill and Eric, or The Expendables one I put up there last August and kept until recently). I was getting tired of The Expendables one though and decided to change it up.

I figured Blizzard would have some really cool Cataclysm wallpapers up on their site, however, in my search, I came across this really awesome Thanksgiving-themed one!

Now it looks like it's part of a calendar wallpaper set, as the numbers/dates across the bottom are for August, but regardless, it works awesomely for Thanksgiving and was just too funny!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/wallpapers/images/187/1024x768.jpg 

I *LOVE* all the turkeys frantically running away from the human in the Pilgrim dress and the gnome with the rolling pin! LOL...

In case I don't get around to posting tomorrow - Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

11.23.2010

Another fun Holiday meme!

Since I'm in the holiday mood this week, I thought I post another fun holiday themed survey/meme/questionnaire that Angela from High on Life/Lariats and Lavender shared today =)

1. What are your plans for the holidays? Do you travel at Thanksgiving?
If you celebrate Christmas, do you travel then, too?

As previously mentioned, Thanksgiving we tend to alternate each year as both our families do dinner and hubby's family lives just over an hour drive away and trying to make both just isn't something we feel like trying to squeeze in. This year we are at my in-law's for Thanksgiving, next year we'll be back at my parent's (who do Thanksgiving with my aunt, uncle and little cousin who live here in town).


Christmas is an easy one for us, as my family does all our Christmas stuff on Christmas Eve and then we head out around 1030/11am on Christmas Day to drive out to my inlaws for the day to celebrate with them.

2. How do you make the plans for the holiday?
If you have a significant other, how do you decide which family to visit?

Doh, think I answered this one in #1 - we alternate Thanksgiving every year and then spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with hubby's.

3. Do you have your Thanksgiving meal at lunch or later in the day?

Around normal dinnertime hours - it's not Thanksgiving DINNER if you eat it at lunchtime =D

4. Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Not really for Thanksgiving aside from getting together and eating lots of delicious food! Oh and watching Cowboys football!

5. After a big meal do you lounge around or get up and take a walk?

For Thanksgiving, we lounge around, usually gathered around the TV and watch a movie/DVD together (with my family we usually watch a popular Christmas movie to kick off the Christmas season). After Christmas Eve dinner we gather and open presents and then after Christmas dinner we tend to lounge around and watch a movie or DVD together.

6. Do you shop on “Black Friday” or do you avoid it?

I tend to go out at some point during Black Friday - I remember in high school getting up and going out at like 10am to get some good deals at the mall. Last year was the first year I actually got up at the crack of dawn, but mainly because I was working at Sears Essentials at 6am and I since I was off at 10am and Walmart had deals til noon and was located next door, I stopped over there. This year we're actually staying up, as we're planning on getting back from my in-laws around 1am and then figure we'll go get in line for Target to open at 4am since they have a 40" flat screen TV for $298 that we really want (we've never had a flat screen and we're on our last TV - this is our Christmas present to ourselves this year).

7. When do you usually finish your Christmas shopping?

Usually pretty early - I like to get a head start so I start planning out gifts prior to Black Friday and usually finish early in December. This year, assuming I get out to Walmart, Barnes and Noble and Gamestop on Black Friday (also assuming my 2nd gift card to there comes in) we should be mostly done this Friday. This year I have a nice gift card balance for Amazon.com so we ordered most of our gifts from there, with the exception of a few items I'm planning on picking up on Black Friday. One gift though won't be here til right before Christmas though as it's a pre-order.

8. Do you and your significant other exchange gifts?
Is there a budget?

Usually we do (and the budget is usually at least $50, sometimes $100 just depends on how we are financially that year), although this year since we both want that TV and it's kind of an expensive gift, we're saying that's our present to each other this year.

9. When do you decorate for the holidays?

It's always been tradition in my family that we don't start putting Christmas decorations up until the weekend after Thanksgiving - then we pull out the tree and everything else and start getting to work!

10. Do you go “all out” with the decor or do you keep it simple?

I'd say somewhere in between - we have a Christmas tree that I bought back in college that's in pretty good shape and I put Christmas decorations up around our main room and stuff along the top of the window to make it look festive in here. Being that we're in an apartment though and not a house we can't really go "all out" yet since we can't really decorate much on the outside. But I make due with what we have =)

30 Days of Me: Day 29 - Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Well this is kind of an easy one.

I want 2011 to be a great year - hopefully nothing majorly bad happens.

I also hope for Jay to have a great first year with hopefully no complications (or at least no major/serious accidents).

I also hope the whole home loan and finding a house and moving process goes smoothly.

I also dream that hubby would get promoted to fulltime at UPS so that he doesn't have to work 2 jobs, but that's really more dependent on the company and economy... but hey, we can hope and dream!

I hope work for me picks up, or at least I get my 2 days a week back so I'm at least contributing financially a little bit.

And of course that we don't have any major financial hardships - that we're able to continue managing at least how we have been, if not better.

Toys and Tornadoes, oh my!

Okay, so like I mentioned in my previous post - had quite a bit going on today!

First, I got a new laptop! Yay!!!

http://www.laptop-enews.com/images/Dell%20Intros%20New%20AMD-based%20Inspiron%20Notebooks_0.jpgIt's a 15" Dell AMD Inspiron and the story behind me getting it is kinda... well, drama filled (a little) so I won't get into all that, but let's just say, I'm glad I have awesome credit!

I really don't like laptops smaller than 15 inches as they just seem too small with everything squished together on the keyboard - I like having a little bit of room when working on a laptop! Also, I like Dell's - my first computer of my own was a Dell and I used it for well over 5 years before I started using my Powerbook for everything as my Dell's drivers were so out of date. The Dell monitor that came with it though is what we're currently using for our desktop monitor until we can get another flatscreen one.

Before I could go pick my new laptop up though (I ordered it online through Best Buy and did the in-store pickup option) I had to hole up with Tiger in our bathroom as the local tornado sirens started going off around 3pm this afternoon!

Yeah, that's right - tornadoes in Northern Illinois near the end of November!

Talk about crazy weather we've been having! It was somewhat "normal" near the end of last week and over the weekend, however the past few days been in the upper 50s and 60s! Tornado weather seemed inevitable!

http://media.graytvinc.com/images/Tornado_Connie.jpgWe only had to hide out in the bathroom (the innermost room in our apartment with no windows) for like 20 minutes, although Tiger was not amused and I think she peed on me at one point (in her defense though, she was a little scared and I was holding her pretty tight when I went out to check the news and see if the warning had expired or been extended). There were a few that touched down though - one just north of here overturned a school bus full of kids (only 3 had minor injuries though!) and another in the next county over that did some major damage, tearing through homes and grain silos! A few of my friends that live across town on the North side lost power because of the tornadoes too.

Anyways, after watching the news for a bit to find out what all happened and if we were in the clear, I headed out to pick up my new laptop and I've been spending most of the evening getting it all set up and downloading/installing stuff on it.

I'm really liking it so far - it's shiny and new and FAST! We got it hooked up on our home network so I don't need to pull everything on it as I can just access all our music, photos and videos on the Desktop's external HD via the network (sweet!).

It also has a webcam on it too, which is kinda neat as I've never really used a webcam before and half my family Skype's so I can do that with them now. It's got Windows 7 on it too, which I'm starting to get used to as our desktop is running Vista.

It seems pretty snazzy though and I figure since we'll probably still be here at the apartment for at least part of March (as even if we get pre-approved and really lucky with finding a house right away in January, it could still take some time to get everything finalized and us moved in), it'll be good to have as I can put Jay down for a nap in the bedroom and then use the laptop out here so I'm not keeping him up or anything using the desktop in there. Plus when we get a house, we can keep the laptop on the main floor while we'll have a separate computer room, which will be nice when Jay's a little older so he can watch his movies or shows in one room and I can be in the same room on the laptop doing stuff too. And he can use it too when he's a little older for any learning PC games he'll have.

Music Shuffle Monday 11.22.10

http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Media/iPod,%20Therefore%20I%20Am/iPod%20Mini%20Blue.pngOkay, so technically it's just after midnight so this is slightly late, however quite a bit happened today (which I'll be posting about next!).

So first, on with the Music Shuffle Monday!

1. "We Still Fight" by Hatebreed
We have Hatebreed, although honestly, I don't really listen to them much or know much of their songs. This song is actually kinda short (it's barely a minute and a half long).

2. "Not Meant to Be" by Theory of a Deadman
You've probably heard this one on the radio or on VH1's music video countdown as it was one of their more recent singles. It's definitely one of ToaD's more mellower, softer songs. It's not bad though, although they come off sounding more like Shinedown on this track.

3. "Glorious" by Andreas Johnson
I first heard this song as it was in some VH1 original "Movies That Rock" film they put out during one summer in the late 90s/early 00s and I LOVED it. It's a really pretty late 90s pop-rock ballad and has some neat instrumentals going on in the background too. It was never very popular, but that didn't matter to me!

4. "Sometimes" by Britney Spears
lol... okay I didn't have this one on here until recently, as a friend mentioned it for old times sake on Facebook and I had completely forgotten about it. When I got ahold of Britney's discography, well this one was in it, and lol... remembering us imitating the dance from the video back in Jr. High... hahahahaha too funny!

5. "What Goes Around, Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake
Oh how fitting - a Britney track, followed by a Justin track! lol... I'll admit, while I wasn't a fan of his first solo album, I really liked most of what I heard from his 2nd album, including this track. This is the one that has Scarlett Jo playing his girlfriend in the video, she cheats on him and then meets a tragic end in a car accident soon after he learns of her deception. It's a pretty song too though!

11.22.2010

Fun Thanksgiving Questionnaire

http://www.uttertrivia.com/images/cartoonturkey.jpgNormally I don't post surveys or reoccurring memes on here as I think most are redundant and get old kinda fast, however Angela over at High on Life posted this Fill-In-The-Blank Friday one this past Friday and since it's Thanksgiving oriented, I thought it might be kind of fun to post with the holiday this week!

1.  My Thanksgiving plans this year will include...
Since our families both do Thanksgiving, hubby and I alternate whose parent's house we go to each year for this holiday. This year it's our turn to spend Thanksgiving with my in-laws at their home roughly an hour and 15 minutes away. While dinner isn't until 6pm, I think we'll be heading over a little earlier since the annual Thanksgiving Cowboys game is on at 3:15 and well, watching the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving is an old pasttime of mine and of course hubby can't miss a televised game!

Normally we would spend the night at my in-laws, however this year we're heading back home that night since hubby has to work Black Friday morning and we're hoping to get lucky and score one of those 40" Westinghouse flat screen TVs Target has on sale at 4am for $298 (this is would be our Christmas present to ourselves this year)! We plan on getting in line as soon as we get back in town - should be fun as while I've shopped on Black Friday most years, I've never actually waited outside in line for anything!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, in my family at least, is traditionally when we break out all the Christmas decorations and set them up. Setting them up before Thanksgiving is just waaaaay too soon for me!

2.  My favorite Thanksgiving was...
Oh geez, I'm not really sure, to be honest as up until 2 years ago I always just spent Thanksgiving with my family, rotating dinner every other year between my parent's house and my aunt's house, as mom and my aunt trade off Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners so neither gets stuck making 2 big meals a month apart.

3.  My signature Thanksgiving dish is    
Well the only Thanksgiving dish I've ever attempted making is the homemade recipe we have for these really delicious rolls! Mine turned out okay although not nearly as soft as my mom and aunt can make them.

4.  My favorite Thanksgiving food is...   
Oh geez, all of it! Especially when my mom makes it. No offense to my mother-in-law, as her food is yummy too, but I've spent most of my life eating my mom's Thanksgiving food so I'm a bit biased, lol... but no, my mom and aunt make these really delicious noodles from scratch that I've always loved, plus the rolls I mentioned above and then there's the mashed potatoes and turkey and gravy on everything... plus the pumpkin pie too as my mom makes her own pies. I told her to save me a pie this year since we won't be there... I should probably mention to save me some leftover noodles and rolls too as my mother-in-law doesn't make those either and I love them!

5.  Thanksgiving free association!     
Turkey, food, family, warmth.

6.  Thansgiving is... 
Thanksgiving is being thankful for the people in your life and the things you've been blessed with.

7.  I am thankful for...  
My family, friends, faith and freedom; my kitty; our growing baby boy whose in the flesh arrival is quickly creeping up on us; that we have a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep in, and food in our bellies; that hubby is fortunate enough to have 2 jobs that provide us with enough funds to pay the bills and stay afloat financially; and that we're in relatively good health.

11.21.2010

Working and shopping

Today (Saturday, although I guess it's technically Sunday now) I worked my 2nd shift at The Children's Place, this time getting some training in on the cash register.

I think it went pretty well - I seem to do just fine with normal transactions, although I'm not completely comfortable yet when it comes to doing returns and exchanges.

It doesn't help that they have a whole new process for returns/exchanges as well that requires scanning a state ID or driver's license, which many places in our mall have also adopted a similar policy, although quite a bit of customer's don't seem fond of the idea and got a little snooty about it as it takes a tad bit longer (one woman complained it was taking 15 minutes, when really it was more like 5 and that partly due to them explaining what they were doing to me as they did it so I knew what was going on to get some idea of how to do it). The reason behind this "new" policy (which I guess Victoria's Secret has been doing for awhile now) is because people were abusing the return policy, returning things every other day to get a better sale price on it and with scanning the ID now, it automatically keeps track how many times the same person returns the same things and let's us know when they reached the return limit for that item (I think it's like 3 times in a 45 day period). Sure it's a bit of a pain and takes just slightly longer, but it makes sense and clearly we're not the only store at the mall that's adopted this method for returns.

It was a bit amusing though, as several customers (and employees) asked me about my baby bump. This one customer, I swear she was playing 20 questions with me, lol... she asked one question, and then another, and then another and just kept going! At one point I was thinking "okay, you're starting to get a tad too personal for being a complete stranger!" when she started asking about his name and other details, lol... 

I did notice a really cute sweater in the newborn section though and decided to get that and the long sleeved polo I had my eye on for awhile for Jay. Both were on sale too, and when I went to pick out the sweater I saw this really cute polo onesie that matches and can be layered with the sweater so I picked that up too. I got all 3 for under $20 with my employee discount.

I bought the sweater and onesie big enough that he should be able to fill it out well enough come easter, assuming it's not like a million degrees at the end of April like it was for the first part of November here! The polo I got a little bigger too, but I figure it's lightweight and it's long sleeved so he should be able to wear it for awhile, even in the "colder" summer months when he doesn't need to wear a jacket out.

I also stopped at Kmart to buy myself a pair of Joe Boxer slippers. I saw they have them for $2.50 on Black Friday and they were having their "pre-Black Friday" sale this weekend with reduced prices and the slippers were advertised as $5.99 so I figured why not - I don't feel like rushing through Kmart on Black Friday and $5.99 for slippers isn't a bad idea, especially when I'll probably need them when we go to the hospital to have Jay. I have a pair of blue fluffy slippers, but they're really worn and nasty looking as I had them back in college, so it's about time for some new ones.

I also bought myself a pair of dual fingerless/mitten gloves and a black knit cap to go with my new jacket. I have a nice pair of leather gloves, but my fingers are a bit swollen right now due to being preggo and I figured these mittens would probably work better this year than trying to stuff my fingers comfortably in the leather gloves. Plus the hat and mittens and were each 40% off  and only a few bucks to begin with so I figured why not.

11.19.2010

C-sections are scary!

So we had our last Childbirthing class last night.

Last night was slightly boring for me, as I had gotten bored earlier this week and read through the book and other materials they gave us during the first class, so it was basically just a review and going over what I had read recently.

We talked about birthing plans, C-sections, epidurals and other medication and postpartum stuff.

I have to say, reading the materials and then class last night... C-sections seem so scary!!! Hubby reminded me that they give you an epidural and other anesthetics so you don't feel it, but still... you're awake while they cut you open! And then you can't see your baby right away either as you have to go through recovery and yeah... doesn't sound fun! I hope I don't have to have one!

Epidurals don't sound fun either - I'm thinking of opting for some of the lesser pain medication they can give you. I would rather not be drugged out the whole time and risk having Jay be all drugged out too and too sleepy to try breastfeeding as they say it's important to get your baby to do that right away if you're planning on breastfeeding.

A look back at my introduction to Harry Potter

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utpn85k5ndo/S38v5P_J4bI/AAAAAAAAAJw/mw1r8Sd4oxE/s1600/flashbacklogo.jpg
So I mentioned in my Banned Books post for "Banned Book Week" about Harry Potter, but I thought I would share some more about my interest in the series for this week's Flashback Friday since Harry Potter and the Really Long Camp Trip, er Deathly Hallows (part 1) is officially in theaters today!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PilLsvJGgm8/THaA2iJUj1I/AAAAAAAAAUY/CMmRKdwVVJ0/s1600/Harry+Potter+and+the+Goblet+of+Fire+by+J+K+Rowling.jpgI wasn't aware of the series until book 4 - Goblet of Fire - was released in summer 2000. I remember there being articles in our newspaper about kids and parents lining up and going crazy trying to get copies of the book, etc. I had never heard of them before so I had no idea what the fuss was and just assumed it was some hot kiddie book.

The first film - Sorcerer's Stone - was released the Thanksgiving of my senior year in high school. Going to a private Christian school, I remember the students and faculty were torn, as 1/3rd loved the series while another 1/3 thought they promoted sorcery and witchcraft and the other 1/3 just didn't really care (I was in this group). The sorcery and witchcraft argument won out though and the books were banned from our school library although you could bring your own from home and read them on your own time.

Personally, I thought the series was more geared towards kids so I didn't really have much of an interest in them.

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/080311/prizoner-of-azkaban_l.jpg
It wasn't until the 3rd movie - Prisoner of Azkaban - came out while I was in college that I changed my mind.

The guy I was dating at the time (my least favorite ex), while he proudly admitted he never finished a single book in his life, he did enjoy the Harry Potter movies and really wanted me to come with him and his siblings to see the movie when their grandma was in town visiting, as she always visited and took them to the latest Harry Potter movies. I agreed and we got me caught up on the first 2 movies so I would know what happened and not be clueless.

I enjoyed them and decided to see the rest of the movies as they came out.

I remember going to the midnight showing of Goblet of Fire with my longterm college roommate and my boyfriend at the time. We didn't dress up, but we had fun regardless.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6QPpWbaEswY/TLhtE2T2r0I/AAAAAAAAA4A/Hl4l_KYy0TE/s1600/harry+potter+books.jpg
It was the following summer that I started reading the books, as I returned to working at the movie theater and spent most of that summer working projection and then in the fall I worked the box office booth during the weekdays and projection on the weekends. The rule was you could bring a book or homework with you up to projection so long as you started the films on time and did regular projector checks (as we were still 35mm back then). And same with working box office - you could read or do homework during the slow time so long as there was nothing theater-related that needed to be done. My longterm roommate had them all and let me borrow them.

It took me awhile to get through the first book, but once I did I was able to work rather quickly through the remaining 5 (book 7 wasn't out yet).

http://humboldtherald.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix-poster-1.jpgBy the time Order of the Phoenix came out, I was all caught on the books and I got to screen the movie too as I was management by that point. I remember watching the movie with the other management staff (with the exception of our GM as he always watched movies he really wanted to see in a theater by himself as he hated the commentary and laughter the rest of us would make throughout our screenings). Me and the other female manager had read the books, so it was funny as we would start yelling at the screening when something wasn't the same in the book - the other 2 guy managers (who hadn't read the books) eventually told us to shut up, lol...

Working the midnight for that one was fun. My ex and I had broke up awhile prior, but I remember he showed up with my roommate and her boyfriend (who was my ex's roommate). Luckily I was busy keeping track of how many people we were letting into each theater, as we were digital by this point and could show the film on every screen if needed, however each theater only seated so many people which is why someone had to count each person as the ticket taker tore their tickets.

http://blog.paulomernik.com/potter_9800r6.jpgI remember when book 7 finally came out. Half the theater staff had bought the book the night it came out and several employees were pretty much racing each other to see who would finish first (Jessi, from Musings of a Wannabe Star, finished first I believe). The GM, being a Harry Potter fan, had declared that reading the book and bringing it to work was fine, so long as you put it away when the slow periods were over and did your job when customers were around. He also declared that anyone who spoiled the ending would be in big trouble, as when book 6 came out, an ex manager who stayed up all night came running into the building the next morning, shouting "Snape kills Dumbledore!" just to piss everyone off! lol... (I didn't know what that meant at the time as I hadn't read the books yet, however I did have a roommate ruin that for me, as she knew I was only on book 4 yet she blurted it out when all 3 of us roomies were discussing something Harry Potter related. She was all "oops - I thought you finished..." despite me having mentioned several times I hadn't.)

I bought book 7 when it came out and eventually went on eBay and found a seller that had the first 6 in paperback for sell for $20 so I snatched those up too so I have the whole series. I'm still waiting on owning the movies though as I'd rather get all 8 for Christmas next year in the box set you know they're going to put out.

Hubby and I were in Pennsylvania visiting relatives when Half Blood Prince opened in theaters. We decided to go to the midnight showing out there and my sis tagged along with us (I had taken her to Order of the Phoenix when I worked at the theater and got free passes). Since we were on the east coast at the time, it was fun rubbing it on Facebook to all my friends in the midwest that we were seeing it an hour before them, hehe...

With the new movie, hubby and I are planning on seeing it early next week as that works best with his schedule and we don't like paying full price for movies if we can help it. Our local AMC shows movies for $5 during the weekdays, however with Thanksgiving being next week holiday pricing starts Thursday, so we're planning on going early Wednesday evening.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/wp-content/gallery/harry-potter/HP7A-TR2-120_660.jpgI can't wait, although I remember reading an article awhile back that stated they changed the part at the beginning with Hedwig, Harry's beloved owl. While it was sad and happened right off the bat, it did sort of set the tone for the entire book, so I'm curious to see if that change was really necessary and how it affects the rest of the movie. I'm also curious to see if they include the plotlines of Bill Weasley and Flour Delacor (which was left out of the other films although they do briefly provide refuge for Harry and crew in this one), as well as Tonks and Lupin's relationship and the outcome of Hermoine's SPEW house elf coalition which was cut from the other movies although I hear the House Elves play a bit of a part in this movie. I'm also curious to see if part 1 cliff-hangs where I think it should (during Harry's run-in and capture by Belatrix at the Malfoy's).

I'll also be curious to see the reaction of people who hadn't read the books next summer after part 2 comes out, as personally, I was a little let down by the "final showdown" between Harry and Voldemort in the book - it seemed like 7 books built up to this epic showdown between them and then when it happens, it's only like a paragraph long! Hopefully the movie makes it a little longer and more epic than it actually was!


Have you read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies?
Did you rush out at midnight last night to go see #7, part 1? (please don't post any spoilers though!)

11.18.2010

30 Days of Me: Day 28 - This year, in great detail

Oh this past year... gotta admit, 2010 has been quite a bit better than 2009!

Let's see, this time last year I had just recently started selling Mary Kay and I was also working seasonally at Sears Essential as a cashier to pick up some cash.

Christmas went the same as it always has with family. We went out to Freeport and spent New Years Eve with hubby's brothers and some family friends of theirs. We were going to spend the night but I just couldn't get to sleep and so hubby and I drove back home in the middle of the night to spend the night in our own bed.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VkuDkqOiuI0/S6eDkxnukPI/AAAAAAAABDI/GN3yt_echG0/S220/MaryKay_logo.jpgMary Kay started out well, but after the first of the year, it slowed down A LOT and I was getting a bit frustrated. I did go to my first ever ice hockey game, as my unit and our families went to the Pink in the Rink game where some of the proceeds went to help fight breast cancer. I also went to a Mary Kay conference with my unit up in Madison for a weekend, which was pretty neat and a lot of fun and gave me a boost of confidence to put more of an effort into it, however after a month of hardcore trying with no results and my leads exhausted, I realized it maybe wasn't for me and by summer I had sold off most of my remaining inventory and sold the rest back to the company. It was fun while it lasted, but I just wasn't getting out as much as I was hoping. I do love the products though and will probably continue to keep using them.

http://theplagiarists.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/jury-duty.jpgI had my first experience with Jury Duty in February. I waited around all morning in a room with like 200 other people, then I got called to the courtroom with 40 others and was one of the first to be selected for the jury. After lunch they finished the jury selection and started on the case when I realized while listening to the first witness that the defendant was involved in a sexual abuse and custody case that my good friend's relatives are involved in. I mentioned it to the bailiff when they dismissed us and he had me come in the next morning to state when I knew regarding the defendant to the judge and case workers. They ended up letting me leave and go home, feeling that my prior knowledge of the other case would taint my opinion of the defendant in this case.

http://thetotalfootballer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/verizon_logo.jpg
Also in February, hubby got a second job with the Verizon retailer that his brothers also work for and he started doing that during the day as he was getting bored and antsy at home. They had him working fulltime hours for meager commission pay at a not-so-good location, so after getting a paycheck for $3 he decided to quit as it wasn't worth it. The next day they called and offered him a salaried assistant manager position at their main location in town, so he gladly took that. In a matter of months he ended up becoming the actual store manager there. He works a lot, but as he put it tonight, although he complains about working all the time, if he wasn't working he'd be bored at home like I am.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utpn85k5ndo/S_xZFzD9A5I/AAAAAAAAAU0/WbtPuXho-MQ/s1600/DROID+outer.jpg
At the end of May, I gave in and got my first smartphone after playing around with hubby's new Droid he got a month or so prior. I was skeptical at first, as I didn't see the point, but now having had one, I can't see ever going back to a phone that isn't one! My phone can do sooooo much! Sure, I can text and make calls, but I can surf the internet, watch videos, blog on it, read other blogs as well as full books, update and keep up with Facebook and Twitter (zomg, Twitter makes so much more sense to me now) at the press of a button, use it as a GPS or a music player, play fun games and do soooooo much more with it as there's tons and tons of apps! I love my Droid! And it's so customizable too - there's like 7 or 8 Droids in my family now and no 2 look the same as we have ours customized to our own personal preferences and looks.

It also came in handy when our computer's power source died and we were pretty much without a computer for a few weeks! Thanks to our Droids, we were still able to keep in touch with stuff online.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs350.ash2/63048_811711881029_30800316_43225991_3777523_n.jpgAround Easter, working the Verizon kiosk out at the mall, hubby got bit by the baby bug, seeing all the cute little kids out there with their parents shopping for Easter clothes and visiting the Easter bunny. We decided I'd finish the pack of birth control pills I was on and then not get the next pack. We figured it would take a couple months - at least til summer - to get the hormones out of my system, but we ended up conceiving at the very end of May and announced it to our families on Father's Day a week after we found out. Our first doctor's appointment wasn't until the end of July at 10 weeks though and it seemed like FOREVER. Now, 6 months in, it seems like February 20th is quickly creeping up on us, as the holidays are going to make November and December fly by!

The rest of the summer was pretty uneventful.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs937.snc4/75038_827740235079_30800316_43595599_1596272_n.jpg

October was our big vacation for the year - going to Dallas to visit my old college roomie and see a Cowboys game. It was a nice, fun relaxing trip...

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs909.snc4/72244_827735334899_30800316_43595495_3383461_n.jpg
...until we hit the buck on the drive home. So I guess that's one thing that happened in 2009 that also happened this year - getting in a pretty expensive car accident! In February 2009, we got hit going through an intersection when this teenager ran his red light, totaling hubby's car. We ended up getting the car he has now, which is the one that we hit the buck in and came close to being totaled! Hopefully next year we won't have another car accident (*crosses fingers*).

Anyways, that next week back I got my hours cut again at work AGAIN as there's no business going on at all. I got a seasonal job for now, but I still feel kinda bummed as I haven't gotten too many hours there yet and I feel bad that hubby's pulling most of the weight financially right now, but I just don't know what more I can do to make my work situation better - I feel a bit helpless, as it's not like it's my fault the economy sucks. Hopefully once I get a few more shifts in at my seasonal job they'll see I'm a good worker and put me on for more hours than they have been (I hope).

So yeah... that's been this past year thus far for us.

This week in the World of Warcraft...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utpn85k5ndo/S6kDD58AjvI/AAAAAAAAAKg/al0aeux5keA/s1600/warcraftwednesdays-logo.gif
So I played a little bit this week, finally finishing up the boring Borean Tundra on my rogue and moving on to Howling Fjord.

There was quite a bit of an issue with lag on my server though, making questing frustrating at times. And no, it's not our computer here - everyone on the server has been complaining about it, citing it's a server-wide issue since the big patch. I think our server hamster is slowly dying... again. Oh well, that's just part of the joys of being on one of the oldest servers!

I ended up disabling all the mods I had running and it helped a little but not much. I did run a bunch of lower 70s random dungeons though, as the instance servers are a million times less laggy compared to my server. Unfortunately I didn't get to see how my dps as a combat rogue was since I had disabled Recount. I must say though, the 31 point talent "Killing Spree" is pretty awesome in dungeons as it does quite a bit of damage in .5 seconds!

Other highlights of my time playing this past week involve getting my rogue to level 74, being able to "properly" enter Dalaran (as I was lazy and didn't feel like tracking down/paying a mage or 'lock to get me there prior to the level 74 quest), and I bought Cold Weather Flying as the last patch made it available to learn at level 68 instead of 78. I also got some new dungeon blues - a nice off-hand dagger from Azjol-Nerub and a nice leather belt from Old Kingdom.

11.16.2010

30 Days of Me: Day 27 - This month, in great detail

I went to bed early last Wednesday and wasn't near a computer until late Thursday night so I forgot to make this post last week - sorry for the delay!

My month in great detail... hm... well since today is November 16, that takes us back to mid-October to start.

Let's see...

We took our vacation to Dallas, Texas and had a blast save for the last 24hrs of the trip as we hit that buck 20 miles outside St. Louis on our way home and it messed up our car. We ended up going to the ER when we got back since I'm preggo and everyone was insisting we go get checked out. Yay for having good insurance though as they took care of us, hooking us up with a rental to drive home, getting our car towed to a shop and then fixing it up for us and we all had to pay was our deductible.

Found out there was another tragedy at my aluma mater, as a freshman art student went missing and they found burned human remains in a park not too far from campus that they believe to be her as her cell phone and other personal items were found near the ashes.

Got my hours cut back at work due to lack of business - AGAIN - so I went out looking for a seasonal job. I filled out an app at The Children's Place and they had me come in for a group interview the next day and called me back the day after to offer me a position. I've worked there once and am waiting for them to call me and let me know when they want me to come in next as they had to figure out how to work us seasonals into the schedule.

Went to my friend's Partylite candle party debut as she's a consultant now and I bought some Christmas gifts. Since I got another Amazon.com giftcard to add to my current giftcard balance as well as a few Gamestop giftcards we decided to do most of our Christmas shopping through Amazon and Gamestop to help save on spending money for gifts this year since we got our car deductible to pay off our credit card and we have doctor/hopsital stuff we need to save for and pay with Jay on the way. So far it's turning out really well as Amazon has some great deals and it looks like we have enough of a giftcard balance to cover everything we're getting off there (plus it's free shipping on orders of $25 or more!).

We went back to the bank to see about getting pre-approved for a home loan and learned that we're *this close* to getting it - we're planning on going back in in January and we should be all set and ready to go.

We started our baby classes at the hospital - I had the breastfeeding class last night and we have our last of 3 childbirthing classes we're taking on Thursday. We're taking a newborn care class too, but that's not until January.

Hubby's 2nd cousin and his wife gave birth to a baby girl at the beginning of November. Speaking of birthday's, hubby had his, my dad's is today and my parents had their anniversary (which is the same day as hubby's birthday).

That's pretty much all the highlights of the past month that I can think of off the top of my head.

11.15.2010

Awesome holiday cards from Shutterfly.com!

Working through my Google Reader the other day I happened upon a post regarding a really neat offer that Shutterfly.com is doing for bloggers this year where you can get 50 photo Christmas cards for free!

Growing up my parents always sent out Christmas cards with a letter they would type up and they would often include a family photo (or our school photos to relatives). We'd get a bunch back as well and my dad would tape them up along the doorframe of the sliding glass door in our kitchen that leads to the backyard.

At one point my family started receiving photo cards from people when I was in high school, which I always thought were pretty neat as we were often getting cards from old family friends we hadn't seen in years, so it was neat to see how the kids of so and so had grown up since I last saw them.

One year while I was in college that my mom decided to give these types of cards a try and so my parents had me and my sister wear Santa hates and pose with the dog for the photo. While it was neat, my mom thought it was a bit expensive so I noticed she didn't it every year however the year hubby and I got married, mom did send out another photo Christmas card with a photo from our wedding of my parents and sister posed with hubby and I.

Last year I decided to look into it, as hubby and I are on our own and we had gotten our kitty the year before and I wanted try sending out a photo Christmas card with a photo of the 3 of us in front of our Christmas tree. I noticed the prices had gone down considerably from years prior so I gave it a go and really liked the idea. I also received a few photo Christmas cards from friends and family as well.

This year, I'm thinking we should take a picture of hubby and myself in front of the big Christmas tree up at church, showing off my 7-8 month baby belly! I really like the style of this photo card:
 http://www.shutterfly.com/img_/publishing/styleSwatches/ssc/photocard/PHOTOCARD-4-4288-MERCHLARGE_FRONT-v128209207800077639.jpg

Although something like this one would be cute for someone with kids:

Shutterfly has a bunch of different photo cards to choose from - skinny vertical and horizontal ones, stationary size one, ones that are actual cards with your photo on the front as well a lot of others! Personally, I prefer the skinnier ones just because they take up less space on the fridge so I can fit more! They also offer a wide variety of themes which is nice, as while my family celebrates Christmas, I do have some friends that are Jewish as well so I prefer to send out a "Happy Holidays" card rather than wishing them a "Merry Christmas" since they don't celebrate it (not that they really care, but I think it's a courteous gesture).

Some of the photo cards I noticed you can also use to send out to people to announce an engagement, wedding, the birth of a baby, as well as various parties which is pretty neat! They also have calendars you can personalize with your photos (I might make these for Christmas gifts next year, since Jay will be almost one and we'll have plenty of photos to include!) as well other photo gifts like mugs, mousepads ornaments and more!

Their prices also seem pretty reasonable and you can totally customize the cards from the placement of the photo to the text, font, font size and more. Seems pretty simple! Another neat thing I noticed is if you look at the image near the top here, on the folded photo cards it seems you can really go all out on the inside of some as that one seems to have a time line with photos and text! How neat!


Do you send out Christmas cards?
Do you prefer to send and receive actual cards or do you like the photo card idea?

Music Shuffle Monday 11.15.10

http://www.veryicon.com/icon/png/Media/iPod,%20Therefore%20I%20Am/iPod%20Mini%20Blue.png1. "Thoughtless (aka Tear Me Down)" by Korn
For some reason on my iPod the title of this song comes up as "Floyd" - not sure what the deal is with that even though I've always known that wasn't the correct name of the track. This song is off Korn's 2002 album "Untouchables" which was released just after I finished high school. I've never bought a Korn album but like many other bands, I like the singles I've heard on the radio throughout the years. It's a pretty heavy track and I remember hearing this album got pretty good reviews as well.

2. "Tera-Fied" by Static-X
This off their "for the fans" album Cult of Static, however as previously mentioned regarding songs on this album, several tracks on this album seem to showcase Wayne Static's new wife (28-year old retired porn star Tera Wray). This track not only uses her first name in the title, but she also contributes to it by doing vocals at the beginning. Friends that caught Static-X on their last big tour stated that this was one of the songs that she also dances around on stage to. Like typical Static-X, this song has a bit of a trance feel to it.

3. "Do Unto Others" by Mindless Self Indulgence
These guys have a huge discography of songs - many of which I haven't even listened to yet, so that's why they seem to keep popping up on here. This song has a bit of an 80s feel to it, as at first I thought it was an 80 band, similar to that of  Orgy's cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" or early Nine Inch Nails (think late 80s "Pretty Hate Machine" era).

4. "Giants" by Five Iron Frenzy
I loved these guys in high school, as they were a Christian ska band although a lot of their songs were quite random regarding the content (ie: a song about the cast of Different Strokes, a song about Canada, a song about a comb... etc) while others had a more serious message. They were a fun band and I loved rocking out to them. This song has a bit of a They Might Be Giants feel to it near the beginning. According to Wiki, in this song, singer Reese Roper references Adam Smiths' The Wealth of Nations to continue his general attacks on big business and Social Darwinism. Food for thought, right?

5. "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse
This is off their Absolution album and is another typical Muse track. As mentioned, I was introduced to Muse during my late college years while working at the theater. They have a driving beat with their guitars, the vocals are a bit melodic and they make for good background or "zone out" music.

26 week appointment

Today we had our 26 week doctor's appointment - the last of our 4 week check-ups as we now start going in every 2 weeks.

No ultrasound photos today as we're done with ultrasounds for awhile (probably won't have another one until closer to the end) however the nurse practitioner they have me seeing (since my regular doctor retired from the practice in the time since our last appointment and they haven't assigned me to one of the other 2 doctor's on staff yet) said my ultrasound photos and stuff from our anatomy scan we did last time all look good, so nothing major there!

She said weight-wise I'm right on target (I've gained about 25lbs so far and most weight I gain from this point on should be all Jay), my blood pressure is good and my length (from measuring the top of my belly to my pubic bone) is good too.

We went to listen to Jay's heartbeat and clock it, however - like usual - he didn't want to stay still enough to make it easy for her to find and hear with the doppler!

She was moving it all around my belly and all we could hear was him moving around like usual, then she would stop as she thought she had found a good spot to hear it and count and WHAM! Jay would kick or punch the doppler! lol... It was pretty funny and I even started laughing as he kept doing it! She asked me if my previous doctor had trouble finding and hearing it due to all the movement as well and I assured her that yes, all the previous times they've used the doppler it's taken at least a minute for them to be able to hear it well enough as he doesn't seem to like to stay still, lol...

She finally was able to hear his heartbeat well enough to do a quick count and said his it's in the 150s which is good.

She went over the Glucose Challenge Test that I get to do next time I come in, which is how they check for gestational diabetes. I'm not supposed to eat anything sweet the day of the test (she recommended eating eggs and sausage for breakfast with water), as they'll give me a sugary drink when I get there and then I wait an hour and then they draw some blood. She said it's important not to eat anything sweet that day prior to the test because if I fail it then I have to come back in for the 3 hour version and they stick me a lot more.

"Oh please, make it stop!"

http://www.multiplexcomic.com/images/strips/multiplex-529.pngI have to go get ready for my doctor's appointment this morning, so Music Shuffle Monday will be up later today, however in the meantime I thought I would share's today edition of the webcomic Multiplex.

I've mentioned Multiplex in the past, but for those that are newer to the blog since the last time I posted about it, Multiplex is a webcomic based out of the Chicago suburbs and the main setting of the comic takes place at a movie theater and the plotlines revolve around the different employees that work there. If you've ever worked at a movie theater before I highly recommend taking the time and going back through the archives as the author of this one is pretty spot on about things that happen at the theater that it's almost scary! lol...

Today's post had me laughing as I can totally relate - when the Hannah Montana (with special guests the Jonas Brothers) 3D concert movie was released in theaters in early 2008, I was the manager that got stuck having to screen the thing as it was our first digital 3D movie at the theater and we needed to make sure there were no glitches as we were expecting a huge crowd for it. This was basically how I felt - I wanted someone to kill me, to make it stop, as I thought it was THAT bad, lol...

Click the image to view the link to the actual comic as I know it's kind of small here.