Today I am 37weeks and 1 day.
And 37 weeks is technically considered to be full-term, so at this point, it's all just a waiting game, as Jay can make his arrival at anytime!
In other news, the baby shower was this past Saturday - I'll be making a separate post about that soon as I need to upload some of my photos I took.
We're also expecting a massive blizzard here in the next day or so (supposedly starting sometime tonight), giving some parts of northern Illinois up to 2 feet of snow! I hear my area is supposed to get 12-18 inches. One of the things they kept saying during our birthing classes at the hospital is that they often see a huge increase of women going into labor during bad weather and snowstorms and a few friends on Facebook have confirmed this as well, saying they went into labor during snowstorms or tornadoes and the L&D floor was PACKED with other pregnant women also going into labor! Not getting my hopes up too much, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't crossing my fingers or at least keeping the thought/idea/possibility of it happening in the back of my mind! lol...
Also, I am *still* waiting on the hospital to call and schedule me for the ultrasound my clinic wants me to have to look more closely at Jay's femur and kidneys.
My clinic called early on Wednesday saying that they talked to my insurance and it was good to go and that they sent my paperwork over to the hospital and that they would be calling me soon to get it scheduled. On Thursday at my follow-up my doctor asked if I had it scheduled yet and I told her I was still waiting to hear from the hospital, so she told me if I didn't hear anything Friday to call the clinic and let them know so they could look into it. Well, Friday came and went, as did the weekend, so I called as soon as I woke up this morning. They gave me the number for the Maternal Fetal Medicine ward at the hospital and I called explained the situation to them - the woman I spoke to pulled up my info and looked, as they have me on file from the last one we did at 30 weeks, and said it was showing they hadn't gotten any recent paperwork for me and requested I call my clinic and let them know so they can resend it and that they would call me shortly after they received it. So I did and spoke with the girl I talked to last Wednesday - she said that was strange as she has confirmation showing that the hospital received the paperwork they faxed over for me but said she was sending it over again and I should hear something soon.
So... I'm still waiting.
I'm starting to wonder if there's even a point now - I mean if it were earlier and we weren't at the point where we can expect him to arrive at any time I'd get it, but it seems like a waste as with my luck we'll schedule it and I'll go in labor before the appointment or we'll have the ultrasound and I'll go into labor like 2 days later. At this point too, since hubby kinda wants to be there for this one in the event that something is "wrong," the only good time this week that we could schedule for that works with both our schedules would be Thursday morning - otherwise we'd we have to wait until next week and I'll be even further along... and the further along I am the harder it's going to be to check his femur... ughhhhh
1.31.2011
Music Shuffle Monday 01.31.11
1. "The Call" by The Backstreet BoysThis one came out several years after my BSB phase I went through in early Junior High, but ya gotta admit, it's got a catchy, bouncy beat with a fun sing-along chorus. The song itself is kinda interesting, as is the chorus which is an exchange between a BSB and his girlfriend, saying "listen baby, I'm sorry... just wanna tell you don't worry - I will be late, don't stay up and wait for me. You're really dropping out, my battery is low - I'm going to place nearby, gotta go!" In the verses we learn what happened - he went out with the boys and met a woman who invited her back to his place... because of him going and lying to his girlfriend they're no longer together. It's catchy and amusing, in my opinion.
2. "Take Me to Your Leader" by the Newsboys
This song was big at my youth group in late Junior High, as the Newboys are a Christian pop-rock band and this album/tour had a space/alien-type theme to it (like Powerman5000 a few years later, they too wore spacesuits in the videos and on tour!). It was fun though and the album mixed fun songs like this one and "Breakfast" with more serious-themed ones.
3. "Rock This Town" by The Stray Cats
Got some good ol' Rockabilly going on here! Like most of my generation, we didn't learn about Brian Setzer until the late 90s when he helped bring back the sound of swing with his hit "Jump, Jive and Wail." This one's an older one, with his former band, but a good, classic modern swing-time favorite!
4. "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" by A Perfect Circle
This one is off APC's 2004 politically charged eMotive album and while it's often considered to be a remix of "Pet" which appeared on their previous album Thirteenth Step (one of my all-time favorite albums might I add), they claim it's actually more like part 2 of the song. This version is a bit darker and more haunting though! I'm excited that it was announced a few months ago that APC is back together, planning tour and getting ready to release new music as I missed out on their tours during my early days of college and by the time I was really into them they had taken a hiatus. For those not familiar with APC, they're basically a supergroup, lead by Tool's Maynard James Keenan and members include the infamous Josh Freese (most known for being part of NiN's touring line-up), James Iha (formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins), Billy Howerdel (from Ashes Divide).
5. "Getting Smaller" by Nine Inch Nails
This one is off another one of my all-time favorite albums, With Teeth, and has a great, fast-paced driving rhythm to it.
1.30.2011
Lego Angry Birds
As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite blogs is Sprite Stitch - a blog solely devoted to showing off video game related art that people from all over the world have made and submitted. Eventually when we move and have Jay's awesome Super Mario Bros nursery done I plan on taking pics and posting some up on there too.
Anyways, today's post...
Going through my Google Reader this morning hubby and I saw this awesome post from the Sprite Stitch blog:
How awesome is that?! It must have taken A LOT of time but it definitely looks great!
For those not familiar with Angry Birds, it's a really fun and addictive smartphone game (costs a few bucks on iPhone, free for Android) where the different colored birds have different abilities and you try to kill all the piggies in the level (they stole the bird's eggs which is why they're angry!) by dive bombing on them or knocking over and destroying the platforms the piggies are sitting on.
Anyways, today's post...
Going through my Google Reader this morning hubby and I saw this awesome post from the Sprite Stitch blog:
The Angry Birds in Legos!!!
How awesome is that?! It must have taken A LOT of time but it definitely looks great!
For those not familiar with Angry Birds, it's a really fun and addictive smartphone game (costs a few bucks on iPhone, free for Android) where the different colored birds have different abilities and you try to kill all the piggies in the level (they stole the bird's eggs which is why they're angry!) by dive bombing on them or knocking over and destroying the platforms the piggies are sitting on.
1.28.2011
Some good ol' pampering
Today I made some progress on item #88 on my 101 in 1001 list - get a pedicure 3 times a year.
I figured one a season would be good, although coming into my last month of pregnancy, when a friend had an open-invite on Facebook to join her at a nail salon, I jumped at the chance to get a pedicure, as my poor, swollen feet could really use one!
Hubby rubs my feet for me sometimes when we watch TV and clips my toenails for me when they get too long as I have trouble comfortably reach my feet, but it's just not the same as going to a nail salon and soaking them and getting the works done and all that... and it felt GREAT!
Also, supposedly, there's a pressure point on your ankle that's linked somehow to your uterus and if rubbed or whatever (like they do during pedicure massages) it can cause you to have contractions - I guess we'll see if I go into labor in the next few days... I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday and that's considered full-term so if I go into labor at this point, it's really no big deal.
What was amusing was that the chairs for the pedicure have a built in massager - I don't think Jay knew what to make of that, with all the vibrations going on! He started kicking/squirming a good bit while it was going on! lol...
I figured one a season would be good, although coming into my last month of pregnancy, when a friend had an open-invite on Facebook to join her at a nail salon, I jumped at the chance to get a pedicure, as my poor, swollen feet could really use one!
Also, supposedly, there's a pressure point on your ankle that's linked somehow to your uterus and if rubbed or whatever (like they do during pedicure massages) it can cause you to have contractions - I guess we'll see if I go into labor in the next few days... I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday and that's considered full-term so if I go into labor at this point, it's really no big deal.
What was amusing was that the chairs for the pedicure have a built in massager - I don't think Jay knew what to make of that, with all the vibrations going on! He started kicking/squirming a good bit while it was going on! lol...
Weekly follow-up, pampering and fun!
I had my follow-up appointment yesterday and it went pretty smooth.
Originally I was scheduled for 4pm, but they called me in the morning asking if I could come in at 2pm instead, which was fine with me as I found out the day before they didn't need me to come into work on Thursday.
The NST stress test went fine as did my brief meeting with the doctor. They also did the Strep-B Culture swab, which they said tests for a specific vaginal infection that if you have it (she said like 10% of women do) they treat it while you're in labor so that baby doesn't get the infection when he comes through. Jay's fundal height was measuring exactly 36cm which is right on target for his gestational age. She said my glucose readings looked great and congratulated me on that.
We're STILL waiting for the hospital to call me to setup the ultrasound to check out his femur and kidneys... the girl from my clinic called Wednesday morning to let me know that they got it approved with insurance and sent my paperwork and stuff over to the hospital and that I should be getting a call from them to schedule it "sometime soon" but yeah... I mentioned I hadn't heard anything from them yet at my appointment and my doctor said if I didn't hear anything by this afternoon to give my clinic a call and they would look into it, so I need to do that first thing in the morning since I think they're open til noon.
Today I went and got myself a much needed pedicure!
Hubby rubs my feet for me sometimes when we watch TV and clips my toenails for me when they get too long as I have trouble comfortably reach my feet, but it's just not the same as going to a nail salon and soaking them and getting the works done and all that... and it felt GREAT! Supposedly, there's a pressure point on your ankle that's linked somehow to your uterus and if rubbed or whatever it can cause you to have contractions - I guess we'll see if I go into labor in the next few days...
What was amusing was that the chairs for the pedicure have a built in massager - I don't think Jay knew what to make of that, with all the vibrations going on! He started kicking/squirming a good bit while it was going on! lol...
Tomorrow is my baby shower - I'm a bit excited and looking forward to it, although I can't believe it's already here as we started talking about it and set the date last fall and it seemed soooo far off!
Originally I was scheduled for 4pm, but they called me in the morning asking if I could come in at 2pm instead, which was fine with me as I found out the day before they didn't need me to come into work on Thursday.
The NST stress test went fine as did my brief meeting with the doctor. They also did the Strep-B Culture swab, which they said tests for a specific vaginal infection that if you have it (she said like 10% of women do) they treat it while you're in labor so that baby doesn't get the infection when he comes through. Jay's fundal height was measuring exactly 36cm which is right on target for his gestational age. She said my glucose readings looked great and congratulated me on that.
We're STILL waiting for the hospital to call me to setup the ultrasound to check out his femur and kidneys... the girl from my clinic called Wednesday morning to let me know that they got it approved with insurance and sent my paperwork and stuff over to the hospital and that I should be getting a call from them to schedule it "sometime soon" but yeah... I mentioned I hadn't heard anything from them yet at my appointment and my doctor said if I didn't hear anything by this afternoon to give my clinic a call and they would look into it, so I need to do that first thing in the morning since I think they're open til noon.
Today I went and got myself a much needed pedicure!
Hubby rubs my feet for me sometimes when we watch TV and clips my toenails for me when they get too long as I have trouble comfortably reach my feet, but it's just not the same as going to a nail salon and soaking them and getting the works done and all that... and it felt GREAT! Supposedly, there's a pressure point on your ankle that's linked somehow to your uterus and if rubbed or whatever it can cause you to have contractions - I guess we'll see if I go into labor in the next few days...
What was amusing was that the chairs for the pedicure have a built in massager - I don't think Jay knew what to make of that, with all the vibrations going on! He started kicking/squirming a good bit while it was going on! lol...
Tomorrow is my baby shower - I'm a bit excited and looking forward to it, although I can't believe it's already here as we started talking about it and set the date last fall and it seemed soooo far off!
Flashback to First Kisses, part 1
Dentyne Ice gum has a new commercial out, stating that the average person has "28 first kisses."
Now I'm assuming they're talking about first kisses, mouth to mouth, as why would you need to have amazingly fresh breath to kiss someone on the check or forehead, am I right?
When I first saw this commercial I turned to hubby and responded "28 for an average?! That's kind of a lot, isn't it?"
He shrugged and then we both took a moment to sit and count how many first mouth-to-mouth kisses we've each had. Hubby, being a guy, couldn't remember all his, but figured it was a number definitely under 28. Me? I can count mine with the fingers on both hands.
I figured for the next few weeks, this could be a bit of a fun series and have a Flashback to all my "first kisses."
My first kiss was in high school, the fall of my sophomore year.
My friends and I had just gotten back in town from a rather amazing time at our youth group's annual Fall Retreat weekend getaway up near Lake Geneva and some of us didn't want the fun time to end quite yet so we went over to this one girl's house to continue hanging out.
There was me, the girl who's house it was, my best friend, the guy friend I had an obvious crush on (he had been flirting with me all weekend too), and his best friend who was dating the girl who's house it was. Her parents had a trampoline in their backyard so we all went and jumped around on it for a bit before someone suggested we play truth or dare. I was a little nervous, as knowing the company I was in and my obvious crush on the one guy, I just knew someone going to dare either of us to kiss.
And I was right.
Someone dared me to french kiss him, however, having never had a kiss before, let alone a french kiss, I shyly responded "I... don't know how - I've never done that before."
He crawled across the trampoline towards me, saying "Here, I'll show you" and pulled his face in towards mine.
As soon as our lips were locked I felt his tongue slide into my mouth and immediately pulled back, falling backwards onto the trampoline, declaring "Whoa! That felt... weird..."
Everyone busted out laughing at my response, save for my crush, who just kinda blushed and I think felt a little embarrassed! I apologized, as I didn't mean to hurt his feelings or anything - it was just something new that I hadn't experienced before and didn't know what to expect!
In the next week or so we shared a few more kisses, usually achieved by using the excuse of "truth or dare" and each time it was a better, more comfortable experience, however we never ended up dating. He ended up asking out this other girl I went to school with (who knew I liked him and wanted to date him), citing that he had gone to Jr. High with her and they reconnected over Fall Retreat and he didn't want to risk us dating and messing up the friendship we had. I was hurt and upset and didn't really talk to him much the next few months, but we eventually made up and started talking and being friendly again.
Since that first kiss, I've had a handful of others - 7 more to be exact.
Stay tuned for next week!
1.26.2011
Interesting thoughts on movies and villains
From time to time, friends of mine post some really amusing links to articles on various sites.This week, I've come across several that posted from Cracked.com (anyone else remember reading Cracked and MAD in the magazine aisle of the grocery store when they were kids??)
Here's the first one:
9 Famous Movie Villains Who Were Right All Along
In this one, the article touches on Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller, The Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz, the hyenas in The Lion King and many others! It was a pretty interesting read and I love their captions too!
And another:
6 Insane Fan Theories That Actually Make Great Movies Better
This one was pretty interesting and thought provoking - I had heard the James Bond theory before, and that one actually does make a good bit of sense! I hadn't heard of some of the others though, but it definitely got me thinking!
These past weeks, in the World of Warcraft....
So these last few weeks in the World of Warcraft have been quite productive!On my Boomkin druid, I finished up my quests in Uldum and then conquered the Twilight Highlands within 24 hours, finishing all the basic questing/leveling content in the expansion.
Here's some memorable highlights:
I came across Gobbles the Turkey in Uldum and of course I had to /yell "GOBBLES!!!" really loud just like Timmy does in that one South Park Thanksgiving episode.
I did a questline that crossed Inglorious Basterds with Indiana Jones - it was pretty amusing! The little goblin guy there talks like Christoph Waltz's character did in Inglorious Basterds - I only wish Blizzard had actually gotten Waltz to voice the character as that would have been awesome!
Last week, Bethany of Sorority Girl Plays WoW posted about a Dwarf wedding questline which I ended up doing just days later.
I spent an afternoon this past week leveling up my goblin warlock Sprakle on my old roomie's server, which you may remember I created and played during the Beta last summer. I got Sprakle up to level 12 and picked up the first quests for Azshara. I didn't quest in Azshara during Beta so I look forward to more new content!
Also, last night I started leveling up my Belf hunter to see how playing the higher level expansion content differs from alliance to horde. So far, the quests in Hyjal have all been the same. I'll admit though, it has been nice not having to fight a ton of other people for mobs and quest items this time around, as I started leveling my Boomkin at release. The downside though is that the respawn rate is still the same, so I no sooner get done killing a mob and begin looting than does the mob respawn right on top of me and I can't seem to get away! Doh!
I did learn though that having a gathering profession makes a HUGE difference in how fast you level! My Boomkin is a skinner/enchanter and you don't get XP for skinning things. My Belf though is a miner/jewelcrafter... and let's put it this way, I hit level 81 on her in maybe 2 and a half hours max last night, getting the same amount of XP per each mine I mined as I did killing a mob! How crazy is that?! On Sprakle I only took up tailoring as I figured I could always pick a gathering profession later, however after learning this, I think I might run back to Ogrimmar and pick up one to help level faster!
Another thing I learned on my hunter - they're still pretty OP'd (over-powered) which I don't mind at all! Perhaps it's because I have a pet to tank for me, but I found myself soloing certain named mobs a lot easier than I did on my Boomkin!
1.25.2011
I'm a winner!
I'm so excited - I won a blog giveaway!!!
I've entered in a few before but wasn't lucky enough to win the grand prize. This time around though, I won 1 of 4 prizes up for grabs!
The other day, the Badass Geek posted about a giveaway he was doing in which a reader with connections to the Hard Rock Cafe wanted him to plug an upcoming show and had some free swag for him to giveaway - some nice aluminum Hard Rock Cafe water bottles! He made it really simple to enter the giveaway and so I figured why not?
I won one of these neat red ones (which you can see to the right), which I figured I can store somewhere in Jay's stroller or diaper bag and take me with when we go for walks this spring and summer!
I came across the Badass Geek's blog early last year - I believe I was surfing the blogrolls of some friends on 20-Something Bloggers to find blogs that appealed to me in order to increase my own blogroll and saw that several followed a blog called the "Badass Geek." Intrigued by the title, as I'm a bit of geek myself, I decided to check it out. He posts some really amusing, humorous stories about his daily experiences ranging from things that happen at home and work to just public places in general. I was hooked and had to add him to my own blogroll! Another neat thing is that him and his wife are expecting "Baby Badass" later this spring, so that's another thing in common, which he sometimes posts about as well.
Be sure to check him out - if you're like me in the least bit, you'll be hooked!
I've entered in a few before but wasn't lucky enough to win the grand prize. This time around though, I won 1 of 4 prizes up for grabs!
The other day, the Badass Geek posted about a giveaway he was doing in which a reader with connections to the Hard Rock Cafe wanted him to plug an upcoming show and had some free swag for him to giveaway - some nice aluminum Hard Rock Cafe water bottles! He made it really simple to enter the giveaway and so I figured why not?I won one of these neat red ones (which you can see to the right), which I figured I can store somewhere in Jay's stroller or diaper bag and take me with when we go for walks this spring and summer!
I came across the Badass Geek's blog early last year - I believe I was surfing the blogrolls of some friends on 20-Something Bloggers to find blogs that appealed to me in order to increase my own blogroll and saw that several followed a blog called the "Badass Geek." Intrigued by the title, as I'm a bit of geek myself, I decided to check it out. He posts some really amusing, humorous stories about his daily experiences ranging from things that happen at home and work to just public places in general. I was hooked and had to add him to my own blogroll! Another neat thing is that him and his wife are expecting "Baby Badass" later this spring, so that's another thing in common, which he sometimes posts about as well.
Be sure to check him out - if you're like me in the least bit, you'll be hooked!
Random Musings of the Week
I kinda like these posts as I can share bursts of things all at once!
Anyways, I've been working on my 101 in 1001 list lately!
One yearly thing I can cross off for now is #94 - go to a hockey game once a year.
Last Thursday I found out that hubby and another co-worker of his had pitched in to get some tickets to a Chicago Blackhawks game for another co-worker friend of theirs whose birthday was this past Sunday. The guy's been feeling a bit down lately (or so it would seem from his Facebook status posts) and they wanted to make sure he had a fun birthday. Hubby and I both went and it was pretty fun! I had never been to the United Center before, despite it also being the home of the Chicago Bulls and in the 90s when we were kids the Bulls were THE team to go see (I told hubby we were both deprived/jipped when it came to that! lol...). Our tickets were at the very top, in the standing room section, but fortunately I took breaks to sit down a little bit here and there so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately the Blackhawks lost, 4-1, with Philly scoring 3 points in the last half/quarter (what do they call it in hockey since there's 3??).
Hockey reminds me of soccer though as it's similar - there's a goalie and you run across the field/ice trying to get the puck/ball in the opposite goal - and watching hockey makes me miss playing soccer... I played for 5 years, 8th grade all through high school. I wasn't really any good until my coach switched me to defense my junior year, then I was actually pretty decent and got to start quite a bit! I hated all the constant running that the midfield and forward positions had to do and couldn't handle it - with defense we only had to worry when the ball came down to our end of the field and then the goal was to either a) kick it up the field real hard, b) pass it on up and out to one of the midfielders or forwards so they could run it or aggressively steal it from the other team's players who were running it and then do either a) or b).
I've also worked on #4 a bit too (Watch at least 2 Netflix DVDs and 2 Instant Queue movies a month).
I mentioned earlier this month I finally watched The Blindside which we had gotten in the mail back in November. The other DVD we watched this month was Predators. It was a decent movie for a Predator action flick and better than I was expecting (only other Predator movie I've seen was AvP:Requiem and I wasn't impressed) - I figured it was produced and written by Robert Rodriguez (in which I LOVE most of his work) so I figured it couldn't be THAT bad... The premise is that a handful of different military people from all over the world (including a Black Ops turned mercenary, a Spetsnaz, a drug lord bodyguard among other similar types) and a doctor come to as they are being parachuted into a strange jungle. At first they're not sure why they're there or who put them there but they start to put the pieces together and realize that they're not on Earth anymore and that the planet is used for hunting by the Predators and that they're the game. This one stars Adrian Brody (whose face drives me nuts, it's too narrow as is his nose!) and Topher Grace with appearances by Danny Trejo (who is AWESOME in everything he's in) and Laurence Fishbourne.
I also watched the documentary called Babies on Netflix's Instant Watch last night. It was cute and interesting - there's very little dialogue in it but for an hour and 15 minutes it follows 4 babies from different cultures (Africa, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Fransisco) from their newborn days up until around their 1st birthday as they interact with others and discover the world around them. The African culture was quite different, as the baby was part of a tribe in the wild. I also didn't understand why the farming Mongolian family let their baby boy run around with no pants or diaper on half the time - the African baby I get, as that's the culture, but yeah... it was definitely an interesting watch though!
About 30 minutes into it Tiger came into the room and joined me - she sat down and stared at the TV for a few minutes before getting up and moving even closer to it! At one point, the Tokyo baby was crying and throwing a fit due to frustration with toys - Tiger's ears perked up and she was practically climbing in front of the TV, pawing at it and meowing, like she thought the kid was stuck in the TV! lol... for the remainder of the movie she seemed pretty intrigued and intensely watched what was going on on the screen! My kitty is hilarious... I have no idea what goes on in that little brain of hers and if she can comprehend what she's seeing, but she often gets really into watching TV with us!
So the talk on Twitter today is that OMG, Taco Bell doesn't use real meat! Honestly though... is that *really* a surprise to anyone? I thought that was old news... maybe it's just cuz I'm a Taco Bell-aholic, but yeah... regardless though, like I saw someone pointed out, the ingredients don't sound any worse than what's in a veggie burger patty. Must be a slow news day!
Also, as I mentioned on Twitter the other day, in the Illinois and Wisconsin area, this past week it seemed like the Superbowl came early as I swear people in this area were more pumped and excited about this past Sunday's Bears vs Packers NFC Championship game than the actual Superbowl! The rivalry around here is a bit crazy between fans of the 2 teams and it was all anyone could talk about this past week. Even area Walmart's got in on the action, selling Bears and Packers cupcakes for all the football parties that were happening! Now, hubby and I are both Dallas Cowboys fans, so we weren't *that* concerned about the game as our season's been over for a few months now, although I do cheer on the Bears when they're not playing Dallas (the only time I *ever* root for the Packers is when they're playing against Brett Favre as I can't stand him), so it was a bit sad to see the Bears lose, especially as they started to make a comeback in the 2nd half of the game. So for the Superbowl it looks like I'll be cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers this year as my parents are both natives of the Pittsburgh area (dad grew up in Uniontown, mom grew up in Brownsville, both of which are about an hour drive southeast of Pittsburgh) and we still have a lot of family out that way.
In other news... hubby's getting a VERY nice raise at Verizon as the District Managers (one of which is one of my brother-in-laws) put their foot down and petitioned the owner of the company for more money as there's been a huge issue with sales reps turnover due to it solely being based on commission and well, the economy sucks. Not to mention that the person who was getting paid the most wasn't making more more than hubby and yeah... there was no possible way a person could raise a family on that, let alone barely get by themselves! So they "won" and sales reps are getting paid hourly now, but since a sales rep working 40 hours a week would be making more than a manager, well they had to redo that too and decided to restructure the entire company. Previously, hubby was the store manager of the store where the warehouse is and so he was also doubling as an administrative/executive assistant as he dealt with all the inventory and orders as well. Well they're condensing some of the store management positions, making 1 person incharge of several stores in their nearby area, thus eliminating hubby from that, but he's now the inventory manager and will be incharge of the warehouse and inventory, placing orders for all the stores and often delivering them as well in addition to training sales reps on how to better sell/push accessories. This goes into effect February 1, although we won't see the pay for it until March 1. It's pretty neat though!
In baby news... I mentioned it on my baby blog, but since I'm sure not all of you read that, they found ANOTHER abnormality on the ultrasound yesterday (last week during the growth scan it was showing Jay's femur to be a bit small) - one of his kidneys is larger than the other. The doctor said it's possible he just hadn't peed yet and it was full, but since that's 2 things in the course of a week they want me to meet with a high risk doctor and have an ultrasound over at the hospital either at the end of this week or beginning of next week to have both looked at on their more high-tech ultrasound machines. Sooooo annoying! They've looked at his kidneys plenty of times on the ultrasounds and they were all fine... I'm really guessing it was just full at the time of the ultrasound yesterday as that just makes no sense! Grrrrr... I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday, which is considered full-term, so yeah... Jay, you can come out anytime after this weekend, okay??
My father-in-law was released from the hospital on Friday. He seems to be doing alright and they have him doing outpatient dialysis. Our church also offered to put the family up in temporary housing until their house is "fixed" and more liveable. It seems my in-laws have come to the realization that living out there is probably not the best for them at this point. They live out in the country, over an hour away from the rest of us with the nearest city/town being halfway between there and here. Their house is also on 5 acres of property which with my brother-in-laws all grown and working most of the time, there really is no one around to help maintain the property as needed. So the plan now is to get the house out there fixed up (ie: strip the basement as the mold damage was that severe) and to sell it so they can move somewhere closer to town, which would also help them save on travel expenses too as they come into town several times a week for ministry-related work and now for dialysis several times a week. The big problem is going to be with their pets, as they have a mini-zoo - they already had 1 cat and then acquired 4 kittens a few years ago that were mysteriously left on their back porch and while the original plan was to give them away to good homes, my little sister-in-law got attached and they named them all and yeah... that never happened. They also have 3 remaining dogs too, one of which is a pitbull that my brother-in-law acquired from a friend who got deployed soon after him and his wife had a baby and she couldn't handle the dog with a newborn on her own. Not sure what they're going to do... I told hubby if we had a house with a fenced backyard I'd be okay with taking 1 if not both of the non-pitbull dogs temporarily (I like pitbulls, but this one's a bit spastic and I don't feel like dealing with that with a newborn), but like he said, we don't yet so we can't.
And that's my update for now!
Anyways, I've been working on my 101 in 1001 list lately!
One yearly thing I can cross off for now is #94 - go to a hockey game once a year.
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| The Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center in Chicago |
Hockey reminds me of soccer though as it's similar - there's a goalie and you run across the field/ice trying to get the puck/ball in the opposite goal - and watching hockey makes me miss playing soccer... I played for 5 years, 8th grade all through high school. I wasn't really any good until my coach switched me to defense my junior year, then I was actually pretty decent and got to start quite a bit! I hated all the constant running that the midfield and forward positions had to do and couldn't handle it - with defense we only had to worry when the ball came down to our end of the field and then the goal was to either a) kick it up the field real hard, b) pass it on up and out to one of the midfielders or forwards so they could run it or aggressively steal it from the other team's players who were running it and then do either a) or b).
I've also worked on #4 a bit too (Watch at least 2 Netflix DVDs and 2 Instant Queue movies a month).
I mentioned earlier this month I finally watched The Blindside which we had gotten in the mail back in November. The other DVD we watched this month was Predators. It was a decent movie for a Predator action flick and better than I was expecting (only other Predator movie I've seen was AvP:Requiem and I wasn't impressed) - I figured it was produced and written by Robert Rodriguez (in which I LOVE most of his work) so I figured it couldn't be THAT bad... The premise is that a handful of different military people from all over the world (including a Black Ops turned mercenary, a Spetsnaz, a drug lord bodyguard among other similar types) and a doctor come to as they are being parachuted into a strange jungle. At first they're not sure why they're there or who put them there but they start to put the pieces together and realize that they're not on Earth anymore and that the planet is used for hunting by the Predators and that they're the game. This one stars Adrian Brody (whose face drives me nuts, it's too narrow as is his nose!) and Topher Grace with appearances by Danny Trejo (who is AWESOME in everything he's in) and Laurence Fishbourne. I also watched the documentary called Babies on Netflix's Instant Watch last night. It was cute and interesting - there's very little dialogue in it but for an hour and 15 minutes it follows 4 babies from different cultures (Africa, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Fransisco) from their newborn days up until around their 1st birthday as they interact with others and discover the world around them. The African culture was quite different, as the baby was part of a tribe in the wild. I also didn't understand why the farming Mongolian family let their baby boy run around with no pants or diaper on half the time - the African baby I get, as that's the culture, but yeah... it was definitely an interesting watch though! |
| Tiger intensely watching the Babies documentary |
So the talk on Twitter today is that OMG, Taco Bell doesn't use real meat! Honestly though... is that *really* a surprise to anyone? I thought that was old news... maybe it's just cuz I'm a Taco Bell-aholic, but yeah... regardless though, like I saw someone pointed out, the ingredients don't sound any worse than what's in a veggie burger patty. Must be a slow news day!Also, as I mentioned on Twitter the other day, in the Illinois and Wisconsin area, this past week it seemed like the Superbowl came early as I swear people in this area were more pumped and excited about this past Sunday's Bears vs Packers NFC Championship game than the actual Superbowl! The rivalry around here is a bit crazy between fans of the 2 teams and it was all anyone could talk about this past week. Even area Walmart's got in on the action, selling Bears and Packers cupcakes for all the football parties that were happening! Now, hubby and I are both Dallas Cowboys fans, so we weren't *that* concerned about the game as our season's been over for a few months now, although I do cheer on the Bears when they're not playing Dallas (the only time I *ever* root for the Packers is when they're playing against Brett Favre as I can't stand him), so it was a bit sad to see the Bears lose, especially as they started to make a comeback in the 2nd half of the game. So for the Superbowl it looks like I'll be cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers this year as my parents are both natives of the Pittsburgh area (dad grew up in Uniontown, mom grew up in Brownsville, both of which are about an hour drive southeast of Pittsburgh) and we still have a lot of family out that way.In other news... hubby's getting a VERY nice raise at Verizon as the District Managers (one of which is one of my brother-in-laws) put their foot down and petitioned the owner of the company for more money as there's been a huge issue with sales reps turnover due to it solely being based on commission and well, the economy sucks. Not to mention that the person who was getting paid the most wasn't making more more than hubby and yeah... there was no possible way a person could raise a family on that, let alone barely get by themselves! So they "won" and sales reps are getting paid hourly now, but since a sales rep working 40 hours a week would be making more than a manager, well they had to redo that too and decided to restructure the entire company. Previously, hubby was the store manager of the store where the warehouse is and so he was also doubling as an administrative/executive assistant as he dealt with all the inventory and orders as well. Well they're condensing some of the store management positions, making 1 person incharge of several stores in their nearby area, thus eliminating hubby from that, but he's now the inventory manager and will be incharge of the warehouse and inventory, placing orders for all the stores and often delivering them as well in addition to training sales reps on how to better sell/push accessories. This goes into effect February 1, although we won't see the pay for it until March 1. It's pretty neat though!
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| Jay's 30week growth ultrasound pic |
My father-in-law was released from the hospital on Friday. He seems to be doing alright and they have him doing outpatient dialysis. Our church also offered to put the family up in temporary housing until their house is "fixed" and more liveable. It seems my in-laws have come to the realization that living out there is probably not the best for them at this point. They live out in the country, over an hour away from the rest of us with the nearest city/town being halfway between there and here. Their house is also on 5 acres of property which with my brother-in-laws all grown and working most of the time, there really is no one around to help maintain the property as needed. So the plan now is to get the house out there fixed up (ie: strip the basement as the mold damage was that severe) and to sell it so they can move somewhere closer to town, which would also help them save on travel expenses too as they come into town several times a week for ministry-related work and now for dialysis several times a week. The big problem is going to be with their pets, as they have a mini-zoo - they already had 1 cat and then acquired 4 kittens a few years ago that were mysteriously left on their back porch and while the original plan was to give them away to good homes, my little sister-in-law got attached and they named them all and yeah... that never happened. They also have 3 remaining dogs too, one of which is a pitbull that my brother-in-law acquired from a friend who got deployed soon after him and his wife had a baby and she couldn't handle the dog with a newborn on her own. Not sure what they're going to do... I told hubby if we had a house with a fenced backyard I'd be okay with taking 1 if not both of the non-pitbull dogs temporarily (I like pitbulls, but this one's a bit spastic and I don't feel like dealing with that with a newborn), but like he said, we don't yet so we can't.
And that's my update for now!
A new year, a new look
For those of you reading this in a Google-type reader, come check out the actual blog for a moment and give me your thoughts.
What do you all think of the new blog design?
I was a bit uncertain last night while playing around with it, but looking at it this morning, I kinda like it more. It's more simple and fresh looking, in my opinion. Not sure how I feel about the space between the header/title and pages bar, as when it comes to design I'm a bit of a spacing nazi, but I'm not entirely sure how to easily fix it. I might design an actual header but we'll see - the older one I made was going to need a revamp anyway in the next month or so to include Jay, so I figured for now I'd try something simpler =D
What do you all think of the new blog design?
I was a bit uncertain last night while playing around with it, but looking at it this morning, I kinda like it more. It's more simple and fresh looking, in my opinion. Not sure how I feel about the space between the header/title and pages bar, as when it comes to design I'm a bit of a spacing nazi, but I'm not entirely sure how to easily fix it. I might design an actual header but we'll see - the older one I made was going to need a revamp anyway in the next month or so to include Jay, so I figured for now I'd try something simpler =D
Wedding Bells are Ringing!!
I have four - 4!- good friends getting married now within the next 2 years! I'm so excited for them and just because of the fact I love weddings! They're soooo much fun and it's neat to see how every wedding is done differently as each couple likes different things.
First one coming up, that we got a Save-the-Date card to, is my childhood best friend's wedding.
It's on the Friday before 4th of July and up in Minneapolis as she and her fiance live near the Twin Cities. I hoping that hubby is able to get the Thursday before off so we can drive up there and spend 2 nights in a hotel before driving back early Saturday for him to be at work. I'll be really sad if we can't go and I'd rather not drive up there and stay by myself, as it's like 5-6 hours away.
The next wedding isn't until December and it's a good friend of mine I've known for years. She was a freshman when I was a senior and she was one of the few freshman who somehow got stuck in the senior lunch period, but it was okay - my friends and I deemed her as one of the "cool" freshmen. I had known her a little prior too from church as we both volunteered in the summer at our church's summer kids day camp. Anyways, we kept in touch when I went off to college and hung out a lot. She lived with me and long-term college roomie for a year, although the 2 of them had some issues and that didn't work out very well. She ended up transferring to a school in the Chicago suburbs to get a court-reporting degree and I still keep in touch with her online and try to meet up with her when she's in town visiting. I'm excited for her though too as she's been dating her fiance for years - I actually met him when I was a freshman in college as he lived 3 doors down from me on my dorm floor and that's how they met!
Summer 2012 an old friend of mine is finally getting married to the guy she started dating when we went off to college just over 8 years ago! I've known her since like kindergarten as we went to grade school together and eventually church too when my family switched churches in 2nd grade. We hung out in the same group of friends during high school youth group. She lives in Ohio now but is having the wedding back home here, as her and her fiance are both from Illinois (I think he's from the suburbs). I've been able to keep in touch with her via online over the years though and she's another one I see from time to time when she's in town visiting family. So excited for her too as she's been with the guy for so long, a bunch of us all agree, it's about damn time they finally got married! lol...
August/September 2012 is the one I'm probably most excited for as I get to be part of it! I've mentioned before, my long-time college roommate is getting married! And she asked me to be a bridesmaid too so I'm really excited about that as in my "adult" life I've never gotten asked to be one before aside from a few friends saying after the fact that they wished they had asked me (last wedding I was in was my aunt's when I was 12 and I was a Jr. Bridesmaid so I wasn't all that involved). Although she moved down towards Dallas a year and a half ago, they're having the wedding up here in the suburbs where she's from. She's coming up in March to look at venues and stuff while she visits - can't wait! It should be fun and I look forward to helping her with planning stuffs as well as the actual wedding itself!
First one coming up, that we got a Save-the-Date card to, is my childhood best friend's wedding.
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| Us drinking hot chocolate at McDonalds in the late 80s after a day of sledding! |
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| Us drinking fruity drinks at local cafe Octane summer between my freshman & sophomore years of college |
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| Us during one of the youth groups annual Snowcamp winter retreats |
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| We had a pirate-themed party for her birthday one year. Don't we make hot wenches?? Johnny Depp eat your <3 out! |
1.24.2011
36 week appointment
Today I had my week 36 exam with the stress test, ultrasound, and meeting with the doctor.
The stress test took longer than normal today - they first hooked me up and we couldn't really hear his heartbeat that well despite the fact that he was clearly moving around as we could hear that! Anyways, she let it go, despite the heartbeat being faint. Apparently it didn't pick up on the doppler well enough and after 20 minutes and showing the doctor, they kept me hooked up longer, moving the heartbeat monitor around where we found his heartbeat a lot better than before. They kept me hooked up for about 10 minutes more before sending me over to ultrasound.
Today's ultrasound was a little different as in addition to checking the placenta and fluid she was checking for various "exercises" and movements. We had to wait for him to do a breathing exercise, having me lay on my side to see if that would get him to do it - she said some babies take awhile with that one in there, fortunately it didn't take him too long once I changed positions.
I met with the doctor...
Apparently the ultrasound, while everything else we looked for today showed as being fine, one of his kidneys appeared larger than the other. The doctor said that in most cases, it could just be that he hadn't peed yet so the kidney was full, however it isn't uncommon for boy babies to have problems with their kidney's not functioning or emptying correctly. She said that since this is 2 abnormalities they've found within a week they want me to see a high risk doctor at the hospital's maternal fetal medicine ward and get my next ultrasound there so they can check on this as well as his femur which we were going to check on again next week anyway.
Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed - it seems like it's just been one thing after another... UTI's, an infection, gestational diabetes and all that annoyance... now this growth thing with his femur and possible enlarged kidney... ugh! And I'm so sick of going the doctor so much too...
YOU CAN COME OUT AT ANYTIME AFTER THIS WEEKEND, JAY!!!!
They put the request in at the hospital while I was there and was going to have my insurance approve it and then call me in the next day or so to schedule the appointment for later this week or early next week. She said if it's early next week I can call and cancel one of my appointments at the clinic next week, as we won't be needing 2 ultrasounds anyway.
I did notice this sharp, shooting pain the past few nights which felt like him literally bouncing on my cervix. It only lasts a second or so and I can feel him "bouncing" when it happens... boy does it hurt! It's a sharp, shooting pain... he kept doing it last night while I was sitting on the couch. I Googled "baby bouncing on cervix" and apparently it's a pretty common thing, feeling exactly like how I described it. I mentioned it to my doctor today too, just in case, and she gave a laugh and a grin assuring me that that's perfectly normal for this stage and in most cases it's just him trying to "drop down" a bit to get ready to come out.
The stress test took longer than normal today - they first hooked me up and we couldn't really hear his heartbeat that well despite the fact that he was clearly moving around as we could hear that! Anyways, she let it go, despite the heartbeat being faint. Apparently it didn't pick up on the doppler well enough and after 20 minutes and showing the doctor, they kept me hooked up longer, moving the heartbeat monitor around where we found his heartbeat a lot better than before. They kept me hooked up for about 10 minutes more before sending me over to ultrasound.
Today's ultrasound was a little different as in addition to checking the placenta and fluid she was checking for various "exercises" and movements. We had to wait for him to do a breathing exercise, having me lay on my side to see if that would get him to do it - she said some babies take awhile with that one in there, fortunately it didn't take him too long once I changed positions.
I met with the doctor...
Apparently the ultrasound, while everything else we looked for today showed as being fine, one of his kidneys appeared larger than the other. The doctor said that in most cases, it could just be that he hadn't peed yet so the kidney was full, however it isn't uncommon for boy babies to have problems with their kidney's not functioning or emptying correctly. She said that since this is 2 abnormalities they've found within a week they want me to see a high risk doctor at the hospital's maternal fetal medicine ward and get my next ultrasound there so they can check on this as well as his femur which we were going to check on again next week anyway.
Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed - it seems like it's just been one thing after another... UTI's, an infection, gestational diabetes and all that annoyance... now this growth thing with his femur and possible enlarged kidney... ugh! And I'm so sick of going the doctor so much too...
YOU CAN COME OUT AT ANYTIME AFTER THIS WEEKEND, JAY!!!!
They put the request in at the hospital while I was there and was going to have my insurance approve it and then call me in the next day or so to schedule the appointment for later this week or early next week. She said if it's early next week I can call and cancel one of my appointments at the clinic next week, as we won't be needing 2 ultrasounds anyway.
I did notice this sharp, shooting pain the past few nights which felt like him literally bouncing on my cervix. It only lasts a second or so and I can feel him "bouncing" when it happens... boy does it hurt! It's a sharp, shooting pain... he kept doing it last night while I was sitting on the couch. I Googled "baby bouncing on cervix" and apparently it's a pretty common thing, feeling exactly like how I described it. I mentioned it to my doctor today too, just in case, and she gave a laugh and a grin assuring me that that's perfectly normal for this stage and in most cases it's just him trying to "drop down" a bit to get ready to come out.
Music Shuffle Monday 01.24.11
1. "Pop" by N*Sync2. "One" by Creed
Ah creed... I remember during mid-high school we had a group come and do a chapel service for us at school (for those not familiar with Christian schools, chapel is like a weekly church service during school with worship songs and a guest speaker) and they performed a "human video" to Creed's song "Higher" off their 2nd album (a human video is a group of people acting out a performance to a song to tell a story). Anyways, the next day we were all hooked on the song and Creed and I think my school's student body bought out every copy of the CD in town, lol... this song is off Creed's 1st album - having liked the album with Higher on it, I went back and got their 1st one. It's a pretty good song. By the end of high school Creed was pretty huge - kids today have Chad Kroger and Nickelback, we had Scott Stapp and Creed.3. 'They Know Who You Are" by Powerman5000
This is off their major debut Tonight the Stars Revolt. For those not familiar with the album, it's kind of like a space odyssey as it plays out the fantasy of a group being lost in space, trying to get their radio transmission picked up. PM5K's main man, Spider (aka Rob Zombie's slightly younger half brother), is a huge fan of horror and especially the strange classic horror B movies, so this plays out like a Twilight Zone type horror. During this error of the band they performed in spacesuits - it was pretty awesome! Nearly 10 years later and after some good and not so good experimentation with their sound, Spider finally gave the fans the sequel/follow-up to Tonight the Stars Revolt that we've been wanting (Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere) and also brought back the classic spacesuits!4. "Hell Song" by Sum41
I first heard this one in my freshman year of college and I thought the music video was awesome as it was done all with action figures and dolls dressed up like celebs, fighting and on their way to a Sum41 show. Check it out below:5. "Fear" by Disturbed
This one's off of Disturbed's debut The Sickness. While probably the darkest and most explicit album they've done (and by far the most "disturbing" as a lot of the songs paint the picture of a man struggling with actual demons), it's probably my favorite Disturbed album as it was so dark and different at the time. Definitely not one for the kiddies, but it sure packs a punch and rocks HARD. And there's not a single track on the album I feel the need to skip over while listening either.
1.21.2011
Random randoms
Yesterday I actually worked at my design job for the first time since before Christmas. Across the street from the building our office is in is a Chinese buffet and just the thought of Chinese food made me crave it. Hubby agreed that we'd get Chinese food for dinner tonight. Then one of my brother-in-laws posted on Facebook this morning about steak and invited people to join him at the steakhouse for dinner tonight... steak and veggies sounds good too. I'm torn... I really want both, to be honest! Ah, what to do, what to do...
This past week hubby started feeding Tiger about half a dish (which is half a cup) of her food when we eat dinner to get her to stop being a pest while we eat (she's seriously been getting in my face while I try to eat like she thinks she's entitled to people food all the time). This is in addition to the full dish (which is 1 cup) of food she gets in the morning. I just noticed today - my skinny-minny kitty is looking a bit fatter!
My baby shower is a week from tomorrow. I can't believe that's already here! While I didn't post it on here, I did post on my baby blog about how I had a case of "preggo brain" and for some reason, while I've always known the shower was the last Saturday in January, I kept thinking the actual date was the 30th, not the 29th. I kept telling people it's scheduled for "the last Saturday in January - the 30th" and even wrote that down for my mom who was writing up the invites and had to go back and redo some of them when she caught my error! The icing on the cake though - a month ago at work I put in my request off for the shower... and put the date as the 30th! I even double checked the request off sheet last week when I worked only to get home and wonder... "did I request off the 30th or the 29th?" I had a feeling I put the 30th so I stopped by earlier this week, before they put together the schedule for this coming week, to double check and sure enough - I requested off the 30th! Oops!! Fortunately no one else had requested the 29th off so I just simply changed it on the sheet, but yeah... good thing I thought to double check - with my luck, the 1 shift I have next week would have been for Saturday during my shower! lol... how bad would that have been - not being able to attend my own baby shower which I've known about for months all because I had a case of "preggo brain"???
Speaking of baby... yesterday (the 20th) marked exactly 1 month left until Jay's estimated due date (Feb 20)! Again, I can't believe it's almost here! Where'd the last 8 months go??
Found out yesterday that we're apparently going to the Chicago Blackhawks game on Sunday, as one of hubby's Verizon co-workers' birthday is Sunday and I guess the guys got a block of tickets. That's right though, it's THIS Sunday. In downtown Chicago. On the same day as the BIG Bears vs. Packers game for the NFC Championship title. This could get a little interesting as things are expected to be a bit crazy in Chicago on Sunday! I've heard talk of riots happening regardless who wins the football game! Seriously - people around here are actually more excited and pumped up for this game than they are the actual Superbowl! Fortunately, the hockey game starts at 1130am while the football game isn't until like 2pm, so we should be getting out and leaving the city before any of the major madness starts, but yeah... should make for a fun and interesting day!
In father-in-law news... yesterday they had a bunch of people volunteer to come out to the house and do some demo work in their basement as that's where all the mold is that's been causing problems. They got the drywall and doors torn up but I guess people are going to have to come back later this week to tear up the carpet. He said he feels bad as they did all this remodeling work down there when they first moved in so the boys all would have rooms, but like someone pointed out - most of the kids are grown now, so it served its purpose (Hubby's older brother is married with 2 kids living near the Quad Cities, hubby and I live an hour away from his family, his oldest younger brother recently moved out and the next youngest is planning on moving in with a friend soon too - the only 2 kids still at home are hubby's 18 year old brother and 12 year old sis who's rooms were always on the top floor of the house anyway).
His dialysis seems to be going better - no more "code blues" like the first time. They're releasing him to go home again today, having him continue to do dialysis several times a week as an outpatient. Hopefully with all the work done yesterday, the house is in better condition for him now than it was when he tried to go home 2 weeks ago!
This past week hubby started feeding Tiger about half a dish (which is half a cup) of her food when we eat dinner to get her to stop being a pest while we eat (she's seriously been getting in my face while I try to eat like she thinks she's entitled to people food all the time). This is in addition to the full dish (which is 1 cup) of food she gets in the morning. I just noticed today - my skinny-minny kitty is looking a bit fatter!
My baby shower is a week from tomorrow. I can't believe that's already here! While I didn't post it on here, I did post on my baby blog about how I had a case of "preggo brain" and for some reason, while I've always known the shower was the last Saturday in January, I kept thinking the actual date was the 30th, not the 29th. I kept telling people it's scheduled for "the last Saturday in January - the 30th" and even wrote that down for my mom who was writing up the invites and had to go back and redo some of them when she caught my error! The icing on the cake though - a month ago at work I put in my request off for the shower... and put the date as the 30th! I even double checked the request off sheet last week when I worked only to get home and wonder... "did I request off the 30th or the 29th?" I had a feeling I put the 30th so I stopped by earlier this week, before they put together the schedule for this coming week, to double check and sure enough - I requested off the 30th! Oops!! Fortunately no one else had requested the 29th off so I just simply changed it on the sheet, but yeah... good thing I thought to double check - with my luck, the 1 shift I have next week would have been for Saturday during my shower! lol... how bad would that have been - not being able to attend my own baby shower which I've known about for months all because I had a case of "preggo brain"???
Speaking of baby... yesterday (the 20th) marked exactly 1 month left until Jay's estimated due date (Feb 20)! Again, I can't believe it's almost here! Where'd the last 8 months go??
Found out yesterday that we're apparently going to the Chicago Blackhawks game on Sunday, as one of hubby's Verizon co-workers' birthday is Sunday and I guess the guys got a block of tickets. That's right though, it's THIS Sunday. In downtown Chicago. On the same day as the BIG Bears vs. Packers game for the NFC Championship title. This could get a little interesting as things are expected to be a bit crazy in Chicago on Sunday! I've heard talk of riots happening regardless who wins the football game! Seriously - people around here are actually more excited and pumped up for this game than they are the actual Superbowl! Fortunately, the hockey game starts at 1130am while the football game isn't until like 2pm, so we should be getting out and leaving the city before any of the major madness starts, but yeah... should make for a fun and interesting day!
In father-in-law news... yesterday they had a bunch of people volunteer to come out to the house and do some demo work in their basement as that's where all the mold is that's been causing problems. They got the drywall and doors torn up but I guess people are going to have to come back later this week to tear up the carpet. He said he feels bad as they did all this remodeling work down there when they first moved in so the boys all would have rooms, but like someone pointed out - most of the kids are grown now, so it served its purpose (Hubby's older brother is married with 2 kids living near the Quad Cities, hubby and I live an hour away from his family, his oldest younger brother recently moved out and the next youngest is planning on moving in with a friend soon too - the only 2 kids still at home are hubby's 18 year old brother and 12 year old sis who's rooms were always on the top floor of the house anyway).
His dialysis seems to be going better - no more "code blues" like the first time. They're releasing him to go home again today, having him continue to do dialysis several times a week as an outpatient. Hopefully with all the work done yesterday, the house is in better condition for him now than it was when he tried to go home 2 weeks ago!
The urge to do... nothing!
Right now I'm at a bit of a loss - I honestly feel like doing absolutely NOTHING. I have the whole afternoon and part of the evening free and nothing to do around here sounds appealing.
I don't feel like playing WoW, or anything on the PS3 or Wii.
I don't feel like reading.
I don't feel like watching any of the movies in our Netflix Instant queue.
I sure don't feel like cleaning.
I would paint the next layer (white) on my Super Mario Bros panels except the paint from the first layers I did the other night still aren't dry, not to mention it wouldn't even take me a half hour to do the next set of layers on them.
I kinda feel like climbing back in bed as I've been awake since 9am (which is due to have 5.5lbs of baby chilling ontop of my bladder making me get up to go and being unable to fall back asleep), however I know I'll sleep away the whole afternoon like I did the other day, messing up my sleep and eating schedules again.
And I'm not going outside - I really don't feel like going out right now in negative degree weather with a -20something windchill. Plus that requires getting cleaned up and dressed and I just don't feel like doing any of that right now either.
Ugh... I kinda hate this.
I don't feel like playing WoW, or anything on the PS3 or Wii.
I don't feel like reading.
I don't feel like watching any of the movies in our Netflix Instant queue.
I sure don't feel like cleaning.
I would paint the next layer (white) on my Super Mario Bros panels except the paint from the first layers I did the other night still aren't dry, not to mention it wouldn't even take me a half hour to do the next set of layers on them.
I kinda feel like climbing back in bed as I've been awake since 9am (which is due to have 5.5lbs of baby chilling ontop of my bladder making me get up to go and being unable to fall back asleep), however I know I'll sleep away the whole afternoon like I did the other day, messing up my sleep and eating schedules again.
And I'm not going outside - I really don't feel like going out right now in negative degree weather with a -20something windchill. Plus that requires getting cleaned up and dressed and I just don't feel like doing any of that right now either.
Ugh... I kinda hate this.
RIP Myspace
I was drawing a bit of a blank on what to post for this week's Flashback Friday until I was going through my Google Reader and read Simone's post, reminicising of Myspace, on her blog Skinny Dip and it got me thinking about the old days of the now defunct social-networking site.
In her post regarding Myspace, Simone asks:
Was it a space for connecting with old friends? A open forum to perv on random strangers? A dating site? A music site? A platform to connect scantily clad teens with future Dateline predators? ALL OF THE ABOVE?!I'll admit, with my own experiences on the site as well as that of others, I often wondered the same things!
I want to say it was sometime during spring semester 2004 or fall (during my Sophomore year of college). At the time I was living in the "upperclassmen" dorms which was a more quite environment than the dorm I lived in my Freshman year, save for our little corner of the floor. Each floor had 4 suites - 2 with bathrooms in them, 2 without, and 1 set of each in the 2 corners of floors triangular layout. I lived with 2 other girls in our 4 person suite and the 1 often went home to work on the weekends so it was mostly just me and the 1 other roommate there on the weekends. In the suite next to us (the one with the bathroom in it), lived a few guys that we got along with pretty well and would often hang out with.
The guys moved into an apartment together the follow fall while me and the one girl moved into a suite on the floor above us. We kept in touch with the guys and that fall one of them introduced me to Myspace, insisting I make a profile on it too.
NIU got added to the Facebook directory a few months later (back when it was known as www.thecollegefacebook.com) and I enjoyed that one much better as it more exclusive, I could easily find and connect with people I went to high school with as well as connect with people that were in my current classes. It was pretty neat!
I would occasionally login to Myspace but half the time my inbox would be flooded with messages and friend requests from creepy looking people or spams from random bands that I really had no interest in checking out. What made Myspace all the more amusing were the random messages and friend requests my long-term roomie would get from some really strange people! She'd get some long messages from this guy that claimed to be her dream man... he also claimed to have some mental issues too (as in being mentally handicapped), although who knows how much of what he said was true and how much of it was just someone playing around online - they were really strange!
There was a time from around late 2006 through 2008 that I was somewhat active on Myspace.
I started dating hubby and all his siblings were on Myspace, mostly utilizing it for their band's stuff, but I thought it'd be nice to connect with them a little bit since I was finally dating their brother. Also, I was able to reconnect with some actual friends from high school who started using the site as well and we all started blogging more over there as a way to share our day to day life experiences and whatnot. I also got in touch with some cousins and relatives who I hadn't seen or connected with in years as we don't live near each other.
Thankfully 99% of them migrated over to Facebook in the years after it became less exclusive and became open to anyone with a valid email address.
Looking back though, Myspace was always a bit creepy compared to Facebook. On Facebook I've been able to find people I actually know much more easier than I had on Myspace and interact/connect with them better while I've rarely been contacted by random strangers wanting to be friends on Facebook compared to the tons and tons of requests from strangers I'd get on Myspace!
And while it was nice to be able to customize your Myspace page with a music playlist and change the colors/layout of your profile, some people (or rather A LOT of people) would go overboard with their customization. Some would make it so you were forced to listen to their bad taste in (sometimes embarrassing) music as they'd embed a separate music player that you couldn't pause or silence while viewing their page. Others would have pages that would nearly crash your web browser upon visiting their page as they had SO MUCH glitz and glam and flash going on - those usually made me close their page and never go back to it as it just took waaaaay too long to load on a normal internet connection!I just logged into Myspace for first time in forever just now... it's lagging up my browser. I also find it hilarious that it gives you the option to login/create a profile by connecting via your Facebook profile! Compared to Facebook, the "newsfeed"/status feature they added just looks messy.
I haven't gotten any "creepy" messages or friend requests from strangers in awhile it seems - the last one I got was from a guy named "Mike."
Clearly, Mike can't stop to read the "basic" info my limited/private profile has displayed to the public, one of which piece of info states that I'm married. I point this bit of info out to him and he apologizes, never messaging me again.Mike writes:-----subject: Hi Sweety-----
Hello im mike lookin 4 someone special. If single i hope 2 hear from u. Take care.
I also loved (note the sarcasm) getting messages/friend requests from unknown bands, especially ones where the subject/message states that I seem like their target demographic... yet when I go to their band page, um... yeah - their music IS NOT the type of music I listen to AT ALL. Those that know me or have followed this blog for awhile know what type of music I like and am into - it's not that hard to figure out (especially when on Myspace I have listed my favorite bands and specific genres I'm into).
Did you ever have a Myspace page?
Do you still use Myspace?
1.20.2011
Weekly follow-up, morning hysterics and other thoughts
Today I had my follow-up doctor's appointment, however the morning started out with quite a bit of hysterics!
I'll admit, I didn't get much sleep last night as I napped A LOT yesterday (I went to lay down for an hour and was out for almost 4 hours!) so I was a little crabby from that. Didn't help that as I was getting ready this morning I realized I could have gotten an extra half hour of sleep as I noticed the card for my appointment said it was at 830am and not 8am like I thought. Regardless, I was ready to go at 8am and went out to clear off my car.
We had a nice little snowstorm on Monday and I hadn't driven my car since so there was some some harder snow packed onto my windshield, but it only took a moment to break it off and clear. So I get in my car and go to back out and.... my car won't move. I get out and look around, checking to see if there's a lot of snow blocked around the tires and sure enough, on the entire right side of my car there's snow packed up around the tires, including the front passenger one that has crappy tread at the moment. My car is also front-wheel drive so this doesn't help. Apparently whoever shovels our parking lot thought it would be nice to shovel walk-ways between the cars, but obviously wasn't paying attention that he was packing snow up around the car tires in the process. I knew this had to be the case as when I parked it Monday I went back and forth a few times, packing down the space around my tires to ensure I could get out!
Frustrated, I take my long snow pick and try to shovel out and break down the snow packed around my tire and get back in the car and try again. No luck - just burning rubber and my car won't go anywhere. I spent a good 15-20 minutes trying to get my car out and was really frustrated and being preggo, when I get frustrated and upset I tend to get a bit hysterical and start crying! I tried calling hubby to see if he could come push me out or at least bring me his keys so I could just take his car, but he wasn't answering either as he was asleep.
I think I scared the crap out of him when I came storming inside, all hysterical, worked up and in tears quickly stating I had to drive his car this morning because I couldn't get my car out thanks to the "dumbass that shovels our lot." Looking back later today, I had a good laugh with hubby over how hysterical I got!
I was a little more calm by the time I made it to my clinic, with 5 minutes to spare (if you're not there within 15 min of your appointment they cancel it, make you reschedule and charge you a $50 missed appointment fee).
The stress test went normal - Jay was quite active this morning, I think largely in part due to the fact I had gotten so hysterical (he started beating the crap out of me during that whole ordeal too and didn't slow down much afterwards - oops!).
I lost 1lb since Monday, which doesn't surprise me as I just haven't been all that hungry these past few days and for lunch and dinner I've been eating just enough carbs to meet my minimum quota.
They had trouble getting my blood pressure - the one girl tried 3 times and couldn't hear anything so she had another girl check it and it was a little high. They waited about 10 minutes, the 1st girl tried taking it again, realized something wasn't right with her stethoscope, fixed and could hear and my blood pressure had gone down a little bit. I still got lectured a little bit by my doctor though about my blood pressure being high the first time, saying I need to be aware of that... something having to do with headaches and things that can occur at this late in pregnancy. I told her I was a bit stressed out earlier this morning and that was probably why it was a little high but had gone down...
She did say my glucose readings still look good and Jay's fundal height is measuring 34.5cm, which is just fine.
I got my appointments set up for next week - a little annoyed that I still have to go twice a week when it's obvious we have my glucose numbers under control now...
Also, all these sites and pregnancy books that say babies tend to slow down their movements near the end and that it's common not feel so many pokes/jabs/kicks from baby as they don't have much room in there to kick and punch like they used to... yeah, starting to question their expertise! If anything, Jay's movements have gotten more aggressive as the weeks go on as he doesn't like having less space and wants to make it known! Seriously, the kid has been beating up my uterus almost non-stop for the past week, only stopping briefly to nap in there! It's to the point where half the time it's a bit painful! lol...
Today also marks 1 MONTH EXACTLY until Jay's estimated due date! Can't believe how these last 8 months have just flown by - where did they go?!
I'll admit, I didn't get much sleep last night as I napped A LOT yesterday (I went to lay down for an hour and was out for almost 4 hours!) so I was a little crabby from that. Didn't help that as I was getting ready this morning I realized I could have gotten an extra half hour of sleep as I noticed the card for my appointment said it was at 830am and not 8am like I thought. Regardless, I was ready to go at 8am and went out to clear off my car.
We had a nice little snowstorm on Monday and I hadn't driven my car since so there was some some harder snow packed onto my windshield, but it only took a moment to break it off and clear. So I get in my car and go to back out and.... my car won't move. I get out and look around, checking to see if there's a lot of snow blocked around the tires and sure enough, on the entire right side of my car there's snow packed up around the tires, including the front passenger one that has crappy tread at the moment. My car is also front-wheel drive so this doesn't help. Apparently whoever shovels our parking lot thought it would be nice to shovel walk-ways between the cars, but obviously wasn't paying attention that he was packing snow up around the car tires in the process. I knew this had to be the case as when I parked it Monday I went back and forth a few times, packing down the space around my tires to ensure I could get out!
Frustrated, I take my long snow pick and try to shovel out and break down the snow packed around my tire and get back in the car and try again. No luck - just burning rubber and my car won't go anywhere. I spent a good 15-20 minutes trying to get my car out and was really frustrated and being preggo, when I get frustrated and upset I tend to get a bit hysterical and start crying! I tried calling hubby to see if he could come push me out or at least bring me his keys so I could just take his car, but he wasn't answering either as he was asleep.
I think I scared the crap out of him when I came storming inside, all hysterical, worked up and in tears quickly stating I had to drive his car this morning because I couldn't get my car out thanks to the "dumbass that shovels our lot." Looking back later today, I had a good laugh with hubby over how hysterical I got!
I was a little more calm by the time I made it to my clinic, with 5 minutes to spare (if you're not there within 15 min of your appointment they cancel it, make you reschedule and charge you a $50 missed appointment fee).
The stress test went normal - Jay was quite active this morning, I think largely in part due to the fact I had gotten so hysterical (he started beating the crap out of me during that whole ordeal too and didn't slow down much afterwards - oops!).
I lost 1lb since Monday, which doesn't surprise me as I just haven't been all that hungry these past few days and for lunch and dinner I've been eating just enough carbs to meet my minimum quota.
They had trouble getting my blood pressure - the one girl tried 3 times and couldn't hear anything so she had another girl check it and it was a little high. They waited about 10 minutes, the 1st girl tried taking it again, realized something wasn't right with her stethoscope, fixed and could hear and my blood pressure had gone down a little bit. I still got lectured a little bit by my doctor though about my blood pressure being high the first time, saying I need to be aware of that... something having to do with headaches and things that can occur at this late in pregnancy. I told her I was a bit stressed out earlier this morning and that was probably why it was a little high but had gone down...
She did say my glucose readings still look good and Jay's fundal height is measuring 34.5cm, which is just fine.
I got my appointments set up for next week - a little annoyed that I still have to go twice a week when it's obvious we have my glucose numbers under control now...
Also, all these sites and pregnancy books that say babies tend to slow down their movements near the end and that it's common not feel so many pokes/jabs/kicks from baby as they don't have much room in there to kick and punch like they used to... yeah, starting to question their expertise! If anything, Jay's movements have gotten more aggressive as the weeks go on as he doesn't like having less space and wants to make it known! Seriously, the kid has been beating up my uterus almost non-stop for the past week, only stopping briefly to nap in there! It's to the point where half the time it's a bit painful! lol...
Today also marks 1 MONTH EXACTLY until Jay's estimated due date! Can't believe how these last 8 months have just flown by - where did they go?!
1.19.2011
Warcraft Wednesday: "The Internet is for..." video
Tauren "Kate Monster" is trying to sing an innocent song about what the internet is really, really great for, but her Troll friend Trekkie keeps interjecting (according to him, "the internet is for porn, porn, porn!")!
Might want to wear headphones if you're working or in public so you don't get strange looks!
Enjoy!
1.18.2011
35 Week Pregnancy Survey
How far along?: 35 weeks, 2 days
How big is baby?: The ultrasound yesterday said he weighed 5lbs, 5oz!
Weight gain?: Still holding steady for 3 weeks straight - I think any weight I've lost due to the diet has been canceled out by Jay's growth
Stretch marks?: Still rubbing lotion on em - they look gross!
Maternity clothes?: Still wearing em
Sleep?: Falling asleep is hard but I'm able to work in sleep throughout the day
Best moment this week?: Growth ultrasound was pretty neat!
Food cravings?: Chocolate this week
Gender?: All boy
Movement?: He's been moving A LOT - thought they were supposed to slow down in there near the end! lol...
Belly button?: Still flat... kinda sad
What I miss?: Being able to eat whatever I feel like
Labor signs?: Belly's been hardening a little bit more this week, as in stronger BH
What I'm looking forward to?: Being able to eat chocolate bars - I *hate* the commercials on TV, makes me crave them!
Milestone?: 5 weeks left to go!
How big is baby?: The ultrasound yesterday said he weighed 5lbs, 5oz!
Weight gain?: Still holding steady for 3 weeks straight - I think any weight I've lost due to the diet has been canceled out by Jay's growth
Stretch marks?: Still rubbing lotion on em - they look gross!
Maternity clothes?: Still wearing em
Sleep?: Falling asleep is hard but I'm able to work in sleep throughout the day
Best moment this week?: Growth ultrasound was pretty neat!
Food cravings?: Chocolate this week
Gender?: All boy
Movement?: He's been moving A LOT - thought they were supposed to slow down in there near the end! lol...
Belly button?: Still flat... kinda sad
What I miss?: Being able to eat whatever I feel like
Labor signs?: Belly's been hardening a little bit more this week, as in stronger BH
What I'm looking forward to?: Being able to eat chocolate bars - I *hate* the commercials on TV, makes me crave them!
Milestone?: 5 weeks left to go!
Stewie Griffin vs. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood
We just saw this episode of Family Guy last night and had a good laugh at this particular opening scene where little Stewie takes a trip to visit Mr. Rogers and The Land of Make-Believe.
1.17.2011
Music Shuffle Monday 01.17.11
1) "Just A Girl" by No Doubt2) "P5hng Me A*wy" by Linkin Park
This is off their remix album Reanimation. As an original LP fan who loved their major debut Hybrid Theory (I bought it the week it came out), I was originally disappointed with Reanimation but some of the tracks - this one included - grew on me. Unlike the Collision Course album they did later with Jay-Z, this one fuses tracks from Hybrid Theory and other older LP rarities with a more electronic element to it, not to mention various other artists contributed to the different song remixes too.3) "Salty Dog" by Flogging Molly
I was introduced to Flogging Molly, an Irish punk band, back in college by my roommate. I don't know too many of their songs, but they're a good ol' Irish band that really gets ya in the spirit of St. Patricks day blending the quick pace of punk music with traditional Irish instruments! It's pretty awesome!4) "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira
I remember when Shakira broke onto the US scene when I was in early high school. I'll admit, she looked pretty hot in her music video for this one and the song was pretty catchy!5) "Every New Day" by Five Iron Frenzy
In summer 1999 I went to the weekend long Christian music festival Cornerstone in Bushnell, IL. It included a lot of the more popular Christian rock and contemporary bands as well as a lot of smaller unknown ones (including Tasty Snax - the former band of Linkin Park's bassist Phoenix - yes, I met him at their merch booth!). One of the highlights for me at the festival was getting to see Five Iron Frenzy during a midnight show at one of the tents. I was pretty big into ska at the time but wasn't too familiar with Five Iron Frenzy despite hearing they were pretty good. I got lucky too as they we were recording parts of their live album there that night too and got my name listed in the fan section of the credits. Seeing them perform - including this song - was such a great experience and anytime I hear this one (live or studio version) as well as other songs they performed that night it takes me back to skanking around with other ska music lovers late that night as the entire crowd got into the performance.
Preggo Brain Strikes Again!
So us preggo ladies get what is often referred to as "Preggo Brain" making us a bit forgetful at times.
I've been having issues with my baby shower date in regards to this!
For months, I've known that it's going to be the last Saturday in January. Sure, originally Sunday was suggested, but we decided Saturday would work best for those coming from out of city/state so they could come in Friday, be there Saturday and have time to get home on Sunday so they didn't have to worry about rushing out on Sunday to be back in time to do whatever for work on Monday.
Makes sense.
For some reason though, and I have NO IDEA why, I keep thinking the date is the 30th when really it's the 29th! I know I've mentioned to people it being on "the last Saturday in January - the 30th" and my poor mom... when I left her info to remember to include on the shower invites I even wrote down the 30th instead of the 29th and she had to go back and change them before sending them out as she caught my mistake! Oops!!
And the cherry on the cake...
I had this strange feeling late last night that on the request off sheet at work that I put down the 30th instead of the 29th! I was about 90% sure I had done that so I had to stop by on my way home today to double check that and sure enough, I was right - I had put down I couldn't work the 30th instead of the 29th... oops! How bad would that have been if the 1 day I was schedule for next week was the 29th and I had to miss my own baby shower?!?!
Fail.
I got it changed though and they haven't started the schedule for next week yet (they usually do that Tues or Wed) so I should be fine, plus no one else had requested the 29th off either so yeah... not too worried about it now, but I wish I knew why in the world I have the 30th stuck in my head as far as the date goes! lol...
I've been having issues with my baby shower date in regards to this!
For months, I've known that it's going to be the last Saturday in January. Sure, originally Sunday was suggested, but we decided Saturday would work best for those coming from out of city/state so they could come in Friday, be there Saturday and have time to get home on Sunday so they didn't have to worry about rushing out on Sunday to be back in time to do whatever for work on Monday.
Makes sense.
For some reason though, and I have NO IDEA why, I keep thinking the date is the 30th when really it's the 29th! I know I've mentioned to people it being on "the last Saturday in January - the 30th" and my poor mom... when I left her info to remember to include on the shower invites I even wrote down the 30th instead of the 29th and she had to go back and change them before sending them out as she caught my mistake! Oops!!
And the cherry on the cake...
I had this strange feeling late last night that on the request off sheet at work that I put down the 30th instead of the 29th! I was about 90% sure I had done that so I had to stop by on my way home today to double check that and sure enough, I was right - I had put down I couldn't work the 30th instead of the 29th... oops! How bad would that have been if the 1 day I was schedule for next week was the 29th and I had to miss my own baby shower?!?!
Fail.
I got it changed though and they haven't started the schedule for next week yet (they usually do that Tues or Wed) so I should be fine, plus no one else had requested the 29th off either so yeah... not too worried about it now, but I wish I knew why in the world I have the 30th stuck in my head as far as the date goes! lol...
35 week appointment & growth ultrasound
So today I had my 35 week appointment.
It started out just like all my other appointments, with us doing the 20 minute stress test. Jay wasn't as fussy about it this time, as I think he's gotten used to it happening, but he did squirm and kick/punch a little bit but he eventually seemed to give up and went back to sleep for a bit.
Then we had our growth ultrasound to see how much he weighs and how he's measuring.
I noticed when the ultrasound tech was measuring his head that it was measuring a little big as the gestational age the machine gave for it was 36+6. The tech also explained that the "white stuff" we were seeing was his hair, saying that he has quite a bit of hair already! Apparently he's taking after daddy, as daddy has a bit head and I guess when he was born he had so much hair they joked about him needing a haircut! lol...
We didn't get a lot of photos this time around, as he doesn't have that much space so he's kinda squished in there and getting a clear view of his face is a bit tricky - she did get part of the side though!
Right now they said he weighs 5lbs, 6oz and overall he is measuring on target for his gestational age and is measuring in the 32nd percentile.
However... the doctor did go over with me that his femur's measuring a bit small - the machine showed it being about 32weeks when we're in week 35... she said it could be nothing but maybe machine error and so we're going check again in 2 weeks just to make sure. She said it is possible that maybe he's just going to be on the shorter side, inheriting my "shorter" family genes instead of hubby's "tall" genes too. But we won't know for sure until he's born and they measure him outside the womb. She said don't worry about it for now - she thinks it's a bit strange too that we're just now noticing this after how many ultrasounds that we've had.
So that's pretty much it for today - said my glucose numbers are looking fantastic so she's not too concerned about that, just keep doing what I'm doing. And clearly the diet and stuff has worked in slowing his growth down as he's now on target and not measuring all big like he was 6-7 weeks ago.
One thing's for sure - even if he does have shorter legs, he sure knows how to pack a punch with them as it feels like he's constantly beating up my uterus! lol...
It started out just like all my other appointments, with us doing the 20 minute stress test. Jay wasn't as fussy about it this time, as I think he's gotten used to it happening, but he did squirm and kick/punch a little bit but he eventually seemed to give up and went back to sleep for a bit.
Then we had our growth ultrasound to see how much he weighs and how he's measuring.
I noticed when the ultrasound tech was measuring his head that it was measuring a little big as the gestational age the machine gave for it was 36+6. The tech also explained that the "white stuff" we were seeing was his hair, saying that he has quite a bit of hair already! Apparently he's taking after daddy, as daddy has a bit head and I guess when he was born he had so much hair they joked about him needing a haircut! lol...
We didn't get a lot of photos this time around, as he doesn't have that much space so he's kinda squished in there and getting a clear view of his face is a bit tricky - she did get part of the side though!
Right now they said he weighs 5lbs, 6oz and overall he is measuring on target for his gestational age and is measuring in the 32nd percentile.
However... the doctor did go over with me that his femur's measuring a bit small - the machine showed it being about 32weeks when we're in week 35... she said it could be nothing but maybe machine error and so we're going check again in 2 weeks just to make sure. She said it is possible that maybe he's just going to be on the shorter side, inheriting my "shorter" family genes instead of hubby's "tall" genes too. But we won't know for sure until he's born and they measure him outside the womb. She said don't worry about it for now - she thinks it's a bit strange too that we're just now noticing this after how many ultrasounds that we've had.
So that's pretty much it for today - said my glucose numbers are looking fantastic so she's not too concerned about that, just keep doing what I'm doing. And clearly the diet and stuff has worked in slowing his growth down as he's now on target and not measuring all big like he was 6-7 weeks ago.
One thing's for sure - even if he does have shorter legs, he sure knows how to pack a punch with them as it feels like he's constantly beating up my uterus! lol...
1.16.2011
You're hired!
So today I actually had work at The Children's Place, which was nice getting out of the apartment and having a reason to go somewhere. Unfortunately my shift was cut a bit short as it just really wasn't that busy, what with the Bears playoff game going on this afternoon and all, and we really didn't need more than 3 people on shift at a time.
While there though the manager on duty approached me and said they're going to be cutting the seasonal position soon and was wondering if I would be interested in sticking around! Of course I said sure - other than having Jay in less than 5 weeks I really don't have much else going on (they haven't need me to work my "main" job since before Christmas!). She said right now it wouldn't be much - maybe one 4-hour shift a week and being scheduled on-call here and there as they have to keep a close eye on payroll with it being so slow lately, but she said if I wanted to stay on then she'd bump me up to part-time status.
So it looks like I'm getting to stay there!
That'll be nice too when it comes to clothes shopping for Jay as our prices aren't that bad, especially when the sales are going on, plus my employee discount too. Just in the last 2 weeks, we've had our end of season Monster Sale going on for all the winter stuff as we've gotten our spring stuff... I've picked up like 10 really cute items for Jay for roughly $40 thanks to 50% off the original price (or more if it was already marked down) plus my 25% off discount - can't complain about that!
In other news, we've been moving stuff in and out of the apartment to make room for Jay.
This past week I've been working on reorganizing our walk-in closet to make room for the changing table/dresser to fit in there and we've moved the smaller foam couch out of our bedroom to make room for Jay to sleep and some of his stuff we're anticipating getting in the next few weeks. Since we haven't moved yet and most likely won't be til March or April at the earliest at this point we're just making due here and I haven't been able to do the Super Mario Bros nursery I'm planning on doing... yet. I will once we get in a house though! I am make-shifting things though by incorporating Mario Bros other ways, such as smaller paintings to go over his stuff and other decorative accents.
Poor Tiger though, she's been so confused as to what's going on!
When I first cleared some room in the closet she didn't know what to make of it, as she couldn't climb up and across to get to one of the shelves like she normally does. She sat in the center in the closet, looking around for a good minute or so, meowing at me all "what's going on???" And then I came home Thursday and hubby had left the foam couch in our living room so there was room to get the changing table in our bedroom. Tiger made sure to point out to me that the couch was plopped upright (on the side) in the living room and then she proceeded to "show" me the changing table too, lol... the other day hubby was convinced Tiger was pissed that we moved the foam couch out of the bedroom as she was wandering around the room making her crying meow noise like she couldn't figure out where to sit/lay in our bedroom! Since we moved the couch to the other room temporarily she has been sitting, curled up on it every chance she gets!
Tonight though we moved it over to my parents house til we move in a few months so we have more space. They also brought over one of their older office desk chairs since they got new ones and the one we had broke. Tiger's been wandering around here all lost and confused - she doesn't understand the new chair or where her couch went! Poor kitty... she's only going to get more confused in the upcoming weeks after the baby shower (on the 29th) when we start bringing in and setting up more baby stuff, and then we're sure she's going to be confused as to what to make of Jay when we bring him home next month!
A brief update on my father-in-law:
They released him from the hospital Monday afternoon, however as soon as he got home he was having trouble breathing again and requested to go back to the hospital, so he was readmitted on Tuesday and is in a "normal" section of the hospital now rather than a room in the Heart Hospital portion of the place. His heart and lungs are still stable, however they still haven't figured out what the deal is with his kidneys! They started him on dialysis this week, but his first time was cut short as he passed out about an hour into it and they called a "code blue." They tried again the next day, which it seems like he managed it the whole time. He's still there though as they're trying to get the house cleaned up and in a good enough condition for him to be in (there's an old leak in the house that caused some major mold damage in the basement awhile back which we're sure is a big part of the problem). Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers though - it is appreciated!
I have my 35week appointment tomorrow and another "big" growth ultrasound too to see how big Jay is currently and get some idea if we can expect him early or not! Looking forward to it!
While there though the manager on duty approached me and said they're going to be cutting the seasonal position soon and was wondering if I would be interested in sticking around! Of course I said sure - other than having Jay in less than 5 weeks I really don't have much else going on (they haven't need me to work my "main" job since before Christmas!). She said right now it wouldn't be much - maybe one 4-hour shift a week and being scheduled on-call here and there as they have to keep a close eye on payroll with it being so slow lately, but she said if I wanted to stay on then she'd bump me up to part-time status.
So it looks like I'm getting to stay there!
That'll be nice too when it comes to clothes shopping for Jay as our prices aren't that bad, especially when the sales are going on, plus my employee discount too. Just in the last 2 weeks, we've had our end of season Monster Sale going on for all the winter stuff as we've gotten our spring stuff... I've picked up like 10 really cute items for Jay for roughly $40 thanks to 50% off the original price (or more if it was already marked down) plus my 25% off discount - can't complain about that! In other news, we've been moving stuff in and out of the apartment to make room for Jay.
This past week I've been working on reorganizing our walk-in closet to make room for the changing table/dresser to fit in there and we've moved the smaller foam couch out of our bedroom to make room for Jay to sleep and some of his stuff we're anticipating getting in the next few weeks. Since we haven't moved yet and most likely won't be til March or April at the earliest at this point we're just making due here and I haven't been able to do the Super Mario Bros nursery I'm planning on doing... yet. I will once we get in a house though! I am make-shifting things though by incorporating Mario Bros other ways, such as smaller paintings to go over his stuff and other decorative accents.
Poor Tiger though, she's been so confused as to what's going on!
When I first cleared some room in the closet she didn't know what to make of it, as she couldn't climb up and across to get to one of the shelves like she normally does. She sat in the center in the closet, looking around for a good minute or so, meowing at me all "what's going on???" And then I came home Thursday and hubby had left the foam couch in our living room so there was room to get the changing table in our bedroom. Tiger made sure to point out to me that the couch was plopped upright (on the side) in the living room and then she proceeded to "show" me the changing table too, lol... the other day hubby was convinced Tiger was pissed that we moved the foam couch out of the bedroom as she was wandering around the room making her crying meow noise like she couldn't figure out where to sit/lay in our bedroom! Since we moved the couch to the other room temporarily she has been sitting, curled up on it every chance she gets!
Tonight though we moved it over to my parents house til we move in a few months so we have more space. They also brought over one of their older office desk chairs since they got new ones and the one we had broke. Tiger's been wandering around here all lost and confused - she doesn't understand the new chair or where her couch went! Poor kitty... she's only going to get more confused in the upcoming weeks after the baby shower (on the 29th) when we start bringing in and setting up more baby stuff, and then we're sure she's going to be confused as to what to make of Jay when we bring him home next month!
A brief update on my father-in-law:
They released him from the hospital Monday afternoon, however as soon as he got home he was having trouble breathing again and requested to go back to the hospital, so he was readmitted on Tuesday and is in a "normal" section of the hospital now rather than a room in the Heart Hospital portion of the place. His heart and lungs are still stable, however they still haven't figured out what the deal is with his kidneys! They started him on dialysis this week, but his first time was cut short as he passed out about an hour into it and they called a "code blue." They tried again the next day, which it seems like he managed it the whole time. He's still there though as they're trying to get the house cleaned up and in a good enough condition for him to be in (there's an old leak in the house that caused some major mold damage in the basement awhile back which we're sure is a big part of the problem). Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers though - it is appreciated!
I have my 35week appointment tomorrow and another "big" growth ultrasound too to see how big Jay is currently and get some idea if we can expect him early or not! Looking forward to it!
You're hired!
So today I actually had work at The Children's Place, which was nice getting out of the apartment and having a reason to go somewhere. Unfortunately my shift was cut a bit short as it just really wasn't that busy, what with the Bears playoff game going on this afternoon and all, and we really didn't need more than 3 people on shift at a time.
While there though the manager on duty approached me and said they're going to be cutting the seasonal position soon and was wondering if I would be interested in sticking around! Of course I said sure - other than having Jay in less than 5 weeks I really don't have much else going on (they haven't need me to work my "main" job since before Christmas!). She said right now it wouldn't be much - maybe one 4-hour shift a week and being scheduled on-call here and there as they have to keep a close eye on payroll with it being so slow lately, but she said if I wanted to stay on then she'd bump me up to part-time status.
So it looks like I'm getting to stay there!
That'll be nice too when it comes to clothes shopping for Jay as our prices aren't that bad, especially when the sales are going on, plus my employee discount too. Just in the last 2 weeks, we've had our end of season Monster Sale going on for all the winter stuff as we've gotten our spring stuff... I've picked up like 10 really cute items for Jay for roughly $40 thanks to 50% off the original price (or more if it was already marked down) plus my 25% off discount - can't complain about that!
In other news, we've been moving stuff in and out of the apartment to make room for Jay.
This past week I've been working on reorganizing our walk-in closet to make room for the changing table/dresser to fit in there and we've moved the smaller foam couch out of our bedroom to make room for Jay to sleep and some of his stuff we're anticipating getting in the next few weeks. Since we haven't moved yet and most likely won't be til March or April at the earliest at this point we're just making due here and I haven't been able to do the Super Mario Bros nursery I'm planning on doing... yet. I will once we get in a house though! I am make-shifting things though by incorporating Mario Bros other ways, such as smaller paintings to go over his stuff and other decorative accents.
Poor Tiger though, she's been so confused as to what's going on!
When I first cleared some room in the closet she didn't know what to make of it, as she couldn't climb up and across to get to one of the shelves like she normally does. She sat in the center in the closet, looking around for a good minute or so, meowing at me all "what's going on???" And then I came home Thursday and hubby had left the foam couch in our living room so there was room to get the changing table in our bedroom. Tiger made sure to point out to me that the couch was plopped upright (on the side) in the living room and then she proceeded to "show" me the changing table too, lol... the other day hubby was convinced Tiger was pissed that we moved the foam couch out of the bedroom as she was wandering around the room making her crying meow noise like she couldn't figure out where to sit/lay in our bedroom! Since we moved the couch to the other room temporarily she has been sitting, curled up on it every chance she gets!
Tonight though we moved it over to my parents house til we move in a few months so we have more space. They also brought over one of their older office desk chairs since they got new ones and the one we had broke. Tiger's been wandering around here all lost and confused - she doesn't understand the new chair or where her couch went! Poor kitty... she's only going to get more confused in the upcoming weeks after the baby shower (on the 29th) when we start bringing in and setting up more baby stuff, and then we're sure she's going to be confused as to what to make of Jay when we bring him home next month!
A brief update on my father-in-law:
They released him from the hospital Monday afternoon, however as soon as he got home he was having trouble breathing again and requested to go back to the hospital, so he was readmitted on Tuesday and is in a "normal" section of the hospital now rather than a room in the Heart Hospital portion of the place. His heart and lungs are still stable, however they still haven't figured out what the deal is with his kidneys! They started him on dialysis this week, but his first time was cut short as he passed out about an hour into it and they called a "code blue." They tried again the next day, which it seems like he managed it the whole time. He's still there though as they're trying to get the house cleaned up and in a good enough condition for him to be in (there's an old leak in the house that caused some major mold damage in the basement awhile back which we're sure is a big part of the problem). Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers though - it is appreciated!
While there though the manager on duty approached me and said they're going to be cutting the seasonal position soon and was wondering if I would be interested in sticking around! Of course I said sure - other than having Jay in less than 5 weeks I really don't have much else going on (they haven't need me to work my "main" job since before Christmas!). She said right now it wouldn't be much - maybe one 4-hour shift a week and being scheduled on-call here and there as they have to keep a close eye on payroll with it being so slow lately, but she said if I wanted to stay on then she'd bump me up to part-time status.
So it looks like I'm getting to stay there!
That'll be nice too when it comes to clothes shopping for Jay as our prices aren't that bad, especially when the sales are going on, plus my employee discount too. Just in the last 2 weeks, we've had our end of season Monster Sale going on for all the winter stuff as we've gotten our spring stuff... I've picked up like 10 really cute items for Jay for roughly $40 thanks to 50% off the original price (or more if it was already marked down) plus my 25% off discount - can't complain about that! In other news, we've been moving stuff in and out of the apartment to make room for Jay.
This past week I've been working on reorganizing our walk-in closet to make room for the changing table/dresser to fit in there and we've moved the smaller foam couch out of our bedroom to make room for Jay to sleep and some of his stuff we're anticipating getting in the next few weeks. Since we haven't moved yet and most likely won't be til March or April at the earliest at this point we're just making due here and I haven't been able to do the Super Mario Bros nursery I'm planning on doing... yet. I will once we get in a house though! I am make-shifting things though by incorporating Mario Bros other ways, such as smaller paintings to go over his stuff and other decorative accents.
Poor Tiger though, she's been so confused as to what's going on!
When I first cleared some room in the closet she didn't know what to make of it, as she couldn't climb up and across to get to one of the shelves like she normally does. She sat in the center in the closet, looking around for a good minute or so, meowing at me all "what's going on???" And then I came home Thursday and hubby had left the foam couch in our living room so there was room to get the changing table in our bedroom. Tiger made sure to point out to me that the couch was plopped upright (on the side) in the living room and then she proceeded to "show" me the changing table too, lol... the other day hubby was convinced Tiger was pissed that we moved the foam couch out of the bedroom as she was wandering around the room making her crying meow noise like she couldn't figure out where to sit/lay in our bedroom! Since we moved the couch to the other room temporarily she has been sitting, curled up on it every chance she gets!
Tonight though we moved it over to my parents house til we move in a few months so we have more space. They also brought over one of their older office desk chairs since they got new ones and the one we had broke. Tiger's been wandering around here all lost and confused - she doesn't understand the new chair or where her couch went! Poor kitty... she's only going to get more confused in the upcoming weeks after the baby shower (on the 29th) when we start bringing in and setting up more baby stuff, and then we're sure she's going to be confused as to what to make of Jay when we bring him home next month!
A brief update on my father-in-law:
They released him from the hospital Monday afternoon, however as soon as he got home he was having trouble breathing again and requested to go back to the hospital, so he was readmitted on Tuesday and is in a "normal" section of the hospital now rather than a room in the Heart Hospital portion of the place. His heart and lungs are still stable, however they still haven't figured out what the deal is with his kidneys! They started him on dialysis this week, but his first time was cut short as he passed out about an hour into it and they called a "code blue." They tried again the next day, which it seems like he managed it the whole time. He's still there though as they're trying to get the house cleaned up and in a good enough condition for him to be in (there's an old leak in the house that caused some major mold damage in the basement awhile back which we're sure is a big part of the problem). Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers though - it is appreciated!
More Amusing TV Moments
As mentioned previously on here, I don't watch a whole lot of reality TV aside from the former VH1 Celebreality shows like Rock of Love and its spin-offs, but I do occasionally watch shows like Gene Simmons Family Jewels or Keeping Up With the Kardashians, where basically the show follows the families around with a camera as they live their lives.
I guess they're kind of guilty pleasure shows - especially the Kardashians.
Khloe's probably my favorite of the 3 older sisters as I like how she seems to be more down-to-earth than the others and she's not stick-thin or perfect looking like Kim and Kourtney (in comparison to them, Khloe's the one that's struggled with her weight and towers over the other 2 as she's so tall). Gold medal Olympian Bruce Jenner, the Kardashian step-dad, is also another favorite of mine on the show as half the time he's clueless as to what's going on and when he finds out it's usually pretty amusing!
Anyways, last night, while waiting to take my dinner glucose reading (which was kind of late as I had insomnia the night before and slept in really late throwing off my entire eating schedule for the day), I caught an older episode of the show from season 2.
This episode I thought was amusing for 2 reasons:
1) Mom (Kris), Kim and Kourtney were all giving Khloe grief for being single and not having a man and they try to hook her up via internet dating without her knowing about it til after the fact. I thought this was funny as 2 seasons later (I think) Khloe's the only one of the 3 older sisters who's married and in a stable, healthy relationship!
2) Younger preteen daughter Kendell goes to mom (Kris) and asks for some money so she can buy a pair of shoes she really wants at the mall. Kris tells her she doesn't need anymore shoes and to go ask her father about it. Kris also starts lecturing Kendell, telling her she should really think about what she's wanting to spend money on before she asks because "money doesn't grow on trees." Kendell response "Yeah it does mom - it's paper!" LOL... owned! Iono... something about that just cracked me up - technically she IS right! It IS paper which comes from trees! LOL...
No real point here, just thought it was amusing and wanted to share!
I guess they're kind of guilty pleasure shows - especially the Kardashians.Khloe's probably my favorite of the 3 older sisters as I like how she seems to be more down-to-earth than the others and she's not stick-thin or perfect looking like Kim and Kourtney (in comparison to them, Khloe's the one that's struggled with her weight and towers over the other 2 as she's so tall). Gold medal Olympian Bruce Jenner, the Kardashian step-dad, is also another favorite of mine on the show as half the time he's clueless as to what's going on and when he finds out it's usually pretty amusing!
Anyways, last night, while waiting to take my dinner glucose reading (which was kind of late as I had insomnia the night before and slept in really late throwing off my entire eating schedule for the day), I caught an older episode of the show from season 2.
This episode I thought was amusing for 2 reasons:
1) Mom (Kris), Kim and Kourtney were all giving Khloe grief for being single and not having a man and they try to hook her up via internet dating without her knowing about it til after the fact. I thought this was funny as 2 seasons later (I think) Khloe's the only one of the 3 older sisters who's married and in a stable, healthy relationship!
2) Younger preteen daughter Kendell goes to mom (Kris) and asks for some money so she can buy a pair of shoes she really wants at the mall. Kris tells her she doesn't need anymore shoes and to go ask her father about it. Kris also starts lecturing Kendell, telling her she should really think about what she's wanting to spend money on before she asks because "money doesn't grow on trees." Kendell response "Yeah it does mom - it's paper!" LOL... owned! Iono... something about that just cracked me up - technically she IS right! It IS paper which comes from trees! LOL...
No real point here, just thought it was amusing and wanted to share!
1.15.2011
My United States of Whateva!
I remember first seeing this video back in my early college days (back before the days of Youtube!) and for some reason we thought it was one of the funniest music video shorts we had seen in awhile! I forgotten about it until someone recently posted it on Facebook.
Check it out:
Check it out:
1.14.2011
Things Our Kids Will Be Clueless About
Last week, a friend on Facebook posted a highly amusing status that got a bunch of us reminiscing about old school video games and gaming consoles.
3 kids in a used game store yesterday:Some of the comments to the status included:
Kid 1: holds up NES cartridge "HAHA, what system is THIS for? Like... P.S.? Like before the PS1?"
Clerk: "No man, thats for NES, you've never heard on an NES?"
Kid 2: "Well, does it have good graphics?"
Clerk: "Well, it has good graphics for an NES game."
Kid 3: holds up N64 cartridge "They had NBA games in 1998!?"
All 3 kids: COD:BLOPS COD:BLOPS COD:BLOPS COD:BLOPS
I don't walk around picking up Commodore 64s all like "Hey man wtf is this like a Windows 0? Like Before Windows XP!? They had computers in the PAST!?"
or "A joystick? What's that?"
I'd have been all like "Yeah, and you have to blow on it to make it work too! Even though it wasn't even ever proved whether blowing on it helped or not."I told hubby about it too and he had a good laugh!
Hubby and I often stop and think sometimes about how certain things we remember and grew up with are going to be completely foreign to Jay and our other future kids.
Some of these things include:
- DOS
- Floppy Disks
- Cassette tapes
- Walkmans
- VHS tapes (although we still have a few as well as a DVD/VCR combo player)
- Vinyl records
- Having to manually turn a knob to change the channel on the TV
- Telephone's with the circular dial to dial numbers (I hated those!)
- Laser discs
- How "rare" and special it was to see a 3D movie
- Phone books and yellow pages - most places have a website to look up that info or you can get a number from someone's Facebook profile
- Writing a letter by hand and sending it via "snail mail"
- Disposable cameras and the joy of waiting for the film to develop only to realize you forgot to use the flash in half the photos!
- Pay phones
- Physically going to a video store to rent a movie or video game
- Polaroids
- Waiting all afternoon, listening to the radio just to hear your favorite song so you could record it on a cassette
- A wristwatch (all phones have a clock on them, making wristwatches just a piece of jewelry these days)
- Going to the library and checking out books for research papers
- Dial-Up internet
Can you think of any others?
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