Going Retro

Since the trends seem to have abated somewhat, I'm going retro and making a numbered list.

1. Here's some recent preggy pics. 36 and 37 weeks respectively. It's getting close now! I had a check up on Friday and I'm 70% effaced...but I'm only measuring about 35 weeks. Oh well, she'll come when she comes and hopefully we'll be ready. We have a pack and play and diapers and wipes, plus enough outfits to get us by for a while. We can live with that if she comes early!

2. Our front steps are finally done! The job that was supposed to take "1 week, maybe 2 if we run into any major problems" is now finished after just over 3 weeks. And no, in case you're wondering, there weren't any major problems. Except for the major problem of the contractors not showing up to work for days at a time. It took several nasty phone calls to motivate them to get here and get our job done. But it's done, and we can just forget the last month of inconvenience it caused. And the emotional trauma it caused me as people had to walk through the dirt and grass to our backdoor to get into the house, and then dirtied my floors on a regular basis. The day after they finished the project, I spent a good couple of hours sweeping and mopping my floors, and it felt soooooo good. The carpets will be getting cleaned sometime this week. Sooooooo good.

3. This isn't much of a list. But it's all I got for now. I'm sleepy. Nap time!

Holy Crapazoid!

Holy Crapper McStinker! I'm 36 weeks! 29 days til Bean arrives! Can you believe it?!? This last year has gone by SOOOOOOO slowly, but at the same time, has really flown by. In a couple weeks we're going to be parents! PARENTS?!?!? Are you kidding me?? It'll be awesome. However, I was thinking that since I'll be a mom, Christmas will be a little different this year. Usually, I get all goofy with the nieces and nephews and am pretty riotous, I must say. Especially with Taylor. We have this nerdy bond. But now, I'll have to be all serious and do mom things. Like sing opera. And read the dictionary. And ballroom dance. And make lace doilies. And knit foot sweaters. It might be weird. Taylor, if you're reading this, be prepared for serious Aunt Alyssa. No more of this "aunt lyss" stuff. It's not serious enough for a mom.







HA! I kid...can you tell I can't wait for Christmas? I'll have a baby, I'll get to show off my baby to the fam, PLUS I'll get to meet Sophie and Keaton...Oh it's gonna be good:)

Anyway, we had a great opportunity last week to take a trip to Virginia with the in-laws. They have a timeshare in Williamsburg and were kind enough to take us with them! We'd been there with them once before, but the last time we went it was an absolute torrential downpour and freezing cold for our entire stay, and we had packed pretty much like we were going to the beach. Not smart.

But this year, the weather was phenomenal! Sunny and warm, every day! We left early last Saturday morning and got back by evening on Wednesday. We did a lot of shopping and got much of our Christmas list checked off. Hooray! Plus, we got some stuff for Bean and a few things for ourselves as well! Shopping and eating were probably the two things we did the most...good vacation, right?!?! But, we did take one day to go down to Virginia Beach, and that was probably my favoritest. We basically walked up the boardwalk for about two miles, and then went down by the water and walked two miles back to where we started. The boardwalk was gorgeous, the beach was gorgeous and the water was gorgeous. The water was pretty cold at first, but after a few minutes it just felt really nice to walk along in it. It was just an absolutely beautiful day! There are some pics in the slideshow from that day! Oh, there's also a pic of Mike mini-golfing...he smoked us all! I came in dead last. And I couldn't pick my own ball out of the cup. It was pretty sad. Oh well:)

One last note on the trip: My husband loves Captain George's. If you're not familiar with it, it's an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. I'm pretty sure that if my husband had to go back in time and marry somebody else, it would be Captain George. That does not speak anything to his orientation, just to his insatiable love of sea creatures, and the eating of sea creatures. We went to dinner there on the first night, and every night after that he'd suggest we go back again. Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem for me, expect that during this entire pregnancy, seafood has just been completely disgusting to me. So, I had some crab legs, and choked down a couple other seafoody delights that I would normally love, and that was that. THANK GOODNESS they sat us right next to the desert tables, because otherwise the smell in there alone would have driven me right out the door. Instead, I got to enjoy the smelly goodness of baked pastries. Yum.

Lastly, to explain the last couple of pictures I tacked on to the slide show below:
1) I have also had a strong aversion to Chinese food during this pregnancy, which drives Mike crazy because he was really hoping I'd just have ridiculous cravings for Chinese, because he does. SO - the other night I suggested to him that he could pick up some Chinese take out for dinner, because I just felt like eating cereal. Sounded good to him! As we were driving home, he says "Oh darn! I should have got chop sticks so I could eat with them! I'm so good at eating with chop sticks!"

Oh, don't worry honey, I said...I have chopsticks at home! I had a stash left over from when I was teaching...I used them for a fun activity when we talked about China. Anyway, I said he could use them! Then he started back tracking...hahaha...but I made him eat his whole meal with chop sticks anyway! He was actually pretty good, but the whole scene was just amusing to me:)

2) After Chinese, Mike decided to eat some Dots for dessert. And then he decided to joke about "sharing" one with Bean, and accidentally spit a half eaten dot onto my belly (my shirt was pulled up, because she was jazzercising, and we like to watch it)! GROSS! So he apologized, and then decided he'd just give Bean her own dot. And so he stuck it to my belly. And then she started pushing up on where he'd stuck it, like she was trying to get to it. It was rather amusing. So pardon my momentary lack of modesty in the belly shot...it was just tooo funny!

Happenings II

Alright, let's try this again. Blogger kicked me off mid-post, so I'm picking up with Happenings II. This is my second attempt to write Happenings II, because as I mentioned before, blogger is being stupid today. I'm not happy, but there's so much to blog, so little time. Anyway...below are some pics of the painting fun. I love the color, and Bean did a lot of helping. I'll take more pics once furniture is switched out and it's all set up!

As some of you may know, Mike and I had our birthday week last week! Woot! Mine is 9/28 and his is 10/2. So we always have a good time with it! We of course had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Cantone's. Then we just relaxed the weekend away. Then we had dinner with Mike's parents on his b-day. It was a nice week, all around. Mike, ever the sweetie pie that he is, bought me an ihome for my bday! It's this little contraption that I can set my ipod into, and play as a stereo. It's also an alarm clock. He had two reasons for buying it for me: 1) He wanted me to able to listen to my ipod at the hospital when I'm in labor. He said this way I can listen to whatever I want and just use the remote to change songs when I feel like it! 2) I can put it in Bean's room for when I'm nursing, or putting her to bed, or things like that. What a sweet and thoughtful guy. The morning of my birthday (we were at church) I was just telling Mike that I wanted to get a CD player or something to put in her room so I could listen to music while I was in there...he later told me he had to bite his tongue VERY hard to not just blurt out my present!!

I would also like to give a shout out to Ta-May-May, my homecoming-attending, not-heavy-enough-to-set-off-the-airbag-sensor, hair-donating, harry-potter-obsessing, 14 year old niece! I called her on 10/2, her birthday also, to sing her a bday song, but she had already left way early that morning for...egads...SEMINARY! That's right...because she's in HIGH SCHOOL! Anyway, here's your song Taylor

Happy Birthday to Taylor
You dress like a Sailor
Perhaps you should think about attending Baylor (because it rhymes with Taylor)
Or maybe just become a Whaler.
And many more...

It took me a long time to think of that song, so I was disappointed when I didn't get you on the phone:( Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

Ok, what else? Ah, you may have noticed there's a picture of my bebo below! I've recently noticed that I'm no longer an innie, nor am I an outtie. Rather, I'm a flatty. My bebo is a flatty. If you don't know why I'm calling my belly button a bebo, you don't read enough Sandra Boynton (sp?) books, or spend enough time with Hudson and Cannon. Anyway, lately I've been obsessed with my bebo, or as Mike calls it, my "timer". I don't normally sing in the shower out loud...I just kind of always have a song in my head. And of late, this is the song that's been in there...

My Be-bo brings all the boys to the yard
Dang right, it's better than yours
I could teach you
But I'd have to charge

I'm not even sure why THAT tune was in my brain, or why I started substituting BEBO for MILKSHAKE. But I did. And now I can't stop. Help me.

Lastly, Shoes. They are not my friend. I'm a sandal person anyway, and I hate when it gets cold enough that I have to put away my flip flops and trap my feet in those meta-tarsal prisons we call shoes. But now...just TYING them is SUCH a pain in my butt (and belly) that I hate hate hate them even more. But I have found somewhat of a solution to my problem. I was digging through my closet and found a pair of elastic slip on shoes. If they weren't brown and plaid, I'd wear them everyday with every outfit. Heck, I might just wear them everyday, anyway.

Alright, that's all I can think of for now. I need a shower. I've noticed that even doing the slightest workout at the gym makes me sweat like a pig now...so I'm icky. That needs to be resolved. And so it will. Buh bye.

Happenings

Ok, because my public needs to see me all chubby and whatnot, here are the preggy pics requested. These are all somewhere between 32-34 weeks. You will notice my cheeks are getting chubby, my butt is getting large, and, although you can't see it, my hands and feet are starting to swell up a bit. Not too badly, but if I wanted to take my rings off, that ship has sailed. So there you have, me all preggy.

In other news, my blog is being weird and changing font sizes on me without my permission. I don't know if these things will show up once I actually post, but if you're reading this and the font is all screwy and the pics are out of whack, I swear, it's not my fault.

My man...my man is a man of action! I'm sure since you're all dedicated readers, you will remember my ranting on the last post about how our front stairs were STILL NOT STARTED! Well, Mike and I were discussing it after I made that post, and he decided to give them a call at 10:30 that night. He knew he wouldn't get anyone on the phone, but a message was all he needed. He basically gave them the ultimatum that if THEY couldn't get the job done or AT LEAST COMMUNICATE to us what was happening with our job, he would just find someone who could! And booyah, grandma, wouldn't you know that they just happened to show up to start our job the next day? WEIRD! But don't be fooled, it was no coincidence. They were perfectly open about the fact that had Mike not called, they wouldn't have come, because our contract got "lost in the shuffle". Thank goodness we didn't give them any money until they actually STARTED work. So anyway, the stairs are underway and should be done in a few days time. Woot! Here are some pics

This is after day one. Steps COMPLETELY gone. Oh yeah. You might also notice some spray paint...let me show you what it says in detail...



That's right, Bird Wuz Here !! What a dork. Mike joked with her that if she ever wanted to vandalize our house, the time was NOW because we were getting rid of the stairs! Soooo she waited just a TAD too long, and missed the stairs by a mere few hours! She came sneaking over at around 12:30 while Mike and I were asleep and vandalized our dirt and rocks! Oh no! We walked out the next morning to look at the work they were doing, and we were like... "Huh... was that paint there yesterday??" "Uh no...maybe they were already here this morning??" "No, I don't think so..." Me looking at it upside down..."Hey...does that look like an exclamation smiley face??" And then I saw "wuz", and then I solved the mystery. We'd been tagged! But it was funny and we liked it:)

Here are some pics from day two:




You'll notice that the entire front step is gone, and that there is also a bobcat in the yard! Aaah! Today is day three, and it's already quite the production so far. They finished taking out the tops step, dug deeeeep down in the dirt with the bobcat and are currently working on installing the forms for the new steps. There's a huge crew here right now, and a giant pile of rock in the street. I'm not so sure the neighbors are happy. Oh well.

So, what else is new? Mike and I spent the weekend fixing up the house some more. Mike and his Dad spent Saturday cleaning and framing out the basement. It's almost 100% framed, and then the next step is carpet. Once the carpet is down, we'll move the computer and stuff out of the baby's room. WHICH - Bird and I painted on Saturday! It's a nice "Pale Daffodil" yellow. It's such a calming color, and it is just beautiful with the windows open and the sun shining in. I can't wait to get it all set up for bean!

46 days and counting

46 days until the Bean arrives. Holy cow. We've been taking prenatal classes and at our last class this one guy came in right at the start of class and told us about how his wife had her baby! Apparently, her water broke right before our class the week before, but she didn't realize it. Then later that night she was in bad pain (her husband was on the road...he's a trucker) and had to call an ambulance. She was only 30 weeks pregnant and her baby was 3 lbs and a few ounces... 30 weeks, that's how far along Sara was when Taylor was born. Just crazy to think about. I am GLAD that it wasn't me. 6.5 weeks...I can wait that long! I think Bean is getting antsy, though. She has two favorite hobbies, hanging out in her womb, and tenderizing my internal organs. Mike and I joke that it's reverse child abuse. There are literally several times a day when I nearly double over in pain because she's kicking so hard. I can handle the outward kicking, but when she kicks IN, dang... it just hurts sometimes! BUT - I can live with it. I just love her a lot and can't wait to meet her (but really I can wait, I don't want a premie).

Also, it's true what they say, Captain Crunch really does cut up the roof of your mouth. Since I live off of cereal, I've eaten an entire box of Captain Crunch since Saturday night, and the roof of my mouth is showing the proof. I drank some orange juice today, and DANG did it burn! But, honestly, it's totally worth it. I love those crunch berries. I think I have a kid-cereal addiction, in general. Bird always comments that I have the best cereals at my house, regardless of what else I do or do not have in the house. There's always a hearty supply of cereal. I think that's because growing up when we got the sugary cereals they were always gone about 2.5 minutes after mom got home from the grocery store. I remember one time when one of my older brothers dumped out the entire box of Lucky Charms, picked out the marshmallows, and put the rest of the cereal back in the box. And he (I really don't remember which one it was) just sat there and ate a whole bowl of marshmallows. I was sooooo jealous. But now, I get all the marshmallows I want. Yum. I also love Honeycombs.

Honeycombs Big, yeah yeah yeah!
Honeycombs small, no no no!

I love cereal so much, that in one of my grad classes we had an assignment to read any book on any item of material culture, and I chose to read "Cerealizing America", which is pretty much the best book I've read on the history of cereal, ever. Seriously, though, it was good. My report (and samples) was good too.

Soooo, who's coming home for Christmas? I've kind of lost track, but I'm feeling very excited for the holidays. A) Bean will be outside the womb. B) I'll get to meet Sophie and Keaton (I think they'll both be coming). C) Mandy will be home from Texas (for Thanksgiving AND Christmas!).

So about my front steps. They're still not done yet. Wait, let me clarify. They still haven't STARTED yet. GRRRRRR. We got the call in August that they wanted to start our project Sept. 8. Obviously that didn't happen. There was some rain and whatnot that pushed things back. Then they came and spray painted the steps for the utilities people to make sure there were no electric, gas or water lines where they needed to dig. Then the utilities people came and cleared us. And that's where we are. No new steps yet. They better get their butts over here soon.

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I'm on the laptop, so I can't put pics up right now. But I will add some more in the next week or so. Stay tuned.