IT'S A GIRL!!!

After what seems like forever waiting to find out, we have finally found out we're having a girl. Here are some ultrasound pictures...

In case you didn't know, babies in utero are verrryyy limber. In the picture below her legs are extended above her head (which doesn't look very comfortable to me). I labeled some of the different parts so you would know what you're looking at.

The one below shows her face really well. She had her hand on her head the whole time the tech was trying to take a profile picture. I have an ultrasound of Wesley doing the exact same thing.

Another profile pic...

And, the one & only time I will post a picture of my daughter's bits on the internet. For those who don't have children, the way they tell the gender is by looking for either boy parts (obviously) or looking for the three lines you can see in the picture below, indicating it's a girl. It's not simply the absence of the boy parts that makes them think it's a girl. And, that's your anatomy lesson for the day. :) (In case you're having a hard time figuring out what you're looking at, her booty is to the right and her legs are pointing to the left, on the top & bottom of the words "Girl").

She was very active the whole time the tech was trying to get the right shots for the measurements she has to have. The doctor said everything looks good.

Grrr.....

My big ultrasound was scheduled for 3:00 this afternoon, but had to be rescheduled due to the ultrasound tech having a family emergency. Sooo, I get to wait some more (not happy about that). It is now scheduled for Monday at 8:30 am.

As for a 20 week update, the baby is about 10" long (head to heel - at twenty weeks they switch from measuring crown to rump to using head to heel) & weighs about 10.5 oz. Newsletter says it's roughly the size of a banana. Its hearing is developed enough now that it can probably hear my heartbeat and the noises my stomach makes. It will be a few weeks before it can make out the sound of mine & others' voices. Right now (and at this time every afternoon) he/she is doing all kinds of acrobatics & karate kicks. I read that it takes a couple hours for nutrients to reach the baby after meals, so the sugar from that slice of hershey's pie I had after lunch is probably kicking in right about now.

Tune in Monday for ultrasound pics & the big announcement, as promised.

Superman & 19 weeks...

Wesley was Superman for Halloween (more specifically Clark Kent). Here's one of the pictures I took of him (minus the glasses that made him look more like a Drew Carey look-alike than a Clark Kent one).
And, my 19 week belly pic...

Grapefruit...

Almost halfway (hard to believe). Newsletter says at 19 weeks the baby is about 6" long & about the size of a grapefruit. Good news: the nausea is almost totally gone. Over the last week I've stopped taking my nausea medicine. I still feel it a little in the mornings, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was - definitely tolerable now (as long as I don't drink juice or milk in the mornings). I feel like jumping up & down and shouting, "Hallelujah!" I was beginning to think I would be plagued with it for the entire pregnancy.

He/she is really starting to do some acrobats in there, especially after lunch & when I'm laying down to go to sleep at night. Love, love, love feeling the little kicks & flips. Anthony has been in Las Vegas since last Wed. for work - can't wait for him to get home on Monday so he can finally feel the baby move.

Only one more week until the big appt. I will try to post scans of the ultrasounds next Thurs. night for all to see.

18 week belly pic

I suppose I'll try to keep up with weekly belly pics from here on out, but I won't promise anything. This one is from Saturday (18 weeks 3 days)...




















I think Wesley feels left out if I take a picture of myself & don't take one of him. :) Here's his impression of a pregnant lady...




















Edited to add: Wesley felt the baby move last week. His eyes got real wide when he felt it & for the rest of the night & several times over the last few days he's been coming over and putting his hand on my belly and saying he wants to feel the baby move again (unfortunately the baby doesn't quite operate on his schedule). For a while he was saying he wanted a baby sister, but now he's saying he wants a baby brother. A little over a week until we know which one it'll be :)

A new family member...

My brother got married today, to a girl who seems to fit perfectly in our family. I hope they have a lifetime of happiness together. They asked me to take some pictures, and here are a couple that I like (haven't had time to edit them yet-they're straight out of the camera-except that I blurred out their last name). I'm going to have to go back and take some more of the two of them when it's not rainy & dark outside, because I had to use such a high ISO on my camera that they are all horribly grainy.

Lil' daisy...

At 18 weeks, the baby is about the size of a gerber daisy. I had to go to the doctor yesterday for some minor issues (that you'd rather not hear about) & they went through the usual checking my weight and blood pressure & listening for the heartbeat. It was 154 (good) and I heard it as soon as she put the doppler wand on my belly. Only two more weeks until my 20 week ultrasound. Can you tell I'm excited?!

17 weeks

To satisfy Sunny's request for a belly pic, here's one from tonight...




















And, because Wesley wanted to be in a picture, too, here's one of the two of us...




















Before you know it, he's going to be taller than me. :)

Lil' onion...

According to the newsletter, the baby is the size of a large onion now (about 5 inches from the top of the head to the bottom of the rump & about 3.5-5 oz.). It also says that its weight will more than quadruple this month. That's some serious growing!

The nausea is not getting any better. The other day as I was losing my breakfast in the toilet I just burst into tears and couldn't stop crying for like 5 minutes. I tell you this because thinking about it now makes me laugh. Anthony looked at me like I was a little off my rocker & asked if I was okay. I just said, "I'm tired of being sick," and got in the shower.

On a less depressing note, I've been feeling more and more of his/her movements over the past couple weeks. And, the other night in bed he/she was really going to town doing some serious gymnastics. I keep laying my hand on my belly when I feel movement to see if I can feel it from outside yet & I actually felt it several times in a row. Very neat!

Rubber ducky, you're the one.

According to the newsletter, the baby is now about the size of a rubber ducky.

Had my 16 week check-up today and everything seems to be going well. I am back to what I weighed at my 8 week appointment, so that's good. Now, I need to shoot for gaining a lb./week. It's so odd to me that I *need* to gain weight. The only times in our life that we are encouraged to grow & get bigger are when we are children or when we are pregnant (for us women, at least). It's weird for me to be able to quiet that little voice that says, "You really shouldn't have another spoonful of those mashed potatoes." Not that I'm planning to eat to my heart's content or to eat a bunch of junk food. I'm trying to consciously choose healthy foods.

Anywho...back to my appointment. The nurse had the little doppler, trying to find the babies heartbeat. We could hear the placenta (it makes a whooshy heartbeat-like noise at the same rate as my heart - from the blood being pumped through it to the baby - pretty cool, huh?) & we could hear the baby moving (which sounds almost like when you have the earpieces of a stethoscope in your ears and you tap on the end of it), but it wouldn't stay still long enough for her to get the heartbeat. I jokingly said, "Looks like we may have to do an ultrasound." She said, "We just might." After a few more minutes of trying to get it, she gave up and took me to the ultrasound room.

So, we got to see the baby. The picture was much clearer than on the machine at work. We could see the baby was all curled up on my right side again. The heart rate was 161 (which is good). I asked very sweetly, "While we're here, would you mind taking a peek to see if you can tell whether it's a boy or a girl?" She said, "You want to know?" I said, "Yes, if you don't mind." So she moved the wand around trying to get a good look, then said, "Well, the baby is still pretty small, but I would say it's probably a *****************, because ******************," (while pointing at the screen). You didn't think I was actually going to tell, did you?! :) Seriously, they usually don't try to figure out the gender this early so she wouldn't say for sure, but after today I'm pretty sure of what it is. And, in a little less than four weeks we should know for certain. Then, I'll definitely let you know. *Insert devilish little grin*

Apples & Oranges & Prizes, Oh My...

Last week my newsletter said the baby was about the size of an apple (I'm guessing they mean a small one) & this week it says it's about the size of an orange (~4" long & ~1.75 oz.). The length is from head to rump so it doesn't count the legs.

I can feel him/her swirling about occasionally when I get really still, like at night when I'm laying in bed. This morning, as I was sitting at my desk working, I felt a very distinct kick. If my hand had been laying on my belly in the right spot I think I could have felt it from the outside, too. But, that's only the second time I've felt anything that strong.

We have a couple portable ultrasound machines here at work (for use in ultrasounding cattle for meat quality, not for obstetrical reasons). This afternoon I got one of the professors who is a friend of mine (and is a vet) to drag one out so we could play around. The machine is probably as old as I am so we weren't expecting much. So, we put a little gel on the wand & put it against my belly and start moving it around trying to find the baby. It took us a few minutes, and then we're both like, "Oh, there's the head...that's definitely a head....Oh, Oh, there's a hand, and a spine.....Oh, you can see his little heart beating." It was very cool. You can go back in my posts and see the last ultrasound I had, the baby just looked like a blob. I can say for sure that he/she now has two arms & two legs & one head. My friend was joking around and she said, "Wouldn't it be neat if we saw two heads." I was like, "No, that wouldn't be neat." I would freak out if I found out that I was having twins when I was just playing around with an old ultrasound machine out on a farm (and without Anthony there), especially since we only saw one at 8 weeks. It had its legs curled up to it, but we could see it moving its hands around above its head and in front of its face. I hope it cooperates at my next ultrasound in Novemeber so I can stop referring to it as he/she & it.

I've started a baby pool on ExpectNet where you can enter a guess as to what the gender, weight, birthdate, etc. will be. I'll have to think of something good to give away as a prize to the person who wins. You don't have to register to enter, just make sure if you want to be eligible for the prize that you put enough information in that I can figure out who you are. Have fun! Click here to play (if it doesn't take you directly to the page where you can guess in our baby pool, then you need to do the following: in the box to the upper left that asks for game name, type: BabyVega, hit enter & it will take you to our page.)

To all the mothers out there...

I found this post via one of the blogs I read. It's a great little story - made me tear up - although these days, the smallest things can make me teary-eyed. For example, the other day I was trying to explain to Wesley that we as Americans have the freedom of speech & as part of that, we are allowed to protest things which we think need to be changed or are unfair, etc. (we saw some people protesting on the way to school that morning). I got so choked up I had to stop talking. Then, last night, watching Private Practice, the new spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy, I was bawling during the scene where two mothers, whose babies were switched at birth, have to give back each other's biological child. I probably would have cried about that even if I wasn’t pregnant, but I’m definitely more emotional these days.

Anyways, I thought the story was something that all mothers will appreciate. We have a tendency to feel neglected & unappreciated for the millions of things we do that go unnoticed. This really puts into perspective what all our hard work is for.


And, because I like posting a picture with every blog post, here's a couple pictures I took of St. Patrick's cathedral in NYC a few years ago - yes, it was snowing. (These will only make sense if you read the linked story)...


not the greatest quality because they are just scans (from before I had my digital)

Wow!

Saw this link on someone else's blog...not much else to say except, "Wow!"

By the way, I'm officially in my second trimester now. The symptoms that are supposed to magically dissappear after the first trimester haven't said their goodbye's yet, but I'm holding out hope that they'll pack their bags and hit the road any day now.

Butterflies & lil' fishies...

I definitely felt the baby move this weekend. The best way to describe it is that it feels like a goldfish swimming around in my belly. I've felt it a few times today. I can't wait until Anthony & Wesley can feel him/her move & kick.

I also have a noticeable lil' bump. I saw my mom yesterday and the first thing she did was rub my belly (not something I'm especially fond of people doing, but what can you do?) where it was poking out.

Ticker

The ticker in my sidebar was taking too long to load everytime I opened the page, so I added a different one at the top. It's cuter, anyways. :)

Bloglifting...

There's a term in the scrapbooking world for when you steal/borrow/copy an element or a whole design from someone else's scrapbook page called scraplifting. Well, I'm bloglifting a sidebar element from Ali Edwards' blog and adding a spot for a quote that I'll change out periodically (I hope). I'm also shamelessly bloglifting the quote she had up the other day from Anna Quindlen that I love.

And, just because I adore Ali and her outlook on life (as well as her scrapbooking style), here's a picture of us from CKU Nashville last month.

Lil' Peach

I'm 13 weeks today, and according to my newsletter, the baby is about 3 inches long and roughly the size of a peach.
Edited to add: It also says he/she now has his/her own unique fingerprints. How awesome!


I *think* I've felt him/her move, but it's so light that I'm not totally sure that what I'm feeling is the baby. If I'm laying completely still and really concentrating, I *think* I feel faint, little swishes.




My doctor would be proud of me. I weighed this morning and have gained a couple pounds since last week. The nausea is still hanging around, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that it will magically dissapear over the next week. :)

Lil' Kiwi Update

So, my weekly pregnancy newsletter says the baby is the size of a kiwi this week. Amazing how such a tiny little thing can make me so sick. : )

I just got back from my 12 week appointment and got fussed at because I've lost 5 pounds in the past four weeks (I'm definitely not 'trying' to lose weight - just keeping food down has been my goal for the last month and a half). Other than losing weight everything checked out fine. The nurse used the doppler to find the heartbeat. It took a minute or two to find it (see above comment about it being a tiny lil' thing) and as soon as she found it the little booger moved and she spent another few minutes trying to find it again. When she finally did, it was 153 bpm (which is good).

I haven't felt it move yet, but I distintly remember the day I felt Wesley move for the first time and it was around 13 weeks, so I may feel a flutter or two starting in the next couple weeks. I don't think anyone but me can tell that I'm getting a little baby bump. I'm sure that will change soon. : )

People are constantly asking how I'm feeling. In case you're curious, I feel about how I imagine someone with the flu feels (I say 'I imagine' because I've never actually had it) - nauseated 24/7, nearly constant headache, so tired that at any given time of day I feel like if I'm still for more than 10 minutes I'll fall asleep, cranky, and sickened by just the sight or smell of food. Pregnancy is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. But, lest I sound like a big, complaining ball of hormones, I should add that I know it's worth it in the end, and once I get to hold that little bundle of joy, I would gladly do it all again (I think). : )

My next appointment is Oct. 10th. And, I went ahead and scheduled the big ultrasound for Nov. 5th. So, in a little less than 8 weeks we'll know whether it's a boy or girl!

Ultrasounds & Such

By popular request (meaning Anthony said I should), I'm just going to post all the baby info. on here rather than making everyone sign up and login to the Care Page website every time they want an update. So, here's the post I put up on that page last week...

Here is our first ultrasound from Aug. 15...

There wasn't much to look at when we had that ultrasound, but the baby measured right on target (at 8 weeks) and the heartbeat was a healthy 167 bpm. We got to see the little heart beating and they turned the sound on for just a few seconds to measure the heartbeat, so we got to hear that precious sound. It never ceased to amaze me when I heard that at every doctor's visit with Wesley & it's no less amazing this time, either. I asked Anthony later that day if it seemed more real to him since he had seen it and heard the heartbeat. He said something like, "Yeah. You're growing a kid inside you." I thought it was cute.

I've been posting weekly belly pictures on my flickr account. If anyone is interested in seeing my belly grow, you need to sign up for an account and add me as a friend (you can search by email - the one I'm registered with is monportrait@yahoo.com) and then I can give you access to them. I don't have them as public pictures (thought it would be a little weird for the general public to be looking at my belly), so only people that I mark as friends are able to see them.

We found out last week that one of Anthony's good friends at work & his wife are expecting their second child about two weeks after us. They also have one son with a big age gap between the two, like us. I think it will make it easier on Anthony to have a buddy that's going through the same thing and who has been through the birthing & infant stage and can assure him that he'll survive it. :)

We've also known for a while that Anthony's sister, Lynsey & her husband, Jordan, are expecting their first. I was so shocked when I found out she was pregnant, too. Not necessarily just because she was pregnant, but because she is due the very same day as me. Yes, you read that right. She's due the same day. Lynsey's dad didn't believe me when I told him Anthony & I were also having a baby and we're due on the same day. He really thought I was pulling his leg. I finally convinced him that I was for real & he (and my mother-in-law) were very excited to be getting two grandkids at once. I doubt that Lynsey & I will end up delivering on the same day, but I would venture to guess that the babies will be born within a couple weeks of each other.

Lots of people have asked if we have names in mind yet, so I'll go ahead and say here that we do, but we're keeping them a secret. Since everyone will know what the gender is, we want to keep something for a surprise. And, I don't want everyone weighing in their opinions on our choices. Once the baby is here, no one will care what we named it (and if they do, they probably won't say anything to our face). :)

My next appointment is Wednesday, September 12. They probably won't do an ultrasound, but I'll still post an update afterwards.

Picture of the week.....

I snapped this picture while driving home last week. Wesley almost always falls asleep on the way home. I think he is trying to start a new fad, two pairs of sunglasses at the same time.

We have a...

in the...















Expected to be done baking March 26, 2008

Picture of the week...

Oh, to be a kid again...

POTW...or maybe it should be picture of the month

Here's a picture I took on Mother's Day of me and the boy. The other boy was still in bed asleep because he was out late the night before with 'the guys' at a drag race, so no picture of him that day.

New Love...

Awww...the feeling of new love. You know what I'm talking about, the flip-flop of your stomach every time you see him/her, your heart rate speeding up, feeling like all is right in the world when you're together.
He even tells me that we were 'made for each other'
I bet you're wondering who it is, aren't you?
Well, my new iMac, of course.
What, did you think I found a boyfriend? :)
I've crossed over from being a purely PC user to a Mac user (at least at home - still have a PC at work - who is looking pretty dingy and pitiful now that I've seen that the grass is actually greener on the other side). He arrived at lunch Friday and I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve just waiting for 5:00 to come so I could go and play with him. Why am I referring to him as a person? Because he's that special. I even said out loud to Anthony at some point this weekend, "It's just so pretty." The screen is bigger than any of the tv's we own. That has to say something about us, huh? Anthony thinks we should just turn our chairs around and watch all our dvd's on it instead of the tv (the desk is across the room from the tv in our living room). If I remember, I'll come back and post a picture, so you can ooh and ahh over how beautiful he is. :)
Happy Monday!

My Visual DNA...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

POTW...more toothy (or lack thereof) pictures

Anthony picks Wesley up from daycare on Mondays because I have class that night. When I got home Monday night Wesley ran to meet me at the front door (technically it's the side door, but back to the story) and says, "Mommy, I lost another tooth." Apparantly, he pulled it at daycare that afternoon, and when Anthony picked him up Wesley greeted him with tooth in hand. So, he now has no front teeth. He looks so odd without them. I couldn't get him to look natural for a good picture so this will have to suffice. These days everytime the camera turns his way he does this posed, 'cheese' smile and looks like he's thinking, "Can we just hurry up and get this over with."

POTW...such a boy

We're having our bathroom remodeled. So, there's a lot of junk lying around in the house and backyard (a nasty layer of dust covering nearly every horizontal surface in our house - which I'm refraining from cleaning every night because it will just be back the next day) and we have a boy that likes to get into EVERYTHING. So, I'm washing dishes the other night and Anthony comes in and says, "Quick, get your camera." I grab it and follow him to the bathroom and look out our {new} window and see this...

He had crawled in and couldn't figure out how to get back out the way he got in. He eventually just climbed out the top. That's the pile of stuff that has been ripped out of the bathroom. I don't yet have my new vanity installed. Crossing my fingers that I will before the weekend is up.

Happy Thursday!

POTW...one less tooth

Before & After

After several days of wiggling his tooth and multiple attempts by myself and his dad to try and pull his first loose tooth, it finally just fell out on Saturday, while he was sitting on the toilet of all places. I was just outside the door and he said, "Mommy! My tooth fell out!" He was so excited aobut the tooth fairy coming to see him that night. I had made a little pillow with a pocket sewn on it to put his tooth in and then for the fairy to put the money in. He doubted whether the fairy would know to look there since his tooth was supposed to be under his pillow, but gave in when I convinced him that it would get lost in the couch cushion (we were visiting my parents). The next morning the first thing he did after he woke up was jump up and check the pillow. Sure enough, the tooth fairy came through and left him a one dollar bill, which he spent the same day on a matchbox car. Now, the tooth fairy is wondering what she should do with the tooth...

For a day or so after he lost it, when I saw him smile it made me chuckle because he looked so funny with that gap in his front teeth.

(click on the pictures to see them larger).

Warm & fuzzy feelings...

I've always been a 'Daddy's girl' and that didn't change when I got married. I respect him more than anyone else, and I adore the relationship that he and Wesley have together. My dad hates having his picture taken, so I have to sneak them in when he's not looking. In this one, from Christmas, they're hanging out, watching tv. Wesley is a 'Grandaddy's boy' for sure.

The Numbers Movie...

I found this neat little movie on Stacy Julian's blog. Take a look at it. It's pretty cool.

Change is good...

Decided I was tired of the old blog template. So, I changed it.
Hope you like it.

All I want for Christmas...

I was so excited a week or so ago to find out that Wesley had his first loose tooth. He had a dentist appointment yesterday, and according to the dentist, he actually has a whopping 4 loose teeth. I can feel the two front teeth (on top) that are loose, but I can't feel the bottom two. At any rate, Wesley may soon be singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." I guess the tooth fairy needs to get her act together so she's ready when the time comes. I promise to post a picture of him sans front teeth when it happens.
Remember that funny feeling when you would stick your tongue in the hole left by your tooth? My step-dad used to tell us if we were able to keep from sticking our tongue in there until our new tooth came in, it would grow in gold. I was never able to keep from doing it.
One of the joys of parenthood is that you get to relive your childhood memories that you may have forgotten over the years, and you get to watch your children make those memories for themselves.

It's been a while...

I guess I forgot that I have a blog...
So, I got a call from Wesley's School Resource Officer this morning. As soon as she said who she was I was thinking, "Oh no! What's he done now?" Turns out Wesley decided to bring his wallet to school. I'm sure you're thinking, "Okay...what's the big deal?" Well, he emptied all the cash out of his piggy bank and put it in his wallet. Apparently he had it out on the playground. The grand total he had on hand: $91.00. Probably not an amount that you want your kindergartener flashing around on the playground. So, the SRO wants me to come pick it up on my lunch break, since it's probably not wise to let him keep it in his possession and expect all of it to make the bus trip to daycare, the couple hours there and then home. I was laughing as I was talking to her and feeling relieved that it was something so silly (guess I need to make a deposit to his savings account). But then, as I'm getting ready to say goodbye, she says, "I'm just going to leave it with [so & so] and you can pick it up in the office. And, Ms. Althia would like to visit with you when you come by about some classroom behavior problems." Ugg...not again. This is almost as bad as the one or two times I ever got called to the principal's office. Now I'm just wishing I could skip my lunch break altogether. So, that's the latest episode in "My Child is a Hooligan."
Life with children is never boring.

Until next year...

Day Thirty - A Confession

First though, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief because it's the last day of the thirty-day torture called NaBloPoMo and I get to take a break from struggling to think of something to post.
Now, onto the juicy stuff. Okay, so I'm not the most confident person, which carries over into my relationship with A. He dated a particular (local) girl for more than four years and every now and then I run into her around town. We both sort of act like we don't know each other when that happens and my heart races and I sneak peeks at her to see if she's having a better hair day, secretly hoping she's put on some weight. Well, today, I knew she would be at a certain place at a certain time in my building. So, I came up with a reason to be there then and I spent a little extra time on my makeup this morning and I picked out clothes that looked like a grown, married woman would wear that looked good on me. I only feel a tinge guilty for doing it because I know it makes her uncomfortable, but I can't help it. Something in me wants to make sure, at every opportunity, that she knows I won and he's all mine. I'm like a dog marking his territory.

Day Twenty-Nine

Found this video from Ali's blog. This video is such a great chronicle of this woman's life. I've mentioned on here that I scrapbook. I know a lot of people think it's just sticking pictures on a piece of paper in an album, but for me, scrapbooking is about so much more than that. It's about documenting my life and the lives of the people I hold dear. It's about reminding myself that I have an awesome life and remembering the good times. It's also about finding a way to deal with the bad, although pages like that don't usually make it into an album out on the shelf for everyone to look through. Ali Edwards has coined the phrase 'Life Artist' and I have decided that's what I am.

Day Twenty-Eight - #27

First person to guess what the significance of the second number in the title is wins a handmade greeting card (birthday, Christmas, whatever) designed by yours truly.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 184 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Found this over on the Littleton's blog.

Day Twenty-Seven

I talked about dog-sitting for my co-worker and keeping her Schnoodle, Annie. Here's a picture of the lil' sweetie for everyone to ooh and ahh over. Isn't she a cutie?
I tried my best to persuade a certain someone to give me one of her sisters for Christmas, but it didn't work. *insert pouty lip and sad eyes*

Day Twenty-Six - Sorry

I was under the weather yesterday with what feels like strep throat and was running a mild fever, so please forgive me.

Day Twenty-Five - Tis' the Season

The countdown begins. Christmas music on the radio. Wrapping paper strewn about the living room. Plans to get the tree & decorations out of the attic and up tomorrow after church.
Lil' Annie is sleeping behind me on the couch and must be dreaming, because she's making little noises and twitching ever couple minutes. It's about time for me to be doing the same (the sleeping, not the twitching).

Day Twenty-Four - Black Friday

Hours of sleep given up: 3
Number of hairs lost: 0
Number of items stores were out of before we got there (within an hour of sales beginning): 2
Hours spent waiting in lines to check out: about 2.5
Excitement on Wesley's face Christmas morning: better be priceless :)

Day Twenty-Three - aka Turkey Day

*Yawn* The tryptophan is kicking in and my brain is slowing down. It must be moving at a snail's pace since I have decided to brave the maniac shoppers in the morning for a $50 portable DVD player. Wesley better appreciate it, because there's a chance I could lose an eye or maybe some hair for that thing. Seriously, I've never gotten up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday (never heard it called that until this year) to catch the early bird deals. I'm hoping it's worth it. I've scouted out a little bling-bling for myself that I otherwise wouldn't get, so that could possibly even the score. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and were equally annoyed with their odd, but endearing relatives.

Day Twenty-Two

Today's post is brought to you by the number twenty-two and the letter S. Know a word that starts with S? Well, there's a breed of dog called a Schnoodle (not recognized by the AKC) that is apparently growing in popularity. I didn't even know they existed until today. One of my co-workers made an impulse buy when we were out to lunch and purchased one for herself. She's traveling for the holiday so I and one of our other co-workers have been commissioned/coerced, however you want to say it, into sharing the duties of dog-sitting for her. I don't think I want to give her back.

Day Twenty-One

Don't know if I'll have time to post tonight so I'll just give you a picture to look at. This was from a day in October when Wesley was on fall break. I took the day off and we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins, then ate lunch at Wesley's favorite place, Old McDonalds as he calls it, and just had a grand time with each other.

Day Twenty - A Good Excuse

I know, I know, I missed yesterday. But, I have a good one this time. I had class last night, so I had planned on posting after I got home. So, I watched a little tv and worked on some Christmas presents and about the time I got ready to post, the power went out. It wasn't storming so I'm not sure what caused the outtage. I went and found a flashlight and tidied up the living room waiting for it to come back on. After about forty minutes, I decided I didn't want to wait any longer and went to bed. And guess what, the power came back on about the time that I was crawling under the warm, heavy quilt on my bed. So, I got up and turned off all the lights that were on when the power went out and did what any self-respecting human would do in a house that is about 55 degrees because the power has been out for almost an hour...I crawled into bed and said, forget about it, I'll post in the morning. Don't blame me, blame modern conveniences for spoiling me.

Day Nineteen - Batman Returns

When the alarm goes off this morning, Anthony protests that he's too tired to get up for church. I had stayed up late last night working on a scrapbook, so I don't put up much of a fight. So, we go back to sleep and doze on and off between Wesley coming in to ask for breakfast or jump on top of us wanting to wrestle. Finally, Anthony gets up to go work on the brakes on his 65' Rambler. I stay in bed and go back to sleep. Then, I guess about an hour later, he comes back in and walks around to the side of the bed I'm facing and whispers, "Wake up." I open one eye and look up at him, which he takes as a sign I'm awake. He launches into an update on how the brake work is coming - he's found yet another problem with them. I look up at him, face scrunched up, and say, "Did you wake me up just to tell me that?" He says, "No, I woke you up so you could see Wesley," and nods toward the other side of the bed where Wesley is playing a racing game on the playstation which is hooked up to the tv in our bedroom. I roll over and see Wesley in the cape & belt from his Batman costume (from last Halloween) and his red pajama pants with no shirt, deep in concentration trying to beat his opponents on Gran Tourismo. He's so cute when he plays video games because he not only pushes the buttons to steer; he also moves the controller back & forth through the air as if that will affect anything. I wish I had taken a picture so you could see how funny he looked. He's not one of those kids who likes to play dress-up a lot either, which makes it even funnier (at least to me). You'll have to settle for a picture of him from last year in full costume & just use your imagination from there.

Day Eighteen

The pumpkin situation has sort of been taken care of. The boy (see Delinquent Children - Day 15) decided to drop kick it this afternoon as we were on our way to the car...to go to a wedding shower for my SIL, aaaaand we were already running late. So now, pumpkin goo is splattered all over the front step and out into the yard, and I had to wipe it off his shoe with a wet wipe before we left. Yum!

Day Seventeen: Sick Kitty Update

Ace is much better. Thanks for the well wishes for him. He's back to being his lazy ol' self again.

Day Sixteen

I think it's time to throw away the jack o' lantern now that it's face is collapsing in on itself.

Short post tonight since I left my power cord at work and despise using our dinosaur of a desktop at home. It's older than Wesley!

Day Fifteen - Delinquent Children

I have a normal, unruly five-year-old lil' boy who has lately been getting into his fair share of trouble at school. Today, he got suspended from the bus for three days. You might be thinking he has, say, punched another kid or maybe shot spit-wads at the bus driver. Oh, no! His offense?...crawling around under his seat with two other little boys (he happened to be the only one lucky enough to get caught). Yes, I have to leave work at 2:00 the next three days to sit in a car line for ten minutes, pick him up, drive the less than two miles to his daycare, drop him off and go back to work for a couple more hours, which will mean I either have to work late or take work home with me to make up for the 30-45 mins. it will take to do this each day. Is that not ridiculous!? Excuse me for my ranting. I usually don't air dirty laundry on the internet, but I am just fed up with this school system and he's only been in it for three months. This is not the first thing, just the latest in a long list of other absurd policies/rules we have to go by. This is his second offense on the bus (first offense is a visit to the principal's office - second is three-day suspension from the bus). His first?...touching a boy (not hitting, not rough-housing, not in any kind of unfriendly or lewd way, just touching him) and not keeping his bottom firmly planted in his seat at all times (Hello! He's five). Am I just overreacting, or do the punishments not exactly fit the crimes? I rode the bus all thirteen years of K-12 and way worse things than touching someone or crawling under the seats happened with no consequences besides the bus driver yelling at you. Don't get me wrong. I understand the necessity of the rules and the reasons behind them, and have talked to Wesley so he understands why they have the rules they have, but this suspension is not a punishment for him (regardless of the fact that it's completely unnecessary), it's a punishment for me. He would like nothing more than for me to pick him up EVERYDAY. So, thank you, school system, for rewarding my son for behavior you want to punish. Thanks a lot!
Okay, rant over, you can now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Day Fourteen - Mommy Wars

I hesitate to even bring this up, because it ususally sends women on either side into heated arguments, but I'm curious what other women (moms or not) think about this. I read an old article on MSN about the ongoing debate of whether moms should go back to work or stay home after baby. You can read the article here. I'll go ahead and tell you my opinion...
First off, some background. I'm a working mom. I had Wesley during Christmas break between my first and second semesters of undergraduate and went back to school (and started a part-time job) when he was four weeks old (my mom stayed with me for the first couple weeks back at school until he could go to daycare at six weeks). If I had more options, I wouldn't have chosen to do it the way I did. But, I didn't. I did the best with what I had. I don't feel like Wesley is permanently scarred from going to daycare full-time since he was a baby. But, with my next child, I want to be able to stay home with them at least part-time, probably while I work from home. Quitting my job is just not an option for us.
So, now you know where I come from. My opinion on this whole thing is that every woman (and her husband) should decide what's best for their family. If staying home, taking care of your child would drive you over the deep end (not that you don't love your child, but the day in, day out care of children and likely all of the household chores that would fall on you can get to you) and you are satisfied by staying in the work force, by all means, return to work and find capable, caring people to take care of your child while you're there. If you are financially able (all of the women this article is talking about are) and you WANT to be the one who cares for your child, by all means, quit your job and stay home to take care of him/her. I don't agree with Ms. Hirshman that the trend of women quitting jobs to take care of their kids in an injustice. She has the audacity to say, in effect, that most of these "priveleged educated women" have not chosen to stay home because they enjoy caring for their children. She implies that they have made that choice based on a lie they've been fed by society that to be good mothers, you have to stay home or because they have found fighting for a "new, more just society" to be too hard. She says herself that these are all well-educated, accomplished women. And, what I think she's saying is that staying home is a waste of their talents, that they have a responsibility, a duty to stay in the workforce and pull their own weight to make things more equitable for women. In her opinion (talking about elite women in high-paying jobs), "Staying home should not be considered a choice." Isn't that the same as the line they fed our mothers & grandmothers, that working outside the home was not an option? A woman's place was inside the home. Now, apparently, a woman's place is in the workforce.
I know this might rub a few people the wrong way, but I'm interested to hear what other women & men think. You don't have to, but if you don't mind, when you comment on this, would you tell me what choice you would make/have made for yourself.

Day Thirteen

Today, on my blog, 5 random things.
1. Happy Birthday to my Daddy!
2. The view from my kitchen window this weekend...
3. I'm operating on three hours of sleep. Why, you ask. Well, because I had a test in my class tonight, and I'm a master procrastinator. I don't play around at procrastination. No, I waste an entire three day weekend doing nothing all that productive, not even cracking my Economics textbook until about 10:30 pm on Sunday night (which, incidentally, is my normal bedtime). Then, I drink caffeine and surf blogs for about thirty minutes before I finally start studying. I do that for about three hours before going to bed, where I lay awake for about an hour because the caffeine is still in my system.
4. I really want Mario to win Dancing with the Stars, although I think Emmit deserves it more.
5. I used to absolutely abhor the color pink...now it makes up approximately half of the new clothes I buy. Not sure what happened there.

Day Twelve - Ode to Ace

We have a very odd kitty. Ace is the cuddliest cat I've ever met. I found him & his brother on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere one night this summer. We found someone to adopt his brother, and Anthony finally gave in to keeping him after Wesley named him.
This is him playing in the pool table. If we don't close our bedroom door at night, he'll jump on the bed and walk around on our pillows at our head, all over our bodies and finally lay down on my chest with his fur tickling my nose. He'll lay there for all of 2.2 seconds before he'll almost violently rub his head against my hand trying to make me pet him. We can't get any sleep with him in there.

He usually won't let me use my laptop either, because he crawls all over my lap and tries to lay down on the keyboard. He's sick right now with a cold (yes, my cat has a cold). He's been sneezing for the past day. So, I thought I would post some pictures of him to share the cuteness with the world in the hopes that it might make him feel better to be a famous kitty :)

Day Eleven

I suppose I'm effectively disqualified for not posting yesterday. But, since I didn't sign up for the prizes, I'm going to keep posting. I signed up to make myself write more, so I'm just going to keep plugging along with a post a day. Funny thing is, I don't even have a good excuse. I slept in yesterday, made some cookies for breakfast, washed some laundry, went grocery shopping, took a nap, made dinner & watched a couple movies with Anthony. Just realized a few minutes ago that I forgot to post. Oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

Day Ten

Anthony & I just back from the late showing of the movie, Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Farrell. Anthony said it was better than he thought it would be, and I have to agree. With a movie starring Will Farrell, you expect lots of crude humor, but there was very little of that. In fact, I'm sitting here trying to remember if there was any and I can't bring to mind any instances of it. It was a rather sweet movie and would have been a pleasant movie-going experience had it not been for the person sitting a couple rows down text messaging on her cell phone, it's bright light distracting me everytime she opened it, and for the two guys sitting directly behind me who had probably seen a few too many Will Farrell shows/movies, because they kept guffawing at every little thing that was the least bit funny. I found myself not laughing at some of the funny moments in the movie simply because the guys behind me were laughing so obnoxiously that all I wanted to do was get up, turn around and say, "Excuse me, but could you please tone it down a notch or two?! I'm trying to watch a movie here." I probably should have said something rather than sitting there fuming everytime they got louder and louder and louder. In moments like these, I sort of step outside myself and wonder, "How did I become such a grandma?"

Day Nine

Finally got my book, personally autographed by Mighty Girl herself. No. 18 in the book is titled Spill Everything and says, "Catalog the contents of a space that isn't ordinarily open to the public." I'm picking my purse...
Let's see...here's some:
keys
a cell phone
couple of pens
sunglasses
a checkbook
Then there's:
the notebook with Wesley's scribbles covering it (a dead giveaway that I'm a parent)
the planner that I forget to use (but feel better for having)
uh, some chewing gum
Kleenex
a nail file
Tylenol
feminine products
a hair band
chapstick
my Clinique lipstick in Tenderheart (about the only makeup item I buy at a dept. store)
a calculator
a scan card to get in Wesley's daycare
There's my staff ID for work, which comes in handy much too often since I apparently still look like a college student. I take great pleasure in whipping it out to show the lady in the traffic office that I am, in fact, entitled to a coveted staff parking sticker, thank-you-very-much.
Then there's:
various insurance cards
debit card
credit card
very little cash (burns a hole in my pocket if I have any)
some of those McDonald's Monopoly stickers for a free small soft drink. I went to Mickey D's nearly once a day for the month of October and all I won was some stinkin' fries and small soft drinks. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for that 5 mil. and I don't even really like eating there.
Here's a few sticky notes with things like the next lens I want to buy, reminders to catch up on paperwork at home, a quote or two
a bill for the payment on Anthony's Buell motorcycle.
Oh, here's one of my business cards that I have yet to have a reason to give to anyone. My job is mostly that of a bookeeper and the only people who need to call me already have my number. But, they make me feel important since I've never had a business card before.
Here's a business card for a consultant at our local small business development center where I went to talk to someone about starting my own business.
My favorite thing in here is a little notebook I picked up at Target a few months ago. It has sections for an Agenda & To Do list that I'm filling up with quotes and wish lists.
Some things on my wish list...the book Spilling Open by Sabrina Ward Harrison
a rotary cutter (for scrapbooking)
the Eucalyptus Spearmint shampoo that they discontinued from Bath & Body Works (oh, looks like they brought it back - yay for me).
Okay, I'm putting myself to sleep here so I'm going to bid you farewell and go crash.
ETA: I messed around with my blog template today to add the Flickr badge up there and seem to have screwed something up because it won't scroll down to the bottom of the page anymore. If anyone knows how to fix it or is at least willing to help me figure it out, puuhhhllease email me. I'm new to all this stuff and am trying real hard to get things the way I want them on here.

Day (8) Eight - Dorky Family Photos

Entirely off the subject of my post...why do they use the number and the word for the number in official documents (like in my title)? I've always wondered that.
Now, onto the subject of my post. We have made it a tradition to take a family photo every fall to put in our Christmas cards to friends and family. I despise the photos where everyone is wearing their Sunday best, all lined up with the kids behind the seated parents, with one of them laying their hand on Dad's shoulder and the fake smiles plastered on their faces. In an effort to avoid that type of picture, I tried some playful things with our pictures this year (Yes, I did dress us all in green sweaters...yes, I know that's almost as bad as the formal family photos). This was one of the results...
Go ahead, snicker/point finger at screen & laugh out loud, I can't hear you. I'm fully aware of how dorky it is. What cracks me up even more than the dorkiness factor is that Wesley has this clueless look on his face like, "Why did she make me stand here behind this stupid tree? I don't know when the camera is going to stop blinking like that. Am I supposed to smile?" While Anthony & have those goofy grins on. Okay, so enough making fun of us. Maybe I'll post the one I'm actually using after Christmas. Don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who might get a Christmas card.

Day Seven

For some reason I was confused about the triplets' birthday and thought it was today instead of yesterday. In typical Mindy fashion, I'm a day late and a dollar short. So, Happy 1 year & 1 day to Kynsie, Braylen & Kyan. It's amazing to see how much they have grown in the past year. In honor of their birthday I borrowed a couple pictures from their parents' blog to post here.
















Here they are at five days old snuggled together in their isolette... (from left: Braylen, Kyan & Kynsie)















And here are their one-year pictures (from left: Braylen, Kynsie & Kyan).

Day Six

It's a Monday. Monday's are never my favorite day of the week. Today wasn't that bad, actually. But, it was long because on Mondays, I get up at 6 am and get the day started, drop Wesley off at school, go to work, work 8 hours, go straight to class, where my teacher lectures until his entire 3 hrs. 35 mins. are up and get home around 9 pm. So, needless to say, I am tired.
All I really want to say is this, if you are able and haven't already, you need to get out and vote. Regardless of whether you are conservative or liberal or somewhere in between, you should make your voice heard. Some people are so turned off by politics these days that they decide to just stay out of it. But, your vote still has a great deal of power and you should most definitely exercise your right to cast it tomorrow.

Mmmm...

That's me sighing out of happiness. My wonderful hubby drove straight through from Vegas and got home a day early. If you could see me, you would probably laugh at the goofy grin from ear to ear. I was texting him while I was sitting in church waiting for the service to get started (oh, don't start, I was too late for Sunday School so I sat in the sanctuary for about 30 mins.) to find out where he was. He said he would be home at 3:30 this afternoon. The first thought was, "Woohoo!" and that's what I responded with. The second thought was, "Oh crap! I haven't got the house cleaned yet." Don't ask me why, but every time Anthony is gone I clean the house like a madwoman right before he gets back. I don't know why I have the urge. Maybe I have some old-fashioned notion about being a "good wife" and having the house sparkling clean when I welcome him back home. I ran out of time today so there are still dirty dishes sitting in the oven (we don't have a dishwasher), but don't tell my husband. :)
I look forward to when Anthony gets back, not only because I've missed him like crazy, but also because he is more talkative for those first few days than he usually is in the period of a normal week. I married a man of few words (it's true what they say about women marrying men like their dads and men marrying women like their moms), but when he comes back from a trip he's just bursting with all the neat things he's seen and done; everything from seeing the band Aerosmith or the racecar driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. walking around SEMA (the show he was at), to the go-cart racing that requires a firesuit & helmet among other things. My favorite from this trip was the story about his interview with the host of a show for the Discovery Channel who kept mispronouncing his last name on tape. My husband is a movie star...well, kinda.

Número Cuatro

[Insert comment about not knowing what to write about.] [Think for a few minutes.] [Insert long paragraph about some subject you hope other people might identify with.] [End with witty comment about posting again tomorrow in the hopes that people will come back to read again.]

It could be a long week...

I just checked USPS for an update on when my book will get here. It left California yesterday and will take 2-9 days to get here. Let's hope it's closer to two than nine.
For those of you who are reading and don't know much about me, I'm in my early twenties (by early, I mean middle, of course). I'm just beginning to feel somewhat like an adult. Nevermind that I've been a mother for nearly six years, am working on my second degree, have more than one car payment, a mortgage, a retirement fund, and miscellaneous other "grown-up" things. What has made me start feeling old? Besides the fact that I'm developing arthritis in my knees (thanks, Dad's side of the family) and can now make pretty accurate predictions about when it will rain thanks to my deteriorating joints? Well, it's the fact that more of the people I know and socialize with than not are either married, parents or both. It seems like this has happened overnight. Like bam, all the people I graduated high school with are married and expecting their second child. I know it didn't really happen that way, but I don't live where I grew up anymore, and although I pass through there a couple times a month, I'm not up on the gossip (it's a VERY small town so everybody knows everybody else's business). But, I catch up on it when I go to the annual bonfire that one of my best friends from high school and early college organizes. We used to just hang out around the fire and eat whatever food people had remembered to bring, break a few laws by riding four wheelers on properties marked "no trespassing" and do other normal teenage things (yes, I'm from the South and I've rode ATV's for fun). But, this time, there were more wives in the group, which meant there was hamburgers (with cheese & the usual lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, etc.), plates, dessert, drinks for everyone, napkins even. After eating, we all sat around the fire reminiscing and boring the outsiders (i.e. the ones who didn't go to our h.s. or were a different year in school than us) with stories about the crazy/stupid things we did. I left everyone still sitting there around 11:00 to make the drive back home and was thinking on the way home, "Man, we have all gotten old. When did that happen?" Sitting here right now at the late, late hour of 8:3o, I would like nothing more than to crawl in bed, but out of stubbornness (and a commitment to a post a day), I'm going to hang in there until at least ten or so. Now that's I've posted something resembling writing, I'm going to put my brain in neutral and zone out in front of the tv for a while. See you tomorrow internet.

More Halloween fun

Here's Wesley again (as "Mr. Incredible") and me (as "Wesley's Mom"). I think I make a really good Wesley's mom. Don't you agree? Pardon the quality...I didn't get any of the both of us with my camera so this is a scan of the picture the church gave us (they put on Fall Fest every Halloween with lots of games, hayrides, dunking booth, etc. and lots of candy for the kiddos).

Can you tell I already don't know what to write about? Looks like it's going to be a long 30 days. All I can really think about lately is how very much I miss my husband and want for him to be home (he's on a business trip to Vegas, lucky guy). Most of the women I talk to about him being gone for business regularly have been married a lot longer than us and think the reason I miss him so much is just that we're still newlyweds, and I guess in some way, we are. But, when they say that, what I want to respond with is this, "I hope and pray that I feel the same in ten, twenty years when he is gone from me for a week at a time as I do now. I hope I still feel like a huge part of me is somewhere in Nevada and that I ache for him to be safe and sound at home with me. I hope I still have to sleep with pillows on both sides of me when he's gone just so I can get to sleep." I would never say those things out loud to them because it implies things about their marriage that might hurt them. I know somewhere inside them they want to have the same kind of fulfilling marriage that I want to have, but at some point along the way they gave up on a dynamic relationship and settled for something a little more ho-hum and a little more "realistic." I certainly don't judge them for their marriage, because if there's one thing I've learned over the past two years, it's that marriage is a LOT of work, no matter how prepared you are for it, no matter how well you know your spouse or how much you adore him/her, no matter what, it requires an enormous effort from both people to go beyond just working to flourishing. Well, I suppose I just went from having nothing to say, to having something to say...see you again tomorrow, same place but likely not the same time.

Happy Halloween a day late

Wesley was Mr. Incredible this year. His criteria for picking out a costume was that it had to have "muscles." In the last few years he's pretty much gone through all the superheroes; Spiderman, Batman and now Mr. Incredible. I guess he still has Superman left. When I picked him up from daycare yesterday he was already strung out on sugar and ready to go straight to trick-or-treating. On the way to the restaurant for supper he asked what I was going to be for Halloween. Me: "Wesley's mom." Wesley: "You can't go as that." "What, is that not good enough?" "No. What will you wear?" "What I have on." "(said with a laugh) You can't do that." "Oh well, I guess I won't go as anything then if I can't go as your mom."