What to call him?

Tony thinks I should stop referring to the growing baby inside me as lil' bean because he's much bigger than a bean now. I like the nickname. His recommendation? The parasite.

Brenda (Tony's sister) found out today that she's also having a boy. We'll have to converse to make sure we don't pick out the same name :)

Schoolin'

My First Week of Graduate School
by Kris

My schoolin' week started out with Business Ethics & Social Responsibility on Monday. The instructor is not boring and fellow classmates are friendly and willing to discuss things in class. I will be spending plenty of time reading and writing outside of the classroom. First homework assignment due tomorrow.

Today was Business Calculus. I attempted my first homework assignment that was meant to be completed before today last night and promptly realized that I had forgotten everything I 'learned' while studying for the GMAT. The class was good and it was helpful to have the instructor go over things step-by-step. When we broke up into groups to do the in class assignment, I found that I was not the only one who was rusty on the math skills. I think I will be spending extra time going over algebra on my own in hopes that the class won't be too much of a struggle. First homework assignment isn't due until April 9th which is Awesome. This class isn't as hard-core as my other classes will be: it's non-credit and pass/fail. Doesn't mean I'm going to slack, though!

Must get some rest now. Very sleepy.

Soyogurt...the verdict

I have tried multiple kinds of soy yogurt and have never found one that was tasty. Yesterday, at VegFest, I tried a sample of Wild Wood Soyogurt and actually liked it. Amazing! I'm just now finishing off a tub that they gave me. It's not real yogurt, but it's definitely the best soy yogurt that I've ever tasted. Unfortunately, it's not made with enriched soy milk or active live cultures so the calcium isn't where I'd like it to be.

The Turtle will not be decapitated

The pictures didn't come out that well. In my 'free' time, I'll try and see if I can get a good scan. Here's the Turtle picture:


Check out my Flickr gallery for the rest.

The night before the Ultrasound, I was kept awake with the question, "What if Tony wants lil' bean to be circumcised if it's a boy?" We hadn't had the discussion yet so I didn't know his views. I did know, however, that it wasn't something I could compromise on. I'm not sure how it came up, but we discussed it this weekend. It went pretty much like this:

Tony: I'm against circumcison.
Me: Oh good! Me too. I was all afraid that you would want lil' bean to be circumcised.

And then we went and talked about the many reasons why The Turtle will not be decapitated and I also told him of the recent issue Chuzzle's moms went through. If you go to her home page and scroll down, you will find multiple links with info on circumcision.

In the nearish future, we'll need to have the diaper discussion. Tony goes for convenience, but may just change his mind after I give him all of the stats on one-use diapers.

I've also gone and created a new blog that has more of a focus. Check it out!

Cognizant Living

Because, you know, I'll have tons of time to keep up with two blogs - especially since my classes start today! ;)

Turtle

Now that I have spoken to all of my immediate family, I can post it here. We had the ultrasound yesterday and lil' bean is growing as he should and looks healthy. Yep, I said he. We're having a little boy! The tech pointed out the 'turtle' as she called it. The scrotum looks like the shell and the penis is the turtle's head poking out. So silly. When I put the pictures up, I'll be sure to point it out because she is right - it does look like a turtle.

I was busy running around yesterday. I got home around 10 after dropping Tony off from work and then had to leave at 11:30 for my massage appointment. After that, I got my hairs cut and then my school orientation. I ended up not getting home until 7 because I thought I was supposed to meet Tony on Capitol Hill. He was going to get a ride there after work. However, I left my phone at home and didn't have any change to call him from a pay phone. I ran around to his regular haunts but didn't find him. Gave up and went home to find him there. It's times like those that remind me how dependent we've become on mobile phones.

Candy is EEEVVVIIILLLLLL!!!!

Someone in the office keeps buying candy and filling a very large bowl with it for everyone to put their sticky hands in. I can't stop eating it! I don't need all of this sugar. Lil' bean is going to be a sugar addict if I'm not careful.

Good news: my forearm pain is very minimal now. This also means I haven't been on the computer to speak of in the evenings. I need to get wrist supports for home and start using my laptop on my desk and connect it to my monitor & keyboard.

I haven't been reading my books as planned. Tonight, though, Tony will be at Amanda's house so I can read while sitting in front of the fireplace. I find it very difficult to read while the T.V. is on and Tony always seems to be watching something.

We went over to Chris' house last night for Movie Night and watched the new James Bond movie with a bunch of peeps. My back didn't start hurting really badly until the end of the evening and fortunately, the pain didn't last until today. Looks like I'm on the mend!

OK, before this gets any more boring, I'm going to stop with the writing and read Maggie Mason's book. I'm putting myself to sleep.

Two more free weekends

I'm using a gel wrist support with my mouse at work and that has really seemed to help with the forearm pain. I have to be honest - I believe it's my laptop that is the culprit since I use it while sitting on the couch. I'm not sure it could get less ergonomic than that.

It's the weekend! Horrah! Sleeping in! Horrah! I have two more weekends to be lazy before school starts.

My favorite internet past-time lately is looking at design & home improvement sites. I am inspired to do fun things with the house, but we just don't have the money right now. These are the times where it's dangerous to have credit cards. We've been really, really good, but the temptation to use them is still there. We racked up a good amount of cc debt with our wedding & honeymoon and I'm not willing to rack up any more until we get that debt paid down significantly.

OK, done with the blahblahblah. A few books I ordered last month finally arrived yesterday. One of them is No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog and I'm on a mission to get some good use out of it.

Another thing that makes me a little odd

I get great satisfaction out of paying my bills and balancing all of my bank accounts down to the penny. What does this say about me?

I have pains in my right forearm. It's no good. Makes typing very, very unpleasant.

The Poop Mystery

I arrived home yesterday to find poop on the floor downstairs and it smeared across the floor for about 3-4 feet. Gross! I had dropped Tony off at Amanda's, so he wasn't there to clean it up immediately. I sent him a text message informing him of the treat he'd have to deal with when he got home. This type of behavior is not typical of the kitties and it was likely that the pooping action was causing them much discomfort. After multiple text messages, Tony admitted that he had gone to Taco Bell the night before while I was out getting my eyebrows waxed and shared part of his steak burrito thing with the kitties. It was likely his fault that this happened because the burrito caused him great discomfort and it probably did the same to the kitties.

Poor kitties. He totally deserved having to clean that mess up.

What 'the books' say

They say that by this point in my pregnancy, I should have gained 10 - 13 pounds. The books that I have do not say this can vary widely between women. I think it's a ploy to make us nervous.

To this date, I've lost two pounds and gained three. I, however, will not listen to the books. If my doctor shows concern, then I will be concerned. I also think it's time to find some new books.

By Proxy

One of the many reasons to support NPR: This American Life. And now, it's coming to TV - Showtime. I sure do hope we can buy them off of iTunes. We subscribe to the podcast and are currently listening to the most recent show: By Proxy.

The shopping trip with Julie was successful and only a little painful :) I think I'm set for a little while. Our brunch today was a great success. In attendance were: the hosts, Chris, Jeremy, Julie, Jeremiah, Sunny, Cory, Solomon, Lauren, Steve, Em, Natalie, Rob and Damon. Who knew waffles were so popular? Mmmm...waffles!

Bedding update

Every time I make our bed, I'm reminded to tell the internet that I wouldn't recommend the bamboo sheets I acquired from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I don't know if it's just the nature of bamboo fabric or if it's just the way these are made, but the pillowcases wrinkle terribly. It annoys me so. Although the sheets feel super soft, the bottom sheet has pilled on Tony's side. I'm not sure what he does, but he makes some sheets pill up. Since we've lived together, we've only had one set of sheets this hasn't happened to and it's our high-count Egyptian cotton set. Of course, this set of sheets is black and doesn't go with our new duvet cover at all. Woe is me.

Work was pretty busy this week and my back has been hurting a lot more than usual. Hence, the lack of posts to the blog. Tuesday night, we went over to Natalie's to hang out with a bunch of peeps in her new place. It's really too cute! My back didn't like it at all - it's very particular about support and many people have smooshy couches that provide no back support whatsoever. My back was a'hurtin at the end of the night and it just hasn't fully recovered yet. The think that irks me most about it is that it really restricts what I can do. I can't handle going to see a movie or even go over to Chris' house (he was having pple over on Wednesday night). Time for me to stop complaining. I grow tired of hearing myself.

I am going shopping today with Julie for maternity clothes. Ugh. I tried wearing pants a couple of times this week and it was so uncomfortable. Also, my belly keeps showing because my shirts aren't long enough. The day that I did wear the one maternity shirt that I do own, everyone said that I looked really pregnant that day. My guess is that the cut accentuates the growing belly.

We are having many friends over tomorrow for brunch. I am determined to get social time in before school starts - pains in the back be damned!!

Kill me now!

I registered for classes last week: Business Calculus and Ethics & Social Responsibility. The B.C. class is a prerequisite and I am dreading it so. The class is 4 hours long on Wednesdays. Shall I start crying now? I hope it doesn't make me cry. Chris has already offered to tudor me if needed. I be lucky to have smart friends :D

Friday, we shut the office down early and went bowling. It was tons of fun! I posted pictures in my Flickr gallery if you are interested. In other work news, we had to let someone go today that I really liked. I so did not enjoy that and will miss him. He was a good employee, but he just made a mistake that couldn't be overlooked. Crap happens sometimes.

This weekend flew by and I was just a big homebody. I'm trying to make the most of my downtime before I no longer have any, but I should also try and be more social since I won't have time to socialize once school starts later this month. Natalie moved into her new apartment on Saturday so Tony was off helping her move. I thought about doing some shopping, but just didn't have the motivation to go out and spend more money. I did do a little bit of internet shopping - I bought our plane tickets to San Diego! We're going during the last weekend in April. Yay! Tony hasn't been since little C was 3 weeks old and now he'll be 3 this year. Time flies way too quickly.

Learnedededed

In a few minutes, I'll be leaving work early to head to Seattle University, the place that will be taking lots of my money in return for a quality education. I will be learning about my program and what classes I need to register for and when. One prerequisite that I need is Business Calculus. Scary!

Urge to spend money

It doesn't happen very often, but once in a while I actually get the urge to go shopping. I have that urge RIGHT NOW. Here's a list of things I would like to procure:

- bookcase for our living room
- maternity clothes
- vase & something to go in them for our fireplace mantel
- window coverings
- jeans for Tony
- barstools
- bedroom suite

The bedroom suite, barstools and window coverings are unlikely ATM. I have my eye on a bookcase at Ikea that's $80. I know I can find the mantel solution at Michael's for less than $30. However, I would feel guilty for spending money on any of the above things because they are wants and not needs. But, then again, Tony just spent a good chunk of change yesterday on snowboarding which was definitely a want. Why do I have such a hard time spending money? Although we are in debt, we aren't poor.

It's already Friday

This week has flown by. I can't believe it's Friday already! The only thing I didn't get done on my cleaning feat list was the bathroom on the first floor. This weekend, I'm going to sweep our drive & patio if it doesn't rain. Tony will be out snowboarding on Saturday so I'll have the house all to myself. Bookclub is on Sunday.

Last night was busy. Always Chiropractic was having their 2-year birthday celebration. Tony & I went right after work to celebrate, eat and catch up with Stine & Lyam. We then went and picked Teresa up from work and then headed over to Twist in Belltown for a fund raiser for Jill's brother. He was in a hit-and-run accident as a pedestrian back in early December when we had the big windstorm that knocked out power in much of Seattle. He just got out of the hospital this month and is making marked improvements. $14k was raised for him last night! Afterwards, we went back to Teresa's house for a bit so Tony could meet her little puppy, Piper. He's in love now :)

Too ambitious?

As we work on decorating our house, we're not finding any curtains/drapes that appeal to us for our living room. I have this idea that maybe I should sew them myself. I haven't broken out my sewing machine since moving to Seattle. Is it too ambitious? Am I willing to risk spending money on fabric and then the curtains turn out poorly? What I think may be a good idea may indeed be a bad one.

I didn't get through my feat list. That was too ambitious. However, I am confident that I will get through the list this week. I dyed Tony's hair yesterday and now there is dye all in my clean tub. So disappointing :(

Amanda - I have been known to clean people's houses when I visit them. Especially if they have to work and I am carless. Just ask Betsy!

Weekend feats

- Scrubbed the master bath from top to bottom (except the walls)
- Installed new bathroom fixtures in the guest bath (we've had them for MONTHS)
- Made vegetable stew (potatoes, carrots, collards, kidney beans, tomatoes, onion)

Now that I list it out, it seems like I didn't get a lot done yesterday. Today, my goals are:

- Clean guest bath, half bath & downstairs bath (no tub to scrub so it won't take as long)
- Vacuum
- Organize downstairs guest bedroom
- Take out recycling
- Laundry

Poor Tony is sick with another cold and isn't feeling up to doing much of anything. Teresa was going to come over tonight but we may have to cancel if he's not feeling any better later today.

Make it so

If I tell the Internet, I'll be more likely to do it.

I fully intended to get some cleaning done tonight. Instead, I read my Real Simple magazine, talked on the phone with Jenn, sorted through the pile of mail, paid bills and then wasted time browsing the internet. I have two cleaning goals this weekend: vacuum the house and clean ALL of the bathrooms.

ShooshShooshShoosh

We heard lil' bean's heartbeat today so we know I'm still pregnant. My diet has been poor (for me) and I've been paying for it with constipation. Yeah, I know constipation happens when your pregnant, but I also know you can prevent it if you eat enough fiber and I have not been eating enough fiber lately. That will be changing now because I am not liking this constipation deal AT ALL. I've got the bloating pretty much under control. Eating smaller meals at night means I wake up ravenous, but oh well.

Tony & I are now having to have the discussion on whether to test for down's syndrome or not to test for it. I don't want to do the test and he does. The test could give false positive results. He says he will be too anxious thoughout the rest of the pregnancy unless he knows. The only comprimise I can come up with is that I get the blood test done and have the doctor call Tony with the results.