Babies are Expensive!

I was just about to post some pictures of my "nursery" when I realized that would give away the gender so I can't do that yet.  That means this is sort of a boring post.  Sorry.  The nursery is really not much to look at anyway considering I am not allowed to paint the room.  I did get the crib set up and I took Ken with me to Target to buy a mattress since he is the mattress expert in our family.  The baby bedding is being made by a talented friend of mine so that is not even in there yet.  I did manage to get a couple of decorations up on the walls.  I am not huge into decorating so I didn't know whether I would find anything that I liked but I did manage to get a little something something.  :) 

Babies are so expensive!  We have been fortunate enough to be given many baby items from generous friends and family members, but there is still so much to buy!  Well, there WAS so much to buy.  I think I just broke the bank online tonight though.  I finally got a diaper bag that I think I will actually like and  I ordered a hand made car seat cover to spruce up the car seat that we were given, which is in great condition, just not my favorite color.  I also bought a car seat rain cover since we do live in the Northwest and I would still like to go outside on walks, rain or shine.  Ok, that was really all that I bought tonight but it felt like a ton.  So many decisions to make!  Ken just laughs at me.

Well, no pictures today since they would all give away the gender, except the diaper bag... Ken asked me to get one that is gender neutral so if you are really interested to see the one that I bought you can click on this link. diaper bag 

The Picture

A picture to go with the previous post.  35 weeks!

35 Weeks, 35 Days, 35 Inches

I have been babysitting a family of 4 kids all week at their house.  This morning one of the middle-schoolers announced that there are 67 days left until Christmas.  I had to laugh a bit to myself because that is NOT the date that I am counting down to.  I did not have a running count down in my head though so I had to look it up.  35 days left until the due date.  And I am 35 weeks pregnant.  (Makes sense right, 5 weeks left, 7 days in a week, therefore 35 days.  Yeah, I am smart.)  But I thought it was pretty cool to think I am 35 weeks pregnant and there are 35 days left.  Plus, yesterday at my baby shower my belly was measured for a guessing game and what do you know... 35 inches around!... PSYCH.  I am actually 40 inches or 100 cm.

So this post would be a lot better if I had a picture or two to accompany it but unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures at the baby shower and I've already changed into my pajamas so I am not going to take a picture now.  Maybe tomorrow...

32 weeks and counting

I honestly don't really have a whole lot to say but I thought it was probably about time to post another picture.  The time is just flying by.  32 weeks already!  I have still been feeling pretty good and trying to take regular walks.  I play volleyball on Tuesday nights with ladies from church and many of them are shocked that I am still going.  I can't think of any reason not to go.  The baby is healthy as far as we know and I still feel better when I exercise than when I don't.  The thing that might stop me soon, if anything, is that I am definitely slowing down, which makes it harder to play competitively.  When I don't play well I get frustrated with myself.  I might get too annoyed with myself to keep going, but I am still hoping to play as long as possible.

32 weeks and counting...

I am fairly certain that I remember seeing a picture of one of my sisters wearing this dress while she was pregnant when I was on my mission.  Thank goodness for hand-me-downs!

Like I said, nothing really exciting to share.  If anyone has some good tips for dealing with pregnancy indigestion I'd love to hear it.  That is one of the few things that has been bothering me lately.  Otherwise I can really say, all is well.  I am still ok with being pregnant.  I still don't love it, but I am not dying to be done yet.  I am certain that time will come.

Babymoon

A random picture that I took at 27 weeks and forgot to post.  I am now 29 weeks.

There are a couple of variations that you can find online about the origin of the tradition of "honeymoon."  One suggests that it is a derivative from a nordic practice of the groom kidnapping his bride-to-be from a neighboring town and then going into hiding until the parents of the bride give up the search.  Another, and probably more likely, says that the elite of India used to go on a month tour after the wedding to visit friends and relatives who could not otherwise attend the celebration.  It was adapted by the British as a tradition for the couple to just go on a vacation after the wedding.  Whatever the origin, that tradition has been around for quite some time and is now the first trip for the couple to celebrate their marriage.  A relatively recent tradition is for the couple to take one last trip to celebrate before the arrival of a baby.  This is known as a "babymoon."  I am pretty sure the origin of this tradition is the travel and tourism industry just trying to think up one more way to get people to travel.  I fell for it.

Ken and I decided to celebrate our babymoon with just a weekend get away to a bed and breakfast in Hood River.  Although we didn't "do" much while we were there we had an absolutely lovely time just walking around the historic downtown, sitting on a park bench and people watching, visiting the Hood River and the Columbia River, and eating food.  I did sudoku a lot and he thought about business ideas.  It was so nice just to be away from home and do something different for a couple of days.  I didn't take a ton of pictures so here are just a couple of them, especially ones of my baby bump.

At a park on the Hood River.

 Overlooking the Columbia River.

At a panoramic viewpoint overlooking the Hood River valley.  We had just gone to visit several local orchards and we picked 12 lbs of peaches.  Yum.  I am so excited for peach smoothies.

So you know, Ken was there too.  Mt. Hood in the background.

One more, just because it was so beautiful.

I have to mention real quick that we took a 35 mile drive on a loop through the area with orchards.  Although it was beautiful, since we both grew up near orchards and picking pears in an orchard it wasn't as astounding as it otherwise might have been for someone else.  Still though, we definitely enjoyed the trip.

Black Friday

It dawned on me awhile back that my due date, November 23rd, is the day after Thanksgiving, which is also Black Friday.  I think I have braved the crowds and gone shopping on Black Friday every year since I was a young teenager except the couple of Thanksgivings that I spent in Spain and Argentina.  I suppose that more likely than not I will either have a brand new baby by that time or I will be so big that either way I probably won't have much of a desire to go out.  (This is assuming that the baby doesn't fall into the 4-5% of babies actually born on their due date, in which case I would obviously be in the hospital on Black Friday.) 

Without me even expressing my doubts about whether I would be going shopping on Black Friday this year, when Ken realized that was my due date his first question was, "Then who will go buy socks for me this year?"  In case you don't live, or have never lived in the west, there is a store called Fred Meyer that always has a 1/2 off sock sale the morning of Black Friday.  Since we have been married I've always gone to get socks for Ken on that day.  I guess he is pretty worried about his growing number of socks with holes in the toes... but not worried enough to be willing to go himself. 

Sorry mom but I did volunteer you as a possible alternate to go in my place.  :)

When this subject of my due date being on Black Friday came up again recently I learned something new.  I had always assumed it was called Black Friday because it was an ominous day of craziness, like dark clouds bringing in a storm.  Ken informed me that the nickname has quite the opposite meaning.  Retailers who have been in the red (in debt) all year are finally in the black (making profit) as of the day after Thanksgiving and through the rest of the holiday season.  Hmmm.  Learn something new everyday!

Here I am at 2 dozen weeks pregnant.  (That's 24 weeks just in case you weren't sure on the math.)  Sorry, phone camera...

Seriously?! $1.00?

This year was the first time I ever went to the post office at the very last minute to turn in my taxes.  We went through a lot of financial changes so it was pretty intense for me to try to figure out all of the paperwork this year.  We definitely had to pay taxes and we were not expecting a return.  But evidently we overpaid and they so kindly sent us a check back for the extra amount.  $1.00.  That is ONE dollar.  Not one hundred dollars.  Just one dollar.  Uno.  Wow!  Maybe if we were living a hundred years ago I would have cared about getting a dollar back but what can I do with a dollar now?  I can't even buy a gallon of gas or a pack of gum (at most stores.)  I think they should have done the post office a favor and not sent the check at all considering that was probably just one more piece of mail that the USPS had to deliver but didn't get paid for.  No wonder they are in so much debt! 

I think I could go on and on with snide remarks about the IRS sending us back a check for one dollar, but I don't think I will.  The truth is, this is actually the second time we've received a check from the government for $1.  I don't remember what happened to the first one but this time Ken and I have decided not to cash the check.  Maybe we will frame it someday. Have you ever had a ridiculous encounter with a government agency?