A little somethin' somethin'

A wonderful recipe for a yummy, but healthy, drink! M and I tried this tonight and loved it. I took the original recipe and added a few changes. Enjoy!

Virgin Mango Pina-Colada

1 mango - peeled, seeded and cubed
3/4 cups ice cubes
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 cup frozen pineapple
1/3 cup water
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk

Blend well in a blender.

CVS 8/24-8/30

Pretty good run for CVS this week. There were a couple different ways to organize my purchases for this week; a good reminder of the value in playing around with the different transaction combinations for your purchases in order to score the best deal. The list below includes all the items I bought, but is organized for the buyer to pay the least out of pocket (OOP). However, though cheaper, doing the transactions in the order below will leave you with no leftover ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs). And to me, that is a sad thing. So at the end I'll tell you how I did things a little differently.

Transaction One

• Zipfizz Sports Drink(my husband adores this stuff so I was super excided when it was on sale!) - $5.99
• Kotex Liners $1.49
• (2) CVS hand sanitizers - $2.99 each

Total: $13.46 + tax

Used:
- $2/$10 CVS coupon (available here, page 30)
- $1 Kotex coupon (7/20 SmartSource) and also here.
- (2) $2 CVS Skincare, available here.
- $5 ECB (from last week)

Total OOP: $1.46 + Tax

Received:
$5.99 ECB for Zipfizz
$1.49 ECB for Kotex
$1.00 ECB for hand sanitizer


Transaction Two

Zipfizz Sports Drink - $5.99

Total: $5.99 + tax
Use: $5.99 ECB from transaction one
Total OOP: Tax

Receive: $5.99 for Zipfizz

Transaction Three

Huggies Mega diapers - $13.99

Total: $13.99 + tax
Used:
- $2/$10 CVS coupon (available here, page 30)
- $2 CVS coupon for Huggies (received as printout for scanning my card at the ExtraCare box)
- $1 manufacturer coupon
- $5.99 ECB; $1.49ECB; $1.00ECB

Total OOP: $0.51 + tax

Overall, a terrific deal for diapers! However, since I wanted to have ECBs left over for next week, I actually did only two transactions.

Transaction One included (1) Zipfizz; (1) Kotex; (1) CVS hand sanitizer; = Total OOP: $1.49.

Transaction Two included (1) Huggies Mega pack; (1) Zipfizz; (1) CVS hand sanitizer; = Total OOP: $9.19.

Still not a bad deal considering the diapers. And now I have a $5.99 ECB (Zipfiz) and a $1.00 ECB (hand sanitizer) left over for next week. Sound complicated? It really isn't... :-)

CVS 8/17-8/23

Here's the CVS tally from this week:

Transaction One

1 Infant's Advil - $5.79
3 Puffs Tissues - (3) $0.88
2 Glade Air Fresheners - (2) $0.88
2 CVS Gold Emblem Candies - (2) $0.88

Used:
$2/$10 CVS coupon (available here, page 30)
$1 off Advil
$1 off 3 Puffs Tissues (8/3 P&G)
BYGO Free Glade (8/3 SmartSource)
$1 Gold Emblem (CVS coupon)

$5 Extra Care Buck (ECB) from last week

Total OOP: $0.24
Received: $5.79 ECB for Advil (monthly CVS deal)


Transaction Two

2 Johnson & Johnson First Aid Tape
1 box of Band-Aid Ultra Strips

Used:
$2/$10 CVS coupon (available here, page 30)
$1 Johnson & Johnson First Aid (8/10 SmartSource)
$1 Band-Aid Ultra (6/22 RedPlum)

$5.79 ECB

Total OOP: $0.81
Received: $5.00 ECB for buying $10 worth of Johnson & Johnson products (CVS weekly deal)

I was really happy with this transaction, but kinda wish I could have done it all for one measly dollar. :-) I know, I know... don't push it. :-)

Babies Don't Keep

A friend of mine remarked recently how in order my house was. I laughed, thinking, if only she looked behind my closet doors. :-) I love being organized. I love being clean and clutter-free. But the truth is, I fail at it everyday. Sure I have my daily list of things "to do" to keep the house straightened, the birds fed, the plants watered, and Morenna clean and smelling good. But I often find myself discouraged that it can't all seem to be done at the same time.

I thought I would adore being a stay-at-home mom... and I do adore the "mom" part... but the "staying home" can certainly be difficult.

I rock my baby, but I notice that I missed a spot when I dusted yesterday. I get on the floor with my baby and her toys, but I'm more preoccupied with the dog hair remaining on my living room carpet from Uncle Buddy's (my parent's dog) visit last week. I smile as I feed Morenna her cereal, but there are irritating crumbs under my bare feet that need vacuuming.

A post I read today reminded me of the importance of not having it all together. God gives us just the grace we need to make it through the important things today. Not the trivial. My Mom used to sing a poem to me when I was little (I'm not sure of the author).. and it has really struck home with me lately. It's my guidepost today:

Cleaning and scrubbing
Can wait till timorrow,

For babies grow up
We've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs,
Dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby,
And babies don't keep.

On the move!

There are two new things at our house... Goodnight Moon and a baby on the move!

CVS 8/3-8/9 -- Stop #2

With all the good deals this week, I just couldn't help but going a second time. Little did I know that the candy deal from three weeks ago was still going on (under the wire, I might add) so I decided two more transactions wouldn't break the bank even if they might tip the scale. :-)
















Transaction One

• (2) Dove Bags Dark Chocolate - $4.49 each
• (1) Dove Chocolate Bar - $2.49

Used

• Buy one Dove bag get one free
• $2/$10 CVS coupon
• $5 ECBs

Total OOP (out of pocket): $0.11 with $5 ECBs

Transaction Two

• Scott 12pk Toilet Paper - $6.49
• (2) Pert Plus Shampoo/Conditioner B1G1 - $3.99
• CVS Mouthwash - $2.39
• Colgate Toothpaste - $2.99

Used

• $2/$10 coupon
  
• (2) $2 off Pert Plus
• Free CVS mouthwash from earlier this week
• $1 Colgate
• $1 Scott
  
• $5 ECBs

Total OOP (out of pocket): $0.48 with $2 ECBs to spare

And we're on to next week...

Pearly Whites

Pray for us. We're teething today...

CVS 8/3-8/9

Back by popular demand, here are my CVS wheelings and dealings for this week! Not another huge week for me, but I obtained some good deals, including a couple of things we needed.

Did I mention a brand new CVS store opened up a mere two miles from our house? As an announcement of their grand opening, the store sent around some great coupon fliers, including a $5/$15 coupon! I was very grateful.

Transaction One

Bought:

• (2) Dawn Dishsoaps - $0.88 each
  
• (1) Crest Toothpaste - $2.49 each
  
• (1) Oral-B Toothbrush - $2.49 each
  
• (1) Colgate Toothpaste - $2.99 each
  
• (1) Infant Advil - $5.79 each

Total: $15.52
Used:

• $1.00 Crest Toothpaste coupon
• $1.00 Colgate Toothpaste coupon
• $1.00 Children's Advil coupon
• $1.00 (2) Dawn coupon
• $1.00 Oral-B coupon
• $5/$15 coupon
  
• $4.00 in ExtraCare bucks (ECBs) *ECBs are basically paper money that you can use at CVS on any future purchase
  

Total Out of Pocket (OOP) expense: $1.56
Earned: $10.79 in ECBs

Transaction Two

Bought:

• (1) Almay Eyeliner - $8.99
  
• (1) CVS Cotton Pads - $2.99
  
• (1) L'oreal Styling Gel - $4.99

Total: $16.97
Used:

• $1.00 Almay coupon
• $3.00 CVS product coupon
• $1.00 L'oreal coupon
• $10.97 ECBs

Total OOP: $1.34
Earned: $5.oo in ECBs; (1) free CVS mouthwash

All in all, not a shabby deal. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to score any of the Pert Plus that they had on sale this week (it was buy one at $3.99 get one free and I had two $2.00 coupons, making the deal a $0.01 moneymaker). According to the manager they sold out of all the bottles early this afternoon, but she graciously offered me a raincheck for them, so I guess I'll just pick those up next week. :-)

I'm Alive!!!

Yes, I'm still alive - contrary to the recent state of my blog. As I mentioned before, my writing time has been channeled towards composing a newsletter once a week on all our recent household happenings as well as updates about our baby girl for our family and friends. (It's easier for me to write the e-newsletter than to post on my blog, for some reason. If you want to receive a copy of the newsletter just shoot me off an email at first initial, M, last name at gmail dot com).

But things have been hopping here for us. My mother-in-law paid us a two-week visit in the middle July. It was a real treat to have her here (hey, live-in babysitter!) and I know she appreciated getting some quality time with her first grandchild. Morenna certainly loves her Nana.

M's been really busy at work and has been forced to work some crazy hours, much to our disappointment. He's actually in the process of considering a new job with a large consulting firm near our home. Feel free to keep that in your prayers! I think he's enjoying fatherhood on the whole. I remember back in our college days I often wondered what M would look like as a dad. He always told me he didn't want to have children (a little white lie at the time) and I figured I could see why - he never seemed like the daddy sort. But boy could I ever be more wrong. He is so great with Morenna and seems to enjoy her more and more everyday!


Morenna herself is, well, just amazing. She continues to surprise us with her developmental growth. She's starting to teeth now, but so far it hasn't been too traumatic for baby or mommy. She rolls from tummy to back and back to tummy.

She likes to sleep on her side (at least I think she does since I put her to bed on her tummy and she's always on her side when I go to get her in the morning). She's sleeping through the night like a champ (8-9pm to 6-7:30am) and she loves to scoot around and knaw on her toys. Sitting up is also a new activity.

I have to say her favorite place is probably either outside or on her Mommy and Daddy's bed. We're keeping my parent's golden retriever for a couple of weeks and she's enjoying the presence of another slobbery companion.



And me... well, I'm just loving life. What a joy it is to be a wife and a mother. A challenge, yes, but what life-endeavers aren't? I'm really enjoying my new hobby of bargain shopping. Since we've gone down to one income, I'm gripping my wallet a little tighter these days, but the resulting effect has been terrific. I'm loving all the deals I am able to score each week at places like CVS.

My most recent trip was just yesterday. It wasn't one of my most glorious trips ever, but I was pretty excited to obtain the following items for just over $2:

• 1 package of make-up remover pads
• 1 16 oz bag Skittles
• 1 package of Bandaids
• 2 bars of Dove dark chocolate
• 3 packages of Mentos
• 1 Revlon lip gloss
• 1 package of M&M Premium candies
• 1 Clairol Natural Instincts hair color (and no, I don't color my hair... it was for a friend :-))

What's even better is that I have $4 in CVS money to spend on my next visit. Whoo hoo! I'm loving it! And to make things even better, my local grocery had triple coupon day last week. In all I spent over $90 just in coupons alone... and some items the store actually "paid" me $0.10. $0.25 or $0.90 cents to buy. Tee hee :-)

And one other money-saving activity has been our little garden: two tomatoes and one pepper plant. Somehow or another, our little pepper plant has become the fertile king of the land, popping out eight peppers so far and leaving 40 blooms to go. Very interesting.

So that's a little glimpse into our lives. Hope all is well with you!

If You Came Over to My House...

You would see: A pile of unorganized shoes by the front door; Morenna's exersaucer in the living room with multiple burp rags scattered about; paper snow flakes that are still hanging on our back door and a pile of coupons on the kitchen table.

I’d probably feed you: Banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (homemade), peach pie (also homemade), chips and salsa or some really delicious Bing cherries I have in my fridge.

And offer you this to drink: Milk, homemade iced tea with mango, cranberry/blueberry juice, water, hot tea or coffee. Sorry, no soft drinks.

I’d undoubtedly ask if you’d read: Any good theories on LOST or the recent, stupid, Washington Post article on racial bias.

I’d want to play this music for you: Coldplay's new album, Viva la Vida

I’d want to tell you the latest about: Morenna's sleeping habits; the money I've saved by shopping at CVS; my devotional time; Morenna's first laugh.

I’d probably suggest a game of: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Backgammon.

I might show off: My new laptop or my new cell phone. Both are pretty spiffy.

I might get on the computer and show you: Recent snapshots of Morenna or one of the recent newsletters.

If it was a long enough visit, I might watch: Transformers on our home theater system. I love showing off the bass in that movie... or if it was a ladies gathering perhaps a Thin Man, or Jane Austen favorite?


Many thanks to Leeann for the inspiration for this post. :-)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all our friends who are new Daddys this year!

And here's to two very special "Daddys" in my life - you guys are the best!!!

Houston we have a problem

Once again you'll have to pardon my lack of posts. M has had to take the laptop to work with him this last week and I'm not able to download pictures on our old desktop here at home. Bummer. And last week I was home in Ohio bogged down with yet another sinus infection! So no posting then, either (not that I would post using my parent's crawling dial-up anyway).

On the whole, though, we're doing exceptionally well. Morenna is growing like a weed and is a bit more of a handful. She's taken to standing up whenever anyone will help her and consequently she wants to be held all the time! She's sleeping well, though, so I'm able to spend most of her waking hours with her and still get things done in the meantime.

M and I are looking into buying a mini-van. Don't jump to conclusions, and no, we're not getting ahead of ourselves. It's just that Morenna's carseat barely fits into my Civic, and it's hard to get to her during our long trips back and forth to Ohio. All the SUVs we looked at had gynormous consoles between the driver/passenger seats, which is exactly what we're trying to get away from. We looked into the Honda Odysseys and fell in love with them. Come this July, you might see me driving one. Holy cow... that will be the day.

A long weekend lunch...

With our extra time this past weekend, M and I decided to be a little extravagant with our cooking:

Grilled Salmon
Scallops with Procutto Ham and Rosemary
Black Bean Relish on Greens
Biscuits

Yum!

What's New...

Here's the truth of it: I'm horrible at blogging. Finding time to blog each day (even each week) continues to be a losing battle for me, but I'm trying. :-)

Things continue to be busy for us. M finished his finals last week (whew) so I've been able to redeem some of my free time for other things. He now has only 15 credit hours left before he will officially be finished with his degree.

I celebrated my 25th birthday last week as well. For once in my life I felt old and tired... but I blame Morenna for that since I was up with her most of the night before. :-) My parents made a last-minute trip over for my special day, and so M and I were able to have a date-night together and went shopping. Yes, shopping. I hate shopping, but I recently discovered that none of my pants/shorts fit. Surprisingly it isn't due to weight (I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight a week after Morenna was born) but the fact that my hips expanded more than I had thought. Thanks to hip-hugger jeans, none of my pants would fit and a shopping trip was a necessity.

It was nice to get dressed up for a date with M. We grabbed a quick family picture before leaving Morenna with my parents (she didn't want to cooperate for the picture):
This past weekend our little family packed up and went to Virginia Beach for the law school graduation of one of our good friends from undergrad. It was our first overnight trip away from home (not staying with family). Morenna did great and we even had the opportunity to take her to the ocean for her first visit. It was cold and she was bundled up like an Eskimo, but nevertheless... she was there.
I should add that part of the reason I haven't been blogging is because each week I put together a newsletter about Morenna for our family and close friends. That pretty much exhausts my creative writing abilities. :-) If you'd like to receive the newsletter I'd be more than happy to send it to you. Just shoot me off an email at: *first initial**middle initial (M.)*last name*@gmail.com.

Homemade "Geddes"

Ok, so maybe this image isn't as good as the professional artistic photographer's, but seeing how it's my baby in the picture I think it's close to perfect :-).

I'm trying to decide whether to title it
Firefly or Ladybug

Grace

I found this post today at Girl Talk to be really encouraging:

Grace When We Need It

Tell me you can’t relate to this scenario. You talk to a woman who is in the middle of a trial. She testifies to God’s overwhelming and sustaining grace. You marvel at her peace and joy that belies her suffering. But instead of praising God for His evident faithfulness, you begin to imagine yourself enduring her ordeal. "How would I cope?" "I don’t think I could handle it." "I hope it doesn’t happen to me." With high-definition clarity and color you see yourself in the midst of her ordeal. Grace is nowhere to be found, and you are gripped by fear and dread.

So often we ignore the awesome displays of God’s faithfulness to people in trials and instead imagine ourselves in their situation, minus the grace of God. We would do well to heed Elisabeth Elliot’s wise reminder that there is no grace for our imaginations. None. It’s simply not available. God is not waiting in the wings to help us through whatever horrible imaginary trouble we can conjure up today. But His goodness is stored up and will be abundantly poured out whenever we walk through a real trial.

I’ve passed along this piece of advice to oodles of women. Maybe that’s because there are so many like me who easily submit to fear. So let’s resolve together: the next time we observe someone going through a trial, let’s turn off our imaginations and instead fix our gaze on the marvelous, abundant, overwhelming and timely grace of God—the same grace that will be available to us when we actually need it.

“…do not fear anything that is frightening.” 1 Peter 3:6

More Firsts!

I'm sorry these posts are few and far between at the moment, but M is preparing for finals and what little bit of free time I have each day (which after household chores ends up being about 45 minutes) has been devoted to helping him prepare his study guides. So bear with me for another two weeks until finals are over. :-)

Morenna has certainly been busy with lots of new things. She had her first bath... laid in her crib for the first time... and took her first bottle all within the last week. We are absolutely loving our time with our little girl. Her personality appears a little bit more and more every day. On the whole, she is a very well-mannered baby. She is sleeping well and nursing well. She does have her cranky periods every evening, but they're short-lived. Car-rides, however, are not her favorite. So pray for us as we intend to travel to Ohio over this weekend to visit my ailing grandfather. I'm not so sure a 6 hour car-ride will be very much fun. :-)







Tummy time














My first bath













My first time in my crib











An afternoon snooze

My first bottle with Daddy




(As usual, all pictures can be viewed on my facebook or here)

Baby's First Outing

Earlier this week, Morenna got to go on her first outing downtown to see the cherry blossoms. Seeing how we call her our "little cherry blossom", we thought it only fitting that we should have some baby pictures with some real blossoms. Unfortunately M couldn't get off of work to meet up with us, but Grandma, G-Daddy, "Aunt" Rachel and Baby Kavan came along for the fun.















Mommy, Morenna, Kavan, "Aunt" Rachel






























Grandma with her lil' blossom

Alive, Alert, Awake...

Here's two recent videos of Morenna. Unfortunately I don't have sound options on my camera, but at least you can see how alert she is becoming.








I'm continuing to post pictures at this location: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16761&l=7c4fe&id=701008116

Two weeks

Our sweet baby girl was two weeks old yesterday. As I was reflecting at an early AM feeding just how much Morenna has changed, it occurred to me that I had yet to post the story of her arrival. I'm still adjusting to the lack of sleep and overall physical recovery, hence the delay... but without further ado (and I apologize for the length):

Thursday March 17th marked my last official day in the office. I had cleaned out my desk, said my goodbyes, trained my replacement and turned in my security badge. Needless to say, Friday morning I was more than anxious to begin the transition to motherhood. I was still battling my third sinus infection of the season, but my Mom was home with me and so we decided to try our luck at inducing labor with a really... really... long walk. I promptly took a nap when we got home and to my surprise, contractions started about an hour and a half later. They were regular... a bit too regular in fact, coming every five minutes right from the get-go. But despite the frequency they were very manageable, so we waited all evening with baited breath for them to increase in intensity. Unfortunately the night passed by and Saturday morning found me wondering whether this was really it or not. As the morning progressed contractions became irregular, some at 5 minutes, some at 8 or more - all completely manageable. So, M and I decided to take another walk followed by a nap. (See a pattern here? :-) ).

Saturday evening one of M's friends came over and we all played a game. Still irregular, my contractions suddenly started getting a bit more intense around 8:30pm. They continued to get stronger, but failed to become consistent. 5 min... 7 min... 3 min...

By 1am I was starting to get thoroughly discouraged. Anyone who knows me knows I hate being up all night, and although my contractions were very strong, they were still all over the map. My OB's words echoed through my head all night long... "call me only when your contractions are 5 minutes apart for one hour and you can't talk through them." I certainly couldn't talk through them, but they certainly weren't consistently 5 minutes apart. We kept waiting anxiously for them to become more regular. Boy, were we in for a surprise.

Around 6:30am the contractions made a drastic change. They started coming every 2-3 minutes apart and were so severe that I was getting sick with each one. At my wits end, I told my mom to call the doctor. Unfortunately my OB was at Disney World for the Easter weekend so I spoke with her replacement who told me I was welcome to come to the Birthing Inn to get checked, but they would likely send me back home. What a great thing to say to a weary laboring woman.

M and my Mom packed up the car and ate a quick breakfast. An hour later, we were on our way. I don't remember much about the trip other than my constant worry about how I was going to walk from the backseat of the car into the hospital. My contractions were so intense I didn't even realize I was pushing through them... until my Mom started hollering at me to stop pushing and start breathing. I think that was the first time in years I ever blatantly disobeyed her. ;-)

Somehow I made it into the Birthing Inn where a nurse ushered us into an observation room. While changing into a gown, my water broke... and I was thrilled. I knew now they wouldn't send me home. :-) The doctor came in shortly thereafter to discover me on all fours on the bed. Moments later, she announced that I was actually at 10 cm and the baby was already +2! I was so relieved. Nurses immediately came from all directions, shooing M and my mom aside so that they could wheel me down the hall into a labor room. It all happened so fast. In retrospect, it reminded me of something out of an ER episode. Drama, drama, drama. Thirty-five minutes of pushing later, our little girl was born.

While it certainly was no easy task, its amazing to all of us that labor, including transition, ended up being completely at home. I'm just glad I didn't have the baby in the car. :-) M and my Mom were fantastic coaches and I couldn't have pursued a natural, unmedicated birth without them. However, if there ever is a future baby expected I think we'll be a little wiser in our timing in heading to the hospital. But for this experience, ignorance was bliss. I guess. :-)

Pictures!

Thanks for your patience in waiting for the baby pics. I have loaded them onto facebook, and you can access them here. I hope to upload them to blogger soon.

Enjoy!

The Blossom Has Bloomed

~ Spring has come to our home ~

Morenna Sakura Marie

March 23, 2008

Easter Morning, 9:51am

6 lbs; 12 ozs

18 inches

More details to come...

The Long and Short of It...

Today marks the two-week point in the countdown to my due date.

And the long and short of it is:

My bags are packed.
The nursery is ready.
My resignation paperwork is complete.
Matt's bag of snacks is waiting by the door. (Like a true man he insisted I buy beef jerky for his snack. I think he thinks a stay at the hospital is comparable to roughing it).
The carseat is clean and installed.
My mom is packed and ready for departure.
There is food in the house.
There are clear liquids in the house.
My big purple ball is fully inflated.

But on the flip side:

I'm soooo tired.
I'm fighting a cold.
I feel miserable.
I can't sleep.
I'm getting impatient.
I'm suddenly emotional! (A phenomenon that has been MIA for the past nine months.)
I'm a grouch.

In medical terms:

I'm ready to have a baby. Let's get this show on the road!

The pregnancy diet...

As my sweet husband said to me: "You have arrived, my dear wife". What he meant was that I have pulled up a kingly chair at the pregnancy table.

Since M was at law school tonight, I was pretty much on my own for dinner... and so I ate what sounded good, not what was healthy. In retrospect, I binged. This was the menu:

• Hostess chocolate mini-doughnuts
• Pickles
• Strawberries
• Eggo waffles... and
• two glasses of milk

Yes, I ate all of this at the same time. Yes, it was delicious. Yes, I'm pregnant. Yes, I'm a little embarrassed as I realize I'm confessing it to the world.

Lord of War

"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?"

~Yuri Orlov, Lord of War (2005)

At the risk of being a link-dump...

I have to say this blog that a friend at work called my attention to is really funny, although very shallow. A genuine jab at pale Americans. The post on moving to Canada is probably my favorite... right up there with #55 on apologies.

Note: Not personally responsible for any questionable blog content. I didn't read ALL the entries.

The One Month Countdown

My pregnancy road is rapidly nearing the end. Today marked the beginning of my last month... should Morenna come neither early nor late, but on her due date. Highly unlikely. :-)

But with this one month countdown comes the urgent reminder of all that I have left to do to get ready. Here's the list as it currently stands:

• Pick a pediatrician
  
• Wash all the new baby clothes
• Finish decorating the nursery - low priority (pictures in the post below, if you haven't seen them)
• Write thank-you notes for all the sweet baby items
• Pack the diaper bag
• Stock the changing table (diapers - check; soap - check; need: wipes, etc.)
  
• Pack my hospital bag
• Complete the childbirth education class
• Freeze up some meals
  
• Train my replacement at work and submit employment paperwork
• Sleep, sleep, sleep!!!

Will all these things get done? Probably not. But I sure am gonna try... especially with the last one. :-)

La De Da

I know it's been a little while since my last post. Sorry 'bout that. Last weekend my parents came to visit and bring over the baby furniture that M and I had received as Christmas gifts. Although my poor Dad was recovering from the flu, they all made it over in one piece... dog included. :-)

While M and my Dad put all the furniture together, Mom and I headed over to a friend's for a lovely baby shower brunch. It was so nice to get to celebrate the coming of Morenna with so many good friends (including many old roommates) and my Mom.


Here's a showing of the ex-roomies who were able to come. It says a lot that they are all still my friends. :-) More pictures from the shower can be seen here.

After the shower (which carried on for almost 4 hours as we were having so much fun!) my Mom and I trekked home to check up on the boy's improvements to the baby nursery. We were not disappointed. And after just a few minor tweaks and decorating additions, we had ourselves a nursery. The video below provides the best view of the nursery, but I've also included some pictures (you can click on the slideshow to view the pictures individually).








So after the busy weekend, M and I spent President's day quietly at home together. This weekend was rather quiet as well. Friday showed every possibility of being a snow day... but alas, the bad weather was skittish. To boost my spirits, though, M treated me to a wonderful steak dinner. *sigh* My husband is so sweet to me. On Saturday we spent some much needed time with friends, tidied up the house, and got the rest of the nursery in order. Sunday we relaxed... and watched our childbirth education videos. Ack! No further comment.

Meme's Galore

So I was tagged by a friend to participate in this latest meme. But before I do I must discuss the some sentiment on the practice of memes.

It's been my experience that most bloggers tend to fall into one of three major categories concerning memes:

1. Those who appreciate them about as much as they appreciate the senseless chain emails that float about in their inboxes. You know, the ones with the sob stories that demand you forward the email to ten of your friends or else half of the children in Africa will die and God will stop loving you.

2. Those who neither like nor dislike them. If a friend tags them, they are more than happy to participate, but they don't often initiate them.

3. Those who think they're a world of social networking fun and would be happy to participate in one daily. Not to mention they like the word itself. Meme.

That said, it's safe to announce I'm in the second school of thought. But I hesitate to tag others for fear that they might be in the first school and terminate our friendship. :-) Therefore, I'm going to do something a teensy bit different with this meme. No one will be tagged at the end, but if you read this post, haven't participated in this meme before, and belong to the first or second school of thought... then please personally respond to the questions in the comment section of this post. I'm thinking specifically of Sandy S., Brittany/Alecia A., Cami, Aunt P., etc. You guys don't have blogs, but I know you read mine... so make yourself known. ;-)


And the rules are...

1.) Show some cyber-love to the person who tagged you. -- Well, I've never shown anyone cyber-love. That sounds rather sketchy. But here's to my friend, SEM, who has the most darling little girl and is a fantastic, well-rounded Mom to boot!

2.) Post the 5 Meme Commandments on your blog so no one cheats. -- You're reading them.

3.)Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself without grossing anyone out. Below.

4.) Tag 6 random people at the end. -- Change of plans, as mentioned above. So I guess that means I'm cheating... but it's all in good fun. :-)

5.) Let the lucky winners know by commenting on their blog. -- What if they don't have blogs? ;-) Who wrote these rules, anyway?!

And now for the the real reason you've kept on reading:

1.) Last year I posted seven random facts about myself (my meme of 2007 :-) and I grossed a couple people out with #1 and #7... so I guess I can't restate that one here or else I would be breaking rule number 3. :-)

2.) When I'm trying to wake up in the morning I usually hum random made-up melodies with my head buried in my pillow until I'm more awake. My husband thinks it's cute.

3.) Through my entire pregnancy I've had a STRONG aversion to chicken and a craving for Pop-Tarts and Toaster Strudels.

4.) On Christmas Eve I still leave out milk and cookies for my :cough: Dad and insist that the Christmas Tree stay lit throughout the night. It's been that way since I was a little girl.

5.) When I was younger I used to wake up in the middle of the night and be terrified that I was the only one in the whole world who was awake. (Excuse: we lived in the country so it was pretty darn quiet at night.)

6.) I drew the cover illustrations for the book, "The Penguins of Penguin Town", for a local library contest when I was nine. Seven years later the librarian who organized the contest discovered the book when the library was getting ready to dispose of it and saved it for me. It now will be part of Morenna's new little library.

Browsing the Shelves

At the risk of being overly random, I thought I might mention the two books I'm currently wading through:

Whitewash by Brent Bozell


The Faith by Charles Colson (No, I'm not kissing up. Chuck gave me a signed copy so of course I have to read it in case he stops by my desk to ask me how I like it... which he will. I'm not complaining, though. It's been a great book so far.)

A Bummer of a Weekend

It's been a bummer of a weekend. My cold turned overnight into a full-blown sinus infection, which led us to cancel our trip to Ohio. The baby shower didn't happen... or rather, it did happen, just without me. :-) My family was so sweet to have the shower even though I wasn't there, and they called me on the phone while they played games and celebrated and took lots of pictures. The cake looked absolutely adorable and covered in cherry blossoms. It all made me feel so loved.

My hubby took time off work to get me feeling better, too. It's been such a blessing to have him home. Plus the Giants won the Superbowl, so I guess this bummer-of-a-weekend still has some good points.

Now I'm hoping I can get back on my feet after spending 5 days in bed! It's no fun being sick but it's so nice to be waited on hand and foot. :-)

Be still.

This past weekend my maid-of-honor and I threw a baby shower for an old roommate, RKO (far right). It was so much fun! Oddly enough, 4 of us in attendance were pregnant (the two of us in the middle share the same due date). Needless to say, hormones ran high and there was much more "ooo-ing" and "awww-ing" than normal. Ha ha. Pregnant women can be so silly.

At any rate, we are all looking forward to celebrating the birth of RKO's first baby! :-)

Today, however, has found me in bed. :-/ Somewhere I picked up a really bad chest cold. Boo. I'm hoping it will be better before M and I leave for the Buckeye State (and our first baby shower) on Friday! I can't wait to see my Mommy and Daddy!

Forgetfulness

It's certainly not my intention to post only about pregnancy or baby-related items. But what's a girl to do when most of the obscure blogworthy things that take place in her day-to-day life seem to somehow be connected to one of those two topics?

It's only fair that I share about the forgetfulness that has become a common theme in life. (Read: Baby-Brain). It is most definitely a real problem. Take today, for example: as a co-host of a baby shower, I kindly pointed my guests in the direction of the coffee pot and encouraged them to have a cup with their dessert. Several minutes later, one concerned guest brought her cup of murky, but fairly clear, water to me for review. It certainly wasn't coffee. No, the coffee grinds were still sitting in the grinder, next to the coffee pot. What we had was one big pot of hot, light tan, water. Brilliant.

And if that wasn't bad enough, several weeks ago I calmly asked a friend if I knew any of his family members. After staring at me a good long while (I'm sure he thought I was joking), he politely replied, "Yes, you actually were my brother's debate partner for a semester." Oh. my. gosh.

Add to that the numerous times I forget to turn the lights out when I leave a room, or the frequent times I find myself in the basement and can't remember what I went down there for. If this keeps up I hope I don't start forgetting important things like, oh, where I put the baby.

On Hiccups and Slowness

The snow is slowly melting... and the nursery is slowly coming together. My wedding "thank-you" list is slowly nearing completion and every morning finds me sloooowly getting out of bed. I certainly welcome the slow pace these days, and find that I'm much less forgetful if I am slow to move from one task to the other.

Morenna, on the other hand, is anything but slow. Within the last month she has developed a habit of having the hiccups at least once a day. This has been a really unique experience for me. I knew to expect them at some point or another, but this every day stuff is getting a bit much. :-) If I sound like I'm complaining, I am... sort of.

At a recent Drs. visit Morenna was identified as being head down and ready to go. Every mother's dream, right? It's true I'm happy about that fact (although we still have 9 more weeks to go). But every time Morenna has the hiccups, she head-butts my bladder (more than you wanted to know, right?). The scene typically looks like this:

hiccup... bladder spasm... 3 seconds of peace...

hiccup... bladder spasm... Mom wonders if she should visit the restroom... Mom dismisses that thought... 3 seconds of peace...

hiccup... spasm... Mom stands up... Mom sits down... 3 seconds of peace...

hiccup... Mom dashes to the bathroom...

baby's hiccups stop.

Cute, Morenna. I guess that's one way to get me to do a little workout.

Snow Dayz

Today brought an unexpected snow day to our little Virginia home. One thing that is unique about this area is that winter snows most often blow through only once or twice a season, but when they do they leave behind a lot of snow. Today was no exception. Currently 5 inches and counting.

I worked from home part of the day, taking a quick break in the morning only to head out to the store for milk and the chance to have fun doing doughnuts. (Hey, an Ohio girl HAS to practice her ninja snow-driving skills AT LEAST once a season.) The snow is so beautiful and even now is falling in lazy soft-white clumps. To set the mood, I placed cinnamon-apple candles throughout the house and have a batch of banana bread baking in the oven. Mmmm. I love snow days.





In other news, M & I purchased a new piece of furniture for our kitchen. The new buffet fits perfectly in an otherwise wasted corner of our kitchen/dining room. Thankfully it came with lots of storage space, too... so I've been able to unclutter my kitchen cabinets and discover things that I didn't even know I had. :-) Moving the coffee pot has also freed up space on my counters, making me a much happier home-maker. I heart iKEA.

News in our House

Well, things here on the East Coast have been nothing less but hectic over the last month. As we moved past Thanksgiving and ushered in the Christmas season, our little household hit some rough times.

M's work contract at the Pentagon kicked into high gear the beginning of December, requiring him to work 15 hour days, including weekends. At the same time, my father-in-law came for a long-awaited visit. Needless to say, my father-in-law and I had a nice loooong visit together... absent my husband. Very interesting. Then Matt's old college roommate came to visit us with his 2 year old son. Again, Matt got to spent very little time with him. Major bummer.

For Christmas we were grateful to head to Ohio for a visit with my family and a chance to pull Matt away from work. The visit was nice, but very busy. Unfortunately I came down with a really bad cold on Christmas day and spent some of the day in bed. :-P

After a quick two-day time back in VA we were happy to fly out to California to spend New Years with M's family. This was a much needed visit, since we hadn't seen some of his family since the wedding in March, and others since last new year. We squeezed a lot of visiting in with the time we had, which unfortunately left us rather drained. New Years we spent in Fresno with my mother-in-law's family eating home-cooked crab, watching Ratattoui and playing Mexican Train. It was lovely.

In other news, here is my most recent "belly" pic:

Pregnancy has certainly not been a breeze, but it's fun to look back and see how far we've come. My second trimester has now come and gone and I must say it was certainly more enjoyable than the first. The aches and pains are there at times, but M has been so supportive and any bad times quickly pass.

Our baby girl is growing like a weed and we are getting so excited to welcome her into our little family. Last week I got to have a second ultrasound, since the technician apparently made some mistakes with the first. This second "viewing" of our little cherry blossom was so much more fun than the first. She was quite animated, yawning all over the place and smiling. I think my favorite part was getting a picture of the little foot that has been vainly attempting to push itself through my side. :-) You can see the picture of it, below.



Morenna weighed in at approx. 2 lbs and 9 oz and was about 14 inches long. Whew. I sure hope she finds the room she needs in there over the next 2-3 months, because I honestly don't know how she's going to fit. :-)

So anyway, that's the news from our little neck of the woods. I'm looking forward to posting more this new year and keeping everyone up-to-date on our lives.

Kung Fu Elections

Tired of all the political banter? Ready to witness the true strength of today's Presidential candidates? Spend your evening duking it out to the death... be on your guard against Hilary's special powers. ;-)

A New Year

Well, here it is 2008 and I haven't blogged in more than a month! So on that note, you might appreciate seeing my New Year resolutions...

• Blog more often. :-)
  
• Survive until 2009.
• Manage a more efficient social calendar.
• Get a tetanus shot.

Fulfillment of #1 to come soon with details of all the holiday happenings.

A quote to ponder

"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."

- Herbert Hoover

Rock-a-bye Baby

So here are the before and after pictures of the new nursery (paint-job, that is). Now on to the furniture... :-)

Our nursery theme is cherry blossoms, so aside from the green walls the rest of the room will be light pinks and whites with cherry furniture. We'll see how it turns out.

So it's was the Monday before Thanksgiving...

And I realized that I haven't posted much in the last week or so. Unfortunately I don't have this great ability to spin interesting factoids about my life out of thin air, hence the silence when I have little exciting news to report. :-)

I joined Facebook a week or two ago. I'm not sure what made me go and do a thing like that, but I did. After breaking into a sweat that somehow I'd published all this private information about myself in a public place, I came to the conclusion that Facebook provided a believable allusion of safety and most likely I wouldn't die in my sleep. This just in: I'm still alive.

In other news, I've passed the halfway point in my adventure with pregnancy. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the whole experience, but I'm certainly grateful that the days seem brighter than they were four months ago. Our little cherry blossom has become quite the little mover and shaker. Consequently, my nights are quickly becoming sleepless half-starved ones. Ah life with my baby and me.

M and I painted the nursery this weekend. Pics are coming soon.

Also this weekend I saw a light at the end of the tunnel of wedding "thank you" notes. I think I'm down to about 45 left (don't ask how many I've done). Note: If you still haven't received your much-deserved note from us... know that we love you and we are obviously saving the best for last. Really.

It's a baby, stupid

Throughout the last few weeks, I've found my pregnant self oddly annoyed by the simple, kindhearted question anxiously posed by friends and strangers alike: "So, do you know what you're having?"

I have to wrestle back the urge to reply: "Ahhh...a baby, I hope."

But sarcasm aside, we finally have a real answer for all of you: "Yes...



... we're expecting a beautiful baby girl."


And in other news, my due date was moved up... so we'll get to see our little Spring cherry blossom a bit earlier than originally expected. :-)

Pumpkin time!

Well, fall has arrived! Hurray!

M & I had such a busy weekend getting things done around the house and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. And most importantly, we carved our pumpkin! M originally named the pumpkin "Porky" but after carving for 3 hours he rightfully changed the name to "Wilson". I guess by scrolling through the pictures below you can see why. :-)



Other accomplishments this weekend included:

• Attending the baby shower of a friend where Baby S. was introduced to Baby Boy Z. and Baby Boy H.... future playmates, we're sure!
  
• Baking a delicious apple crisp. Mmmmm.
• Baking zucchini bread. Mmm Mmm Mmm.
• Roasting pumpkin seeds.
  
• Steam cleaning our basement couch.
• Cleaning the carpet in the future nursery.
• Watching the entire Ohio State vs. Penn State game. Go Bucks!
  

Whew. I'm ready for a nap.

Columbus Day Weekend... A little belated

Time flies when you're having fun, they say. This is true. But time also flies when you're busy, sleeping, chatting on the phone, and sunbathing... but that's just my two cents.

For whatever the reason, I'm just now getting around to posting our Columbus Day weekend festivities. Although the weekend was HOT, I did get in my date with a local apple orchard and some good friends. Granted, strutting around in a hot, sticky orchard was not my vision of fall apple picking, but, well, you can't have it all. :-)

On Saturday, Rachel, Bruce and Hannah (Rach's sister) decided to join us for the fun and we made a day of it! Due to the heat I'm afraid I only picked 6 apples before succombing to the shady base of an apple tree and directing my poor husband to all the "really good" apples. One bushel later, we headed home with our harvest, some fresh apple cidar, local honey and apple butter. Mmmm. After that, a bubbly homemade apple pie finished off the day. (Pictures of the pie to follow once Rach actually sends them to me - ahem.)



Sunday, the W00SH came to spend the night and he and M used the afternoon to move Matt's entire office from a 3rd floor bedroom to the lower level to make room for our up-and-coming nursery. They certainly had a lot of heavy lifting to do but it looked great when they were through. Wow, that was a bit of an emotional shock to see an empty bedroom ready for a "nursery" facelift. I guess the realization of our future arrival is starting to sink in. *gulp*










As if our now-empty room wasn't enough, we spent this past Saturday morning taking a class at the local birthing center and touring the facility. Two words: wierded out. Not sure if I'm ready for all of this, but then again, I don't have much of a choice. :-)

In other news, my parents came for a visit this past weekend, too. It was so nice to see them, despite the chaos of their puppy and Moel Joughon's cat (whom we're catsitting) in the same house. Deadly.

Death by Molasses

So today I discovered a random bit of American history that I previously knew nothing about.

It all started with a personal phone call I received from my OB today, announcing my blood test results were anemic. Fantastic. So like the good patient I desire to be, I immediately hopped online to discover what high-iron foods I haven't been eating. To my surprise, blackstrap molasses was listed as one of the highest forms of natural iron available. Molasses?

After pilphering through my kitchen cabinets I was excited to unearth a whole jar of blackstrap molasses (random, I know. Who knows what else might be in my cabinets). Sure enough, one tablespoon = 70% iron! Whoo hoo... an iron source that's half sugar! Ha Ha. But anyway, I digress.

So as I'm surfing the web for bits of molasses info, I come across a mention of the Great Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919. Thinking it was probably some funny tidbit of history, I clicked through the story and was agast to find out what a devistating tragedy it really was!

More than 2 million gallons of fermented molasses spilled onto the streets of Boston in a wave over 10 feet tall, moving about 35 miles per hour. Mor than 20 were killed and more than 150 were injured, not to mention the economic repercussion and a harbor that was brown with goo for months. Yuck!

"Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise."

So tell me, did you know about this bit of history? I certainly found it very facinating and wondered why I had never heard about it before.

Of Cleaning and Clumsiness

For better or worse I've been in a cleaning and straightening mood. Absolutely everything I've laid my eyes on recently has need dusted or organized, vacuumed or polished. And that went for my blog, too. So my loving husband spent part of his weekend helping me redo the HTML coding on my blog to get it the way I wanted it. What a guy!

But it's probably a good thing that I'm in this cleaning mood because I'm afraid I've been making a lot of messes lately. Don't shoot me, but yes, I think it has to be pregnancy-relatd. I never was this clumsy before. Two weeks ago I spilled my berry frozen fruit drink (yes, as in BLUEberry, BLACKberry, RED rasberry) all over our beige suede couch. Thank God that Oxi-Clean came to the rescue. Then last week it was sugary ORANGE juice that I spilled (as in literally dumped the whole thing over with my hand) all over our new turkish rug, which a friend had brought back from Iraq for us. Brilliant. Oxi-Clean to the rescue again. So you can see why it's probably a good thing I'm in a "cleaning" mood. Who knows what I'll attempt to destroy next.

In other news, Fall decided to make a laughing-stock out of my previous emotion-filled post announcing his arrival. It's been 93F today and hot as the dickens. All that wonderful canned pumpkin that my husband bought to fulfill my autumn cooking drive is now just sitting in the cupboard waiting for a rainy (or colder) day. I'm not bitter.

I AM bitter at the nurse who took all my blood today at the doctor's office. How nice of her to assure me ahead of time that my body wouldn't need it anyway. I still think it's bogus that my body "didn't really need" the 6 LARGE viles that she extracted. I wanted so badly to ask if all the bloodwork was really necessary, but everytime I broached the subject I got that evil eye... you know, the one that says "this isn't about you, it's about your unborn child... and you wouldn't put it's health in jeopardy now would you?" I hate that look.

But Baby S. has certainly benefitted from the physical abuse I've survived the last couple of months. It's little heart measured in today at 160 beats - right on target. I must say I really enjoyed hearing it this time since previously I was too sick to care. So far we're on track to have a healthy happy little one! But for now, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet at home...

And for those of you who we've neglected for the past bazillion weeks, please know we hope to resume our regularly scheduled social calendar very soon. :-)

Thought for the Day...

A thought for the day by Robert Heinlein (who was the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard" science fiction, according to Wiki):

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

I'm not sure if this leaves me feeling accomplished or inept. :-)

Days of Rest

Fall is in the air... there's no doubt about that. I'm pretty sure it arrived Wednesday of last week and has been blowing about since then. With it came the strongest desire to go apple-picking and hiking, something I can't exactly do at the moment, but it's on the calendar. :-) My mind has been lost in thoughts of homemade goodies like apple pie, pumpkin bread, apple butter and butternut squash. Mmmm.

Saturday was absolutely beautiful here and I felt the best I had in days. I was able to take a shower (not a bath like I'd been doing the past 5 weeks - yuck!) and make the bed. I ran into a bit of an awkward dilemma, though, when I could not find any clothes that fit me. I guess that's what I get for wearing pajamas for so long.

Arm in arm with my husband we went out into the fall air for a little walk and I felt the sun on my face for the first time in weeks. How glorious and refreshing it was! Matt spent the rest of the day doing household chores and I watched the Ohio State football game (how's that for a little role reversal?). Finally as the sun set, Matt and I reminisced of childhood memories of fall... camping, harvest parties, rolling around in hay, pumpkin carving. It was a delicious day.

Taken Captive...

For whatever the crime (:cough: :cough:)... I'm doing the time. Yes, it's true. Joining millions of women everywhere, I'm stepping up and paying my dues. "What dues," you ask? Well, see if any of these give it away...

1. For 5 weeks now you've been unable to play the deadly game of Survivor... of commuter traffic, that is. In fact, you probably haven't been behind the wheel in over 6 weeks. You've been nominated for an award by the Environmental Defense Fund for the amount of gas you've saved by never leaving your house.

2. Your new dieting plan is so successful it's scary. Eat what you can... throw it up later. Simple. Concise. (Feel free to ask about the follow-up plan, "How to Gain Weight on an Empty Stomach". It's a best-seller.)

3. You're able to have emotional breakdowns at the drop of a dime and no one asks any questions. The more you do this, the more bouquets of flowers you receive.

4. You visit the doctor because you're pretty sure you're dying. Doctor says, "the heart rate is 174. You both seem to be in perfect shape, why are you here?" You shoot a nasty glare her direction and then proceed to crawl out of her office on your hands and knees. She smiles and wishes you well.

5. You're in fierce competition with your Grandfather over who is taking the most prescription medications to stay alive. So far you've lost count. Let's see, there's the one to keep you from throwing up, the one to calm your stomach once you have thrown up, the one that replenishes the lost nutrients from throwing up, the one to manage the migraine that arrives from continuously throwing up.... and others you care not to share. Total: 173

I think that's enough that you get the point.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but it is the Lord who determines his steps..." ~ Proverbs 16:9

It's a no-brainer that M and I's "course" will be much different than originally planned. Human calculations predict Baby S may appear around 3.31.08. But in the end, who really knows what the adventure will look like. So far, it's been absolutely loads of fun.

A best friend...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how precious friendship is, especially friendship in the form of a husband. M didn't have to love me (in the way one might perceive family would), but he CHOSE to. In my situation, my husband decided to love me even when I was unlovable (and told him to get lost. :-/). He chose to remain by my side for the rest of my life, not because of what he could get out of it.

One thing I've learned in our five months of marriage is how selfless true love really is. My husband continues to teach me more and more about the love that Christ has for His church. I have to keep reminding myself that my husband's love is only a shadow of God's love for me... what a blessed thing! M., your love rightfully puts me to shame... May I grow in selflessly loving others. Your love has been one of the greatest blessings in my life, apart from my salvation. I love you, M.

A reflection on Christ and the Church