Because waiting for babies is boring...

I've decided to move my blog. I've been okay/semi-happy/whatever w/ blogger, but decided I needed to do some cleaning house anyway and why not get a shiny new wordpress blog? So I did. And I'm 38 1/2 weeks pregnant, so I know no one will get upset w/ me for it.

So, from now on, if you want to read new and exciting things from me, go to:

http://jamiemcq.wordpress.com/

Bookmark it, update your feed reader, comment often. I think this blog will stay here, but I also imported all the posts I've made to the new blog... so it's the same but different.

A good book and a bad book.

This week, I decided to step out of my typical genre and try some recommended books, both of which are kind of action/adventure/non-realistic. The first was Dan Brown's newest book, The Lost Symbol. I'm kind of so-so on Dan in general. I like the overarching themes of his books, that they get me thinking about stuff and I like that they're quick and snappy reads that keep the pages turning, but usually walk away thinking it was just okay, not like a life-altering experience. It is sort of funny though that some (er...most) chapters are like 2 pages long. So I can read 50 pages and be like, "OMG, I just read 30 chapters!" Like a 3rd grader.

So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book was my favorite of the 3 Robert Langdon Dan Brown books. I really enjoyed the fact that it talked about American history and the Masons and took place in Washington. It was interesting, and honestly, made me appreciate the Masons a little more. I thought I'd come away thinking they were a weird secret society, but I feel like it was a pro-Masonic point of view. I mean, still a little odd, but you know, not like sacrificing virgins creepy or anything like that. Observation: the bad guy in this was WAAAY worse and WAAAY more creepy than the bad guy in the other books. Of course, like w/ all the Dan Brown books I've read it was very plot driven which is annoying at times, and the characters say the cheeeesiest lines sometimes, but it got the job done. 2 days, flew by. :)

The next book I picked up was One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. I give this one a thumbs down with a farting sound. I mean, I *guess* I can see how some ppl get sucked in to the series (there are a bunch of them now), but I just wasn't drawn in at all by the characters or writing. The writing was very mediocre, it felt like I could have done this (not saying I'm "that good" but saying the writing was "that not good"). And Stephanie Plum, the "heroine" was a giant moron who I had no positive feelings about. So, I finished it today and shrugged, oh well. In the process, I realized that Scott knows a song that uses the line One for the Money and I do not. This might be the first time that has ever happened... Weird.


And next I have a new book (well, new from paperbackswap) called The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. I hope I don't become a vegetarian after this...that would be inconvenient.

And I've now switched to Goodreads.com, instead of shelfari, for my online book reviewing and cataloging needs. It's an important decision every nerd mus make for herself, but I find this site to be way more kickass than shelfari. :)

2009 in Review

I know it's not technically over yet (heck, we could even have a baby picture this year...), but I just love looking back over the pictures of the year so here are a few favorite memory-inducing pictures. It's kind of fun because it's our last childless year... next year all of our memories will involve Quiglet.

In January, I met Bill Clinton! IDK why it's not showing my edited and cleaned up pic, but you get the drift. He was *thisclose*. And I have a pic of me and him but it's not digital therefore doesn't exist on the blog bc I'm too lazy to figure out the scanner.


This is a funny one to me, we had a snow day for the Inauguration in NC. It was a great day of lounging around and watching history on our crappy old TV. And this picture will surely show how technology has changed in the years to come.
And then later that Spring...we became homeowners! (And later that year Scott took a chainsaw to the ivy on that tree... and then a mower to the ivy on the ground. lol!)

And then a month or so later, I did this! The Philly 10 miler

And then the next day, I did this.

Then Scott got his PhD a week later and I was a terrible, unsupportive wife and have NO pictures of him in his cap and gown or otherwise indicating his accomplishment pictorally. We do have a diploma on the wall, and he does make a point of having a fit when we receive mail that is NOT addressed to Dr. Scott. "Who's "MISTER" McQ????" So, consider this rambling paragraph my acknowledgement that he did it and it was a big deal.

Let's see... then Ashley and Rob got hitched! I was soooo wasted at their wedding (lol).

We don't have a ton of exciting pictures from later that year (mainly bc we just hung around), but we did make 2 trips to PA in the fall - the first was for Sophie's 1st birthday party! She's super cute these days, and they're all coming to visit in January!!!! Hooray! But that's 2010, which is not the focus of this post.
In October, we celebrated our 3 year anniversary :) We always take a pic of ourselves on our anny, so here it is!
Then, before we knew it, it was Christmas! And we got a REAL tree this year for the first time ever, which was so fun. I know the popular thing these days is going fake, but I've never had a real tree since I've been an independent grown-up so it was so fun to have the house smell like pine and vaccum every day. ;)

We'll see what else this year brings... we're hoping for calm and mild days of Jamie & Scott time! Though there's always the possibility of Monkey coming early, I'd love to have a 2010 baby. It just makes her age easier to calculate, you know?

Aimless/Update/Random

So, the semester's over! I'm officially done until August, when I have to take 1 class. And I'll finish up the following spring w/ my final project class and be the Master. I'm excited, it's a good arrangement that allows me lots of time to be w/ Monkey in the first year and a half and also keep my brain alive and functioning. :)

And I'm 36 weeks. I should get this out there right now, I'm not good at waiting. And there's also this trend in my family and among my friends where babies seems to take their good ole time (comfortable uteruses must run in the family), so I've been basically assuming that I'll also go late. I figure if I set the bar up there maybe it won't be as hard? IDK. But it's also difficult to look at the calendar this month and be like "Yes, any of those days could be her birth-day. Or none of those days." I don't do well w/ this uncertainty. Oh, the other thing that doesn't help is people telling me their "early labor" stories. Like "oh, I had my baby at 35 weeks!!!" Good for you.

My plan WAS to read all the Harry Potter series in my waiting month. I read the first two so far, and it's fine. I Loved them the first time, but you know, I didn't know what happened at the end. It's slightly less enthralling this time. I'll still get to the others, but it's not like I'm devouring them at the rate and intensity I'd hoped I would. I was hoping it'd be the magic bullet that kind of made December fly by and all the sudden - I'm in labor!? Oh, I was so naive when I thought up this plan.

So now I'm pretty aimless actually. I don't have a ton of energy to go out and do social things and things I *should* do (read: clean the bathroom) but don't really have a lot of fun things to fill the time and make not doing the above things okay. I need a good book. Oh, and I realize I should be enjoying this, and some days I am, I'm just kind of bored.

I don't have an updated belly pic... I don't really think much has changed since the last one. I am looking pregnant now, but I'm still amazed at how not-giant I am. It's a good thing, the past few weeks have been very uncomf and I can only imagine what ppl who look like I do now when they're like 6 months feel at the end. I'm even kind of hoping I don't get any bigger. We'll see about that (*cough* Christmas Cookies *cough*)

Happy December!

How is it December already!? Yikes!! And at the same time... mmmmmm Christmas cookies.

Well, we've been busy busy. Here's my latest belly pic:
I'm now 34 1/2 weeks... and showin' like a mother. (haha, I'm glad I make myself laugh.) Little Quiglet's kicks have gotten WAY more intense over the past week or so. I still can say I don't *mind*... I generally like it because it's comforting to know she's in there and moving/growing/doing what she's supposed to be doing. Scott got to SEE movement this week, which is hilarious. It's like my body has been possessed. Which it kind of has... but anyway.

I've been finishing up my semester and nesting like crazy. I've washed all of her clothes and put the little darling things in the big dresser. I've organized a lot, though the crib still is kind of full of random stuff... we figure it won't be full of baby for a few more months.

Here's what the nursery looks like at the moment! We've rearranged it, bought a glider and generally filled it up a lot more since I last posted pictures of it.



Oh, and did I mention her bookshelf? Thank you, showers! I love all of the special books we have to start out with, and that each one has a close friend/family member's note to Quiglet. Though surely when she's like 4, she'll be like "Who's this Quiglet character?"

Her Fearful Symmetry

The new Audrey Niffeneger book! It was so exciting, I totally love Time Traveler's Wife and was understandably excited to read here newest. And she took for-ever to write it so my hopes were a little on the high side

So, how would I describe it? I think I'll go w/ my sister's words on this... It was "effed up". It just WAS though. Not meaning it was necessarily awful or too weird, but it was just very different. And I'd say maybe a step further to the science fiction world than TTW was. But I still gave it 4 stars on Shelfari. I'm generous w/ stars though.

The plot follows these weird twins who are "mirror twins", meaning their insides and appearances were not identical but like reversed from each other. Apparently that's a real thing (though very rare.) They're kind of creepy. And their mom is a twin as well, and the beginning of the book is the mother's twin dying. Then the mother's twin, Elspeth, offers the younger twins, Julia and Valentina, her flat in London to come live for a year. Cool, free apartment, right? Except, oh yeah, she's haunting it. But apparently the creepy twins are cool with it.

There's way too much to overview much else ... and I know I'm making it sound lame. But it really was interesting and different from a normal genre I'd read. I love her writing, however weird the plot was. The characters were fully realized and the story moved along pretty well. I'd recommend it for sure, with the caveat that it's "effed up."

Can I still do book reviews on this thing?

*Testing*

Ahem. So, I just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It was a very up and down book - it started out AWESOME, and I was getting all ahead of myself, with "this is my favorite book" type thoughts. Then there was this long drawn out mid-section that just kept putting me to sleep (well, that or the baby... it's a toss up) and the ending was very good though!

Though, I have to say, a large part of my enjoyment of this book was the fact that it was drawn from the story of Hamlet, which I knew going into it. I haven't read Hamlet in a good 10 years (yikes, really? Senior year was 10 years ago?) so I could not have told you the story prior to reading this. But random themes and events did come back to me and with the help of wikipedia I recalled ;). You know, madness, ghosts, poison. And it was kind of a good distance to have from it. I'm not a Shakespeare enthusiast, but I do enjoy those plays more than most. I could easily see that Claude was Claudius, and Trudy was Gertrude. Wow, I'm like a brainiac. Sign me up for mensa.

So, the summary would be this: The Sawtelles have this dog breeding business where they aim to breed dogs that aren't purebred or anything, but good companion dogs. I think that's kind of neat... and that part of the story was really interesting. The dogs were so central to the story (in fact, I'm pretty sure Almondine was Ophelia?), and were almost given a voice. The Sawtelles had one son, Edgar, who was mute, though he could still hear. That was another interesting angle. Edgar's dad, Gar, dies inexplicably and Gar's ghost appears to Edgar saying it was Claude (Gar's brother) who did it. Is your HS Shakespeare reading coming back to you at all? Drama and tragedy ensue.

The writing was awesome, the characters were really interesting. I liked that in this book we get some explanation into Trudy's thought process. I remember in Hamlet being totally let down by how lame the female characters were... all 2 of them.

I recommend it... I kind of wished I'd been holed up somewhere during that middle portion with nothing else to do so I could have just motored through. So if you find yourself holed up somewhere for a few days (snowstorm? IDK) this would be a good time!

It's Fall in our 'hood

So, the leaves of our "mature landscaping" are coming down in earnest now. We knew it would suck... but it has eclipsed our wildest dreams :)

Scott spent all weekend outside doing manly things like raking, picking up pinecones (he counted 511 in our backyard) and blowing leaves with a wussy electric leaf blower (contrasted to the super manly gas-powered kind.) And now, it's raining... woohoo. That brings down more leaves. Not sure if this pic (out the window of our house) does it justice, but we have like a fortress of leaves along the curb. As does the entire neighborhood. There's a big leaf-sucker truck that comes twice in the next 2 months to remove them, I'm pretty excited to see that. Maybe I'm a 10-year old boy?

Yup, looks like we've done nothing. Awesome.

Also this weekend, Scott put up a clothesline for me! I feel so dorky and domestic getting SO excited about this, but it truly will save us on our power bill and will make our clothes & sheets smell lovely. I even figured out where to find clothespins... (at Target, by the Laundry drying racks & the like.) Bonus - $1.54 for 50! Oh, and since I mentioned it's raining, and probably will be for most of the week due to Ida, I don't think I'll get to test it out for a while.

See it, out there in the corner? It actually gets some sunlight too, so maybe I can bleach out stains. :)

30 Weeks and Workout Update

Welp, Happy 30 weeks to me. The Big 3-0! Whoa.

Oh, and BOO! :)


I totally love swimming - I must say that it is by far the superior exercise for preggos. I am no longer running - I did my last run around 25/26 weeks. I'm quite happy I made it so far. Why did I stop? I just felt like it was too hard. *shrug* All along I told myself I'd do it as long as it was fun and I felt like I was getting something positive out of it. The most difficult part was that every time I'd run I would HAVE to take a nap that day... logistically that is just a little inconvenient, right? Plus, I realized the pace I was going was no faster than a brisk walk and, well, walking is cool too! I do miss it a lot though, and am really excited to get my groove back in the spring :)

So swimming twice a week is my new favorite workout. The most beautiful thing about it is that I jump in and stretch out a little and honestly *forget I'm pregnant*! It's quite nice, actually, seeing how it feels like it's encroaching more and more on day to day life. Things like, you know, putting shoes on and picking something up off the floor... But in the pool not very much has changed. I can still swim at a pretty respectable clip and get my heartrate up to a good zone. And smoke people swimming in the lanes beside me (chumps.)

Oh, and also - go phillies! :)

Last trip to PA: Baby Shower Time!

This past weekend we made our FINAL journey to Elizabethtown until APRIL! Wow, does that sound far away! Though this trip was hard (mainly, on me and my back), we know the next one might just be harder. :)

The main event this weekend was Quiglet's Baby Shower. It was a blast, my friends and family did a fabulous job making it a special and fun event. I can't figure out how to rip the pics off of Kodak, but here's the gallery.

We did a "Green" Shower, which I was really excited about because though I do love opening presents, the overwhelmingness of opening so many at a shower (I know, what a whiner) and the wastefulness of it made the idea of a shower w/ no wrapping paper really appealing. And it was fun, to me it was no less special!

Another awesome thing the shower planners did was ask everyone to bring a book in place of a card. Scott and I had such a fun time looking through all of the books we got to start Quiglet's library. :) It's special because of course we have our own favorite books but it was neat to see others' favorites. And who knows what baby girl will like!

This is her closet, Pre-Shower:

With the combination of ridiculous Old Navy sales and consignment sales, my mom and I have outfitted this kid for the first year. Though, I will say, most of this stuff is "cute" stuff rather than "functional" stuff... at the shower we got a bunch of sleeping items and loungewear (lol), which we definitely needed!

The Baby Hats

Things are going really well with my little wannabe baby hat making business :) I'm updating the flickr album w/ all the ones I've made and sent out (well, unless someone ordered one that was *just like* another one I've made). It's a great thing for me. Because, seriously, no hate to the Phillies (bc I'd lose half of my Facebook friends an like all of my family probably) but baseball is actually more boring than football. I didn't always think that, but now I do. I want them to keep winning, I really do, but deep down I know that every win means they'll keep playing more. *Sigh*

So, though this isn't a commercial blog or anything, I'm still loving making the hats and if you want one, let me know.

I thought I'd share some pics of hats I've made for little Quiglet. I'm planning on taking a bunch to the hospital so we can figure out what looks good on her. I mean, the pink is gorgeous, and more than likely she'll look great in it, but it's not for everyone. (This is one of the perks of having a GIRL! I'm embracing accessories)

A list of all the stuff we found in the bonus room

...mainly in the stuff Scott's parents brought for us to go through. Though we do have an entire chest left to go through... another time. I know for a fact there's a Kids Sports Illustrated w/ Andre Agassi on the cover in there.

1. 3 Starting Lineup figures in the box. 2 Cal Ripkens (worth some serious money, but apparently he's pulling a 40-year old virgin and wants to keep them.) and a Scottie Pippen. Worth $20. Will sell that one...but that's chump change compared to Ripken.
   
2. A buttload of trophies. Including a Third Place plaque for "Computer Problem Solving". It's going beside my Third Place trophy for age 26-30 women in the Myrtle Beach 5k. Booya, nobody beats us! Except for 1st and 2nd.
   
3. Scott's elementary school writings. I particularly liked "Eagles vs Colts", which was dedicated to his uncle for "getting the tickets." It was a suspenseful, true story of the Eagles losing to the Colts. "We were so mad," Scott says. "And then they drove home and slept on the way." Another great one was "Dodgers vs Yankees", which was dedicated to the Dodgers. The dedications were the best part, another one was dedicated to "Kelly and Seven." Yes, Seven. (Sorry Steve, we figured you were just a baby so you probably didn't realize anyway.)
   
4. Right after we found a dead silverfish, we found a wrapped up bundle of sheep's wool in a "PA Agriculture Education" folder. Awesome.
   
5. An itemized list of all the baseball cards he owned and their value. I guess he thought a good place to store such valuable items was beside some gross sheep's wool? The other cool thing about the list was that it was printed on that old computer paper that stayed connected. It did have the holes ripped off though :)
   
6. A magic trick involving a disappearing coin. Very magical!
   
7. Jamie had a suitcase containing the following items: Wedding dress, photos, and teddy bears... Surprise!
8. We have a glow in the dark baseball (in a case) that is signed by.... some Harrisburg Senator. Yeah.... I snuck that one into the trash.
   
9. A kush ball! Smarty was confused about this one... she kept playing with it but then got annoyed because one of the nodes was always poking her in the eye. It was quite humorous.
10. Lisa Frank stickers. *hangs head*
    

We spent a good chunk of the weekend in there... yesterday I had a major cold issue. I hesitate to say it was anything serious or contagious just because I've been sick (sinusy... super fun stuff) for a few weeks off and on which is probably pregnancy related. But, nonetheless, it was unpleasant and put me out of commission for most of the day. And today Scott wasn't feeling so hot so I was on bonus room duty. Somehow, we finished most of it, just a few more things he has to do - like move some big/heavy things up or down and pound some nails into the wall. I'm not "authorized" to do that.

Personal achievement: I managed to consolidate all of my books to ONE bookshelf. I think I'm truly transitioning from a book owner/hoarder to a community book user. I now love the Wake County Library system and combined with the NC State lib I'm able to get much of what I want when I want it. I have about 2 dozen books to list on paperbackswap in the next few days so hopefully I'll get them out of here and get some fun new books. PBS is like library-lite. I really do love not wasting money purchasing books... when I was a big buyer I'd buy so many I ended up not really liking or wanting to even read in the first place. I'm really bad with impulse book buys... now if it's an impulse I just take it back in 2 weeks! What took me so long to get on board w/ this!?

Who is 28 weeks pregnant (already)?

Me... omg.


Into the 3rd trimester - wow that sounds scary. We have exciting times ahead... going home next weekend! Time flies, anyone can tell you this. But when you find out you're pregnant the first week in May, January 8th sounds a world a way. And depending on my mood, sometimes it still does. Maybe because it's in 2010 it adds to the far-away-ness of it. But dude, it's 3ish months away. That is all. And they're starting to put Christmas stuff in stores and all I know is Christmas = almost there.

We're making progress though... we painted the nursery and Scott put the furniture together...

And this weekend, we're tackling the bonus room. This is the room that since we moved in 6 months ago has been the go-to... "oh, just throw it in the bonus room." It's shameful, we still have (shudder) unpacked boxes. I've been pretty awesome at acquiring random baby things from all of the fabulous consignment sales Raleigh has. Things like an Exersaucer for $10, and a Bumbo for $12 (thanks Heather!). Which is all fabulous, but they live in a big pile in the bonus room. And I haven't even had my showers yet. So that's the benchmark: let's clear that out before we get ANYTHING ELSE.

It'll probably be last in line for our home renovations, as it makes a fantastic playroom. It's one of those things - it has very excellent carpet that is just not old enough for us to get rid of. BUT... it's plaid. It's not terrible (not like the bathroom wallpaper terrible) so we think we can live with it for a few years. And maybe it's actually good bc then we can just say - Ok Kids, don't worry if you mess up the carpet. :) And someday when the kids are older we can make the bonus room into a sweet movie theater (Scott's dream...not mine. Oh well, he just painted a room pink, I'll let him have it for now.)



My GOD, I wish it still looked like that.

When You Are Engulfed In Flames

Where to start... David Sedaris is just so amazingly awesome :) I feel like this book has been on my list for a long time now, and since I've pretty much cut out my book-buying habit (yay libraries!), I've had to wait my turn (booo libraries). But no worries, this one was worth the wait and, true to form, had me laughing out loud pretty often. I really enjoy his tone and style, one of those authors you feel like you could totally hang out with. It's also fun to read because it's basically a collection of loosely related short stories, so picking it up and putting it down randomly works. I like that freedom every now and then.

Up next is Emma, for the November Book Club book. I'm a tad intimidated... after Sedaris's witty and modern writing, how will I deal w/ Ms. Austen's formality? Also it looks long. If nothing else, I might actually get more school and housework done during the reading of this novel (which, let's be honest, wouldn't be a bad thing!)

*gag* Note to the Babe

Dear Quiglet/Monkey/She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named,

Hey! I'm not one to do a big weekly or monthly note to a fetus (though I do hope to do a monthly letter to you once you're born!), but for some reason, today I was just struck by how EXCITED I am to be carrying you around, and how EXCITED I am to meet you in 3 months (or less.)

It seems like, for me at least, you go through life, and if something is awful or bringing you down, you think about it a lot, even take drugs for it. I find it completely unfair that when something is lifting you up and making you overjoyed, it's not equally celebrated and addressed. Well, Quiglet, today I'm saying it: you are making me THAT happy. Like I could be taking depressants because I'm so overjoyed most of the time and it feels so different from normal life. I'm totally annoying and irritating even to myself, as I lay reading on the couch and can't focus because I'm just smiling like a fool thinking about you. How crazy is that?

So, we're about to enter our final trimester... wow, did the first two fly or what? I've very much enjoyed the most recent one. You decided to I guess inhabit what (mostly) already existed of my stomach, making me wait to really look the part of the 6 months pregnant lady. I think I needed the lesson in patience anyway, and I'm sure you'll continue to teach me. But now you must have run out of corners of my belly to inhabit because - pop - now I'm showing. I even do that annoying pregnant lady thing when I'm out and about where I rub my stomach, just to eliminate any doubt strangers might have about my condition... And I was simultaneously shocked and not-shocked to find out you already weigh 2 pounds and are over a foot long. And I'm still loving your kicking and flipping and whatever the heck you're doing in there. I was thinking about it today while I was swimming - what ARE you doing? From the pictures it seems like you must not have much room, does that suck? I was thinking how miserable it'd be for 9 months to be so cramped to not do anything. But I guess you're doing a lot... you know, becoming human and getting ready to be self-sufficient. Don't worry, we'll help you out on the self-sufficiency thing. Might actually take a few years, but we're prepared for that.

Oh, and I hope you like hats. I made you one today, and true to form, was smiling like a fool the whole time thinking about you. *sigh* Do you like it?


Love,
Mama

Battle for America 2008 Review

So, I just finished this book, and I LOVED it! Thanks Mom :) While it's a little like "why would I want to read a book that I know how it ends?", there were just so many interesting behind the scenes interviews and storylines, I couldn't put it down. If you were also obsessed with the campaign, you'd enjoy this book. You know who you are. I also think it was cool because it wasn't overly partisan. It had a little MORE to the democratic story, simply because with the whole primary-lasting-till-June thing, there was a lot more to tell.

Loved it! :)

Random Updates with pictures

We were up in PA this past weekend for our niece Sophie's 1st birthday party and christening! She is too cute, and because of this overabundance of cuteness, we didn't take a picture of ANYTHING ELSE other than her. Oh well. you know kids. She's at such a cute age, so fun to be around. Though I will say, Scott and I came home exhausted. Note: all comments that read "Ohhhh, just wait" will be deleted. :) So, Happy Birthday (Tomorrow), Sophie Monster!


And this is me, mid 25 weeks. Fall has arrived in NC, and it's a freaking blast! It's almost noon and still not 70 degrees here. I'm LOVING it! So this morning I got all ambitious and decided to go for a little run, but remembered, oh yeah, it's cool out! What does one wear to run in 60 degree weather? And once I zipped up the jacket, I had to take a pic bc... my oh my, it was tight. Also, as soon as I went outside I ditched it and went with short sleeves and pants. And ran 1.5 miles. Cause I'm still a rock star.

Things are going well with the pregnancy, this past weekend was the first few days where I really *felt* pregnant... like I had a belly that was observable and I've started this thing where I can't get up out of a chair or sofa without saying "uuuuuuugh." It's adorable, really. Stuff like that. It just felt more real and different this weekend. (Again, comments saying "Just you wait, missy" will be deleted. I. Know.) :)

After a really long weekend, I was kind of irresponsible and put off a lot of schoolwork, which I'm catching up on this week. School is going pretty well, and surprisingly hard with only two classes this semester. I love what I'm studying though, I was just thinking this morning about what my *favorite* class has been within my program and I'm not really sure! I'd have to pick at least 4 or 5, and I've only taken 9. So yeah, good choice, good investment, good use of time.

I love this semester also because with two classes and no job, it does give me time to keep up with life... like keep the house generally cleaner than I've ever been able to do before, and read! I'm enjoying it while it lasts :) Cause, you know... juuuust wait. I just read The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb and, though it was long, I ended up LOVING it. Absolutely love and recommend it.

One more random thing - I am getting a seasonal flu shot on Friday and have already started dreaming/nightmaring about it. I'm such a shot wussy, I'm screwed.

Hats for Sale! Get your Baby Hats!

So, as you all know, I'm getting really into the hats. I've made a few for various babies to hone my skillz and get the sizing thing down. That's the weirdest part! When kids are like... 15 or 16 months old their heads are almost normal sized! So odd, how did I not notice that before?

Anyway, I want to throw this out there that I'm willing and able (and excited) to make hats for friends and family for a small fee... I do have to buy more yarn, you know? :) I prefer to stick to folks I know or folks I "know" (for the internet friends ;) ) at this time. Email me if you're interested in getting a winter hat (or a photograph-able hat) for your child, or a Christmas gift. I'm cheaper than etsy, promise!

Here's what I'm able to do:

Newsboy for a boy:


Equal opportunity... Newsboy for a girl: (Maybe I'll call this the Title 9)


And the beanie + flower (though it could be done minus flower for boys)



I use excellent quality yarn, none of that acrylic crap. I mean, it's going to be right next to a baby's head, right?

Here's the Flickr album I've created to showcase the current projects and their models. If it sounds slightly lame in some of the descriptions, it is actually part of an assignment for my Social Media class, so don't judge! I intend to keep up with it. Feel free to comment!

Baby update

Here's two 23 week belly pics. I really think it shrinks for the pictures... like she has stage fright or something.

Here's me in my new dress, for Kyle & Laurie's wedding and Sophie's baptism. Oh, and maybe my shower. I feel obligated to wear it as often as possible... bc it's too cute.
And this is today... (Please ignore the laundry... I still haven't figure out how to get it to put *itself* away. Seriously, any one have any tips on that?)


So, we got our nursery furniture delivered yesterday - wow! We're just leaving it in the boxes though, until we can get the room painted, but that kind of makes it all feel a little more urgent. Even though we do still have a bunch of time... it's exciting. I keep seeing little babies out and moms are probably like "why is that slightly fat woman staring at me and smiling wistfully?"

Today we were watching the Eagles dominate the Panthers and Monkey was kicking up a storm... I think she's an Eagles fan. Scott said that better not mean she is going to be a cheerleader. (oh SNAP! there go all my cheerleader readers.) I think she is also very excited about usability, as she also tends to jump up and down in my Usability Studies class. So, a geeky football lover? Does that sound like anyone we know? (No paternity tests necessary.)

Babies in Hats

My niece Sophie in the earflappy hat! She looks so cute in it!

My friend Heather's son Luke modeling the blue newsboy :)
I love how it makes him look like a little boy... so adorable!

This one might be for keeps... it's a newsboy + BIG flower.
I am starting to like big flowers on hats.

What's that you say?

... the nursery fan HAS a dimmer???

OMG, I wish I was joking. Yesterday, when I was going to turn off the fan, I inadvertently held the button in too long. My jaw drops as the light, instead of going off, grows dimmer. Whhhhaaaa?

If you haven't visited our house, or have forgotten this teeny part of the one teeny room, here's what the super space-age light switch looks like:


We usually point it out when giving home tours... and I swear, each time we find a new function. The seemingly silly part is the up/down thinger you see is for the fan speed. And all the buttons along the left side are for the fan speed. Only by holding the big button in do you get the dimming function. It's the weirdest thing ever, and we've been living here for almost 5 months and just yesterday discovered this.

This is the mixed blessing of a new home that's actually quite old: we have a dimmer, woohoo. But it's a lame switch so is it even useful? If we accidentally turn the light on FULL BLAST and wake the baby, does that defeat the purpose? These are weighty questions... and I'm not allowed to have enough coffee to really think about them so early.

So What, I'm Still a Rock Star/I wanna start a fight

Sometimes I feel like this is my theme song. When I'm running, though I'm sure Scott would refer you to the "Na-na-na-na I wanna start a fight" part. Since he told me "I know you're all pregnant or *whatever*". I'll get to that part :)

First off, this song by Pink always jazzes me up so much when I'm running. Especially now that I'm knocked up and running all slow and feeling like each run could be my last. It's empowering, bc it says "I'm still a rock star." That's just the sort of thing I want to hear when I'm running, motivational and simultaneously a tad cocky. And while I know it's not like a SUPER mega rock star, running 2 miles at 22 weeks is way more than I ever thought I could or would want to do. And whatever, if I want to be a little cocky about that, I will. Cause I'm a rock star. And I don't neeeed you...

So, oh yeah, the "I wanna start a fight" part. It's not a serious marital spat or anything, just a point of disagreement we had yesterday concerning the nursery fan. You might recall, there is a fan in EVERY ROOM of our house. Which is great, energy saving wise. I'm okay with the FAN part. I'm not saying blindly rip down all the fans (a la Trading Spaces, circa 2000). But, they annoy me because they have lights on them. And look like this:
I crouched down to where I estimate the crib mattress will be, so I'm doing an impression of a baby. And I'd just hate for our child's first words to be "Ooooh, my EYES! Turn off the damn light." Cause we have the same light over our own bed and those are my last word every night :). And I was trying to get my point across yesterday when I was told I was "all pregnant or *whatever*" and might have said it'd make the child blind. I mean, I'm no opthomologist, but that is some bright light action that can't be good for the newborn retina. Or cornea... whatever.

In all seriousness, my point is it's TOO BRIGHT and the way the light shines down is just not nice. At all. I originally wanted to just take off the light part and put a cap overtop, keeping the fan. Now I kind of want a new fan, one that has a light that looks like this:


(and for those of you who might live in PA where all the ceilings are gloriously smooth, this is what popcorn ceilings look like. You can contrast it to the smooth beauty underneath the scary ceiling fan.)

So, that's my point. And I'm not saying it's a NECESSITY, but a dimmer would also help a lot.

If anyone is so brave as to weigh in, I'd love some internet opinions. "We're all gonna get in a FIGHT!!!"

A Freewheelin' Time

Appropriate words of wisdom from Jack Donaghy: Never follow a hippy to a second location.

So, this month's book club book was A Freewheelin' Time: A memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo. I'll be honest, I was annoyed more often than not w/ the narrorator. She just seemed to have this air about her where she clearly thought she was awesome bc she used to date Bob Dylan. Which is cool, and I wouldn't necessarily write off someone w/ that description, she was just annoying. And also, he cheated on you, a lot. So don't get all high and mighty.

So, a synopsis. She was Bob's girlfriend then just good friend for much of the 60's, prior to his becoming famous and then when he got big. The book shares how he made it big and also some of the other stuff that was going on at the time. Also, did you know she invented bellbottoms? (rolls eyes) The most annoying thing was the name-dropping. I'm no 60's pop-culture scholar, ok? I pretty much know the names of the Beatles and Bob Dylan and .... mmmm, Elvis? So yeah, when you spend 5 pages talking about all the super awesome people you met at Gerde's night club, it means nothing to me and I'm not impressed. And I skip those pages.

But I didn't HATE the book. And at times I think she got caught up in telling the story of something big and THEN I really liked it. Like how she and some other badass college students thought the travel ban to Cuba was unconstitutional (our generation would call it "lame") so they decided to travel there anyway. That was pretty awesome. I've always thought the protesting and rebellion of the 60's was kind of interesting, and it was cool to hear it from one of the people who took part. Also, her parents were Communists, and that was an interesting perspective to hear on the whole McCarthyism stuff. It's perspectives like these that you don't get in your HS history class (if they even get to the lesson on the 60's before the end of the year... I know I never got a good education on some of this stuff!)

Belly Pic and some Baby Hats

Ok, so here's me in my 21 1/2 week preggo-ness. In a bathing suit, nonetheless. (This will come up in some interesting searches, I'm sure...) If you'll notice, the bedroom has some nice, SMOOTH ceilings. Not sure why, but many homes in NC - both the town home that was built in 2000 and our current home, built in '67 - have popcorn ceilings. Which I detest. So we've begun the process of getting them scraped and painted for us, a few rooms at a time. Yesterday we did the master bedroom and the nursery.



And, the baby hat crocheting continues... I'm having so much fun and finding them surprisingly easy to make - even w/ the flowers. The only question mark left is "will they fit a newborn?" In looking at some online sizing charts, it seems they will. I might have to take them with me in case some stranger would let me try them on their baby. "Scuse me, can I borrow your baby's head for a sec?"

Lookie what I made

Ummm... so I made a baby hat today. I used this pattern, and it turned out a little smaller than the measurements say, but it is very stretchy so I'm pretty sure it'll fit a newborn. And I can work w/ the yarn size and hook size. I'm so excited about it. I added a flower. (I put the hat on notebook paper to prove I also did homework today. Really, I did.)



And here's a pic of Scott in his birthday shirt from cool uncle Steve. Unfortch I don't know how to write all that in binary. For those blog readers who aren't tremendous geeks, it says DAD in zeros and ones. Which is Binary. Which is a computer thing. And Monkey's due date is 01-10 so I guess that means I'm giving birth to a big nerd (I mean, the DNA is in her favor there, right? Says the girl who crochets all afternoon with the husband in a binary tshirt.)