31/365. Ice Fishing.

No, no ice fishing for me. I just took a picture of these guys while we were on our way home from Madison today.

28 weeks.

I'm realizing very quickly why people say things start to drag in the 3rd trimester.

It's uncomfortable. And it's only the beginning.

30/365. A Dog's Life.

Can I please curl up on a cozy bed in a cozy sweater with a friend all day? K, thanks.

(New camera! I'm going to need a lot of practice. A lot. It's a little intimidating.)

29/365. Madison.

Semi-last minute trip to Madison to hang out with the in-laws. It's blurry...much like the entire last week.

(still not taken with the new camera)

28/365. Texture.

The bricks around our fireplace.

Not very exciting...yet still kind of cool.

(not taken with my new camera yet)

27/365. Un. Real.

Have I mentioned how amazing my friends are?  How long have I wanted this?

Yes, folks.  A group of my friends (friends that started out as internet friends!) went in together and bought me the camera that they knew I was never going to buy myself with a baby on the way.  I am still speechless.  And beyond grateful.

I can. not. wait. to play with it and get to know it!  I'm gunna hug it and squeeze it and call it George!

I really can't thank you girls enough.

26/365. Job 2.

I have a part time job as an AT at a high school on top of my regular job.  They pay me a ridiculous amount of money to sit there during basketball games.  This particular night, Corey came with me (which I love), except the control freak security guard wouldn't let him sit anywhere near me - so there he is all by himself, sort of in the lower middle of the bleachers.  It was also the most ridiculously mis-matched game ever of all time.  Our guys were huge compared to theirs, and I think we won by something like 60.  At first it was funny, then it headed over into embarrassing and feeling sorry for the other kids.  At least no one got hurt.

25/365. Oovoo.

For one of my baby showers, they are planning to video conference a couple people in that can't make it.  Here my friend Karen and I are testing out Oovoo...and being a little obnoxious with our cameras.  We tried Skype, but you can only have one viewer at a time there.  Oovoo lets you have 6!

Connected.

I've always been super close to my mom.  Most of that is because she's awesome, and part of that might be that we aren't that far apart in age.  I'm really close to my dad too - and even though when I (and by *I* I actually mean *they*) was younger I thought they were the two most opposite people ever, they always seemed to be on the same page on how I should turn out and how best to achieve that.  As I get older (again...as *they* get older) I don't see them as very opposite people anymore.  The older I get the more like both of them I am, too.

Anyway...I digress.  As usual.

I'm not really sure where I was going with that - just feeling my feelings I guess. 

So this morning I'm sitting here at work, feeling a little perky (Weird, right? I hate this place.) and thinking about how the last few weeks has been with my mom so sick and so far away and a thought came to my head.  No, I'm not feeling what she's feeling...but she's never been far from my mind, and there is a direct correlation between her latest news and my entire day - physically, mentally, and emotionally.  No, this isn't profound.  And now that I see it in writing I realize you're probably all thinking "Duh, Jessie."  But I don't feel like I can describe it quite like it is.  Deeper than that. 

Blah.  Getting my thoughts on this on "paper" really isn't making it clearer.  Oh well.  At least I get it.  She probably will too.

Moral of the story:  She is slowly getting better, and she is sounding great.  She is strong and optimistic and bursting with faith.  I'm proud of her.

Every good day for her is a good day for me, too.

24/365. BRU Score!

This is A Bear Named Pooh. Also known as Our Awesome Score From Babies R Us.

This is the only character bedding set I liked, and one of the very very few baby bedding sets Corey and I agreed on. Everything I liked was too grown up or boring for Corey's liking, and everything he liked was much to cartoony and babyish to me. Yes, I realize she is a baby...but she won't be forever and that doesn't mean she HAS to have all cartoony things.

Anyway, this set is really cute and subtle (except for all the Pooh faces staring at you right now), and so so so soft and cuddly.

We were going to hold off on buying this stuff, but then it started to look like the line was going to be discontinued. I wasn't going to start the search for something we could agree on all over again, so I talked Corey into heading into BRU since we had some good coupons and a couple gift cards. We got there to find that everything in the line was 50% off! SCORE!

With all the coupons and everything together, we got a 4 piece bedding set, a super soft blanket, a mobile, and a diaper stacker (we're doing cloth, so these are nice for that) for $44. Awesome.

27 weeks. Oh, baby.

Ok...I had no idea she was sticking out that far. It sure doesn't look that big from above! And what a weird shape! WTH?  Hello, third trimester.

Sorry I didn't post a pic last week. The last week has kind of been a blur - my mom is having some seriously scary health issues (that I'll leave off of here for her privacy - but trust me - scary), we had some home buying stuff to deal with (ended up backing out of the one we had made an offer on since the sellers were sucking), and I was working at my second job too. Things are looking up for my mom though, thank God (and HI MOM!), my grandparents were able to go down there to help out and spend some time with her and the girls, and it I think my aunt is headed there in the next few days to take over which is fantastic because, well...quite frankly NO ONE sucks more than my step-dad does right now.  I still love him, but he is so deep on my sh!t list that he better buy himself some arm floaties.

We are back to square one looking for houses. We looked at two today, are looking at two tomorrow, and have a few more with visits being arranged. Our house is out there...somewhere.

Anyway...I haven't done one of these in awhile...so here goes:

• How far along? 27 weeks
• Total weight gain: +14. Doing VERY well at this!
  
• How big is baby?  Nearly 2.5 lbs, almost 14.5 inches long.  According to one site: An Eggplant. 
  
• Maternity clothes? Grew out of a lot of the first batch.
• Sleep? Interrupted by my bladder.
• Best moment this week? Hearing the heartbeat again, having a "duh" moment on distinguishing between kicking and hiccups.
• Movement? So much!  I love it. 
  
• Food cravings? No big cravings, no big aversions.
  
• Labor signs? Nope, but I have learned what Braxton-Hicks means.
• Belly button in or out? Innie, but getting shallower by the day. 
  
• What I miss: Leaning forward, sleeping on my back.
• What I'm looking forward to: decorating a baby room :)
• Milestone: Today is the first day of my third trimester!  I've already been pregnant twice as long as I have left.  Man that went by fast.
  

23/365. Matt.

This...is my brother in law. Well, the younger one. His name is Matt. Tonight he is making us lasagna for dinner, and it is smelling delicious.

Some things about Matt:

• He's 25 and a nice boy.
  
• He's really smart.
• He's been in college forever, has 3 degrees (2 BAs and an MA) to show for it, and is working on his PhD.
• He falls in love hard and fast and usually pays a hefty emotional price for it.
• He flushes the toilet while he is STILL PEEING.  This annoys me to no end. 
  
• He doesn't rinse out his dishes when he is at our house, but he has at least started bringing them to the sink.
• The wrong side of the sink.  But that is neither here nor there.
  
• He always tries to insist on sleeping on our couch when he stays over.  I won't let him because...
• He stays up until like 4 am and sleeps until noon.  I refuse to tiptoe around the house and not have a place to sit when I get up in the morning when there is a perfectly good room with a perfectly good bed in it.
• He REALLY wants to feel the baby kick, and often puts an uninvited hand on my belly.  He's learning that I find this unacceptable though. 
• This has resulted in him regularly plopping down next to me on the couch to ask me if she is awake and kicking enough for him to feel her.
• I confess I have lied once or twice because he sits so close that I feel like he's on my effing lap.  TOO CLOSE!
• And then I feel bad, because he's just excited to be an uncle.
• So yeah...I love him, and he annoys the hell out of me sometimes...just like a brother.
  

22/365. Christmas in the Batcave.

I have an awesome group of friends...two awesome groups of friends...that I met on the internet.

Yes. You heard me. Actually...you probably aren't shocked since if you are reading this, there is about a 95% chance you are one of them.

Anyway. I digress. One of these groups is comprised of women from southeast Wisconsin that I see on a pretty regular basis and often forget that I met them online. The other is comprised of women from all over the country that were all married in August of 2008 (which is when we were originally getting married before we had to switch it to the end of July). For this second group, we have a private message board that we all post/chat/otherwise congregate on that we have affectionately refer to as The Batcave.

Many of us have met in person, and we've been talking (in person, online, on the phone, etc) for about 3 years now.  We even send Christmas cards.  And by "we send Christmas cards" I mean "I don't because I suck but a lot of the girls do and I squeal in delight each time one comes in the mail."

This year one of my friends from this group, Chrissie, made little ornaments for us all with the bat symbol...except I think 75% of us received a card with a giant hole in the corner and no ornament to be found.  But she made them ALL over again and sent them out!  I got mine in the mail today.  Christmas is over, but I think I will hang it year round anyway because seriously...it's pretty awesome.  As you can see by the paw, Zoey wanted it for herself.

21/365. Really?

We have lived here in the duplex that my friend Sheila owns for a little over a year and a half now. We live in the lower, and 2 guys split the upper. In our basement, each unit has their own separate washer & dryer, however we share a kitchen size garbage can for our lint & dryer sheet garbage. Since we share this, you'd think EVERYONE would be responsible for emptying the thing, right?

I guess not.

In a year and a half, this garbage can has been emptied twice.

I'll give you one guess who seems to be the only one who knows how and where to empty this thing. Yep. Me. Now...Corey doesn't do laundry or otherwise spend time in the basement, so I give him a free pass on this one. But what about the other two people that do laundry down there?

I mean...taking a kitchen trash bag full of lint and empty containers (that should be RECYCLED) up 6 steps, out a door, and to the big garbage can 6 feet away is HARD. Right? WRONG. I mean...then they'd have to bring it back AND put it away. That's like...TORTURE, people.  Torture.

I'm not doing it this time. I have stopped putting my lint in there...yet someone keeps stacking their crap up. As you can see, it is now to the point of having to balance things to get them to stay on there. It's effing gross. And lazy. Even the cat is disgusted. And I guarantee that empty dryer sheet box will be stuffed to the gils before anyone remotely considers taking it out.

And that, my friends, will probably end up being me. Sigh.

20/365. The Office.

It only took 5.5 months, but I have an office now. Sure, I share it with 4-5 other people, but oh well. If this was 5 months ago, I would have been really excited about it. Remember, there was that whole 2 weeks or so I liked and was excited about my new job - and then I got to know it.

And let me tell you...it's rather difficult to be an admin/clerical person without a workspace of any kind. I wonder though, how long it will be until I actually get to USE my new office since 1) no one really knows what to do with me or have me to at my job, so 2) I've been doing someone else's job for a few weeks now. Blah.

I can't wait to get out of that place.

Pictures, just for fun.

If you read my other post with my Project365 picture, you read that I took a sick day from work today.  We'll call it a mental health day, after an emotionally tiring weekend.  I just needed another day, ya know?

Anyway, I met my friend Sheila for a lunch date at Panera.  It was great to get out and just relax and spend some time with a friend.  After we parted ways, I headed to Gap Maternity and scored 3 tank tops and 3 sweaters for $40!  I'm already growing out of some of my early maternity clothes.  They just aren't covering enough.  I'm pretty confident that the stuff I got will last me the rest of the pregnancy though.

After I got home the sun was thinking about going down and was shining on the church across the street, so I headed out and took some pictures.  I really love them.  None of them are particularly brilliant or make me look like I have mad skillz (yo) or anything, but I think it's the brick and the colors that are doing it for me.

 

 

 

 

19/365. Twig & Berries.

Hehehe. Is it wrong, that of all the pictures I took this day, I posted this one because I could make a juvenile and dirty suggestion out of it?

I thought so.

I skipped out of work today. It was an emotionally and mentally draining weekend and I just needed one more day. Totally worth it.

FYI: The Ugli Fruit

...was freaking delicious.  It took 3 of us to eat it, but I would definitely buy more.

18/365. Bottoms Up.

Today I go in to the doctor for my gestational diabetes test.
11:45 am - No more eating.
1:45 pm - Drink this superyummydeliciousnomnomnom glucose drink.
2:45 pm - Blood drawn/tested...

By 3:45pm, I anticipate having a belly full of McDonald's fries.

17/365. The Odd Thing I've Been Carrying In My Purse.

Hey, sometimes the baby just wants pears, yo.

16/365. Netflix.

I love Netflix.  I love how fast it is and how I never have to set foot in a video store.

My other attempts to photograph the baby shower invites...

I've never seen - nor would I have ever been able to think of making - an invitation like this. So creative and colorful! Thanks, Jenica and Barbie!

They were hard to get a picture of...here are my other attempts.