Hobbit feet

In case anyone thinks I'm joking when I say my ankles have disappeared, check these babies out! It's only 2pm and my feet are massive!



See the complete lack of definition in the ankles? See the puffy toes that look like vienna sausages?

Lest anyone should accuse me of not taking it easy, I've been sitting ALL DAY. I tried elevating my feet while I work, however, it causes lower back pain. I guess I'm just doomed to have Shrek feet for another month!

BAH!

A memorable memorial day weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun. Our friends, Andy and Hilary, came to town - they stayed with Jay and Erin. We spent our entire weekend surrounded by friends, we spent some time at the outlets, and some much needed time on the lake.

On Friday evening Brian and I headed over to Jay and Erin's to hang out with Andy for a while before they headed off to pick up Hilary from the airport. The gang went down town, but Brian and I went home and watched a movie instead because my feet were already swollen.

Saturday we bought a new couch! we picked it up for a steal at a furniture place on Burnet Road. I talked the guy down by $200 ;-) Mike and Brian picked it up (which saved us another $100 in delivery fees). It's an L-shaped sectional, leather on the bottom/back, with micro-suede cushions and various shades of brown throw pillows. It's super comfy and is perfectly sized for the room. We had been to almost every furniture store in the city and in most cases the secitonals were all too big. We're very happy with it.

Saturday night was spent over at Jay and Erin's with Mike and Tara and Andy and Hilary, and a few others. We grilled, hung out, and had a hilarious evening of cheesy Kareoke, complete with video, which I'm hoping will be posted on youtube.com in the near future. You haven't experienced Kareoke until you've heard Andy and Jay's rendition of Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe". Brian and I made it home around 3am.

On Sunday, Brian camped out on our new couch in front of the Indy 500 while I took a trip down to the outlets in San Marcos with the girls. we spent a good 5 hours there and I bought one thing for the kid - a race car night light from Pottery Barn, some awesome linen trousers for me, some red mugs to match our other dishes from Crate & Barrel, and of course, smelly lotions from Bath and Body Works. While we were gone, Brian took a 6 hour power knap. Apparently our new couch is *really* comfy. So much so that Brian didn't answer anybody's calls and was only woken up by Mike opening our garage and moving more stuff into it. Then Brian went back to sleep until dinner time.

We had dinner at Chuy's on North Lamar. What's interesting about this Chuy's is that there was no wait and it was relatively dead. Yet when we called over to the Chuy's at 183/Duval there was a wait of 1.5 hours! After dinner we went to Main event for some bowling and basketball.

Monday we woke up to awful weather and it was looking like our lake plans would be cancelled. We headed over to Mike and Tara's for some pancakes and lattes while we waited for the weather to improve. By noon it was brightening up so we packed up the truck and went to pick up the boat, then headed out to Volente to launch. The rest of the gang met us at the boat launch and we headed off to Devil's Cove for some sun and people watching.

Due to the weather, boat population in Devil's cove was relatively light at first, but as the day progressed the number of boats increased, as did the number of girls in tiny bikinis making complete arses of themselves and humping each other's legs, and the number of young guys shotgunning beers. We met up with Bob and his crew in the cove and tied up at a respectable distance from all the debauchery that we could observe unobstructed. It was very entertaining.
We did get pulled over by the police on our way into the cove and they did a check to make sure all of us had life jackets, etc. But I think we were the least of their concerns.

The day turned out to be perfect. The clouds burned off and the air temp was in the low 90's while the water temp was in the mid 70's. Perfect for cooling off. The kid seemed to go a little nutso when I went in the water. I suspect that it was due to the temperature differences between being baked in the sun vs doused in 75 degree water. By the end of the day we all had a healthy glow from the sun and were exhausted. After putting the boat away, Mike, Tara, Brian and I headed to Rudy's for some BBQ before heading to our respective homes for a much needed shower and some relaxation in front of the TV.

I'm SO over American Idol

I had recorded Tuesday's American Idol and watched it yesterday before the finale. Based purely on those performances, Jordin deserved to win. Blake is going to do very well in his genre, but he really isn't that good of a singer.

I went over to Barbie's to watch the finale and Michelle joined us, too. Impromptu girl's nights in are always so much fun. Barbie made dinner for us, and a special treat for me, Razzleberry pie with vanilla ice cream! YUMMY!
We watched the show commercial free, and right before they announced who the winner was... what happened? the damn DVR stopped recording it. The show must have ran over time, but the DVR isn't smart enough to know that. So we missed the announcement of the winner!

OK, so we know Jordin won because it's all over the AI web site. But I have to say, Jordin did not deserve to win over Melinda. No way. I can't wait to buy Melinda's album, though.

A few observations from the finale:

• Kelly Clarkson rocks. Love her. She's gotten a lot cuter since her arrival on the scene, too. I love that she's starting to explore more rock type songs, like the two she has in the charts right now. Rock-on Kelly!
  
• Carrie underwood - I don't like country music, but I do like that one song "before he cheats". I think she has a beautiful voice, but honestly, her remake of "I'll stand by you" doesn't compare to the original. Especially since she didn't change it up at all and make it her own. I thought it was very kareoke-like. Nobody can sing like Chrissy Heins, so don't even try.
  
• Ruben Stoddard- Dude, you're rich. Get a personal trainer. Being called the velvet teddybear is not flattering.
  
• Taylor Hicks - Taylor who? I haven't heard a damn thing he's done since winning idol. Very disappointed here. Chris Daughtry should have won that season. You hear his voice on EVERY radio station.
  
• Who the heck were those two people Melinda got stuck singing with??
  
• And finally, how did they choose the winning song that Jordin will now release? Who's responsible for that crap? That's the cheesiest song ever. It sounds exactly like all the other cheesy songs that the winners have to record. Poor Jordin is gonna have to work hard to erase that one from the minds of America. I wonder if those guys who wrote it did it as a joke? I hope they're laughing all the way to the bank with royalty checks from that. That'd be the jape of the century!

And for all my whining and complaining about the unfairness of the competition, and my incredulousness about the tone deaf population voting, I am looking forward to the next season.

Barbie's Birthday

We had so much fun for Barbie's Birthday. We met at Donn's, then headed to Hut's for dinner, then back to Donn's for a little Murphy's Inlaws. Generally what happens at girls night stays at girls night, however, these pictures are too funny to not share. So here you go:

A little T, but no A.


Workin for tips so my baby daddy can get a new grille!


Andi's your private dancer.


She works hard for the money.

Two for the price of one!


Girls just wanna have fun!

1 year of married bliss!

Today is our one year anniversary!
It's been the most awesome year, and fortunately, the bad things that happened in the Dominican Republic were no indication of the year ahead. It seems we got all of our bad luck out of the way before the wedding :-)

In our first year of marriage, we've travelled South East Asia, bought a beautiful new home, and became future parents. There isn't one minute of the last year with Brian that I'd do differently. Even down to the black ankle and jelly fish sting on my wedding day. While those things were inconvenient, they have become part of our memories and a funny story. During the past week I've spent a lot of time daydreaming and remembering the most fun wedding I've ever been to - 9 whole days of fun in the sun, spent with all the people we love most in the world. The only bad thing about our wedding - we may never have another vacation as fun as that!

As I think back on those times, it makes me long to be on a beautiful white sandy beach with a turquoise ocean to play in, and surrounded by friends. I am hopeful that one of my friends will have a destination wedding soon, and we can do it all over again. (Hint, HINT! - you know who you are.)

I'm looking forward to another amazing year with my perfect man (ok, so he's not perfect, but he is perfect FOR ME), and despite my objections and foot dragging on becoming a mother, I can't wait to see Brian as a dad.

Here's to another fun year!

American Idol Shocker!

I'm completely stunned that my girl, Melinda, didn't make it to the finals. I thought for sure she was gonna win. She was by far the better singer of the three. I'm so disappointed. No matter, though. She's going to make it big, and I will certainly buy her CDs.

Between Blake and Jordin... I think Jordin gets my vote. Blake's beat boxing is starting to get old, and when he sings he's just a little bit nasal. Blake seems like a nice chap, though. I bet he'll be a huge success.

Childbirth class 2

This week's class was much less gory than last week. We talked a lot about drug options and asked a ton of questions. The video this week was of a woman giving birth who had an epidural. It was much more pleasant, and the videographer spent less time on the full frontal crowning shot, which I appreciated. I was actually able to watch the whole thing without closing my eyes. The woman in the video looked a lot more relaxed. She was a race cyclist and was in very good shape when she got pregnant, so her endurance was probably pretty high, and throughout her pregnancy, she continued to work out as normal.
I saw a lot of similarities between this woman's pregnancy and my own and that instilled me with a bit more confidence that I can do this. It reinforced that my working out is going to help me during labour and recovery. I need that kind of positive reinforcement right now because working out is hard when you don't have much energy and you hurt all the time. It's all I can do to drag my tired arse to the gym anymore.
We got many of our questions about epidurals answered, including how many people have been paralyzed from the epidural at this hospital. The answer is zero. Which is comforting. There is a slight risk, but I do think the benefits outweigh those risks.
Next week we're going to see a cesarian section delivery. I made the mistake of watching one on the web a month or so ago and I just can't imagine having that done.
As we get closer and closer to delivery, I am getting more and more freaked out about all this. I know I'm being a huge pussy, and I know I can do this, and it's not like I have much choice anyway, but nothing anyone says is going to make me feel better until it's over and I can look back on it.
And on top of my fears of delivery, another issue has surfaced: despite me wanting to get this prgnancy over with, and my body back, I'm not ready to be a mum yet!

I'm trying to remain positive. Truly I am.

Running Mojo and Pregnoid Pics

Yesterday Barbie and I went down to beautiful Town Lake for a bit of exercise. We only did the 3 mile loop, but it was so great to be outside excercising again. We did about 50% walking and 50% running. The running was uncomfortable, but bearable. The extra weight made my muscles feel sluggish, and of course it didn`t make the cardio easy either, but it felt good to actually run and it did wonders for me mentally. It is just nice to know that I can still do it, even at 7.5 months pregnant. Of course, I am still going to the gym 3 - 4 times a week, but it just is not the same as getting outside and enjoying the beautiful trail around Town Lake. I can not wait until I can go running with my girls again on the weekends.

For those of you who have been bugging me for more pictures, I have posted a couple of new ones in the gallery for you to ogle my ever growing belly. Here's one for you instant gratification types:



And also, I did my first bit of decorating of The Kid's room. You can see pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/TheKid
Check out the awesome crib that Grandma and Grandpa B got for him :-)

Childbirth class 1

Last night Brian and I attended our first in a set of 3 childbirth classes. Imust admit that I didn't want to be there and I certainly didn't want to see a video of child birth. The instructor was wonderful, though, and the class was very informal, which I liked. Here are a few things I learned in class:

• Despite well meaning people who comment on how big my stomach is getting, I am actually average/smaller than average - though this doesn't make me feel any less of a whale.
  
• We really need to choose a pediatrician ASAP
• We really need to get our car seat ASAP because I could deliver at ANY MOMENT! ACK!
• Being in the room with someone you care about while they give birth is a much different experience than watching a stranger on a TV screen.
  
• Deep breathing while something the size of a watermelon is pushing its way out of me is NOT GOING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!
  
• I'm completely freaking out.
  

During the video, I had to look away. I can see all other manner of gory things, even open heart surgery doesn't bother me, or face lifts... but for some reason childbirth is the most disgusting thing in the world. I think women who choose to do this naturally with no drugs are completely insane.

OMG! OMG! OMG! What have I done???

Cinco de Mayo, etc.

The weekend was action packed! For you Brits reading this, Cinco de Mayo -- meaning 5th of may, is a Mexican holiday. It seems this weekend was the weekend that everybody chose to celebrate something. We had to skip a few parties but did attend several, which were awesome! Being the only sober (or at least non-drinking) person in a room is interesting. In the beginning of this pregnancy, I granted all of my friends ONE uninvited stomach groping opportunity. Several people cashed in their chips this weekend, and some people were even granted additional future opportunities because I was feeling charitable at the time. It's actually not as bad as I anticipated since I actually know the people doing the stomach groping. But strangers beware, you will get the full force of my indignation.

Speaking of Mexico, my parents are gonna be there tomorrow for a couple of weeks in celebration of my Dad's birthday and also his retirement! So congratulations, Dad, on reaching this milestone in life :-) We wish we could join you in Mexico, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday!

In addition to partying this weekend, we also did some redecorating. The Kid's room is now no longer girly pink, but is a rather more manly shade of blue. Since nobody will agree to let me paint while pregnant (though I think it's a load of crap), Brian had to paint the room himself. I felt awful and guilty the whole time because I know how much he hates to do it. And it damn near killed me to not be able to pick up a roller and help out. I actually love to paint. I did tape off all the baseboards, windows, and ceiling for him, though, which made the job much easier.

Brian put the crib together on Saturday morning and it is beautiful -- a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Bauman for hooking The Kid up with such a sweet bed. Sadly, in our eagerness to see the crib in its assembled glory, we neglected to measure the doorway to The Kid's room, and the crib wouldn't fit through the door! After partially disassembling it, we got it into the room and it looks wonderful! this is one lucky kid.

As far as pregnancy ailments, well now I've developed some weird pain in the balls of my feet. It's most pronounced at night when I get up to pee, and in the morning. It feels like my bones are bruised. I read that it could be due to a change in posture (due to pregnancy, obviously), which causes an uneven distribution of weight on the metatarsals. It makes sense I suppose, and the only way to relieve it is to get more supportive shoes. I guess my Crocs aren't doing a good job of being supportive, though they are roomy.

Today is our first childbirth class where we learn all the gory details about childbirth. The class is for 3 hours and we have one every Monday for 3 weeks. I'm hoping that the time spent in this class will actually be LONGER than the time spent in labour. Wishful thinking, I suppose. I am not very enthusiastic about taking this class. Sometimes it's better to just not know and go with the flow, than to be too informed. I think that your body will know what to do when the time comes, and if not, some bossy nurse is gonna tell you what to do. Plus I'm planning on getting drugs so hopefully I won't feel anything. Like I've said before, I could go my whole life and never experience the "miracle" of childbirth and be perfectly happy.

Tomorrow is Baby Care Basics. Hopefully they will teach me how to not vomit while changing a nappy (diaper to you yanks), and how to not put on his clothes backwards - yes I've done this to poor Ethan in his first few months of life.

More Idol Ramblings

I was not disappointed by the Bon Jovi American Idol performances. I generally don't like Phil, but his performance of Young Guns was awesome! By far the best male performance of the night. He so didn't deserve to be voted off. I thought Jordin's rendition of Livin' on a Prayer was rather screechy and she fell flat on the pitch change half way through, though I loved her big hair. I liked LaKisha's performance and thought she did it major justice, but again, blown out of the water by Melinda, who completely ROCKED OUT Tina Turner style. LOVE HER! As a Bon Jovi purist, I had mixed feelings about Blake. But as a Blake fan, I liked it. Very original. I had hoped that Blake would do Dead or Alive, but Chris did it, and while it didn't suck, and I was impressed that he didn't make it too "boy bandy", I thought it was a little too soft. Of the choices left, Chris definitely deserved to go home.

Regarding Bon Jovi's performance - while I embrace any chance to see them perform, and I did enjoy it, I was slightly disappointed that they didn't do a more upbeat song. It was kind of the Diet Coke of Bon Jovi performances. Bon Jovi Lite. But nontheless, I am still a true fan and always will be. He can do no wrong.

My Idol on Idol!

OMG! Jon Bon Jovi on American Idol??? I've died and gone to heaven!

I missed last night's show because I was out at the Melting Pot with the girls, but rest assured I have it on the DVR and will be glued to it the moment I get home this evening.

I first fell in love with Bon Jovi back in the late 80's after hearing the song Runnaway. I have bought every album they've made since then. I've been to many of their concerts, including one last year in Houston, I still have them in my CD changer in the car, and I rock out to them at the gym 4 times a week on my iPOD. No, I'm not stuck in the 80's (though I do sometimes miss my big hair). Bon Jovi has done a fantastic job of reinventing themselves, they're like the Madonna of rock. Jon Bon Jovi has been voted sexiest man alive on more than one occasion, and in my opinion, he is second only to my husband (and maybe tied with Will Smith) ;-).

And tonight I get to watch as my favorite American Idol contestants pay tribute to Bon Jovi's work with a full hour of Bon Jovi songs. I hope I'm not disappointed by the performances. Jon's going to be a hard act to follow. I have high, high hopes for Melinda.

OMG! I can barely wait to get home to watch now!

Me = Excited. It's the little things in life that make me happy.