Edema - Just a fancy word for "cankles"

So with only 8 weeks to go until The Kid graces us with his cone-headed, wrinkly presence, I thought I'd update you all on my latest pregnancy related ailments and little "challenges".

I've been suffering with edema lately. To put that in lamens terms, it's when your body parts, in my case hands, feet, and ankles, swell up. I am finding that if I spend more than a couple of hours on my feet, my ankles completely disappear and I appear to have a calf that extends down to my foot. Commonly referred to as "cankles". Very unsightly.

In addition to the cankles, my toes are so swollen that they have lost the ability to bend and resemble those little mini sausages you get in a can of beenie weenies. Lovely. I can't fit into any of my totally cute sandals now. Thank the makers of Crocs for the best flip-flops ever! Every pregnant woman needs a pair of crocs. I know they're ugly, but get over yourself and buy some.

When we were in Chicago, I got a weird swelling - it was behind both my knees. Gross! It has only happened once since then, and I can attribute it to my office chair.

My fingers are nice and fat when I wake up in the mornings, too. They tend to decrease in size as the day goes on and I drink lots of water. My wedding ring sure does make a lovely dent in my sausage fingers, though. At least when I have to take it off I won't have to endure the evil stares of the judgemental old ladies at the grocery checkout who notice the absence of a ring and assume you're an unwed mother and doomed to hell! no. I have my wedding ring indentation that clearly tells them that I'm no sinner ;-)

A swift kick in the ribs, anyone?? nobody can ever prepare you for when you're sitting at dinner with your friends, and suddenly, seemingly for no good reason, someone kicks you right in your 3rd rib on the left. I'm not talking a little tap here. I mean the kind that causes you to jump up, swear, and look for the nearest person to retaliate on. Sadly, the person who did it is INSIDE you. In that creepy "The call is coming from inside the house" scary movie kind of way!

Due to the swelling, I drink a lot of water. I'm talking 80 0z a day or more. You can imagine how often that translates into a trip to the toilet.

A penchant for pie - it's not a craving, but more of a preference for pie over anything else that might be available for me to eat. So the lesson here is to NOT have pie in the house. On Saturday morning, I ate blackberry pie and ice cream for breakfast! And I didn't even feel guilty one bit.

I still can't claim to have had any cravings. Brian is feeling a little disappointed because he feels he hasn't been able to come to my rescue as my knight in shining armour, bearing the very thing that I'm craving, at ridiculous hours of the night. I'm still convinced that these stories you hear about women sending their men out in the middle of the night for pickles and ice cream are merely urban legend.

And finally - this isn't really an ailment, but just a sign that I'm getting incredibly bored with being pregnant - I'm very tired of strangers asking me when my baby's due, what it is, and how I feel. I'm thinking of printing up a card to hand out that says:

Thank you for your kind inquiry. I hope this card will satisfy your curiosity:

• It's due on July 4th
• We're hoping it's human
• I'm fine, but my feet are swollen and I need to pee, so much as I'd LOVE to regale you with the details of my pregnancy, I must dash!

Nursery decorating and 1st birthday parties

I'm completely new to the concept of decorating a nursery. Who is it really for, anyway? the kid isn't ever going to remember that you got him the cute crib set with the dinosaurs or race cars on it. He's very likely to poop, puke, and pee all over what you get him anyway. I can only conclude that nursery decorating is for the parents. By the time the kid's old enough to recongize what the hell we've done to his room, the crib will be just a memory and his big-boy bedding will be in place.

So why is it so damn hard to pick a damn crib set?? why? And more to the point, why do I even care? why do I need a set??? I bet you I didn't have a cutesey crib set, complete with matching bumpers when I was a baby. And why would I even need a matching throw pillow? isn't that a suffocation hazard?

Another mystery to me. 1st birthday parties. Who's that really for? honestly. I mean does anyone remember their first birthday? no. did you have fun? probably. Would you care if you didn't get one? most likely not. It's not like the kid will remember it, and so you show him pictures of himself smothered in cake, you think he's gonna be all nostalgic, and all like "gee, you sure are the best parents ever"? No. Let's get a grip here. It's a fricking baby. A drooling, pooping, crying creature that doesn't give a crap what you put in his crib, and doesn't understand why all those people are staring at him wearing cake on his face!

My earliest memory is from about 3 years old and it's a crappy memory at that.

So after much debate with Brian over what to register for with regard to foofy crib sets, I'm taking a new approach. Get whatever you want and I will pick a wall colour that will work with it and any future soft furnishings we decide to buy. It shouldn't be this hard. In my mind, the important part comes when he's old enough to recognize and express preferences for himself.

And don't say I didn't warn you about this: If anyone buys my kid Winnie the Pooh ANYTHING, I will smile politely, thank you for it (and mean it), but it will be re-gifted to the next unfortunate and unspecting person I know who's gonna have a kid.

Goodbye old house

I have no mixed feelings about leaving our old house behind. Despite the fact that it was my first house, and the first place I really felt like I had allowed roots to grow. Brian and I share many great memories, and a few very sad ones, of that house. One of the first things I did at the new house was to unpack Ember's ashes and put them on the mantel. Not for his benefit, I don't believe in heaven and afterlife, but for mine, so I could just feel like a part of him is still with me. I miss him so much.

If there is any sadness over leaving the old house it is completely eclipsed by the joy I feel over being in the new house. Since Wednesday we've been living in the new house and getting used to all the quirks that come along with it. Adapting things to be more convenient, such as putting the lamps in the living room and bedroom on X10 switches, and relocating things when we find their current location to be awkward. There are a few things for which I need to find solutions, such as where to put our shoes when we enter the house, and where to store all of the stuff that used to be in the office closet in our old house. The office in our new house is lacking a closet.

Brian went to Houston this weekend and I spent some time hanging out at the house and putting up art work. The house looks so bright and beautiful with all the colourful paintings up. The wall colours chosen by the previous owner really compliment the paintings, too. It must have been meant to be ;-)

Brian had a fun time in Houston and took some really good pictures at the Grand Prix with the Nikon D50. Some might even be art-worthy. Meanwhile I worked on a project for our anniversary (which is coming up on May 20th!) and spent some quality time with the girls (and Ethan). I had dinner with Jen and Ethan and Barbie on friday night. Jen's got some exciting things going on in her life right now. I won't disclose it because it's up to her to do that, but suffice it to say that it's a big move, and she's super excited, and we couldn't be happier for her and Ethan.

On Saturday I found myself completely lacking in energy and it was all I could do to get off the couch and go run my errands. I seemed to pick up some energy around 2pm or so and headed off to the mall to see if I could find something cute to wear for girl's night. I did find a couple of tops and a really cute pair of pink sandals. It's surprising, but I did not own a pair of pink sandals. Shame on me! Saturday night was so much fun hanging out with the girls down town. We went to Cuba Libre for appetizers and drinks, though mine was a Shirley Temple. Delicious! Then we headed to the Key bar, and ended the night with some blueberry bread pudding at 219 West. I got home at a very respectable 1:30am. A big thanks to Jen B for planning some much needed girl time. Our lives are all so busy that we sometimes don't remember to spend time with those who are important to us, and I always say I'll try harder to make time for my friends. I really need to act on that more.

Yesterday (Sunday) Brian came back from Houston and made a final trip over to the old house to mow the yard and pick up the last load of things from the garage. He unfortunately got a little over zealous with the broom and managed to snap the wire to the garage door sensor. Consequently, we had to make another trip over there with the tools so he could fix it. I did a final walk through of the house to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, and we reprogrammed the garage door keypad to its factory setting so that the new owner can choose his own code. Then we waved goodby to our old house forever!

Thank you, America!

I have many things to blog about this week, but let's get the most important thing out of the way first. I want to thank America for doing the right thing this week. I must admit that I was confused by your willingness to keep a lesser Idol in the running, and concerned that your judgement was suffering more than a momentary lapse. But you came through, America. Sanjaya is no more! (see the results show recap here).

In hindsight, I see now that these several weeks of contraversy served to keep me glued to the TV every Tuesday and Wednesday night in anticipation of what this kid would come up with this week, and even, I dare say, a glimmer of hope that he'd redeem himself and actually measure up. I didn't get to see the shows this week due to other commitments, though it was well timed because I am not a fan of country music.

I'd also like to thank Sanjaya. Because of him, I will be getting FREE SUSHI in the not so distant future - as soon as I'm able to eat all the good stuff again and rack up a good bill ;-) And Mikey, just to show you what a good sport I am, I'm giving you a few months to build up a good buffer in your bank account. HEHEHE! Freeeeeeeee sushi!

Chicago trip report - reader's digest version

Over this past weekend we spent some quality time with the Hoffelt family in Chicago. This trip was badly timed from a move perspective, but a very welcome break from the stresses of juggling a full time job, a pregnancy, buying and moving into a new house, and selling a house.
We arrived Friday afternoon and were met by Uncle Ray, who I recognized right away becaue he looks so much like Joan. We arrived at uncle Ray's house and he gave us the grand tour. Aunt Vivian made a brief appearance while we were geeking out for a while in the basement as Ray showed us his home theatre system, complete with home automation. Then uncle Mike and Grandpa dropped by for a quick visit.
That evening we met up with Kris at Gale Street Inn for a very relaxed and delicious dinner. We loved spending time with her, the only down side was that it was too short.

On Saturday, we went out for breakfast with the whole gang and I met Aunt Pam, who had made us a beautiful fleece blanket for the baby. After Breakfast we spent some time with Uncle Mike sightseeing around Chicago and ended our sightseeing tour with a visit to the Science and Industry museum. We could have easily spent many more hours in there because it's so interesting and so much to see. I, of course, pushed every button I could find. Afterwards we all went for Chicago Pizza at Gino's East. Brian was hoping that real Chicago pizza would change my mind about pizza (while I'll eat it, it definitely is not my favourite food). Sadly, though, it didn't. I thought the crust was better than the stuff we get at home, but the actual pizza was the same as you get at Mangia's.

After pizza Pam and Mike took us to Oberweis, which is an ice cream place in Chicago. The nearest thing we have here would be Amy's. I had a snickers soft serve ice cream. Uncle Mike being the supportive uncle he is, of course, joined us as we gorged ourselves with ice cream, lest we should feel like total pigs ;-)

On Sunday we went out to get bagels for breakfast, followed by a trip to Ohaire, where Uncle Ray took us up the ops tower for a stunning panoramic view of the airport. We got to watch planes taking off and landing and all the ground operations happening, as uncle Ray explained to us what was going on. I could spend all day in the tower just watching the planes take off. It reminded me of when I was a kid and mum and dad would take me to the airport just to watch the planes take off and land. I think it also helped me with my flying issues (well, taking off issues). I hate to take off. I think it all tracks back to that bad experience I had in St. Louis on my way to England many years ago. Since then I get very nervous taking off. Seeing all the planes taking off and landing so easily put me more at ease.

After the airport I mentioned the word "pie" and like a genie granting my wish, the next thing I know we are stopping off at Baker's Square where we all got pie. I got a slice of Bavarian Blackberry pie that was probably THE BEST pie I've ever had. After pie we all veged out for a while and then Brian and I showed uncle Mike, who has a complete aversion to computers and technology, how to view our photo gallery online, and this blog - so hopefully he's reading this :-)

We went for an early dinner over at Vince's Italian restaurant, and a very pleasant surprise - another set of family memebers - Brian's second cousins, lisa, Linda, and Craig, joined us. We spent a good few hours chatting over dinner. Afterwards we headed back to Grandpa's house and he showed us old photos of the family, some dating back to 1935. We got to see Joan, Ray, and Mike's baby pictures as well as pictures of Grandpa when he was very young (about 7 years old onward). We hung around Granpa's after Mike and Pam left and chatted for a couple more hours before turning in for the night. It was time well spent with Grandpa. He has a million stories to tell!

On Monday we departed. We had a wonderful visit with the family and arrived home feeling rejeuvenated and ready to continue tackling our long list of things to do for the move.

For pictures from out trip, go here: Chicago_07
Sadly, I just realized that I neglected to take pictures of Uncle Ray and Aunt Viv!

keep on movin'

So far we've moved the contents of the garage, both bathrooms, my closet (including 3 boxes of shoes!), the guest room and closet, the office, all the chachkas and knick-knacks, the plants, and 3/4 of the kitchen, including food. I've unpacked all of the closet stuff, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, and taken over all of my art work and staged it in the dining room to make it easy for me to select where to hang things. The new fridge arrived yesterday, too. It's a perfect match to all the other appliances. Thanks to Brian's extensive research. All this in 3 evenings :-)
I've scheduled the carpet cleaning to be done the day before the movers take our furniture over. Transferred all of the utilities over to the new place, except the cable/net/phone, which Brian is researching to see if he can get us a better deal than Time Warner. I plan to move the fish the night before the move, and the cats the morning of the move.
I still need to pack up the remaining kitchen items and of course the things in the closet I am still wearing, and move Brian's closet over.
All that will be left then is a quick cleaning of the old house and final walk-through to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.
Brian's going to Houston for the Grand Prix next weekend, so I plan to spend my 1st weekend at the new place organizing the house, hanging art, and I might even pick out a paint colour for The Kid's room and start taping off the trim.

Idol threats

So I made a bet with my friend, Mike, that if Sanjaya wins, I would treat him to a sushi lunch. If Sanjaya loses, then he will buy me a sushi lunch.

Mike is one of those mindless drones who is voting for the worst (sorry, Mike, but the truth hurts sometimes ;-))

Today he sent me this:
LOL! He so funny. He crack me up long time.

New House!

Today we signed the papers on our new house!!! Everything went very smoothly, thanks to Barbie.

After work Barbie and Scott came over to help us run a couple of loads of small stuff over to the new house. We borrowed Mike's truck and packed it up with all the things we don't want the movers to move (pretty much everything but the furniture). Barbie and I filled up my car with clothes from the closet. It's not like I'm going to need them any time soon anyway, given my current shape. Brian and Scott loaded up the truck with all the boxes and small furniture, etc.

When we got to the new house the old owner was visiting with a neighbour so we got to meet her. She is really nice. We met our neighbours on either side, and the one directly across the street and one across the street one house further down. It was like they rolled out the welcome wagon. All of our neighbours were super friendly and very sincere about welcoming us to the neighbourhood. I was very happy to meet the woman who owned our house previously because I had wanted to tell her how much I liked the colours she chose. It's always nice to hear that people like your taste.
When I went into the house, I discovered that Barbie had put a little care package in the kitchen, consisting of the necessities, like TP/Paper towels, paper plates, dish/hand soap, a sponge, and a cooler stocked with beer, water, gatorade, and snacks!! All the stuff you need, but never remember to bring. She also put a plant and some lucky bamboo in the house for a little splash of colour! That was the sweetest thing ever!

Barbie, Scott, Brian and I made short work of the first load and headed back to the old house for round 2. When we got back to the new house we ordered chinese food to be delivered and I set about unpacking my kitchen. I have all the kitchen boxes unpacked already! That's the most fun part about moving. Deciding where to put everything in the new house. Unpacking the kitchen is my favourite part! Stacy had left the house spotless, too.
When the food arrived we made a makeshift table out of the two TV tables and 4 folding chairs and set it up in the breakfast area. I found a candle in one of the boxes and we lit it for a little ambience.
In one day we have gotten so much done with the help of our friends. I would like to say a big thank you to Barbie and Scott for all of their help today, and also to Mike and Tara for loaning us their truck. We have the most amazing friends.

In other news, I guess I've been a little stressed lately. Friday night I became dizzy and saturday I spent the whole day feeling drunk. Obviously I wasn't. Mum thinks I was suffering from high blood pressure. Mine is usually low, so I imagine high blood pressure for me wouldn't be much above normal for most, but I certainly felt weird on Satuday. I tend to handle stress outwardly very well and usually appear together and calm. Inside, though I guess I am stressing quite a bit. Juggling a full time job, moving, and creating a life must have just caught up with me.
On Sunday I felt quite a bit better and today even more so. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment and a screening for gestational diabetes.

I'm shocked!

Gina??? Really, America??? really?

I voted for Melinda yesterday. I thought it was time I stopped bitching about the results and actually participated in them. Sadly, my vote didn't matter. Sanjaya looked like he wanted to sell the audience a used car last night, his performance was like open mic night at a local mental hospital. Yet somehow he was still NOT in the bottom 3.

I find myself no longer surprised by this. Sickened, but not surprised.

I'm disappointed in all the people that are voting for Sanjaya because the idiot Howard Stern said so. You people are pathetic sheep with no original thoughts. Baaaaaaaa!

I'm now suspicious that the producers of American Idol are the ones behind the "vote for the worst" web site. Afterall, it is reality TV and having a crappy and outclassed contestant consistently beat out his peers week after week does make for controversy, and thus, good reality tv.

And for all my complaining, I still watch it! Now I find myself watching partly in the hope that America will do the right thing, and partly because I'm so curious to see what this freak is gonna look like, and what pathetic excuse for singing he'll come up with each week.

What is wrong with me??? I'm just as bad as the Sanjaya-lovers.

Shame on me.

Pregnancy reprieve?

As I've mentioned in the past, one of the lovely side affects of pregnancy is the hormone-induced pizza face. I'm happy to report that today is the first day that I've been zit free since November!

This is cause for celebration.

Also, I'd heard that your hair is supposed to become thicker and fuller. Sadly, it seemed that this gift of pregnancy skipped over me, but lately --and this could be due to my shampoo/conditioner combo, but I'd like to believe the universe is rewarding me for being brave about all this -- my hair has become manageable. I won't go so far as to say it looks good, but at least it's laying down now and doesn't resemble horns.

Sadly, the balance has tipped on other things. It's now very uncomfortable for me to reach my toes to paint them. I can reach them, but bending over for the period of time it takes to remove old polish, scrub, buff, and repaint causes me discomfort, adn The Kid to squirm, which in turn grosses me out. So today I'm getting a pedicure. I deserve one.

And while I'm on the subject of pregnancy, I'd like to offer a little bit of "friendly" advice to all you well-meaning folks. It's not polite for you to say something like "wow! you just get bigger every time I see you!". While this observation is likely accurate, it's not something that a pregnant woman wants to hear. A better thing to say is "Wow, you look great! you're carrying the baby very well" or "gosh, you look so cute pregnant. And you can't even tell from the back!" even if it's not true, is a little white lie gonna kill you if it makes the pregnant woman feel less like shamu??? Learn some manners, people.

And finally, do not comment on the size of my jugs. I know they're gigantic, and I don't need you calling attention to them. It's all I can do to contain them in my shirt without looking like porno. Pointing this out only causes me to feel self-conscious, which in turn might cause me to slap you.

8 days to go!!!

Only 8 days to go until we become the proud owners of a new (to us) house!

Moving is never pleasant, but this seems to be an easy move, despite the fact that we have a house full of stuff. I think this is thanks, in part, to a very detail oriented Realtor, who insisted that we pack away a lot of personal items and organize closets to make them look roomier, and minimize on clutter. We followed that advice for the most part, and organized every closet. I gave 4 very large trash bags full of clothes and shoes to Goodwill, threw away much of the stuff that was just sitting in a closet unused, and categorized things into storage bins in closets. I've packed a majority of the glasses and dishes we seldom use and stored them neatly in the cavernous under-stairs closet.

Today I'm going to find more things to pack. Brian is out fishing with the boys, which gives me some much appreciated time to get productive. We plan to move all of the small stuff, like clothes, boxes, fragile things, lamps, soft furnishings, etc., ourselves, then after we get back from our trip, we'll have movers do the rest.

As I look around my downstairs, I'm suddenly struck with the feeling that I'll miss this house. It was, afterall, my first house. The first time since moving to the U.S that I've actually established roots and dared to call a place home. Made the transition from home being with my parents in Stoke on Trent, to home being here in Austin. But missing this house is completely overshadowed by the excitement I feel when I think about our new house. I can't wait to cook a meal in my gorgeous new kitchen. I can't wait to have a reason to use the double oven. I can't wait to see Brian's face the first time he parks his car in the garage and we still have room for 2 more!

I probably should mention a little bit about how The Kid is doing these days. He's very active. You can actually feel him kicking if you put your hand on my stomach now. Everyone else thinks it's so cool. That's because they are not the ones getting kicked. He expresses a preference for my bladder, of all organs available for him to kick, and the occasional rib. Perhaps it's just that I feel the bladder kicks because it makes me have to pee. Pregnancy boredom is setting in for me. I am tired of the moving around, I'm tired of feeling winded when I go up the stairs, and I'm tired of the "warg!" noises I make when getting up from sitting, or bending down, or getting in and out of the car. I'm also tired of the constant pressure in my lower abdomen. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss the days of the second trimester when I would forget that I'm pregnant because I felt great. The good news, though, is that I've made the transition from feeling disappointed that I'm not having a girl, to relieved that I'm having a boy. I think the turning point was when Brian agreed to the name. Now I'm actually looking forward to having a son. When I think about how much fun Brian is going to have with him, and when I think about all the times I'm going to get to see Brian's face light up when his son does something for the first time, it actually makes this all worth it. As for me, well let's just say I still don't like kids, but I will like mine ;-)