My mom came down to Austin for my last dr’s appointment and in her hands as she walked to greet me were these two blossoms. They are huge and smell soooo good.
Mom, I took this picture to remember them when they’re gone… so lovely! I have enjoyed them these past 2 days. Thank you for the roses.
This is the closest I could get to the gaudy fabric Marty the Recliner is decked out in, but hey, it’s what was on sale:
David and I will be buying Marty sometime this week and hopefully picking ‘em up on Friday or Saturday.
This is THE MOST COMFORTABLE chair we have had the pleasure of enjoying in a looooonnng time. Probably ever.
The orange drink was not all that bad. I didn’t get to choose between any sort of flavors. I didn’t expect it to be carbonated, though. There was a clinical sort of taste to it that made a strange aftertaste linger around after a swallow, but all-in-all, I expected it to be much worse than it turned out.
My overall weight gain is now at +1.5 pounds. Why the nurse didn’t go ahead and give me the extra half-pound to my credit is beyond me. So… I guess I still haven’t started putting on any real weight, though my fundal height is measuring “right-on-target” as the doctor put it.
Guess that means the belly is big enough for being 28 weeks along.
My mom drove down to be with me during my appointment. She was my fainting insurance, and she worked. I just know, had she not been there, I would have fainted when the nurse drew the blood from my inner right elbow. Though I know the fear of needles thing is purely psycological, it turns into a physical problem when fainting is involved. Turns out, though, that my “fear” of being poked results more accurately in holding my breath, which thus deprives my brain of oxygen which causes the faint feelings. So I guess I brought my mom along to my appointment so that I would keep breathing. Now that just sounds plain silly, but like I said, no harm done.
In fact, she spent most of the day spoiling me rotten. We had lunch at La Madeleine near the Arboretum (I had half of a Chicken Salad Croissant with chips, half of a Quiche Lorraine, a slice of bread, and two lemonades - so, yes, I DO EAT, I just don’t gain much weight) then headed over to Babies R Us where I added yet more things to the registry (since it is the only place we are registering, officially) and bought an outfit… then to La-Z-Boy where I showed my mom Marty, the recliner David and I picked out instead of those flimsy gliders available at Babies R Us. After La-Z-Boy and a quick jaunt over to Birds Unlimited and Kid-to-Kid, we headed over to the salon for some haircuts and highlights. Bambi, yes, her name is really Bambi, did a great job matching up the lighter tone of my two-tone hair with highlights up on the darker roots. I feel grrreat! Mom’s hair looks great too. She has a very balanced cut now and I hope she really likes it. Bambi does take some getting used to, at least, personality-wise.
So, yah, that was my day. I’m exhausted…
I bought the crib mattress today. It fits like a glove. A snug glove. I used the measurements recommended on the crib mattress support and it worked out perfectly.
This is the bedding we found on clearance at Target for a grand total of $56. The only things not included in that total that are in the picture are the stuffed animals, the crib, the mattress, and anything extra around the crib like the twin bed in the right hand side of the picture.
I’m pretty pleased with the picture. Of course, I won’t mention how I grew 3 feet taller to get it, but I also had my arm above my head with the digital rebel blindly pointed in the general direction of the crib.
Today is a big day in the world of Halo 2. Bungie is releasing an Auto Update (henceforth refferred to as the “AU”) which addresses several important multiplayer gameplay issues. I’m excited that they’ve decided to alter the weapon balance. There are too many times where you see which map you’ll be playing on, and you already know which weapons work best on that map. This is not neccesarily a bad thing, certain maps lend themselves to certain weapons, and every map that has rockets on it, you know that the rockets are a priority.
Bungie is trying to make a more varied gaming experience by increasing the power of some weapons (grenades for example) and toning down others. They are also increasing the power of melee attacks, and making jumping melees one hit kills. This opens up so many more opportunities to score kills. When I get in a jam, I almost always resort to melee attacks, and my assailent almost always kills me. Now, hopefully, the playing field will be more leveled for players like me.
I’ll let you know about the actual playing experience, or if I can even tell the difference, once I get the AU.
Until then,
Dave
**UPDATE: Jennifer AU’ed for me today, so I’ve already got it, and I’ll try it out when I get home!!!**
**UPDATE: Okay, I played Halo 2 1.1 for a long time last night. The most obvious changes revolve around the grenades and melee attacks. Plasma grenades are now wicked more powerful, which makes maps like Midship absolutely insane. Regular grenades just feel more potent, and are now a viable second weapon option. Also, if you spawn with only your SMG and a grenade next to someone who is dual-wielding, you actually have a chance to take them out with melees now. Kudos to Bungie, now I look forward to the new maps!**
Okay, okay, okay… before y’all start ragging on me for worrying about weight LOSS, let me pre-empt this by telling you that I love to move. I love, love, love to move. I do not like eating. I love to move. Those two things are probably the major reason I have been so “thin” my whole life. I do not like excercizing, but I like moving. Moving my bod around the apartment cleaning, dancing with the cats, being silly making Dave laugh.. just moving! So when Dave gave me my birthday gift a few weeks ago, I looked up and down on the iTunes library for up-beat tunes I could purchase with the gift card.
It has taken almost the entire second trimester but I have a ton of energy these days. I wanted to put together a 30 minute playlist on the iPod to walk to. Now, I haven’t tried this out yet, but I remember 120 being a good bpm to walk to… I have just finished my first workout - read: walking - playlist which ranges from 103 bpm to 130 bpm and back again. Of course, I will have to monitor my heartrate and maybe ditch the 127 and 130 bpm songs for something more steady around the 120 range but I loooove this playlist. It’s kinda odd, but hey, I love all the songs:
Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It (108 bpm) Will Smith, Big Willie Style
Cherry Lips (116 bpm) Garbage, Beautiful Garbage
What Is Love (123 bpm) Haddaway, Haddaway
It’s Not Right but It’s Okay (130 bpm) Whitney Houston, Whitney: The Greatest Hits
Joy (127 bpm) Staxx of Joy, Global Basics - Dance Music for the Millennium
I’m Too Sexy (122 bpm) Right Said Fred, Up
The Pink Panther Theme (117 bpm) Bobby McFerrin, The Ultimate Pink Panther
Switch (103 bpm) Will Smith, Switch (single)
Maybe this playlist will be more useful after the baby is born, but at least I can clean house to it for now and just sit down when I need to. If anything, I will LOVE the CD I burn of it to drive to!
Today is Mambo’s 3rd birthday. He’s the man!
I’ve been working on emptying it of non-baby-junk for months! We just finished the emptying process last night. Whew. Thanks for all your muscles, Dave! The walls will be bare pretty soon, as I plan on taking down the crosses and two little shelves and spackeling all the nail holes and re-touching the apartment paint. My plan is eventually to have 2 or 3 very large canvases painted and hung on the walls with some white ledge shelving to hold the horses and pictures and decorative things up high, out of reach of our child. The baby will be nearly one when we move out, so there will be a lot of growing done in that room between now and then.
I’m working on the other walls and will post them as I finish them, so check this post again in a day or two if you would like to see each wall. So far here are two:
Note: I am pretty new to this panorama-taking/making thing, so please forgive the parts that don’t match up. Hopefully by the time the little Barnes arrives, I will have a decent picture of the nursery to post!
