Blah Blah Blah

I'm not being negligent here folks, just nothing to see. Unless you want to hear about mountains of laundry or my super-human efforts to get our office/nursery cleaned out before we leave for South Carolina. Which, I might add, is frighteningly close to being done at this point. The nursery cleaning, not the laundry. It's nowhere near done. My house gets hot enough on it's own during the day without help from the dryer, which limits the hours I have to actually do laundry. Oh, and I actually broke down and watered some flowers yesterday. Not all of them, just the azaleas that are seriously dying. We've missed every drop of rain everybody else has gotten randomly over the past few days. My roses tend to be pretty self sufficient. The azaleas, not so much. Not sure if they're going to make it.

There you have it. The only reason I'm even boring you with this is because Greg's still asleep (he's been home feeling the ickies for a couple of days) and there isn't much I can do around the house that won't make enough racket to wake him up, so I'm killing some time here. Wouldn't want to wake up the pup, either, since he only gets to sleep some 19 hours a day now.

Probably The Wrong Thing to Say

Am I the only one who is less surprised at the fact the MJ is dead than the fact that he actually lived to age 50?

I mean, yes, the man was a pop icon in his glory days, but that pretty much ended when he went koo-koo for cocoa puffs many many years ago.

My biggest fear is that with all the announcements of death and divorce this week, Entertainment Tonight may well go out of business within two months. Quick, some celebrity somewhere, do something ridiculous! (I said the same thing when Anna Nicole died, and somehow they survived that one...)

Breaking the Rules

I've polled quite a few people over the past week and have learned that apparently there's a rule requiring the use of pastel colors in a baby's room, specifically pink for a girl's room. I guess they teach this rule in some of the baby classes, but we won't start those until July so I'm just going to plead ignorance.

'Cause I'm a rebel.

It's not that I'm anti-pastel or anti-pink, it's just not what I really want for our nursery. I don't want to have to paint, so I want something to spice up the white walls. And I like bright colors. I want something happy. I realize that I'm just plain wrong, but that's ok. Everybody else is just going to have to live with that. Having said that, Grandma was a little concerned with my choice of quilt fabric. She said she'd make whatever I wanted, but I suspect I'll have to go back and pick out a pastel for her to make a second quilt when this one is done, just to make her feel better. Here's what we got:

The top piece was the only piece of that style they had, and it was just enough for a baby quilt and a bit of extra. I considered it fate. The pink fabric is the backing. They had a variety of colors in that style of fabric, some of which may be put to use as curtains. Like the yellow in this picture:

Mom happened to have that piece of yellow at the house, having bought it for another purpose. They had several other colors in that textured style and ultimately I'd like to pick two colors and make four curtain panels, alternating the two colors when I hang them. The silk flowers are some I picked up Friday, before we found the fabric, which actually happen to match fairly well. They aren't exactly the bright shades I was looking for, but I might have a use for them anyway. And yes, I'm hoping to dismantle and use the shower curtain I've ordered, provided the colors work out right when it gets here. I don't trust the pictures to really give me accurate colors, so I won't know for sure until it gets here. And no, Greg, I'm not going to just hang the shower curtain on the wall.

I can see some of you calling DHS now to report me as an unfit mother. I'm still not covering the room in pastel pink. Bring it on.

Only In Nowhere, MS

I had a pretty darn good weekend. Saturday I went with my grandma to pick out fabric for a baby quilt. Found some very happy stuff, which I will share in another post. Later that afternoon we did a little shopping at the Fancy Flea (not making that up, it's the new flea market) and a few pawn shops, with milk shakes and malts at a genuine old fashioned drug store ice cream counter. And then we went drag racing to watch my brother race my dad's Studebaker. Despite losing in the third round, they should be first in points for the season now.

So, here's a picture of me and Tot with Grandma.

We stopped by Morton today to visit with the in-laws before heading home, and to have a little Daddy's Day lunch. I've been blessed with some pretty awesome Dad's in my world, and I'm grateful for every one of them.

Now I'm just happy to be home and am about to contemplate a nap. Tot sends out a happy Father's Day to all.

FYI

I'm not dead yet, just hanging around chillin' like preggo people do. Waiting on Greg to wake up from a much deserved nap so I can finish packing to go over the river and through the woods.

Ironically, we really do go over several rivers and through many, many trees to get to Grandma's house.

This weekend we're hanging with the fam for Daddy's Day weekend, and Mom said she wants to make a trip to the famous Frank Tank's to look for material so Grandma can work on a baby quilt. I'm all for that. I just love a handmade quilt, and my grandmother has been making them since she was old enough to walk. I told Mom I didn't really care what fabric she used, Tot would use whatever she made. And I meant it. Grandma's waited a really long time to make a baby quilt for me!

Oh, and I ended up ordering the shower curtain displayed in the previous post. No, I do not plan to use it for our shower. Although if it gets here and doesn't suit my other purposes, it would make for a very happy bathroom. I do love me some daisies.

Have a great weekend, friends and neighbors!

Contemplating Things

I've found that many nights I don't sleep much. Three hours on, three hours off, and so on. Some nights after the first hour or so of fidgeting in bed I cut Greg some slack and get up. Last night I spent the hours of 4-6am pondering and contemplating a variety of things. Like this:

That's all. I just thought I'd share.

WOOHOO! It's Here!

Ding dong! Fed Ex man! Whatever could it be???

My new laptop is here! Open the box...

Let the pup investigate...

TADA! It's my new laptop!!

The only thing I don't like it that it doesn't have a built in card reader for my camera's SD card, but that's not a deal breaker. I can buy a card reader. Frankly, I thought having one on my last laptop was a luxury. I just don't like having to plug my camera up directly to the computer. It's a quirk I have.

UPDATE: Or perhaps I'm just too dumb to find the card reader, which my dear husband located for me. It's perfect after all!

Anyway, I booted it up and it's huge compared to my tiny old computer. Now I have to shut it down and leave it alone until Greg gets home to install Windows Fishie (Windows 7 Beta) on it and set up the wireless and the printer and all the other geek stuff that I don't have to mess with anymore because I married a man with skills.

One final inspection...

Casper says, "I don't like it!" Therefore, it passes inspection and can stay! Woo! Back in the box now.

Birthday Joy and Other Good Stuff

Happy Birthday to BFF Sharonda! I remember the days when birthdays meant all of us girls would try to get together and do something ridiculous, but now we're all married and tend to spend birthdays with our men. But that's ok, we still love each other and make time to see each other.

Speaking of girlie time, I went to a shindig this weekend for the lady who makes hand sewn clothes and other items. Here's her online shop. I wish I had the talent she has in her pinky finger. Seriously, I have always wished I had the ability to sew clothes and bags and such, but there are so many parts and pieces and steps... Maybe one day when I can get back on my head meds I can try to learn, but I can't fathom that I'll ever have that talent. Anyway, I've vowed not to buy Tot any clothes until everybody else got done, whichwill likely be around age 3, so I stuck to my guns and didn't buy anything. She did have several things I liked, but I'm rationing my baby money for a while. I did have fun hanging out with the cool kids, and Addyson's getting some nice stuff!

To top off my weekend I got rid of the big table that was in our office AND gave away my old car. It will be worth it to be able to watch my mom race it on the quarter mile bracket racing track. No, I'm not kidding. She wanted it to race. I figure it can make it a quarter mile, but I wouldn't trust it much further than that, so...

A Good Week

Anybody wanna see a picture of our baby girl?

I don't think I mentioned it on Wednesday, but she was dancing a jig (or possibly Wii boxing...) when they took the pics on Wednesday, to the point they were having a hard time getting measurements because she wouldn't be still! Guess I should lay off the sweet tea for lunch on sonogram days. Compared to the pics from last time, she looks huge. And she's got a little nose and ears and arms and feet and everything. That's just awesome!

** If you're one of the people I normally email the scanned pictures to, I do have them scanned but haven't recovered my email addresses from my laptop crash yet, but I'll get them out eventually. Or you can shoot me an email so I can manually add your address and you'll get them sooner. Either way...**

Yesterday Mom and I spent the entire day in various retail establishments, registering for baby gear, using up our $10 off coupons at JC Penney's, and the best news of all, raiding the maternity store. For new bras! People, I'm pretty much at halfway and I haven't grown one size, but two. I realize I'll never have boobs again, but dang, I think I finally hit puberty 15 years late. I know they aren't done, I figure these two new bras will last me six weeks, tops, and I'll be back buying bigger ones.

On a sad note, there was a death in the family this week. My laptop. I had hopes it could be brought back to life, but last night after the fourth or fifth attempt to install an operating system, it was pronounced dead. Sigh. When did I become so dependent on a laptop? Right now I'm using an old one of Greg's. The screen sometimes just goes out for no reason and won't come back on, but as long as I don't need to see what I'm looking at... Guess I'll be twisting Greg's arm to take me computer shopping this weekend. We all know how much he just hates going to electronics stores...

Perfect!

BFF Jen loaned me her baby name book a while back and today I located the perfect name for Tater Tot. Although she might confused and think we're talking to the pup on occasion...

Damhnait

I think I'd pronounce it Damn-it.

And no, I didn't make that up. Right there on page 200, top of the second column.

And the Winner Is...

The votes are counted and the picture evidence is in.

It's a girl!

A very stubborn one. Took two sonograms techs to poke her enough to make her reveal the secret. She was pretty determined to be modest. As soon as the news went out my brother starting making a list of things to buy - pink dragster, pink rifle, pink deer stand...

They got pictures of all the major organs and everything looked excellent. Still measuring a week ahead of schedule and weighs 13 oz.

In other news, I gained FOUR POUNDS! I didn't even get in trouble, Dr. T was quite happy with that.

I'd post one of the new pictures, but my laptop died and it had the scanner software on it. I'll get it reloaded onto one of our backup computers at some point. She sure has grown compared to the last pictures! She looks like a baby!

Next Up

After (IF?) we discover Tot's chosen gender, the next step will be to start fighting over baby names. I've pretty much refused to participate in that discussion much up until this point, figuring it would be easier to narrow it down by half before starting.

I suspect some of you will have much fun contemplating possible names on my behalf. Feel free. But just to remind you, here's a taste of the suggestions I made for BFF Jen before Addyson was born.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day. We go to the doctor tomorrow afternoon to see if Tot will cooperate with revealing the mystery of his or her gender. Yes, I will share those results with you at some point after we get home tomorrow, but if you're on Facebook it'll probably get posted there first since it's easier to access from my phone. You wouldn't believe how many people have sent me emails and texts over the past few days asking what time our appointment is and wanting to make sure I let them know the verdict. Tot has an awful lot of friends already.

To be honest, I think I'm more anxious to see how big Tot's gotten than to find out the gender. Dr. T also said we should be able to check the functioning of a few vital organs this time around, which is why we waited 5 weeks instead of 4 for this appointment.

In other baby-related news, we had to ground Tot again over the weekend. Friday night I was laying in bed minding my own business when Tot started kicking me in the side. I explained that kicking Mommy wasn't allowed, but then it happened again. We can't tolerate that kind of behavior, so I'm starting the discipline early. Grounded. I'm thinking by the time I give birth Tot will already be grounded until age 21. Should make those scary teenage dating years easier on us!

Things I Never Thought I'd See

If Tot's a boy, I may have to name him Corky.

Let me explain.

During the Spring semesters I spent at USM, I spent more time at Pete Taylor Park than I did in class.

My diet during baseball season was at least half ballpark sausage dogs. I still own plastic stadium cups from Southern Miss Baseball 1998.

I own an official team jacket that belonged to our ace closing pitcher that year. (Um, perhaps I shouldn't mention that, as it was a gift from a BFF who shall remain nameless and I've never been entirely convinced it was acquired legally...)

I still miss Fred and Earl, the two old guys who sat right in front of us in the student section and taught us to heckle old school. There's no way those guys are still alive today. But if by some chance they were, they probably both had heart attacks tonight!

Southern Miss swept Florida at the Gainsville Super Regional to earn their ticket to the College World Series in Omaha. USM Baseball has never made it to a Super Regional before, they sure as heck never saw the road to Omaha.

Back when I started watching Southern Miss baseball, Coach Corky Palmer was still an assistant coach to Hill Denson. This year he announced his retirement as head coach. What a way to go out.

First up will be the winner of the Texas/TCU game tomorrow. Did I mention that my husband is a HUGE Texas fan? I don't expect this potential matchup to be a problem, under the circumstances. Those circumstances being that Greg is well aware that he has an emotionally unstable pregnant wife who chewed him out for defending a perfectly normal Florida fan and then screamed like a banshee while jumping up and down in the middle of the living room after the final out of the game. I suspect any support he chooses to throw toward the Longhorns will be silent.

Who am I kidding, even if Tot's a girl I may have to name her Corky...

Getting Better

I'm starting to feel reasonably human. Most days. I'm eating real food, in decent proportions, most days. I'm not sleeping as much during the day. I'm hoping this is a sign of continuing improvement.

Tonight I did something I haven't been able to accomplish in nearly three months. I made a real dinner. We've been eating out every night because I not only lacked the energy and motivation to cook, but the sight and smell of raw meat was not pleasant. At all. I tried a few times, but couldn't get much past opening the package before I decided I'd rather go pick something up. The things I have tried to cook, I tend to screw up. Pregnancy has destroyed my ability to cook. I have burned prepared frozen chicken that requires nothing more than to take it out of the package, onto a cookie sheet, and put in the oven for 15 minutes. Think I'm exaggerating? Ask Greg. I've burned everything I've tried to cook since the day I got pregnant.

But today I felt pretty good. I had to run to Walmart for a couple of emergency items and decided to find something to cook. My plan was something simple to prepare, with minimal meat handling, and preferably something that wouldn't turn my kitchen in an inferno from my gas oven. Turns out, they had steaks on sale...

So yes, I threw steaks on the grill, along with some corn and pineapples. If you've never had grilled pineapple, you're missing out. You're supposed to use fresh pineapple cut into spears, and I have made it that way before, but when it comes right down to it I just buy rings in the can. Works just as well and I don't have to skewer them. Or peel the pineapple. I sliced a finger open doing that once. Anyway, basted in a simple syrup (1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 cup brown sugar, dash of vanilla, and a little salt, cooked until the sugar dissolves) is quite possibly the most tasty thing I've ever put on the grill. I could have eaten an entire pineapple and skipped the steaks. They were that good.

That will likely be the only meal I actually prepare this week. But it's a start. And I didn't fully burn the steaks, which is an improvement. There may be hope for me yet.

Getting My Geek On

When you marry a geek, you learn to speak the language. I've found myself embracing the lifestyle. This was my second year to get psyched about the annual E3 video game conference in LA, which is broadcast live on G4 (read: Geek Channel). Last year I was at work during the important press conferences, so I had to steam it online as I could. This year we recorded it on the DVR. =) Last night I was excited to watch the Ubisoft press conference, which ended up being a bust. They're releasing another Raving Rabbids game this year, but to be honest, the trailer and play demo didn't impress me at all. I'm not real thrilled about it. And it was probably one of the more boring presentations I've seen at an E3 event. I expect more from Ubisoft. The EA presentation at least had a stage full of Jedi. That was cool.

Today was the Nintendo press conference. I was pumped about this one too. I was kind of expecting an announcement for a new Mario Party game (which would make me do cartwheels, I loved Mario Party 8!) but alas, no dice. Instead they announced Super Mario Brothers for the Wii, which is mostly a re-release of the old game with some new features. Eh. I'm not terribly excited. They rehashed a lot of last year's announcements - Wii Sports 2, Motion Plus, blah blah blah... Introduced an expansion for the Wii Fit (way overdo, really) and a lot of "let's shoot people" games I couldn't care less about. Greg was psyhed about Kingdom Hears for the DS this fall. I was yawning a lot. And then...

Super Mario Galaxy 2??? I nearly hyperventilated. It may be something of a repeat, but it's a brand new game and it looks amazing. That made up for all the rest of the blah blah blah. Unfortunately, G4 confirmed that it won't be out until next year. SIIIGH.

Yeah, I just did that. I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programing.