Monthly Archives: April 2009

Bump Report: 28 Weeks

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I missed last week’s regularly scheduled Bump Report, since I was traveling, but all the technical mumbo jumbo was fairly basic / ordinary and I decided to just take a week off. Let’s take a look at said technical mumbo jumbo for this week…

By this week according to babycenter.com, Baby Blueberry weighs about 2.25 pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures about 14.8 inches long. She can blink her eyes, which now sport [hopefully long and luxurious] lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through my womb. She’s also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

I’m now in the third trimester of my pregnancy and if I were like most women I’d likely gain 11 pounds this trimester. According to Wii Fit I’m actually down a pound from my lowest pregnancy weight, but that could be different by tomorrow so I’m unconcerned. I seem to be bouncing back and forth between the same four or five pounds still. I can tell you that I feel humongous belly wise, but I’m sure I’ll get bigger still before this is all over.

If I were not possibly in the middle of moving I’d also be planning to see my doctor every 2 weeks or so after my next appointment which is tentatively scheduled for May 20 if I’m still in the state. If I am but I’m moving, I’m planning to get a copy of my medical records at that appointment and also get MM’s medical records from his pediatrician, not that they are in the same place, but you know, yeah. This month should be a fun mixture of being hugely pregnant and trying to figure out where we are moving and when, where I’m delivering the baby and when, and who our doctors will be when this is all said and done. Fun. Or something.

8 Things…

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Katy Lin @ The Great Adventure tagged me to this 8 Things meme which I’m sure I’ve done before but that hasn’t stopped me in the past, so…

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

  1. Dan being employed again ::crosses fingers::
  2. That new baby coming! Consider me impatient already!
  3. Moving into a new place (most likely) – I can’t wait to decorate.
  4. Purging all the ridiculous clutter – we are so in need of several spring cleanings.
  5. Teaching MM to ride a tricycle this year! Pictures coming soon!
  6. MM falling asleep tonight – that’d be sweet.
  7. MM napping tomorrow – it’s been DAYS… and you can so tell.
  8. Can you tell I’m stretching here? I look forward to being able to plan things again!!!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

  1. Played with the Kindle 2 that I’m reviewing for Mommas Review – if only I were keeping this one!
  2. Did laundry at my parent’s house.
  3. Had dinner with my parents and grandparents and of course Dan and MM.
  4. Grumbled over my internet being all broken.
  5. Cheered when my internet was fixed.
  6. Watched Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother with the hubby – hilarious.
  7. Read some more of The Host – I am nearing the final stages of this one, which might mean another late night is in my future.
  8. Had a delicious peanut butter cookie – mmm…..

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

  1. Whistle
  2. Knit or crochet
  3. Sleep on my back
  4. Sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time
  5. Buy a new sleeper sofa
  6. Buy a new car or two
  7. Eat all the dessert I wanted and not gain weight
  8. Live in the moment more…

8 Shows I Watch:

  1. Big Bang Theory
  2. How I Met Your Mother
  3. American Idol
  4. Fringe
  5. Lie To Me
  6. Bones
  7. Grey’s Anatomy
  8. America’s Next Top Model

I’m not tagging anyone specific – if you’ve been wanting to do this one, go for it!

My Nightstand: April

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I probably have way more important things I should be doing right now, but I wanted to get this up while I had a chance and I’m guessing this is that one chance, sooo…

This month I read:

  1. Here’s the Story by Maureen McCormick – Finished April 2, 2009 – This memoir was so much more than I thought it would be. She recalls not only her life as the actress portraying Marcia Brady, but her fight with depression, drug abuse, an eating disorder, falling in love, getting married, having children, and trying to attain a better relationship with her parents and siblings against pretty straining odds. I really loved this memoir. – Full Review -
  2. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink – Finished April 11, 2009 – This was not an easy read for me – very difficult to relate to, from start to finish, but fascinating. The Nazi Germany history was interesting but what really kept me reading was the unfolding story of the main female character’s secret of illiteracy and how keeping that secret affected her life. I would not say that I loved this book, but I liked it and I’m glad I’ve read it. – Full Review -
  3. Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich – Finished April 24, 2009 – I always love a good Janet Evanovich book. The between the numbers books are good light fluff, even more so compared to the rest of the series. This one was hilarious and a very quick read. Leprechauns, Atlantic City, hot guys. Good stuff.

I am currently reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I am more than half way through it and absolutely hooked. The hype is real – it does start out a teeny bit slow but only because you’re scratching your head trying to wrap your mind around the whole body snatching / love triangle thing, but she does a great job getting you into it, and understanding it, and then totally rocking your world. I recommend it, obviously.

Up next, I’m thinking will be some combination of the following…

Books I’m browsing on the Kindle 2 which I’m reviewing (on a loaner basis – drats!) for Mommas Review:

Here, Sort Of

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Yeah I know, I’ve become a disappearing act. To be fair, I’ve barely been home and when I have been home I was dealing with the Case Of The Disappearing Internet. Or rather, hubby has been tinkering and it took out my internet for awhile and then he had to scratch is head and fume at my iMac for awhile because they don’t speak the same language apparently. Something about Arabic. Anyway, I’m sort of back now, but I know my posting is going to be pathetic and my blog reading is even worse probably. I’m here, sort of. I’m trying to plan so many aspects of this move at the same time that it makes my head spin and we haven’t even gotten an official job offer. I’m feeling impatient but really it’s only Tuesday and I won’t be surprised if we don’t hear from them before Friday afternoon. Whatever. Then I need to find an apartment, a moving company and health insurance in like the blink of an eye and you know, pack and move and get my address changd for like a gazillion things and actually move. Gah. Whose brilliant idea was this again?

On Dream Companies and Cities and Reality

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Just wanted to check in quickly. The boy just went down for his nap and I have 2 hours before people might start coming over (it’s quasi-game night, don’tchya know) but I didn’t want to leave you all waiting with collectively held breath any longer – haha – that’s right, you can exhale, sort of. So the interview went very well and Dan’s more smitten with Dream Company than ever, but we don’t have a definite answer yet. They are hiring a slew of people – and while he has no reason to believe he won’t get the job, we don’t have it in writing yet or anything. If Assuming they hire him, he’d likely start the first Monday in June.

They will pay for our relocation, via reimbursement. So there’s the fine line of we’ll be getting the money back, but we have to actually have the money to pay with initially – and don’t know how long it will take them to pay us back… They will not be helping us pay out the remainder of our lease, which is too bad, but okay. The apartment we are leaning towards offers the first month’s rent for free which will help a bit with the initial costs. I think we’d likely move out a week or so before he’d start working? I’m not sure how long it would take a moving company to get our stuff to Dream City from here, we’ll have to call and see. We’re thinking about flying the three of us to Dream City and staying in a hotel until the moving truck arrives – which Dream Company will pay for. I’m very nervous about getting the health insurance / doctor hooplah switched over. By June I will be seven months pregnant. So so close. Plenty of time in theory, but how long will this all take, you know? Ugh. So there’s that.

I’m ready to start planning but I can only plan in theory until we get that job offer. Still, I think we’ll get the job offer. I just hope they hurry up! They said 1-2 weeks like they have with every other step of this process so I’m hoping that means it will be soon but it could be 2 weeks. I really hope he gets this because he loves the company… and if he doesn’t, we’re kind of stuck back at level one – with no real prospects. Stupid economy.

I liked Dream City, by the way, from what I saw. I think the whole thing got very real once we got there – it wasn’t a magical fairy tale land like it was allowed to be in my imagination but I did really like the apartments and most of the city (does anyone really like the urban down town parts of cities? It’s not like I’d be getting an apartment in those areas anyway) and the people we met, apartment leasing people, hotel staff, etc. were all friendly enough in a I’m paid to be nice to you kind of way. I know I don’t sound as excited as I should. It’s real now. And I’m bone tired – we got home at midnight last night and it’s been go go go since then. A nice weekend, but busy with a lot to do in the coming weeks. Alright, I’d better start cleaning for my company. :) Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Aloha Friday: The Out Of Town Edition

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It’s time for another Aloha Friday, the day that you take it easy and look forward to the weekend, in Hawaii and blog land anyway. As you should know by now, over at An Island Life, Kailani decided that on Fridays she would take it easy on posting and ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life’s blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

It’s another Scheduled Post from Jen! I’m writing this Wednesday night as we pack our bags for the trip. I’m still feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing, just wondering how it will all go down, but happy that hopefully by the time we’ve come back we’ll have a definite answer or at least a better idea? I don’t know. At the moment it’s Mommy Nerves that are over whelming me. Two whole nights away from my baby and two days. He’ll be shuttled about to three different, wonderful and caring relatives and I’m sure he’ll have a great time, but I worry. Will he miss me? If he doesn’t miss me, would that bother me? Will he get hurt? This will be the longest time I’ve ever spent away from him. Before this, my longest was one night and then the following day for a wedding. It was okay – I kept busy. But I was still in the same state and relatively close and he was with his father. This. This is different. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but you know I’m a mom and I’m going to worry and miss him like crazy and begrudge the time apart from him even while I’m enjoying it.

So my Aloha Friday question this week is for the mommas – my apologies to any non-mom’s reading this, you get a break this week:

What is the longest you’ve been away from your child(ren)? How was it?

Weekend Diversions: The Getting Offline Edition

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I’m writing this week’s Weekend Diversions on a Tuesday, taking total advantage of the post scheduling feature. Why write so far in advance? Thursday and Friday I’m going to be traveling with my husband to an out of state in person interview with a company we’re calling Dream Company. With any luck by the time we get back Friday night we’ll be celebrating a new job and delusionally busy with the planning details. I doubt I’ll be glancing at the computer much this weekend, thus the scheduled post. To celebrate this occasion, I thought I’d devote this week’s Weekend Diversions to minimalizing our time here online, or getting away from it completely. I’m going to start with small steps for the first diversion and by the third diversion, hopefully you’ll be hopping off the computer, too, into a fun new adventure with your family.

So let’s start with Readability, a website that lets you choose the fonts, font sizes and margins that you prefer to read online, install a little bookmarklet into your toolbar, and then click the bookmark when you want to view a certain page in that format. Cut the clutter and get to the heart of what you are trying to read. I’m betting this could increase your productivity and at the very least it was kind of fun playing with the settings and seeing how it did it’s thing. Give it a whirl.

Alright, this next one is for my fellow Mac users. To all the PC or Linux users reading this, I’m sorry, you’ll just have to move on to the next diversion, which promises to be a lot of fun anyway. Alright, for my Mac pals still with me, check out Freedom – this little application will disable your network connection for up to eight hours at a time, allowing you to step away, into the real world and find some 3D diversions in the form of ‘the rest of your life.’ Don’t worry if you change your mind and want to log back into your network before the time is up – just reboot your computer and you’ll be back up and running. I think this is a neat way to encourage yourself to take a break if you find yourself spending too much time online – or if you are trying to limit your kid’s online usage. But before you go, make sure you check out this last diversion!!

Since you’ve used Readability to increase your productivity and get your work done, and you’re maybe thinking about installing Freedom to give yourself a little internet R&R, here’s a link that will help you find something new and fun to do. KaBOOM lets you find local places to go out and play in your area. Search by your town or the town you’d like to visit and it will give you a list of parks and play areas near you.Want more incentive to give KaBOOM a try? If you know of a play area not on KaBoom you can enter it into their databse yourself. For each valid entry, Julianne Hough will donate $1 to your cause — and enter you in a drawing to win prizes. This week, you could win an Amazon Kindle 2! To read more about KaBoom and their mission to find as many places for kids to play as possible, click here.

About American Idol and My Real Life

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So last night we watched Idol’s disco night. All the performances were fine I guess but the only two which stood out for me were Kris Allen and of course Adam Lambert. I’m not-so-silently pegging them as my top 2 at this point. I love both the ladies, but I don’t think either of them stand a chance at this point. We’ve got Lil Rounds who just doesn’t seem to get it, and that’s fine, she still has a beautiful voice and I’m glad to have heard her – and then that tiny little bombshell, Allison whose voice just kills me, but she seems to have plateaued for me. And then I think, “She’s 16, give her time.” So despite thinking they are both very talented ladies, I’m at peace now with my decision to leave their fan camps. Matt Giraurd seems to be an every other week thing for me. I love him or ‘meh’ him. Last night veered on the side of ‘meh.’ Anoop, man, he’s found his place with ballads which consistently pleases the judges but sometimes I have to wonder if he’s even happy being pinned in this little box. Whatever keeps him in the competition? Maybe I’m over analyzing. Last night was just okay for me. Oh and Danny, well we just won’t go there. If you don’t know my opinion on him by now, you can just search all my other American Idol related posts and you’ll soon catch on, but I’m tired of bitching on it.

So we’re leaving early early early Thursday morning, dropping the kiddo off at my MIL (from there he will be getting carted around to several other relatives for what should be the weird mid-week weekend sleepover extravaganza of his life) and heading to the airport for our flight which departs at 8:50am but between the 90 minutes of preparedness time they want you to have and the hourish commute to get to the airport, it still means a god awful morning. We should arrive in Dream City by 1:30pm. Apartment hunting, town drooling and then a dinner at the hotel restaurant which Dream Company is footing the bill for. Sweet. I’m hoping and praying the hotel has cable and that I’ll be able to watch Bones and Grey’s Anatomy, because I realized last night that tv owns half my life. Sad but true. I’m already accepting that I’ll be missing America’s Next Top Model this week. It conflicts with tv times tonight and Friday when it reruns we will literally be in the air on our way home. Drats.

Friday is the actual interview with Dream Company. Dan prepared a 20 minute presentation on a previous work project of his that he has to present to the big guys. Apparently there will be other candidates there also – I don’t know if they are hiring multiple people or if he simply has competition but the concept makes me nervous. Somehow, despite trying very hard to remain on the “if this happens” camp, I think I’d largely assumed it would. What if there is someone else coming there who is better? And they get the job? And we come home to our unemployment and disappointment and continue this search? ::sigh:: I know we’ll survive it either way, either way is a big thing to deal with, but ugh, I just want this to be over either way you know? I want to know where my life is headed by Saturday PLEASE.

So yeah, that’s about all the new and big. Not sure when I’ll be posting again as it’s about to get crazy busier (like busier than already) but I’ve got some posts up today and my weekend diversion’s is scheduled to post on Friday, so my blog won’t be completely silent without me. Hope you all have a great week!

In My Opinion: April 22

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This week’s questions for the In My Opinion video meme are:

  1. One of mom’s traits I admired is/was …
  2. I remember getting into trouble with my parents on this occasion.
  3. Are you more of a rule keeper, or a rule breaker? Why?

And here is my video response:

Your turn.