Flash Bulb Friday

Last fall, Puff's company sent him to rural Germany for a business retreat.

He learned really important things like how to hike the Alps and bike ride through quaint villages along the Austrian border.

 

While I totally hate his company, that trip made me super jealous. (Must make a mental note for my next employer... paid European vacations are a necessity!)

 

Puff flew in a day early and took his Audi on back roads (like, so back that there were cows in the way) and stopped to check out Neuschwanstein Castle. Not too shabby a view, eh?

 

 

Makes me anxious for what I suspect will be one of our first international trips with our babies... the back roads of Germany. We can't wait to take Bimmer and her sister/brother on whirlwind adventures!

Nursery: Step 3

The biggest necessity in a nursery, besides the baby, is the crib. And even though we're about 3 months ahead of schedule, Puff was in a furniture-assembling mood recently, so I just rolled with it!

 

And I totally rocked one of Puff's old t-shirts that read "Green Shirts are for Pimps" on it. Because we're nothing if not classy when doing stuff for Bimmer.

 

There were lots of silent moments of perplexed thinking during the assembly process, but in reality, it only took us about 45 minutes to put the entire thing together. And no fights!

 

Unfortunately, the crib can't stay where it is shown in this picture, due to the window. Can't give Bimmer reachable access to those cords on the blinds. But for now? Well, it's going to stay right there until we have all the other furniture in place. I do have to give a shout-out to my mom with regards to the crib. Thanks to a generous donation from her, a coupon, and some stockpiled gift cards, we ended up only paying $43 out of pocket for the crib. Which made that higher-than-anticipated pricetag of the of-course-we-like-a-higher-end-crib a little easier to swallow.

 

And because every newborn needs a flat screen TV... we figured we'd give her one of those as well. :)

Where are You, God?

I'm trying to find God.

More specifically, I am trying to find a place in which to worship. So, in layman's terms, Puff and I are "church shopping."

 

And to be quite honest, I totally hate it. Shopping for a church is almost as bad as shopping for bathing suits or purses or shoes. Shoot me now.

Here's the deal... Puff was raised uber-Southern Baptist and I was raised a lapsed Catholic. So he's used to spending his entire Sunday at church with potluck suppers and Wednesday night choir practices. Me? Well, I'm used to watching "Criminal Minds" on Wednesday nights and staying in my pajamas as long as humanly possible on my weekends. He knows the prayers and the songs and pays attention to sermons. I sit there for an hour thinking about grocery shopping or cutting my toenails. Puff comes away with some sort of message and fulfillment from a service. I come away singing "la la la la, and the holy ghost" as annoyingly as possible during the car ride home.

Although there was that time we started the car in the church parking lot and a rap song came blaring out the open windows. Or the time after that when Puff reached over and touched me inappropriately as we were driving away. Or the time I snuck out to the bathroom during the service to eat fruit snacks and text Kimhead. Maybe we just aren't meant to be church-goers.

To be flat out honest, I'm only partaking in this entire charade because Puff seems to be anxious to find us a place to belong, meet people, and get involved. Oh, and my shrink told me to.

I'm not anti-church or anti-religion. I do, in fact, believe in God. I'm just at a point in my life where I find myself rolling my eyes at lots of little bits of organized religion. Like my grandmother's priest telling her that he couldn't baptize Bimmer since we didn't have a Catholic wedding. Or other churches bashing gays for no reason. Or even others acting elitist and entitled. I'm just frustrated with the process. I like immediate results. I want to walk into a church and have it be full of nice people, relatively similar in their ages and interests, where the priest/pastor is cool and open-minded and doesn't ever go over an hour.

Church shouldn't seem like a chore. But right now? It feels like I am being forced into it.

My shrink has advised me to seek spirituality in my life and my marriage... to help save both from falling to pieces. She says right now, in this very dark time in my life, that I need it more than ever. But it's also the time I am opposed to it more than ever. And not being able to logically wrap my mind around a solution? Yeah, that's driving me batty. I will say that my favorite part of any service/mass at any church we've visited, is the time in the Catholic church where I have time to pray myself. Not guided or in a group. No, I like that when I walk in, I kneel and I pray. And after communion? I pray. It's the closest I feel to connecting to God, because I lead the conversation and not someone else.

 

It's also where I get to ask forgiveness for my sins. And since those are dripping off me, I like to have an extra few seconds to throw those out into the universe.

Third Trimester

Since I know you were all wondering, I will soon start posting pregnancy updates every 2 weeks. My stickers get closer together from here on out. ::insert smiley face::

The past 4 weeks have been fairly quiet. My doctor's appointment at 24 weeks (well, actually 25 weeks and 2 days) had them spouting that I was the "model of a good pregnancy." I'm not so sure about that, since I've definitely had my share of scares and bumps along the way, but it has been fairly smooth sailing lately. Thank God.

 

The worst thing lately has been the sleep. Or lack thereof. People tell me it's good practice for when the baby gets here. But I tend to think even babies sleep in longer than one hour increments! If it's not my restless legs, it's being thirsty or hungry, or itchy feet, or not being able to turn off my brain. I've always been a bit of an insomniac anyway, so not being able to get comfortable to sleep is just making it worse. And I know everyone keeps telling me to get a body pillow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just don't know how that is going to help. Because the biggest culprits in my lack o' sleep is being forced to sleep on my side (where my legs rebel against me) or thinking and worrying too much about stuff. No body pillow will fix that problem.

 

I'm sure you're keeping up with my nursery updates, so I won't bore you with any details here about those. (Stay tuned for more posts to come on that!) I've also been trying to keep up with my exercise. And by that I mean trying to take daily walks around the neighborhood and raking leaves. Never thought you'd hear me say I was raking, did ya? Just had to get to 7 months pregnant to feel motivated to tackle that, I suppose. One walk last week was made even better by the trash guy on the bulldozer smiling and waving at me while I walked past. I still got it.

Even at 25 pounds heavier than usual. (Roughly.)

And for the love of Ryan Reynolds, this having to pee every twenty minutes is beyond ridiculous.

Not to mention these giant boobs that now hurt almost every time I wear a bra with an underwire. I want my X cups back! (Yeah, not gonna just blatantly tell you my bra size on the InterGoogle. Sorry!) And then I got to take the glucose test yesterday. It was like a bar challenge to suck down that bottle of flat orange drink in under five minutes. No one ever told me there was a time limit! Thankfully, while it did make me feel a bit icky, I didn't have the "sugar crash" I had been warned about. Fingers crossed I passed so I don't have to do that crap again!

A Pregnant Hike

Last February, I rearranged my work schedule to guarantee having Presidents' Day off with Puff.

We took the convertible out in the 70 degree sunshine and enjoyed spending some quality time with each other. (Read about that day HERE.)

This year, of course, I didn't have to rearrange anything. The schedule was solidly booked... A long weekend with my hubby. The weather was cooperative enough, but not nearly the gorgeous warm day that I had hoped for. Alas, I am not in charge of controlling the weather. No matter how hard I try! So, we settled for sunny and mid-50s and headed to North Carolina.

 

Our first stop (well, after several stops to pee... pregnant bladders do not make good travel companions!) was a slight turn-off to view the Connestee Falls. The new boardwalk they had built prevented us from getting down to a good vantage point. But we had the place to ourselves, it was conveniently en route, and it was an easy few steps to see something pretty for ol' fatty over here.

 

Speaking of getting fat, this was our lunch at Rocky's in Brevard, North Carolina. The town is adorable, if not slightly nauseating to get there. (I'm sure there's gotta be a back route, but we always go up and over the mountain on these super windy roads!) Our cute little waiter at the soda shop diner made the hot dog suggestion, so I had to go for it. I topped it off with a super yummy chocolate malt, while Puff had a root beer float and a fried peanut butter & banana sandwich.

(Which leads me to a totally different topic of Puff informing me that he has trouble spelling the word "banana." I pointed out that Gwen Stefani spells it for him in that stupid "Hollaback" song. He wasn't so sure. He thought she was just saying "anna" over and over again there apparently. He's so cute!)

Our last stop was on the way back to SC at a place called Hooker Falls. We had been to Triple Falls before, which is the same river, but a hike up-stream instead of a "nature walk" down-stream. Puff told me to be sure not to call it a "hike" since it was along a fairly flat gravel path. He never wants me to get any credit for my hard work in nature! Ha! But dammit... I took my 26 week pregnant ass down that path (and down a fairly steep hill) to get up to the falls. Puff had been unsure about the "cool quotient" for these falls, since he hadn't been there before. But we were both pleasantly surprised. And it was a good, easy excursion for me to handle.

 

On our way home, I mentioned that even after almost 4 years together, and countless trips to waterfalls, hikes, and the mountains in general, that I was happy we could still find places to discover together. Now, we just can't wait to share those with Bimmer!

Flash Bulb Friday

Back in the summer of 2009, Kimhead and I took a whirlwind trip to Washington DC. We hit up a ton of museums, all the monuments we could handle, and a failed Kennedy-themed tour of Georgetown. (We salvaged that trek by hitting up a great H&M sale!)

 

On the last day, July 5th, we got up early to drive back to South Carolina. However, en route, we made a detour to Mt. Vernon. I had been back in 6th grade (and maybe again later with family???) but didn't really have much recollection of it. Kimhead was gung-ho about it, since she's a history buff, and I was happy to oblige.

Apparently going on the morning after a holiday that includes people being out late drinking & setting things on fire, is the perfect time. We had the place to ourselves. Literally... I have a photo of the front of the house with NO people in it. When would that ever happen?!? This particular photo was from the back porch.

 

Oh, to have a nice porch with a gorgeous view to survey my land. How nice to not have neighbors!

Baby Poo

It's surprising to me how many people have been so negative about a decision Puff and I have made with regards to Bimmer.

We are going to try to cloth diaper.

Now, I understand it's not for everyone. But I don't go around telling you that I think breastfeeding is disgusting and I really don't want to see your saggy old boob flopping about with no discretion at all. Maybe I should start. Because apparently it's everyone else's opinion that matters in how we raise our child.

Did I expect people to jump on board? No. But did I expect some of my good friends to tell me they won't even change my child if we use cloth diapers? Certainly not. Am I resigning us to a fate of never being able to be away from our child because people don't want to change her diaper?

Then, a comment from my dad, made it sink in a little bit. He said I would have to teach him how to pin the diapers so he could change her. A lightning bolt hit me. People don't realize that cloth diapers are now as easy to use as disposable ones. They are shaped the same, fit the same, and are changed the same. (Sure, there are differences in what you do with the dirty diaper after you take it off, but Puff and I will accept that responsibility.) They even come in cute different colors.

(Photo from Young House Love)

I won't bore you with the specifics of how we're going to start off with a handful of hybrids and all-in-ones. I won't explain the cleaning process or the storage process. All I will say is that if we choose to make a $200 investment in cloth diapers and it bombs, well, then you can say "I told you so." But if we are successful? Then we'll save, on average, $2000 from not buying disposables. We're not totally disillusioned into thinking this will be easy. We know there are times we will have to use disposables. We know there are times it might get gross or stinky.

But we are both excited to try.

And you will be totally jealous when our toilet has a holster and yours doesn't!