Happy Halloween!

My friend Jeana painted the baby and the GIANT legs bones (I mean, come on! I might be fat, but good Lord!)

And um, that's my terribly messy office. With all the new people coming in, I haven't had time to clean up at all.

Happy Halloween Eve!

Tonight I lugged my pumpkin across the street, and carved it old school style, with a metal spoon, a bread knife, and a steak knife.

Check it out (in all its glory):

The horses sure liked the carved out bits!

It sure was a far cry from last years' pumpkin, when I had a whole kit and different sized little saws and stuff.

New page element added

So I decided to do one of those "cutesy" baby countdown tickers. It's all the way at the bottom of the page if you want to check it out.

Vegetables

On Friday, we're having a Halloween potluck at work. I was checking the list to see what others were bringing, and under "Vegetables," someone put "Mac & Cheese."

I didn't know mac & cheese was a vegetable! Oh, that's right, in the South, it is. No wonder Alabama is going to institute a "Fat Tax" for their overweight state employees (which I don't agree with, but still).

Chili Cookoff!

Last night my friend Joan and I went to the Giles County Chamber Cookoff. For $5 you got a small black styrofoam bowl and a spoon. There were about 45 vendors serving chili, cookies, cornbread, and sometimes beverages.


Right away we scored an awesome parking spot, right on the square. We got out of the car and looked for the most likely line where we could get our bowl & spoon. Unfortunately, they ran out of spoons & bowls, so we had to go to yet another line (but hey, we walked fast & got there before other people :-D).

Our first stop was at the Chamber table itself, and the chili was great! We then skipped the next couple of tables, and stopped to try some "Hillbilly chili" (which tasted like watered down hamburger and gravy). Joan stopped and tried some other kind, and I went further down where a local guy is running for...something. He had free pop (which I snagged for us), and GROSS chili. It tasted like it had some kind of liquor in it. I shook my head at Joan, and found a trash can. We made our way around the square, tasting whatever struck our fancy (we both prefer thicker chili, so we were looking for that). I tried 2 different kinds of white chili. They were okay.

We stopped and watched the lady-men beauty pageant (one guy actually had pretty shapely feminine legs), which was funny, but I was too hungry to stand there and watch for too long.

One stop I made, I got the spoon to my mouth and started scooping off the chili, and literally almost projectile vomited it all back up. I immediately spit out what was in my mouth back into my bowl, and practically drained my pop just to get the NASTY taste out of my mouth. I then found another trash can and scooped all of that gross into it. I found another chili and managed to find out that tasted decent enough to get the grossness out of my mouth and mind.

We finished up the walk around the square, and decided to end the night with the delicious chili from our first stop, but unfortunately they had *just* run out. Literally. The guy in front got the last bowl. We told the lady dishing the chili out that it was by far the best chili on the square, and she was very pleased.

Both of us very full, we made our way back to the car, and went back to her house for relaxation and chatting.

All in all, I would do it again, but I'd probably be the less adventurous one and ask more questions before I hand over my bowl :-).

Feeling better

Well, I'm feeling better about the whole "Nikki thing" after getting a good nights' sleep last night. I'm still unhappy about it, but I'm no longer weepy and/or pissed off whenever I think about it.

Besides, I have something much better to look forward to! Justin's coming to visit! He's on his way right now, and should be here probably around 1:30-2:30 in the morning. AND! the puppies are coming with him since my parents are camping this weekend!

yay! We're going to drive to Huntsville to buy me some more maternity clothes. I'm getting really tired of wearing the same pants every. single. day. I'm also running out of dirty clothes to wash when I wash my pants.

Bitter

I feel like shit today because I couldn't sleep last night. "Why's that, Amber?" you wonder. Well, I'll tell you.

My baby sister, who just turned 20 a week ago and has been living with a boy for a few months, told my parents and Justin that she is 7 weeks pregnant.

(rant)
Do you know what was 7 weeks ago? Go ahead and check, I'll wait. That's right, it was the weekend I told my family I was pregnant.

Now, Nikki has always been the jealous type (youngest child syndrome?). When Justin and I bought a popup camper that needed the floor fixed, we took it to my parents, because well, that's where I lived at the time (I was still in college), and when my mom took it upon herself to work on it (cause she's cool like that), Nikki got all pissed off that no one was paying any attention to HER and dented the aluminum siding on the camper with her basketball (she was 13 or 14). When I was getting married, my mom insisted on making my dress, and Nikki threw a fit (she was 15 at the time) because mom was spending so much time on MY dress.

I honestly think that when she heard I was pregnant, she told her boyfriend that she wanted a baby and they "forgot" to use protection, just so I don't get any glory.

Oh yes, I mean, I'll have the oldest grandchild in my side of the family, but who the fuck cares? 2 1/2 months later, her child will be born. SHE CAN'T EVEN AFFORD TO PAY HER CELL PHONE BILL EVERY MONTH. My parents took over $2,000 of HER debt because she couldn't afford it! (HELLO! My mom even had to get a job at Walmart in order to pay for MY SISTERS debt!) How is she going to pay for $300-400 of diapers every month? Let alone she's most likely going to have to formula feed, because she can't even afford to take a day off from her own job at Walmart if she's sick!

I'm seriously tempted to tell my parents that if they help her financially in any way, they will never see their oldest grandchild. Do you think that's too harsh? Let's go over some facts.

• Neither of my younger sisters went to college. (Well, my middle sister did, but she dropped out after a semester). When my grandfater died, Justin and I got a couch, a loveseat, a dining room table, a stand up freezer, a fridge, and a washer/dryer (which we ended up selling, or it broke and we had to replace it, something like that). My sisters? They each got $6,000.
• When I went to college, my stepdad was in the middle of a string of jobs, and they had no money. I paid for college myself, 100%. I graduated with $30,000 in student loans (and still owe $16,000). The only thing they did was mom would pick me up from work at midnight (before I got my drivers license a year and a half later), and they let me live at home rent free. Rent free, you say? Well, they never charged either of my sisters rent, and they did nothing but sit on their ass! I even helped pay for my parents mortgage on their house!
• When Justin and I got married, they paid out about $500 worth of stuff (not including the alcohol THEY bought which we didn't even want there). The rest? We paid for ourselves.
• Whenever my sisters wanted to go anywhere (before they had their licenses), my parents would drive them. Me? They made me take the bus 95% of the time (and pay for it myself).

Now, do you still think I'm being too harsh? My mom said that when she and my stepdad got together, that no one helped them... they don't have any education past high school (ahem, they got together 25 years ago), so I don't think my parents should help my sister and her protection-deficient boyfriend either.

GAH.

Note to self:

QUIT EATING APPLES RIGHT AFTER TAKING YOUR PRENATAL VITAMIN

It's really really really bad coming back up.

*sigh*

Oh, and if you were eating an apple when you read this, I'm sorry.

Wow

So in my post on Sunday, I mentioned that my OB was concerned that the One-A-Day Womens Prenatal didn't have enough folic acid, so I wrote a quick note to the One-A-Day people with my concerns. I got a pretty quick response back!

-------------------------
Dear Ms. (me):

Thank you for taking the time to contact Bayer HealthCare about One-A-Day Prenatal Multivitamin/Mineral Supplement. We appreciate your interest in Bayer HealthCare and our products.

Please be assured that your comments about not having enough folic acid in our One-A-Day Prenatal and your comments about having to take additional folic acid with our One-A-Day Prenatal will be shared with our management team. Your feedback is vital to our continuous improvement efforts.

In appreciation of your interest, under separate cover I am sending a full value coupon for your use. Please allow 7 to 10 business days for delivery.
If I may be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Taren Werkheiser
Consumer Advisor

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I have to say I'm very impressed with their quick response and their concern! I hope that in the future when I go to get more pills, they will have increased the amount of folic acid in their product.

First baby pics!

This morning I went for my first ultrasound.

Remember when I said the Doctor said my "uterus was a good size?" Well, the ultrasound technician told me the baby was measuring at 20 weeks, not the 16 we first thought! Now it appears the baby could be due as early as February 21, but it's possible the baby is just big (maybe?) The tech said the baby is about 12 ounces, based on measurements.

I didn't find out the baby's sex, simply because I finally pressured Justin into deciding one way ot the other whether he wants to know or not, and he decided he wanted to be surprised (which I will totally respect his decision and not find out on my own).

Since I could be due so early, I called my boss today and told him my last day would be December 12. I'm going to check with my HR person and OB to see if I can't get my 30 week ultrasound done while Justin's down here moving me, but I'm not sure about my isurance coverage. Maybe I'll just wait until I get to Erie and have my new doctor perform it.

Sorry the pics are crooked and grainy, but the scanner at work isn't all that great, and the pics just got extra crooked since I trimmed out my personal data. The baby kept playing peek-a-boo with us. It'd go from no face, to BIG SCARY SKULL FACE :-D.

First Visit with the Dr

Well, Friday afternoon I had my first visit with the Doctor. I was a little surprised to see he was an older black guy (especially since he has a white wife in the birthplace of the KKK, but he's a really nice guy and really listened to me and my concerns. He told me my Prenatal Vitamins didn't have enough Folic Acid (One A Day Womens'), so I picked up a supplement to uh, supplement my current pills.

He did a full exam, then checked the size of my uterus (if it's TMI, too damn bad ;-)), and said it was "a good size." I don't really know what to make of that. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I go for my ultrasound! He then pulled out his doppler, and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat (which was between 130-160 BPM). He had to work to find it, because the baby kept moving around.

My next appointment is October 29, with the midwife/NP.

There are SOME good things about living in the country

#1 Horses (duh)
#2 The fact that there's nowhere to shop, so I don't spend any money!
#3 I can wake up at 7:45 and be to work by 8-ish
#4 Everyone's generally friendly
and finally
#5 Trust in people.

Yesterday after feeding my friends horses, I walked down the street to the gas station (that's diagonally across from my apt), and ordered a hamburger and fries. While I was waiting and giving love to the gas station dog, Fido, a lady came in and pumped $10 worth of gas. When she went inside to pay, she realized she had forgotten her check and had no cash or credit cards on her (actually, not many people down here have credit cards, so I've found out). The owner (who lives 2 houses up from me), just wrote her name and phone number down, and she promised to come back tomorrow (today) afternoon and pay him for the $10 worth of gas in her car.

How many stores do you know that would let someone do that, especially a gas station? I think that's about the only one I know of. If I had been quicker about it, I would have just offered to pay the gas for her, but to be honest, I was tired, dusty, and hungry, and was just waiting for my supper. I didn't even think about it until this morning when I woke up. Oh well, there's always next time.

Erie Trip, Part 2 (and one month late)

So yeah, burghbaby's mom gave me a smackdown for leaving everyone hanging. I can't help it that I'm just one lady and people at work seem to forget that (dammit).

But, hey, good news - I'm past the incredibly-tired-all-the-time stage (at least for the next 3 months), so I have more energy to post... but not necessarily more topics. :-)

Any way, let's see... where did I leave off...? Oh yeah.
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So the next day (that Friday), we woke up, got showered and whatnot, and went to lunch. Justin got a chicken parm with spaghetti, and I got a club wrap. I took ONE bite of that club wrap, and all I could taste was bacon, and it was NOT good. I sat there, turned around so I could check to make sure I knew where the bathroom was, and patiently waited and willed myself to not puke. After about 10 minutes, I felt a little better, but was not going to try my wrap again. I managed to eat some of Justin's spaghetti with no more problems. We then got the puppies and headed out to Erie.

Once in Erie, we went to Target and looked at some of the baby stuff. I found a little baby bib that said "I love Grandpa," and got a tiny gift bag to put it in. We then went to my parents house, where my mom made dinner and then I gave dad his presents. First, I gave him his bocce set, then I gave him the tiny bag. He pulled it out, held it up BACKWARDS, and my mom saw it first. She screamed, then exclaimed, "You're pregnant?" then jumped up and gave me a hug. This will be their first grandchild (I'm the oldest of 3 girls), and they couldn't be happier.

My baby sister, Nikki, came over with her boyfriend, and dad mis-heard mom (she said "DON'T tell Nikki"), and she started yelling in the house, "AMBER! Why didn't you tell me!?" Silly girl, I had just found out myself!

Saturday, Justin and I went up to the Arbys' that my other sister, Becky, works at, and she bought us lunch and talked for a bit. She doesn't have a house phone, so that's pretty much the only time I see/talk to her.

The rest of the weekend, we just hung out, went to Presque Isle to watch the sunset, then stopped and ate good ice cream sundaes. We took my mom dinner of subs from a local sub place. I ate half my sub, then it promptly came back up (and dammit, I love those subs!). On Tuesday, the day I was heading back, mom took me to Cleveland to drop me off at the Airport, and we stopped and picked up my friend Kristen to get together for lunch, and give her her birthday present. We went to another sub place, and that one didn't stay down either. So, it appears the baby doesn't like subs. Justin got the other half for his lunch the next day.

The flight was uneventful, although the walkway is sooooooooo long when carrying my carryon bag. I guess if I fly again, I'll have to start checking my bag (good thing I fly Southwest, so it's still free), as it's too heavy for me to carry all over the airport.