The Joys of Homeownership

It rained quite a bit today. As I was making dinner I suddenly turned to find a giant puddle in the middle of the kitchen. At first, I was sure Sammy peed. Then I realized there was a lot more to it than the puddle I had noticed. We grabbed towels to contain all the water and looked through the bathroom and laundry closet- not the source. Micah moved the fridge and we discovered the water was coming in through the base of the wall. When our neighbor on the other side of the wall got home, Micah checked with her and she had a lot of water coming through the bottom of our shared wall as well, but in more places. When Micah returned, he checked other places and also found water had soaked the area at the bottom of the stairs adjascent to the wall. So, we have been changing out the towels in the kitchen to contain the moisture and have a fan on the carpet by the stairs. Now the fun part of having the source of the problem identified and solved!

The positive side is that it will probably be taken care of by the HOA- they insure everything but the space inside the unit I believe. We may have a deductable or some other payment, but we can manage that.

The most stressful aspect: If it is something that will require them to rip open the wall or the foundation. Not what we need with a newborn that should be here in 9 days. So, I am crossing my fingers that the problem is in the roof! This is also not the ideal time to have an issue, with Christmas on Sunday. It may be more difficult to get ahold of our HOA people and have them look into the problem to fix it. At least the forcast doesn't show rain for tomorrow!

It has rained before and we haven't had this problem and it seemed like the water seeped in all of the sudden. Weird!

What a Man

Micah is pretty much awesome. Yesterday, I called to reschedule my OB appointment because I was scheduled or my last shift at Party City that day. The lady on the phone told me that there were no other appointments available this week. Or next week. In fact, the soonest they could fit me in would be the 5th- by which time they would be inducing me anyway b/c its a week past my due date. She insisted that the appointment I was calling to reschedule would be the only possible time to come in, and so since I had to just cancel the appointment without scheduling any others.
So, Micah called them today and somehow he got them to schedule me for 3 appointments, one for this week, next week and early the following week. When they supposedly had no openings until Jan 5th. Wow. How does he do it?!

ALSO, Micah has got a guy at MIT Lincoln Labs who is in the process of requesting approval to hire him as a summer intern next summer. He didn't hear back from another group there for a while after he had a phone interview, but was persistant and instead went through some contcts to hook up with a different research group. So, looks like we'll be in Boston next May!

Are we there yet?!?!

Less than 2 weeks til my due date and I am going a little crazy.

Micah set up a tree this afternoon and it turned out very pretty. He finished the semester on Friday and got all A's. Woo hoo! And though the next semester begins Jan 9, Dr. Gaylord emailed him this morning with his next project. For those of you who have forgotten what he looks like:

Here we have our nursery furniture; the bassinet, the glider and the dresser which we will use as a changing table as well. Below, I practice using the stroller after Micah put it together.

One of the few ways that I can stay busy this week is cooking and baking. I've been trying some new things- like this flatbread which we ate with curry that I am quite proud of.

This week's creations will include sugar cookies with homemade fondant sculptures, fudge, lemon bars and pumpkin roll. I made macaroons today and feel pretty mad that it has taken me this long to find out how easy they are to make. They have like 5 ingredients and are amazing. Micah and I ate the whole batch before they had even cooled.

It´s Like Christmas!

Yesterday and today we got 3 UPS visits- a few items we got with a giftcard from Micah´s Dad and a lovely piece of nursery furniture from my Dad. It´s pretty cool to actually have stuff in the baby´s room! Sammy loves all of the baby stuff. Even the clothes and diapers he wants to sniff all over and lay on. Micah worries that he might think it´s all for him and he´ll get mad when the baby starts using her stuff.
In other news, I got examined this morning at the Dr.´s and to my dismay, nothing is going on to suggest that I am on the cusp of labor. Sure, sure, I´m still a couple of weeks from my due date. But I want our baby here NOW! Hahaha. I guess I´ll just have to keep walking, eating spicy food and taking evening primrose oil.

Micah's Deep Thoughts

The other night, Micah asked if I had ever considered that Sammy might actually be an alien pretending to be a dog. He went on, "Sometimes he looks at me like I'm such a simple creature..."

Nope. I'm pretty sure he's just a dog.

This picture is from last week sometime:

The Home Stretch

3 weeks and 3 days until my due date! Not that anyone's counting...
I have finally reached the stage where I can go into labor and it would be just fine, they wouldn't try to stop anything. Bring on the spicy food.

This week I have started to experience noticeable Braxton Hicks contractions, also known as haha-just-kidding-nothings-really-happening-and-you're-not-going-into-labor-anytime-soon contractions. At least my body knows it's preparing for something to happen shortly.

I will update a nice fatty picture as soon as I can get the camera back from Micah, who was using it for school. Everyone tells me I'm small for being 8 months. I asked my doctor today if that matters and he said all my abdominal measurements are right where they should be but because my torso is longer my pooch doesn't stick out as far as it does for many others. Lucky me.

I've Got the Black Lung, Pa

This week has been relatively uneventful to me mainly because I returned from Wilmington with a bad cold and have spent most days laying in bed miserably.

Micah has been super busy- he has two more weeks left until the end of the semester and a number of projects to tie up before then. Yesterday he got up at 2 a.m. to start doing work and didn't come back from school until after 7 p.m. I tried to assure him that this is not healthy. This morning I sucessfully convinced him not to get up when his alarm went off. Good influence? Bad influence? Maybe I'm a bit of both to him.

I have now graduated to weekly OB/GYN appointments. Yesterday, my blood pressure was quite a bit higher than it has been, but still in the healthy range. They claimed my weight was 7 lbs more than my previous appointment before Thanksgiving. I have convinced myself that their scale was somehow broken and this can not possibly be true.

Lastly and most importantly:
Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I came across Micah sitting on the floor scratching the bottom of his foot...with my haircomb. I was appalled. He expressed remorse and shame and then promptly moved on and began using my comb on his other foot. I made him rinse it in hot water, but if I develop a fungal scalp infection in the coming weeks, we all know why.

Opinions?

Should I try to make money selling these products?

http://www.amway.com/EN

Thanks, Thanksgiving!

Last weekend I got to see my Dad and Stepmom in Wilmington. 'Twas AWESOME! The only bad part is that I never dug out my camera until the morning we left. Darlene and Brooklynn also came out. She's turning into such a kid! Brooklynn, that is. Not Darlene. But, happy news: Darlene found out that she is having a baby boy in April. Yay! Brooklynn said over dinner on Saturday that his name should be Brian. I like it. Just sayin'. Our Thanksgiving feast was amazing- we all helped towards making pies the night before and then LeAnn organized a fabulous dinner with all the classics- turkey, rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean salad. I have not eaten so much in such a concentrated period of time since....last Thanksgiving. Afterwards we were all in various stages of unconsciousness through the evening. Even though Micah had schoolwork to do, it was nice to see so much of him. He has a super busy week ahead- teaching 2 lectures, doing experiments for a professor back at BYU and writing a big report, in addition to his usual workload of classes and TAing.

LeAnn threw a baby shower for me on Saturday and it was great to see those who came. It very fun. Between the shower and all of the stuff my Dad has been collecting from Freecycle.org, I feel much more prepared for Natalie/Angela/Ella/Rebekah/Rachel to come. We have all of the absolute essentials- a car seat, a bassinet, blankets and some clothes- so anything big we get from here on is just extra fancy. Like a stroller. And a boppy pillow. There are still plenty of little things, but I'm sure you spend the rest of the child's life getting little things that they need as they go.

After the shower, Brooklynn helped me collect all the balloons. Once they were all collected and tied together, Brooklynn picked out the mylar one and said she liked it and that it was "stylish". Hahahaha. Too cute.

Driving home on Sunday, Micah said that his favorite part of the trip was sharing the things that we are grateful for while we ate our Thanksgiving meal. It is refreshing to realize how blessed we are.

After tomorrow, it will be December. I am very excited. I am supposed to have a baby in December. That means not much time left! I feel lucky that I am still pretty mobile and everyone tells me I don't look that big, but I am beginning to slow down. Everything aches- my back, my hips, my feet, and I feel clumsy. Oh, well. Comes with the territory!

Amicalola Falls

What a week, what a week! Amicalola Falls was gorgeous. It was hard to capture how huge it is because it is nestled right up to the trees and the hiking path was so close beside it.

We didn't take the trail all the way to the top, only to the halfway point. After the first bit, the climb was all stairs that had grated steps that the dogs couldn't climb because the gaps were bigger than their little feet. We carried them up the first set of steps just to get the best view of the water and then came back down and drove to the lookout at the top of the falls.

The fall colors were beautiful. I'm glad we didn't go any later because fall is definitely on its way out and most trees are pretty naked now.

Here's me, looking fat by the waterfall:

I feel like I have suddenly gotten a lot bigger in the last week. I had Micah take a picture of me last night and I am still in denial about it accuratley capturing my size (I'm not really that big, it's just an unflattering shirt!). Micah has been very sensitive and supportive, making such statements as, "You're like twice as big as you were yesterday!", "I'm skinny... compared to you", and "From the back, you couldn't even tell you're pregnant...except for the stretch marks...". I can't believe New Years Eve is so far away and I already feel huge!

Today I had a doctor's appointment in which they did a scan just to see that all was normal. Based on the measurements, they said the baby is about 4lbs 11oz, and projected a totally average 7 1/2lb baby by the time she's born. Yay! No mammoth baby for me! She is already in position with her head down facing back, so that's good- no breech-position c-section necessary. And it is definitely a girl, no surprise there. Micah came up with the name Natalie Rose the other night. I think it's alright, except that Rose makes me think of Titanic. I think we might have to make a 2-5 name list and just wait until she's born and see what name fits her best.

Less than a week until we leave for Wilmington for Thanksiving. I just realized that this will be our last trip without any children to worry about. Woohoo! Par-TAY!

The Name Game

Micah doesn't like the name Angela anymore. I think that he worries that people will make the immediate connection to the Angela who was my best friend's Mom. He has recently suggested:

• Danika
• Natania (female variation of nathaniel, meaning "gift of God". Would be in line with both of our Hebrew-originating names)
• Eden

These names spare the risk of her being associated with other people, I guess. But I've never met anybody with any of those names, and I am not too sure about weird names. Don't want my child growing up thinking she has to be strange because she has an oddly unique name!

The shame is that so many normal names we like are ruined by people with that name. Like Angelina, which would always bring to mind Angelina Jolie. Or Isabella, which makes me think of Twilight. At least all of the Angelas that we have known have been people we like!

Sending Christmas Card

My mom is in town visiting. It's been very nice. We may take a jaunt up into the mountains tomorrow to see the fall colors.

I've (perhaps prematurely) started thinking about Christmas cards. I love crafts but I don't want to have to buy too many supplies, so I'm planning to do some collage type designs on plain cardstock. I'm mostly thinking along the line of this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/megancoyle/5281188137/

except perhaps a little simpler so I can make lots of them. Here are a few other examples I was inspired by:

We took a nice photo we can put in the card. Below are some of the ones that were not chosen:

Oops. I forgot to change out of my fuzzy socks and sandals. Cross off all the full length pics...

Perhaps if it weren't such a Christian holiday, I wouldn't mind circulating photos in which I resemble a fat, cross-legged buddha statue.

Here we go, one, two-Squirrel!

"Don't worry, Micah. If we just keep taking more pictures, we're bound to have one turn out well."

Halloween

On Sunday night, Micah and I carved pumpkins. Micah had been insisting for about a week that he would beat me at pumpkin carving. We still haven't found an impartial judge to tell us who won. Here they both are:

Let me know which one you think is better!


I bought a few bucks of bulk candy just in case we had any trick or treaters. I figured it was possible, since we have regular ground level doors, they wouldn't have to climb stairs or go into buildings like apartment complexes. Plus, I know there are a billion kids living in the complex across the road (having passed the mass waiting for the school bus). But alas, no trick or treaters! We are slowly working our way through the leftover candy and I'm glad I decided not to get more than I did.

Sammy's been very itchy lately. He gave himself a yucky sore under his leg from itchying there so much! If it doesn't heal soon, we're gonna have to wrap his paws in gauze to keep him from scratching. It's so sad. I gave him a flea bath 2 weeks ago and he is up to date on his flea drops. I've read that shih tzus have very sensitive skin and so it might be just be allergies or irritations to something. I gave him a good hair cut in case he's bothered by matts or hot spots. I just thought this image of him looking at the scissors with trepidation was so cute.


By the time we finished, the pile of clipped hair was as big as him! I am now convinced that shih tzus were created when a sheep accidentally bred with a pekingese dog.

Halloween Approaches

So we left the krispy kreme last week with a dozen donuts and arrived home with... 2.75. What a creepy halloween mystery. Somehow, the rest all disappeared...

Micah did well on the Halloween 5K. He finished in just over 25 minutes. It was a little wierd because they started earlier than they said they would, so Micah was late beginning. The route around campus wasn't marked, so he had to just follow a print out of a map until he caught up to other runners, but he still finished pretty close to everyone else. Here he is with Dr. Gaylord, who ran the 5k as well.

I'm over 30 weeks now- 75% complete! Here I am in my work uniform this morning- tan pants, black shirt- before heading off to a crazy 9 hour shift.

It is shocking how many folks wait until last minute for halloween costumes. Especially people who seem to care a LOT- most were crushed when we were out of most of our most popular costumes. If it matters that much to you to have a yellow angry birds costume or a blue morph suit, maybe you should leave yourself more than 2 days to start looking for it! It was so busy. We seriously just stood there while people lined up along the whole length of the aisles to ask us for merchandise. And 5 people decided to not come in to work. I guess that's a big risk of hiring so many temps- a lot of them just stop caring and don't show up when things get hard. Lame! Hopefully today's will be the worst shift I to go through. Ahhhhh, what a relief.

Why, Yes!

We are the classiest people in the world. Here we sit down to enjoy an elegant dinner of macaroni and cheese with chili hot dogs.


Recent happenings: Micah was hired to tutor a girl in one of his classes a few hours a week. He gets paid 4.1x the hourly rate that I do at Party City. Lucky, Lucky.

Speaking of Party City, I believe that next week will be my last week working there. I was very unsure as to whether or not I should try to stay on part-time, but I have decided not to for a few reasons. One is that I would only want to stay until Christmas time and the time between Christmas and New Years is supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year. Also, I couldn't take off the weekend of Thanksgiving and I already have plans to go up to Wilmington since we couldn't go this month due to not being able to take off the weeks before Halloween . And most importantly- I don't think I can do 6-9 hour shifts on my feet any more. Even with a good break in the middle, it has gone from being irksome and tiring to downright painful. So, I shall instead spend the last 8-10 weeks of my pregnancy sitting on my butt. I mean... uh.... nesting.


On Monday I went back for my glucose test. I passed (barely) and so it was recommended that I still make some changes to my diet, mainly eliminating carbs where possible. I think that I probably would have failed if I hadn't fasted for so long before the test. My fasting glucose level was 70mg sugar/dl blood, way below the cutoff of 94, but then all 3 measurements after drinking sugar were within just a few mg/dl of the standard for gestational diabetes.

That night during dinner, Micah said, "I just want you to know that I plan to do my share..."
Oh boy! my mind reeled immediately Wash more dishes? Clean the toilets?
"...to make sure that you eat less carbs."
He had spooned the rest of the macaroni and cheese into his bowl.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.

The biggest challenge is that I hardly ever buy meat because it's so expensive here and I don't like vegetables. So, if I were to eliminate all carbohydrates, my diet would consist of... milk. And some fruit once in a while. I need to learn some new lower carb recipes that are easy, tasty and cheap! So far, I made spinach enchiladas that were really good, but not practical except when cheese is on major sale. Tonight I will be trying thin crusted, thick everything-else pizza.


Micah will be running a 5k at GaTech on Friday morning. Stay tuned for how that went.

Brief Respite

Micah took the qualifying exam on Monday afternoon. He thinks he did well. Yay! Hopefully we'll hear in the next couple of months that he passed.

Because I worked over the weekend and Micah had the test, we didn't hadn't done anything for GT's fall recess (which was through Tuesday). So, we left that afternoon for Lake Lanier to spend the evening camping. We stayed at a gorgeous campground right on the water (though we asked for a spot by the bathrooms instead of facing the water so I could pee a billion times in the night...). Even though it was only 30 minutes north from us, I think that the leaves were way more colorful. It was relaxing, even if Micah didn't quite get his mind off of school while we were there.

Here, Micah makes sausage and eggs for breakfast. Dinner was just okay. We burnt the steak but the foil baked potatoes were wonderful. S'mores with toffee almond symphony bars were soooo good. The water was cool, but not freezing like mountain lakes. Sammy and I enjoyed wading in it a little. There were plenty of folks out boating and jet skiing.

This profile shot accentuates my pooch.

When we got back home that afternoon, I first gave Sammy a bath because he was all sandy. Then we decided that he was in serious needy of a haircut. When he gets really fluffy, he is impossible to brush and gets matts all over and that just leads to more grooming headaches. But, he's afraid of getting his hair cut and tries to eat our hands. So, we got a cone so that we could shave him. He didn't like it, but it definitely helped a lot. Unfortunately, we decided after like 20 minutes of trying to shave the same spot on that we need to get some more serious clippers. Ours barely cut through his fluff. So we gave up and left him with one shaved patch on his back and everywhere else covered in 2 inch long fluff. We'll finish the job when we get paid and can buy pet clippers...

The Charmed Life

Yesterday, I had quite an arduous to-do list:

1. Lay in bed trying to rest my sore back

2. Make chocolate chip cookie dough to freeze

3. Bake granola

4. Start a new book

5. Try something new for dinner-black bean macaroni salad stuff

6. Watch project runway

I'm pretty peeved that Laura is out and Kimberly is still in. I think that Laura has been a much more innovative designer throughout the season and Kimberly is fairly inconsistent. I'm also mad that Joshua is still in because I don't like him. He's a dramatic little girl and he only designs fluffy sparkly over-the-top diva-wear.

Today I finally took the car to get it registered in GA. It's required to register your car within 30 days of establishing residency. We took almost 3 months, but fortunately they didn't seem to notice the date on our closing papers so I didn't have to pay the late fine.

The major problem: A white license plate dramatically accentuates the dirtiness of the car. Guess we have to get it washed now...

Also, GA doesn't require a front plate. I'm considering leaving the UT front plate for flair and as a conversation starter. Is that poor form?

An Anecdote from Work

Last night, I worked from the afternoon until the store closed. I was cashiering for most of the evening, but spent the last few slower hours putting away merchandise and helping customers. While I was in the halloween section, a young man approached me for advice on a costume. He wanted to be a character from a tv show. After a while, I admitted that I wasn't familiar with any of the characters he was mentioning because I didn't have tv for a long time and am sort of out of the loop on pop culture. I wanted to get away from the conversation and continue my work, but he asked what I do without tv. I mentioned that I like to read, he had the idea to become a character from a book. He mentioned Kurt Vonnegut, I said that I had just read Slaughterhouse-Five. I described my frustration with the realistic ending, he praised the book's abrupt prose. Then I was thankfully called to the front to check, so I politely ended the conversation. It was about time for the store to close.

After checking out the last few customers, I head down an aisle to return a few items, and the young man caught me again. He told me I was abeautiful woman and asked me to go out with him some time. I thanked him, but informed him that I was married. Being 6 1/2 months pregnant didn't tip him off. Or the wedding ring. So, he left and we closed the front doors.

My manager had been keeping an eye on the guy because he thought that he seemed to be acting nervously. Wanted to make sure he wasn't up to anything suspicious. When I told him what happened, he was very amused and said, "I guess in Atlanta most pregnant ladies aren't married." The other girl who was working with me expressed amused frustration that out of all the girls who work there, the only one to get hit on is the one who's married and pregnant.

What can I say. Being fat is just so alluring.

Busy Bees

This week has been busy!

For me, that has been awesome!

For Micah, it has been very stressful :/

I worked at Party City 4 days this week. It has been nice to get out and have something constructive to do. Being on my feet for so many consecutive hours, my back has been killing me though! It has been entertaining though. It's fun to see all the customers preparing for parties and getting halloween costumes. I can't believe how much money some people spend, though. It drives me crazy to see customers spend hundreds of dollars on decorative plates and napkins and coordinates for a baby's 1st birthday party.

Micah has a huge qualifying exam next Monday. He has 4 chances to take it, but he really wants to pass it the first time so he can stop worrying about it. He is also trying to finish a proposal for a fellowship and another for an NSF grant. That's in addition to his classwork and his TA responsibilities. Oh yeah, and he's applied for a bunch of internships and has been looking into those and did an interview this week. He is considering just staying on campus and sleeping in his office this week. I think it would be bad for his psychological well-being. It will be a relief when he is finished with the test and the proposals. Not having to spend several hours correcting homework next semester will also be awesome!

In other news, we got called as ward missionaries. We were just set apart and were asked to teach gospel essentials next week, so we are getting involved quickly.

Here's the latest (slightly exaggerated) picture of my tummy. Only 12 weeks and some days to go (hopefully)! Woohoo!

Mmmm... Fatness

Micah said that my last picture was scary so he wanted me to take a better one. This one was taken on Saturday.

Aside from the drama of our car, this past week has been pretty cool. On Saturday I worked an adoption event for the Small Dog Rescue Humane Society. It was really fun to walk and snuggle the dogs all afternoon and talk with the swooning passers-by. They set up every Saturday in front of the Petco down the road, which is in a shopping plaza with a few other big stores. So, they get a lot of people coming by who look at the dogs. It was fun, but tiring. Who knew that one could get so sore from crouching down on the ground to get the dogs out of their kennels all afternoon.

I also started working regular shifts at Party City this week. Fun fun fun. At least it's something to get me out of the house, off my butt and doing something other than reading novels. By the way, just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and it was a good read, as well as the second book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. Moving on now to another Orson Scott Card story.

Also of exciting news: I learned how to cook quiche. I haven't gone grocery shopping since last week because I don't want to drive the car. So, sizing up the contents of my kitchen, I made this quiche. I used broccolli instead of spinach and half grated parmesan half colby jack cheese. It wasn't a fancy, legit quiche- it didn't have a crust and wasn't in a tart-pan. Come on! Who even owns one of those? But it was still yummy and new and successful.

AAARGH!

Check engine light has been on and off, but on for a while. Need to pass the IM test to register the car in GA. Had them diagnose it in February, autozone said it was probably a thermometer of something minor. So, 2 weeks ago, took our car to the shop. The diagnostic read 5 codes, had to replace a few parts- an O2 sensor, the thermostat gasket, etc. Oh yeah, and our wheels were about to fall off, so we had to fix that too. Goodbye, enough money for 3 months' mortgage payments. At least everything was fixed. Today, the light came back on. I got it checked, hoping it was the same problem and the place we had the repairs done had just screwed up and would fix their faulty repairs. No such luck. 2 NEW codes-the other O2 sensor and the catalytic converter. Sure. No problem. Who doesn't have $700 of fun money to throw at their car?

This matter makes me very upset.

New Job and Fatness Update

This week has been pretty fun.

Last week, Micah drove to the train station so he wouldn't be all sweaty from his bike ride because of a career fair at Georgia Tech. He was scoping out businesses that he wants to intern for next summer.

So I was left without a car and decided to walk down to the library to get some new books. On my way back from the library, I walked through a shopping plaza to see what fun stores there were- a Pier 1 imports, a Trader Joe's, some expensive restaurants, a Party City with a sign on the door that they were hiring for the Halloween season. I continued to walk, thinking, "That sure would be fun." then, halfway through the complex, turned back around and returned to Party City. Just figured it couldn't hurt to ask. They were looking for temps to work through the Halloween rush, which made it very appealing because it wouldn't interfere with my having a baby in December/January, but would give me something to do in the meanwhile. So I filled out their application, they called me in for an interview and by Friday I had the job. Completed orientation and training this week and will be worked into the schedule after today. It should be pretty easy, mostly tasks that I'm very familiar with- cashiering, customer service, even blowing up balloons. So, it shouldn't be anything too hard. Plus, I get to wear a highly-tacky orange vest that says "Halloween Expert" on it, so that's pretty awesome.

Still working on getting the car registered in GA. Took it to a mechanic 2 weeks ago for the I/M test. He told us that we needed to do 5 major repairs. Goodbye small amount of remaining savings!!! So, after the repairs he told us we needed to drive 75-100 miles on the car after the repairs for the computer system to pass the I/M test. We'll hopefully take it back this weekend to get that done. Might have to wait a few more weeks after that to have money to register it though. GA only gives you 30 days after moving here to change your plates! Not nearly enough time... Since the car got the repairs, it has been showing some improvements. It's a bit more quiet now for sure. But it makes other, new sounds that it didn't used to make and it doesn't accelerate as well between 0 and 30. Here's hoping it just survives a few more years.

I haven't been updating on my mammoth-like size because I'm bad at taking pictures of myself and I never think to ask Micah to take one when he's home. So, here's a crappy shot of my fatness at 25 weeks, almost 6 months. Woo hoo! Only 15ish more weeks to go!


Last night after Micah had fallen asleep, he jerked suddenly from his snoring and asked, "What happened to all the other doggies like Sammy?". I informed him that they had all been adopted and found loving homes. He said, "oh, okay" and went back to snoring. Silly sleeptalker.

The Coolest Thing I Ever Bought

We purchased a mattress online almost a month ago and were nearly prepared to accept that we would be sleeping on the air mattress forever. It FINALLY arrived, shipping delayed by all the flooding in the Northeast. It was a Textrade 11'' Innerspring pillowtop mattress, king size. It arrived in this form:

It was pretty heavy, but small enough that I was able to shove it up the stairs, around the banister and into the bedroom all by myself. You can see by the scale of the dog and the door, it certainl wasn't SMALL, but I was skeptical. I had ordered the king size, right? Inside the box, the mattress was folded up into a very tight coil.

Cutting the packaging tape that kept it spiraled, it imediately uncoiled and then unfolded into a king size sheet about 2 or three inches thick. As you may notice from the pictures, Sammy was quite impressed with the whole process. So was I.

The COOLEST part, however, came when I began to cut off the plastic wrapping. This is a normal spring mattress but was vaccuum sealed very tight. When I cut into the plastic, the mattress immediately started filling with air. It inflated so fast I could barely cut the whole length of the plastic to allow it to take a normal form as it grew.

Within an hour, it became completely firm and that night we finally got to set up the bedframe and sleep in a real bed. It was utterly fabulous. The mattress is really comfy and I now see why the ratings were so high. Plus, it was cheaper than any other spring mattress we looked at except Ikea but shipping was free.

Aside from all the advantages of having a bed that is larger (no elbows in my face, Sammy laying next to me, not on me), I am quite certain that this bed has magical qualities of stopping motion transfer. I have always been woken up every time Micah moved into a different sleeping position, but for the past few nights I haven't felt him at all. I don't even notice when he gets out of bed to get ready in the morning. I just wake up to him saying goodbye and am confused because I swear he was just asleep right there...

I think that he is having a similair experience with this bed. He always used to wake up when I would get up to use the bathroom, but last night he didn't. He was only awakened when I bumped the door coming back to the bedroom. Seeing someone in the hallway walking towards him and having no recollection of feeling me get out of bed, he let out the nanciest high pitch scream I'd ever heard. After assuring him that it was just me, we went back to sleep slightly unsettled, knowing now what micah's true reaction would be if anybody ever broke into the house...

Woo Hoo Labor Day Weekend!

Had a great time over the past week. My Dad was planning on going on a civil rights tour with a Utah State Alumni group that got cancelled, so he ended up just spending almost a week here in Atlanta visiting us. LeAnn and Gabby drove down Friday and stayed until Monday as well. It was great because I finally got to see some of the touristy sights around Atlanta.
We took a tour of the CNN studio, which was way cool. A lot goes in to making a news production! And we got to see it all in action! And chat with the director in between segments!

Then we swung over to the World of Coca-Cola. Some parts were cool, some parts were weird. They start off by having you watch this totally awkward cartoon that... doesn't seem to have a point. Much less, a purpose that relates to Coke! My favorite part was definitely the end where you can sample different Coke products from different parts of the world. We got to try Peruvian Inca Cola, which Paco mentioned in one of his letters. He was right! It does look just like pee! But it had a yummy bubblegum/creamsoda sorta taste to it. Then there was the Beverly.... eeeegh. What is wrong with Italians that they would ENJOY such a drink?

I didn't know that Dr. Martin Luther King was from Atlanta! We visited his birth home and Ebenezar Baptist Church where he preached as well as his grave site.

We went to the Aquarium on Saturday while Dad went to Auburn to watch them Play Utah State (a very good game). It was PACKED! This out-of-service exhibit was my favorite because there weren't a billion people crowded around it. Micah was quite enthralled with it as well.

The beluga whales were my OTHER favorite. They were very playful and funny.

One area had a few little petting ponds where we got to touch bonnet head sharks and sting rays. Other pools throughout the exhibit had starfish, shrimp, horseshoe crabs and different little crabs an urchins. At one area, LeAnn ad Gabby and I checked out the little critters in the petting pond and then went over to look at a display about some kind of fish and suddenly we heard a commotion behind us. We look around and Micah is walking away from the petting pond with the front of his shirt drenched, a huge puddle on the floor where he was standing and everyone around muttering and staring in shock. I guess something touched him from under a rock while he was petting a fish and it freaked him out. It was pretty darn funny.

Finally! We Can Sit Down!

Our fabulous table and chairs! Woo hoo! No more eating sitting on the floor or standing at the bar! It has been SUCH a relief to finally have a place to sit. I'm already learning that keeping a glass table-top looking clean is tough, but we feel like this set is perfect in every other way. We can put fold out chairs on the ends to seat 6 when necessary, it's just right for the size of the space, and it is way more elegant-looking than anything else in the price range.

On Saturday, Marty came down with his truck and helped us get a couch. We looked at a bunch of stores, mainly big furniture chains at perimeter mall, and the cheapest, crappiest looking couches were more that $700. And we wanted a more sleek looking couch, maybe leather. The cheapest fake leather couches were mostly $1500+. Ouch! So, we headed to a consignment shop a little out of the way to take a look. I was nervous because consignment shops are sometimes way overpriced because their items are "antiques", but this place was very reasonable. We found a few really nice couches that we liked- but most were still around $700-1200. We were almost ready to give up and consider a cheap micro-suede couch that I saw on sears.com, but there was one couch without a price tag that we decided to ask about. Turns out that they had just gotten it in the day before, so they hadn't priced it yet. She made some calls and checked some records while we investigated the couch. It was way comfy, has 2 reclining seats, a sturdy steel frame, and not a signle sign of wear. She came back and told us that it was going to be marked at $695. We were thinking that sounded pretty good, more than the cheap sears ones but much nicer. Then she told us that because it had only been there a day and was not yet officially marked, she could give it to us that day for $495. We were totally sold. So, the men loaded it and brought it home, they got it into the livingroom with Marty only suffering a mild heart attack and vioala!

It didn't come with the sleeping man or dog. I added those after.

This place just feels SOOOOO much more complete now! And we can finally enjoy watching movies on the TV without bringing the air mattress down the stairs.

With all the big expenditures this week, I wanted to wait as long as possible without buying groceries. By Sunday night, I was looking for anything that I could stick together into a coherant meal. I've done this many times before, but this time it actually turned out good! Not just edible, delicious! And made entirely from leftover ingredients that I had laying around!

The sauce had a little sour cream, some cream cheese, a little shredded cheddar, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and half a leftover cheeseball from Mark's reception. That's what the broccolli was from too. I wish I had measured what I put in, but I just threw in as much as I had left of everything, so now I can never recreate it just the same! Oh well, at least I got good use out of our leftover foods.