Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Join Us...
Just wanted to give a congrats to the 2 newest members of the Club O' Spawning...
Jessica and Bob Landon will be having a baby in September. This is really exciting as they've been trying for a while, doing the whole fertility treatment thing, and now it's happening. They will make incredible parents. Congratulations, guys!
Also Christina and Patrick Reynolds, now living in North Carolina, will be having a new addition to their family as well. I tell everyone who's about to have kids- get as much sleep and sex as you can because after the baby comes you won't be able to get enough of the former and you won't care about the latter.
Onto "Jen is Going Crazy" news...
Eric has decided that he will not nap in the afternoons. I am hoping that this is just a side-effect of all the excitement this past weekend from being in the new house everyday. I swear, if he has dropped a nap, especially the afternoon nap, I will probably have a nervous break-down. God, I NEED some time to do something around here (God knows when Rachel arrives I won't have ANY free time at all)! At least I can still put Eric down in the morning so I can get another quick hour of sleep. I knew the last trimester would be tough with a one year-old, but I wasn't prepared for the toll it would take on my body.
I had to take the routine glucose test last week at my mid-wife appointment. For those of you lucky enough to miss out on this level of fun, you basically fast for a few hours and/or can't eat carbs, drink some flat orange Fanta that your OB gives you, then get your blood drawn an hour later. This is to make sure your glucose levels aren't high, which could mean you have gestational diabetes or GD. The day of my test I lost the stupid instruction sheet, and I didn't remember to call my mid-wife's office until 3pm. The sweet but apparently clueless secretary told me I could still go through with the test in four hours, but not to eat anything sweet until after the test. Well, my levels came back at 154 while the mid-wife wanted them to be less than 140.
That level isn't horrible, but after speaking with someone at the office who was knowledgible I realized that I shouldn't have eaten ANY carbs that day. Which, of course, I did. The good news is that I probably don't have GD. The bad news is that I have to eat 150 grams of carbs every day until Wednesday night. Then I fast until my appointment at 8am on Thursday morning (John will watch Eric, i.e. no nap for Jen... [sob]). I get my blood drawn when I walk blurry-eyed and starving into the appointment, then drink that nasty flat soda, and sit for 3 bloody hours, getting my blood drawn every hour. I'm trying to look on the bright side: I get to catch up on my celebrity-smut magazine reading. I get away from the house for 3 hours. But I won't get to eat or drink anything except that ^%!$@*@ orange drink until 11am.
I'm really scared I'll have GD, not because there's a good probability I could end up with diabetes in the next 10 years (according to studies), but mostly because I'll be put on a strict diet and won't be able to indulge in glorious, nutritious meals like Hershey bars dipped in peanut butter with 16 ounces of milk. Or my go-to night-cap of not 1, not 2, but 3 12 ounce cups of chocolate milk.
As I said, I'm sure the first test was a fluke. I am the epitome of healthy eating. :-)
Jessica and Bob Landon will be having a baby in September. This is really exciting as they've been trying for a while, doing the whole fertility treatment thing, and now it's happening. They will make incredible parents. Congratulations, guys!
Also Christina and Patrick Reynolds, now living in North Carolina, will be having a new addition to their family as well. I tell everyone who's about to have kids- get as much sleep and sex as you can because after the baby comes you won't be able to get enough of the former and you won't care about the latter.
Onto "Jen is Going Crazy" news...
Eric has decided that he will not nap in the afternoons. I am hoping that this is just a side-effect of all the excitement this past weekend from being in the new house everyday. I swear, if he has dropped a nap, especially the afternoon nap, I will probably have a nervous break-down. God, I NEED some time to do something around here (God knows when Rachel arrives I won't have ANY free time at all)! At least I can still put Eric down in the morning so I can get another quick hour of sleep. I knew the last trimester would be tough with a one year-old, but I wasn't prepared for the toll it would take on my body.
I had to take the routine glucose test last week at my mid-wife appointment. For those of you lucky enough to miss out on this level of fun, you basically fast for a few hours and/or can't eat carbs, drink some flat orange Fanta that your OB gives you, then get your blood drawn an hour later. This is to make sure your glucose levels aren't high, which could mean you have gestational diabetes or GD. The day of my test I lost the stupid instruction sheet, and I didn't remember to call my mid-wife's office until 3pm. The sweet but apparently clueless secretary told me I could still go through with the test in four hours, but not to eat anything sweet until after the test. Well, my levels came back at 154 while the mid-wife wanted them to be less than 140.
That level isn't horrible, but after speaking with someone at the office who was knowledgible I realized that I shouldn't have eaten ANY carbs that day. Which, of course, I did. The good news is that I probably don't have GD. The bad news is that I have to eat 150 grams of carbs every day until Wednesday night. Then I fast until my appointment at 8am on Thursday morning (John will watch Eric, i.e. no nap for Jen... [sob]). I get my blood drawn when I walk blurry-eyed and starving into the appointment, then drink that nasty flat soda, and sit for 3 bloody hours, getting my blood drawn every hour. I'm trying to look on the bright side: I get to catch up on my celebrity-smut magazine reading. I get away from the house for 3 hours. But I won't get to eat or drink anything except that ^%!$@*@ orange drink until 11am.
I'm really scared I'll have GD, not because there's a good probability I could end up with diabetes in the next 10 years (according to studies), but mostly because I'll be put on a strict diet and won't be able to indulge in glorious, nutritious meals like Hershey bars dipped in peanut butter with 16 ounces of milk. Or my go-to night-cap of not 1, not 2, but 3 12 ounce cups of chocolate milk.
As I said, I'm sure the first test was a fluke. I am the epitome of healthy eating. :-)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
We're Home Owners!
We finally closed on our house today. I need to actually post photos, but since we need to do cleaning and some painting, I'm going to wait to post the indoor shots.
What a nightmare to finally get to closing though. We wired a lot from money from one of John's investment accounts to help us pay closing costs. I had to call the settlement grooup twice to find out if they got the money. Two people told me they had,. Then this morning we get a phone call that the money hadn't arrived so John had to call Fidelity and get confirmation that the money had gone out. THEN the settlement company calls to tell us that yes, they DID get the money... Craziness. We didn't get a copy of the closing documents until 7pm last night. 60 pages. So much for having time to look over everything. Thank God my folks are here. What a life-saver! Can you imagine a mobile one year-old at an office while papers are signed for 2 hours?
Anyway, thanks to everyone who called today and offered congrats. We won't be moving until February 21st because we have the townhouse until then and want to move smaller things over a bit at a time. I am excited to finally move next month. I love moving... it feels like a chance to start over. Must be an ex-military brat thing. :-)
What a nightmare to finally get to closing though. We wired a lot from money from one of John's investment accounts to help us pay closing costs. I had to call the settlement grooup twice to find out if they got the money. Two people told me they had,. Then this morning we get a phone call that the money hadn't arrived so John had to call Fidelity and get confirmation that the money had gone out. THEN the settlement company calls to tell us that yes, they DID get the money... Craziness. We didn't get a copy of the closing documents until 7pm last night. 60 pages. So much for having time to look over everything. Thank God my folks are here. What a life-saver! Can you imagine a mobile one year-old at an office while papers are signed for 2 hours?
Anyway, thanks to everyone who called today and offered congrats. We won't be moving until February 21st because we have the townhouse until then and want to move smaller things over a bit at a time. I am excited to finally move next month. I love moving... it feels like a chance to start over. Must be an ex-military brat thing. :-)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
In Other News...
I have this fantasy where I start an anonymous blog about motherhood that's sarcastic and wickedly funny. So many people read it that I am contacted by Oprah to appear on the show, and then I'm given an exclusive book deal, the proceeds of which pay off our new house and both kids' college funds.
Yeah...
Right now I'm trying to upload my past week on this blog while using mantra techniques under my breath to lull Eric into actually taking a nap, and watching him on the "Boo Cam" sitting on his knees in the crib and clapping his hands. I don't get why he won't sleep when he's tired. Because God knows, *I* need sleep when I'm tired. What I wouldn't give for 2 naps a day, 12 hours of sleep at night, and being pushed in a stroller everywhere. But I digress...
Since my computer is still broken, I now have a new rule in the house- whoever is on the computer does not get the t.v. remote. So right now John is catching up on his DVR recordings of Eli Stone, mostly because it's between play-off games (Damn Eagles- sorry Pete).
The heater is broken again. I walked into the nursery on Thursday and noticed it was incredibly cold. I look outside and see our heater once again looking like an industrial-sized freezer. When someone comes out to look at it, they claim they can't check it out until it gets over 40 degrees so they can put coolant in it. So they are coming out on Monday when the high should be around 39. Should be interesting. We've been on emergency heat off and on for three weeks now. What a lovely electric bill we will have this month.
When I called our landlord, I told him I thought there was something seriously wrong with the unit. He then claimed he "bought it new a year before we loved in," which would make it 2 years old. The person from the company claimed it was closer to nine years old. I'm just very grateful that our new house has a new heating/a.c. unit that's under warranty. I sometimes worry I'm not ready for the trials of home ownership.
As I'm looking up from my typing I see that Seal is apparently a guest star on Eli Stone. I met Seal when I was working at Charlottesville-Albemarle (International? haha) airport back in 1997. I know, how sad is my claim to fame right? I had the early morning shift, which meant I opened at 5:30am and had to drag my half-awake ass out of bed at 5am. The day before we had been told by the people at Continental airlines, our next door neighbors, that Seal was on their morning flight. This is one of the fun things airline employees apparently do- we type celebrity names into the computer and see if they have any frequent fliyer information. It's like "Stalking for Dummies." Apparently Laura Dern used Delta a lot (I worked for Com-air, a little commuter airline that was tied to Delta).
So the morning of Seal's departure I was the only person at our ticket counter. It was 5:40 in the bloody morning. My co-workers with seniority didn't come in until 9am, and the ones who were my age and shared my shift had been out partying until 2am and always came in a bit late. So I'm standing behind the counter, and Seal just comes up and stands there. I look up and he just smiles at me. I smile back, and we stand there like a couple of idiots for a few seconds until he says "hi." And I tell him that I think he's looking for Continental airlines, pointing to the next counter over. He's a flirty bastard, which is a compliment by the way... a charimatic guy. And how did I get here..? Oh yes, Eli Stone. I also heard it's being cancelled (Eli Stone, not Seal). Sucks to be John, I guess. I'm currently addicted to shows like House Hunters. John hates House Hunters. When it comes on, he slooches into the couch and makes this sound that's between a growl and a sad, high-pitched moan, which I find very cute and it makes me want to watch the show even more. Think he'll catch on? ;-)
Yeah...
Right now I'm trying to upload my past week on this blog while using mantra techniques under my breath to lull Eric into actually taking a nap, and watching him on the "Boo Cam" sitting on his knees in the crib and clapping his hands. I don't get why he won't sleep when he's tired. Because God knows, *I* need sleep when I'm tired. What I wouldn't give for 2 naps a day, 12 hours of sleep at night, and being pushed in a stroller everywhere. But I digress...
Since my computer is still broken, I now have a new rule in the house- whoever is on the computer does not get the t.v. remote. So right now John is catching up on his DVR recordings of Eli Stone, mostly because it's between play-off games (Damn Eagles- sorry Pete).
The heater is broken again. I walked into the nursery on Thursday and noticed it was incredibly cold. I look outside and see our heater once again looking like an industrial-sized freezer. When someone comes out to look at it, they claim they can't check it out until it gets over 40 degrees so they can put coolant in it. So they are coming out on Monday when the high should be around 39. Should be interesting. We've been on emergency heat off and on for three weeks now. What a lovely electric bill we will have this month.
When I called our landlord, I told him I thought there was something seriously wrong with the unit. He then claimed he "bought it new a year before we loved in," which would make it 2 years old. The person from the company claimed it was closer to nine years old. I'm just very grateful that our new house has a new heating/a.c. unit that's under warranty. I sometimes worry I'm not ready for the trials of home ownership.
As I'm looking up from my typing I see that Seal is apparently a guest star on Eli Stone. I met Seal when I was working at Charlottesville-Albemarle (International? haha) airport back in 1997. I know, how sad is my claim to fame right? I had the early morning shift, which meant I opened at 5:30am and had to drag my half-awake ass out of bed at 5am. The day before we had been told by the people at Continental airlines, our next door neighbors, that Seal was on their morning flight. This is one of the fun things airline employees apparently do- we type celebrity names into the computer and see if they have any frequent fliyer information. It's like "Stalking for Dummies." Apparently Laura Dern used Delta a lot (I worked for Com-air, a little commuter airline that was tied to Delta).
So the morning of Seal's departure I was the only person at our ticket counter. It was 5:40 in the bloody morning. My co-workers with seniority didn't come in until 9am, and the ones who were my age and shared my shift had been out partying until 2am and always came in a bit late. So I'm standing behind the counter, and Seal just comes up and stands there. I look up and he just smiles at me. I smile back, and we stand there like a couple of idiots for a few seconds until he says "hi." And I tell him that I think he's looking for Continental airlines, pointing to the next counter over. He's a flirty bastard, which is a compliment by the way... a charimatic guy. And how did I get here..? Oh yes, Eli Stone. I also heard it's being cancelled (Eli Stone, not Seal). Sucks to be John, I guess. I'm currently addicted to shows like House Hunters. John hates House Hunters. When it comes on, he slooches into the couch and makes this sound that's between a growl and a sad, high-pitched moan, which I find very cute and it makes me want to watch the show even more. Think he'll catch on? ;-)
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Happy New Year?
Mariko sent me a lovely card via the internet. Every year she sends New Years' cards to her friends. This is a Japanese tradition, one which I really like if I could find New Years cards here. Of course, when I was living in Japan, it was hard to find Christmas cards (they eat a Christmas cake in Japan and sing Happy Birthday to Santa, but I digress).Anyway, I get M's New Year's card and she wrote this:
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
After some quick Internet research (mainly reading wikipedia), I learned that 2009 is the year of the Ox. A quick scan of horoscope sites revealed that the ox year should be marked with hard work and dedication.
I certainly hope these qualities mark your year!
Best in 2009
Mariko
And this was my reply:
I'm about to have a second baby. Is there any doubt my entire year will be marked with "hard work and dedication?"
S**t...
Send me a Happy New Year card when the year is marked with fun, great sex, and relaxation, would you? ;-)
Love,
Jen
At least I'm not bitter... ;-)
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
And the winner is...
After much debate, we almost decided on Erin Elizabeth, but I just finished reading "Siblings without Rivalry" (an awesome book- thanks Karen!) and really felt that Erin was too close to Eric. I want them to feel like they have their own identities and are unique. So... even though I'm still calling her Erin at times (old habits die hard), we really like Rachel. Now I have to come up with a middle name. lol. Rachel Elizabeth?? Everyone likes Elizabeth.
As I'm sure you read in my last post, my damn computer broke yet again, and we (meaning John) haven't had a chance to take it in to the mac store in the craziness that is Tyson's Corner mall. Same shit, different month- they'll just erase the hard drive as per usual without bothering to figure out why it crashes every damn time I download either the newest version of itunes or the newest security updates. This is either the third or 4th time I've had to deal with this. Bloody hell. You'd think I had some pc running vista. At least I saved all of Eric's pics on my camera and we have a backup hard drive from when the damn mac crashed six months ago. Still, I'm sure I lost pictures and that pisses me off (not that I have time to scrapbook- I'll probably be doing the kids scrapbooks when I'm 60).
I need to update my blog. It's hard when I have to fight my geek husband for the one computer that works in our house. I've thought about starting a new blog that I can simply vent on with anonymity and not caring who reads it or what people say. I think I'll call it "Bad Mommy." That or "Mommy Needs a Drink." (and a nap)
As I'm sure you read in my last post, my damn computer broke yet again, and we (meaning John) haven't had a chance to take it in to the mac store in the craziness that is Tyson's Corner mall. Same shit, different month- they'll just erase the hard drive as per usual without bothering to figure out why it crashes every damn time I download either the newest version of itunes or the newest security updates. This is either the third or 4th time I've had to deal with this. Bloody hell. You'd think I had some pc running vista. At least I saved all of Eric's pics on my camera and we have a backup hard drive from when the damn mac crashed six months ago. Still, I'm sure I lost pictures and that pisses me off (not that I have time to scrapbook- I'll probably be doing the kids scrapbooks when I'm 60).
I need to update my blog. It's hard when I have to fight my geek husband for the one computer that works in our house. I've thought about starting a new blog that I can simply vent on with anonymity and not caring who reads it or what people say. I think I'll call it "Bad Mommy." That or "Mommy Needs a Drink." (and a nap)
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