Calm

That's how I feel today, and let me just say ... it's a good feeling. I haven't been going insane or anything prior to today, but I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself mentally. It's been hard to get my mind to slow down and take one step at a time when it comes to tackling the stuff on my plate right now. In addition to the HUGE adjustment of parenthood to prepare for, I'm also staring straight into the face of the end of the semester and beginning of my practicum. The task of completing my practicum is a little daunting, but I think it will seem more manageable once I really get rolling on it.

It seems like such a small thing, but one little email today regarding my final project for this semester helped bring about the calm I'm experiencing. For the project, I developed a self-evaluation for advisees and asked our director of academic advising to give me some feedback. So, when I got it today, it hit me that I can now finish the whole project ... which only involves a one or two page write-up ... and turn it in early! THAT is a good feeling! It's something to cross off my list. It's a chance to shift my academic focus solely to my practicum. It's a sign that I'm getting closer to graduating!!! HOORAY!

Now for something totally unrelated to feeling calm ... it's just amusing and I thought it would be fun to share. Last night, Cory was taking his measurements because he's about to start a new workout program/diet plan. Out of curiosity I wanted to measure around my belly and put a number to my cirumference. I'm not positive what my waist measurement was prior to pregnancy, but it's sort of irrelevant since I was taking this measurement right at my belly button instead of slightly above (for the waist) or below (for the hips). So regardless ... my belly measured 42 1/2 inches around!!! HA! That just sounds outrageous to me. Clearly, I'm all belly!

32 week check-up

Wow!  I can't believe I'm 8 months pregnant (for one thing) and that today's appointment with my doc was only the second one that did not include an ultrasound.  Cory and I have been super lucky to get so many sneak peeks at our little Honeybun.  And yes, I still like calling her Honeybun even though we know she will officially be named Savannah. :o) 

Today's check-up was short and sweet.  My weight gain and blood pressure were good and baby's heart sounded happy.  I told my doc about the random contractions I've been having ... which haven't worried me, but thought it was worth mentioning ... and he agreed that it's normal.  I've reached the point where I'll start going in every 2 weeks and before long, I'll be going every week.  That means we're getting close to the end of pregnancy and the beginning of parenthood!!

Since we are getting closer to the end with every passing day, I thought it would be a good idea to take some type of staged maternity pictures before I get too much bigger.  So, even though it was a little gloomy Saturday, Cory and I set out to find someplace scenic to snap some photos.  Here are the results of the outdoor session:

We took a tripod knowing that we'd want some pics of both of us, that's how we got the one in the middle.  It turned out to be such a fun day for the two of us.  We just happened upon this gorgeous field of wildflowers and made the most of it.

Then we took a few in the nursery that I jazzed up a little with Photoshop:

So there you have it ... my baby belly has been immortalized!!

A walk down memory lane

Sunday afternoon I got to go celebrate with my dear friend Kristi as the ladies at her church gave her the greatest baby shower!  Although we've kept in touch (thank you Facebook!!), we hadn't actually seen each other since we graduated from college five long years ago.  So, to pay tribute to our friendship, I thought it was only appropriate to take a little waltz down memory lane with "then and now" photos.

Going somewhere...with someone...sometime.  There is no telling.

Square Dance!

McCullough-Trigg RA Fashion Show

Having tea

Doing the car dance - pictured L-R: windshield wipers, blinkers, and horn

I know, we were clearly just crazy college kids.  More accurately, we were crazy college resident assistants!  Those were definitely fun times.

We've grown up a little since then, though.  Like the rhyme says ... first came love, then came marriage ... and now here come the babies in the baby carriages!!

Just 9 short days separate our due dates - June 15th for me and 24th for her.  It has been so much fun sharing our pregnancies with each other, mostly because they've been so similar.  We're both beyond excited about the precious little girls that fill our days with rolling, kicking, punching, and hiccuping!  As a matter of fact, Savannah has the hiccups right now as I type this, and boy does she get mad about it!

So, Kristi, this post is for you!  Here's to healthy baby girls who are bound to have some awesome play dates in the not-so-distant future. :o)

Puzzled

Picture with me, if you will, a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.  You've got the areas of three corners pretty well put together.  Oh sure, there are a few outstanding pieces here and there, but that's normal and certainly nothing to worry about. 

But then there is that fourth corner.  The pieces just don't quite fit together in that part of the puzzle for some reason.  You toil over it, trying to make the picture make sense, but to no avail.  In fact, despite your effort, you'll probably spend far too much time trying to make all the pieces fit together and get to the end only to find that one piece is mysteriously missing.  You know what I'm talking about.  Somehow, even if you break out a brand new puzzle that's never been opened, in the end there is one piece that has vanished into the sea of lost puzzle pieces never to be recovered.

That's my life right now - a jigsaw puzzle.  One that makes perfect sense in all but one little corner.  It's frustrating to say the least and makes me question a lot of stuff.  I like for things to be in order and make sense.  When I can't get circumstances to add up, it bugs me and I usually have trouble moving past it until they do.  Maybe I should let it go.  Maybe I should take my own analogy as evidence that I'm not supposed to always have the answers.  But I think I deserve some answers to help fill in the gaps of this particular corner of my puzzle.  I highly doubt I'll ever get them, but one can hope, right?

Thankfully, this corner of my puzzle called life doesn't hold a candle to the other three corners on a value scale.  The things I treasure most in this world are put together and look exactly like I want them to look right now.  I have the greatest husband on earth and without him I would be completely lost.  We are expecting a beautiful, healthy baby girl in less than 9 weeks.  And I have a wonderful family who has helped shape me into the person I am today.  Really, what more could you ask for?

It's official...

I am gonna get to be a stay-at-home mom!!  If you read yesterday's post, I mentioned a scheduled one-on-one with my boss.  The primary purpose for it was to tell her that Cory's new job was going to allow me to stay home with Savannah.  She took the news really well and was excited that I was going to get this opportunity.

In addition to that, the one-on-one also resulted in some talk about my degree.  At this point, I just have one class to take to finish my Master's degree.  It's an independent study course of sorts (a practicum to be exact) and involves coordination with a college/university office and about 200 hours worth of work on some predetermined outcomes.  Essentially it's the equivalent of a part-time job.  Since getting pregnant, it's a course I'd planned on taking next fall or spring.  But she encouraged me to consider doing it this summer because, even though I'll be out with the baby, I'll still technically be employed which means my tuition is paid for by DBU.  In addition to that, she had some ideas for things I could do with our office (that are separate from any of my normal duties).  That would give me the chance to knock out the practicum from home while I'm on maternity leave.  Pretty sweet deal right?! 

So it looks like this summer is going to be an eventful one ... becoming a mom and graduating!  YAY!

Day off? Nope, off day.

Today has been just a little ... off.  Even though I was at work all day, I hardly got any work done.  I had a mid-morning meeting that lasted until the beginning of our staff appreciation luncheon.  The luncheon lasted until the end of the regular lunch hour.  Not long after that, I had to leave to go to computer training across campus while my computer was upgraded to a new system.  That lasted an hour.  When I got back, my computer still wasn't upgraded, so I had to stand around for a little while.  Then I had a 1-on-1 with my boss (a scheduled one, not impromptu).  After we were done chatting, my computer STILL wasn't done so I couldn't leave work on time.  When I finally did leave work, I accidentally rear-ended a student (rear-nudged is more accurate though...no harm done, but I was irritated at myself nonetheless) before I even got off campus. 

Once I finally got home, I was able to enjoy a nice dinner with my husband ... thank goodness.  While he was finishing it, I was picking up a few things around the house.  There was a small empty box on the island so I asked if it was trash.  He replied with, "well, I'm not sure yet."  And here's why.

Since we're going to cloth diaper our daughter, I decided it would be nice to have a clothes line in the backyard so I can hang them up to dry.  So we ordered one online.  It's a cool retractable one like this...

And since I currently don't have a clothes line, I obviously needed some clothes pins, right?  As it turns out, when he was ordering this clothes line, he could get free shipping if he spent about 5 more dollars.  So he found clothes pins online that became part of the overall purchase and we got free shipping.  Yay!

What does this have to do with the questionable empty box?  Well, he thought maybe we would need it in order to return the clothes pins because this is what we got ...

Yes, that's a penny for size reference.  For you scrapbookers out there, you probably recognize that these are actually scrapbook embellishments.  :o)  I don't think I'll be hanging up any cloth diapers with them, that's for sure.  I probably wouldn't bother returning them, but they cost 8 dollars ... for 10 tiny little embellishments.  That explains why I'm more of a digital scrapbooker now.  It's an expensive hobby.  Even still, it's probably not worth the price we'll have to pay to return them, so we'll just have to get real clothes pins next time we're at the store.  But that was the funny conclusion to this truly odd day.

A little of this, a little of that

First, I'm proud to say that I was the last man (or woman...er, uh, person - to be completely politically correct) standing in my office's NCAA men's basketball bracket contest. How did I do it you ask? Well, let me tell you. Now try to stay with me ... it was a very scientific process involving complex algorithms and years of statistical data. First, I printed off a blank bracket. Last, I arbitrarily picked winners, round by round, region by region. That's it. I didn't do any "research" on the teams. I hadn't been following college basketball prior to making my selections. I just picked who I thought would win each matchup based on, well, nothing really. A couple of my noteworthy choices included not having Kansas in the Final Four and picking Duke as the tournament champion. As a reward for my outstanding predictions, I get the lunch of my choice courtesy of the unfortunate souls who fell victim to my athletic aptitude. Yay me! :o)

Next on the agenda ... the countdown. DUN-Dun-dun

I am 30 weeks today!! Only 10 to go. In other terms, that's just 70 days, 1680 hours, 100,800 minutes, or 6,048,000 seconds. 6,047,999. 6,047,998. 6,047,997. You get the idea. Basically, I can't wait!! Not only am I ready to meet my little angel, but I'm also majorly looking forward to not being pregnant anymore. Now I know all of you already-mommies out there are thinking "oh, honey, you don't even know yet!" But after last night, I seriously want this kid out of me! Yesterday was Cory's first day of work, so he was pretty worn out and we decided to go to bed a little earlier than normal. We were laying there watching the Duike/Butler game (as you know, I had a vested interest) and I honestly thought this little girl was going to come bursting through my abdomen. I can't imagine what she was doing in there!! I kept making odd noises and I'm pretty sure Cory thought I was either dying or going into labor. It wasn't really painful ... just SUPER uncomfortable. I changed positions a hundred times before she finally settled down. I don't know how many more episodes like that I can handle, but hopefully as her quarters get more cramped, her ability to practice hip hop will diminish.

And since I mentioned labor, I have to say congratulations to our friends Chance and Mamie on the arrival of their little boy early, early this morning (12:45 a.m. to be exact). I can't wait to meet him! They are the first in a long line of friends expecting babies over the next couple of months. Our group get-togethers are about to get a lot more interesting ... or a lot less frequent ... now that we're all expanding our families. But either way, it's totally worth it!