Officially Caught Up...

Until Friday...

Weight Ramblings

I woke up this morning thinking that I would go for a nice, long walk...until I looked out the window. It had snowed which told me right off that I wouldn't be taking a walk. It wasn't that cold, wasn't that slick, but I definitely didn't want to chance it.

I haven't worked out with the Wii in a week. The scale was super scary this morning. It really is interesting to see how my body reacts when I don't exercise, but still somewhat watch what I eat. Okay, maybe the chocolate ice cream Wednesday evening or the two cups of hot chocolate Thursday evening weren't the best ideas. It definitely showed on the scale.

People at work say I'm doing great. I am hard on myself and they know it. I have struggled with weight for years and I'm simply tired of being that big. I'm not going to die because of health problems that I could have prevented. I don't want Chloe growing up with lazy parents. I can't help how I was. I can only change how I am. I can't prevent an accident from taking my life but, I can prevent heart disease related to obesity or other health problems related to the way I live.

I be completely realistic about where I am and how I've been doing, I went ahead and tried on my favorite pair of pre-preggo jeans in my closet. The scale may say one thing, but my jeans slid right on with no tugging involved. I even got them zipped and buttoned...only because they are low-rise. Were they comfortable to have buttoned? No. They cut into my baby bump, but the fact that I could button them made me happy. Girls keep telling me that the weight is all baby and they seem to be right so far.

I did go to the gym tonight. I walked for an hour on the treadmill. I only walked at 3 MPH, but I'm glad that I did it. Maybe I'll start doing that instead of the Wii. I am going to continue the yoga on the Wii, but the jogging in place in the living room is getting too hard. I have too big of a belly bearing down on my bladder for that. Oh well, the jogging was short lived anyway. Though, knowing that I actually enjoyed for a time tells me that maybe I'll start doing that after Chloe is born. What a switch that would be.

Anyway, I just wanted to get some of that out. I know reading about my weight issues is exhausting and I am way too obsessed. But, like I have said in the past, blogging about it helps me deal and helps keep me on the right track so I'm going to continue for now. I already have my goals lined up for weight loss after giving birth. I will share that with you all at some point.

I hope you are all having a great weekend and those of you in the area are staying warm.

TP Thursday

I realized today that I am the worst TP Thursday player ever. I think I must have missed 3 weeks with that. But, it's back for this week at least!

I am 32 weeks 6 days and 10 squares around.

I really thought I would be closer to 12 by now. I was actually a little disappointed.

Mom took this picture for us last night. I didn't realize it then, but that dress really doesn't do anything for me. Maybe it's the angle? And does my face look swollen to you? I didn't think I was that swollen. My rings still fit, just tighter. Again, maybe it's the angle? I'm going to just keep telling myself that!
Doesn't Russ look amazing!?!? He hit the 50 pound weight loss mark last week. I'm so proud of him. After I push this baby out, I'm so hitting the gym with him or maybe just jogging aroud the complex. We have a friend who offered to let us borrow their jogging stroller. How sweet would that be. Getting much needed exercise while being with Chloe. I can't wait until she's here. I'm so ready to meet her!

I hit a big milestone today....50 days left!!!! That's less than two months!!! Ok, I already knew that, but 50 days is a big deal in my simple mind. It's getting a lot more exciting around here! Seriously, can you tell how excited I am??? I am going exclamation point crazy!!!

Ok, I'm done being one of those annoying bloggers. Hope you all have a great evening and a great weekend if I don't get to catch up until Monday!

A Little of This and a Little of That

I'm laying on the couch caught up with all my blogger buddies' posts and thinking about all the things I want to blog about. I've been having a difficult time finding time to keep up with blogging like I was. I hate not being able to get on at work anymore. They wouldn't care, the sight is just blocked for some reason.

Baby Chloe has the hiccups right now. It is one of the funniest feelings ever. Sometimes, I can feel my own heartbeat in my belly if she is in the right position, but this is definitely not my heartbeat unless my heart beats at different paces in different parts of my body. I've been told a few times this week that the baby is finally making her presence known. I guess that means that she is getting big...translation: I am starting to look like a whale. Hey, I paid a lot of money to be able to look like a whale so I'm not complaining! I have noticed that I am having to think about not waddling. I feel the need, but I don't want to cross that threshold quite yet. I am tired this week. I haven't worked out since last Thursday. Bad Lisa! I also haven't weighed myself since last Friday morning...and frankly, I'm not excited about the next weigh in. I think I'll do it tomorrow morning and see just how bad I've been this week...that chocolate ice cream sure was good tonight.

If you've been a reader since the beginning of the pregnancy, you know that I've had insane dreams. Well, I've stopped blogging about them for the most part, but they haven't gone away. I had a dream last night about my fertility doc, Obi-Wan Kenobe. I think I must be obsessed with him because this isn't the first dream I've had about him. Since I have G-rated dreams, I didn't dream about him in the only situation I've ever know him in: the Gyn's office. I dreamed that he lived next door to Russ and I and that we went boating with him and his family. The last dream I had about him, he was my dentist. Weird, I know. I can't help but wonder if my dreams are going to go away after labor or if it is going to be like this from now on. The only bad thing about these weird dreams is that I have to get up to use the restroom a couple times a night and so I don't get to finish all of the dreams.

Work has been going good. I actually enjoy talking to people and helping them figure out their bills. It's almost like a mystery and I am the detective that they trust to tell them what is going on. Of course, today I spent a good majority of the day fixing things that I screwed up, but that has luckily not been the case every day. I do have to say that there are some majorly ignorant people out there. I really hate it when people's mothers call in to talk about their children's accounts. I had a mother call in a couple days ago and out of curiosity I looked to see how old the child was...27. If you are 27, you should not have your mother call your utility company for you. It's pathetic. I was trying to imagine asking my mother to do that for me and I do believe she would laugh in my face. Here is one of the most hilarious conversations I had this week:

Customer: "I was in the lobby about 10 minutes ago to pay my disconnect notice and my electricity hasn't been turned back on."

Me: "Sir, we have 24 hours to work those orders."

Customer: "24 hours!?!? I can't wait no 2 days!"

Me: "..."

What do you even say to that? I had to think fast and so I just told him I was sorry and that we would get to it as soon as we could. Some people...

I finally made it to the craft store last night to get new blades for my paper trimmer. So, tomorrow night I'm going to be back in scrapbooking business. Well, I'll be back in business after I work out (and I will! Really, I will!) and after I get some chores finished up. I am going to try to get my regular scrapbooks caught up if at all possible. Though, I have a ton of pictures that aren't even printed and I don't know how many years behind I am...probably 2 or 3. Well, I'll just have to see what I can do.

I've been really great about my daily Bible reading. I've been reading during my breaks and lunch at work and then trying to get some in during the evenings. I am wanting to get through the whole Bible before Chloe is born and then just do Psalms, Proverbs and the New Testament multiple times during the rest of the year. I started Luke today so this is an attainable goal.

I've also been enjoying the Monday evening classes at the school. I'm trying to decide if I want to take the fall classes or not. I'm debating because I don't want to send Chloe to daycare all day and then not be with her during the evenings even though she would probably stay with Granny during that time. I'm just going to have to see what happens.

Russ has a preaching try-out on Sunday and we are hoping it works out for us. It is in a little town about 45 minutes south of here and seems like it would be ideal for us. We could move to a town in between this one and that one and then I could keep my job and insurance and Russ could preach.

I think that is all I'm going to say now. This got really long, but I just don't have time (or the desire really) to do a blog a day anymore. I need to get to bed because tomorrow is another day and I want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.

Scrapbooking Weekend

I was able to scrapbook this weekend. It seems like I've had something to do every weekend for a while now and it's not going to ease up anytime soon. I start lamaze classes in March and it's all over from there. Anyway, here are the pages I was able to finish this weekend.I still have one picture to scrap to be caught up. I need to get a new blade for my paper trimmer so I'm waiting for that. I will probably finish the last page this week. I also need to finish Russ' school scrapbooks.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my pictures!

Bump Watch - 32 Weeks

32 weeks! It doesn't quite seem possible that in 8 short weeks we will be holding our precious baby in our arms. More than one person today commented on how much Chloe has grown. I must have been sticking out further today. I don't have many symptoms still. I am still working out most nights for an hour. I've started jogging with the Wii Fit for 30 minutes during the evenings. It says I go around 4 1/2 miles, but logically, I don't know how it gets that number. I jog in place so my strides aren't being measured so how would that work? Anyway, working out gets me good and tired so that I'll fall straight to sleep when I get into bed. I do wake up several times each night to go to the restroom. But, if that's the worst part about pregnancy then I am a lucky, lucky woman.

Weight Gain: 15 1/2 pounds. I am definitely within my goal. I would like to thank the Wii Fit for helping make this a very healthy and active pregnancy. Thank you. Thank you!

On a different note, as you all know I was a bit depressed last night. Russ had to work so I ended up going to bed before he got home. So, as usual, I had to get up during the night to use the restroom. Russ had gotten home and was in bed, but not asleep yet. So, I walked in and about jumped out of my skin. There was something on the counter that I hadn't left there. It was blue. It was shiny. It was a present just for me! Yay! I love presents! I picked it up. I opened it up. I looked down at the box in my hand and I got extremely excited. Russ had went to the store after getting off of work just to get me a present. He chose a game: Clue, the Harry Potter edition. Clue is one of my favorite games. Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series. How can you go wrong if you put the two together!?!? Sometimes I don't appreciate Russ enough. I can get to feeling like he doesn't remember anything about me, but then he does something like this and I know that he does love me and he is a wonderful, caring husband.

Ok, enough sappiness! Get back to work people!

A Bit of a Vent

Ok, this is actually going to be a few vents so get ready. If you don't make it to the end, I totally don't blame you. Who really wants to read a bunch of whining, poor me, poor me stuff? I just need an outlet today.

1. I hate it when people ask me how I'm feeling and then proceed to argue with me if I say I'm doing great. A lot of people think I should be completely miserable right now and I'm just not. Maybe I'm ignoring everything because I know I'm lucky to be pregnant, but I'm really feeling good. I know this guy who likes to ask me how I'm doing. Then when I say I'm doing good, he proceeds to tell me how I'm going to be really sick and be down for three weeks after labor. Last night, he asked me and started to go on about how pregnancy is going to make me feel. I cut him off and told him that I jogged 4 1/2 miles the night before. He didn't have much to say to me after that, thank goodness.

2. I hate the fact that people find it necessary to tell me what I should and shouldn't be eating. First, I am horribley anal about that and don't really need anyone else being anal, too. I know I border on obsessed....ok, AM obsessed....about my weight and I am very in control of what I eat. Last night, there is a lady that my Mom and I know. She was telling us how her and her family had recieved a care package with a ton of candy in it. She said they kept a little bit, but were trying to get rid of it and asked if either of us wanted any. Then she proceeds to look at me and say "oh, but Chloe doesn't need any of that so you can't have any", turns her back to me and continues offering the candy to Mom. Granted, I probably wouldn't have accepted the offer, but am I the only one that thinks it's a little rude to offer and then retract within 2 seconds?

3. I have been covering for that girl I used to work with this week. She's "sick" again. I actually don't mind going downstairs as long as she isn't there. I liked my old job, I just couldn't be around her anymore. I have found out, though, that they have removed a lot of what the job was. First, I went and trained a very nasty woman to take over data entry so I knew that she didn't have that part of the job anymore and I was ok with that. Then I found out this week that the morning routine has completely changed...as in gone away. She doesn't have to go get the bills, go through the bills to pull out ones that aren't supposed to go out, print the stack of papers we used to have to print, nothing. This morning routine usually took anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes depending on what all we had to pull and how much paperwork there was. I guess it doesn't really matter much and I shouldn't care, but this is where I'm coming from: last year that girl missed 17 weeks of work. This year (and there are a few of us in the building with calendars to keep track of this) that girl has already missed 11 days...and we aren't even through February yet! Half of the job has been done away with so she doesn't have to deal with it. But, and this is what irritates me, last year when she was gone for half of the summer at "an inhouse counseling center" (read: rehab, though that was never confirmed to me) I was expected to get everything done with minimal help. I had help in the mornings from time to time and that was it. I kept up with the mail, the bills, and the data entry. But, because she "can't handle it" (read: is lazy and won't actually do any work), resposibility is slowly being taken away from her. Do you think her paycheck is smaller? Of course not! We're union and that would be horrible.

Whoo, it feels great to get all of that off my chest! Congrats if you've made it this far. I'm sure it was horribley boring for you.

Mom and I had a profitable day on Saturday. We met up at the church building to tack a few quilts. When my Gramsie was with us she would make these blankets and tack them for everyone. Russ and I have acquired quite a few from various things. I recieved one to take on band trips, one for graduation, we were given one when we were married and so on. My mother has taken up the tradition now and I have been able to help her tack the blankets for the last several years.
Before starting we have to pin the unfinished blanket into this frame.
Once it is in place, we can then start tacking. Mom always threads the string...
and I come behind her and tie.
When we get around once, then we have to roll the sides so we can reach the center. We repeat these steps until it is completely tacked. Then Mom takes them home and finishes the edges and waa-laa...a beautiful quilt to keep you warm during these frosty winter nights.
Mom got to the building at 7:15 a.m. and I arrived at 8:45 a.m. Mom was able to finish a lap robe before I got there and then we finished the rest of them and finally went home at 5:00 p.m. It takes a while to finish, but we are so happy it's done!

We were able to finish these five on Saturday. Mom had finished a couple on Friday, also! It's always nice to feel the sense of accomplishment after finishing something like this.

Update

I had a doctor appointment this morning. Everything is still looking great. My glucose test was good and my iron was good. No protein in my urine. My blood pressure was a tad high at 132/82, but the nurse nor my OB said anything about it and I didn't even know what it was until I got the check out form. Doc had a bit of a tough time finding her heartbeat again. She just doesn't want to stay still long enough to get a good reading. I'm up three pounds according to their scale. I wasn't surprised since I haven't worked out very hard for a couple weeks. I'm still getting in some yoga time, but I haven't jogged at all lately. I go back in three weeks instead of two because Doc is going to be on vacation.

I'm supposed to be helping my mom tie some blankets this weekend. I also need to get my thank you cards done from the shower on Sunday. I tried to do them between calls at work, but I just couldn't keep my concentration with it and eventually gave it up.

Work is going great. I started out on my own on Tuesday this week and feel very good about my ability to do well with this job. There are a lot of things to remember, but I think I'm getting it. I just want to do well at this.

I contacted the girl I want to use for daycare and she is going to hold the position for Chloe in daycare. I'm glad to have that taken care of. Russ and I need to go sign a contract, but she didn't have any this week and is supposed to call us when she gets some more copied.

I think that is it for now. I just ate supper and now my tummy is feeling a bit tight. I think I'm going to go sleep it off!

Baby Shower

Friday evening, Mom, Russ and I all drove down to my sis, Chelle and her hubby, Chris' house. Mom, Chelle and I scrapbooked all day Saturday. I was able to get part of my birth announcements started. Pictures of those will come after I finish them. Then on Sunday, the church Chelle and Chris are members of threw Russ and I a baby shower. I couldn't decide which pictures to use so I just put them all on here. I was very surprised that they wanted to do this for us since we aren't members there. But, I was very happy to be able to travel there and visit with the wonderful people who are members of that church. Thank you so much!
My sis did this super cute clothes line to decorate the multi-purpose room.
My sister's friend, Tia, was in charge of the cake. Isn't it adorable!
The present table
The presents from my sister. And this doesn't include the clothes line! Chloe is already being spoiled by her Auntie!
This is a "hooter hider" that my mother made for me. It's used to cover up the baby and my "hooters" when I'm breastfeeding. My mom also made me a stack of burp clothes and a hooded towel. She is so talented!
One of the ladies made this blanket for Chloe. I love the rubber duckies on it!
This is a picture of the end product minus one carseat, a few gift cards and some cash. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we brought home a lot of stuff for Chloe. We are very blessed to have such loving Christian brothers and sisters!

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

I feel like I haven't had any time to blog lately so I'm behind. My Mom and I were on a baby shower committee for a friend who is about 8 weeks ahead of me. We volunteered to be in charge of the cakes. We decided to go a different route and do cupcakes instead of a sheet cake and we made them. I was really happy with the results!

This teddy bear is made out of individual cupcakes. I bought a kit from Hobby Lobby that had round, diamond, and other shaped silicone cupcake holders in it. The kit also came with directions to do a fish and a turtle. I thought it turned out really cute!I love decorating cakes and I was very happy with the results. I frosted the teddy bear and my mother frosted the cupcakes!

Bump Watch - 30 Weeks

Wow-wee! Would you look at that! I look enormous! I'm still feeling really great. No sickness still. Have had a little bit of uncomfortableness since Chloe loves to snuggle with my right rib cage. But, definitely not complaining because I really love it! I love knowing that she's moving around and that she is alive and well.

Weight Gain: 15 1/2 pounds.

I know. I lost a pound. Bad Lisa! Though, I really feel HUGE!

This weekend is my first baby shower. Woo hoo! I'm super excited about it! This is the beginning of the end of the pregnancy...which is a little sad now that I think about it....but, I get to meet Chloe at the end so I'll get over it!

We'll Call Her Mrs. Stupid

If you read my sister's blog, then you are aware that she laughs at inappropriate times. This is actually something that I was blessed with, also.

The last four weeks have been filled with training to be a customer service representative for me. Yes, I am going to be talking to people on the phone, explaining bills, and taking payments. This is what happened today while I was on the phone during training:

Me: "Good afternoon. Customer service. This is Lisa."

Customer: "I got a disconnect notice in the mail. My balance is $498.63. If I pay $20.00, would that stop the disconnect?"

Me: "What's your address?"

Customer: "1045 E Main."

Me: "And your name?"

Customer: "Amanda Stupid."

Me: *snicker*

Ok, so I made up the address and the name isn't quite what hers was....but, her last name was unfortunately a synonym of stupid. If you have a $500.00 bill then it's fitting that your last name is Stupid if you want to pay $20.00 to stop a disconnect. I just hope she didn't hear me snicker. I really tried to hold it in.

Bulletin Board Design

My Mom and I are in charge of one of the bulletin boards at the church building. We had a springtime board up for about 8 months and I finally got sick of it. We really need to change the board every quarter, but have a hard time finding the time to do it. Anyway, so I started slowly taking what was on there down to give us some incentive to redo it. This is what we came up with:This is all one board. Our hall isn't wide enough for me to be able to get the whole board in one picture.