Shake it Like a Polaroid!!

Man!!! Our baby shakes it like a Polaroid!!! Check out this video of him kicking. It was hard to capture his really big ones, but these kicks were pretty good. Just so you know, the line down the middle of my belly is not hair, its a "linea negra" (linea negra: Latin for "black line". A dark vertical line that appears on the abdomen during pregnancy. The brownish streak is usually about a centimeter in width. The line runs vertically along the midline of the abdomen from the pubis to the xiphoid process— the bottom-most part of the rib cage in the center or tip of the sternum).

Enjoy.

(Note: You kinda have to watch carefully...don't blink. Also, for a greater level of entertainment, manually drag the time on the movie and watch it in fast mode).

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog!!!

To market, to market to buy a fat pig.

Home again, home again Jiggity jig!

To market, to market to buy a fat hog.

Home again, home again Jiggity jog!

One time as we pulled in late after driving a long distance, Matt said, "Home again, home again, jiggity jog". I looked at him with my eyebrows furrowed and said, "That sounds like some weird thing some old person would say". He informed me that his dad used to say it when they returned home from long adventures (Richard, for the record, I'm not saying you're old, you just like old sayings). I laughed and we started saying it semi-frequently. When we were at my house for Thanksgiving, I was making fun of Matt for saying that, and my mom informed me that it was a nursery rhyme...who knew? Leave it to her to know some off the wall rhyme. Maybe I'm the one that's off the wall for not knowing it.

Anyway, I can think of nothing more appropriate to say this evening than "Home again, home again, Jiggity jog!!!". Matt and I just packed up our stuff in Beaumont today and headed home to Houston, never to return. The Beaumont chapter of our lives is over, which neither of us are too sad about. It was kinda strange, though, to say goodbye to our neighbors, realizing we may never see them again in this life, and to shut the door to our apartment for the last time. I was also sad that my tomato plant grew so tall and was so big that it had to be thrown away cause it wouldn't fit in our car. It had almost 30 little green tomatoes on it that were about to turn red. :(

As I was driving home with my plants, our dog, and our lone guppy in a Tupperware container (to avoid spillage), my heart brimmed with joy. I felt like I was going to Disneyland for the first time. I am so excited for our next phase of life that will include a BABY!!! Yay!!!

The people I work with at Catholic Charities threw me a surprise baby shower today for my last day there. They have all become my good friends. They were WAY too generous. Look at all this stuff they gave us:

And the cute cake they made:

One of my co-workers gave me a bottle cleaner. It looked like a toilet scrubber. I said, "What is this?", and they all kinda grinned. I got a lot to learn. That reminds me of my bridal shower when I pulled out a pastry cutter and said, "Thanks for the potato masher!!!" I know the difference now. I also now know the difference between a bottle scrubber and a toilet scrubber. One is smaller and more sterile.

I really enjoyed my time there. It made me think a lot about life, culture, the ills of the world and what I can do as an individual to help society be better. My influence is small, but good and I can at least impact other individuals who also make up a part of society. I'm grateful for my opportunity to work there and get a glimpse of lives and situations of which I would have otherwise been unaware.

Home again, home again, Jiggity Jog!!!

The Houston Experience

I've been meaning to blog about this for some time, but due to some new technology and the learning curve involved, pictures and video of the event have been unavailable till now. Anyway, Matt's parents came to visit us in Houston. Laila was ready for the warm weather and packed mostly carpi's for the event. Unfortunately, they brought the cold weather with them from North Dakota. When I say cold...I really just mean the 50's and 60's. I think Laila was hoping for some swimming weather, but no such luck.

Despite that minor setback, we had plenty of fun playing Rabbit Turds every night, eating out for their anniversary at Willie G's, riding the little train at Herman Park (cause Matt begged to ride it), going to the zoo, etc etc. They were our very first visitors since Matt and I have been married, so it was fun to play host and hostess.

Lucy enjoyed having company, too. Laila, after discovering Lucy's need to sniff crotches at every chance she gets, lovingly referred to Lucy as "Lucy Goosey". Lucy sleeps in our bedroom and every morning, she would wake us up as early as we'd be willing so she could go greet her new friends, Richard and Laila.

The highlight, I must say, was the trip to the beach. Originally, I wanted to go to Galveston Island State Park, but on the internet, it said it was closed due to Hurricane Ike damage. So we drove an hour and a half to some other beach, which I thought was a state park, but it turned out to be the state dump instead. Not the island paradise I was hoping for. We spent a total of 10 minutes there, and then drove on the back roads to Galveston to see how it has recovered since the hurricane. It actually wasn't bad, but it was a lot of driving for 10 minutes of toe dipping. For those of you who are considering visiting us in the future, I HAVE improved as a tour guide. Richard and Laila, thanks for being our guinea pigs! And thanks for the new video camera! The videos are too high quality to load on the blog but we're loving it!!!

Ironical

On Facebook, for those of you who don't know, there is a game called Mafia Wars. I have yet to get involved, but I hear it's pretty fun. Anyway, you can invite people to join your team. I have recently become Facebook friends with our hip Bishop. He invited me to join his team. The automated invitation is as follows:

"_________ wants you to join their mob in Mafia Wars, a Mob-style combat game played on Facebook. Start out as a petty thief and work your way up to be boss of a criminal empire."

I laughed so hard at the thought my Bishop inviting me to join his mob starting out as a petty thief and then possibly working my way up to being a boss of a criminal empire. Ironical, eh?

Busted!!!

The other evening, Matt and I were driving in the car and he looked over at me and said, "You gotta milk moustache...or no.....a MYLANTA moustache!!!" Busted!! Recently my pregnancy induced acid reflux has taken a turn for the worst, so I've resorted to drinking a swig straight out of the bottle as needed. Much better than dirtying a million spoons, but you gotta watch out for those Mylanta moustaches! They'll give you away!

Getting bigger...

There's his little face!!! His right hand is covering his mouth, but not a bad pic!!! The Dr. says that he's looking good. As far as his measurements go, it seems as though he may come earlier than the 13th...perhaps on my original due date (May 2nd). Who knows? It seems like all one big guessing game to me, even with all the technology. The Dr. estimated his current weight at 4 lbs 4 oz which puts him in the 40 percentile. That seemed kinda big to me cause all the books I've read said he should be around 3 lbs or so at 30 weeks. His head is down and his back curves along my left side and his little legs and arms are on the right side, just like I thought. I never get kicked on the left...always on the right.

Here's one more pic. The ultrasound technician seemed to think this was a good one, but other than his head being on the right, your guess is as good as mine as to what everything else is in there. Maybe the placenta/umbilical cord is on the top left. Hmmm? I'm getting excited!

FREEDOM!!!!

For some reason, Matt and I ended up getting a nice sized tax return this year. I love that. Some people think that that's bad, that the government has been holding on to too much of your money that could have been earning you interest. I see the logic in that, but I'd rather get a "Surprise!!! Here's a bunch of money!" rather than "Surprise!!! You owe a bunch of money!". Anyway, with the tax return, we were able to pay off our student loan. The student loan wasn't ever really all that much compared to what other people often end up owing after graduation, but regardless, it's SO nice to have that all behind us. It really is such a liberating feeling. I can only imagine how people who have owed tens or hundreds of thousands must feel when they pay it off. I am definitely on a debt-free high right now.