These Days...

I'm wrapping up my second term of grad school and it is HECTIC! Just a couple of more weeks though and I'll get a break... School ends July 10th, I am due July 16th, then I will take 8-10 weeks off of work for maternity leave, start school again August 30th and go back to work half time. That is our plan anyways, if all goes well. I really hope she comes on time because I simply don't think I can wait any longer to meet her! I just can't wait to see her soft little butt and hopefully cute little face!!! I am dreaming of the day I can dress her up and take her out for a walk in her cool stroller that Jared and I had no trouble putting together! People said putting together the crib, changing table and stroller would be really hard, but not for us! :-) Makes me kinda proud...especially since Jared did the crib and changing table by himself. He took the BEST photos series of himself doing it, which is on Facebook and if you haven't seen it, you have been missing out, trust me! Our dog and cat have been learning to live in mutual disgust better and better and I am curious to see what they'll think of a little baby that steals all their attention! Also, I want to eat healthy, but there is junk food all around me. I don't even have to buy it! It is all up in my grill all the time and there's just no avoiding it. I guess I should just hope what some of my friends have been saying is true that if I breastfeed I won't be able to keep the baby weight on if I try! We shall see though, if I do ever learn to say no to things like muffins and chocolate and coffee cake and soda and cake and ice cream, etc., it will be a glorious day! Other than that, things are good and healthy as can be! She measures just about right, she moves around and gives me lots of heartburn, which I have heard means she's a hairy little beast, and I've begun to waddle a bit. I can't believe I only have 23 days left! Still they are too long. But then again, not really because of all I have to get done...not for her, but for school. Her nursery is ready except crib bedding, but I know that's on it's way and she will be in a cradle for a while anyways. Sorry I don't make paragraphs. I just write and write and write, but you know me.

Chuggin' Along

Brief Update:
Pregnancy still going well.
Glucose test thingy next appt. - gross.
Getting bigger around the mid-section.
Sorry no photos to be seen yet.
School still going well.
Lots of reading and papers to write.
Jared stressed from hard classes he has.
Hope he makes it through.
Taking life one step at a time.
Collecting lots of great hand-me-downs for Olivia.
Sooty still snorty.
Sweetie not so scared of Sooty and seen more often outside the laundry room.
Hungry all the time, or at least I think I am.
Wearing some great maternity clothes friends gave me.
So thankful.
Life is good and full of blessings.

Strange Dreams...

I had heard that people sometimes have wierd dreams or more dreams when they're pregnant, but seriously?!!! I have been having random and vivid dreams almost every night! Plus, when I get up to go to the bathroom as I have to every crack of dawn (just before it's almost time to really get up, but I can't hold it any longer), if I don't like the dream I was having I try and discontinue it, but then I'll have another wierd one before I start to hit the snooze button! Some of them are really too bizarre and sometimes almost embarrasing to share, but they have had to do with everything from being in the middle of the ocean for a class(???) with no lifejackets or anything when suddenly the student in front of me is face to face with a dolphin, which is kind of cool, but still makes me nervous because they can be wiley! THEN there are sharks and I'm thinking, OK, is the dolphin gonna defend us or WHAT is going to happen here?! THEN there are HUGE baluga whales and they are like jumping all the way up out of the water and splashing around and I'm like dang I wish I could do better than doggy paddling!!! THEN there's like a huge wave, not tidal, but big that starts pushing us all toward the shore and I'm like are we going to go crashing into some sea wall or buildings or how is this gonna stop without drowning me?!?! THEN it does slow down enough that I can sort of get my feet under me and walk out, but only into this house that is half way broken open and you have to go down these stairs that are like into a subway tunnel. THEN I end up in the kitchen of this house and I'm like I hope no one's home! THEN I have to break out of this door in the garage that is like locked from the inside and just when I think I've escaped, I see that like a family of ten neighbors is watching me wide-eyed from across the street and this little hispanic boy comes running out yelling at me (and the two random classmate/friends I am with) and they are like, Ok Ali, do your thing and explain to him what happened in Spanish. So, then I start, but with Spanglish, but he says he speaks English, so he tells us we better run........





WHAT a doozie!





Then, this morning's dream consisted of my office being PACKED with people on meeting day and a new agent asks me if we have a return address stamp, which we don't cause we just moved and the one we had has our old address on it, but I said no worries, we have label stickers. I go to get one and they are buried and when I get them there's only one left and it's mis-printed, so I'm like dang! Then, I think Ooh! We have letterhead envelopes with the address! BUT they are all gone and there's only garbage where I keep them (in real life my job is to keep all this stuff stocked and I am dang good at it, ok?! So get off my case!)! THEN I think ok, well I have a bunch of old letterhead envelopes that I put stickers over the address on, which would work, but they are gone and replaced by junk too! So I think I will just print him some new stickers, but he is getting impatient and is really unimpressed with the new real estate co. he signed on with....not cool. Then this other agent is like shoving me fighting over my computer and I'm like JUST LET ME DO MY FREAKING JOB! It was a very stressful, rediculous dream! I did not like it!





Anyways, it's still kind of fun going on these crazy adventures at night, even though they can be scary and make no sense...at least I get to share them with my husband in the morning and now with the rest of you! :-) I just got an idea for a book! Pregzilla Dreams: A Compilation of Crazy Dreams From Sane Pregnant Women

The real one (in my dream) was MUCH bigger and MUCH more menacing than this one!!!

The Day We Went to the Beach With Grandma and Grandpa

Someone mentioned Bruce's Candy Kitchen today on Facebook and it just reminded me to share a funny story, so I thought where better to share it than on my blog?

It was a nice summer day and my sweet grandparents had decided to take some of my cousins and I to Cannon Beach. I'll never forget it...they took us there to see the taffy being made at Bruce's Candy Kitchen, BUT the machine wasn't running when we went in, so while we looked around and drooled at the candy that WAS made, they decided we should just leave without buying any of us any candy! It had obviously not crossed their minds how much torment this would be especially for my youngest cousin Mark. So, as we walked out empty-handed and continued along the sidewalk, he moped, hanging his head as low as he could, until BAM! He walked right into the rearview mirror of a big truck at which point he was wounded both psychologically and physically. What a day at the beach for little Marky (and the rest of us)! I just remember thinking to myself, "How do they not see that this is just not right?"

I'll always remember fondly all the times when we would be riding in my grandparent's car and they would have Altoids or gum, so of course because their main ingredient is sugar, we would always ask if we could have one. They would oblige, but not without specifying that we were to "keep it in our mouths." I always thought this was funny because the last thing I'm ever going to spit out is candy!