Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my life...

thankful for my husband and son for being my chosen family

thankful for our extended family who will travel today to visit us in our new house

thankful for family who has to work or who are celebrating elsewhere today (love you guys too)

thankful for wonderful friends

thankful for health and happiness

thankful for good food and a warm house

thankful for a beautiful park nearby where we can walk

thankful for my education (thanks, mom!) and opportunities

thankful.

good news

My blood pressure was good when I went to the doctor yesterday. After four months of not eating as well as I intended to, not exercising as much as I should have (but I did carry a lot of boxes of books up and down stairs for three weeks!), and being super stressed about house purchasing and house owning and house repairing, my blood pressure was completely normal at my appointment. Like 120/78 normal! Not 130/85, not so bad. Not 140/90 or 140/100 scary but still first level hypertension.

I guess deciding to let stuff go and carrying boxes of books was all I needed. Plus, breastfeeding. I think I've lost a few pounds from feeding the little (twenty pound) guy.

So, no medication for me and I can just keep trying to lower the salt in my diet and lose the rest of the baby weight in order to get even healthier. No meds!!! Yay!

Yes We Can!

Obama Day!

Prop 8 is tainting this wonderful day for me, but I am full of hope.

week of suck

Being a renter sucks

Being a homeowner sucks

Being an adult...is full of challenges.

house!

Just waiting for the deed to record and the keys!

stress

From experience, I can say house-buying is more stressful than:

Organic Chemistry
The California Bar Exam
Childbirth

*all put together* (okay, maybe not all put together)

Whew! We're in the home stretch though....

self-centered? who, me?

You Belong in the Baby Boomer Generation

You fit in best with people born between 1943 and 1960. You are optimistic, rebellious, and even a little self centered. You still believe that you will change the world. You detest authority and rules. Deep down, you're a non conformist.

What Generation Do You Belong In?

Wordle

wordle

almost a month

of almost no sugar

and

almost no cheese

and

I've lost a couple of pounds! With very little exercise, because I've not been walking to the park much at all. And results anyway!!! Yay! My blood pressure is moderate. Not good yet. Not back to normal. But not crazy high either. So a more restrained good job, me.

The no sugar (or very little) thing is not as hard as the last time I tried it. That was a year or so ago and I wasn't really very motivated, no health issues or anything, just doing it on a whim. I guess when it matters, I have will-power. Go figure.

today...

Babyzone says I'm 57 weeks pregnant. Hee.

Home!!!

Our Beta is home. WHEW!

Beta

All I can think about is our lost cat. She got out two days ago and we haven't seen her since. I am worried. She is the sweetest cat and not equipped to live outside.

Day One

Reduced Salt
Reduced Sugar
Walking to the Park

...done!

One day down. Tomorrow, keep up the good work during a holiday!

Liam's Big Week

Liam rolled over for the first time today! Besides that, he's gotten even more grabby. He grabs toys (on purpose) and my clothes. He loves to grab cloth and pull it up over his head. He also discovered his feet this week. And he laughed on his own; I wasn't laughing (I was yawning) and he just laughed!

Yay!!!

He's also fifteen pounds. More than twice his birth weight. He's huge!

Three Months

Three months as in...

The adorable munchkin is three months old.

But also:

I have three months to lose weight and lower my blood pressure, which was never high before I was pregnant, or my doctor is putting me on medication. She wanted to put me on meds today, but I promised to start charting my blood pressure every day and exercising more and eating better. Since the fires are making the air unhealthy, I cut back on walking. My doc said to go walk at the mall. Is the air any better there?

new pics

Pics

He's here and we're home!

Our adorable baby arrived the morning of March 20th and we are all happy to be home today. Pictures coming!

Pi Day!

The baby's EDD is tomorrow. (The counter is wrong...Leap Day error, I think.)

It will probably be another week or two until he is actually here, though.

Still on bed rest. Also, I am sick. Good times.

Ha ha ha ha ha

20

Still no bebe

but his hospital bag is packed!

I am the Knitting MacGyver

So I was out and about (at the hospital, before they put me back on bedrest) yesterday, with a cable knit hat project, but without a cable needle! Or even a double pointed needle, which I usually use. So I used a pair of sunglasses to do the cable knit rows.

And it worked. Kick-@$$!

My husband then said I was the knitting macgyver, a name I LOVE.

A Surprise Baby Shower! Awwww.

Learner's coworkers are the best. They threw a surprise baby shower (during yesterday's lunch hour while Learner was in the middle of a jury trial) for us! I wasn't there, but people made sure Learner came home with cake for me as well as a bunch of cute presents and a hand knit baby hat!

I've never gotten a hand knit gift, and I don't think I could have made one this cute if I tried.

Yay!

Now, how do you send a thank you note to a whole office?

Knit Sweater Master

I knit another sleeveless sweater. It is cute. It will fit when I get my body back. Yay! Plus, I knit it up faster than the last one. I'm getting better!

There are one or two small changes I want to make...for the next sweater, I guess. Then, maybe I'll go back to hats and scarves for a bit.

Leap Day!

Okay, it's not looking like the baby will arrive today....

Still, Happy Leap Day, everyone! We won't get another one of these for a while.

My mom sent me this...

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge

From what I remember growing up, my mom has valued education and persistence more than other goods and traits. Consequently, I have valued them too. Of course, sometimes you are on the wrong track, and persistence starts to look like "staying the course" no matter how wrong your direction. I can think of times when realizing I was going the wrong way and turning back was not only the right thing to do, but I was thankful that I realized I should stop and reassess my direction early enough to fix the problem.

I have always been a fan of Aristotle's golden mean.

You heard it here first...

Ralph Nader is secretly a Republican.

Tee hee hee

I actually had a lovely Valentine's Day, because my husband is quite the sweetheart, but I came across this picture and it made both of us laugh.

Bwahahaha!

Old TV

Mama's Family. Currently on one of our six channels, in reruns of course. It occurs to me that I am most like their dippy neighbor Iola because she makes crafty items like crochet/knit tea cozies. Which are hated and mocked by the complete losers that make up Mama's family. Oy.

Except the stuff that I knit and give away is pretty. Right? Right???

I mean, the experimental, ugly stuff I keep to myself. Like my very first sweater. I'm wearing it now, but it's not like I'd inflict it on someone else. My friends and family are very patient, but even I don't want to wear this thing out of the house.

Okay then...

Dream World

Does anyone else have places that they visit in dreams, over and over again? I have a fake three floor middle school that I go to every so often, a huge loft with exposed brick where I spend time, an "Alaska" that isn't anything like the real Alaska, an old "San Francisco" that isn't like real San Fran, back-stage at some theater, and probably other places too.

I also dream, every so often, that I have papers to write or I won't graduate from school. I've been out of school for five years.

Getting Old

So...My So-Called Life ran when I was a senior in high school. I can't say that I was anything like Angela, but at least back then, I identified with the kids in the series. Now I identify with the parents. They look so young! Plus: they take ballroom dance lessons in one episode--I so want to try that! And then they get audited by the IRS, which might be my biggest fear. Don't ask me why I fear the IRS. And they have a huge house. I covet their house.

Sweater is done...kind of

My very first knit sweater is finished, unless I decide to add sleeves. But it's kind of cool without them. I'm not sure I'll be able to wear it much either way because it fits NOW. I am thinking of starting another sweater that will fit after I lose the baby weight...and for that sweater, I could go all out and do sleeves.

Lincoln was gay?!

Did anyone else hear this on NPR over the weekend (or was it last week)?

I know they end up saying "no one really knows," but come on, people.

Anyone?

The plan so far....

Cloth diapers seem like a good idea, but I'm not sure we can pull them off as renters. Maybe for the next kid. Or maybe we could switch after buying a house. Hmmm....

On the other hand, baby-carrying, co-sleeping, breast-feeding, no TV, making our own baby-food, and teaching the baby to sign are all on the list of things we hope to do (or not do).

I think I know about five or six ASL signs already. Signing is really fun.

Sum up life in six words?

I guess for today, "baby due in thirty-two days" works.

35 Down, 35 To Go!

35 weeks down, that is. Only 35 days to go! Woo hoo!

Pregnancy makes you forget stuff...

No kidding.

Vote!

Yeah, I know it's not until next week, unless you are voting absentee like I (almost) always do. The one time I voted in person it was raining and I stepped in a puddle on the way there. Voting absentee rocks, people.

T-46

Although the official countdown (to forty weeks) says six and a half weeks to go, the baby *could* be here (and healthy) in just three and a half weeks. Wow.

Bed Rest

I am working on a knit sweater. Our baby-shower will be put off until after the baby is here.

The weakness in me

Show some emotion

Love and affection

Me, myself and I

Drop the pilot

Living for you

Willow

Rosie

I think my mom played Joan Armatrading to me when I was in the womb. I just love these songs. Yeah, some of the the videos suck.

"Free" Time

I am on bed rest. I am still adjusting to the news. I feel fine, so it's strange to have to stay in bed all the time.

On the positive side, I have been reading a lot. Just finished The Jane Austen Book Club, which a friend read and left with me last weekend. Half-way through Mommy Wars. Perhaps I will finally knit a sweater.

tgif?

So I spent six hours at the hospital while they ran tests. It wasn't that bad. Most of the time, I got to chit chat with some really nice ladies I will be seeing twice a week for a while. Plus, it was all in a comfortable bed. How can you beat that?

mommy wars

The book is a set of essays by working moms, stay at home moms, and hybrid moms on their career and parenting choices. It's kind of fantastic.

T-59

Counting down!

Awesome people I am lucky to know

My husband is awesome and spent the last week protecting me and also saving the world. And he still managed to find time for some boring chores too.

My sister spent the weekend saving the world as well.

I guess with the storms and everything, there was a lot of world saving to do.

My mom is awesome and I need to get her something really good for her birthday.

84% like who?

84% Chris Dodd
82% Hillary Clinton
82% Barack Obama
80% John Edwards
80% Bill Richardson
69% Joe Biden
66% Mike Gravel
65% Dennis Kucinich
42% Rudy Giuliani
38% Tom Tancredo
34% Mitt Romney
31% John McCain
25% Mike Huckabee
23% Fred Thompson
15% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I checked out Chris Dodd and I guess my candidate has already thrown in the towel. That's just great.

In other news, no wonder I've been so torn between Clinton and Obama.

Sunshine versus Rainbows...hee!

Debate on "The Poop"

I [heart] Hillary

I think Hillary Clinton should start a "I [heart] Hillary" campaign, like the "I [heart] NY" campaign that helped make more people like New York City. After all, she's the senator from NY.

Not that I don't like Barack Obama. Congrats to him tonight.

ETA: Of course, perhaps there is a potential problem with that "I heart Huckabees" movie.

2008!

Woo! Learner and I had a great New Year's Eve and I am looking forward to so much in 2008!

ETA: Now, besides feeling the baby kick, we can see him kick too! It's weird, but good.