Allergic and Robeez

  I am so allergic the last 4 days (cue sneeze).  We have left the windows open, without cooling off the house last night, so the pollen etc. came through the house.  The Neil Med rinse is my friend these days.  I'm so swollen from the heat, I'm looking forward to come cooler temperatures this weekend.  The rain will not bother me much either.  The poor yard is fried basically.  I have not tended my garden, but my herbs are still going strong.  That is fun.

  I have been searching eBay for a deal on Robeez shoes as someone recommended them to keep the kid's socks on.  I think they are precious and will be so cute and functional.  I am looking forward to the dress up portion of having a baby as I did when I was little with dolls.  However, babies tend to grow up and change happens fast.  Tony looks at the clothes we have and thinks we have way too many.  I look at the clothes and think we do not have nearly enough.  I think with all the diaper changes that the more clothes we can have, the better for use in such a small amount of time before they grow out of them.

  On to listing some items on Craigslist today.  I have put this off for a week now.  Today's the day.  Right after my Neil Med rinse that is.  I will be going to Curves for my stretching, then to the office for some AC.  Good stuff.  I did not sleep so well last night.  Too hot and my shoulder etc. were numb and waking me up.  My hip spasms woke me this morning, so I have to nip that in the bud.  Should be a good day.  Good morning sunshine.

Thank You

  I got 99% of my thank you,s for my baby shower done today and in the mail to go out tomorrow.  It took hours, but I am very thankful and excited.  I look forward to using all the good baby gear 9 weeks from now, give or take.  It was a beautiful day!  My feet were still swollen and puffy on the top.  Ridiculous.  Boy, can I not wait to exercise like "normal" again.

  I did not get what I wanted to get done today completed.  I have to go into the office tomorrow too.  I can get it done tomorrow.  It will only take an hour to list everything I want on Craigslist, it's just a matter of going through the motions.  It will make life easier to sell what I want to so that those things can get out of the house.  They are just taking up space.  We need baby space now.

  I caught up on my Drop Dead Diva and Project Runway today.  Good times.  Going to bed!

Baby Shower today

Baby Shower at the Portage Room in the Ramada Hotel in Hancock, MI

Great desserts!  Glad those who came could show up.  Good to see everyone!

The cake was half white, half chocolate with a strawberry frosting in between layers.

Thank you to all!

30 Weeks

  WOW I cannot believe this little kicking baby is only (about) 10 weeks away from coming into this world. I think time will go by like a blink of an eye and I cannot research enough in the meantime.  No results from the 3 hour (4 hour hospital stay) glucose test from yesterday.  I guess I get to wait until tomorrow at my doctor's appointment.  Busy day tomorrow.  At the office from 8:30 AM - 12 PM, doctor at 1:30 PM, baby shower at 6:30 PM.  I hope to fit in some meals and water breaks.  I have lost my cravings and feeling like I need to eat.  I am back to a "normal" eating schedule somehow.  I am more clumsy (dropping things) now and I don't see or prevent things from dropping on the front of my body.  I don't feel that they are there.  I'm a mess, but don't know because I don't look down or in a mirror often.  Silly girl.  Onto reading some baby books before bed.

Love, love this book!  New information I would not have discovered otherwise.

30 Weeks

How my baby is growing:

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)


How my life is changing:

You may be feeling a little tired these days, especially if you're having trouble sleeping. You might also feel clumsier than normal, which is perfectly understandable. Not only are you heavier, but the concentration of weight in your pregnant belly causes a shift in your center of gravity. Plus, thanks to hormonal changes, your ligaments are more lax, so your joints are looser, which may also contribute to your balance being a bit off. Also, this relaxation of your ligaments can actually cause your feet to spread permanently, so you may have to invest in some new shoes in a bigger size.

Remember those mood swings you had earlier in pregnancy? The combination of uncomfortable symptoms and hormonal changes can result in a return of those emotional ups and downs. It's normal to worry about what your labor will be like or whether you'll be a good parent. But if you can't shake the blues or feel increasingly irritable or agitated, talk to your doctor or midwife. You may be among the 1 in 10 expectant women who battle depression during pregnancy. Also let your caregiver know if you're frequently nervous or anxious.

Photos Today in the Studio

In the Studio- the photographer lacked telling us how to pose to make a better picture.  We definitely want to get a photographer that knows their stuff before I'm not pregnant anymore.  Fun to take them, tough on those who are not used to taking the pictures.  Gorgeous day though!

2 Days shy of 30 weeks.  Boy, does time fly.  Off to do my 3 hour blood glucose test tomorrow.  Not looking forward to that!  I'm taking my baby books as I need to finish reading them anyway.  G'night

Glorious Day

  It is so beautiful today.  Cool temperature is making me real happy.  I feel good and am ready to be productive.  I am scanning in old documents that are taking up space in my fire box so I can shred them and make space for new documents to be stored.  It wreaks havoc on my feet to be on them going to the printer all day, but I'm looking at getting a receipts scanner also to rid myself of all the receipt clutter I have.  They are very expensive, but would be nice!

  I am watching Harry Potter and eating gummy worms.  Church was good today and I just need to learn to go to bed a little earlier to get up early enough to be early to church rather than on time or a little late every time.  The nostalgia of watching all these Tech. University students starting a new year makes me want to go back to school.  I just loved school.  It is so much simpler to deal with school than the quandaries of adult life.  Especially financial ones.  If I could get back to zero, without any debt, I think my stress level would drop exponentially.  Who knows if that will happen in my lifetime.

  Boy, what I would have done then with the knowledge that I have now.  Not stressing the small stuff is such a good policy.  Fantastic.  Tony has this habit down.  Me on the other hand, will be fighting this for the rest of my life.  I'm sure years from now I'll say the same thing about knowledge.  I am off to enjoy the day.  You have a good day too.


29 WEEKS!!!

How your baby is growing:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

How your life is changing:

Your baby's very active now. Your healthcare provider may ask you to spend some time each day counting kicks and will give you specific instructions on how to do this. Let your provider know if you ever notice that your baby is becoming less active. You may need a nonstress test or biophysical profile to check on your baby's condition.

Some old friends — heartburn and constipation — may take center stage now. The pregnancy hormone progesterone relaxes smooth muscle tissue throughout your body, including your gastrointestinal tract. This relaxation, coupled with the crowding in your abdomen, slows digestion. Sluggish digestion can cause gas and heartburn — especially after a big meal — and contribute to constipation.

Your growing uterus may also be contributing to hemorrhoids. These swollen blood vessels in your rectal area are common during pregnancy. Fortunately, they usually clear up in the weeks after giving birth.

If they're itchy or painful, try soaking in a sitz bath or applying cold compresses medicated with witch hazel to the affected area. Avoid sitting or standing for long stretches. Talk with your provider before using any over-the-counter remedies during pregnancy, and let your provider know if you have any rectal bleeding. To prevent constipation, eat a high-fiber diet, drink plenty of water, and get some regular exercise.

Some women get something called "supine hypotensive syndrome" during pregnancy. This happens when lying flat on your back causes a change in heart rate and blood pressure that makes you feel dizzy until you change position. You might notice that you feel lightheaded if you stand up too quickly, too. To avoid "the spins," lie on your side rather than your back, and move slowly as you go from lying down to sitting and then standing.

Sunday, A Day For Patience

Looking forward to my baby shower.  Celebration of the life to join our family very soon.

 
  Made it to church on time today to find out that those that I wanted to see the most, stayed home sick.  I am appreciative of them not spreading the illness, but the light of seeing them is a highlight of my day.  Good sermon today and I find I appreciate the sermons more and more as I get older.  The weight of my experiences are a heavy burden to carry and to make sense of them, and life, the sermons give me food for thought and perspective.
  Church time, to me, is whatever you make of it.  I try to focus and be open when I'm there.  What spoils this, and it should not, is the place that I sit usually attracts parents with smaller children to sit behind me.  These particular parents do not discipline their kids.  They let them lounge with their shoes rested above the pew spilling into the already cramped area in the pew ahead of them or they kick and push their feet into the back of the pew every 3 seconds (seemingly) where my back is resting.  They make shooting noises while pointing to my head and spill everything on the floor, but the parents do not clean it up.  They wait for a passer by, which could be a 90 year old person with difficulty walking let alone avoiding obstacles without falling, to come and pick it up for them.  Frustrating that simply the parent could tell them to keep their feet down and that it is not nice to kick the seat in front of them, especially for over an hour constantly.
   I know that it is difficult to be diligent in discipline because parents are distracted, weary or sick of staying on top of their unruly child all the time.  Especially when you have 2 or more unruly children, or 2 twins and one younger child that you never got out in front of disciplining the twins so the youngest is just running wild.  I hope to strive to be a parent with a laid back child whom does not need to have the negative attention.  Who knows, maybe that will be me in 4 years.  My baby was kicking and I was trying to pay attention to the reason I came to church and the distraction just was not welcomed.  I cannot  help but just decide to sit closer to the front next time.
  Such things are so minor and relatively benign in life.  To me, this is just behavior stemming from a larger problem in America, and possibly the world, that parents are too lenient and overly positively supporting their child rather than giving them limits.  They say the world is your oyster, do what you like.  I understand positive reinforcement when a child does something right, but stemming the unwanted behavior and the polite and nice manners should be enforced at a young age, because if not then, the teenager is not going to listen.  I have seen so many children in my day of working that the parents just expect me to make them do what I want when the child is uncooperative, rather than teaching them to behave and listen and follow directions at an earlier age.  The child should know what is good to do ahead of time and not be forced, especially by a stranger, to do anything they do not understand.  Forcing just makes for a negative experience they will carry with them throughout their life.  A little information and preparation goes a very long way in predisposing the child for success.
  I am done with my rant for today about such a minor occurrence.  On to trying to make the best of this gorgeous day.  Slight breeze, sunshine, lower 70's, some clouds with no rain in sight.  I want to be productive and am in the mood to move mountains.  Wish me luck.

Interesting Day

  Emotional day for this pregnant lady.  Had a hard time getting going this morning.  I did make it to run errands and to the office, but I had a good hour talk with an unexpected acquaintance.  I was surprised to have such a long talk, but it is comforting to know that I am not alone in dealing with emotional and traumatic issues of the past and trying to move on to have a happy family life.  It is great to know that coping and evolution of calm and peace is a process of tearing down the layers to get to the good stuff through time.  This woman who is 46 years old is still dealing with her childhood and parent traumas.  It will be a lifetime of recovery from everything that happened at such a young age.

  I hate to think all the trauma I went through was for a reason, but maybe I can spare my own child, family or friends from the same experience that I had.  I will not ever treat my child in anything besides love.  I am already preparing the speeches and information to pass on to my child for prevention and awareness in this life.  I know we will not have these conversations until many years down the road, but I am ready for the task.

  Cooler night, but really humid.  I'm hoping for good sleep to get up for a garage sale before the Eagle Harbor Art Fair.  This will be the last harrah with this friend and want to enjoy the time we have.  Hope the rain holds off.

So Excited!

  Doctor's appointment: I was able to keep down the glucose solution so I could get my blood work done. Yay!  I also got blood taken to check for anemia.  Results tomorrow.  We will see what happens.  Right on schedule for growth.  The doctor is not concerned about my swelling as my blood pressure is still low and fine.  Baby is kicking and kicking, woo hoo.

  I got good sleep last night in that I went to bed at a reasonable time, woke at a reasonable time and was on time to the office this morning.  I did not feel tired all day.  I ate as reasonably as possible, a step in the right direction.  Good taco bean and buffalo meat dinner.  Tony even liked it.  I got to exercise/stretch today also.

  Shopping, shopping, shopping with my husband today.  Happy with the crib we chose, the rocker recliner and the lamp for the nursery at a good sale price for each.  So happy it all fit into the Suburban to take it home too.  I got cheap swim towels too, something that I have been thinking about buying for a while.

 Watching Project Runway, Viktor needs to go home.  What a rude, ridiculous and unprofessional kid.  He is such a joke, he does not deserve to be there.  I do not like Burt, but he knows his stuff at least.  Time for bed!

So Hot and Tired

  I woke up so allergic today!  I had that tingle in my nose and was sneezing a good bit.  Sneezing actually triggers round ligament pain and I fear a hernia so I try to avoid sneezing or coughing or anything with those sharp abdominal contractions for that matter.  I ended up finally taking a Benadryl and slept through the afternoon.  Gorgeous weather for a cool and relaxing sleep.  I hope I can fall asleep tonight now.  I think it should not be a problem though.

  I am such a heater all the time I am loving the upper 60's with some clouds, a breeze and the sun shining through.  I know the cooler weather is on its way soon enough though.  I did not get much done today, but I'm trying to stick to my one habit change for this month so I start all over again tomorrow.  I think I'm going to call Charity, juice and go to bed.  Tomorrow is my doctor's appointment.  Not excited for the scale, but interested in my blood pressure reading.  My fingers are so swollen they are like sausages and they ache when scratching anything.  The nail actually feels like it is separating from the finger when I scratch at anything.  Disconcerting to say the least.  G'night

28 WEEKS
How your baby's growing:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

How your life's changing:

You're in the home stretch! The third and final trimester starts this week. If you're like most women, you'll gain about 11 pounds this trimester.

At this point, you'll likely visit your doctor or midwife every two weeks. Then, at 36 weeks, you'll switch to weekly visits. Depending on your risk factors, your practitioner may recommend repeating blood tests for HIV and syphilis now, as well as doing cultures for chlamydia and gonorrhea, to be certain of your status before delivery. Also, if your glucose screening test result was high and you haven't yet had follow-up testing, you'll soon be given the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. And if the blood work done at your first prenatal visit showed that you're Rh negative, you'll get an injection of Rh immunoglobulin to prevent your body from developing antibodies that could attack your baby's blood. (If your baby is Rh positive, you'll receive another shot of Rh immunoglobulin after you give birth.)

Around this time, some women feel an unpleasant "creepy-crawly" sensation in their lower legs and an irresistible urge to move them while trying to relax or sleep. If this sensation is at least temporarily relieved when you move, you may have what's known as restless legs syndrome (RLS). No one knows for sure what causes RLS, but it's relatively common among expectant mothers. Try stretching or massaging your legs, and cut down on caffeine, which can make the symptoms worse. Ask your caregiver if you should try iron supplements, which can sometimes relieve RLS.

I Have To Share This

   I have to share this because I am going to try this.  I am in love with this website!!!

The First Rule of Simplifying: Identify the Essential (or, How to avoid the Void)

“Our lives are frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify” – Henry David Thoreau

The simple answer: Do what you love.

His comment, while understandable, illustrates a common misunderstanding of simplification, and it’s a good point that I thought is worth discussing. The misunderstanding: that simplifying is basically just cutting stuff out, leaving an emptiness or void. People think that it leaves you with a boring life, and nothing fun. They couldn’t be more wrong.

The real goal of simplifying, and the First Rule, is to first identify what is essential, what you love, what is important to you — and then cut out all the rest that distracts you and keeps you from doing what’s important.

We have so much stuff in our lives, from possessions to things we need to do to information coming in to visual and emotional clutter, that we are overloaded. The result? We end up doing a lot of things that aren’t really important to us, because we have so much other stuff to do that has crept into our lives and that we leave in our lives, unexamined.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, Socrates must have been an excellent simplifier — as evidenced by the fact that he just wore a robe and sandals. In any case, in order to simplify our lives, we must first examine our lives. What is important, and do all the things in our lives give us value? These are the questions to ask, and if you find the answers, simplifying is extremely easy.

Let’s look at how finding what is essential, what we love, and what is important to us, can help us simplify, and what it leaves in our lives:

1. The first question: What is most important to me? What do I love to do? The answer is different to every person. For me, it’s simple: I love my wife and kids, I love writing, I love reading, and I love helping others. For others, it may be hiking or mountain biking or creating music or anything, really. Answer this question first.
2. The second question: what are the things going on in my life, the things I do every day and every week and month, and how are they related to what is important to me? If you are going out drinking with the guys, and it’s not really important to you, and it’s stopping you from doing what is important, that’s a candidate for simplifying. Examine all your commitments, and ask yourself if they are really important to you, if they give you great value for your time, and if they are related to what is truly important.
3. Possessions: The same questions can be asked of all the stuff you own — do you really love them? Are they truly essential? Another question you can ask, to clarify your thinking: If my house burned down, which few things would I want to replace? Get rid of all the rest. They leave clutter and stress and keep you from enjoying the stuff you really love.
4. Everything else: This same concept can be applied to anything else in your life — your work, the information you read every day, the television programs you watch, the people in your life. Know what’s essential, what you love, what’s important … and get rid of the rest.
5. What you’re left with: If you get rid of the extraneous stuff, the stuff that’s not related to what’s important to you, what do you have left? Just the important stuff. Just the stuff you really love to do. When you get rid of the other stuff, when you cut, let’s say, television and hours of Internet surfing and beer drinking from your life, don’t just cut it out — remember what’s important and what you love to do, and do that instead. For me, that means spending time with my family instead of working, that means writing or reading instead of watching TV, that means helping others instead of going to the mall (something I want to do more of).

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying. 


http://zenhabits.net/7-little-habits-that-can-change-your-life-and-how-to-form-them/

How to Develop the Habits
I’ve written a number of times about developing habits, but here are the basics:

• Do a 30-day challenge, focusing on just ONE habit.
• Write it out on paper, along with your motivations, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them.
• Commit fully, in a public way.
• Log your progress.
• Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day.
• Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online.
• Reward every little success.
• If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again.

The Seven Little Habits That Can Change Your Life

OK, so now you know how to form a habit — and remember, only do them one at a time — but you want to know the seven little habits. Here they are, in my order of preference (but yours may be different):

1. Develop positive thinking. I put this first because I think it’s the keystone habit that will help you form the other important habits. Sure, positive thinking by itself won’t lead to success, but it certainly goes a long way to motivate you to do the other things required.

I learned this when I quit smoking — when I allowed myself to think negative thoughts, I would end up failing. But when I learned how to squash negative thoughts and think positive ones instead, I succeeded. This discovery lead to me practicing this over and over, until I was able to form just about any habit I needed. It’s been invaluable to me, and I think it could be to most people.

Focus on this habit first, and you’ll have a much easier time with any of the others. Start by becoming more aware of your negative self-talk — do a little tally sheet throughout the day, marking a tally each time you notice a negative thought. Soon you’ll recognize them, and you can squash them.

2. Exercise. People who’ve been hearing me harp on about exercise might roll their eyes. Sure, exercise is healthy and all that, but how exactly is it life changing? I’m glad you asked:

• It makes you feel better about yourself, and more confident. That leads to better success with other positive changes.
• It reinforces the positive thinking habit — you need to think positive in order to sustain exercise.
• It relieves stress and gives you time to think — this leads to better mental well-being in your life overall.
• It helps with creativity. Don’t ask me to prove it, except to say that my best ideas and brainstorming sessions come from when I exercise.

• 3. Single-tasking. The opposite of multi-tasking — you’ve heard me harp on about this one as well. Why is it life-changing? A couple powerful reasons:

• You’ll be more effective with your tasks and get more done. It’s hard to achieve important things if you’re constantly switching tasks and distracted by other “urgent” things.
• You’ll be less stressed overall and (in my experience) happier throughout your day.

4. Focus on one goal. Just as focusing on one task at a time is more effective, and focusing on one habit at a time is more effect, so is focusing on one goal at a time. While it might seem very difficult, focusing on one goal at a time is the most powerful way of achieving your goals. When you try to take on many goals at once, you’re spreading thin your focus and energy — the two critical components for achieving a goal.

What if you have 5 goals you want to achieve? Pick one to focus on first. Break it into a mini-goal you can accomplish this month, if it’s a longer-term goal. Pick an action you can do today. Keep doing this until the goal is accomplished — do an action every day, finish the mini-goal, pick the next mini-goal to work on. Then, when your One Goal is completed, focus on the next goal.

Some goals are ongoing ones — like blogging every day, or exercising every day. In those cases, turn them into habits — focus exclusively on turning the goal into a habit, until the habit is ingrained. Then focus on the next goal.

5. Eliminate the non-essential. First, identify the essential — the things in your life that are most important to you, that you love the most. Then eliminate everything else. This simplifies things and leaves you with the space to focus on the essential. This process works with anything — with your life in general, with work projects and tasks, with emails and other communication.

This will change your life because it will help you to simplify, to focus on what’s important, and to build the life you want.

6. Kindness. Yes, kindness is a habit. And it can be cultivated. Focus on it every day for a month and you’ll see profound changes in your life. You’ll feel better about yourself as a person. You’ll see people react to you differently and treat you better, over the long run. It’s karma.

How do you develop the kindness habit? First, make it a goal to do something kind for someone each day. At the beginning of the day, figure out what that kind act will be and then do it during the day. Second, each time you interact with someone, try to be kind, be friendly, be compassionate. Third, try to go beyond small kindnesses to larger acts of compassion, volunteering to help those in need and taking the initiative to relieve suffering.

7. Daily routine. It’s so simple, but creating a daily routine for yourself can make a big difference in your life. The best routines, I’ve found, come at the start and end of the day — both your workday and your day in general. That means, develop a routine for when you awake, for when you first start working, for when you finish your workday, and for the end of your evening.

How will that change your life? It will help you get a great start to your day, and finish your day by preparing for the next day. It’ll help you firmly root the productive habits you want to firm in your everyday life. It’ll help you focus on what’s important, not just what comes up. It’ll help you make sure you get done all the things you really want to make sure gets done everyday. And that can mean a lot.

For an over-thinker like myself, this is a large undertaking.  I have several avenues that I want to work on and only 3 months before the baby is born.  I have got work to do. (Grin)

Productive Day!

  So excited to have had a productive day!  I have been waiting for such a day.  I am hoping I can carry it into tomorrow to keep checking things off of my list.  I can hear the thunder and see flashes of lightening periodically right now.  So good for my garden!  Gorgeous day today again.  Seventies, some clouds, no breeze, sunshine all day and got to run errands and spend the day with my husband.

  I marked off some sewing projects that I have had for years!  I am so glad to have been in the mood to get that done.  I sewed a nursing cover today.  Chocolate brown with light blue flowers on it in flannel fabric.  I like how it turned out.  I hope it works as it should, otherwise I will have to tweak it a bit, no problem.  My house is getting more organized and cleaned through this weekend.  I am hoping by the end of the week I will be so pleased I can go to the Eagle Harbor Art Fair next Saturday and not be thinking about what else I could be getting done.

Nursing cover I made today

  I decided to go digital with my record keeping.  I am looking into scanning many documents I have in my firebox that are just taking up space and I have had over 15 years.  I do not know if I need those documents, but I hate to throw them out.  It will take some time, but it will be worth it to open up more space in the firebox for new documents to take their place.  Good stuff.  OK, I am going to bed.  Tony will be happy.  Good night moon.

What A Gorgeous Day

 Going to the lake today was gorgeous.  Seventies, with a slight breeze and good sun and water.  I hung out in the water, sunned for a little while, hung out with various family, Tony made good grilled dinner and had a fantastic red sunset that streaked the water.  I just loved every minute of it.  I am so happy to be relaxed.  My swelling did not go away today and I am thankful to have a doctor's appointment on Thursday to see how I am doing.  No excited about the glucose test, but it must be done.

  Tomorrow will be spent running errands and getting business done with Tony.  I am going to keep moving around everything to clear out the baby's room and to streamline the house before the baby comes.  I am going to put a desk, glider rocker and printer on Craigslist this week.  I want to hit more garage sales this summer for baby things.  It seems the way to go for the variety and prices I cannot beat. We have been listening to Angels and Demons audiobook in the car when driving to and from the property after complete The Da Vinci Code on audiobook last week.  I should go to bed soon and quit dreaming about Hostess Twinkies and Chocolate Cupcakes!

What to do tomorrow?

  Well, here are my options for tomorrow: work because one of my co-workers has to deal with Mayo. and cancer potentially coming back, go to Eagle Harbor for the Art Fair with a friend I haven't seen in a while- despite sitting in the back seat makes me car sick, go to Dreamland for the fish fry dinner and hang out at the camp, go to lunch or early dinner with my friend from Marquette and her family that might only be in town for the day, stay home to organize and clean, go to the lake to enjoy the serenity and beauty of nature and to allow my husband to go swimming and burn off some steam or sleep half the day and do a whole bunch of nothing.  Decisions, decisions.

A piece of art painted in acrylics for the Art Fair

  I do not have the energy to do it all so I think I may end up trying to do 2 or 3 of these options in one day and the rest the next day.  I miss going out to see friends, but I cannot be in 2 places at once.  I have a feeling today will be exercise, stretching, go to the office, then tonight finding out who will be in town and how my husband feels, whether we just head out to the lake or get projects going at the house or visit with friends.  I want to get a call into my sister sometime too.  Ah, things could be worse.  Have a good one.

Closed

  Today I closed my first real estate deal today.  I have never worked harder for such a small payment.  Great experience for future deals, but I cannot believe that these are hoops that people have to jump through all the time for the underwriters.  I know they are picky these days, but wow, this house is in good standing and is a typical Michigan house and my buyer was pre-approved.  My advice, use a local bank that understands the condition of the local homes and real estate.

  It was 90 degrees today!  HOT day, but cool night last night let the house stay cool today.  I'm hoping for rain this weekend so I can get my cleaning and organizing done.  Oh yes, good stuff.  I had a great call from Steph. and got to see Joanne today :)  Love communicating with the girls.  It really does will for me to stay connected and gives me a perspective that I cannot get otherwise.

The Lake is Great

  The baby was kicking more times and harder than ever before.  Tony got to put his hand on my belly and feel the action.  I was amazed as to how active this baby will be in the future.  I think that these are all good signs.  I still am loving the pressure socks and tomorrow is supposed to be hotter than it has been in the last few days which will be so hot.  Itchy belly skin despite whatever I schlack onto my belly. Definitely having calf muscle and hip cramping going on.  I need to go to bed to get up early to go into the office to close a deal.  Fun, fun.

27 weeks today!

Belly getting bigger

Sunset tonight

27 weeks!!

How my baby is growing:

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

How my life is changing:

The second trimester is drawing to a close, but as your body gears up for the final lap, you may start noticing some new symptoms. Along with an aching back, for example, you may find that your leg muscles cramp up now and then. They're carrying extra weight, after all, and your expanding uterus is putting pressure on the veins that return blood from your legs to your heart as well as on the nerves leading from your trunk to your legs. Unfortunately, the cramps may get worse as your pregnancy progresses. Leg cramps are more common at night but can also happen during the day. When a cramp strikes, stretching the calf muscle should give you some relief. Straighten your leg and then gently flex your toes back toward your shin. Walking for a few minutes or massaging your calf sometimes helps, too.

It may be the furthest thing from your mind right now, but it's not too soon to think about family planning. You'll want to have made some decisions about postpartum birth control before your baby arrives. If you're considering a tubal ligation, be aware that most states require you to sign a consent form at least 30 days beforehand. So if you'd like the option of having the surgery during your postpartum hospital stay, don't wait too much longer to discuss it with your caregiver. (You can still change your mind later.)