Merry Christmas! Oops. After the Fact.

There are so many weird parents out there. I just don't get it. Well, E and I can't be counted among them.

Here's the one 3D view we got at the ultrasound two weeks ago. I've been visiting my family in Louisiana for the past two weeks. Revision. Rural Louisiana. My parents have been waiting and waiting for the opportunity to be able to subscribe to a high-speed Internet service for years. A glitch at AT&T means that the service my parents finally thought they would have has been postponed yet again. Until June -- at the earliest. Alas. No Internet connection. So, I've been unplugged.

It's been a great holiday though (pictures to come...) -- with the exception that E has not been with me. He's been with his parents in Norway. But we'll be back home Thursday. Then it will be time to jump right back into work. My new career! I'm nervous. Quite nervous, actually. But it's a new adventure, and a new adventure is almost always a positive thing.

Magic Glasses

In just a couple hours, E will get his first fuzzy (maybe creepy depending on the type of ultrasound) glimpse of the Bean. It's the 20 week ultrasound. I'm already making plans for the photo... Check back later today for a possibly amusing post. Even knowing where technology is today, it's still rather unbelievable that one can get such a precise picture of what's happening in there.

We're having the ultrasound (possibly 3D... ooooo scary) at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, in their Center for Advanced Fetal Care. We're special. Actually, I think the name just sounds, again, scary. Maybe I'm just nervous this morning.

Anyway, I need to get moving. Updates to follow.

Pow!

Well, the Bean (AKA Truls Bobby) has been doing Kung Fu in my belly all weekend. In fact, I now can even say that I've seen it move. Maybe he/she is excited about Christmas. Or maybe it has something to do with the cookies I've been eating. Yeah.

I've been exhausted today though. Completely. Maybe it was from the excitement of the successful shopping blitz yesterday morning. I've been more than a little discouraged by the lack of fashionable (available at current size) clothing in my closet lately. Which has meant I leave the house feeling like a frump most days.

I was determined, however, this weekend to be more persistent than I've been the past few weeks. Long story short, I found a number of great fitting, stylish pieces. For the first time in WEEKS, I'm actually looking forward to getting dressed in the morning.

So, here's the latest photo. It's the official weeks 19 shot (though I'm quite sure I'm closer to 20...) The bump is moving on up...

Wednesday, I leave for two weeks to celebrate Christmas in Louisiana. Unfortunately, E is going to Norway the same day. But, this will be the last Christmas we celebrate apart. Next year, we'll be playing Santa to the Bean!@#!@#!

Make Mine a Double

It's Dec. 12 and I'm already feasting as if we were right in the midst of Christmas week. I was treated to lunch at a scrumptious Cuban restaurant. Heavenly. Now this evening, two girlfriends are taking me out for a celebratory farewell dinner to a trendy new Italian restaurant that recently opened here in Baltimore. It's said to be de-lish.

Not to mention, scrumptious treats like Godiva chocolate is beginning to appear with the post each day in the office. The holiday haul. I've dipped into the box more than once today...

Friday is my last day at work. Yes! Then, off for the holidays -- and new adventures!

Ruby Red Lips

So, last night. I was wiped out. Seriously. And I had such plans to primp and curl.

As I reclined on the sofa, watching a history channel biography with E on Rommell, munching on a piece of fudge, I just couldn't muster the energy to put on lip gloss -- much less touch my hair. I tugged a little at the hopeless, loose pile of hair I had bound with a band atop my head. No. No picture this evening.

Instead, I remembered a photo I had recently scanned from 1982. I think it's a suitable exchange for the promised photo. I loved playing dress up when I was a little girl.

And I adored red lipstick, which I would apply liberally at every opportunity (As long as we weren't leaving the house; a strict rule of my mother's. She wasn't raising a mini-hoochie...)

My hair is curled into ringlets here. Lovely. (It was afterall a holiday.) And notice I'm changing my doll's diaper. How apt for this blog.

Heinous and Shallow to Boot

I just took a moment to look at the photo I posted yesterday. That is one unattractive picture. While I do work quite diligently at moving my focus away from harsh evaluations of my appearance, I'm compelled to post on this photo in particular. Ugh.

Tonight, I'm doing a do-over. Yep. A do-over. That's something you can't do in elementary and middle school, but as an adult, well, you can. Might as well enjoy one of the perks.

Expect a true glamour shot tomorrow. Glam-our Shot.

A Christmas Miracle -- A Couple Weeks Early

I've experienced the impossible. Or at the very least, the impossible based on what I learned from my mother. Today, E and I rolled up our sleeves and launched into a furious bout of making/baking holiday treats. This year, I wanted to give what we call old fashioned fudge a try. It's long been one of my very favorites. It's also a candy which my mother, who truly is a wonderful baker/candy maker, never quite mastered. I have a catalogue of memories of fudge that didn't set, that was too crumbly -- that just didn't work.

So, in my mind, over the years it's been morphed into the Mount Everest of Christmas goodies. When I began preparing to make the fudge this morning, I did much more to prep than I usually do in the kitchen. I checked and double checked that I had my candy thermometer, all my ingredients, everything I could POSSIBLY need, all lined up and arranged in a logical order on the counter top. I studied the thermometer closely, watching as the temperature rose, determined to follow my recipe to the absolute letter and degree.

The result? Fudge that truly deserves the adjective perfect.

OK. With three paragraphs devoted to my fudge, I think I should also mention that E made sugar cookies and ginger bread cookies. He approached the project with focus and precision -- just as if he were in the lab. He did make a few funny comments about how the "baking phase" was what they called "incubation" in the lab. Something tells me he's really focused at work these days...

Lastly, I made white-chocolate covered pretzels. Yum!

A Continued Swelling

So, here's this week's posting of my ever-growing belly. I don't realize how large it looks until I see these photos.

Let's all have a moment of silence for my flat stomach that was. (Maybe if I wear yellow undies, it will be like wearing a yellow ribbon, and my tiny tummy will return...) As my father-in-law says, we live in hope!

White Stuff. Falling. Joy!

When I woke yesterday morning a little past 7, I had yet to peek out the window when the telephone rang. I knew it was E. Always the über-industrious one, he's often at work in the first half of the six o'clock hour. He was warning me about the treacherous road conditions. The snow was falling fast and in thick sheets. Joy! He had been sitting in traffic for an hour and a half -- only to make it 10 miles from our house. Un-joy.

So, traffic is a plague on this region; it can't dampen my love of winter! And anytime snow falls and accumulates BEFORE the holidays -- what a treat! I must be one of only five or six people from the entire state of Louisiana who truly enjoy winter, happily anticipating the first freeze as early as September each year. Which is why I enjoyed Norway as much as I did, I'm sure.

Yesterday's drive into Baltimore did prove to be somewhat challenging though. Due to my injured toe, I decided to drive the Montero (which is an automatic) into work. Bad decision. The new car is much easier to control on slippery roads. But, the bean and I made it unscathed to the office. The muscles in my back and shoulders were indeed screaming by the time I pulled into the garage, but the snow was worth it!

The majority of it will no doubt have disappeared by tomorrow afternoon, but even a brief appearance is a treat.

Stabbed and Then Shot -- Twice

This morning began like any other morning. Up early. Showered. Then. An idea hit me. A delicious idea. For a change, I would make myself a breakfast sandwich with muenster cheese. I rushed through getting dressed and made my way to the kitchen. I had just slid it from the pan to my plate and cut it into two manageable pieces when it happened. I bumped the knife from the counter top sending the shiny flash of silver to the floor.

It was a clean cut that terrified me. I hate knives! I grabbed towel, squeezing it to my foot -- afraid to look! Nervous!

Long story short -- I made my way to the doctor who said, "you need a couple stitches... and a tetanus shot." (Of course I'm thinking -- is that safe for my growing bean?) I'm also thinking... STITCHES! I've not had those since I was 10! (See, I'm not exaggerating. I AM a chicken.) I smiled sweetly, "Is there any way we can avoid the stitches?" He said that, well, if I didn't mind the scar, I could have a butterfly bandage and gauze instead. I opted for the friendly-sounding butterflies. Who cares about a scar on one's toe? I'm no foot model!

I also needed a flu shot. So, the flu shot went into my left shoulder, and the tetanus shot into my right. And of course, I'm hobbled now as well. Ugh.

The challenge tomorrow? Finding a wearable pair of shoes.

New Ventures

So, I'm more excited than I've been for quite some time. I resigned from my current full-time job in favor of embarking on a freelance consultancy career. The idea is to introduce more personal control of my work schedule into my life. Now, those early morning bursts of creativity and energy will translate into a work day that ends much earlier than I've grown accustomed to.

The prospect of striking out on my own, I must admit, is a bit daunting. But my feelings of excitement and optimism are much stronger than any feelings of concern.

Today is the first day of my final 10 days at the agency. And then off into the hopefully wildly fulfilling and somewhat green yonder.

From Gobble, Gobble to Ho Ho Ho

Well, though I didn't post last week (blame it in the turkey and sugar overload, followed by a day-long hike around DC with our Norwegian guest, I was tired. And as my energy level is not exactly what I expected, I've been doing the bare minimum.

Oh. Lack of energy. I was so ignorant to just how tiring growing a Truls Bobby would be. And I keep reading how one's energy returns in the second trimester. Any day now. I wouldn't mind a spurt. I'm starting to think my expectations may be a bit too high though.

So, today I'm posting two shots. One from last week, at week 16, and one this week, at week 17. Truls Bobby is growing! And so is my back porch. Lovely.

This weekend we picked up our wonderful, gigantic Christmas tree. Now, decorated and festive, it has claimed a large portion of our living room. And we love it! It stands over 9 feet tall. It's girth is, well, girthy.

Now, to get some presents wrapped and placed beneath it...

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The photo on the left is obviously from last week. The one on the right is fresh, fresh, fresh.

(No, I've not been dipping into the Christmas goodies early.)