Ultrasound pictures

Here are a few more pictures from my ultrasound this week. The first one is little Julie (yep, it's a girl!) arching her back, and the second is her foot, which I thought was way too cute not to share. Enjoy!

It's a ...

Today was the big day. We got to find out if MJ is Matthew or Julie. We thought it would be fun to let you all share in the experience and find out for yourselves. The video is about 3:15 long, and you will probably need to turn the volume up around 3 minutes.

Explanation of Life

This doesn't really explain the meaning of life (very little does), but it's amusing nonetheless. A friend of mine posted this on her MySpace, and I thought I'd share.

Before I do, however, I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I'll be at my in-laws for a few days, and the next post you read from me may not be until I get back. In fact, it may very well be when I let you know if I'm having a boy or girl.

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On the first day, God created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'

But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten
the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

Pop quiz answers

To those of you that played my Christmas carol game, I'm glad you had fun. It's time to post the answers and see if you got them right! If you haven't played yet, and you want to, click here before reading any further in this post.

1. O Come All Ye Faithful
   
   
2. Deck the Halls
   
   
3. The Little Drummer Boy
   
   
4. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
   
   
5. Silent Night
   
   
6. We Three Kings
   
   
7. The First Noel
   
   
8. Silver Bells
   
   
9. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
   
   
10. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    
    
11. Let it Snow!
    
    
12. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
    
    
13. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
    
    
14. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
    
    
15. Walking in a Winter Wonderland
    
    
16. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
    
    
17. O Little Town of Bethlehem
    
    

The hardest one for me (even a year later after I already know them) is number 4, because the title is technically just "White Christmas," and that's how I've always known it. Trying to figure out the whole phrase from the wordy clue was difficult when the phrase isn't what I would have had in mind to begin with.

On a side note, to hear the most annoying (and pointless) Christmas song ever recorded, click here. But don't say I didn't warn you!

Kitchen substitution

A few months back, I bought a couple of pregnancy cookbooks (which I've used a grand total of once, I think). They have a lot of weird recipes, and a lot of fish recipes, but they have a LOT of useful information, which I have found so far to be the biggest benefit from them. Reading all the nutrition information and how to get what I need has been helpful in just trying to balance meals I already make.

One recipe I did use, however, had me make a substitute for sour cream (although it didn't say that's what it was). It's really good, really easy, high in protein and calcium, low in fat, and -- when mixed in with other stuff -- doesn't taste a whole lot different from sour cream.

1 cup cottage cheese or Ricotta cheese
1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt

I haven't used Ricotta cheese -- I've only tried it with cottage cheese. You put the cheese in a food processor or blender, and blend until it's smooth, and there are no more chunks. Then add in the yogurt, and blend until they are well mixed and creamy.

Simple as that! Store it in a little tub in the fridge, make it as you need it, and it's so much better for you than sour cream!

Pregnancy woes

Everyone told me that they loved their second trimester. It was the best time of their pregnancy. They had more energy, more appetite, and could feel the baby moving. The finally started to look pregnant instead of just “filling out.” And so I looked forward to it, too.

I don’t like it. I had a fairly uneventful first trimester. I didn’t get sick once. I was exhausted many days, and had some nausea and food aversions, but that was about it. Now, however, I am dealing with constipation, gas, flatulence, burping (which I never did before I was pregnant), muscle aches and pains, headaches, acne, gagging on my toothbrush or phlegm in the morning, and in the last two days I have almost thrown up three times (or was at least closer to it than ever in my first trimester). Sure I can eat more than before, but only sort-of. In my first trimester, I had food aversions. I could smell something, and know that I shouldn’t eat it because it wouldn’t agree with me. Or sometimes, when I was eating, I’d be chewing a bite and just know it was my last bite. Now, I’m hungry much more frequently, but I have to eat much slower (I’m not sure why), and I don’t find out that a food doesn’t agree with me until after I’ve eaten it, and I don’t feel well. I know I’m supposed to be drinking more water, but I just can’t get it down.

I haven’t felt the baby move yet (that I know of), but I’m only 18 weeks. I find out on December 27th if it’s a boy or girl. I have lost about 15-20 pounds since I got pregnant, and now have to wear a belt with pants that have fit fine for over a year, but my shape is starting to change finally. The waistband on my underwear is feeling tighter (and starting to be uncomfortable), but they’re the same underwear I’ve been wearing with the pants that need a belt. I don’t get it. I can wear a few of my maternity tops at this point, but the pants all still feel and look huge on me.

I don’t normally like to complain. I used to, but then I learned that (1) it doesn’t do any good, and (2) it just annoys everyone around me. I just need to send this out there and let it be. I apologize if it’s way more information that any of you wanted to know. It’s just not been a good week. Monday I went home sick around lunchtime, and slept a good part of the afternoon. Yesterday I didn’t go to work at all. Today I’m at work, not feeling as miserable as I was yesterday, but still wishing I wasn’t here.

Literary musings

Today I'm inspired to share great quotes by famous authors, but not the quotes that most people know.

I started reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol this morning. It will be a quick read before the holidays and I can get another book in this month. And while I'm familiar with the story (who isn't, really?), I've never read the book. As I started it, I realized it's been awhile since I've read Dickens at all. In fact, I think the last time I read anything by him was also the first time -- Great Expectations my freshman year of high school. I really enjoyed that book. Anyway, I wasn't two paragraphs into the book today (literally), when I was laughing out loud. Let me share with you what I enjoyed:

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

I'm not the only one who finds this amusing, am I? On that same note, am I the only one besides Dickens who actually thinks about things like that? I mean really, what is so dead about a door-nail? And all the other "similes" as he calls them, clichés as we call them...where do they get their origins? Throwing the baby out with the bath water? Who does that?

Okay, I'll calm down now. I have one other literary quote to share that had made me laugh out loud upon stumbling across it. This is from C.S. Lewis, in The Magician's Nephew. This one is funny because it is also -- unfortunately -- true. It's much shorter...here it is:

"... the trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed."

Now tell me that is neither funny nor true. You can't, because it is both. I've only read that book once, and it was a few years ago, but the moment I read that line, it became one of my favorite all-time quotes. It's very unique.

Do you have any favorite literary quotes or passages that are from well-known authors, but the words themselves are not so widely recognized? Please share.

Pop quiz!

I love Christmas music. I know everyone says that, but I really do. I like fun stuff, classic stuff, new stuff, original stuff, and hard-to-find stuff. Last year I came across a list of Christmas carols that had been "re-named" in technical legal-ese type language. It was a quiz to see how many you could figure out. It's not too hard, and it's fun. The list is re-printed below for your enjoyment. I'll post the answers toward the end of the week.

1. Move Hither the Entire Assembly of Those Who Are Loyal in Their Belief
   
   
2. Embellish Interior Passageways
   
   
3. Vertically Challenged Adolescent Percussionist
   
   
4. First Person Singular Experiencing An Hallucinatory Phenomenon of a Natal Celebration Devoid of Color
   
   
5. Soundless Nocturnal Period
   
   
6. Majestic Triplet Referred to in the First Person Plural
   
   
7. The Yuletide Occurrence Preceding All Others
   
   
8. Precious Metal Musical Devices
   
   
9. Omnipotent Supreme Being Elicit Respite to Ecstatic Distinguished Males
   
   
10. Caribou with Vermilion Olfactory Appendage
    
    
11. Allow Crystalline Formations to Descend
    
    
12. Jovial Yuletide Desired for the Second Person Singular or Plural by the First Person Plural
    
    
13. Commence Auditory Reception the Announcing Cherubs Vocalize
    
    
14. Kris Kringle Will Be Arriving in the City in the Not Too Distant Future
    
    
15. Bipedal Traveling Through an Amazing Acreage During the Period Between December 21st and March 21st in the Northern Hemisphere
    
    
16. Its Arrival Occurred at Twelve O'Clock During a Clement Nocturnal Period
    
    
17. Exclamatory Remark Concerning a Diminutive Municipality in Judea Southwest of Jerusalem
    
    
    

Good luck, and have fun!!

Say cheese!

I have to take a quick minute to publicly thank my grandmother. She reads this blog very regularly. I picked up the mail today and found a small package from her, about 7"x4"x4", wrapped in brown paper and a lot of tape. At first I thought it might be a Christmas gift, and I almost stuck it under our tree. On second thought, however, I occasionally get packages from Gra'ma without any particular occasion being involved. I decided to open it, and if it was a Christmas package, it would likely be wrapped in wrapping paper underneath, at which point I would stick it under the tree. I'm really glad I opened it. My grandma sent me a block of Tillamook cheese! (If you don't know why this would be significant, click here.) An 8 oz. block of Tillamook Medium Cheddar Cheese and a bag of pre-shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend. All I could do was laugh. I laughed for about a full minute. It was such a thoughtful gesture, and it completely made my day. Ben is camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend, and I always get bored and/or lonely when he's gone, so this really cheered up my day.

Thanks, Gra'ma!!

I love I love I love my calendar girl!

Every year, picking out a calendar seems like such a big deal to me. It shouldn't be -- it's just a calendar. But I have to life with whatever I pick for the rest of the year. Every day of the whole year, I'm going to see that calendar.

I ended up being very dissatisfied with my choice for 2007. I picked one that had black and white photographs of Paris. Sounds great, right? Well, the pictures were nothing really very spectacular, but it was the quality of the calendar itself that bugged me all year. See, I picked it up for $2.50 in the dollar section at the front of a Target store. I should have known better. Once I opened it up (thus making it unreturnable), I discovered that the pages were no thicker that those of a magazine -- no structure to them at all! When I wrote something on a date, it made a carbon-copy-like image on the next month or two, because it was so low quality. I was bummed out, and vowed I would never buy a super-cheap calendar again.

I am pleased with my purchase for 2008. It's a (higher quality) Norman Rockwell calendar.

When I was only five years old, my great-grandmother Dodo gave me a book called The Faith of America. It was about Norman Rockwell, and was illustrated by him. I have loved his art ever since. It's either happy, political, makes you laugh at it, or all of the above at the same time. Here is the official Norman Rockwell website: http://www.normanrockwell.com/.

Out of control

While there are a number of things about which I could blog this afternoon, I will choose only one of them at this moment. Okay, maybe two, but the first one is only to satisfy a brief need to vent.

I started a temp job last Thursday. Things are still in process to get me set up on the company network drives, and with usernames and passwords and appropriate user rights to the programs I need to use. This was all supposed to be done by Monday morning, so that I could be in full swing this week. We're still waiting for it. I'm having a hard time getting any real work done because I don't have access to the drives or programs I need. It's been really frustrating having nothing to do all day (hence I'm now blogging briefly while at work). My supervisor is off-site today, so she's not around to be able to light a fire under the Help Desk's rear end.

Okay, I'm done with that.

Ben made bread this morning, with some dough I had previously made and frozen. He packed my lunch (as usual), and I went on my merry way to work (where I would sit around and do nothing for a good part of the day). We are apparantly out of lunch meat, so --thinking ahead -- Ben pulled some frozen turkey breast out of the freezer last night. Well, I've not done great with homemade bread since becoming pregnant, but it's previously been because I've have a pregnancy-related aversion to wheat. Now the bread is just too dense for me to deal with very well. It takes far too much effort to eat and it's not satisfying because it takes too much work. Also, as previously mentioned, I don't like turkey. I can usually deal with turkey deli meat in sandwiches, but not 1/4-inch thick slices right off the breast. That's what Ben put in my sandwiches. Turkey, cheese, and lettuce, in between the bread I'm having a hard time swallowing (literally). I just couldn't eat it.

I got emotional thinking about the money I would waste buying lunch when Ben had taken the time to pack my lunch for me. I wiped my tears away, and walked down the hall to the in-house mini-deli that we have here at work. They only had one salad left (which didn't look very good), so I ordered a cup of chili and a bag of Fritos (to mix in the chili). The lady rang me up, and I pulled out my credit card. She said cash only. I thought I was going to lose it. I could feel the lump rising in my throat, and the tears springing to my eyes. I usually don't carry cash with me, and today is no exception. Well, there was a woman next to me in line who works a couple cubicles down from me, whose name I barely know (Michele). She knows I’m pregnant and thinks it’s the greatest thing, especially since it’s my first and I’m going to stay home after the birth (she did for 10 years). She piped up and asked the cashier to put it on a tab for me to pay tomorrow. The cashier looked dubious, so Michele said to put it on her tab, and I'd pay it off tomorrow.

I was so grateful. I only had 10 minutes left in my lunch break, it's snowing outside, and I really didn't want to deal with going out to get lunch (especially since another co-worker had already gone out to get lunch, and offered to pick something up for me).

Although if I had gone out, it would have been to Chipotle, which I absolutely love.

I'm totally over it now (I was over it by the time I finished my chili). I think it's funny, in fact. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was this: If you're going to laugh about it in 20 years, why not laugh now?