Coming Home

Ken is coming home today! He's been gone for 8 weeks . . . 8 very LOOONNGG weeks. One of my co-workers told me that that 8 weeks had gone by fast - maybe to her, but not to me. I missed Ken. I missed him A LOT. I am grateful for the week I was able to spend with him, and for being able to talk on the phone every night, but it's been 5 weeks since I've seen him and I can't wait to see him again.

However, the bad part is that he'll be home for less than 24 hours before he has to leave again. This time he'll be heading to Phoenix, for his next two internships. Phoenix isn't so bad - he'll be in the same state, only 2 hours away, and he'll be home every weekend. I think I can handle that - it's not ideal, but it's better than not seeing him at all.

10 hours and counting . . .

Finally Finished

After 10+ years of having a project on my to-do list, the project is finally finished. In the last 8 weeks, I have torn apart 3 scrapbooks that were on those icky magnetic pages (which was turning everything yellow), and re-assembled the pages on acid-free paper. It always feels good to cross things off the "to-do" list, but it feels especially nice when it's been on the list for so long.

I did it!

I went shopping on Monday and was persistent in my pursuit of maternity clothes. I tried on over 15 pieces of clothes and it paid off. I found a few shirts and a dress . . . it's not a lot, and now I have to buy shoes to go with the dress, but overall, I'm satisfied. It will hold me over for a few more weeks until I'm in Phoenix, where I'll shop for a few more things.

Special thanks goes to my friends, Ben & Jerry, for helping me get over my discouragement this past weekend . . . and just maybe, they helped me fit into the maternity clothes better :)

Distaste for Clothes Shopping

I can count on one hand the times in my life when I have tolerated clothes shopping: 1- when I was young and it wasn't my money that was being spent and 2- when I was single and rich and I could afford to shop at Nordstrom - letting them do the work for me and all I had to do was pay the bill.

But those days are gone, and I am back to disliking shopping for clothes. The reasons for my dislike vary: I either have no money, no time, no fashion sense or no trust in the little fashion sense I have, no luck in finding what I'm specifically looking for, nothing that fits, or any combination of the above.

My dislike for shopping has been front and center in my life in the last month or so as I have struggled to find clothes that will fit my growing pregnant body. I see other pregnant women in town, and they're all wearing clothes, so I assume it shouldn't be too difficult to find something for me to wear. However, when I go into stores to shop, it becomes a struggle. Perhaps the stores don't have a maternity section, so I wander through the regular sections, hoping I will find something that will work. Some stores have maternity sections, with 5-6 items to choose from, with 2-3 styles, just in different colors. I try to go with an open mind. I even try on items that I think are ugly, hoping that they'll look okay on me. But no luck!

I have come to a few conclusions: Pregnant women in Flagstaff must buy their clothes somewhere other than Flagstaff. Most pregnant women must always be hot, even in the winter, because it's next to impossible to find shirts with long sleeves. Most pregnant women must have a figure that can accommodate the current style of clothes - my body does not. I am used to form fitting clothes, and feel like I'm wearing a giant's clothes when I try on the clothes I am finding (even the non-maternity ones).

Ken says I should just wear whatever fits, regardless of style, color, or whether or not it's appropriate for the workplace. He says I should just say "hey, I'm pregnant, this is all that will fit". Maybe he's right. I'll stop being so proud. So, if you see me wearing ugly, mis-fitting clothes, please just smile and nod and know that I think it's as ugly and mis-fitting as you do.

Sample sizes and half-used items

I hate clutter. And as much as I like to be prepared and have things on hand, I dislike having too many small bits and pieces of things around the house or my office. For example: I have 1 blue pen and 1 red pen in my office. I use the pens until they run out of ink, and then I get another pen. I've always been this way - just ask Kat. Ken has an almost endless supply of pencils in our house - most of them sharpened and all about the same length. It makes me want to use them all up so that we only have 1 pencil - or at least not 15+ in the same condition.

In the bathroom, I have a bunch of sample sizes of lotion, toothpaste, contact solution, etc. Although these come in handy for traveling, I don't think it is necessary to have so many of each item. I also have products that I have been given as gifts - candles, more lotions, foot cream, etc. They're all half-used . . . and taking up much needed space in my cupboards and shelves. I am currently doing my best, at the moment, to use up these items so that I can thrown the empty packages away - yeah! I love to throw things away!

Some day I'll probably regret that I no longer have a surplus of small and misc. items, but for now, I am happily using up and throwing away.

Just to say "hi"

4 months down, 5 months to go . . . the baby wanted to stop in and say hi.

Wrong Number

Since we've been married, Ken and I have had separate phone numbers. We've always lived somewhere where we didn't have a land line, but we each had a cell phone, and everyone knew which number to call. When we moved to Flagstaff, we kept our 2 Portland numbers, and tried to communicate to everyone which number went to which person. It has seemed to work well, and we've only had a few issues when people have called the wrong number . . . that is, until recently.

I'm not sure what has happened lately, but for the last 6 weeks that Ken has been in Portland, he has gotten an abnormal amount of calls for me on his cell phone. Some times the calls are from people who don't know my number, but often they are from people who have called me on my phone previously, and who I assumed had my number. Ken has been great about forwarding the messages to my phone, but I hate missing calls, and I really hate having to call people back - I'd much rather just answer the call and deal with it right then and there. It's also stressful, because the messages are often time sensitive, and I don't get the message until too late. So this whole phone thing is driving me crazy!

Okay - done venting. Blaming my short temper on the pregnancy hormones. I thought about posting my phone number here for all to see, but I'm not that crazy - who knows who's reading this blog :0 Maybe I'll just stop returning phone calls and see if that makes me feel better ;)