Much to be Thankful For

* Ken - I am grateful for his love and support, especially when he is away from home. It's tough being away from Ken, but then it makes us appreciate the time we do have together.

* Wazel - What a gift to have this opportunity to be parents, and to know that the baby is healthy and developing normally.

* My job - In this rough economy, I am grateful to have a job. I am also grateful for employers who allow me to have a flexible schedule and who changed my wage from salary to hourly so that I could earn more money by working overtime.

* Friends and family - I am thankful for advice, shared learning moments, encouragement, and love.

* Money to meet our needs

* Health and strength

* The Gospel of Jesus Christ - I know my Savior lives and I am grateful for His gifts to me. I know that the scriptures (both ancient and modern) are the word of God and I am grateful that I have them as resources to use in my life.

Sleepless in Flagstaff

I can't sleep. I used to sleep great: 8+ hours every night, no interuptions. Now - I can't sleep. I wake up multiple times a night to use the bathroom and then I can't go back to sleep. I'm so tired, but my mind wakes up and I think of all the things I need to do. Which, by the way, lately I don't seem to have enough time to get everything done. I really would love 3-day weekends. 2 days to get things done, and Sunday for the "day of rest". I've learned that if I'm still awake after an hour, it's better to just get up and do something (like play on the internet - because the internet connection works great at 3am or 5am) - then go back to bed. Or, if it's close enough to morning, I just get up and get ready for work. The office is surprisingly quiet at 7am and I'm able to get a lot done with no interuptions.

Things I'm currently thinking about:

* Did I spend too much money at the candle party? Ken says no, but I think I'm being too practical.

* When am I going to find time to mop the floors? Or better yet - when can I make myself mop the floors?

* Baby stuff - choosing a pediatrician, baby registry, finding room in this tiny house for all the baby stuff

* What color of thread should I use to start piecing my quilt together? And how am I going to finish the quilt once it's all pieced together? Am I going to get the quilt finished before the baby arrives?

* Should I do Christmas cards this year or just skip out on them all together?

* Seriously - where are we going to put all the baby stuff?

* Is Ken going to be able to attend birthing classes with me?

* Can I make the 9 hour drive to UT without stopping every hour to use the bathroom?

* How fast can Ken drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff if the baby decides to come early?

Okay, I'm starting to feel hungry and sleepy - time to grab a snack and head back to bed. Hopefully I can sleep for a few more hours.

Training my Replacement

I've been at my job for a little over 2 years. The first 9 months were painfully boring, and I wondered many times if I had taken the right job. Eventually my job responsibilities changed, and for the last year or so, I have enjoyed what I do. I might even be a bit proud of all that I accomplish. 4 months ago, I told my employers that I was pregnant, and in effect, gave them my 9-month's notice. It seems surreal - I've worked for 15 years, and now the end is in sight.

So, now that I've given y'all some background information, I'll proceed with the rest of the story. My boss thought that it would be a good idea to hire my replacement now, get them trained, and then assign me to a different set of tasks and responsibilities, for the remainder of my months until I have the baby. Which in effect means I will most likely spend the last few months of my job exactly how I started it - bored out of my mind. But I digress. My replacement started two weeks ago. He'll be doing a bit more accounting tasks than I was, but he'll need to know everything I did in that department. He seems like a nice guy, but I thought I was going to either kill myself and/or him in the training process because he was so slow at accomplishing a task. I discovered that he learns better reading instructions rather than listening and taking notes. So the next week, I spent my training time writing detailed notes for tasks that I do. It seemed time consuming, but it allowed me to actually accomplish more without having to spend so much one-on-one time with the new guy, and I think it may have been better for him as well. I guess we'll see.

Now the kicker - I can't wait to stop working, but I'm having a hard time giving up my projects and assignments to the new guy. It was much easier when I left Portland, because I wasn't going to be around to watch how my replacement there handled things. But now, I'm going to be around for a few more months and will be there to see the projects fail and/or succeed. Hopefully they succeed, but I'm afraid to watch ;)

Random pictures & thoughts

Halloween at SWAN Rehab - the clinic where Ken is doing his current internship. My husband - once a rocker, always a rocker.

Week 22 - photo of "Wazel". Wazel is the pet name we're calling our baby girl for now. We decided that we're not sharing our baby name ideas until the name is on the birth certificate.

Pregnant picture of me - week 24. I wore a maternity top to emphasize my belly - otherwise, I don't look pregnant, just bulky.

As a follow-up to my last blog, a few comments on my likes and dislikes of being pregnant:

Dislikes in no particular order:

* Baby induced acne

* Back-pain, leg cramps

* 10 weeks of morning sickness

* Baby induced insomnia

* Having to buy maternity clothes, with no money to buy them and no hangers to hang them on

Likes:

* Feeling the baby move

* Getting pregnant so easily

* Being blessed with this great gift - I can't wait to be a Mom

The Norm?

A few of my friends and co-workers have commented on how much they loved being pregnant, and have asked me if I am loving it. Hhm? I don't think so. I'm certainly not hating it, but loving being pregnant seems a bit much. It's definitely an interesting experience, but love? So it got me to wondering, how many of you out there "loved" being pregnant?

And lately, since I'm finally starting to look pregnant, I've been getting a lot of comments like, "you sure are getting big". Really? Do people really say that to pregnant women? Have I said that to pregnant women? I sure hope not, because I find it hard to deal with. I know I'm gaining weight for a good reason, but you might as well just say what my boss said to me the other day to get my attention, "hey, fattie". Yes, he seriously said that, and no, he wasn't trying to be mean, just funny. Thankfully, I didn't think he was talking to me, so I kept walking, and later he told me what he had said. Maybe I'm just sensitive?

Truth Revealed

The day has come that you've all been waiting for. Okay, maybe you haven't been waiting for it, but I have. When I was 12 weeks along in my pregnancy, I had an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech told us the baby was a girl, but she also told us NOT to paint the nursery for a girl, because it was really too early to tell. Not that we have a nursery to paint anyway . . . unless you can call the walk-in closet a nursery - and we're not painting our closet. So, we waited, and wondered, and today we discovered that the tech was right - it is a girl!

I wish I had pictures to share - not that there were any really good ones anyway. I mean, the tech was actually doing her job (measuring everything, etc), so we only got 1 or 2 decent pictures worth posting, but my computer can't read the disk, so we'll all have to wait until this weekend when Ken comes home with the laptop and we'll try it then. In the meantime, just imagine a mini-me. I think she has my nose and Ken's legs :)

Same ol' thing

I like consistency. I like knowing what to expect. I like things planned. My brother used to tease me that I planned my spontaneity - and he was right. I don't do well with change, unless I've had months to prepare.

Until I discovered my wheat allergy, I ate the same thing for breakfast almost every morning. A slice of toast, with peanut butter, and a glass of milk. I loved having a sandwich every day for lunch - plain bread or bagel with cheese . . . toasted was preferable, but if no toaster was available, microwaved was an acceptable alternative.

After I discovered my wheat allergy, I struggled with breakfast foods - cereal was boring, and for some reason did not fill me like my simple slice of toast. I eventually found an acceptable non-wheat bread, and have been eating that every morning since.

Morning sickness shook up my routine, but after morning sickness was past, I got back into my comfortable rut of eating toast every morning. However, the baby inside of me craves protein. Toast just does not cut it every morning, so I've taken to eating 2 eggs with my toast. Sometimes I scramble them and sometimes I hard-boil them, but I have them every morning. And ya know what? I'm getting bored of eating eggs every morning. I'm still fine with the toast, but can anyone suggest protein alternatives for breakfast? (keeping in mind that I can not eat lunch/ dinner foods in the morning)