Is it worth it?

I found a website that talks about how to get your baby (before it's born) to start learning how to learn. This "machine" is $149 and transmits some sort of signal to the baby so it can tell the difference between the mother's heartbeat and outside sounds that are similar. The reviews are smashing, and some famous people have even used it for their children (which of course makes me want to go out and immediately buy it). It's called BabyPlus Prenatal Education. It says it makes kids smarter faster and helps them sleep through the nights sooner. I'm all about sleeping through the nights.. oh, and of course helping the kid be smart too.

I've decided that it's a good thing I'm going to India for most of December, so I don't have to worry about people asking me what i want for Christmas. I have NO CLUE as to what I want. My birthday is coming up, and I can't tell anyone anything, other than I want a new TV that's at least 37" (which is almost a whole foot bigger than what we have now!). I have about $510 in credit card rewards that need to be cashed in to help, but other than that, what is there? My house is to small for knickknacks, I'm going to eventually have a baby shower, and I'm not so sure what we even need, I mean, we need everything, but what is really necessary? There are so many dumb products out there being sold to new mothers. No one wants to hear that I need/want a crib, so I'm completely out of ideas. I tried to tell Adam that I want our bedspread to be dry cleaned, the mirror hung up over the stairs, the E-bay pile in the house to actually go up on EBay, the baby's room cleaned out, day care situation to be figured out, etc. I guess those don't count as birthday gifts because they're stuff that needs to be done anyway.

4 more weeks of class
20 weeks today!

Pop!

I absolutely HATE it when people lie to me. That's the end of that, no other comments, no explanation.

So Friday was an excellent day. Our GM for the region took us all out to Mulberry's on the West bank of the Flats (downtown Cleveland) to compete in the "bar Olympics". The bar Olympics consisted of Cornhole, Foosball, darts and Guitar Hero. We knew ahead of time that Guitar Hero was on the list, and since I didn't even know how to hold a guitar, I had my brother Justice (who is like, nationally ranked in Guitar Hero, no joke) help me out. Adam an I played for about a half hour last weekend, and we had a great time. Well, it paid off. The manager that I was paired up with was really good at the game, and I was just good enough to help bring our score up, and we kicked butt! Actually, we won first place in the "tournament". It was so much fun! I am pretty good at darts, however that day you would have never known, we both did pretty well with cornhole, but we lost in the first round and there is no one worse at Foosball than I was. There was a game of dodgeball afterwards, I didn't play, but it was fun to watch. Unfortunately, one of the managers got hurt (my partner) and the game was cut short. I had a really good time, except for the drive home where most of the entrances to 77 S were closed, but I became a lemming and followed lots of traffic, and ended up where I needed to be.

So all day Friday, I had this horrible stabbing/tearing pain in my side. I wasn't too worried about it, but Adam was, as was some of the ladies at work. I knew I would see mom on Saturday, so I didn't say anything about it on Friday. Never really had to, because I woke up Saturday with a belly. There's no doubt that I am pregnant now. I'm not quite sure if I'll fit into regular clothes anymore. I need to try things on tonight as I wore swishies all weekend long. Mom and I drove to see grandma and grandpa Marion so I could pick up the maternity clothes I bought last month. I picked up a couple of sweaters and 2 pair of jeans as well. They're comfy!
Saturday night mom, dad, Adam and I drove to Mentor for the grand opening of Uncle Eric's Traq 3D gym. We had a great time! It's one heck of a drive, but man, it was SOOO much fun! I didn't do any of the jumping things because of the baby, but I did a few agility tests. Adam did awesome on his games all tied up with resistance bands. My mom even tried it! She did great! I can definitely see how it would be a great workout for a half hour or so. After 3 minutes I was totally out of breath, hot and laughing. www.traq3d.com check it out! It's a bit pricey, but totally worth it. If it were only closer to my house or work!
Today (Sunday) was a lazy day. We went to the hardware store to buy some light bulbs and a programmable thermostat. I hope it works. Right now I want the house at 64 degrees, but it says it's at 73 right now... NOT what the plan is. Adam played video games, the Browns beat Jacksonville and I baked brownies... YAY!

A BABY PICTURE =)

We have our first real picture our our little baby, kid, spawn, or whatever you wish to call him/her. I like to say "he" although we have no idea what on earth it is, except the looks of a healthy baby. We have a STRONG 150 bpm heartbeat, 10 fingers, 10 toes, 4 ventricles in the heart, the brain is forming nicely, the spine looks good, the size is perfect for the age that he's supposed to be. In fact, this picture he's blowing us kisses, and in another picture, he's kicking something and throwing a punch. Adam thinks the "punch" is him getting ready to strike a soccer ball, I think the baby is actually throwing something. We'll see, perhaps we have a dual sport baby and he's doing both at once. That's my hope at least. It was nice to have Adam at the appointment with me so that he was able to hear the heart beat, and also see the baby in the ultra sound. I'm sure he didn't want to hear my OBGYN tell him that I cannot get Polio, but he needs to. That's 2 shots that he must get that I cannot. I do feel bad for him. I had 3 shots, and while they didn't hurt to get, they sure did hurt the next day. Adam needs a total of 5 (and that's IF he gets the flu shot as recommended). He's already had one, and needs 4 more. Poor guy. Especially since he's not a needle lover.

We went to Muskingum this weekend to see my sorority sisters for Homecoming. I had a really nice time. We dressed Ballpark up in his little sweater/scarf combination and was such a hit. He was absolutely adorable. I think he was a little afraid of all the attention he was getting, but I'm sure he loved it too. He had people holding and petting him non stop, he got some good food, and slept for about 18 hours after we left. I met some new "family" members of mine in my sorority. In fact, I have a great-great-great-great-great (that's 5) grand little. I think that means something along the lines of "I'm old". hahaha. I've only been out of school for 5 years! I have a really nice picture that Adam took of all of us. I'm going to have to upload them here.

After tonight, I have 5 more weeks of class! How exciting!

Today I am 18 weeks and 4 days along. I think I'm almost halfway finished.

Some (mostly) True Facts

I absolutely dislike the fact that I cannot get the text part of this web page to be wider. Who wants to read 4 words at a time before they have to go to the next line? Too much white space. Grrrrr. Random facts for the day:

*I couldn't wake up this morning. In fact, if someone would have told me today is the last day of my life, it still would not have gotten me up and moving. Luckily for me, the traffic was light, and it only took me 45 minutes to drive to work, so I was only 10 minutes late!
*I was craving Oreo cookies so badly, that Adam took me to Walmart to go buy some. I got home and ate animal crackers.
*I would much rather read people's blogs all day long at work than actually do work. Too bad my manager doesn't feel the same way.
*Right now a Wendy's frosty and french fries sound good.
*I have to go buy some bella bands from Target. How nice it would be to unbutton my pants right now.
*My hair keeps falling out. I'm shedding like crazy! I think that means I'm having a boy, right?
*A chicken broke into my house, and ate my breakfast.
*That last one was a lie.
*I wish I could have pancakes for breakfast. With lots of syrup. I'd be afraid of the sugar crash I would have at 10am at work. It's hard enough not to take naps on my keyboard to begin with.
*My dog is so freakin' spoiled it's disgusting. But he looks so good in sweaters!
*It's becoming that time of the year when as soon as Ballpark comes in from outside, he runs to the fireplace expecting us to turn it on. Thank goodness it's just a light switch!
*I never drink pop.
*I want a Sprite or Rootbeer so badly I'm willing to pay the $1.35 it costs for a measly 20 oz.
*The reason lifesavers are called lifesavers is because if you swallow one, the hole in the middle allows air to pass through so you don't die
*I almost died choking on a red lifesaver when I was 3 years old in California
*If I had a choice of cooking or not, I'd eat cereal every day.
*I made Hamburger Helper last night for dinner, and didn't burn anything for once. Of course, I still used the spatula that was nearly burned in half the last time I made Hamburger Helper. It's been through the dishwasher hundreds of times, yet still leaves black on my hands when I use it.
*I have finally felt the baby move last night. It was a weird feeling. I wasn't sure how to explain it to Adam (he could hear it), so I compared it to something like laying in bed with post nasal drip. Adam insists we're going to have a snot faced child because of the analogy. I quickly fell asleep after that conversation. I'm not quite sure I even participated at the end.

Indian Summer!

I am really starting to hate this blogging site. Sometimes it double spaces, sometimes it doesn't. Either way, I have no control over what it does. It's very frustrating, and I'm not even the one really reading it. Anyhow, this week was the most beautiful week in October. It has been in the 70's, sunny, and just perfect. Somehow, it managed to be like this over the weekend!
So over the weekend, Lisa and I went for a nice walk in Hudson Springs Park, and pushed Aubrey on the swing. She absolutely loved it (8 months old), it was so cute! Later, mom and I went to Burlington to look at the mother of all strollers. I found one I LOVE which is easy to work with, simple to do, and even has a temperature gauge and timer to time how long you've walked.... Genius! I didn't actually push it around yet, I need to do that with something heavy in it so I can tell if I like it (at least that's what current mothers have told me). There's no way this mother of all strollers would fit in any of Adam's cars though. Looks like "Monster" will get a LOT of miles on it soon! After all of that fun and when Adam and dad were finished with the basement, Adam and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. It's amazing how much money you save when you don't get something to drink. The best part... we had a gift certificate, and didn't realize it until we were on our way there! YAY for free dinner! Thanks mom! I wore a maternity shirt that night. Not because I needed it, but 1) it was cute, and 2)it covered a hole I have in my jeans. I refuse to buy new clothes until after this kid comes.
Adam went for a long bike ride, then a nice jog Sunday morning, then we went all around Twinsburg looking for treasure (geo-cashing) we had a good time, but it sure doesn't take much to get me tired anymore. We sat outside at my parents house, and then we went home and I cooked dinner while Adam took a long nap. (Roles were reversed there for once.)
The week has been pretty busy with school projects and stuff. I only have 6 more weeks to go though, so I'm VERY excited! Oh.. and I am really starting to show a little bit. lol, well, I can really tell, and I only think I'll last in regular clothes for another few weeks. I better get my clothes from grandma and find a place to buy some jeans!

** Additional note: I forgot to mention that at 3:30 in the morning Saturday night, I didn't feel the baby moving, but we sure did hear him. It was a little weird. It was super loud, it woke me up, and then I started to giggle, and it woke Adam up. He asked if that was my stomach, and I told him it wasn't, that it was the baby. It sounded like (Adam's terms) "Farts in a bathtub". It was really like bubbles underwater, it lasted about 3 minutes and then was done and we all fell asleep again. Silly baby. 3AM is not a good time for me, lol.
17 weeks
6 weeks left of 1 class
2 weeks left of another class =)

A womanless family....

This past weekend mom, grandma, Aunt Diane, Aunt Dana, Aunt Cindy, Cassaundra, Aunt Jeanette, Carol, Sandy and Kathy all drove up to Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania to stay at a very old inn. There were 3 bedrooms, and 11 people. That was a lot of fun, thankfully there were two full bathrooms, so there never was an issue of us fighting over bathrooms. We went for a Medieval dinner/theater. It was really funny. Not so fun, however, was the fact that I was able to get into my dress on Friday with no problems, but come Saturday night (when I actually needed it) I had grown. It took two people to get into the dress. It wasn't so bad, as my bosom was plentiful and actually filled out and above my dress. It was really period looking. Of course, a little depressing as it looks like I'm getting bigger and bigger, and feels like that even more. (More about that later.) Anyhow, we were the only ones to dress up. I had a great time. The food was to be eaten only with fingers, kind of like at the Medieval Times places, except they gave us food that really NEEDED a fork... like salad with Italian dressing. Hard to eat with fingers, but we did. Beef veggie stew, ate with fingers, an entire Cornish hen, most ate with fingers, I put it into a "chicken condom" (plastic bag) to take home because I was stuffed. BBQ ribs, cheese, apples, and some dessert I couldn't even look at I was so full. The singing and acting was really fun. I enjoyed myself a lot.

The only disappointing thing was that we went to a homemade chocolate store, and they had everything, except for caramel apples. It's fall, they needed caramel apples, I ended up getting some sour patch kids repackaged. I couldn't get chocolate because there was no milk. The two are complimentary items and one cannot go without the other. There was a wedding the night that we were there... interesting. Since Cassaundra and I are the youngest, we went to bed the earliest (by far). We both have excuses, she was sick, and my NRG levels are low. Anyhow, the bride and groom got into a huge fight and were telling each other to F*ck off - really loudly. It was fun. I guess those that were still awake (all but me and Cassie) got to see her pink underwear that was autographed by hotel patrons. Classy.

The inn was so old, that the doors each had a lock in the handles, and then between 4 and 6 chains and slide bolts and stuff. The windows were so old that they were completely painted shut. I had a dream that night that there was a fire, and we couldn't' get out. That would leave the entire Walter's family without any women. I dreamt that it made the world news, and dad and Uncle Terry tried to hide their excitement, but couldn't. When I told the story in the car on the way home (8 adults in my Honda Pilot), someone said that they'd miss the Monkey Puke at Easter too much to be excited about no women. Somehow I doubt that.

So I do feel like I'm freakin' huge. I have 2 pair of pants that don't fit, and now a wedding dress. I went to the doctor's today for a prenatal checkup. My blood pressure was amazing, the nurse couldn't stop gushing on what a perfect number it was. Wish I remembered it. Oh well, anyhow, then came the awful part. They weighed me... since the last time at the office, I have gained.... drum roll please..... 1/2 lb. Yeah, seriously! All I complain about is how large I feel, and I've gained a total of 2.5 lbs in 17 weeks. I guess I can't complain too much now, huh? I'm still lower than my weight in June of this year.

Adam watched his ice melt on Sunday night, and then had to make blue ice and watch it melt (and measure the temperature) on Monday morning. Then he got his Typhoid shot and was off to the airport to catch his flight to Tampa for work. He got a really nice Nissan Altima with navigation as his rental car, and learned he gets $45 for dinners. They're getting sushi tonight, lucky him. It's OK, I went to my parents house and got a good home cooked meal. I'm sure it's better than anything I would have made, and then thrown out, and then cereal. I had a long class yesterday with some good news, the midterm is now a take home. YAY! Of course, I came home to an excited dog who peed all over me, and a night with no husband. Those are always so depressing.

16 weeks, 5 days

7 more weeks of class!!!

Does that include Mandarin?

So we went to the day care center last night. It was pretty nice. Adam says it's way different than the one he used to go to (which was a part of the same chain). There were a lot of people there that I went to high school with. It was nice to see them. Of course, for 3 days a week, it was $201 dollars.... each week. I nearly choked, and then nearly cried. This wasn't even the place that offered to teach my kid Mandarin. So I'd pay an arm and a leg and if I accidently lost my kid in China, they wouldn't know how to get around.
On the plus side, I had an awesome dinner after the visit. Adam and I went to.. well, I forgot the name of it, but it's in Twinsburg behind the Dairy Queen and Arby's. Anyhow, I got the best-est sandwich in the whole world. It was a BLT with three cheeses on it. So really, it was a BLT and a Grilled Cheese sandwich combined. YUM! Like, two of my favorite sandwiches together. How sweet is that!? It's the little things, I know.

8 weeks of class left
16 weeks 1 day along

Noooo! Not yet!

I got to talk to Julie yesterday, it was really nice, it seems like I rarely get to speak with her anymore. Anyhow, I realized that I missed something extremely important yesterday that I had forgotten to blog about. I... no longer fit in a couple pair of pants. VERY depressing. Not that I really liked the pants... but they were a part of my rotation. Oh yeah, and one of my coworkers told me she can see my belly now. It's true, but since it looks like jiggly stuff, not exactly what I wanted to hear, lol.
I've been really good about going to the gym recently. Of course, I'm exhausted when I leave, but hopefully the work that I do will keep my weight right where it should be. We'll find out on Tuesday!
Adam's going to Florida on Monday after his Typhoid shot. Last time he went for work, it was in March, right after my ankle surgery when it was snowing up here. It's gotten cold (which I'm having a hard time adjusting to) and again, he goes to Florida. What a lucky guy. When I travel, I go to Scranton or Harrisburg, which is nice, but not Florida.
I've been calling around to different day care centers. It looks like the going rate is $50-$70 a day. I haven't seen any of them yet or really learned about the programs (we're going to our first open house tonight) , but I certainly hope if I'm paying that much money, it includes diapers and meals and the guarantee of a rich husband or wife in their future. (I'm pretty sure it doesn't, wishful thinking though!) A lot of places offer Spanish, French, some German and some Mandarin classes for kids, pretty neat. My kid can speak Chinese for just $70 a day. Crazy. I hope they train it to be some sort of Olympian. Perhaps in speed skating. Then little Ares can follow in Apollo's footsteps. I can totally see it in the headlines now... just think, everyone would be naming their little boys after Gods thinking they'll become famous speed skaters... all because of the crazy tuition of daycare. Enough random thoughts for now.