Mother's Day

Before I go getting all bitter and sentimental, happy mother's day to all the mommies I know. lol

Mother's Day has become my least favorite holiday.

It's not because my daughter, as wonderful as she usually is, inevitably picks a fight with me.

It's not because both my husband and daughter ask me for every holiday what I want, and I always say, "A clean house," and they both laugh like I'm joking. And I never am.

It's not because my husband works graveyards, so I don't really get a "day off". Ever. or that he always goes card/gift/flower shopping at the last possible second and won't buy them on Sunday, so (this year at least) I'm SOL.

It's not because my in-laws expect us over there for all of the holidays.

Because as nice as MIL can be, she is not my mother.

My mother and I live in different states, and every holiday reminds me of how much I miss her and how, what I really want for Christmas/birthdays/mother's day, is to see my mother. But I don't get to. And mother's day is the worst of them all, because it is a day supposed to be honoring MY mother (and my family honoring me). I miss her more and more with every passing year and wish we lived closer so I could spend time with my mother. Especially on mother's day.

Love you Mom.

Dumb and Dumberer

My Friday Fave Five will have to wait. I'm a total dork.

I made a dumb choice or two today. First, I didn't tell the gal at Los Hermanos that upstairs was a mean thing to do to a woman this pregnant. Instead, I just waited to use the bathroom until I got to the school to pick up Kiddo. lol. Had fun at lunch with my friends from college, though Little Mister wasn't too thrilled about first, being woken up to go, and second, getting a bowl of salsa dumped on him by the waitress. She apologized profusely and got us extra napkins and even a wet one, but she should have at least comped us something. Her tip? about half of what I would have given her.

I had contractions off and on when we got to my sister-in-law's to chill for a little while, probably because I waited so long to pee earlier. hahaha. I *know* that happens. I just didn't want to traipse up and down stairs. Oy.

Second dumb choice? Well. We had to go fax some papers to the flex spend company to get some money back (which we desperately need -- our prescriptions are not cheap!), so I went to the grocery store. This grocery store faxes stuff for the cheapest around, so it made sense. And I was craving grapes, so I figured I'd grab them and a couple of other things on the perimeter of the store while I was there. We did NOT go up and down any aisles, just walked around the outside aisle of the store and grabbed those few things.

By the time we got back to the car, I was in tears from the sciatic pain. Kiddo asked if we needed to call daddy. No. Do we need to call an ambulance? No. I'm not in labor. She paused. Did I do something??? No. I just hurt.

Yeah, it's not been a fun night. Her attitude was great until after dinner, at which point she freaked out because she was supposed to do her chores. I was in too much pain to cope and went to bed with Little Mister and woke up still hurting. Derrrrr.

The husband massaged the area when I woke up before he went to work (thank you husband), but I still hurt. I'm going to bed now and am hoping some Tylenol will help, because at this point, standing/sitting/lying down? It all hurts. Bad.

Wednesday Whining

I'm 33 weeks pregnant tomorrow. My perinatology and diabetes appointments were okay yesterday, though they increased my insulin again (second week in a row). I've felt off all day today after that, have a migraine with numb face (joy), and still had to go to an OB appointment. *sigh*

Ugh. Did NOT have the best OB appointment, though I am back down 2 pounds. woo! haha. (I'd gained two or three the week of my birthday, probably from all the sugar and eating out!) I really like the doctor, so it wasn't him at all. Just ... my amniotic fluid index (AFI) is at 22, and he's getting really worried about it. It's gone up 1.5 cm in 4 weeks. It can trigger preterm labor and there really isn't much they can do about it. It's associated with the gestational diabetes ... and because my sugars aren't being controlled that well with the insulin, he's worried about the baby, too. He said if they have to keep increasing my insulin, we'll need to do an amniocentesis at 37 weeks to check her lung development, and if she's fine, they'll want to deliver immediately. If I refuse the amnio, they would have to wait until 39 weeks and that carries increased risks for the baby with out of control sugars. I have to go into their office weekly to check the AFI from here on out, which I figured, and still do the twice-weekly NSTs at the hospickle. They used to do them in their office but don't anymore. He suggested calling L&D when the husband gets home first thing to see if they're busy (at 6:30 a.m.) and hopefully I can get them out of the way early in the day without having to wait a super long time.

So, I'm being more strict with myself about what I'm eating -- no sugary crap at all. no white flour anything or white rice. Brown stuff from here on out. More veggies. I seem to do okay with some fruits but can't eat them all the time. No sugar, not even graham crackers or cinnamon life cereal which weren't affecting me at all before but are now. yay.

At this point, I almost hope she comes at 36 weeks, though 37 would be better. *sigh*

The good news is that I'm not retaining much water ... yet ... woo.

There's the end of my whining. You may return to your regularly scheduled programming.

our internet

seriously sucks. it dropped my vpn 5 times in ONE HOUR while i was trying to work.

so while i couldn't work last night, i sewed this up for Thumper.



I have a skirt for Kiddo cut out using both fabrics and pants for Little Mister cut out, only using the plaid. I've asked Small Fry's mom for her measurements so I might be able to make her a skirt, too. I have enough fabric for it! Way overestimated what I needed. Anyway. It made me much less frustrated with the internet to do something productive.

The bonnet is a tester for a friend who created the pattern. I might have to find some little babies to try it on since Thumper is (thankfully) still inside!

The Blind Side

I watched this last night while cutting out giant piles of fabric of stuff I need to do before Thumper arrives. I *loved* it. So much so that, when Kiddo asked if we could watch it this afternoon, I said sure. Little Mister had just fallen asleep because he'd taken a very early nap this morning (and thus didn't go to bed on time tonight), and The Husband was at the store (again, getting a couple things I forgot to put on the list Saturday ... lurve him!), so we just chilled out for a little bit. I made chili for dinner while we watched it. Little Mister woke up about 15 minutes later and didn't want to watch it until he saw the football scenes! haha. Love that kid.

The husband hadn't wanted to watch it. He grew up in the projects in LA until they moved to Utah, and his older brother was an amazingly talented athlete but their parents couldn't afford the equipment rentals the schools required once they moved here, so he never got to play beyond his sophomore year. And his younger brother was just as talented, and just as out of luck here. The husband knew he'd be reminded too much of his brothers' missed opportunities, and it was an emotionally charged movie anyway, so he didn't want to watch it.

I had told him about a couple of funny scenes, and he came home right before one, so he came in and watched it. He wandered around a bit, then came and watched the rest of the movie with us. He really liked it, too.

Sandra Bullock did an amazing job, but so did the young man playing Michael Oher, Quinton Aaron. And Tim McGraw didn't suck. This is one movie I wish we'd purchased, and we may still yet because I liked it that much.

I had to look up some things about Michael Oher and Quinton Aaron after it was over the second time. Not only did Michael Oher have to bust his butt in his classes during his senior year so he could qualify for any of the football scholarships offered to him, but he had to take some online independent study courses through BYU to replace some of his worst grades. He had planned to leave college after his junior year, but decided to stick it out, made the honor roll, and got a degree in criminal justice. When he signed with the Baltimore Ravens, his contract was $13.8 million for 5 years. After his first year in the NFL, he came in second for the offensive rookie player of the year.

Not too bad for a kid from the projects.

Quinton Aaron was in a bad place in his life when he auditioned for the part of Michael Oher. His mother was extremely ill and he had no money. He told the director, after the audition, that he was also in security and, if he didn't get the part, he'd love to help on the movie in security, and gave him a card. The director said he'd keep that in mind. A year later, Quinton's mother died. He still had no money and his family was about to be evicted from their apartment. That's when he finally got the call that he had won the part. I couldn't find any listing of how much he made for the movie, but he was nominated for best actor for the movie in both the Black Reel awards and in the NAACP awards.

When I told the husband about Michael Oher's NFL contract, he told Little Mister that playing sports was a-okay with him, and to make lots of money to support his parents. haha.

On Parenting

I didn't sleep much last night, or very well. Just couldn't sleep. Little Mister didn't come in until his usual wakeup time at 5:45 this morning, but the husband had come home around 4:30, and that woke me up.

I'd been asleep for about 2-1/2 hours.

So I let Little Mister wake up Kiddo a bit early this morning, she changed the dishwasher and we made breakfast, and then I went back to sleep. When she asked me to take her to school this morning, I asked her (in my sleep) if she wouldn't rather skip school today so I could sleep.

She said no, she wanted to go learn.

I'm either doing something very right, or very, very wrong.

Maybe I should have offered her cookies.

When We're Helping We're Happy ...

So today, the husband finished the grocery shopping. He took Kiddo with him. But first, he told her she absolutely had to do the dishes because I'd been telling her to do them all day.

The dishwasher was unloaded and then loaded in less than 10 minutes.

He bought her a treat (mini M&Ms) while they were out, which she shared with Little Mister when they got home. She also helped make dinner again, with a very cheerful attitude.

Later on, after Little Mister was in bed, she helped me sort the baby's clothes into size groups and put the first load in the wash, and folded and put away a load of towels.

Why did it take her all day to do one thing I asked? The rest was happily done, to the point of me wondering who she was ... haha.

The husband also seemed in a very good mood after finishing the shopping. I'm thinking I need to request his help more often, maybe asking him to help fold a load of clothes with me tomorrow.

Completely unrelated, I hadn't seen We Are Marshall ever. It's been on TV a lot the last few days, and I finally managed to catch it on near the beginning this afternoon. Little Mister actually watched it with me. Because they play football a LOT in that movie. haha.

Oh, and to be fair, Kiddo and I did watch Sherlock Holmes earlier today while LM was sleeping. The husband watched it yesterday and said it was very tasteful, so we decided she could watch it if she wanted to. She did.

Next up is The Blind Side, which I was going to turn on tonight while I cut out fabric when I had no work, but it started trickling in. I'm trying not to be upset about it. ;)