Posts That I Need to Do if I Ever Get the Time

1.) The Birth Story of Marissa

2.)  How the First Three Weeks of Motherhood Sucked So Badly

3.)  How Freakin’ Cute My Kid Is

4.)  The 10 Books I Plan on Writing that are better than any other sucky pregnancy/baby book out there.

And Here I Thought 2010 Couldn’t be Topped

So it’s been a big year.  I started off the year deciding that it was time to leave the program I’d been working on for 5 years and venture into Program Management.  The week before I started the new job I took a little pregnancy test (well, I took two because I wasn’t smart enough to read the first one) and realized that it probably wasn’t the best time to change jobs, but alas, I had already signed on the dotted line. 

So 2011 was pretty much the year that started out with vomiting and ended with the best thing that has ever been in my life.  I look back on the other years in my life and although many were wonderful, none of them even come close to this year.  Nothing in my life even comes close to the way I feel when I hold our little girl and see her pretty little smile.  Or here her coo.  She has brought so much to my life but the greatest thing that has come out of having her is my sense of self. 

I used to feel awkward at parties, feel like I had to hang on to Mircea or another friend, or draw attention to myself with my big mouth.  I was recently at a party and I just sort of hung out in the corner, but I was smiling and enjoying those around me.  Having Marissa brought me this sense of wholeness and completeness.  I don’t need to impress anyone, I don’t need to be anyone in particular.  I need to be a good whole person and provide a loving, nurturing home for my daughter.  That’s it.  It’s not that she’s my entire world, and it’s not that she provides me with my sense of self, but having her made me realize what is truly important.  It’s important that I get up and go to work so I can make money and have a sense of accomplishment in my day.  It’s important that I drive safely so I can be there for my family.  Along those same lines, it’s important that I diet and exercise to extend my life.  The most important thing to me now is being a whole person so that I can be 100% for my daughter.  And it’s a good feeling to know that I only have to answer to three beings:  God, myself, and Little Marissa.  Everyone else in my life are the cherries on top.

So while 2010 was a great year, 2011 trumped it by a million and 2012, well, if the world doesn’t end, I think you’re going to be the best year yet. 

Happy New Year!

These Last 10 Days Can Shove It

I am sorry that my updates are so sporadic, and frankly, not even all that interesting.   When I get home from work I’m just too darned tired to get on the computer and think of something fun, witty or quirky to say.  There are no tv shows to review, though I did recently start watching Burn Notice and Big Bang Theory, I am still reserving my judgment on both shows.  I’ve been listening to the Janet Evanovich audio books and I’m enjoying them too, but I can’t say I’m hooked.  Though I would like to eat some Pino’s pizza. 

We had an interesting week last week.  You probably heard about it on the news.  We started out with an earthquake and went out with a bang with hurricane Irene.  Good times.  The earthquake scared the living daylights out of me.  I’m on the 3^rdfloor at work, but its 4 stories up and the building was swaying and I was genuinely afraid that a plane had crashed (since I work on a Naval Air Station this wouldn’t be a gigantic surprise) or a truck had run into the building.  The upshot is that I was pretty sure that I was going to be buried in a pile of rubble.  I wasn’t really scared for me so much as I was scared for our little girl.  I’m trying so hard to protect her and then I’m getting myself in earthquakes.  But luckily everything was fine and the worst injury I got was when I slipped off the sidewalk and twisted my ankle because the crowd was rushing me. 

Too Bad They Don't Have Maternity Shirts

The hurricane was uneventful.  Mircea and I hunkered down with the boys in the basement and played Clubhouse Games on our Nintendo DS.  It was really hot down there and since our back door is protected by our deck we had the door open so it was kind of loud but really sort of underwhelming.  However, the next several days were quite “whelming” as we didn’t have any power.  Our awesome neighbors hooked us up to their generator so we didn’t lose anything in our big freezer but my sanity was hanging by a thread since I couldn’t take a warm shower or have a fan blowing on my big pregnant self at night.  Let’s just say I’m not cut out to be Amish.  We were so lucky though; some trees fell in the woods, but nothing in our yard or near our house.  Some of the other neighbors weren’t so lucky.  But as we sat there playing card games every night after work we counted our blessings and on Wednesday evening when the power came back on we whooped for joy and bathed in warm water.  Ahhh.

A little ways up our street

The Ahhhh quickly wore off for me when I went to the Doctor on Wednesday.  I don’t have my official diagnosis yet, but at the very least I have a Urinary Tract Infection and at the worst a kidney infection (which is why I kept waking up with this weird back pain-it was my darned kidneys).  Both of these options are not fun, particularly since I have a 4+ lb baby resting her head oh-so-gently on my bladder.  Speaking of the baby, yeah, we’ve only got about 6-8 weeks before we meet that little lady.  I can’t wait.  And yes, I’m terrified of delivery.

So today I’m going to leave work a little early, take my giant bucket of cranberry juice up to my bed and watch the Lion King.  Hakuna Matata people, Hakuna Matata.    

 

It Means No Worries

 

 

My Confession: Glee, I Love You

I’m not going to lie to all you Gleeks out there. I thought you were total losers. Lame-Os. Seriously, who wants to watch a show about high-schoolers where everyone breaks into song at completely irreverent times? I mocked you nerds for an entire year and then last September I was watching tv and saw the promo for Glee and I said “well, I don’t have a damn thing to do tonight, let’s mock some nerds”. (I didn’t say this)

Yeah, I got this photo from Teen.com

Well, I didn’t have that much to mock when I actually watched it. The characters are really well developed (with the exception of the African American boy who never speaks but is often in performances, not sure what that’s about) and the issues that are addressed are pretty real for a lot of high-schoolers. The writing is witty as all get out and although I began my Glee addiction actually fast forwarding through the musical numbers because I thought they were lame, I’ve recently downloaded some of the Glee songs. Do you know why? Two words: Darren Criss.

Holy heck this guy makes the show for me. Not because he’s good looking (and over 18 mind you). The Warblers made me really enjoy the music on the show and I’ve even gotten to the point where I can listen to the over-singing of Michelle Lea without fast forwarding. I thought Darren Criss was the perfect addition to this show, and the crush that Kurt had on him was a perfect story line. The character that Criss plays, Blaine for all of you that still resist this perfectly wonderful show, is just amazing. Now I’m not a gay man in high school, but I just love the way his character exudes an outward confidence in the person that he is, although readily admits to insecurities that he doesn’t let rule his life. How great is this for any high school (or younger) kid to hear? Oh, and did I mention that he’s hot?

So you’ve got a little over a month to get over your mocking, to let go of that “I’m not going to follow what all of the dorks at my office watch on TV” attitude and get caught up on Glee before the new season starts. They are on streaming Netflix so you can get all the ins and outs of the Rachel-Finn-Quinn love triangle, which I actually find painfully boring since I think all three characters are shallow and pedantic. ($1 to my friends that know that quote. No cheating, you just have to know what it’s from right off the bat. I’ll know if you Googled it. I know these things)

To tide you over, here’s my favorite Glee song so far, featuring Blaine and the Warblers. Enjoy!

I Love This!

Every time I see this commercial I just want to squeal. I love the look that the mom and the adorable little girl share and then when “Lilli” jumps up to the jogging stroller. I just love this commercial so much-I’ll admit, I’ve rewound it on the DVR just so I could see the little head cock and “Hi” that “Lilli” does.
I can’t wait to meet my daughter and take her “jogging”. Ok I can’t wait to meet her and maybe take her on a slow walk with her fur brothers. I just really look forward to those years when my little girl is still young, sweet and innocent and still loves me.

Pet Peeves: Bring ’em On

That’s kind of a loaded question because most of us don’t have just one pet peeve. We have a long list of things that drive us nuts and a hopefully much shorter list of things that make us want to go ballistic and start spewing hot lava out of our mouths. (This has only happened to me once, it was scary.) Since I’m in a snarky mood this morning and someone did this to me already today, I’ll start with one of my biggest pet peeves.

• You know when you walk by someone who is in a conversation with someone else and they try to bring you in with something lame like “Oh and then we’ll get Kate to join us later, blah blah blah”? Or the even more annoying, “oh yeah, that sounds like something Kate wouldn’t like” or some other stupid, unrelated comment to bring someone else into the lame conversation that I am not even slightly interested in. I hate this. This usually occurs on the way to the bathroom or when you have a friend waiting downstairs to take you to lunch. One of my co-workers does this all the time, and usually, he skulks away because frankly, he had no clue what he was doing in the first place and needed my competent butt to save his. 
• Do not axe me a question. The sentence is “we were going to” not “we was going to” and you did not “seen” him earlier, you saw him. What the hell school did some people go to? Seriously? This happens at my office every day with college educated people. And that’s something else I’ve learned; a college education means diddly squat for having a brain. I know a total moron, TOTAL moron who is getting a 4.0 in his Master’s program. I’m not 100% sure that he can breathe and think at the same time he’s so dumb.
• People that read while driving. Is there anything else that I can say about this? Are you seriously getting caught up on the news while you are driving your car? How many accidents has this caused? Why is this not illegal but talking on a cell phone is? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
• When couples say “we’re pregnant”. This is not one of my top pet peeves, but it’s weird. We aren’t anything. We had sex and soon we will have a baby, but we are not pregnant. We do not get up 1000 times in the middle of the night to pee; we don’t even hold each other’s hair when we are throwing up. We don’t have what feels like a large fish swimming around our belly and our boobs don’t hurt. Also, on a side note, I am not eating for two. Baby doesn’t want the chocolate cake-I want the damn chocolate cake, but if it makes your fat butt feel better to claim it’s the kid that wants it, so be it, but my fat ass wants the cake.
• Young men’s jeans. What the hell are you wearing? You fall into two camps but you share one
  

  the purse drives the look home

  common denominator, showing your damned underwear. The first came is the ridiculous baggy pants, riding fully under your butt and when you are running down the street in my neighborhood, you are grabbing the crotch to hold them up while you run. (I have no idea why the crotch is the best place to hold to keep your pants up unless you’re just trying to touch your junk. When my pants are too loose (ha!) I wear a belt or kind of grab at the side but you will never see me holding my crotch and running after my friends. Well, never again. The other camp of young men jeans wearers are the skinny jeans. This actually pisses me off way more than the baggy jeans. First of all, you look like a tool. I mean seriously, skinny jeans on anyone don’t really impress me, but skinny jeans on a greasy looking teenage boy make me want to 1.) shout out the car window and tell them they look stupid and 2.) shout out the car window for their parents’ phone number so I can call them and tell them to get their kid some jeans that don’t look so freakin’ stupid. And if the skinny jeans themselves weren’t enough there is this “fashion forward” way of wearing them that involves pulling them down over your butt and tight ass walking around with those on. WTH is this? It looks like a teenage boy borrowed their elementary school sister’s jeans and wore them out. There is often a really ridiculous belt associated with this look as well. Hey, at least they aren’t holding their crotch in the skinny jeans…

• Walking in the middle of the road and giving a car behind you a dirty look when they want to drive. What is this? When exactly did the road become the sidewalk and cars aren’t welcome on it? (Why is it that so many of my rants involve the road? And teenagers? I’ll tell you why, my frakin’ neighborhood with all its teenage hoodlums.) I will be driving down the road in my super quiet “Sneak up and run over the skateboarders” Prius and there will be a wall of kids, 5 or 6 thick just walking in traffic. So I slow down and they keep looking back, but do they get over? NO they do not get over; they keep walking, talking and being losers. My other favorite is the skateboarders in my neighborhood (by the way if anyone buys my kid a skateboard I will come to your house and bash you over the head with it. I’m not kidding. TRY ME) who have their headphones in and lackadaisically skate down the street all while being tailed by a white Prius with an irate pregnant woman in it. They coolly look back and every once and awhile they get over, but my favorite is when they have to do some sort of skate trick (that inevitably) fails, right in front of my car. This is a thing of beauty. One last trick, one last “eff you” to the driver who wants to drive on the street. And this trick usually involves the moronic kid attempting some sort of skatey flip thing and falling to the ground. I will admit, one time, ONE TIME, I looked around to see if there were any witnesses and I considered driving right over this asshole because he does this shit every single day. Hey, I didn’t do it. I’m still going to Heaven, right?
• People who don’t courtesy flush. There are no fans in our bathrooms at work. When you go potty, do a courtesy flush, just do it. The stink factor goes down exponentially and although you may get a bidet like splash from our ridiculously sprinkly toilets, it will be a refreshing part of your day.
• Stopping dead in your tracks while walking to answer your phone, look at your grocery list, or pick your nose. This is best done when you are in the entrance or exit of the grocery store. Even better when it’s raining and you are trapping people out in the rain while your fat butt gets all situated with your cart. I guess the real pet peeve is that no one gives a rat’s ass anymore about the people around them. All courtesy is gone. People walk around as though they have blinders on and the only people that matter are themselves and maybe their family. And what happened to these two words “excuse me”? Why must people just push and attempt to jam by, when two little words of polite, cordial attitude will get the large pregnant woman out of your way when you decide that the shortest distance between point A and B is the line in front of the butcher counter at Nick’s.
  

  You Talkin' to Me?

• Anyone who doesn’t like Peyton Manning. Shut up, he’s awesome. Now his brother Eli…

So what are your pet peeves? Am I dead wrong on these? Do you like skinny jeans on a man? Are you a skateboarder (if so, give me your address, I’ll teach you a lesson. Seriously, I’m a fan of Tony Hawk but for the amateur jackasses in the parking lot at Food Lion and in my neighborhood, shove off. You just look like an asshole in your skinny jeans and greasy ass hair style) who thinks you look bitchin’ out there? Well you’re wrong.

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I’m a little ashamed that it’s taken me several weeks to prepare this review because I want everyone to drop what they’re currently reading and read this trilogy straight through. I’m waiting. First of all, I want to thank my friend Leslie for sharing the second and third books in the series with me. She saved me a fortune and made me love my Nook even more because of the LendMe option that it proudly boasts. Take that Kindle. Ok, down to business. The Hunger Games trilogy begins with the first book, aptly titled The Hunger Games. The heroine is Katniss Everdeen, a fiery girl who is chosen to represent her sector of Panem, a post-war United States lead by President Snow in The Capital, which I believe is a representation of Colorado is my memory serves me correctly. The Hunger Games are the way the Capital exerts control and power over all of the members of the sectors and it’s mission is to have young people “randomly” selected from the different sectors fight to the death for all the citizens of Panem to watch on television. Sounds riveting and sadly, I can imagine Americans watching something like this on tv for sport as long as it wasn’t happening in our country as long as it was entertaining.

 So blah blah blah, she goes into the Hunger Games, is conflicted by love (which is a little too reminiscent of the Twilight series for me and I was almost rooting for Team Anyone but Katniss) and eventually pisses the Capital off with her antics during the games. And that’s book one. Books two and three (The Girl on Fire and Mockingjay respectively) continue to follow her struggle against the Capital and how she becomes a figurehead for a rebellion against Snow and his beliefs.

I’m not going to spoil the whole thing, but it really is an enjoyable read and good for these dog days of summer while you get those last few minutes out by the pool. It’s a young adult book, but it’s got much heavier issues than Twilight did and I’ll say it’s as entertaining as a vampire-human-wolf love triangle since all of these people are human. Though I wouldn’t mind if when they release the movie Taylor Lautner makes a cameo without his shirt on.

This is What Happens When a Man Watches TLC

I’d originally considered starting an entirely different blog to focus on the journey I’m about to embark on, but the beauty of Being Kate is that, well, Being Kate is multi-faceted. I try my best to manage the different hats that I wear; wife, daughter, home to a strange life form that has taken over my body, employee of the tax payer, and my new role: extreme saver of money. Mircea and I have some plans for the future that involve a pretty hefty pay cut but we’ve got some time before this goes into effect. In that time, we’re teaching ourselves how to live on one income. So far, so good.  Basically because although that one income looks fabulous on paper and gets us taxed out the butt (that’s a technical term, the IRS literally steals money from your hind end) we have enough living expenses that we need to pinch some pennies really really hard to make ends meet. Oh yeah and we’re having a money leaching pooh factory sweet little bundle of joy in a few months so we’ll have the added expense of daycare to boot. So what are we doing so we can save money now for much leaner times in the future? All kinds of fun things like couponing, canning, and switching to off or cheaper brands of everything, including cat food, which is seriously pissing Yukon off. He looks at his bowl with disgust every morning, but let’s be honest; Poodle could stand to lose a couple hundred pounds.

So this first post will be about the couponing. Like all harebrained schemes in our house, this began with Mircea being influenced by the television. While my friend Nikki was visiting this summer, we all lazily sat down on a Sunday night for some good old fashioned television. What was on? Why, Extreme Couponing of course. (Followed by Hoarding: Buried Alive, which I still think is basically the same show as Extreme Couponing) As most people know, Extreme Couponing is a show where people who have a lot more time than me buy all kinds of stuff at the store whether they are using it or not so that they can pay 80-90% less than the average chump at the checkout stand. I can’t make fun of the fact that they buy cat food when they don’t have a cat-most of them are then donating these unused items to charities, but the part that makes me think the show is “Hoarders” is the stockpile that they all have at their home. Apocalyptic proportions people. Enough Chef Boyardee to last until 2024, that is, if it lasts that long. I agree with the idea of spending very little money on groceries but the idea of eating spaghetti from a can is just not something I’m willing to do. Mircea is on board with eating this “food” so I guess we’ll be eating different meals again. I’ll eat Ramen, but there is no chance in hell I’m eating a spaghetti o. NO CHANCE.

So like any good impressionable American, Mircea is on the coupon bandwagon. As we watched the show he had all of these great ideas about how WE can save money and how HE is going to organize the coupons, shop the sales, etc. Do you see where this story is going? Yes, I am on my second week of couponing and I painstakingly organized our coupon binder and I, yes I, spent about 2 hours on Saturday morning while watching Law and Order clipping, sorting and running different sales + coupon scenarios out on paper. And I think I’ve got a pretty good plan for this week. By no means am I saving 80-90%, but so far, these first two weeks that I’ve been a coupon Nazi psycho clipper we’ve saved about 50% on our products and have started a nice little stockpile of toiletries to get us through the hard times that are inevitably ahead. So watch out world, as I get slightly better at this I’ll start sharing some of my finds, but at this point I’m still a fairly reluctant domestic as I was happy to just go on an extreme diet or start hunting foxes and squirrels in our back yard for meat. And if anyone has any tips for me, I’m open for suggestions. I’ve found that Southern Maryland doesn’t seem to be the best place for extreme deals and bargain basement finds.

As a side note, Mircea has actually been fairly committed to this, driving me crazy at all hours of the night while he thinks up other things to hoard and other things to can. (Canning is my next post by the way) But he’s not all selfish. When I told him that I was having some trouble with the coupons for deodorant he said “I’ll use ladies deodorant, that’s fine. I don’t care what I smell like as long as it’s cheap”. That’s commitment.

I’m Back

I recently received an adorable card from a friend, congratulating me on my pregnancy and providing me with a smile. At the end of her note, she said “I’m surprised you aren’t blogging more”. Well fair readers, so am I. The blog hiatus started when I had nothing to do but complain about how sick I was; that is, if I could sit up at my computer long enough to do so. The reason I haven’t been blogging so much these days is that I feel all my blogs would share with the world just how anxious I really am about pregnancy. I have a tendency to overreact to things (who, me?) and over analyze all the tiny minutiae of the day, but pregnancy puts me in a whole new category. If the baby doesn’t move constantly I’m 100% positive that I’ve miscarried. In fact, until I actually give birth to our daughter, I will not believe that it’s happened…and then the worrying starts for SIDS and other associated things, but I’m trying SOOO hard not to focus on that. It took EVERY ounce of my being to even purchase a crib, let alone set it up and allow myself to be a tiny bit excited about the prospect of laying my little baby daughter down to sleep on in her girly, butterfly laden crib. After a little scare earlier this week, I’ve vowed that I’ve just got to let things go. So far, other than morning sickness, I’ve had an uneventful, low risk pregnancy. I’ve managed to keep hydrated, not gain way too much weight, and somehow, by the grace of God, pass my glucose tolerance test. I know that anxiety isn’t good for our little one, so even though I’m feeling a little crazy right now that she isn’t kicking as much as she was two days ago (yesterday was also a fairly lazy day) that she is ok. And if she isn’t ok, well, let’s be honest, I have little or no control over that, so it’s time I put it in God’s hands. Usually I don’t like that phrase, I think people often use it as a cop-out or a crutch when they fear failure, but many, like myself, need God to take some of the fear away sometimes. Believing that there is someone out/up there who can provide peace when the going gets tough is what Faith is all about (to me). So I’m trying my best to put this in God’s hands and know that I am certainly not in control of anything going on right now. I have the power to not drink or smoke (check!), to not skydive (no problem there) but I can’t control any of the spontaneous science that has a tendency to rear its head in the womb. So say it with me, peace peace peace. And happy snuggly infant dreams.

Getting Things in Order

I had a great visit with Nikki this past week.  It was a much needed vacation, but I’ll tell you, I am ready for more time off work.  Though my next days off will be consumed by a squalling infant, I still think it’s preferable to sitting at a desk wishing that I was at home and not dealing with the normal office b.s.

Although I need to write another post about Philly since Nikki and I finally saw the U2 concert, I just have to share the awesomeness that was her last day in town with me.  We went off to Annapolis, ready to tour around the city and make mayhem.  Instead, while watching a homeless man play with a bit of wire, we saw a consignment shop and decided we’d walk into it’s air conditioned glory.  I’m so glad that we did.  Although they weren’t selling anything that we were interested in, when we asked about baby clothes and other things we were handed a Moonlight Madness Sale flyer, that had the names and addresses of about 15 other consignment shops in the area that were all having a 20% off sale.  A sale on already inexpensive items?  Why yes, and it was fantastic!!

Although the first stop was really far away and pretty much in a cornfield (where I began doubting that Nikki had put the correct address in the GPS) it was a GOLDMINE.  Blooming Deals and Babies in Bloom was essentially a two store-front shop that was filled with treasures.  This wasn’t the crappy, Southern Maryland thrift store of junk and unwanted items; no no, this was a shop where a person could do some real damage.  From designer purses to clothes for women, children and babies (heck there might have been men’s clothes, but I wasn’t looking at that) this place was stacked with awesome stuff.  They had a TON of stuff for kids.  Gently used toys, baby seats, and again, did I mention the clothes.  Nikki and I were in Heaven.  Nikki generously purchased some items for the baby (oops, I almost typed her name, that is not yet ripe for official announcement!)  that she couldn’t pass up, including the cutest little jacket on the planet.  I bought some onesies that were all less than a dollar a piece, and most of them still had the tags on them.  I even bought her two little bathing suits for next summer because no matter how hard I tried, my hands would not move to put them back.  Come on people, there was a little duckie with an umbrella on one of them.  What would you have done?

Although it was lunchtime, for once, the baby was cooperating and I wasn’t overcome by the need to eat, and Nikki was as high on shopping as I was.  As we made our way back towards Annapolis, we stopped in Stevensville at Twice is Nice Consignment Boutique.   I actually felt a little bad when we left because we got such great deals on our haul.  When I first walked in, I found a baby swing that I that I thought would work great at my in-laws house.  I had no intention of having one at home, but for the price, it was going to work great at the in-laws.  ($33 after savings) After grabbing a bunch of 99cent onesies (that were seriously so cute I could puke) I happened upon a bag sitting by the back door of the shop.  The contents of the bag was a very girly (but very cute) crib bedding set.  I asked for a price and the owner said it had just come in and she’d have to price it out.  I’d seen this brand of bedding online and it was usually pretty pricey, so I was thinking it wouldn’t be in the range I was willing to pay for a bedset that wasn’t my first choice.  (and my first choice was so darned cute!)  After a few minutes she comes back with a price…$66 (with discount).  I almost shouted “Sold!” but managed to contain myself as she bagged up the 14 pieces (including 3 fitted sheets, a mattress pad, a lamp and a rug) Although not really my style, it looks AMAZING in the room with the dark crib.  Here’s the link, but remember, I don’t like a ton of matching stuff and this room looks like a Cocalo Sugar Plum bomb went off in it.

So the day was a success.  For under $150, I have a bag of clothes, a swing, an adorable-ish bedding set, and, the best part, I know how to get back to these places when our little girl gets older and I don’t have to spend a fortune dressing her.  I was downright giddy by the time we left and at the end of the day, with my beloved Jimmy Johns in hand, it was really hard to say good-bye to Nikki; my partner in good deals crime.