The Obligatory Holiday Post

Even though it was pretty much forever ago, I still need to make my obligatory Thanksgiving post. I was working Thursday, of course, so I spent the day sleeping and we didn't do anything to celebrate. On Saturday, however, my brother came down from Idaho and we had a small celebration together. I cooked my first ever Thanksgiving dinner.... and messed up a lot. It's hard not to focus on everything that was wrong (the turkey was dry, the gravy was flavorless, the potatoes were weird), but Brit and Andrew said they enjoyed it, and I certainly stuffed myself enough. I also discovered why people eat thanksgiving dinner so early.... we ate at a normal dinner time, about 5 PM, but by the time the apple pie was done cooling we were all asleep.

My fun disaster story of the evening: I had bought those frozen rolls that are supposed to thaw and rise, and then forgotten about them until 45 minutes before the turkey was done. So I hurried and grabbed them out of the freezer, dumped them all in a cake pan, and set them on top of the warm oven for a quick-rise. Unfortunately, I didn't realize one end of the pan was right in front of the oven vent.... and by the time I looked at them again, about 2 or 3 rolls were risen over the top of the pan, and the rest were still partly frozen. We let them rise the rest of the way anyway, and cooked them all into one giant roll-cake. In the end, they turned out pretty good... the ones in the middle are still doughy, but we have a lot of rolls for leftover turkey sandwiches. And that might just be my favorite part of thanksgiving, anyway.


This is our whole spread... we put the food on the table and ate buffet-style downstairs watching the BYU game. Which cut off 2 minutes before the end. Boo.

Me and Brit

Me and Andrew

My overly-filled plate of delicousness (I had run out and bought crescent rolls to replace my frozen roll disaster)

Happies

I had a great conversation with my favorite little girl yesterday. I was texting Wendy about something random, and she asked if I wanted to talk to Isabelle. Well, of course!

So we talked for a few minutes, she sang me a song (holy cow she's so cute), and then I said "Isabelle, do you know I love you very much?" She goes: ".....[long pause].... Can I talk to Brit now?" It was so funny. And SO HAPPY. The last few times she visited, she seemed afraid of him. So this is progress in the extreme. And I love it. And I'm pretty sure it gave Brit the warm fuzzies, too, even though he had a hard time believing that Wendy didn't prompt it (she didn't.)

Spending Money

We've been making a lot of big purchases lately. They always seem to clump together. Here's what we've been spending our money on:

It started with this:

A lovely find on KSL... a changing table/dresser with detachable hutch. I knew I wanted a changing table, and they are SO EXPENSIVE, I also knew I wanted it to be able to grow with the child and be a dresser someday. This is perfect. Lots of vertical storage, lots of drawer space, it looks good, and I got it for about half the price of any changing table I could find retail. Win!

Today, we got one of these:

And filled it with this:

To supplement this...

We've been looking at freezers for a while. As a family, our diet consists mainly of frozen pizzas, frozen tortellini, frozen chicken breasts.... You get the idea. We are not a fresh foods type of people, and our existing side-by-side was woefully inadequate. I would often be shopping and think "Oh no, can't get get that, it won't fit in the freezer." Now we can buy meats in bulk AND have a neverending supply of potstickers! Hooray!

And last, but certainly not least, about a week ago, we got ourselves another one of these:

Crazy? YES! But it was the right thing. For a while, our days kinda looked like this:

But with some good solid discipline, it's a little more like this:

So here's the thing. We've always talked about getting another dog. We never thought we'd stop with just Chess. Granted, we didn't think it would be so soon, but when we sat down and really thought about it, we knew it had to be now. Getting another dog is hard work, and total chaos for a while. You have to really devote yourself to training both of them, and setting down the rules. This would have been infinitely harder when I was hugely pregnant and couldn't move, and infinitely harder than that with kids around. So I tentatively agreed to let Brit start looking, thinking we'd begin the search in earnest after Christmas. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), he asked a trainer friend if she knew any rotties looking for a home, and that's how we met Sadie.

Sadie is a perfect cross between a rottweiler and a german shepherd. I agreed to meet her JUST to see if she was an ABSOLUTE PERFECT match for Chess.... and lo and behold, she is. They spent an hour running around a friends yard, wrestling and playing, and Chess is not usually a player. Sadie really brings out the dog in her, and they adore each other already. Sadie is definitely more Dog than Chess, a little crazier, a little more curious, and not as completely focused on her humans. But she's already mostly trained (she was rescued by a professional trainer), she's a beautiful smart girl, and she's the perfect sister for Chess. So, even though it's a little sooner than I expected, we are now a 2 dog family. And it's working out pretty well. I love both my puppies to itty bitty bits.

Growing

Today, I went through about 3 different outfits trying to get ready for church, looking for ONE that doesn't make me look fat. It was mostly a failed attempt. I'm at a very awkward stage of the pregnancy now... My uterus is technically not making an appearance yet, but it's big enough to push all the fat up and out and make me look.... well, fat. I haven't gained any weight yet (actually lost a pound or two) (and that's probably good considering I was overweight to begin with)... but my favorite jeans won't fit anymore without rigging up the button hole rubberband. I just don't even bother with them anymore.

In conclusion, I need a lot more shirts with empire waists and flowy bottoms, because I feel gross fat, not cute pregnant fat. I don't remember it being this awkward last time.

Changing Perspective

I've been reading Twilight again (I'm out of books, and night shifts are long, ok?). I used to love this book unconditionally, and have read it several times already. After seeing a lot of the negative reviews, though, I have a hard time not letting that taint my view. And this time around, it's a somewhat cynical read.

There's one thing I've realized this time. As far as I know, people have loved these books because they are the "universal perfect romance." I've always had a bit of a hard time with that concept, and now I've pinpointed why: It's not the perfect romance, but it IS the perfect fantasy. Everybody has experienced that entirely-out-of-your-league crush. The one boy in high school that makes you swoon just by looking at you, and makes you totally tongue-tied and sound like an idiot. This describes Bella's feelings for Edward perfectly..... except in this fantasy world, the out-of-her-league crush actually RETURNS her feelings. And what woman (or man, for that matter) hasn't wanted to feel loved and adored- or even noticed- by that one crush? Stephenie Meyer does a good job of descriptive writing, and pulling the reader into the emotions of the book. So readers get to live vicariously through Bella, experiencing the thrill of feeling special and noticed by someone who otherwise wouldn't be giving them the time of day.

Well, those are my thoughts on the matter, anyway.

Umm... Awkward!

I've never been shy about sharing my adoption story. I love talking about it. But then, it hasn't come up too much in random conversations, and I try not to get into it unnecessarily. It's a hard story to condense into a few sentences and still have people understand, and it gets awkward when you launch into this big long story about having a baby and placing her for adoption.

I got a taste yesterday of the issues this pregnancy can cause me. I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning, and the dentist and everyone who found out I was pregnant (so, everyone who touched my mouth or asked me questions) asked the standard "Oh, so is this your first?" What do you say at that point, really? I guess it depends on the reason they're asking. No, this is not my first pregnancy. Yes, this is my first time being a mom. Usually I just explain no, it's not my first, I had a girl 3 years ago, and most people leave it at that. Great. The dentist went on to ask questions about my first, and comment on how busy I'll be. "Umm... yeah... busy...." Luckily he dropped it, but it made me think. What do I do when people ask those questions in the future? What would you do? Just say it's my first and leave it, explain the whole situation, or let people believe I have a three year old? This is going to be an interesting 7 months.

Really, Comcast? REALLY??

You might recall my recent habit to rant about my cable provider. My first post about their inherent suckiness, somebody from Comcast actually replied in my comments and (among other things) suggested I program the 30 second skip feature into my remote.

My second rant post about Comcast, somebody (I believe the same person) emailed me and, again, among other things, suggested I program the 30 second skip feature into my remote.

So today, I tried to watch my recorded episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Two minutes in, the recording freezes. I tried everything to get it past that spot... didn't work. So I finally went back and programmed the 30 second skip to try and just jump past that bit. Well guess what, Comcast? IT DOESN'T WORK. I followed the programming instructions 3 times, and my husband (who is, btw, a comp sci major, not technically illiterate by any means) tried it twice. The 30 second skip doesn't work, and not just on my busted recording. Thanks for the advice.

Epic fail.

New Directions

I always thought I would be one of those prudent people who wait at least 3 months to start blurting the news that she's pregnant. Well you know what? Screw that.

I've been waiting a long time for this. I've wanted a baby practically since I was 2 years old. I enjoyed being pregnant last time, even with all the heartache involved. This time, I'm doing it right. It's the right time, the right place, I have my husband by my side, and I get to look beyond just being pregnant to being able to be a Mommy. And I'm excited, dangit! I love being pregnant.

Unfortunately, there's nobody around to really be excited with me (oh joy, another pregnant lady in the Ward of Permanent Gestation). So I have to be my own party right now. And it's all going to get vented right here on the blogosphere. So yes, this will be turning into a blog with a ridiculous focus on being pregnant, and later probably being a mom. I'm sorry if this drives people away, but it's not like I had much to talk about before, anyway.

So, yes, I am pregnant, 10 weeks along. We had our first doctor's appointment this monday, and they adjusted my due date to June 7 (3 days earlier... I'll take it!). We got to see a quick ultrasound, and the little bean was very wiggly, which I enjoyed quite a lot. It's starting to look like a baby (in fuzzy black and white, anyway... it still looks like a mutant IRL.) The "morning" sickness is subsiding a bit... I have good days and bad days, and worse days when I don't eat right when my body demands sustenance. I've only thrown up 3 times, but sometimes I wish I didn't have such an iron stomach... I think a good barf would make me feel better. :) My jeans are starting to get a little snug, and I like to pretend I'm starting to show, but I'm not. I do have a nice little bloat belly going, though. I've decided the first trimester is the epitome of lame and frustrating. The only things making you feel pregnant are all the bad symptoms, you're not showing or feeling a baby move at all, and if you're waiting to tell people, you can't even talk about it. And it's too early to really start planning or shopping or registering. Not that that's gonna stop me from looking through the baby section or planning a nursery in my head. I just can't wait for things to start HAPPENING.

Friends

Me at church yesterday: "Hm. She looks fun. I could be her friend."

Brit: "So go be her friend. Go hug her! Right now!"

Obviously, nothing came of that conversation. But it did get me thinking. How do people make friends? I am extraordinarily bad at it. I connect with so few people, and I have a hard time making "casual friends." Either I'm all in and you get to see every little bit of my quirky personality and inappropriate comments, or we pretty much never talk. As a result, I don't have many friends. I think my Utah count is up to 5, none of whom I see with any sort of regularity. I hate that. I wish I had the personality to just connect with people, to call people up and hang out, or invite couples over for dinner and games. I think come across as standoffish, and I don't mean to. I just really don't know how to connect.

This is not meant to be a self-pity post, by the way. I am just honestly baffled at the process one goes through to start talking to someone, connect on a personal level, and begin to call that person "friend." I don't even know how I've done it in the past, it just seems to magically develop. So if anyone is ever wanting someone to hang out, please call me up, and I'll try to not be too awkward.